Coffee Talk- The Opportunities Conversation- Colossians 3:14-17

Good morning, church. Probably helps if I use this. Right? I just got up here and just yelled at everybody. Today's scripture is from the 3rd chapter in Colossians.

Let's share in this together. We're gonna read verses 14 through 17. And over all of these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen. Let's pray. Father God, we're just thankful that we could come together in your church today.

We pray your presence here and that our hearts would be open to that. It's in your son's holy name we pray. Amen. So, we have been talking about what would I ask you what are the conversations we would have if I could carry everyone out for a cup of coffee? We've been doing it for several weeks now.

So hopefully, we're all best friends, although we were before this all started. And so now I can start to ask the hard questions because we've been doing this long enough. It's not awkward. So if you haven't been here for the other ones, it's okay. You can catch up really quickly.

I'm an awkward person at in general, so that should put you at somewhat of some ease. I am up here today in part because of some of the questions I've asked and some of the things I've said that I believe are important. Those coming together, even when I didn't believe it was gonna work out that way. Right? So I figured it up the other day.

I've been in ministry for like 22 years, and my my first ministry position was someone was a church that took a chance on me. It was a huge youth group. There was 3 of them. 2 of them were siblings. So I guess they figured I couldn't do too much harm.

Right? And then I got I got paid by a little small church, you know, and they took a chance on me. And then I got, like, a full time job, man. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. And but before then the interview process, they said, we wanna make sure you can do this.

So plan a retreat of 30, 40 maybe let's just say 50. Just around number 50 kids to the beach. Like, put all that together, come, you know, and and your final interview, like, present it as if you were doing this. So I did it. It was beautiful binder.

It's like the most organized moment of my entire life. Right? And, they called to to offer me the job. And after I accepted, they said, do you still have that binder? I was like, I sure do.

Good. You leave on Friday, for the beach. So you'll probably wanna use that. And so I showed up at like 5:30, and loaded 50 kids onto a bus, and I didn't know any of them, and carried them to the beach. And thankfully, none of them ran away, or I didn't bring any extras back, or if I did, nobody complained.

So, yeah. So like these questions that I'm asking are all questions that I've asked myself. And so it makes me always want to make sure, like, that if I see something, I I tell them like if I see something to somebody, I tell them about it. Right? Or that I wanna take chances on people.

So for our our, I won't say our final cup of coffee. Right? But for for the sake of this, these are the questions I would ask you if we had a chance to meet for coffee multiple times. And these questions are they're a little harder. Right?

Because we're best friends now. Remember that? So it's important that you remember that even if you you're just seeing me for the first time ever, my name is Len Gilbert. I'm the executive pastor here. We are best friends.

If I need to get an airbrush shirt, I can also do that. You know, BFFs. So the the first question I would ask you at this time was, has anyone ever given you an opportunity that allowed you to use your gifts in leadership and service? It's a little harder question. Right?

And then I'd make it even harder because I wanna ask you, why did they offer it to you? Sometimes it's hard for us to see things in ourselves, and we we sometimes the best way for us to see something ourselves is to think what someone else has seen in us. And hopefully someone's telling you regularly what it is they see in you. But if not, think about the times that you were given an opportunity, and think why did they do that? And then ask you, who do you know that has your dream job?

Or your dream service opportunity? Right? What is the thing that you would do if they would just let you do whatever you want? Church answers only in your heads, please. What is what is the thing that you the ministry you'd love to see?

Or what is the change in the world you'd love to see? And who's out there doing something like that now? And I'd say, what would you say to them if they were here now? I'd ask you, you know, because we've talked about your gifts and your passions and how God meets you on holy ground, but that holy ground is anywhere that you meet God. So it's this this both and type thing.

I'd say, what kind of opportunities are available to you in using your gifts, talents, and passion in the world? And you wanna you want me to stop right there, but then I would be specific. I would say in the months ahead. In the months ahead. And the reason being is because sometimes when we dream big dreams, especially when we dream big dreams of what the church could be, or who we could be in the church, and what we could do to serve God.

