“All In” (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)

Rob Tennant, HillSong Church, Chapel Hill, NC

Sunday, September 22, 2019

            Who’s heard of Korey Cunningham?  Anyone?  How about Joe Thuney?  Ok, who’s heard of Tom Brady?  The Quarterback out of Michigan is widely considered the greatest player in the NFL at his position.  But if his left tackle, Thuney, his left guard, Cunningham, and the rest of the offensive line didn’t block, he would not have time to throw all those touchdown passes.  He needs his line’s protection.  He needs his receivers to catch the passes.  He needs his defense to stop the other team.  Brady may be who people know, but there are many essential roles on a football team.

            Take another example, the presidency of the United States.  Everyone around the world knows President Trump, President Barak Obama, President George W. Bush, and so on.  I’ve been reading the autobiography of Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State.  She gives an insider’s perspective of everything required to make things run in the executive branch of the U.S. government.  There’s one president, but how many people work in the executive branch? There’s the vice-president, 15 cabinets heads, and 4 million employees.  In order for the president to be successful, those unknown workers need to do their jobs well.

            In church we aren’t trying to perpetuate the New England Patriots’ dominance or cement Tom Brady’s place in the football Hall of Fame.  We aren’t trying to support the leader of the free world.  Our calling is much higher.  We’re here to glorify the one true God whom we know through Jesus Christ, God in human flesh.  We want to worship and exalt him, love one another in his name, and draw to Him all who do not know Him. 

            I keep saying “we” because we can only be God’s church when individuals comes together to form one body.  First Corinthians 12:12-26 is about the church – the church universal, all Christians everywhere; and, it is about the local church, our specific congregation.  We discover unity and show the world Christ when we celebrate our diversity as each of us brings our unique qualities together for one work, building one community, and giving testimony to the one God.  The church is diversity because Christ is diversity; the church is unified because Christ is one. 

            As verse 13 indicates, “all-in” means all people are welcomed into the body of Christ.  Jews or Greeks; ethnicity does not matter.  We could just as easily say, North Koreans or South Koreans; Jews or Arabs; black or white; Tar Heels, Wolfpack, Demon Deacons, or Blue Devils; well, in that last example, we might need to check some nicknames!  Verse 13 also says, “Slaves or free.”  In other words, just as unity transcends ethnic and racial backgrounds, it also transcends socio-economic classes.  In Christ, black and white, rich and poor, stand side-by-side as brothers and sisters.  The church will not be its full self until it is open to and full of people from all expressions of humanity.  All are invited to (1) repent of sin, (2) die to self, (3) receive forgiveness, and (4) begin new life in Christ.

            Once you are in church, in the body, it quickly becomes clear that all have an important role to play.  The left tackle is as important as the magazine-cover quarterback.  The government worker matters as much as the president.   In a church that has 4 or 5 services per weekend, with thousands attending each service, the pastor is recognized, maybe even famous.  Media outlets rush to interview him.  From a Biblical perspective, the front door greeter matters just as much.  No one will remember the usher’s name, but in God’s way of seeing he is just as valuable to the church.  In fact, verse 22 says, “The members that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor.”

            Everyone matters.  You matter because you are you.  Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback church authored The Purpose Driven Life an immensely popular book that talks about what it means to be a Christian.  I find chapters 30-32 to be the most helpful.  In that portion of his book, he says everyone has a ministry “shape.” 

            S = Spiritual Gifts

            H = Heart (your passion)

            A = Abilities

            P = Personality

            E = Experience

            Last week the sermon was about spiritual gifts.  You can listen to it on our website, get the text by reading my blog honesttalkwithgod, or email and I can send the manuscript to you. 

            The ‘H’ in the acronym is ‘heart.’  This is your passion, what truly motivates you.  Some believers are fired up about worship.  Others get excited when they are involved in justice ministries.  In our church are attendees who faithfully do the tutoring ministry on Saturdays and they love it.  What is your ministry passion? 

            The ‘A’ indicates your abilities.  Last year when we built a ramp for a family with a family member in a wheel chair, David Seng and Tom Ross both used their construction and carpentry abilities from their professional lives to lead on that project.  Next week, we’ll look at the story of Dorcas in Acts chapter 9.  We’ll pay attention to her heart’s passion and her abilities and the way God blessed others through her life. 

