What's Really Driving You to Serve God?

Introduction

You get up in the morning to go to work, and you do everything you can not to be late. Your boss is waiting for you, and you know very well that being late again is going to earn you an awkward conversation : “Oh, I'm sorry, sir, really, I didn't mean to, it's the subway…”. At the end of the month, your paycheck arrives. It motivates you. It pushes you to go back the next day, again and again, even when you're tired, even when the day ahead looks hard.

So a simple question comes up. What motivates you to serve God? What pushes you to come to his house, to open your Bible, to give your time, to pray, to share your faith? Pastor Jean-Blaise AMOUGOU invites you to examine your heart this morning. Not to condemn you. To bring you back to what matters : “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31-33).

Serving the Lord is a privilege and a joy. But it becomes fruitless, exhausting, false, when what we do is motivated by something other than God himself. Let's take a hard look at our motivations this morning. Everyone has their own. Some seem legitimate. Yet they need to be brought into the light to be understood.

Article outline

1. Personal motivations : when you serve for yourself

2. Spiritual motivations : when your service is born out of closeness with God

3. Serving for the glory of God : joining his mission with joy

1. Personal motivations : when you serve for yourself

Many people serve God for personal reasons. From a distance, those reasons can look noble. Up close, they have a problem : they put you, yourself, at the center.

The first motivation is the search for recognition. You want to be seen. People need to know that it's you who sang. People need to know that it's you who preached. “Oh wow, I'm better than Billy Graham” : Pastor AMOUGOU uses himself as an example, with humor, to show just how close this temptation lies. We want to be noticed. We want titles. We might even chase a bishop's seat. What will that get you?

God's word answers : “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21). A title doesn't save you. Visibility doesn't save you. What matters is this : does God approve of you?

Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. One stands in the temple and says : “Lord, do you see how I love you? I give my tithe, I do good works, I am…”. Beside him, a man beats his chest, on his knees, and weeps : “Lord, be merciful to me. Have mercy on me, I am a sinner.” You know what happens next (Luke 18:9-14). The one who went home with God's grace, love, and peace was the one who laid his heart before God in truth, not the one who paraded his good works.

The second personal motivation is the search for social approval. You need people to approve of everything you do. You feel you have to show God's servants that you know what you're doing, that you're capable, that you matter. Yet people can approve of you while God's seal is not on your life. “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life?” (Matthew 16:26).

The third personal motivation is the need to feel important : chasing after titles, positions, visible roles. Pastor AMOUGOU tells this simple story. He once worked a job that many people looked down on. A friend told him : “I could never do that.” Three months later, that same friend came back : “Please, find me a spot, even a night shift, things are rough for me.” Don't look down on any kind of service. It's God who lifts up. It's God who establishes. We don't belong to ourselves. We are his property.

You want to get married? Why? So you can say you're married, or for the glory of God? You want children? A job, a car, a house? Everything must be done for the glory of God. Even eating, even drinking. Read 1 Corinthians 10:31 again : nothing escapes that standard.

2. Spiritual motivations : when your service is born out of closeness with God

Serving God can also be motivated by a genuine love for him and a desire to see his kingdom advance. It's no longer a personal project. It's the fruit of a deep relationship with the Lord. A living, real, daily relationship.

Jesus says it in John 15 : “Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. […] In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.” True fruit grows where there is closeness. Without closeness with God, there is no service that glorifies him : there is only busyness.

The problem is that we often come before God with our own thoughts, our own desires, and we want God to do things our way. And if you claim to love God while holding jealousy, quarreling, or hatred toward your brother or sister in your heart, God's word tells you plainly that you become a liar, because the love of God no longer remains in you (1 John 4:20).

True spiritual motivation comes through denying yourself. That's what Paul describes in Galatians 2:20 : “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.” Ouch. That verse doesn't let you settle in comfortably. It moves you out.

Is your service the fruit of your relationship with Jesus Christ, or the fruit of pressure, habit, or a role you play? When you stack chairs, when you prepare communion, when you hand your brother a bottle of water, when you take up the offering, when you watch over the children in Sunday school, when you sing, when you preach : what's really in your heart?

Pastor AMOUGOU insists. “When I stand up here, my heart trembles, because it's not my word; it's God's word. It's God we're serving.” You're not here to be seen. You're here for him. Paul, in Romans 12:1-5, calls this offering your body “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.” Just as Christ offered himself for you, God wants you too to be a sacrifice, not a dead one, but a living one. A sacrifice of pleasing fragrance.

The fear of God adds to this closeness. The preacher recounts that a mentor taught him to fear God, to live continually a life of sanctification and being set apart. How do we stand before him this morning? It's a solemn thing. God is with us, but God is watching our hearts, our motivations.

