Gifts That Guide Us to Tomorrow

I want you to turn to Romans chapter 12 and also 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and I want to jump right into this because I think that song captures the spirit of what the Lord has given me to share today. And by the way, I also want to say a heartfelt thanks to Amy Macy and Debbie Cornelius this morning for that wonderful prelude. If you got here late, we had two professional quality musicians on strings and it's just meant to bless and prepare us for worship and I think they really did that wonderfully so I want to thank them as well. Let's read Romans 12 verse 3 please. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. If you're a believer in Christ, and most of us are today but perhaps you're not, if you are a believer in Christ, I think you'll agree that you never stop marveling at the sheer brilliance of God's plan, not just His provision for eternal things, for forgiveness and freedom from guilt and communion with our Father and fellowship and eternal life, but also the genius of God's plan to bring fulfillment into this life. I don't know what goes through your mind, but folks, what else is there to really pour your life into? What else? You tell me. But participating in the plan of God to change lives for eternity, what an exciting thing God has done. I mean, look at the quagmire of our Congress right now, if you need an illustration. I don't know what it does to you, but it tears me up to think that politicians are just about to be self-congratulatory about spending $30 billion to build more jails and have more police on the street and all those other things. Has anyone ever stopped to see how embarrassing that must really be to the world that our culture is spending more just on this one little part of fighting crime than was our entire national budget just 50 years ago? I just want to submit to you, it's an indication of how far we veered from the things of God, and if we just even followed in part God's plan, I mean, it would radically change the face of this nation. God's graciousness not only saves us, it provides the basis and power for living. The most intimate needs that we have to feel purposeful and significant, and I know that many of you sit here today and the greatest desire of your heart is you want your life to count. You want something to be said of you at your funeral that says, they made a difference. I was reading through scriptures in preparation, one of my favorites and one of yours as well is in Jeremiah 29, I know it by memory, I just want to read it out of the Living Bible, it says, For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, they are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. That's God's plan, and dear ones, the word plan means what? I mean, he's already gotten things in motion and he knows exactly where he's going with all this. You know, life is not like so many radio commercials you hear today that kind of lead you to believe that retirement is what, that's the goal of life. I don't think so, okay, I mean, it's okay to retire, but life has a whole lot more meaning than that. The key is finding fulfillment in the context of God's plan for your life, and to that end, the Lord supplies all of us with unique abilities to do so, abilities that we can use to make significant contributions to purposes that really matter, i.e., the changing of lives for eternity. Now, the concept of the church functioning according to spiritual gifts is so powerful and so creative and so energizing, it's no wonder that the enemy has spent a lot of his time causing the church to fight about it. You know, in this last couple of decades now, since the reawakening of the Holy Spirit in the church in the last three decades, we spend as much time fighting about gifts as using them. Isn't that true? Some of you came out of churches where if you mentioned spiritual gifts, you were hung out to dry. And even to this day, people are still on the radio, shooting bombs back and forth about it. Why? Because the enemy knows if he can keep the church immobilized, underpotentialized, that he'll win a major victory in keeping people from discovering the grace of the gospel in Jesus Christ. I mean, as a result, dear ones, it's not an exaggeration to say the church, really, by and large, is patronized, isn't it? I mean, by and large, it's patronized by the culture today. I am still mulling over one thing that Ross Rhodes said about, was it two or three weeks ago now, about Charlotte, and about the fact that Charlotte has more churches per capita, and some of the great ministries have grown up there, Billy Graham and so on, and the fact that despite all of that, the city of Charlotte, as he described it, is rampant with crime, has a higher abortion than birth rate, more divorces than marriages, and this jewel of the South, whatever it's called. Why is that? How can that be? And it's not just Charlotte. I mean, we could say the same thing, look around all the churches in Pittsburgh. Why is that? There's only one explanation, dear ones. We haven't risen to the fullness of our potential, and we are about to do that. That's why we're here. I want to believe God to make a major change. It's time for a change. We're on the threshold, as we all know, of