            The final two letters in the acronym are ‘P’ for your personality, and ‘E’ for you experiences.  In July we took the Growing Young congregational survey and in October we’re having everyone in the church take a spiritual gifts inventory.  We don’t want to wear church members out with questionnaires and surveys, so we won’t do this now.  But at some point it really would be helpful if everyone involved in our church took the Meyers-Briggs personality type indicator. 

            I used to hate personality tests, but now, I find it useful in understanding myself and in understanding those around me and how I relate to them.  The Meyers-Briggs assigns letter combinations based on how you answer the survey questions.  The last time I took it, I came out as an ENFP.  I’m slightly extroverted and more inclined to intuition than to sensory data.  I’m going to respond more to feelings than thought, and I pay more attention to how I perceive the world in the moment than to judgments that are made.  The fact that I am a P and not a J has really helped me understand why some leaders in the church find the way I plan to be frustrating. 

            This matrix that is unique to each person, as understood by the S.H.A.P.E. acronym, has the potential to make our church life vastly more enjoyable, efficient, and effective.  Take the final letter, ‘E.’  When I am talking to someone new in the church, if he’s into sports, I can draw on my experience playing college football, even though I only played on season.  It’s a point of contact.  I can draw on my experience in army basic training to relate to someone with a military background.  Last week we had a first time guest and I as heard his experiences, I realized one of our members had similar experiences.  I introduced them and within seconds they were talking like they had known each other for years.

            We all have Spiritual Gifts.  Every one of us has a passion, a heart for some aspect of God’s truth.  We all have abilities we’ve developed in our lives be it video gaming, cooking, or design.  Everyone has a personality and everyone has experiences.  You have a unique combination of these five that no one else has.  Paul’s metaphor in verse 21 is apropos.  The body needs ears, eyes, hands, and feet.  The church needs the outgoing greeter, the quiet servant working in the background, the devoted pray-er, the committed small-group attendee, and the on-stage personality.  Paul cannot be clearer.  Each and every one is a valuable member of this body.  “All-in” means use what you have to glorify God, lead others to Christ, and build the church.

            At the end of verse 24 we realize that when we’re part of the body, we’re not just doing our share, meeting our responsibility.  We also enter God’s joy.  God’s hand guides the diversity in the local church.  The second phrase in verse 24 says, “God had so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member.”  When we are humble and give our best, each one of is that inferior member honored by God. 

            All are included.  All are important.  All are honored.  In verse 25, we realize all in the church must be invested in faith and the work of the church.  God has arranged things “that there may be no dissention within the body” Paul writes in that verse.  We don’t come with our own agendas.  We don’t participate in church in order to assert our rights and have our voices heard.  Our mission is to follow Jesus, love others, and share hope.  In the final words of verse 25 we read that church members “care for one another.”  Disagreements are O.K.  When we have passionate, respectful debate over topics of great importance, we all get smarter and stronger.  As long as in the end, we agree to glorify God and build up Jesus’ church.  We welcome healthy disagreement but allow no place for dissention.  All-in means we believe God has a purpose for this church and we are committed to advancing the mission of this church.

            Finally, all-in means we are connected to each other.  “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, we rejoice together.”  That’s verse 26.  America has promoted individualism from our nation’s very beginnings and American churches are plagued by this individualistic mindset.  When we are in Christ, we belong to one another.  We are accountable to each other in love. 

            If we are all in, what exactly does the church look like?  Hopefully, we’ll find out.  I close by inviting you to consider Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 12.  Are you all-in with Jesus?  Are you all-in with the church universal?  Will you be all-in with HillSong Church, soon to be Hillside Church?  Serve God with joy, out of your gifting, strengths, and experiences, and enter into intimate relationships of trust with other church members.  If we have enough people committed to that, then we will be the church God wants us to be.  If we are the church God wants us to be, we will hear God say to us, “Well done, my faithful servants.  Come, enter the joy of your Master.”  That’s really what I long to hear from God.  How about you?

