Discovering Our Identity by Serving Others

Ephesians 4:1-16 — I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Intro:

The Idaho State Police (ISP) is investigating after a crash blocked SH-41 and Hayden Avenue on Sunday afternoon.

ISP said they are looking for people who witnessed the incident.

The crash happened when a GMC Yukon towing a white horse trailer attempted to turn south onto SH-41 when a Buick struck the GMC.

The driver of the Buick, a man from Spirit Lake, was transported to a nearby hospital and was treated and released. No one else was injured.

During the crash, a dog was ejected from the rear of the GMC and is still missing.

ISP said the dog is a 2-year-old Border Collie Heeler mix that goes by the name "Tilly". Tilly has no tail, a dark-colored face, weighs approximately 70 pounds, and was wearing a multi-colored plaid and tan-colored collar with a name tag containing the owner's contact information.

Tilly was last seen running northwest from the crash scene through the field.

Tilly, the 2-year-old Border Collie who was ejected from a car Sunday during a crash, has been found.

He was found on a sheep farm, where he had apparently taken up the role of sheep herder.

According to Tilly's owner, he has lost some weight since Sunday's crash and is now drinking lots of water but is otherwise healthy.

No one should be surprised that a Border Collie would be found herding sheep. Some things you are just born to do!

Maybe Tilly didn’t even realize what was in him until he saw that first sheep and instinct kicked in.  "Finally!"  He said.

What were you born again to do?

"Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you" (1 Timothy 4:14).

Unity in Christ — The Foundation of Our Identity

“One” is used 7 times in the first 6 verses. Paul builds his foundation of serving others with our spiritual gifts on unity in Christ.

This was a significant problem in the early church. Paul spent 3 chapters in 1 Corinthians addressing divisions in the church solely on the basis of spiritual gifts. You had people giving prominence to some gifts because they understood that those who had those gifts were better than those who did not.

Speaking in tongues was specifically sought after as the most excellent gift, but it wasn’t. Today, prominence is often given to preaching, pastoring, teaching, and evangelism, but all of the other gifts matter too.

Paul’s point is that we are all building on the same foundation.

One body of Christ — The Church

One Spirit — The Holy Spirit

One Hope — Final Salvation through Jesus Christ

One Lord — Jesus

One Faith — Belief or Trust in Christ as the Only Means of Salvation

One Baptism — Water Baptism and/or Spirit Baptism

One Father — Ruling over all of us, Moving/Serving through all of us, and Dwelling in all of us

In all these ways we have a profound unity. Every spiritual gift is filtered through this unity—this oneness that we have in Christ.

We must strive to keep a heart of humility as we discover and use our spiritual gifts.

“eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”

Seeking unity and looking out for disunity.

Pride is the enemy of unity. And it’s like a dandelion. Its roots go deep and it only needs a little left in the ground to sprout again. Not only that, its seeds can grow in the tiniest of crevices. This is why it is so easy for us to get carried away with how great our spiritual gifts are.

It is very hard to behold our own gifts without pride, and the gifts of others without envy.

Vavasor Powell

We need to be careful that we do not let the presence of gifts encourage us to pride, nor the absence of gifts discourage us from serving at all.

Diversity in Christ — The Development of our Identity

“each one of us” No one is left out, but not everyone gets the same gift. There is a uniqueness in us that does not hinder the unity of the body. Paul gives this picture to the Corinthians using the anatomy of the human body. The eye, the hand, and the foot are all used to basically say that all are a part of the body yet each is different and unique.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

workmanship “poiema” or where we get our word poem.

I carries the idea of being crafted.

A great deal of who you are today is owed to how Christ has made you.

The time you were born into, the country you were born in, the race you were born as, the parents you were born to, your gender, your natural talents and abilities,…Did you make any of these decisions? No! God did.

What about all of the circumstances that you have faced so far in life? Yes they may be the result of your own free will or someone else’s but in God’s divine sovereignty and grace He has allowed all of those things to take place to bring you to the place you are at today.

And on top of all of that, when you place your faith in Christ, you submit yourself to additional formation that God has already planned for you. You receive a spiritual gift of grace.

“Spiritual gifts are more than human talents. Talents include things like the ability to sing, speak, write, etc. One person may posses all these talents and more. But a spiritual gift is an ability sovereignly given by God that He wants the believe to focus on in a unique way, because He wants to use that gift, through the believer, in a unique way to build His kingdom and mature His body.

