Little Johnny wasn't getting good marks in school. One day he came up to the teacher’s desk and looked like he wanted to say something.
“Yes Johnny” the teacher said. “Is there something you want?”
Very quietly he said, "I don't want to scare you, but my daddy says if I don't get better grades… somebody is going to get a spanking."
Now who did he think was going to get a spanking?
The teacher.
Not him.
In our society we have generally had a high regard for those who teach.We may not pay them what they’re worth, but we often respect them for what they contribute to society, and what they do for our children and grandchildren and so on.
What’s interesting in the list of gifts Paul speaks of in Romans 12 is that God has a high regard for those who are willing to teach. In fact, God has such a high regard for teaching that He even gives it as a gift to certain people within the congregation.
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is… teaching, let him teach” Romans 12:6-7
Now, what exactly is the gift of teaching?
Does having this gift mean that God opens up a person’s skull and pours in information?
Does it mean that God places Master’s Degree information inside of these people?
No.
Now God does – sometimes – pour information into our brains.
And God does – sometimes – enlighten teachers and give them an insight into truth.
But that’s not what this gift is really about.
As we’ve said before -all these gifts in Romans 12 are “motivational” gifts.These gifts are what God places in the hearts of individual believers to motivate them to do these specific acts of service for His church.
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve talked about
• The gift of Prophecy(the gift that motivates certain people to confront sin and call for repentance)
• And the gift of Serving (the gift that motivates certain people to see needs and serve their brothers & sisters)
And – of course – this week we’re focusing on the gift of teaching(which is a gift that motivates people to want to teach. It places a passion for studying communicating God’s will to others.
Now, I believe I personally have the gift of teaching, and so I’m going to take just a few moments here to explain how I think it works for me. I’ve noticed that, as I read scripture, that I begin to see patterns in certain passages. And those patterns lead me to ask questions that others may not even consider. And those questions lead me to see things I’d never seen before. For example:
Last week I began to see a pattern in this passage.
It became obvious to me that each of these 7 gifts here in Romans 12 reflects something EVERY Christian ought to do.
• Every Christian ought to be willing to call sin “sin” and to call for people to repent (this is the mindset of the prophet)
• Every Christian ought to serve others.
• Every Christian ought to encourage others.
• Every Christian ought to give to the needs of others (help out financially).
• Every Christian ought to be willing to help lead in their realm of influence.
• Every Christian ought to show mercy to others.
• AND every Christian ought to be able to teach.
Did you know that?
Did you know that God wants you to get to the point where you are able to teach?
It’s true. The writer of Hebrews 5:12 rebukes a group of Christians and says: “though by this time you OUGHT TO BE TEACHERS, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food.”
All Christians are expected, by God, to get to the point where they become teachers.
Now, we’ll get back to that in just a second, but I was floored by the idea that each of these 7 gifts listed in Romans 12 is something that EVERY Christian ought to be doing.And I began wondering – why would God give only CERTAIN PEOPLE in the church these gifts?Why would God invest passion for these ministries in only a few within the congregation?
And then… it struck me.
I believe I know why God did it this way.
ILLUS: Years ago I was in the Purdue Glee Club. The director of that men’s chorus was a man named Al Stewart. When I first joined, I thought that only the best singers got to be in the group.
But apparently that wasn’t true.
The longer I was in the group, the more it became obvious that if you had political connections or if you had a brother who had been in the Glee Club in the past, you didn’t have to sing well – you just had to be able to carry a tune.
Stewart was a businessman. He designed Glee Club was to make money. And sponsors developed through the connections to the boys who got into the Glee Club were the source of much of the income.
But, the Purdue Glee Club was a great men’s chorus. It was world renowned. How on earth did Stewart manage to have a Glee Club that sounded as good as it did if he had so many so-so singers in the group?
Well, a men’s chorus is divided into 4 groups – Bass, Baritone, Tenor and 1st Tenor. What Stewart did was - he recruited GREAT singers to be part of each section. In each of the vocal sections, Stewart planted ringers. When I was there, we had a man in the 1st tenor section who could have sung opera.
Stewart placed high quality, strong voices in each section that the rest of the men in that section could rally around and learn from. I started in that chorus with an ok voice that was something of a folk singers quality. When I left the Glee Club I had a powerful voice that could really project.
That’s what God does with the Church.
He plants ringers in the congregation.
He places a passion in the hearts of several people in the church and challenges us to rally round and learn to minister as they do.
Now churches kind of understand this concept.
They realize they need someone to rally around.
A ringer.
A “go to” person that the rest of the church can learn from.
But they often try to “hire” those GO TO people rather than becoming the GO TO people.
Now that doesn’t happen as much here.
We do hire people (like our new Family Minister) to devote full time to work on specific ministries. However, we also go to a great deal of trouble to create an atmosphere where people can grow in their gift. If you sense that you have something you can do for Christ – a ministry or outreach – all you have to do is bring it before the Elders and they’ll generally do what they can to help you attain your vision. They might not have the financing to underwrite specific ministries all the time, but they’ll encourage and protect your ministry to the best of their ability. They don’t micro-manage, but instead set you free to serve Christ.
And that’s one of the things I love about this church.
Now… let’s get back to this teaching thing.
In Hebrews we learn that God expects us ALL to eventually become teachers.
The writer of Hebrews wrote: “by this time you ought to be teachers.”
But you might say… well I can’t teach anything?
ILLUS: How many of you have ever been on Facebook?
Have you ever noticed how people share their lives on Facebook.
They’ll share things you don’t even care to know about.
But after a while you begin to see what matters to them.
Maybe it’s politics.
Maybe it’s sports.
Maybe it’s current events.
