Called to Use Our Gifts Together
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We enjoy our choir… There are many times they have moved us with their voices. What if one Sunday they all stood as they have countless other times, the music starts, Shelia raise her arms to begin sing the Sunday’s selection - but the choir refused to sing , all that is except for Shelia...
No matter how good Shelia is, at what she does, if the choir does not work together, Shelia would be left alone looking foolish...
Such is the situation we are called to prevent when we use our gifts.
Each one is given gifts
Each one is given gifts
1) Realization that you have gifts… we look at ourselves and others and think I can’t sing like Karen or direct the choir like Shelia.
God gifted Karen to sing, God really must love Karen to give her a voice like that. Problem with that kind of stinking thinking is you are saying God has favorites....
God is not like that he loves each of you equally John 3:16 reminds us of that...
It is out of love for you that Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but to save it. It is out of love for you.
Those of you who have children do you love them? Out of love do you not want to give them gifts?
I delight in giving gifts to my loved ones.
It brings joy to them and myself to give.
You give because you love, but our love is not the same as God’s love. Our love is genuine, but it is flawed. Let me illustrate..., sometimes we give because we want something in return… child at store crying… It is fair to say sometimes our gifts are given not so much out of love but survival.
Listen to this passage of scripture starting from Luke 11:11
English Standard Version Chapter 11
11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
If you believe this truth that,
God loves you and
out of his love for you he has gifted you.
What remains if for you to discover your gifts.
2) Discover your gift. I don’t know about you at Christmas time I can’t help but look for the presents that have my name on them...
What present has God put your name on? God always gives good gifts, gifts that go along with the way He made you...
Because God loves each of us... Doesn’t it make sense that God has gifted you in some way? Maybe what is needed is for you to look amongst the gifts and find one that has your name on it. Your giftness will match up to your character. i.e. Math
3)Claim the gift. Once you discover that God has gifted you, it is up to you to embrace your gift and make it your own… Not enough to hold the gift… it does not matter how you open it… (Jean like) or a ripper. Open it!
Your Gifts are for Building of the Body of Christ
Your Gifts are for Building of the Body of Christ
So, you have realized that God has gifted you, you have taken the time to discover your giftedness, and you have claimed it
What now? What if anything do you do with it?
You could put your gift on a shelf and get it down once and a while and admire it.
You could use your gift to your exclusive advantage.
God did not gift you for any of these reasons. You and I have been given gifts for the building up of the body of Christ.
To refuse to use those gifts in any other way is like receiving presents at Christmas that you refuse to open and use. It’s not a very polite thing to do, and we miss out on something wonderful… Yet this happens far to often…
Many of you downplay your giftedness, or deny being gifted altogether. And that is a very sad thing, because the Holy Spirit gives each church, each individual every spiritual gift it needs to do its work.
God has a plan for this church. There is a mission we are called to accomplish, right here in Dinwiddie, at this present time. God does not leave us alone in this.
Our God, our loving God, our wise and awesome God not only requires us to accomplish the task of “Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” He gives us the resources to do just that.
To be successful in our mission we need the whole church, each person using their giftedness in concert with one another to do that.
When we do not value the gifts of our fellow members, or we preclude some members from ministry, or we decide not to offer our own gifts in service of our body of Christ, we are like a body trying to run a marathon without lungs. We may have a strong heart and great muscle tone, but without lungs to breathe, we will only get about thirty steps before we pass out.
Sometimes I see the church do just that. We have a vision, we start out strong, full of good intentions to do what God asks of us, but.
We don’t seem to get it done.
We know that Holy Spirit has gifted this church with the people that have been gifts to accomplish the mission.
Yet we continue to fail.
Perhaps we lack vision and leadership.
The lack of forward movement might be caused by some of the individuals within the church not claiming their giftedness and using it for the good of the church and its mission.
Maybe we are not working together as one body
We are called to work together because the Spirit has made us to work together. It’s that simple and that complicated. There is a lot that can get in the way of a human body working well. And there is a lot that can get in the way of the body of Christ working as well as it should—but that’s what makes it so wonderful when we all live together in unity and work as one for God’s glory.
It really is not about us; it is about the one who calls us, and it is the blessings we receive as we work together to be a blessing for the world.