Quotes about Service-Perspectives

1

There is no ideal place to serve God except the place where He has set you down.

2

God loves adverbs better than nouns; not praying only but praying well; not doing good but doing it well.

3

If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider “not spiritual work” I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and the exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

4

To be sure, sometimes truly helping someone demands tough love, matching assistance with signs of repentance, Sometimes we must refuse to give a handout that would simply allow someone to remain enslaved in sinful habits. But our criterion for refusing to give assistance can only be whether our action can genuinely help the person, not whether he deserves the help or whether we will be inconvenienced.

5

Ministry, you see, is a great place for guys with the idol of success to hide, because we can mask our selfish ambition in the cloak of doing great things for God.

6

The Lord grants us opportunities for service in accordance with our ability to make use of them. Accordingly, since not all men have the same ability, therefore not all have the same, or equal number of, opportunities. In the Day of Judgment the number (of opportunities for service, “talents”) will not matter. The question is only, “Have we been faithful in their use?” (see Matthew 25:14-20).

7

A lion in God’s cause must be a lamb in his own.

8

There must be the inward worship within the shrine if there is to be outward service.

9

Through prayer and meditation on the Word, become willing to let God have all the glory if any good is accomplished by your service. If you desire honor for yourself, the Lord must put you aside as a vessel unfit for the Master’s use. One of the greatest qualifications for usefulness in the service of the Lord is a heart that truly desires to honor Him.

10

It is always a temptation to neglect the private inward service for the sake of the public outward service. Jesus called this inversion of priorities hypocrisy (Matthew 6:1-18). Our Father sees and rewards in the secret place. It is our love of appearances, our need to make an impression, which neglects that secret place.

11

Never undertake more Christian service than you can cover by believing prayer.

12

No man, however gifted and devoted, is indispensable to the work of the kingdom.

13

Love is power. The Holy Spirit, for the most part, works by our affection. Love men to Christ; faith accomplishes much, but love is the actual instrument by which faith works out its desires in the Name of the Lord of love. And I am sure that, until we heartily love our work, and love the people with whom we are working, we shall not accomplish much.

14

I know this sounds strange, but there is a way of “serving God” that belittles Him, insults Him, and thus robs Him of glory. We must beware of serving Him in a way that implies a deficiency on His part or asserts our indispensability to Him. God is not in need of our service or help. We are in need of His. His purpose in the earth is not sustained by our energy. Rather, we are sustained and strengthened by His. We have nothing of value that is not already His by right.

15

The success of a ministry is always more a picture of who God is than a statement about who the people are that He is using for His purpose.

16

He who gives when he is asked has waited too long.

17

Service with the proper motive is worship.

18

We don’t use people to do God’s work. God’s people are the goal of God’s work.

19

[Saying] “yes” might be very unwise. It might not be the best way to repay our debt of love. Saying “yes” to one task might keep us from another that is more important. It might mean that we will do something that someone else could have done better. It might mean that we will entrench the sin patterns of other people. It might mean that we interpret the church egocentrically rather than as a body, thinking, “If I don’t do it, nobody will.”

 

 

 

Recommended Books

Women and Ministry: What the Bible Teaches

Dan Doriani

Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

Kent Hughes

The Christian Ministry

Charles Bridges

A Theology of Biblical Counseling: The Doctrinal Foundations of Counseling Ministry

Heath Lambert

The Cross and Christian Ministry

D.A. Carson

Jesus Driven Ministry

Ajith Fernando