Do I Know My Niche?

A Sermon By Jim Hammond from (1 Corinthians 12)

The Worship Service In the Forest

In the forest a rabbit, bird, fish, squirrel, a duck and so on, gathered together to have a church service. The rabbit of course insisted that running be included as part of the worship service. The bird insisted that flying be included as part of the curriculum for worship. “After all,” she said, “if you have never flown, you have never truly worshiped.” The fish insisted on swimming, the squirrel, on climbing and so on. Each one loved each other and wanted to encourage one another so they made great attempts at worshipping in the ways that their friends insisted. Although the rabbit was magnificent at the running thing, he really didn’t do so well when he attempted the flying thing. They put him in a high limb, with much help from the squirrel then insisted he jump off when they shouted, “Fly Rabbit!” The rabbit crashed to the ground, broke his leg, and fractured his skull. The rabbit doesn’t run as fast as he used to run and he never did learn how to fly.[i]

When you think of a worship service you probably think about what we do on Sunday mornings at our “Worship Service”. And although you might see yourself in that story as a fish out of water when we sing particular songs. Maybe on a youth Sunday you feel like a fish trying to fly to worship with the youth band the music that is different than you grew up with, or visa versa, a young person feels like a bird trying to swim when asked to worship with a particular ancient hymn. This is not why I told the story of the worship service in the forest today. There is another kind of worship service that the Bible speaks about. The biblical use of the term worship isn’t just a once a week kind of thing. In fact, worship isn’t just a sit and pray and praise or sing kind of thing either. Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Romans 12:1 (NIV) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

The spiritual act of worship here isn’t singing, or praying. It is offering yourself in some act of service. Now with this in mind I want you to get back to the story of the worship service in the forest. Here’s the question I want you to ask yourself. How productive is an act of service, if that act of service is one we are ill equipped to render? Oh, it might be valuable for an occasion. But over the long haul we better run if God designed us as rabbits rather than fly. When we are serving by sacrifice only, we may become ineffective for tomorrow’s service in the areas to which we are equipped and called. Like the rabbit we are unable to run because we have been working in areas for which we are ill equipped. What I want us to discover today are the acts of worship that we are designed for! God has designed each of us to offer worship according to our own little niche!

Focus: God has a grand design and he has a special niche just for you in His grand design. It is exciting to feel a part of God’s purpose when we use our gifts in the way God intended.

The Grand Design

The Bible tells us that every Christian is given a unique gift, or a unique set of gifts. These gifts are from God’s Spirit, so we call them gifts of the Spirit. God gives them so that we can be a part of his grand design. Simply stated, that grand design is that as Christ served the needs of this world, now the church, Christ’s community, is Christ’s body on earth serving the needs of this world. It is exciting to feel a part of God’s purpose when we use our gifts in the way God intended. So what’s your gift? Do you know your niche?

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NIV) ¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

An Oil Lamp

An oil lamp illustrates well how to shine the light of Christ. Oil in scripture often represents the Spirit. Oil was used for anointing. Christ was the anointed one, God’s Spirit was upon him, filled him and flowed through him. An oil lamp burns properly only when there is oil in the lamp. Though the wick is lit, it is primarily the oil that burns. When we operate our gifts as God intended, the oil in our lamp burns and we are lights for the world. When we attempt to operate outside of God’s design, the wick burns but not the oil. It is sacrifice, and sometimes a light is offered, but watch out; if you are not burning oil, you are burning your wick and you will experience burnout! That is why today’s scripture is extremely important for our consideration.

I. God Wants You to Know Your Niche (12:1)

One of Websters’ definition for “Niche” is “a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted.” God wants us to know this. In fact he gives us gifts to employ, and when we put these into practice we are doing that for which we are best fitted.

1 Corinthians 12:1 (NIV) Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.

God does not want you to be ignorant about spiritual gifts.

Spiritual Gifts—Definition and Purpose

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (NIV) ⁴There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. ⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

Spiritual gifts are special abilities for spiritual purposes given by the Holy Spirit to every believer according to God’s design and grace.

