TOUCHING HOME
PLAY YOUR PART
DR. JIM DIXON
ROMANS 12:1-13
SEPTEMBER 4, 2011
Montrose Elementary school is no more. It used to be in Montrose, California, in southern California, wonderful elementary school, but you see as the Montrose community aged, there were fewer and fewer children and no need for an elementary school any longer. They tore it down. Other things have been built. It is no more. Now, I went to Montrose Elementary School. That is where I went and my brothers before me, Greg and Gary. I remember one teacher, Mrs. Taylor, taught all of us. I know on my report card she wrote, “To the last of the Dixons, farewell.”
I think we have done okay. My brother Gary is married to Ann, my brother Greg is married to Barb and I am married to my Barb. We all live here, now, in Colorado. We all love this wonderful state. We are all members here at Cherry Hills Community Church. We love this church and it is a privilege for us to serve Christ here and to serve Christ together. I don’t really remember much about my elementary school years. I don’t remember a whole lot about Montrose Elementary school. I do remember this: I remember that I reached the peak of my athletic ability in elementary school. When I graduated from Montrose in sixth grade, they had K through sixth (that is how they did elementary school then and there). I was the fastest guy in the school. I ran the 75-yard dash. I remember when I won that, beating Bruce Williams and hitting the tape just before he did.
Bruce Williams went onto become a great athlete in Southern California. I went the opposite direction; I went on to become nothing. I do remember people actually called me Crazy Legs. I am not sure why that was. I know my legs did not drive the girls crazy, I think it was for another reason, I think I ran really weirdly. I played baseball; we had a baseball team at Montrose. I played second base; this was a mistake because I was afraid of the baseball. I really was afraid of the baseball. You know when you play in the infield, if you play third base, short stop, second base and first base you really can’t be afraid of hard-hit balls that are coming over the ground fast. I was afraid of them. Everybody else was playing baseball, I was playing dodge ball. I really was just trying to get out of the way. I remember trying to catch the ball to the side as it would go by, which isn’t the way you are supposed to play second base.
I actually had a pretty good throwing arm; maybe I should have played in the outfield or maybe done a little pitching. I know that in baseball, everyone needs to be in the right place. If you really want to succeed, if you really want to win, if you really want to touch home, if you want to do your best you have got to put the right people in the right positions. You have to have everyone slotted properly. That is true of the church, the Church of Jesus Christ. We want to the put the right people in the right places, we want everyone to play their part, but we want to have them in the right positions.
This morning, as we look at playing our part, I have two teachings. The first teaching is this: sometimes your part is what you were specifically crafted and gifted to do. We know we live in a world where everybody has abilities, everybody has talents, and everybody has aptitudes. That is true of everyone on earth. People are born with differences. Some people are right-brained, some people are left-brained. Some people are extroverted, some people are introverted. Some people are skilled in areas of math, some people in areas relating to the languages and to skills in the arts. People are just different from birth. There are nature and nurture issues in all these things. We live in a diverse world where people have broad scopes of abilities and talents. Even in the church of Jesus Christ, we acknowledge these natural gifts and these natural abilities. We want people to be slotted in accordance with their skills and their talents.
But you see, the Bible tells us that for us as Christians, there are special gifts given. These gifts are gifts of the Holy Spirit. This goes beyond whatever talents and aptitudes you may have by virtue of your birth and by virtue of the way God crafted you from birth. These are gifts given to Christians as special endowments of the Holy Spirit. In our passage of Scripture for today, Romans chapter 12, it lists seven different gifts of the Spirit, perhaps eight depending on how you render the passage. It says in the passage, “As each have received a gift, you use it: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, with liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who performs acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” There are seven gifts listed right there and then later he goes onto mention hospitality, perhaps an eighth gift.
Now you come to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and you see again a listing of gifts of the Holy Spirit. Actually in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 it mentions varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, varieties of services but the same Lord, varieties of workings but the same God. To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit. But most scholars believe these words gifts, services and workings are synonymous. Again, a listing of gifts of the Spirit and there are a listing of 9 at the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and a listing of 8 at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. So, 9 and 8 is 17 and 8 in Romans 12 makes 25.
