The Power and the Purpose | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we are continuing our teaching

series Growing Season, where we are going back

to the farm to learn what the farm has to teach

us about faith. And today is all about tractors,

those big machines that power the farm, that

do all of the work, the plowing, the planting,

the cultivating, the hauling, and so much more.

But what do tractors have to teach us about our

spiritual gifts? Just like the Spirit has specific

jobs for us to do. That's what Rob is going to

unpack for us in today's sermon. 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 12:4–14

chapter 12, verses 4 to 14. There are different

kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes

them. There are different kinds of service, but

the same Lord. There are different kinds of working,

but in all of them and in everyone, it is the

same God at work. Now, to each one, the manifestation

of the Spirit is given for the common good. To

one, there is given through the Spirit a message

of wisdom. To another, a message of knowledge

by means of the same Spirit. to another faith

by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing

by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers,

to another prophecy, to another distinguishing

between Spirits, to another speaking different

kinds of tongues, and still to another the interpretation

of tongues. All these are the works of one and

the same Spirit. He distributes them to each

one just as he determines. The word of the Lord.

We are continuing our summer teaching series,

which we are calling Growing Season. Growing

Season. And what we're trying to do is figure

out what's the connection between farming and

faith, between agriculture and spirituality.

You see, the Bible was written thousands of years

ago, and it was written mostly to people who

were farmers, which is why when you read the

Bible, you see so many stories about, you know,

farms and fields, about seeds and soils. and

farmers, and so on and so forth. But I brought

a little tool with me today that I wanted to

kind of show off to you. And this is a, anyone

know what this is called? A scythe, that's right.

It's a scythe. And you might think, oh, the Grim

Reaper is here. The bell tolls for thee. Or you

may be thinking, Rob should not be handling that

thing in public. But the point is, a scythe is

an amazing tool that you would use to kind of

cut down hay or brush or grain. And you just

keep sweeping it and sweeping it and sweeping.

It's got a very sharp blade, a couple of handles.

The amazing thing about a scythe is, you know,

no batteries, no motor. All you need is a handle.

All you need is a, you know, a sharp blade and

then, you know, some strong arms that can wield

it. It works really well. It works really well

up to a point. right if you had you know maybe

a little patch of hay that you wanted to take

down it's the perfect thing if you had a little

patch of weeds you wanted to clean up it's the

it's the perfect thing but if you had acres and

acres and acres of hay that you were dealing

with well this is not the tool that you want

that would be absolutely exhausting and back

breaking work there is a limit to what human

effort can accomplish on a farm. And that's when

we come to the tractor, right? The tractor changed

everything on a farm. Whether it was the very

first like steam. powered tractors of yesteryear

or the gigantic diesel -powered monsters today.

A tractor brought new power to farm work, right?

Like farmers, all of a sudden, they weren't limited

by what their own arms could do or what their

own backs could do or what their own shoulders

could do. Now they had this source of power that

could pull and lift and haul and move and mow

and cultivate in ways that... that they could

never have managed on their own with their own

two hands. Now, on the farm that I grew up on,

I can remember distinctly during my childhood

three particular tractors that were very important

to us. First was the International 484. This

was a 50 -horsepower tractor, and we used it

mostly to run around wagons filled with hay or

maybe to mow the fields. That was the very first

vehicle, the very first vehicle I ever used.

ever drove as a, you know, 14 year old down the

concession six in Fisherville, Ontario. The second

tractor that I remember well was the Kubota 5040,

5030. It was a, it was a, had a front end loader

on it. And that meant that we used that when

we had to clean out our manure pit or anything

on the farm that needed lifting, got lifted with

the Kubota. It was also about 50 horsepower.

And then of course we had a slightly larger.

tractor, and that was the John Deere 2750. This

was a 75 horsepower tractor, and it could do

some of the heavier work like plowing, cultivating

the fields, or pulling like the baler plus the

wagon behind the baler. And here's the thing

about tractors. Power changes what is possible.

