How Can I Help? Understanding Your Spiritual Gift (Joe Penner)

In Canto is the story of the Madrigal family and the Madrigal

family live in a house in a rural area, but it's a secret

area in Columbia Hidden Village. And in the story, each member of

the Madrigal family receives a special unique gift as a family,

such as Super Strength or the ability to heal with food or

controlling the weather. And all of the magic that all of

the magic that comes to this family comes from a candle that

was given to Abuela the the mother and grandmother of the

family during a difficult season of her life.

And in the story, Mirabelle is the main character of the story.

But the unique thing about Mirabelle is that she doesn't

receive a special gift on the day that she comes for her

ceremony. And so this leaves her feeling

sort of left out from the family.

She feels inadequate. She feels like everybody else

has a gift and and they have something to offer to the

family, but she feels like she's not worthy.

She doesn't have a gift to use for the family.

And as the story goes along, we find out that the Mirabel house

is in danger and and the power is beginning to disappear and it

looks like there's fractures that are going to split up the

family. And so even though Mirabel knows

she doesn't have any special abilities, she begins to try to

figure out what is going on and how she can help.

And in the end, Mirabelle learns that that even though she

doesn't have a a magical power, she has a unique ability to

bring her family together. And she actually fixes many of

the issues and and causes the family that was going to be

broken and fall apart to come back together in unity.

And she plays a crucial role in healing those rifts and

restoring the magic. And this morning we're going to

talk about spiritual gifts in the church.

And, and maybe you've had similar feelings to that of

Mirabel. Maybe you feel like, OK, well,

this topic of spiritual gifts, I, I don't have a gift.

Or maybe you think that my gift isn't, is, isn't meaningful or

it isn't worth anything because that person has a better gift.

And you're comparing yourselves to other people in the church or

maybe you know what your gift is, but but you think your gift

is for yourself. And you're beginning to boast

and in the gift that you have been given by the Spirit and

whatever doubt it is that you're facing, whatever it is that

you're going through in your spiritual gift or your desire to

know what it is, you may not be using it.

All of these things can cause you to not serve the church.

The result of that is that you and the church suffer because

the church doesn't get the gift that it needs.

But you don't also grow through the use of your gift.

To not use your spiritual gifts is to not understand the purpose

that the Holy Spirit gives them to us.

The purpose of spiritual gifts is to grow the church up into

the fullness of Christ. And so if we don't have your

gift, we can't do that because you have a unique gift, a unique

calling on the Holy Spirit from the Holy Spirit to help the

church grow. God cares so much about his

church that he gives his children specific gifts to help

it grow and mature into Christ. And this is exactly what Paul

wanted the Corinthians to understand.

They had questions about spiritual gifts and he wanted to

answer them. He said, I, I don't want you to

be uninformed about these things.

I want you to know. And so maybe you have questions

about spiritual gifts as well. And praise be to God that we

have this part of the letter to the Corinthians so that we can

learn along with the Corinthians at that time of what Paul wants

us to understand about spiritual gifts.

So if you'll turn with me in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians

chapter 12, we're going to be in verses one through 11 today.

First Corinthians chapter 12, verses one through 11.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

And we've been going through this letter first Corinthians,

and this is a letter that Paul wrote to a church that he

started in the city of Corinth. And Paul had many things to

correct in this church because they had allowed worldly

thinking to come into the church.

And that's exactly what Paul is addressing here as well.

And last week we Jonah, Pastor Jonah talked about the fact that

they had allowed the world to come in even into their Lord's

Supper, where where they were segregating over over different

socio economic lines. And the wealthy were, were over

here getting drunk and, and eating while poor people were

out there going hungry. And and Paul condemns that.

He's like, what are you guys doing?

This is not the sort of division.

This is not what the body of Christ is supposed to look like.

And as we go through today's passage, we're going to see that

Paul is going to correct some more of that fleshly thinking

that focuses on self and helps them to see how they're to put

others 1st and use their gift to serve one another.

And So what we're going to see this morning is that if you have

the Spirit, you have a Master, you have power, and you have a

gift. Let's pray for the Lord's wisdom

before we dig into the text this morning.

