You Can!: Fulfill Your Purpose 1 Corinthians 12:1, 4-12 Rev. Terri Hill Traditional 04/20/08 I am going to give you some hints this morning to guess the item I am talking about. When you think you know what it is raise your hand for a moment but DON T TELL anyone around you what it is. No whispering! Created in 1950 by George Lerner Originally intended as prize pieces in cereal boxes Purchased by the Hassenfield Brothers (later shortened to Hasbro) Netted more than $100 million the first year produced (1952) The first toy advertised on television Began in a garden, George made dolls from the vegetables for his sisters to play with. Originally toy came with body parts no body (had to supply your own potato) Mr. Potato Head! What year was Mrs. Potato Head first on the market? 1953! What part went missing forever starting in 1987? The pipe! C. Everett Koop received Mr. Potato Head s pipe in the Great American Smokeout and became the spokespud for the American Cancer Society. Mr. Potato Head also won a President s Award for Physical Fitness on his 40 th birthday when he declared he would no longer be a couch potato! Mrs. Potato Head has also been a spokespud, her cause the League of Women Voters in the 1996 Get Out The Vote campaign. I was born in 1958, and I definitely had a Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, so did my children, my grandchildren, and it is the one toy I keep in my office for children to play with when their parents come in to talk to me. Micah & Eden, Rick and Lynette Jones 1
children, our children s directors, play with it most often and help with creations like these. I would like Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head to assist me this morning in a sacrificial way to help us all understand spiritual gifts. (To the Potatoes) Will you give of yourselves to help all of us understand an important truth? I take your silence to be a yes. Ears! Ears for the most of us signify listening and listening is something done by people with a wide variety of gifts. First I think shepherds, shepherds listen to the needs of others. Our Stephen Ministers do that are there any Stephen Ministers present? This ear s for you. Pastor Clarence, you go from bedside to bedside, house to house listening and caring for so many. This ear s for you. Glasses! The first thing that comes to mind for me are doctors and craftspeople who discern our need for glasses and make them for us. Are there any eye doctors, opticians in the house? These glasses are for you. Glasses also remind me of Cuba and other missions the Lion s Club and others devoted to helping people see. In our church Connie McCavour should get a bronzed pair of these glasses for all she does getting prescriptions filled for our friends in our sister church in Cuba. Gil Francis for all his work as the vice governor for the Lion s Club. These glasses are for you. Hats! To me they represent wisdom. People wise enough to keep the harmful rays of the sun from burning their faces. Wisdom is much needed as a spiritual gift in a wide variety of settings. Are there any members of the Administrative Council here this morning? This wisdom is for you. Any teachers of youth, children, or adults? This wisdom is for you. Eyes! Vision! Leadership! God gives the spiritual gift of leadership because without it no enterprise can succeed. Someone has to step up and say they will give leadership. This is a unique church in many ways all churches are unique. I served one church where the motto seemed to be I ll help but I won t be in charge. It was like pulling teeth to get leaders. I prayed regularly that God would pour out his Spirit with the gift of leadership. Here we have an enormous wealth of leaders. Leaders out in the world in science, industry, business, government, education, non-profits. We are blessed with an abundance of leaders in our midst. It s one of the things that make Suntree United Methodist Church unique. That doesn t mean that every ministry has more leaders than it needs. We always pray for God to send us more leaders! Leaders these eyes are for you. See into the future. See with the vision of God, the needs of the people, the things that can be done, and how you can get us working together to make vision reality. These eyes are for you. 2
A nose! Sniff things out. How does it smell? I would give the nose to those with a gift of discernment. Does it smell fishy? Is something good being cooked up? Those with discernment have a God given gift to tell right from wrong, good from evil. They are the first to sense a problem, dishonesty, malevolent intentions. They also can see into the hearts of those who are pure, and kind, and loving. Often God gives wisdom and discernment together as spiritual gifts. Do people come to you for help in making decisions? Trying to figure out what to do? Do you find yourself gently encouraging someone away from a person who isn t good for them or toward a career you know they are suited for? Counselors of all kinds, advisors, mentors, this nose is for you. A mouth! (Put in) Look it fits! Talking is not the most important gift Paul told us what the most important was