11/29/15 RUMC “Sent #1” (Inspired by the book SENT by Jorge Acevedo

11/29/15

RUMC “Sent #1”

“DO NOT BE AFRAID.” How many times do you read that in the Bible?

Some say 365 times. . Even though it is a nice thought, that God put in one “fear not” for each day of the year, I have yet to find a version of the Bible for which it is that neat and easy. No matter how many you count, however, there is no denying that God told us not to be afraid a LOT of times! “DO NOT BE AFRAID… FEAR NOT.”

Fear and its more generalized, but very real partner anxiety, have existed since almost the beginning of time.

When God set Adam and Eve in the garden there was no fear… there was no anxiety. There was only love, and peace, and walking with God in the cool of the evening.

When Adam and Eve decided to go their own way, disobeying God, and eat the fruit, and their eyes were opened, they began to feel a very strong emotion that things were not right. In fact, something was very wrong. And what do they tell God when he asks them why they were hiding? Adam says we were hiding because we were “naked and afraid.” They were naked and afraid.

God said to Isaac - ‘I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”

Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Elijha, Solomon, Jehosephat, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Zechariah all received similar messages. “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”

Then we see it again and again in the birth narratives that we start reading today,

Just before Zechariah was told that his prayers had been answered and Elizabeth would bear a child we know as John the Baptist, he was told by the angel, “Do not be afraid”

When Mary was greeted as the highly favored one she was told, “Do not be afraid”

When the angel appeared to Joseph what did he say? “Do not be afraid.”

Those poor shepherds pulling the night shift encounter an angel choir, and the first words are, “Do not be afraid”

Why were those the first words spoken to these heroes of the nativity story? Obviously, because they were afraid. I think we would have been afraid too.

Anxiety in moderation is critical for our survival. It was critical that we be constantly aware that the rustling of the bushes might be a saber tooth tiger. It would only take one moment of false security for us to become meow mix for the very real tiger in the bushes. Appropriate fear is critical too. When the tiger jumps out of the bushes, fear is what makes us run, hopefully at least just a little faster than our buddy sitting next to us.

Theologically, anxiety and fear do not belong in our relationship with God. God created us in his image, breathed his own breath of life into us, filled us with the Holy Spirit, and loves us more than we can imagine. What is there to be anxious about? What is there to fear? If we look back to the first appearance of fear in the creation story, we can easily see that sin and separation from God are the source of spiritual anxiety and fear.

The Christmas story, therefore, is a story for anyone who is afraid. The Christmas story is a story for anyone who is anxious. The Christmas story comes to Zechariah, and Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds, who were all afraid, with the message “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.” And it comes to us with that same message.

·         Whether our anxiety and fear is healthy and appropriate, or extreme and debilitating, the Christmas story is for us. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         Whether our anxiety and fear are based on real dangers, or manufactured in our heads, the Christmas story is for us. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         Whether our anxiety and fear are of this world, or more existential and spiritual in nature, the Christmas story is for us. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for old couples who think that life has passed them by. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for pregnant unwed teenagers. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for those facing punishment by death. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for those who fear they won’t make it through scary economic times, or through these medical bills, or this student loan, or the next round of layoffs. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for people who are afraid that the latest diagnosis may be the one that kills them. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for parents grasping at anything they can reach in order to save their children from the misadventures of adolescence. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for children afraid to walk past the house where the neighborhood bully lives. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for children who aren’t sure they can stand to lie in bed and listen to dad beat up on mom… again, or see mom come home drunk… again, or watch their sister poison their unborn nephew with alcohol. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for young adults who aren’t sure they know how to grow up, and are even less sure they want to bring a family into this world. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for people who aren’t sure life is worth living because fear and anxiety have such a strong hold, because depression drags them in to a deep dark pit, and because alcohol and drugs distort and destroy any meaning left in life. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for husbands and wives who have lost the joy in their relationship but feel trapped for the sake of the kids. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for people for whom this is a season of loneliness, and grief, and depression, instead of a season of good news and great joy. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”

·         The Christmas story is for the afraid… the ones whom God sends out, again and again, but each time they stumble over their own fear, and God has to pick them up and say, “Do not be afraid, Do not be afraid.”

