Gifted to Serve

Listen Online:

Watch Online:

Transcript:

You know, I ran into some challenges this week in trying to take care of a sick child. Charla and all the kids had somewhere they were supposed to be, and then Madeline got sick to her stomach and couldn’t go, and I said, well, I’ll stay with her. It was fine.

She laid there watching National Geographic shows. That’s what she wanted to do, so I let her, and I sat there, and I worked. And then it came time to feed her, and I thought, I’m not prepared for this we didn’t have the ingredients for me to make soup to make chicken soup for her we didn’t even have a can of chicken soup anywhere in the house I couldn’t run down to dollar general either because I couldn’t leave her in the truck and I couldn’t take her in and we didn’t know what she had so I had to improvise and I’m digging through the pantry I’m still getting used to this new kitchen and where everything is I’m digging through there I fed her crackers and I finally opened a can of beef consomme and gave it to her and she said, this soup doesn’t taste right.

And I said, well, no, because I normally add, you know, I normally doctor it up with garlic and cayenne pepper and, you know, make it taste like something not from a can. I can’t do that today because none of that’s good for your stomach. And I think I found some apple sauce somewhere and I just, I’m hungry, but none of this sounds good.

I said, I’d make you toast, but we weren’t able to buy any bread last week because everybody wanted to sit there and eat bread while they watched it snow, and so we couldn’t get bread. I didn’t know what to do, so I just improvised. Fortunately, I had stocked up on some sugar-free ginger ale for me, and I let her have some of that.

But she had crackers and applesauce, and Charlie got home later, and I was telling her, it was a real struggle trying to feed Madeline today. I said, I couldn’t make her chicken soup. I mean, I had pasta, and I had the veggies, and I had all that.

She said, there’s chicken broth right in there. Yeah, well, where were you six hours ago? I said, I couldn’t even make her toast. She said, there’s bread in that little drawer at the bottom of the fridge.

Just a little drawer at the bottom of the fridge? Why don’t you leave me instructions about these things? So, to make a long story short, if that’s still possible, I couldn’t do my job because I didn’t have the right tools, but apparently I had them there all along.

Just didn’t know they were there. Sort of the same way for us spiritually a lot of the time. God’s given us a job to do.

If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, he’s given you a job to do. He’s given you a ministry. But a lot of times we feel inadequate to the task, right?

We say, God, I couldn’t possibly do that. I’m not skilled enough. I’m not talented enough.

I can’t do this. I can’t do whatever it is that you’ve called me to do. He’s given us the tools, and sometimes we just don’t even realize what he’s done.

but it’s there all along. Because it doesn’t depend on us, it depends on the spiritual gifts that He’s given us. And we started last week looking at Ephesians chapter 4, which I told you I think is one of the most powerful sections in Scripture on the way church works in terms of ministry and in terms of each of us being able to fulfill the calling that God has put on us.

And that’s when church really works at its best. Not when everybody’s getting behind my programs and what I’m doing, but when the church invests in the people to do the ministry God’s called you to do, then ministry gets done. And so we started looking at this, and in this second section of Ephesians chapter 4 that we’re going to look at today, Paul writes about the spiritual gifts that God has given us in Jesus Christ to enable us to go, all of us, hear me on that, all of us. if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then this includes you this morning.

That He’s given to enable all of us to go out and serve and go out and do the things that He’s called us to do, even the things that we look at and say, there’s no way I could do that. No, but God could do it through you. And Paul writes about these gifts, and he writes about the reason for his confidence in these gifts.

And I’m so excited to share this with you, because this week I was looking at this passage again, I’ve taught this passage. And I look at it and it’s like chapter, or verse 7, excuse me, talks about the gifts. And then the next three verses, I’m like, why did he even include that?

He’s talking about the gifts and he goes off on a tangent. I believe all of everything in scripture is there for a reason, but I, man, not that I could figure out until this week. I did some more digging and finally understood it.

I won’t say that’s a new revelation from God. It’s me finally understanding what he put there. And I’ve been so excited to share with you the reason for Paul’s confidence in the spiritual gifts that he was given.

So we’re going to look at that this morning. If you would stand with me, if you’re able to, without too much difficulty, as we go to Ephesians chapter 4, and we’re going to look at verses 7 through 10 this morning. Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 7, it says, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this he ascended, what does it mean but that he also first descended to the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

And you may be seated. Like I said, I read that and thought, I’ve read that for years and thought, okay, verse 7 is really good about spiritual gifts. I have no idea why he put 8 through 10 in there.

He just went off on a tangent about the ascension. What does that mean? We’re going to talk about what it means this morning.

