Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

The Gifts That Keep on Giving

by Dave Wilkinson

Romans 12:6-8

May 23, 1999

Some years ago, I received a letter from the Presbyterian Church that read in part: "With a 25% decline in the number of persons aged twenty to thirty before us and the imminent retirement of the large number of clergy who entered seminary at the close of World War II, what is now seen as an abundance of clergy can quickly turn into a serious shortage of quality leadership. Those who will be ordained in 1998 will graduate from high school this spring. Graduate schools of business and other professions will compete strongly for those capable of advance study. The recruitment needs of the nineties must be addressed today while young men and women are still in our youth groups and church school."

Now I must confess that I was more than just a little put off by this letter. In focusing on projections and recruitment needs in direct competition with business, the church is in grave danger of forgetting what it is and who, in fact, carries the responsibility for providing leaders in this and every other century. I am not concerned for the presence of our future leaders. We have a very effective Human Resources Department -- named the Holy Spirit.

Today is Pentecost Sunday -- the birthday of the church. This is an especially appropriate day to learn how God gives us what we need to do what He calls us to do.

In verses 3-5 of Romans 12 Paul has been speaking about Christian unity — "we are the body of Christ and individually members of one another." Now in verse 6, he begins to speak of what unity looks like in the life of the church. He tells us that unity is not the same as uniformity. We are not called as Christians to think alike, dress alike, look alike, and sound alike. God is a genius at preserving unity in the midst of diversity and protecting diversity in the framework of unity.

You can see this by looking at a forest. All of the trees are green. But within the greenness is an endless variety of shading. The green is unified but the shades are diversified. No shades clash. No greens are ungreen or non-green or anti-green or more green! But there is diversity. That is how God works--diversity in unity. Paul first reminds us that we are one people in Christ. But then he writes: "Now since we have gifts that differ."

The grace of Christ takes two distinct forms. It comes to us equally as saving grace -- enabling us to stand before a righteous God and be declared free from sin. That is the first and primary usage of the word grace in the New Testament. But grace also comes to us as what John Stott calls, "service grace". This is the grace which equips God's people to serve in different ways.

The word for grace in the Greek language is "charis." The word for gift is "charismata". You can see the relationship between the two. The unity of the church is due to "charis"-- God's grace which has reconciled us to Himself and therefore to each other. But the diversity of the church is due to "Charisamata" -- God's gifts distributed to church members as He decides to distribute them. In the church, each individual member has a gift -- a charisma -- to exercise and a function to perform. God calls you to do something. His gifts are how God enables you to do what He commands.

A correct understanding of ourselves in the light God’s grace should not lead us to inaction but to action in the service of God and each other. That is what Paul says in these verses: "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them!" Let us not freeze-up in false humility or laziness but make full use of the gifts that God has given to us.

There is a Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown is talking to Linus and says: "I’d like to be able to feel that I am needed." Linus replies: "Don’t forget, Charlie Brown, that people who are really needed are asked to do a lot of different things." Charlie Brown ponders this for a moment and then declares: "Well I’d like to feel needed and yet not have to do anything."

That is not an option in the Christian life. Each Christian is given certain special responsibilities by God through the Holy Spirit and each Christian is responsible for using the gift he or she is given.

God holds every Christian responsible for three areas. All three are equally important. No area is more important than another. The three areas are ministry, mission, and maturity.

Every believer is to be a minister to the church. He or she is a priest to every other priest in this new people of God. He or she is also a supporter of every other Christian in the fellowship, so that the whole church may be sufficiently trained, equipped, and strengthened to fulfill it’s mission.

Paul writes in Ephesians that pastor-teachers like Sheri and myself are here to equip the people of the church for the work of service. In other words, we are responsible for supplies. We are not here to carry out the ministry of this congregation. We are here to help you make full use of the gifts for ministry that God has given you.

There is a story about an annual charity softball game between Hollywood actors and Hollywood comedians. Groucho Marx was the manager for the comedians. He had Jack Benny lead off and said to him, "All right, Benny, get up there and hit a home run." Benny struck out. Marx immediately resigned as manager. He yelled "I can’t manage a team that won’t follow instructions!"

Just giving orders is not what it means to equip. For us to equip you means for us to help provide you with the tools you need to do whatever job God is calling you to do.

You have the right to hold us accountable for the use of our gifts — just as we have the right to hold you accountable for the use of your gifts. This is because the gifts we are given do not belong to us. They belong to the church. We are simply the carriers of the gifts into the life of the congregation. The person who says: I can be a good Christian without being part of a church, is not being a good Christian at all. He is being disobedient to the mandate to minister to his brothers and sisters in Christ with the gift he has been given. He is being disobedient to Christ because he is weakening the body of Christ.

Second, every Christian is called to be a missionary -- to be exhibit A of what it means to have God in one’s life. We do this by telling about our experience with Jesus and validating it with His love.

We don't come just for Sunday-morning worship. We see the privilege of worship, of learning, of fellowship, and of service. We learn more about Christ in our gathering. But our ministry does not go on primarily within these walls. It goes on where you work. It goes on in your home. It goes on in your social relationships, You are ministers of Christ, gifted in your acts of service to reflect His power at the very point to which He has deployed you. God has a strategy. You are part of it. He has placed you where you are for a reason. There is no accident in His planning.

Third, each Christian is to grow up to maturity in Jesus Christ. Jesus says that this maturity will be demonstrated in our relationships with each other.

Gilbert and Sullivan were what we would call gifted men in a human sense. They were giants in the field of light opera. But they could not control their tempers. Sullivan ordered a new carpet for the theater they had bought. When Gilbert saw the bill he hit the roof. They battled it out in court, and never spoke to one another again as long as they lived. When Sullivan wrote the music for a new production, he mailed it to Gilbert, and when Gilbert wrote the words, he mailed them back to Sullivan. Once they had to make a curtain call together but they stood on opposite sides of the stage so they wouldn't see each other.

