Rethink: Rethink Your Abilities, 10/5/14

Sermon 10-5-14 Rethink your abilities   world communion sunday

Ro 12:1-8

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  ³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. ⁴ For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your^[a] faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,^[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully

Col 3:23-25

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. ²⁵ Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism

This one made me feel guilty.  They beat us with it as youth.

The bishop offered another angle- renew your mind.

Today a new sermon series on thinking.

Rethinking- it implies that it might be helpful for us to find a new paradigm

Don’t check out

Come let us reason together says the lord.  Isaiah 1:18

Today- rethink your abilities, your gifts.

Each member has a function

Each has different gifts

They come from God’s grace

What ever your gift, do it with all your might.

Many issues related to our gifts and abilities

Someone may feel - I don’t have any abilities

I felt this way growing up.  I wasn’t fast like steve noviki, I wasn’t smart like mark flammer.  I wasn’t good looking like eddie butler.  We weren’t rich like robin reed.  I was average.  I was below average.

If you feel that way, you are wrong. 

Everyone has gifts and abilities.

To deny this fact is to rob God and the world of your services and to rob you of the joy of purpose

Someone may say, I have gifts and abilities, but I don’t think that they are very important

How you feel about a thing often has no bearing in reality

We need to get over our feelings and realize that god uses everyone

Do you know what gift or ability is the most important in a given situation?

It is the one that is the most relevant to the moment.

If a plane is in flight, the most important gift is that of the pilot.

If you need a gall bladder out, no one cares if you are a pilot.

You have a sphere of influence

There is a person that you can be there for, that no one else can touch as you can.

Someone might say, I am afraid of failure, I don’t want to try or stretch

It is very easy to live a life of ho hum and despair.

I have done it

It is the eyore syndrome

Gosh, Pooh, what are we going to do?  Gosh pooh, no one loves me.

Mike scott – “whats going on?”

I struggle with fear of failure.  What if your church heads in the wrong direction?

What if we cant figure out the next step?

People that allow themselves to succumb to this king of thinking rob
God and others of your gifts and they rob yourself of a sense of joy and purpose in life

Quote-

This is the true joy in life,

the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one;

the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap…  

and being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod

of ailments and grievance,

complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

This is the true joy in life,

the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one;

George Bernard Shaw

Story – replacements

Keanu reaves- gives up

Winners always want the ball when the game is on the line.{PICTURE}

Nothing in life was ever accomplished by those who gave in to their fears.

But amazing things have been done by those who dreamed that they could stretch.

the story of Takeru Kobayashi, the hot dog eating champion, and how he had a normal stomach like other babies but somewhere along the line decided to become a competitive eater.  I’ll tie it into rethinking our abilities and how God can use us to do things beyond what we can imagine.

In 1978, Takeru is born & has the same size stomach as other little babies.

Day 1 – marble

Day 3 – ping pong ball

Day 10 – extra large chicken egg

By the time we're adults, it's softball size.  But he has a technique for training to do this.  He's rethought his limitations of having a normal size stomach and pushing his limits.

Trademark body wiggle   :::   the "Kobayashi Shake"

Forces food down his esophagus and settle more compactly in his stomach

•        Splits the frankfurter in ½ - dips the buns in water - stuffs both parts in his mouth

He calls it "The Solomon Method."  Hahahaha!

What if we started looking at our gifts in different ways and rethought them like Kobayashi does?

  

Kobayashi’s stats

·        69 hot dogs in 10 minutes

·        14 Twinkies in 1 minute

·        13 grilled cheese sandwiches in 1 minute

·        93 hamburgers in 8 minutes

·        106 tacos in 10 minutes

·        62 slices of pizza (15 and a half pizzas) in 12 minutes

·        17.7 pounds of cow brains in 15 minutes

Someone might say - I use my abilities for me and those I love

Then you can look forward to the smugness of a selfish life.

God has plans for you that go far beyond you and those you love.

Love is indiscriminate

Everyone can smell the fragrance of a rose

The shade of a tree gives comfort to all.

A light guides the way for anyone who turns it on

True love is indiscriminate

What does it gain you to love those who love you? Mt 5:43-48

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor^[i] and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Now those were all things that people say that don’t get it right

There are others who do get it

And I am hoping that you are one, or are willing to become one who says

I am willing to use my abilities generously for anyone

In fact

I am open to be used by god in ways that I have never thought of

When we use our gifts for God, we begin to act in nonselfish ways

using your abilities for god may mean that you do things that you would not prefer, in order to help a larger cause.

And We are the better person for it…….

When you set aside your preference and dare to be used……….

Charles Frazier, in his novel of the American Civil War, Cold Mountain, introduces a minor character, a fiddler whose life is changed through an incident that causes him to look at his musical talents in a whole new way.

            The fiddler is a drunk, who knows only six songs, His military unit camps near a house where there’s a powerful explosion. A young girl is severely burned and is near death, and her father sends for a fiddler to help ease her way to heaven. The fiddler enters the dark cabin where the young girl suffers in excruciating pain. From her deathbed, she says, “Play me something.” He plays a tune. “Play me another.” The fiddler plays his drinking tunes slowly, thinking it more appropriate to the circumstances. Soon he has exhausted his small repertoire. “Play me another,” she says as she struggles against the pain. “Don’t know no more,” he says. “That’s pitiful,” she says, “what kind of a fiddler are you? Make me up a tune then.” He marvels at such a strange request. But he has a go at it. Soon the girl passes away. Her father thanks the fiddler for lifting her to heaven with his fiddle.

            A transformation takes place, and the author writes, “Time and time again during the walk back to camp the fiddler stopped and looked at his fiddle as if for the very first time. He had never before thought of trying to improve his playing, but now it seemed worthwhile to go at every tune…” Thereafter, he never tired of trying to improve his playing, and he went into taverns of every kind to study the sounds and methods of other musicians. “From that day…on, music came more and more into his mind…His playing was as easy as a man drawing breath, yet with utter conviction in its centrality to a life worth claiming.”

The scripture talks about Living sacrifices vs. livestock sacrifices

 This is in contrast to the OT animal sacrifices

The sacrifice isn’t about  behaving-

God calls us to get our hands dirty

calls us to be an active participant

to have a faith that engulfs our very lives!

I hope I have convinced you today that you have gifts

the question left for today is will you make yourself available for the purpose of God

today is world communion Sunday

We think of our family, our schools, our city our church, but we can touch places around the world-

Our gifts can have a far reach

 And this is a day that we remember that we stand with Christians in all nations and are bonded together with them in Christ.