09.27.2020 - Serving in the Family of God

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12

Summary: How we serve in the Family of God: Receive the Gift, Be the Gift, Become part of the Gift.

Hook

2009 was a rough year for me.

It started off on a good note. I met Bekah for the second time and we had our first date together.

We started serving together in church, and I think if we had not done that right away, we probably would not be together.

It was my last semester on campus at seminary and I was heading back to Illinois to work in the churches there. I had about 4 months to decide how much I wanted to be in this new relationship and whatever I decided was going to change my career path for the rest of my life.

Transferring conferences in the UM Church is not like moving to a new post in the Army. It’s more like transferring to the Navy or Air Force.

I went to work in the Illinois Conference back home for the summer, to say my goodbyes, tie up my loose ends, and prepare to transfer to Kentucky.

That fall, I moved in with Bekah’s parents in Indiana and started my hospital chaplain training.

So, for our first year together, I spent more time with Bekah’s family than I did with her because we were living in separate states.

Long distance relationships are challenging in the best of times.

At the end of my final semester of school, just a few weeks before finals, my dad died suddenly of a heart attack and I had to move back home to help handle all the stuff that comes with losing a parent. Bekah had only met my dad once before the funeral.

I graduated by God’s grace with my 5 1/2 year Master’s degree and in my grief and concern about the future I really didn’t care. A month later, I moved back to Kentucky, without a job or place to live, to propose and try to rebuild this relationship.

In ten years of marriage, we have always been at our best when we were serving together. But it has not been easy learning to make the time and space to do that and to do it well.

Thesis: God created us to serve together.

How do we do that?

Receiving a Gift

It begins by finding our unique ways to serve God as individuals.

1 Corinthians 12:4–6 NLT

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

Our abilities to serve come from God and specifically the way we experience His love.

It’s not in your DNA

1. Those who sit under inspiring teachers of God’s Word, get inspired to become inspiring teachers of God’s Word

2. Those who were strangers and were welcomed in love, see those who are strangers and want to pass on that loving welcome themselves

3. Those who have experienced grief, hurt, abuse, and abandonment and were comforted seek to comfort those who are suffering

4. Those who have had someone advocate for them often find ways to speak out for others.

It is more than just seeing others do things. It is when you experience a relationships with God through the actions of others that those gifts are passed on to you.

Does that sound like it takes the mystical nature out of spiritual gifts?

The Bible never says they are magical.

Other than possibly the gift of speaking in tongues, the other gifts that the disciples used in the bible were all done by Jesus first and handed down to them.

Mystical or not...

You cannot give what you do not have.

If we claim we have no gifts to give, no ways to serve, we are claiming that we have not received the Holy Spirit into our lives or experienced the love of God ourselves.

It is not mystical, magical, and it’s not just written in our DNA.

We are simply asked to share what God has given us, most often passed on through His family, the Chuch.

So, to serve God, first we must receive the gift of a relationship with God, then we become a gift from God ourselves.

Becoming a Gift

1 Corinthians 12:12–21 NLT

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 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. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 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. 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? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 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.”

When God sent Jesus into the world, He did not just bring a gift to us. He became that gift.

The Apostle Paul did not just come with a message for the Gentiles, he fought for them to be included in the Church and he corrected them when they were not being part of the Church but going off and doing their own things.

Both Jesus and Paul did not do this by marching around telling people what to do.

They built teams around them.

They passed on those gifts and then made room at their tables for others to come and take part.

It was not a democracy where everyone just got to have an opinion.

It was everyone sharing the same challenges together.

Jesus could not have made it more plain in what it meant to be on His team than when he told them:

Mark 8:34 NLT

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

You cannot help someone become something you are not.

You cannot teach, train, encourage, or force someone to become someone that you do not already embody yourself.

Parents who struggle with their relationship with God pass on those struggles to their children.

Church leaders pass on their struggles to the others in church around them.

And we all do this unconsciously.

We are all like trees, and the people around us are our fruit. Whatever kind of fruit we see around us is the kind of tree we are.

That may be a big concern for us. Especially if we don’t see God shining out from the people close to us very often. It means that we are still a work in progress and that there is a lot of work left.

We receive that gift of love from God through His people, we let that gift shape who we are, and then we find our connection into the larger Body of Christ and Family of God, allowing other people and their gifts to work through you and bring even more of God’s love to the people around you.

Becoming part of the Gift

1 Corinthians 12:22–31 NLT

In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages. Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

The First shall be Last

Mark 9:35 NLT

He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”

The family of God is not set up like the leadership of the world.

Our work is connecting people to God and one another, not telling people what to do.

The Apostles lay the foundation and keep us connected to Christ.

Prophets help us keep that connection in the midst of changing contexts

Teachers interpret that connection to individuals in their individual contexts

Those who do miracles, healing, and helping work together to prepare and ensure people have what they need to be connected into the family of God.

Those who lead, lead the members of the family of God to serve according to their abilities

Those who have the gift of languages find ways to communicate and invite in those outside the family in ways they can understand.

Every aspect, every job, every person in the family of God, has a responsibility to serve alongside the other members in a way that brings people closer to God and closer to one another.

You cannot invite someone to join something you are not a part of.

You cannot model togetherness when you are doing ministry by yourself.

Advice from Carrie Niewhoff - Your ministry is as big as you make it to be.

Your family is as big as you make it.

If you focus on yourself as the head of the family through, you are going to miss God and so will everyone else in it.

You can serve in many ways, with many people, but nothing compares with finding your connection in God’s family and serving Him alongside your brothers and sisters.

CTA(s)

What is your gift?

How does your gift help you know who God is creating you to be?

How are you partnering and connecting with people who have different gifts than you to help share the Whole Love of God and raise up disciples among all of those around you?