Then you come to Ephesians chapter four and you have a listing of the big five. God has appointed in the church first apostles then prophets then evangelists, pastors and teachers. Now you are up to 30. You can go to 1 Peter chapter four and see a small shorter listing of gifts there, two or three, depending on whether or not you include hospitality again. That makes 33 gifts. Most Bible scholars, most theologians believe that many of these gifts are redundant; they are duplications so that when you subtract the duplications you come up with maybe 19 gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some would say 20 or 21. Some categorize them differently. Obviously, there are a diverse number and a great number of gifts of the Holy Spirit. I have done a sermon series in the past where I have devoted an entire week to each individual gift of the Holy Spirit.
There are also Bible scholars who would say, “Well, there might be some additional gifts to these 19 when you look at Matthew chapter 19 and you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 7. It appears that Jesus and Paul both view celibacy as a gift of the Holy Spirit.” It is not a gift often sought but it is true, that Jesus speaks of celibacy as some kind of special endowment given to specific people for specific times in history or purposes in the life of the church. Obviously, many are called to marriage and to the enjoyment of the sexual union in marriage. There are some who are called to celibacy. There are even some scholars who have said, “Maybe martyrdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit.” If it is, you can only use it once. It is true; the Bible does speak for special provision of God for martyrs at the time of their martyrdom. The Bible speaks of special rewards in heaven for those who are martyred. Normally, when we think of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, what we really think of is 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, Ephesians chapter 4 and 1 Peter chapter 4.
I think what is clear is that God wants us to discover our gifts and he wants us to use these gifts in the service of Christ and kingdom. I believe with all my heart that certain gifts are given more frequently in the body of Christ. I believe that helps and ministry and aids and service and encouragement, when we look at gifts like helps, aids, mercy, service and encouragement, I think gifts like that are very common in the body of Christ. God, by his Holy Spirit distributes many of those gifts because they are so needed. These are broad scoped gifts. If you have these gifts, they enable you to do a variety of volunteer services in the life of the church. There are incredible gifts given by God from miracle working, the gift of healing. These are rare gifts in the life of the church over the centuries, but real gifts. Miracle working, healing, tongues, the interpretation of tongues, prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, word of knowledge, apostleship, prophecy, evangelist, pastor, teachers, etc. So many gifts given to the body of Christ: all from the Lord who is the Spirit.
There are a lot of questions that people ask. They want to know, “Well, when are the gifts given? When do I get a gift of the Holy Spirit?” Some theologians and scholars say that they are given at regeneration. Regeneration simply means rebirth; regeneration literally means to be born again. The Greek word is anagennao, which is found in the Bible in a number of places. When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, when you acknowledge that you are a sinner and you receive him as your Savior from your sin, you accept his sacrifice on the cross and you come to him and receive him as your Lord in life, you are regenerated, you are born from above, you born anew, you are brought into the family of God, you become of child of God, sons and daughters of God. There are some theologians who believe at that point, the Holy Spirit gives gifts. Then you may not be aware of what those gifts are and then later in your life you discover them and develop them and use them.
Other scholars say, “No, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not given at regeneration, but they are given through the laying on of hands.” They go through certain passages in the book of Acts and other portions of Scripture, and they show that through the laying on of hands and the prayers that accompany the laying on of hands, the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested in the form of gifts of the Holy Spirit. There is certainly truth to that.
Other theologians will say, “No, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given in conjunction with call.” Again, they go to the book of Acts and other parts of the Bible. Paul, for instance, said to Timothy that he received certain gifts that accompanied his call. Some theologians believe that gifts of the Holy Spirit are given in the time of call. When God calls people into certain ministries and roles, he endows them for that call; he gifts them for that call. To me, all of the above is true. I believe God gives manifestations of the Holy Spirit at regeneration, I believe God does it through the laying on of hands and I believe that God anoints us with gifts in accordance with our call. I believe it is all true.
