by Gene Cornett, Teaching Elder
Much of what we hear from voices around us and much of what we think from what comes to us naturally, teaches us to think that what I have belongs to me. My body, our culture loves to proclaim, belongs to me. My mind belongs to me, my time, my resources are mine. We don’t have to learn this. Two-year-olds learn to say mine very quickly.
Recently, our 14-month-old grandson learned a painful lesson. I don’t actually know how well he learned it, but in daycare recently he was sitting close to a buddy’s chicken nuggets and decided to take one for himself! The other child responded by biting him on the arm. Stealing someone’s chicken nuggets is dangerous business! We don’t have to learn how to say mine, and we love time where we get to choose to do what we think will make us comfortable. Ironically, what we think will make us comfortable, what we think will make us happy, is often something that will make us less alive, less happy and make us spiritually, mentally, and physically dull. For instance, I love ice cream. But if I give free reign to my desire for it, I’ll have a heaping bowl of it every night with bananas and peanut butter and chocolate, pineapple, caramel, and butterscotch syrup. But when I consume that much sugar, it makes me way too full and makes me sleepy. Indulging my taste buds without any discretion on how much I should consume, does not make me more alive. It makes feel more dead and may encourage that along!
God has given every person who is born again one or more spiritual gifts. The word translated spiritual is the Greek root word for the word grace. Our spiritual gifts, those special abilities from God, are a part of his gift of grace that he lavishes on every believer. It is still true, that in our natural selves, our hearts are desperately wicked. Furthermore, we do not earn God’s favor by serving and using our gifts. Rather, we have them because God has poured out his grace upon us in his rich mercy. We get credit for Jesus’ righteous life. His blood pays the price that I deserve to pay for my sins. Also, we receive from him spiritual gifts by his grace.
Every believer has a role to play in using those gifts and there are no believers without spiritual gifts. In my case, that gift of grace involves gifts of teaching, knowledge, and leadership. Those gifts do not belong to me. They belong to the church. That’s not because I’m the Teaching Elder it’s true of every believer. Your gifts belong to the church. I would be sinning to withhold those gifts from the church body. So, I am constantly at work to seek to be prepared to effectively use those gifts and to get better in the use of those gifts. So as I prepare and preach, I also read books on preaching to hone that giftedness. I read books on theology, discipleship, missions and books that help me to know how to share the gospel with unbelievers. I read books and seek out coaching on leadership from those willing to be honest with me about how I can grow as a leader.
It’s an insult to the grace of God for any of us to sit back in false humility, which is a symptom of pride, and say, “I don’t have anything to offer,” or to say, “there’s no place to use my gifts through my church.” It is a privilege and responsibility for all of us to serve God use these gifts until he takes us home to heaven. We are responsible before God to live our lives as living sacrifices, fully seeking to put these gifts in play, taking risks, and making sacrifices for God’s glory and for our good.
In Christ,
Gene