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REDEFINING THE
BODY OF CHRIST #5
LOOKING FOR PRESENTS ON THE INTERNET
It's the latest thing out on the Internet, they tell
us in "Cyberscope" reports. You can now punch in on your laptop
pentium 300 and take a personality test right there on the Worldwide Web.
The computer gives you various preference options to pick from: would
you rather go to a party with many people or have an intimate dinner with
four close friends. That kind of thing. And after selecting and ranking
your likes and dislikes, the databank mastermind on the other side of
the Internet curtain will digest it all and in three or four nanoseconds
print out if you're a sanguine, choleric, melancholy, or phlegmatic. Or,
if your answers don't line up anywhere very good, it might print out instead:
"Suggest you seek immediate help."
Well, even if you're not that curious, it's an interesting thing to try
— and, of course, all of your friends immediately concur when the computer
offers up its diagnosis. But it's true that we as humans often find it
difficult to know ourselves. "What am I?" we wonder. And before
the Information Superhighway began to dispense this service for free,
it was sometimes a pretty big business to provide that kind of analysis.
And you know, the same is very often true within the Christian Church.
Many of us do not clearly understand or know what our spiritual gifts
are. Are we helpers? Do we have the gift of encouragement? When we have
dreams at night, are they just random images or has God given someone
in our congregation the gift of prophecy way down here in 1999?
You may think this isn't a serious dilemma, friend, but I can say this:
just try telling that to a worn-out church nominating committee after
they've literally spent weeks trying to persuade people to accept certain
jobs in the church. "Oh, that's not my gift" is probably a more
common expression than "The check is in the mail." And when
you ask them about some second option, a fall-back position you want them
to fill, "Well, that's not my gift either." And after 10 or
20 such turn-downs, you almost want to say: "Lady, just what is your
spiritual gift?" And the answer in all sincerity might come back,
"I don't know. I honestly don't. Maybe I don't have any."
It's no wonder that at the very beginning of our study chapter, First
Corinthians 12, Paul says very frankly:
"Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant."
"I don't want any misunderstanding about
them," he says in the Living Bible. But frankly, there are many misunderstandings
— and that really ought not to be.
Friend, if you have doubts about what your spiritual gifts are, let me
encourage you right here to do something about that. We don't hesitate
to take Reader's Digest quizzes about personality and IQ; oftentimes we
even actively seek out such testing measures, especially if we want a
job or a promotion. Isn't our active participation in the Body of Christ
even more important than that? And how can we step forward and accept
our full role unless we've studied to know what gifts God has given to
us?
Did you know that there are a multitude of tests — easy to take, simple
to measure — that have been prepared with this very goal in mind? If you've
never encountered one, the chances are excellent that your pastor could
share one with you this very weekend. Frankly, I wouldn't be the least
bit surprised if there's something like this floating around right now
on a Christian web page. But we have to ask; we have to seek — or, in
this case, surf, in order to find out about ourselves. And again, here
at the Voice of Prophecy, we encourage you to take that active step so
that you can be fully involved in your local Christian church. As Paul
says in verse 27:
"Now you are the Body of Christ, and each
one of you is a part of it."
So many times here on this very radio program, Ken
and I have tried to make it absolutely clear that your involvement with
us should be a secondary thing. Many of you have a spiritual gift of generosity,
of giving. And as God has blessed you, you've turned around and invested
in this very radio outreach. Which, of course, extends what we can do.
Not only do we stay on the air for you, but now also for your neighbors
and others in distant cities, even countries. We heard from our friends
at Adventist World Radio a couple of weeks ago, and the special holiday
broadcasts we prepared for Christmas Week literally were beamed simultaneously
around the globe in many, many countries.
Well, that's very exciting — and it's Christians with the gift of giving,
of wise stewardship, who make that possible. But even more important than
using your spiritual gifts to help a radio ministry is for you to discover
your gifts and develop your gifts and use your gifts on behalf of your
own local Christian church. Your first talents should go there, and your
first dollars too.