We kick the can so far down the road that it's safe. We don't have to do anything we're uncomfortable with. We don't have to give up anything, because it's always tomorrow. So I'd ask you specifically, what are the things what are the opportunities available to you and using your gifts, talents, and passions in the world in the months ahead? And this today, this conversation could be simply titled, what are you going to do about it?

Because I would ask you, what are you willing to do to create more opportunities? Few years ago, a a guy by the name of Tom Norquist came up to me and he said, have you ever been on an international mission trip? My answer was, I'm from rural Alabama. I've never been west of the Mississippi. And he he had noticed that the the mission trips I'd been on, I was leading them.

Right? I wasn't I was sometimes wasn't the only leader, but it was I was carrying a group to do a mission, you know, and they had all been inside the continental US. And he said, well, good. Because you're going to Jamaica to build a playground. And I was like, oh, okay.

I am now. Okay. Well, thank you very much. I had never been on a plane before. So so there I am.

I I make it to Jamaica. And and the reason I think I'm thinking about all this is because, you know, I had one of those memory things pop up, and it was me in Jamaica, and it was very fitting. It was honestly the favor of the Lord because I was thinking about this sermon this morning. And I remember very clearly the rhythm, like the groove that everyone was in. There was a guy there that he was the logistics guy, and he loved logistics.

He was passionate about it. So he made sure there was a container there that had everything to build the playground, and so we had all the tools. Everything was waiting. And there were a couple of guys that their full time job was to build playgrounds. And they were so passionate about it, and they were so gifted at it that when they had time off, they went on mission trips and built more playgrounds.

And there was a couple from Canada that traveled all around in a camper and they did. They build playgrounds and they did other service projects and that was their retirement. And everybody worked so well together because everybody was doing what they were passionate about. I was mainly messing around, pulling pranks, and getting in the way. But that's also my talent.

Playgrounds are much different than they used to be. Used to if you went down the slide in the summertime, you know you're gonna you're gonna have a 3rd degree burn on your back. And so now they're so they're so much more safe, and so they put hydraulic fluid in the merry go rounds, so they won't go as fast. So I did drain half of that out, because if you are gonna get on merry-go-round, it's no fun if there isn't some moderate danger of flying off. So if you're in Kingston, Jamaica, right across from I forget the name of the school, but you'll you'll recognize it.

Don't get on the merry-go-round. But this idea of people working in their gifts and talents. And so we've talked about over across the month, across the last 4 weeks about God and where we meet him and holy ground and that when you're walking around during the day, any place you encounter God is holy ground. We talked about gifts. Right?

How how you were so gifted from God. Like, what are the things and if you haven't take a taken a spiritual gifts assessment in your life, please let us know. We'll make sure we can point you to a good one. We talked about, like, what are the things you're passionate about. Right?

What are the things you care about? What are the things that you you have a feeling in you when you see it, or or don't see it happening? We talked about the Holy Spirit, how that's like the thing that that pulls all this together. So I wanna reread the scripture. And as I read it, I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in covering scripture, and what do we need to say, and this and that, that we don't sit in scripture enough.

Right? If you've ever if you've ever been on a Bible reading plan, and you're like, oh, I'm I'm so far behind. So I want you to think about what stands out to you from the scripture. Just make a mental note of it. It's okay.

And then I'm gonna share some of the things that stand out to me. And over all of these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Since as members of 1 body, you were called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of cross dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit.

Singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether it in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Now, we're gonna take like a moment of silence, because our lives are so busy. Very rarely do we sit in scripture, and very rarely do we do it in silence. I'm not gonna tell you how long it's gonna be.

It's gonna be long enough for it start to feel awkward. So let's just take a moment of silence and think about that right now. It's weird how silence makes time slow down. Right? Where 30 seconds feels like 3 minutes.

Some of you are like 3 minutes underwater. 3 minutes feels like 3 hours. Sometimes when we we get quiet and we sit in scripture, we we think about things that we haven't before and it it allows us a chance to to listen. So a couple I just wanna share a couple of things that stood out to me from that scripture. And it's okay if you and I have different things that that stand out because that's the great thing about the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's equipping you and calling you. But the phrase love binds everything together in perfect harmony. We live in a world where unity and harmony are not words we use to describe like the things we see every day. And also the word love gets used for a lot of things. Like I love my daughter.

