Lukewarm and Loving It – Part Eight (end)

As we bring this mini-series of blogs to a close we are going to look at the seventh reason people are lukewarm in their relationship with Jesus and even with the Church. People are lukewarm because of their unused gifts.

Doctor Luke writes, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). Of course, lukewarm people have a different verse in their head…”The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you,’ unless of course, your church has plenty of hands. Then just sit and spectate.”

God’s plan is for you to commit your life to Christ, discover who you are in Christ, uncover your gifts, spend your life making a maximum impact on your world, and then arrive in heaven, where that great crowd will hear God shout, “Well done!” But it is possible that many believers are going to arrive in heaven only to hear, “What were you thinking?”

Scripture is crystal clear. The call of God is the call to service. The good news is that every follower of Jesus Christ has one or more spiritual gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-11) received when they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. But then it all goes south. Studies have shown that in the church, a gigantic 80+% of Christians can’t even tell you what their spiritual gifts are. No wonder we live without purpose or passion. We are not being used the way God intended. We are lukewarm.

In Scripture we read, “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly” (Romans 12:6). It is our responsibility to seek out our gifts in order to use them to influence others and impact our community so as to change the world.

God has a niche for each of us that He wants us to discover.