The ABC's of Membership: the E words
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The last several weeks we have looked at what it means to be a church member. You may have caught that church membership can be equivalent with Christian because so far I have not preached anything that wouldn’t apply to other congregations as well.
The big thing to note in all of this is none of this is how you earn God’s love or become a Christian, that is done through one way alone, putting your hope and faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, confessing with you lips and believing in your heart that He is God’s son who has taken away your sins.
It is not out of fear we look to being good Christians, it is out of love for Christ. We don’t have to do these things to earn His love, we have it, now because we have it this is what it looks like to respond back, to love Christ back, and follow Him.
Does that make sense? This is the response to having Jesus already as our Lord and Savior. You are saved by grace alone, and because you have grace you can now live for Christ instead of focusing on earning your way to Him.
But as a response, Jesus does want you to use what you have been given as an act of worship for Him, for Jesus. In other words he wants you
Energy and efforts. These are the E words for today. Another word could be talents.
Johny Dean tells a story about...
One man in a group being received into the church when he heard the pastor say, "Now God has given each of you a unique talent. When you join the church, you are expected to serve God with whatever abilities you have." Well, it just so happened that this particular man was a reformed criminal.
After he was released from prison, he had renounced the life of crime and gone straight. Joining the church, making a commitment to follow Jesus, was the first step in that effort. Serving God was a little out of his line, but he wanted to do what he could. So he went to the pastor and said, "Preacher, church work is something I'm not real familiar with, but I can fix the church's electric meter so that every other day it will run backwards. That way you'll never have to write another check to American Electric." Well, some talents are just inappropriate for use in the service of God, no matter how sincerely they're offered! But all of us have at least one talent that is valuable to the church.
Everyone of you has energy and efforts to use for the Lords work. A gift that God has given to you, and in-spite of what you might be thinking, correcting the pastor isn’t one of them.
There are many ways to serve here at FBC, and or in the community.
There are some things I know people have asked to keep private, they have said they don’t want the recognition for doing it.
Jesus says in
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so they take that to heart.
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
So I will not share everything that takes place in this church but understand this, they have found their talent, the gift God has given to them, and they use it for God’s glory. praise be to God.
There are some pretty simply yet important things you can do to use your energy and efforts for God:
serve coffee and treats for the congregation on Sunday
help serve communion
greet
usher
clean up after Sunday morning
help with work parties
teach a sunday school class
listen to kids recite bible verses at Awana’s
serve on a ministry team for fellowship, building, service or education
read scripture during the service
play an instrument
sing
preach
encourage someone
The list can go on and on. Not included in this is the unique talent that you have, and you might come up to me and say hey, can we get a ministry started for this__________?
You know what my response will be? Clearly the Lord has placed it on your heart, I would love to help you start that ministry.
Some that are in the community:
Habitat for humanity
helping at dayton oaks, clean up or doing ministry
VBS
clean up a park
pack food for the arc
sing and put on worship services at regency and long term care
watch dogs - new one
ring bells at Christmas for Salvation Army
Again the list goes on and on.
Yet not everyone will do this. Why is that?
Perhaps this story from Jesus can help us to unlock part of why not:
It comes from
“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.
Mathew 25 14
“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.
To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
Other translations use the term talents, but each was according to his ability.
Why is it that to one they recieved 5, another 2, and finally just one?
In God’s eyes are we not all equal? You are cost the same when Jesus purchased you, you cost Jesus’ blood, you are all God’s beloved children, non more than another. Yet we are as different as can be. God did not make anyone of you the same. There are some that can handle five talents, there are some who can handle only one.
There are some persons who have great intellectual capabilities, and some who do not. There are some who have the ability to project and articulate their thoughts, and there are some who cannot. There are some who have physical skills and attractive looks, and there are some who do not.
There are some persons who have great intellectual capabilities, and some who do not. There are some who have the ability to project and articulate their thoughts, and there are some who cannot. There are some who have physical prowess and attractive looks, and there are some who do not.
The important thing to remember is that each servant was given something in this story. No one was left idle. You may not be a five talent person, but you have some talent. We all do. And you know something. I think that there are a whole lot more one or two talent people in this world than there are five talent people. Oh, there are some people who seem to have it all, I won't deny
that. But most of us are just one or two talent servants.
