Gifted to Serve (April 25th)
Romans 12:1 – 8
1.) Paul, the author of Romans, has written a strong, foundational letter to the believers in Rome. He models in the format of this letter a pattern of discipleship and growth. The first part of the letter gives instruction, doctrine and teaching of Christian faith. The latter part of the letter is focused on application, how do you live out the Christian faith.
The pattern of spiritual growth for followers of Jesus is one of “gaining and giving, receiving and returning, savoring and serving.” We hold onto grace and then we give it away.
To be Christ-like is to serve as Jesus did. We consider what Jesus did in giving His life away, serving others. We acknowledge that by God’s power on Easter Christ is alive today serving others through us. A Christ-like life means that put on a servant’s heart, like putting on an apron, and serve. (Ted puts on an apron and hands out granola.)
2.) Romans 12 gives us insight in how we are to serve, give and apply our faith. The two simple themes that Paul give us are these; Give yourself to God, Give yourself to others.
a.) Give yourself to God. The first and second verses tell us that this is the beginning point. We give our lives to the Lord. “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.” We give all that we have and who we are to God.
Some hymns came to mind as I thought of giving our lives to God. “I Surrender All, Take My Life, Here I Am.” They remind me of the beginning point. Give yourself to God.
b.) Give yourself to others. Verses three to eight focus on the giving our lives to the needs of people around us. “so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:5) I look at this verse teaching that we give ourselves to one another in the church. The teaching on spiritual gifts focuses us to give ourselves to all people, especially those in the community.
I would bring before your consideration the importance of serving the needs of people in the church and the community. Both are vital. We can’t just give ourselves to the church or solely to the community, but both in a type of balance.
Some songs that came to mind as I thought about this theme were, “This little light of mine, Pass it on, They will know we are Christians by our love.” Give yourselves to others.
3.) Listen to Romans 12:1 – 8 from the New Living Translation. As you listen consider the themes of giving yourself to God and others.
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.”
4.) In 2010 we are seeking to make disciples that will transform the world by emphasizing five practices. We invited all to focus on their personal worship of God as we develop “Passionate Worship.” We gave out notebooks to help people in their worship life. We then invited all to grow their faith by sharing in a group or using the discipleship questions as we focused on “Intentional Faith Development.” Late summer and early fall we will look at “Radical Hospitality” and “Extravagant Generosity.”
In the next weeks we will focus on “Risk Taking Mission and Service.” We seek to become a fruitful and disciple making congregation by being a people involved in risk taking mission and service.
I have three tools that I want to offer today to help each of grow by serving.
5.) The first tool will help you Tell your Faith Story. I developed this paper with a New Member Class. I invite you to fill this out as a way of developing your faith story.
You need to answer the questions and then at the end of the paper combine your words in a way that makes sense to you. Pray for a chance to share your faith story. This is one way you can give yourself to others. You have a story, a faith that is only yours.
6.) The second tool will help you Discover your Spiritual Gifts. It is a Spiritual Gifts inventory that I have used. All new members have to take this as a part of their discovery and discipleship process. Some of you have taken it in years past. I have copies available for you to take home.
Here is how you use it. You give yourself a rating (0 – 4) on a number of statements. Then you add your scores to get a total. Take the top two or three highest scores and then correlate the letter to the gifts key on the other side. You will identify your spiritual gifts and can read more about them in the scripture references.
The Lay Leadership Team can use them or talk with you about your spiritual gifts and how you can serve using those gifts.
Pray that the Lord would use your spiritual gifts for His purposes.
7.) The third sheet highlights the ways you can Serve the Church and Community. This sheet lists the various ministries and needs in the life of the church. It also lists some of the ways you can reach out to the community with practical acts of love.
We have needs in the life of the church that you need to give yourself to others through. We do our best to connect people but don’t always let you know of the need.
There are lots of needs in our community that you can serve. It might be that you are called to create new ways of reaching out to those in need. The ideas I have listed are from a web site called www.servantevangelism.com. There are a lot more ideas listed at the web site. The web site gives instructions and items needed for each outreach project, it is very practical and helpful.
Last year our Bishop and others organized a practical outreach to Muncie as a part of the Annual Conference. It was servant evangelism in a variety of ways. It was giving to others in the community. Karen Sibery, our delegate, and I along with a bunch of people worked at a food bank. We went to be the church and not meet and talk about the church.
Some congregations have cancelled worship services to go and do something practical in the needs of the community.
Pray about what the Lord wants you to focus on; congregation or community.
8.) In early fall of 2006 I sensed that the Lord was tapping me on the shoulder to serve in a camp setting. Perhaps it was to grow by sharing my faith, by using my gifts for the congregation and community in the camp ministry. You see I became a Christian through the camp ministry and I believe the Lord was steering me to give back to others through this camp ministry.
I offered my name to the Conference Camp leadership in 2006 and the timing of camps needing Directors in the summer schedule didn’t fit with my schedule. So I realized that I wouldn’t serve in 2007. But the gentle taping my shoulder did not go away.
Around that same time the middle school youth wanted to do a mission trip. So, I talked to Melissa McLaughlin we organized a trip with five youth to Pine Creek for several days. We did work projects, had devotions and served the needs of the camp.
I believed that I had fulfilled what God wanted me to do. Well, fall of 2007 came and the tapping on my shoulder was still there. When I say the tapping it wasn’t a physical tapping but a gentle touching of my spirit from the Lord. That is what I believed. So in the early fall of 2007 I offered my name again to help lead a camp. IT was the right time and a team of other Directors began forming and we made a commitment to direct an Elementary Camp at Lakewood in 2008. We directed in 2008, in 2009 and in June of 2010. This will be the third summer of serving the children. It has stretched me and blessed me.
9.) The Lord might be tapping you on the shoulder in these days. You might be at a place where you are not growing spiritually. You might realize it is time to serve others. You might need to start with your own faith story. You might need to discover your own spiritual gifts. You might need to see where the needs are in the life of this church. You might need to begin to reach out to the community.
I pray that the Lord would tap you on the shoulder and not let up to let you know that you are gifted to serve.
