The Joy of Giving: How Spiritual Gifts Transform Lives

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

As we come to the end of the year, we've been focusing on gifts.

We've been focusing on what God has given us, specifically in

the gift of salvation.

Now we know that as a believer, the greatest gift that

we can ever receive is the grace of God, the love of God, the

forgiveness of God.

That is the gospel message.

And that is something that we all must rejoice in, that we all

must be excited in, because the Bible challenges us to take that

gospel message and share that with those around us.

We can't avoid that teaching in our Scriptures, right, that we

have received the gift.

And now the challenge is for us to, yes, be recipients of that

gift, beneficiaries of that gift, but also ones that are going

to be able to share that gift with those around us.

And so this month we've been studying so far the gift of God in

his grace in salvation.

That's the greatest gift, the greatest gift that we could ever

receive.

But we're also going to study here for the next few weeks how we

can be recipients of that grace and salvation, but also recipients

of gifts that we can use to minister or to serve others.

And I want to take you to a few passages of scripture that kind

of set that up so that we get to our main text.

You can have some context and you can have some background.

Okay, so the first passage of scripture we're going to look at

is Acts, chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

You weren't expecting to go to the Book of Acts here on Christmas

week, but that's what we're going to do because we're going to

be looking at gifts and we're going to look at the perspective

of being a gift giver, right?

How can we be a grace giver?

Now, we talked about this on the first Sunday of the month, how

we can give with the material blessings that God has given us.

Certainly God has blessed us with material things, and we can

take those things as stewards of God's gifts and give to the church,

give to those in need.

But what we're going to talk about here for the next two weeks

is the spiritual gifts that God has given us in our lives to

serve others, to.

To preach the gospel to minister to those in need and to

edify and to encourage those around us.

And so I.

I mentioned this last week, but I.

I kind of want to use this as an analogy again.

When I was growing up, Christmas time was all about what

I could get, right?

So all year, I was getting my Christmas list ready, making sure

that, you know, I got everything that I wanted.

And Christmas was all about me.

Okay?

It was all about me getting something.

And you say that sounds pretty selfish.

Well, I am an only child, and so that's kind of how it goes.

Okay?

So it was all about me.

And I was like, yes, what am I going to get this year?

And then Christmas would come, I'd rip open the presents, I would

be excited, and I can't wait to tell my friends, I can't wait

to tell everyone at school what I got.

And it was all about me.

But then as we got older, as I got older, the maturity level changed,

and it wasn't all about me.

It was now about my children.

And now how I could find a way to make my children have that same

excitement, right?

I want to share with my children what I got to experience,

that excitement of Christmas getting a gift.

And so it wasn't so much about, well, what am I going to get

this year?

It was more about.

The conversation in our house was like this, what are we going

to get the kids this year?

Number one, what can we afford this year?

And what.

What.

What do we want to have in our house for the rest of the year?

You know, some of those gifts that you get that you don't always

think about the implication of it later.

It might be really loud or you might step on in the middle of the

night.

How many of you ever stepped on a Lego in the middle of the night?

That's not.

That is one of the most painful experiences I've ever had.

Okay?

But the idea for us now, as mature parents, hopefully we would

say that we are, is that it's all about other people.

It's about others.

And that's what the Christian life's about, right?

At first, when we taste of the grace of God, when we hear the gospel,

we're all excited, and we should be, yes, I'm saved.

Yes, I am a beneficiary of God's grace.

And so it is all about my transformation.

But in the process of that transformation, we.

We've studied that there is that spiritual growth process, what

we call sanctification.

And in that sanctification process, the focus goes from what

I can get to what I can give as God has given me.

And so we get to this passage here in the book of acts, Acts chapter

Acts 20 · chapter mention

20, and we're going to go all the way down to the end of the chapter

and we're going to look at verse number 32, verse 32, and we're

going to see this perspective of, you know, actually as a believer,

as we have received the grace of God, it's better that we give

than we actually receive.

And so it's a humbled focus.

It's a selfless submission to what God has called us to do in service.

So first excuse, let's look at this here in Acts chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

Then we'll go to First Peter, Acts chapter 20, verse 32 says, and

Acts 20:32

now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace,

which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among

all them which are sanctified.

So this speaks of we are the ones that are built up in the grace

of God.

Then he says, I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.

You know, to be a good gift giver, you can't be coveting other

people's stuff.

You can't be so focused on what you want and what you can get

from other people.

It's all about what you can give to other people.

And that humility says, I've showed you all things how that so

laboring ye ought to support the weak.

And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, it is

more blessed to give than to receive.

I want you to think about that phrase there at the end of that verse.

It is more blessed to give than receive.

And the concept of this.

I believe that what is being taught here is that thing that we

see in Philippians chapter two, that that selfless humility

of Christ that that we should be looking for opportunities to minister

to other people, to build other people up.

We are going to naturally be built up in Christ if we are abiding

in Him.

The Bible says that if we live in Christ, if we live in his word,

if we commune with him, if we fellowship with him, we are going

to be built up and established in our faith.

We are going to be strengthened, we're going to be encouraged,

we're going to be comforted, we're going to have all of those

things that God promises us.

But that's not to hold to ourselves, that is to share with

other people around us.

And so I want you to look with me to first Peter, chapter four.

So we're in Acts, chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

We're going to move to first Peter, chapter four, and we're going

to kind of build this case to the spiritual gifts being lived out

within our church.

So let's look at First Peter, chapter four, and we're going to

look at verse number 10 and 11.

This kind of explains to us the perspective that we are to have

as God gifts us with spiritual gifts that we are to share and minister

to others in.

So let's go ahead and look at 1 Peter, chapter 4, and look at verse

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

number 10 and 11.

So we've already established this idea that when we abide in Christ,

we are living in his grace, we are living in his forgiveness, we

are living in his love, we are living in his power.

And then we.

We then see in verse 10, it says, as every man hath received

the gift.

And so here, obviously he's talking about salvation, but more

than just salvation, he's talking about a spiritual gift of

service.

We're going to see that here in a few moments.

So he says, you've received salvation and now you received a

gift, a spiritual gift in service.

So he says, every man hath received the gift.

Even so, minister.

That word minister means to serve.

Even so, minister the same one to another.

So as we've received the gift, we are to minister one to another.

We are to serve one another.

That's the purpose here.

The purpose of the gift is to serve.

That's what he's saying.

And so he says, as you've received the gift, even so, minister

the same one to another as good stewards.

That word steward means I'm managing what God already owns.

And so I'm stewarding what has been given to me as good stewards

of the manifold grace of God.

The word manifold is not a word that we use quite frequently,

but it means varied or different.

It actually literally means like, different colors.

And so what we would say there is this.

There are going to be people who are gifted differently within

the church.

And it's because of.

What does it say there at the end of verse 10?

Because of God's grace.

And so God graces us with different gifts in the body of Christ,

and it's his discretion.

It's.

It's not like, hey, I.

I've earned this gift today, or, you know what?

Because I'm this type of person, I have the spiritual gift.

The Bible says very clearly here that it is God's discernment,

what spiritual gift he gives us.

It's because of his grace.

It's nothing that we earn.

Sometimes it's taught this way.

Hey, if you're saved and you're working really hard, God might

then grace you with a spiritual gift.

That's not what this says.

This says it's because of the grace of God that he gives you this

opportunity to serve.

This gift is, is literally a free gift that we did not earn.

God gives this to us.

And then it says, if any man speaks.

So this, this idea has the concept of these are public gifts.

These are gifts that are going to be more on the front side of things.

People are going to see these gifts.

If any man speak, let him speak as of the oracles of God.

Mean, let him speak in the word of God.

If any man ministers.

So then we see that there's another side of this.

There's going to be some gifts that are exercised publicly and people

are going to notice, but there's also going to be ministerial

gifts that are going to be behind the scenes and not everyone's

going to notice.

And so he says, if you speak, speak of the oracles of God.

If any man minister or serve, let him do it.

Do it as of the ability which God giveth, meaning God is going

to give you the ability to do this.

You have to rely on him to do this.

And so therefore trust and give in the grace of God.

So it says that in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ,

that God in all things might be glorified.

So the reason why we serve, the reason why we exercise these

spiritual gifts is not so that we get glory, not so that we have

the acclaim or the praise.

It says that we do these things, we serve and we speak so

that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

The point of exercising our spiritual gifts is so that God would

be glorified in Christ Jesus.

And then it says here, to whom be praise and dominion forever and

ever.

So we can kind of frame this idea of the spiritual gifts in this

way.

They are given to us after salvation from God through his grace,

so that we can serve publicly and privately for the cause of the

gospel, for the glory of God.

And we do that so that we can exalt the name of Christ.

That's the idea of a spiritual gift.

Now we're going to go to Romans chapter 12 and Romans chapter

Romans 12 · chapter mention Romans 12 · chapter mention

12 is going to be our main text for the next two weeks.

And there are.

There are other passages of scripture that speak of spiritual

gifts.

But In Romans chapter 12 we see a succinct list of what I call

Romans 12 · chapter mention

and what many other people call the ministering gifts, the service

gifts.

These are the gifts within the church that we would practice in

helping others, serving others, and ultimately teaching and

guiding others in the truth of Jesus Christ.

We're not going to go through all of them here today, but what

I would like to do is I would like for us to see how we can properly

exercise these spiritual gifts that God has given us, how we can

properly give these gifts back to the Lord, back to people within

our church, and so that we can exercise these in the truth of the

Word of God.

So Romans, chapter 12, we're going to start in verse number one.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

All of you are probably familiar in some way, shape or form

with verses one and two, but we're going to get down from verses

three through eight and we're going to look at these spiritual

gifts that are listed.

So it says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies

of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly

acceptable unto God, who which is your reasonable service, meaning

this?

We are called by God to give him everything.

And.

And he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice.

God wants our lives.

God wants not just your Sunday morning.

He.

He wants more than that.

He doesn't just want 10%.

He wants 100% of you.

He wants everything.

He says he wants your bodies a living sacrifice, holy or separate

unto God, which is your reasonable service, meaning this

is only reasonable.

This is how you serve God for what he has done for you.

And be not conformed to this world.

So don't allow the world to tell you what this looks like, but

be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

We renew our minds by the word of God and by the leading of the

Spirit that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect

will of God.

So if you want to follow in the will of God, be transformed by

the renewing of your mind to the Word, so that you're not guided

by the world, but you're guided by the Spirit, so that you're

not guided by your flesh, but you're guided by the Lord.

And so what we can see here in this case is that there is that whole

transformation that happens in salvation that happens in sanctification,

that we as Christians must follow to live out these spiritual

gifts in our life.

But what I will say is that I believe Scripture teaches very clearly

that all Christians, all folks that have come to Jesus Christ in

faith, have received at least one of these spiritual gifts.

Some of you might be gifted in many of these areas and And I want

to preface this study with this.

I have heard some people say, well, you know what?

I'm not gifted in the gift of fill in the blank.

And so therefore, I don't need to exercise in that ministry.

Well, I would challenge you on that because we're going to see that

there is the gift of exhortation or encouragement.

Well, I'm not really gifted in encouraging people, so I'm just not

going to do that.

No, exercise just means all the more we need to strive to grow

in these areas.

And so all of these areas are elements of a Christian's life that

we should exercise.

But what the Bible says is that some of us are supernaturally

gifted in some of these areas more than others.

And so therefore, exercise in these categories, you can be more

effective in these categories if you follow the Spirit in your

life.

And so let's look at what it says in verse three.

It says, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man

that is among you.

And we see that it's every person, every person, every Christian

within the church not to think of himself more highly than he ought

to think.

So we see again that there is that theme of humility every time

we're speaking of the spiritual gifts.

It's not about us.

It's humility.

It's about others.

And I think that that is a phrase that we should use in our

society today because it's countercultural.

What does the culture say?

Think more highly of yourself, exalt yourself.

You know, you are above everybody else.

But what does the Bible say?

This is countercultural.

This is not popular.

It says, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought

to think.

Now, it doesn't say, think less of yourself in the concept of

like, think poorly of yourself, but don't think about yourself

higher than you should.

So, so what does that mean?

That means, obviously, we should have respect for our bodies.

We should have respect for what we decide to do in our lives.

So it's not about harming yourself here.

It's not about degrading yourself, but it's talking about

having a proper perspective of who you are in Christ.

And the moment we don't align ourselves with our position under

Christ is where we have issues.

And when we start exalting ourselves as the center of the universe,

like I did when I was getting those gifts, right, I had no other

focus other than receiving that gift.

The Bible says, and then we've gotten ourselves in the wrong place.

And so he says, don't think of yourself more Highly than you ought

to think.

But also think as it says there, but to think soberly.

The Bible calls this sober thinking, basically being serious

about the right things.

All right?

H.

Having a sense of gravity to the situation that we are in.

Right.

Thinking soberly doesn't mean that you have to be serious about

everything.

Right?

And you can't smile and you can't have a good time.

No, what it's talking about here is thinking seriously about

the things that need to be thought seriously about.

And so he says, okay, these aspects of the spiritual gift, you

have to have humility and you have to have that sober thinking,

according as God have dealt to every man the measure of faith, meaning

each one of you in faith has been gifted one of these spiritual

gifts, at least one of these spiritual gifts so that you can live

this out amongst the members of the body of believers.

And we see that in verse number four.

For as we have many members in one body, there's.

There's an explanation about this in First Corinthians, but the

picture is, is that the church is a body, right?

So you have some that might be the hand, some that might be the

feet.

A foot and a hand are different, right?

And they function differently, but yet they are needed for a body

to be working completely properly.

And so what he says here is that we as a church have different

members, different members of the body, and all members have not

the same office, which means they don't have the same job.

So I'm looking around the church here and I see different folks.

If everyone said, you know what, we're all going to work in

the audio visual ministry, all of us feel like that's our ministry.

A couple things might go wrong here.

We don't have a big enough sound booth to have everyone get

back there.

Right.

Other things is, and the Bible says is that everyone is gifted in

the same area.

There's going to be different areas where you can be gifted in

and there's going to be diversity.

And that's a beautiful thing.

A lot of times we think of it as this.

There is unity, but not uniformity.

You understand what I mean by that?

We have unity working together, but there's not uniformity

in the concept that we all have to be the same.

What if I got up here and said, everyone has to be like me.

Everyone has to serve in the exact ministry that I'm serving it.

Everyone has to serve in the exact way that I serve.

Everyone has to deal with other people the same way that I

serve.

That's going to be a big issue, because number one, that's

anti biblical, but number two, that's just not going to function

well.

And so what we see here is that there's this diversity of gifts.

All members have, not the same office.

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and that's the unity

there.

So if we're not working in step with each other, if we're not

working in unity, then there's going to be some problems, there's

going to be some pain, there's going to be some struggles.

Now, there's always going to be pain and struggles within serving

the Lord.

But what the Bible tells us here is that when we work together,

we're able to overcome those difficulties when we're following

the plan of God and the plan that God has laid out for us as believers.

I've used this analogy many times before, but it's the best analogy

that I can come up with when it comes to having a little thing

causing major issues in your life.

So.

So my body, I think, I mean, this was probably when Micah was

a baby, had an issue.

And the issue was one day I got home from school, I was teaching.

I wasn't.

I wasn't in school while Micah was a baby.

I was teaching in school.

Make sure I'm clear on that.

I was teaching.

I got home from school and I was like, man, got like some stomach

pains.

This is not good.

So.

So I was like, I'm having some pain here.

And I told Alicia and she's like, all right, well, you know,

you want some Tylenol?

And I was like, yeah, maybe grab some Tylenol.

And she's like, all right, we don't think we have any.

So I'm going to go to the store and get you some.

Some medicine.

I was feeling like just a dull pain.

And all of a sudden that pain got worse and worse and worse.

And I finally was like, oh, man, this is really bad.

And I thought I was dying.

I literally felt my stomach was about to explode.

I thought I was going to, you know, see Jesus right then and there,

which I'm okay with, but it hurt a lot.

And so I didn't have my phone by me and I couldn't walk at this

point.

So I crawled all the way down to the back room in our house, and

I grabbed my phone and I called Alicia saying, hey, where

are you?

I need to go to the hospital.

She's like, well, I'm getting you some.

Some medicine.

I'm like, that medicine is not going to help.

What's happening here right now.

I'm like, I am about to die.

So we got to the emergency room and obviously, long story, long,

long story, I'll make it as short as I can.

I had kidney, a kidney stone, actually, two kidney stones at that

time.

And, and so that little thing in my body caused my whole body to

have pain and suffering.

Right?

My hand wasn't.

There was no issue with my hand at that point, but I wasn't

like, well, at least my hand's feeling good today.

It was, it was, it was.

The issue in my kidney was that was the problem that my whole

body had.

And that's how it can happen within the church.

The Bible says that, hey, we can all be functioning pretty well,

but if there's one element of that body that's off, the whole body

is going to feel that.

And we might not be able to discern what's going on, but there's

going to be an issue there.

So we have to be unified.

And the way that we're unified is by serving in the capacity that

God has us within the ministry.

And so that's what he's saying here.

He says, so, so we being many, are one body in Christ and everyone

members of one another as then.

He's going to say this in verse 6, having then gifts differing

according to.

We're seeing a theme here.

The grace that is given to us, it's a gift of grace.

The, the fact that God has given us an avenue of service within

the ministry is a gift.

It's a gift of grace.

You didn't earn it.

You know, there, there's a lot of times in my life that I might

start to be tempted to think, you know what?

I've done a good job.

And maybe, maybe God has given me this because I've earned this

note.

Every element of your life that is good, the Bible says, is

a gift of God.

Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from God.

That's James, chapter one.

And so what we can see here in our life is that sometimes the, the

temptation for us is to think about the opportunity to serve as

not a gift, but as an inconvenience.

You ever think about that?

You ever think like, oh, boy, I got to do something nice for someone,

I got to go out of my way?

No, the Bible says that is a gift.

That is a blessing to be able to, to serve, that is a blessing

to teach, it is a blessing to serve God in your capacity within

the body of believers.

You might say, well, what does this have to do with Christmas?

Well, not really anything but the idea is, is that we as a, we

as a church have been gifted so much.

Number one in salvation, but number two in the concept of service.

Like, to.

To be able to serve other Christians is a blessing.

It should.

It should excite us.

We should wake up in the morning and go, wow, I get to do

this for the Lord.

I get to do this for his people.

I get to teach, I get to preach.

I get to serve.

I get to encourage.

I get to give.

And so the whole point here is that we as Christians sometimes,

if we're not careful, can be.

You ever seen that story, the, the Christmas Carol?

You have Ebenezer Scrooge.

You guys know who Ebenezer Scrooge is, right?

He hoards everything to himself.

He doesn't want to give it to anybody.

Look at all this wealth.

Look at all these storehouses, folks.

Sometimes we can be like Ebenezer Scrooge in our Christian

faith.

It's all about me.

It's all about what I can get.

All the prayers are for me.

And the focus sometimes misses the point in the fact that we are

supposed to be here for others.

That's what the Bible tells us.

We're not here for ourselves.

We're here for the Lord ultimately and for his people.

So it says then having gifts differing according to the grace

that is given to us.

And then he starts to list some of these gifts, and we're going

to talk about these.

And, and the goal for us through these two studies is for

you to see what scripture has to say about these ministering gifts,

these service gifts, and see where you fall in on these gifts.

I'm going to tell you that each one of you, if you're a believer

in Jesus Christ and you have faith, have an opportunity to exercise

these gifts within the ministry.

Service ministries.

Now, let me go ahead and kind of clarify another thing.

This is going to sound somewhat like a teaching lesson here

today, but I, I need to teach you this because I think that sometimes

I've even fallen into this trap.

Okay, so let's say there's someone here that's a great cook,

okay?

You're the best cook in town, and I don't doubt that you are.

I've heard some people say, well, my spiritual gift is cooking.

Well, let me, let me stop you on that.

I don't see anywhere in Scripture where it says, spiritual

gift is cooking.

Now, if you can find a passage of scripture, I would love to see

that.

But I do see that there are many spiritual Gifts that.

That could fall under, right?

So God gives us natural talents.

Do you have to be a Christian to be a good cook?

I don't think so.

I don't go and ask every single, you know, chef that's at

this, the, you know, restaurants, hey, are you a believer?

Do you have the spiritual gift of cooking?

No, I enjoy the food and I eat it.

Right.

And so there's this concept that I think sometimes that we conflate.

We.

We put together natural gifts that God gives us in our life, and

we conflate them with spiritual gifts.

Now, if God has naturally gifted you in cooking, you could

use that for all of these categories.

You could use this for the, you could teach other people how

to cook and use that for the ministry.

You could encourage people by cooking them food.

You.

You could serve people, right?

That's a great opportunity.

So you see the difference God can give people with, with these

awesome talents, let's call them talents, right?

Someone could get up and sing, right?

That's a natural talent.

But we know that that's not only like something that a Christian

indwelled by the Spirit can do.

And so what we're going to actually see is that within the context

of spiritual gifts, you must have the Holy Spirit indwelling you

to exercise these properly.

And so God gives us natural talents in our life so that we can

utilize them for these spiritual gifts.

So the first one we're going to see here in verse number six,

then is this says, and whether prophecy.

Now some of you might say prophecy, what is that?

Literally, prophecy means to speak forth the truth.

Now, when we hear that word, prophecy, what do we naturally think?

We think about someone talking about the future, right?

I'm going to prophetically tell you what your day is going to

be like tomorrow.

Okay?

That's not exclusively what this word means.

It actually primarily is used in scripture with speaking forth

the truth of God.

Now, in many cases in the Old Testament, it was God speaking through

prophets and speaking about the future, right?

And so the fulfilled word of God comes along and there's elements

of those prophecies being fulfilled.

And obviously, we see many of the prophecies in the Old Testament

pointing to Jesus Christ and the Messiah, right?

He's going to be born in Bethlehem.

He's going to ride in on a donkey eventually, right?

There's all these different.

He's going to die on the cross for our sins.

Isaiah 53 is a prophetic passage.

But I will say that that gift of prophecy today is primarily seen

through speaking forth the word of God.

So an individual who is gifted in the area of prophecy is going

to be someone that gets up and is able to proclaim the truth of

God publicly or maybe even in the setting of private preaching

forth the word of God.

So you could ultimately lump this together with someone who is

a preacher, someone who is able to preach and proclaim the word

of God.

Now, the word preach just literally means to proclaim.

And so someone who is gifted in the gift of prophecy is able to

speak forth the truth of God clearly.

And in this case, in many ways would be able to speak for different

elements of the truth of God.

Many times prophecy is going to be tied in with teaching, but

it doesn't always have to be tied in with teaching.

So someone exercising the gift of prophecy within the guidance of

the Spirit is going to clearly and properly present and proclaim

the truth of God to others around them.

And so someone who is preaching is exercising the gift

of prophecy.

They're speaking forth the truth of God.

Now you might say, well, I'm not a pastor, so I can't have this

gift.

I don't think that that's the case.

It doesn't link this with the office of the pastor.

There is a list in the book of Ephesians that speaks to different

offices within the church.

That's not what this is talking about.

I believe that this is talking about someone who is able to proclaim

the truth of God to those that are around them.

And so we see that it says, if they are going to prophesy, let us

prophesy according to the proportion of faith.

And there's a lot of scholars who will argue about what that phrase

means.

But what I will say is that we, as people that are proclaiming

the truth of God must believe what we are preaching.

We must understand it, we must believe it, and we must proclaim

it in faith.

And as God gives you different elements of faith in your life and

grows your faith, you are able then to proclaim more truths about

God in that proportion of faith.

You know what?

I preach much different now than I did 10 years ago.

Because of certain elements in my life, my faith has grown in Jesus

Christ.

I preach different than I preached a year ago.

Because let me tell you, most of you understand this.

As you have certain elements happen in your life.

You are tested.

You are tested in a trial.

And what does that trial do?

That trial either builds your faith, or for many people, it destroys

their faith.

And so for a lot of people in their life, because of a hardship,

they go, you know, What?

I just don't believe in this anymore.

But for other people, a trial brings them closer to the Lord and

strengthens them in Christ.

And so what I would encourage you to do is, if you are feeling

like, hey, you know what?

I'm.

I'm proclaiming the truth of God to people around me.

I'm proclaiming the truth of God in.

In his word, then do that in faith.

Do that as God has tested you and guided you in that proportion

of faith.

And so that's one gift.

I'm going to say number two here, you see the next one.

It says verse seven, or ministry.

Ministry or service.

That word, ministry literally means service.

The Greek word is the word that we get the word deacon from,

right?

The role of a deacon within the church is to serve.

Say, no, no, no, that's not what it means.

Literally, the word deacon is service.

And so therefore, this word is not talking about the office of a

deacon, but this is talking about the characteristic of service

within the ministry.

And so it says here, or ministry, let us wait on our ministry.

