Dear BPCWA worshipper, Today is Rededication Sunday, wherein everyone serving in any way in God’s church vows to rededicate themselves to serve their Lord. Having this annually serves as a good reminder of the service that every child is called to render to God. There are many lessons about service that God teaches us in His Word. In the church, we serve Christ and His body. I want to revisit the verse from 1 Peter 4:10, “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

Stewards for God. Serving is very important to even unbelievers. Even the world talks about how serving can bring a sense of life satisfaction to an individual, contribute to one’s happiness and fulfilment, and give one a sense of meaning and purpose. Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.” A website vaunts the benefits of “volunteer vacations” that provide an “authentic” experience and give a deeper understanding of the culture, providing unique experiences, and building connections with people. However, Christians must not serve as the people of the world do. Unbelievers serve for self-actualisation. Christians must serve only for God, not self or man. Even when we serve man, we are doing so because God tells us to use what He gave us to do so, “even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1Pe 4:10).  What must we learn from this?  We must realise that as stewards, we must not serve as we wish, but only as God wishes and instructs. So, when we say, “rededication”, what must we remember about what we are dedicated to?

Stewards’ dedication.1) Stewards serve God’s house. Based on the social gospel’s theology, which posits that God’s kingdom encompasses the whole world, God’s work is community work anywhere, and God’s children are all mankind. Hence, you can use the gifts God endowed to further yourself in your job, and it is a “wise” use in “His kingdom and for His children”. But God’s Word teaches that believers are members of the body of Christ (1Co 12:12). Unbelievers are not part of His body and not God’s children. And His spiritual gifts upon members are for local churches according as “ . . . God hath set some in the church . . .” (1Co 12:28). His gifts are for the “perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12). They are not for the unbelieving world. 2) Stewards serve God’s will and purpose. Yes, God does give gifts in His common grace for people to work in the world. But simply being able and having a desire to do something does not mean that it is God’s will for it to be done. David was able to build a temple and had a desire to do so, but it was not God’s will for him. Serving in an area is always by the appointment of God, for His church’s sake, and must only be what God, the Master and Head of the church, chose to make us stewards of. Stewards do not use their master’s resources for whatever they wish to use them for.  God establishes authorities to maintain order in His church (1Co 11:3-16), and He has “set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him” (1Co 12:18). As we’ve learned from our church history and many times from God’s Word, what is right for one church is not necessarily right for another. God gives specific gifts to each church as He pleases to fulfil the purpose for which He set up that church. We must not seek to be a copycat of another’s ministry. For example, though a church may have a book room ministry presence, that is not necessarily God’s will for us here. God does not give the resources when it is not His will, and He will if it is His will. The point is, God has purposed His means for each church to spread His truth and be His witnesses in specific ways. We must pray earnestly, seek His will (and His alone), and clear leading. If we do not seek His will, we will not be good stewards because we will be distracted from what God intends. We will put God’s stewards to do things that God did not intend for them. God established local visible churches because every church has a unique congregation with its specific purpose to fulfil forHim, and so has different needs and different gifts. To despise this is to despise God’s appointment. 3) Stewards serve God by faith. As every church and every individual in a church serves only to do things according to God’s will, God’s purposes, and God alone, they need not fear. I have, through these years in the ministry, seen the reality of the promise of God, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Pro 3:5-7). Trusting God especially includes trusting that His ways, not ours, are best. When we do so, He never fails to provide, protect, and guide us. However difficult or seemingly impossible things would be, if we were to do things according to His Word, God never fails to help. We only need to simply trust and obey His commands to do what is right. Stewards must also trust God’s appointments, not serve merely by sight and without much prayer. The times when I had evil rejoicing when I had someone serve because they seemed “so right” for a role often turned out to be bitter experiences. The times when I simply stuck by God’s Word and His answer to prayer despite men calling it foolishness, they have blossomed to reveal God’s work, to the praise of His Name and power. So, stewards should only fear not doing the Master’s will and not obeying His commands. Finally, we must then remember that the converse would also be true, that “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pro 14:12). Stewards who choose to do things according to their own wisdom and obey man’s way will bring serious failures in God’s church and His sheep’s lives eventually.

As we rededicate ourselves as stewards of His abilities, may our Lord remind us of the lessons in this pastoral, strengthen us to serve Him by faith, and use each one of us to bring eternal spiritual fruits that will redound to His glory!

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And . . . that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Rom 12:1-2)

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor