Strength for His Glory - Kingly Gifts

All right, we continue our sermon series, Kingly Gifts. Kingly Gifts where we're

looking at the gifts of the wise men. Gold, two weeks ago, representing the

Lordship of Christ. Gold is something you brought to a king, and this is again the

wise men, the magi coming from the east. And then last week, we talked about

frankincense. We talked about this as the aroma of the high priests and offering

recognizing Jesus as the high priest. And like Evan said, probably very, the

symbolic gifts mean something, though I think if it were today we'd probably

bring something more practical. What the magi is doing is actually teaching us,

teaching Mary and Joseph, teaching anyone that reads these accounts who and what

Jesus actually is. Though he was a beautiful cute baby, I'm sure he was the

king. He was the high priest. He was prophet, priest, king. He was the Messiah,

the Messiah. And myrrh is a very different gift where gold and frankincense

recognize the authority and the power of Jesus. Myrrh takes a really hard 90

degree left turn. So for lunch and a conversation with Pastor Jim after the

new year, okay, after the new year. I love you all after the new year.

Thank you, Wes. Wes says that's when I'm on vacation. No it's not. But understand

the question, what did myrrh represent? If gold, king, frankincense, priest, myrrh

represented what? What? Pick out lunch you're buying. And understand that myrrh,

as Larry said, burial. It is a burial incense. Think about that. It is a custom,

just a custom of that region that when someone died and they went into a tomb,

that the tomb would be filled with myrrh. That myrrh was an overwhelming incense

because it had to mask the smell of a dead body. Merry Christmas. Understand

that I can kind of imagine it and put yourself in the manger scene no matter

what character you want to play outside of the wise men, that the first is gold.

Beautiful gift for a king. Then you have frankincense, recognizing the temple and

the law, the high priest, the holiest of holies, that Jesus is the tabernacle

incarnate in the flesh. Then the one wise man opens up myrrh. And you know that you

know that you know that myrrh was used for anointing, for burial, and for

medicinal purposes. That myrrh was used when there was suffering, when there was

agony, when there was death. Now I look at it from Joseph or Mary's point of view

and we see in the gospels the line where it says that Mary treasured all these

things in her heart. So let me speak to the mothers, grandmothers today. You knew

what these three gifts meant. Whether you knew it or not, you knew that my son was

going to be the king of kings, the Lord of lords. My son was going to be the

fulfillment of the Messiah. But in order for that to happen, there was going to be

pain and suffering. So not only is it symbolizing suffering and devotion, but

it's pointing us to Christ's sacrificial death. That Magi's gift of myrrh foretold

Jesus as the suffering servant, Isaiah 53. Take a moment this afternoon and

read that for your Christmas devotional. Isaiah 53 depicts exactly what the Son

of Man would go through and it encourages us to mirror Christ's

sacrificial love by dedicating our mi'ad, M-E-O-D, the Hebrew word for strength and

talents for him. You see myrrh was often burned in the religious practices and the

rising of the divine when someone dies. So really what it emphasizes for us this

morning is a continual acknowledgement and encouragement to worship the king of

kings, the Lord of lords, the great sacrifice for sin. That the Magi's gifts

mean something. That this dual symbolism of both Jesus as king and high priest of

the line of royal priests should ultimately raise to us why all glory is

due to Jesus. All glory be to God and King amidst his manger throne. I don't

know if you guys have ever thought about the gifts of the Magi, but they're

actually fascinating. This recognition of a baby, a star to light the way they find

them, they offer these gifts that mean so much that they probably didn't even know

what the myrrh meant for Jesus. But that Jesus would become that living sacrifice.

And Paul picks up on this when we start the 12th chapter of the book of Romans,

an infamous chapter where we talk about what does our life look like as living

sacrifices. So we're going to break down the first eight verses of Romans chapter

Romans 12 · chapter mention

12. The first is the living sacrifice that we are called to be. I appeal to you

therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living

sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. There's a

lot in that first sentence and we have seven more to go. That Paul uses the Old

Testament as the sacrificial imagery to describe our total devotion for God. Let

me pause there for a minute. This is where I can say confidently, first to

myself in the mirror and then to all of us, God is not interested in your 99%.

That total devotion to God, I liken it to total devotion to my wife. How would

Carrie feel if on her next birthday I write, I love you so much babe, 99%.

Curtis, how does that go in the household? No, I'm going and sleeping on your couch.

Absolutely, and then you take me. But isn't it interesting that like how many of us

would have killed for 99% in school? Are you serious? I know not all of you are

that's, thank you Mike, yeah Mike's waving his hands, you know, but understand that

in the general scheme of life, 99% fantastic. Ricardo, were you a 99% student

in school? You tried, yeah, that meant no. And so understand that 99, come on, I'd

kill for 99, but Jesus doesn't want it. Jesus leaves the 99 to find the one, but

he wants total devotion of the heart, total 99% in our worship. He wants 99% of

our heart, he wants 100% of our heart, 100% of our soul, and 100% of our

strength. And doesn't that take a little bit of a twist when we talk about time,

talents, and treasures, that he wants 100% of it? Because really when it comes to,

and if we're being honest, the thing that really hits us the most of time, talents,

and treasures are what? Treasures, let's be fair. It is a great understanding to

think 100% of it belongs to God, and he goes, hey, I want to give you back 90. Now

some of us don't like that, and you got to work that out in your soul, but it's an

understanding that 100%, when we say we're all in, we mean and need to mean

we're all in. That this is not an earned grace, but a response to God's mercy. So

we go from being living sacrifices to renewing our mind in verse 2, where verse

2 tells us, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal

of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is

good and acceptable and perfect. Cheryl, leave this one up there. This thing is a

great continuation from verse 1 that by testing, what does that look like for a

believer to be tested when they're not giving 100% to God? It leaves you very

vulnerable, very vulnerable to the evils of the world, very vulnerable to the lies

of the deceiver, Satan, very vulnerable to raise yourself up instead of Jesus in

your life. That by the transforming, by the renewal of your mind, that by testing

you may discern. Now some of you have probably think you don't carry the gift

of discernment, and your wives probably agree, but understand that discerning the

mind of God is something all, let me say that again, all of us have the ability to

do. Now some of you, that might be the first time you've ever heard that, and

there are some of you that are going, I do not want that responsibility. I can't

make up my mind of where to go to eat. How many people have a spouse that

struggles with that? See who's dumb enough to raise your hand. Yep, they are.

Okay, so understand that it is this discerning. The mind of Christ is the

first gift that we are given when we become a believer and we grow in our faith.

So what does that look like? What does that mean for us? That means you can

think the things of God. Set your mind on things above, Paul says in Colossians,

not on earthly things. Seek the things that are above. When our minds are seeking

the things above, guess what we don't get distracted by? The things of earth, the

things of the world, worldly pleasures, worldly sins, the desires of the flesh.

Not inherently bad, but if not redeemed, pretty much being sent to hell. That not

only is there a sacrifice and a transforming, but it allows us to, and I

mean this, safely look in the mirror, which is something not too many of us

like to do, and allow for a self-assessment, a sober self-assessment.

What do I mean by that? A sober self-assessment is looking at yourself

the way God sees you, which is cloaked by Christ. That in your thoughts, your

words, your deeds, the way you use your time, your talents, and your treasures,

people should see your relationship with Jesus. I get it, that stinks to hear

because there are times my thoughts, my words, my deeds don't represent Jesus.

My time, my talents, and my treasure don't represent Jesus, and God can give

that conviction and allow us that sober self-assessment in verse 3.

For by grace given to you, I say to everyone among you not to think himself

more highly than he ought. I am not allowing you to use this as a right hook

for your spouse in your afternoon conversations, if you have them, but to

think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has

assigned. Wait, what? Wait, hang on. Each according to the measure of faith that

God has assigned, that God engages you in your faith. Why wouldn't he? You have

faith in him. He should be a part of it. If you think you have faith in God yet

don't have a relationship, that's like me saying, I am married to Carrie McCarthy

even if I've never met her. That's crazy talk. I have crazy mouth, right? That

there's an investment, there's a relationship there. It takes time. I had

to earn my yes. We call that dating. And understand, no I'm just kidding, we don't

have to necessarily earn it, but she did say yes. Understand that this measure of

faith, God is a part of it. You cannot grow your faith without God allowing you

to grow your faith. And I guarantee you there's a couple people here that don't

like that because you want to have control over all of it. Friend, the first

aspect of faith is realizing, recognizing, and repeating you aren't the one in

control. God's the one that deepens your faith. As you grow closer to him, as you

learn from God's word, as you use your time, your talents, your treasures for

God's kingdom, he engages you in that. He grows you in that. Here is one of

probably three selfish plugs to take the spiritual gifts assessment on our

website. I want the right butts on the right seats on the right bus at the

church. It makes a church hum and work wonderfully when we're all in our gifted

areas. For those of you that have been in church in a while, maybe, and I'll speak to the

ones that have been in ministries that burned them, that they felt burned,

whether they left the church for a time or not or just stepped out of that

position, if you will, in the church, volunteer or otherwise, it's probably

because you were not working in your gifted area. Well, then a natural

question is, pastor, how do I know what my gifted area is? There are self

assessments to help you with that. And I love it and double down on it so much, I

want to meet with you after you take it. So then it's not just you thinking you

have to figure this all out on your own because you'll get a bunch of words and

a bunch of numbers attached to them. What does it mean? I can help you with that.

Again, it's not gospel truth. It's a tool to build in to the kingdom of God,

to self-assess, what am I doing for God? But this is not a works

righteousness thing. This is because of faith, I then serve the book of James.

Well, pastor, are you saying that if you're not a believer, you can't take the

spiritual gifts inventory? Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. It makes

absolutely no sense. It's like me sitting down to take a doctor's exam. I have

absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I have zero depth of trying to figure that out.

But a believer, someone who has faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, has been given

gifts to serve the church. And here's the thing, we help each other out. We work

together. There's connectedness in the body of Christ. I know we don't all know

each other and I know there's new people coming all the time and that's fantastic,

but we are connected. The body of Christ is connected. Go to 1 Corinthians and

read that chapter. Just like a body has different parts that all work together

and I understand that as you get older, your body tends to forget that and that's

how we get hurt, but understand in the body of Christ, it is all connected,

verses 4 and 5. For as in one body, we have many members and the members do not

have all the same function. So we, though many, are one in the body of Christ and

individually members of one body or one another. We are all connected. One way

that that represents itself here at Munster is we don't do one person

ministries. We don't really allow for it. We want you to have a team because if

everything, the rise and fall of a ministry falls on your shoulders, what

happens when your shoulders can't hold that burden anymore? Normally you get

burned out. Normally the ministry ends and almost 20 years into it, those people

end up leaving that church. What a really foolish cycle to have in a church,

to base all of it on one set of shoulders. Well, then they're the one

called to this ministry that God's gonna give them what they need. Yeah, you're

exactly right. He's gonna give you a team. Why? Because about 17 different

verses that say we come together as a body to make it happen. Because if we're

gonna put all of it on one set of shoulders, that's us recognizing that God

gives all the gifts at top level to one person. And I don't believe that's true.

I don't think there's anything in the Bible that supports that claim, but that

we are inner connected. One of the cool ways I see this in the church is I'm the

only person that stays in his seat in the council room. We have three year

terms here at Munster. So we'll have cohesion, but every year we're losing,

you know, elders and deacons are termed out, new ones are, their lots are

cast, they come in. It is amazing to me, amazing in the good and sometimes

frustrating at the different council and diversity that we have in the room.

It's just, it's funny because we have individuals that are gifted with kind of

that head knowledge of running an organization, and that's fantastic. You

don't need that in a church. Then you also have elders and deacons that have

more heart gifts, more benevolent gifts that want to use the works of the church

to help and uplift people in their life, and that's awesome. And then you have

elders and deacons that are just scared of being in there, and they have to grow

to be comfortable with that. But what's amazing is when you have a council that

has majority head leaders compared to one that has more majority heart leaders.

In a perfect world, and what my prayer is every time we get ready to cast lots,

is that it would be a blend, that we would have the blending and diversity of

gifts because it's a beautiful picture we see in verse 6 through 8. Having gifts

that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them if prophecy in

proportion to our faith, if serving in our serving, the one who teaches in his

teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in

generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with

cheerfulness. Leave that up there. All of you fit into those categories.

Yesterday, Karen, so this would be Irene Decker's, Irene Boonder Decker's daughter

in law gave the final eulogy of the kind of the family. And I liken that to when

Mary Dornbos, Archie Bazine's daughter gave the one here. I really didn't need

to come after that. Not just because they gave all the stories I was going to give,

because they preached. They gave the good news. They gave the gospel.

They used that platform to share Jesus, to watch those gifts in awe as a preacher

is awesome to watch. That they are exhorting over that funeral and given the

opportunity to point people to Jesus. They could have talked more about their mom or

their dad given the situation and they did, but they pointed people to Jesus.

They were clearly using their gifts. And I remember when I said to Mary, I said,

Mary, that was fantastic. She goes, well, I learned from the best. And I was like,

Ellie. And she laughed just like a third of you did. The rest of you didn't get it.

