MK040 Sermons
Purposeful Serving (Audio)
maybe especially when you're in your teenage years, had a parent, a coach, a guidance counselor, have a conversation with you, and discuss what you wanted to do with your life. Let me see your hands. How many of you had someone do that? A few of you? Okay, kind of look around the room. There's a smattering. Maybe only eight or ten of you had an opportunity to have someone do that. I never had someone do that in my life as many of you did not. Some of you know that my dad's been a pastor for over 40 years and I spent my growing up years at a church he started in Maryland called Odenton Baptist Church near the Fort Meade area and I watched my dad go through a lot of struggles in church life. It was hard, it was tough, and observing all those struggles I decided I'm not sure I want to do that. I'm not sure I want to do that, but I like to build things, like to make things, like to create things, and I had a grandfather who was a civil engineer, a civilian that worked for the US Army, and he built some pretty cool things. I thought maybe that's what I want to do with my life, and so that's kind of where my game plan was. I was going to build or design or create something. I wasn't sure exactly what, and then my sophomore year got redirected the course of my life. I went to a student leadership conference and got really realigned the course of my life and moved me to what I'm doing today, but even the role of serving as a pastor there's a lot of things about this job that I had to it took me time to learn. There's some things that I'm really really good at. There's some things that I'm okay at, and I just do because everybody has to do them like expense reports, you know, and then there's some things I'm not very good at, and people are like, "John, stay away from that. Don't go near it. We don't want you. You come on the stage later, not earlier. That's good." You know, I mean, that's, you know, so I've kind of learned over time what those things are. The truth is, for most people, they don't get a chance to do what they really enjoy doing in life. I read a report recently that said, "Only 30% of Americans enjoy their job and their boss." Put those two things together. Usually they go together to enjoy your job. You usually have to enjoy your boss, but I mean, that's like a little more than like a little less than half a third or quarter of the room way over here. The rest of you, it's not even, you know, on the radar, and the truth is, most people are doing what they're doing because they have to pay the bills, because they're not sure if they could find something better, and so to step outside of their comfort zone where their current law would be too risky for them to move into doing that. And sadly, most of the workforce in our country's population are very discouraged, very frustrated, don't really enjoy what it is they're doing. This morning, we want to talk about one of the values that is important to us as a church, and that's purposeful serving. And part of this value is discovering what it is you're designed to do, and understanding it, and then living that out and doing what it is that you are designed to do. The truth is, most things in this world have a purpose, and the purpose is designated by the individual that created those items. There's this conversation that happens on our home on a regular basis regarding our silverware, our knives. Something about knives that they get used to do, all kinds of other things, other than what they're designed to be used for. You know, whether to turn something or to pry something or to pop something or to saw something, and regularly, some unnamed member of our family will be told this, that's not what that is for. And then they stop what they're doing and put it back, you know, and go find something else. But, you know, the knife is used for what? Two things. You know, to cut something kind of soft, it's not going to cut something very thick, something fairly soft that you're usually going to put in your mouth, that's what you want to cut, something that's going to go in your mouth, or to scoop some food on your spoon or fork if you're going to use it for that purpose as well. And so, this morning, we want to talk a little bit about this whole idea of our design and our purpose and how that relates to how God uses us to serve Him and to serve others. If you haven't been with us over the past few weeks, we're in a series entitled "Moving Day" in preparation for our move from "Gameons" here to the building that we're renovating up in Reinholds. And that, as you heard Jeremy say, we'll be taking place on June 7th. So, we're less than a month away. We're all kind of saying, "Well, this is the last time I'll do this, and this is the last time I'll do this." Jeremy didn't say it, but Matt Armberster, whose team is on set up, if you've never experienced, I'll say it for him, if you've never experienced set up, and you would like to say, "I've experienced that at CCC. Just contact Matt, and his wife, Michelle, is right back with your hand up, Michelle. They can come see Michelle. They'll gladly have you come experience set up, you know, and tear down, just so you can say you did that, because this is our last month of doing that. So, we're in this transition where all these things are changing for us, and in the process of changing, there's a lot of fears and uncertainties. I was talking with a group recently, we were discussing this whole idea of change, and people were like, "Yeah, change is good. If it's not just change for change sake, and I kind of got confused in the whole