Serving in Sincerity: Lorena Reyes
“Are you serving God in genuineness and in truth?”
Luke 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
When I think about the topic of serving in sincerity, I can’t help but think about the heart. That’s where it all starts right? Genuineness and honesty go hand in hand, and you can’t have one without the other. As I learned at fall retreat from Lee Ridings: “you can’t fake grace.” God sincerely served and pursued us. Shouldn’t we do the same? In Joshua 24, Joshua charges Israel on how they are to serve God, reminding them of everything God had done in and out of Egypt, commanding them to incline their hearts unto the Lord our God, and offering them the choice of whom they will serve. We also see the first mention of “sincerity” in this chapter.
Joshua 24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
To reiterate, it says to serve Him in “sincerity and in truth.” Remember that Israel is a picture of the life of an individual believer, so that charge can be inspiring and reflective to us today. Are you serving God in genuineness and in truth? Are you aware that you can be serving God in a lie and ingenuity? We often try to “muster” up our piety being completely blinded to the way we live. I was guilty of this and am here to share that.
“When was the last time you got real and raw before the Lord?”
I honestly didn’t know I was “mustering” my sincerity and the truth of Jesus, until very recently when God revealed to me that I wasn’t serving Him in the Spirit of truth. Jesus says in John 4:24: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Doesn’t this command sound similar to the charge that Joshua shared? Here’s a friendly reminder that serving requires honesty.
Myles Cheadle talked about this in his sermon Unveiling Ministry (which you can find it on our C&YA Spotify podcast). He said something along the lines of, "We have to approach the Lord openly and honestly. It’s so easy to go through the motions of reading and showing up and not getting real with God. And all that does is dim the glory of God in your life. When was the last time you got real and raw before the Lord?” I believe we ought to share with God the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of our heart, because that’s honest, and he also wants to hear it. I really encourage you to evaluate your life. Ask yourself, are your words matching up with your actions? Are you lying about little things to manipulate attention? Is your conversation of life Christ-like? I bet that seems far-fetched, but if you’re not intentional about judging yourself honestly before God, then you’re probably blind to a lot of things in your life. You can very easily grieve the Spirit of God. How can you grieve the Spirit of God? Simply, by going through the motions, being performative, and leaving out conversation with the Spirit of God. I did this for a few years. It was out of ignorance, a survival-mode mindset, and being a big pleaser of men.
“I found myself praying less and performing more for God, and that only led to blindness”
I came into Midtown Baptist Temple proud and assuming I knew everything (rather than humbling myself, and abandoning myself-will). I found out later on that's not a very teachable attitude, and it is not malleable to being conformed to the image of Christ. This was all presumptuousness (Psalm 19:13). I never grew up in the church, but being only 2 years saved coming into MBT, I already had experiences of leading a Bible study, leading people to Christ, preaching a sermon, and so much other stuff. All of that didn’t mean too much if I never learned the Bible from a place of sincerity. A lot of my desires in the past in ministry had to do with me and myself, and not necessarily Christ being glorified. But I’m here to warn you now: if you think you’re hot stuff, the day will come when the veil will be lifted and you will see who you truly are before our Holy God. I'm thankful that God isn’t willing to let me or any of his children get away with a proud, arrogant attitude in his ministry, because it leaves you in a blind state, missing out on seeing the glory of God. God chastened me until I got to a place of seeing my own sin, the sin of pride, lying, manipulating situations, being deceptive unintentionaly, murmuring, gossiping, striving, and so much more. It was like I would read the Bible and forget what manner of man I was for years (James 1:22-24). Not only was I deceiving myself, but I was unintentionally deceiving others because of my blindness.
However, God made sure through this unveiling process that I would see the fruit that was coming out of my life, starting with circumstances that brought me to an end and forced me to be broken. Honestly, I thank God for every tear in those seasons, and how God used those circumstances to open my eyes. Throughout that season He showed me this passage in John 9 where we see the blindness of the Pharisees. They were in denial of the power of God, refusing to believe the truth of Jesus and his miracle. It’s so easy to make excuses or deny God’s power in our lives and others’ lives if we don’t acknowledge God. In ministry I walked around believing everyone else was blind but really it was me. Looking back, out of my life came the earthly wisdom referred to in James 3:13-16, I was living in a spirit of bitterness, envying, and strife. It wasn’t until the loss of relationships in my life that I was brought to a place of evaluating my character, judging myself intentionally. How was I fellowshipping with others, and what was my conversation of life? If I’m following Jesus, shouldn’t I reflect his character? I mean, Jesus is honest, loving, kind, gentle, humble, temperate, funny, caring, easy to approach, and quick to forgive (John 14:6, 1 John 5:1-3, James 3:17-18, Galatians 5:22-26, 1 John 1:9). These are few of the many traits He carries, but I was so blind to them because of the lack of diligence in my intimacy with Christ. I wasn’t intentional about repentance, I wasn’t diligent in examining myself before a holy and honest God. Are you being diligent? When you let ministry become your pursuit, you’ll catch yourself sowing to the flesh and forgetting the value of the needful thing in our lives (Luke 10:38-42). That is fellowship in his Spirit and His Word (Phil 2:1) (John 4:24) along with the body of Christ (Phil 2:1-3). I found myself praying less and performing more for God, and that only led to blindness. Do you see the Spirit of God flowing out of your life? Do you see God moving in your life? Or have you been blinded by unrepentant sin? I hope this provokes you to ask God for His mercy and that He would open your eyes to the reality of your sin before Him. Be real, repent and be honest before God. We should desire to be sincere and truthful before God because it’s how we’re supposed to serve Him.
“Be humble, be honest with where you’re at, and let the grace of God grow you”
My last charges will come from Myles’ sermon Unveiling Ministry and a couple other things! His last key point was, “For God’s glory to shine through we must unveil ourselves before His Word. Lastly, we must open ourselves to the examination of the Word of God. We have to allow it to reprove, correct and instruct us so we can get all the shmutz off of our face.” Myles used Psalm 19 to refer to these last points. This is another passage that God used to show me I need His glory to be revealed out of my life by having a right view and an honest pursuit of His Word. It begins first with the view of God’s Word (starting in vv. 7-14) and it ends with his words being the meditation of my heart and coming out of my mouth.
In conclusion, be humble, be honest with where you’re at, and let the grace of God grow you. Don’t aim to rush the process or pursue only to be a leader or influencer. That’s not accepting where God has you. Instead, that is coveting, striving, and despising where HE has you. Seek Him sincerely and honestly. He deserves that. God will figure out the rest.
Lorena is a member of Midtown Baptist Temple and a part of C&YA. She is a part of a UMKC women’s Bible study.