But the main point of this passage, of this section of the text, the main point here is to let us know that our spiritual gifts, your spiritual gifts, do not depend on how good you are at your job, but on how good Jesus is at His. And I think we get this idea of spiritual gifts about, well, I’m good at this, so that’s my spiritual gift. I don’t really think that’s what spiritual gift means.

I don’t think it’s exactly the same as a talent. Now, if you have talent, it was given to you by God. I believe you were entrusted with that by God.

But it doesn’t necessarily mean a spiritual gift is what you’re good at. I think, and I could be wrong in this, but I understand a spiritual gift to be what motivates you, what God has put in you that drives you, the things you’re passionate about. You know, I won’t claim that I’m necessarily the best shepherd in the world, but that’s what motivates me.

That’s what drives me. I want to walk with a group of people and see them grow over time and help point them in the right direction and just witness what God’s doing in their lives. And hopefully I’m growing in that as well and growing in that gift.

I think that’s an area of giftedness for me, not in the sense that God has made me. You know, I’m the best shepherd since David. That’s not what I’m saying.

But that’s something that excites me, and I think it’s God that’s put that passion there. We each have spiritual gifts, and we think my spiritual gifts are the things I’m good at, and a lot of us are kind of critical of ourselves, where we think I’m not really particularly good at anything. So I don’t see that I have a spiritual gift.

Hear me on this. Your spiritual gift is not dependent on how good you are at your job, whatever He’s called you to do. Your spiritual gift is dependent on how good He is.

at his job. And let me tell you, Jesus is exceptional at his job. He’s exceptional at being God.

So verse 8 compares what happened in Jesus’ life to what God did in David’s life. This is where I began to understand this. We’ll come back to verse 7 in just a moment.

But try to understand why did he go off on this tangent about the ascension. He’s paraphrasing something that was mentioned in Psalm 86, 18. There’s a very similar verse.

The wording is not exactly the same. That’s not an error. They were paraphrasing.

So Psalm 86, 18, the whole of Psalm 86 is talking about what God did in the life of David. And this verse in particular is talking about when David finally won the civil war that broke out after Saul’s death. There was about a seven-year period of civil war.

It took seven years for David to unify Israel under his kingship. And then at that point, he was able to take the ark and he was able to go up to Jerusalem, which was now his capital city. It was now where he was going to be enthroned.

It’s where the temple was going to be at the tabernacle at that time. But he was able to take the ark up onto what was later the temple mount. And he was able to celebrate there and able to celebrate his victories.

And he was able to ride Jerusalem in triumph like a king would. And verse 8 here is comparing what happened in Jesus’ life to what God did in David’s life. So he’s talking here in verse 8 about Jesus ascending and Jesus taking captivity captive.

The same thing was said about David, and it was God that did that in the life of David. So in David’s life, God allowed David to take the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem. He would have ascended up to the city, and God himself would be said to have ascended, even though we know that God is omnipresent.

God’s presence was said to inhabit the ark in a special way. And so God was with David ascending up to the city and going up to a city that you have conquered, especially a capital city like Jerusalem, and going there to be enthroned. David on his throne, God with the ark being enthroned there also was a glorifying experience.

They were given glory by this. And then God allowed David to parade his captive foes through the streets. There were people who opposed David.

And in the ancient world, it was a common practice that when you defeated a rival army, you would take the captives, especially if they were high up in that army, you may even take the enemy king or the enemy commander, and you would make them part of the victory parade. Imagine the victory parades that they would have had at the end of World War II. If Stalin had gotten hold of Hitler, or Roosevelt, or Truman, or Churchill had gotten hold of Hitler, and were able to parade him through the streets, this man who caused so much trouble throughout the world, and they had him there chained up.

Imagine how that would have glorified them. And so David was able to take these conquered foes, and God gave him the ability to have victory over them, and then to flaunt that victory as he came into the streets of the city of Jerusalem And then it talks about David receiving gifts from people. Well, those weren’t from his people.

God blessed David with the spoils of war when they defeated people. They were right or wrong, that’s the way it worked back then. They were able to take the spoils of war.

And then the conquering general, the conquering king, would pass out those things to his loyal supporters. Caesar did this in Rome. He would defeat somebody.

He would gather up the spoils of war. He would distribute them to his troops. That’s how you kept your troops loyal. But David would receive these gifts as God allowed him to.

And then he in turn would distribute gifts, good gifts to his people, to his supporters. And so in verse 8, when he’s paraphrasing Psalm chapter 68, and speaking of Jesus, he says he ascended on high. He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

here is presenting Jesus as a picture of a conquering general or a conquering king. So it’s not completely off topic from what he said about giving spiritual gifts when he’s helping them, this Roman audience, understand Jesus as somebody who would have come in and been victorious and would then have distributed gifts. And like a conquering general, Jesus is glorious.

