Serve the Lord with Gladness

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Serve The Lord with Gladness.
Psalm 100

I. Introduction.

An older married couple had just arrived in heaven. They began to walk around on the streets of gold, through the gates of pearls, looking at the fabulous sights of heaven. It was almost more than they could comprehend. They began to share with each other how beautiful each part of the scenery, making sure to point out anything the other might not have noticed. After several hours of just walking with their mouths open wide, the husband turned to his wife and said, “Honey, did you have any idea that heaven would be this wonderful?” His wife replied, “No! This far exceeds anything I had ever heard or read about heaven.” The husband spoke up, “Just think. If you had never started us on that high fiber diet, we could have been here 30 years ago.”

I searched all week for a good story about grandparents, and that is the best I could do. However, I did find a story…actually a true story that beats that one.

Shauna and I have a friend named Missy. Missy has told about her grandfather who has a very active sense of humor. Of course, not everyone will find this humorous. Her grandfather has worn false teeth for a long time. His teeth were always loose-fitting, and he never liked using any kind of adhesive. In fact, he didn’t even like to wear his teeth at all. He would just refuse to wear his teeth unless it was necessary.

One morning he went fishing with a good friend. This was the best kind of friend…one that didn’t mind if he didn’t wear his teeth. But he had to take his teeth so they could eat lunch later. But that didn’t mean he had to wear them all day. Once the two men got out on the lake in their boat, he slipped his teeth out and put them on top of the cooler. His friend thought that looked like a good idea and placed his teeth on the cooler next to the others.
As it got closer to lunch time, Missy’s grandfather decided he would play a joke on his fishing buddy. He switched the teeth on the cooler. Then, he said, “I am getting hungry. Let’s go ahead and eat lunch.” His buddy said, “That’s a good idea.” And picked up the teeth he thought were his and put them in his mouth.

He swished them around several times in his mouth. He pulled out the teeth. He looked at the teeth, with a puzzled look on his face and said, “These teeth never have fit right.” And threw the teeth into the lake.

There’s a lesson in this story. Never be careless with something of great value.

Today is Grandparents’ Day. Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day are two days we usually remember by sending Hallmark © cards. So, it seems to me that the marketing department at Hallmark © might just be the ones responsible for this “new” holiday. It’s a way for them to sell more cards and make a little more money. However, it also seems to be a good idea for us to honor our grandparents. Let me take advantage of Grandparents’ Day by encouraging you not to be careless with something of great value. Children, don’t forget about your grandparents. Young adults, “Honor your father and your mother.” Not so young adults, “Honor your father and mother.” Senior adults, do not ever stop serving the Lord.

One of my goals for next year is for us to create a new staff position for our church. If you look at our staff structure, it seems to communicate something that we do not believe. We have a pastor—and by the way we really like our pastor. It is the pastor’s responsibility to preach the Word of God, to visit the sick and to lead our church to grow. Then, we are currently searching for a minister of music, whose job will be to lead our church to worship and experience the presence of God.

Patsy Parks is our preschool / children’s minister. Her responsibilities include ministry to all children in our church. She plans Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, spiritual growth and all the fun activities for children from birth to sixth grade.

Clay Walker is our youth minister. He ministers to the teenagers in our church from seventh grade through twelfth grade. He will lead our Wake Up Weekend in January and led our teenagers in one of the biggest summer programs in history. So, Clay leads all the spiritual growth and fun activities for youth.

Aubrey Knox is our minister of adult education. He is responsible for spiritual growth and discipleship of the adults at First Baptist Church.

Dream with me for a minute about a hypothetical family in our church. This family has a newborn baby in the nursery, a second grader in the children’s ministry and a seventh grader in the youth group. The parents are 33 years old and are members of Adult 5 Sunday School. The grandparents are 55 years old and the great-grandparents are 77.

The way our church staff is structured, we have ministers assigned to most members of this family. The baby and the second grader are in our children’s ministry. The seventh grader is a part of our youth ministry. The parents and grandparents are in the adult ministry. But what about the 77 year olds? Do we really believe that we should provide ministry and activities for preschoolers, children, youth and adults but nothing for senior adults? No! We don’t believe this. We have a senior adult ministry, but we don’t have a senior adult minister.

I am dreaming about the day that we can call a senior adult minister. I believe our senior adults are a valuable group of people for our church. I believe we need to grow our church by focusing on every age group in our city…children, youth, young adults and senior adults. I also want to communicate very clearly to the senior adults of Lufkin, Texas, “God is not finished with you. God wants you to ‘Serve the Lord with gladness.’”

Read Psalm 100.

As you could tell by reading the entire context, Psalm 100 is a Psalm about worship. In fact, the NIV has translated Psalm 100: 2 as “Worship the Lord with gladness…” And, to be quite honest, I agree with the NIV’s translation.

The traditional interpretation of this verse is “Serve the Lord with gladness.” The Hebrew word used in this verse does literally mean to serve, it is obvious that the context of Psalm 100 is a reference to an act of serving performed in a worship service. That is why the Psalmist continues his thought by writing “Come before his presence with singing.”

