I want to read you a brief parable that some of you may have heard before. If you have, it bears repetition.

It was written by a man named Harold Bredesen nearly 20 years ago, and it's called The Fish That Discovered Water.

Some scientists at Smolensk University decided to develop a fish that could live out of water.

So, choosing some happy red herrings, they bred, crossbred, hormoned, and chromosomed, until at length they had a fish that could live, at least exist, out of water. But the local commissar was not satisfied. True, these fish had survived till now on rarefied gas, but how about reactionary tendencies?

He suspected a secret hidden yen for water. you have neglected education he said start over and this time do not neglect education well again they bred crossbred hormoned and chromosomed and this time they did not neglect education down to the tiniest reflex

the result a red herring that would rather die than get its tail wet the slightest suggestion of humidity filled this new herring with dread. Thought control had done its perfect work, and with the possible exception of the red herring, everyone was happy. Surely this year's Lenin Prize would go to the scientists of Smolensk University.

But the world must see this triumph of Soviet research. The commissar who had thought of education must take the fish on tour. Somewhere in Hungary, the tragedy occurred. quite accidentally according to official reports while crossing a bridge the red herring fell into a pool of water

deep in the green translucent stuff it lay eyes and gills shot afraid to move lest it become wetter and of course it could not breathe every reflex said no to that never did a fish so wet feel more like a fish out of water

but breathe it must and there was nothing else to breathe only water and so the red herring drew a tentative gillful its eyes bulged it breathed again its jaw flew open it flipped a fin and then another and wiggled with delight and then it darted away the fish had discovered water

and with that same kind of wonder Men conditioned by a world that rejects Him discover God. For in Him we live and move and have our being.

I've had the privilege just this week of seeing two different people discover the God in whom they live and move and have their being. Suddenly finding out where you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to be, who you're supposed to be. It all fits.

But it's not just that we were made for relationship with God. There's something more. If I put it to you in the form of a question, I wonder what you would say, what your answer would be. If I were to ask you, what is it that you personally, you as an individual, What is it that you have been created for? What is your purpose?

It's not just relationship with God. As great and powerful and wonderful as that is, there's another dimension. The biblical answer to that question would be, I have been created for ministry.

Absolutely every single one of us has been created for a particular role of ministry. And as a matter of fact, we won't be fully happy, fully satisfied. We won't be fulfilled as people. We won't know true joy until we come into that ministry, that very specific ministry for which we've been created by the Lord. Let me put it to you this way. I believe there's something uniquely suited to you as a person. God takes seriously your hormones and chromosomes and all your training and background and all your experience.

He's created you to do something that only you can do.

And the joy of this life is very largely in discovering what that is and beginning to do it. St. Augustine said, our hearts are restless till they rest in thee. And he might have added, and in what thou callest us to do. Did you hear that prayer this morning? The call it for this morning. Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people and grant that they may know and understand the things they ought to do and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them.

Trouble is that we've co-opted the word ministry, and we've applied it in an exclusive way to the clergy. Shame on us for doing so. Not everybody is called to leadership. Certainly not everybody is called to clergy, to being a clergy person. But everybody is called to ministry. to doing that specific thing in the body of Christ and within the world for which he came and died that he or she uniquely can do.

Jesus himself put it this way. He said, whoever would save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it.

Christianity is sometimes accused of being a religion of self-denial. but that's from people who didn't hear what I just said. They didn't hear what Jesus said. It is a matter of pouring out your life, of losing your life. But it's in order that you might find it. Find your true life. Your true life will be found in pouring out what God has given you as your gifts and talents and resources.

Pouring them out first for Him, for my sake, said Jesus, and for the Gospel, for other people. The Gospel is the message of God's love for people. Whoever would lose his life for the Gospel, pouring it out and serving others will find it. It's not self-denial at all. It's self-fulfillment through service.

Well, that's the first point this morning. that God doesn't have any spare parts in the body of Christ. Every single one of us is called to be a minister. Every member ministry, if you will. The second point is very, very important and follows upon it.

I think if you search through the Scriptures, Old and New Testament, you'll find a principle that as much as God calls us to be involved in ministry, Not once does He call someone to minister merely or exclusively out of His own human resources. When God calls someone to do something, He Himself supplies the power. He Himself supplies the anointing. God doesn't want us to minister merely out of our own gifts, humanly speaking. out of our own charisma, out of our own insight, out of our own natural talents.

He wants us to take those, whatever they might be, offer them back to Him, consecrate them in His service, allow Him to anoint them by the Holy Spirit and bring them into the use of His body. Let me show you how this works. We could spend the whole day tracing this through the Scripture, but I think just a few examples might make it clearer.

you read in the book of Exodus when God calls Moses to be his spokesman to go and face Pharaoh and demand let my people go of course most of us picture Moses in terms of Charlton Heston

that's not the real Moses sorry about that but Exodus 3 you find the real Moses and what he says is me? I can't even speak to my friends I don't know how to talk I have no gifts at oratory. I'm a stammering, hesitant, bumbling coward.

