GIFTED // The CLARITY gifts // Pastor Richie Fike

Welcome to the Movement Church Podcast. We want you to

know that God is for you and so are we.

You're about to hear a sermon from one of our

weekend services in the tri-lakes of Southern Colorado. God is

not a monument. He's a movement. So we're praying that

this message will move you in a meaningful way. Listen

closely after the message for ways to get connected with us.

God bless you. Thanks for tuning in.

Welcome to the Movement Church. We are in a series

called Gifted. And we are talking about your spiritual gifts

and really more than just your spiritual gifts. The whole

concept of spiritual gifts in the Bible is really, really fascinating,

really cool, really useful because what we've learned so far

is that God is the one who chooses your gift.

Nobody here in the room gets to choose what gift

the Lord decides to give you. We've learned that everybody

gets a gift. Nobody's left out. We've learned that your

gift is not for you. It's for me. It's for us.

And we've learned that the reason that God gives us

these gifts is to remind us that you are both

needed and needy. Amen? You with me? So that's what

we've talked about so far. Last week we talked about

the functional gifts. the people that put the fun in functional,

or the funk in functional, whichever you think. And we

talked about looking at these gifts through this prism, and

we'll do this again today. Each of these spiritual gifts

that we'll talk about today, we'll look at the strengths

of the gift, how we see these gifts manifest themselves

in the life of Jesus, the shadow side of the gift,

and then a story of someone that kind of exhibits

this gift, and where, if you have the gift that

we'll talk about today, Where's a good place where you

could serve in the church, okay? That's the way we're

doing it. We got four gifts to cover today. And

this little clump of gifts that we're gonna deal with,

I'm calling the clarity gifts, not the claritin gifts, in

case you have any histamine problems, the clarity gifts, okay?

And here's what I mean by that. These are manifestations

through which the spirit gives the body unusual clarity about

hidden truth, about spiritual influence, the faithful path forward, and

the trustworthiness of God. There's four of these. And the

first one is the gift of discernment. The gift of discernment.

If you have the gift of discernment, some people call

this gift discerning spirits, and that's a good way to

think about it because the idea is that discerners have

this ability to notice when things are from God and

when they're not. So it's very binary. They can sense

the distinction between things that are sourced in God and

things that are not sourced in God. It's the ability

to quickly perceive. And that's important. They don't take a

long time. They just know it. It's this supernatural thing.

To quickly perceive whether such things as people, events, or

beliefs are from God or from some other source. They

have a keen sense of figuring this out. Discernment gifters

help the rest of us gain clarity. about the spiritual

nature or source of something that we're experiencing. They see

a clear delineation that the rest of us may kind

of struggle to get a clear sense of. You'll hear

them say, that's God, that's Satan. That's true, that's false.

That's right, that's wrong. It's just very clear to discerners.

It's supernatural for them. What about our Savior? Where do

we see Jesus manifesting this spiritual gift? And the idea here,

when I say, where do we see Jesus manifesting this,

is to say this, any of these spiritual gifts, every

time that they manifest themselves through you, it's just an

opportunity for us to see God. And we see him

in a little different way than any other person. So

where do we see Jesus exhibiting this? There's a great

moment in Matthew 16, where Jesus has just told the

disciples what's going to happen. He is going to be persecuted.

He's going to go to the cross. He's going to

be buried and put to death and he's gonna resurrect.

And Peter, it's always Peter, right? Peter speaks up and says,

I'm not down with that. I'm not cool with that idea.

That's a no-go. We're not gonna let that happen. Look

at this. It says this in Matthew 16, 22. Peter

took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. How many

of you know that was a bad idea? We don't

rebuke Jesus. He begins to rebuke him and he says,

oh no, Lord. This thing that you just talked about,

this whole burial, resurrection, nah, nah, nah. That's never going

to happen to you. And Jesus immediately discerns, immediately discerns

the distinction. Jesus turned and told Peter, get behind me, Satan.

How many of you know you never want to hear

Jesus say that to you? Get behind me, Satan. You

are a hindrance to me because you're not thinking about

God's concerns, the source. You're thinking about human concerns. This

thing that you've just stated, though, Peter, you might think

you're just trying to protect me. You might think that

your heart is, we don't want you to experience pain, Lord.