He ascended to heaven where he’s enthroned. He didn’t just disappear into the clouds. That’s the way the Bible describes it in the book of Acts when his followers were standing there watching.

But the rest of the New Testament tells the remainder of the story. He didn’t just disappear into the clouds. He ascended to the Father’s right hand where he sits there enthroned with him and makes intercession for us today.

He is literally at the right hand of the Father. He is in the most glorified position in all of the created universe. And so David just thought he ascended.

Jesus ascended and was glorified. And like a commanding general is victorious, Jesus defeated his enemies and paraded his triumph. Now his enemies, we’re not talking about the Sanhedrin that voted for him to be condemned.

We’re not talking about the Roman centurions who actually drove in the nails. His enemies are death and hell and the grave. and he defeated every one of them when he rose again, didn’t he?

And he paraded that triumph. I’ve been working on doing some writing about the resurrection and doing a chronological study. And folks, he spent 40 days.

You know, we know of about 10 or so recorded events of Jesus appearing to different groups of people. Eyewitnesses who later recorded it and then died rather than recant their testimony. They were so convinced of what they had seen.

But we know of at least 10 recorded incidents of Jesus appearing to people. And Luke said there were others that there wasn’t space to write about all of them. Jesus spent 40 days walking around, making his presence known, making his presence felt, parading his triumph over his enemies.

Demonstrating to anybody who was willing to pay attention that he had had absolute victory over death and hell and the grave. And as a result, just like a conquering general is generous, Jesus then gives gifts to his own people to commemorate his triumph. That’s why he talks about the ascension.

That’s why he talks about what happened in David’s life, paraphrases what happens in David’s life. Because he’s talking about us having gifts. And you and I tend to think, well, I’m not all that gifted.

Naturally, we may not be all that gifted. Naturally, there may not be anything all that special about any one of us. but we serve a king we serve a god who has experienced the ultimate triumph and now just like any other conqueror has turned to dispense the best gifts he has to give on all of his people and so for you and me those lowly people like us who’ve been called to serve him in sometimes extraordinary ways we think I can’t do it because I’m not gifted it doesn’t depend on how good we are at anything.

It depends on how good he has promised to be. And verses 9 and 10 describe how Jesus was able to ascend because he first descended. Well, that’s just true.

What goes up must come down, even if it goes down first. For him to ascend to heaven meant he had to descend to earth. And we see this picture here in verses 9 and 10 of him coming to earth and then going back to the heavens that he might fill all things. And just like a conquering general, before he could go through that procession, before he could have his triumph, before he could be glorified, before he could be so generous with his followers, he had to first go through the battle, right?

Otherwise, there’s nothing to, there’s no reason to have the victory parade if there was no battle. And so before Jesus went through the resurrection and the ascension, before he could be glorified in that way, he first had to come to earth and fight the battle. He had to step out of the splendors of heaven and come be down here.

And he had to be among us. And we’re not always wonderful to be around, are we? I know I’m not.

I don’t want to hear any amens from this row over here. I was not wonderful when they told us there was going to be over a 30-minute wait at Cracker Barrel yesterday. I didn’t say anything, but I did not have a wonderful attitude.

I’m not always wonderful to be around and neither are you but Jesus left the splendors of heaven to come be one of us and be among us and spent 30 plus years dealing with us and never sinning once and then endured the cross which he did not deserve and did it for the simple reason that we did deserve it and he loved us too much to see it happen and so he took that on himself he fought that battle and it’s only because he fought that battle that there’s a victory parade. And Jesus, in turn, we go back to verse 7, and Jesus, in turn, because of that, demonstrates his own power and his own goodness by the gifts that he gives to his people, just like any conquering general would. It says in verse 7, grace was given.

The important thing we’ve always got to remember about grace is that by definition, it cannot be deserved. If we think, well, God gave me grace because I’m so wonderful, then we’re not talking about grace anymore. We’re talking about something we think God owes us, and it’s not grace.

Grace, by its very definition, is God’s undeserved kindness. I do not deserve God’s grace, and yet he says grace was given. And also in verse 7, he refers to it as Christ’s gift to us.

A gift is not deserved. It’s not earned. It’s something that’s given out of the kindness of the giver.

