Our God Given Gifts

A few weeks back, not the last sermon, but I think it was the sermon before last that I gave here, I asked the question about the future of the church. What is the future of the church of God? What does the future hold for the United Church of God? And even more particularly, what does the future hold for this congregation here in Fort Wayne? Everyone can have an opinion. Everyone can have their own evaluation. You have yours. I could have mine to answer any of those questions.

But as I said at the time, there's only one vision. There's only one answer that really matters. And that's the one that Jesus Christ gives to us from Scripture in terms of the future of the church, the future for the United Church of God, the future for the Fort Wayne congregation.

And I think that that future is something that can be defined for us in general through one particular Scripture that stands out in the book of Ephesians 4 as a vision that Christ gives for His church. If you would, please turn there, and I want to read this again.

Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4 has one of these lists that talks about the church, the body, the unity of the body, verse 4, the calling that we have, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. And beginning in verse 11, Paul talks about the various places of teaching, responsibility, and prophets and all that are within the church for the equipping of the saints, for the building up of the body of Christ, to produce a unity of the faith in verse 13 and the knowledge of the Son of God, perfecting the people of God, coming to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And down in verse 16, is where I want to focus, because this is, I think, a culminating vision that Christ gives to Paul for the church, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

This is a unique verse. I think this is a vision that Christ gives us as to what he is doing and bringing in the church, the end result that the church will have. If there is one scripture that sums up so many of the other scriptures in 1 Corinthians 12 about the body of the church and various analogies that are drawn to the body itself and a spiritual organism of the church, verse 16 of Ephesians 4 seems to show what all of that is to bring as a result.

To be joined to Christ as the head, if you look at it, joined and knit together. Again, knitting, you ladies that do that, you understand how closely brought together the various components of anything you knit, a pair of gloves, a scarf, whatever, or crocheted or whatever, but in that process that is a handicraft, things are brought together, tied up, and very, very closely wound and bound together. Every part doing its share, every part has a share to contribute, has a place to fit, and causes growth of the body for the edifying or for the building of itself in love.

So every joint supplies something, everyone does its share. It is all joined to Christ as the head, and through this process the church grows and is built up in love. This is a vision that, in a sense, shows what the body of Christ, with Christ as the head, the spiritual body will become. That is the vision that counts. That's the one that is the most important. That's the only one. We can dream up all kinds of other ideas and plans and goals, but this is the one that Christ is working with, those that are a part of His body, the spiritual body of Christ.

The question for us to ask is, will you and I do our part? Will we be part of the end result? How can we do that part? How can we contribute to our share, to what is here? How can we be a part of that? This is a subject that, really, we can't overwork, but every time we come back to it, we need to bring it down to a practical level so that all of us understand that what we do and what we contribute as individual members, in so many different ways, from our attendance, our observation, and our worship of God, to our service, to our involvement in the life of the church at the level of the congregation, at the larger level of the collective body, all works toward this end and has to be done toward that end in love, in the love of God.

How do we do that? How do we know what we can accomplish and what we can contribute? I think that there are other scriptures that we can go to to help us to understand that as individual members, individual joints supplying something to the process of cohesion and unity that this verse speaks to, we all have a part to play.

I think it comes down to all of us understanding and knowing exactly what gifts we hold, what talents, what abilities we may have as individuals, and making sure that we not only are aware of them, but we take the opportunity to contribute in the way that God gives us and allows us within the church.

To do so, we have to be aware of the gifts that we have. We can sometimes think we have no gifts. I gave this sermon last week in Indianapolis, and somebody came up afterwards and said, I don't have any gifts. Well, my answer to that is that long and short is, yeah, you do. All of us have something, or we wouldn't be here. God wouldn't have called us. As the little boy used to say in whatever drawing, cartoon, or story that was, God don't make junk.

God doesn't call junk. We may, in our conversion process, have to kind of, as Mr. Armstrong used to describe it, become a burned out hunk of junk to where we finally realize that God's spirit in us can then make us something better, rebuild us through conversion.

But God, even in that process, God don't make junk. And God don't call junk. Pardon my grammar. I know that was bad grammar.

But my answer to the individual is, yes, you do have a gift. We all have something to contribute. There's no need to get down on ourselves. There's no need to think that we don't. In 1 Peter 4, this is one of the ways that I know that we all do have something to contribute. 1 Peter 4. Beginning in verse 7, he says, Be serious and watchful in your prayers. Of all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins, be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. As each one has received a gift. Peter doesn't write this as if anyone's left out. As each one has a gift, minister it to one another. In other words, use it to serve. Use it to contribute. Again, within the context of Ephesians 4, 16, every joint supplying what it shares and causing the body to be knit together and joined to Christ as the head.

As we minister to one another in that way. God tells us here through Peter to use the gift that we have. So we can't go around saying we don't have a gift. Well, I guess we could, but we would be doing ourselves a great disservice and we would...

I guess the argument could be made going against Scripture. Certainly we would be going against God's purpose and design for us. Because there is a work that is required to accomplish what Ephesians 4, 16 says. That vision for the church. When each individual is aware of that and finds a place to contribute effectively, young and old, the church works.

The church works. And dissension, strife, pettiness, when it does arrive, can be dealt with if everyone is working out of an attitude of love. By that mean, I mean working in a sense of contributing in their particular gift. Let's look a little closer at this and what the Scripture tells us regarding our gifts. Because Paul, in another spot, does get down to some specifics to help us define exactly what these gifts may be.

Let's turn back to the book of Romans, chapter 12. Romans, chapter 12. If there is a time to talk theory, then there is a time to get down to specific tactics and how this works. And in Romans 12, there is such a passage. Let's begin reading in verse 1 to get the context here. Paul writes in Romans 12 in verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Which means that we are living sacrifices, not dead sacrifices.

God never was interested in an animal sacrifice. He's certainly not interested in a dead human sacrifice. The sacrifice this speaks about is a total dedication to God's way of life, a total immersion into it. That our lives and our bodies are a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is a reasonable service or an expectation of service that is to be done and to be accomplished in the service of the church. In verse 2 he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

A renewed mind, a transformed, renewed mind that comes about as a result of prayer, Bible study, to where our lives are shaped and formed by that process. The Phillips translation puts this verse this way. It says, don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within with the washing of the water by the Word, to use another scriptural phrase. A continual reading through, study, thinking about, meditating on, the Word of God, the life of God, the sayings of Jesus, spiritual scriptures that are living, breathing spiritual words of life.

Christ said that the words I speak to you, they are a life. They are spirit and they are life. And they will change you. I did an interview this past two weeks. I had a Beyond Today program we were working on with one of our elders over in Ohio, John Miller and his wife, Susan, who had experienced 26 years ago the death of their infant son in a tragic accident at their hands, his hands, in an accident.

And we decided that they were willing to go on film for Beyond Today and do a program with us called Moving Beyond Tragedy. So we spent two days filming in their home, in the driveway where it actually happened, and filming and talking about it. We went through three different interviews. We interviewed in the driveway of the home where it happened 26 years ago. Then we went to the cemetery and sat down by the grave of their child and we taped another interview there.

And then the next day we were in their home and we set up our cameras and we filmed in their home. And it was interesting the various things that they said and the way they said it. And by the time they said it three times in three different interviews, they had kind of refined it down.

And even my questioning and discussing it with them that we refined it the third take was the best one. We're going to weave in excerpts from all three into the program that will finally air. But one of the things that struck me as John and Susan were talking about it was the reality of the power of the hope of the resurrection. But the actual words of the promise within the short time of the accident and the death of their son, it was the words of the resurrection, the promise of the resurrection that began to help them.

And as John said, that became more than just a dry piece of theology and doctrine. That became a living, real hope that helped them get through loss and deal with the tragedy. They had their moments over the years just like anyone would. But from this perspective of 26 years as they look back on it, they're firmly convicted that it was Scripture. It was the hope. It was the promise. But it was those words that came to their mind.

And when you see it and hear it, you'll understand. These words are spirit and they are life. They transform and they renew our mind. This is what Paul is speaking about here in verse 2. And we don't always have to go through a tragedy to have that happen to us, to allow that working and changing of our life and renewing of our life transform us to do the will of God, to do the perfect will of God.

You and I don't have to go through such life-changing tragedies. We can, through study of the Word of God, through prayer, using God's Spirit, allow that as a power to work within us and to change us, where we are and what we are at any given time. This is what Paul is saying here. Verse 3, he says, For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. To have a right attitude about ourselves that's based on gratefulness and humility, a sense of value rather than a negative estimation of our worth.

