How The Kingdom Works: Part 2 – Spiritual Gifts (MythBusters Version)
1 Pet 4:8-11 Feb 11, 2007
Intro:
What does it take to make a Kingdom work? Let me sum up last week’s sermon in one sentence: God’s Kingdom really does work! I believe it, I’ve seen it very recently. It really works, it really makes a difference, it really is worth it. Last week we talked about what it would take to change our focus as a church, so that we would be focused outwardly on meeting the needs of people, to see God’s Kingdom work in the lives of people. We looked at Luke 10, and saw that it takes It takes prayer (vs 2), It takes faith (vs 4), It takes focus (vs 4b), It takes teamwork (vss 5-7), It takes actions AND words (vs 9), and It takes perspective.
This morning I want to look together at another thing that it takes to make the Kingdom work: it takes you, and me.
1 Peter 4:8-11
“8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.”
Most Important…
Peter, the author of this passage walked with Jesus. He was a disciple, one of the inner 3, very often the spokesman for the group. He heard a lot of teaching from Jesus, saw a lot of miracles, even saw God use him to change a lot of people’s lives. So when Peter writes, “most important of all”, we should sit up and take notice. What is “most important of all”? “show deep love for each other”.
I never get tired of preaching this message. I believe it is at the core of the Kingdom, the core of Jesus’ ministry, the core of the mission of the church, and the very core of the heart of God. What is it all about? What is the most important? What is the “most excellent way”? It is love. Deep love. Deep love shown.
It is not a coincidence that this message of love is tied to the message of Spiritual gifts. There are four main passages on spiritual gifts, and each of them revolves around the message of deep love for others. You can check the others out for yourselves – Eph 4, 1 Cor 12-14, and Rom 12 – for now here is the point I want to make: Love for others motivates us to use our Spiritual gifts, and that is what makes the Kingdom of God work.
Busting the Myths…
This passage busts several of the myths that exist about Spiritual gifts.
Myth #1: I don’t have a gift.
Often when we talk about “gifted” people, we mean that they have abilities so far beyond the rest of us that they stand out. We create a hierarchy, put those people in a class beyond us, and since “those people” who are “gifted” are “over there”, it naturally does not include us. It can be a little subtle, but the end result can be that we believe and live like we are not gifted. That can be kind of convenient, because if I don’t have a gift then I don’t have to use it… That logic may be true of the kingdom of this world, but it is not true of the Kingdom of God.
“10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.” There you are. Do I need to elaborate? It sounds pretty plain, pretty blunt, pretty conclusive. It busts the myth. You have a gift. I went back to the Greek to make sure that the “each of you” was really there, and was really inclusive of everyone, and it absolutely is.
So, you have a gift. I want you to turn to whomever is sitting near to you, and say this out loud: “God has given me a Spiritual gift.” Now, this is a little harder: tell that person what you think your gift is.
Ok, reporting time. How many of you heard your partner say, “I have no idea what my Spiritual gift is.”? How many of you heard your partner say, “I have a guess, but I’m not sure what my Spiritual gift is.”? How many of you heard your partner say, “I have the gift of________”?
I don’t have time today to do a long explanation of all the gifts, or talk at length about how to find yours, but I will get you started. If you don’t know or aren’t sure, read the Bible to find out what they are. Then ask God to help you understand yourself. Ask others who know you well. Remember the times when you have felt like God used you in someone else’s life, and discover what you were doing at the time. Next, dive in and experiment with the gifts you think you might have and see what happens. Finally, buy me a cup of coffee and it would be my deepest joy to help you discover what your Spiritual gift is.
Myth #2: The Gift Is For Me
Here is the second myth. After affirming that all of us have gifts, the very next words are “Use them well to serve.” It is a command, not an option, to use our gift to serve others.
It is easy to slip into the lie that because God has given a gift to me, it is for me. After all, isn’t that how most gifts work in our culture? If you give me something, it must be for me. When it comes to Spiritual gifts, though, it is a myth that the gift is for us. The truth is this – the gift is really for everyone else, it is just given to us to use for others.
Perhaps an example: on our recent trip to Bolivia, we took a huge hockey bag full of soccer balls and skipping ropes and other stuff for the children of the two ministries we are partnering with. But we didn’t give them to the children, we gave them to the directors of the ministries. They knew the gifts were for the children, but the balls and ropes were given to them to use with the children. It would be ludicrous and unethical for them to take them home and put them in their closet and say “they gave them to me…” That would make us angry!
It is the same with our Spiritual gifts. The passage uses the example of the gift of hospitality, “share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay” – who is that gift for, the person who owns the home or the person who needs a meal or a place to sleep? Or Peter’s next example, the gift of speaking – is that so that the speaker can charge $100k for an hour long talk, and can get on the Oprah show? No – it is so that those who listen can benefit.
The gift that God has given to you and me is not for us to have, but for us to use for others.
Myth #3: It is my gift, I’m in charge.