making this move into a building. A building is incidental, and no one here need lecture the church about, well, the building's not the real church. We know that. We've grown up with that as our foundational theology, but this building will be an opportunity to impact our culture. It will be a tool in the hand of God through this living church to make a difference. I was in the locker room at the gym yesterday, late afternoon, when, whoops, that's hooked to my belt. I could be really embarrassed up here if this goes the wrong direction. I can try that, I guess, see if it works. And three gentlemen in their 60s were talking about golf and then about shopping for cars, and then all of a sudden one guy said, yeah, I was out looking out at that car lot, it's right before that church, have you seen that church? That's a big, and he puts an X with his church. Now, I'm right there, you have to know, I'm right there, ready to jump in this conversation and defend God's honor and my pastoral reputation, but they didn't say anything negative. In fact, they expressed some curiosity. One guy said, it has to be Baptists. No, no, I didn't say a word, I remained incognito, I'm coming back at them when we open up. The community's noticing, we stand on the threshold of an opportunity, and dear ones, what must happen, it's not just I hope will happen, but what must happen is that we need to see the genius of God's plan moving us into a direction of mobilizing this, the greatest resource that God has in the earth today by His Spirit, His living church, you. And I want to affirm you today that you have been marvelous in your staying power. You have been terrific in keeping, hanging in there. A few have floated off, some have gone to other churches, but most of you have said, I'm going to see this through, and you're volunteering, and you're giving, and you're coming out here in this place that is not really us, and you've made transitions and sacrifices, and I want to say, you are to be commended. We open up the doors here and wonder, why do people go through all this? Because you're devoted, and I know you are, to the purposes of God. Now what I want to share today is how can we really untrack the latent potential that I don't believe we've really tapped yet in this, the church of Jesus. I think we're about to, and that's what I want to talk about, and it's related to spiritual gifts. You know a lot about spiritual gifts if you've been a Christian for a while. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and what are spiritual gifts also mentioned, actually, one other place, Ephesians 4. Those are the three categories, and what happens when we mention spiritual gifts, right out of the gate is this. I asked one of my sons today, when I say spiritual gifts, what do you think of? He said what a lot of you think of right away, and that is tongues. The first thing we've got to get off the table here is, when we talk about spiritual gifts, there's at least 22, some Bible scholars say 29, if you really kind of look between the lines and so forth, 29 spiritual gifts, but the one we think about is tongues, or prophecy. They're just two of 29 gifts that God has given to the body. You know what, folks? I just want to say, those are valid, important gifts that we'll get to eventually, but that needs to become a much less significant issue in the church. The Holy Spirit will take care of giving the vocal and visible gifts if we take care of seeing clearly how He's provided for a well-rounded, fully functioning body. I want to underscore and simplify this. I'm not sure, Don, if I had this on overhead, but there's four things I just want to say. I want you to find your gift, or at least begin to, this is my goal for the next six weeks, number two, fit into a place of service, number three, focus on that area, because we cannot have a whole big congregation of GPs here. We need to be focused, specific, and number four, begin to experience the joy of fulfilling your calling to God. And I yearn for that, I pray for that for all of you. Now, these gifts are given by God, as you know, through His Spirit to every single believer. And I want you to turn to someone right now and tell them, God has given you a gift. Turn to someone, look at them and say, God has given you a gift. All right, I want you to say it, because people don't believe it. God has given you a gift, yes you, every single one of us have a gift, at least one, according to His design, not of our own choosing. How many of you know what gift you'd choose if you could say, God, I want that gift? How many know what it would be? Most of us would look, as much as we're skeptical of people who knock other people over, that's the one I want. We'd want some miraculous thing, but God said, no, I functioned you as a whole person, emotionally, temperament wise, intellectually, and I have created in you the perfect vessel for the one, two, or more gifts that I'm going to put right inside that vessel. Dear ones, I want you to know, you're just created as you are, because God knew what He wanted to do with you. And I want you all, just from time to time in these next weeks, to stop and thank God. Maybe after today, someone will say, Lord, I thank you that you've gifted me in that particular way, because