Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This morning we’ve made it to the ninth installment in our series we’re calling Games People Play. Today we’re talking about the very popular game of Scrabble. 

During the Great Depression, an out-of-work architect named Alfred Mosher Butts decided to invent a board game. His idea was to create a game that combined the vocabulary skills of crossword puzzles and anagrams, with the additional element of chance. The game was originally named Lexico, but Alfred eventually decided to call the game "Criss-Cross Words."

The first attempts to sell the game to established game manufacturers were failures, but our buddy Alfred didn't give up. He and his partner, James Brunot, refined the rules and design of the game, and renamed it Scrabble. The name means "to grope frantically,” and it was trademarked in 1948.

The first four years were a struggle. In 1949, they manufactured 2,400 Scrabble sets and they lost $450. Then in the early 1950s, as legend has it, the president of Macy's discovered the game on vacation, and ordered some for his store. Within a year, everyone "had to have one," and Scrabble sets were distributed to stores around the country.

Today, the popularity of this game is unmistakable. It’s estimated that one out of every three American homes has a Scrabble set. The National Scrabble Association sanctions 175 Scrabble tournaments and 200 Scrabble clubs in the U.S. and Canada every year.

If you’ve played the game, you know that Scrabble is a game of connectedness. While you are trying to win the game, you realize that you cannot win alone. Your success depends on the other people in the game. You can’t just arbitrarily put a word on the board anywhere you wish. You have to build your word on what others have already spelled. It must connect to count.

This Scrabble principle of connectedness is just as true in our lives. Our spiritual success depends on connectedness. It’s been said that there are two things you cannot do alone. One is to be married. The other is to be a Christian. Isolationism and Christianity are oil and water. They just don’t mix. That’s why we aspire to be a Scrabble church. Because in our spiritual lives, we must connect to count.

That’s what Paul told us in Romans 12. Let’s pick it up in verse 3. “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 measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:3-5, NIV)

In these verses, Paul tells us that a Scrabble church is one body with many parts. He compares the church to the human body. You have one body, but your body is made of many parts. There is a soap called Lever 2000 because they market it as the soap that’s right for all of your 2000 parts. That’s a lot of parts, but they all belong to one body. Paul uses this in Romans 12 as a perfect analogy in his teaching about the church: one body with many parts.

Paul starts this teaching in verse 3. “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 measure of faith God has given you.” (Romans 12:3, NIV)

This is a two-fold command. This first part of Paul’s command is the principle of humility. Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought. That makes sense in a Scrabble church. If we’re one body that is connected by many parts, it doesn’t make sense for one part to believe it is better than another part.

1 Corinthians reminds us, “Christ is like a single body, which has many parts…For the body itself is not made up of only one part, but of many parts…So then, the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Nor can the head say to the feet, “Well, I don’t need you!” (1 Corinthians 12:12, 14, 21, GNB)

Paul uses an absurd illustration to make his point. He asks us to imagine that all of the parts of our body could talk. And not only can they talk, but they argue about which is more important. The eye is better than the hand. Doesn’t even need the hand. The head can definitely get along without the feet. And so on and so forth. You can almost see this happening in some sort of animated cartoon. And yet, through this cartoonish example, Paul makes his point. It’s ridiculous to imagine our body parts arguing about which is more important. It’s equally ridiculous to imagine such arguments in the body of Christ, which is the church.

If you’re a Reds fan, you will immediately recognize the name Brandon Phillips. He’s the Reds second baseman. Since he came to Cincinnati, he’s really made name for himself because of his gold-glove caliber play at second. He’s also known because of his humility. When he’s interviewed, he will generally blow off any accolades and he’ll usually manage to mention something great that another teammate did. It’s his hard play and humble attitude that has really endeared him to fans and teammates.

But this wasn’t always how Brandon Phillips operated. When he played for the Cleveland Indians, he earned the reputation of being lazy, uncoachable, and most of all, arrogant. You may know that a lot of professional baseball players have batting gloves with their names printed on them. One Spring Training when he was with Cleveland, Brandon Phillips showed up with his personalized batting gloves, but they didn’t say “Brandon Phillips.” Instead, they said, “The Franchise.” His gloves were a not-so-subtle way of stating how important he thought he was to the ballclub. He WAS the franchise. This didn’t score him any points with his teammates or the team’s management, and eventually Phillips was traded.

