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March 14, 2010:
1 Corinthians 12: 4-6 "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."One of the primary ways to live a Christian life is to serve others. Actually, serving is one of God’s main purposes for us. We are to help those less fortunate, and as we do so, we will share God’s love with them. We chose "Serving the Lord" to be the theme of Youth Sunday because as youth we wanted to share with the congregation the ways we serve the Lord and encourage you to help us or to find your own ways to serve. If each one of us can find a way to serve the Lord, imagine what a better place we could make the world. People come up with all kinds of excuses not to serve, which is very easy to do; I’m guilty of it myself. In the busy lives we live, our days become consumed with school, jobs, homework, practices, and family time. When we hardly have time to do things for ourselves, we do not even consider taking the time to help others. How can God expect you to serve when you are so busy? Another primary excuse is the lack of talent. It is very true that not everyone can preach a sermon, not everyone is patient enough to work with children, and not everyone is physically able to perform certain types of service. God is aware of this because he did it on purpose. He intentionally gave each of us different gifts and talents. He did not want all of us to be gifted in the construction field because then there would be more houses on Earth than people to live in them, and there would be children who needed to be taught about the Lord, and there would be animals that needed to be taken care of. God distributed many talents among us so that we could all work together to accomplish many different things. It is our responsibility to honor Him by stepping up and using our God-given talents. If we put all of our talents together, we can truly make an impact on the rest of the world. It is time for us to stop putting ourselves and our own concerns first and start focusing on God’s desires. There are many ways for everyone to serve right here at St. John’s. As a church, a few ways our members serve include collecting money for Epworth Children’s home and for Haiti, sending a group to Nicaragua, helping with church cleaning days, buying gifts for the Angel Tree children at Christmas, taking part in the Crop Walk, and hosting Family Promise (formerly known as Interfaith Hospitality). Quest serves by assisting with Adopt-a-Highway, volunteering at the Soup Kitchen, going Christmas Caroling, collecting Operation Christmas Child boxes, helping with Vacation Bible School, collecting toys at Christmas, and attending the Salkehatchie Mission Trip. Next summer, we have felt our calling as a Youth Group to take our God-given gifts to the next level and participate in an international mission trip. Take a few moments and think about the gifts God gave you and consider why He chose to make you talented in those areas. Do you think you use those gifts to the extent He hoped you would? Many of you may, but I bet most of you could do more. Let’s all make the commitment together to step up and honor God by using our gifts to help those less fortunate than we and hopefully share God’s love with others in the process, both here at St. John’s and out in the world. -Anna Sumwalt, Youth Council Chair, 11th grade Northwestern High School . |