Serving God's Kingdom

Serving God's Kingdom
1 Corinthians 3.6-9
6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Matthew 28.19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Why is it that we serve God? Is it for fame, for riches, to make sure we stay out of hell? It is a reasonable question that deserves a reasonable answer. Actually, it is probable that many of us have never stopped to consider why it is that we dedicate our lives to God. Perhaps we have always been in the Church, and we have never thought otherwise. It is possible that we use doing the will of God to harbor emotional stability within ourselves(i.e. it makes us feel like we do not owe God anything anymore). None of these reasons suffice, however. The main reason we serve God is to build His kingdom. This is echoed throughout the New Testament. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, his last words were for us to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything [He had] commanded [the disciples]." The most crucial point He wished to make was not how they would eat, afford to pay the bills, live in safety, decide what physical foundation upon which the first church would lay, or any other possible reason we as modern Christians often demonstrate are most important to us through our actions that we take each day. The most crucial point of the Gospel is that it spreads--that God's Kingdom is built one soul at a time. Paul, too, states this. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul addresses to the church at Corinth the division which had caused many to say "I follow Paul" or "I follow Apollos." He illustrates the futility of such rubbish reasoning with the point that "[Paul] planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." Beloved, we as Christians need to internalize such information into our hearts and minds. The true purpose of our ministry is to build God's Kingdom. We are to "plant" and "water" with "one purpose:" building the Kingdom of God.

Let us now address two areas in which this can be applied. The first is this: we ought to serve God with newness in our ministry. I do not mean newness in the sense that all of our buildings must be new, all of our songs must be the latest and greatest, and we must make as much use of technology as possible. These are trivial, internal areas of building God's Church. What is meant by newness in this context is that we be reinvigorated in our service to God. We must serve Him with a mindset that our actions, thoughts, and attitudes reflect the overall goal of building the Church. This can be further illustrated with an illustration. When we clean the tables of the church dining hall after a function designed for community outreach to feed the hungry, what is our mindset? Many of us maintain a negative mindset. Our thoughts are, why do people make such a mess? Why won't people help me? I have to do everything myself. Beloved, this sort of mindset is sinful and in serious error to the truth of how we should think and how we should act as we build God's Kingdom. The wise man reasons with Himself in a sense of newness: My job may be small, but it is a piece(function) of a ministry that will be used to help the helpless and bring them to be saved. That man is keeping his mind fresh with a renewed purpose of the Kingdom of God, whereas the other man only wishes to harbor up bitterness and feelings of self-importance and superiority to his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Secondly, we serve God with purpose and gladness. By purpose and gladness, I mean that we do not merely maintain a mindset of mindless action, but that we are able to see the overall goal in God's Kingdom and that we are able to enjoy being a part of it with a spirit of gladness and humbleness. The man above who saw his action as being a small piece in an incredible ministry is an example of someone serving the Lord with purpose and gladness. Purpose and gladness imply that we keep our minds in constant motion--that we are always attempting to see the big picture while focusing on the small implementations. Taking out the trash is just one step in saving a soul. A smile to a bitter man's heart is but a small step in "sewing the seeds of the Gospel" into his life, as Pastor David Platt puts it. When we see the large picture, we cannot help but smile and be filled with gladness, joy, awe, and humbleness in the work that God is doing through His Kingdom.

I wonder, are you serving God with newness, purpose and gladness? If not, then begin today. The Lord can change your heart, which will change your actions so that you may be able to build on God's Kingdom. As we go through our tasks and plans for the day, treat each encounter with someone, each task you must accomplish, as an opportunity to be a small part in an immense ministry of God. Let us remember that everything we do is a reflection of the plan God has for His Kingdom. That is why we can smile when He says in Isaiah 43.19, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

With love in Christ,



Austin Aldrich