Part 1 of Excuses or Service

           ​People that are truly passionate about something do not make excuses to get out of those things. Likewise the opposite is true if you are not passionate or fully surrendered to something then it becomes something that we are more than willing to make excuses to try to get out of things. I have met many parents and teens in my ministry that are passionate about sports so I will use that as an example, but substitute whatever in its place and the idea still works.
           
             ​ I have heard many excuses when it comes to serving the church, but for the fun of it lets translate them to spots see if they still make since.

1. I would go to more games but it’s just too early in the morning, or o late in the evening.
2. I went before, but the coach never came to talk to me so I’m not going again.
3. The ref made a call I disagreed with so I’m not going.
4. The people that I sat will were not friendly.
5. The other audience members were hypocrites that were only there to judge others.
6. The game was too long or to short.
7. I have read a book about sports so I don’t need to go.

My personal favorite is..

1. I don’t want to go to much because then I would get burned out on it and will not enjoy it anymore

As we look at this we see that we are just as passionate about the things we are passionate about as we have always been. The problem is that we as Christians are no longer passionate about the church. Since we are not passionate about the church therefore we are not passionate about serving in it either.
      I think there is no sadder thing than to ignore the calling that God has placed on you. He has called each of us as Christians to find a local church and plug in and serve no matter the age. To put it as clear as I can if you are a Christian God I calling you to serve. Stop immediately the prayer that goes “God are you calling me to serve?” The answer is yes!! Replace it with the prayer that goes, “God where are you calling me to serve?”
      Challenge yourself to inspect your life and be honest with yourselves. Ask yourself have you lost your passion? Am I offering God my service or am I giving God my excuses? As we look back to the book of Exodus let’s look at a great leader that at first just wanted to give God his excuses.
In Exodus 3:10-12 Moses used the excuse of “who me?” Moses uses this as an excuse as I find myself and many other doing many times. Moses felt that he had tried this once already. He had stood up for his people then ended up by killing an Egyptian. Then when he tried to love his people he was ran out of town for standing up for them.
      Moses finds himself in a similar situation to us today. Many of us have said that we have been there and done that. Most of us cannot say it lead to us killing someone. Hopefully God blessed us when we served him. Think back to the last time you surrendered and gave God your service. Remember the blessings that you received from Him.
      As Christians it is time for us to make Christ a passion in our lives. Through it He has asked us to serve the church with that same passion. The question is do you have the “who me?” attitude that we see here? Is this the excuse that you offer God? My challenge today with this first excuse is to examine yourself and see if this is standing between you and God. God is clearly calling you to service and you are telling Him that you got the wrong guy because I have already tried that once.
      What Moses learned is that while Moses did try and fail once already it was Moses that tried. If we are making excuses about our service because we can’t do what God has called us to do then we have already taken the first step in where God is leading. We can’t do the things God has called us to do. Moses answered his own problem much like you have answered yours. Without God we cannot succeed in our service and anything we try to do in our own power will not be worthy of what God has called us to do.
      So the long and short of the first excuse is that we need to do what God has called us to do, and fully surrender to His calling with a passion.