The rough paraphrase.

And God's answer is, Moses, who made your mouth? If I made your mouth, don't you think that I can put words in it?

I'm calling you to be my spokesman, but I'm the one who will supply the anointing, the words. And Moses moves out in the power of God's Spirit. You move on to the 31st chapter of the book of Exodus and you find the instructions for building the tabernacle. After they got out from under the Egyptians, God told them to erect this very large and ornate and movable place of worship called the tabernacle. And they called in the Bruce Scott of that generation, a fellow by the name of Bezalel.

Do you think that Bezalel was to build the tabernacle merely out of his own craftiness as a construction engineer? Not for a moment. It says, I have filled Bezalel with ability and craftsmanship. I will anoint him to do this job. We move on into the book of Numbers. You remember when Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, said to him, Moses, this isn't good.

You're trying to make all the decisions for the whole people single-handedly. He says, you need some assistance. Gather for yourself 70 elders. The cream of the crop. Pick out the very best leaders from the various tribes of Israel and share the ministry with them.

But not out of their own human wisdom. Tested though it has already been. God says, I will take some of the Holy Spirit who is upon you and distribute it to them as well. They're to minister. They're to enter into this ministry in the power of My Spirit.

We come to the end of Moses' life and Joshua is supposed to take over. This is one of the only two men who have gone through the whole time of wandering in the wilderness. This is one of the only two men who have proven faithful and believed God's promise. This is a tested leader who is to take over for Moses. But God's word to Joshua is, Joshua, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not fail you or forsake you. The Lord your God is with you. Do you see the point? Joshua is not to minister, not to lead this people merely out of the wealth of his experiences as important as they are. But it's God's anointing that equips him for that leadership. Same thing is true in the New Testament.

Can you picture the scene that we read about for our gospel lesson this morning? Jesus has been going around with a three-fold ministry. Three characteristics of Jesus' ministry are teaching, healing, and exorcism, delivering people from evil spirits.

Now, the disciples, as we've seen in the last few weeks, haven't even begun to understand this. Some of them are prepared to call Jesus the Christ. Immediately they betray. They don't even know what that means. They're befuddled. They're enamored with Him. They're captivated with Him. He certainly has their attention, but they haven't even reached first base yet.

Jesus calls them together. He says, guess what? You're going to go out and teach and heal and deliver people of evil spirits. Can you imagine what that was like for Philip and Bartholomew and Jude and John, Peter? Can you imagine being told by the Lord Jesus, you're to go out and do what I've been doing?

But they did it.

What we read is, he began to send them out two by two, and He gave them His authority.

Do you see the point? If God calls us to minister, to take the gifts that He's given to us, and to release them back to Him, and to the service of His people, and in fact to the world around us, He calls us to do that, but He calls us to do it in the power and under the anointing of His Holy Spirit. Not once do you find Him sending somebody off merely reliant upon His own natural gifts.

We come to Easter evening and Jesus says, okay, now you've finally put it together, I trust. You're going to be My witnesses throughout the whole world. But wait, wait until you're clothed with power from on high. And that's the message of Pentecost.

And that's what this whole season is about. If the word Christ means the anointed one, what do you suppose the word Christian means?

It means the anointed ones. We are those people who are responding to the call of Jesus under His anointing. There is nothing sadder than somebody trying to respond to Jesus out of the wealth of His own best guess, His own natural talent, His own unconsecrated natural abilities. God says, take those gifts that I've given you, release them to Me, let Me pour out My Spirit upon you, let Me empower you for My service, and then watch what begins to happen.

Now there's one more point.

You might say, that's all very well, but how do I know what it is I'm supposed to do?

And I'd like to suggest four questions for you. These would only be by a way of beginning. Some of you have long since discovered your ministries, and you're moving in them, and I know you can bear witness to what I've said about the joy that comes from being in the right place and doing the thing that God has called you to do. Others of you may still be on the peripheral of all this. And you sort of scratch your head and you say, well, what is he saying? What am I supposed to do?

Well, I'd suggest four questions. The first is, what do you like to do? A gal came up to me after the last service and she said, I'm so glad you said that. She said, because my attitude was, if I like it, God can't possibly want me to do it.

That is not so. Most of the time, God will begin with the things we enjoy doing. Remember Bezalel. He already was a carpenter and an architect and a construction man. Most of the time, you see God taking people with gifts and talents that they already have begun to develop. He calls, for instance, somebody who's a singer. And he says, be a singer for me. Don't do it just out of your own resources.

