June 9, 2002
In the 60’s, the Age of Aquarius, an age of so-called enlightenment, harmony and understanding, people often asked the question, What’s your sign? That referred to the twelve houses of the Zodiac. The question was often an attempt to find out what you were like – your personality traits. In astrology, your birth date identifies what position the stars occupied (relative to earth) when you entered the world of the conscious. That supposedly determined what pathway your life would follow, who you would marry, what you would do for a living, and when you would die. Everything – according to Madame Zahra – was in the stars! In singles’ bars it was less an inquiry of your astrological bent, and more an opening line.
The longer you live, the more you will realize not many things change; the sixties was not a new movement, but an old paganism revisited. It was the religion of Nimrod. Nimrod was the one that built the tower of Babel(Genesis 10). The tower was supposed to set this tribal lord up high – close enough to the stars to be close to all the power. Nimrod wanted to be God. We still have Nimrod’s followers in the new millennium. They are on the Internet, TV and radio. You can recognize their identifying marks: a deck of Tarrot cards and a 1-900 number. What they control is your pocket book! They ask, what’s your sign – AND your PIN number!
There’s another question which has been floating around in the charismatic movement of the last two decades: What’s your gift? The question is about spiritual gifts. The question is both good and bad. What’s your gift is a bad question when we are talking about Christians identifying themselves with gifts that are more noticeable or popular. It is a kind of competitive-edge thing, or spiritual merit badge collection. To show off our gifts is a sign of pride. On the other hand, what’s your gift is a good question when it is preceded by a prayer, Lord; show me how I can be helpful in Your Kingdom. It is something which should happen frequently in churches. The conversation begins, Pastor, I wonder if there is any part of ministry around here that can use some help. The pastor’s response is, (help me now), What’s your gift?
As today, there was in Paul’s day, a lot of questions. Let’s read how Paul answered the questions of a highly-gifted, but somewhat dense congregation:
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
1 Corinthians 12:1 - 11 (KJV)
There are a couple of things worth noting about Paul’s introduction. First, he asks the Corinthian believers to remember their pagan past. They too had been steeped in idol worship. In that day ecstatic frenzies were part of temple idol worship. Worship that is entirely emotion-driven can wind up in some pretty wild stuff! Do you recall the Canadian-born laughing revival? The phenomenon came out of a sincere desire for more joy in the Christian community. However, it wound-up a laughing stock, as people simply sat giggling, lying in the aisles, some running and laughing wildly during “worship”. It was an emotional frenzy, not a God-honoring time of praise.
Baptists, on the whole, are not in any danger of going off the emotional edge. Deadly-formal churches need to check for a pulse, to see if the Spirit has departed. So-called “spirit-filled” churches that are really emotionally-driven parties need to check up on their motivation and inspiration to see if there’s really any God in it. Either way – when it comes to spiritual gifts and their use, the main key is: Is there any God in it? An easy way to check is to honestly inventory to see how much of “me is in it”. The simple equation has always been, the more of men there is in anything, the less there is of God!
In the light of that principle, let’s look at what we should be doing with our spiritual gifts in this church; let’s examine three actions we can undertake in our lives to be obedient to God’s desire for His spiritually-gifted children:
I. Identify Your Spiritual Gifts
God has gifted all humans with natural talents (abilities such as math, art, building, healing). Talents are not spiritual gifts. On the other hand spiritual gifts may match-up with the natural talents a person possesses (teaching, wisdom, helps – even music though not mentioned as such in Scripture). When I was young I was terrified of public speaking of any kind (public, meaning there was at least one other human being – aside from Bosco, my German shepherd – hearing anything I had to say). In school, however, I was forced to give an oral report, and the exhilaration of communicating was something God used to draw me into pastoral ministry. It was like a moth being drawn to a flame – a love/hate relationship. It still is!
The difference between talents and gifts is seen primarily in why they are used. Talents are generally used to benefit the possessor – a spiritual gift is given by God for the building up of God’s body (Eph 4). For instance, someone who is good at talking may have a talent. If he serves a church with that “talent” he may convince a lot of people of his views, and build a great following. Is there any God in it? On the other hand, if his preaching is a spiritual gift, he will be compelled to communicate the gospel and build up the body of Christ.
A music minister or soloist who does church work because they love music is satisfying a personal need to be involved by expressing a talent. A spiritual gift in the area of music will be used to bring glory to God.
One way you can recognize a spiritual gift is when it complements other areas of the Christian life. For instance, you could say you have a gift of stewardship, because you figured out a great way to win the lottery…and of course, you’ll give half to the building fund. Friend, you never serve God with evil.
There was a rich man in a church I once served. Everyone imagined his spiritual gift was stewardship. For years he came to church on Easter, Christmas and Mother’s Day. Period! Whatever “gift” that man had, it wasn’t stewardship. A good steward is “found faithful” not only with money, but in his worship, witness and love. How can it be a spiritual gift being used, when earning his money caused him to stay away from God’s house? Spiritual gifts will lead to balance in the Christian life.
In starting to identify your spiritual gifts, a good place to begin would be your sense of motivation. What lights your fire when it comes to serving God? Start with a list of the gifts in 1 Co. 12 – which of those makes your heart pound a little louder?
