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Sunday, July 18, 2010
Save the Planet, Save Yourself
By Rev. Jerry Herships
Scripture: I Corinthians 12: 4-7
4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Most people today don’t know who Herman Kahn is today. He’s was a preeminent futurist. He predicted back in 1967 that by the end of the 20th century, Americans would enjoy 13 weeks of vacation and a four day work week. He said the challenge would be trying to figure out what to do with all our free time. Anyone here trying to figure out what to do with all their free time?
He kinda missed the mark.
Americans now work, on average, about the same as we did in 1970 and the average American gets four weeks of vacation (that includes holidays). Kahn had reason to make his prediction. According to an article in Business Week, the number of hours the average American worked dropped 25% between 1900 and 1950, and no one back then saw any reason for this trend to stop. We aren’t like other places in the world. Western Europe isn’t racing to the finish line nearly the same way Americans are. The French work 28% fewer hours than Americans. The Germans, 25% fewer. A higher percentage of American adults work; they work more hours and they work more weeks out of the year.
Thank goodness we all love our jobs right. We…do love our jobs right?
Actually, not so much. According to MSNBC, Americans hate their job more than they ever have in the past 20 years. Fewer than half saying they are even satisfied. That is kind of a drag considering that we work on average 46 hours a week. That’s a lot of hours doing work we don’t want to be doing. You might have seen the video we put into the church wide email this past week about Robert Rudolph who decided to leave behind work that he didn’t like for work that made his heart sing. He is now happier than he has ever been. Now not all of us can do that and as someone who did just that five years ago, I will tell you it does come at a price, but what if there was a way to bring more happiness into your life right now? Would you at least consider it?
That joy is not going to come from the television. The average American spends 35 hours a week watching television. That’s a lot of Biggest Loser, CSI and Love Boat. That is nearly as much time as we spend at work.
Esquire magazine did a story a while back based on government labor statistics. It broke down the time of a 24 hour day and figured out what amount of that day was spent doing what activities. It found out that the average man (this is a magazine geared towards men, hence the slant) spent eight minutes volunteering. Seven minutes of the average a day was spent on religious and spiritual activities. Seven minutes. That’s 35 minutes a week. And yet we spend 35 HOURS watching TV. 35 minutes with God. Guys, you got most men in this country beat just by sitting thru this service!
So if we look at this all together we see that, on average, we spend too much time at a job we don’t like, nearly the same amount of time watching TV and seven minutes a day directed to God.
I know I don’t spend as much time as I should with God. Now I’m not talking work related God time. I’m talking one on one, “Jerry with God” not “The Pastor with God.” One of the best ways to do that is thru service. How much time do you spend in service for God?
I think part of the reason we don’t spend more time is that we have always been taught that service has to be a drag. And honestly, many times, it is. And part of the reason it is a drag is that I think that we have been doing it wrong. We have been saying, “where are the slots that need to be filled…fill them.” Rather than, “what do I believe is my God-given gift that I can offer back to God?” When that is layered over something I am passionate about and my talents, I get to serve God with Joy. Is there anyone that couldn’t use a little more joy? The idea is to find that place for you to serve where your talents, spiritual gifts and passions crash together. That is a place the world needs YOU.
In this passage today, Paul is talking about Spiritual Gifts. These are gifts given by God to us. Everyone has them. EVERYONE. I love the quote I heard a long time ago that I used to keep in my wallet. It said, “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.” Most people haven’t even spent the time to open the gift in the first place!
After I did my three part series on service a few months back, I heard from a couple of people that said, “I want to serve, but I don’t know how. How do I know what’s the right fit for me?” One way is to do a spiritual gifts assessment. There is a good one to start with at www.umc.org. Once you are there at the top in the “search site” box type in “spiritual gifts” and you will be off to the races. The UMC.org site is a good place to get your feet wet. On the hard copy of this sermon that will be on the wall I am attaching a list of Bible passages where God is calling us to use our Spiritual Gifts.
