WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Okay, for the last three Sunday mornings, we've been looking at the theme of being ordinary 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:11.679 Christians, and this is the last in the short series of being an ordinary Christian. 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:14.599 We looked at it being ordinary the first week. 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:18.519 Second week, we looked at my life as a disappointment. 00:00:18.519 --> 00:00:26.760 Last week, we looked at I am a spiritual failure, and today we're looking, lastly, at I have 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:31.000 nothing to offer. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:38.359 You may have low self-esteem or low self-spiritual image. 00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:49.600 You may blame God for having what you perceive to be no gifting in His service. 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:57.359 You may be blame God when you see how gifted other people are in His service. 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:04.879 You can't really sense anything spiritually that sets you apart in terms of your gifting. 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:09.120 Maybe in the church here, you think, I don't contribute. 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.920 I don't feel part of any of the programs. 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:16.359 What is it that you do as a church anyway that I can block it? 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:20.239 That's probably the most common question I get when people come to church, to the area 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:21.400 of the church for the first time. 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:23.439 Say, we want to get plugged in. 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:25.359 We want to do something. 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:27.560 We want to serve in some way. 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:34.640 I'll maybe say a little bit more about that later, because we've really kind of gone out 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:40.079 of our way trying not to be a programmable church, a church full of programs. 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:45.000 Rather, we've sought to be relational and organic in many ways. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.719 But maybe that makes you feel unwanted. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:56.319 Maybe you feel unasked, as if somehow your worth is only realized if you're given a task, 00:01:56.319 --> 00:02:00.680 or if you're given a position, or if you're given recognition. 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:05.480 But then maybe you think, well, even if I am asked, I've got nothing to give. 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:07.840 I have nothing to offer. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:09.840 Okay. 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:14.080 So I want to read two passages of Scripture. 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:17.920 One is an example, a great Old Testament example. 00:02:17.920 --> 00:02:21.800 It's kind of the Old Testament prodigal son. 00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.720 And we've read it quite a bit in the last while. 00:02:24.720 --> 00:02:28.600 And then the New Testament one is a New Testament truth reality. 00:02:28.600 --> 00:02:33.400 So the Old Testament reading is from 2 Samuel chapter 9. 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:40.920 And it's a well-known story to us of David and Mephibishith. 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:49.399 David is now the king, and Mephibishith is his predecessor, Saul's grandson, just to 00:02:49.399 --> 00:02:51.479 put it into perspective. 00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:56.399 And David said, is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness 00:02:56.399 --> 00:02:57.639 for Jonathan's sake? 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:02.319 Now, there was a servant in the house of Saul whose name was Zeba, and they called him to 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:04.719 David and the king said to him, are you Zeba? 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:06.799 And he said, I am your servant. 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:11.520 And the king said, is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I may show kindness 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:13.680 of God to him? 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:18.000 Zeba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan, he's crippled in his feet. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:19.680 King said, where is he? 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:25.640 And Zeba said to the king, he's in the house of Machir, the son of Amiel in Lodobar. 00:03:25.640 --> 00:03:30.760 And King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir to the house of Amiel at Lodobar. 00:03:30.760 --> 00:03:35.640 And Mephibishith, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul came to David and fell in his face 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:36.719 and paid homage. 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:42.079 And David said, Mephibishith, and he answered, behold, I am your servant. 00:03:42.079 --> 00:03:46.479 And David said to him, do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:51.319 father Jonathan, and I will restore you to you all the land of Saul your father. 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:53.319 And you shall eat at my table always. 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:59.919 And he paid homage and said, what is your servant that you should show regard to such 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:04.319 a dead dog such as I? 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:08.959 And the king called Zeba Saul's servant and said to him, all that belong to Saul and to 00:04:08.959 --> 00:04:12.439 all his house I have given to your master's grandson. 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:17.120 And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:21.039 produce that your master's grandson may have bred to eat. 00:04:21.039 --> 00:04:25.279 But Mephibishith, your master's grandson shall always eat at my table. 