First Christian Church, Wauchula, FL

Americans spend $80 billion a year on gift cards. Over 8 billion of that goes unused and unredeemed.

There’s a story I want to tell you about Teaching Pastor Lloyd Shadrach from Fellowship Bible Church (FBC) in Nashville, TN.  Lloyd was set to deliver a message on spiritual gifts and in my opinion was very courageous to start his message on gifts the way he did.  At FBC an intro video plays before each sermon to give context to the series or book of the Bible they are studying. The video played as usual, and then nothing happened. No Lloyd. No Lloyd for like a minute.

You may not realize this but for each service we have a set schedule, timed for each and every part of our service.  FBC is the same way.  When you have a set schedule and use every second of the service for everything from music, prayer, and preaching to announcements a minute feels like a long time. But not as long as five minutes which was how long it had been when Lloyd who was sitting on the front row, gets up and walks out.  Not onto the stage but out of the worship center.  A few minutes later he came back in to sit down, like he had casually been to the bathroom or something.  He follows that up by making a cell phone call to arrange dinner with a friend after the service. He chatted with the person next to him about what to do, because he did not want to teach.

After thirteen minutes of listening to him do nothing, he finally stood up and asked the church how this had made them feel. People were eager to say they almost left or they were frustrated or some even confessed to being angry and felt cheated. What ever the spectrum people found themselves on all of them in some way felt unsetteled and incomplete; they felt like they were short-changed. Then Lloyd said this; (now read this carefully because this is very important)…“this is how it feels when someone chooses not to use their gift to benefit others for God’s glory.” His object lesson was brilliant because it taught a very effective lesson in a concentrated amount of time.

When you are not using your spiritual gifts regularly, you leave a huge void. People and the church suffer. Lloyd’s gift to teach, unused, threw everyone at FBC that day into a tailspin and his inaction caused a ripple through the body.
We all have spiritual gifts. All to be used in the measure in which we have. When I don’t use mine, you suffer. When you don’t use yours, I suffer.

So…Be who God made you to be and do what God made you to do…I need you!  We need each other!!!

Take some time today and read 1 Corinthians 12 & 1 Peter 4:10.  You’ll be glad you did.