Spiritual Gifts - Get On The Bus 2

Excellence - Spiritual Gifts

September 27, 2020

Have you ever driven in foggy weather? It’s not necessarily fun. You put on your brights, but you quickly realize the more light you use, the more difficult it is to see what if anything is in front of you. Sometimes foggy weather can be a good metaphor for our spiritual lives. Sometimes we seem to be in a fog spiritually. We’re moving, but we really can’t see what’s in front of us. Driving in fog is sometimes a matter of trust.

In the same way, sometimes it’s difficult to know where you fit in! It seems that life is one big foggy mess. We may have those issues at home . . . where and how do you fit into your family system. We have that at school — it happens at work. Really wherever you go and whatever you are part of, there are questions about where we fit in.

This is just as true . . . when you attend a church. If you’ve been here long enough, you tend to know where you fit in. But it can actually take years before we figure it out. Then the times change . . . or life changes, then we go through that process again. I’m not lamenting that. It can actually be a good thing . . . if we’re willing! It gives us the opportunity to take another look at ourselves and maybe rediscover God’s purpose in our lives.

Sometimes we have to cut through the fog - - and at other times, we have to wait for the fog to clear, to be still and trust in God’s plan for our lives. It’s not always easy to wait on the Lord, is it?

For the past weeks we’ve been talking about God’s call in our lives . . . and believe it or not, what we started at the beginning of the year, if we can remember that long ago . . . we are coming to an end.

My hope is that over the past weeks and months, we’ve gained a better understanding of who God is calling us to be, how God can use us according to our unique SHAPE . . . so that we can serve Him and at the same time experience fulfillment in God’s call in our lives.

Part of that process is to seek to attain excellence in all that we do, because ultimately, everything we do is to honor and glorify God. When we’re at school, at work, at home . . . wherever we are - - we are to seek to serve God.

In order to achieve excellence, or at least move in that direction, we must have an understanding of where we fit in God’s kingdom. If the fog is too thick, then determining our place becomes even more difficult. Part of finding our place is knowing who we are, knowing our personality, our skills and abilities, our passions . . . and our giftedness.

I really do want you to complete those Spiritual Gift assessments. Turn them into me, and remember, nobody fails this. We have all been gifted by God. These gifts are to enable us to better serve God, as we do it not for our glory but for the common good.

We’ve all been gifted differently and so we act differently and we serve differently. Friends, this church has every gift that’s needed in order to function as a biblical community. But, if we don’t know our giftedness, then we will never be the church Christ calls us to be. Our church will be in a fog. We will never make a difference in the manner and magnitude Christ desires. And I really believe, that grieves our Lord.

We need to better understand spiritual gifts as we allow the Holy Spirit to change us into the people we are called to be. If we are to fulfill our calling in life, then we need to be able to identify our spiritual gifts.

Last week I shared a number of slides showing about 23 different Spiritual Gifts. And it is the Lord who gives us Spiritual Gifts for the common good. Never for our glory. And God empowers us to use these gifts for His glory and honor. God will give us the power and ability to use these gifts.

Paul told the church in Ephesus --

16 From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. – Ephesians 4:16

Do you see - - - each part is supposed to do their work. Paul uses the image of a body because every part functions to work together. When our body is not working properly, it’s like an alarm goes off in our body. We experience pain, a tingling sensation, cramping, whatever it is . . . we recognize the pain when our body is not working as it should.