As we continue to move forward (not necessarily in a good direction) as a nation, it's not hard to see that people tend to live more and more for themselves.

Having a sense of the importance and the benefit of community, and a view of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, seems to be more and more a thing of the past. Many will applaud the idea, but don't always practice it.

We may heartily agree with Mr. Spock when he declared, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."... (and as he states later)..."...or the one." But is that how we live our lives? Do we live for the needs of the many?

There are many places in the Bible that encourage us to be people who serve others. Yet while there are many biblical encouragements for us to live this way, too often we do not.

The world around us will sometimes even say that to serve others is a good thing, yet it will scream to us in another breath that we should live for ourselves, chase our dreams and go for all that we want, in efforts to make ourselves happy.

Jesus had to address the self-centered focus of the disciples at times, twice (that we know of) when they were arguing amongst themselves about which one of them was greatest (Luke 9 & 22). As he addressed them, he taught them how to be great in the kingdom, according to God's standards. To be great in His view, Jesus taught them that they must be the servant of all, that if they wanted to be first, they had to be last.

He pointed to himself as an illustration of this when he told them that he came into the world not to be served, but to serve. He came and "emptied himself" and showed us what it means to "die to self" so that we can live for others.

Part of our problem is that we are often too willing to let someone else be "great" in the kingdom and be the servant of us, rather than us striving to be "great" in God's view by seeking to serve all.

Jesus lived as a servant, as a slave to all. He calls us to follow his example. As a matter of fact, the term "slave" is the most common word used in the New Testament to refer to Christians. Imagine what your home would be like if everyone tried to live like that. What would it be like at church if everyone was involved in putting themselves last and attempting to be the servant of all!

While I know that none of us serves perfectly, I want to help and encourage us to do better! Usually it is helpful to start by asking ourselves how we are serving the Lord and others? Are we serving sacrificially or do we only serve when it's convenient or something that we really want to do?

These questions are not perfect barometers nor are they to lead us towards some kind of legalistic approach to service, but they do help us get an idea of how we are serving. When you think about serving, here are four important truths to remember...

1) Premise - we understand that biblically, God gives us work to do.
(Ephesians 2:10, John 5:36)

2) Provision - we also know that God equips us for the work He gives us.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3)

3) Proclamation - after giving us work and equipping us for it, God then commands us to work.
(Matthew 5:13-16, Philippians 2:12)

4) Produce - then, when we follow Him in obedience, He also is the one who establishes our work (makes it fruitful).
(Psalm 90:17, Proverbs 16:3)

Let me expand on the second idea above, Provision. It is easy to sometimes feel ill equipped, or maybe even unequipped, when we think about how we might serve.

Part of our problem is that we will compare ourselves with others and determine that we just aren't as gifted as them so therefore we may not be very capable of serving. This kind of perspective is self-focused and will lead us to spiritual laziness. Instead we need to have a Christ-focused perspective and remind ourselves of these truths...

1) God is the one who gives us spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)
2) He gives spiritual gifts to all believers. (1 Peter 4:10)
3) We are to exercise our gifts zealously. (Romans 12:11)

Sometimes we may be confused as to how we even figure out what our spiritual gift/s is/are, so here are three things to do that should be helpful to you in order to help you determine how the Lord has gifted you in regard to how you are to serve in the body of Christ.

1) Read!

Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 28 are the three main passages that list off spiritual gifts. Read those verses. Study the words and their meanings and consider which seem to apply to you.

2) Pray!

We are told in many places to be people who pray. Asking for God to help us to properly discern what our spiritual gifts are is something that would be within His will...so ask Him!

3) Reason!

By this I mean to go down two roads of reasoning. The first is simply to think about this yourself and assess what seems to be your natural areas of giftedness. It is quite often that we can see our spiritual gifts in things that we normally and naturally do in life. The second is to seek the opinions of those close to you who see your life and ask them if they have any thoughts about how they think you may be gifted.

This is not something God desires to hide from us, but to make it known so that we will work for Him in the ways that He has set out for us. But while I encourage you to seek to understand how the Lord may have gifted you spiritually, don't let that be the only way in which you seek to serve.

There will no doubt be other opportunities for all of us to serve each other in the body, but there will also be opportunities to serve those outside of it as well. We should take advantage of both and seek to, as Jesus said, "be the servant of all!"

But even if you are still unsure about your spiritual gift, that should never deter you from taking the opportunity to serve others as you are given the opportunity to do so...even if you have to make the opportunity!

In a very real sense, all that we do should be an act of service to the Lord. Scriptures teaches us that in whatever we do, word or deed, even eating or drinking, we are to do everything for His glory! If we are truly seeking to do that, we will become better servants of all!

With all that being said, I encourage you...go out and serve. Practice GREATNESS so that we all may one day hear God say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Serving with you,
Chris Kiiskinen

Chris Kiiskinen is a Pastor/Teacher here at Grace Bible Church