Father, we thank you for the fact that you have given us your

Spirit. We thank you that that

distinguishes us from the people of this world because we have

Christ's own spirit dwelling inside of us.

Lord, we pray that that you would fill us with a sense of

the understanding of what that means today.

Maybe we have misconceptions and misunderstandings about who the

Spirit is, but today we know we will learn who the Spirit is,

Lord, And we pray that by the Spirit's power in our hearts in

our lives, as we read into this text, as we seek to understand

what Your Word has to say, Lord, would Your Spirit help us to

know that we have power, that we have a gift that we can use for

the building of Your Kingdom? Lord, would you open our eyes

and use Your word to do that? Or would you strengthen us as a

church that we can serve one another and grow into the

fullness of our Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray,

Amen. So let's go through First

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 12, verses one through 11, First

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 12, one through 11.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to

be uninformed. You know that when you were

pagans you were LED astray to mute idols.

However you were led. Therefore I want you to

understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says

Jesus is accursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in

the Holy Spirit. Now there are a varieties of

gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of service

but the same Lord, And there are varieties of activities, but it

is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for

the common good, for to one is given the Spirit, for to one is

given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to

another the utterance of knowledge, according to the same

spirit, to another faith, by the same spirit, to another gifts,

gifts of healing, by the one spirit, to another the working

of miracles, to another, prophecy.

To another, the ability to distinguish between spirits, to

another various kinds of tongues, to another, the

interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by 1 and

the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he

wills. So the first thing that we will

see today is that if you have the spirit, you have a master.

Before we were Christians, we lived to ourselves.

We we lived the way that we thought we wanted to live,

seeking to indulge our flesh, seeking to build our our

kingdoms. But the moment we received the

Holy Spirit, we received a new heart and a new master.

Now we understand that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is our Master and

our desire is to live for him. That's because now that you have

the Spirit, you are no longer of this world.

Verse 2 says you know that when you were pagans, you were LED

astray to mute idols. However you were led, and the

Corinthians, before they came to know Christ as their savior,

they were led astray to mute idols.

We've already learned from Paul that idols are not gods at all.

They're, they're nothing. And so they can't instruct and

they can't teach anyone. They're mute.

They're, they, they are powerless.

And so the, the Corinthians had been LED astray to worshipping

these false, all these false idols, these false gods.

But they thought that they were real.

But now they understood that they weren't.

They knew that Christ, now they understood that Christ was God.

Now they had the Spirit. They recognized through the

Spirit that Jesus is Lord. And so they had a new master.

They were no longer of this world.

We also see that you have, if you have the Spirit, you are no

longer your own. Look at verse 3.

Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking

in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed, and no one

can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

Now it seems that the Corinthians were confusing their

worship. They were bringing in the ideas

of the world into their worship. One of the highest forms of

worship in Pagan worship was a supposed superior supernatural

interaction with a deity. And so they thought that if you

could get drunk enough, and if you could go into this area and,

and have these, they had these chants and these prayers and,

and drunkenness and orgies. And they thought that through

this ecstasy they could somehow have communion with the gods.

And they were beginning to bring that into the church.

And Paul is going to address speaking in tongues a lot.

And, and maybe that's what they were doing.

Maybe this led to to speaking in tongues.

And Paul is clear to say no one ever speaking in the Spirit is

going to say Jesus is cursed. No one in the Spirit is ever

going to say that. And so he's correcting their

worship. He's making it clear that when

we acknowledge Jesus is Lord, you can only do that through the

Holy Spirit. You can only realize that you

are not your own, that you have a master through the power of

the Holy Spirit, otherwise you won't believe that.

This then is how we distinguish between believers and non

believers. If you have the Spirit, you, the

spirit in you testifies that Jesus is Lord.

And if Jesus is Lord, then you're no longer of this world

and you're no longer your own. Jesus is your master in the

Gospel according to Luke. He shares the story of the

Garricean demoniac. And once when Jesus is is

crossing over the sea, after he after he calms the storm, he

comes to the country of the Garris scenes.

