Word Count: 2048 Sermon, 2520 Total.
This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 10th August 2014 (a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Summary: We all have been given certain gifts by god. We are all giving a calling by him, but ultimately we use these to complete his plan for himself, but where we also find and develop ourselves, to his glory. Read on!
Genesis 45:1-15 Psalm 133 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28
“Please join me in my prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen. (Ps. 19:14)
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Introduction:
My sermon last week as your know was on Salvation, and today we continue knowing that in God’s eyes, we are saved. But do you know what the best thing about being saved is? … That no one can take it away from us!
It doesn’t matter if in the world’s eyes, we are the world’s biggest failure; in God’s eyes we are still saved; because we now belong to him, because of what Jesus achieved on the cross; ... he died to save us, and so our salvation is permanent.
The book of Job.
Today we start with a trivia question, what is the oldest book in the bible? … It is the book of Job of course, although no one knows for sure who wrote it ... or when. In that book, Satan afflicts Job with many terrible disasters, and diseases ... and also the death of his loved ones; all in the attempt to get Job to renounce God and worship him.
I mean it was absolutely horrendous what Job had to endure, and during his suffering, his friends advised him what to do. It was a bit like what happened to us when we were saved, everything seemed to go wrong, and I for one did blame God at some stages, not realising it was it was Satan attacking me; that may have happened to you as well.
We are also being developed and changed by God into something that he wants us to be, but what I remember is that like Job, I too had friends advising me what to do ... friends who had never had a hard day in their lives ... and who were suddenly an expert on my troubles.
... And I am sure that we all have friends like that ... they are expects on everything, yet have you noticed that the first time they received a minor blow or trial they receive, their world crumbles, not, having answers to their own problems. … But it wasn’t any different in Job’s time; as a matter of fact, Job’s wife told him in Job 2:9, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Why don’t you simply curse God and die!” How is that for advice? “Curse God and die!”
Now in contrast, the apostle Paul, also gives us some advice into where the answers for our problems lie, but unlike Job’s adviser, Paul speaks from experience which as you know, makes all the difference. … Paul tells us that the direction and the focus for our lives can only be found in God himself, and through the Holy Spirit … and that we should learn to listen to him, and answer only to him … and not through any great human expert. Take advice yes, but we are not accountable to them, we are only accountable to God.
And Paul says in verse 29, that “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable”; which means that they cannot be taken back. So what gifts are these that are irrevocable, may you ask … well we need to go to 1 Corinthians, to see Paul using the same word in Greek for ‘gifts’, to see what he is talking about, … 1 Corinthians 12:3 … and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Verse 4, Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
Both of these words for "gifts" are the same in Greek, which is the word, "charisma", from which we get the term "charismatic" ... and the root word (charis) basically means "grace". This tells us that these spiritual gifts are things characterized by the Holy Spirit ... and are in fact gifts of God's grace which means that they are not something we earn or deserve.
God therefore has given to every person that is born of Him, a Spiritual Gift, (or Gifts as we may have more than one).
And we all have different gifts, or strengths, that no-one else has. We are all gifted in some way, although I will admit, finding out what we are good at can be difficult; … because we want to get it right. I mean, you have all heard the expression, who told him he could sing. ... I am lucky, everybody knows I cannot sing, but there are other things I can do.
Our gifts, or strengths … (yes we have them), when we use them, is a good way to glorifying God. How do we find our gifts? Well, I tell the kids at school when picking their subjects or studies for university, to pick topics that they find easier than others, you know topics where they do not really need to think about passing, you just do, and pass well. …
It is in a similar vein for the church, our gifts are the duties we are happy to perform, duties for us which are not a chore, but a pleasure. Yes we all have to do the necessaries, but I am not talking about that … I am talking about things you just love to do; that then is your gift … and that gift should be allowed to develop.
To give you an example, in contrast of course … there is no point in putting me in a choir, I know that, the choir knows that and so do the congregation. This is not my gift, in fact watch Marilyn at the next hymn, the first thing she will do is turn of my microphone … that is ok … I don’t take offense … not all the time.
But we all do have gifts of some kind … and they need to be encouraged and allowed to develop …. (and we certainly do out best in this church by the way) ... but that is not always the case, and that does sadden me, particularly when we want to glorify God and we have no means of doing so … and then you think, why bother.
But that is not what Paul is talking about here, Paul is talking about people who are gifted in something, they know they are gifted, and for some reason, choose not to use that gift. I had a pal down at Maidens who had the most amazing baritone voice, it was a pleasure to listen to him, but somehow he refused to use it, except that is ... when he was drunk. What a waste.