Verse 3 here speaks to a positive image of ourselves that we should think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

To use Peter's words, to use the gift that God has given us.

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we being many are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. So again, he weaves in the same language that he uses in 1 Corinthians 12, or Ephesians 4, about the body being knit together, one body in Christ. And a unity theme here is drawn again. And then in verse 6 he begins to talk about these gifts. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. Let us use them.

Gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. This is where, again, this expands our understanding about grace. Grace is pardon, undeserved mercy and pardon from God for sin. But grace is also the way by which God lives. God is very good. He is very gracious. God gives us gifts that are differing according to the grace that is given to us. These gifts and their use and manifestation in our lives and among ourselves within the church allow us to use those gifts in faith to make a positive contribution to the body of Jesus Christ and to the work and the vision that Christ is bringing the church to accomplish. And then he begins to list these that he has here in verse 6 and 7 and 8. And he lists seven different gifts in this particular section. Now, you can look at 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 for other lists, lists of different types of gifts and services and positions and places within the church. These here speak to the church as a whole, and they speak to a little bit different use perhaps than an apostle or a teacher or a prophet might have or miracles or gifts or healings or tongues that 1 Corinthians 12 might talk about. These are some very practical gifts that have been called motivational gifts by some who have studied this and looked at it. But they're very practical, and they speak to the church as a whole because they are given within this letter to the church at Rome. And Paul is addressing the membership as a whole, and he's again saying that these matters are part of how God, through His grace, has given to us certain abilities that we have and they are to be used. And there are seven of them. I want to go briefly through them and talk about them. We can talk about each one in great detail, but I do want to at least hit the highlights of these seven ones. And I'm adapting this from some work that was shown to me several years ago. Actually, I think Peggy Moss showed me a book that was entitled, Discover Your God-Given Gifts, that talked about these seven gifts here. And so I'm adapting this here from some of that material. But it is very practical, and I think it will help us all to analyze ourselves in ways and determine certain gifts that God has given to us that we may not even understand and realize. The first one that he mentions here, in verse 6, he says, If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Prophecy. How many of you think you might have a gift of prophecy? Don't raise your hand. I don't want to know.

Prophecy, and this word here is the word that can be certainly applied to a gift of foretelling the future, the ability to look into the future, to see that which is to come, which is certainly a prime meaning of the word prophecy. And a prophet can have certain abilities to do those things as God gives them, and it must be accurate.

The Bible talks about true prophets and false prophets. I mentioned Mr. Camping earlier, who has proven himself to be a false prophet. And when you get into certain predictive addictions and that approach to prophecy, which has, quite frankly, let's be honest, has been a problem even among ourselves within the Church of God in our past, and among some even today who still want to try to figure out dates and charts and graphs and have a wrong approach to it, to try to figure out when Christ is going to return, when this event is going to happen, or who's going to fulfill this particular symbol of the Bible and this and that.

Those are certainly matters for prophecy, Bible prophecy. And there is, for an individual who may, in a sense, fill the role of a prophet, their canon will be that opportunity. The Bible speaks about people called the two witnesses in the book of Revelation that are to come, and they will be in a prophetic role at the end time.

But I don't see too many people standing in line for that job, especially when you look at the end result of those two individuals. So there is that meaning of prophecy in the sense of a prophet and the ability to, understand the Scriptures, but to be honest, it goes far beyond charts and graphs and dates. If you look at the classical prophets of the Old Testament like Amos and Isaiah and Jeremiah, those men did not deal with the beast and the false prophet. They dealt with social issues. They dealt with false teaching. They dealt with sins of the people of Israel, and they prophesied against those. They showed certainly God's judgment. But they talked about welfare abuse, neglecting the poor, and what would happen to the city or to the nation, whether it was Nineveh or Israel or Judah, if there was no repentance from those bad actions.

And when you really analyzed it, it got down to the fact that they were also predicting the consequences of individual bad behavior or individual sin. You sin, I sin, there will be the result, there will be bad fruit. Break God's law and I will predict, I will prophesy, you will suffer a consequence for breaking the law of God. It's cause and effect. I could be a prophet in that sense. Somebody tells me what they're going to do, I could say, if you persist in this course of action, this is what Scripture says will happen. You could do that perhaps to a degree yourself, even in your own life.