you knew my life and how it would bring maximum glory to you. I want to focus on these gifts, and unfortunately, as you know, Sunday morning is not the form to get in depth like I'd like to, but I can touch on six or seven gifts, the ones, and this is important, that I think are most important, really, for us to make this high-impact transition in our culture as we move into our new building. And I know I'm going to be talking to the church, and if you're a seeker today, or you're not really sure you're a Christian, listen and you'll hear the essence of the whole gospel in this, but basically, I'm speaking to the church, because I know we've got to be prepared as we make this move. And, you know, we've got to mobilize. And I want to say one more thing, just to kind of get it off the table, because it's in some of our minds. I feel very passionate about this. I've gone through a lot of soul-searching about some of these power gifts, you know, some of the, there are folks, some of you here today, who will go all the way across the state to hear someone preach who you think might have a word for you. Or you hear about some crusade that's coming, or some services where somebody from some other country usually comes and has some kind of ministry, and it's powerful, and wow. And people say to me, why doesn't that happen at North Way? Why don't we bring these people in here? And I, first of all, say sometimes we do, when God sets it up. I don't, but I'll tell you what I won't do. I won't go out looking for the hottest ticket in town. Because you know what I've, and I've been a Christian a pretty long time, by God's grace, 30 years, and you know what I've seen all over the country? In essence, many of those gifts paralyze the rest of you. Because you'll say, I could never do what brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so does, and therefore I must not matter. And you know what you end up having? You have an audience watching one guy do his thing. And yeah, it's a while, and maybe, maybe some people will help, but in essence, the church just lays back passively and indifferently, waiting for the next wow to come along. I don't know, I got one person that agrees, but I think it, I know I'm right, okay? I know I'm right, because I've seen it, I've seen it now and watched it. It does not invalidate that man's ministry, but it says to me, that what I really believe needs to happen is, you all, all the way in the back, all the way in the front, need to realize that the thing that's going to bring maximum glory to Jesus Christ, is a fully functioning body. Where the church is ministering one to another, where the gifts that God's speckled throughout this church are functioning in fullness, and glory is rising up to God, because he sees a whole church. God wants a whole body, not a big mouth. Don't tell me to sit down here, okay. And so I want to talk, in the remaining time today, just about one of the gifts, and probably one of the least spectacular, one of the ones that you say, I hope I don't have that one, but one that's absolutely essential. It's the gift of helps. In Romans 12 it's called the gift of serving, in 1 Corinthians 12, we'll turn in a minute, it's called, literally, the ability to help people. The gift of helps. And I want to say that helps are what really make the possibility of heroes rising up in the faith come to pass. Helps are essential. One of the things that I do when I go on my study break, I try every year to at least go to one stock car race. That's back in my family, I like to go to one. You know, I wear sunglasses and hats and all that stuff, no one will know, but I go. And actually it's really pretty exciting. And I've noticed something, how many of you have never been to a stock car race? Feel comfortable. I thought so. You're missing Americana. It's the number one most watched sport, by the way. Auto racing. And I've discovered this. You've seen it on TV, if nothing else. At the end of that race, whether it's the Brickyard 400 or whatever it is, that driver walks, gets pulled out of his car and stands in that winner's circle. And he gets the flowers draped, usually, and then he gets what's next? The champagne, and what's the last thing, the big kiss. And all the cameras are rolling and everyone's congratulating him. And what's the first thing that that driver always, always, always does? He goes right down, I said, I want to thank my crew chief, Joey Knuckles. I want to thank Valvoline and Pure Later and Goodyear. And he goes right down the list, and I want to thank my pit crew. And he goes on down that list, most of them from the South, right? It's a weak, lame imitation, but that's the truth. What is he doing? He's saying, look, I know I'm here getting all these accolades, but I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all those people doing their job and providing for me and helping me. And he's absolutely right. He could never change the tires or put in the gas or clean the windshield or do the mechanical tuning. He knows. He's only there winning the race because his team was doing their job behind the scenes. And you know what? All those mechanics and all those pit crew and all those others, they know it's true, too. And so they share in that joyful victory. And you know, it's