Serving Where God Has Put Us
Text: Romans 12:1-13
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
February 19, 2023
After President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the armed forces to fully admit black people in 1941, the first group of African-American Marines were the Montford Point Marines. They were named after the place in North Carolina where they trained. Montford Point was actually a segregated area near Camp Lejuene where blacks where housed and trained away from the rest.
One of those first African American Marines was Earl Hood Sr. who was from Detroit. After proudly serving this country in World War II, despite intense racial discrimination, Earl came back to Detroit and began a business supplying auto parts first to Chrysler, then to General Motors. Today, his son, Earl Jr. runs Hoods Car Care Clinic on Wyoming Avenue. Earl Jr. took the shop and expanded it to a full-service auto garage after his father died. The garage has earned a great reputation for excellent car care, but also great people care. Earl works with people who are trying to hold onto their cars as long as possible given high gas prices and inflation of car prices.
But about 15 years ago Earl, Jr. tried to leave the Car Care Clinic and go into full time pastoral ministry. A couple of customers came to him and said that what he was praying for and what they were praying for were not the same thing. The customers said they were praying for him to stay, and Earl was praying to leave.
Earl said, "Then one lady came up to me and said: ‘Mr. Hood, THIS is your ministry, this is your calling.' And then she asked: 'How come you can’t do church here?’ And I came to realize that everything that is taught in church can be utilized here.” "It’s not just a business for me, it’s a ministry. And taking care of people is what we’re supposed to do.”[1]
I learned about Earl Hood Sr. and Earl Hood Jr. because I have a daughter and son-in-law in Detroit. They learned about the Hood business from their mechanic whose name is Eric Nielsen. He has treated our kids so well, and they have needed it. They drive a 2004 Toyota Camry and a 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid. Those cars have to keep going! Eric runs Mack Garage. This is what he says his business is about on the Mack Garage web site:
“We see our allegiance to Christ and concern for the community as a characteristic that will set our services apart from other repair facilities. We intend to treat people with the utmost dignity and perform repair services with great clarity and honesty.”
I have not encountered any auto garages that connect what they do to Jesus Christ. Eric came to Detroit in 2007 to help start Mack Avenue Community Church. He came as a pastor but when he saw a need in the community for a trustworthy garage he sensed God calling him to serve in the mechanic profession rather than as a pastor. Eric says one of the reasons he enjoys doing what he does is that he enjoys fixing things.
Two auto mechanics in Detroit who could be pastors but are fixing cars. And seeing it as a ministry. They are serving the Lord where he has put them.
We read Romans 12 this morning. In this part of Romans Paul writes about grace and gifts. He reminds these Christians that God in his grace gives each person gifts. He says that as a church they are a body. And just like a body has many members and each of the members needs to work, so the church is a body and each person is a member.
And God through his grace has given every person gifts. These are abilities God gives us with a spiritual bent. They are things that come somewhat naturally to us. They resonate with what we like to do. Paul lists several gifts here. He mentions prophecy which is speaking a word of guidance from the Holy Spirit or God’s Word for a church in a particular circumstance.
He mentions the gift of serving. The biblical word for “serve” is related to the word for “deacon.” Jesus himself said he didn’t come to be serve but to serve.
Next Paul lists the gift of teaching, which is to interpret and make the gospel clear. And it’s interesting he mentions serving before teaching.
Paul speaks of exhortation or encouraging. To encourage is to come alongside someone and help them. It is to lift up another person emotionally, mentally, spiritually or physically.
And then Paul mentions the gifts of generosity, leading, and showing mercy. The gifts he mentions are all diverse. And this is not an exhaustive list. There are other places in Paul’s letters where he mentions other gifts. There are gifts beyond what are even mentioned in those passages.
His point is that God’s gives us gifts out of out grace and they are to be used. If your gift is organizing then use that gift for others. If your gifts is singing then sing. If it is care-giving then give care to someone. God gave you gifts to be used.
The phrase “one another” comes up several times because Christian faith is a “one another” faith. Part of serving with our gifts is because we are to serve one another. We live in an age of individualism and secularism. People can be fixed on finding themself, or making their dreams come true, or pursuing their own comfort. Following Jesus is about one another. God’s purpose for us is not to get the most out of life, but to give the most out of life.
What if our lives were valued not by how much we had but by how much we gave? Instead of admiring someone because they had wealth, and a large house or two, and a beautiful car, and lots of accolades, we admired someone because of the money, the time, the energy they gave to others.
And everything we do is to be done with love, sincerity, for good, with spiritual fervor. It may not always be easy so Paul says “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” We are to share with the Lord’s people and one of the ways we share is to offer our gifts for the good of one another.
Paul begins this chapter by writing to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice” which he says is our worship to God. Worship is more than coming to church every Sunday and singing some hymns and praying some prayers and listening to a sermon. It is what we do with our gifts and energy throughout the week.