3. Serving for the glory of God : joining his mission with joy

Third, serving means joining ourselves to God's mission. When our motivations are centered on his glory, we find real joy and deep satisfaction. Colossians 3:23-24 puts it this way : “And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”

Work heartily. That's already something. As for the Lord. Not to be seen. Not to build yourself up. Every act of service you do (even your very life), must be done for the Lord. Your service then becomes an act of praise and a testimony of your faith.

What impact do we have on others, on our families, in our workplaces? How often do we bear witness to God's greatness, majesty, and power in our homes? Does what others see through us draw them closer to God, or push them away? The Christian who shows up on time for work (or even early), , who respects his boss, who greets people honestly, who does his job with care, testifies without saying a word.

And second, joined to his mission, we must bear witness to who he is everywhere we go. 2 Corinthians 9:7 reminds us that “God loves a cheerful giver.” Let's cultivate that spirit of joy in whatever service we do. Everything we do should be done with joy, with love.

And get ready : as long as you serve God, you'll be misunderstood. You'll be vulnerable. Pastor AMOUGOU knows this firsthand, and he shares his own testimony. In 1988, he gave his life to Jesus. He prayed an unusual prayer : “Lord, I have nothing left, I'm all alone. Dad, mom, my brothers… I only have you. So become my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, my everything.” Some time later, the person he leaned on most (his brother), passed away. Then his father. His mother was already gone. He found himself a kid with nobody left. And the Lord reminded him of his own prayer : “Who is your father? Who is your mother? (It's you, Lord.), Then stop crying. Rejoice before me. My only support, my only shelter, my only help, is me. Whether I give to you or not.”

That's what it means to serve for his glory : knowing that when pain hits, when the ground shakes, you won't run to a man, a title, a position, or someone's approval. You'll run to him. “Lord, you gave, and you took away. What do I do now? Nothing. I remain in you.” Know this : the place where Satan strikes hardest isn't first the church. It's home. That's where he comes to hit hard, so that your faith would fail. But when you know you do everything for the Lord, when you know your faith rests in him : come what may. You'll stand.

Key takeaways

• Serving God is a privilege and a joy, but it becomes fruitless when it's fed by hidden personal motivations.
• Three personal motivations especially trap the servant : the search for recognition, social approval, and the need to feel important.
• Service that glorifies God is born out of real closeness with him. Without remaining in Christ (John 15), there is no fruit ; there is only busyness.
• “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me” (Galatians 2:20). Self must fade so that Christ can be seen.
• We don't belong to ourselves. Everything we do (work, marriage, ministry, tithing, service in church), must be done for the glory of God, with joy, as for the Lord.

Personal application

1. Do this exercise honestly : when you come to church on Sunday, what's really driving you? Name at least three honest motivations, without excusing yourself.
2. In one of the ways you serve (music, Sunday school, welcome team, prayer, offering, practical help…), ask yourself : am I doing this to be seen, or for the Lord? What would you change if no one noticed?
3. Is there a brother or sister toward whom your heart holds jealousy, criticism, or resentment? What is 1 John 4:20 saying to you today?
4. What real impact does your faith have on your family and your workplace? Are you drawing the people around you closer to God, or pushing them away?
5. Take five minutes to pray the preacher's prayer : “Lord, help me rediscover the motivations that come from you. Let my motivations be pure, for you alone.”

Scriptures cited

• 1 Corinthians 10:31-33 · Do all to the glory of God.
• Romans 12:1-5 · Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.
• Matthew 7:21 · Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord.”
• Luke 18:9-14 · The Pharisee and the tax collector.
• Matthew 16:26 · Gaining the world and forfeiting your life.
• John 15:4-8 · Remain in me and bear fruit.
• 1 John 4:20 · If anyone says “I love God” and hates his brother, he is a liar.
• Galatians 2:20 · I have been crucified with Christ.
• Galatians 5:22-23 · The fruit of the Spirit.
• Colossians 3:23-24 · Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord.
• 2 Corinthians 9:7 · God loves a cheerful giver.

Further reading

• Taking Notes During Your Bible Reading
• How to Prepare a Personal Bible Study
• Which Bible Translation Should You Choose?

Frequently asked questions

Is it wrong to want some recognition when you serve God?

Wanting a little encouragement is human, and a heartfelt thank-you from a brother or sister is even precious. The problem shows up when recognition becomes the engine. If you stop serving whenever no one's watching, then it was never really God you were serving. The remedy is simple but demanding : recenter your motivation on the one you're working for. Colossians 3:23 makes a good ongoing test.

How can I know if my service is really for God's glory?

Ask yourself three questions. First, do you do it just as well when no one notices? Second, does your heart stay at peace when someone else gets praised in your place? Third, does your service flow out of a life of prayer and closeness with the Lord (John 15), or out of mere habit? The three answers will show you your true face.

Why does Satan strike harder at home than at church?

Because home is where your faith is really tested, once you no longer have the setting of a worship service to hold you up straight. That's where you're tired, misunderstood, tried, and where your patience cracks. Serve God first at home, and your service in church will flow naturally out of that.