·         The Christmas story is a story of reconciliation for all people who are afraid… even you and even me.

The Christmas story is a story of reconciliation that assures us that we don’t have to sit in the bushes along the path in the garden naked and afraid. That the close relationship with God that was compromised in the Garden of Eden is reconciled in Jesus Christ.

God never gave up. God kept offering, again and again the power and promise of his presence in the lives of his people, but people kept going their own way. Through sin and slavery, exodus and exile, God offered… maybe I should say God begged to come near, but people kept choosing fear that led them further from God and further from the persons they were created to be.

Then, finally, in the fullness of time, God sent Jesus as a baby in a manger. Everyone who received the good news in those days was unsuspecting, unqualified, undeserving, anxious, and afraid. But God came anyway, as a baby, Immanuel, God with us… again …finally.

God comes to us today as a baby, Immanuel, God with us for everyone who is unsuspecting, unqualified, undeserving, anxious, and afraid…that’s all of us by the way.

God comes to us today as a baby, Immanuel, God with us for every one of us who lives with anxiety and fear… that is all of us by the way.

God came as a baby, Immanuel, God with us for every one of us whose lives are turned upside down by sin. … That is all of us by the way.

God came as a baby, Immanuel, God with us to every one of us in order to set our lives aright. To redeem us from our perpetually anxious, and fearful, and sinful existence. To reconcile us to the one who says over and over, “Do not be afraid… do not be afraid.

The phone rings and between the callers tears and my adrenaline, I have a hard time understanding exactly what is said, except come quick.

As a pastor, I often find myself invited into the holiest moments of a family’s life. I sit in hospitals, nursing homes, living rooms, and hospice rooms when people are afraid. I sit across kitchen tables from people who have received frightening diagnoses. I stand in hospital hallways with families talking in hushed tones about the decisions they have to make. I stand next to beds in the intensive care unit where anxiety and fear almost suck the air out of the room. I stand in front of families at funerals with an empty place in the pew and an even emptier place in their hearts.

And there aren’t many words to say. There just aren’t.

In those moments, we fall back to the words that bring us comfort… I can’t count the number of times I have read those words, He makes me to lie down in green pastures… he restores my soul… yea thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…

And then come the words that somehow bring comfort, words that carried me through some of my most anxious times… words spoken to countless folks fearing for their lives, or the lives of their children, or the lives of their parents, or fearing for their own future, or on the battle field, or in the midst of any time in middle of the night or in brightest daylight, when all around us seems so dark.

I will fear no evil; for you are with me…

It is still scary. And families still have months and years of rehabilitation, or grieving, or guilt. But I am always amazed that in the middle of the night, in those darkest moments, in the living rooms, lobbies, and bedsides, the sanctuaries, and in our homes, God is with us. Immanuel. Just as God was with Mary in as she faced the angel or in the donkey stall. Immanuel, Just as God was with Joseph when he thought his whole life and future had crumbled around him. Immanuel Just as God was with the shepherds frightened by the glory of God. Immanuel. Just as God is with us today. Immanuel. God will be with you in any darkness, or anxiety or fear that you face. Immanuel.

Immanuel… God is with you.

AMEN

“Gifted by the Spirit, Because of Jesus” Reinbeck UMC 11/22/15

“Gifted by the Spirit, Because of Jesus”

Reinbeck UMC 11/22/15

 How do you respond to the news that you have Spiritual Gifts?

Like this guy?   or more like this guy?   I’m afraid that most of us respond this way. 

•           But why? Is it because we don’t know about Spiritual Gifts? I don’t think so. I know we have talked about Spiritual Gifts before. And you have probably heard several sermons on them through the years.

•           Is that because we don’t have any? NO. I said last week that Paul is very clear that everyone gets Spiritual Gifts.