And there's this demon possessed man who who comes out and meets

him. And we learn about this man that

that he was so demon possessed and the demons in him were so

powerful that he could no longer be bound.

They they tried to bind him with chains and shackles, but he was

so strong he would just RIP them apart and continue to go out.

And so they stopped even trying and he would just wander about

screaming in the wilderness. And when he comes to Jesus,

through an amazing display of Jesus power, he casts out the

demons and they go into a herd of pigs and they rush over the

Cliff. And then Luke 835 tells us.

Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to

Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting

at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they

were afraid. And so this man, after being

delivered from the power of the enemy to Jesus, begged Jesus to

follow him. But Jesus said, no, stay here,

go to your home and tell everyone what God has done for

you. And so he did.

He went into the city, and he told everyone what Jesus had

done for him. Well, brothers and sisters,

before we were in Christ, we were in bondage to sin and to

the things of this world. We were in bondage.

We were led astray through the world, through the flesh and

through the devil. But now that we have been freed

through the power of Christ, we have been saved.

We have been set free from that bondage.

Those shackles have been torn off and we are now free in

Christ. Now, through the Holy Spirit, we

recognize that Jesus is our Lord.

He is our Master. Do you desire to sit at the feet

of your Savior and learn from Him as this man did who was

freed from the power of Christ? We should wake up every day with

grateful, joyful, Worshipful hearts for all that Christ has

done for us and come and sit at the feet of Christ and and

immerse ourselves in His Word so that we can experience His grace

in our lives, coming to His Word daily.

And as we come each and every day to God's Word to sit at the

feet of our Savior and to learn and to listen to Him, His Spirit

will transform us through His Word into the image of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, if Jesus is your master, if Jesus is your

Lord, then you're no longer of this world.

You're no longer even your own. Your desire should be to honor

and glorify your Master who saved you and freed you from

bondage to sin. The next thing that we see is if

you have the Spirit, you have power.

Paul has has laid the foundation.

We first need to understand if you have the Spirit, and if you

do, you acknowledge that Jesus is your Lord, He is your Master.

You truly do have His Spirit. And now that you have His

Spirit, you must recognize that He has given you power through

His Spirit. But what you need to know first

is that your power is from God. Look at verses 4 through 6.

Now there are a varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.

There are a varieties of service, but the same Lord.

There are a varieties of activities, but it is the same

God who empowers them all in everyone.

Paul here teaches that that there are many different kinds

of gifts, there are many different kinds of service,

there are many different kinds of activities, but it's the same

God who empowers them all. And notice the Trinity here,

that that's not by accident. We see the Spirit, we see the

Lord which is referring to Jesus, and we see God the

Father. The Trinity is intricately

involved in giving power to His people for the for the purpose

of using that power to grow the church.

God's church is going to be full of people who have His spirit

and therefore have His power. But that power doesn't come from

you. It's not an ability that you

have. It's not a natural talent.

It's not a natural gift. It is a unique power that comes

from God. Next, Paul shows us that your

power is for others. Look at verse 7.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for

the common good. Rather than seeing that their

power was for the good of others, the Corinthians were

beginning to see their power as a way to exalt themselves and to

benefit themselves. They definitely saw that in our

text last week, right as Pastor Jonah talked about, they were

indulging themselves. Hey, all this blessing, all this

joy. Hey, we receive all these

blessings from Christ and I'm going to enjoy them with me and

my friends and not see them as a benefit to the whole church.

That's what the Corinthians were doing.

They were messed up. This led to division in the

church. And, and Jake is going to talk

about the, the rest of chapter 12 next week.

And what we're going to see next week is that there were some

people who said, man, I, I, I don't have that gift, so I must

be meaningless. And then there were other people

who said, Hey, I, I don't need you.

There was their spiritual gifts. Their power was actually

creating divisions rather than bringing them together into one

body. But Paul wanted them to

understand, and he wants us to understand that if you have the

spirit, you have power. That power is from God, but it

is for others. In the book of Acts we learn

about Simon the sorcerer. He was a magician who for many

years he he amazed the people with his power so much so that

they thought he was God. And after hearing the gospel

Phil this Simon the sorcerer believed in Jesus and he

followed Philip everywhere he went.