I also love Burger King. I do not love those things the same. You know, I love chicken fries much less than my daughter. But I still regularly say, I love Burger King. I love breakfast food.

Or what about the the love that's, I love you because I have to love you. Right? It's like the the relatives that we don't like to spend time with. You may not have those. I do.

Or we we said that a lot in church. Right? Well, I love you because I love Jesus. And even though you're trying to be kind and compassionate, you're still kinda saying, Jesus makes me love you. But there's a there's a different kind of love, and like when you when you're looking at this and you're thinking about what has God called you to do, what is God pressing on your heart to do to move, to be active?

It's the love that trust we were we are all doing the very best we can. I can get as frustrated as the next person. And if I can remember if I can remember that for the most part, people are really doing their best. A lot of times it helps soften my heart a little bit, right? And so then when I'm trying to love because Jesus tells me to love them, it's not because I have to.

It's because I get to. And when we raise each other up in that, it's the love that picks us up when we fall down. If you've been here the last couple weeks, I've I've repeatedly said how the church loved loves me well. And I've experienced being picked up when down. And because of that, this church is capable of that.

That becomes the baseline. And it's that kind of love that I know that everyone in here is capable of. There's no getting out of it now. It's when we have the peace of Christ in our hearts. It's when we're we're trusting that God is going to supply our needs.

That we begin to want the best for others. And then there's a second part of this, right? Because we may spend a lot of our lives, oh, I wish them the best. We're here in the South, bless their hearts. It's wishing the best for others and helping them achieve it through the love of Christ.

That second part is the extra mile that you have to do. As the church, that's what we're called to do. Scripture also that that scripture also mentions like one body, we work together for the good of the church and the good of the kingdom. And and I list those things separately because working for the good of the church is not bad, right? That's great.

But if we're never also carrying that same kind of love out into the world, if we're not also experiencing and then sharing what we what we experience in this building out into the world, we are not doing what we've been called to do. We work together for the good of the church and the good of the kingdom. We don't leave the work to 1 or 2 people. We all work and give based on our giftedness and abilities. That was ironic to me this week.

You know, we we had a church member that said, hey, the conditions that are coming right in the storm, and and what we experience here is a a small inconvenience compared to what the rest of the country and areas are experiencing. But, they said, hey, the conditions are just right for a couple of the buildings over there to flood. And I was like, bet. Watch this. And because I like to do things by myself, and it's not because it's the best way to do them.

It's a little bit of my own arrogance. It's a little bit of like, I could I'll just do that myself. And so I prepared for the water to come in. Right? And I'm gonna brag on myself a little bit.

Up until 2 o'clock in the morning, I was winning that fight. It was beautiful. I had pumps going. I was running back and forth to different rooms with a shop vac. And then shortly after 2 o'clock, I was losing the war on the water.

Big time. There was no way I was going to keep up. And then I sat there, and I thought, you know what? You're preaching on Sunday, and you have in your notes that we work together, and you're sitting over here by yourself. You know, that's the Holy Spirit, like, convicting me.

So I started sending some texts. I'm like so and I I sent a text. It was like, hey, you know, we have so much giftedness in our church. I sent a text to to a contractor and I said, hey, he's a member of the church. Right?

Hey, we're probably gonna need some guys here in the morning. He met me here at 8 o'clock in the morning, Like everybody's working to clean. I'm not doing it by myself anymore. And I thought to myself, wow, good on you Holy Spirit for convicting me. I sent some emails about some people that would be displaced in their Sunday school classes and and they were like, you you need us to come up and grab a shop vac or bring a shop vac?

You know, another staff was like, hey, do you need some help? We work together for the good of the church and the good of the kingdom. And I say that all of these things so that you know that I have to say these things to myself. We don't leave the work to 1 or 2 people. We work and give based on our giftedness and abilities.