I mean, yes, a scythe can cut, right? But a mower

hooked to a tractor can cut down a whole field

in a fraction of the time. A shovel, yes, can

move a bit of dirt, but a front -end loader can

move a mountain of it. And a person, you know,

can carry a hay bale. And maybe if you're really

good, you can carry one in each hand. But a tractor

can pull a wagon at road speed, stacked with

200 hay bales in it. So this morning, that's

what I want to talk about. I want to talk about

power. But I don't just want to talk about power

as it shows up on the farm. I want to talk about

power as it shows up in your life. Because many

of us go through life with the equivalent of

a scythe in our hands, right? We do everything.

With our own strength. It all depends on us.

It's all about our effort. And I would say that

even Christians are guilty of this too. We serve

God, but we want to serve God completely with

our own power and our own might and our own ability.

And for a while, for a while, that might... even

work if we keep swinging and swinging and swinging

the scythe long enough but eventually eventually

we're going to get tired and we're going to discover

that human effort is not enough to get through

life is not enough no our life was never meant

to run on human strength alone specifically the

christian life is meant to have a whole different

power source. And that power source is what we

call the Holy Spirit. And for that matter, I

should say this, the church is also supposed

to be powered. Not by our own strength or ingenuity,

but by the Holy Spirit. And churches can also

become really good at just swinging the side

over and over again. We work hard. We plan hard.

We try hard. And that is okay. That is okay.

Because faithfulness and effort definitely has

its place. But God has called us to work in a

different way. As Zechariah said, not by might,

nor by power, but by my spirit. says the Lord.

Without the Holy Spirit in our lives, life...

and ministry becomes completely exhausting performance.

But with the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit,

ordinary people are empowered to do the work

of God in amazing ways they could never do on

their own. So today, I want to ask a couple questions.

How does the Holy Spirit help us? And what does

this have to do with tractors? That's what we're

going to talk about. I've given you a few little

teaching notes. If you want to follow along,

I'd encourage you to do so. And I want to get

started by talking about getting stuck and getting

unstuck. This is a good place to start because

I would say that from time to time, all of us

get stuck in life. And it's in those moments

in life that we need a bit of power to help us

get going again. I can remember a number of years

ago, it was winter, and one of our neighbors

drove into our driveway to buy some eggs. We

used to sell eggs at the farm gate. And this

neighbor was driving. A Tesla. It was one of

the very first Teslas I had ever seen. I think

the year was like 2014 or something like that.

And it was a beautiful car. It was sleek. It

was silent. It was high, high tech. And it immediately

got stuck in about three inches of snow on our

driveway. And this impressive high tech car was

stuck and could not get itself out. So what did

we do? We got out the tractor and we got out

a chain. we hooked it up to that dainty little

Tesla, and we pulled it all the way back to the

road with his eggs in hand, right? That is a

pretty good picture of what happens in the Christian

life when we try to run on our own power. Oh,

we can look impressive. We've got our degrees

on our wall. We've got our sparkling personalities.

We've got all this experience. But sooner or

later, we get stuck. We get stuck in bad habits.

We get stuck in... Bad relationships. We get

stuck in sins that are deeply entrenched in us

and we can't break free from them. And yeah,

we try harder and harder and we spin our wheels

a bit, but it just keeps digging ourselves deeper

and deeper and deeper. The hardest part, I think,

of being stuck is admitting that you're stuck

because we think of, you know, asking for help.

as, you know, something that is a sign of weakness,

right? But actually, it's not a sign of failure.

For Christians, asking for help is a sign of

faith. It's that moment where we stop spinning

our wheels and we turn to God and we say, God,

I can't do this. I can't do this on my own. Holy

Spirit, come and give me some power. I don't

have enough power. You know, Jesus once said,

I think I have it up there. Yeah, Jesus once

said, apart from me, you can do nothing. Now,

that's not supposed to make you feel weak and

useless. Like, oh, I guess I can't do anything

by myself. No, it's actually supposed to give

you hope. Supposed to give you hope that no matter

how you're stuck in life right now, the spirit

of Jesus is there. help you so for that reason

spiritual power begins where self -reliance ends

when we finally surrender our own attempts and

our own efforts and we rely on the power of God

instead and this is a lesson I think we all need

to learn This is a lesson I need to learn. This

is a lesson, actually, that the whole church

needs to learn because that church can also be

like a noisy vehicle revving its engine, going,

going, going, but actually not moving anywhere

in the power of the Spirit, right? And so there

is this thing we often encounter that we're stuck.