Make yourself correct and put your life in the right course for righteousness and blessing. And you could fulfill, in a sense, the role of a prophet. Which brings us down to the level of understanding, perhaps, that is a bit more practical for you and I to discern whether or not you have the gift of prophecy. Because if you can perceive action or consequences of actions or behavior, young man, you keep seeing that girl, young woman, you keep dating that guy, hanging out with that crowd.

You're going to wind up with a drug problem, alcohol problem, you're going to wind up in the wrong side of the equation. I used to have my mother, it would warn me a bit about some of my friends. I had one friend when I was a teenager that I got at school, brought him into the house one time, and he was around the house for a little bit of time, and my mom did not like him.

She says, I don't like that individual. You don't like you bringing him around, I don't like you hanging around him. Well, I knew more than my mom, and I kept hanging around. One time I brought him into the house, and I think he spent the night in the house. A few days later I discovered that I had some money missing.

Mom was right. Mom prophesied.

Mom had a gift of discernment about character, about people, and she was right. You ever had that gift? Or run across someone like that? That's a gift to be able to perceive. So don't look at this gift here as, in a sense, being a prophet, prophetess, of trying to figure out the intricacies of Bible prophecy. That's one application, certainly. But, quite frankly, for you and I in our everyday life, there's something a bit more practical. Keep overspending. Keep running up debt. You're going to go bankrupt. You're going to lose this, or you're not going to be able to do this, whether it's an individual or the United States of America.

Debbie, I think I've told this story before. I'll tell it one more time. Debbie had a hunt or a notion about somebody a few years ago. Remember? We were with them as we were getting acquainted with them. And on the way home, she says, she doesn't love him. She said, she doesn't love them. I said, oh, sure, sure she does. They're members. They're happy. She says, no, she doesn't love him. I said, oh, you're wrong. A few years later, she told him, I don't love you. And they divorced. And I had to say, you were right a few years ago. You saw it. I didn't see it. Sometimes women have a bit of the perception better than us men do about certain things, about people, call it intuition, whatever it is. Sometimes it's just paying attention. Sometimes it's nothing more than just paying attention to what people say, the tone of their voice, just observing, shutting up and listening. But if you have that gift, again, use it. Understand what it is. John the Baptist is an example in the Bible of an individual who, you know, John the Baptist, you know, people came out to be baptized. The Pharisees, the Jews came out to be baptized. And what did he say? Oh, that's great! Add more numbers to my following. I can put those in my monthly report.

And what did he say? He said, you bunch of snakes. Repent. He discerned, perceived that they were not genuine. They just wanted to be baptized by him so that they could look good in front of the people. He called Herod a snake.

He was not, he perceived the problems of individuals, of a group of people, or of an individual. And he was not afraid to say it, but he had a gift of perception in a very practical way, because he studied, he was perceptive about human nature and life. You can do that. That is a gift that can be cultivated and developed by observation of people, without, again, getting into matters of judgment. But also, look, some of you like to read, and if you're reading is of a quality that is done by astute individuals who observe human nature and were able to put that into characterization, then you can learn a great deal about people. One of the, probably the greatest in all of English literature is William Shakespeare, who perceived human nature and wrote about it in such a way that we're still reading his works today and find them fascinating. But he perceived human nature in the way people were, and he was able to describe it and put it together in stories and scenes that still continue to teach us today. And there are other writings of individuals that offer the same thing. When we find them and know how to use them. Certainly the Bible is the greatest teacher from a literary point of view of people and human nature and God's perspective upon that. But if that's what you have, listen to it, cultivate it, and use it. Let's look at the second gift that he talks about here. Verse 7. Or ministry. Let us use it in our ministering. The word here is actually the same word for server or servant. Another one of the many words that talk about ministry, service, servanthood within the New Testament. This is the word here that comes from the Greek word diaconos, from which we get the word deacon. Diaconos. I was talking about that a couple of weeks ago in my sermon. But it's a server, one who is given to service and ability to help.

There are some people given to that and have that desire to help other people. This is a person who is really a doer, who does.

