The Pleasure of Service

Larry Kirkpatrick 18 May 2002

Introduction

Today we look at the pleasure of service. Keep in mind that the phrase "service in the church" as used in this series refers to what the members of our church congregation do in harmony with God and each other to fulfill the goals of heaven for this local church.

The pleasure of service in the church is to see her prosper and grow in the work of God; to experience her as an agency heaven is using to change lives.

Our thought-text today is found in Psalms 16:11: "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

Today we are going to see that

I. God will show us something

II. He will show us the path of life

III. In His presence is fullness for humankind

IV. In His will there are pleasures for us forever

God Will Show us Something

He is the Creator. We are the created. He infinite, we are finite. He is divine, we are human. He made us in His image. We are the vastly lesser to His vastly greater. He is the ground of all morality; we are the beings brought into existence to operate within that morality. All these facts point up that we have nothing really to show God, but He certainly has something to show us.

Initially there was no obscuring veil between the Maker and the made. Adam and Eve stood in their innocence. Newly existent, created in harmony with God, their future was bright with potential; their capacity to learn was engaged. They were created with eyes to see and ears to hear and a mind to process what they experienced. They were ready to be shown the things of God.

And we all know what happened next.

The sin of our first parents erected a barrier, and in divine wisdom the gap was bridged by prophets and seers and an inspired book, the Bible. To make effectual the showing, the Holy Spirit and the angels of God are working for human hearts and minds. Still heaven desires to show us what will help us. The trail home is marked by Jesus' tears, and ours. Jesus also came in order to show us something. How well we are seeing these days is another question.

Let us ask ourselves, how firm is our desire to see what God would show us? Perhaps we fear that the more we see the more will be required of us. The more God would prefer that we serve Him. But God has something to show us. Could it be that we will find that the greatest pleasure we can have, is to serve Him?

God Will Show Us the Path of Life

The chasm between God and man is substantial. It is the difference between life and death; a world that is temporary and a world that is eternal. Separated from Him we have no life. Jesus was sent to us because "In Him" is life. He Himself said it in so many ways. John 14:6 records one of the most sublime: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the Father but by Me."

There is a progression of ideas unfolding in that text. First He said "I am the Way," literally, the Road. Jesus is the pathway, the roadway, the only highway to heaven. Christianity is a journey. We move from point A to point B. We make a transition from lostness to foundness and soundness. Jesus places Himself in the pathway of humankind. His mission in coming here was to serve us by being the path of life and showing us the path of life.

The promise of the Psalm was that Jesus would show us the path of life. First He said He was the road, and then, the Truth. There is no use in making any journey on any road unless one is journeying with the Truth. If the way or road is false, your destination inevitably is faulty. When the disciples met Jesus on the Emmaus road, He shared the Scriptures of life with truth-seekers on the road. Having opened to them the Scriptures, they at one time saw that it was Jesus Himself they had been in converse with. But the first thing was they were sincere, they were on the road.

But Jesus is yet the life. A journey seeking truth inevitably leads one to life. As we grow in grace we come to places where God can use us. He can give us life and use us to bring others to the Source. Christianity is not an amusement ride. It is a serious journey to a pointed goal: salvation, but salvation in a fullness, not in the bare and scanty. Abundance is heaven's plan, not our pauperhood. Its all or nothing, and God would prefer to give us all.

He will show us something, and that something is the path of life. And we may rest assured that that is precisely the pathway that our Jesus is on.

In His Presence is Fullness for Humankind

Jesus went on to say not only that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but that "No man cometh to the Father but by Me." It is to the presence of the Father that Jesus purposes to return us.

It is when full communion with God is restored that we will truly begin to know Him in a larger way. We have to stop dodging the giant things He would prefer to do for us. His blessings are so rich, so extensive and far-reaching. They scare us.

We welcome Him to take away this sin here and that sin there. But there is that cherished one, that giant, stinking rhino-of-a-sin pitched disgustingly on the floor of our soul's living-room. Too big to get out through the door-frame, we've nurtured it, we've fed it, we've let it get in the way of every serious thing that God wants to do for us. And it has hindered our participation in the opportunities to serve Him He's given us. It's led us to pray less, to hide from God more. It's robbed us of the pleasure of service.

There is fullness for the willing. There is pauperhood for the unwilling. There is stagnation, decay, and a trap-door out of spirituality altogether. But what will you find there if you go that way? Will you find fullness?

Fullness can only come if there is something to fill up with. The greasy pleasures of sin for a season are sugar-calories. They wonÕt fill you. And you know it. You've been there. Been there. Done that. And where did it get you? What was the end of those things? Death, had you not turned. God wants to give you life. There is so much more for you and for your family when you walk with God. There is so much more fulfillment when you know you are serving Him, when you know that you, by His grace, are making a difference.

We are social creatures, and so we experience a sense of fulfillment when we serve God and others. It's the way we were made. God has something for us we can't get anywhere else. He has an experience that canÕt be matched. He has a peace that cannot be described in words. You can experience that. You can own that. You can walk with your life filled to the brim with God's blessings, so full it sloshes over onto everyone else who gets close to you.