And one day as the as the apostles came from Jerusalem to

to lay hands on people, they received the Holy Spirit.

And Simon said in Acts chapter 19 verse, Acts chapter 8, verses

Acts 19 · chapter mention Acts 8:19–24

19 through 24, give me this power also, so that anyone on

whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because

you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.

You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is

not right before God. Repent therefore, of this

wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, that, if possible, the

intent of your heart may be forgiven.

For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the

bond of iniquity. And Simon answered, Pray to me

for them, for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have

said may come upon me now it it seems that Simon had a repentant

hearted we, but we don't hear about him from here.

So we don't really know what happened to him.

But we do learn from Peter's rebuke that he had sin in his

heart. He had a sinful attitude.

He had a desire to use the power of God for selfishness.

There's actually a word that we have that's based on his name.

It's called simony and it's using religion as a means of

profit. Brothers and sisters, we have to

be so careful of this as well that we don't seek to use our

religion. We don't seek to use our power

for ourselves, for our own benefit, for our own profit.

This is so easy to do in our day and age because the second we

think that we have a marketable skill or a marketable product or

a marketable service, we right away begin thinking about, well,

how can I use this to to become wealthy?

How can I use this to bring an income?

And I'm not saying that's bad in and of itself.

We, we need to find ways to to earn a living and earn an

income. But when it comes to religion,

when it comes to the things of God, we should never seek to

become wealthy. We should never seek to use the

power and the gifts of God for our own benefit.

We must recognize that that power we have is from God, but

for others, it's not for us. It's not for our profit.

We can take no credit for the power that we have from God.

And our power is not for our benefit.

It's for the benefit of others, the church.

And how we might ask, how does our power, how does the power

that the Holy Spirit has given us, how does it benefit the

church? Well, Paul teaches the Ephesians

that Christ gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelists,

the shepherds and teachers. Why did he give the church those

people to equip the Saints for the work of ministry so that the

Saints would build up the body of Christ until we all attain

the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God

to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness

of Christ. I will say as a pastoral team,

this section of Scripture has shaped our vision for this

church. You may come from a background

where the pastor sits at the front of the stage and and you

come here to hear what the pastor has to say.

And when you go out, you don't go back to the Word of God.

You don't go learn for yourself. You just simply listen to what

the pastor says and you don't question anything.

You don't read the word of God because you don't learn more

because you don't want to be held accountable for more.

Brothers and sisters, that is wrong.

That is false. This section of scripture shapes

our vision for our church because we as leaders are not

here to bottle feed. You come to the church so that

you can grow. No, we as pastors, we as leaders

are here to help you grow up in your faith so that you are doing

the work of ministry in the church.

Brothers and sisters, you help the church to grow to the full

stature and the fullness of Christ, Not me.

All of us working together through the power that Christ

has given to us, work together to build up the church.

And this brings glory to Christ. And that's why the Holy Spirit

came to bring glory to Christ. It is the Spirit's joy to bring

glory to Christ and so bring glory to the Father.

Jesus said this when speaking to his disciples.

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all

truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever

He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things

that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will

take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Spirit longs to bring glory to Christ, and so He empowers us

so that the church becomes more like Jesus.

And so you must find ways to use the power that you have to help

the church grow in maturity. Next, we see that if you have

the Spirit, you have a gift. Those who have Christ's Spirit

recognize that he's their Lord, He's their master.

They have received power from him through his Spirit, and they

use that power to grow the church.

And the way they do that is through the unique gifts that

the Spirit has given them. And so as Paul begins to list

some of these gifts, I want to emphasize 2 principles.

We will talk a little bit about the gifts themselves, but I want

to emphasize 2 principles that Paul shows us in these gifts.

First, the Spirit gets the glory.

Paul is going to list the gifts, but look at the emphasis.

