Purposeful Service: Using Your Gifts to Build God’s Kingdom
- Jack Selcher
- Sep 16, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Summary
Many people stay busy without a clear purpose, but Jesus modeled a life of intentional service. Scripture shows that all work done for God’s mission is spiritual, whether visible or hidden. Like the leaders in Nehemiah’s day, believers are called to serve with their God-given gifts to build more and better disciples. Every member matters, every role counts, and God will one day evaluate how faithfully we served Him and others.
Busy Without Purpose
About 50 years ago, I had a life goals conversation with another person. It was short because we did not have any. We were not attempting to accomplish anything in particular.
Jesus’ Clear Mission: To Serve
By contrast, Jesus’ purpose on earth was to serve (Mark 10:45). Ours is the same.
It is easy to be busy without a purpose. That is like running twenty-six miles on a treadmill instead of running a marathon.
Similarly, we can spend our energy in church work in ways that have not built more and better disciples in the past. They never will.
Jesus did not do that. Evaluating the fruit of our labors and making necessary changes can help us avoid that.
Learning from Nehemiah’s Leadership
Nehemiah 11:1-23 describes and lists people with a spiritual mission. The people had just finished rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. It protected the city from attack, but few people lived in Jerusalem.
Somehow, Jerusalem’s leaders had to build up the population. They set the pace—3,044 of them settled there.
The biblical text does not mention most of them by name. Many people followed their lead. The leaders cast lots and chose one-tenth of the people to live in Jerusalem, the holy city. Some volunteered to move there.
Every Kind of Work Is Spiritual
Nehemiah 11:10-23 describes at least six kinds of work. The church today does not do any of the six.
Yet, the principle is that all the work described was spiritual. Similarly, all church work is spiritual, from teaching a class to drying a dish.
The church must do some physical work to meet spiritual goals. We can have service goals as individuals even though we do not preach, teach, or pray in public.
Purposeful Service
Even if God has not gifted us as upfront people, He has still gifted us. Can we bake? That could be a way of ministering to others. Can we do carpentry? We can use it to serve others.
Whatever gifts, talents, and abilities we have, God expects us to use them to serve Him and others.
Interdependence in the Body of Christ
None of us can do all the jobs needed to make more and better disciples. God designed the members of the church to be interdependent. We all have a part to play.
We all have at least one spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12). God expects us to use our gift(s). He will inspect what we have done on Judgment Day. On that day, may we all hear His “Well done”! See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 7,590 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 17,681 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting.
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