Living the Easter Life: SPIRITUAL GIFTS Romans 12:1-8 Jesus is Lord over our spiritual gifts. A sermon preached by Rev. Dr. William O. (Bud) Reeves First United Methodist Church Fort Smith, Arkansas April 23, 2017
Pastor Sara Bayles had an interesting conversation with an 8 th grader this week. She was representing the church at the lunch for the students of the month at Darby Junior High. They re one of our partner schools, and they take the students of the month in each grade out to lunch at a restaurant. This month we paid for it, so Sara went along. One of the students was an eighth grade boy, obviously smart, but also full of life in a way that only eighth grade boys can be. Sara soon learned his life story, and like many kids today, his home life was troubled and didn t have much stability. But when he found out Sara was a pastor, he was amazed. He said he had never met a real live pastor before. He had only seen them on TV. That in itself is a commentary on our world today. But he began to quiz Sara about being a pastor. How did she become one? What did she do? What church? Where is it? And so on. Then he asked a very interesting question. He said, What s the most fun thing about going to church? Sara had to think about that one, not to come up with something, but to narrow it down and to give an answer that would sound like fun to an eighth grade boy. How would you answer that question? What s the most fun thing about going to church? I could say several things worship, study, friendship, food but for sure near the top of my list would be Easter Sunday. That has to be one of the best days of the year at the church. Everything is big on Easter big crowds, big music, big message of the resurrection. Inevitably someone will say to me as they walk out the door, Don t you wish every Sunday could be like this? Well, yeah. That would be cool. But I ve been a pastor for 37 years. I know what the Sunday after Easter looks like. (Thank you for being here!) But I also know that for those who make the choice, Easter can have a profound impact on your life. Easter can be the fire that ignites your faith. Following Easter, you can really make Christ your Lord.
We know from Easter that Jesus is our Savior. He died on the cross for our sins. We know from Easter that Jesus is Lord of the universe. God raised him up from the dead and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father. 1 But what we want to talk about for the next few weeks is how to make Jesus my Lord, the King of my life, the Ruler of my everyday experience. How can we make our lives look like the resurrection life of the risen Christ? How do we live the Easter life? Paul addresses this in a couple of great verses in our Scripture today: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect. 2 If you want your life to be good and acceptable to God and perfect, then approach all of life as worship. Offer it up to God as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Don t be molded into conformity with this broken, evil world. Be transformed by the Holy Spirit. Let your mind be renewed so that you can see what God s will for your life is. In other words, we are to live in the world as thermostats, not thermometers. You know the difference between a thermostat and a thermometer, don t you? Thermometers simply reflect the prevailing conditions. They record the temperature. If it s hot, the thermometer s hot. If it s cold, the thermometer s cold. There s no control of the situation. But a thermostat is different. There is an internal control in the thermostat that tells it what the temperature ought to be, and when the temperature is off the mark, the thermostat kicks in a greater power to change the temperature, to alter the conditions by cooling or heating the space to a preset standard.
Easter people are like thermostats. We are connected to the Master Unit, and when the prevailing conditions do not meet the standard, we can act to change the situation. We have the power. We do not have to conform. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a thermostat in his day. He could not conform to the prevailing conditions of racial prejudice and economic injustice that were the norms of American culture half a century ago. Many people called him a radical and a rabble-rouser, but in his writing you can see that King was a man who was deeply conscious of an internal thermostat. Jesus was his Lord. He responded to the guidance of his spiritual worship. He gave his life as a living sacrifice. King s sermon on this Romans text is called Transformed Nonconformists, where he says, Christians have a mandate to be nonconformists. The Apostle Paul, who knew the inner realities of the Christian faith, counseled, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. We are called to be people of conviction, not conformity; of moral nobility, not social respectability. We are commanded to live differently and according to a higher loyalty. 3 One of the most powerful ways to make Jesus your Lord, to be transformed, to practice holy non-conformity, is to understand and live into your spiritual gifts. Understanding and claiming spiritual gifts is a movement that has been generating traction in churches across America and the world for twenty years. As churches plug into the power of the Holy Spirit, as they empower their membership for ministry, as they launch their laity into meaningful service, spiritual gifts are usually part of the mix. Spiritual gifts are a Biblical concept. There are four main texts in the New Testament: Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and I Peter 4. A spiritual gift is an ability or a power for ministry that is given to Christians by the Holy Spirit to enable them to serve God and other people. The analogy that is used by Paul in Romans and I
