Kingdom Service (1), by Ayo Akerele

Your life does not belong to you. Your body is not your property. Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:9: “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.” Also, in 1 Corinthians 6:19, the bible also says: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”

The simple truth many in this generation don’t want to hear is that they don’t own themselves, they are owned by God.

And they cannot do whatever they like their bodies. If we don’t own our lives, and God owns us, it follows that we must serve our owner. Just like an employee in an organization is employed to serve the interests of the employer, we must live our live with the sole focus of SERVING God. That is exactly what Paul reiterated to the Colossians church. “Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ,” Colossians 3:24.

The word: “Serve,” means so many things in the bible. Both the Hebrew and Greek lexicons define the word serve as: “Working, doing specific tasks, honoring someone, following laid down goals and vision of someone among others.” So, to serve God refers to working for God, honoring God, pursuing God’s plans, purposes, agenda and programmes, and submitting our lives to his will and counsel. And all through scriptures, the mandate to serve God is as clear as the day.

World witnessing so much carnage of rebellion against God
The world is witnessing so much carnage of idolatry and rebellion against God. We do not want Jesus to be our Lord, but He can be our saviour. In fact, there are major movements in America today where the proponents of such movements are canvassing for what is called: “NO LORDSHIP THEORY.”

In other words, we want Jesus to be our saviour but not our Lord. Why? Making him your Lord automatically commits you to serving his purpose and obeying him and since I want to sin peacefully, its better I make him my saviour—and make other things my Lord. So, this morning, we want to look at these other gods that men serve. When I say men, I refer to Christians now. Our generation is serving so many gods as opposed to the true God. You cannot serve two masters, says Jesus in Matthew 6:24, but our generation is so smart that they think they can merge God with many other gods. Dr David Jeremiah once said: “When men reject the true God, they will look for other gods to fill the void.”

What then are the other gods that are competing with our attention today? We are going to look at three of them—although there are many of them. These are the god of mammon; the god of self and ego and the god of success.

1. The god of mammon (materialism, money, houses, cars etc). This is the worst of them all. It is also called the love of money. This is the spirit ruling the entire world—breaking marriages and ruining ministries. You will know you are serving money if money is of higher priority to you than the principles and values of God. If you can make it anyhow, then money is your god. If it takes the most of your time, then money is your god. If it dominates your heart more than winning and influencing souls for Christ, then money is your god. Jesus made it very clear in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).

In 2 Kings 11, 1-2, the bible tells us of the story of Solomon whose heart was taken away from God by many women he married and because he MULTIPLIED GOLD AND SILVER for himself. God had said it in Deuteronomy 17: 15-17: “You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ 17Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.”

And if he does that, what will happen? See verse 20: “That his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.”

Dr. Akerele, a leadership and system development strategist and minister of the word, holds a doctorate degree in employee turnover and human capital development from the prestigious Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland. He is also a public speaker with twelve books to his credit. He is based in Canada and can be reached at: ayoakerele2012@gmail.com.

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