What's Your Gift? Use it in Love. (Stand Alone Sermon)

As Andy alluded to in his welcome to us, our mission here at the Church in the Grass is:
…To simply express God’s message of salvation (John 3:16, Ephesians 2: 8-9); show the importance of a church family in the life of EVERY believer (Ephesians 2:19, Romans 12: 4-5); and stress the need for each believer to properly represent Christ to those who still have not found or accepted Him. (Colossians 3:17, Romans 15: 5-6, 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21).

With that said, we want to always remind those of you who come here and those who would call this your church home, we want to remind you — often — of our mission. And the mission is a bit wordy; so let me distill it even more. We are here to talk about God’s love, live in a community that shares God’s Love, and go out and proclaim God’s love in word and action.

One big piece that is on my mind this week is the responsibility and truly the calling for each one of us to play our parts in the mission of the church.

This weekend, John and his wife, Andy and his family and my family and I traveled out to Lancaster, Ohio for my ordination. That is, the elders of our church family in Ohio, Lancaster Community Church, publicly recognized and declared an open recognition that I have indeed been called into the pastoral ministry.

The ordination included the laying on of hands and anointing and it was both an honor and very humbling for me.

But, as the time approached to go to Ohio, I was drawn to two texts in the Scriptures that I thought we would be wise to study.

So, we are going to divert from our regular schedule for a week and dig into another area tonight.

And, even though this shouldn’t take very long tonight, there is a lot of text. So if you are prone to tune out, let me just get right to the point and then we’ll unpack it in Scripture. Here it is. Each one of us has been given at least one gift for the building up of the Kingdom. So, have you found yours yet and what are you doing with it?

And originally I was going to call this message, “Church on a Mission”, but instead it’s this, “What’s Your Gift? Use it! (In Love)”

Say it with me and personalize it “What’s MY Gift? Use it! (In Love)”

Now lets dig in, we will be in Romans Chapter 12, that’s page 844, and 1Corinthians 12 & 13 on page 854 so keep a finger or a bookmark in 1 Corinthians 12 and turn with me to Romans 12.

Both of these are written by Paul, an apostle of Jesus, who wrote a majority of the New Testament. Paul was a missionary who planted many, many churches throughout the know world of his time and most of his letters that we have in the Bible are written to churches or pastors to equip them to stay on mission.

And the two sections that we are going to look at tonight deal with the need for everyone to play a part to accomplish our mission to build God’s Kingdom.

Romans 12:3-8

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

As Paul is going to say, there are some giftings that are more public and obvious to see, but others are not. This first line speaks directly to those with more publicly visible ministries to stay right sized in humility and not to get carried away with pride or arrogance.

4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

This is important to remember. If you have been given a gift. And 1 Corinthians 12:7 tells us that you have if you are a Christ follower.

So, not if you’ve been given a gift, but since you’ve been given a Spiritual gift, remember it is not for you alone, when we are called into relationship with Jesus, we are also called into relationship with God’s family. And we use these gifts to glorify God and continue to build up his church.

Our gifts belong to others, just like our eyes and ears belong to the rest of our body. And, just like our bodies are hindered if our eyes do not work, so to, is the church as a whole, hindered if you and I do not function in relation to our gifts.

And, if you look at it the other way, what good is an eye on it’s own? Imagine if your eyes just decided they were going to go out on their own, that they didn’t want to be hampered by the rest of the body. Or what if your ears got annoyed by personality conflict with your nose, so they quit showing up? Paul says that’s what it is like if we try to go it alone.

Our faith, our spiritual walk is not an isolated thing. There is no scriptural foundation for what my friend Ron calls “Lone Ranger” Christianity. Let’s keep going.

6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Notice a couple of things here. First, the operative words in that passage, “IF.” If it is a gift of prophesy, or if serving, or if teaching and on and on.

