Enjoying Gifts

Pastor Phillips' Sermon

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, as we survey all you have done for us and all you've given us, help us to hear your call, to use the gifts you've put within us, that you put within our reach for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today, we're talking about gifts, gifts God gives us. And it really ties into what Pastor Burcham talked about last week when he was talking about making the vision a reality, pulling together the whole vision statement in all the different letters and what they meant, and making it happen. Because, until we do something, until we get out there and do it, it's just words on a page of paper.

So today we're going to follow up that. And as I was thinking about gifts and how we use them in the church and how to talk about things like that, I was reminded of something that happened about seven years ago. Now I had been a pastor in northern Minnesota on the north shore of Lake Superior for five years and, in one year, the same year, we set the record for cold, 60 degrees below 0, and snow, over 140 inches. And so after five years there, my mind was kind of adjusted to that way of life and those kinds of things and so that's the frame of reference I took with me when I moved to New Jersey . Shortly after I moved to New Jersey , I was in a sporting goods store and I was thinking, “Boy, I wonder what they have on sale?” Well, this is what they had on sale. Snow shoes. And I thought, “Great. I could use those,” still thinking in my Minnesota mind. And they were on sale, half price. So I got a really nice pair and I hurried home with my treasure, a gift I purchased for myself, and I told my wife, “Hey, Honey, look what I bought at the sporting goods store. Snow shoes.” And she looked at me with that look, you know what I mean. “What are you going to do with those?” she says. I felt a little hurt. I said, “Well, when I go hunting and there's lots of snow, I can use these.” And she said, “In New Jersey?” And, as you can see, there's dust on these snow shoes. For seven years, they've sat on the shelf in my man room and not been used. They're waiting for the storm of the century to hit Iowa . An unused gift.

Unused does not mean useless, though, especially when we're talking about God's gifts to us, the things he puts within us, the skills, the talents, the personality, the experience, and those spiritual gifts He gives us. If they're not used, that does not mean they're useless. In fact, everything God gives us is wonderful, as it says in James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly life.” Good and perfect gift. That's what God has given us. That's what God has put in each of us. Every one of us has been gifted by our creator with special and wonderful gifts according to His design and purpose. Did you ever have somebody in your family that was just really good at picking gifts? We have a person in our family that seems to really tune in to who you are, to what you like, to what you enjoy doing, and they buy gifts that fit right into that. So anytime you get a gift from them, you have a lot of anticipation. “Oh, I can't wait to see what I got because I know it's something good because they know me and they care about the things I care about.”

That's the way our heavenly Father is. He gives us wonderful gifts, good and perfect gifts, as the scriptures say, that allow us not only to enjoy our relationship with Him but to give glory to Him as we use those gifts in His service. It's as if each one of us had a Michelangelo moment. And what I'm talking about is that beautiful painting where God the creator is touching His creation, Adam. God has done that with each of us. Every one of us has been touched by our creator's hand and shaped and gifted in a unique and wonderful way that we might serve Him, that we might give glory to Him, and we might be a blessing to others.

A few years ago, I was at a pastors' conference and I saw a couple who was at the conference pushing a stroller. And in the stroller was this beautiful Chinese baby, a little girl. And I asked them about the adoption process. I said, “You adopted this girl from China , right?” And they said, “Yes.” I said, “I just love to hear these stories. Tell me the story of how you adopted this little girl.” So they told me the man's parents had passed away and they had used the money from the inheritance to pay all the expenses of this adoption. And I thought, “What a great use of gifts. An inheritance turns into a legacy. It turns into the future.” The gift from the grandparents results in a grandchild. And that's exactly the way God's gifts work in us. God gives us gifts that we enjoy but they're a great blessing to those we serve in His name. The blessing is passed on.

That's the kind of gifts God gives us. In fact, scriptures list a lot of different spiritual gifts and I'm going to talk about a list of nine that we often incorporate in our ministry here. There are nine gifts in scriptures mentioned relating to God's gifting us. The first is the evangelist. The second is the prophet. The third is the teacher. The fourth is the exorter. The fifth is the pastor. The sixth is the mercy shower. The seventh is the server. The eighth is the giver. And the ninth is the administrator. Now these are not ranked according to importance because every one of these gifts is important. Every part of God's puzzle is important. Every person in God's family, every member of the body of Christ is crucial to the function of His mission. God not only gives us these gifts, but He also gives us the purpose for them. He gives us, as it says in Ephesians 2:10, “He's prepared good works for us to do.” The word says, “For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We are His workmanship. Our wonderful creator has shaped us and molded us uniquely according to His design and purpose. When I think of workmanship, I think of all kinds of well-made products and things like that. And I had a great example of that Friday night when we were over at Pastor Burcham's. He had this wonderful party to celebrate the completion of his basement refinishing or remodeling. And I looked around and it was beautiful, wonderful workmanship. You could see there was a lot of thought behind it, a lot of attention to detail, just a good design. Everything was functional and made sense. It was beautiful. And that's the way God is with us. He creates us beautifully with a wonderful design and a plan for that design. I know as Pastor laid out the plans for his basement, he had the activities in mind that were going to be happening down there, the use for that facility. And that's the way God gifts us. He has a plan, not just to give us a gift but for us to use that gift to employ that gift in His wonderful service. Workmanship. That's what we are. We are God's workmanship.

