What is Your Something

Intro

Has anyone ever given you a card for something that your forgot to open right away?

Could be a Christmas card, birthday card, even mother or father’s day card. You had the card, you knew it was a gift for you, but for some reason you just never got around to opening it.

Where I work, I tend to get a number of Christmas cards, and sometimes in the busyness of my day I won’t open them right away.

Instead they get set aside on my desk until I find a minute to open them.

Well, one time I received a card that sat on my desk for several days, not because I didn’t care about it, but because I had received dozens of cards and just figured I would open it the next time I had a chance.

Well, it just so happened that I forgot about it and found it in late January. So I went ahead and opened only to discover that to my surprise this particular card had a $25 gift card inside.

I was not expecting any more than a card with at best, a short hand written note wishing me and my family a Merry Christmas. I certainly didn’t expect a gift card worth $25.

Well, I immediately thanked the person who gave me the card and apologized for my delay in opening it.

Before I opened that envelope, that gift didn’t hold any value to me beyond the sentiment that a card provides.

Even though, all along that gift was worth $25. But that is the thing about gifts. If left unopened, no matter what is inside, that gift is worthless.

A gift is only valuable and worth something once it has been opened by the recipient. Otherwise it just sits and collects dust.

The same is true of our spiritual gifts. The Bible tells us that all of us have been given gifts. And those gifts have purpose and value.

But if that gift is never used, then its value is never realized.

Last week we started a series where my hope is that we can answer the question why Church?

Is it really that important? Does it really matter if as a Christian that I go?

I said last week that first and foremost, it absolutely matters because there is a dynamic to the kind of worship God desires for us that can only be expressed when we gather together.

To neglect going to Church is to neglect a major aspect of our relationship with God.

Another reason that we are going to explore today is that Church is also the place where your spiritual gifts and potential are realized and expressed.

In other words, each of us are a gift to the Church and we bring value to the gathering of His people.

But when we don’t go, we are like a gift that never gets opened. We not only fail to grow, but we are actually depriving others of the gift were we created to be.

Power in the Text

Paul talks at length in his first letter to the Church in Corinth about these gifts and their importance.

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 NLT 4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.

6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

Why does it matter if you go to a local church gathering? The Corinthian church was a mess, and Paul was writing to help inform them on how to be a healthy body of believers, less concerned about specific gifts of the Spirit and more concerned with everyone embracing how the Holy Spirit empowers each individual believer “for the common good” (v. 7).

He goes on to talk about some of these gifts.

1 Corinthians 12:8-11 NLT 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.

10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

Everyone is equipped by the Spirit in a variety of ways, but no one person has every capability, and there are no gifts that are better than others.

Can you imagine looking at what the Holy Spirit gave someone and deciding that it wasn’t good enough? Paul emphasizes that each person is important in what God is accomplishing through his people— the church.

Unfortunately, there are some who will try to establish some sort of spiritual superiority over others based upon their spiritual gifts.

This is a mistake, and Paul goes onto describe why.

1 Corinthians 12:12-21 NLT 12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

Here Paul is giving an illustration of how the church is like a body (vv. 12–27). Every member has a purpose and is interdependent with the others.

Every part serves the whole, diverse in ability, but of equal value and working in unity.

Paul emphasizes that diversity in the body is part of God’s divine plan for his Church and therefore necessary.

If any believer thinks that they are so gifted that they can do without others, Paul is attempting to correct the error in their thinking and help them to understand the importance of returning to the gathering.

One person alone, no matter how gifted, cannot play a Beethoven symphony, act a Shakespearian play-right , or compete against another team.

The same is true in the church. It can never be a solo performance”

So when you ask, “Why does it matter if I’m there?” remember that when you are not, an entire community is missing out on what you have been given to share—whether or not that seems like a big deal to you.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

You are vital to the Church’s purposes and when you absent yourself from the Church you are robbing others of your gift.

As Christians, we aren’t called to do all things, but we are called to do something.

Living in community with other believers is a call to serve one another. But when we ignore that call, we end up causing others to pick up the ball that we are dropping.

If you’ve ever experienced a broken bone or thrown-out back, or left your glasses at home, then you understand the challenges that come when part of the body is out of commission.

Things just don’t go smoothly. Everything takes extra effort, and sometimes other parts of your body get sore or are overworked to compensate for the part that is unable to be utilized.

When this happens in our church body, it can lead to burnout.

There are likely people, even here in our little Church who are currently feeling this sense of burnout right now.

Perhaps they wonder why they even come to church at all, because it has become another part-time job in their lives.

For this segment of the church body, it is important to rest, learn to say no, and listen to your physical body, among other things.

The Spirit empowers each person to build up the body. Why Church? Because when you don’t do your part, you are contributing to someone else’s burnout and rather than building up the body, you are tearing it down.

On the other side of the coin is the reality that we all have different seasons of life, with different commitments and callings.

The retirees of a congregation may look at the need for children’s church volunteers and wonder why the parents aren’t stepping up to serve (it’s their children, after all).

Meanwhile, the parents might be drowning in their own responsibilities, sleepless nights, school activities, and working to pay the bills and wonder why the retirees who have all week to recuperate aren’t stepping up to serve the little ones.

It is really easy to judge another person’s commitment and level of service when you have never walked in their shoes.

When it comes to using our spiritual gifts and our natural abilities for the common good, it is best to focus on where you might be able to lend a hand in your current season of life, rather than pointing the finger elsewhere.

When we focus on using our gifts to make things better, instead of complaining about what’s wrong with everything, the body is healthier.

We can’t be “everything to everyone, all the time” but we can do something.

Serving alongside other believers is one of the best ways to connect with other people in your church.

You rarely get to know people during a five-minute meet-and-greet on Sunday morning but working side-by-side helps acquaintances become friends and mentors.

Applications/Closing

Why Church? Because without you, the Church suffers, and in turn the world suffers. We are after all the light of the world. What good is a light that only shine half as bright as it should.

The gifts matter, and without you, some gifts will be missing.

At the same time it is important to note that hyper-focusing on the spiritual gifts can feed a ministry philosophy that is more focused on signs and wonders than it is on Jesus.

Remember, the gifts are about building up the Church, who’s head is Jesus.

The gifts are not about hype and they certainly shouldn’t be the reason you gather.

Gathering to do church is important, but we can’t escape the call to be the church outside the four walls.

When we are empowered by and acting on the Spirit’s prompting, we are exercising our spiritual gifts.

If we spend all our time within the walls of our church buildings because we are chasing hype, but little time actually living in a Christlike way beyond the walls, we miss a significant opportunity to join in God’s work.

As I said earlier, no Christian is called to do everything, be we are called to do something. What is your something? You will never be able to answer that question apart from the gathering of God’s people.