Stop Serving!

            My spirit has been stirred today and I have to share with you what I hear the Spirit of God wanting to say to His church. I hear Jesus saying, “Stop serving me! Just stop.” I can just hear the jaws of people all over the church dropping open. I hear pastor’s saying, “If we tell people to stop serving, we won’t have people to run all our programs. We have a hard enough time finding people willing to serve in the church as it is. Why would you want us to stop people from serving? That can’t possibly be what Jesus wants.”

            Oh, but it is what Jesus wants. Do you remember the story of Jesus visiting the home of Mary and Martha? In Luke 10:38-42 we are introduced to these sisters when Jesus visits their town and Martha invites Him into her home. As Jesus sits in her house talking with those around Him, Martha is busily preparing a meal and all the things that go with it. She is being attentive to all those who have come with Jesus. Meanwhile, her sister Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to Him. Finally, when Martha can take it no more she barges in and confronts Jesus and says to Him, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” If you have ever been around someone intense like Martha, you can almost hear the tone of her voice, scolding, as much as asking. The vein in her forward was probably visibly throbbing. The anger is obvious. She has been working very hard and feels abandoned by her sister. She sees her sister as lazy and desires that she be reprimanded publicly for it.

            Jesus, though, surprises Martha with His response. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her.” Can’t you almost hear the sigh in Jesus’ voice as He says, “Martha, Martha?” In reading between the lines, I can hear Jesus saying, “Martha, just stop serving me. Just come and sit down with your sister and listen to me. I don’t need you serving me right now. I’m here for you. I want relationship with you. I don’t want your service. I want you. I want your heart.”

            Our churches today are filled with Martha’s, both male and female. We have been guilty of creating program after program so that as people come in to the church, they will have a place to serve. We have measured spiritual growth by the amount of service a person gives the church. We rush people from salvation to service. We have come to believe that if a person is growing in the Lord, they will be serving, and if they are serving, they must be growing in the Lord. Nothing could be further from the truth. I find many people serving diligently, teaching Sunday School, leading youth groups, organizing events, helping out with vacation Bible school, serving on boards, singing in the choir, going on visitation, and yet they don’t really know Jesus. Oh, they know about Him. They think they know Him. They may have been saved for many years. They have studied the Word of God. They have read many books. They have listened to much Bible teaching, but something is lacking.

            Lest you think that I am going off the reservation, let me turn you to Paul’s words in Philippians chapter three. Here Paul is near the end of his life, having served God faithfully all his life, and he comes to this conclusion: “…whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;…”. Paul had accomplished much in his life, yet of it all there was nothing as valuable to him as knowing Jesus.

            I believe that Jesus is wanting us to stop all the programs for awhile; stop all the busyness, all the committees, all our plans, and just spend time listening to Him. There will be time to serve Him, but before we start serving Him, we need to know Him. How else are we going to know what He wants? How else is a new believer going to learn to hear the voice of God speaking to Him? How else does a believer fall in love with their savior? God didn’t save us so He could have employees! God saved us, and redeemed us as sons and daughters! He wants to love us as a father loves his children. You don’t give birth to a baby and then send them out to work. You cuddle them. You hold them. You feed them. You sing to them. You play with them. You let them get to know who you are, and in getting to know who you are, they begin to know who they are.

            We have too many people serving in the church who have never spent time learning who God is as their father. They have learned who He is as God, but He has not become their daddy. Many of us see God as a taskmaster, an overseer, who just wants us to toe the line and get the job done. That is not the example Jesus gave. Jesus is saying to us, “Get to know me first. Don’t run off to serve me. Learn of me. Get to know me. When the time comes, you don’t have to go find a place to serve, I’ll open the doors for you and I’ll work through you.”

            I thought today of the crowns that we will someday cast at the feet of Jesus, Revelation 4:10, and I thought about why we would throw our crowns before Him. I concluded that it wasn’t because we hadn’t earned them, for many of us have worked hard to earn those crowns. I concluded that the attitude of the heart of those casting their crowns was this – “It’s not the crown I want, it’s you I want, Jesus.”

            Do you want Jesus more than anything? Do you want Jesus more than the recognition of men? Do you want Jesus more than the praise for serving in the church? Do you want Jesus more than the way it makes you feel good to serve? Jesus wants us more than anything. How much do you want Him?