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:29.159 Now Zeba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 00:04:29.159 --> 00:04:33.959 Then Zeba said to the king, according to all that my Lord the king commands his servants, 00:04:33.959 --> 00:04:35.919 so will your servant do. 00:04:35.919 --> 00:04:41.439 So Mephibishith ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:44.879 And Mephibishith had the young son whose name was Micah. 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:48.479 And all who lived in Zeba's house became Mephibishith's servants. 00:04:48.479 --> 00:04:52.599 So Mephibishith lived in Jerusalem for eight, eight, all was at the king's table. 00:04:52.599 --> 00:04:55.439 Now he was lame in both his feet. 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:58.279 Okay, so that's a fantastic story, isn't it? 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:00.279 It's one that we've known. 00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:05.119 And I think Corrie mentioned it several times and preached on it when he was here, one of 00:05:05.119 --> 00:05:06.619 his favorites. 00:05:06.619 --> 00:05:10.159 And you know Mephibishith is a grandson of Saul. 00:05:10.159 --> 00:05:15.239 He lost his father, Jonathan, and his grandfather the same day. 00:05:15.239 --> 00:05:23.159 And as he was, because there was a rebellion between the two generations of that family. 00:05:23.159 --> 00:05:29.799 And as he was escaping for his life with his young nurse looking after him at the age of, 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:32.639 he was at the age of five, not his young nurse. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:35.600 He was the age of five and his young nurse was, I don't know if he's young, I don't know 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:42.879 why I'm saying that, his nurse, she was probably ancient, was running away with Mephibishith. 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:48.480 And she dropped him and he fell on his feet, on his legs, and became crippled in both his 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:50.000 feet. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.879 And he really was someone who was therefore handicapped all his life physically. 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:56.639 He was poverty stricken. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:06:02.319 He was an outcast in many ways, living in a little way on the run, living away from 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:13.240 his, from David the king, because as someone who had the bloodline of Saul and the next 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:16.839 in line to the throne, it was very dangerous for him to still be alive. 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:21.279 And what usually happened in that day and generation was all the descendants would be, 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:24.519 a wiped out would be annihilated. 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:31.560 So he lived in fear and he lived in poverty and he lived in the land of nothing. 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:37.199 That's what Lodabar means, it means the land of nothing under the sentence of death. 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:44.959 And we have this great story, you know, this great story of David who comes to him and 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:51.079 David says, I want to show you kindness for the sake of Jonathan, this great brotherly 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:56.039 love and friendship that they had had, and he said to him, first, don't fear. 00:06:56.039 --> 00:06:59.560 And you've got nothing, but I'm going to give you everything, I'm giving you an inheritance. 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:02.560 And I'm going to give you a daily audience with the king, you're going to sit at the 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:07.519 king's table and all that that meant, you'd be protected, you'll have the richest of fare, 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:13.399 you'll have royal company, you will be provided for with servants, everything that you will 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:14.399 have. 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:18.919 And he said, look, you have nothing, or you had nothing, I'm giving you everything. 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:21.280 I'm giving you everything. 00:07:21.280 --> 00:07:24.800 Okay, that's the Old Testament story, I will come back to that. 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:29.080 The New Testament reading is from 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 00:07:29.080 --> 00:07:35.160 This is the classic wedding reading, very often read at weddings, people would like 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:39.520 to choose this at their weddings, not exclusively but sometimes. 00:07:39.520 --> 00:07:48.400 And I'm just going to read this passage from the end of chapter 12 through to chapter 13. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:50.560 You know this, most of you, I'm sure. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:52.719 And I will show you it still a more excellent way. 00:07:52.719 --> 00:07:57.479 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a 00:07:57.479 --> 00:07:59.839 clanging cymbal. 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:03.519 And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:08.279 have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:14.079 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:15.399 I gain nothing. 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:17.739 Love is patient and kind. 00:08:17.740 --> 00:08:19.079 Love does not envy or boast. 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:20.560 It is not arrogant or rude. 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:22.720 It does not insist on its own way. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:25.120 It is not irritable or resentful. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:29.199 It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:35.519 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:36.519 Love never ends. 00:08:36.519 --> 00:08:37.960 As for prophecies, they will pass away. 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:39.720 As for tongues, they will cease. 