that way in the church. My agenda really basically is to help all of you with the gift of helps, recognize that you're just as much a hero as those who might have the privilege of being up here or being out there in some way, declaring the gospel. What are the gift of helps? Let me just go ahead and first of all, talk about very quickly. It's really a multiple number of things. It's serving. It's being able to administrate and organize. It's very important to understand. It has to do with craftsmanship many times and support. This definition, I think, is very good. Here's what I heard. It says this. Is this on there? Is it on your outline, maybe? The unique ability to meet physical needs with freedom and joy so that a context is created that is conducive to spiritual and eternal life change. See, the part where the gift of helps realizes that some things have to happen if the message is going to get out, if lives are going to be changed, if the Holy Spirit is going to have a place to move. Some things have to happen. This started all the way back in the book of Acts. We don't have time to turn there. But in Acts chapter six, the elders and apostles said, you know what? We're getting overwhelmed with waiting on tables and serving people. We need to appoint someone else to do that. Spirit filled, wise people. Acts six, verse seven says, while we continue to go ahead and minister the word. And if we don't get someone to do this, we don't have the context to do that. And so, dear ones, the people with gift of helps today are the ones who realize that what they do opens the doorway for ministry to take place and for life change to happen. Many times, people with the gift of helps find themselves, I mean, they're kind of drawn to materials and dishes and drills and wrenches and brushes and saws and flashlights and computers and tapes and just things. You like to deal with things. You love to set up and keep up and fix up and clean up. It's just part of who you are. And you need to remember, this is a gift that God's just kind of woven in you. Christ died to give these gifts by his spirit to us. They're very important. Oftentimes, the reason why we don't put much importance on spiritual gifts is because we don't really notice much about them until they're missing. Isn't that true? I mean, these rainstorms last week and this service particularly, I mean, it was a wild time, lights going out and flashing. And how many of you were met at the door with someone with an umbrella? And some of you had a ride from out in the parking lot and showed up here to serve you. You see, that's kind of the way it is. For the people with the gift of helps, they're there and, you know, you just kind of take them for granted until something goes wrong. And when something goes wrong, then you kind of notice it. And you can't do much about it, right? That's what happens. So you have to pick up on that. I mean, you don't notice the sound until something goes wrong. And then, wow, what's the sound guy doing back there? See, it's the nature of the gift of helps. It's sort of behind the scenes. And this is true. I mean, people with this gift, they love to get there early. If they're in a home group setting, they like to make sure the chairs are right and the coffee's hot, you know, not over 189 degrees, but hot coffee. And they have provision for the kids. And, I mean, they love to just make it work. See, we visionaries, we go out there and we say, this is the vision. Let's do this. But it's the people with the gift of helps that make it happen. I mean, I'm nothing. I'm nothing up here without you taking your gift and exercising it. And that's true for all of us who are privileged to lead in this body. You know, we all believe the church should meet needs, don't we? How many of you know, we need to be meeting needs as God's church? But who meets the needs? It's the people with the gift of helps, more often than not. Several months ago, one of the members of our church had a disaster happening in their home. The foundation walls of their home were literally crumbling apart. Water and, you know, all that, the terrible winter and all that. And the house could have collapsed. And a group of young people, teenagers, and a few of our leaders, went out for several days after school and in the evenings and worked with their hands. And they got a machine out there and saved this person's house from collapsing. And I got the most wonderful letter, I don't have time to read it, from this family saying, you know, this really affected us. It was the church in action. It was the people with the gift of helps. Just doing their thing with things. Now, in case you're not sure if you have the gift, let me, I have, I've assembled here, I found this in a book that I think is very helpful. Ten characteristics, and because time's running out and I'm talking as fast as I can, I just want to zip through these. Do we have those up here somewhere? I think I do. All right, maybe this will help you identify whether or not you have this gift. Here we go. See if this describes you, okay? A person with a gift of helps easily recognizes practical needs and is quick to seek to meet them. Especially enjoys manual projects and craftsmanship. Loves to work with their hands. Likes to keep