Is there a place in your life where you could

even admit this morning, you know, I am stuck?

And I don't know how to get out. Whether it's

our lives or whether it's our church, guys, the

Holy Spirit is there to help us in our time of

need. There is power there to get unstuck. So

that's how it starts, right? The Holy Spirit

helps us get unstuck. But secondly, the Holy

Spirit's work involves cleaning out the muck

in our lives as well. You know, on our farm,

we had a manure pit, which you already heard

about. And what actually as gross as it sounds,

one of the most fun jobs I can remember was cleaning

out the manure pit because you got to take the

Kubota. And what you would do is you would back

it up from the pile and then you would lower

the bucket down just to, you know, so it's skimming

the surface. And then you would gun it and you

would run forward and you would jam the bucket

right into the bottom of the manure pile. And

then you'd kind of jimmy the hydraulics and you

would lift up this ginormous bucket of poop.

and you would drop it into the loader, and then

off it would go to be spread into the field.

And when the job was finished, I have to tell

you, there was just something really, truly satisfying

to see all that mess gone. This also is part

of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Yes, it's true. The Holy Spirit is given to us

to empower us to go and do all sorts of great

work in the world. But often where the Spirit

starts is by doing a really important work right

inside of us. And that is cleaning out the muck

in our hearts. And he'll do that work often before

he empowers us for the work in the world. In

fact, Jesus said this was one of the reasons

why the Holy Spirit was going to come. Jesus

said when the Spirit comes, he will convict the

world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

So the Spirit comes to us and convicts us of

sin. He brings truth into places where we have

been hiding stuff and exposes resentment. and

pride, and envy, and lust, and anger, and greed.

And he shows us all the manure that is piled

up in our hearts. And the reason the Holy Spirit

does that is not to make us feel miserable about

ourselves, not to condemn us, but to ultimately

clean us. Because let's face it, the muck in

our lives doesn't disappear just by pretending

that it's not there. It has to be brought into

the light. It has to be lifted up. It has to

be confessed. And then it has to be carried away.

And that is often how the Holy Spirit works.

Before he works through us, he works within us.

And I know sometimes we want the power of the

Spirit without the cleansing. of the Spirit.

You know, we want to get the tractor moving and

going and do something fun and exciting, but

we don't actually want to clean out the manure

pit first. But the Holy Spirit loves us way too

much to leave the muck of our lives sitting in

there. In fact, in our reading this morning,

Paul, he was writing to this church, and this

church had so many gifts, so many powerful gifts

of the Spirit there, but there were also plenty

of muck. And he goes on and on about all the

powerful gifts that they have. But then he also

mentions jealousy. And he mentions quarreling

that exists among them. And so while the Holy

Spirit gave gifts and power to these people,

the Spirit must also clean the hearts of God's

people. And I would say here at Trinity, man,

oh man, God has given us... So many gifts, gifts

for music and hospitality and prayer, gifts for

children and youth and young adults, gifts for

alpha or camp, gifts for outreach, gifts for

care, gifts for leadership, gifts for generosity.

But even good gifts can be mixed up with muck.

And a gift. that say is mixed up with pride,

can have that person start to say that, oh, this

ministry would fall apart without me. Or a great

gift that is mixed up with comparison will have

a person saying, well, why do they get recognized

and I don't? Or a great gift that is mixed up

with resentment turns that work, which should

be life -giving, into something that is heavy

and joyless. So that is why the Spirit doesn't

just give gifts, give gifts, give gifts to the

church. The Spirit also keeps mucking out the

church, convicting us, cleansing us, and renewing

us. So here we go. The Spirit's power can get

us unstuck and get us moving again in life. The

Spirit's power can muck out the manure in our

hearts, but of course, of course, this is the

fun part, when we end up connecting and being

filled with the Holy Spirit and hitching ourselves

up to the power of the Spirit, then all sorts

of amazing work begins to happen. Now, I don't

know, if you didn't grow up around tractors,

then you may not use the word implement very

much. But an implement is a piece of equipment

that gets hooked on to the back of a tractor.