We should eagerly seek each of the gifts of the Spirit, and some of us may have more than one, but the point is pray that God will show you what yours is and then if you look at the formula, Paul then says what ever the gift is in your life, Use it with GUSTO! Use each gift in the most excellent way you can.

Also, this is not meant to be a full list of spiritual gifts –we’ll see more listed in a minute. But, we can use the same pattern to look at any of the gifts.
One more thing before we move on, A friend knew we’d be discussing this topic tonight and added this point about Spiritual gifts.

He said, bad things “can happen if we force ourselves into an area of service (or try to take on a gift) that we simply don't have or for the wrong reason: because we want our Church friends to be impressed with all that we do; because we look up to someone (idolize, you might say) and desire to follow them (not Him); we think that it is expected of us because it goes along with our position.”

Now turn to your place in 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13 (Page 854) This is going to repeat some information and shed more light – very important light — on our use of gifts. Let’s go…

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

(See a pattern?)

28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

Paul lists more gifts and note what he writes God has appointed. That is something we’ve always got to keep fixed clearly in our heads. If we remember that the gift is from God and does not originate in us, it should keep us from getting puffed up with pride.

Then Paul goes on…

29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Each of these questions is asked rhetorically. The answer to each is no.
Again, don’t think that you have to have this gift or that in order to “truly” be a believer.

We, as the CITG are not cessationists. That means, we don’t believe that gifts like prophesying and speaking and interpreting in tongues and healing are just a thing of the past.

The New Testament doesn’t teach that those gifts stopped somewhere.

But, we also do not believe that you have to speak in tongues or any other particular gift in order to prove you are a Christ follower. This passage says that not every believer will have each gift. But, we are to earnestly desire the gifts.

Now let’s move into this. First, as we’ve said, we are all part of the body, and each part of the body is equipped with a gift or several gifts for the functioning of the body.

So. Use your gift(s)!

Then Paul points out, and use them with love…

({Again) 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? {Rhetorical no}) 31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

In other words, pray that God would give you these gifts. They are still useful. But no matter what your gift, Paul now lays out how we should frame the use of any gift. I’ll give it away, this is a pretty well know section. It’s all about using what God has given us with LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13(UNPACK EACH)

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Now to the part you’ve heard at nearly every wedding and with good reason to, here we go, but don’t only look at this in the context of man and wife, look at it in the context of Scripture, this is how we use our gifts…

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking (is not self-seeking! is not self-seeking!), it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

And then with all that in mind, we are reminded that God gives these gifts for His glory and His purposes and they are all temporary. We do not find our rest, or our identity or our status, or our satisfaction in the gifts, we find all of that in the truth of God’s love.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (UnPACK)

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

In the end, the gift or gifts that God has given to you are not for you, they are for the church universal and for the unbeliever that God is sending you to evangelize to.
And one day, the final day will come, when God takes His bride, that’s us that’s the church of Christ followers. One day He will take His bride to be with Him in the new Heaven and new Earth. And He will judge those who never accepted him.

And on that day, we will all see clearly, so there will be no more need for prophesy, or preaching or teaching, and there will be no more sickness so there will be no more need for healing and there will be no more need for the gifts at all and they will pass away in exchange for a clear, unobstructed fellowship with God.

And, looking at verse 13 again; on that day, there will be no more need for faith or hope because,

“faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

(Hebrews 11:1). There will be no need for faith because we will see God in all of His glory and we will have all of our hopes met when we stand in His light. But what we will still have, what endures past our giftings, past our faith and past our hope is love.

And the greatest of these is love.

So, if you are not sure of your spiritual giftings, there are some good tests that can help you zero in on it. We would love to sit down with you and just talk it out and see what we find.

Also, if you go to my online blog I have included a link to a site with a really good rundown of many of the Spiritual gifts.

But, in addition to all of that I would say walk in humility and obedience to the word of God and He will make it very clear where your giftings are.

No matter what though, let us leave here tonight in a spirit of Love above all else. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

Let’s pray…