in 1 Corinthians 13. But verbalizing the truth preaching, teaching are useful in the kingdom. Are you a teacher anyone? This mouth is for you. You speak words that lead to knowledge, words of life, words of truth. Some of you use your words with the spiritual gift of encouragement. Is there anyone here who has taken a spiritual gift inventory or knows that encouragement is one of the gifts God s given you? I am so glad God distributes that gift! Life can get so discouraging - health problems, family problems, job problems. Around us are encouragers who lift our spirits, help us believe again with God s help we can do it. You use your mouth to speak words of encouragement. Thank you! Arms! We ve got two kinds here. One with muscles. I think of those of you who work on Habitat houses, who build things, props for our big events. Those of you who move heavy tables and lots of chairs, who use your physical strength and abilities to bless the kingdom in many ways. Many of you have the spiritual gift of craftsmanship like they did in the Bible who built the Tabernacle and then the Temple. Sometimes these folks also have the gift of mercy. They are drawn to people in need with a strong desire to do something to help. Do you volunteer at the Daily Bread, for the homeless, with the Haven or Devereux or the United Methodist Children s Home? You probably have a spiritual gift of mercy. And with that sometimes a gift of helps. You use your arms to reach out to others and your hands to touch people in the name of Christ. There are some other things in here good things. A purse! Mrs. Potato Head has a purse but Mr. Potato Head doesn t have a wallet. I m not sure what that means! But the purse signifies giving and for people with the spiritual gift of giving it really is fun to give. It is a joy to see the difference dollars can make. Ten dollars can give a mosquito net to protect a whole family from malaria. Dollars can provide a building, resource teaching children, feed a hungry person. 3
Those of you with a gift of giving may feel odd sometimes. All around you are people whose focus is holding on to everything they ve got, hoarding even. But your focus is letting go, giving and experiencing the joy. I pray for you often because you are a conduit of blessings from God to other people. A tongue! Well the obvious is the gift of tongues, but I ll save that complicated gift for another sermon. I m thinking of a more common gift related to the tongue tasting eating hospitality. Again we are so grateful God gives the gift of hospitality helping make everyone feel at home. Which ones of you work the hospitality cart in front of the sanctuary? This tongue s for you! You not only help our taste buds, but more importantly you create an atmosphere of welcome. As do our greeters, ushers, all our hospitality gifted people. God has blessed you and blessed us through you. Feet! These people go. Missionaries go out to other lands and other people. Evangelists go out to where people are. Someone with a go mentality who used his feet often told me once how many times Jesus said go (it was a lot) and how many times he said sit (very few). He said one problem with the church is we sit too often and go not often enough. Maybe you sense God s gifts to you are mostly to be used out there in his big beautiful needy world. The feet are for you. Maybe you have the gift of apostleship or evangelism. They look a little sad. No hands or feet or eyes or ears. All those parts redistributed out there. What if we could see God s people as he sees us? What if we could see the distribution of all the gifts? Over there are teachers and leaders, over there apostles and craftspeople, over there shepherds and mercy people. Every single gift that is needed is here in our midst. Every single one. God has not forgotten a single need. And everyone has a gift. No one gets left out. It isn t some who are gifted and/or needed and/or important. But everyone who is gifted, needed, and important. All hands on deck and eyes, ears, feet! Everyone is needed to fulfill God s call to serve and minister in the name and mission of Christ. You have to be wondering, which part are you? What is the part God gifts you with? Some of you know God s gifted you to lead or help or build or encourage. Others of you don t know yet. There are ways to discover your gifts. Ask some friends what they think you are best at. Pray and ask God to show you. Read a book on spiritual gifts. Take a spiritual gift inventory. There are a stack of them with the ushers. 4
Get involved somewhere and reflect on it. Maybe you volunteer for helping at the 25 th celebration and you love the camaraderie but aren t crazy about part of the task. Keep refining by experience until you experience the thrill of saying in your sprit This is what God made me to do. The great thing about God is he made us all able to do something, all able to contribute, and through us, with us he calls us the body of Christ in the world. We are his hands, his feet, his eyes, his ears. Incarnate. In the flesh to reach out, listen, speak, do his will. Each one of you has a part to play in that praise God! 5