And usually it connects to the hitch of the tractor,

but it also usually connects to that power takeoff

shaft, that PTO shaft that my dad was talking

about. And when you hook up implements, the different

implements will do different things, right? So

one implement will break up the ground. Another

implement will smooth the ground and prepare

the soil. Another implement plants seeds into

the ground. ground a manure spreader spreads

fertilizer a baler gathers hay and you know condenses

it into bales right the tractor provides the

power yes but the implements are all different

and in some way to think about it is it's different

ways of transforming the power for different

and particular purposes And that is a really

helpful way to think about how spiritual gifts

work in our lives. Paul makes it clear. You heard

Bruce read. Paul makes it clear. Not everyone

has the same gift. Not everyone does the same

kind of work. We're all different implements,

if you will. Right? But the same spirit is powering

each of us. Some people teach. Some people encourage.

Some people organize. Some lead. But they do

it all by... The power of the same spirit, right?

Some care for the suffering. Some work beautifully

with children. Some work with youth. Some are

gifted with hospitality. Some people here aren't

even 100 % sure what their gift is even. Maybe

they haven't even fully discovered that yet.

But we're all implements. We're all implements.

We're all created to do God's work. Not necessarily

the same work, but we're all powered by the same

spirit. Paul says to each, to each is given the

manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

To each, not to a few, not to the professionals,

not to the clergy, not to... to the staff, not

just to the extroverts, to each. And why does

God do it that way? Why does he give gifts to

each person? It's for the common good, for the

common good, which means that though not everyone

has the same gift, everyone is needed. Your gifts

aren't just for you, right? But they're for the

common good. to become a spiritual implement

connected to God is not just about finding your

passion or finding your place or finding your

sense of fulfillment. Those things may indeed

come to you, but they are not the point. The

point is that the Spirit gives gifts so that

the whole body can be built up. You know, a plow

is not offended that... it's not a baler or a

wagon is not jealous of a planter and a cultivator

doesn't say, well, why don't I get to do the

mowing? I want to do the mowing. No, each one

has its own work, right? Each one has its own

place and it's powered and it's pulled maybe

by the very same tractor. And each one matters

because it plays an instrumental role in the

purposes of the farm. And that is exactly how

it works with us. Every gift in this room matters

because every gift serves the body. And every

one of those gifts is powered by the same Holy

Spirit. Now, again, you could be sitting here

this morning and saying, I am unfamiliar with

this language. I don't know what a spiritual

gift is. I don't know what I've been created,

what unique work I've been created to do. And

that is okay. Because most people don't discover

their gifts by sitting there listening to a sermon,

trying to figure it out. No, we usually discover

our gifts as we hitch up to God. And we start

serving. We figure out what our gifts are when

we pay attention to see where our work is especially

fruitful and blessing other people. And we discover

our gifts when other members of the church body

start to recognize in us things that we're doing

in especially powerful ways. So like I said,

sometimes you just discover your gift by trying

something. Sometimes you don't know what an implement's

going to do until you get it out to the field

and hitched up and going. And so if you're not

sure what your gift is, I would say, you know,

serve, right? Try something, you know. And then

listen to what others are saying. You know, someone

might say to you, you know, you have a real gift

for making people feel welcome. Or you explain

things in a way that just helps people understand.

Or you just bring calm into stressful situations.

Or when you pray, it really, really comforts

people. To each one is given a manifestation

of the Spirit for the common good. And that includes

you and me. But here's the thing about those

implements. They only work when they're connected.

An implement can be beautifully designed, it

can be strong and sharp and perfectly suited

for a job, but if it's just sitting there in

the garage, it is not doing anything. You saw

in the video how my dad and I were walking around

this machinery lot full of all these big, shiny

implements with great big price tags on them,

but none of them was doing anything. None of

them were actually connected and in use. If an

implement isn't connected to the tractor, then

the tractor just drives away and leaves the implement

behind. The tractor may have power, but again,

if there's no connection between the tractor

and the implement, that power does not have any

purpose. The power can't be transferred unless

there's a connection. The same. It's true in

the Christian life. Spiritual gifts only do good

work when we stay connected to the source of

the power. The spiritual gift that is disconnected

from Jesus Christ just becomes a big ego or performance

or exhaustion. But a spiritual gift that is connected

to Christ becomes service. It becomes a blessing

to others. So the question to ask yourself this

morning is not just what might be my spiritual

gift, but the question is, how am I staying connected

to Jesus? You know, Paul says there is one spirit.

