My family and I love to go to the symphony. We get a teacher's discount and prefer John Williams (Star Wars and Indiana Jones themes) to Mozart or Beethoven. But one of my favorite parts of the symphony is watching the musicians come on stage and do their warm-ups. One by one each musician takes their seat on stage and begins doing scales, tuning the instruments, and playing small parts of the larger pieces they will be playing later in the concert.

As more and more musicians join the stage, the sound gets louder and louder, but it is anything but musical. With each instrument making a different sound, playing their own notes and their own fragments of different pieces of music separate and apart from each other the sound is more chaotic than melodic.

Now, even though each musician is still doing their own thing, striking their own notes, and making their own unique sound, they play in unison and the instruments together work in harmony and fill the room with the complex and intricate, yet harmonious sound of music.

The church is much the same as this group of musicians, each with their own instrument. Each member of the Lord's church is unique. Each of us plays our own instrument if you will. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10). We have each been given a gift - a talent or ability.

Paul reminded the early church that each member does not have the same function. Each of us has gifts that differ according to the grace given to us and very importantly each of us is to use that gift understanding that God gave it to us to be used.

“For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness”
(Romans 12:4–8).

Paul lists gifts here that differ from one another. We cannot, and should not, try to force everyone in the body to "play the same note at the same time”. The one who has been given a gift for service may not have a gift for teaching. It would also be a mistake for the one with the gift of exhortation (encouragement) to look at the one who has the gift of giving and ask why they are not exhorting others the way they should. Each of us needs to contribute our unique talents and abilities to the Lord's work and seek to use them "in unison" with others in the church to accomplish a work greater than we could accomplish individually.

We each have our different talents and abilities. Each has a function, and each is needed for the body to work to accomplish what the Lord expects His church to accomplish. But it is in the blending of those talents and abilities TOGETHER working IN HARMONY that we as the Lord's church can be most effective. So, we each need to ask ourselves - Am I using the gifts God gave me to serve others and God in the church? The church needs your gifts - those who have a gift for teaching need to teach in the church. Those who are gifted with tech skills need to help the church by reaching out through technology. Those who are gifted encouragers need to spend time visiting and encouraging others. Each of us has a gift - we need to discover what it is and use it for God, not just ourselves.