AMEN

A Day in the Life of a Seasoned Pastor

The Higher Calling on a Nondescript Wednesday in September

            I am sitting at my desk, at work, and it’s 8:05AM on a Wednesday.  I’ve been sitting at this desk since I began on September 17, 2006.  Thirteen years is certainly long enough that I have seen wonderful things in my work, and I have had really hard, bad days at work.  Sometimes, my work thrills me.  Sometimes it feels like a real slog. 

            Some readers would find it off-putting for me to talk about what I do as a “job” and to discuss my job as “work.”  I am a church pastor.  Lay persons (non-clergy) may find the idea of a pastor to be mysterious or inaccessible.  What does he do all day during the week when we are all at work doing real jobs?  Pray? Well, yes, I do pray during weekdays.  I would suggest all Christians do that. 

            Other non-clergy might think of the pastorate as a “higher calling” or as “holy work” not to be compared to more mundane employment.  It certainly is a high calling.  Pastors are called to holiness.  My understanding of 1 Peter 2:9 is that every Christian has a high calling.  Everyone who wants to be identified with Jesus is called to holiness. 

There’s no question, professional ministry is unique work.  We pastors have a different work week than most who do Monday-Friday, 9-5, or some version thereof.  We have 50, 60, 70-hour weeks sometimes.  Some weeks, we work less than 40 (well, I do).  We do enter into extreme human discomfort when we sit with a wife as her husband of 40 years slowly, agonizingly dies.  We get caught in thankless, ugly work when we try to convince two people headed for divorce to stay together or try to help an addict change his life trajectory.  We embrace what is always at the top of the phobias lists - public speaking. 

It’s work I love.  I absolutely believe I am called by God to do it, so I would do some version of pastoring for free if I didn’t have church paying me.  I am really glad I have a church paying me.

Pastors do the same things after a bad day (or a bad week or a bad year) at work that others do during hard times.  We complain about our jobs.  We think about changing (as in pastoring a different church).  We think more about changing (as in doing something other than being a pastor).  We look into other possibilities.  But, because of the public nature of our work, we try to be surreptitious about it. 

Isn’t unseemly for a pastor to be surreptitious?  Is it unseemly for anyone to be surreptitious?  What does surreptitious mean, anyway?

Sorry, I digress.  Pastors often do.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, pastoring when it’s a tough day (or week or month or year)!  If a pastor is wise, she or he will pray like crazy, pray until going crazy, and then do what God says to do.  If the pastor loves the church, but God tells her to move, she puts her resume out and tries to discern where to go.  If a pastor hates his situation, but God tells him to stay, he stays. 

But he doesn’t just stay and grumble, “Fine God, have it your way!   I’ll be miserable.”  That would be a martyr complex.  It’s pathetic.  The pastor stays and determines to do his pastoring work with joy no matter how hard it is or how unappreciated he feels.  What way other than joy is there to represent the risen Lord Jesus Christ who calls all of us to resurrection and eternal life in the Kingdom of God?  When you think about it in those terms, that a pastor’s job is to represent God, then it is obviously the best job in the world. 

So, 2018-2019 has been the toughest stretch of my ministry career for a variety of reasons.  I’ve already mentioned what pastors do when the work is hard; the same thing everyone else does when the work is hard.  Still I am right here, right where I was on this same day in 2006 when everything was bright and new.  I am still optimistic.  My optimism has some rough edges time always brings.  But the optimism is still here and am I am too. 

What’s next?  It’s a Wednesday in the life of a pastor.  I have to study 1 Corinthians 12.   I have a bunch of people to email.  I have three ministry meetings to be ready for between now and Sunday.  And I have to pray so that I’ll be ready when the unpredictable happens.  In ministry, the unpredictable always happens. 

I keep stepping forward, not toward a finish line.  No, when the journey is with God, it doesn’t end; not with retirement, not in death, not ever.  It just keeps moving onto new ground or into new space.  It’s always new, even when you sit at the same desk for 13 years (and counting).

