Serving The Lord With Gladness: Oct 30th - Nov 5th

This Week & Beyond...

Hey friends!!  Thank you to all that were able to come out Sunday night!!  To those who couldn't, I'm so sorry you had to miss out, it was a great time!  Here are the pic's in case you didn't get to see them.

Devotional...

Serving the Lord with Gladness
by Stephen Altrogge, Indiana, Pennsylvania (adapted from Stephen's blog, "The Blazing Center")

Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! (Psalm 100:2)

Let me be completely candid for a moment. This verse presents some very serious problems for me.

Don't misunderstand. I can serve the Lord. No problem. When He says, "Lead worship," I respond by asking, "How many songs?" I can do that part very easily. It's the gladness part that makes things difficult for me. Because often -- perhaps even most of the time -- I don't necessarily feel especially glad about serving the Lord. I know that's not a very "Christian" thing to say, but it's true.

Let me give you an example. Our church recently went from one service to two. That means I now get to do everything twice. Lead worship, hear the sermon, give the exhortation, etc. Double the time and double the work.

You should know that I really am grateful for the opportunity to serve God and His people in this way. I often feel privileged for the calling on my life. At the same time, though, I have to admit that on Saturday night I'm not always overflowing with gladness.

My usual Saturday night version of Psalm 100:2 goes something like this: Buckle down and serve the Lord, even if you don't feel like doing it, because it will be over soon enough, and then you can go home and rest.

Not exactly serving the Lord with gladness, is it?

But let me ask you: Have you ever felt this way? Are you ever inclined toward not serving? Like you just aren't in the mood to do any serving and you would rather stay at home and lay on the couch with a bag of chips next to you? Be honest.

Recently, though, I've been made aware of a simple truth that has helped me. God and his people are worthy of all my enthusiasm and gladness. They really are!

God is worthy of two worship services. Of six worship services. Of a thousand worship services. His worth doesn't diminish even a tiny bit based on my feelings -- or my lack of feelings. The preciousness of God's people doesn't lessen along with my energy or my excitement. God and His church are objectively worthy of all that I can muster. Period.

I can't be content to serve God glumly. When I'm not in a "serving mood" (as if there ever was such a thing), I need to remember that God is worthy and then ask Him for fresh strength and gladness. Then I need to just get moving and quit feeling so sorry for myself.

Serve the Lord with gladness.

GOING DEEPER: 
1. What do you do to help keep the gladness in your serving?
2. Do you always serve the Lord with gladness? If not, how could that change?
3. How could we as a worship ministry team convey this same idea to the congregation?