by Steven Harper<\/p>\n
If we are genuinely interested in what pleases the Lord, we should consider everything we do and say, and whether it is, in fact, pleasing to Him, according to what He has revealed in the Scriptures. One of the most obvious aspects of our lives as disciples is our worship assembly and Bible study, but I need to ask myself the question:<\/p>\n
“Why do I do what I do?”<\/p>\n
It should be a given that when we are considering our service to the Lord, serving Him is actually the reason! We should not find that distasteful, for within the Scriptures, a Christian is called “a servant of the Lord<\/em>” (II Timothy 2:24); Paul even described himself as “a bondservant of Jesus Christ<\/em>” (Romans 1:1), indicating his perception that he had a debt to pay. So, service should most definitely be one of the reasons we serve the Lord!<\/p>\n This, too, should be a given, for Jesus tells us the greatest command is that I “love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind<\/em>” (Matthew 22:37). And especially when we are talking about my worship – which, by definition, is “the reverent love shown to God” – love must be the reason I serve the Lord. And it is the case, as John wrote, “We love Him because He first loved us<\/em>” (I John 4:19). At the very least, my service to God and my worship and my Bible study – and whatever I do in His service – must be because of love.<\/p>\n It should go without saying [but I’m going to say it] that we should serve the Lord, worship Him, and diligently study His word because He is worth it. This is the God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life<\/em>” (John 3:16), who had a plan by which He “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began<\/em>” (II Timothy 1:8-9) and who “foreordained<\/em>” Christ to be Savior “before the foundation of the world<\/em>” (I Peter 1:20). His wisdom, His love, His grace, and His continuing long-suffering toward us clearly shows He is worthy of everything we can do for Him, and it is with this knowledge we read Paul’s plea that we “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God<\/em>” and we would have to agree that such would be called “reasonable service<\/em>” (Romans 12:1).<\/p>\n Again, why do I serve the Lord? It cannot be to please my parents or any other human being; it cannot be strictly for the potential reward of heaven, and I cannot be doing what I do for any positive benefits others may offer me. I should be serving the Lord because I desire to be His servant, because I love Him with all my heart, soul, and mind, and because He is unequivocally worth it.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Steven Harper If we are genuinely interested in what pleases the Lord, we should consider everything we do and say, and whether it is, in fact, pleasing to Him, according to what He has revealed in the Scriptures. One of the most obvious aspects of our lives as disciples is our worship assembly and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[65,574],"class_list":["post-89252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-love","tag-service"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46600,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/serve-to-be-great\/","url_meta":{"origin":89252,"position":0},"title":"Serve to Be Great","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dennis Stackhouse Notice the statement made by Paul in I Corinthians 4:1:\u00a0\"Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.\"\u00a0 Be especially careful to recognize that Paul identifies himself and his fellow workers as \"servants of Christ.\"\u00a0 Does that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67793,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-beauty-of-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":89252,"position":1},"title":"The Beauty of Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer We sing, \"Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.\" What is the beauty of Jesus? While we often connect beauty to outward appearance, that is not the sense in which the beauty of Jesus draws us, for \"he had no form or majesty that we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20662,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-separate-a-man-from-his-deeds-hating-his-sins-while-loving-his-soul\/","url_meta":{"origin":89252,"position":2},"title":"Should we separate a man from his deeds, hating his sins while loving his soul?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding the love of God for man: I believe that God can separate the man from\u00a0sin.\u00a0 Therefore, God can love the man, but hate the sin.\u00a0 Do you agree with this?\u00a0 Are there scriptures that indicate this? Where Jesus tells us to love your enemies\u00a0in Matthew 5, I believe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42050,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/service-or-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":89252,"position":3},"title":"Service or Power","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them, does not receive our authority\" (III John 9). Refusing the authority of the apostles and seeking to take first place among others, like Diotrephes, is a fundamental betrayal of the fellowship\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30307,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-we-use-our-talents-when-we-are-limited-in-abilities\/","url_meta":{"origin":89252,"position":4},"title":"How can we use our talents when we are limited in abilities?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What are the talents in a Christian's life today? How can we multiply them to be good and faithful servants of our Lord Jesus? If we are limited to a good degree by our health, how can we be careful to not become like the servant who had one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47131,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-impact-of-our-choices\/","url_meta":{"origin":89252,"position":5},"title":"The Impact of Our Choices","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dennis Stackhouse Just prior to his physical death, Joshua tried to encourage the people of Israel with these familiar words: \"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Love<\/h2>\n
His Worthiness<\/h2>\n