There's a saying about teachers, those who can't teach. I've never agreed with that, so don't take any offense at that, because to teach is a gift as well. But there are people who perhaps are more comfortable or by nature inclined to do. And they are given to service, many acts of service. But Paul here talks about this as a gift. If you have that gift of ministry and being a diaconos of serving, then use it. One of the biblical examples is Martha, Luke 10. The sisters, Mary and Martha, whom Jesus visited at one point.

Martha was busy bustling around, working in the kitchen. Mary was listening to Christ and entertaining him in the living room. And Martha basically said, you know, my Lord, tell my sister to get off her seat and come in and help me in the kitchen. And Christ basically gently rebuked her and said, Martha, Martha, Martha, you're busy about many things. Well, it seems that Martha was the one who did do. She made sure that she looked after the needs of a group of people and a setting such as that. But within a congregation, we have many people who can serve very effectively in this role.

People like this tend to be detail-minded. They work out the details, can put together all that needs to be done for a potluck or for a service project, whatever it might be, a senior citizen's activity like this or some other type of a social. And can, you know, there's certain ones that can get the idea, and there are then others that work out the details and make it happen.

I have to be honest with you, I have to work at some of these at times when it comes to larger projects. I can get good ideas. Sometimes I've said, if I come up with ten ideas and two of them are good, or maybe three, those are Hall of Fame averages. And maybe seven are just totally worthless. But if you can come up with some that work, then you're hitting pretty good. But then I usually will pass off or rely on other people to work out the details.

I can, you know, for years I had some of the larger ideas to put together our camp at Camp Heritage, but I had a staff of people who made it happen because we had staff of people who were doers. I knew what I had to do myself, but I had the ability and a pool of people to draw from who were very service-oriented to put together a staff that made things happen.

High energy people that made it come together. Some have that gift, and when you find people who have certain gifts in certain areas, you use them and utilize them, recognize what they can do, and expect them to do it, give them the tools, the budget, the parameters to do it, and stand back and let it happen.

I remember one year at camp I had the... there were so many details that would have to be done before camp. Hours and hours, days and days of work that we would put together, and then when we actually got on site, it all came together by the people and staff who made it happen. And I inevitably, on Sunday afternoon, the day camp would start. If I had done my job right, I knew that I could sit in the office and relax. Now, I didn't always do that. I'd always try to walk around, make sure things were getting done, and help wherever I could.

But I remember one time, our overall camp director was there on the first day of camp, and he saw me sitting in the office, and he thought I was not doing my job. I said, well, no. We've lined it all up. Everybody knows what to do. It's out there. It's getting done. And then it all worked and flowed because of how things were put together. I didn't spend all my time in the office during those years as well, but you find the gifts and the talents of people, especially those who are detail-minded, if you're not that way, and let them work, and a job can get done.

And it all knits together to get it accomplished. Let's go back and look at the third item here that he talks about. He who teaches in teaching. Teaching is a gift.

The type of teaching here is certainly teaching of doctrine, teaching of Scripture, teaching of principles, teaching of skills, whatever it might be. But certain people have those abilities and desires to research, to get into a particular subject, learn everything about it, organize it, and then communicate it in such a way that people understand. That's a gift. Good teachers know their subject. They master their subject through years of study and years of application by teaching it and finding out what methods work and all. There's a whole science to that as well. But the really good teachers learn through the experience of what works in communicating and what doesn't work in communicating. And it can certainly be a gift. There's one example in the Scripture of an individual by the name of Apollos in Acts 18, beginning in verse 24, who was a gifted teacher. He came across a quill and priscilla at one point. They found out that he didn't have all the knowledge that he needed. They took him aside, they instructed him, and further knowledge of the gospel, and he went on and became an even better teacher after that.

But to do that takes self-discipline, takes a certain amount of logic, the ability to apply, let's say in the case of the Bible, Scripture to life. To take it from being something that is theory, or as Mr. Miller was saying to me, dry theology, a list of commandments or a list of principles or a passage of narrative, and taking that and applying it to a setting, to a group of people, to a particular time, to an experience, to explain how that works within life.

That is the challenge of communicating the gospel, is showing how today's world can be explained from the point of view of Scripture and the knowledge of the gospel. That is really the ultimate challenge to the church in any given time and setting, in preaching the gospel, is to make that gospel relevant to people in their life, to explain the world. Not just world news, and not just something that might be happening in Europe or the Middle East and whatever, to some point of prophecy, but to explain how a trend in society creates the problems that society grapples with that seem to never be solved.

