Our Difference Makes a Difference
To use your gifts you have to know what they are. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 will help you better recognize, understand, and use your spiritual gifts and to know Our Difference Makes a Difference. January 14, 2007.
Want to work on your brain power? If so, your options are many. Commit to completing the daily crossword or crypto quip in the newspaper. Purchase and use a page-a-day flip calendar featuring a new vocabulary word with pronunciation and meaning every day. Learn a new language. Memorize the periodic table. Supplement your diet with ginkgo biloba. There’s no shortage of help when it comes to enhancing the brain or battling ignorance. Especially for Christians armed with the greatest wisdom of all: the Bible. The apostle Paul knew and believed this, so he wrote, “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” Sad to say, the Christians in Corinth were failing to recognize what they possessed in the blessing of spiritual gifts, and then failing to use them. Paul’s response will help you better recognize, understand, and use your spiritual gifts.
Paul begins, “You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.” What do idols, especially the fact that idols are mute - as in not able to speak or make a sound, like pressing the mute button on your TV - what do they have to do with spiritual gifts?
Consider this: mute idols are as useless as a surround sound system without speakers. They can’t communicate or reveal anything - no promises, no answers to prayers, no guidance for tough decisions, no comfort in times of trouble. They just sit there. Dumb and dumber. The same is true of mute Christians. They’re also useless. Craig, a Grace member who died from Lou Gerhig’s disease at the age of 56, had asked that Scripture portions from Romans 6 and Ephesians 2 be read at his funeral here last week, but he also added to these sin-and-grace packed Scripture sections another from James 2 that says, “Faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead” (v. 17). Even when Craig, because of his debilitating disease, could no longer speak or serve as an usher (which he had done so capably and responsibly for so long), he wasn’t a mute Christian. He expressed his faith in other ways. So don’t be sad for Craig. Be sad for Christians who are blessed abundantly by God with personalities and skills and health and wealth but are mute. Useless. Dead. Inability wasn’t the problem in the mega-multi-talented congregation at Corinth. Indifference was.
We’d be naïve if we claimed that sinful indifference didn’t threaten our ministry at our mega-multi-talented congregation. It does. We’d be more naïve if any of us claimed we are individually immune to indifference. We’re not. It’s one of the more deceptive tricks of the devil to stand side-by-side with Jesus on his right and the Scriptures on his left and agree that, indeed, we are not responsible for getting right with God, that we need do nothing to be saved and that Jesus did everything for our forgiveness. We can do nothing. Salvation is a gift of God. But then, when it comes time to put our faith into action once we have been saved, the devil keeps preaching that we shouldn’t be doing anything because Jesus did it all, and successfully convinces us that we don’t need to do anything when it comes to our faith. Watch out! The devil uses truth one minute and lies the next to devour your soul! It is true, only before we are saved, forgiven, and assured a place in heaven, that we need do nothing and Jesus did it all. It is a lie, however, that after we have come to faith there’s nothing for us to do. There is much to do in living out our faith and acting in love full of thankful service to God and others, as much as there is for a husband and wife to show love to each other for many years after their wedding day.
With that in mind Paul brings his argument home, “Therefore, I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Believers don’t curse Jesus, but that’s what we’re doing if we our faith is mute and activity-deprived! The Bible says we are not such pagans, however. We believe and confess, “Jesus is Lord!” We will tell anyone who wants to listen that we have only One who is our Master, only One to whom we pray, only One who has forgiven us by his death and resurrection, only One who loves us perfectly without needing a reason, only One Savior and Lord: Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is awake and active in each of us, because it is by the Holy Spirit that we don’t want to curse but instead confess Jesus. It is with the gifts and skills given to us by the Holy Spirit that we put our faith into action. You are not dead! You are not useless! You are baptized and blessed by the Holy Spirit to make a difference! You are the beautiful bride of Jesus, dressed for service in his dying and rising love.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all people.” Promoting and promising the activity of the triune God in this threefold explanation of God’s work for us, in us, and through us, the Bible cheers us on with this divine truth: Our Difference Makes a Difference. God has created a variety of different people! God distributes many kinds of personalities, skills, and interests among believers in Jesus. That means there’s a place for anyone and everyone in the different kinds of service - no, there’s a need for anyone and everyone in the different kinds of service because a screwdriver can’t do a hammer’s work and a shoe shouldn’t think it can hold up your pants like a belt and a Christian gifted with the skill of connecting with people ought not be expected to balance the books and a Christian gifted with the skill of crunching numbers ought not be expected to be the host of an event in the new Grace Center. Each of us is gifted differently so that a variety of needs can be filled when we use our spiritual gifts at home, at work, and at church. What is your gift, and how can you use it? “To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”
This month at Grace Church we are promoting over 75 new volunteer opportunities for making a difference in service. Trusting in God’s Word, we are offering a variety of opportunities because we know the Holy Spirit gives a variety of gifts. Our goal is to match up the type of volunteer opportunity with the person who has the gifts and interests to serve in it. Before I point out a few of the volunteer opportunities, take a look at some of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives to Christians for service, mentioned in this section of Scripture. For starters, we see “message of wisdom” and “message of knowledge,” two gifts related to communicating the guidance of God and the truth of God to others. Reading further we encounter a number of gifts we could call “foundational gifts,” because they were given at a special time of the apostles before the New Testament was written. The Holy Spirit gave these foundational gifts like working miracles and speaking in tongues to believers in order to validate that these believers were speaking the true Word of God. Now that the Bible has been published, we look to it as the basis for God’s truth and not to any particular people. So the Holy Spirit tends to distribute spiritual gifts today to Christians for serving and/or speaking. Let me offer a few examples of how spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible given to believers like you can fill opportunities for volunteers right here at Grace. Please refer to the Volunteers in Participation brochure provided for you today.
- “serving” (Romans 12:7) - Behind the Scenes, p. 3
- “administration”(1 Corinthians 12:28) - Planning and Organizing, p. 4
- "encouraging” (Romans 12:8) - Connecting with People, p. 5· “those able to help others” (1 Corinthians 12:28) - Arts, Communication, Technology, p. 6
- “showing mercy” (Romans 12:8) - Humanitarian Help, p. 8
- “leadership” (Romans 12:8) - group coordinators
- other areas like College Student Activities or Children’s Ministry a variety of the above
This week Apple introduced its new iPhone, integrating a cell phone, an iPod, and a PDA into one hand held device. Its strong suit is the fact that it combines many functions into one piece of equipment in one place at one time. That, my friends, is a fine description of the church. The collective contribution of many is integrated here into one mission under one God, whose work it is to operate all of us as his different features in one, hand-held church. We follow his call when we ring out “Jesus is Lord” - both by what we say and how we serve. Our Difference Makes a Difference. God bless you as you recognize, understand, and put to use your spiritual gifts. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on January 14, 2007
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