When a local church broke ground for a new 500-seat sanctuary, an inventive church member made sure everyone could participate in the experience. The man attached a 145-foot handle to a stainless steel spade so that all 300 members could squeeze together to turn the first shovel full of dirt.
A few days later, when a construction worker spotted the odd shovel and asked what it was for, the minister replied, “We bury 'em deep here.” (Rhonda Reese, Jacksonville, Florida, Christian Reader, “Lite Fare”)
I like that pastor’s sense of humor, and I like the symbolism of that ground-breaking ceremony.
We did a similar thing in Ellsworth, Kansas, when we got ready to build our new church facility there. We tied a rope to an old hand plow. Then the entire congregation grabbed a hold of that rope, and together we pulled that little plow to break the ground. We ended up breaking the rope, but not before we had a nice little furrow in the ground. We were trying to communicate the fact that it takes everybody working together to build a strong church.
You say, “Phil, that’s a nice sentiment, but it doesn’t seem very practical. How can we get EVERYBODY working together? How can we get EVERY member to do his or her work, so we can have a strong church right here in Lyons, Kansas. Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, where the Bible shows us how.
Ephesians 4:7-10 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) –ESV
After Christ died, was buried and rose again, he ascended to the place of all authority. Our King, victorious over death and hell, is now above all other rulers in this world and in the heavenly realms as well. He is King of kings and Lord or lords, and from that position he has determined to bless all His subjects with special gifts.
In ancient Rome, when a victorious military general returned home victorious from battle, he would lead a big victory parade down Main Street. It was quite a spectacle, with the General and his army carrying the spoils of war and the prisoners of war following behind. In other words, “He led a host of captives and gave gifts to men”. The general gave the spoils of war to the soldiers in his army.
Well, that’s exactly what Jesus did for us after he died and rose again. He returned home victorious, and now He is passing out the spoils of war to all his followers. He is distributing gifts to all those who believe in Him. Only, they are NOT gifts of gold and silver. They are SPIRITUAL gifts. They are SUPERNATURAL abilities to serve Him and His people.
Do you know what that means? Everyone of us has been offered a spiritual gift. All of us who know Jesus have been offered the ability to do some supernatural thing to His honor and glory! No one is excluded, no matter how handicapped we think we are. All we have to do is…
ACCEPT THOSE GIFTS.
All we have to do is receive God’s gifts and welcome their use into our lives.
Thousands are coming to hear him preach. His ministry has gone global. He has written a book. And I’m not talking about Billy Graham or even his son, Franklin Graham. I’m talking about a young man without any arms or legs! (show picture)
Nick Vujicic, a 32-year-old Australian, was born without limbs. Vujicic's parents, devout Christians who planted a church in Australia 11 months before Nick was born, found it hard to understand how God could use their son's loss for good. But he has.
Reading in Sunday school about being made in the image of God seemed like a cruel joke to Nick. He seesawed between despair and begging God to grow arms and legs for him. He contemplated suicide the year he turned 8. When he was 15, though, one story in the Bible answered one of his toughest questions.
Vujicic said, “When I read the story of the blind man… Jesus said he was born so that the work of God could be revealed through him. That gave me peace,” Vujicic said. Then he prayed, “Lord, here I am. Use me. Mold me. Make me the man you want me to be.”
Vujicic learned to write using the two toes on a partial foot that protrudes from his body. He also learned how to throw tennis balls, answer the phone, walk, and swim. He invented new ways to shave and brush his own teeth. He even earned double degrees in accounting and financial planning by age 21.
He has since become a motivational speaker all over the world and has ministered to millions of people face to face, sometimes filling large stadiums. He also oversees Life Without Limbs, an organization for the physically disabled, and his first book, No Arms, No Legs, No Worries, was released just a few years ago (2009). (Ruth Schenk, “No Arms, No Legs, No Worries: Man Uses Disabilities to Reach the Masses,” The Southeast Outlook, 11-29-07)
You see, Vujicic is a man who has learned to accept the gifts God gave Him despite his disability. How about you and me? If God could use HIM, think of what God could do through us, we who don’t have anywhere near the obstacles he had to overcome. And yet some believers still make their excuses as to why they cannot serve the Lord.
