Romans
12:1-8
Membership Matters 5: Stewarding our Talents and Gifts
After
forty long years of faithful service to his company, Jim was finally getting his
reward - a formal retirement banquet held in his honour. When the big night finally
arrived, everyone in the company came looking their very best. The head table
was lit with extra lights. The finest of china and white linen were laid out.
Beautiful bouquets of flowers adorned the tables. White-gloved attendants waited
on the guests serving their meal and refilling their glasses. But as the night
progressed and just before the CEO was to make the presentation, people began
to whisper with embarrasement. There was an empty seat at the head table. Where
was the guest of honour? Where is Jim?
After dessert, the CEO of the company
got up to speak, awkwardly confessing that Jim had disappeared. Suddenly one of
the waiters burst in from the kitchen. Jim was back there - up to his elbows in
soapy water. He had been part of the festivities all right, unrecognised. Right
where he belonged, he said, serving the guests. The guest of honour was cleaning
the dishes.
Okay. So I made up the story. It's a pastor's prerogative.
But then you knew that, didn't you? You knew it didn't really happen. What guest
of honour would spend his moment of glory doing the dirty work for others? "You
can be the guest of honour, or you can be the waiter. But you can't be both."
Unless, of course, you are Jesus. Unless you are the Son of God. Remember the
Last Supper? We looked at John 13 last week at the 10:30 service. Remember what
happened at their last meal together? Jesus was the guest of honour. But He took
off his outer clothes wrapped a towel around his waist, knelt down and washed
the feet of his disciples, all 24. He assumed the role of the towel-wrapped foreign
servant for each of them. When he got up and looked into the eyes of his disciples,
their mouths wide-open in awe, their eyes riveted to his, what did Jesus say?
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. (John 13:12-14)
The world says "You can either be the boss or you can be a servant. But you can't be both." Unless that is, you are the Son of God. Unless you are a follower of Jesus Christ. It is perhaps the supreme paradox in God’s kingdom. Greatness and servanthood are not simply compatible; they are synonymous. No one will know greatness in God’s kingdom without knowing servanthood. No one. John Ortberg says, “Serving may sound like a grudging task we have to gut out by sheer determination. But here we find yet another paradox. God’s call to servanthood is a life-giving calling. His brand of servanthood energizes, invigorates, satisfies.
And when
he calls, he equips as well. The moment you entrusted your life to him, you received
not only cleansing, but charismata - spiritual gifts” - that enable you to make
a unique and significant contribution to the “body of Christ so that it can become
what God intends, a light in a dark world.”[1] On Sundays through January and February,
we are thinking about what it means to be a member of Christ’s Church. We believe
that a member of Christ’s Church, and therefore of Christ Church, for the two
are synonymous, is someone who is being transformed into the likeness of Jesus
Christ. It is someone who recognises:
- The need for a daily walk with Jesus
- The importance of participating in Sunday services
- The value of being part of a small group Bible study
- The privilege of serving in and through Christ’s Body
- The responsibility of stewarding God’s resources
- The opportunities to share Jesus with others
Easter
is traditionally the time when people were baptised and confirmed remembering
the death and resurrection of Jesus in our place. Easter is also when we encourage
new members to express their commitment by joining our electoral roll so that
they can participate in our annual Church Meeting and elect our elders. This year
we intend going one step further. At Easter, we will be inviting everyone who
considers themselves a member of Christ Church to put their name to a simple declaration
that, with God’s help, we will covenant for the year ahead to have a daily walk
with Jesus, participate regularly in Sunday services, be part of one of our small
groups, find a place of service for an hour a week minimum, and confidentially
but diligently steward the resources God has given us. We believe this is how
we can best grow as Christ followers together. How we can best express our desire
to become more like Christ, and help one another to do the same.
It
is not going to be something legalistic but liberating. We will be saying that
we believe in some values and stand by some principles. That membership matters.
We are not going to create first and second class Christians. It will help us
identify whether we are following Christ or need more time to take that step.
All are and will remain welcome. It is not something new either. We practice
it every week. Every time we hold a communion service I invite you to come forward
to receive the bread and the wine. Some do, some don’t. Remember the invitation?
“We invite all who love the Lord Jesus Christ to meet around his table and if
you do not yet regard yourself a Christian please still come forward, head bowed
and receive a blessing.” And it that act, quietly and reverently, we all make
a decision before God which is also public. Today we come to the fourth of these
values: The privilege of serving in and through Christ’s Body.