•           Is it because we don’t know any better? Probably not. Most of us are taught that even if grandma gives you a package of whitey tighty underwear… or if the neighbor gives you a fruitcake youi at least ACT excited and SAY, “ thank you.”

Why, then, does God gets this!

I think it is in part because we misunderstand Spiritual Gifts. 

o          First, we are brought up with the idea that gifts are special. They are for s special occasions like birthdays and Christmas. We don’t expect a gift if it isn’t a special day.

God, however, doesn’t need an excuse to give us a gift. That’s just the way God is. In God’s mind, there is no day more special than today. So today is as good a day as any to unwrap our Spiritual Gifts.

o          That leads to the second problem. Too often we leave our Spiritual Gifts neatly wrapped and on the shelf.

I have never known a kid to leave a gift under the Christmas tree. I have never known a kid to say, “Oh, the paper is so pretty, I think I’ll just set this on my dresser and look at it.” With our  Spiritual Gifts, however, we do it all the time. God’s Spiritual Gifts are here and ready for us. But it seems that we just never get around to unwrapping them.

o          Finally, I think we get hung up on the term Spiritual Gifts.

We seem to have the idea that Spiritual Gifts are for especially Spiritual people. You know, preachers, and deacons, and missionaries. Certainly those folks need a special set of Spiritual Gifts in order to do the work to which they have been called. They are not the only ones, however, who get Spiritual Gifts.

We talked about it last week. Paul writes in our passage today, “Now to EACH ONE the manifestation of the Spirit is given.” EACH ONE. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. There are no exceptions. No one too unimportant. No one too old. No one too young, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US has been given gifts.

So what makes a gift Spiritual. Is it because it is listed in the Bible? No. We need to understand that what makes a gift Spiritual is not where it comes from but how it is used.

Think of it this way.

A tree grows in the forest. It is a gift from God’s good creation, but it is not a Spiritual Gift.

One day a carpenter comes and cuts it down. He takes it home slabs it, dries it, soon it becomes lumber. That lumber is a gift from God, but it still is not a Spiritual Gift.

From there we can do a thousand things with it. We might build a house, or a mighty war ship, or a kitchen cupboard. No matter what the carpenter does with it, it is still a gift from God, but it isn’t a Spiritual Gift.

On the other hand, take that tree and build an altar. Build a church. Build a homeless shelter. Build a wagon so a child can pull his little sister around because her limbs were blown off by a land mine. Build a table around which leaders gather to negotiate peace. Lay it across a couple of sawhorses and use it as a makeshift operating table in a refugee village. Build a habitat for humanity home. Build a toy to be taken to a child in Haiti. Build a cross to be given to someone as a witness of your faith. And suddenly that ordinary gift of creation has become holy. It has become Spiritual. It has become a Spiritual Gift. All we have and all we are is a gift from God. It becomes a Spiritual Gift when it is used for God’s glory or God’s kingdom.

 Remember How I defined a Spiritual Gift last week? It is the Holy Spirit working in you, making you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do. Holy Spirit working in you, making you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do. The tree is not the gift, the gift is God working in us to use the tree for his glory and his kingdom.

•           The Spiritual Gift is not the ability to speak in public, it is the willingness to use my ability to speak in public to preach the word of God.

•           The Spiritual Gift is not teaching, it is the willingness teach the people about God.

•           The Spiritual Gift is not serving, but serving in God’s name.

•           The Spiritual Gift is not being poor, but knowing that true wealth is in the kingdom of God.

See how that works.

So how do we know what our Spiritual Gifts are? Let’s use an acronym I created.

  is for Biblical Spiritual Gifts. These are the ones listed in the Bible. We can take a Biblical Spiritual Gifts inventory like this one to help us identify our Biblical gifts. I have some if you want one, and we will use them in our Spiritual Gifts retreat in April. When I take in the inventory I pretty consistently see preaching, teaching, and administration are my predominant gifts. I feel certain that some of you have the Biblical gift of teaching, or the Biblical Gift of hospitality, or the Biblical gift of leadership. You will find these Biblical gifts listed on your handout. As I said last week am not willing to limit the infinitely wise and creative God to a list of 25 or50 or even 100 possible Spiritual Gifts. So we have to understand that these Biblical gifts are a good sampling, but they are certainly not exhaustive.