discussion, I just think some people like change, and some people don't, you know, that's what I think." But there's going to be a lot of changes. A lot of changes happen when we move into this new space. If you haven't been there recently, or seen some of the pictures, it's pretty remarkable the transformation that is taking place. And yet, we wonder, and our elders were sitting at breakfast yesterday morning, just talking to have this question, "How will moving into this building change who we are at the fabric as a church? How will it change us?" We don't want to be naive to say, "Ah, it's not going to change. It's everything will be the same," because we don't know what the effect is going to be. We don't know what the effect is going to be on a community that has a church move in, that hasn't had a church there, that the community felt like they were welcomed to for many, many years. And so, we don't know what that effect is going to be like. And so, as we talked about all these changes, all these challenges, all these things that are going on, we said, "I said to the staff, I said, 'I think I need to spend some time talking out at the core. Who are we as a church? At the core, who are we? What do we value? What is our purpose? What are we all about?" Because we have to be focused on those things that will not change to help us navigate all the myriad of things that will change. And so, we began a few weeks ago with talking about our core purpose, and our core purpose is going to come up on the screen, and it's these two statements, "Love God fully and love others deeply. Love God fully and love others deeply." And when we talk about loving God fully, we say it's with everything that I have. Jesus said it this way. He said, "Heart, soul, mind, and strength. Every part of your being, every part of your being." So, what does it look like for me to love God fully? And then, out of that loving God fully, what does it look like for me to love others deeply? The way God loves me. The way God loves me. And that's really what we want to be a church about. We want to be a church about introducing people to a God who loves them, and they choose to follow this God, and they decide to devote their lives to loving Him. And the result of that being overwhelmed with God's unconditional love of them, and the sacrifice of His Son, is that their lives become all about how can I love the people in my world? Whether it's my spouse, or my kids, or my co-worker, or my classmates, or my teammates, or the guys on the shop floor, the people in the office, or the neighbor next door, or the person that waits on me at Turkey Hill, or the waitress in the restaurant, that I'm going to go to for lunch this afternoon. How can I give them a glimpse? How can I give them a taste of this amazing sacrificial love that I have known, and I have experienced? And what does that look like? We then talked about some values, and I won't test you guys. The first service failed miserably, so I won't put you guys through that torture, but we will keep talking about these over the next few weeks. And the first week we talked about the first value, which came out of the woman at the well, and we talked about that value being gracious acceptance, gracious acceptance. When we looked at the story of Jesus with the woman at the well, He walked past barrier after barrier, after barrier, after barrier, to sit at that well, and have a conversation with the woman that He should not have been having a conversation with, based on the ethical and religious and cultural and socioeconomic rules of that day. He walked past all of them. He walked past all of them. And what will it be? What will it look like for us as a church, to not just love and accept one another, which you do that in many cases very well, but to reach beyond the borders of these walls, and to move out in the lives of people who are very different than we are, very different than you and I are, and to give them a taste of the love and acceptance that we have known from God our Father. And that's what Jesus did. And that's what we believe we're called to do. And then last week we talked about the kind of relationships that God wants to see happen in our lives, not just relationships that are real or authentic, but relationships that are healthy. We talked about how we all are born into this family that we call it our family of origin. This is the family that I was born into, but when you choose Jesus, you become part of his family, part of the family of God. And when you become a part of the family of God, there's a whole new set of rules that we choose to live by. And those rules are often radically different than our family of origin than what we were raised to live in. One of the rules that we talked about last week that impacted many of you that you spoke to me about was this rule called stop lying and tell the truth. When we are part of God's family, we do not shade the truth, we don't manipulate the truth, we don't hint around the truth, we graciously and kindly and consistently communicate the truth. And that's different. That's different. And so what will it look like for us to continue to live out these values in our day-to-day lives, starting with our families? You know, it kind of hit me last week when I was speaking, that we talk about this, we talk about healthy relationships in the context of a small group. But the reality is, is if I don't have a healthy relationship with my wife and my kids, I can't offer that to anyone else. And so really it has to start back here. And we have to decide if we're going to pay attention to these relationships in our lives, these relationships in our world, and choose to live according to what God says in these relationships, by the way, the hardest place to do it. But if you and I can learn to do it there, then I think we can learn to do it here, and then I think we can learn to do it outside of these walls. And that's what God invites us into. So gracious acceptance, purposeful serving, excuse me, gracious acceptance, healthy relationships, and this week we want to talk about purposeful serving, purposeful serving. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to, turn them in them with me to Romans 12. Romans 12, if you don't have a Bible, our guys have some, and they'll pass them out to you and would invite you to follow along in one of those Bibles, if you don't have one, or you can follow along in the screen. And as you're turning to Romans, let me just give you a summary of the Book of Romans. Romans is probably one of the most theologically complex, as well as comprehensive, books in the Bible on one subject, and that is the gospel, the gospel. You know, there's a truth about the gospel that is pretty basic. The truth about the gospel is we are all sinners, we've all messed up, but God loves us so much he wants a relationship with us that he was willing, even though we've made a mess of our lives, he was willing to send his one and only son Jesus to this earth to die on a cross, to pay for the penalty for my sins, and then offer me a relationship with him if I would simply receive the free gift of Jesus death on the cross. Pretty simple, the gospel, the gospel, but what Paul says is Paul says, you know, above and underneath of this simple gospel, there's a whole lot of other things going on. There's a whole lot of things going on in heaven, there's a whole lot of things going on earth, and I want to explain those things to you. And so he creates really this treatise on the gospel, and that's what the Book of Romans is all about. And the first three chapters, his goal is to say, we have all messed up. All of us. Some people have messed up so bad that they now worship the creature, man, instead of the Creator, God. Others are good people, they're moral people, but they've messed up too. And even the Jews who have the law to follow, they've messed up so that in Romans 3 he says this, it's going to come up on the screen. There is no one righteous, not even one, no one who understands, not one who seeks God. All have turned away. They've together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one, and we don't believe that about ourselves. We believe we're pretty good people, having committed any crimes lately, having slept around our spouse or our kids, pretty good people. Paul says, I hate to tell you, no one is good, no one. And it's that painful reality that leads me to the place in Romans 3 where Paul says, everyone has sinned and come up short of the amazing glory of God. We've all come up short. But he doesn't leave us there because he says there's hope. And there's hope and that hope began all the way back with the person of Abraham in chapter 4 and that hope is in one thing. That hope is in the ability to put our faith in something other than ourselves. I talked about on Easter Sunday, what it looks like to have faith for me to have faith in this chair, to sit on this chair, put all my weight on this chair and trust that this chair will hold me. And that's what faith is all about. Faith is a complete trust and confidence in someone other than myself. And when Abraham did what God told him to do, he put faith in the words of a God that he had never seen and didn't know much about. And he followed him. And when Jesus shed his blood on the cross, he then invited men and women and children students to put their faith in what Jesus did on the cross because of his amazing love for us. Romans 5, verse 8 says, it says, God demonstrates his own love for us while we were still sinners, while we still didn't want anything to do with God. Christ died for us. And Ephesians 2, Paul says, it's for by grace through faith, not as a result of anything that I do, that we have a relationship with God. And it's amazing thing. And in Romans 6 it talks about that we're, you know, we had this new body and this new capacity to follow Jesus and to live for him. And that's all great and amazing news. Until I go out the next day, I mess it up again. And that's where we land in Romans 7. And if Romans 7 wasn't in the Bible, I think every Christian might commit suicide, you know. Because Romans 7 reminds us we still live in a fallen world, in a broken place, in sinful bodies, until we go to heaven. And so every day, in spite of the fact that I know that I'm sinful, in spite of the fact that by faith I've received what Jesus has offered to me, in spite of the fact that I have this new amazing hope, I still am gonna sin. I'm still gonna mess up and I'm still gonna blow it. But he doesn't want us to stay there because then in Romans 8 chapter 1 he says there is no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for anyone who's in Christ Jesus. He said you will not be judged by God ever if you have placed your faith in him. No matter how bad you messed up today, no matter how bad it was the day before, no matter what it is, you have hope in Jesus. And no matter what happens in your life, all the good things and all the bad things God is somehow because of his amazing power and his sovereign control, gonna take all this mess in my life and do something amazing. And something good out of all of that. And no matter where my life goes, nothing can separate me from the amazing