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:44.200 As for knowledge, it will pass away for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:47.600 But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:49.480 Now as a child, I spoke like a child. 00:08:49.480 --> 00:08:50.480 I thought like a child. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:52.000 I reasoned like a child. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:56.159 When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:59.040 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. 00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:03.240 Now I know in part, and I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:05.940 So now faith, hope and love abide. 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:08.519 These three, but the greatest of these is love. 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:12.560 Okay, this very well-known passage in the New Testament. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:19.719 The New Testament reality that's spoken of here is God's gift of love. 00:09:19.719 --> 00:09:26.199 The only time we genuinely have nothing to offer God or the church of God is if we have 00:09:26.199 --> 00:09:31.439 not received and as if we have not accepted God's gift of grace. 00:09:31.439 --> 00:09:36.239 That's the only time we have nothing to offer in spiritual terms. 00:09:36.239 --> 00:09:40.519 And what I want to say and what I want to go on to say is that you already as a Christian, 00:09:40.519 --> 00:09:46.159 speaking to you as a Christian today and myself, that you already have the greatest gift that 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:50.559 there is for anyone to have as a believer. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:56.919 It may be that we don't appreciate or realize that that is the case. 00:09:56.919 --> 00:10:01.120 The context here is that Paul is speaking about the body of Christ. 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:02.919 He's speaking about the church. 00:10:02.919 --> 00:10:07.039 And he is speaking about all the different gifts that are appropriate in the church and 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:08.840 the diversity of these gifts. 00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:12.280 I'm not going to look at that today, but we are in a couple of weeks going to start a 00:10:12.280 --> 00:10:14.879 series on the gifts of the Spirit. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:17.160 We looked at the fruit of the Spirit before the summer. 00:10:17.160 --> 00:10:19.840 Now we're going to look at the gifts of the Spirit. 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:25.280 We'll do that in the evening services in a couple of weeks' time. 00:10:25.280 --> 00:10:29.639 But we are to eagerly desire this gift that is the context. 00:10:29.639 --> 00:10:32.360 The love is greater than all the other gifts. 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:34.240 His love is the most excellent way. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:41.159 There's a great word that he uses there at the end of chapter 12, you know, that you 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:42.919 are to earnestly desire. 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:46.519 So I'm missing a page. 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:53.399 The greatest gift, you know, earnestly desire is a word of hyperbole that literally means 00:10:53.399 --> 00:10:54.399 throwing beyond. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:57.200 Have you ever watched Happy Gilmore? 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:01.200 You remember he was a bad ice hockey player, but he became a really good golfer. 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:05.520 And he became a really good golfer because when he hit the golf ball, it went miles further 00:11:05.520 --> 00:11:09.560 than any of them has ever hit a golf ball, four, five hundred yards. 00:11:09.560 --> 00:11:16.400 And that's exactly the picture that is something we're to absolutely reach out for, stretch 00:11:16.400 --> 00:11:22.879 out for, throw beyond to aim at and to get and to keep and set our hearts upon this greatest 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:24.480 of all gifts. 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:30.879 Therefore, in this question of, I don't have anything to offer, I'm encouraging all of us 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:37.399 to cultivate this, the gift of the Spirit, which is the grace of God. 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:44.439 You know, I believe that you all here, as I know you and love you, have many gifts. 00:11:44.439 --> 00:11:50.039 And if you don't have certain gifts, you're free to ask God for these gifts, because there 00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:51.759 is. 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:59.360 But if you do feel that you have nothing to offer, I want to remind you of the two very 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:03.800 important gifts that you do have this morning as Christians. 00:12:03.800 --> 00:12:07.480 I do want to remind you and challenge you to think about them. 00:12:07.480 --> 00:12:12.500 First is your place at His table. 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:15.919 Your place at His table. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:18.000 The grace you've already received. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.639 And Mephibosheth is a great picture of that. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:26.320 It's an Old Testament picture of what it means to be accepted by grace. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:32.120 It's a lovely Old Testament prodigal son story. 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:38.040 And it's reminding us of what we possess as Christians, our familial experience. 00:12:38.040 --> 00:12:41.080 That is, it's a family experience. 00:12:41.080 --> 00:12:44.140 We belong at the Lord's table. 00:12:44.140 --> 00:12:46.120 We belong at His feast. 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:53.000 We belong in His company where He nourishes us, provides for us, protects us, where we 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:58.159 belong to Him, where we're secure in Him, where we hear and listen to the words of the 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:05.879 King, where we have His ear and where we have His voice and His guidance and His help. 