There is nothing wrong with that, it is how God made us. We can celebrate the five talents as much as the one talent. But what do we do with the talent?
The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.
So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more.
But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
On no, we know where this is going, don’t we? This is the wrong way of looking at something God has given us, because does God ever give us something and expect us to keep quit about it?
Can you imagine if Michael Jordan only play basketball in his back yard instead of for the bulls?
can you imagine if YoYo Ma only played his cello in his basement instead of at Lincoln center?
Sugar Ray Leonard, the prize fighter, told a group of students at Harvard, "I consider myself blessed. I consider you blessed. We've all been blessed with God-given talents. Mine just happens to be beatin' people up."
So why do some hide it?
Why do we fear to step up and use our one or two talents. Why did the man in Jesus parable chose to do nothing with the one small sum he had been given him?
1. First, perhaps he, like many of us feared failure.
How many shots did Michael Jordon miss before he played for the bulls? I’m not sure if you knew this about Jordon, but he tried out for his high school basketball team and didn’t make it. They said he wasn’t built right and didn’t have enough skill. Jordon worked hard practicing until he could do it. He didn’t fear failure, he learned from it.
This is the point with failure, you never get better unless you fail! This is how you improve.
My biggest fear is not that I will fail, but that I won’t learn from it.
God does not want us to have a spirit of fear, but rather one of confidence. Why?
Becuase
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Fear is the devil’s tool, telling us we are not good enough, telling us not to try. It is called a lie!
But the reality is that God has not called anyone of us into success, He has called us into Obedience! Never does Jesus tell the disciples to do something because they will need to be successful, matter of fact they won’t always.
They tried getting rid of a demon out of a boy only to be laughed at.
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Peter tried to walk on water, how well did that work?
Jesus will give us tasks and it is not so we can necessarily succeed, but rather show our obedience and love for Christ, and rely on Him.
It’s ok to fail. If we are more worried about what people will think then it means we are less worried about what Jesus thinks.
Everything we do, do it for the Lord.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
If you are doing it as a act of Worship for Jesus, are you going to fail in Jesus’ eyes? NO!
2. Second, perhaps he, like us, played the game "if only." If only I had been given the talent of these other two men.
If only I didn’t have my limitations, if only when growing up I had better circumstances. If only...
I had a trombone instructor who didn’t like this game, or the excuse game.
I came to my lesson one time having not spent much time practicing. I didn’t do so well… each time I messed up I would come up with my excuse, I didn’t get much time this week, I was too busy working. If only my mother made more money so I wouldn’t have to work, and I could get more sleep, and woes me...
He simply looked and me and said I don’t give a dam about your excuses, did you come here to give excuses, or did you come to play trombone? So play!
We don’t control the hand we are dealt. We do get to control how we respond to the dealt hand, and we can use whatever we have to the best of our ability. That is all you can do in this life. If you sit there wishing for something different to have happened you are living in the past and not paying attention to how your present is going to impact your future.
I don’t blame God one bit for me never meeting my dad, nor for my alcoholic mother. I do look at my childhood and say I want something better for my children. I can tell you living in a house where you never knew if you would get thrown against a wall or belittled with screaming made me grow up a lot faster. Now I can sit a wallow in self pity that I didn’t have all the advantages of someone else, I had to do my own laundry, cook my own food, and the house was such a mess I think I had a friend over once in my whole childhood. I can use this as an excuse to not try, or I can realize that those things don’t define me, God does.
I can do what I can do, praise be to God. I’m not judged off of someone else's abilities, and neither are you. You are held accountable for using your own though.
Whatever it is God has given to you, He did so for a reason!
3. more than likely than not, he did nothing, and you might not too, because he thought his one little talent wouldn't make a difference.
How many of you have sub-consciencelessly said to Jesus, you are wrong?
Think about that- when we say to Jesus that our time and effort will not make a difference we are telling Jesus that he is wrong, that what He has given to us is not adequate. How will Jesus respond to that? He isn’t going to say oh your right, he may say Let me tell you a little something, I know better than you.
It isn’t by mistake that Jesus has given you what you have, and everyone of you does have a talent, energy and efforts to be put to use for God’s kingdom.