love of God through Christ Jesus and me. Paul doesn't forget about the Jews because he's one of them. And so he circles back in verse chapters 9 through 11 and says let me tell you about the Jews and let me tell you about God's plan for the Jews. And if you want to know what the future is going to be for the Jews, read Romans chapter 9 through 11 and he basically says there's this tree called the Jewish people. God's chosen people and when you follow Jesus you become part of God's plan for what he's gonna do with his chosen people. And so that's everything that happens before we get to Romans chapter 12. And in Romans chapter 12 he begins by saying this in verse 1 he says I beseech you or I urge you therefore in view of God's mercy. The reason I went to all of that in chapters 1 through 11 is because he starts with therefore as a result of or because of all this stuff that's happened. I want you to think about these things. If you've grown up in the church, if you've gone to camp or if you've gone to youth retreats or things like that you've heard these verses Romans 12 1 and 2 over and over and over and over and over again. But I don't know how often we put Romans 12 1 and 2 in the context of the whole book of Romans and Romans 12 3 through 8 and that's what we want to look at this morning. Paul says I urge you in view of God's mercy. You know what mercy is? Mercy is when I don't get something that I deserve. That's mercy. Mercy is when I see those flashing blue lights and I knew what the speed limit was and what I was doing and I walk away with the warning. That's mercy. Mercy is when you know it's past curfew and you creep inside the door and mom and dad or dad is standing right inside the door and they say don't want to happen again. Have a good night. Go to bed. Mercy is when you know you've blown it and you are bracing yourself for the consequences because you've blown it from your spouse, from your boss, from your coworker, from your friend and you receive mercy. Paul says in light of God's mercy, in light of the fact that I am a sinner and yes I've been saved by the grace and by faith in the grace of Jesus and what Christ did on the cross but I still mess up every single day and He still says you're mine, you're mine, you're mine and nothing can take that away. He says in light of that I want you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. As a culture we don't really understand sacrifice much at all. Let alone our bodies as a sacrifice. About the only context we understand that is in the sports arena. For instance if you know something about the game of baseball if there's a runner on first base and they want to move that runner along that batter will sometimes sacrifice, he'll bunt the ball and get thrown out at first base intentionally so that that runner can move on to second or sometimes the third so they can bring that runner around. So he will sacrifice his opportunity to be on the bases and to score. Or in often in football or another full contact sport soccer maybe or you know a rugby or something like that an individual though the announcers will say they sacrifice their body to make that hit, to make that tackle, to bring that individual down. They sacrifice their body. And what Paul says is he says not just for a sporting event not just to move the runner around but in view of God's mercies that are new every morning the writer Jeremiah said in lamentations. In view of that will you be willing to give your body up? Not not my physical body but I think it's a metaphor for my life. Why give up my time and my money and my dreams, my priorities, my choices, things I want from my kids, the things I hope will happen when I retire. Why be willing to give up all of that in light of his mercy? Paul says that's what pleases God. That's what pleases God. Sometimes we've been taught that you know if I don't have my devotions every day God's not happy with me. No, no, no, no. He says if you're willing to give it all up that's what pleases God. But it has to be every day I have to start a new day and say God am I willing to do this every day? Every day. He says that's what true worship is. You know there's a part of worship that's when we sing and when we clap our hands or we lift our hands in worship there's a part of that that's worship. Paul says what true worship is? He said that's when you give your whole life away. He then goes on in verse 2 to explain how this happens. He says don't be conformed to the pattern in this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Paul reminds us that there is a shape that this world wants to make of our lives. He's basically talking I mean think of a Jell-O mold you know. The Jell is liquid it's no different than this water here and you pour in the mold and you put in the fridge and what happens? It takes on the shape of the mold. Paul says this world this world that we live in it has a shape that it wants for your marriage. It has a shape that it wants for your finances. It has shape for the issue of your sexuality. It has a shape for the issue of your future. It has a shape for what you do as a parent. It's a shape for your kids dreams and future. It has a shape for all of those things. He said don't let it shape those things. Don't let it shape those things. He says but be transformed. That's the word metamorphosis. That's where we get something that's being changed from what it was to what it will be. You know that's what's happening up at that building in Reinholds you know and we talk sometimes when we're up there you know what will it be like for people who from our church maybe who haven't been