Introduction

I grew up reading comic books: Fantastic Four, Spider Man, Hulk, and Iron Man. The last decade has been fun, as comic book hero after hero has been brought to film. This summer alone has been great: X-Men First Class, Thor, and Captain America. And I'm excited for the Avengers to come out next summer.

So what makes for a good super hero? What sets them apart? The answer is simple: they have a special gift, or a super power. Let's look at a few.

Captain America has super strength and his shield. Thor is a Norse god and has a hammer. Iron Man has his armor. Wolverine possesses the ability to heal from almost anything, and he has claws. Spider Man has spider strength and the ability to make webs. And Batman has lots of gadgets.

Now what if I were to tell you that God has called each of you to be a super hero, and that once you give your life to Christ, he will give you your own super power? You'd think I'd been watching too many movies, right? But it's true.

We're in a series called "Life Force," looking at how God wants each of our lives to be significant, to be impacting and influential. Last week we learned the big secret of life force. In the Book of Mark, Jesus says, "So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all" (Mark 9:35, The Message). In Mark 10, he claims, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all" (Mark 10:43-44, NIV). And again from Mark 10: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45, NLT).

The key to a life that has force is you give yourself away in selfless service to others. It's new math. The first is last, and the least is greatest. The one who gives is the one who gets. Serving is what gives our life significance and power.

But we know that intuitively, don't we? The people who make the most difference with their lives are the ones who have given their lives away. Today we're going to look at how God gives us a super power to use while we give so that our life force can be amplified to supernatural levels. Let's dig into what the Bible says about this, because for a lot of people, this is new stuff.

The body of Christ

First, let's look at God's design for his great revolution, unleashed by Christ and his church. Paul writes in the Book of Romans, "Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other" (Rom. 12:4-5, NLT). The church, the body of Christ, which is so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell can withstand its onslaught, is made up of individuals like you and me. The church isn't a building or an event; it's a movement of people. And we, who are Christ-followers, have a part in that movement. We have functions to fulfill. We have unique work to do. We are the force, and each of us has a different role to fulfill.

Spiritual gifts

God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well .… If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly (Romans 12:6-8, NLT).

This text teaches us two things. First, we all have been given a unique ability, or set of abilities, by God. The Bible teaches that everyone who comes to Christ and enters into a relationship with him as Forgiver and Leader receives the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. And when that happens, the Holy Spirit gives you at least one spiritual gift to be used for what God is doing in this world through his church.

If you're not a Christ-follower, this kind of talk is probably new to you. However, you need to remember this as you continue your journey. If you ever cross the line and enter into a relationship with Christ, you can look forward to God making this a reality in your life.

He'll have a gift for you—probably multiple gifts. But if you're already there, it's done; it's already been given to you. It came into your life when you crossed the line of faith.

So what is a spiritual gift? Simply put, a spiritual gift is a supernatural ability to develop a particular capability for making a difference with your life through the church. You're probably wondering what kinds of gifts we are talking about. There are speaking gifts, such as teaching. There are people gifts, such as counseling, encouragement, hospitality, leadership, and mercy. There are service gifts, such as administration, giving, and helps. There are also gifts related to creativity and the arts. The list goes on and on.

The Bible provides multiple lists of gifts, but these lists are more suggestive than exhaustive. The Holy Spirit is creative in giving gifts. And there is no one gift that everyone is supposed to have. No gift is better or more spiritual than another. They all are special, because whatever gift you have was hand-picked and given to you by God.

What makes a gift spiritual, and not just a talent, is that it is a particular ability given to you by God when you become a Christian. Or, if that gift already existed as a natural ability, it is elevated to a supernatural level and infused with impact and potential in a way that only God can. But this happens only if you use it for him in building his church.

Finding your gift

But what's wrong with this picture? Yes, God calls us to live our lives in a way that results in greatness, impact, and significance, through service. Yes, he designed his revolution to take place as we come together and become a collective force, each filling a specific role. Sure, he empowers us supernaturally for those roles by giving us spiritual gifts. But why aren't more people living lives of significance? Why isn't the church shaping and influencing culture more than it is? Why aren't our spiritual gifts more evident to us and those around us? Where's the breakdown?

The first breakdown is the most basic. Imagine getting a gift from God. Inside is something he has handpicked, hand-created, for you. He tells you on the front end that it's going to be strategic to the difference you make with your life. It's going to be central to how he shows up and works through you. It's an actual ability, something you will be able to develop and perform that will have wildly disproportional impact on those around you. It's your super power.

Can you imagine getting this from God and never opening it, just blowing it off, shrugging your shoulders, putting it aside and moving on with life while it sits around and collects dust? That would be unthinkable, wouldn't it? Yet that's what we do.

Are you a follower of Christ but don't know what your spiritual gift is? Have you ever taken a test, studied it, learned what your gift is, but never looked into it? If I asked you for your top two or three spiritual gifts, would you be able to give me an answer? Or would you be clueless?

