“It’s my responsibility to use my gifts for the good of the Kingdom. David can’t serve for me. No one else can do what God has created me to do. The church doesn’t exist to meet my needs. I don’t come and receive. I also come to give. I play a critical role in this body. Without me, something is missing. Without the gifts and talents God has given to me, the body is crippled in what it can do. It’s on me to serve. No one else can do it for me.”
You have purpose. You were created on purpose for a purpose. You are awesome. You are amazing. You were worth dying for. Instilled in you are gifts, talents and passions by God. God instilled them in you to be used for His glory to build His Kingdom. God instilled you with them so that through them the body might be lifted up, encouraged and better equipped to share the story of a God who loves them enough to die for them with those who are lost and dying.
This is how God made you. This is how God designed you in your mother’s womb. This is who you were created to be. The gifts, talents and passions you have are no accident. Your gifts are not more or less important than someone else’s. This is not a talent competition, not a popularity competition, not any kind of competition. Who you are is who you are supposed to be. Who you are is who God wanted you to be.
When you try to suppress your gifts and pursue other gifts, you not only hinder your own life but the life of the whole body. God didn’t make you to do what that other person can do. That’s why He made that other person. He made you to do what you can do. That’s why He made you. You can’t do what that other person can do. There are others who can’t do what you can do.
When you aren’t using your gifts to build up the body, the whole body is affected. When you hurt a part of your physical body, other parts of your body have to work harder to compensate. When you hurt your leg, your other leg, your arms and back have to make up for the work the hurt leg is supposed to do. The same is true in the body of Christ. When one member doesn’t do what they were created to do, other parts of the body have to make up for the missing piece.
As a church, we try to create opportunities for you to serve. We try to get you plugged into meaningful service that is inline with your gifts, talents and passions. And we find joy in doing so. But ultimately, it is not our responsibility to get you to serve. It is yours. At the end of the day, neither I nor anyone else can make you serve. Only you can. I can twist your arm, I can guilt you into trying something. But that won’t last. You’ll hate it, you’ll get burned out, you’ll get frustrated and walk away angry. But if you find your place to serve and you take the responsibility for it, you have a much better shot at doing it for the long haul and finding joy in it.
We need you. Just like God created you as a person on purpose for a purpose, God designed this SixEight body with you in it on purpose for a purpose. It is not happenstance that you are here. It is not coincidence. God led you here because He has more for you. You have incredible worth and value. You are made in God’s image. He has more for you in your relationship with Him. He has more for you in your commitment to community and building up relationships with your SixEight family. He has more for you in the area service. You have a purpose in this body. We are incomplete without you.