there since we did the the tours back last summer or maybe someone who used to attend there and they walked through those doors someone just said to me between services. It looks not a lot different on the outside but when they walk through the doors it's gonna be completely changed completely changed. And that's what Paul says God wants to see happen. So how does that happen? It says it happens by the renewing of our mind. The renewing of our mind. Paul didn't know a lot about neuroscience. We know an amazing amount about neuroscience today about the brain because of the way that the brain can be scanned and images of the brain can be captured. And what we know today about the brain is that the brain can retrain itself. That if the brain is operating in a certain way that a brain the brain can learn to retrain the way that it functions. Specifically a stroke victim who has those brain pathways from the one side of synaptic pathways interrupted it can learn to go around those barriers and over those barriers so that it can retrain itself again. And that's what Paul is saying. He's saying if you are amazed and overwhelmed by the mercies of God and you are willing to give your life back to him that God wants you not to be shaped by this world but to shape by your mind being transformed. Unfortunately that doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen overnight. They say that for most the remapping of the brain takes about two to three years. Two to three years. In our Knights program for our guys we have a five-year program. I'm not sure if it takes guys a little bit longer I'm not sure why that is but we introduce a new concept to our guys and we talk about it and then they start to live it and practice it and practice it and by the time they're done five years later that stuff starts to become the way that they think and the way that they function and their brains literally are thinking differently about relationships in the way they were before. See what Paul's talking about is he is talking about the hard everyday taking one step forward following Jesus taking another step forward the next day following Jesus likely taking a step back the day after following Jesus and then taking another step forward and another step forward and another step forward and another step forward as long as we have life on this earth. And that if you and I commit to doing that because of the mercies of God that God is going to slowly over time change the way that we think about life the way that we think about this world someone else was just telling me that they between services they said I'm starting to think about things differently and what will it take for those actions to follow. Paul goes on in verses three through eight and we're going to take a look at those in just a minute to talk about what does this change in perspective what does it look like in serving others in the church in serving others in the church and for much of the time that I presented this concept to our church and those of you that have been here for a long period time you know that I've spoken about this consistently because we believe that serving others is an important value that we want to lift up but I hope you're catching this morning that I want to lift this value up very differently than I have before because I don't want you to move towards this out of guilt I don't want you to move towards this out of obligation I don't want you to move towards this because that's what people in the church do I want you to move towards a willingness to serve God out of being amazed at his mercies in your life and out of a humble submitted heart that says God I'm giving you everything and I don't know what you're going to do with it but here it is here it is and what does that look like what does that look like he adds another component there in verse three looking verse three he says for by the grace given me to Paul I say to every one of you don't think of yourselves more highly than you ought to but rather think of yourselves a sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each one of us Paul says as you think about what your life is going to be about based on the mercies of God based on your willingness to offer your life how you view yourself is very important I don't think this is much of a struggle for our culture where we live here this is individuals who say look at I do look at what I do and I don't think we have much of a culture of that around here he says think of yourself with sober judgment that's really just viewing yourself realistically viewing yourself realistically being honest about what you can do and what you can't do being honest about your physical limitations be honest about your relational capacity being honest about those things that you can do and those things that you can't do you know the truth is and I've come to see this more and more is that God doesn't waste any experience in our lives he doesn't waste any of it he doesn't waste our mistakes he doesn't waste our accidents he doesn't waste our failures he doesn't waste our personality our wiring our Benny doesn't waste all any of those things and he's got this amazing plan that he's bringing about using all of those things together to make a difference in someone's life why do you think Paul says this I think maybe because there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance isn't there fine line between confidence and arrogance and I'll be honest with you because I think this is true of me most of us don't recognize the gifts and ability that God has given to us value them and then say God what do I do