everything in meticulous order. Now, if you're with the person who has the gift of helps, every once in a while just say, that's you, okay? But also keep them focused. Is a detailed person with a good memory. Usually enjoys showing hospitality. Will stay with something, a project, until completed. Bulldog. Has a hard time saying no to requests for help. Shows love for others in deeds and actions more than words. Prefers doing a job to delegating it. They'd rather, I'll do it myself. I don't want to call someone else. I want to do that. And number ten, works hard and has a high energy level. Now, if that didn't help you, these next four will. These are the problems of the person with the gift of helps. Number one, it's a person who is often critical of others who do not help out with obvious needs. Oh man, how can they sit there and just not do anything? Number two, they may be so committed to helping that they neglect their own family's needs by being too busy helping others. Go ahead, you can hit them. Number three, they find it hard to accept being served by others. I mean, the last thing they want is someone serving them because they're just so intent on being servers. And finally, they're a little sensitive. If they feel taken for granted, if they're unappreciated, it hurts. Now, don't put your hand up. But how many are just starting to get a little bit of a tingle? You're thinking, you know, that's kind of who I am. That's sort of me. Anybody that sort of describes me? And some of you are thinking, not me at all. Farthest thing from who I am. Let me say, here's what we should do. If you have this gift or you think you do, here's three things and we're going to conclude with these. Number one, I want to say to you, people with the gift of helps, you are important. You are needed in this church. And I have to underscore that this is something I think gets lost in all the stuff that we do. I want to say, if you felt taken for granted or like it doesn't really matter, I want you to know that's not true. You are important. And the reason I believe that happens is, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I want to just flip over there, talks about the fact that many times the less visible, less obvious things get ignored. And you never talk about them. Number one, look at your hand. Now, how many of you are aware of how your hands look? You know, you take care of your nails and they're chapped or whatever, right? Now, look at your feet. Oh, man, those big things. Now, what about your feet? How many of you spend more time working with you, fixing your hands up and keeping them nice than your feet? I hope so. Basically, wash them and cover them up, right? Now, a few women, they're there with those little brushes and I never got that, but it's just part of taking care of yourself. Now, which of those is more important? Well, we give more honor to hands, no doubt about it, right? Rings, the whole thing. How many have toe rings? A couple people, Scott. No, toe rings. No, why? What is it? Because our hands are just more visible, they seem to do more. Until what? Yeah, when I ask you to get up out of that chair, how many are walking your hands? Probably not too many. Then, we don't give honor to our feet, but they're important in the function that they provide us. Do you see what I'm saying? Very important. And we need to honor our feet, as it were, and honor our hands. And many times, the feet and the body just don't feel very important, they don't feel used. And there's lots more I could say about that, but I want to underscore this. You are very important in the Church. Number two, trust God's selection of that gift in you. If you have this gift, don't complain about, I wanted to have healing, God, why do I have helps? It started with H, you could have just, you know, given me the... Trust that the Lord knew who you would be as a person and wired you up that way so that He could use this gift through you to bring glory to His name. So embrace it. It's not an accident. It's on purpose. And number three, if you have this gift, I want to encourage you, stay focused. Use it. I mean, use that gift. Don't wander off and try to be a teacher. Don't find some other thing that's not what you're gifted in for now, but stay focused and use this gift in some of the various opportunities we'll be talking about in a minute. I know the inclination in many of us is to just kind of scatter ourselves. And I believe it's important today that we hear, I can do this, Lord, and I can do it well. Now, different opportunities may come, but basically, if you have this gift, stay focused on it. Otherwise, we all have the... Especially people who are gifted with helps, we have the inclination to start spreading ourselves so thin that we just don't do anything very well. And I remember about two years ago, Carol and I are part of a small pastor's fellowship of other area pastors in the city. And I've told you about this before, but what we do every six or so weeks, we get together, we rotate in our homes, and we meet for fellowship and support, and we eat as part of that fellowship. And this has been going on for a number of years. When we get together, the host couple serves a meal. And it started out real kind of simple, you know? Soup and