You can see that these are all gifts through which the Holy Spirit might work through to make you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do. Celebrate them.

 We also have to consider our  nterests. In what are you interested? What gets your attention? What makes you curious? What is important to you? Where are your passions? What excites you?

 An example of an INTEREST as a Spiritual Gift might be Robyn’s interest in the persecuted church. No one in their right mind wants to read the stories of Christians being killed, imprisoned, and tortured, unless they are driven by the Spirit to lift up the plight of these people.

In what are you interested? Are you interested in children or the elderly? Are you interested in Haiti, or Africa? Are you interested in reaching others for Christ, or visiting, or comforting? Evelyn Wininger is interested in helping the hungry through the food pantry so she has been helping with that for several years.

Is it possible that your interest is more than mere curiosity? Sure! Does your interest drive you to do something for Jesus that you might not otherwise be willing or able to do? Then it is a Spiritual Gift. Celebrate it.

   is for favorites. What are your favorite things. While it is true that sometimes in the service of God, we do things that we just do not like, more often, I think, God works through our favorite things to ask us to do things that we might not otherwise be able or willing to do.

I think of the men we have heard speak at the Prairie Lakes Cabin Fever Dinner. They love to shoot, or hunt, or fish; and it is because of these favorite things that God gives them the opportunity to speak to thousands of people over the course of a year, not just to teach them about their favorite things, but also to share their love for God, and how God has worked in their lives. Would these guys get up to preach on Sunday morning? Maybe they would now, but I think they would deny that they have the gift of preaching. They do have the gift of being passionate enough about something that they are willing to stand up and share about, and in the process share what God means to them. It is almost as if the passion, the favorite thing is the excuse to get them to do something that they would otherwise find very difficult. So sometimes God uses our passions, or our favorite things, to get us to things that we would otherwise be unwilling or would think that we are unable to do.

Is your passion photography? Is your passion reading? Is one of your favorite things old movies? Is one of your favorite things flowers? Edie uses one of her favorite things, prayer, to be a prayer warrior for us. Pat uses one of her favorite things, baking, to take sweet love gifts to people who need a special lift. And God uses one of my favorite things eating sweets to make Pat feel wanted and useful! Paul Ehrig uses one of his favorite things, kids to make himself available as a reading tutor at the Elementary school. What is your favorite thing? How can God use that? How can God use your favorite things to lead you to do things that you otherwise would not or could not do? That is a Spiritual Gift. Celebrate it.

 The fourth kind of Spiritual Gift is our   alents. What talents has God given you that help you to do things you otherwise would not or could not do for him? Is it singing, then sing! If it is playing the piano or guitar, then play. If it is drama, then use it. Pat and Robert use their talent for flowers to decorate the flowerbox out front every year. Jan used her eye for classy beauty to decorate the tables at the GR Staff Thank You Dinner. Barb Wildman uses her natural talent for drama to bring richness to the spring concert each year.

A talent is a natural ability or aptitude. What are your natural talents? Use them! Find a way to offer it to God. That is a Spiritual Gift. Celebrate it.

 Finally, we come to  . S stands for skills. These are things that we are not natural talents, but we can learn. I learned to be a carpenter, and used it to rehab homes for low-income first time homebuyers, as well as mission trips, and around the church. Kim learned the skills of nursing so that she could care for the sick, and hopefully take those skills to Nigeria some day.

Those are skills that we learned. It might have started as an interest, or a talent, or a passion, but we learn the skills and we put them to work for God.

Use a skill you have or learn a new one and offer it to God. That is a Spiritual Gift. Celebrate it.

