Romans 12:3-8

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For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: 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. 4 For just as each of us has one body
with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ
we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have
different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then
prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching,
then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give
generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully

Have you watched the movie The Incredibles? Or Kungfu Panda? Or remember the Pixar
movie Ratatouille? Do you notice something in common among these cartoon movies?

I think a common theme that shines through these movies is the drive to use your God-
given talents. The heroes of each story have a deep desire in their hearts to be
superheroes (the Incredibles), a chef (Remy the rat) or a kung fu master (Po the panda).
They face huge internal and external problems that prevent them for realizing their
dreams. Internal problems like fear, prejudice and that sense of insecurity when leaving
behind our comfort zone and external problems like the pressure to conform to society’s
expectations, opposition and jealousy of others. And we cheer them on when we see how
they finally overcome these barriers to be what they were meant to be!

What I like about movies like Kungfu Panda, Incredibles or Ratatouille is not so much
the silly humor or kick-butt action (although they are funny and action packed), it was
their triumph over these obstacles that satisfied us the most. When they find the joy of
finally doing what they were made to do. Like when Remy the rat creates delicious dishes
instead of scavenging leftovers or when Po the Panda finally defeats the bad guy by being
himself and finds out that the secret of the dragon scroll is “There is no secret!” We cheer
for them because these are the same obstacles that we face in our own lives…

When their outward actions were aligned with their inner passion to give back to the
world what they were given. When they broke free of their self-imposed prison telling

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them to be less than what they could be. When Purpose and Passion meets… it reminds
us of our own purpose for being and living.1

In the same way, each and every one of us is given special talents, skills, abilities and a
calling from God. There’s a mission, a unique vocation that He has prepared for our lives.
And in the Scripture passage we read just now, we learn that not all of us have the same
spiritual gift. Why is that so? Not all of us grow our own vegetables. Not all of us build
our own house, fix our own car and sew our own clothes. Certainly not many people dig
their own graves. That goes to show that we need each other. It’s supposed to be like a
body where we mutually build up and bless each other with the diverse gifts we have
been given. Since we cannot be experts in everything, that we are inter-dependent… And
it’s a humbling and freeing fact of life. In the church, each and every one of us have been
blessed with talents, skills, resources and spiritual gifts that can be used to build up and
encourage other members of the body. I like Reverend Wong’s comment that if every
member of the body is an eye, it would be a monster!

Last month we celebrated Reformation Sunday – and one of the important truths
recovered by the Reformers was the ‘Priesthood of all believers’. Before the
Reformation, it was common to believe that you have a vocation if you have a special
calling to religious life as a priest or join the monastic life. This was understood as a
higher calling, set over against life in the household and in civil society. (Hierarchy of
spiritual work) But Martin Luther’s understanding of the gospel as God’s free gift of
righteousness led him to reject the division between sacred and secular spheres of calling.
He broadened the concept of vocation from just a focus on church work to describe the
life and work of all Christians in response to God’s call. Luther wrote, “Every occupation
has its own honor before God, as well as its own requirements and duties… Just as
individuals are different, so their duties are different; and in accordance with the diversity
of their callings, God demands diverse works of them.” Some of us may be called to
serve the Lord in the context of church-related work but the majority of believers will

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I’m indebted to Yoke Yeow’s excellent blog post named “Incredibly Called!” for these insights

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serve Him out in the world. All believers are called to bear witness to Jesus by word and
deed but not all of us are called to church-related work.

But what happens when we don’t exercise our spiritual gifts or we don’t know what
God has called us to do with our lives? When people don’t discover what God had
made them to be, we very often experience some of these symptoms2.

We get easily bored: Mr Incredible is super-strong and loves to fight crime and save
people from trouble. But when he was forced to retire after getting sued by someone he
rescued, he could only earn a living filing claims in an insurance company. He’s cramped
in a tin can for a car and sneaks out at night to play super hero. Do you feel like that
sometimes? Bored with work in the office cubicle by day and dream of escaping to do
something else all the time?

Or we get into trouble or mischief: Do you remember Dash? He’s a wonder-boy capable
of supersonic speeds but to hide his superpowers, he can’t show his true colors in school.
So he must pretend to lose races in school to conceal his abilities. In frustration, he
expresses his talent by putting thumb tacks on the teacher's chair. When people can’t
express their abilities in positive, productive ways, these gifts can be misused for
mischief instead. Some of them end up as brilliant and creative criminals. They use their
gifts for the wrong purpose.

If we don’t discover our God-given calling, we can be overcome by inferiority complex.