And so again, we’ve got to get away from this idea that these spiritual gifts have anything to do with what we’re good at, with what we deserve, with what we feel like we should be entitled to. It doesn’t because that idea will paralyze us. That idea will keep us so wrapped up in either the idea I can do this myself or the idea I can’t do this at all instead of leading us to rely on His goodness and His strength and what He’s imparted to us to do the things that He’s called us to do.

These are spiritual gifts. They’re given from His kindness. They’re based on His power.

And they’re not dependent on us. And He says this grace was given to each one of us. He’s writing to believers and He says it was given to each one of us.

Oh, but Jared, I don’t feel like. . .

Stop. I know we’ve all been there. At least once a week, I look at God and say, why did you put me here?

Now, that’s not because I’m frustrated with y’all. I love my job. I love what I get to do.

But I think all the time, God, there were better people you could have called to do this. I’m not just trying to make a point for my sermon. I think that all the time.

God, there were so many better people you could have put in this job, in this church, in this calling. We’ve all been there. But here’s the thing about feelings.

When we feel like I’m not gifted. I can’t do what God’s called me to. When we feel like that, feelings and facts are not the same thing.

And we can say on one hand, I feel like I am not gifted to serve God. I feel like I cannot serve God. On the other hand, we have God’s word where God says that a gift was given to each one of us.

The grace was given to each one of us. I feel like versus God says. Now when we’re just overwhelmed by the feelings, of course we feel like, well, that’s got to be true.

But when we stop and we think about it. On one hand, I feel, and on the other hand, God has said, which one has to be true? I tell you all the time.

If my opinion, I’m not just saying this about you, but if my opinion is inconsistent with God’s word, I already know who’s wrong. I don’t have to go pray about it. He says the grace was given to each one of us, to every believer, regardless of what our feelings tell us.

At the very first word of verse 7, he says, but. And so that draws a distinction from what he was just talking about in the passage we looked at last week, which was about unity. Unity, unity, unity, we’re all the same, we’re all one.

And then he says it in verse 7, but. There’s a distinction there. He does go on to say that the grace was given to all of us, but we need to understand that it wasn’t the same amount and it wasn’t in all the same areas.

He says it was given according to the measure. In verse 7, that means how Christ intended to measure it out. And that’s another important thing for us to understand, because sometimes we will look at how God has gifted somebody else and think, I don’t measure up to that, so really I have nothing.

I know people that are far better preachers than I will ever be. I know people that are smarter than I’ll ever be. You name any spiritual gift?

I can look at it and say, well, they got that one. You know, why do I not have the gift of evangelism like the guy that I used to do street ministry with that he just get out there and confront people and I’m not that guy and I never will be that guy. Why didn’t I get that gift in that amount?

And we compare ourselves and we think, well, that person’s gifted. You know, God gives different amounts of gifting in different areas for different callings. And just because you can look and compare yourself to somebody else, and they’ve been given a different measure in a different spot, doesn’t mean that He hasn’t gifted you.

I think God gifts us perfectly for the calling that He gives us. Sometimes when Charla and I are frustrated with the kids, we’ll talk about this, and I will remind her or I will remind myself. And I don’t think this is by accident.

I’m not being a fatalist and saying everything is predetermined. But I really do believe God knows what He’s doing and puts the right parents with the right children for that purpose. And so God, for whatever reason, knew that Benjamin and Madeline needed us and we needed them and Charlie and Jojo.

And on any given day, that theory is put to the test. But I think, okay, in spite of our inadequacies and our shortcomings, God gifted us in this way for these children. And I honestly believe the same thing is true with ministry, with anything He’s called us to do. Because parenting is a ministry.

Anything He’s called us to do for His kingdom, I believe He gifts us according to what He’s called us to do. So you may look at it and say, I’m not gifted in the same way and in the same area and in the same amount as that person over there. But whatever He’s called you to do, He’s given you the gift and the grace to go do it.

You are perfectly gifted, perfectly equipped by God to do what he’s called you to do. Regardless of what your feelings tell you. He said it would be according to the measure.

It would be as he measured it out, as was needed, as he saw fit. So we can’t worry about why he’s gifted others differently. Or we can’t delude ourselves into thinking that we’re not gifted enough.

Our job is just to use the gifts that Jesus has given you to glorify him. He’s just given me a little gift. Use that gift to glorify him.

Think of the story with the widow and her her mites her two little coins That was all she had But she gave it to god And jesus said she gave more than the people who dumped a fortune Into the giving box at the temple I don’t think that’s just about money It’s about taking what whatever we have be it big or be it small and putting it entirely In god’s service to bring him glory. I may feel at times like I am the least Spiritually gifted person I know and you may feel that way too I can’t imagine I’m the only one. But it doesn’t matter how much or how little He’s given us.