Our Gifts, Interests, Favorites, Talents, and Skills all rolled together make our Spiritual Gift cluster that I talked about last week. And you already know what those Gifts, Interests, Favorites, Talents, and Skills are. If you really think about it, you already know your gift cluster. You don’t need a test for that. You don’t need anyone to tell you what your favorite things are, you don’t need anyone to tell you what you talents are.

What you need is someone to give you the authority to use them for God. Let me go one further, let me lift up your responsibility to use your gifts for God. God has given you a great set of gifts… and all God asks is that you use it.

I want you to turn your handouts over now. To the page that looks like this.

  Find a pencil and next to the first gifts write, a biblical gift you think you might have.  Next to the second gift, an interest. (It is probably best not to think too long on these. Your first answers are probably the best.) Next to the third, your favorite things, or passions. Next to the 4th your talents. And finally, the skills that you have learned.

Now, look at that list and decide on one Gift, Interest, Passion, Talent, or Skill that you are not currently using for God, but could. You might not know how yet, but let the Holy Spirit guide your thoughts and write one of them in the box at the bottom. This is just for you. So stick it in your pocket, wallet, or purse so you will find it later, and be reminded of the responsibility you have to use that power for God.

You may remember the story about the man who was fishing with his friend the game warden. After not catching anything for a while he reached in his tackle box and pulled out stick of Dynamite. The game warden asked him what he was doing. The man replied, “Fishing.”

The game warden said, “You can’t do that.”

The man thought for a moment. Lit the fuse, and handed it to his game warden friend. He said, are you going to write me a ticket or are you going to fish?

Having Spiritual Gifts is like having a lit stick of dynamite in your hand. So I ask you… are you going to sit there, or are you going to fish?

Miracles in disguise Reinbeck UMC November 15, 2015

Miracles in disguise

Reinbeck UMC

November 15, 2015

Do you think miracles happen today? I mean do you really think that God works miracles in our world today, our community, our church, and our lives? I do, and I think that each of you is one of God’s greatest miracles in disguise.

•           Think back to the Old Testament reading. When the Israelites needed a miracle to fight Goliath, did God use the biggest strongest soldier the Israelites had? Actually yes, but he disguised him as a pipsqueak of the little boy. David was a miracle in disguise.

•           Think back to the reading from Philippians. When God needed a miracle someone to take this new Gospel of Christ to faraway places, did he use one of his most faithful followers? Actually yes, but he disguised him as a Pharisee of Pharisees and persecutor of Christians. Saul soon became Paul and was a miracle in disguise.

 When God needs a miracle in Reinbeck Iowa, where do you suppose he turns? Not David, or Paul. God relies on you. YOU are God’s miracle in disguise.

The answer to the opening question, then, is “Absolutely!” Absolutely miracles happen today and they happen here. Miracles happen every day, when God to works in and through people like us.

 We are all just ordinary people. None of us is a giant slayer. None of us is a Spiritual powerhouse. Yet, when God has something to do in this world, God depends on us, God’s miracles in disguise.

•           Whether it is simple and ordinary like teaching a child to sing their very first Christmas song or giving a neighbor a ride to the doctor;

•           or quite extraordinary like introducing a new person to Christ, seeing a broken community come together to celebrate of what is GR8, or sending kindles and toilets to a seminary in Nigeria God depends on us, God’s miracles in disguise.

When God has something to do in this world, he turns to people like us… because we really are miracles in disguise.

You might think you’re not qualified because you haven’t been to seminary… neither had Jesus, or Paul, or mother Theresa. In fact, sometimes the miracle of seminary is that anyone believes in miracles when they graduate. History has forgotten the names of the 60 or so High priests of the Bible, but everyone knows the ordinary people like Elisha, or Jeremiah, or Peter, or Paul. None of them were pastors. Yet, they were all miracles in disguise.

You might think you are too young. But God used David (who might have been 12), and Mary (who might have been all of 14) to be miracles in the disguise of youth.

You might think you are too old. But God used Abraham who as 99 when Isaac was born, and Anna who was 83 when Jesus was born to be miracles in the disguise of old age.