If someone gives us something that we can really use, but choose not to use it, then we have no appreciation for that gift, nor the one who gave it. Do you see what I am getting at here, if we have a gift, and we know that we have it, and it is lying dormant, we need to start looking for ways to develop it. It may not be for his glory to start with, but if you are in him, it will end up in his glory anyway, we cannot help not glorifying him. It is pretty simple really.
God gives us gifts to use, and it says verse 29 that these “God given gifts are irrevocable”, he will not take them back, unless he was changing our direction in life, but that too would be for our benefit as it would come from him.
To move on, as there is not just his gifts to consider, there’s His calling for us also. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:14, “I press on toward the goal … to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus”.
Just like His gifts, God has a separate call that He will make known, as he has a separate path for each one of us. And not only that, in Ephesians 4:1, we are admonished by Paul to pursue that call. He tells us, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received”.
Notice the fact that we have a calling. … Our calling however, can be very difficult to find, or even define. We have all been called to do something … the very least being some kind of Christian service … but it needn’t be just for the church, there is a whole world out there, and just like God’s gifts, our calling is irrevocable; it will be decided and governed by him.
Saul of Tarsus had a calling and we all know that God’s act of calling him was sheer grace. Our past sin are nothing compared to Paul’s ... as he was later known. Saul was hell bent on the destruction of the Christian Church. … He thought that was his calling ... driven by hatred, he went on a personal crusade to wipe out all of Christianity in any way he could; including murder which he later admitted.
But God had a different calling for Saul … and right in the middle of his jealous zeal against the Church … Jesus met with him on the road to Damascus. Saul was actually on the road to hell, being the enemy of Christ and the chief of all sinners … but it was at that very point that Jesus appeared to him, and turned his whole life around. Is that not grace indeed.
God forgave all his sin, but his fellow Israelites held this against him as the bible tells us that Saul, now called Paul, wanted to preach the gospel in Jerusalem to the Jews, but Jesus told him that “They will not listen to you. Go! I am sending you to the Gentiles!” Acts 18:5 says “Paul was … testifying to the Jews that Jesus was Christ … and they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles”.
But that is what God wanted Paul to do in the first place, for earlier on in Acts 13:47 Paul says, “For so hath the Lord commanded me, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
Even Paul could not define his own calling at first because wherever he went, he would always end up being rejected by the majority in the synagogues … as so he was then forced to turn to the Gentiles, as originally commanded, where many of them heard and believed.
God used the rejection of Jesus by the Jews to open the door for the Gentiles to come in! This was God’s call all along and it needed a special man such as Paul to do it … to fulfil the passages of prophecy in the Old Testament about the Gentiles … that they could come alive through Paul.
Conclusion
To sum up, we all have gifts to use and develop; if there is a gift lying dormant that you would like to bring alive, do so, because God will use it for his purposes. Out calling however is more difficult, God decides that … and God will channel us to where ever we are needed … where ever he wants us.
The most important part is that we make a start, just like Paul. He thought his calling was to preach to the Jews and so he did, but God made him happy, by pointing him in another direction in which millions of gentiles were saved … and that includes us. So from this, we should not be afraid to make a start, as we know that God will channel us also once we get going ... in his direction.
And notice further, that God will not ask us to do something we are not capable of doing. … And I personally take great relieve from this; I do not need to worry or make plans, or scheme … God gets what he wants … when he wants … and all we need to do is remain in his vine. You see it all ties up.
God has a gift and a calling for each one of us … he also has a plan for each one of us … a plan which he intends to see through … a plan which will fit in with his plans … plans which will bring glory to Him … and plans that will bring glory and honour to us. What an amazing gracious and redeeming God we serve!
Amen, Let us pray,
Let us pray,
Father we thank you for Jesus … that he died to save us all. We thank you that through him that you want us, and that you have a purpose for us in this earth.
Father help us identify the gifts you have given us, show us the things that we are good at things, things that we enjoy … … and Father as we identify them, give us the opportunity to develop them, and encourage us to add value the this earth.
Father your word says we also have a calling, this we struggle to believe or see … so Father we a ask that you reveal something to us, something that you want us to do or pursue … and give us please, an opportunity to make a start at this calling, or encouragement to keep going, ans feeling as to where you want us to be.
Father we want to glorify you, we want to do it in your power, and for your glory ... please give the opportunity and the support we need.
Father I also want to thanks and bless David Richardson and Greg Nance for getting me started in this difficult sermon, and I ask that all our congregations take encouragement and hope from it … and start to do something out of the ordinary, to glorify you.
We ask in Jesus almighty name, Amen.
