If you have ever been around little kids enough it isn’t long before you sense this feeling of invincibility, this idea that they can do anything. Yea, sometimes kids are shy and it takes time to come out but eventually you see it. The late founder of an organization called Youth Specialties, Mike Yaconelli, talked about this in a message of his once. He said, “You can see this just by asking questions to a kindergarten class.” You ask them, how many of you guys can sing? Almost all the hands go up. What can you sing? ANYTHING! What if you don’t know the words? We’ll make ‘em up! Ask them how many of you can draw? Again, almost all the hands go up. What can you draw? ANYTHING! How about a dinosaur, riding a skateboard, down the Hover Dam? YES, how big do you want it! Ask how many can dance? Again, hands everywhere. What music can you dance to? ANY!!! Can you act in plays? YES! Can you play a musical instrument? YES! YES! YES, is the continual answer. Kids have this sense, that they can do anything. Yaconelli says, “They are confident in spirit, infinite in resources, eager to learn. Everything is still possible.” Somehow, as we grow up though we lose this. If I asked you in this room these same questions, there would probably be a handful of people raise their hands for each group. The ones who do raise their hands will probably have qualifications to what they can do. “Well, um, I only sing in the shower,” “I only draw horses”, or “I only dance rock and roll.” We somehow lose the sense that we can do anything. We lose the sense that we are gifted creations of God.
Today, I want talk about what our role is in the church and I want to look at some common responses to the issue of being gifted individuals. I think there are three myths that we normally think and some of you probably thought these things as you were looking in the bulletin and saw the sermon title before the service.
• I think one of the common thoughts is that, “I’m not good enough to be used by the church!”
I think this was the thought that running through Moses’ mind when God called him. He had all these excuses. “What if they don’t believe me?” What if they don’t listen?” “What if I say something stupid?” As God answered each one, Moses finally just blurted out, “Please send someone else.” Moses didn’t have confidence in himself; he felt that he was not suited for the job. His first response was, “Who am I, that I should go?”
I think we ask that same question all the time. Who am I, that I should serve the church? Who am I, that I should sing? Who am I, that I should usher? Who am I, that I should read scripture at youth group? We continually say, “I am not worthy. I sin too much. I make mistakes. I’m too young or old. I am a broken person.” I think what we fail to remember is that this is exactly the kind of person, regardless of whether we are 12 or 80, male or female, that God calls to himself. People, who can admit that we can’t do it by ourselves, people who have to depend on God to accomplish something. I think the best way God shows this is by the people that God uses throughout the Bible to accomplish some of the greatest Christian successes.
Look at Moses – He was a murderer. David was an adulterer as well as a murderer. Paul killed Christians for a living. Peter and Andrew, two of the disciples were just ordinary everyday fishermen. Noah was a drunk. Jacob was a liar. Matthew was a tax collector, one of the most hated people groups of the first century. God is a God of love and forgiveness. He doesn’t look for “perfect” people to do his work but only for people who are willing and wanting to please God. People who are willing to humble themselves before God and give themselves to Him.
• I think a second common thought is, “My gifts don’t fit in the church!”
The times that people have these thoughts are when they know they are good at something but there doesn’t seem to be a place for it in the church or they just can’t see how it would be useful. I think, sometimes the church, as a whole, makes it seem like there is a small list of ways to serve and that’s it. So, people will look at that list and if they don’t feel like they could do any of those things then there is no place for them to serve. I think a good way to look at this is to look at a baseball game.
When you play baseball in high school, there are only 9 positions that can be filled at once. Those 9 people are usually the “best” people and usually play the whole game. Everyone else who makes the team are just there for cheerleading or to step up incase someone gets injured. My freshman year in high school, I was one of those bench warmers the first few weeks of the season. I hated it! I wanted to play so bad, I didn’t want to just sit there, but the rules were the rules. Only 9 players can play at once. I think this is how serving the church is sometimes viewed. The church has certain positions, committees or jobs that it can fill. These positions are filled by the “best” people and are the ones who do everything. Everyone else is there to show up on Sunday and root these leaders along.
I think biblically though, church is supposed to look more like a t-ball game. For the most part, the basic game is the same. The only real difference is that everyone gets to play. If you have ever seen your sons or daughters, or younger brothers and sisters play, or even if you can remember your own t-ball days, you know what I mean. It’s craziness. It doesn’t matter how many people are on a team they all get to play the field. They make up positions so they can get into the game. You have kids running out yelling things like, “I got short stop, I got first base, and I got the spot in the outfield near the dandelions.” Then when the ball is hit, everyone is involved, EVERYONE! Each kid has to touch the ball it seems before they can even think about getting the runner out. Everyone is involved, everyone gets to play. This is what the church should look like. The gifts that you have were given to you by God. He wants you to use them to serve Him. Those different ways can be singing, speaking, teaching, picking up after the service or youth group, cooking for fellowship hour, bringing snacks for youth group, painting or drawing, writing poetry, leading games at youth group, etc. If you have a gift that isn’t being used in the church right now, write a new category on the slips that we have in the pews and put it in the offering plate next week. Call Tim or one of the deacons during the week and find out where and how you can serve the church the way God made you to serve Him.
• I think the last common thought is, “I’m not gifted!”
I think this is a common thought that stems from self worth. A lot of the times we go through rough situations, we grow up in hard spots and we are filled with lies by people and by Satan that we are worthless, that we have no gifts. But that is exactly what they are, LIES! If we look at verse 7 in the passage we read in 1 Corinthians, the Message paraphrase says, “Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.” God has created us all to serve him and he has made us all in unique and different ways so that we can serve God in unique and different ways.
The youth group kids here have heard this a few times but for the adults, when I was growing up, this was a thought that I dealt with all the time. I grew up in a great Christian home but outside of that, I used to be picked on, made fun of, beat up, and just plain degraded when I was younger. I had this sense of worthlessness growing up because that was what everyone told me. I felt like I had nothing to offer. I felt like I wasn’t gifted. It wasn’t until my 8th grade year that I began to be encouraged by the people around me. They helped me see that I was a creation of God and that God gave me gifts just like he gave to everyone else.
If anyone here today feels that they have no gifts, I strongly encourage you to stay after and talk with someone you are close to. The truth of the matter is that you are special, you are worth something, YOU are gifted. You are a unique creative expression of God’s love in this world. Don’t ever settle for anything less than that.
• To close I would like to read a paragraph from John Eldrege’s book, Wild at Heart, which was written to encourage men in their Christian walk (Page 142). In this paragraph, the man that Eldrege in talking with talks about William Wallace, who for those that don’t know, is the main character in the movie Braveheart and leads the Scottish people in war with Britain to obtain freedom.
“I’d love to be William Wallace, leading the charge with a big sword in my hand,” sighed a friend. “But I feel like I’m the guy back there in the forth row, with a hoe.” That’s a lie of the enemy-that your place is really insignificant, that you aren’t really armed for it anyway. In your life you are William Wallace-who else could be? There is no other man [or woman, boy or girl] who can replace you in your life, in the arena you’ve been called to. If you leave your place in the line, it will remain empty. No one else can be who you are meant to be. You are the hero in your story. Not a bit player, not an extra, but the main man…God [has called you] forward to the front lines.”
God has called all of us here to serve Him in the body of Christ. We are all unique create images of God with gifts just as unique as the faces in this room. Everyone here has a place in the body of Christ. Everyone here has gifts that can be used in the body of Christ. Everyone here is gifted.