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:11.200 And that is the great thing about being a believer that the picture of Mephibosheth 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:13.799 gives us. 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:24.039 And I encourage you to think of the gift that you are in yourself as you take your seat 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:26.959 at His table metaphorically. 00:13:26.959 --> 00:13:36.439 In other words, as you accept His gift of salvation, your presence is a gift to the 00:13:36.439 --> 00:13:37.639 church. 00:13:37.639 --> 00:13:40.879 Your person is a gift to the church. 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:46.439 The experience you share as a believer in the presence of the King is a gift to the 00:13:46.439 --> 00:13:47.439 church. 00:13:47.439 --> 00:13:51.120 Your unique self, nobody is like you. 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:56.480 Your story, what you have known and what you've received and learned from Christ, that's 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:00.720 a great gift that you give the church. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:09.039 You're very being as a Christian, tasting the company of the Lord Jesus Christ at His 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:11.240 table with His people. 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:15.079 It's something special, something important. 00:14:15.079 --> 00:14:22.879 So your company at church in the Christian community, you're being here, you're worshiping, 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:32.719 your care and sharing of yourself with one another is a tremendous gift, your presence 00:14:32.719 --> 00:14:35.039 as a person. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:41.559 And that knowledge of your experience of knowing the King of kings is something that as a gift 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:47.519 you share with your fellow believers and with others as well, call and spoke about that, 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:51.120 about the importance of sharing what we experience. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:54.599 Now, it's a very dangerous thing to say. 00:14:54.599 --> 00:14:58.079 I'm not really a tremendously passionate royalist. 00:14:58.079 --> 00:15:02.639 I'm not anti-royal, but I'm not a hugely passionate royalist. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:07.879 Last year as moderator, of course, Katrina and I were invited out to Holyroos Palace 00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:15.519 to this great feast, this great meal with Queen's representative and all these big shots 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:19.039 of which I was very little shot. 00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:25.080 And we were given silver service and we were shown all these things and we had a pleasant 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:26.480 meal and all these things. 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:30.000 And coming away from that, you want to share that experience. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:32.879 It was different, I wouldn't want to do it regularly. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:37.879 So it's an imperfect illustration, therefore. 00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:39.080 But nonetheless, you share that. 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:41.679 You want to tell people about, oh, I've never done this before. 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:42.679 This was unusual. 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:46.519 Yeah, to watch my peas and queues and all these kind of things. 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:47.720 And so you share that experience. 00:15:47.720 --> 00:15:53.440 But you know what it's like if you have a great meal with great company, you share that. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:57.000 And you say, I was there and it was tremendous and I loved being there. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:00.960 And we have this permanent audience with the King of Kings as believers. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:01.960 We are Mephibisheths. 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:02.960 That's who we are. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:08.919 And we have this great privilege because the King that is at the head of this table was 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:14.960 crucified so that you could sit there. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:17.039 He's the crucified King of Kings. 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:21.519 So as we sit at this table and our presence is there, there's always atonement, there's 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:23.519 always sacrifice. 00:16:23.519 --> 00:16:30.519 There's always sin that is to be extinguished but grace to share and his wisdom to pass 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:37.279 on and his beauty to experience, the beauty of his company. 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:44.919 And that is the first that I would like to say today of the greatest gifts that we have 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:52.079 as Christians, your presence in his...your place at his table. 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:57.879 The fact that you belong, it's a great encouragement. 00:16:57.879 --> 00:16:59.639 There's nothing greater, is there? 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:03.920 And there's nothing greater when someone comes to faith to sit at that table with us. 00:17:03.920 --> 00:17:06.860 That's the greatest thing. 00:17:06.860 --> 00:17:09.079 Another presence. 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:11.960 Another presence taken from darkness to light. 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:18.640 Another presence who comes to know Jesus with all their uniqueness and with all their specialisms, 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:22.039 whatever they may be, your place at the table, okay? 