Corinthians is a human body. The body has many parts, some strong, some weak, each with their own function, and when they are all functioning properly, the body is healthy and growing. The church also has many parts, many people, each with his or her own function, and when we all work together the way God has gifted us, the body of Christ, the church, is healthy and growing. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 4 So God gives gifts to us according to his grace and his wisdom. The ones listed in Romans are prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, and compassion. There are other gifts listed in other texts. The point is, we accept the gift and serve out of our giftedness, and we are transformed. Jesus becomes more completely the Lord of our life. We become more like what God wired us to be. We begin living the Easter life. Have you ever received a gift that was just amazing? When I was an ninth grade boy, I had been playing the guitar for about a year, and I was thinking seriously about becoming a rock star. For that, I needed an electric guitar. But not just any electric guitar. I needed a Fender Stratocaster. If you re not a guitar player, that doesn t mean a thing, but the Fender Stratocaster is a premium instrument favored by many of the great guitar players of all time Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and others. As Christmas approached, I made my need known. The problem was, a Fender Stratocaster was a fairly expensive instrument, and our family was barely getting by as it was. My dad had quit his job to go into business for himself. We had moved to a new town, bought a new house, and his business was not up and running yet. We were living off our savings and the money the bank had loaned him to start the business. My dad was sympathetic to my desire, but he said there was no way he could afford a Fender Stratocaster. He said that Sears sold electric guitars, and it would just
have to do. So I had resigned myself to the Sears Silvertone, and to the fact that Jimi Hendrix probably started out on a cheap guitar, too. Christmas morning came, and I was not as excited as a 14-year-old should be, until I walked into the living room, and there under the tree, was a brand new sunburst Fender Stratocaster! Every time I pick up this guitar, I remember first of all my dad pulling my leg, but most of all I remember what an amazing and generous and unexpected gift that was. Our spiritual gifts are amazing and generous and unexpected, too. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are given particular spiritual gifts as a disciple of Jesus. Or we might say, gifts that were already in us become manifest. Either way, the Holy Spirit works in us, and with us, and through us to transform our lives and conform us to the image of Christ. Gradually Jesus becomes more and more our Lord as well as our Savior. We exercise our gifts, and we engage in effective and fruitful service for the Kingdom of God. Some of this we do in the church; some we do in the community. As we understand our spiritual gifts and live into them, an amazing transformation takes place. Church and community work becomes more than simply volunteering out of the good ness of your heart; it is an expression of giftedness. It s not the drudgery of obligation; it s the excitement of ministry. It s not a cause for exhaustion or depletion; it s a source of joy and fulfillment and meaning and purpose. It s a whole new ball game! I want you to understand this because I want spiritual gifts to become the paradigm for leadership at First United Methodist Church in Fort Smith. When people begin to serve not out of a sense of duty but because they are spiritually empowered, it is a game-changer for the church. I have seen it make such a difference in the lives of people and in the ministry of a church. I want that for us. So how do we get there? I have been aware of different studies of spiritual gifts for years. Last fall, several of us got acquainted with a curriculum produced by the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas
City. In January, our church staff went through the study. Right now I am taking about 15 of our church leaders through the study. This fall we will offer it at Wednesday Night Life and maybe in some adult Sunday School classes. There s a youth study on spiritual gifts, too. Over the next several years, enough people will understand, claim, and exercise their gifts that it will show in our leadership and serving here at the church. We will be more energized, powerful, and joyful; it will make a difference in our culture. I ve seen this paradigm-shift happen in lots of people, but one of the most dramatic was a woman named Linda. When I became her pastor, she was an occasional attender at church. She came; she sat; she went about her business. Her first mistake was getting involved in Disciple Bible Study. As she got deeply into God s Word, it changed her. Suddenly she wanted to become not just an admirer of Jesus, but a real disciple. Then Linda took a class on spiritual gifts. She discovered she had a gift of creativity and mercy or compassion. And she had a talent for praying with and for people a gift of intercession. So she used her gift of creativity and designed and decorated a prayer room at the church. She organized a group to meet and pray every Sunday morning before church for the sick, for the services, for the preacher. We immediately felt the difference across the congregation. Then she joined a team to visit hospitals, and she began to go and pray for people and make a difference in their lives. After a couple of years, it got to where I couldn t unlock the doors of the church without Linda showing up to do something. Did we wear her out? Did she quit in exhaustion? Did she ever say, I ve done my time; let somebody else do it, as if serving God were a prison sentence? Did she experience burnout and bitterness with her church? Not that I ever saw. What she did tell me several times is that her only regret was that she didn t discover sooner how meaningful it was to use her gifts for the glory of God.
Back to the original question: What s the most fun thing about going to church? Easter would be right up there. Worship most Sundays. Seeing people. Learning more in depth about God. All good. But the most fun thing for me about going to church is seeing somebody grow in their faith and discipleship, to see somebody who is a casual Christian or not one at all discover the joy and meaning and purpose in being a sold-out disciple of Jesus. It s a little more work to worship with all your life, to conform your mind to him, to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. But that s what Easter is all about. It s all about the resurrection. As Jesus rose, we will rise. We will rise with him into heaven when we die. That s the Savior part. But we will also rise when we grow as disciples. We will rise when we truly make Jesus our Lord. We will rise when we claim and use the spiritual gifts God has given us. We will rise when we live the Easter life. 1 Philippians 2:10-11. 2 Romans 12:1-2. 3 Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963), 17f. 4 Romans 12:4-5.