Rev. Graham Crawford continues his series on Stewardship in this sermon on 20 September 2015:

This morning we are continuing the series that we have been instructed to conduct on stewardship by looking at our stewardship of talents.

In other words, how are you using the gifts God has given you to bring glory to God?

We have addressed this issue many times over the last 12 years as I have encouraged you to examine your SHAPE for ministry.

SHAPE stands for Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experience. By considering these 5 areas, the idea is that you can understand more about –

• who you are,
• how God has made you and
• how he has used life to shape you.

As a result of this examination, many really good things have happened that have blessed you and this town of Lossiemouth.

Some of you have used your talents to steer the Youth café through a particularly rough period in its brief history. Some of you have used your talents to start and run new ministries like the “Tea and chat”. Others have used their talents to help with maintenance of the buildings. We have got exceptional people doing exceptional things for the Kingdom of God.

At first glance, they may not seem exceptional, but they are, because no-one else could do them. No-one else has that unique blend of gifts, abilities and passion that would enable them faithfully and fruitfully to carry out those tasks.

This was a fact that was well known to the Psalmist who wrote:

Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

A special role for each one of us

We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

God designed and made us to fulfil his purposes here at St. James and here in Lossiemouth.

Each one of us is unique and special for the task that he has for us.

Let me repeat that, as it is crucial that everyone understands this: God has a unique and special place for you in his kingdom and a role that only you can fill. We are unique and special for the task God has for us.

Taking the time to discover what we should be doing

I believe that one of the biggest things holding back the Church, however, is that we never take the time or make the effort to find out what we should be doing.

We dive in feet first, thinking something must be done, and then end up getting burnt out or disillusioned because our heart just isn’t in it. We felt guilty, so we volunteered. We find ourselves in over our heads, because we don’t have the skills, and, as a result, we find ourselves reluctant to volunteer again.

I am reading a book at the moment by one of the keynote speakers at the conference I will be attending in January.

In it, he talks about the crisis that he faced in his own ministry. Now, he was a full time minister, but what he faced and had to confront I think will resonate with many people who have been involved in church ministry at any level.

He is a very dynamic person and was brought in to a church to start a youth ministry. With his charisma, his energy and enthusiasm, it was incredibly successful. He was a brilliant youth minister.

But, as his success grew, so did his discontent. The reason was that, as the ministry was getting bigger and bigger, he was having to work with more and more volunteers. As he worked with these volunteers, less and less time was spent actually working with young people and more and more time was spent administering the programme. As a result, the programme started to fail and he became very depressed. The reason was actually fairly easy to recognise. The job had changed and his heart and talents were no longer suited for what the job had become.

That can happen to everyone, from volunteers upwards.

I was talking to someone just the other week who has realised that the volunteer ministry he was involved in has changed -because of a major change in the organisation – and he is no longer suited for the role he was filling. Wisely, he sees it as a time to get out before he gets burnt out. Not too many of us see that so clearly. The question now is, what ministry can we plug this very capable person into, or what ministry can we start so that they remain involved, active and feel affirmed through ministry in a new field?

I think often we discover only by looking back that jobs – volunteer posts we loved to fill at one time – have subtly changed over the years and so we find ourselves discontented or burnt out and wonder why.

So, we announce we are giving up. We feel tired, we feel unappreciated even, and so drop out of our involvement. As that happens, even our church attendance suffers and we gradually drop away.

Others gaze on in amazement, wondering what happened to that faithful member who was so involved yet now they so rarely see.

All of this could be avoided, if we recognise where our gifts, our talents, our enthusiasm, personality and experience could best be put to use in our involvement in God’s Kingdom.

All of this could be avoided if we recognised:

• the entrepreneurs in the congregation,
• the administrators,
• those who are gifted to serve quietly behind the scenes,
• those who are gifted to lead, and
• those who are gifted in teaching, for example.

The list of gifts is much greater – the list of talents much fuller – but, if we could just do a better job of recognising these for ourselves, this place would be transformed.

It would be full of people who would be going through life feeling affirmed and blessed by their ministry.

It would be full of people who would not be afraid to say: “I have taken this as far as I can take it. You have the gifts to take it to the next level. You take it over, while I go and work over here instead, where I can continue to bless and be blessed using my gifts.”

Now, some of you might be thinking that this is too innovative, too radical (that this is contemporary management speak).

But I want to tell you that not only is it as old as the church itself, but it is biblical in its very core.

Remember what Paul wrote to the very earliest churches (Ephesians 4):

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

In another letter he said this (1 Corinthians 12):

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Later on in that same chapter he says:

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

No one does everything but everyone does something …

… And, when God brings us all together, we achieve miracles.

So let’s stop sitting on the side-lines and get involved in the game.

Let’s take stock of where we are as individuals: what we like, what we do well at and then think and pray, talk to friends and say: “I love doing this, I am good at that. How can I use that in God’s service?”

For that is what it means to be a steward of your talents. That is what will gain you the ultimate reward when you arrive at the throne of grace and are told: “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”