So friend, point number one is this: let's do whatever it takes to discover
and use our spiritual gifts. If you have to hack through Internet walls
in order to find yours, then so be it. But take the necessary steps toward
knowledge and then service.
Secondly, let's be aware of the fact — and praise God for it — that the
Body of Christ is a community. It truly is! And because you're a part,
and because of your gifts, that wonderful, globe-covering Body is made
more whole. You're a vital part, a necessary part.
In the familiar King James Version, verse 24 has a very intriguing expression.
It goes like this:
"God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant
honor to that part which lacked."
And that expression, "tempered together,"
comes from the Greek, sugkerannumi, meaning "to mix together."
All the body parts are mixed together, tempered together, deliberately
stitched by God Himself into one mosaic. And that divine act of our heavenly
Father crosses many lines that maybe you never were willing to consider.
Sometimes Christians in one denomination look at the exploding world population,
and then at their own growth rates, and sigh to themselves: "It'll
never happen. We're falling behind!" And they fail to realize that
there are other Christians, other faithful believers who perhaps are not
in their own faith community, but are likewise out there on the front
lines of battle. I've personally met them, as Jeannie and I worked for
Jesus in places like Perm, Russia, and in the Philippines. Precious Baptist
missionaries were there; dedicated Methodists. They were part of the Body
of Christ, sharing their love for the Savior of all mankind.
And you know, under the category of "this just in," a thrilling
statistic was just quoted in the December issue of the magazine Ministries
Today. Christianity is growing right now, in 1999, at three times the
rate of world population growth. We're not falling behind, we're moving
ahead! A hundred thousand people are accepting Jesus as their Lord and
Savior every single day — and it's because the Body of Christ has those
many parts working for His kingdom.
And I think it's beautiful Bible truth that when we're one Body, all sharing
our gifts, we stand together in sharing each other's pains and sorrows.
"Bear one another's burdens," we're commanded in Galatians 6.
And of course we would, since we're part of the same body. We share each
other's poverty, each other's temptations. We weep together over defections.
Our hearts ache together as one community when we hear of Christians huddled
in a church in Rwanda waiting for death. And then there's that pounding
at the door: women are taken one by one, stripped, raped, and then executed.
Friend, the Body of Christ needs to huddle together at a moment like that,
and weep together, and protest together. Especially when we hear that
some Christians were the perpetrators of many of these atrocities, the
Church has to move swiftly to heal itself.
All through chapter 12 we're taught that Christians are the most determined
defenders of their weakest members. A November 25, 1996 essay in Newsweek
described how just-reelected President Clinton is often very callous about
dumping his staff members, sometimes after years of service. "Prodigious
ingratitude toward subordinates" is how columnist Jonathan Alter
describes it. He disposes of people "like a greasy paper towel."
In other words, "I'm on top . . . and you're expendable." That
attitude has no place in the Christian church, wouldn't you agree? The
weakest in our group are also the most valued, Paul writes in verses 22
and 23.
Our clock is ticking down for the week, but here's just one more thought
for you to consider. Here it is: God gives you a gift to serve His church,
not to serve yourself. Spiritual gifts aren't sent from heaven in order
to make us rich or famous, but to edify the community of believers. Maybe
you saw the satirical portrayal of a tent evangelist in the film Leap
of Faith a few years ago, where actor Steve Martin used his eloquence
and his personal charm and his high-powered singers and the secret microphone
in his ear to bilk people out of their money. What a contrast to the straightforward
testimony found in First Peter, where we read this:
"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others,
faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."
That's a beautiful metaphor to end on, isn't it — faithfully
administering God's grace. I hope I'm helping to administer doses of grace
in my sphere, using my gifts. But that administering takes "various
forms," Paul says. Various forms by various people with various gifts.
In other words, friend, I think this Body needs . . . you.
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