Violet the shy, insecure girl whose gift of invisibility helps her fade ever more into the
background. When you don’t find your call or purpose in life, you may eventually believe
you are not good for anything. There is no meaning or rhyme in life… you get

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“If we do not have a theology of vocation we lapse into debilitating alternatives: fatalism (doing what’s
required by ‘the forces’ and ‘the powers’), luck (which denies purposefulness in life and reduces our life to a bundle
of accidents), karma (which ties performace to future rewards), nihilism (which denies that there is any good end to
which the travail of history might lead) and… self-actualization (in which we invent the meaning and purpose of our
lives, making us magicians).” Paul Stevens, The Other Six Days: Vocation,Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective,
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1999), page 72

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overwhelmed with self pity, inferiority and insecurity. You start comparing yourselves
with somebody else and think you must conform to others’ standards of excellence.

Mismatch of our work with who we really are: Many people who do not discover their
true mutant powers, they choose a certain job or study certain subjects because everybody
else is doing it, it makes lots of money or society’s expectation or because it is easier road
to take. We dun stop and ask: Is this “who I really am”?

Let me make a disclaimer here: If you are in secondary school or in your teens, this is
probably not the time for you to make firm decisions on what you’d be doing for the rest
of your life. So please don’t go home and tell your parents “I’m not going to school
anymore because my calling is to go to US and become the next American Idol or
Malaysia’s Next Top Model”. It is a lifelong discovery process. You won’t find out the
entire purpose of your life after today’s sermon. Even at my age, I am still discovering…
At your age, I want to encourage you to try new things, dun limit your ministry
experience, but explore your gifts in a safe environment like the church and continuously
learn more about you are passionate about. Anyway it’s never too early to start thinking
about these things.

Now how do we find out what is God’s call for us? What are our spiritual gifts? Must we
hear audible voices from heaven before we know it?

This is not something overly difficult or mysterious that only super spiritual Christians
can attain. I’ve found these FIVE simple questions in Gordon Smith’s book “Courage and
Calling” to be helpful to discern our Life Calling. The idea is not to get easy formulaic
answers that pin down God’s will right away. Your answers may change as you explore
and learn more in life, but they are helpful to me, at least, in the process of discerning
God’s calling for us.

1) What do you feel joy doing? What is my deepest desire or passion?

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It doesn’t mean that just because you enjoy playing Starcraft computer game, you are
called to be a professional gamer. But since God wired you in a unique way, you will feel
fulfilled when functioning in the proper area. There will be a sense of purpose, like
jigsaw puzzles that fit. Look out for the sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, pleasure when
you exercise a gift/ministry or perform certain tasks. Eric Liddell, an Olympic gold
medalist, once said, “God made me fast and when I run, I feel God’s pleasure”. Perhaps
you feel a deep sense of God’s pleasure when you sing, teach, play the guitar or serve the
weak? Look out, that may be a sign of God’s calling.

2) What are you good at doing? What are my abilities, skills, spiritual gifts, mutant
powers?

Are you gifted in administration – good at organizing things or execute practical plans?
Do you notice that you have tendency to care for people and offer them words of healing
comfort, encouragement and advice? Or do you have a special ability to empathize with
the oppressed and work for justice? Are you good in music and love to lead people to
worship?

Or maybe you think “Oh, I’m good at none of these things.” But again: “Belum cuba
belum tahu”.

Having an ability or skill does not mean we cannot get involved or help out in other
ministries. For example, “I don’t want to collect offering because I don’t have that gift of
passing the offering bag”. Or I don’t pray because I don’t have the gift of intercession.
And some people would rather die than sing in public, but when they are given training
and opportunity, they may turn out to be gifted singers. So explore new opportunities.
Get involved in different church ministries to meet the needs of some real people, expose
yourself to the needs around and see if God puts a burden in your heart.

3) What do you feel are the biggest needs of the people around you?

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When you look at the world around you, what are the things that make you sad or lose
sleep? Are you burdened by the suffering of poor people? Are you burdened to see that
people are lost without the gospel? Do you feel angry when there is injustice or cruelty?
Of course, all Christians should feel such pains in some degree. But it’s also true that
some people feel more strongly about some areas than others. And it’s okay, dun fight
over it and accept that God calls people differently while we learn from others.

Have you ever seen something wrong in the world and felt like: “Why isn’t somebody
doing something about this?” A friend of mine once complained to his friends, “The
church needs more preachers who can teach God’s word but why isn’t God calling more
people to be preachers?” Then his friend replied, “Maybe God has called them but they
didn’t respond. Like yourself”. Ouch.

Do you feel burdened or troubled by some needs that you see in the world and wonder
why nobody is doing something about it? Maybe you should start the ball rolling. Be the
change that you want to see in the world.

4) What is your unique personality?

God has designed each of us differently, in a unique way like snowflakes. Our individual
temperament is unique to us as our fingerprint. John Calvin once said: You cannot know
God unless you know yourself. You cannot know yourself unless you know God.

Extroverts are energized by being with people or enjoy being the center of attention.
Introverts tend to be content and energized being alone, and avoid attention when in a
crowd. Which is more true to who you are?