People want to know, “Are these gifts permanent endowments? If you have a gift of the Holy Spirit, do you keep it your whole life? Are these gifts situational? Are they temporary?” Again, I think the answer is both. Some gifts of the Holy Spirit are certainly given as lifetime endowments. Other gifts of the Holy Spirit are given, I believe, on a temporary basis for the purposes of God and for the call of God. Certain gifts may be given in accordance with a particular call and those gifts may cease when the call is done. Gifts may also vary in magnitude. One person might have a gift of teaching, another person might have a gift of teaching and they both have a manifestation of the Spirit but the presence of the Spirit is stronger in one than another.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit may vary in terms of their magnitude and in terms of their power. I believe it is possible for God to give even to a mom and dad the gift of pastoring for the purpose of their little flock, but it would tend to not be the same magnitude of gift that God would give to those who work with the flock of Christ. There are many different manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All the gifts of the Holy Spirit are wonderful. I believe all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are available today. I believe that we are to desire them, we are to discover them, we are to develop them and we are to use them in the service of Christ, and in the church of Christ on earth. An amazing thing happens when we discover our gifts and we use them in the service of the church. When we have the right people in the right part, amazing things happen.
Barb and I just bought a new washer and dryer. We have had some problems through the years with our washer and dryer. I actually mentioned this a couple of years ago. We had a washer that was declared a lemon by the manufacturer. We had repairmen come seven different times to repair this washer. At first, they refused to declare it a lemon because they said that it had to be the same problem each of the seven times. Ours needed a repairman for different reasons each of the seven times, so they weren’t sure that this was officially a lemon. Finally, they declared it a lemon and they gave us a new washer for free.
This new washer is not exactly a lemon but it is certainly related to the citrus family. I would say it might be a lime. It just really hasn’t worked very well. It is another front-loader. Barb doesn’t really like front-loaders; she doesn’t think they always empty the water well. We just purchased a new washer and dryer and we just sold our old washer and dryer. We did it on Craigslist. We had a whole bunch of people wanting to buy it for 100 bucks for the washer and 100 bucks for the dryer. We gave it to the first person.
They came by the house to pick up the washer and dryer. This guy brought his friend, so there were two guys there. I noticed that they didn’t bring a dolly, but these are young guys and they have their truck. They go to take the washer and I notice one of these guys is really big. You can tell he is pretty strong. The other guy is just kind of a dinky little guy. I notice that the little guy, when they went to take the washer, the little guy took the heavy part and got down really low and took the heaviest load and the big strong guy took the easier part, the lighter part of the washer. The big guy began to give the little guy directions. “Hey man, you know, don’t hold it like that. Put your hand over here. Move your hands around. Hold it here. Hold it there.” I noticed they didn’t have gloves and I offered them gloves and they didn’t really seem interested.
Finally, the little guy said to the big guy, “Hey, you’re the big guy. You’re the strong guy. Why don’t you take the heavy part of the washer and let me do the lighter part that you have. Let me do what you are doing and give the orders.” So, they switched roles, kind of laughing. Amazingly, everything changed. Suddenly they were able to lift it. I mean, they were having all kinds of problems before, now they were able to lift it. They took it out of the garage; they put it up in the truck. It is amazing what happens when you get the right people in the right job.
That is true in the church of Jesus Christ. You might say, “Well, how do I discover my gifts? How do I develop them and implement them?” To some extent it depends on the gifts. Sometimes, I honestly believe that we should seek the gifts and ask for the laying on of hands. But I also believe that we discover our gifts in the body of Christ through trial and error. We used to have this deal at the church called Life Walk, and we actually gave people tests. We gave hundreds of you tests to help determine what your spiritual gifts were. This doesn’t always work that well. With certain gifts of the Holy Spirit, it might work well but with other gifts not so much. To try to help other people what their gifts are through testing, it can be beneficial but it certainly does not always work. We still have all these tests and if you want us to test you, with regard to your aptitude or your gifting, we can offer those tests to you. But, consider trial and error.