God may make one of your natural talents a spiritual gift or give you something totally new. The key is that this gift will be used specifically to build up His body.” — Tony Evans The Kingdom Agenda, p.370.

So God has done all things to bring you to this place. And if you place your faith in Christ, He will continue to develop you into the identity that He has crafted just for you.

Dependence on Christ — The Source of our Gifting

v. 8 Paul mentions how Christ has given us gifts and then goes on a tangent in verses 9 and 10 because he is personally overwhelmed why what Jesus did to save us and to give us these gifts.

Verse 8 is a picture common of kings in Paul’s time and in most ages where there was a king. When I king conquered another nation, he would bring back captives behind him in his parade, as well as the other spoils that he acquired in that victory. As people would come up to honor the king or as he went through the streets, he would share his spoils with his subjects.

Jesus came down v. 9 to fight our war against sin. We were captives of another kingdom and Jesus came to defeat that kingdom. And on the cross, He faced the most incredible loss of not only His life, but His unity with the Father. He faced the wrath of God, the punishment of our sin, the curse of hell, and when the kingdom of Satan thought it had won, Jesus said, “It is finished!” The debt was paid the battle was over. When sin thought it was defeating Christ, He was dragging it to its death.

And when Jesus ascended from the grave to sit at the right hand of the Father, He gave all of His subjects gifts to be used to continue the advancement of His kingdom.

The gifts that we have are the direct result of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Discovering Your Identity — How the Know and Use Your Gifts

Reminders: Every disciple has a gift of the Spirit. And these gifts are used to build up the body of Christ.

The list given in verse 11 may seem to isolate and show that there are only some who receive gifts. But we see other gifts of the Spirit throughout Pauls letters, and we will get to those next week.

Paul’s point is that apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers exist to equip the other gifted disciples to do their own work of ministry. YOU ARE NOT OFF THE HOOK!

How we discover our gifts and then our identity.

You don’t call yourself. Don’t assess your talents and assume that you know what your spiritual gift is. This is leaning on your own understanding.

It’s not entirely individualistic, nor is it entirely collective. You don’t just go on the basis of your emotions, nor do you blindly take the word of others. Sometimes we are quick to assume we know what a person’s gifting is without encouraging them to seek out God’s will and wisdom on the matter. And sometimes we think we know what to do and we refuse to listen to the wisdom of others. It is the job of the body to confirm a calling, redirect or slow down a calling, and sometimes contradict a calling. Example: After Spurgeon preached a sermon he was approached by a young man who said to him, “Mr. Spurgeon the Spirit tells me that I am to preach here, in this very Tabernacle, next Thursday night.” Spurgeon paused, then looked at the young man and said, “Well, it is a curious thing that the Spirit has not told me that.”

You need to beware of “gift cop-out” and “gift projection”. “Gift cop-out” or “gift envy” is when you refuse to follow Christ in obedience because you are not gifted in that area. I’m not gifted with generosity, so I don’t tithe. I’m not gifted in evangelism, so I can’t share my faith. “Gift projection” is on the other end of the spectrum where you project or force your gift onto others because you believe that everyone should be doing what you are doing with as much energy as you are putting towards it. But you forget that it comes easy for you because it is your spiritual gifting.

Start serving somewhere. Take up a variety of opportunities as they come along. Often times, we don’t know what God has called us to do because we’re not serving anywhere at all. Ken Eagleton, missionary to Brazil, was coming off of the mission field along with several other missionaries and they realized that there were not many missionary candidates waiting to take their place. So he decided something needed to be done to engage the hearts of teenagers before they made career decisions. The hope was that this program would lead several young people to answer the call while they were on these short term missions trips and if nothing else give others a burden to support missions wherever they are. That program was called E-Team. If you remember, you supported Jacob in this when he went to France. Another young person who participated in E-Team is Hannah Goucher and it was while she was there that she felt the Lord calling her into missions. It is the same for work in the church. You try something for a period of time and wait and see if that is where the Lord is calling you. If not, you try something else. We serve while we seek to know God’s calling.

Conclusion: How do we know when we have found our spiritual gift.

Affinity — Interest and desire.

Ability — Can you do the task well, maybe significantly well.

Opportunity — Is there a place at this time where you can use this gift? If not it be a gift, just not the right timing. Look for an open door that aligns with affinity and ability.

Peace and blessing of God — Is there a joy that you find in this gift? Is there significant blessing in the impact of what you are doing?

Do you know what you gifting is? Are you seeking to know?

Are you humble in the use of your gifts?

Have you recieved first the gift of salvation?