But to be able to explain how this world works or doesn't work from the point of view of the gospel, and how the gospel is the solution to the world's problems, to individual needs, individual problems, and to communicate that in a compelling way that brings people to repentance. And it's more than just beating them over the head. Sometimes there is a teaching element that is required over a period of time. And that seems to be a challenge more and more in our world as to where it is today to be able to convey the gospel in terms that brings people to repentance.

God's Spirit works with them, but understanding our day and our age and our time. But that gift is something that is very, very important. I would also say that the Scripture also talks in the book of James as a warning to not be many teachers. One wants to be very careful not to be a teacher if that certainly is not your gift, or a certain level of teaching is not your calling, i.e.

the ministry. Because a teacher is always held to a higher standard, and there are certain teaching positions or ministerial positions, especially, that are appointed. Scripture gives us ample instruction regarding that. So one doesn't always need to be a minister to be a teacher, but certainly if one is going to be a minister, there needs to be that proper appointment and calling from God.

But we all can teach in many different ways, by example, by appointment, by duty and responsibility, where we are given those abilities and understand that as gifts, and have that used to build up and put together the body of Christ. The next gift that he mentions here in verse 8, he who exhorts in exhortation.

Do you have a gift of exhortation? Then use it to exhort people. Now, what does that mean? It's talking really about encouraging people. Encouraging. Encouraging people to live a successful life. To focus on the positive. To focus on one's abilities, one's opportunities.

To encourage the best in someone. One of the best examples in the Bible is the one whose very name means the son of encouragement. Who was that? Who remembers who the son of encouragement was? Barnabas. Barnabas. A man who took the Apostle Paul when everybody else just let him stay off in the corner of the room when he walked in. Didn't want to have anything to do with him. And Barnabas took him under his wing and said, this man's changed.

This is a good man. The others didn't have the courage or whatever to welcome him. Barnabas did. And later on at Antioch, there was a need for more personnel to mentor and to help in the building of the church. Barnabas got Saul at that time.

Brought him from Tarsus into Antioch, and they together formed a team that helped build up the church and evangelize at that particular time. Barnabas was an individual who was an encourager. But this gift of encouragement is, again, something when you see it in individuals, it's a tremendous team-builder. A motivational influence within a group of people who's able to affect change in people. This type of person within the context of the church is one who can apply truth beyond the level of research.

And even, in a sense, beyond the level of just teaching it by whatever method, but can then encourage people to want to do it. And to aspire to the steps of improvement in their life, to apply truth, to apply skills, to apply experience. This type of an individual wants to see people change, wants to see that effectively work, who sees trials as a growth opportunity.

This type of gift of encouragement lives life from a positive example that overcomes adversity. Sometimes I think back about an individual that I had in my life when I played sports as a young man, summer baseball. One of the assistant coaches that I had was a man named Archie Smiley.

Archie Smiley usually wound up as one of my assistant coaches on the teams I played on if I was playing with his son, because he had a son, Butch Smiley, a short guy that could hit the ball a mile, and he was a great fielder. And his dad, Archie, would always be hitting his infield practice, or he'd settle in the end of the bench.

And if you struck out, you came dragging your bat back to the dugout, because you'd struck out. Archie Smiley was always there encouraging. And the way he encouraged, he'd always plump his stumps together, because you see Archie Smiley didn't have hands. He'd blown them off with dynamite caps playing around one day. And all he had from this point down on both hands were two stumps.

But I can remember him clapping his stumps together to encourage me to do better next time, or to get out there and hustle, get back out there in the field and keep going, keep playing. He was an encourager. I would settle in the end of the bench at times and watch him pull his wallet out, take a piece of paper out from the wallet, and unfold it and look at a map. I would also watch him push up from the...he always wore a white t-shirt in the summertime and always had a pocket in it, and there was always a package of camel cigarettes in there.

