[YOU ARE A SUPERHERO!]
Slide graphic – generic superhero flying through the air
Slide text – “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Ephesians 4:1)
A few years ago the World Press Review carried a quotation from the National Concord of Lagos, Nigeria. That paper reported that twenty-six lakes have been found beneath the Sahara Desert. The American space shuttle, Columbia, determined by echoes it received that there are miles and miles of underground rivers beneath that arid land also. It is sad to think of the people who are starving and dying of thirst there for lack of life-giving water because those hidden resources—those underground lakes and rivers—have not been tapped.
In a similar way, there are a number of spiritual resources that lie untapped in our church and in our individual lives because we’ve simply not gone deep enough. We’re missing out on what the Christian life is all about.
[YOUR GIFT IS NOT THE ONLY WAY]
Slide graphic – man in business suit looking at himself in mirror and seeing reflection of superhero
Slide text – “6We 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. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if 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.” (Romans 12:6-8)
Gift projection is expecting others to serve the way we do...”Do as I do!”
This reminds me of the man who was driving down the expressway in rush hour traffic when he received a call from his wife on his cell phone, “Honey, you need to be careful driving home because I just heard on the news that there’s some idiot driving in the wrong direction on the same road you’re on.” To which the husband responded, “It’s not just one; there are hundreds of them!”
Have you ever been around someone who always thinks they’re right? There’s a lot of people like that in the church – people gifted in a particular way who measure everyone else by how well they compare in this one area. They can’t imagine there is any other way to serve God.
You can’t forget that God uses us just because He wants to, not because he needs us. Paul calls spiritual gifts “gifts of grace.” You can be a lot more humble when you realize that it isn’t your gift – it as a gift of grace (something you don’t deserve) from God. Everything we are and everything we have is by God’s grace.
Some people think their gift is so special they will certainly be rewarded. The bible actually does say that you will be rewarded for your faithful service, but don’t think for a minute that it is because you deserve it. If I received the reward I deserved I’d end up in Hell, and so would you.
[YOUR GIFT IS NOT EVEN THE BEST WAY]
Slide graphics – picture of sign “sale on body parts” (from junkyard). Pictures of Super Bowl VII – Dolphins vs. Redskins
Slide text – And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” (1 Corinthians 12:21)
All people tend to have an inflated view of the importance of their own gift. They think their gift is the most important. The truth is that all gifts are necessary, like different parts of the same body. Is there a part of your body that isn’t important and useful to you? Is there a part you could really do without?
There has only been one professional football team that went undefeated in regular season (14-0), undefeated in playoffs and went on to win the Super bowl. The 1972 Miami Dolphins. No other team before or since has matched their record. Every year 30-some odd teams try, but for 3 decades, it stands alone. Sports fans all have their own opinions about who might be the “Greatest Team of All Time”, but one of the 1972 Dolphin team members put it best: “Perfection has a way of shutting peoples mouths.”
The Washington Redskins coach, going into Super Bowl VII against Shula’s Dolphins, was asked to comment on the incredible Miami defense. “I can’t recall any of their names,” he said, “but they are a matter of great concern to us.” That year, the Miami defensive line became known as the “No-Name Defense.” What made that team special was not the handful of superstars – it was the dedication of every team member. The willingness of every player to execute his position with excellence for a common purpose. Something special happens when everybody plays their position. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. They had some great players, no doubt. But plenty of other teams over history have had better personnel. More Pro-Bowl players, superstars, Hall of Famers. Yet no team has reached level of achievement that they did.
We can’t be a perfect team unless we are a no-name team, where no one plays for personal glory or recognition. We each have a different role to play, and it takes each of us playing our own role as best we can for the team to succeed.
[YOUR CHURCH HAS A MISSION]
Slide graphic – Blues brothers
Slide text – vision statement of church. Ours is “Honoring God by intentionally… introducing people to a relationship with Christ… incorporating them into this family… growing them as the mature in Christ… equipping them as they serve Christ”
We are on a mission from God. Actually our mission statement is: “To honor God by obediently bringing people to Jesus and equipping them to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ (FDF)”
Our Church vision incorporated the five purposes of the church:
Worship – Honoring God,
Reaching (evangelizing) – by intentionally introducing people to a relationship with Christ
Connecting (Fellowship) – incorporating them into this family
Growing (Discipleship) – growing them as they mature in Christ
Serving (Missions) – equipping them as they serve Christ
If these are the purposes of the purpose-driven life and the purpose-driven church and the purpose-driven student ministry, and the reason we are given gifts is so we can perform the work of God in this world, it should come as no surprise that the spiritual gifts align with these purposes.