"Spiritual Gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:4-13, 27-30)

Sunday, September 15, 2019

            I know a Christian couple that has spent much of their life together hosting people in their home.  Sometimes their guests stay overnight.  Sometimes they come for dinner.  This couple has a pool in their backyard.  They have had numerous groups from the church and from the neighborhood over for pool parties.  Sometimes their guests are very close friends or family.  Sometimes, they host people they do not know well.  Once, most of the cast of a play that was running in their town came to their home for Thanksgiving dinner.  They did not know these actors but they gladly opened their home on that special day that is often for family time. 

            This couple loves music.  With a piano instead of a TV in their living room, often they will host times of singing with their guests, be it show tunes or worship music.  Having all these people into their space is a lot of work, but it is a labor of love.  They keep photos of all the guests who have stayed with them on the guest room wall.  After almost 4 decades in that house, they’ve run out of space.  In this work of hosting and singing and playing, they serve God by serving and loving others.  In doing so they exercise two spiritual gifts God has given – music and hospitality.

            Would you enjoy hosting people the way this Christian couple does?  Maybe, maybe not; but, like them, you too have spiritual gifts.  As a part of your unique make-up and your relationship with Jesus, you have special gifting God has given in order to build up the church and help others grow in their relationship with Him.  God wants to work through you. 

            The key word in the phrase “spiritual gifts” is spiritual.  The gift is a manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.  What do we mean by the idea of spiritual or spirituality?  If a worship service is full of loud, lively, excellent music; if it is spontaneous; if it includes speaking in tongues; it is “spirit-filled.”  Some people think that only if it is loud, spontaneous, and charismatic can it be called Spirit-filled.  Does the Holy Spirit only work in Sunday morning spontaneity? 

First Corinthians 12:1 reads, “Now concerning spiritual gifts.”  But the word ‘gifts’ is not in the Greek text.  The Greek word in verse 1 is ‘pneumatikwn,’ a plural adjective that could mean ‘spiritual things,’ ‘spiritual matters,’ ‘spiritual persons,’ or based on context it could mean ‘spiritual gifts.’ 

One mistake people make is focusing on the gift instead of the giver.  The most important idea in 1 Corinthians 12 is that in Christ we have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.  As that relationship grows strong through prayer, worship, and the practice of spiritual discipline, we come to learn our gifts. 

The Christian couple from the opening story expresses the gifts of hospitality and music.  Neither gift is found in any of the classic spiritual gift lists in the New Testament.  These passages are 1^st Corinthians 12:7-11 and 27-30; Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:11-12; and 1^st Peter 4:9-12.  Some readers insist that these are exclusive lists.  I met a retreat leader years ago who had done a PhD on Romans 12.  He believes every Christian must possess one of those gifts cited in that passage.  I think those are ‘for instance’ lists and the Holy Spirit can use supernaturally empower countless other personality traits or abilities as gifts. 

I also don’t think gifts are fixed.  If, 15 years ago, you took an assessment that said your gift is ‘working miracles,’ 1 Corinthians 12:10, does that mean you’ll be a miracle workers all your life?  Maybe.  But maybe in this season of life, the Holy Spirit works through you in a different way.  The Holy Spirit of God is dynamic.  We live in deep relationship with the Spirit, and our lives are dynamic too.  That means we see new things all the time, including new discoveries inside ourselves.  We more and more become who God is calling us to be.  Newness is the story whether you follow Jesus at 15 years old or 85 years old. 

We, as a church will take a spiritual gifts inventory in order to guide us, but I want to offer this.  Take the inventory and do so with hope and enthusiasm.  Just don’t be handcuffed by the results.  Maybe in your pursuit of the Holy Spirit, it will be revealed to you that you are gifted by God as a scientist or as political leader or in some way not specifically mentioned in scripture.  Maybe your gift is courage and you work in a profession that puts you in danger.  Scientist and courage are not things that will turn up when you take the gifts inventory and that’s ok. The inventory is simply a tool we’ll use to help people serve God in ways that bring joy and enable them to excel.  You are gifted; everyone is.  What you do with your gift and the results of your use of it, the fruit of it, will reveal whether or not the Holy Spirit is in it.

We will not let spiritual gifts be divisive in our church.  Some Christians who exercise the gift of speaking in Heavenly tongues insist that only those who speak in tongues are full of the Spirit.  Tongues is an example of one gift, and Paul devotes an entire chapter – 1^st Corinthians 14 – to warnings about misuse of that gift.  The people I know who speak in heavenly tongues do so to grow close to God and they never use that gift to disrupt the work of the church.