Let's be patient in our ministry.

And so the Bible says that there is a spiritual gift of service.

Now, this is a broad category.

This is a category in which can be exercised in many different

ways within the body of believers.

How can you serve someone?

Well, you can serve someone a lot of different ways.

You can serve them by providing something financial for

them.

You can serve them by providing something material for

them.

Maybe you can serve them by coming and bringing them food if

they're hungry, maybe clothing them if they need clothing, serving

them, supporting them.

And so this speaks to this idea of humility and service that

we are called to follow in Christ.

Christ, as it says, humbled himself as a servant.

And so all of us, I believe all of us are called to exercise

this spiritual gift within our life, whether it's natural or not.

I do know that in this area of service, we all must in some ways

grow in the element of our faith.

And so ministry.

Let us wait on our ministering.

There's this idea of patience here.

You ever been challenged to be patient in your service to another?

Um, the Bible says to be patient in that.

The Bible says to wait on the Lord in that case.

Because, you know, one of the things that I'm challenged with is

I'm happy with serving somebody when everything goes my

way and when they're thankful and when things go well and no one

complains, but, you know, when I'm tempted not to serve, when somebody

isn't thankful for what I do.

Or when someone says, oh, you gave me this, well, I really wanted

this.

You ever got someone a gift and they were looking at it and you

could tell that they weren't happy with it and they're like, well,

thank you.

It's like, oh man, my, my flesh wants to say, well, you know

what, I'm not going to give you a gift of anyone.

But, but, but the Bible says that's not why we serve.

We go back.

Why?

Why do we serve?

We serve because we are called by God and we are equipped by God

to love others, even love people that are difficult, even love

people that are against us.

And so that's the element of service here.

Folks, I would, I would encourage you to think about how

God has you to serve within the ministry.

Not everybody.

Now remind, let me remind you, not everyone is called to serve in

the same capacity.

Not everyone's even called to serve in the same area.

I know that sometimes there's some conflict within the church with

that.

What do I mean by that?

Let's say there's someone here who.

Years have passed and there are certain physical ailments that

have come up in their life.

And I've heard even people say, you know, I wish I could do

more.

And I understand that sentiment.

But folks, not all of us are able to do the same amount of work.

Maybe we're not even physically able to.

It doesn't mean you're less of a Christian.

It doesn't mean that you're less of a member of the church.

It just means that you're a different stage of life.

What if I came up here and I said, how many strong men do we have

in this room?

And you know, most of us men, we all think at some degree we're

kind of strong, right?

I mean, everyone in the room said, I'm strong for my size.

And I brought up, and I brought a big weight up here and

I said, okay, if you're a true man, you need to come up here and

lift this.

And maybe a few guys can come up here and lift it and some of the

other guys get up here and they can't lift it.

We don't go, well, and let's say there's a guy, he comes up here

and he's, I don't know if we have any 90 year old men in here,

but if a 90 year old man goes up and doesn't lift it, we go, well,

that guy's really weak.

No, we would just say he's at a different stage of life.

Maybe 70 years ago, he was able to lift that thing up over his

head.

But he's at a different stage of life.

And what we see that within the church sometimes is we feel like,

well, you know what?

I can't be used by God anymore.

You can be used by God.

Maybe not in the same capacity of service, but you can be used of

God.

The Bible doesn't say that there's an expiration date to any

of these spiritual gifts.

So what I would encourage you to do is think about, hey, how can

I serve at Middletown Baptist Church?

How can I serve people in my community?

How can I serve my family?

How can I serve others around me?

How can I ultimately serve the Lord?

So there's this idea of service here, ministering.

Let us wait on our ministering.

Then it says here, or he that teacheth on teaching.

Now we do see very clearly that the gift of prophecy and the

gift of proclamation is separated from the gift of teaching.

And some would argue that those go hand in hand.

And I would say in a lot of cases, the gift of prophecy and the

gift of teaching do go hand in hand.

But what I would say is that there are people that maybe aren't

gifted naturally in the preaching element, but they are very

gifted in teaching.

And someone who is a gifted teacher is someone who's able to

clearly explain passages of scripture and clearly frame it in

a way that people can understand.

And so, you know, the one thing that I would say that a good

teacher is able to take very complex topics and make them sound

simple.

The way that I explain this to people is explain this to a 5 year

old.

If you are a gifted teacher, you're able to take very complex

issues and put them down on a level where people can understand

it.

I would say it this way.

There's a, there's a.

You.

I don't know if you guys watch YouTube.

Be careful on the Internet, okay?

Just don't just scroll everywhere.

But there is a series on YouTube where they take these like

rocket.

What is it?

What's rocket scientist?

Or whatever.

They take like a rocket scientist and they say, okay, you're

going to explain a concept in your field to a 5 year old, to a

15 year old, to a 30 year old, and.

Or they might say, you know, you're going to explain this to someone

who has zero intelligence in this area, someone who maybe is like

in high school, someone is in college.

And there's a way that we explain certain things to different

people, right?

And so with the element of teaching comes the discernment of

knowing who your audience is, understanding what vernacular they

use, understanding how someone can hear it.

So, for example, if I was sitting in front of a Children's

Church, 10 year olds and down, and I get up here and I say, okay,

we're going to talk about some really complex issues today.

We're going to talk about the hypostatic union of, of God, of Jesus,

and we're going to talk about the, the justification, sanctification,

propitiation.

Immediately, some of you are like, okay, I'm already lost.

Some of you already have, like, I've lost you already.

But, but, right, you, you see that there isn't the discernment

of knowing the audience and understanding that.

And so with the gift of teaching comes the gift of understanding

and knowing who your audience is and being able to frame it in

a way that's obtainable.

And so, and so we see these three gifts and you would say, well,

why do I need to know that?

Because it's very, very effective within a church ministry

to know where you are gifted so that you can effectively serve

Jesus Christ in these areas.

Now, now I have heard people say, I'm not serving in any areas

until I figure out my gift.

I would say that's probably not a good, good path.

Because what I would say is one of the areas that helped me understand

where God has gifted me was serving in a lot of capacities.

Right.

Because if you serve in a lot of capacities, you're able to see

where it fits and where it doesn't fit.

And I would say, be able to say, you know, I'm going to be flexible

and I'm going to stretch myself.

The best growing happens when we are stretched.

The best growing happens when we're able to move out of our comfort

zone.