Archie was the preacher. Ellie was, anyway, it doesn't matter. But then I went up to

Karen yesterday and she goes, that was God teaching me to home school my kids and

using that voice. Isn't it funny how God uses other aspects of our life,

the diversity of things we're going to do to uphold the church? Now,

that doesn't mean all of our school teachers need to be teaching in Sunday school.

Because I also know that you do that every day. You may not want to do that on

Sunday. I get it. But if you actually look at a lot of our Sunday school teachers,

a lot of them have that experience one way or the other. Teaching in some

different kind of field or being in a field that is caring and understanding the

giftings. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. There's not only diversity in our

gifts, but it's a sovereign design. It's a design of a creator. It's a beautiful

thing. And here, because of that, you don't need to have all the gifts. You don't

want the burden of having all the gifts. Because what is the expectation? If you

have gifts, you're going to use them. Right? Hide it under a bushel? No. That is

our time, giving time to come to worship, giving time to be a part of what the

kingdom is doing, not only here, but in other ministries in our area or overseas.

Giving the talents, hide my talents under the bushel? No. I'm going to let them be

used. Taking that step of faith, it's something we pray every summer. We're

still looking for youth leaders to use those talents. Again, I love what Daniel

said months ago. You don't have to be interesting. You just have to be

interested. And our youth are going to care. They're going to eat that up.

Because let's be honest, Rachel, I'm going to ask you, if you have an adult come

that's trying to act, imagine me coming to youth group, right, because that's

something I would try to do, what are you taking from that? What? That they're

trying too hard, right? That they're trying too hard. The kids don't want that,

right? They're no, be genuine. Come and just be yourself. Because isn't that what

you can show one of our young people? What it means just to be an adult of

faith? Why? Because in a couple years, they're going to be there. That's using

our talents. So how do we offer those? How do we pivot? We've talked about it.

We see that these gifts are being utilized. How do we offer our strengths

and our talents? I just broke it down to four. That we recognize your talents are

God given. Go back, Cheryl. We can recognize that our talents are God

given. And the reason why we do that is so that our head can fit in the

sanctuary. If we think we're God's gift to whatever, understand you're not. Sorry

to pop that bubble. That bubble should have been popped long ago, right? You're

not the guru. I'm not the guru of preaching, right? You don't need to be. You

just need to use them. Be good stewards of your gifts. You have the gift, use it.

That we need to recognize first and foremost our talents are God given.

Second, we need to offer our talents as worship. What does that mean? I'd love, I

will ask, but I can leave it rhetorical. I don't know how many of us prepare

ourselves to come on a Sunday morning outside of getting dressed. I don't know

how many, because being a pastor of a church I don't have that vantage

point, but for the average Joe Jane churchgoer that we come to worship, maybe

we're thinking about it. Maybe we're going, man, I hope they play more hymns. Or,

oh man, hopefully we do this Christmas song. Or, man, I hope the

decorating committee did a good job. Maybe that's how we prepare. And if that

is, please stop. That's not helpful. But understand that we should be preparing

to come. And if I had to guess, 75% of you don't really give it a second

thought. And as your pastor, I'm totally fine with that. That you come and you

want to be present and you worship. We learn. We try not to fall asleep and then

we leave. That is your typical Sunday. I get it. I'm here. I see you, especially

those that are sleeping. But understand that we are here to offer our talents.

This is an action word. Offering is a verb. So I can say with kind of biblical

clarity, if you're not using your gifts, you probably want to rethink that. Now,

some of you are going to come to me and say, Jim, I was a Sunday school teacher

longer than you've been alive. Great. And if you need a break, that's fine.

But if you think you're done, that's a different story. Because these gifts are

given to the church for as long as you are in the church. Because our sister,

Jeri Phillips, isn't offering your gifts anymore because she is receiving her

reward in glory. I don't know what to do as a Christian. I don't know how to live

out my faith. Yeah, you do. You have gifts. Use them. Offer them as you do your

worship to God every Sunday. And then more practically, sacrificially serving

your community. If the only time you ever use your gifts is when you're here on a

Sunday morning, I know not all of you have the gift of singing. So you're

offering it as a joyful noise. Fantastic. But your gifts are somewhere else too.

We should be using them somewhere else. Not only in the church, but in the

kingdom work all around. Whether that's the school you're a part of, maybe the

groups that you are a part of, that we are called to bring our gifts to those

even. And then finally, why we do it is to build up the body of Christ. To build

up the body of Christ. That that is part of your job and my job. It's easy to say

it's part of my job because this is my livelihood. But it's all of us. I have

absolutely no problem being the lead. That's why you call me the lead pastor.