Spiritual gifts are given for the purpose of building up the church, making it effective. Why does God give us these gifts? He gives them for the benefit of the body of Christ and the glory of God (12:7). These gifts are given so that those with these gifts can give their benefit to others. So another way to put it is that gifts are given to be given. We are most happy when we use these gifts to strengthen others.

I like the way John Piper put it: “A spiritual gift is an ability given by the Holy Spirit to express our faith effectively (in word or deed) for the strengthening of someone else's faith.”[ii]

Finding our niche makes us happy. However this means gifts are not given to be hoarded, but to be given for the benefit of others.

God wants you to know your niche! He also wants you to understand that your niche is different than other people’s niches. Do I know my gift? Am I ignorant about my gift or gifts?

II. Ignorance About Spiritual Gifts Causes Problems

Gifts are designed to bring us together not divide us. In the Corinthian church, gifts were dividing and causing chaos. Chaotic worship services necessitated a discussion about the diverse expressions of the gifts within the context of the unity of the body. Chapters 12-14 were written in part to restore order to the worship service. No gift, or person is useless. God made the arrangement so that nobody is left out, or despised.

God designed the church to be interdependent. If you are not in a context of interdependent relationships, you are still operating outside of God’s design for you. He created you for a team. He didn’t create you to operate all by yourself. Nor did he create you to sit on the sidelines and watch life happen around you. He created you for the team to function as part of that team. The acronym TEAM is particularly appropriate for the Church, the body of Christ—Together Everybody Achieves More. Sometimes just knowing this truth is empowering.

Buddy the Horse

An out-of-towner drove his car into a ditch in a desolated area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his big strong horse named Buddy. He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!" Buddy didn't move.

Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" Buddy didn't respond.

Once more the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!" Nothing.

Then the farmer nonchalantly said, "Pull, Buddy, pull!" And the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch. The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.

The farmer said, "Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn't even try."

Aren’t we all like Buddy? It is hard to keep serving when we feel like we are serving alone.

Here are some of the problems that Ignorance about the gifts caused:

The Corinthians were ignorant of the facts:

· The operation of gifts includes diversity and unity

· Everyone does not have to be the same

· Different gifts have different purposes that work together for a common purpose

· All the gifts work together to build up the team not tear it apart by comparison, and competition

· Nobody has all the gifts and No gift should be expected by everyone

· Every member of the body has at least one gift, even if you don’t recognize it in someone else because it doesn’t look like yours, (or because yours doesn’t look like the one you think is great but don’t have)

· Every gift is important just as every member is important

Corinth had problems because they were ignorant about gifts.

Abraham Maslow said, If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. [iii]

Everyone tends to see needs and problems from the vantage points they have with the gift they have. It becomes easy to see how problems can develop when one person sees his gift as the gift everyone should have.

A. I need to know that . . .

1. God Decides Who Gets What, and When (4-6, 11)

How do we decide which gift we will receive? God gives the gifts. It is not up to us to decide. (12:4-6, 11). We might ask for some gift, or desire specific gifts, but God is the one who decides and gives. It is up to us to use what he has given us.

2. Every Christian is given a gift

Every Christian is given one or more. They don’t have to do anything to receive it. They just have to operate it, and in so doing they discover their niche. For the Christian, the issue is not so much how do I receive this gift, but how do I discover what I have received. If you are not a Christian, then you don’t have a spiritual gift yet, you just have God given talents. Natural talents and spiritual gifts are different, although they might work together.

Some Christians are given Multiple Gifts

The list of gifts here or anywhere listed in scripture is not exhaustive. The lists vary from one reference to another. (cf., 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4). Paul himself had multiple gifts, apostleship (2 Cor. 1:11), celibacy (1 Cor. 7:7) tongues (1 Cor. 14:18), and prophecy, teaching, evangelism, and administration.

