Exodus 8:1 ‘‘And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.”
SAVED to Serve. Sometimes I think we miss the big picture of being saved. We tend only to look at it from our side of the deal. We see that we get our sins forgiven, and we get to go to Heaven. Yeah for US! What a GREAT deal! But have you ever considered God’s side of the deal? He provided the ONLY means of true salvation through Jesus, and He provided it to us with the intent that once we are saved, we would worship and serve Him.
Saved TO Serve. Some of our well-meaning but misguided neighbors and friends get this truth backwards. They have been taught that in order to get saved, they must do good works -and lots of them- and hopefully their good outweighs their bad. It’s wrapped up in a lot of fancy religious language, but that is the core of all religion: trying to work your way into God’s favor and forgiveness. It is simply not a Bible truth.
Saved to SERVE. Did you catch that in verse one? When God called the Israelites out from Egypt, which is a picture of our New Testament salvation, God called them out of Egypt to serve Him. God saved you with a plan and purpose in mind, not so that you could get your “get out of eternal judgment for free” card and then run off and do whatever you please. Salvation is just the beginning of a lifetime of purpose in serving the Almighty God.
Robert Pophal
Rose Park Baptist Church