I believe when you look at Romans chapter 12 it begins with this passage, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice…” the assumption of our Lord is that we are going to offer ourselves to his service. “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice…” then in that context, as you offer your body as a living sacrifice, this is our service to God, we are told we experience metamorphosis. “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed…” This is all in the context of Romans 12 and the gifts. We experience metamorphosis; we experience transformation as we present ourselves as living sacrifices. This is our spiritual worship; this is our spiritual service. I really believe that as the body of Christ offers itself in service, we begin to experience metamorphosis, we begin to discover God’s endowments in our lives, we begin to discover how he has gifted us, and we begin to develop those gifts and implement those gifts and use those gifts. It is kind of a trial-and-error situation.
I have been in the ministry for 38-and-a-half years. I have seen all kinds of different efforts to identify gifts and develop gifts of the spirit, to seek manifestation and use, but I really believe that a lot of times in the body of Christ it is just offering yourself in service and seeing what God has made you to be. Sometimes switching roles here and there, moving from one volunteer capacity to another one and another one as you discover how God has crafted you, where you find your most joy and how God most uses you. I want to encourage you to offer yourselves as volunteers and do it with the intentionality of discovering your gift. Sit down and talk with any of us who are pastors. We would be happy to pray for you and over you, and also to discuss with you what God is doing and how God is working in your life.
There is a second teaching this morning. Sometimes your part is what you were specifically crafted and gifted to do, but other times your part is simply to do what needs to be done. After 38-and-a-half years in the ministry, I have seen again and again that to play your part simply means you are willing to do what needs to be done. I have seen God bless massively, when people are willing to do what needs to be done. You see this message again and again in the Bible.
You look at Luke, chapter ten and you have the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, you have four characters: the wounded Jewish man by the side of the Jericho Road. Then you have these other three guys, the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan. There are all sorts of issues in the parable; issues of race, issues of religion, but the major issue is ability and availability. The major issue is availability. Certainly, these three guys, the Samaritan, the priest and the Levite had differing abilities, but the only issue really was availability. Is that not true? They may have had all kinds of different aptitudes, the Samaritan, the priest and the Levite, but their call was to play their part and that meant to do what was needed. The priest can’t go up to the wounded Jew on the side of the Jericho Road and say, “Listen, my gift is teaching. If you wanted a lecture on how to travel more safely, I could give it to you. Never travel alone. Stay off the Jericho Road, etc.” Of course, that is not the way God has set the whole thing up. Sometimes it isn’t about our abilities; it is simply about our availability.
The beautiful thing about the Samaritan was that he was available. He was available to help and he did his part. God surely blesses those who do their part. I think that is why in the Bible you see the fruit of the spirit elevated over the gifts of the spirit. Even in Romans 12, our passage of Scripture today, we have some of the gifts of the spirit listed. You have this message of love. The highest manifestation of the fruit of the spirit is love. You look at Romans 12 and the gifts are listed, but then you have this message to “let love be genuine.” Then again, the message, “Love one another earnestly from the heart.” Love trumps everything.
I think the idea is that if you really love each other, if we really love each other, we are going to be willing to play our part, even if the part is just doing what is needed. We have the listing of the gifts in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, but then you have 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and that is the love chapter. You have this beautiful description of love which trumps everything:
:If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or clanging symbol. In the sight of God, I am a noisy gong if I have not love. If I have prophetic powers, I understand all knowledge and all mysteries and I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but I have not love, I am nothing. In the sight of God, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have to the poor and deliver my body to be burned but I have not love, I have nothing. From God, I gain nothing.” There is this higher principle of love. If we really love the church, if we love our brothers and sisters, if we love the cause of Christ, we play our part. Sometimes it is not about ability, it is just about availability.
Here at Cherry Hills Community Church, we need a lot of people. It takes over 3,500 volunteers every year just to keep the ministry functioning. There are 1,000 volunteers in our Children’s ministry alone. You see God put our church here in Highlands Ranch in this family dense area, surrounded by tons of kids. It is a call that is precious. It is a privilege, but it is a great responsibility. We need availability. We certainly want people to understand their gifts and use them, but we also want people who in the name of love are willing to do what is needed. We need you. It doesn’t matter whether it is The Choir or the Sunday School, or whether it is tutoring, or group facilitating, or whether it is going to shut-ins, or going to the hospital in visitation, we just need to have our congregation mobilized in ministry for the cause of Christ.
