We all remember the first time.
The first time we rode a bike.
The first time we fell in love.
The first time we kissed a girl (or a guy).
I remember my first sermon. I was in the tenth grade and it was a Wednesday night class. I had forty-five minutes to speak. That is a lot of time for a first sermon. I had no one to help me write the sermon so you can imagine it was pretty bad. I had no one to warn me about how quickly time flies. There was no clock on the wall and I had no watch so I spoke and spoke and spoke. I remember finishing the sermon and thinking that I had not spoken long enough. I did what any good speaker would have done. I started over again from the first point. When I finished preaching the sermon a second time, I still thought I had not preached long enough so I had a good strategy. I started at the first for a third time. Part way through the third time the teacher interrupted me with ““class is over.” Had he not done so, I might have preached for days.
I remember other sermons from those teenage days. I would go into the empty church building and preach my sermon over and over to empty pews. I faithfully followed that practice for the first six years of my ministry. For the ten years after that, I followed that practice on many occasions.
In 1 Peter 4:10-11, Peter urges us, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”
There are many misunderstanding about what it means to use your gift.
It does not mean do what is easy.
It does not mean do what is hard.
It means do what you can do. Work at it and it will get better. Work at it and it will get easier. Work at it and it will become more useful to other people. Some public speakers think they are good because they have the “gift of gab.” Teachers and speakers who get by on the gift of gab usually just have the “gift of boredom.”
Teachers and speakers are no different than other folks. To be helpful to others, you have to work at developing your talent.
Preach to empty pews. Lead empty seats in songs. Teach to empty chairs.
Bake pies and cakes for neighbors. Teach little children about life. Do it again and again. Even if you think you are pretty good, you will get better.
By doing this you will be using “whatever gift he [or she] has received to serve others.”
That is the goal!
~Lonnie Davis