The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won't enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus won't enlist you unless you are sick: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). Christianity is fundamentally convalescence ("Pray without ceasing" = Keep buzzing the nurse). Patients do not serve their physicians. They trust them for good prescriptions. The commands of the Bible are more like a doctor's health prescription than an employer's job description.
Therefore, our very lives hang on not working for God. "To one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not works but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5). Workmen get no gifts. They get their due. If we would have the gift of justification, we dare not work. God is the Workman in this affair. And what He gets is the trust of His client and the glory of being the benefactor of grace, not the beneficiary of service.
Nor should we think that after justification our labor for God's wages begins: "Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:2-3). Working for wages only earns death. Trusting Jesus to work in you gets sanctification and its end, eternal life (Romans 6:22-23).
Religious "flesh" always wants to work for God (rather than humbling itself to realize that God must work for it in free grace). But "if you live according to the flesh you will die" (Romans 8:13). That is why our very lives hang on not working for God.
Then shall we not serve Christ? It is commanded: "Serve the Lord!" (Romans 12:11). Those who do not serve Christ are rebuked (16:18). Yes, we must serve Him. But we will beware of serving in a way that implies a deficiency on His part or exalts our indispensability.
-John Piper
It is true that we are not employees of God, our Father. But we are the one who receive his providence and love. It is indeed honoring to our Father when we receive from him, depend on him, obey him, and listen to him. Rather than thinking we know best (like the Younger Son in the Prodigal Son Parable), or simply serve him (like the Elder Son in the Prodigal Son Parable).
Some say that the Church is filled with Hypocrites. So then there are some of us, perhaps even you or me, who always try to put up a best front. But the truth is this, Jesus came for the sick and the sinners. Do you go to the Hospital and tell the staff, "Do you know there are sick people in here?". Of course there is, if not the Hospital should be shut down. In the same way, the Church exist for God to extend his grace and love to us. We should be authentic, even if it means we are weak, so that we can shine forth God's light to people.
Do not be like the younger son, who focused on resources (idols), and squandered himself on wild living. Yet do not be like the elder son, who got jealous when the Father celebrated for the younger son because he was blinded in serving. He said, "I served you all my life, yet you cut the fattened calf for him?". The Father then told him this "Son, all I have is yours, take it!".
So what is our role, to simply be his sons and daughters, to be the branches that abide to the vine that is Jesus. If we do, we will bear much fruits, if not we can do nothing. We may feel accomplished by things on Earth, but in the end it amounts to nothing. We may be "successful" in ministry, but if we do not do it with God it is nothing. We may guide people well, but if we do not have God's love, it is nothing. More than anything, let us always look to God, and always depend on him, and always open our hearts to him. We can stumble, we can cry, we can be hurt, but it is still a greater joy and achievement than to get things done without God.
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