But understand, you guys aren't paying me to go on this journey by myself. That we

are called to do this together as the community of faith. And I see

generations of that in the sanctuary today. People that have been using their

gifts longer than I've been alive. Fantastic. Well done. That is the mark of

a healthy church. That Paul emphasizes the diversity of gifts and encourages

unity and mutual edification. Whether it's saying, man Randy, you put that

cheese on that plate as an artist. Build up the body. You got claps. I don't know

if anyone's ever gotten claps for cheese laying. Or if I look at Nancy and Larry

and how how many of you drink the coffee here? I know a lot more of you do since

we switched. But understand all that's made possible because of Nancy and Larry

and their team. That Larry stays up nights when he knows we're running low

on that coffee you all like. He's taking that burden because I'm not gonna take

it. But understand you don't have to worry about it. We're gonna always have

coffee here. I am so sorry I just said that out loud because the day we don't

they're gonna blame you. And understand that we build up the body. We recognize.

We recognize the team that put on, albeit the longest children's program we ever

had, but one of the best that I've seen. All these kids, you know how much work

that takes because they're your kids. And the team that was here making sure from

some of our junior hires helping out through our adults. We build up the body

of Christ. We acknowledge the body of Christ. It's one reason why I close the

offices during Christmas and New Year's. To give our staff a break. Because

whether you know it or not, Advent's a kind of a busy time for the church and

its volunteers and its staff. We build up the body of Christ. So my challenge

today as I land the plane, how are you building up the body of Christ? Take a

self-assessment because, and this may sting so please offer me grace, some of

you may find yourself in more of tearing down the body of Christ than building it

up. Let that hang for a minute. That some of us actually use our giftings to tear

down the body of Christ through contentiousness, through divisiveness,

through causing drama. Now it's all, it's gonna happen. We're sinful and we're

human beings. And sometimes we kind of do this. Even though the church should look

like this, let's be honest, it's not always gonna be like that. But if we can

say we're building up more than we're tearing down, I think that's a good thing.

But maybe you're in a season right now where you're bitter or angry about the

church or about your giftings or something that happened. Please let's sit

down and work through that because you've been gifted for this purpose. Let

us use those giftings. Even if it's a new one, even if it's your first time

using the gifts. Absolutely, right? I don't know what the equivalent of training

wheels is when it comes to church gifts but we'll figure it out. That's why we

don't put it on just one person. That's why we have a team base so we can build up

together. So my challenge as I close, go back one more Cheryl, challenge as I

close, this Advent, how are you using your strength and your talents for

God's kingdom? One thing we, Cheryl's doing a great job. This is her first time

solo on the slides. That builds up the body of Christ. You can clap for her, go ahead.

Clap for her. That's fantastic. Trying to follow me, that's not easy. So you didn't

have to laugh that hard over there. Good night. But this Advent, how are you using

your meod? How are you using your strengths and talents for God's kingdom?

And my encouragement as we're over halfway done, my encouragement for this

Advent is like the Magi who brought myrrh, offer your gifts sacrificially.

Meaning you don't know what the return is gonna be. You're just gonna use it.

Well I thought my giftings were for teaching but they put me in pre-k and I

can't stand them. I love them but I can't stand them. Then maybe we find a

different age group. We'll put you in the nursery. Just kidding. But understand that

when we use our gifts sacrificially, it doesn't mean we're trying to count the

return. Well I was in first grade this year and none of my kids came to know

Jesus. I'm a failure. No you're not. You're planting the seeds. Maybe they'll

get it in second grade. Maybe they won't. But when we offer our gifts

sacrificially, I'll give you a little vulnerability from my end. There

are some sermons when I'm walking down the center aisle as I'm done, Satan just

throws that arrow right as I get to the back and the thought is, Lord hopefully

you can make sense of whatever mess that was. It's a legit thought that I've had.

And it's usually those sermons where I have someone that comes up to me and

says, were you in my week? You were talking directly to me. And there are

days I go, yeah there may be 251 but it landed on one. I'm good. But that's, I

can't worry about it all the time. I got to study. I got to do my thing. But

understand as we offer our gifts sacrificially, we're not counting the

cost all the time. And why not? Because if Jesus counted the cost of his

sacrifice for us, do you think he would have done it? You think he would have

gone through the agony and the pain? He did it out of love for us so we do this

out of love for him. So like the Magi who brought Mir, offer your gifts

sacrificially, trusting God to use them for his glory. And we're going to talk

about that final gift next week. Let's pray.