You have all heard of Michelangelo, Michelangelo Buonarroti Simoni. He was born March 6, 1475, and he was a savant, one of the most gifted, one of the most talented, one of the most brilliant artists the world has ever seen. He was a sculptor. His Moses, his David and his Pieta are masterpieces and we put them on the screen. He sculpted Moses to be in the burial chamber, the burial tomb of Julius II, who was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. His David is 18 feet tall. You can see it in Florence. I have seen it there. It is majestic.
His Pieta… the word pieta is a Latin word meaning piety; we get the English word piety from pieta. His Pieta portrays Mary’s grief at looking at her crucified son. These are masterpieces. He had a great love of sculpture. This was, along with poetry, his favorite thing to do. Poetry and sculpture were his two favorite things. So, so gifted.
He was also an architect. You look at St. Peter’s Basilica and you realize in 1546 he was made chief architect in the building of St. Peter’s Basilica. You look at that incredible thing and you realize that when Michelangelo died, they had just begun to build the dome, but he was a mathematical genius as well as an artistic genius such as the world has rarely seen. What an amazing master. He wasn’t just an architect, he was just a sculptor, and he was a painter.
If you go to the Sistine Chapel and you see the beauty. They have found through new technology a way to clean off the grime of centuries. Now when you go to the Sistine Chapel you see the vibrancy and the brilliant colors of the masterpiece. When you look at the Creation or the Last Judgment, the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel is just a marvel.
Understand, this wasn’t his first love. He didn’t even want to do it. He was commanded by Pope Julius II to do it. He did have a love of Christ. He had a love of the church. In the latter years of his life, he was extremely devoted in his love of Jesus Christ. He had this longing in his heart to serve the church and he believed that God was at work in all of his art. He did this four-and-a-half-year project in the Sistine Chapel and he would have rather been sculpting or writing poetry, but he did this in the service of Christ because it was needed. He worked on that scaffolding for those four and a half years. There was a legend going around that he was on his back for those four and half years, which is not true, but he stood on the scaffolding.
He wrote poetry in his off hours about how the paint fell in his eyes and how the muscles in his neck began to tweak and twitch and he had horrible neck pain. You can imagine four and half years of awkward positions of painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He did it out of love of Christ and obedience to the pope. It wasn’t even what he wanted to do and it wasn’t considered one of his greatest gifts, he loved sculpture and poetry. He did a great job; I think we can all agree with that. What an example of what it means to offer yourself, even when it is something that wouldn’t be the first thing that you would want to do and you do it for the sake of the church.
In the world of psychology there is a term that is used by psychologists called illusionary superiority. Psychologists say that we live in a world where a lot of people suffer from illusionary superiority. They sometimes call it the Lake Wobegon effect-Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, the Minnesota town where all the children are above average. Illusionary superiority. There was just this study conducted, I love this, of 1,000,000 high school kids. This is a vast, large-scoped study of 1,000,000 high school kids and how they relate to their peers. They were asked whether they thought they were below normal, normal, or above normal in their ability to relate to their peers and then to rate themselves in terms of percentile.
Of the 1,000,000 kids, zero thought they were below normal in their ability to relate to their peers. Zero! Zero out of 1,000,000. Sixty percent of these kids, which is 600,000, believed that they were in the top ten percent in terms of their ability to relate. Twenty-five percent, 250,000 of these kids thought they were in the top one percent in their ability to relate to other kids.