This Jekyll and Hyde example is a great reminder to us. We’re also part of a team. When Brandon Phillips arrogantly believed he was the most important player on the team, it created friction, division, and eventually his dismissal. Now that he knows he is not the most important player on the team, there is unity and peace.

Remember our series a few months ago called Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude? That is never more true than in this issue of humility.

There is no person in the church who is expendable. But there is also no person who is irreplaceable.

The key to the Scrabble church is connectedness. We can only thrive when we’re connected with one another. There is not a quicker way to disconnect from one another than through arrogance and pride.

Let’s go back and read verse 3 in our passage again. “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 measure of faith God has given you.” (Romans 12:3, NIV)

Remember that we said this is a two-fold command. The first part is an obvious condemnation of arrogance and pride. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. That one is unmistakable. It just jumps off the page at us. But the second part of the command, although not as obvious, is just as important. Paul instructs us to think of ourselves “with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

Think of yourself with sober judgment. In other words, think clearly and realistically about yourself. It’s not realistic to think that you are more important than other members of the body of Christ. However, the flip side is also true. It’s not realistic to think that you have nothing to offer the body of Christ.

We’re called to think soberly, or clearly, about ourselves, “in accordance with the measure of faith that God has given you.” One commentator on the book of Romans wrote that this phrase is “notoriously difficult.” Let’s try to put it in the simplest terms possible. Paul’s encouragement for us is to think of ourselves clearly and realistically, seeing the spiritual gifts that he has given us to use in the church. Jack Cottrell wrote that “’sober judgment’ not only excludes an exaggerated opinion of oneself, but also warns us not to underestimate the abilities God has given us. Sometimes a false modesty may be just as detrimental to the church as pride.”

The Scrabble church is one body with many parts with one purpose. The connectedness in the body, and in the church, is evidenced in the fact that many parts work toward one purpose.

Let’s go back to Romans 12 again, beginning in verse 4. “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.

If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” (Romans 12:4-8, NIV)

Paul reminds us that, although the body of Christ is made up of different parts, they all work in unison toward the goal. He rattles of a litany of different spiritual gifts, but we need to understand that this isn’t an exhaustive list of gifts that God gives to different people. Paul is just making a point that we all have been given a gift to use in the body of Christ.

Your physical body is made up of thousands of parts. But even though there are many different parts, those parts work together for one purpose: life. They all work together to keep you alive. Your heart pumps blood throughout your body. Your teeth help you eat the food that your body needs for fuel. Your eyes help keep you from walking out in front of a bus. Even though there are many different body parts, they all work together for a common purpose: life.

Even though the church is made up of many different members, or parts, they all work together for the same purpose: life. Our goal is to nourish and deepen our spiritual lives and to offer that same life to those who are outside of Christ. To accomplish our goal, we need all our members working together and using their gifts.

There is no one member of the church more important than another. There is no one that has a gift more important than another. Paul listed all kinds of different gifts in Romans 12, but did you notice that he didn’t qualify any of them as more or less important than the others. He talked about prophesying, or preaching. He mentioned serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, and showing mercy. But he didn’t say that any of these are more or less important than the others. A lot of us spend way too much time wishing we had this gift and wasting this other gift that God gave us.

We can’t overestimate our gifts and abilities. That is damaging to the church. But it is just as damaging when we underestimate our gifts and abilities.

If God is calling you to do something in his church and you refuse because you feel under qualified, or you feel unworthy, or you feel like you can’t do it, then you are telling God that you trust your feelings more than his calling. It is NOT arrogance to recognize your gifts. It is NOT arrogance to accept a call that God has given to you. In fact, the opposite is true.

It is arrogant to refuse to accept God’s call in our lives. It is arrogant to refuse God’s will for us to serve in a particular area. It is arrogant because we’re essentially telling God that we know what is best for us more than he does. This false modesty, this self-deprecation, this I-can’t-do-it attitude is actually a mask for arrogance because it demonstrates that we’d rather follow our desires rather than God’s desires.  We’d rather take the easy road rather than taking God’s road. God has called you to serve. He has gifted you to serve. When you do not serve, when you do not follow God’s call in your life, it is nothing but an I-know-what’s-best-for-me-better-than-God-knows-what’s-best-for-me arrogance.

