This is a bit embarrassing to say, but I have this thing about doing the Tribune’s crossword puzzle each day, and I couldn’t finish Saturday’s and it’s bugging me. Maybe you can help me out. Then I can focus on our sermon text. Can you help me for a minute? I got most of it already.
This should be easy if we have any Cribbage players, but I’ve never played Cribbage. What’s a three letter word for 'Cribbage marker' that ends in “G”? (Peg)
A 4-letter word, the name of the dog in Peter Pan. (Nana)
Then a 7-letter word for ‘easily conned folk.’ It starts with PA…. (patsies)
Does anybody know the name of a river that runs into Lake Ontario? Its seven letters. It looks like it starts out Gen… (Genesee)
Then I need a four letter word for a Johnnycake. It begins PO…. (pone)
Didn’t that make it easy when we brought all our variety of interests and skills and experiences together? Who knows what we could accomplish if we did that more? I’ll have to do a sermon on that some day.
This morning we move into the middle section of Ephesians 4. Would you please stand for the reading of God’s word? This morning we’ll look at Ephesians 4, verse 7, and then drop down to verses 11-17.
7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift… 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.
We spent four weeks on the first 6 verses of the chapter. In my own mind, I give them the heading, ‘Be one!’ because the unity of the church was so important to Paul. And I’m sure he would approve of me taking 4 weeks to work on it. In fact he might say, “Was that all you spent?”
You can see from his letters that Paul worked hard to teach his people how to be the church, how to express the very loving heart of God in their relationships with each other, through humility and gentleness and patience. When God’s people get really good at these things, when they really become united into one heart and one mind, when they have really learned to trust one another and be unfailingly trustworthy for one another, then the world looks at the church and it has a chance to understand just how God operates and what God is like and how good God’s ways are. We are the light of the world.
And when you get really good at being one, you start to find wonderful freedom to be really different. In fact you can come to treasure how different we are. And, oh, how different we are.
In fact, if you think there is something about you that there are some ways that you are really different from most of the rest of us, raise your hand. Good for you! God made you to be different.
But if any group doesn’t have that foundation of deep, solid unity in place, people start to criticize over their differences, compete and fight (my vision is more important than your vision) and the church goes nowhere. And if that’s the case you would be smart to just keep your head down and not let anyone know you are different, not let anyone know the real you. But then we aren’t being the church.
In our text for today Paul is talking about the church being made up of persons with different spiritual gifts. In verse 7 he talks about the church receiving grace, by which, he explains further down, he means spiritual gifts. Look at verse 7. How many of the church members got this grace, spiritual gifts from God? Was there just one pastor with spiritual gifts? A few officers or super saints? Who did God give the grace of spiritual gifts to? “Each of us.” Every one of us has at least one spiritual gift from God to contribute to the rest of us. Someone once said about this, “Everybody is a ‘ten’ somewhere.”
Have you found your niche in the church, your place where you can really make a difference? Have you found your place where you can really help fulfill the ministries of the church and where you can feel that God is using you? I can remember very clearly the day in 1973 when I had a conversation in Kabul, Afghanistan, with a very messed up young woman who had been travelling in Asia and took refuge with us in the Dilaram House and somehow my words were a deep encouragement to her to give her best to living for God. And it hit me, God can use me!
The Bible says each of us was given the grace of spiritual gifts. Each of us should be able to say that, “God can use me!”
You can guess that I used to play basketball. I was never a star, but I played for three years at Wheaton College. I was never a ball handler. But that was OK because we had good guards who could do that. I was OK at playing defense. I was OK as a shooter, if I didn’t go too far from the basket. I was pretty good at rebounding. I was strong for getting in position and a good jumper and I worked hard. That was what I could do that those little guards couldn’t. And the thing I did best was feeding the fast break. We worked very hard to get the teamwork down where whoever got a defensive rebound could trust that there would be a guard or a forward out on each wing so that you could throw them the ball. And before the ball got to them another guard would be zipping down the court. And we got a lot of points where we got down to the other end of the court with three of our guys against two of theirs and even some uncontested lay-ups. I was good at spotting who was open to get that outlet pass and getting the ball to them really quick, leading them so they could catch it at a full run going down court. Often I could cut out the middle man and hit that point guard way down court.
And, if it worked, I didn’t have to run down. They did all the work.
One day we were having a practice scrimmage. The coach cut our team in half and the two halves played each other. For some reason the rebound came and I was out in one of those wing positions. Whoever got the rebound turned around and threw it to me. I thought, ‘Cool, I get to play guard!’ So I dribbled down the court. I made a stupid pass because I wasn’t a real ball handler and the other team stole the ball. The coach blew his whistle to stop the play. I figured I was in trouble. But he went up to the guy who threw me the ball to do a job I was incompetent for and he yelled at him, ‘What did you give it to him for?’ I got his point.
