Feb 5 2017 How to Use Your Gifts and Talents for God

We have been talking about re-envisioning our church – and this week, we are talking about an issue that came out of that.

What I am going to be doing once Lent starts – I listen to a lot of podcasts – I don’t imitate or copy them – but sometimes people do sermons on the seven deadly sins… - instead of that – you look at the seven churches in Revelation – and in each of those messages – the angel says – to him who overcomes – I’d like to look at how to overcome those sins. But over the next couple weeks – I’m going to lay out a foundation for that from Revelation.

Lord, thank You for the opportunity to be together as a community – your children. Do a mighty work in our hearts – prepare us for the work You have for us. Thank You – Your view is always from this point forward – forgetting what lies behind – and looking forward. You have forgiven our mistakes and all our accomplishments are in the past – and so your concern is about moving forward from this point on. Help us to be a light – a beacon of Christ in every situation we might encounter. In Your name.

There was a recently retired Catholic priest – a youngish black Baptist pastor – and a slightly beyond middle age white pastor guy – and they were in the locker room of a gym - sounds like the beginning of a joke – but this actually happened. I could hear two people talking – “so you recently retired from being a Catholic priest – I have a question – will the church ever allow a Catholic priest get married?” I thought – oh my – what is going to happen now? They went on this conversation – I knew who the Catholic priest was – he was still wearing a clerical collar… I introduced myself – they asked where my church was – it’s just around the corner – are you from Immaculate Heart? No – a church in Springfield. The diocese has 700,000 people. 700 families in their church. In my church – what I did – I was there for decades – I found as many gifted people as I could and taught them to do ministry and then I focused on what I need to do. I knew that I would be talking about this in a couple weeks – and here we are. Today we are focusing on how to use our gifts and talents in the community of faith – within the church.

There is no guilt in this – I am not trying to guilt anyone into doing things. It is my hope that you would be more fulfilled in doing what God is calling you to do.

1 Peter 4:10

10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. 11 If you speak, you should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If you serve, you should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

We each have unique gifts and talents to offer this church. This means that each of us has an important role to play – and that means that each of us has a responsibility to use the gifts we have been given within the community. God gives us these gifts for a purpose – to benefit His kingdom and His church.

God uses the metaphor of the body for a church. We know that if one part does not function properly, it affects the whole body. If you have a bad foot – then the knee goes, then the hip then the back – there is this cascading effect. It is the same in the church community. Every part is critical and important – each of us must fulfill our designated role. I’d like for each of us to participate to our full capacity – to learn how to use our gifts to our full capacity.

This word – capacity – you will have different capacities at different times in your life.

1 Cor. 12:4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

This is an ever expanding opportunity for service and ministry in God’s kingdom. That should excite us. I don’t think we tend to view it that way – instead, we tend to see it as limited – but God’s view is that your opportunities will constantly expand to be a part of His service. We have all of these opportunities – but we must remember that the one behind all of it is God – He works all things in all persons. It is about God. It is not about my gifts or what I possess or what I could do.

I’ll use one gift as an example – the gift of teaching. With those who are talented at teaching – there are all kinds of different ways of teaching – it is not just standing up and communicating – there are multiple ways of doing that – The effect multiplies. Some teach and others exhort and some instruct and some teach with passion - and there are many service opportunities to use the gift. Not only are there a bunch of types but a bunch of ways to do it.

There are different effects – encouragement – it could be emotional or teaching – for some it could be academic. For each person, there is a unique place for it. It is not a cookie cutter thing – THIS is the gift of teaching or service or leadership. And God didn’t just stamp people out – but we are personally made that we might be unique – a part of His work in a very special way. I think it is easy to lose sight of that. – To not know the important role that we can play in His kingdom.

Wherever we are – from this point forward – God wants something really valuable – He has valuable things for you to be involved in

7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

How do we engage our gifts? And more fundamentally – how do we even know what our gifts and talents are?

First – in order to engage our gifts and know what they are – the first thing necessary is desire. We need to want to get involved in serving in God’s kingdom. If we have no desire to serve in God’s community – then we will not know how to engage our gifts or what they are. It starts with the desire.

Second – we need to be intentional – we need to make a commitment to do so. We must intend to do so. We must make a decision that says – I am getting involved. That is simple – but that is the beginning. Then – we look for opportunities. We have our eyes open for opportunities to take our desire and intention and put them to work.

What if I don’t want to do any more? What if I am doing all that I can do? And many may be feeling – I’m tired of doing ‘stuff’. Well – if you are in that situation – first – take a spiritual inventory or evaluation before God – look at ourselves before God and ask – why am I at the point I am now? Why is my spirit and attitude what it is at this moment? Maybe, the answer is that you are at your capacity! Maybe the reason you don’t want to do more – you are probably doing all that you can do – and there are some in this church who are doing all they can do and should not do more. But maybe when you do this evaluation or inventory – God may say to you – I have more for you to do!

And if that is the case – that is really between you and God. This is not about trying to get you to do more! This is really about our church saying we want to open up opportunities for those who want to step in. If you have something God is calling you to – we want to see if we can make it work for you. I don’t want anyone to feel guilt-ridden like they are not doing enough. But I want all of us to be before God doing all that He calls us to do. We should all do that. So – if we go through this exercise – to take some time to honestly come before God – and if we are not using those gifts to capacity – we need to ask – why are we at this point?