In nearly everything God does He uses people. We can say that the reason spiritual gifts are important is because our communities need what spiritually-empowered people have to give.
• If God wants a hungry child fed, he motivates a spiritually-gifted person with compassion to provide a meal.
• If God wants a pregnant teenage girl to be saved the horror of abortion, and the awful consequences of her actions years later, He uses people who are spiritually-gifted to come alongside and help her through the rough time.
• If God wants to provide homes for the homeless He very rarely speaks “Let there be homes” into the atmosphere. Rather, God puts it in the hearts of spiritually-gifted people to start a Habitat for Humanity, and then the muscles move and the sweat pours, and the community has new homes.
[YOUR GIFT REVEALS GOD’S PLAN]
Slide Graphic – starfish on beach, with footprints in sand
Slide text – list “Leadership, Apostleship, Shepherding, Evangelism”
The first purpose is to “Reach” people for God – to bring the lost into a saving relationship with Christ.
See Spiritual Gifts handout for detailed information:
These gifts are related. Many people who are gifted in this area have more than one of these gifts. A gift is not just an ability – it is a passion. People with these gifts tend to see a sermon in every sunset, a parable in every problem, and have a message for everyone they meet.
LEADERSHIP is the ability and desire to communicate the big picture, to motivate people to accomplish large goals
APOSTLESHIP is the ability and desire to talk about God to people from other cultures than your own
EVANGELISM is the ability and desire to talk to people about God’s plan of salvation in an effective way
SHEPHERDING is the ability and desire to take weak, new Christians, care for them and mentor them
There’s a story about a man walking on a beach after a storm. Not long after he began walking, he noticed a young boy up ahead of him who kept leaning over and picking things up and throwing them into the surf. As he approached closer, he saw that the boy was picking up starfish. Thousands and thousands of starfish had been thrown up on the beach by the storm and were dying. The young boy was picking them up one-by-one and returning them to the ocean.
“What are you doing?” the man asked. “This is an impossible task. I can see thousands right here, and this beach goes on for miles. You can’t save them all. You’re not going to make a difference.”
The boy didn’t look at him, or stop what he was doing, but after he threw the next starfish into the ocean, he simply said “I made a difference to that one.”
The man thought about this for a minute, then stooped down and picked up a starfish and threw it into the ocean.
[YOUR GIFT REVEALS GOD’S HAND]
Slide Graphic – hand reaching out. Saint Basil’s cathedral in Moscow.
Slide text – list “Helps, Giving, Craftsmanship, Creative Communication”
The next purpose is to “Serve” – serving as God’s hands to his people and to the lost. These gifts are more behind-the scenes, but they are critical to God’s plan. Without faithful Christians exercising their gift of service, the gifts of evangelism are powerless. It is quite true that people don’t “care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
HELPS – the ability and passion to take up someone else’s burden, taking their place, freeing them for other service
GIVING – the ability and passion to pour out your time and resources on others
CRAFTSMANSHIP – the ability and passion to build physical things with your hands for God’s service
CREATIVE COMMUNICATION – the ability and passion to build creative, interesting, effective messages to communicate God’s word
Chuck Colson has observed that when the Communists took over Russia in 1917, they did not make Christianity illegal. Their constitution, in fact, guaranteed freedom of religion. But they did make it illegal for the church to do any "good works." No longer could the church fulfill its historic role in feeding the hungry, educating the children, housing the orphan, or caring for the sick. What was the result? After 70 years, the church was largely irrelevant to the communities in which it dwelt. Would the community weep if your church were to pull out of the city? Would anybody even notice if you left?
If God is your co-pilot—swap seats!
Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity.
Prayer: Don’t give God instructions—just report for duty!
[YOUR GIFT REVEALS GOD’S TRUTH]
Slide Graphic – picture of Alton Brown (host of Food Network show “Good Eats”), molecular model of salt, picture of salt cliffs around Dead sea.
Slide text A – List “Discernment, Prophecy, Knowledge, Wisdom, Teaching”.
Slide test B – “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” (Matthew 5:13)
People who have these gifts tend to focus on the knowing and understanding of God, understanding the world he made, understanding God’s message. They tend to see God in the details. By understanding God more, people with these gifts are drawn more close to Him. Seeking and understanding God is, therefore, a way of worship for them.
DISCERNMENT – the ability and passion to perceive the character of a person, or the right or wrongness of something
PROPHECY – doesn’t mean predicting the future – it means the ability and passion to confront people with the Truth
KNOWLEDGE – the ability and passion to learn facts about something
WISDOM – the ability and passion to take facts and apply them to life
TEACHING – the ability and passion to communicate Truth to other people
Let me give you an example. I love to watch Alton Brown on the Food Network show “Good Eats”. I love Alton because he always shows why and how things happen – why bread rises, why cheese dip gets clumpy. He is always pulling out a blackboard or a model and explaining at the molecular level just what is going on. Needless to say, this show is not for everyone. The other day he had a show dedicated to salt.