I want you to listen as I, as I read this section, listen to the

emphasis on the Holy Spirit. For to one this is verse eight

and eight through 10. For to one is given through the

Spirit. The utterance of wisdom to

another, the utterance of knowledge according to the same

spirit, to another, faith by the same spirit to another, gifts of

healing by the one spirit to another, the working of miracles

to another, prophecy to another, The ability to distinguish

between spirits to another, various kinds of tongues to

another, the interpretation of tongues.

And so Paul doesn't go into the details of what these gifts are

and what they mean and how they manifest himself.

He simply names some of them. But what he wants to be

abundantly clear is that they all come from the Spirit.

The Spirit gets the glory for your gift.

Nobody can take credit for the gift they have.

No one can boast in the gift they have.

They did nothing to get it. And again, what I want us to

understand is it's spiritual gifts are not natural gifts and

talents and abilities you don't have.

The spiritual gift is not being able to to bake pie really well.

Although I heard listen to the sermon from John MacArthur this

week, he said it's not it's not the ability to make pie.

But I'd be more than happy to verify if you, if you're good at

making pie, but that's not the point.

It's not a natural ability. And that's quite honestly,

brothers and sisters, I kind of wanted to, to give a, a

spiritual gifts assessment to you all that, hey, we're coming

into this section on spiritual gifts.

I wonder if we could give them a test so that they could take

this test and they would know what gifts they have.

But as I began researching and I I listened to one guy and he had

this article and he said the problem with spiritual gift

assessments is that they're usually based on a Myers Briggs.

So they're based on your temperament, your personality,

your character traits. And he said the problem with

that is a non believer and a believer can both take that same

test and have the same results. How can a non believer have a

spiritual gift? They can't.

A spiritual gift is something that if you took this test the

day before you came to Christ and took a spiritual gifts test

the day after you came to Christ, there would be a vast

difference because now you have a unique spiritual gift that is

unique to you. It's something you didn't have

before you came to Christ. So it's not your personality,

it's not your character, it's not natural abilities.

It's a unique gift that God has given to you to build up the

church, but we can't take any credit for that.

And we can't coerce the Holy Spirit to try giving us a

certain gift either. Like Simon the sorcerer, I came

to like, well, I'll, I'll serve you for the rest of my life if

you just give me that gift. Or hey, I'll pay for that.

No, you can't do that because the next thing we learn is that

the Spirit gets to choose. Look at verse 11.

All these are empowered by one in the same Spirit, who

apportions to each one individually as he wills.

God the Holy Spirit, equally. God with God the Son and God the

Father uses His wisdom to give gifts to whoever He chooses in

His sovereign will. He makes that decision, and

there's nothing that you can do to influence that decision.

We are all saved into one body, Christ's church, and yet each

one of us individually is gifted by the Spirit for the purpose of

growing up the church into the fullness of Christ.

Now, the fact that the Spirit chooses all the gifts shows that

there should be unity. The Spirit who chooses every

gift that each person is going to have is not going to give

gifts that cause tension, that cause division.

He overseas all of the gifts and so he gives the gifts so that

there's cohesion, there's unity, there's togetherness in Christ.

They all are meant to work together for the good of

everyone. If you have the Spirit, you have

a gift and the Spirit gets the glory because the Spirit gets to

choose who gets what gift. Now in John, in John's Gospel

just before Jesus ascension, he shares the story that that no

other gospel writer shares of after Jesus resurrection that

that Peter went out to go fishing.

He there was lots of things going through his mind and he

goes out to go fishing and there were six other disciples who

followed him. And so they, they go out and

they begin fishing, but they don't catch anything.

And then Jesus is standing on the shore.

They don't know it's Jesus, but he says, cast the net on the

other side of the boat. And so they do and, and they can

barely haul in this net. It's about to tear.

They're surprised that it didn't tear, but they can barely haul

it in. And, and then they go on the the

beach and, and they enjoy this communion, this fellowship, this

breakfast with Jesus around the fire.

And as they're eating, we, we know this question that Jesus

continually asks Peter, do you love me?

And Peter says, yes, three times he asks the question and three

times Peter says, yes, I love you, Lord.

And then as Jesus begins to talk about Peter's life, he says he

predicts Peter's death and he says, follow me.

