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November 8, 2009

Romans 12:4-8

1 Corinthians 12:4-13

Ephesians 4:11-12

Service Gifts of the Spirit

 

God has a place of service for you in His Body.

 You have probably noticed those things dangling at the end of your arms.

  We call them hands.

   Did you realize that the best use of hands are helping, holding, and giving?

    That is what God designed your hands to do.

     Last week we saw that we all have the “gift of gab”.

      And that “gift of gab” needs to be surrendered to God.

       The vocal gifts of the Holy Spirit transform the “gift of gab”.

        Our words can be used for tremendous good when we surrender to God.

Just like we all have the “gift of gab”, we also have hands.

 God has not only given every one of us the “gift of gab”.

  He has also given us the “gift of grab”.

   And that “gift of grab”, your hands, needs to be surrendered to God.

    He has given the service gifts of the Holy Spirit to transform our hands.

     In Romans 12:7-8 Paul writes, “if service, in our serving; … he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

      Your hands have the potential of helping others in amazing ways.

       In 1 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul writes, “to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles.”

        In Ephesians 4:15 Paul writes, “we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.”

         That, my friends, is the key to the proper use of these dangly things.

          They were not designed to hang idly at our sides.

           They were not designed to horde and clutch.

           Our hands were designed to serve others.

            Our hands were designed to care for the needs of those around us.

             Our hands were designed to do God’s work.

              God has given us gifts to sanctify our “gift of grab”.

               He desires our hands to do their God-given work.

The gifts of service, contribution, helping, mercy, healing, miracles;

 These are gifts that connect us with others.

  These are gifts that involve us in the lives of others.

   We call them gifts of the Spirit but they are really gifts for Christ’s work.

    Listen to that list again.

     Service, contribution, helping, mercy, healing, miracles.

      Doesn’t that sound like Jesus?

       Is that not what His life was all about?

        He came for others.

         He came to connect this world with God the Father.

          God is totally committed to those in need.

           In Jesus, we see God’s compassion for multitudes and individuals.

           In Jesus, we see God’s unconditional love for us.

            In Jesus we see God’s unrelenting pursuit of those who have strayed.

              Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.”

              God wanted to show us how the use the “gift of grab”.

               To do that He needed hands, the hands of Jesus.

This isn’t to minimize His work of salvation.

 He did die on the cross in our place.

  That was the ultimate act of service and mercy and grace.

   It was His hands that were nailed to the cross.

    The writer to the Hebrews affirms this unique work of Jesus.

     Jesus “is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.  For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.  He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for His own sins and then for those of the people; He did this once for all when He offered up Himself.”  (Hebrews 7:24-27)

     There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved.

      God wants us to see what holy, blameless, unstained, sin-free hands can do.

       With those hands Jesus made mud to put on a blind man’s eyes to heal.

        With those hands Jesus broke bread and fed thousands.

         With those hands Jesus embraced little children.

          With those hands Jesus pulled Peter from the raging sea.

           With those hands Jesus cleansed the Temple of dishonesty.

           With those hands Jesus wanted to hold the entire city of Jerusalem.

            With those hands Jesus ate meals with sinners and outcasts.

             With those hands Jesus passed the bread and cup of the new covenant.

              With those hands Jesus took hold a man with dropsy and healed Him.

               Jesus said, “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”  (Luke 11:20)

                With those hands Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.

                 In Jesus we see human life as God originally intended it to be.

                  Adam and Eve used the “gift of grab” to pick the forbidden fruit.

                   Their fall into sin distorted our gift of grab.

                    We turned the “gift of grab” away from God and in on ourselves.

                     The “gift of grab” was distorted by sin.

                      It found a new occupation of clinging and clutching.

                       Our hands do inhuman things when not surrendered to God.

                        Relationships are destroyed.

                        We cover up and protect our self interests

                         But in Jesus we see what it means to be truly human.

                        Jesus came so that we might be set free.

                         Jesus came to help us open our hands toward others.

                          And He came to guide our lives toward holiness.

Jesus came into a world that needed the touch of God’s grace.

 Jesus was a true picture of holiness and perfect righteousness.

  He took a towel and a basin of water and became a Servant.

   Jesus came to serve and give His life as a ransom.

    When Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, His glory was visible.

     That is the true glory of Jesus.

      And when we behold that glory we are transformed into His likeness.

 

I   Jesus served because it was His NATURE to serve.

     There was nothing artificial about Jesus’ servanthood.

      People can spot a fake.

       They will see the hypocrisy of our actions if they are not genuine.

        Our nature must be that of Christ’s.

         We must be filled with the Holy Spirit who provides His gifts of service.

 

II  Jesus served out of STRENGTH.

     He didn’t need to serve to try and look better or feel better about Himself.

      God was His Source of fulfillment, never His actions.

       His service to others did not define who He was.

        He was One with the Father that was His identity.

         It was that claim that cost Him His life.

          His service flowed through His identity with the Father.

           And our service flows through the strength of our identity with Jesus.

            Christ in me is the hope of glory.

             Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.”  (Philippians 4:13)

              That is the strength in which we serve.

 

III And Jesus served out of FREEDOM.

     His service was not out of duty or obligation.

      He served our world in the freedom of love.

       Up until then the law dictated people’s actions.

        Any service was regulated and calculated.

         The law confined and constricted.

          Jesus did not minister by the letter of the law.

           The law gave its direction and Jesus broke through its fetters.

           He did not care for people out of a desire to please them.

            He saw people’s thoughts and motives.

             He knew what they thought about Him.

              It would be tempting to reach out to make people think better of you.

               Jesus said, beware when others speak well of you.

                That leaves you vulnerable and your actions compromised.

                 He and the Father were one and that was all that mattered.

                  And we can be one with Jesus.

                   Jesus prayed, “The glory which You have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and You in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved me.”  (John 17:22-23)

 

IV  And Jesus served out of OBEDIENCE.

     Nothing was of His own initiative.

      He did what He saw the Father doing.

       Imagine if we did only what we saw Jesus doing?

        What would that mean for your “gift of grab”?

         What radical changes would that make to your actions and use of your hands?

          We can ask God every day to take us with Him where He is going.

           We can ask God to allow us to serve Him in the arena He chooses for us.

           We must allow Christ to show Himself to others through us.

            We must allow Him to do what He longs to do for those around us.

             What would you give – or give up – to be the hands of Christ today?

God has a place of service for you in His Body.

 How will you respond to the call?

  How will you yield your hands to serve?

   If we are to be like Christ, we will be loving servants to Him and to others.

    We will be a community of believers devoted to serving Jesus and our world.

     We will live generously every day.

      We become the person God created us to be.

       Surrender to Him your “gift of grab”.

        Grab hold of Jesus and the people He loves.