a salad, that kind of thing. But then I started noticing, every time we got together, it got more elaborate, and more and more stuff. And one pastor says, I won't tell you, but it just looked like the great banquet feast of the Lamb. I mean, it was just all spread out, and they had servers! I mean, it was like enormous! And so we realized what we were doing, we were in this sort of all-out-do-you thing, not consciously. And what happened was, inside, we started to lose focus. And so we made a decision a couple of years ago to say, wait a minute, all we need is just, like, pizza. We're not here to, like, have this huge meal. We just need something simple. And so we've cut it way back. Now, I notice it's starting to creep up again, and we just can't contain it. But people with that gift, you've got to remain focused so that the context for ministry can continue on. You got that? Look at those three things. If you have that gift, those three things. If you don't have that gift, let me speak to those of you who think you don't have it. If you don't have that, one thing I want to say is, we are in need. We are needy of those who do have that gift. And I have to say, listen, American Christians, we all think we can drive the race car ourselves, change the tires ourselves, run the race ourselves, and win it. And we cannot. We need the people with the gift of helps. And I have to impress that upon you, because what's happened here is, the church has lost its power. Because we've kind of ignored some of these gifts that we feel aren't quite as important. You know, my own world is such an affirmation of this. As I walk through my day and my week, I mean, I wouldn't be able to do a fraction of what I do if it weren't for people like Arlene Rink, you know. And others out there of you who serve, I mean, I just say, this is what I need. And they quietly go about doing it, and sometimes they're anxious, they're just ready to move ahead. Look at this auditorium. How many of you just came and showed up and figured, oh, it's church again, we're going to have a great time. You see, what you didn't know is, Dean, what time did you guys get here today? About seven. You got late, very late today. We came in yesterday. Oh, you came in yesterday, I see. All right, that makes sense to me then. And they did all the work to get us, because you see, they want to create a context for the Holy Spirit to move and for ministry to take place. So we need you. Number two, we need to learn to give honor and appreciation to the people with the gift of helps. 1 Corinthians 12.22 is very clear about that. Look what it says. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. We need to give honor to the people with the gift of helps. We need to say to them, thank you for your craftsmanship. Thank you for your serving. Thank you for your support. Thank you for enabling us to be what God wants us to be. And I need to say, folks, we need to do it in a way that they receive it. I've learned some things here recently about that. We've honored some of the people at our SALT meetings with the gift of helps lately. And just recently, one of our guys who's just doing a wonderful amount of work for us on the property, Tracy Anderson, we presented him with a SALT award and we made him come in off of his tractor to get it. And we made him kind of walk up on the platform, he was on the floor in front of all the people with the lights and the microphone. And we gave him the award in a way that we thought he'd want to get it. Well, that's the way I'd probably want to get it or someone else that goes up on the platform. He probably would have preferred just some other way to get it because we asked him to speak and he said thanks and sat down and that was it. I mean, he didn't want to give a speech. And we need to learn how to honor people in a way that they can receive it. Say it in their language. And second, we need to help the people with the gift of helps realize how strategic they are. That without them, the vision that we have won't come to pass. I mean, you greeters and you helpers out there in the parking lot and you folks that serve behind the scenes, you need to know that when someone gives their life to Christ, when someone is healed or changed or when someone turns a corner in their spiritual walk, you help make that happen. You were there enabling it to take place. You know, our tape ministry has been crippled for about a year now. Nobody's taken it over. And I think the only explanation is that it's a very functional job. A person with a gift of helps could do it in a heartbeat. But I don't think we've communicated very effectively how those little electronic doggy bags, cassette tapes, can change somebody's life. And I know there's someone out here today that could get excited. If you thought, man, if I'm there reproducing those tapes and shipping them out and realizing that someone's going to pick up a tape whose life will be changed, it changes how you see your ministry, doesn't it? We need to be strategic. The third thing that those of us without the gift of helps can do is we need to help those who have the gift of helps. We need to help them. We need to be there from time to time when the opportunity arises just to lend a hand. You say, well, I don't hav