That scripture tells us to be thankful. We're we're thankful for the community of saints, the community around us. We're thankful even though it represents a great need for the opportunities to live and give our best back to God and the church. I said earlier in this series that that if we start thinking about how we don't have the resources, it's so easy to get negative so quickly. But if we can remember that the opportunities and the the fact that we don't have resources because there's such a great need, Then we begin to think of creative ways to to continue to serve, even when we we feel like there's a lack of resources.

I like that scripture because it it makes me think about a picture of the church. What it could look like. What it can look like. What maybe it will look like. And I wish I had a way of like showing you the future, or the the world where these verses were fully lived into.

The diversity of our church, the strength, the richness of giftedness. Because if everybody in here if I if I went around 1 person at a time, 1 person at a time, and I said, tell me a need you see in this community or in this world. I guarantee you there's someone in this church that is gifted in that area. There's somebody in this church that's passionate in that area. And what would the world look like?

What would our church look like? What would the community look like? What would the world look like? If we fully lived into these verses. What if we spend our life saying yes to the opportunities that God puts in our life?

What if we had a blank slate? What if everybody put up a blank piece of paper or an index card? And when they thought of something that was a need, when they when something like touched their heart, when something broke their heart, like things break God's heart, they wrote that down, and they're like, okay. Where can I serve in this area? Oh, there's nothing set up right now?

I'm gonna do that. What if we said, yes? What if we were always looking for the next opportunity to obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit? And now that I've talked to you about these things, we look at those questions that I started with again. Has anyone ever given you an opportunity that allowed you to use your gifts in leadership and service?

I hope they have. But if they have not, call the church office. If you have my number, call me. We've got something for you. But if they have, why did they offer it to you?

It's important to keep that in your mind. It's important to be able to remember that because the day that you think you are not good enough, or you can't do enough, or you're not skilled in that area, think back to the time that someone asked you to do something. It's because they saw something in you. Who do you know that has your dream job or dream service opportunity? I like to encourage people to dream big dreams.

Right? Bible's full of them. Bible's full of things with that shouldn't have worked out and did. Crazy things like, you know, if you pray hard enough, the whole the sun will freeze in the sky. That's a true story.

You can look it up, but I'm not gonna tell you where it is because you should look it up. But if somebody's already doing that, or if that already exists, what would you ask that person? Because I'm gonna encourage you to do that. There's an author, I really like his books, and he and he he put his personal cell phone number in the back of the book, and I thought that was the weirdest thing I'd ever heard, and there was no world that that he just let people call him. So I just called it.

He's like, hello? Freaked me out. I hung up, you know. But I heard him speak enough like like I knew that it was him. I was actually impressed immediately that someone actually answered the phone, period.

I thought it would be for sure a recording. I want you to think about what kind of opportunities are available to you in using your gifts, your talents, and passion in the world. And then apply the in the months ahead. So that you're not picking this thing that you can say, I'll get to that a year from now. I'll get to that 2 years from now.

Because we've been called to an active and vibrant discipleship. We've been called to an active faith. And what are you willing to do to create more opportunities, Not just for yourself, but for others. This is the ultimate, what are you gonna do about it question. I'm about the band to come on up front, and and I wanna take a time to to pray for these things.

We leave here today almost with more questions than answers, but that's also okay. Because there are times that we need to stop, sit in scripture, and ask god, what do you want me to do? Or we need to sit and we need to say, what what am I passionate about? What am I gifted in? Maybe that's what God's calling you to.

Let's pray together. Father God, we pray today that each one of us can be active and contributing members of your kingdom and of bringing that kingdom here. God, you speak our names. Calling us into service, calling us to love you. We are known by you.

Continue to speak our names, but more than anything we know you will. Help us to hear it. Help us to discern it. Help us to to sit and listen to the calling of the holy spirit. Help us to have the strength and the discernment to see the needs in the world, to to see the things that break our hearts that also break yours.

Thank you for the the giftedness that we each have. And remind us when we doubt that you have equipped us to use that to bring your love and your kingdom into the world. Oh my god, we thank you for your presence here today. And everything you've blessed us with, our hearts cry out to you. It's in your son's holy name we pray.

Amen.