Some gifts are common graces that even those without the “gift” must exercise

· Faith, (1 Cor 12:9) a prerequisite for every believer

· Evangelism

· Giving (Romans 12:8)

· Mercy

· Ministry i.e., service (Romans 12:8)

Everybody out of obedience must exercise all of these, but some are gifted in these areas. When a person is gifted in these, just watch them, and you watch God at work through their gift in amazing ways.

3. Each Gift (and member) is Important

The Sea Captain and the Chief Engineer

A sea captain and his chief engineer were arguing over who was most important to the ship. To prove their point to each other, they decided to swap places. The chief engineer ascended to the bridge, and the captain went to the engine room. Several hours later, the captain suddenly appeared on deck covered with oil and dirt. "Chief!" he yelled, waving aloft a monkey wrench. "You have to get down there: I can't make her go!" "Of course you can't," replied the chief. "The ship’s run aground!" On a team we don't excel each other; we depend on each other. [iv]

4. Need defines the greatest Gifts

It is not only the elite pious who function with the greater gifts. Each member is urged to desire these and seek to operate in the gifts that will be most useful to the body

5. It is unhealthy to be an uninvolved Christian

It is as unhealthy as not exercising.

Men and women no longer take exercise in sport as they used to. Instead, people tend to sit in crowds and just watch other people play. There was a time when people provided their own pleasure but now the radio and television provide their entertainment and pleasure for them. And I fear that the tendency is even manifesting itself in the Christian Church.

More and more we see evidence that people are just sitting back in crowds while one or two people are expected to be doing everything. Now that, of course, is a complete denial of the New Testament doctrine of the Church as the Body of Christ, where every single member has responsibility, and has a function, and matters. [v]

1 Corinthians 12:26 (NIV) If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

It is unhealthy to be a lone ranger Christian. You cannot feel what other people feel. You do not know the needs around you. You have nowhere to express your faith. You are in a vacuum that does not allow for you to grow. Stunted with no place to exercise your faith, you get into the “bless me lord, bless me lord” mentality, giving God no reason to bless you, and every reason to let you fall so that you might wake up to the realities of life. There are people around you that need what you have to offer and might even spend eternity without God if you don’t wake up! There are others around you who will suffer and will falter in their faith if you don’t wake up and get to know them well enough to feel what they feel, and understand them.

A medical doctor, Paul Brand wrote, “The body poorly protects what it does not feel. In the spiritual Body, also, loss of feeling inevitably leads to atrophy and inner deterioration. So much of the sorrow in the world is due to the selfishness of one living organism that simply does not care when another suffers. In Christ's Body we suffer because we do not suffer enough.”[vi]

III. How do I Discover My Niche?

I am going to take a different track than most to answer this question. Most of the studies designed to help people discover their gift, explain each gift then, after defining each one, everyone is urged to evaluate themselves to see which ones seem to fit their personality, and desires, and inclinations. Many times gift inventory assessments tests are given to help in the process of discovery. We don’t have time to go through that process right now, and although it may be helpful, and we do help you though a similar process in CLASS 301, I want to give you a simplified approach to this question that you can apply starting TODAY.

Since a spiritual gift is designed to strengthen others, rather than working real hard to bend your mind, and become introspective, and evaluate yourself this morning, I want you to think of somebody else’s need this morning. Can you think of anyone who might be struggling in their faith in any way. Now, with that person in mind is their anything that comes to mind that you can do to help strengthen and support that person? Think for a moment. Will it be a phone call for encouragement? What comes to mind in terms of what would be most helpful to say? Does a warning come to mind, where you lovingly attempt to warn. Is it encouragement that comes to mind? Is it empathy they need? Mercy? Or will you serve their need in some way? Perhaps you decide to go over and bring a plate of food, or offer to help clean the house. Maybe you are convinced you should offer your services some other way. Do you see what I am getting at here? Each of us has something to offer. And what comes to mind is probably a gift we can offer. Gifts are to be given. Their purpose is for building up. Depending on our niche, what we have been given, we will approach the same situation differently. One of you might exhort, or counsel, whereas another one of you with that same need, serves, helps, and cleans, in a work of service.