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:29.700 Another thing is what we looked at in 1 Corinthians, the most excellent way. 00:17:29.700 --> 00:17:32.879 So that's the other gift that we have. 00:17:32.879 --> 00:17:40.200 Not only our presence at his table through what he's done but we have been gifted the 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:43.079 love of Christ in our hearts. 00:17:43.079 --> 00:17:47.039 That's the greatest gift, can I say, that you offer to the church? 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:49.960 It's in the context of the body of Christ. 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:55.920 The greatest gift, I don't really care that much if you can prophesy. 00:17:55.920 --> 00:18:02.279 And I don't really care that much if you can do lots of amazing things with yourself in 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:03.759 terms of your gifting. 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:12.440 The greatest gift that we can all offer the church is his grace, is walking and living 00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:13.440 in his grace. 00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:18.039 You are a member, as a member of the body of Christ, that's the greatest gift you can 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:25.399 offer the church and the world, your redeemed presence, your redeemed self, living out this 00:18:25.399 --> 00:18:26.920 gift, this great gift. 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:33.279 I'm not saying there's lots of other important gifts, I know we'll discuss that in the series. 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:38.480 But God clearly says in this passage, by the, through the Holy Spirit, that this is the 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:45.359 greatest way and it's the one we are to most earnestly develop and mature in our lives 00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:47.480 and seek as Christians, okay? 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:51.960 God slays the loveless giants, giant gifts in this chapter. 00:18:51.960 --> 00:18:55.759 He says you can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if you don't have love 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:56.759 you're nothing. 00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:58.559 You can have all kinds of insight. 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:05.279 You can have amazing gifts of wisdom and gigantic faith. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:10.120 You can be reckless in your generosity, giving everything that you have. 00:19:10.120 --> 00:19:11.120 You can have it all. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:19.959 But He says if you don't have love without the greatest of these gifts, it is nothing. 00:19:19.959 --> 00:19:24.959 But I think we misunderstand so often this gift of love, we say, well, everyone loves. 00:19:24.959 --> 00:19:29.359 Everyone is able to love that, everyone in the world loves. 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:35.159 It's not quite as simple as that, because it's beyond natural affection. 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:40.840 It is something greater, something deeper, something transformational. 00:19:40.840 --> 00:19:43.279 It's His gift, it belongs to Him. 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:46.400 We lost it when we rebelled against Him. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:48.400 Sin has taken up that gift. 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:52.640 We can have natural affection, and that's a great thing. 00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:54.120 But this is different. 00:19:54.120 --> 00:19:59.800 This is the love that He promises to instill in our hearts when we come to Him by faith, 00:19:59.800 --> 00:20:03.480 recognizing we don't have it, His grace. 00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:06.120 It's not merely natural. 00:20:06.120 --> 00:20:12.519 What we have here, what we experience in our human loves for one another and in the world 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:19.880 is a temporary taste of what we've lost and corrupted, and will one day be taken from 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:25.120 us as a just act of God's judgment. 00:20:25.120 --> 00:20:26.120 It is temporary. 00:20:26.120 --> 00:20:32.079 It's meant, the flavor of it is meant to push us towards Jesus, the author of the grace 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:39.199 we don't have, and the relationship of love we've lost with Him. 00:20:39.199 --> 00:20:44.919 So practically, you have no gifts or me have no gifts. 00:20:44.919 --> 00:20:47.480 What is it that you have to offer? 00:20:47.480 --> 00:20:48.960 What is it we have to offer? 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:51.000 We have God's gift. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:21:00.240 Every single believer who has come to Jesus Christ has God's gift of love to offer the 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:03.920 church and to offer the world. 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:06.480 You have no excuses, and I have no excuses. 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:13.839 We are to earnestly, eagerly, passionately desire to develop and mature and seek this 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:16.160 most excellent way. 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:19.160 That's what is to set us apart as a congregation. 00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:22.200 It's the greatest gift, and we all possess it. 00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:24.279 We just sometimes don't realize it. 00:21:24.279 --> 00:21:30.440 And I want you to think about that as you look around your life in St. Columbus, in 00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:34.480 this church, or if you're visiting in the church you belong to, as you mingle at coffee 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:38.879 time, as you dig deeper at city group, in your friendships that you deepen over many 00:21:38.879 --> 00:21:44.399 years, as you challenge to welcome new people and love and serve those who are part of the 00:21:44.399 --> 00:21:45.480 worship here. 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:52.759 When you're faced with hurt and with let down and with trouble and with discouragement, 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:58.960 for this great gift that you have that sets us apart as a community, from any other community 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:04.440 in the universe, that we have this gift of love. 00:22:04.440 --> 00:22:11.079 It's the gift, it's the gift, T-H-E in big capitals, it's the gift, and we all possess 00:22:11.079 --> 00:22:12.079 it. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:15.119 Please don't say, I have nothing to offer. 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:16.720 I am ordinary. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:18.759 I am plain. 00:22:18.759 --> 00:22:21.000 We have this greatest of all gifts. 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:26.400 What, briefly, briefly, what does it shape? 00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:29.119 What does it look like for us? 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:31.839 Well, just think for a moment of what it encompasses. 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:36.160 We'll just touch in one or two things here. 00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:43.799 It reveals itself in patience, you know? 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:46.480 It reveals itself in patience. 00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:47.480 Love is patient. 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:51.759 I'm not going to go through all these, don't worry. 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:55.599 But it simply means don't retaliate with anger. 00:22:55.599 --> 00:22:58.440 It literally means being long-tempered. 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:03.319 We are often short-tempered, naturally, even in our loves. 00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:07.400 The grace of God enables us to be long-temper-patient. 00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:16.319 What a great gift to offer in Christian company, in the church, where we're so often snappy 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:18.639 and short-tempered. 00:23:18.639 --> 00:23:23.879 What a great gift to offer to an angry world where revenge and getting even is the principle 00:23:23.879 --> 00:23:30.720 of motivation that we live with patience, that we live with kindness, acting benevolently. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:36.960 Isn't that, I think, that has to be one of the most attractive and powerful gifts known 00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:45.359 to humanity is kindness, motivated by the kindness Jesus Christ has shown to us. 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:50.479 You will have many opportunities going into this week, and I'm sure I will, to have, in 00:23:50.479 --> 00:23:57.839 all of our ordinariness, to reveal kindness, to show kindness. 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:01.000 When it will be, will we be given the choice? 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:05.359 Will we be across roads and I'm going to be unkind here, or am I going to be kind? 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:11.639 I'm going to walk away, or am I going to show this great gift of grace, acting benevolently 00:24:11.639 --> 00:24:12.639 in kindness? 00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:18.280 And it also has always, in the Bible characteristics, this negative element. 00:24:18.280 --> 00:24:19.720 It's not envious. 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:25.120 That is, that burning desire for something or someone that it doesn't belong to you or 00:24:25.120 --> 00:24:28.000 you don't have. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:33.600 Jealous longing setting your heart on what is not rightfully ours. 00:24:33.600 --> 00:24:37.320 And you say, well, yeah, okay, what's that got to do with gifts? 00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:43.679 And it causes us to respond, doesn't it, negatively to God and to other people if we have this 00:24:43.679 --> 00:24:49.480 envious spirit, wishing we were someone else or wishing God would make us someone else. 00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:56.319 But we're gifted differently, and you can rejoice when we are living in that love. 00:24:56.319 --> 00:25:01.039 We can rejoice in the gifts of others and not be envious of their gifts and be thankful 00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:05.159 for what we do have rather than what we don't have. 00:25:05.160 --> 00:25:09.759 So often we spend our lives wishing we had something else, envious of other people and 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:13.080 annoyed with God at what He hasn't done. 00:25:13.080 --> 00:25:18.320 But this gift of grace enables us not to be like that. 00:25:18.320 --> 00:25:25.960 Not envious and also goes on to say, not boasting, not arrogant, not boastful. 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:33.160 Not, you know, the problem sometimes with gifts is that we boast about them, isn't it? 00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:36.560 It's very difficult to boast about God's grace. 00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:43.320 It's counterintuitive, maybe not counterintuitive, but it's just wrong. 00:25:43.320 --> 00:25:45.480 We can't do it. 00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:48.400 We don't like show-offs generally anyway in life, do we? 00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:54.880 The business, media, the sports careers, ladders are full of gifted people who are big heads, 00:25:54.880 --> 00:26:00.320 who love their gifts and who are quick to boast about them, not exclusively of course. 00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:06.359 But what a privilege is for us to seek progress in these same areas and in every other area, 00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:11.679 including the church, where we don't see people as competitors, as ones we need to push off 00:26:11.679 --> 00:26:19.720 a ladder, as we don't make them our benchmark because we're not the standard, as Jesus Christ 00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:22.599 is the standard for us. 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:27.439 Not is it rude, this great gift, the ability to act well. 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:33.120 It's not rude, an old-fashioned word here, it's not unbecoming. 00:26:33.120 --> 00:26:38.039 I don't know if we use that word much, it's a good word. 00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:44.320 Rude itself, you know, not, even rudeness I think is seen as a bit old-fashioned, the 00:26:44.320 --> 00:26:47.720 old idea today of rudeness. 