Maybe it is because of past experience. Maybe you can’t do more because you are burned out from past experiences. For some, this is a legitimate reality. Now how do I move past it?

Second – maybe it is because of fear – fear of failure or fear of judgment. Jesus told the parable of a wealthy businessman who gave three employees 3 different sums of money – do business with it! The one who was given a lot doubled it – and the one who got medium doubled it – and the one who got the least – well, because he was afraid and didn’t want to lose any of it – he hid it. A lot of times, we don’t’ step out because of fear – fear of failure. What if he invested it and lost it all? What would the master have done?

The other times we don’t engage because of guilt.

Maybe we are overachievers or have too high of expectations. So we stop and do nothing. God just wants us to try – to step out and try things.

There are ways of increasing your capacity if that is an issue.

First – create margins in our lives. Stop taking everything to the edge. With our devices and activities and distractions, we are marginlesss people with no space for God even when we think we are doing all the everything for God. It begins with prioritizing and eliminating – so there is room to go ahead and do it. We need space for what matters.

Second - Prioritize

Third - Eliminate stuff from our lives.

Romans 12:3 Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us

We need to look at ourselves and give ourselves an accurate grade and evaluation. We need to understand what we can and cannot do. We should not think too high or too low of ourselves! Find that honest balance!

How do we discover what we are good at? How many of you have taken a spiritual gift test? I would take them with a grain of salt – it is easy to manipulate them. None of those who were written about in the bible had a spiritual gift inventory. Here is a good way – Get involved and try stuff! They discover in doing that what they are good at.

Second – move in the direction of your heart or passions. What is it that your heart breaks or longs for? What are you passionate about?

Track your record! When you do stuff - what blesses others?

Ask others for their opinion on what they think you are gifted at – and give them the freedom to be honest – because, oftentimes, outsiders look in and say you are really good at this! But it is hard (but beneficial) to ask others – what do you see in me?

As a church – I have a survey for you – and I will have you fill them out and turn them in – here are some simple principles –

First - we cannot do everything now – as a church – you may have a passion for an excellent ministry or mission – but it may not be something we can do at this point. We may be able to do it five years from now –

Second - all ministries and missions that we do as a church need to connect and support God’s calling and purpose and mission for us as a church. There are many good things to do in the world – but some things need to be left to other ministries or organizations to do – because it is not what God has called us to do. For instance – soup kitchen – there are many ministries who do that – we don’t have the facilities or calling to do it. It is okay! Many of us do this at other churches’ soup kitchens – and that is okay. We have to discern what God is calling US to do.

If you are passionate about a ministry and think the church needs to do this – guess what? You need to be a part of fulfilling that. It is wholly unhelpful to come in and say the church needs to do this if you are not willing to be a part of doing it! It doesn’t work that way. Here is how it does work – you sense a need – or have a passion – you talk to a ministry leader in the church – and you take that – we take that – and evaluate – does it fit in with our purpose and calling? Can this connect with what God has called us to do? Then the church needs to support you and develop a team of people who can actually accomplish this and get it done. This does not mean that you have to do it all yourself or even lead it.

An example of this – Women’s ministry – we’ve had it on and off – but a few years ago – Jemma said she would love to do women’s ministry – and we got a team together and now Marianne is leading it – but there is still a team who is leading that.

Shoeboxes – Vic came up – we’ve done this at other churches… – okay – it fits with our vision and mission – and we got a team together.

It is the same with missions out in the world. We need new expressions of Grace Summit in the world.

Someone mentioned how North Hill is a center for immigrants. How would this church do something to help there? We would need 3-5 people who have a passion for that and then we would create a team and they would invite others to minister in that area. That is how ministries work. It does not come from on high.

Name – put your name on it – this is not anonymous. If you don’t get it done right now – that is fine.

If you have skills or a trade – there are many ways you can help it goes beyond the gifts mentioned in the Bible.

What gifts or talents do you possess that could be useful to the church? For a church to function – there are physical things that just need to be done! These are just as important as great spiritual gifts!

Is what you are doing a good match for what your desires are?

Sometimes you have served in a ministry for so long and you are done with it. It would be helpful to know that!

Sometimes we just need to serve – whether we like it or not – I don’t know that Jesus had the gift for footwashing – but He got up and did it!

Maybe there are some things you are good at where others could benefit?

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Is there a cause or justice mission you are passionate about?

Let me give you some possibilities – some things we would like to do –

For Sunday morning worship services – would like to develop a reading and communication team. Maybe a small handful of people who would do a benediction or call to worship.

Prayer team – to make people available – that if someone needed prayer – they could go to the back office

Communion team – we have someone who sets up the bread and juice – but it would be nice to have a small team to work with the musicians and connect communion.

Sound/Tech/Music

Church promotion

ACtivites fellowship Team

Administrative team

Children’s ministry

Finally – Small group leadership. Our church focuses on small groups – if you would like to be a leader – and would like training for that – make that known. Fill it in and turn it in.