Paul is saying, “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”[2]
Pastors are not the only people called by God. To be gifted to be a pastor is just one of many ways God gifts people. All of us are called to serve. It may not be in a pulpit. It may be in a hospital, a shop, a home, a classroom, an office, or a car garage. There are places to serve within a church. There are places to serve outside of the church. The whole world is God’s field. He’ll use us in all kinds of places. Our gifts are certainly to build up the church but they are not confined to church walls.
Some of you know that I have a side-job as a sales associate and trainer in a specialty running store, the Salt Lake Running Company. I use the gifts God has given me there, too.
No gift is too small. They are all needed. It’s often the little things done with great love that matter the most. People envision going to Africa and helping people who live in extreme poverty. We want to do something that is big, significant, and world-changing. And if God opens the door for you to do that and gives you the gifting to do that then wonderful. I have gone overseas and done some ministry that has been very rewarding. But we can serve God in American Fork or Pleasant Grove or Lehi or wherever. And, I know I struggle with this, we think our little service here and there isn’t enough.
Go where God has put you. That may be a lifelong call like in our families, or in a certain job, or in a neighborhood. Or it might be in a single moment like some encounter in a grocery store. Or within your church. God might put something before us and we know we are the ones he is calling to serve that person, that circumstance, that situation.
Serving God isn’t always about “big things.” I love that Earl Hood, Jr. and Eric Nielsen don’t see themselves as doing something lesser by giving people good car service. And doing it with integrity and treating people with dignity! They are serving God where he has put them.
There is a Danish proverb that says, “What you are is God’s gift to you; what you do with yourself is your gift to God.”
Pastor Rick Warren said this: “Servants think of ministry as an opportunity, not an obligation. They enjoy helping people, meeting needs, and doing ministry. They “serve the Lord with gladness.” (as it says in Psalm 100) Why do they serve with gladness? Because they love the Lord, they’re grateful for his grace, they know serving is the highest use of life, and they know God has promised a reward”[3]
In order to serve where God has placed us, we have to have the secret ingredient: humility. Paul said, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”
Arrogance won’t serve. Pride doesn’t serve. Self-preservation at all costs doesn’t serve. Big egos seek to get not give.
Humility says I’m not above or below this. Humility is not overestimating our giftedness, nor underestimating it. It is knowing exactly what and how God has made us. To say, “I don’t have any gifts. God can’t use me” is a type of arrogance. It is denying what God says in his word. It is saying we know better than God. We need to be honest about what we are gifted not to do, but also what we are truly gifted to do.
Humility says that it is OK not to be noticed. Sometimes we serve and no one sees it. When we serve with humility we don’t need to be in the spotlight. We can be content right where God has us even if we are never recognized. God knows and sees.
Jesus came with humility. Being God, Christ humbled himself by giving up his glory with his Father. He entered this world by becoming a human being just like us. He took the role of a servant. He said, “I am among you as one who serves.”[4] If that is how the Son of God came, then how can we be any different?
Humility also acknowledges that we don’t have to be something super special to serve the Lord significantly. We don’t have to be super strong, wildly outgoing, or anything glamorous.
In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. The satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars. They feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more.
Pioneer 10 made it to Jupiter in November 1973 and kept going right past it. Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. No one expected this.
And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. And do you know where those radio signals were coming from? An 8-watt transmitter. An 8-watt transmitter has the power of a bedroom nightlight and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.
That little satellite called Pioneer 10 was not qualified to do what it did. It was engineered to only have a useful life of three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.
When we offer ourselves to serve the Lord where he has called us and where he has placed us, God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. Don’t ever say I am too small or what I do is insignificant. God will accomplish his purposes, touch people’s lives, open doors for his love if we merely say, “Here I am Lord. This is who I am. This is what you have made me. This is where you have placed me. I offer it to you.”
I’ll tell you who God can’t work through: someone who doesn’t offer themselves to serve.[5]
You have gifts. To serve, lead, organize, make music, teach, listen, show compassion, have faith, do works of mercy.
They have been given to you by God to be used.
To be used for others.
You have been put somewhere: in a home, a family, a workplace, a church, a city, a community, next door to someone.
You have been put there by God.
For others.
Serve the Lord where he has placed you. Until that day we stand before him and hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Prayer: Gracious Lord, you poured out your life in service and sacrifice. You taught us by what you said and how you lived to find fulfillment in giving ourselves, and the greatness of serving others.Give us a vision to use the gifts with which you have blessed us. Give us a vision that where you place us, even in the very unglamorous and simple places, is enough. We ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to this. Amen.
[1] Detroit Free Press, article by Scott Talley, June 26, 2022
[2] The Message, 12:1
[3] The Purpose Driven Life, p.270
[4] Luke 22:27
[5] Story attributed to Craig Brian Larson, “Pastoral Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay.”