How do you process information? Am I more inclined to trust clear, certain and concrete
facts or more inclined to trust intuition, gut feeling and imagined possibilities?

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Do you make decisions depending on logic/analysis or personal relationship/feeling? Are
you a thinker or feeler? Am I more inclined to live with order, structure and routine or do
I prefer going through life with more variety, spontaneous changes?

Again, your calling is not determined by one factor. For example: “Unless you are an
outgoing extrovert, you cannot be a leader” – That’s too simplistic. There are different
leadership styles, a quiet person can lead effectively also. But your personality may be a
clue.

5) What do others in school, family, circle of friends, church community say about me? Is
there confirmation from the Body of Christ?

Since spiritual gifts are designed to benefit others (edify each other), you should see some
effectiveness or positive results as you exercise these gifts. But results take time so don’t
give up too quickly, give it a fair try. Sometimes it’s hard to be brutally honest with
ourselves – we can be either too hard on ourselves or unable to see our own
shortcomings. So we need other brothers and sisters in Christ to help us recognize and
confirm our gifting. Cannot ‘syok sendiri!’ And as a church, we can be on the lookout
and encourage those who do well, affirm them to continue using their gifts, be generous
in giving honest feedback and constructive suggestions/evaluations.

And I’m fortunate and grateful to some brothers and sisters in CDPC Puchong that I can
count on to give honest feedback after this sermon. Like I received an email after the last
sermon that got me thinking, “Hmmm… I should have been more balanced in what I say
here or I could have said it differently there”. And it’s feedback like that both encourage
and helps us to improve.

But you can’t consider feedback from others as the only factor in discerning your calling:
Sometimes, even people who mean well may misunderstand us, may be biased and their
feedback cannot be absolute. We need to weigh opinions of others carefully as well.
Usually there is some truth and some exaggerations…

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So there you have it: Five Questions to help you discover your calling in life:
What do you feel joy doing? What are you good at doing? What do you feel are the
biggest needs of the people around you? What is your unique personality? What do your
trusted friends say?

When you consider these questions, you may sense that there is something that you are
good at doing, that gives you a deep sense of fulfillment, that is a burning need in the
world, that fits your personality and the church community prayerfully confirms it.
Perhaps that is where God has called you. "The place God calls you to is the place where
your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet" (Frederick Buechner).

Having said that, our focus should not be just on methods to discern God's will. We are to
trust in God Himself. There is no system that ensures you never make mistakes, but we
can rely on a God of grace who will guide us and teach us even when we make mistakes.
He is big enough to rescue us and lift us up when we fall. Otherwise, we would live in
constant fear, always searching for the perfect formula for discovering God's will so we
won't make any mistakes.

Soo Inn of Grace@Work ministry once wrote, “Instead I see life as a road. I walk this
road holding my Father's hand. He speaks to me and guides me. I grow in my ability to
hear His voice. Sometimes I get it wrong but Father has a firm hold on me so that I do not
fall headlong. He helps me clean up my mess. He helps me learn from my mistakes so
that I can better hear Him in future. I still have guidelines for discerning the mind of God
in the decisions I have to make. But I have come to a point in my life where more and
more, my ultimate trust is in my heavenly Father, and not in a method.”

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In conclusion, our gift, ability or ministry is not an extension of ourselves. It is not where
our source of self-worth lies. Unless you see this, you’d be driven or scared, too timid or
too aggressive. If we measure our self-worth by our achievements and abilities, we will
either burn out (“I must be the best otherwise I’m a failure”) or give up (“What’s the
point? I’d never be good enough”).

Pastor Tim Keller: the good news is Christ “loves us more than we ever dare imagine
even though we are more sinful than we’d ever know”! Before God calls us to a mission
or a task or ministry, He calls us to Himself – to a personal, covenant relationship with
God Himself. The Bible affirms the essential worth and significance of each person: we
are all created in the image of God, we are chosen and elect of God, and we have
incomparable worth and significance in God’s eyes. How does that change the way we
use our gifts? Well, God’s grace should free us from the fear of failing and also God’s
grace should free us from the unrealistic demand for perfection because we are
unconditionally loved already. The gospel gives us a humble boldness.

As we start out as a new church, there are lots of opportunities to explore our spiritual
gifts in a safe environment where it’s okay to make mistakes. We learn to show grace to
each other. After the church service today, we are gonna have a group conversation to
share about this topic on discovering God’s calling for our life. If you would like to
probe deeper or have questions on how to apply what we have learned to the realities of
our life or want to explore further how your gifts may help others, please do join us as
Alvin will facilitate the discussion.

What is the kind of person God has called me to be? What are the needs around me that I
could meet in Jesus name? What gifts has he given me to bless others and to glorify God?
Remember that Spiderman movie quote: With great power comes great responsibility!

Let us pray.