We were all baptized into one body and we were

all made to drink of one spirit. In other words,

we are all meant to be connected to this one

spirit. But notice also, we're also meant to

be connected to each other. So how do we stay

connected to God? Well, we stay connected, I

think, through spiritual practices. Practices

like prayer or practices like worship, like scripture

reading, like confession, silence, solitude.

In all of those ways, when we're spending time

with God, God is transferring power to his people

to do good work in the world. But just be clear,

spiritual practices do not create that power,

right? They keep us connected. to the power right

so so ask yourself this question what practices

in your spiritual life are keeping you connected

to the holy spirit because the church is not

supposed to be a showroom full of impressive

equipment just sitting there on display we are

supposed to be a group of people connected to

christ filled with the spirit's power and sent

into the world for the common good so Let's just

recap so far. Spirit's power gets us unstuck

in our lives like that Tesla in the driveway.

The Spirit helps muck out the mess of our hearts

like the Kubota in the manure pit. And the Spirit

enables amazing work through our lives because

we're all like different implements doing different

things for the common good. But we must stay

connected to God in order for that to happen.

And we stay connected through those spiritual

practices. Let me just end with this. Anyone

who's ever worked on a farm knows that when one

piece of equipment breaks down, the whole operation

feels it. I mean, imagine this. Imagine the hay

has been cut. It's all been raked into nice windrows.

The sun is out. It's shining. It's perfect for

baling. The time has come. The moment is here.

So you get out the tractor. You hook it up to

the baler. But guess what? The baler breaks.

And now you've got a major crisis because if

the baler cannot work in the moment when it's

called upon to work, everything backs up. And

the same way, the whole body suffers when gifts

are unused. The church needs the gifts that God

has placed in you. It's not because you're so

great or you're so indispensable by yourself,

but because the Holy Spirit has chosen to work

this way, to work through the whole body. Paul

says, if one member suffers, all suffer together

with it. If one member is honored, all rejoice

together with it. Now you are the body of Christ

and individually members of it. When people withhold

their gifts, the body is weaker. When people

compare their gifts, the body is divided. But

when each person offers what the Spirit has given,

the body grows stronger. When Jesus gave his

life on the cross, that looked like the biggest

breakdown you could ever imagine. The Son of

God, dead on a cross, buried in a tomb. But again,

it was the power of the Holy Spirit that raised

Jesus from the dead. And when Jesus appeared

to his disciples again, do you know what he did?

The scriptures tell us he breathed on them. And

he said, receive the Holy Spirit. Paul put it

this way. He said, the same spirit of him who

raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.

So our lives, our church doesn't run on our strength,

does not run on our talent or our personalities

or our programs. The church is the body of Christ.

empowered by the spirit of Christ, continuing

the work of Christ. And like we said at the beginning,

with power like that, anything is possible. So

are you stuck? Are you carrying muck that needs

to be cleaned out? Are you still swinging the

scythe? in your own life, right? Trying to do

things by human strength that only God can do.

Are you hitched up to God? Are you connected

to Jesus through spiritual rhythms and practices?

Are you offering the gifts that you have for

the good of the body? What work has the Spirit

created for you to do? And imagine this, what

might happen? If every person in this church

offered the gifts that the Spirit has given them.

Guys, the Christian life is not a call to try

harder by your own strength. It's a call to be

filled with the Spirit, connected to Christ,

joined to the body, and out in the world doing

God's work. A tractor without implements has

power, but no purpose. An implement... without

a tractor, has a purpose, but it has no power.

But when the power and the purpose come together,

then the Spirit accomplishes amazing work in

our lives and in our church and in our worlds,

not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit,

says the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks

for tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This sermon was recorded at Trinity

Church Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on

July 19th, 2026.