Because I love science, I am a geek – that doesn’t mean I have the gift of knowledge. I have the gift of Knowledge because I tend to see evidence of God’s presence and God’s eternal Truth in the facts around me. When Alton was talking about salt, I was hearing God speaking. It fascinated me and made me want to learn more, and the more I learned, the more real God seems to me. Drawing close to God is the definition of worship. I don’t worship science, I worship the God science reveals to me.
The science of Nutrition tells us that just as all colors are made from red, blue, and green, all flavors are composed of four base flavors: salty, sour, sweet, and bitter. Salt is vital to making food have flavor, otherwise it tastes like cardboard. This lets me understand that when Christ said we are the salt of the world, he means we are to bring flavor the blandness of the world. People should seek us out like they seek a light in the darkness.
Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt? (Job 6:6)
The science of Chemistry tells us that salt is composed of Sodium ( a volatile metal) and chloride (a poisonous gas). This lets me understand that when God says we are the salt of the world, that God has taken our self-destructive, poisonous selves and made them into stable, useful tools to serve his purposes.
The science of Biology tells us that salt is a preservative. People in Jesus’ time didn’t have refrigerators. Salt, because it was readily available, was an essential food preservative. Meat soaked in a salt solution and then dried can last for months without refrigeration. The salt draws moisture out of the meat and kills the bacteria that normally makes it go bad. We tend to eat meat cured this way more as a delicacy than out of necessity. For people in Jesus’ day, without salt, food would spoil and there just wouldn’t be enough to eat. Kosher salt is not kosher "per se"; rather it is used when koshering meat to make it kosher for eating (the salt is used to draw out the blood). This helps me understand that when Jesus tells us we are to be the salt of the world, he was saying we are here to prevent the decay of the world
2 Kings 2:19-22 - Elisha cleansed the waters at Jericho with salt.
In ancient times, newborn babies were washed in salt to cleanse their bodies and to give firmness to their skin, Eze. 16:4.)
History tells us that Salt was mined from the Dead Sea. Salt was a very valuable in the ancient world. So valuable, in fact, that the Roman Legions were often paid their wages in salt. This payment was called the "salarium." (The is where the expression, "Not worth his salt." comes from!) Pure salt was flavorful and useful for preservative. Salt that had mingled with the dirt and become impure was flavorless. It was still used, however. It was mined and spread on the streets. It was used much as gravel is in our day. Its only purpose then was to kill out the weeds that might grow in the road, and for men to walk on to keep their sandals out of the mud. Literally, it was to be trodden under the foot of men. This helps me understand what Jesus meant by salt that had lost it’s flavor being thrown out and trampled – he meant that if we allow ourselves to be corrupted by the world, we can no longer be used by him. We will bring death, not flavor and preservation.
The fact that I love science and history does not mean I have the gift of knowledge (it means I’m a geek). The reason I believe I have the spiritual gift of knowledge is because when I seek to understand the facts of this world (i.e. salt), what I find is God. The more I study, the more God is revealed to me, and the closer my relationship with God becomes. Looking back, the times in my life I have been closest to God have been when I was passionately pursuing Him through studying simple facts around me – like salt.
[YOUR GIFT REVEALS GOD’S HEART]
Slide Graphic – Picture of Ian O’Gorman, See bottom of page:
http://www.theinternetparty.org/commentary/c_s.php?td=20010730§ion_type=com&sec=r_com
Slide Text A – List “Mercy, Faith, Hospitality, Encouragement, Intercession”
Slide Text B – “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)
People with these gifts have a heart for other people. They are the selfless ones, the generous ones, who are always thinking about the needs of others, and rarely think about their own needs.
MERCY – people with this gift have the ability and passion to empathize with other people, to be sympathetic, to forgive, to heal
FAITH – people with this gift have the ability and passion to trust, to believe – in God first, but also in other people.
