Josh has talked through in weeks about the church s mission, to make disciples, and that we do so as a community.

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1 #AsWeGo - Message 3 Contribution J.C. Thompson January 13, 2019 # Good morning, My name is JC Thompson and I m the Family Pastor here. We are continuing our series entitled, #AsWeGo which is about what it truly means to be the church. Before we get into our topic today, I wanted to take a moment and talk about the church. I think that the church is the single greatest organization in the world. What other entity looks at a child or teenager and let s them know that God made them with a purpose and with value and then helps them discover and achieve that purpose? What organization seeks the good of those different than them? (Not political parties, social media communities, or media brands, those only desire to grow themselves stronger) God has given us the church as a gift. It is amazing to me that when Jesus left this planet, He told us that not only would his disciples be ok, but that it was better that He physically would be gone! The Holy Spirit was coming and so was the church! Now this doesn t mean that the church and more specifically churches don t have flaws. Certainly they do. But churches are full of people being transformed by God sent into the world to heal it together. This is the church. Josh has talked through in weeks about the church s mission, to make disciples, and that we do so as a community. Today I want to talk about something incredible that even though we are a unit, together, the body of Christ, we are also individual parts of that community. As an individual of a community I bring something specific, unique and personal to the community that I am a part of. Today we are talking about the specific contributions that we make to the church. We ll be in Romans Chapter 12 today, so you can go ahead and turn there. When Christ ascended, he left uneducated men to run what is now called the church. These former fishermen, tax collectors, tradesmen and religious Jews, became the bedrock of what we know as the church today, a movement that has lasted almost 2000 years! I want to make sure that you understand what we are going to talk about today. To be a member of the Church, you must be a follower of Christ. So largely today is for Christians. Now if you are not a follower of Christ and you are here today, you should gain some understanding on what the body of Christ looks like and is defined as, but you are not required to do any of the things today, why? Because the church is not this building. This building is a box that the church gathers in. This is the place where we

2 meet, but this is not the church. The church is the collection of people that are followers of Christ and if you are not a follower of Christ, you will always be welcome in our building, but you are not a part of the body of Christ. So Being the church requires contributing your 1. Perspective As a follower of Christ, we have a unique perspective or story of Christ s influence in our life. We must share that story of transformation. 1And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2Don t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 NLT I d like to draw your attention to a specific part of this verse, I plead with you to give your bodies If you ve been at Brookwood the last 3-5 years, you ve heard this verse mentioned. It s about transformation, but this is about a group of people, not an individual. It s important to understand that because we do not normally receive group communication anywhere other than our jobs, but most of the NT Epistles are to churches, which means groups of people. This passage is for us, not just you! This is about your perspective and story combined with everyone else s story around you. The church is a group of people changing together as individuals. Our story of Christ changing us is the first thing that we have to offer the church and the world. Your story is your most important gift. Someone seeing Christ change you is a testimony to the gospel. Likewise, Seeing someone being changed in front of you changes you as well! We give our bodies to God. This word body here doesn t just mean flesh, as our physical bodies, it means our whole selves. Our desires, and will and emotions. Romans 6 put is this way.

3 12Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Romans 6:12-13 NLT We are to be an instrument of righteousness. Our lives are the first and greatest gift we give to God. Your call to be a follower of Christ, an instrument of righteousness is the foundation of your contribution to the church. You must start with your story. Do we position ourselves in a place so that others can see a change in us? Right now, in your life, who knows that you are changing? Who sees you as a different person. This is also often the starting point for conversations of faith with those that do not believe. You know what gets me fired up. Hearing someone s story of what God is doing in their life. You don t have to bake me a cake or say something encouraging about me, but if God is moving in your life I wanna hear it. We wanna hear it! I believe God is moving! I see college students, who grew up at Brookwood but weren t heavily involved coming back and going I need to experience Jesus. I see older adults finding ways to orient themselves around church life. We are seeing folks healed and relationships restored, but we can t celebrate your story if you don t share your story. What story is God writing about you? Who are you sharing it with? Not only are we required to contribute our perspective, but we are also required to contribute our 2. Particular Spiritual Gift Now we could spend several weeks talking about gifts. I don t have several weeks, so we are gonna take a 10,000 ft view today. But I want to start with a picture. I heard this idea this week and want to take it a little further. The church is a big group project. Y all ever been a part of a group project? Group project meme I hated them as a student in the beginning and then loved them later on. Why? I cared about my grade more than the other people did. Often times, it s why I got people in my group that didn t care at all about their grade.