Now, in fairness, some of you didn't know about spiritual gifts until today. Today is like discovering a present tucked behind the tree at Christmas after you thought all of them had been opened. But whether you've known about it for years or just found out, the real issue is this: are you going to open it now?

But even if you find your gift, there is still more to the breakdown.

Using your gift

Another breakdown is never using your gift. Knowing about your gift is meaningless if you don't use it. If you're a leader, lead. If you're a teacher, teach. If your gift is helps, help. If it's counseling, counsel. If it's administration, administrate. If it's giving, give. If it's evangelism, then when the rest of us take only one or two pizza boxes for our new neighbors, you take a stack for every new person in a five-mile radius of your house!

Paul says, "Pay attention to the ministry you have received in the Lord, so that you can accomplish it" (Colossians 4:17, HCSB). And Peter says, "God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another" (1 Peter 4:10, NLT).

Using your gift helps you develop it, and it needs to be developed. A spiritual gift isn't something you are able to instantly do extraordinarily well without practice and experience. A spiritual gift is not an instant ability; it is a God-given capacity to develop an ability.

For example, just because you have the spiritual gift of teaching doesn't mean you are automatically a drop-dead, killer communicator. Your gift may be teaching, but right now, if you have no experience or training, you're probably not the world's greatest teacher. You probably show great promise and flashes of ability that are signs of your gift, but what you have is a supernatural capacity to develop the ability to teach at levels of great impact.

Listen to how the apostle Paul talks about this in a letter to Timothy, a man he was mentoring: "Do not neglect your gift .… Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress" (1 Timothy 4:14-15, NIV). Progress can be, and is meant to be, made in the area where you are gifted first. So find your gift, use it, and develop it.

Ways to get this wrong

There are still some ways to mess this up. Sometimes knowing about your gifts can get in the way of serving and maximizing your life force. The biggest problem of all is this: to make the gift more important than serving.

Let's say you find out your gift is teaching. So what do you do? You wait for a teaching opportunity. You only consider teaching opportunities. So when there is a need to serve the poor by building a house, or watch a child for a single-parent mom so that she can attend a class, or break down a site following a service, you say, "That's not my gift."

Your gift isn't what is most important; serving is. The most important thing is to throw yourself into the game, serving with an attitude of a servant.

Don't confuse the value of serving with the importance of using your spiritual gift. My primary gifts are teaching and leadership, and one day I will stand before God to give an account for my stewardship. I will be accountable for whether or not I had a servant's heart, whether or not I responded to Christ's call on my life.

You may not have the gift of giving, but you are called to give. You may not have the gift of evangelism, but you are still called to reach out to those around you for Christ. You may not have the gift of helps, but you are still called to invest in raw equity needed for the mission.

When we were meeting in schools, my job was to come out on Saturdays and vacuum the floors. Was that my spiritual gift? No, but it was my spiritual duty. When I'm at one of our sites, I help set up or break down, depending on when I'm there. Is that my spiritual gift? No, but it's my spiritual duty. I've held babies in our childcare facilities when I'm not teaching, I've mopped floors. One time I even cleaned the toilets!

I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. I just want to emphasize that our gifts do not absolve us from our primary role as a servant.

Washing feet

Where is this value coming from? Let me take you back to a scene in Jesus' life. Back in his day, they didn't have paved roads. Roads were mostly dirt, and people didn't wear shoes like we do. They went barefoot, or occasionally wore what we would call sandals. And the major form of transportation on these roads, if you weren't walking, was by donkey or camel. The roads were also used to move groups of cattle or sheep. So you had dirt, and manure, and who knows what else wherever you walked. And if it rained, it was a muddy, filthy mess.

So here's what people would do. Whenever you would go into an inn, or to a friend's house for a meal or party, there would be someone at the door—usually a paid servant—who had a basin of water and a towel, and they would wash and then dry your feet. But because people's feet would be so nasty, it was considered one of the lowliest jobs. But if by some chance there wasn't a paid servant to do the job, the first person who had arrived would do it until someone of lower rank could be pulled into service.

Once, Jesus was gathered with his disciples for the Passover feast, but there was no one at the door to wash feet. And none of the disciples volunteered for the position. So what happened? The Scriptures tell us, "He got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him" (John 13:4-5, NIV).

The issue here isn't just about humility, though that's important. The issue isn't about washing feet; that's symbolic. The issue is about having a servant's heart. It's about having a spirit, an attitude, that has a towel and basin, ready to serve others.

Conclusion

Here's my challenge to you: jump in. Start serving somewhere, somehow, someway. This is God's calling on your life: to serve, to make a difference. Take whatever you already understand about yourself—your personality, your interests, your passions, your talents, and your background—and use it to point yourself towards serving somewhere. At the very least, do what all of us need to do: serve at points of great need.

Jump in with a servant's heart, with a towel draped over your arm. Try to use your spiritual gifts intentionally. Look for additional ways to serve that might help you develop them. It's a life process that builds into a life force.

James Emery White is founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is a consulting editor to Leadership Journal. He is author of Serious Times and A Search for the Spiritual, and blogs at churchandculture.org.