Wed Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

“Serve the Lord with gladness!” (Psalm 100:2)

I know some of you are sitting there saying, “Wait a minute.. I thought we were talking about worship? Where does service come in?” The more up-close and personal you get with God, the more you want to serve God, the more you want God to use you,and the more you want God to be blessed by what you can offer Him. Service is a part of worship. One of the ways you worship God is by serving.

All you wonderful volunteers out there that help us park cars – that is part of your worship. Our first impression people, who work the Information Desk, who hand out worship guides, who stand outside in the cold and the rain and greet people as they come in, that is a part of worship.

You haven’t really worshipped God until you get involved in serving God. God is not interested in people just doing a job. He wants you to serve Him “with gladness.” You know one of the ways you can tell how close you are to God? The closer you get to God, the more happy you are to serve and the more your service makes you happy. When you begin to see your service as an act of worship and when you begin to see what you do for God as an act of gratitude for what He has done for you, you will no longer see service as a duty,but it will be a delight. It won’t be a job; it will be aministry.

Serving God is completely and totally different from serving anyone else? Why do you think the Lord tells us to serve Him with gladness? There is a reason for this. Acts 17:25 says,

“Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

We are to serve God with gladness, because when we serve Him we are not bearing the burden of meeting His needs; we are rejoicing in a service where He meets our needs. God doesn’t need us serving Him to make Him happy. We need to serve God to make us happy. That is another key that opens the door.