Gilbert and Sullivan were able to make great music in spite of their disunity. But we cannot because it is exactly our unity in relationships which provides the music to accompany the words of the Gospel.

One of the great problems with Spiritual Gifts is that they can be misused. They can easily become not a place of unity and service but a place of superiority warfare. I believe that this is why Paul prefaces his words about gifts with the warning that we are not to think of ourselves — or our gifts — more highly than we ought.

Do you remember Peter in the Upper Room with Jesus? As Jesus knelt to wash His disciples feet He eventually came to Peter. Peter said, "Lord, you will never wash my feet." When Jesus answered, "If I don’t, you have no part of me," Peter replied, "Then, Lord, give me a whole bath."

The bottom line here is that Peter has to be different from all the other disciples there in the Upper Room. They’d been arguing about greatness as they came in. He either has to be the only one who doesn’t get his feet washed by Jesus or he has to be the only one to get a full bath. In either case, the drive is to be different -- to not be a part of the common herd of believers.

I believe that this is also what drives some people in the church and their understanding of spiritual gifts. They want to be seen as "more than" believers. So they take their particular gifts and elevate them over the others. They act as if the possession of these gifts is a kind of spiritual merit badge handed them by Jesus to attest to their superior Christianity.

But that’s not what spiritual gifts prove. They aren’t a sign of spirituality. The Corinthians church, for example, was very immature and divisive. And yet Paul observes that they have all the gifts. Spiritual gifts are not something we gain by our piety or excellent prayer life. They are simply gifts given solely according to God’s choice. Despite all of the problems in the Corinthian Church -- the fighting, the immorality, Paul freely recognized that the Corinthian Christians were gifted. For despite their multitude of problems, they were still the people of God.

The true sign of mature spirituality is not that you demonstrate certain gifts of the Spirit but that you demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit that Paul lists in Galatians 5: "love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control." These are they things that show that you are walking close to Jesus.

The gifts are not what determine your value before God. Your value was established when He called you to be a member of his family. These gifts are simply the means God has chosen to enable His family to function effectively.

The way the whole issue of spiritual gifts is worked out in this passage and in Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12 is with the analogy of a body. Paul says that the church is like a body. In fact, it is the body of Jesus Christ. In a body there are many different parts which each have an important function. In 1 Corinthians 12, he asks the question: If the whole body were an eye, how would we speak or hear or walk?" If the whole body were a foot, our abilities would, in the same way be very limited.

The whole point of being a body is that we need each other. We need each others gifts and each others lives for our own growth and well being. The recognition of this basic fact is the basis for the humility Paul calls us to in verse three.

As Earl Palmer points out: "The Christian ethic is not a lone ranger lifestyle. It is not a rugged individualism. Rugged individualism in American history comes out of a New England heritage, which is not necessarily biblical at all. Individualism is not a biblical principle. We believe that we are sent into the world with the companionship of the Holy Spirit, bound together as brothers and sisters in Christ, as a network of colonies of God’s people. A Christian soloist is in sever danger of getting off the track because he doesn’t have the guidance of the members of the body with gifts different from his own."

Jesus gives us gifts to further our unity and to equip us to carry out the roles He assigns us. And as we discover and use our gifts, great things can happen — even if they aren’t the things we might expect.

There was a boy named Antonio who grew up in Cremona, Italy, in the middle of the 17th century. Cremona was a musical town and great acclaim was given to those who could sing or play. Wanting to be accepted and given some recognition for his musical talents, he tried singing. His friends called him "squeaky voice." He soon realized that his singing would never be anything special. He then tried to learn to play, but his success wasn't much better than his singing. So he was a dejected boy as he walked through the streets of Cremona with his friends and listened to their beautiful voices. About the only thing Antonio could do was to whittle on a block of wood with his knife.

One day he was sitting on the edge of the street whittling as three of his friends played and sang beautiful songs for the people passing by. Appreciating the musical ability of his friends, many people dropped some coins into their hands to reward their efforts. One gentlemen stopped longer than many of the others and even asked the friends to sing a song again. After they finished he dropped a coin into the hand of the singer. Then he moved on down the street.

Upon looking, the boys discovered that it was a gold coin! It was quite a piece of money to give a street singer. But the man who gave it could afford to do so. "Who was he?" asked the boy who whittled. "It was Amati," his friend with the beautiful voice replied. "Amati who?" asked the boy. "Nicolo Amati," the friend replied. "He is the greatest violin maker in all of Italy!"

That evening at home the boy thought about the man named Nicolo Amati. He was a man who succeeded in the musical field. But he neither sang nor played! The more he thought about the violin maker, the more he became convinced that he wanted to become a violin maker. He wanted to become the best violin maker in Italy !

Early the next morning the boy hurried off to the home of Nicolo Amati. inquiring about the way, he sat on the doorsteps after arriving and waited for the great violin maker to come out. When Amati came out, the boy told him that he wanted to become a violin maker and asked Amati if he would teach him to make violins. He explained to Amati that he couldn't sing or play, but that he could whittle. And, more than anything else, he wanted to make violins.

Amati accepted the boy as a pupil. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year he studied from the master. In due time his work became known.

We may not have the talent to do some things as well as other people. But God has given us all a very special gift which, if we develop, can help us help others. Young Antonio Stradivari found this to be true. People still make music with his violins. And they pay upwards of $500,000 to do so!

Just because you can't sing or play doesn't mean you can't make music. God has given His people gifts. God has given you a gift. You may not be able to sing but you may be able to whittle. Paul says, "then whittle to the glory of God."