But then Peter turns to John and says, when when Peter saw him,

he he, he turned, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this

man? Jesus said to him, if it is my

will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

You follow me. Now what Jesus is saying is

don't worry about that guy. Don't worry about other people,

don't worry what gift they have. Don't worry what I'm calling him

to do. It's none of your business what

I'm calling him to do. You just worry about yourself

and you follow me. Now he's not saying that in a

way that we shouldn't worry about the church and the body,

but he's saying it's not your business how God gifts someone

else. It's not your business what God

calls someone else to. You need to worry about yourself

and maybe you're fixated on other people, whether that's

insecurity and doubt for yourself.

Maybe you feel like I don't, I don't have a meaningful gift.

Or maybe I don't have a gift at all.

And man, I wish I had that gift. But what you're failing to

understand is that that God is calling you to use your gift.

He's not asking you to account for why you don't have someone

else's gift. The beauty of the gifts is that

we work together. I can serve you through the use

of my gift of teaching you the word of God, but you can serve

me with your gifts in ways that I need help, that I need growth.

Brothers and sisters, I can lack faith at times.

Some of you have a faith that that that is incredible to me.

And it's shown in your prayer because you pray and you pray

and you pray and you are so persistent in your prayer.

You have a faith that teaches me and when we all work together

and use our gifts for one another, that is the beauty of

the church growing together in the fullness of Christ.

Well, on the other side, maybe you are boasting in your gift.

Maybe you think that your gift is so much better than everyone

else is that you don't need everyone else.

You need to recognize your need for the body.

You have blind spots that you don't know about, and you need

the body to help you to grow into the fullness of Christ.

And so we need to recognize and thank God for the gifts that

other people have because they serve us.

And so we should thank God for other people, but we should also

seek to know our gift and how we can serve the body so that it

grows. Now I just want to sort of

briefly go over some of these spiritual gifts that then maybe

you would pray through it and, and seek the Lord's wisdom on

whether you have these gifts or not.

I'll just sort of briefly go over them.

Paul mentions wisdom. Maybe you have a, a unique

ability to take God's word and to apply it to everyday life.

Maybe you have knowledge, which may be a, a deep insight into

God's Word that doesn't just come from human understanding.

It comes from the Spirit. And that's what we need to

recognize about these spiritual gifts.

They're not just things that we just conjure up in our flesh.

These are gifts that are unique to the Holy Spirit.

They're Holy Spirit empowered. Maybe you have faith, a deep

trust in God that allows you to pray fervently and to pray

persistently. Now Paul mentions healing and

miracles and tongues and, and there are some people who

believe that that these gifts exist specifically today.

And there are others who believe that that these gifts were given

to the church for a specific set of time and then they ceased.

And the purpose of those gifts was to validate the church that

the Christ was in his church through his power.

Now I do believe that God can and does do miracles today

through faith, through prayers of faith, but I do lean towards

that, that those gifts were were for a specific season, for a

specific time. And the reason for that is what

we've just learned today. If the Holy Spirit is the one

who gets to choose, then I would ask the question, why don't we

have someone with the gift of healing?

Because it's a, it's a Holy Spirit given gift.

And if we don't have people in our church or in our churches or

around the world who have those gifts, then the Holy Spirit is

not giving that gift to the church.

And so it seems most practical to me that that those gifts were

for a season during Jesus's ministry and during the life of

the early church to validate who Jesus was and that he truly was

God the Son. Again, I'm not saying God

doesn't do miracles today. He absolutely does through

prayers of faith. Maybe you have the gift of

prophecy, which is preaching and teaching God's Word, or the the

ability to distinguish between spirits, which is a special

discernment. Some people have that special

discernment. You know those people, they,

they, they can read into a situation in a way that you

can't. And more often than not, they're

right. What gift has the Spirit given

you for the purpose of benefiting the church?

Now, some of you may know Austin Matthews.

He's a hockey player on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This year, Austin Matthews is set to make $16.7 million, and

rightfully so because he's incredibly valuable to the team.

Do do you know what his ability is?

Do you know what his gift is? He sits on the bench and he sits

on the bench like nobody you've ever seen before.