00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:50.519 We've broken that particular barrier. 00:26:50.519 --> 00:26:59.279 But yet we have the grace, the gift of recognition that shapes our lives so that we aren't unbecoming 00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:05.359 and rude in our lives, living not impolite or dishonorable. 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:10.359 But you have that great gift to offer the church and the world. 00:27:10.359 --> 00:27:15.920 I'm sometimes so discouraged and disappointed, not by the congregation, but generally the 00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:22.600 Christian community, that it is so quick to be rude and to be dishonorable when we should 00:27:22.600 --> 00:27:29.480 be the most gracious and beautiful community, and I'm not being soft or sentimental when 00:27:29.480 --> 00:27:40.480 I'm saying that, but absolutely gritty and true to God's word, that we should submerge 00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:41.480 these things. 00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:42.480 I was going to say subsume. 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:51.160 I mean, submerge these things, we should deal with these unnatural or unnatural in our 00:27:51.160 --> 00:27:55.000 Christian context, responses. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:00.000 It's the gift, this gift of love that we all possess is the gift of being different, so 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.440 I can't go through all the rest of them, but they all speak about being different. 00:28:04.440 --> 00:28:10.599 You walk from here today as Christians who are different and live by a different calibration 00:28:10.599 --> 00:28:16.879 to the rest of the world, we're not selfish insisting our own way, we're not easily provoked. 00:28:16.879 --> 00:28:21.240 We can choose, we choose not to be wrong, not to be fragile about ourselves, not to 00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:24.599 be irritable, it's often a control thing, isn't it? 00:28:24.599 --> 00:28:27.399 We want things done exactly our way. 00:28:27.399 --> 00:28:34.319 We choose not to celebrate sin, rejoicing and wrongdoing. 00:28:34.319 --> 00:28:39.719 We don't accept that revengeful, cheating, illicit gain is good. 00:28:39.720 --> 00:28:47.559 We don't rejoice in making money that way, we don't rejoice in getting one over our recalcitrant 00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:50.960 ugly neighbors for the way they've treated us. 00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:56.759 We choose to rejoice in the truth, to take God as word, to live with hope and endurance. 00:28:56.759 --> 00:29:04.519 That's what this great marital passage that is often read, it is speaking about. 00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:10.079 You think, and I think, we have nothing to offer. 00:29:10.079 --> 00:29:13.279 We think we have nothing to offer. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:21.599 The church and the world needs you and needs me to understand the greatest gift we already 00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:30.119 have, the greatest gift we do possess, you and Christ, consciously walking on this most 00:29:30.119 --> 00:29:32.319 excellent of ways. 00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:37.200 That's your privilege, that's our privilege, that's our responsibility, and He gives us 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:46.439 the Holy Spirit to walk with us this way, and you will need to walk this way in Christ. 00:29:46.439 --> 00:29:53.519 It's what's by a million miles, it's what St. Columbus needs most from you as a Christian. 00:29:53.519 --> 00:30:00.279 It's brilliant and important and significant to serve in Bethany and to serve in all the 00:30:00.279 --> 00:30:05.960 different needs we have that are so important in making even our Sunday worship work together. 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:13.359 But it must be coupled with this great knowledge and this great gift of God's love. 00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:18.639 The world that you inhabit week to week, you're only here for an hour out of how many hundreds 00:30:18.639 --> 00:30:21.319 of hours a week that you have. 00:30:21.319 --> 00:30:24.559 We're only a gathered community for a tiny amount of time. 00:30:24.559 --> 00:30:29.720 I know we meet in other micro communities as a church and in city groups. 00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:34.680 But in the world that you inhabit most, the greatest gift you can offer that world in 00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:41.079 the workplace, in the student world, in your neighborhood at home is this gift that you 00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:44.559 have and that I have. 00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:51.680 Don't believe the lie of Satan that says you have nothing to offer and that you're ordinary. 00:30:51.680 --> 00:31:00.279 Now, I'm just close with this, again I know I'm morphing into Cory by using this Lord 00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:02.039 of the Rings illustration. 00:31:02.039 --> 00:31:03.640 I can't help it. 00:31:03.640 --> 00:31:13.880 The return of the King, the Hobbits, don't realize their gifts and their heroism and 00:31:13.880 --> 00:31:14.880 their humility. 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:24.040 And as all the crowds in all of the kingdom come to gather honor to the new King Aragorn, 00:31:24.040 --> 00:31:32.600 and as they were set to bow, he says, my friends, you bow to no one. 00:31:32.600 --> 00:31:36.840 And I'm saying to you who thinks that you have nothing to offer. 00:31:36.840 --> 00:31:39.480 You are at the table of the King. 00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:48.480 You share his greatest gift of all, and as you look around, you bow to no one, except 00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:49.480 King Jesus. 00:31:49.480 --> 00:31:51.920 That's where the illustration falls down. 00:31:51.920 --> 00:32:01.079 We bow only to King Jesus, but we have this great privilege of being gifted. 00:32:01.079 --> 00:32:05.319 Don't blame God and say you have no gifts. 00:32:05.319 --> 00:32:10.960 Don't blame Him and say you wish you were like somebody else, and don't say you have 00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:13.359 nothing to offer. 