Rick Warren has an interesting reply to those who would make such excuses. In his book, The Purpose Driven Life, he writes, “Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses stuttered, Gideon was poor, Samson was codependent, Rahab was immoral, David had an affair and all kinds of family problems, Elijah was suicidal, Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow, John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least, Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered, Martha worried a lot, the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages, Zacchaeus was unpopular, Thomas had doubts, Paul had poor health, and Timothy was timid. That is quite a variety of misfits, but God used each of them in his service. He will use you too if you stop making excuses.” (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, October 2002, p. 233)
All you need to do is pray like Vujicik did: “Lord, here I am. Use me. Mold me. Make me the man (or the woman) you want me to be.”
If we want to build a strong church to the glory of Jesus Christ, then we must get rid of the excuses and accept the gifts God gives us to serve Him. More than that, we must…
DEVELOP OUR GIFTS.
We must learn how to use them. We must be equipped to serve. Just because we have a supernatural ability to serve, it doesn’t mean we can do it automatically. It takes some training and preparation. It takes some stretching and growing under the watchful oversight of godly leaders. That’s why Christ gave the church gifted leaders. Look at it in vs.11
Ephesians 4:11-13 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ… (ESV)
Christ gave gifted leaders to the church to equip God’s people for ministry, so that the whole church could become strong and mature.
The Greek word for “equip” was used in other contexts to describe fishermen mending or preparing their nets. It’s a great illustration, because Christ calls all of his followers to be “fishers of men.” Therefore, it’s the leader’s job not to do all the fishing himself, but to equip God’s people to fish.
Sometimes God’s people, like nets, come in broken and torn. Sometimes they get all tangled up and confused. Sometimes they just need some reinforcement or encouragement. Well, that’s my job as your pastor – to do whatever it takes to get you ready to go back out and serve as Christ has gifted you. That’s why we gather together on Sunday’s and at other times during the week. We gather together not to be entertained, but to be equipped to serve, to be mended and strengthened so we can go back out and do what Christ has called us to do.
Let me put it another way. The leader’s job is not to be the STAR! The leader’s job is to help others shine!
Layne Lebo, in Leadership journal, describes some leaders as banyan trees. According to a South Indian proverb, “Nothing grows under a banyan tree” (show picture). Now, a banyan tree spreads its branches, drops air-roots, develops secondary trunks and covers the land. A full grown banyan may cover more than an acre of land. Birds, animals, and humans find shelter under its shade. But nothing grows under its dense foliage, and when it dies, the ground beneath it lies barren and scorched.
The banana tree is the opposite (show picture). Six months after it sprouts, small shoots appear around it. At twelve months a second circle of shoots appear beside the first ones, now six months old. At eighteen months the main trunk bears bananas which nourish birds, animals, and humans, and then it dies. But the first offspring are now full grown, and in six months they too bear fruit and die. The cycles continue unbroken as new sprouts emerge every six months, grow, give birth to more sprouts, bear fruit, and die.
Some leaders are like the banyan trees. They have great influence and their ministries are widely productive and beneficial. However, they do not prepare for the emergence of other leaders. They only equip followers, not leaders. (Layne A. Lebo, Leadership)
Christ gave the church gifted leaders to equip not just followers, but leaders. As the text says Christ gave the church gifted leaders to equip God’s people to serve.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do themselves.” (Abraham Lincoln, Leadership, Vol. 8, no. 1)
That means that God’s people must be willing to step out of their comfort zones every once and a while. God’s people must be willing to stretch and grow. God’s people must be willing to develop their spiritual gifts if the church is going to remain strong.
I like the way Brent Mitchell put it when he talked about lobsters having to leave their shells from time to time in order to grow (show picture). Lobsters need their shell to protect them from being torn apart, yet when they grow, the old shell must be abandoned. If they did not abandon it, the old shell would soon become their prison – and finally their casket.