Let me tell you. He sits there and he takes that

space, and then when he moves over, that space is nice and

warm for the next guy who slides over.

And he is just gifted at sitting on the bench like nobody, you

know? Now, if that sounds ridiculous,

it is ridiculous because I made that up.

Obviously, the Toronto Maple Leafs would never pay somebody

$16.7 million to sit on the bench.

They're giving him that money because he's incredibly gifted

as a hockey player and he's going to use that gift to help

the team hopefully one day win a Stanley Cup.

Some some of us shaking their heads or there's a lot of hope

there. Brothers and sisters, the Holy

Spirit didn't give you the gift to sit on the bench.

He didn't give you the gift to sit down and let everybody else

do the work. You have a gift to serve your

brothers and sisters in Christ. It may not be the way that I do

it. It may not be the way that

somebody else do it does it. But you have a specific gift to

strengthen the church, to help it grow into the fullness of

Christ, and it's not going to get there until you start

helping. We are missing out on your gift

if you don't serve. And so I want to encourage you,

brothers and sisters, to prayerfully discern where God is

calling you, where God has gifted you to serve the church.

Pray this week through these gifts and ask the Lord if one of

them is yours. Maybe ask other people that know

you and say, is there anything that you see in my life,

spiritual gifting that you would say that I'm uniquely gifted and

I should begin to pursue? Maybe there's an area of church

that you say I, I think maybe I could serve there.

Don't be scared to jump in. We, we don't want people to come

in and serve. And then we're going to lock you

in and oh, now you have to do this for the rest of your life.

We want you to find an area to serve that empowers you because

once you're that you'll know you'll get in there and you'll

be like, you know what? I, I just don't get anything out

of this. All right, then tell your leader

and say, I got to try something else.

We'll fill that spot with somebody else and then go to the

thing. We want you to find the area of

service in the church that empowers you.

And the beautiful thing about a gift that empowers is that no

matter what sacrifice it requires, you're willing to do

it because you get a sense of joy, a sense of blessing out of

of doing something that God has gifted you to do.

Brothers and sisters, the church will never grow into the

fullness of Christ until we are all working together to build

the body of Christ. And I want to take a moment to

speak specifically to those in the room who maybe don't

recognize Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Maybe you're like the Corinthians at at the beginning

where Paul says you once were LED astray to idols and you

didn't know Jesus as your Savior.

Maybe you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but you've

heard about him. You've heard about what he has

done for you, that that he came down in the form of man, God in

the form of man, to live a perfectly righteous life, to die

as a sacrifice for our sins, and then die and be buried and

raised again and ascended to the throne.

All so that through faith in Him, your sins could be

forgiven. And as we've learned today, look

at the care and the love that he has for His church, for his

body, to gift it, to care for it, and to help it to grow.

Maybe you would consider giving your life to the Lord today.

Maybe you're sensing that call of the Lord on your life, to

trust in Jesus as your Master, to surrender your life and to

become a part of his body so that you grow into the fullness

of Christ. We would encourage you to talk

with one of us pastors or or even just someone around you,

someone that you know is a believer, and ask them what it

means to follow Christ. What a joy it is to be a part of

a body that God himself cares for and grows.

And would we serve together as we grow into the fullness of

Christ, that we may bring glory and honor to Him.

Let's bow for prayer. Father, we thank you so much for

the gift of your Spirit. What a wonderful privilege it is

to have your spirit dwelling in us.

This is this is a down payment. It is a guarantee that that we

know that we are yours, that we can be guaranteed that we are

going to go to heaven one day because of the Holy Spirit

dwelling in us. But this is the Holy Spirit is

not just for some future date and hopefully one day we'll get

to just experience heaven forever, but it is the Holy

Spirit has given to us now that we might have power and a gift

to help the church grow into all that you want it to be.

Lord, we pray for that you would fill us with your Spirit.

I pray that that you would help us to understand how you've

gifted us so that we can serve one another and grow together so

that we may bring glory and honor to our Savior who is

worthy of all praise. We thank you in Jesus name,

Amen.