00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:16.799 Remember what we are, remember what we have. 00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:20.359 Constantly go back to the foot of the cross. 00:32:20.359 --> 00:32:24.000 That's where the Lord's table is such a great picture, isn't it? 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:29.159 Of the, an illustration of what we are and what we have. 00:32:29.159 --> 00:32:31.240 It is the table of the King. 00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:32.240 It is the nourishment. 00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:33.240 It's the unity. 00:32:33.240 --> 00:32:36.000 It's the bull. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:39.400 You know, here we've got, we don't have them up, but you know, we've got these tiny wee 00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:40.400 tables. 00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:43.799 They are tiny wee tables, square tables that they put some of the Bibles on for the Christian 00:32:43.799 --> 00:32:44.799 Heritage Center. 00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:47.640 Do you know, only one person could sit at it. 00:32:47.640 --> 00:32:50.039 That's not the kind of table that we have. 00:32:50.039 --> 00:32:53.039 It's a marvelous, banqueting table, and we are all in it. 00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:54.920 We are all sitting at it together. 00:32:54.920 --> 00:32:58.640 You don't come to Christ and He gives you a wee private room, we are a private audience 00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:03.120 with Himself, and a little table where you are eating on your own. 00:33:03.119 --> 00:33:06.199 We are the Kings, and we are in it together. 00:33:06.199 --> 00:33:11.759 And that, you know, we're, that's hard because we're ugly and we're, we're graceless by nature, 00:33:11.759 --> 00:33:13.879 and it's not as easy to sit with a King. 00:33:13.879 --> 00:33:16.239 Not as easy to sit with a citizen, is it? 00:33:16.239 --> 00:33:19.279 We find that, don't we, all the time. 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:25.679 And yet the greatest gift we have is this gift of grace which encourages to act and be different 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:34.120 and be a community, therefore, that reflects Jesus in this way, which is impossible, which 00:33:34.120 --> 00:33:40.279 is counter-cultural, which we need to be saved to do and to be living in connection and contact 00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:50.320 with a living God daily at the fruit of the cross in order to recognize this amazing thing 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:57.200 that we are to earnestly desire the highest and greatest gift, the greatest of them is 00:33:57.200 --> 00:33:58.200 love. 00:33:58.200 --> 00:33:59.200 Amen. 00:33:59.200 --> 00:34:03.240 Spare our heads briefly in prayer. 00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:12.799 Father God, as we intercede at the close of the sermon, we ask that you would protect 00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:22.440 us as a congregation from the sin of lovelessness and from the sin of disabusing ourselves of 00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:27.120 the greatest gift that we all possess, that sometimes we just don't realize that we may 00:34:27.120 --> 00:34:33.080 be just equate with something natural that's just stirred up within us. 00:34:33.080 --> 00:34:38.400 We fail to see that it takes us on a completely different road, that we sit at a different 00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:45.200 table, that we respond with different choices and different behaviors, that we persevere 00:34:45.200 --> 00:34:49.639 in this great love because that's the great love that we've been gifted. 00:34:49.639 --> 00:34:53.920 And we know it's tough for us and we know we struggle and we know that the ideal is 00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:59.559 something so often very far from us, but we ask that we would live one day at a time calling 00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:03.680 out to you for your grace, for your mercy. 00:35:03.679 --> 00:35:08.480 Help us not to see our faith and even our involvement in this church as something that 00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:12.839 is distant or individualistic, purely. 00:35:12.839 --> 00:35:19.039 Maybe not see St. Columbus as a filling station that we come to and we get filled and we leave 00:35:19.039 --> 00:35:26.679 again on our own, untouched by the table, untouched by the company, and uncommitted 00:35:26.679 --> 00:35:29.839 to the body of Christ. 00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:33.920 Not just here but beyond St. Columbus of course. 00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:39.440 We pray that you would help us to reach out into this world with this gift of love which 00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:46.680 will speak powerfully to a world that isn't convinced by argument and by apologetic even 00:35:46.680 --> 00:35:54.440 though there is great value in these things, but needs to see that Christ has changed us, 00:35:54.440 --> 00:35:58.600 changed our priorities and changed the way we think and the way we act. 00:35:58.599 --> 00:36:06.839 Give us Lord God when we fail to see the greatest gift that we've been given and may we see 00:36:06.839 --> 00:36:15.239 the beauty of that gift today and live it and recognize its impossibility, driving us 00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:21.759 to the foot of the cross, to your company and to prayer, to be the beautiful people, 00:36:21.760 --> 00:36:28.920 the individuals with the presence that we have as individuals, help us to recognize 00:36:28.920 --> 00:36:35.160 that, help us to know that we can disappoint one another or discourage one another. 00:36:35.160 --> 00:36:42.840 When we are not present in prayer and love and life and worship that we separate ourselves. 00:36:42.840 --> 00:36:51.200 Lord God help us we pray to see that our very presence in worship, in the church, among 00:36:51.199 --> 00:36:56.559 our people is of immense value. 00:36:56.559 --> 00:37:02.000 Lord bless us then we pray and bless us as we return our praise and thanks to you as 00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:04.879 the King of Love who is our shepherd. 00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:22.880 Amen.