The tricky part for the lobster is the brief period of time between when the old shell is discarded and the new one is formed. During that terribly vulnerable period, the transition must be scary to the lobster. Currents gleefully cartwheel them from coral to kelp. Hungry schools of fish are ready to make them a part of their food chain. For awhile at least, that old shell must look pretty good.
Brent Mitchell says, “We are not so different from lobsters. To change and grow, we must sometimes shed our shells – a structure, a framework – we've depended on. Discipleship means being so committed to Christ that when he bids us to follow, we will change, risk, grow, and leave our ‘shells’ behind.” (Brent Mitchell in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, from the editors of Leadership)
Trying to grow in our spiritual gifts can be scary, especially when we step out to do something new. But if we don’t, then the old structures will become our casket, and we will die.
If we want to build a strong church to the glory of Christ, then 1st of all, we must accept our spiritual gifts, and 2nd, we must develop our spiritual gifts – i.e., we must stretch ourselves and grow in our service for Christ. But all of that would be for nothing, if we do not also…
USE OUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS.
We must do the work God has gifted us to do. We must put into practice those supernatural abilities we have received from the Lord.
Ephesians 4:14-16 …so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (ESV)
The only way the body grows is if “each part is working properly”. When people in the church don’t receive, develop, and use their spiritual gifts, then the whole church suffers. But when every member does his or her work, then the church finds the truth (vs.14), and learns to live out that truth in love (vs.15).
You see, it’s only when every member does his or her work that the church grows so that it builds itself up in love” (vs.16). Now, isn’t that the kind of church we want? A church that is founded on the truth, but speaks the truth in love and is growing as it builds itself up in the context of love?
Isn’t that the kind of church we want? Then all of us must do our part! All of us must contribute what we can to make it happen. You may not be able to teach or preach; you may not be able to sing or play an instrument, but some of you can swing a hammer or cook. Some of you can organize things or do the dishes. Some of you can throw a party or give generously. Whatever it is God has given you to do, do it with all your might! Then we as a church will be all that God wants us to be.
I think of the man who came to church one day and said, “I can’t preach or teach, but I can invite young men into my home.” So he did! Whenever he saw a serviceman or student sitting alone in church, he would invite that young man over for dinner afterwards. As a result, many of those young men came to faith in Christ, and some of them became preachers and teachers in the body of Christ.
The body of Christ grew and multiplied, because one man did what he could. Think of what could happen if all of us did what we could. Think of what could happen if all of us used our spiritual gifts, whatever they might be!
If we want a growing church that builds itself up in love, then we must accept our spiritual gifts, develop them and use them wherever and whenever we can. It’s the only way we can be all that God has called us to be.
Mike Yaconelli in his book, Messy Spirituality, writes about the little town of Moorhead, Minnesota, the home of Concordia College. All year, the community looks forward to Concordia's annual Christmas concert with a huge choir and a full orchestra.
And every year, the people in the community create a unique background for the concert – a 100’ by 30’-foot mosaic. Beginning in the summer, about six months before the concert, they design a new mosaic, rent an empty building, and the painting begins. Hundreds of people, from junior high age to senior citizens, paint the mosaic. They paint by number on a large-scale design that has thousands of tiny pieces. Day after day, month after month, one little painted piece at a time, the picture on the mosaic gradually takes shape.
When everyone has finished painting, an artist goes over the entire creation, perfecting the final work of art. Then they place it behind the choir where it looks like an enormous, beautiful stained-glass window. The weekend of the concert, the people who helped paint arrive early, along with their friends and neighbors. Throughout the building, you can hear people whispering, “See that little green spot below the camel's foot? I painted that.”
Every year in the middle of the summer in Moorhead, Minnesota, thousands of unknown, ordinary people paint a tiny insignificant tile. Six months later, the result is a spectacularly beautiful masterpiece (show picture). (Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality, Zondervan, 2002, pp. 118-119)
May God use each of us to create a spectacularly beautiful masterpiece, to His glory, right here in Lyons, Kansas.