Maybe it’s family stuff.
But folks SHARE things on FB that are important to them.
Did you realize that “sharing what you care about”is called “teaching?”
ILLUS: Now, for those of you who aren’t into the internet and Facebooking…
Have you ever pulled out wallet and shared pictures of your family? Or your cellphone?
Do you have a favorite team you talk about?
Do you have an opinion about the current presidential race you tell others about?
Again – you are sharing something that is important to you.
And “sharing what you care about” is called “teaching”
Now here’s the deal.
Jesus wants you to share Him!!!
Jesus said "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37
Let’s do a little substituting here:
Anyone who loves their favorite Football team more than me is not worthy of me.
Anyone who loves their political party more than me… is not worthy of me.
Anyone who loves ANYTHING more than Jesus is in a heap of trouble.
We need to get to the point where Jesus is THE most important topic we talk about. We need to make it our goal that Jesus becomes part of our everyday conversation.
Back in the days of the early church they didn’t have Sunday School.
They didn’t have black boards or white boards or flannel graphs or puppets or overhead projectors. They didn’t have classrooms inside a church building.
They didn’t even have church buildings!
What they had was a driving passion for Christ, and they talked about HIM… everywhere.
Now what I find really interesting is that God wants parents to teach their kids about His Word
In Deuteronomy God says: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. IMPRESS THEM on your children. TALK ABOUT THEM when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:5-7
God wants you and I to teach our children about Him and His Word.
Parent/grandparents/Uncles/Aunts – you are the 1st line of teachers that God wants teaching because God knows that
Knowing that, the Elders here have decided to take this idea to a new level.
When we hired Scott as our “Family Minister” the Elders told him that they wanted to make a change in our Sunday School set-up
In just a few months the Sunday School classes for our youth will ALL begin teaching the same lesson
The same lesson will be taught to the High Schoolers that is taught in the nursery.
But wait – that’s not all.
There will be at least one class dedicated to teaching parents what their kids are learning.
That way – when YOU PARENTS get in the car to go home after church you can ask your kids what they learned in Sunday School and you’ll have learned exactly the same lesson.
THUS you parents/grandparents/uncles and aunts can share what you learned with your family. You can work on the same memory work together. You can have the tools to do what God commanded Israel in Deuteronomy:
“IMPRESS THEM on your children. TALK ABOUT THEM when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Everything we do in church is designed to give the tools to share your faith with your children and share your faith with your friends. You get those tools in Sunday School and here from the pulpit. But with this new program we’re going to up the ante a little.
But, let’s get back to this “Gift of teaching.”
Only certain people have THIS GIFT .
So… how would you know if you had this particular gift?
Well those with this gift have a passion for studying Scripture, and for attempting to make the Bible as understandable as possible. And they tend to let nothing get in the way of their goals:
ILLUS: Joyce Gleave, an art teacher Oklahoma, had a burden for the spiritual welfare of the 600 students she taught in the public school. So while on a trip to the Israel, she purchased 600 tiny wooden crosses.
But when she discovered that she would not be allowed to give the crosses to her students in the class room, her witnessing opportunity seemed doomed.
Instead of giving up, Joyce embarked on an ambitious project.
Armed with her crosses and gospel tracts, she visited every one of her students in their homes - all 600 of them!
"Many parents were moved to tears that I cared for their child,” she said of her visits.
TENDENCIES OF TEACHERS: (http://www.mulock.org/media/Gifts%202012.pdf p. 14)
• Strive to validate their information
• Check out other teachers
• Rely on established resources
• Tend to present truth systematically
• Gather as many facts as they can
• Very thorough in their research
• They are uneasy with subjective truths
• Tend to hold their own with accepted teachers
• Try to clarify misunderstandings
• Bible is their sole foundation of truth
BUT, they also tend to have these potential weaknesses:
• They can tend to become proud of what they know
• They can end up despising people who don’t have a certain level of education
• They can depend on human reasoning
• They can get to the point where they don’t care if you fully understand them at all
• They can put down “practical applications” of what they teach
• They want to show off – particularly their research skills
• They can reject Scriptural presuppositions
• They can begin to think they don’t need the HS to guide them
• They can take teaching to extremes
• They can end up arguing over minor points.
The point is this: The Gift of Teaching is a powerful gift. Those who have this gift can help people learn the deeper truths of the Bible and can inspire us to study the Bible on our own.
As we’re told in Acts 17:11 “… the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
One of the greatest compliments you can give a teacher or preacher is be prompted by their message to study your Bible more intently.
But as with all the other gifts listed in Scripture, teachers can damage the church if not careful.
• They have to be careful to avoid pride and self-righteousness.
• They have to be careful not to let human reasoning overshadow Biblical truths.
• And they NEED TO BE CAREFUL to become argumentative and divisive.
The point is this: there ARE those with the gift of teaching.
Just as with all the gifts noted in Romans 12 – we need to note what they do and how they do it so we can honor God as well by our lives.
CLOSE: And when we do it right it can change the lives of those around us.
I once read about a family who took their kids to a pizza parlor.
They wrote: “we decided to use the minutes waiting for our food as a teaching time. We passed out an index card & pencil to each child and had them write down a new memory verse: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23.
Then this couple said to their kids, “Let’s watch this waitress & see what kind of worker she is. Do you think she is working with all her heart."
The kids never took their eyes off her.
Their (half whispered) comments continued in a steady stream.
"She was sure nice about bringing extra napkins."
"She has to stand up all the time, and she’s not crabby."
The waitress never knew she was being scrutinized. But by the end of the meal, the children not only had the Scripture nailed down, but also had done an onsite study of its meaning.”
INVITATION