You think you have more important things to do? God used the great pharaoh of Egypt as a miracle in disguise to let the Israelites free.

You think you are too weak? God used underdogs like Joseph who was bullied by his brothers; Amos, a simple farmer from Tekoah; and a social outcast named John the Baptist. They are miracles in the disguise of underdogs.

God used Israelites like Moses and Peter, and foreigners like Ruth and Simon of Cyrene as miracles in disguise.

God used men. God uses women.

God choose the educated and the uneducated.

God used professional religious types, faithful ordinary folk, religious seekers, and even priests of the idol Baal, to be his miracles in disguise.

God used white-collar workers like Nicodemus, and blue-collar workers like the fisherman Peter to be his miracles in disguise.

God used single mothers like Mary, widows like Ruth, handicapped persons, persons of all colors and races and nationalities, people who were insiders and people were outsiders. God used all these kinds of people to do his work in the Bible. Each and every one of them was a miracle in disguise.

Actually, we are three times a miracle.

•           The first miracle is creation, is that God even desired to make us in God’s image and breathe into us the breath of life.

•           The second miracle is salvation, is that God loved us enough to suffer and die that we might be called “children of God.”

•           And the third is that God always has, and still does do his best work through ordinary people like you and me. Actually sometimes, it seems like the more ordinary the better.

It is that third miracle I want to talk about today “God works primarily through ordinary people like us.”

 First, we have to agree that God is present and active in the world.

Can we agree on that?

 Second we have to ask where is God active?… where is God at work?… what is God’s modus operandi?

 By far, the most common way God works is in ordinary people like you and me.

•           Let me be clear… I am not saying that this is the only way God works, it isn’t. Look at the beauty of the symphony of nature. That is God’s work and God’s alone.

•           I am also not saying that God needs us. No, God can do anything God chooses to do. God works in people because that is what God chooses to do. God doesn’t need us, but he wants us to be his hands and his feet in this world over which he has given us dominion.

It is God’s plan that he would bring the world into line with his great vision we call the kingdom of God, by using the efforts of ordinary people like you and me.

•           The greatest example is Jesus himself. God cold have come to save us with a hurricane, or a voice from on high, or alien visitation. But God chose an ordinary girl, in an ordinary place, to be the mother of an ordinary baby, in whom God was incarnate, and saved the world by the very human act of suffering and dying on a cross.

•           After his resurrection and ascension Jesus left us to visit the sick

•           Jesus told us to clothe the naked

•           Jesus told us to go into all the world, and preach, and baptize.

•           Jesus told us to love, and forgive, and teach.

•           In fact, Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Jesus said, “You will do even greater things than these.” Jesus Clearly left his followers to faithfully carry on his work and continue the drive toward the Kingdom of God.

If, then, we can agree that

1.         God is present and active in the world.

2.         And chooses to be active in ordinary people, we finally have to ask,

3.           How is that possible? We are after all, just ordinary people. Listen to this

 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. That helper is the

   Holy Spirit. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn’t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.” 

“He lives with you and will be in you.” You have the Holy Spirit inside of you. You look like an ordinary person. The truth is that you are a Spirit-filled person. You are a God-filled person. You are ordinary on the outside, but just like an Oreo-, the really good stuff is on the inside. The really amazing stuff lives within you. That is the living active Spirit of God. You are a Spiritual superhero.

•           So when you act, it is not you alone, but God who is at work in you and through you.

•           When you pray it is the Holy Spirit in you that gives words to your prayers that are too deep for words.

•           When you love someone it is not you alone, but the Holy Spirit within you that loves.

•           When you serve, it is not just you it is the Holy Spirit in side of you working through you.

•           When you share your faith, it is not just your words, but the Holy Spirit inside of you that gives life to your words and plants them in your friends’ heart.