with them I don't know why but I'm often surprised when people tell me things that I'm good at I'm not sure I fully understand what's going on the side of me well I think I do know a little bit of it but I think that's what that sober judgment it's kind of knowing this is who I am this is what I've been through you know I'm not proud of all of it but this is my life this is me this is me and I think as you think about what does God want my life to be about what does he want to use me to do part of that is being honest and realistic about you you remember what our first value was that we talked about two weeks ago please somebody remember what's the first value gracious acceptance thank you thank you part of being honest about who we are is being able to accept one another for where we been believing that our journey and our path is exactly what God has for us he then goes on in verse four and five to talk about this metaphor called the church and his metaphor for the church is always that he uses most often to the body and says for just as each of us has one body with many members talk about our physical bodies and these members these parts of our bodies don't all of the same functions so in Christ we though were many parts form one body and each member belongs to all the others a couple things Paul says there as he says we don't all do the same thing every part in our body has a different purpose there's one body he's talking I believe about the local church a church like ours but look at that last phrase each member belongs to all the others let that just kind of settle in for a minute this is a very difficult concept in our western culture we are highly individualistic we have freedom of speech and actions we do what we want to do and God says you belong to each other you belong to each other you're not like the game of operation you got body parts laying all over you know that's not that's not what the church is supposed to be like it's more like you know when you get married and you leave your father and mother and you become one and you form your new family but you don't just leave your family you what happens you get become part of another whole family whether you want to or not right that's what happens that's what happens and in the same way that's really what he's talking about happens in the church you know there's over 50 times in the Bible when it talks about our relationship one with another and in our context here at CCC I've often used those verses to talk about what that means in relationship to be in a small group and relationships with one another not really serving but Paul says you are connected to each other if you're a follower of Jesus and you are you are here he goes on to describe it in verses 6 through 8 and look at verse 6 he says we each have different gifts according to the grace given to us boy if that is not visible on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays when we are there at Reinholds I don't know what is man I mean I watch guys that can cut a straight line and I have a hard time cutting a straight line you know not my strength you know I watch guys with they they have all the right tools on their belt and they need to do something boom that tool is right and they just know right where to reach for it and put it I'm like how in the world do they do that you know and yet they see me standing up here like glad that's you don't ever ask me to be up there John you know don't ever ask me you know watch the individuals gifted with music or those individuals that serve behind the scenes and they take chaos and they organize it so everything happens and they never forget any details and you know just amazing to watch this take place he then goes on and I want us to take a couple minutes to look at each of these gifts that he lists here and and I think what Paul is doing is he's using these broad categories to describe some not all of the ways that you can live out your faith because of the mercy of God in your life because of your willingness to humbly offer your life to God he says this is some of the ways that you can live your faith out now as I go through this list some of these you might say well that sounds like that's true of me and we'll talk about what to do with that a little bit later but let's go through the list that he has here the first one he talks about his prophecy he says if your gift is prophesying then prophesying accordance with your faith now if you think prophecy might be one of the gifts that you would like to that might be your area of gifting I want just to remind you that the prophets especially in the Old Testament that everybody hated them and they usually died a brutal death so if that's what you hope your future has then line up in line to be a prophet you know nobody like the prophets everybody hated them nobody liked what they had to say because they spoke from God to a culture that was not willing to listen and they were stuck in wells for a long period time they were told to walk around naked they were told to marry people who hated them I mean this is what the prophets were told to do now this whole idea of prophecy is very very confusing because you have people in our culture to say well God told me to do this and you're like I know that Bible I think somewhat well and that God doesn't ever say that anywhere in the Bible well that's a prophecy you know so this is a really confusing one maybe the most confusing out of all them what a prophet did is a prophet spoke words from God that were difficult to receive but were always true if you find yourself in situations where God seems to