4 God set us up for this group project with particular gifts and talents. Check this out from Romans 12 4Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5so it is with Christ s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. 6In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Romans 12:4-8 NLT Each part has a special function. That means that your part, your gift is unique and needed. What I also love in these verses is that when you discover your gift you do it. 6In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. 6In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. ***Josh Taylor: Can you highlight each of those sections in a different color for the television? 1 st slide underline the first sentence (in his grace )

5 2 nd slide highlight each portion where a different gift is mentioned (e.g. prophesy, then prophesy, if your gift is serving others, serve them well, etc.) Not I have to pause here and say that the way we do things is weird sometimes. Spiritual gifts is one of those things. We print out a test on a piece of paper, answer the questions, and then grade ourselves on how good we think we are. The problem is verse 3 just told us not to think too highly of ourselves. The early church didn t have paper to pass around with questions on it, they didn t even have the full Scriptures. So how did they discover their gifts? With one another. Now that s not to say that our system doesn t have merit, but once you discover your gift you still need to practice it with others. You cannot discover and develop your spiritual gift in isolation. And here s the thing it s not just about discovering your gift. The Holy Spirit is in charge of distributing gifts. If He gave you one and you are holding that to yourself, the church is missing out. The purpose of the gifts is to help one another. In fact, that s your theme verse for today. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 1 Corinthians 12:7 NLT The gift you have is not for you. It s for us. It s for God. It s for the church. I also want to say this, I think this applies more broadly than just gifts as well. We want a diverse church here at Brookwood. Not just diverse in ethnicity, although Yes to Ethnic diversity, but also Economic diversity, Experiential diversity by both age and life experiences. We need you to step up and share your voice and your gift. Being the church also requires a 3. Positive Attitude

6 9Don t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. 11Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. 12Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. Romans 12:9-12 NLT This is such an underrated part of the gifts conversation. There should be an underlying motive in utilizing our gifts for the church. That motive should be the foundation of our service to others. If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1 NLT The corinthian church valued the charismatic gifts more than the attitude that they showed one another and Paul is reminding us that without love we are just making an annoying noise. I don t want you to miss this. You might be thinking to yourself, why doesn t the world see Jesus as He truly is. Why do they think the church is horrible. Without love, this is what they hear. We are either making an annoying noise or a beautiful song and the only way to know which one is by answering the question, Am I loving this other person? Lastly, we contribute our 4. Personal Finances When God s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Romans 12:13 NLT Now I ve spent some significant time in prayer this week that God would keep you engaged at this time. For whatever reason, the church talking about money is bad. So I know that. But Jesus talks about it, Paul talks about it. It s pretty much unavoidable if you read the NT.

7 I want to point out three things that I would hope you would consider when it comes to your giving. 1. That your giving would be Regular. Paul touches on this is 1 Corinthians 16:1-3 where he says: 1 Now regarding your question about the money being collected for God s people in Jerusalem. You should follow the same procedure I gave to the churches in Galatia. 2 On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once. 3 When I come, I will write letters of recommendation for the messengers you choose to deliver your gift to Jerusalem. 1 Corinthians 16:1-3 NLT Your regular giving allows us to do the work of the ministry in our community. I want you think about this for a minute. Our pastors wouldn t be here without regular giving by faithful followers of Christ. Think of what it would look like to not have Perry, David Hardy, Josh Masters, Mark Taylor, Mike Hepola, Brantley Smith, Gene Beckner, Julio, Kevin, Ryan, Chris, and myself not here in this community. Not to mention things like Adventure Week, One Camp, The Kids being set free in India, Counseling services offered free of charge, support groups, financial services, and on and on and on. Today you ve got an insert in your bulletin that helps you see how to give regularly. I would challenge you today to setup a regular recurring gift to our church. Not only should your giving be regular but it should be responsible. Paul touches on this in 2 Corinthians when he speaks of Titus coming alongside of those carrying the offering because of his character. We have a responsibility to steward the money that is given well. On the back of the insert you should see a small overview of our external audit process. Not only that, but you have an opportunity to ask questions every year when the ministry play is released to ask questions and get specifics on where our money is going. We take the way we spend our money seriously.

8 I ve heard over the last few weeks some murmuring of where we are at financially, specifically over something that David Hardy said about pens. Being responsible is something we take seriously. It s on our hearts and minds, especially as Perry and David are looking toward the future of one day handing over the reins to the next group of leaders. But their rigor in being in good financial standing is seen as different and sometimes too much. But we are a large church with no outstanding debts! That is something to praise God for, which means apart from staffing and overhead, our money goes to ministry! Every year we get things cut in our ministry plans because of our discretion in planning and forecasting. But we have things that we would love to get off the ground but it takes money. That responsibility also is about you personally. You should give, it s something that Christ tells us to do. Jesus did not tell the widow with two mites to take her money back did He? No! He commended her sacrificial giving and used it as an example for others! If you are someone who needs help to get your finances in line, please check out our financial peace class here at Brookwood. Our giving should also be responsive. We do not do spontaneous offerings on a regular basis, we are not going to do one today. But I hope and pray that the Spirit is leading you to respond to the needs you see around you. That you would be ready to give above what you give to the church for those in need around you. Some of you need to open up your home to foster. Some of you need to open up your schedule to meet with some younger people in need of development. Some of you need to open up your wallets a little wider so we can do more ministry here. Some of you in here have way more to give, financially, with your story of transformation, your particular gift and your attitude and passion. The Holy Spirit has decided to bless you. What you have is valued and important, but I challenge you to take some time this week and ask God where you need to contribute. The Engage section this week gives you an opportunity to do just that. Not only that, but don t skip small group this week. When s the last time you talked about giving in your small group? Great opportunity this week to share where and why and how you give. I pray that you will be challenged this week about the contribution

9 that you are making as a part of Brookwood Church and more importantly as a part of the global church. In fact, let s take a moment to ask God what He wants us to contribute regularly right now. Let s pray.