And he'd push that pack of cigarettes up with a stump, take a cigarette out, put the package back in, put a cigarette in his mouth, then take a Zippo lighter out of his pocket, light it, and light a cigarette. Did that without batting an eye. And when he was at home, he operated a bicycle repair shop in the back of his house, a bicycle repair shop with two stumps. He'd drive his old Ford down the road just like that. He died of heart failure and cigarettes got to him, but he lived his life and he enjoyed his cigarettes. I'm not saying that that was what helped him enjoy life, but he had a positive approach.

He overcame his adversity and he encouraged others. So when I think of an encourager, I always think of that at times when I think, you know, I might be getting a little bit down. Every time I think of Archie Smiley, it always brings a smile to my face. He's a man who did...his name did kind of live up to that. But when you...if that is your bent, your nature, capitalize on that.

I understand that the church needs encouragement. People need people who can encourage them in whatever way. A word, a deed, a letter, a card, a phone call, someone who is encouraging people to live a successful life. The next gift that is mentioned here, he who gives with liberality. Giving is more than just money. It's giving of time, talent, energy. Giving of what one has, one's experienced to benefit others and to advance the gospel.

A biblical example is Cornelius in Acts 10, a Gentile chosen to be in the vanguard of all Gentiles who were called to salvation in the church. But Acts 10 describes him as a good and just man who gave of himself and had a reputation, and he was the one to whom Peter was sent at that momentous time.

But a giver is one who gives energy, gives love, gives wisdom, acknowledges God as the source of all. This person is not gullible. They give with liberality, not just throwing time or money at something, but carefully calculating that either a donation or time spent will genuinely be appreciated, meet the need, and be used properly, and knows when to move on if it's not.

Cut the losses and moves on. It's a gift to give liberally. The next gift that is mentioned here is one who leads with diligence. A leader. We could use one word that we commonly use today, and that's administrator. A person who is able to administer a project, resources, and in that way lead. It's not just someone who's like a Roosevelt or a Churchill or a Ronald Reagan, some inspirational leader. It's also someone who can turn around a business, turn around a team, turn around a part of an operation, and get it moving forward.

By organization, direction, words, bringing everything together to get it done. When Joseph was told by Pharaoh, get us ready for seven years of famine, he knew how to assemble people and get the best out of them to keep the nation of Egypt from going into starvation. When Nehemiah was sent back to Jerusalem, he knew how to put together all the groupings of people along the wall to rebuild that wall.

And he worked with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, and a shovel in the other. They were organized all along that wall to get the job done. So it takes somebody not only with a visionary strategic point of view, but also someone with a tactical approach to know how to pull the whole team together at various levels to get things done, to get it organized and communicate in that particular way.

A lot of times the person who's an administrator is someone who does prefer to be under the authority of a president, a CEO, a CFO or whatever, but is under a certain level of authority and knows that that's where they function best.

To administer. They may not have the corner office, they may not have the title, top title, but they have a key role and they know how to administer. They're not the top one on the pyramid. You don't have to be in that particular way, but you can lead with diligence. And diligence means staying with something and seeing it through and not dropping, dropping off. One of the things I've noticed in looking at people in the church in years is how we've had a shift from people who are diligent year in, year out, as opposed to people who are diligent until they get tired.

And then they drop the ball. They drop their responsibility and they want to move on or move out. I sometimes look around at the church and I recognize that there's an old guard that just keeps doing what has to be done. And sometimes within the younger generation, or let's say, younger, I'm not going to put any age category on it. Sometimes people just do until kids get grown or they do until they get burned out or they do until they finally say, I'm not getting enough recognition for this. I haven't been ordained. I quit. Get somebody else to do this.

And then I look at people who have been doing something for 20, 30, 40 years because they know it has to get done. To lead with diligence. That is a gift. That is a gift. Last gift that is mentioned here is compassion. Shows mercy with cheerfulness. Mercy, compassion, love and care for people in need, someone who can empathize with others and show true understanding.

Christ spoke of such a person when he gave the parable of the good Samaritan. Everybody else passed the injured person by, but it was a Samaritan of a different race, an ethnicity, who stopped to help out the person who had been robbed and left on the side of the road. Ruth is another example.

She had great compassion for her mother-in-law and so she stayed with her. A person who will do what is necessary and will show compassion and will do it with joy and with grace. Will take whatever action to relieve or to remove hurt where they can. The covered dish with a card, a pad on the hand, or just a moment of notice. But to discern when someone needs mercy as well.