clearly give words to speak into someone else's life that are hard to receive but are often true this might be how God has wired you to use to speak into the lives of others but this is a one that's very very confusing it often can lead to arrogance one of the risk of this is arrogance because you believe that you've heard from God look at the next one in verse 7 he says if it's serving then serve let's talk about those gifted to serve those gifted to serve have a heart to help and you are the individuals that you can't say no to anything you easily overcome it you're very good at doing task if it's fixing or creating or writing and you don't always enjoy being with other people you want to volunteer sign up opportunity is there your hand just moves to sign up even if you're spout saying don't sign up don't say you're signing your name on the line you know you're gifted in the area of serving the risk for a servant is a servant can easily become resentful because you say yes to too many things that you start to hate the things that you say yes to the other risk for a servant is a servant can lose sight of relationships because they're heavily focused on task look at the next one it says if it's teaching then to teach let's talk about the people gifted in teaching teachers love to help other people learn that's what a gifted teacher is they love to study teachers you're usually extroverts they become experts on the study they're usually the subject matter they're usually very intelligent people and they love it when their students learn the risk of a teacher is they are very intelligent and they can become arrogant because of their knowledge the other risk for teachers is they have to balance content and relationships and no it's not just about the information it's also about the relationship so maybe God has gifted you in teaching and that's the way you're going to live your faith out how about this one encouragement encouragement these are people that offer words well spoken just like the teachers are often introverts that the people gifted in encouragement are often extroverts they love being with people they always have a kind word they often have a smile in their face they're hopeful about the future they have words that just lift people's spirits all the time and if that's your MO and life it maybe how God has gifted you the struggle for people gifted and encouragement is it can be hard for them to sit in the pain of other people and even in their own pain because they want to get out of it and help them see the future that looks bright it can be hard for them to just listen to people and not speak look at the next one if it is giving then generously just like the Prophet is one of the most misunderstood I think this area of giving is the most secretive because those that are gifted in giving this is what the this is how their gift gets expressed they live frugally so they can give generously meaning they might have this much that is in their bank account but they only live off of this much you say why so they can give that amount away these are individuals that are wise and disciplined with their finances these are individuals that are very generous and they're looking for ways to invest their money and give their resources the way that some that's going to make a difference in people's lives but just like all of them the risk for those gifted and generous the gift gifted in giving is that they sometimes because of the influence with their resources can look to control how their money gets used and they have to learn to give the gift with no strings attached even if it goes a direction they are not comfortable with it going look at the next gift if it is to lead do it diligently what is the gift of leadership like the gift of leadership is someone that when there's a group of people and they're not sure where to go or what to do they say how about we do this and they step up and they move the group forward leaders are all about action leaders are all about getting something done leaders get frustrated if they have to sit in meeting well what about this and what about this and what about this and what can we just decide and do something leaders are also willing to carry the weight of being the one to make the final decision if you're someone who will find yourself saying oh I don't want to make the final call I don't want to make the final I don't want to be and but do you find yourself hey I'll decide it'll it's on me I'm okay with that and you're probably gifted in the area of leadership the risk for leaders is they can easily steamroll people they can easily because of their desire to get things done not listen to everybody in the room just listen to one or two okay let's go come on move on other thing with leaders is because they're so forward focused they can sometimes not stop to smell the roses and celebrate in the moment and look at the last one if you're gifted to show mercy do it cheerfully cheerfully the gift of mercy is someone who has a heart for people who are hurting this is someone who can just buy their mere presence with someone who's hurting help them feel comforted whereas an encourager they use their words someone gifted in mercy they use their presence of just being there with people they know how to be with people who are suffering who are hurting who are struggling but the risks notice Paul's encouragement to them do it cheerfully the risk is you can pour yourself so much into being with people that are hurting that if you do not take care of your primary responsibilities and keep your emotional tank at a healthy level you will dread and