Sermon for July 26th

What are your gifts? What are you good at? What do you love doing? What comes easy for you? If you had all the money in the world and all the time in the world, what would you do? If you could do anything for the church—anything in the name of Jesus—what would it be? If you knew that you didn’t have to do anything, what would you do? What your gifts? Both the gifts that God has given you naturally as well as the spiritual gifts God has blessed you with. What are your gifts?

Apart from Jesus Christ, you don’t have gifts, you have abilities. Strengths, based on your genetics or upbringing, to help you out on your personal journey of self-exploration and self-improvement. And these powers of yours will seem to be the most natural of things proving your own sense of self-worth; strengthening your independence. You can be the best basketball player this world has ever seen. You can be the most perceptive leader this world has ever known. You can be the hardest worker in your town. With your abilities, you can be all that you can be all by yourself!

But Jesus says, “Apart from me YOU can do nothing.” All those amazing strengths of yours, those supernatural abilities, those astounding powers . . . God says those are gifts. Gifts given to you from God. Gifts given to you for the sake of the world, not just for your own pleasure. You have been given gifts not primarily for your own enjoyment but in order to bear fruit—fruit for the kingdom of God. This is not something you would have come up with on your own. Like I said, your abilities, your talents, your interests no doubt feel quite innate. Only the Holy Spirit can make you believe something different.

In your bulletins, you each received a note card. First, write your name on the top of the card. In your pews, there are extra cards as well as pens and pencils. Now we are going to pray that God might help you discern some of your gifts, then you will write two of them down. You might write down natural gifts like the gift of song or the gift of mechanical inclination or the gift of organization or the gift of athleticism. These also might be spiritual gifts, like the gift of prayer or the gift of hospitality or the gift of administration or the gift of evangelism.

Remember, the first step to help you realize your gifts is to ask yourself: What are you good at? What do you love doing? And if you knew that you didn’t have to do anything at Saint Peters, what would you CHOOSE to do. What would you like to start at church? After we pray, I want you to write down what you think two of your gifts might be. Let us pray . . . Start now.

You each received a picture in your bulletin. It looks like this. A wagon, full of circular wheels, being pulled on four square wheels. This picture represents how churches function most of the time. It’s looks like pretty hard work? The thing is that it doesn’t have to be, does it? Those round wheels that are just being carried along, they represent you, people with gifts. God has given each one of you talents, abilities and desires to do wonderful things in this world and in this church. And if you knew your gifts and were willing to utilize them, if you realized that you were a round wheel in that wagon and were tired of being unused, through the power of God you might do some amazing things. And some amazing things might happen here in this church and in this community.

Imagine what might happen here at Saint Peters if you used your gifts on behalf of Jesus Christ. One of the best side effects of using your gifts is the fact that you usually enjoy using them. When you are doing something you love to do it doesn’t even seem like work. Do some of you remember Michael Jordan? When he slam dunked a basketball, I think he actually liked it; in fact, he loved it. Did you ever have a grandmother who seemed to actually enjoy cooking huge complicated meals for you? I have two.

Do you enjoy what you do here at Saint Peters? If not, you are probably one of those square wheels in the picture—that must not be much fun. Do you have any ministry tasks at church? If not, then you are like one of those round wheels just sitting there unused. When you are using your gifts, you are all round wheels that make work more fun and noticeably more effective for the sake of the kingdom of God.

But when you are forced to do something that you aren’t gifted at, there is nothing worse. Imagine what might happen here at Saint Peters, if you ONLY used your gifts. Not because you weren’t willing to be challenged. Not because you didn’t care. Not because you were too busy and stressed out, but because if the task was something that God intended on getting done then there MUST (there MUST!) be someone in the community gifted in that area. If we all want to start a drum band and no one here plays the drums and no one wants to learn . . . maybe God doesn’t intend there to be a drum band here after all. God has placed you here for a reason. And he has given you gifts. Once you start realizing those gifts, you might also realize what God has in store for you as an individual and for the people this church serves.

Eventually, once you’ve discovered the gifts you love to do and the gifts that others see in you, it will be time to see what gifts you can better develop, the gifts that stretch your faith and challenge you to grow. Just because you don’t WANT to do something, just because you aren’t PERFECT at doing something, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it. The FIRST step in realizing your gifts is to do what you are good at, but don’t just stop there. As Paul says again in Corinthians, “God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. . . . But strive for the greater gifts.” Once you’ve discovered what you love to do, strive to find the gifts that you will LEARN to love to do.

Moses complained that he was slow of speech and couldn’t lead the Israelites, but God called him to be their leader. Isaiah complained that he was a man of unclean lips living among an unclean people, but God forgave him and blotted out his sins. Jeremiah complained that he was only a boy, too young to be useful to God, but God used him as his great prophet.

What has God called you to do? What are your gifts? During today’s offering, I would like you each to place into the offering plate the note card with your name and gifts written on it. The money that is offered each week is used to serve our church community and the wider world. That should give you a clue why God gave you your other gifts as well. Imagine what might happen if you got out of the wagon and started using your gifts at church? What would you do? What would you start? Don’t just think about it, tell someone so we can make it happen. Imagine what might happen if we trusted God to provide people with the gifts to do the ministries he has called us to fulfill?

What has God called you to do? What are your gifts? If you are hoping to use your own strengths and abilities to accomplish all that God demands of you, you will never succeed. For, as Martin Luther put it, God says, “Do this!” and it is never done. I pray that God will give you the imagination, the hope, the power and the motivation to use the GIFTS that God has GIVEN you. Believe in Jesus Christ and the power of God to work through your gifts and everything is done already. Amen.