A successful basketball team needs to be perfectly unified with a common goal, playing unselfishly, aware of what each player does best, encouraging each other, communicating all the time and giving each player the ball in the right time and place. And then all those different skills can really shine.
And what difference does it make when a church knows its spiritual gifts? Verse 12 says that these 5 gifts that Paul listed are there for equipping the saints. The saints need help to recognize their gifts and learn to use them. That’s one of my top goals for the coming weeks. I want you all to know what your spiritual gifts are and how to put them to use. And when we all know our gifts and when we are all in the right place, it will make every one of us better.
My favorite guard to throw to was John Woolmington. He had a sixth sense to know when I was going to get a rebound. He would head down court before I even touched the ball. I knew where I would find him and how far I could lead him when I threw it. I could really make him shine when I got a rebound and got him the ball right.
But then, when we didn’t get the easy baskets from a fast break and we had to work for the points, I wasn’t much for dribbling around my defender and scoring on my own. So if I didn’t have a good playmaking guard to give me the ball in the right place the only time I would get points was when I got a rebound under our basket. But sometimes he would drive up the middle and the defense would collapse on him and he would flip me the ball for an easy basket. And he made me look good, too.
Churches are the same. We need to know what our gifts are. We need to know when to pass the ball to someone else who is better equipped. We need to protect each other from getting into areas where we don’t belong. And then we all shine.
In Ephesians 4 Paul only lists a very few of the spiritual gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Those are the basic building blocks for bringing the gospel into new territory and building a church from scratch, as happened in Ephesus. This is such an important theme, though, that Paul comes back to it in his letters to the Romans and the Corinthians as well and touches on it in other places besides. And if you read him in all those places you see that there are many other gifts that we need to understand to make the most effective team.
Verse 12 says that the spiritual gifts are given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. I call this the Magna Carta for the laity of the church. In medieval times some churches had one big Bible chained to the pulpit and people were discouraged from really reading it because the priests figured the lay people just weren’t smart enough to understand it. The priests told them what to do in everything. The members of the church were all second class citizens of God’s kingdom. But Martin Luther, in the Protestant Reformation, insisted on what he called the ‘priesthood of all believers,’ that every Christian can go straight to God without having to go through a priest. And every Christian had honorable and useful gifts to use. And when everyone is pulling together, so much more gets accomplished.
I sometimes brag to my pastor friends that I have the best leadership team of lay persons in this church that I have ever had. But what if we doubled that team, or tripled it? Some of them have been peddling awful hard for a long time. They deserve our help. God deserves that we all work together to do just as much as we can for his kingdom.
In basketball there is a penalty for too many players on the floor. In church you want to bring in everyone you can. It’s allowed. It’s good.
Do you know what your spiritual gifts are? Do you know why God brought you here, what contribution he called you to make here? You’d better know because some day he will ask you to give an accounting for what you did with the gifts he gave you.
Today I’m giving you all homework. You should find some copies of a spiritual gifts inventory at the end of your pew. Could you pass them out now so that everybody has one? The heading says, ‘Where do I fit in?’
I’m going to ask you to take this home. Fill it out. The instructions are right on the front. But let me give you an example. Open up the booklet and find statement 1. It says, “I believe God can do great things today through folks like me.” If this is really true of you, if you are up for trying really big projects for God, then circle the “5” under it. If it’s a bit true of you, then you might circle the 3. If you are very happy to stick with basic simple things, circle the zero or the 1. We need both big vision people and small detail people. Both are important. God made us different and this will help you clarify how you are different.
Then there is a loose score sheet inserted in the booklet. After you have scored yourself on all the questions, transfer your numbers into the score sheet and then you can figure out your score. Or if math is not your gift and you can’t figure out your score, don’t worry, give it to me and I’ll be glad to do it for you. We’re in this together.
This is for your sake, to help you get a feel for what your spiritual gifts are, hopefully to find yourself in a new way. Hopefully it will start a process that will bring new purpose and focus and satisfaction to your life.
But it’s also for my sake, as your pastor. I want to know how I can best help each person grow and be fulfilled. So I’m asking you to bring your score sheet back next week so that I can see it and understand each one of you better.
And in coming weeks I’ll be talking about some of the spiritual gifts and I would really like to see which gifts are most common here so that I can be sure to talk about them and help you develop your gifts.
God has given us each gifts so that we can serve one another. The more we fulfill that calling, the stronger the church will be and the more each one of us can grow. Be one! Be different! AMEN