Be sure of your motivation. If you find your true spiritual gifts and put them to work serving God, there will not be a happier, more fulfilled person in the world. On the other hand, if you attempt to assume for yourself a gift that God has not given you, there will not be a more miserable child of God in the Kingdom than you!
In the movie, Chicken Run , dozens of chickens are held captive in the concentration camp of Tweedy Farms. Rocky the Flying Rooster is supposed to be their savior, teaching them to fly over the walls. Many things happen that are hilarious, but none of the chickens learn to fly. They were not so-endowed by their Creator. They are not gifted in that area. The advice about identifying your spiritual gifts is to identify your gifts, not those of someone you admire, and would like to emulate.
Identify your spiritual gifts, and…
II. Involve Your Gifts in Service
Kent Hughes, in Leadership magazine said, There are too many needful things to be done to wait around for someone to feel gifted. (2) Remembering that spiritual gifts are given by God for the purpose of building-up the church, we must also say that once you identify what your gift (or gifts) is, you need to put it to use in the body. Tools left in the toolbox gather spider webs and rust. Eventually they are thrown out; at the very least they are only a collection, not a blessing. Frankly, I would rather accomplish one thing by using my spiritual tools badly than to boast twenty spiritual gifts, and never be a blessing to God’s kingdom.
Involving those gifts can be as simple as showing up at worship and Sunday School each week – ready for whatever God wants you to do. The key words there are ready for whatever God wants! Remember – spiritual gifts are those talents and abilities that have God in them. God somehow takes each of our gifts and uses them for His purposes.
The University of California at Berkley took on an impossible assignment. It agreed to coordinate an international effort to locate extra-terrestrial life. That is a daunting project. We live in a large galaxy, and the multi-million dollar radio telescopes looking at it suck in a lot of data. In fact, so much data is collected and forwarded to Berkley that no computer on earth is powerful enough to process it all.
To accomplish this impossible task Berkley asked home computer users around the world to contact them over the Internet and download a program called "SETI @ Home." The SETI software makes a connection over the Internet to a computer in California and downloads a "work unit"-that is, a set of measurements from a particular part of the sky. The work unit is not large, but it takes the computer a while to crunch the numbers.
When the work is done, the computer makes another Internet call to Berkeley, uploads its results, and downloads a new work unit. What today’s largest supercomputer could never do alone, over a million ordinary home computers do easily. Sometimes the best way to accomplish the impossible is to harness the help of the ordinary.
That is how the church works. God didn’t intend any one person to do all the work. No one can do it alone, but if we all do what we can, the unattainable becomes attainable; the church can be all that God intended it to be. (1)
III. Improve Your Gifts Through Prayer and Practice
In one of the churches I served after seminary, Granny Parker summed up what I sense is God’s way of helping us along in the church. After I’d been at the church for five years, our Deacons threw a little celebration party to mark the occasion. Granny was asked to say a few words. Granny was very mildly retarded, only completed about 5th grade in school, but she had a heart for God, and a PhD when it came to prayer. Her social skills were few – but she could get to the heart of the matter. She stood erect like Lottie Moon and told about “My Pastor”; she said, Well, I remember the first time my Pastor, Bro. Russell, preached here. I thought to myself, O Lor’, am I a-gonna have t’ listen t’ that the rest o’ mah days? Then, you know what – he started a-growin’ on me; an’ I found I could understand him. He ain’t such a bad preacher after all. He got better.
Granny was right; I did get better. The reason was, Granny was praying for me, and I was working hard at getting better. That’s the way it is in the church, and especially with spiritual gifts – it’s a group project, prayer and practice. In that same Ephesian passage (4:3), Paul said we build up the body, but we do it in the unity of the Spirit. You are to help me identify, involve and improve my spiritual gifts, and I am to help you too.
Mike Royko writes about a conversation he had with Slats Grobnik, a man who sold Christmas trees. Slats remembered one couple on the hunt for a Christmas tree. The guy was skinny with a big Adam’s apple and small chin, and she was kind of pretty. But both wore clothes from the bottom of the bin of the Salvation Army store.
After finding only trees that were too expensive, they found a Scotch pine that was okay on one side, but pretty bare on the other. Then they picked up another tree that was not much better—full on one side, scraggly on the other. She whispered something, and he asked if $3 would be okay. Slats figured both trees would not be sold, so he agreed.
A few days later Slats was walking down the street and saw a beautiful tree in the couple’s apartment. It was thick and well rounded. He knocked on their door and they told him how they worked the two trees close together where the branches were thin. Then they tied the trunks together. The branches overlapped and formed a tree so thick you couldn’t see the wire. Slats described it as "a tiny forest of its own."
"So that’s the secret," Slats asserts. "You take two trees that aren’t perfect, that have flaws, that might even be homely, that maybe nobody else would want. If you put them together just right, you can come up with something really beautiful." (3)
That’s God’s work; that’s God at work!
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FOOTNOTES
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(1) Chicken Run, directed by Nick Park and Peter Lord; produced by Aardman Animations, David Sproxton, Nick Park and Peter Lord; written by Jack Rosenthal, Karey Kirkpatrick and Peter Lord; distributor: Dreamworks SKG
(2) Kent Edwards, Ontario, Canada; Source: Boston Globe (9-30-99).
(3) Mike Royko, One More Time (University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 85-87; on PreachingToday.com
