Sermon: Why Serve the Lord?

Key Text: John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

We do a lot of things for many different reasons.  Every action happened because of purpose.  Every that is rendered wholeheartedly has reasons behind.  People keep encouraging every Christian, youth, to serve the Lord but without understanding the reasons, it is hard to serve God wholeheartedly.

Today we are going to discover if there are reasons to serve the  Lord and in order to do that, we have to pick the most common biblical text that is known by many.

John 3:16 is the most famous verse in the whole entire bible.  It is memorized by children and adults.  But reciting it doesn’t really bring us to a realization that there is a God who would save us.  There must be an inner understanding of the whole expression of love.

What does John 3:16 say?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

There are four interesting things that we can discover in this passage.

1. “For God so loved” – the phrase that described that God is loved. (1 John 4:8).  1 John 4:7-10 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins”
2. “God so loved the World” – God further expresses His love to the world.  The object of his love – the world.  This means that God loves everything that is in the world and that includes humans.  It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you’ve been, what you have done, He loves you and the most important thing is His love is everlasting.  Jeremiah 31:3 says “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness, I have drawn you.
3. God’s love prompts him to sacrifice himself – what is that sacrifice?  It is the death on the cross.  It is bearing the pain and sin.  He died, was buried and rise again.  1 Cor. 15:3-4)  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  It is so hard to believe that someone could die instead of us, but the bible tells us that it happens.  It is done in the cross, he was victoriously rose up from the dead.  That is something, and it could only happen because of His love for us.
4. Accepting God’s love and sacrifice means only salvation – The recipient of this love receives eternal life.  Accepting God’s gift of love means everlasting life.  Everyone who believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)  It doesn’t matter what race or tribes, or your social status, or your attitude when you accept God you will have eternal life.

This was given for free, paid by the blood of the lamb.  Is it enough to be a motivating factor to serve the Lord?  He loves you, sends his son for you so that you will have eternal life?

Joshua when he understands that love of Christ, boldly say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Why serve the Lord? Because he is worthy to be served.