However, I must appeal to the great reformer Martin Luther and even to the Apostle Paul to say that worship is an activity which must transcend, or move beyond the four walls of the church. One of Luther’s basic points in the Protestant Reformation was to claim that one does not have to be a priest, a monk or a nun in order to serve the Lord. In fact, any kind of work which is done in the name of the Lord and to God’s glory is an act of worship.

Luther based his position on the writings of the Apostle Paul, such as Romans 12: 1 –2…“Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercies to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and well pleasing to God.” It seems so obvious to us today, but in the 1500’s nobody had ever thought of serving the Lord outside full time ministry.

II. Serve.

How can we be faithful to the command the Psalmist has given us? In other words, how can our service be worshipful service?

1. Worshipful service is different from human service.

There is something about serving other people that is attractive to us…Many secular groups have gotten involved with service projects because they have discovered that it makes them feel good to serve others…But this is not worshipful service.

How do we know it is not worshipful? Because the person doing the work is quick to step up and take the credit for his or her effort.

Human service wants to be recognized…Becomes angry if an act of service goes without an award…Keeps score…I have done this much for you, now you owe me.
That is not how worshipful service looks…Those who worship God in their acts of service often go without any kind of recognition…That doesn’t mean it is bad to be recognized…It’s just bad to desire recognition…

Those who worship God in their service are just as comfortable behind the scenes as they are in center stage…

2. Worshipful service is a life-style.

Many people today are comfortable serving the needs of others as long as they have the opportunity to choose whom they will serve and when they will serve…

The Christian who is committed to worshipful service has already given himself or herself into the Lord’s hands to serve whenever and wherever the Holy Spirit leads…Again, this is best captured in the words of the Apostle Paul in most of his writings…Paul usually began his letters with this greeting, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus…”

The Greek word Paul used to refer to himself literally meant “Slave”…Of course we have toned it down a little so it would be more acceptable for our culture…After all, isn’t it better to think of someone as a servant than to think of them as a slave? Slavery of human beings is evil…It is despicable…It is embarrassing that we as a culture accepted it for as long as we did…Slavery grates against all of our modern sensibilities…Yet that is exactly the lifestyle God has called all of his people to pursue…

God wants us to be slaves in the sense that we no longer have a choice about our lifestyle…Whether we will serve and obey our master or not…

3. Worshipful service is community building.

The best way I know to describe this is to say that if worshipful service does not glorify the individual who is serving others, then it must glorify something else…Specifically, it seeks to glorify others and to communicate honor and value of other people…

This would be a very difficult concept for me to try to explain to the average person on the street of Lufkin…But it should not be difficult for you to understand…

Traditionally, our American culture has placed a value on one thing…You might think I mean freedom, but I do not…American culture has historically worshipped at the altar of Individualism…It is OK for you to do whatever you want to do, because you are a free individual…Who am I to judge your freedom or lifestyle?

And that is exactly the kind of philosophy which is challenged by worshipful service…When you take the time and expend the energy serving another person, you have just submitted your freedom and your felt human needs on someone else’s behalf…

In other words, there is something more important than your personal freedom…There is something more important than having your needs met…

It is more important to give yourself to build other people up… And, where is that to take place? IN THE CHURCH!

III. The Lord.

That is what I read in the Psalmist’s next words…We are not simply called to serve…We have been called to serve the Lord…

As I thought about these words…Serve the Lord…It occurred to me this week that if we continue to read this Psalm through New Testament eyes…In other words, if we interpret the Psalmist’s words in light of what the Apostle Paul (under the leadership of the Holy Spirit) taught, it seems this is a reference to service within the church…

One of Paul’s most frequent illustrations for the church was the Church as the Body of Christ…In other words, Christ is present here today, in this world through the Church…Do you want to know what Christ looks like? Look no farther than his Church.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul used the image of the Church as the Body of Christ to describe the connectedness and the interdependence of each Christian on his or her brothers and sisters…In other words, Paul taught (and I believe) that God has gifted each Christian with a specific gift, to be used within the Body, so that the Body can achieve its intended function…

Therefore, if you are not using your gift within the Body…If you are not serving within the Body, then you are not serving as God would have you.

Does this mean that a Christian cannot serve outside the church? NO! But it does mean that the church must be the first place of service for all Christians! It is fine for you to serve outside the church…But do so only as a result of the service you have done within the Body…

IV. With Gladness.

The Psalmist’s last word about service concerns our attitude for serving. Notice that the verse does NOT instruct us to serve the Lord “grudgingly”…Or to serve the Lord because it is required… NO! Serve with a spirit of gladness or joy.

At this point we need to step away from Paul’s image of slaves and slavery. First century slaves were compelled to work for their human masters. However, Jesus’ slaves have a different view of service and work. We should serve out of our joy. We enjoy serving, because we know that through service, God will actually increase our joy. Sure, there is satisfaction in a “job well done.” But even beyond that, Christians find the greatest satisfaction in knowing that our service brings honor and glory to God. There is satisfaction and joy in hearing the words of our Lord, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”