And so we see we're only going to look at these three gifts here

this morning.

We're looking at the gift of prophecy, the gift of service, and

the gift of teaching.

And you would say, well, look, you know what?

I don't know if any of those areas are something that I'm gifted

in.

Well, next week what I'm going to do, and I know that this isn't

typical, but what I'm going to do is at the end of the service,

what I would like for us to do is you could take some spiritual

gift tests home with you.

We have them on paper now.

Are spiritual gifts tests foolproof?

No.

Okay.

Because you can lie on them.

Okay.

You know, there, there's a, there's a scale there and you can

say, do I enjoy doing this.

And you might say, yeah, I kind of enjoy that.

Like, it's, it's only a little bit helpful to guide you in a direction

to discern what gift God has given you or gifts that God has given

you.

And, and so the idea for us next week is for me to kind of go

through all of these different gifts and be able to see where you

fall in that category and then explain to you at what capacity you

could use those gifts within our ministry here in Middletown Baptist

Church or how you could use those gifts out in your community.

Because my goal is not for, for me just to tell you what these

gifts are, but to explain to you where you can functionally use

these gifts within your life.

Folks, this is not.

We don't see in this passage of scripture God saying you're going

to get a gift, but it's up to you.

You know, you really don't have to exercise it.

Just, you know, it's there if you want it.

No, the challenge is for us to use these gifts for the cause of

the gospel.

What did it say at the very beginning so that God would be glorified

through Jesus Christ?

And so we point people to Jesus through exercising our spiritual

gifts.

They're not there for us.

They're not there for our own self exaltation.

They're there because we exalt Christ.

And so it's that humility, it's that sober mindedness, it's

that understanding that we are to trust in God to give us these

gifts and to exercise these gifts.

Is it going to be easy?

No, not it's not going to be easy, but it's a lot more easy when

within our life to serve God, when we know the framework and the

marching orders.

What if I just told you, what if I got up here today and I said,

okay, all of you at Middletown Baptist Church need to start serving

right now.

Start serving.

And you go, okay, where do I serve?

You're looking around.

Okay, how can I help, Pastor?

Well, you just better help.

Okay, get busy.

A good Christian is a busy Christian.

Do you see sometimes how busyness isn't always effective?

Because what if everyone's just running around like crazy and

bumping into each other and I thought we were going to do this.

I thought we were going to do this.

No, because we're going to get to other passages next week that

talk about there's the gift of administration, right?

Maybe someone that isn't gifted in the gift of administration,

but maybe they're gifted in service and they're able to be like,

hey, where should I go?

And then we have someone who isn't the greatest person that's

able to be a gift of mercy.

But maybe they're great in the ministration and they're able to

exercise certain things.

Here we can't expect everyone to be the same, and we can't judge

other people because they don't have the same gifts as we have.

Sometimes that's another issue.

Sometimes, like, right, I don't.

I naturally.

This.

I, I'm not naturally gifted in the gift of mercy.

I walk around, you know what I'm gifted in?

I'm gifted in exhortation.

And, and the gift of proclamation to say, well, here's

what you gotta do to fix it.

Just do that, like, get over it, like, get, get to work.

But I'm having such a bad day.

Well, just, just, just grind, go forward, push forward.

And, and so the gift of mercy is not something natural to me.

And sometimes when I see someone with the gift of mercy, do

you know what I do?

I sometimes go like, come on, how can you be so gullible?

Like, why are you so nice to them?

Why are you so patient with them?

Because they have the gift of mercy.

And it's easy for me not to see it from their perspective and

then get kind of frustrated.

The truth is, is that there's going to be different people with

different gifts, and we're able to be patient with them and

love them in the grace of God and say, we need people with the

gift of mercy just as much as we need people with the gift of proclamation.

We need the gift of people with exhortation just as much as

we need the people with the gift of teaching.

Right?

It, it.

It goes all hand in hand.

And for Middletown Baptist Church to thrive, for you to thrive

as an individual, it's exercising these spiritual gifts

with those around you.

It's not so that Middletown Baptist can build this empire.

It's so that we follow the word of God.

Go back to what verse number, verse number two said in Romans,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12.

What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

This is the will of God to work out in the midst, in the body

of Christ, the spiritual gifts that he has given us.

Specifically in this area, the ministering gifts.

Now let me tie this all back in together with the idea of the

gift.

Now, the reason why we exercise the spiritual gifts is because

of the greatest gift that was ever given to us in Jesus Christ.

You know, we, we get the opportunity to say, I am a Servant

of Jesus Christ because of his gift of salvation.

You don't just become a servant of Jesus Christ because you

want to be.

You have a.

You're a servant of Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit's

indwelling you.

And these gifts are perfected through the indwelling of the Spirit.

But not just the indwelling of the Spirit.

Because what the indwelling of the Spirit is is that when you're

saved, the Holy Spirit now lives within you.

That's the amazing thing.

As a believer, you have the Holy Spirit living within you.

But these gifts aren't alone exercised by just the indwelling

of the Spirit.

These gifts are exercised by the filling of the Spirit.

What do I mean by the filling of the Spirit?

The filling of the Spirit is the opportunity for us not to just

have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, but, but the Holy

Spirit guiding us in our life.

Folks, as a Christian, the Bible says very clearly and Paul

talks about this.

There is the wrestling of the flesh and the Spirit.

Okay, so, so there could be people with these spiritual gifts,

but not exercising these spiritual gifts properly.

Because why they're living in the flesh.

Because all of these gifts can be exercised in a spiritual manner

or they can be exercised in a fleshly manner.

If I am guided by my Spirit, I'm going to be like the one that

gets upset with people when they have mercy.

If, if I'm a person of service, I'm going to serve in the

flesh.

What does that look like?

Well, I'm going to serve for my benefit.

I'm going to serve so that people notice me.

I'm going to serve so that people can lift me up.

And when someone doesn't lift me up, I don't want to serve anymore.

You see how the gift of service can then be fleshly, flesh

focused.

The gift of proclamation, the gift of prophecy.

Have we ever heard someone preach for the praise of themselves?

Right.

It can happen.

God can allow someone to be so gifted in the area of proclaiming

the word of God, but they do it for the wrong principles.

They do it for their self focus.

They do that for praise, they do that for acclaim.

And the Bible says that these gifts are given, but they can be

exercised in a very fleshly manner.

And so the challenge for us is to number one, identify where God

has gifted us.