Pentecostals, Christians who exercise the gift of tongues, and Christians in churches that do not express that gift must work side-by-side to build up the kingdom of God on earth.  In a church like ours, we must not be uncomfortable with our brothers that speak in tongues; and, they can’t see us spiritually inferior when we don’t. 

All true disciples are charismatic Christians.  Charisma means gift of grace.  God gives that one be a teacher, another have the gift of knowledge and use that gift in some type of research, and another the gift of tongues, an so on.  Living the spirit-filled life ought to lead to unity among passionately devoted followers of Jesus, not division.

Remember why we receive spiritual gifts.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  We are gifted to glorify God, advance His kingdom, and build up his church, the Body of Christ.  We know we are using the gifts properly when they produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  When what we do produces the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), then it is likely we have been exercising gifts of grace, Spiritual gifts.

Why do we put such an emphasis on the relationship with the Holy Spirit?  The Holy Spirit was sent by God to be God’s presence with us.  The purposes of the Spirit are (a) to show us the truth, (b) help us recall all Jesus said and did, (c) help live by His leadership, (d) help us know that all we’ve been taught about Jesus is accurate, (e) function as the point of connection in our relationship with God, and (f) glorify Jesus.

In Jesus’ conversation with the disciples at the last supper, recorded in John 16-17, he emphasized the importance of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot follow Him without the Spirit being active in our lives.  Union with Christ – that’s what the Spirit-filled life is; and, the church is the body of Christ, so union with Him includes union with each other. In leading people to Jesus, in establishing new ministry, in helping those in need, and in sewing love, we see that the Holy Spirit at work and we are a part of it.

            To live in the Spirit, we have to open ourselves to God and trust God.  God is the initiator.  We don’t attain the Spirit, we receive the Sprit.  A gifted preacher does not convert people to Christ; the Spirit does.  A gifted healer does not make the wounded whole; the Spirit does.  A gifted servant does not bless the church by leading us all to humility; the Spirit does.  The preacher, the healer, the servant, and all others who use their gifts are God’s instruments.  God gets it going and sustains everything.  Through the Spirit, God empowers us.  Living the Spirit-filled life is turning inward, meeting the Spirit, and then facing the world in the Spirit’s power and following the Spirit’s agenda. 

            I began by telling the story of a couple I know who express their spiritual gifts of music and hospitality.   Through their love, the Holy Spirit ministers to people.  How can you find out your gifts, express them, and become a conduit through which God’s spirit moves? 

            Our spiritual sensitivity is heightened as we live an active faith life.  Volunteer in the church and in local mission opportunities.  Be involved in several ministries, and reflect on your own how you experience God as you serve in the church.

            In addition to ministry, grow close to God by studying the word.  Make the Bible a huge part of your life.  Read it daily so that the content is at the ready in your mind.  Prayerfully meditate on passages that speak to you.  Be involved in Bible study with other Christians.  We learn from each other.  It sound basic to say we learn about the Spirit by coming to worship, serving in the church and in the community, and studying the Bible.  Basic as it may be, building life around these spiritual disciplines awakens us to God’s voice.  We grow in our sensitivity and are thus able to hear the Spirit, receive what the Spirit gives, and respond when the Spirit calls. 

            As a church, we will be taking a spiritual gifts inventory.  We’ll roll this out through the small groups, and make sure it also available to folks not currently in a small group.  We’ll let you know what gifts you might have.  As you participate in church life, we’ll try to help you find ways to maximize your expression of your gifting.  We want everyone to feel that incredible joy that comes in serving God together with the church family. 

            God invites us to live a Spirit-filled life.  We give control of our lives over to God, and in doing so, we get to see who God is.  The Christian couple I talked about to open the message; they see God when they open their home, have people in, and sing with them.  You might see God when you teach or serve or speak Spiritual knowledge of prophecy.  The gifts come from the Spirit, and when we live in our gifting, we are drawn closer to God.  That is a really good place to be.

AMEN