To Worship Is To Serve

October 2, 2013

Pastor Dave wrapped up our series on worship on September 29 by sharing with us about our place in the body of Christ and of how we need each other.  He referred us to First Corinthians 12 and Paul’s teaching about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Here are a few of those verses.

4-7 

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work… 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

12-14

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many…

27-31

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Disciples of Jesus are a part of something God-created.  This something is not a thing at all but a “body.”  We are “the body of Christ.”  Each of us has a part to play, an essential part.  Paul tells us there are different gifts and different kinds of service and different kinds of working, “but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” 

Is Christ your Savior and Lord?  If so, then He has given you a way to participate in the His body, the church, on earth.  His Word calls this way, “gifts.”  Everyone of us is needed to make the church all it should and can be.  We each have a different role, a different part to play, but regardless of where we are placed we can be confident that, in Christ, our lives are filled with the Spirit of God and that His Spirit is gifting us into all that we can be.

When each of us shows up being who we are and doing what we do in the power of the Holy Spirit God, the possibilities of God fill His body, the church, and we come to that place where we understand that “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).  In that place the visions and dreams of God promised in Acts chapter two find fertile soil, and the church lives in the power and possibilities of God. 

It is very important that we all understand that we don’t have the same role in the church but that the role we play is essential and that our part in the body is the plan of God to change His world in Jesus’ name.  This means that the church doesn’t do its work in its own power or ingenuity or creativity.  Rather, the church does its work in the power of the Holy Spirit.  We take what has been given us by the Spirit and turn it loose in the church.  We do what our gifts enable us to do.  We don’t focus on the whole so much but, rather, our part in the whole.  Like a football team, each of us has a position on the team and our role is to fill that position in the power of the Spirit. When each part is running on all cylinders the team moves with a precision that is very impressive.  When some one is out of sync, however, it is a different picture; and not pretty.

The moral to all of this?  Let the Holy Spirit fill our lives, give us whatever gift or gifts He chooses to give us, take those gifts and use them for God in the work of His body, the church.  Truth is, we are in this thing together and, as my old college professor, Rev. Reuben Welch, used to say, “We really do need each other.”  Standing alone, we are not going to be fruitful for Christ but standing together, doing what God has gifted us to do, we become a force for God in our world.

Isn’t that what we really want to be, a force for God in the world?  Don’t you want to live for something greater than yourself?  Let God show you what you can do for Him, and then make the effort.  Who knows what God might do as we join together, let Him use us as He will, and trust His presence in us.  What ever the result might be you can count on one thing and that is that it will be the ride of your life.

Forward still,

Rick