Too often we think of gifts as “my gift”. I don’t know how healthy that is. First of all, it is God’s gift, his choice to give it. He chooses when and where to give it, and we are channels blessing others when we function with his gift. So let’s not turn this thing inwardly to ourselves but begin to see a need and think how we can meet that need. When we do that, we are exercising the gifts. And when we do that, we will begin to fall into certain patterns. We begin to find certain niches we enjoy. We find great joy in making a difference. Look around you. Ask God to show you a need you can do something about. As you bless someone else, you will be giving them a gift, a gift that you have received freely and are giving freely.

The problem often is not ignorance about what gift we have, but a more basic problem of selfishness, not desiring to serve others or God at all because our motivations and desires lie elsewhere thinking that will make us happy. I believe we won’t be happy till we find our niche serving others with the gifts God has given us to give! It is probably your niche you have discovered if others say to you, “Thank you so much, I really appreciate what a great thing you’ve done”, but you are thinking, “Great? Not really, it was no big deal at all, in fact it was my pleasure.” When you truly find the thing that is your pleasure to do, do it, it’s a gift. It will make you happy, and it will strengthen and bless others as well.

Find any service that you can say, “It’s my pleasure, really!,” and honestly mean it. When you have found that, it is probably your gift. It is probably your strength. We often don’t recognize our strengths because they are easy for us. Few of us really know our strengths. The great teachers, and great leaders, recognize strengths and focus on them. Sometimes people operating in their gifts don’t really feel like they are giving much because it comes so naturally to them. It really is their pleasure. Don’t start putting all your energy into your weaknesses then neglect your gift, your strength. Find what you can honestly say after serving someone, “It’s my pleasure, really!”, then do that more.

Be warned of another danger. Once you discover you strength be careful not to take credit for it. Be thankful that God gives you this strength. Be careful not to neglect common obedience because it is not your gift.

If you can’t think of a service you can offer and say honestly, “It’s my pleasure.” Then you might consider praying and confessing to God that you have been living a selfish lifestyle and haven’t been faithful with the gifts God has given you to give others. Make it your prayer today to make a difference for people around you. If you aren’t a talker, teacher, counselor, encourager type, maybe there are people you can serve without saying a word. Maybe you are the helper, server type.

If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, the first gift you need to seek this morning is the basic gift. The gift of salvation freely offered by God through Christ, based on what he has done on the cross. Acts of service in no way earn our way into heaven. These acts of service we are talking about have no merit at all. They are just ways in which we say thank you to our God and respond to him in love for what he has done for us already. If you want a relationship with God, and you want his gifts you might pray a prayer like this.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for making a way for me to have a relationship with you, a holy God. I am a sinner. I fall short of your expectations for me. I can’t help it, so I do want the gift of forgiveness you offer me through Jesus. I want you to be my leader. I want your spirit in my life so I can see the changes in me that would please you. I would like to be of service to you also as a way of saying thank you for giving me life, and forgiveness, and eternal life through what Jesus did. Forgive me for ignoring you for so long. I want your gifts. Please give them to me.

If you asked Jesus into your life for the first time this morning please tell me about it. I’d like to give you practical support in your decision. Remember this isn’t the lone ranger Christian thing. We are a team, and interdependent.

If you have already asked the Lord Jesus into your life, and have already given him your allegiance as a Christian, pray with me this morning this way.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for giving me something to offer somebody else. Open my eyes to see the needs around me today. Fill my heart with the desire to make a difference for someone today, that with what I have to offer them, they might be encouraged, or strengthened. Please grant that at the end of today somebody will be more confident of Your promises and more joyful in Your grace because I crossed his path.

In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

[i] adapted from Leo Buscaglia’s version about educational curriculum in his book Living, Loving, and Learning

[ii] Spiritual Gifts, John Piper http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper81/031581m.htm

[iii] Leadership, Vol. 1, no. 2

[iv] Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 4.

[v] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Revival. Christianity Today, Vol. 31, no. 18.

[vi] Paul Brand, M.D., Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 4.