Why and how we serve brings evidence into the light of day of whom we serve.  Who are we, really?  Do we love and serve Jesus as our Master and Lord of our lives?  Do we allow Him to enter into our thinking, walking around ordinary lives and give Him free reign to do the extraordinary in and through us?  Or do we love and serve Jesus because of what it does for us?  Do we serve to get the “feel good” feeling? 

How can we tell the difference?  The difference is in the consistency of obedience in serving God alone, not ourselves, by loving and serving tirelessly, led by His Holy Spirit, even when we don’t feel up to the task on any given day, or when we are attached by the enemy, or when we feel less than adequate.  It is serving and loving like Jesus loved—knowing our love might not be reciprocated but loving just the same. 

Yes friends, sometimes (daily, actually) we need to pause and evaluate who we are and why we do what we do.  Who am I?

God did amazing acts of healing, loving, protecting along with leading people to open their hearts to hear Him through Paul and his associates.  GOD did those acts, not Paul.  Paul was the vessel through which God worked.  Paul would be the first to tell you this truth.  Paul wrote this truth throughout his writings to the churches.   Paul’s “game”, as the pretenders called it, is being fully devoted to His Master, Jesus, preaching that the One and Only is who brings us into a right and holy relationship with God!  Let us not get confused.  Paul is human, imperfect with flaws who was perfectly forgiven by Jesus.  Jesus changed everything for Paul.  Now Paul is preaching Jesus to everyone he meets, led by God’s Holy Spirit.  Paul is on a journey with Jesus, the one who heals, restores, renews and reconciles us to God.

“But, who are you?”, says the evil spirits who have possessed a man and have free reign over his heart, mind and soul.  People come along and think they can play what they think is Paul’s “game”.  They want to be popular like Paul, gain notoriety like Paul for personal gain without knowing where Paul’s power comes from or who Paul serves with all his heart, mind and soul.  They don’t know how Paul thinks or how he begins each day.  But we do.  Paul later writes to the churches in Rome about how to begin each day fully devoted to Jesus allowing God’s Holy Spirit to work in each of us.  

Place Your Life Before God, Romans 12:1-2, The Message

So, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”  (Emphasis mine)

So, friends, we must ask with prayerful thought, who are we?  Pause, reflect, pray, repent, love more and more like Jesus loves us.  We are not perfect but we are surely perfectly forgiven by Jesus who loves us still.

ACTS—God’s Actions through His Disciples

Acts 19:11-20, The Message

Witches Came out of the Woodwork

^11-12 God did powerful things through Paul, things quite out of the ordinary. The word got around and people started taking pieces of clothing—handkerchiefs and scarves and the like—that had touched Paul’s skin and then touching the sick with them. The touch did it—they were healed and whole.

^13-16 Some itinerant Jewish exorcists who happened to be in town at the time tried their hand at what they assumed to be Paul’s “game.” They pronounced the name of the Master Jesus over victims of evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus preached by Paul!” The seven sons of a certain Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were trying to do this on a man when the evil spirit talked back: “I know Jesus and I’ve heard of Paul, but who are you?” Then the possessed man went berserk—jumped the exorcists, beat them up, and tore off their clothes. Naked and bloody, they got away as best they could.

^17-20 It was soon news all over Ephesus among both Jews and Greeks. The realization spread that God was in and behind this. Curiosity about Paul developed into reverence for the Master Jesus. Many of those who thus believed stepped out into the light and made a clean break with their secret sorceries. All kinds of witches and warlocks came out of the woodwork with their books of spells and incantations and made a huge bonfire of them. Someone estimated their worth at fifty thousand silver coins. In such ways it became evident that the Word of the Master was now sovereign and prevailed in Ephesus.  (Emphasis mine)

Lord,

You are Lord and Savior to me.  You give life and you give purpose to each one of us.  You are who we are.  May all I think, say or do be evidence of you living in me, showing me what you want with where, when, and how to do it.  Work out your salvation in me.  Mature and grow me into all you created me to be.  I am your child.  That’s who I am.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen.

Playing in the background is the song, “Way Maker” by Leeland

You are here, moving in our midst
I worship You
I worship You

You are here, working in this place
I worship You
I worship You

You are here, moving in our midst
I worship You
I worship You

You are here, working in this place
I worship You
I worship You

You are
Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper
Light in the darkness, my God
That is who You are

You are
Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper
Light in the darkness, my God
That is who You are

You are here, touching every heart
I worship You
I worship You

You are here, healing every heart
I worship You, Jesus
I worship, you turning lives around

You are here, oh, turning lives around
I worship You
I worship, You mended every heart

You are here, mending every heart
I worship You
I worship You

And You are
Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper
Light in the darkness, my God
That is who You are

That is who You are
And that is who You are
And that is who You are
(That is who You are) my Jesus

Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper
(Light in the darkness, my God) hey
(That is who You are)

Even when I don’t see it, You’re working
Even when I don’t feel it, You’re working
You never stop, You never stop working
You never stop, You never stop working, c’mon

Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper
Light in the darkness, my God
That is who You are, eh, yeah

Light in the darkness, my God
That is… Sing “That is who you are”, ohh

You are
Way maker (miracle worker, promise keeper)
Light in the darkness, my God
(That is who You are)

Oh, I know that is who You are
(That is who You are)