Legoland Church

First Baptist Church

Romans 12:3-8

Lego My Lego: 4 Secrets of Significance

April 22, 2001

Besides playing with tractors, combines and his construction set, one of Joshua’s favorite things to play with are Lego’s. He likes to build towers, bridges and tunnels for his trucks to go under. The only problem is a dare-devil named Zachary who finds great joy in destroying his big brother’s towers. When Joshua is building a tower, there is no stopping him. If I put a piece in the wrong spot, he quickly corrects me and I place it where he says it should go.

We are beginning to experiment with making animals; like a giraffe and elephant. I have seen pictures on television of entire cities built with Lego’s. You should go to the Lego web-site and really see what you can do with these little pieces. Of course, you may look at the one piece that you received this morning, and wonder, ‘So this is my unique gift that you promised?’ What am I going to do with it, and how does it symbolize me?’ Those are good questions, and you know I have an answer.

Have you ever found one piece of an entire set lying on the floor? They seem pretty insignificant, don’t they? If it makes it back into its container, great, if not, so what. One piece missing out of 120, that’s not much, it’s 8/10 of 1%. You would hardly miss it.

In fact, if Lego pieces could think, they would feel rather insignificant. Significance is defined as ‘the quality of being important or being regarded as having great meaning.’ A piece of Lego, significant? Give me a break! I'm sure most pieces of Lego, would feel very insignificant.

And I believe we’re pretty similar to Lego pieces. Left to ourselves, we can feel pretty insignificant, but when we find ourselves in a community, whether it is family or church community, we can feel more significant. So, along with the Lego’s, we need to learn 4 secrets of significance. Knowing these four secrets can transform the way we think about ourselves.

Here's the first secret — EVERY PIECE IS A GIFT

Isn't that true? This morning, when you came in, a greeter or an usher handed you a Lego. I don't know what you did with it. You may still have it, you may have thrown it out or given it to someone else. The piece you received was a gift.

Some of you may have looked at that piece and thought it wasn't worth very much. To illustrate this concept of having received a Lego piece, think of what the Bible says about the concept of spiritual gifts. “God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well” (12:6 NLT). That's the spiritual equivalent of saying ‘God has given each of us a Lego piece.’ Let's draw some parallels --

When you came in, you were given 1 Lego piece. You didn't choose the piece you got. You might not have liked the color or the shape. You might not have wanted a piece at all. You didn’t choose what you received.

You may have felt that your piece was insignificant. Answer honestly: how many people threw away their Lego or gave it to someone else? Why did you do that? (1 OF 2 REASONS - you either placed no value on the piece that you received, mostly because it looked insignificant and you didn't have to go buy it, but I did! If you don't value your piece, give it to me!

Maybe you gave away your piece to someone you care about because you did see significance in that little piece. It is just like giving part of yourself away. When we see significance in ourselves we are more willing to give away parts of ourselves so that others may grow and benefit.

Or maybe you wondered what this piece of Lego was for. I'll bet you've been wondering what that piece of Lego is for ever since you received it! The same reactions take place in the church when God passes out these supernatural abilities.

Nobody chose the piece that God gave them. I didn't and you didn't. If we believe that God knows better than we do, then we need to accept that God has given us just the piece that we needed to have, and no other piece would be better suited to us. It also means that we can't take credit for the piece or gifts God gave us. God gets the glory - not us.

But you might look at that supernatural ability God has given you and undervalued it. You might feel that you don't have a piece, or the piece God gave you is too small. You might have questioned why God gave you a piece at all. You're struggling with significance. But the first lesson that we need to learn is this: everyone has received a piece that came directly from God.