And that kind of arrogance destroys the church because it destroys our Scrabbleness, our connectedness. The success of the church is dependent on the willingness of its members to serve. The Scrabble church is a movement where you do your part and I do mine and together we work toward a common goal. But that is derailed when you do your part but I refuse to do mine.

What is God calling you to do? Some of you have no idea. Some of you know but you’re ignoring it. Some of you know and you’re doing it. If you have no idea what God is calling you to do, the best way to find out is to jump in and try different things. You may find something that you’ve never thought of before that blesses God, blesses our church, and blesses your life. But you’ll never know unless you start serving.

If you do know what God is calling you to do but you’re ignoring that call, allow the encouragement from the Scripture to permeate your life today. What’s the hold up? If God is calling you to do something, don’t be so arrogant to believe that you know you better than God knows you. If he has called you to do something, don’t you believe that he will faithfully equip you to do that something. God doesn’t need perfection, he doesn’t need someone who has everything in their life in perfect order, he doesn’t need someone who’s got everything under control…he just needs someone who is willing. Jesus took a group of unworthy, rag-tag guys and used them to change the world. What are you arrogantly stopping him from doing through you?

Finally, if you’ve heard and followed God’s call of service in your life, his encouragement to you this morning is, “Don’t quit. I know it’s not always easy. I know that there are times when you want to throw in the towel. But don’t quit. My body, the church, needs you.”

The church is designed to be a community of connectedness. It’s a movement where there are no spectators; there are only players who are connected because they’re working toward a common purpose. Ed Young said, “If we could see what God wants to do in our lives, we wouldn’t believe it.” If we could see what God wants to do in us, if we could see how he wants to use us, if we could see for a moment what he wanted to accomplish through us, we’d step back and say, “No way. Not me. No way you could use me to do that.” And God’s response to that is, “Hey, wait a minute. Are you telling me that I can’t do something? I’m the one who created you, I know how I wired you, and I know what I can do through you. The problem is that, in your fearful arrogance, you’re not willing to let me.”

What does God want to do through you? What does he want to use you to do in his church? Every church I know of, including this one, has to beg for volunteers at times. If every believer knew how God wanted to use them in service to the body of Christ, begging for volunteers would never happen again. If every believer served where they’re gifted and was willing to even branch out and explore new areas of giftedness, the church would become the community of connectedness that God has had in mind all along. What does God want to do through you? Are you faithfully following his call, or is his church being damaged and disconnected because you arrogantly and stubbornly refuse to follow where God leads?

Recently Nicki and I attended Eastside Christian Church on a vacation Sunday. I’d never been there and I’d always wanted to go, so we took the opportunity to check it out and we really enjoyed our time there. The guy who spoke talked about service in his message. And at one point in the message, he said, “If you’re attending Eastside but you really have no intention of serving at Eastside, then we’d really rather you find another church. Because if we get enough of you here, the Eastside that you’ve come to know will cease to exist. So we’d really rather you find another church.”

My first thought was, “Whoa. You’ve got some guts.” But after I thought about it, I began thinking, “Whoa. You’re absolutely right.”

If you’re attending here at Amelia because it’s a good show or it gives you your God buzz for the week but you have no intention of getting down and dirty and serving with this church, you may want to think about finding another church. Because God’s call on this church family is one of service. Every member is a minister, and therefore ministry and service are the expectations.

The church only works by God’s design when I take my letter, and you take your letter, and you take your letter, and so on, and so on, and we start making beautiful words. You can’t win at Scrabble if you only have one letter. You need to connect with the letters of other people to make words.

It’s all about connection. If you haven’t connected your service with your church, then you’re missing out on God’s design for your spiritual life and your church is missing out because we need your service and ministry. But maybe it’s even more basic than that for you: maybe you’ve never connected with God in the first place. You’ve never connected with his loving grace and forgiveness. God wants to use you in incredible ways in his kingdom, but it has to begin with this initial connection. If you’ve never made Jesus the Savior and Lord of your life, we invite you to meet him today.

Mike Edmisten