In
his book, The Purpose Driven Life[2],
Rick Warren tells us, “You are called to belong, not just believe… We are created
for community, fashioned for fellowship and formed for a family, and none of us
can fulfil God’s purposes by ourselves. The Bible says we are put together, joined
together, built together, members together, heirs together, fitted together, and
held together and one day will be caught up together. “While your relationship to Christ is personal, God never
intends it to be private. In God’s family you are connected to every other believer,
and we will belong to each other for eternity... Following Christ involves
belonging and not just believing. Lets look at Romans 12 and see what God
has to teach us about the church and finding our place of service.
1. A church family helps us grow up together
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your proper worship as rational beings. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2)
First note that Paul describes us as brothers and sisters. We are a family. Secondly notice he urges us to sacrifice - to offer our bodies - that is our time, our energy, out talents, our lives as living sacrifices. Third, notice he defines Christian service as an act of worship. There is no contradiction - no contrast between worship and service. The one is defined by the other. Indeed you cannot do one without the other. John Ortberg observes another paradox. “When we use our spiritual gifts in a spirit of servanthood, something happens to us as well as through us…” Paul calls it metamorphosis. When we find a place of service, “Old patterns of pride and self-absorption get disrupted. We explore our strengths and come face to face with our weaknesses. Failure leads to fresh encounters with grace. Risks lead to fresh experiences of trust. Competitiveness gives way to fresh reliance on community. Serving is a transforming endeavour.” This is how we please God. A church family, first of all, helps us grow up, together.
2.
A church family moves us out of self-centred isolation
“For
I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has
dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)
Listen to Rick Warren on the importance of the Church in scripture. “Membership
in the family of God is neither inconsequential nor something to be causally ignored.
The Church is God’s agenda for the world. Jesus said, “I will build my church,
and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” (Matthew 16:18 NLT). The
church is indestructible and will exist for eternity. It will outlive this universe,
and so will your role in it. The person who says, “I don’t need the church” is
either arrogant or ignorant. The church is so significant that Jesus died for
it… “Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.” (Ephesians 5:25).
The Bible calls the church “the bride of Christ” and the “body of Christ.” I can’t
imagine anyone saying to Jesus, “I love you but I dislike your wife.” Or “I accept
you, but I reject your body.”
But we do this when ever we think we can
live in splendid isolation, or regard meeting together as a family on Sundays
as optional. “The Bible says a Christian without a church home is like an organ
without a body, a sheep without a flock, or a child without a family. It is an
unnatural state. Today’s culture is one of independence, personal freedom and
individualism. This has created many spiritual orphans, what Rick Warren calls
“bunny believers” who hop around from one church to another without any identity,
accountability, or commitment.”
“The local church is the classroom for
learning how to get along in God’s family. Only in regular contact with ordinary,
imperfect believers, can we learn real fellowship” as well as discover our true
selves. Real maturity shows up in relationships. We need more than the Bible
in order to grow; we need other believers.”
Being part of a church family
will, says the Apostle Paul, ensure that you do not think more highly of yourself.
A church family helps us grow up together. A church family moves you out of self-centred
isolation.
3. A church family
identifies you as a genuine believer
“For as
we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body
in Christ, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5)
“We
are members of His body – the church. The bible insists that, “the church is a
body, not a building, an organism not an organisation… For the organs of your
body to fulfill their purpose, they must be connected to your body. The same is
true for you as a part of Christ’s Body. You were created for a specific role,
but you will miss … it … if you are not attached to a living, local church. You
discover your role in life through your relationships with others… Disconnected
and cut off from the lifeblood of a local body, your spiritual life will wither
and eventually cease to exist.
This is why the first symptom of spiritual
decline is usually inconsistent attendance at Sunday services. When we become
careless about fellowship, everything else begins to slide too.” “Biblical fellowship
is being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ.” Most Christians
can recite John 3:16. Not so many have memorised 1 John 3:16, “Jesus Christ laid
down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (1
John 3:16). You cannot grow to maturity in Jesus Christ alone. Your membership in a church identifies
you as a Christ follower.
A church
family helps us grow up together.
A church family
moves you out of self-centred isolation.
A church family identifies
you as a genuine believer.
4. A church family is our primary place of service.
“Having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let
us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or
ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches,
in teaching; he who exhorts,
in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he
who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with
brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving
the Lord; rejoicing in hope,
patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints,
given to hospitality.” (Romans 12:7-13)