When not to apply the letter of the law, but rather to apply mercy. Again, with wisdom, motivating all of that. These are seven gifts that Paul talks about. They are seven gifts that, again, bring us back to Ephesians 4 and verse 16. Can help accomplish the vision that Christ has for the church. Let's go back and read that again in Ephesians 4.16.

Compassion, mercy, diligence, leadership abilities, service, teaching, exhorting, perceiving, giving. Concrete gifts that when applied then into what Ephesians 4.16 tells us do help the whole body join and knit together. By what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Why study these? Why come to know these? Because, number one, we all have these gifts. Remember 1 Peter 4.10. It tells us that we do have these gifts.

We have been given various gifts. These are seven that can be identified. Study the Scriptures in light of these gifts to help better understand ourselves and where we may make that contribution. Why study them? Because the church needs people, the gifted individuals, to step forward. These gifts to be manifested, to be active and dynamic in the congregation, because they help accomplish what Ephesians 4.16 says.

There's a third reason to study these gifts, that we might understand one another, not only ourselves, but one another. Because as we find what we can contribute, we also find one another within the church. And if we look at others from the point of view that these are gifts that have been given, and we don't look at them as to be envious or to compare ourselves among ourselves, then we come to understand one another, which is one of those habits that have been defined for people who are highly effective.

To be understood, Stephen Covey said, first seek to understand. And to understand one another takes a bit of a journey. One of the things that I have learned about myself, looking at whatever gifts I have over the years, and the interactions that so often come among ourselves, especially at the level of the ministry as we have worked together over the years, when I have not felt understood by anybody, by individuals, whether they were my peers in the ministry or my supervisors, that probably has been one of the biggest levels of frustration that I've experienced.

Because I've learned that if I was not understood, then I'm not known. And by that I'm not talking about reputation, but to be known just as to who I am. For you to be understood, for someone to take the time to understand you is to show love. Because it does take a measure of time and the ability for us or someone else, for you to get to know someone, for someone to get to know you, the self has to be removed from the equation.

Where I've had the greatest frustration over the years in the ministry with people, as I've had to interact, and I felt, you don't understand me. How many times in a husband and wife argument, the wife cried out, you don't understand me as a point of frustration. It's true. Well, that happens at all levels. For you to understand somebody takes the removal of ourself to where we truly listen and seek to serve or to encourage or to exhort or to effectively lead.

And so, to study ourselves and to study each other within the context of this body that's being knit together over a process of time is to understand each other's gifts, strengths, weaknesses, talents, problems. And then when we truly understand those, at least then we, that doesn't change anybody, doesn't change you, doesn't change me. But it brings us to a level of acceptance. The biggest steps that I've made in my life, in my relationships with people, have been whenever I finally came to, I stopped knocking my head against the wall in a relationship with somebody through envy, through confrontation, just being angry at them, and finally accepted or understood who and what they were.

And then I can begin to like them. And God can give the ability to love. It doesn't change them, and it hasn't changed me, but it's changed the relationship, because I at least, now I understand. At least I accept that and begin to look at who and what they are, more from the point of view that they've got certain gifts, focus on those, the problems God will change in his own time and way.

I can't do anything about that. But I can do something about the way I look at that person, the way I understand the way they are, accept it, and try to work together. And those relationships where I've been able to do that, we still are able to work together in unity. So when people cannot get to that point in their interpersonal relationships, that you finally come to division. And so that's why it's important for us to study. It's one of the most important things I could ever point us to, is to why study these gifts?

Because it helps us to understand one another, as well as ourselves. And in doing so, we take a great step forward in unity, a practical step that gets us beyond just another sermon on unity, or just another exhortation to unity, or another reading of the Scripture on unity. Unity is hard work. It is difficult work to accomplish. But I think a study of our gifts, of ourselves and among ourselves within the Church, helps us to appreciate that and in the process knit ourselves together to the vision that Christ has for the Church. Because this is where He's going to take the Church. Ephesians 4, 16. Is Christ's vision for the future.

That's the bride that will be prepared for the marriage supper. It's our choice to be a part of it, exercising our gifts, building up the body together in love. That's the future of the Church. That's the future of the United Church of God. God willing, that's the future of this congregation in Fort Wayne. God willing, along with our help.