We all have skills!
I’m particularly impressed by skilled musicians and people who extremely good capacity for retaining information. I guess that that is because these are not skills or abilities that I have naturally. However I understand that there are some people who can’t wire a house, or paint a room or build a book case or make a sponge cake. Where I’m heading here is that God has gifted us all with abilities and that we have capabilities that make it possible for us become skilled in some area or other.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been looking at some advice that King David gave his boy the future King Solomon about the Temple that Solomon was to build in Jerusalem. It was great advice also stuff that we can all be aware of, stuff that will make a difference in all of our lives. This is it!
1 Chronicles 29:20 and 21.
”David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. The divisions of the priests and Levites are ready for all the work on the temple of God, and every willing person skilled in any craft will help you in all the work…..”
The third thing David pointed out is that the priest and Levites are ready to do the work and that every willing person has skills, and that they all have a part to play in the work.
Willingness - now there's an interesting commodity. There are many skilled people who for their own reasons arn't willing to do God's work - whose love for God comes after love for self.
I firmly believe that you all, we all, have a great number of skills that will make a huge difference in this community if we continue to use these skills for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.
I want to have a bit of a look at what the work may be and pinch a few quotes from our founders to address some of what we can do as a community of believers, influencing our community and communities.
Firstly is there anyone here that is really satisfied with New Zealand society, that can’t find something in the City of Dunedin that could be done better, or in such a way that people live better lives or lives where they can enjoy the relationship that you have with God and your fellow humans?
Catherine Booth the Co-Founder of the Salvation Army told the early Salvationists that “If we are to better the future we must disturb the present”. I know that these early Salvationists disturbed the present quite a bit and bettered the future for many many people. With the way society is looking at this time the present. it could do with a bit of disturbing, a really good upsetting I think. The present is a really good time for Christian activists to rise up.
There is an important question that William Booth asked. “But what is the use of preaching the Gospel to men whose whole attention is concentrated upon a mad, desperate struggle to keep themselves alive?” We have a good number people in the wider Dunedin community who are involved in a desperate struggle to survive, battling abuse, addiction, loneliness, greet, hopelessness. What is being done by us, what can be done by us, so that peoples spiritual and material needs can be met, so that people may be set free from the vices that hold them clenched in their jaws. So that people might be set free from the sin that drags them to the gates of Hell. What is it we can do to shine a light in dark lives so that they are then in a place to hear and receive the good news about Jesus?
There are also many people who appear to have it all together, they dress well they hold down good… sometimes great jobs, have all the toys, but are as lost as those who can’t met their own material needs, William Booth had an astute understanding of who the lost were and in his vision of the lost he was quite clear that the lost were those who were not on the platform around the rock of Calvary, where Jesus had saved them from their sins…these poor souls were not on the rock but struggling and drowning in the sea, his directive was “Look! Don't be deceived by appearances -- men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock are in the sea!” William Booth. What skills do you have to drag them from the sea, believe that you have those skills, friendship may just be the rope required, a batch of biscuits to that neighbour and a cuppa might just be the ladder they require to get them on the first rung out of that horrible sea.
In William Booths book Darkest England and the Way Out (October 1890). Part I. -- The Darkness. Chapter V. On the Verge of the Abyss, he wrote “It is against stupidity in every shape and form that we have to wage our eternal battle. But how can we wonder at the want of sense on the part of those who have had no advantages, when we see such plentiful absence of that commodity 'sense' on the part of those who have had all the advantages?” The thing is in regards to Salvation that people see no further often than their hand in front of their eyes, be it through being disadvantaged or overly advantaged in some form, suffering and discomfort or suffering from too much comfort. The mass of humanity is often not reached for their own good, for their best advantage and people continue in their droves to live in misery or continue in their lives of sin, strolling a merry road that is wide and leads straight to an eternity of suffering, suffering in life and suffering in hell.
Jesus came so that people can have life in all its abundance, the first General said this, “To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education. These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labour. You must in some way or other graft upon the man's nature a new nature, which has in it the element of the Divine.” ( William Booth) I tell you there is a great joy to hearing that someone on the Bridge programme or someone else that we have journeyed with in ministry, has had a change that they know the peace of the Holy Spirit in their inner being, that the Divine has come into their heart and that they know they are saved. I think of one dear friend who after years of travelling a journey of discovery, battling addiction, after attending a number of soldiership classes, realised the love of Christ as he was accepted into community, after his doubts were listened to and he began to speak to God, and God entered his heart. The Holy Spirit has found a home with this man in such a way that he celebrates his relationship with Jesus loudly powerfully today.
Catherine Booth, that incredible witness, who worked tirelessly in the slums of East London, who even as she was dying asked one of her daughters to visit a prisoner and tell him that she had been praying for him, said this, and I challenge you with this quote. Because us Christians, those who are now saved and safe upon the rock often forget the suffering that it is to be caught up in sin. This is what she said; “We are made for larger ends than Earth can encompass. Oh, let us be true to our exalted destiny.” The truth is that all of mankind are made for eternity, some see no further than, the next Americas Cup race, the next pint of Spieghts, the next test match, the next pay packet or meal. We, those of us in this room have the skills required to bring them into Glory, a relationship with the King of Kings.
You might say but I’m no good at this or that. What was it King David said to his boy? “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.” You may say fare enough, but I can’t bake, I can’t visit a prison. But you can show genuine love, some of you can talk the leg of a brass pot…that would make you a born evangelist if you tell people of the love of Jesus, and the change he’s made in your lives.
Some of you are the quiet types, introverts who like to work alone. Don’t let that stop you, there’s plenty behind the senses to do, we’re always looking for reliable volunteers, in the shops, in the food bank, in the warehouse, around the building, in the wider community that is the Salvation Army here in Dunedin. For you tech savvy types, what about web pages and blogs, sharing your faith on Face Book or Twitter? You could engage in social media, helping others online, people who are lonely or confused. You have skills…Kingdom building skills, great things will occur when they are put to use.
To finish up today, I’m going to have a responsive reading, I hope that this is challenging and it comes with my apologies to General Booth. The response is this…I have skills that can change that. As you respond, which part grabs you, how is God's Spirit speaking to your spirit? How can your skills make a difference?
While women weep, as they do now, I have skills that can change that,
while children go hungry, as they do now I have skills that can change that;
while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I have skills that can change that;
while there is a drunkard left, I have skills that can change that;
while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, I have skills that can change that;
while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I have skills that can change that, to ensure that an eternity of Glory is theirs, for I have skills that I will use to Fight the Good Fight until the end.
For Jesus came so that all people may live life all its abundance, some don’t, but I have skills that can change that!
Amen.
