Sermons

« June 08, 2008 - June 14, 2008 | Go Back to the Main Index of Sermons | September 07, 2008 - September 13, 2008 »

June 15, 2008

Continuing June Sermon Series: Building A Gifts-Based Church

WHAT ARE SPIRITUAL GIFTS?
Romans 12:1-8, 1 Peter 4:8-11a

Jesus told his disciples that God would send the Spirit, the Advocate, to teach them, and therefore to teach us, what we need to know. In his writings, to the early churches, Paul expands Jesus’ image of the Spirit. Having been with the early Christian communities, Paul encouraged them and reminded them that they had everything they needed to do God’s work. Paul also reminded them that all persons in their fledgling Christian community are important to the work of the Spirit. All persons in their Christian community are endowed with God’s grace uniquely and individually given to each and every one in the form of spiritual gifts.

Looking at four key Biblical passages, there are approximate 19 spiritual gifts. They fall into three categories: Speaking Gifts (teaching, evangelism, encouragement, wisdom, to name a few); Speaking/Serving Gifts (shepherding, administration, leadership); and Serving Gifts (helps, hospitality, mercy, giving, faith, craftsmanship).

It is obvious when you read Paul’s words to the early Christian communities, that people were honoring the speaking gifts over the serving gifts. You know, those the teachers or preachers (those out front if you will) were thought to be more important than hospitality or mercy (which are behind the scenes). So glad we don’t have that problem in our Christian community!

So Paul uses the metaphor of the body as referenced in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Our body is composed of many parts, all important, all with different roles that work together so that we can function in a healthy, balanced way. It is from Paul’s writings that we—the church—have come to be called “the Body of Christ”, with Christ as the head. The head as the part that leads the body…

The first followers of Jesus were called disciples—students of Jesus. Students of a way of life that is counter cultural, counter ego, counter individualism. And as students of this man Jesus, we come to realize that we are meant to be in community. It is in Christian community that we discover our spiritual gifts. It is in a Christian community where our gifts are nurtured, celebrated, and put to use for God.

Just as muscles and ligament need to be exercised, so too our spiritual gifts need to be taken out and used for them so they get stronger and we are more comfortable using them. We share our gifts in an effort to do God’s work in our Christian community and in the world. Individuals in a healthy Christian community serve out of a sense if gratitude and love. After we learn what our gifts are and we put them to service for God, we move beyond ourselves and focus on God’s desire and call on our lives. In contrast, an unhealthy Christian community constantly focuses on itself and sees ministry as an obligation not a gift of gratitude and love.

Your church has a Health team. The people on the Health Team are Janet Spencer, Ellen Star, Karyn Prather, Emie Pua, Gerry Mylander, Tina Felckowski, Lisa Falconer, Frank Certa, and myself. Please stand up. Our work was to put together a plan to ignite the passionate spirituality that is inside each and every one of us. Our work was to put together a plan that would make us a healthier church, a healthier body of Christ. We have worked hard, prayed hard, tried to discern God’s will for us a community of faith. We hope what we have crafted is God’s plan for us. But the only way to find out is to start working it and be alert for God’s Spirit at work among us.

How will we recognize God’s Holy Spirit? One way to recognize the presence and power of the Holy Spirit is to think of a spark. Alone, a spark fizzles out. But put together with paper, dry grass, a couple twigs, and some logs, a spark can become a flame. The flame from one log ignites another log, with the flames bouncing off each other, feeding each other until they grow into a fire. When that happens to us, when we become part of something contagious that we aren’t in control of, we’ll know the Holy Spirit is alive and well among us. We’ll know we have caught some of the passionate spirituality that is a part of a healthy, vibrant Christian community. We’ll know we are being swept up in the Spirit of God.

So, back to the plan. The first part is for each of us to take a Spiritual Gifts Assessment. If you are on line, you will get an invitation via email the week of June 23. If you don’t get an invitation by June 29, get your email address to Joyce at the church office. Everyone is invited to join us in the assessment—members or friends. If you are a visitor today and are interested in taking the assessment, you are welcome to do so. Just make sure you sign up in the blue registration pads and indicate you want to participate.

If you aren’t on line, the gift bag you were given today contains a paper assessment and instructions. There are 133 questions, but don’t let that deter you. A couple of us have taken the assessment. It takes 15-20 minutes. After doing the SGA, you will receive a reply giving you your top three spiritual gifts. Once you take the survey and get back your results, take the initiative to read the scripture references, reflect upon the insights and ask God to reveal to you how God wants you to use your SG’s.

And in the meantime, from now until July 27, we will be highlighting 2-3 SG’s each week in worship and via email. In August, we’ll have classes to help develop where and how we will use our spiritual gifts. But right now we want you to focus on 1) getting familiar with the 19 or so SG’s that make up a Christian community, 2) discover what your gifts are, 3) pray to God for direction. “Why am I connected to this Christian community God?” “What do you want me to do?”

This week we highlight two Spiritual Gifts, Administration and Helps. The person with the gift of administration develops strategies to reach identified goals, much like James Deaton did for our Testimonies of Hope event. Those of us who worked with James experienced how gifted he is in this area. However, the Testimonies of Hope event could never have been the success it was, even with all the wonderful planning, without people to help. So many people volunteered. Most definitely, some of them have the gift of help—people who served behind the scenes wherever needed to support the gifts and ministries of others.

See how both parts, administration and helps come together to make the Body of Christ function in a healthy and vibrant way? Healthy because even as much work as there was, many people stayed and helped. The event was done about 9:15pm. Shortly after 10:00pm, we were cleaned up and all left together. Some of us do this attaching a spiritual value to practical service. This is where we will help each other and learn and grow together as we celebrate the variety of gifts that we each have and as we do God’s work together.

We don’t have Jesus like the first disciples, but we have the Holy Spirit, present and alive when two or more gather in Jesus’ name. I am here this morning because I’m paid to be here...No really, I am here, and I believe you are here because God is inviting us to a deeper spiritual place. As we embrace the special gifts that God has blessed each of us with, we will see that life is not about us at all—it is about God and serving God by serving others in Jesus name.

A well-known man of God, Fredrick Buechner reminds us that “God’s will resides at the meeting place of our deep passion and the deep hunger of the world.” May we have the courage and desire to discover our deep passion so that through us, the world might be fed.

Posted by vickie at 10:00 AM