Allow me to change it and melt it and conform it to the image of my Son. But He begins where we are. What do you like doing? What do you enjoy doing? Can you release that for God's service? Terry Fulham tells a story about a lady in his congregation who came up to him and said, I just feel the call of God to minister. I want to do something with my life and I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

And he asked her this very question, what do you like? She said, what I really like is cooking.

She said, but God can't want me to be a cook.

What has happened in the last couple of years at St. Paul's Dairy Inn is they have put together around that lady an everyday ministry of food distribution out of their church, which is not surrounded as this one is by restaurants. It's serving a need that nobody else was meeting. There's a place of fellowship and a place of feeding the hungry. ministering to those who are in need, as well as an opportunity to be together around the Lord's table.

It's fantastic. We have a very similar thing that's happened here on a lesser scale. What do you like to do?

A fellow came up to me and said, I want to minister. I asked him, what do you like to do? He said, what I really enjoy is working with my hands, making things work.

But I don't suppose there's a ministry in that. I said, well, let's see if we can't find one. The man's name is Bob Van Houten. Do you think he has a ministry?

Fantastic ministry in what he likes to do. Offered to God, empowered for His service, released to His people. What do you like to do? Do you enjoy teaching? Do you enjoy singing? Do you enjoy balancing books? Do you enjoy mowing lawns? What do you like to do? Can it be a ministry for you?

There's a second question.

What does God bless? Sometimes we like to do things or we think we ought to like to do things in which we're not at all gifted and God is not calling us to do those things. And we need to release those and let go of them and be prepared to do the thing that He is calling us to do. I remember when I first became a Christian for me the model of the minister was Billy Graham and I used to practice being junior Billy Graham I'd rev up my lawnmower and I'd walk along behind it where nobody could hear me you see and I would practice the latest Billy Graham sermon that I had just heard the world is in a turmoil today in Washington I met with a senator and he's you know and the neighbors would look at this guy walking up and down his yard waving his arms they didn't know what in the world was happening.

What I had to learn was God was not calling me to be a Billy Graham.

My efforts at evangelism He doesn't most of the time bless.

What He seems to bless is my teaching.

I had to be willing not to be a proclaimer but to be an explainer.

to fit into that place where He wanted to bless. A lot of us are trying to force ourselves into some slot that there's no blessing there. That's somebody else's ministry. Let somebody else do it. Do the thing that God wants to bless you in, wants to bless other people in through you.

Third question very closely related to that is what does the body of Christ confirm? Have you ever had somebody come up to you and say, boy, you are fantastic at whatever it is. And maybe you never even thought of yourself as being fantastic at that because you do it so effortlessly.

But it's blessing somebody else. Take that very seriously. People will help you to discover the thing that God is calling you to do if you have ears to listen. Sometimes we need to speak the truth in love to each other and say, you know, I know you'd like to do this, but that really isn't your ministry. Have you ever thought of something else, whatever it might be?

I've watched Rod over the last couple of years trying to fit himself into a ministry that he had some preconceptions about and struggling, struggling, struggling. And finally, within the last few months, it seems to me at least, and we've talked about this together, that he's been willing to settle into that thing that God is blessing, that people are enjoying, that they're confirming, and all of a sudden, his ministry with our little ones has taken off like a rocket ship.

It's fantastic to watch. And Rod is enjoying himself in a way that he hasn't over the last several years.

Fourth and final question is what need can I meet? What need can I meet? As I look around the church, as I move amongst God's people, as I find myself entering into relationships in the body of Christ, as I find myself in my neighborhood, wherever it might be, is there a need that I can meet?

It's highly probable that if you've noticed a problem, If you've noticed a need that isn't being adequately met, it is highly probable that God wants you to do something about it, and that's why you noticed it.

Now the mistake we make too often is that we see a problem and we become critical. May I say to you that God never shows you a problem in order to elicit your criticism. Never. He shows you a problem in order, first of all, that you might pray about it, and then secondly, more often than not, that you might do something about it. So those four questions would be a place to begin. What do you enjoy?

What does God bless as you give yourself to it? What do other people confirm? Yes, this is fantastic ministry. I sense God ministering to me through you. In what need can you meet?

the back of our prayer book we find the catechism an outline summary of our faith and we read these two questions very interesting questions about the nature of the church number one through whom does the church carry out its mission

answer the church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members.

Second, who are the ministers of the church? Answer, the ministers of the church are laypersons,

bishops, priests, and deacons. Let's bow our heads.

Heavenly Father, we would know the joy this morning of living and moving and having our being in the place that You call us to be. Of entering into that unique ministry that belongs to each one of us. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear what You're saying to us this morning. Lord, we would move out in the power of Your Spirit. Forgive us for those instances when we've blundered ahead of You and have not waited for Your Spirit's empowerment.

Lord, give us such clarity of vision and such willingness to follow

that You, Yourself, and then Your people and finally we would be blessed in yielding ourselves to you for Christ's sake Amen