PT-1 "Paul's Ministry 'Toward Serving God'" (Acts 20:17-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2018 8:12 AM

My Worship Time                                         Focus: PT-1 Paul’s Ministry “Toward Serving God”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 20:17-19

            Message of the verses: 17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. 18  And when they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews;”

            We will focus in on verse nineteen in our SD for today and probably tomorrow.  I have included verses 17-18 in order to see the flow as we move into verse nineteen.  In our SD from a couple of days ago we looked at how Paul was serving God in his ministry, something that he will go over with the Ephesian elders as he meets with them for the last time that we know of, although we know that he continually prayed for them as he did for all the churches that he helped to begin.

            As we see from the book of Acts and some of the letters that he wrote to the different churches and individuals that at the height of what Paul wanted to do was to serve the Lord.  We have seen that he has called himself a “bond-servant” of the Lord in places like Romans 1:1, and we can also compare this by looking at Galatians (1:10; Col. 1:7; 4:7; and Titus 1:1).  This is what Paul sought to do, as his desire was to please God and not men.  Paul spoke of serving God later on in Acts 27:23 “"For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me.”  Then to the Galatians Paul wrote “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God?  Or am I striving to please men?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10).  Next we look at 1 Thessalonians 2:4 where he declared “Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.”  As we next look at an OT verse from the book of Proverbs we realize that this verse was something that Paul knew a lot about:  “The fear of man brings a snare, But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.”

            This verse from Proverbs is something that all of us as believers in Jesus Christ are to fulfill in our walk with the Lord, and we can surely get an example from our Lord Jesus Christ whose desire was to obey His Father while He was on earth all the way to dying on the cross for our sins.  It can also be seen in the life of the man we are studying, that is the apostle Paul as we have seen it is his desire to serve the Lord.  As believers we are first of all to do everything to please and serve the Lord, rather than men.  “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).”  “34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ’Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35  ’For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37  "Then the righteous will answer Him, ’Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ’And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ’When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “The King will answer and say to them, ’Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me’ (Matthew 25:34-40).”  We will conclude with a quote from John MacArthur:  “Serving God defines the motive for doing what is right in His sight above every other consideration.  It means a preacher does not serve the will and desires of the congregation or even the leaders of the church, but God.  It means an employee does not merely serve an employer, but God (Eph. 6:5-7).  As Paul expressed it to the Colossians, ‘It is the Lord Christ whom you serve’ (Col. 3:24).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to believe that serving the Lord means doing something that is hard to do as I have learned from my Lord Jesus Christ while He was in the garden praying that the Lord would take the cup from Him, and yet He went on to say “Not My Will, but Yours be done.”  Today my wife and I must go to a service for our neighbor who died three weeks ago and doing these kind of things makes me nervous and yet I must overcome that by the Spirit of God and do this as a testimony to my neighbor, something I feel very strongly is the right thing to do.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to see me through this.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The saints” (1 Corinthians 6:2).

Today’s Bible question:  “How is the day of the Lord described as coming in First Thessalonians 5:2?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/7/2018 8:52 AM