And the purpose for each of these nine gifts I mentioned earlier goes like this: The evangelist is that aggressive soul winner who seeks the lost. Now when I think of that, I think of my wife, Kim. And if you know Kim, you would agree. When we go to Honduras , she cannot wait to do evangelism. She cannot wait to meet those people and share Christ with them. In fact, she does it all the time. She does it in the grocery store. She does it everywhere she goes. And, as her family, sometimes we tease her a little bit about that but it's really amazing. She has such a heart for reaching the lost. When Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons come to our house, they leave quickly. She invites them in. She makes cookies for them. She wants them to come back, but they don't. In fact, one time we had Jehovah Witnesses come to our house in Minnesota . That's the house right next to the church. No other houses around, so they knew who they were talking to. But they came and there was one gal who was very experienced and one who was a beginner, so they talked. Kim talked to them for awhile and said, “Come on back,” and, of course, they didn't. But one day, Kim saw one of them at the post office because we lived in a town where you went to the post office to mail your letters and things like that. She saw this gal and said, “Hi, how you doing?” The girl ran away. That is an evangelist. She is so determined to reach people for Christ that it's all she thinks about.

The second gift, the prophet, this is the person with a spirit-giving capacity and desire to serve God by proclaiming God's truth and they call it like it is. They're not just voicing their opinions but they stand on God's Word and they tell it like it is.

The third person, the teacher, that's more of the scholar, the person who's gifted by God to investigate and research and dig and then share these truths in a clear and simple way.

The next person is the exorter. The exorter is like the football coach. He's the one who trains you and teaches you and motivates you to go out there and do it, to use those gifts God has given you.

The next person is the pastor or shepherd. This is the spirit-given capacity and desire to serve God by overseeing and training and caring for the needs of God's people, the person who watches out and takes care. He's the one who comforts and brings encouragement in that way.

The next person is the mercy shower. This is the one who identifies and comforts those who are in distress. He sees the people who are going through difficult times and he reaches out to them.

The next person is the server. This is the person who meets the practical needs of their brothers and sisters. This is the person with the spirit-given capacity and desire to serve God by rendering practical help in both physical and spiritual matters. And I know there's a guy in this church that does this. There are a lot of people in this church that do that, but this one guy in particular has helped me to work on my cars. We had a problem with the plumbing in one of our bathrooms. He knew exactly how to fix it. I call up and ask to talk to him, “Oh, he's going and he's painting someone's house,” or “He's putting a roof on someone else's house.” This is the kind of person he is, a server. He has a heart for helping people, using the gifts God has given him and making their lives better.

The next person is the giver. This is the spirit-given capacity and desire to serve God by giving of their material resources far beyond the tithe to further the work of God. This person meets the financial needs of fellow Christians and other ministries. Last year, when we were getting ready to go to Honduras , I had somebody come up to me and say, “Now you're going on that Honduras trip, right?” “Yeah.” “When do you go?” “In August.” “Well, we've been praying about it and we would like to give to that trip. Is there a need?” I said, “Absolutely. A lot of people are going. It's very expensive and so we're raising money to reduce the cost for each individual going.” And they wrote out a very generous check. And I was just blessed by that to know people have that kind of a heart and really want to support and get behind the ministries. This is the giver. That's a spiritual thing. God gives you those resources, and He moves you to use them for His glory.

And finally, the administrator. Now this isn't the least important. It might sound kind of dry and not too exciting but this is a really awesome gift. If you have the gift of administration, you are what I call a multiplier. You take the gift of one and you train many people to do it and you multiply that gift over and over, so more and more people are blessed in that ministry. You can lead a team. You can train a team, and you can accomplish great things because of your administrative gifts. These are the purposes God gives us along with our gifts.

The third point about gifts is God also gives us the mission. He doesn't just give us something and say, “Go figure out how to use it.” He gives us the mission. He leads us by the Holy Spirit. He draws us into ministries. As the doors open, as we hear somebody talking about a need for a certain kind of ministry, God puts us in a position to use our gifts. Matthew 28:18-20 summarizes the Great Mission all of us are part of, “Then Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.'” In these words, Jesus spoke to the disciples, the 11 that were alive, and He said, “Go and make disciples.” And they did. Every one of those disciples gave their lives for Christ. They traveled throughout the world spreading the gospel. And today, we are the spiritual descendants of those disciples. We are the ones God is saying those words to today. And you might think, “How am I going to make disciples? I'm not going to get up and preach. I don't know how to teach,” things like that. Sometimes we see this as applying to missionaries or pastors or someone like that, but that's not true. Every one of us is called by God to be part of His mission. Nobody can be like the guy up there in that picture sitting in the recliner with the remote. That's not God's call for us. God's call is for us to get to it, to go make a difference, to do great things for Him, to reach the lost in any way we can, to contribute with the gifts He's given us, not necessarily preaching or teaching but supporting those missions and doing all these different things, these purposes He's given us with our gifts. God has called every one of us to be an important part of His ministry, that lives might be changed, that eternal destiny might be changed. People who are destined for hell might be brought into the kingdom of God and have eternal life as their gift and reward. That is what this mission is all about.