The really funny thing is they conducted the same study with university professors in the United States and came up with the same results. Instead of 60 and 25, it was 63 and 25. Two percent of them thought they were below normal, but the same kind of illusionary superiority. It is a common problem. If you look at Romans chapter 12, do you notice the words of the apostle Paul? “By the grace given unto me, I beg you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to each think with sober judgment according to the measure of faith which God has assigned you.” There is a humility that we need to bring to this subject of the gifts. I mean a huge amount of humility because we need to play our part and if we are not humble, we are not going to be willing to do what is needed. If you are humble, and you would be willing to say, “Lord, here am I. Use me.” It is amazing what he might do, amazing what he can do, and amazing what, I believe, he will do.
As we close, I want to tell you a little story about Pioneer 10; you might remember Pioneer 10 was a space probe launched by NASA in 1972. This was a bold adventure. You remember NASA had never launched anything beyond Mars, never sent anything beyond Mars. The purpose of Pioneer 10 was to go to Jupiter. They didn’t even whether know if Pioneer 10 would survive the asteroid belt, but its purpose was to get to Jupiter and to photograph the moons and to send back information to earth regarding Jupiter’s magnetic fields and radiation belts. This was the bold purpose of Pioneer 10 launched in 1972.
In November of 1973, the mission was virtually completed. Amazingly, everything had gone well. Pioneer 10 had taken the picture of Jupiter’s moons, sent back, transmitted to earth all the information relating to the magnetic fields and radiation belts. An amazing success. Then Pioneer 10 orbited Jupiter, and because of its gravitational pull, was launched out to the edges of our solar system. Pioneer 10 raced outwards towards the edge of our solar system and it went 1,000,000,000 miles from the sun when it passed Saturn and 2,000,000,000 miles from the sun when it passed Uranus and 3,000,000,000 miles from the sun when it passed Neptune and 4,000,000,000 miles from the sun when it passed Pluto.
Twenty-five years after its launch, in 1997, it was 8,000,000,000 miles from the sun and still sending back transmissions to earth, still sending back to earth all this precious transmission. It continued to transmit and send messages to earth until 2003, 31 years after its launch. All it had was an eight-watt transmitter. That is like the night light in your bathroom, eight watts. It was designed to serve for three years. By the way, recent articles in scientific journals tell us that Pioneer 10 is still racing out there, it is still transmitting, and we just aren’t able to pick it up. It is racing towards a red star called Aldebaran and Aldebaran is 68 light years out there. Pioneer 10 is heading straight towards it, 68 light years away. Light moves at 186,282 miles a second and Pioneer 10 isn’t going anywhere near that fast. In fact, it is going to take Pioneer 10 not 86 years to reach this star but two million years. They say it actually will reach it, time permitting. Isn’t that amazing?
Here is what I want to suggest to you. What if you were launched by Christ? What could happen? What are the amazing things, if you are bold enough to be launched by Christ, which could happen? Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” He said, “Let your light shine amongst men that they might see your good deeds and glorify your father who is in heaven.” He sends us forth as light in the darkness. I don’t know whether you are a 100-watt bulb or whether you are 50-watt bulb or whether you are an eight-watt, four-watt, two-watt, I don’t know what, but I do know it is amazing what he can do with any of us if we are just willing to be launched, if we are willing to play our part. Sometimes that involves discovering our gifts and using them, but other times it simply means to do what is needed.
Here we are and so many things are needed in the body of Christ. Gene is sitting here and we partner in ministry all the time. Gene is in charge of our missions and our outreach and we minister in nations all around the world, and we have mission organizations and missionaries that we support. We have many individuals who are sitting in their chair just like you who have gone out to serve Christ as missionaries for Cherry Hills Community Church. We have home teams that pray and bathe our missionaries in prayer and are constantly in communication with them, constantly providing support systems for them and even visiting them in the field. We need hundreds and hundreds of people just to work in this one area of ministry.
The need is so great and it is so exciting. You get to experience some cross-cultural stuff, you get to see some wonderful, beautiful cultures, people loved by God and you get to see how best to share Jesus with these people and also to share the love of Christ with these people. We need you. We don’t have enough workers, still, for Grace Place, for Liquid our youth ministry, not our baptism ministry, we don’t have enough group facilitators for our small groups, and we don’t have enough tutors for the inner-city. The fields are white for harvest. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers. Play your part. So much is at stake. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.