•           When you teach,

•           or lead,

•           or take food to someone,

•           or give so a child has a gift on Christmas,

•           or when you are liturgist,

•           or have kings kids,

•           or greet,

•           or usher,

•           or work technology,

•           or visit someone at Parkview,

•           or comfort a child,

•           or help an elderly person,

•           or serve dinner to the school staff,

•           or pack love boxes,

•           or pray for someone,

•           or rake leaves for someone,

•           Or a thousand other things;…whether you realize it or not… the Spirit of God is within you working in you and through you.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in you is in kind of like a force multiplier… it is not just you alone who serve, but God working through you. In THE ALPHABET OF GRACE Frederick Buechner writes, “A miracle is when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A miracle is when one plus one equals a thousand.”  That makes the Spirit working through you a miracle, and that makes you a miracle in disguise.

 So that brings us to “by what means does Holy Spirit work through us?” Spiritual Gifts.   This all happens by our Spiritual Gifts.

•           Volumes have been written on Spiritual Gifts.

•           Hours of sermons have been preached on Spiritual Gifts.

•           People even argue over how many Spiritual Gifts there really are.

•           Let me tell you Gifts of the Spirit are not mystery. Very simply the Holy Spirit in you makes you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do…. Hear that …  a Spiritual gift is the Holy Spirit in you, making you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do.

I know there are lists in the Bible. I know that some say those are the only gifts there are. I think that’s crazy. God made us each completely unique and the Holy Spirit works in each of us in a completely and entirely unique way.

That is what Paul is saying in I Corinthian 12 when he talks about the body or Christ he says, “There are different Spiritual Gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. There are different ways of serving, and yet the same Lord is served. There are different types of work to do, but the same God produces every gift in every person”

He goes on “The evidence of the Spirit’s presence is given to each person for the common good of everyone. 8The Spirit gives one person the

•           ability to speak with wisdom. The same Spirit gives another person the

•           ability to speak with knowledge. To another person the same Spirit gives

•           courageous faith. To another person the same Spirit gives the

•           ability to heal. Another can

•           work miracles. Another can

•           speak what God has revealed. Another can

•           tell the difference between Spirits. Another can

•           speak in different kinds of languages. Another can

•           interpret languages.”

I might add,

•           another understands technology,

•           another plays the piano,

•           another loves being a hostess,

•           another is skilled at fixing things

•           another loves working with children

•           another is gifted with numbers

We could go on and on. Paul concludes, “There is only one Spirit who does all these things by giving what God wants to give to each person.” Hear that? “giving what God wants to give to each person.” Are we going to limit God to 9, or 25, or 37 gifts? Heavens no! Each and every person has a unique cluster of Spiritual Gifts (a unique set of ways the Spirit works in them) _ that is more unique than their DNA. I say MORE unique because identical twins have the same DNA, and yet God can give them completely different Spiritual gift-sets.

The one thing that is the same for everyone is that we are expected us use them.  If you agree that

1.         God is present and works in this world,

2.         through ordinary people who are,

3.         by the indwelling of the  Holy Spirit,

4.         given spiritual gifts. Then you have to admit that to not use them would flat out be a sin. Leaving our Spiritual Gifts wrapped up in the pretty paper is being disobedient and is therefore a sin. Let me tell you, there are no such Spiritual Gifts as

•           pew warming or

•           sermon criticizing or

•           music listening’!!!! 

•           Showing up on Sunday is not a Spiritual gift and

•           neither is being a member of a church.

Our Spiritual Gifts are not for us, our comfort, or our convenience. They are to be used to get God’s work done in the world.

Every morning a certain Christian man prayed: "Lord, if you want me to witness to someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is."

One day he found himself on a bus when a big, burly man sat next to him. The bus was nearly empty but this guy sat next to our praying friend. The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he could get very nervous about the man next to him, the big guy burst into tears and began to weep. He then cried out with a loud voice, "I need to be saved. I’m a lost sinner and I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?" He turned to the Christian and pleaded, "Can you show me how to be saved?" The Christian man immediately bowed his head and prayed, … "Lord, is this a sign?"

If you’re waiting for a sign…  Don’t wait any longer because the sign is here.