When others come shambling through life and heaven providentially causes you and them to cross paths, what will you have to share with them? God is ready to give you something. But Satan wants to rob that person of the blessing god would give them through you. So he makes his convincing pleas. He suggests you not serve God. He says life as a Christian is hard, that God won't accept you or anything you might do. If you try to do something for Him, it's tainted with wrong motives anyway and your God will condemn you. That's what he says, isnÕt it. Anything to keep God's blessings from leaking out into the world through you. We canÕt let him get away with that. And why should we rob ourselves of the pleasure of service?

In His Will There are Pleasures for us Forever

Psalm 16:11 says, ""Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

Are you living -- am I living -- at God's right hand? Because at His right hand, that is, in His favor, in His authority, in His service, there are pleasures forever more.

God did not make our planet, did not hang it in space on nothing to no purpose. The creation not subject to futility as a random thing. There is a plan. In our life here there is a purpose.

Sometimes we loose sight of the goal. We forget that the plan of heaven is that we would live eternally. I saw a bumper sticker on a car this week. It said, "Eternity. Smoking or non-smoking?"—a clever reminder that this life is no disconnected and random thing. This life is our time to grow, to prepare for life in heaven and in the new earth.

And when we become Christians, what then? Is the sum of Christianity to attend church each Sabbath, to sit in the pew, to give the offering, to say amen at the right time? There is much more.

Day by day we should draw close to God. We need to hear from Him each day. We should read or listen to the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy books. We are prone to forget, so we need continual reminding.

We should pray every day, for our own spiritual growth and for the needs of others. God wants us to ask Him, and not only for our largest items, but he's glad when we share with Him our small ones too. He longs for that. That's what He wants.

We should have spiritual time together in our family -- a worship in the morning or in the evening, or better yet, both. Then there's church. And we have the varied meetings here. At prayer meeting we study the Bible and make connections and friendships with our church family. Right now we are studying the prophecies of Revelation in chapters eight and nine. The church should be an equipping-zone too, a place where we pray together and counsel together about sharing our faith with others, and train-up to prepare for such opportunities. We are planning for just such developments too, soon.

The church, as we've pointed out in the past few messages is a place where we can serve. There are several ways we can serve here, ways we can help. And the key thing is that these are opportunities for us to grow. It is a privilege to serve in the church in any capacity. It is not a right, but it is a privilege, and it is the preference of God because he can use it to help us grow.

Sometimes we've been slow in understanding what God wants to do through us as individuals. Sometimes we've been slow to serve. But think of it this way. When I serve I gain an experience. When I gain an experience I am actively serving as part of God's kingdom, actively making myself available to heaven for its purposes. And what I need is just that kind of help, just that kind of purpose. God wants to use me. Am I willing? He wants me to have meaning in my life? Am I willing to matter?

If you could be a media star, be it in television, music, movies, etc, but you bypassed service in God's kingdom, what would you have? You might have some money; you might acquire wealth and fame. You might become part of the continuous broadcast forever moving through the airwaves. But would any of this -- any -- be helpful to the kingdom of God? Could it be that a humble church member living for Jesus and serving quietly in the church might stand taller in the kingdom of heaven than whoever's at the top of the stack in Hollywood right now? Be a serious Christian person and see what God will do through you. In His church. In your family. In your life.

In the kingdom of God here and now.

Conclusion

God wants to show us something. He needs to break through the veil dividing the spiritual world from what we can see. He wants to show us the path of life. The wide road beckons but the narrow way has Jesus in it. In His presence and His presence only there is fullness of joy. And when you stand in His will, at His right hand, there are pleasures for you both now and down through all of eternity. The Bible speaks of this as "pleasures forever more." There is pleasure in serving God that will endure.

The privilege of service is also for us. No one has a right to serve. We lost all our rights at the fall, but Jesus bought us back opportunities to regain them. There is no higher privilege than to serve.

When we serve God that has a persuasive power. It shows we are ready to invest our time our energies into values that may not be the norm right now, but for eternity will be just as sure and firm as ever they were before the entrance of sin and rebellion.

The possibility of service will change you, will make a difference for you. You will obtain help for your own spiritual walk when you serve.

And so we draw these thoughts together. I hope we've given some thought and prayer to this topic. We're so much more prone to be cowboys and Indians, to act alone, unilaterally, to have our own separate ministry, to view ourselves as isolated atoms that jut happen to come together for a few hours on a Sabbath. But there is another possibility. We can come together and serve. Together. We can learn to work together. And as we draw close to each other, God will draw close to us, and give us power to serve Him. He wants the churches to harmonize, to work together toward the attainment of heaven's goals. Mentone is part of His plan. You are part of His plan. And so, in whatever way you can, be ready to serve Him. And he'll get all the glory. And we have no problem with that. May God bless our service for Him.

Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick is an ordained minister of the gospel. Since 1994 he has served in the American Southwest as pastor to several churches. He received his BA in Religion from Southern Adventist University in 1994 and a Master of Divinity from Andrews University in 1999 with a specialization in Adventist Studies. While in Michigan he was employed by the General Conference at the White Estate Berrien Springs branch office. More important than his scholastic preparation has been his immersion in the biblical and Spirit of Prophecy materials. He is author of the 2003 book Real Grace for Real People. Presently he serves as Pastor of the Mentone Church of Seventh-day Adventists, located near Loma Linda, California. Larry is married to Pamela. The couple presently live in Highland, California along with their two children, Etienne and Melinda.