I want to tell you a story of some lives that were changed. When I was a pastor in New Jersey , I had just arrived there and our church got a phone call at the office. A woman had called and said, “My husband is in the last stages of cancer and we'd like for the pastor to come and visit him. He was raised Lutheran.” So I went and I visited. And as soon as I saw the man, I knew it wasn't long. You can tell. But we had wonderful talks. He had been raised Lutheran. She had been raised something else, but her faith was pretty much nonexistent and his faith was very feeble. But through our conversations and the relationship we developed, his faith became strong and he started coming to church. Every Sunday, he insisted on being in church and they would bring him in a wheelchair and he would sit in the back. Now our church in New Jersey , we had a traditional service and we had a contemporary service. He came to the contemporary which, for somebody who had been raised Lutheran way back when, is quite a stretch. But he came because all he wanted was to be close to God. And you could just see as he sat there God's love was filling him and embracing him in his last days. And when it got close, I could tell. And so we sat down one day and we planned his funeral. We talked about the scripture readings he liked and things like that. I asked him, “Is there a special song you would like to have at your funeral?” And he said, “Yes and it's called Here I Am, Lord .” I don't know if you know that song, but it's from the contemporary service, which I was really amazed this guy would resonate with that. But this song captured where he was with the Lord. Here he was, he had lived his whole life pretty much without God and now he had come back. His faith was renewed and now he is completely surrendering to God and putting himself in God's hands. “Here I Am, Lord,” is how it goes. “I've heard your calling in the night and I will follow.” Basically, “Anywhere you lead me, I will follow.” That's what was resonating in his heart. What a beautiful song. What a beautiful conclusion to his days on this earth. And then, as we did the funeral, his wife continued to worship with us. And little by little, I could see her heart softening. She was very distant from God and very cold toward God. And I knew she knew about Him but didn't know He loved her. But after time, she began to soften. And her life began to change and she began to come to different activities at church. And one Sunday, we were talking about our Honduras trip. “We're going to Honduras .” She came to the meeting. She signed up to go. And the first year she went, it just blew her away because there are a lot of intense emotions, sadness, happiness, joy, and sorrow, all those mixed together and it was really hard for her. Maybe she was still grieving, too. But it was really a challenge. And I didn't think she'd ever come back, but the next year she went again. And, at that point, right before our trip, she found out she had breast cancer but she didn't tell anyone. So we didn't find out until we were on our way home. And we said, “Why didn't you tell us before? Why didn't you get your surgery before the trip.” She said, “I didn't want anything to stop this trip.” So we went through that process with her, the whole family, our congregation surrounding her with love and walking with her through that experience. And now she's been going year after year after year and she has a strong and beautiful faith in the Lord. God has changed her life. He changed her husband's life and that's what our mission is all about multiplied x 1,000 or 1 million. We want to make disciples. We want to reach all people. And God has given us, as Pastor said last week, he's given us everything we need to make that happen. We have these gifts that are mentioned in scripture. We have the resources. We have the opportunity. We have the time.

And so now I need to draw this to a close with a few questions. First, I want you to think about this. What is your gift? What is the gift your creator has put in you for His service? What is that gift?

Second, what is your mission? What is God drawing you into? What has He called you to do with that gift?

And finally, what lives will be changed as you present yourself to God and say, “Here I am, Lord, I have heard you calling.” And you allow Him to use you and your gifts to reach and bless people around you. Think of the lives that will be changed.

There are no useless gifts God gives us. Unused maybe but useless no. And maybe you're not sure what your gifts are or what your ministry is and that's why we have this ministry in our congregation with a class called “Discovering Your Shape.” That's the goal of that ministry is to help you know your gifts, know how God has shaped you, know what He has put in you and to find out, as you go to this class, you learn all about how God has shaped you and, at the conclusion of the class, you have a one-on-one interview to find out how your gifts match up with ministries in our congregation. That's what that ministry is there for. You can sign up. You can take that class. It takes two weeks, two sessions, and it plugs you in to God's mission here.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you've created us, that you've endowed us with your gifts, your good and perfect gifts, and we thank you for the privilege of being part of your body. Help us to obey your call, to rise up, to make a difference, to do great things for you, to be used by you to bless others. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church