What matters is that we take that amount. We take that gift. We take that equipping that He’s given us.

And we turn it right back around and use it for the purpose it was given to us for. Which is to bring Him glory. And our feelings of insecurity and timidity, they’re going to lie to us.

Have your feelings ever lied to you? Have they ever confused you? They’re real good at that, aren’t they?

They will lie to us. They’ll tell us we don’t have what it takes to serve God. You may be excited about an opportunity to serve God, and then that little voice comes whispering in your ear saying, you don’t have what it takes.

But my friends, Jesus has conquered. Jesus has overcome. That’s the whole point of what he’s telling us in those verses that I didn’t understand before this week.

Jesus has overcome. It has nothing to do with what we can overcome. It has nothing to do with what we can conquer.

It has everything to do with what Jesus has done. And because He is the conquering King of kings, He has lavished gifts on His followers. Abundantly.

Far beyond what we could ever ask for and what we could ever deserve. And so He’s gifted us to go and teach. He’s gifted us to go and make disciples.

By the way, neither of those things require a class. He’s gifted us to go and serve others. He’s gifted us to go and evangelize.

He’s gifted us to go and show mercy to those who need mercy. You look at all the spiritual gifts that are outlined in the New Testament. And people differ on what the numbers are.

You look at all the lists of all the spiritual gifts it points out in the New Testament. And He has given those things to us abundantly beyond what we could ever ask for or deserve. And He’s given them to us to use.

And we as His followers, just like Caesar’s troops would have gone out with their gold and their jewels that were given to them as the spoils of war. and they would have praised the name of Caesar to anybody who would listen and talk about what a great leader Caesar was, what a great general, nobody wiser, nobody more generous. They would have taken their gifts and they would have glorified Caesar.

We go with our gifts and we put those gifts to use to glorify the King of Kings who’s given them to us. Simply carry them with us and use them to bring him glory. So I wanted to share that with you this morning that if you’re a believer, He has given you, whatever gifts are necessary to fulfill the ministry He’s called you to.

Don’t ever, ever, ever let anybody convince you, even if it’s just that voice in your own mind, do not ever let them convince you that you cannot do what God has called you to do. Again, somebody’s opinion over here versus God said over here, which one is true? As believers, we have to avoid trying to be good enough instead of trusting that Jesus is good enough.

Are you doing that in what He’s called you to do today as a believer? Are you hanging back and hesitating because you think I’m not good enough? Or are you plunging ahead in faith to do what He’s called you to do?

Whether it’s a big ministry you’re taking on, whether it’s something you say, well, it’s small. But are you plunging ahead in faith because you know that Jesus is good enough? That’s the question we need to ask ourselves.

Whether we’re trying to be good enough ourselves or whether we’re trusting Jesus to be good enough. And this morning, if you’re someone who’s never trusted Jesus as your Savior, you know, I’ve geared all this toward believers up to this point, but if you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior, that’s a question for you to answer as well. Are you trying to be good enough or are you trusting that Jesus is good enough?

You see, we do the same thing before we come to Christ that we do a lot of times after we come to Christ. We think, well, if I could just be good enough, God will love me. I know things are not right between me and God, but if I just try harder, if I just become a better person, if I go to church, I’m more moral, I’m more religious. If I just check off all these boxes, then God will love me.

There’s got to try harder to be good enough. Is that where you are? Because Jesus made it clear we can never be good enough.

He looked at the most righteous religious people, outwardly righteous religious people, in their day and age, looked at the Pharisees and told people, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of God. He said, you look at them, outwardly they are the best people there are, you’ve got to be better than that. We’ve got to live up to God’s standard, which is absolute sinless perfection, and none of us can make it.

So our options are to try to be good enough and never get there. Never find peace with God, never find forgiveness, never find eternal life, or trust that Jesus is good enough. That’s why Jesus Christ came to earth so he could shed his blood and die on the cross to pay for our sins, to bear all the punishment that we deserve, to pay all the penalty that we owed so that our sins could be forgiven.

That’s exactly what He did. And He did it for you and me. And He rose again three days later to prove it.

And He offers salvation by His grace. Again, it’s a free gift. If we’ll simply believe that He died in our place and rose again, and we’ll ask His forgiveness, we have the promise of His word that He’ll forgive us, that He’ll save us, and He’ll give us eternal life.

So if you’ve never trusted Him as your Savior, I encourage you to consider that question. Are you trying to be good enough? Something you’ll never accomplish.

Something that I could never accomplish. No one in this room could ever accomplish. Are you trusting that Jesus is good enough?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Powered by atecplugins.com