But then number two, to live in the Spirit, to abide in Christ

so that we can exercise these for the cause of the Gospel.

I challenge us here not to be able to see these things as a, as

a Thing that we do, a thing that we accomplish, a checklist in

our life.

But it's a way that we can commune with God.

And so each one of these gifts that we talk about can be exercised

in a fleshly focus.

And so the challenge is, number one, to find the gift that

God has given us or the gifts that God has given us.

But then, number two, to exercise these gifts in the guidance

of the Spirit in our life.

To yield to the Spirit and not to the flesh.

I would encourage you to read through the book of Galatians.

The book of Galatians speaks of the fruit of the Spirit and then

the works of the flesh.

You know what the.

The test will be?

Let's.

Let's go there really quickly.

We got to see this, guys.

We got to see this.

And then we'll wrap it up.

Because a lot of people might say, well, how do I know if I'm living

in the Spirit?

How do I know if I'm yielded to the Spirit?

Well, there's this amazing thing in scripture that tells us

what we look like when we are yielded to the Spirit.

It's found in Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22.

Galatians 5:22

This is the test.

You know, am I.

Am I acting in the Spirit to my wife?

Am I responding in the Spirit to my children?

Am I living in the Spirit at the workplace?

Here's the test.

Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22.

Galatians 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering.

That's patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

That's self control.

Against such, there is no law.

So your test is, am I responding to my wife?

Well, did you respond in love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness,

and the like?

Well, no, you know, it was just she.

She got under my skin.

And so you were acting in the flesh.

Okay, this has been something that's been very convicting in my

life because a lot of times I'm willing to justify my actions

because, hey, look what happened to me.

The Bible says, in anything, have you respond in the fruit of

the Spirit.

If you have, then you've responded in the Spirit.

If you respond in anything outside of the fruit of the Spirit,

it's in the flesh.

And we don't have time to go in Galatians 5.

But it talks about all these different things that are works of

the flesh.

And so when we exercise our spiritual gifts, when we serve other

people, the true test is not are we serving right as Christians?

Actually, we see in Scripture that basically it's the assumption

that Christians are going to be serving that Christians are going

to be ministering.

So, so it's a really rare thing to see people that proclaim

to be Christians but have no action in their life.

That, that, that's not really even seen in Scripture.

Jesus says, when ye fast, when ye pray.

Right?

It's just the assumption that if we love God, we're going to be

serving him.

But the true test that we see in First Corinthians is, why did

you do this?

Why did you do this?

What are your motives?

And so I would, I would go deeper in the spiritual gifts.

It's like, are you giving gifts to other people?

Are you serving in the grace of God?

Yes, but why are you doing that?

That's the motivation.

Why, why do I get up and preach on Sundays?

Why do we have a Sunday school class?

Why do we have a ministry over here?

That's, that's the true test.

Like, why, why am I giving gifts if you are giving?

So, so here's how it goes sometimes in, in the world.

Okay, let me give you a gift now.

I've given you a gift.

The assumption is, is that you're gonna, what are you gonna

give me now?

Like, you know, like, sometimes I struggle with that.

Like, someone gives me a gift that I wasn't expecting, I'm like,

oh, now I gotta go get them a gift.

I gotta go do that.

And, and I understand why we do that.

But, but a lot of times, if the motivation is that I'm gonna

give something to somebody because I want something back, that's

not the heart of giving.

That's not the heart of service.

That's not the heart of agape love.

And so the Bible says that we give these gifts not for response.

We don't give these gifts for any type of praise.

We give these gifts out of the humility of our hearts.

We saw that in First Peter.

We saw that in Acts, chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

We saw that in Romans, chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

It's all about humility.

And so it's the why behind the exercising of these spiritual gifts

in our life.

We're going to come back next week and we're going to look at the

rest of these gifts.

We're going to look at the gift of exhortation.

We're going to look at the gift of ruling or administration.

We're going to look at the gift of mercy, and we're going to

see all of these things lived out in our midst, hopefully within

the church.

Now, I, I, I challenge you to think about this from the perspective

of not like, well, hey, I wonder what their gift is, or I wonder

if they're exercising this in the flesh.

I want this to be a time of introspection for you to say, like,

you know, I really want to design our desire.

I really want to desire and discern what God has given me in

my life in ministering.

The idea for us at the church is for that you can serve at the

capacity that God has you to serve in.

I don't want to put someone in a box, you know, if I sat in your

Sunday school class, I might be like, I would teach that this

way.

But if you're teaching the truth of God, it's not my job to

tell you whether it's the right or wrong way, because you might

have a different path than me.

You know, service.

I.

I might not have served that way to that person.

Well, you know what?

I'm not the one doing the service.

They're doing the service if they're doing it with the spirit

of God and they're doing it for the cause of edification, the

cause of exhortation, the cause of the gospel, you know what?

It's not my job to judge and look over there and say, you know

what?

I would have done it differently.

And the truth is, is that that's how we function within the

church.

That's how the body of believers function.

So God has gifted you so, so well in your life to do the things

that he has called you to do.

The truth is, is, are we going to be willing to exercise those gifts

within the body of believers?

Are we going to be willing to humble ourselves, to say, you know

what?

This doesn't bring me any benefit, but I'm going to do this

because Jesus expects this from me.

I'm going to do this because he calls me to be a living sacrifice,

holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service.

I want to be transformed and not conformed to this world.

And I encourage you to think about how you as a believer can exercise

these gifts in 2025.

There's nothing more rewarding in your life behind salvation than

to exercise the will of God out in your life.

The safest place to be is in the will of God.

The most rewarding place to be is in the will of God.

The most joyful place to be is in the will of God.

And I would encourage you to think about that this year.

We want to be joyful Christians.

Walk in the way that God has you to walk in your life.

Exercise the gift that God has given you in your life, because that's

how you should function.

You know, it's using the right tools for the right situations.

My dad's here today.

And I remember when I.

When I first got married and, you know, I needed help at my house.

What would I do?

Hey, dad, come over to my house.

I need.

I need this fixed.

So.

So that was cool for a while until I moved to Delaware, and he

wasn't able to hop on a plane every time that happened.

So I call him, I say, dad, I'm underneath the car and I don't know

what to do.

And he's like, well, what tool do you have?

And I'm like, I don't know.

It's this thing that looks like this.

And he's like, no, no, no, no, no.