HOSPITALITY – people with this gift have the ability and passion to be make people, even total strangers, feel accepted and at home
ENCOURAGEMENT – people witht his gift have the ability and passion to be cheerleaders for others, emphasizing their best qualities, encouraging them to fulfill their potential
INTERCESSION – people with this gift have the ability and passion to plead on someone’s behalf, before God in prayer, and before other people
Mr. Alter’s fifth-grade class at Lake Elementary School in Oceanside, California, included fourteen boys who had no hair. Only one, however, had no choice in the matter. Ian O’Gorman, undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma, faced the prospect of having his hair fall out in clumps. So he had his head shaved. But then 13 of his classmates shaved their heads, so Ian wouldn’t feel out of place. "If everybody has his head shaved, sometimes people don’t know who’s who," said 11-year-old Scott Sebelius in an Associated Press story (March 1994). "They don’t know who has cancer, and who just shaved their head." Ten-year-old Kyle Hanslik started it all. He talked to some other boys, and before long they all trekked to the barber shop.
"The last thing he would want is to not fit in," said Kyle. "We just wanted to make him feel better.“ Ian’s father, Shawn, choked back tears as he talked about what the boys had done. He said simply, "It’s hard to put words to."
[YOUR LOVE IS YOUR GREATEST GIFT]
Slide Graphic – pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Edwin Stanton
Slide text – “1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If 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. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
We looked at Gifts of the Heart (mercy, encouragement), soul (evangelism, apostleship), mind (Knowledge, discernment), and strength (craftsmanship, giving). These support four of the five purposes of our church. The fifth purpose, worship, is about loving God. It is not really a separate gift. It is how you use your gift. Jesus said to “love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength”. Whether your strongest gift is in the area of heart, soul, mind or strength, it isn’t worth anything if it isn’t used in love – a love of God and a love shared with God for people.
When Abraham Lincoln was campaigning for the presidency, one of his archenemies was Edwin McMasters Stanton. Stanton hated Lincoln, and used every ounce of his energy to degrade Lincoln in the eyes of the public, often calling him by such names as “the original gorrilla” in an attempt to embarrass him.
In the process of choosing his cabinet after his election, Lincoln selected various members and then faced a decision about the important post of Secretary of War. He chose Stanton! The president’s inner circle erupted in an uproar when they heard his choice. Numerous advisors came to Lincoln saying, "Mr. President, you are making a mistake. Are you familiar with all the ugly things he has said about you? He is your enemy. He will sabotage your programs."
Lincoln replied, "Yes, I know Mr. Stanton. But ... I find he is the best man for the job."He was reported to have said, "I don’t like that man. I am going to have to get to know him better."
As Secretary of War Stanton gave invaluable service to his nation and his president. Lincoln’s continued support of the unpopular Stanton gradually changed Stanton from a bitter enemy only serving because of a sense of duty to one of Lincolns staunchest supporters. After Lincoln was assassinated, many laudable statements were made about Abraham Lincoln, but the words of Stanton remain among the greatest. Standing near Lincoln’s coffin, Stanton said, “There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen - he now belongs to the ages.”
Lincoln served this country probably better than any president before or since, and every day of that service was firmly guided by a deep love of his God and his fellow men. All men.
Love your enemies… (Matthew 5:44)
"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." —Abraham Lincoln
"Well, we took a vote in the Cabinet and it was eight to one-but I was the one." —Abraham Lincoln
[DIETRICH BONHOEFFER – DYING TO SERVE]
Slide Graphic – pictures of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Slide text – “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:23)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during World War II. You may know his story, how he openly resisted Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jews, and was eventually hanged publicly as a traitor.
Among the writings of this Christian hero is a tale of the Firefighters. It seemed there was a building on fire, and the fire department was summoned. When the truck arrived, the chief observed a group of townspeople standing around near the burning building. They were dressed in tuxedos and formal gowns. Each was holding a water pistol. Occasionally a member would squirt a line or two at the fire, squirt, squirt.
The chief went to a man who seemed to be in charge of this odd-looking group. “What’s going on here?” asked the chief. “Oh, we’re helping to put out this fire.” said the man as he squirted, squirt, squirt.
“We’re all here making our little contributions.”
The chief grabbed the man’s water pistol, broke it into little pieces and yelled, Get away from here…this is not a job for people who want to make their little contributions – this is a job for people willing to die!
Later, Dietrich Bonhoeffer could stand on the gallows and give evidence of that calling. Bonhoeffer said: When a man is called by Christ to follow, he is not called to a life of ease and rights…when a man is called to follow, Christ bids him come and die!
Spiritual gifts aren’t squirt guns. They are not handed out for the purpose of making a little contribution when it’s convenient. They are loaded, powerful and for the purpose of doing serious ministry. They are always placed in the hands of people willing to pick up a cross daily and follow the Master. They’re placed in the hands of those willing to come and die!
God made you unique, and gave you a unique gift so that you could serve him in a unique mission. There is a fire burning, and God made you for this purpose – the one special person in history who can serve God in this way. Find your gift. Take it up and live a life of service to your God.