I am not going to kid you, the church benefits from this too. There is something in it for us. When it works perfectly, we get people who are serving God and the church thru joy. The church gets stronger and God’s love shines out into the world to help heal it. Not a bad day’s work. But remember, when Paul wrote these words, he was talking about not just the benefits to the church but also the benefits to the giver. WE receive blessings when we give from service. I agree with Thoreau: Most men lead lives of quiet desperation. This might be a way to change that. And it pleases God.
I read a poem at AfterHours a few weeks back. It is from the Calcutta poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore and it says: I SLEPT and dreamt that life was joy. I AWOKE and saw that life was service. I ACTED and behold….service was joy.
This is 180 degrees from where the world is. Rick Warren has a great quote around this. This is from his book We Serve God by Serving Others. He says this:
“The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you've arrived…Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you” Once again we see that the ways of the world are completely opposite of the ways of God.
The other thing that’s nice about serving the body of Christ, which Paul was calling the church, is that it becomes your church even more. It is your church. OWN IT. The more we serve from our strength, the less we have church presented to us, and the more we have the church present IN us.
I need to say again, there are times in our life when WE need to be the one that gets served. Relax. I have found that when people have felt the service and love of the church, it is those people that serve best when that time comes.
In a recent interview with actress Courtney Cox from Friends, she made the comment that she is the most comfortable she has ever been in her own skin. She said while she was never competitive, she said she was comparative. Always looking at where she was in comparison to others. I think a lot of us could fall into that category. I have had my bad days (read: years) where I am looking over my shoulder to see where I am compared to others in this rat race. This is a very high stress place to be.
That is the cool thing about spiritual gifts is that we don’t have to do that. Everyone is unique. Everyone is needed. All the gifts come from God but are different for every single person. When I took my spiritual gifts assessment it told me my top three spiritual gifts are evangelism, teaching, and three was a tie: knowledge and leadership. Every person’s gifts are different but they ARE ALL NEEDED for the kingdom of God.
On top of that, we did nothing to earn these gifts so there is no need to think you’re all that. You ARE awesome but guess what? SO IS EVERYONE else.
Sometimes people feel like God and the church could never use their gifts. They are too weird. Too unusual. Too...not churchy enough. I used to think that. When Laura and I left L.A. and started going to church in Orlando, I never thought I had much to give the church. My main talent that I had was stand-up and hosting and being an emcee.
The first week we went to St. Luke’s in Orlando, Bill Barnes was standing at the back of the church shaking hands. When he got to us, he asked what I did for a living. I told him I was a corporate game show host. There was a long painful moment (at least it seemed long to me) and then Bill said, “Would you ever be willing to host anything for us here at the church.” I remember I just lit up. Now here was something I could do, didn’t mind doing it and it was something that it was safe to say, not everyone was lining up to do. I hosted dozens and dozens of events for St. Luke’s in the ten years we were there and it never felt like it was coming from any place but abundance. I served out of my passion for performing and my spiritual gift of communication.
Some of you might be doing just great right where your life is. You might feel that you are serving the way you should and that you have plenty of joy in your life. Great, but for those of you who feel like there could be more joy in your life, or more service in your life, or want to claim that unique thing that is specific to you…that thing that God has given you…think about taking a spiritual gifts assessment. Think about what you LOVE to do. Think about what you are GOOD at doing. God is calling us to serve out of JOY. When we do, we just might save the world, and in the process, we just might save ourselves.
SPIRITUAL GIFTS SCRIPTURES
Biblical imperatives for equipping ministries through gift-based service …
1. A ministry of serving others is an act of love for and devotion to Christ. (Romans 12:1-6)
2. God has a unique purpose or calling for each of our lives. (Ephesians 2:10, 1Peter 2:5, 9-10 and Jeremiah 1:4-5)
3. We all have been given gifts to fulfill our calling. (1 Peter 4:10-11, Psalm 139:13-16)
4. Gifts are given not to be left idle, but to be used in community, to serve God and others. (Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-12, 18, Mark 10:42-44)
5. We more deeply understand our personal relationship with Christ as we serve in community. (John 15:12-17, John 21:15-17, Ephesians 4:16, Hebrews 10:24-25)
6. Real spiritual growth is activated as we serve others. (James 1:22-25, 27, 2:14-17)
7. The role of leaders in a church community is to equip others to use their gifts so that everyone can grow. (Ephesians 4:11-16)