As we just said, it is easy to slip into the myth that God has given me a gift, so it is mine. The next myth follows from there: if it is mine, then I get to choose whether to use it or not. I am in charge, I am the owner, and if that is true then I get to choose whether to use it or not. Now, I suppose that ultimately each of us can choose. But I believe that the choice of whether or not to use our gifts is the same as our choice whether or not to kill someone that makes us mad, or to lust after the opposite sex, or to lie instead of telling the truth. The choice is to be obedient, or to be disobedient.
Peter’s command to “use them” begins to dispel the myth that I am in charge, but the verse is actually even stronger. We’ve been looking at the New Living Translation, which I really like but which here disappoints. It is missing an important concept which is in the original language – the concept of stewardship. All the other translations include Peter’s whole phrase: here is the NASB: “10As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Peter included this phrase for good reason – he is making that point that using our gift is a matter of stewardship.
Here is what that means: we are not the owners of the gift, we are the trustees. God is the owner, and He entrusts a Spiritual gift to each of us with the full intention that we will use it to serve others. And as we use our gift, the Kingdom of God will grow.
It reminds us of the story Jesus told about the master who left on a long trip, and entrusted his estate to 3 stewards. To one he gave 5, another 2, and the third 1. The first two used that which they were given, and doubled their investment. The third dug a hole and buried it, and was severely chastised when the master returned.
I believe that Spiritual gifts are an opportunity and a responsibility. The are an opportunity for something incredible and rewarding and significant and meaningful – to be used by God in the life of another person. God wants to use you to make a difference in the lives of others! And here is the upside-down result: as we use our gift to serve others, OUR LIVES ARE FULL OF JOY AND PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE.
I’m getting a little sidetracked here, but on purpose because this is so important. I have personally experienced this many times, and have watched it happen in other peoples’ lives many times. Here it is: when we serve others, we end up receiving more than we give.
Very recent case in point: in Bolivia, the six of us gave a good chunk of a week fixing, painting, and cleaning two classrooms in the ministry to children who are forced to live in jail with their parents. We gave sweat, we gave skill, we gave creativity, we used Spiritual Gifts of service, of intercessory prayer, of encouragement, of leadership. Yet I’m sure every one of the six of us would stand before you and say that the gratitude of the teachers, the excitement of the students, and the inner joy at being used by God to serve others far outweighed the aching backs, the paint splatters in the eyes, and the ruined clothes.
It is true almost every time. When we “use our gifts well to serve others… as good stewards of the manifold grace of God”, we receive more than we give.
Spiritual gifts are an opportunity to live a life of purpose and significance. I also believe that they are a responsibility. The story Jesus’ told about the three servants ends with this verse: “29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.” (Matt 25).
Myth #4: I can use my gift with my leftover strength and energy.
The fourth myth this passage busts is this: “I can use my gift with my leftover strength and energy.” Peter writes, “Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.” I sometimes observe that using our gifts in service to others is a ways down our list of priorities. When life gets busy, when we feel like we are doing too much and need to cut back, it often seems to be ministries that get cut first. Peter is saying the opposite: serve others “with all the strength and energy that God supplies.”
God deserves our best and not our leftovers. And if we begin from a place of deep love for others, we’ll want to give them our best also.
Myth #5: Nothing happens when I use my gift; or “it doesn’t work”.
The final myth busted by this passage is this one: “it doesn’t make a difference”. I think this is more a matter of our expectations than of God’s Kingdom not working the way God says it does. The clear promise of God’s word is this: “Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.”
The “then” is crucial, because it makes the promise dependent on the things we have been discussing, but the focus is still on the promise: “everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.” I believe God is glorified through every obedient use of our gifts, and that is what matters. We have different expectations – taking Peter’s example of the gift of speaking, we expect (perhaps subtley) that the use of this gift will draw great crowds of people who flock to hear these marvelous sermons. But when I go next door to Canterbury and preach to 3 senior ladies, I use my gifts and God is glorified. I might not be, but that is not the point!
Using our gifts is about glorifying God, and that is the most important criteria when we ask the question, “does it make any difference?” The purpose is to glorify God; our obedience glorifies God, and that is what counts.
Conclusion:
I want to leave you with some questions, which I hope are challenging and which I hope you will seriously and prayerfully consider.
1. Do you really believe that God has given you a Spiritual gift that can be used to make a difference for His Kingdom?
2. Do you really believe that the gift is not for you to have, but to use to serve others?
3. How are you doing as a steward of the gift God has given you to use? If Jesus were to return today would you be like the first 2 servants who had doubled their allotment, or would you be like the 3rd and have to dig it up out of the ground?
4. Are you using your gift with “all the strength and energy God has given you”, or have you been using that strength and energy for other things? Are you giving God your best?
5. Have you given up because you didn’t see the results you hoped for? Have you retired from Christian service? Or are you willing to re-engage, steward the gift you have been given, get active and “continue to show deep love for each other”, and see how “everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.”