despise what you're gifted to do as you look at this list this morning one thing I want you to walk away with if you are serving here at CCC is first of all how incredibly grateful myself and the staff are that you are a part of what God's doing this church could not function without you it could not and so I hope you walk away this morning with a sense of the smile of God on your life for the sacrifice of being willing to do that but I also hope you walk away this morning and ask yourself the question why do I serve why do I serve because I believe what Paul wanted for the people of Rome and I believe what I long for for our churches that we don't just serve because everybody needs everybody's got a pitch in or how they ask and I really know I should do something and I just don't have the heart to say no and I don't think that's a good reason to serve I think Paul says our motivation to serve needs to come out of being overwhelmed by the mercy of God with the desire to humbly give my life to over to God every single day and say God what does that look like what does it look like and so ask yourself the question why do I serve why do I serve some of you aren't serving right now some of you have been wounded by a church and treated poorly when you served for some of you that's happened here and there's no way to go back and change the circumstances of those experiences but there is a way to walk through them and to take a step forward and experience healing and freedom and say God now what is next God's plan is not for you to stay in the pain of where you are but for you to walk through that and then to say how will experiencing that shape how I serve differently I talked to someone about a month ago who served here at CCC a few years ago and they said I learned some lessons at CCC and I was like oh good what'd you learn he said I won't I don't do these two things that you guys used to do I was like oh God that was beneficial not glad it happened and for others of you you're like I'm not sure where my part is I don't know where where I get involved where my part is I don't really know what that looks like and we'll have something for you next week to indicate to us if you have an interest in learning more and at least sitting down and have a conversation because we want to help you find that sweet spot of where you serve here at CCC the cool thing about the church is you get to try different things you try this not a fit try this out that's not a fit try this that's that one I really really really like that and that's what is a staff we're committed to is helping people find that sweet spot in ministry some of you life has just beat you up pretty hard and it's just enough for you to make it through those doors on a Sunday morning and we're glad you're here and it might take some more time for you to go through some healing to be able to get back in the game it's okay to be on the injured reservist for a season sometimes God takes us through that but the reality is the reality is for all of us here at CCC and I don't know how to say this to you in a way that doesn't come across producing guilt but no that's not my heart for every person in this room that calls CCC their church home that has known and experienced the mercies of God and has taken a step forward and said I want to humbly give my life to God God has a plan for you to serve here he has a plan for that and I don't know exactly what that is but what I do know is that if all parts of the body are not active and involved then the body can't do what God's plan is for us on this earth to accomplish and we know there are reasons and we know there are seasons and we know there are times when everyone's not able to get in the game for those that are my plead with you this morning is would be to get in the game because we can't be what God wants us to be unless we're all in the game in some way and that's not about us becoming a big church that's not about any of that it's about us doing what God invites us into and what His mercy makes possible for us and what our sacrifice gives us the opportunity to experience the delight of God in our lives and for the pastors who have the chance to serve you that's what we want most that's what we want most we love it when people love to serve God and we know that comes out of hearts that are humbled hearts that are changed hearts that recognize what God has done in each one of our lives you join me in prayer as we close God I thank you for the opportunity to be involved in a church you created this universe you create and sustain this world and yet to transform the hearts and lives of men and women and students you choose to use us that sometimes leaves me scratching my head God you're certainly capable of doing something else what you said my plan is to use people who choose me with humble submitted lives to live out what I've made them to be and when they do that people's lives are going to be changed God I don't fully get it all but I know this I'm incredibly grateful to be a part of what you're doing here and Lord I pray for each person here you know each of their each of their stories you know where they're at in their journey you know what the next step is going to look like for them and God for those that need our our love and our gracious graciousness and our compassion help us to extend that for those that need direction give us clarity about that for those that are giving their lives generously father we are grateful so grateful for them Lord help us to continue to live out this amazing gift of your mercy that we know new every day we need your help to do that God