You got the wrong tool.

Okay?

I admittedly, I'm not handy in any way.

And so I'm like.

And he's like, just grab this tool over here.

And I grabbed that tool and it just was like, it worked really well.

I was like, well, you got to have the right tool, right?

And sometimes what we try.

Sometimes what we're trying to do in the church is we're trying

to jam a square peg into a round hole.

And we're trying, we're trying, we're trying, we're working.

But sometimes it's about the idea of submitting to God and allowing

us to do the right thing.

That might mean that we need to change certain things.

Well, Pastor, we've always done it this way, and we can't change

that.

Well, what if the Spirit is guiding us?

A separate path.

Not an unbiblical path, but a path that says, you know what?

This ministry could be more effectively in the cause of the Great

Commission in this path.

Not.

Not to remove ministries for the sake of removing.

I had one, one pastor friend say, the first thing you gotta do

when you become a new pastor is just flip the script, do everything

different just to change them, put them on their toes.

I was like, no, I don't want to do that.

So.

So it's not changing just the change, but it's changing as God

directs and wills it.

And that's what we have to do within the church.

You say, well, I've been in this ministry for 50 years.

Great.

That's awesome.

Maybe God has you moving from that ministry to another ministry.

Would we be willing to say, you know, I've been here for this

long, but I could do this?

Or maybe you could say, you know what?

I've been doing this ministry this way, but these kids aren't acting

the way they used to act 25 years ago, I might be able to benefit

from someone coming in explaining to me how some of these

kids start to think differently these days.

We don't just say, well, these kids are different, so we just forget

about them.

We just throw them to the side.

We adapt and we adjust.

And.

And so that's the idea here in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

It's.

It's seeing the gifts and being able to move and adjust and

say, lord, you have me here for this purpose.

And so I encourage you to think about that here in 2025 as

we come into.

Is it.

Isn't it amazing?

We're right here.

We're almost to the end of the year.

We look back on 2024, and we see all the things that God has done

this year, and it's been a great year.

One of the goals at the very beginning of the year was discipleship.

Our theme for 2024 was through the discipleship direction.

And I believe that we have fostered an environment where there's

more desire for that discipleship process to happen and

to grow and to individually invest into people's lives.

But what I would say is that there is that point where we internally

build ourselves up, but there also is that desire for us at a point

where, hey, you know what?

We're ready to go.

We're ready to take these gifts and.

And utilize them for other people, because it was about me growing,

but now it's about how can I help other people grow.

And I would encourage you to think about how that transformation

can happen in your life.

You know what, as God buil and he's always going to be building

us, but there is a point where as we are being built up in him,

that we say, you know what?

I want to take someone along with me.

I.

I want to take another group along with me in this process.

That's how we grow the church.

We don't grow the church by saying, hey, I heard that other church

across town is having issues.

So we just want to, like, go in and get a bunch of other Christians

and bring them over here.

That.

I mean, we.

We welcome other Christians into our building.

But you know, what an amazing thing is, is biblically, there is

a model for us to reach the lost and to bring them into the church

and then grow them up.

That is an amazing opportunity that we have.

All of us have been on that process.

At some point in our life, we need to see more, we need to grow.

We need to go.

And that's how we show is the spiritual gifts for the cause of

the Gospel.

I'm gonna ask if you're able to to stand with me.

Every head bowed, every eye closed as the music plays this morning.

I know this was a different type of message, but I think it's

a message that we all need to hear in the Christmas season.

See, why do we need to hear in the Christmas season?

Because we are more spiritually focused on gifts, right?

Man, you know what?

It's better to give than receive.

Well, the way that a Christian gives is not just by vaguely being

kind to people.

The Bible says very clearly that there are specific areas of

service that we are all challenged to exercise ourselves

in.

Specifically in the area of ministry.

That word ministry sometimes gets confused.

Sometimes people think that, oh, ministry is just pastors.

Ministry is just people running the ministry.

Folks, all of us, every single believer here today is called to

have a ministry.

You might not even have a name to that ministry, but the ministry

of its servants, it's serving others.

How can I serve others?

Is it in the area of proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ?

Is it in the area of service to others?

Now, two very different ministries.

Remember in First Peter, Chapter 4, it said that there's going

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

to be some that are speaking ministries, upfront ministries, ministries

that are going to receive notice.

But there's other ministries like the service ministry that many

times never gets noticed.

But the beauty of that is that those are the ministries that God

notices.

Those are the ministries that may be overlooked in the concept

of leadership and administration.

But you know what?

That ministry of service is a vital ministry.

It's the heartbeat of the church.

And you might say, you know what?

I'm not able to get up and teach.

I'm not able to lead a Sunday school class.

But what I can do is I can serve and I can lift others up.

I can lift others up so that the cause of the Gospel is pushed

forward.

You don't have to be upfront.

You don't have to have a ministry title.

The Bible says all of us can serve.

And maybe for some of us, you say, you know what?

I want to be a teacher.

And teaching is something that I love.

Teaching is something.

And teaching isn't always in the classroom.

I would say a lot of teaching happens within the church outside

of the classroom.

By the way that we live our lives, nothing resonates more with

people than when a life is backed up with what is being taught

in the classroom.

People can talk to talk.

But how about let's walk the walk and Teaching the next generation

about Jesus Christ.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation.

I pray that you work in hearts and lives.

I pray that you allow us to see you clearly here this morning.

Lord, I pray that you challenge us to a place in which

we can follow you in giving those gifts of service to other people.

We love you.

In Jesus name, Amen.

As the music plays here this morning, you can come forward.

You can rededicate your life to serving the Lord in those spiritual

areas of service, of teaching, of exhortation, of.

Of mercy.

And I would also challenge you on this.

You know what, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ this morning,

you can't exercise these spiritual gifts.

So what I would say is that if you've been trusting in something

else outside of Jesus Christ, if you've been trusting in anything

outside of faith in Jesus Christ and what he has done for you

by coming to this earth, living a perfect life, dying on the

cross, conquering death of the resurrection.

Hey, you know what?

You can trust in Jesus today.

What better season than the Christmas season?

Turn your life over to Christ and receive that gift of salvation

and the gift of service.

So as we have prayed, you can come forward, you can kneel in your

pew.

We're going to take a few moments to focus on the Lord here

this morning.

Respond to him as the Lord leaves.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

or or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch

dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow

along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.