I often get asked why those dying are not allowed to die more quickly. What is their effort and energy when dying in that bed, how could God possibly use that.
In those moments I think it is our faith in Christ that is being passed on, it is the ability and gift of letting another minister to us, and letting people minister to us can be very humbling at times.
No matter what is going on in your life, I promise you, Jesus can use it and wants to. You have to be willing to let Him, and ask Him what it is at times.
To sit there and say all you have is this one small talent, and it isn’t really useful is to miss the point of trusting Jesus.
To go off and hide it in the ground, or the backyard, or basement is to not use what God has given to you.
Don’t be like the man who goes off and hides his talent, instead be like the first two, that no matter what was given to them, big or small, they used it for the Lord.
Jesus continues
“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?
Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags.
For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.
And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
This is a painful lesson to learn, Jesus desires our obedience more than being successful. He wants our energy and our efforts even if they lead to a blundered song, or a drop offering plate, or a well intentioned roof not lining up right. What He doesn’t want is for a life wasted as we focus on what we don’t have.
It is for this reason, energy and efforts come into the equation of looking at church membership. It is so much more than dropping money into the plate, it is giving of ourselves and serving through what Christ has given to us.
On using our talents: There was a half-wit and there was a farmer. The farmer’s horse was missing. Half-wit: "If I were a horse I’d go over to Mr. Brown’s pasture; it’s so green."
Farmer: (Upon finding the horse in Mr. Brown’s pasture) "How did you know that? You’re only a half-wit."
Half-wit: "Right, but I use the half wit I have."
Once there was a king who had three sons, each with a special talent. The first had a talent for growing fruit. The second for raising sheep. And the third for playing the violin. Once, the king had to go overseas on important business. Before departing he called his three sons together and told them he was depending on them to keep the people contented in his absence. Now for a while things went well. But then came the winter, a bitter and cruel winter it was. There was an acute shortage of firewood. Thus the first son was faced with a very difficult decision. Should he allow the people to cut down some of his beloved fruit trees for firewood? When he saw the people shivering with cold, he finally allowed them to do so. The second son was also faced with a difficult decision. Food became very scarce. Should he allow the people to kill some of his beloved sheep for food? When he saw the children crying for hunger, his heart went out to them and he allowed them to kill some of the sheep.. Thus the people had firewood for their fires, and food for their tables. Nevertheless the harsh winter continued to oppress them. Their spirits began to sag, and there was no one to cheer them up. They turned to the fiddler, but he refused to play for them. In the end things got so bad that in desperation many of them emigrated. Then one day the king arrived back home. He was terribly sad to find that many of his people had left his kingdom. He called in his three sons to give an account of what had gone wrong. The first said, "Father, I hope you won't be mad at me, but the winter was very cold and so I allowed the people to cut down some of the fruit trees for firewood." And the second son said, "Father, I hope you won't be mad with me because when food got scarce I allowed the people to kill some of my sheep." On hearing this, far from being angry, the father embraced his two sons, and told them that he was proud of them. Then the third son came forward carrying his fiddle with him. "Father", he said, "I refused to play because you weren't here to enjoy the music." "Well then", said the king, "play me a tune now because my heart is full of sorrow." The son raised the violin and bow, but found that his fingers had gone stiff from lack of exercise. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get them to move. Then the father said, "You could have cheered up the people with your music, but you refused. If the kingdom is half-empty, the fault is yours. But now you can no longer play. That will be your punishment."
Talent and gifts are so important. Sadly, Some people waste it. Others make it the key that opens many doors for them and their dear ones, and brings happiness to millions.
Trust me when I tell you,
There is happiness in heaven when you use what Jesus has given to you. And on that day when you go meet your maker, and your whole life is presented in front of you, seeing both the good and the bad, know that a life lived for Jesus, trusting in His abilities to take even your smallest amount of talents and use them, will have your Lord and Savior looking to you and saying, Well done, good and faithful servant. You used what I entrusted to you.
1. First, perhaps he feared failure.
2. Second, perhaps he played the game "if only." If only I had been given the talent of these other two men.
3. These may be sound reasons but more than likely he did nothing because he thought his one little talent wouldn't make a difference.