What you're really doing is you're standing in the way

of what God has already planned. He discerns it immediately. See,

knowledge clarifies the truth, but discernment identifies the source. That's

what this gift is so powerful about. Peter's motivations were

not kingdom motivations. And Jesus points it out instinctively. Immediately

and importantly. It was important that the rest of the

disciples heard Jesus say, no, no, no. What he's saying,

though it might sound like a good idea, is not

from God. It's really, really powerful. Discernment is the counter

to being naive. Gullible people live in harm's way and

discerning people can sense danger a mile away. They have

this keen instinct for danger. Trust them, not them. listen

to them, not them. Date him, marry her. Like this

is the way they think, right? They understand the distinction

between the way the world works. It's a powerful gift.

Discerners can help us to identify those places in our

lives where we're not seeing clearly, where we're not rooting

out danger, where we're inviting trouble in. You guys, you

discerners are like drug sniffing dogs at an airport. I mean,

you just sniff out, that's false. That's not God. No, no,

that's not God. That's wrong. Like you sense it immediately.

That's bad theology. That's bad doctrine. You just have this

sense for this. And it's supernatural. Also, you have a

sense for what's happening in the supernatural. Discerners have a

keen sense for demonic presence. Demonic presence. That's not something

that happened in the Bible and doesn't happen now. Do

you know that? We are constantly battling these spiritual battles.

And many of us are just totally unaware of it.

Discerners are aware of it. They go, something's dark here.

I don't sense the presence of the Holy Spirit here.

They bring truth into places where deception has produced confusion

and shame. They can point out, this is cool, they

can point out almost immediately the difference between the conviction

of the Holy Spirit and the condemnation of the enemy.

You know how sometimes you'll start to just beat yourself

up for the things that you've done wrong? Just me.

Some of you here in the room, right, you just

kind of talk mean to yourself. Discerners have this sense

for realizing that the voice that you're listening to is

not the voice of the Holy Spirit. You're listening to

the wrong voice. The Lord doesn't talk like that. The

Lord doesn't speak like that to his beloved. Of course

he convicts, but he doesn't condemn. There is therefore now

how much condemnation? No condemnation if we are in Christ Jesus.

You're listening to the wrong voices. Discerners are great at this.

Well-meaning Christians can misunderstand scripture in ways that cause confusions.

discerners can help us to rightly understand what the Bible

actually says. Some of you grew up in homes that

were really, really legalistic Christians. Like in order to be

a Christian, you have to be perfect. You have to

be tucked in. You have to have everything just right.

And if that were the case, then all of us

would be in hell, right? Because none of us have

it all figured out. We're all works in progress. And

some of you grew up in homes where the Bible

was used as a weapon in your life. Discerners are

able to say, no, no, no, that's not my God.

That's not the heart of my God. This is a

powerful gift. Now, for every one of these gifts, there's

a shadow side. So what is the shadow side of

a discerner? Well, here it is. If you are unhealed

or hurt or jaded, you can easily become negative and critical.

You can be really good at pointing out what's wrong,

but not all that interested in helping to make it right.

Have you known anybody like this in your life? Don't

point at anybody. sitting back and pointing out all the errors,

but never really rolling up your sleeves to fix it.

That's the shadow side. Uh, for dysfunctional discerners, there tends

to be two categories of people in the world, the

perfect and the disqualified. That's it. You're either perfect or

you're disqualified. This is not a healthy way to live.

It's not a healthy way to see the world. And

it's a product of some hurt that's happened in your

life that you need to bring to the Lord. So, um,

You know, critique and criticism are not the same thing.

You know that, right? One's helpful, one's harmful, one is constructive,

one is destructive. It's great to bring critique. Sometimes it

can be harmful to bring criticism. Amen? You with me? So,

at their best, discerners are leaning on a solid backbone

of scriptural understanding and a cultivated sensitivity. to the Holy Spirit. Man,

if you know somebody like this, this is gold in

your life. If you have somebody in your life who

can help you to see what is hard for you

to see because they're gifted at discernment, this is amazing.

So at their best, but what about their worst? At

their worst, they lean on self-confidence. It's not about the

Holy Spirit working through me. It's the fact that you're welcome.

It's a good thing I'm here. At their worst, they

lean on self-confidence and personal experiences to determine good from evil,

safe from dangerous, and right from wrong. If you're always

looking for what's wrong, sometimes it's really hard to see

what's right. All you can see is what you're looking for.

One of the greatest discerners in Christian history was a

man who is responsible for the reason why we're sitting

in this church today. It's a man named Martin Luther.

Martin Luther is the leader of the reform movement, the

Protestant movement. He studied the law. He was a Catholic monk.

And before he kind of had this revelation about the

source and what is not the source, he was committed

to celibacy and poverty. Some would say that his attitude

about Christianity was, my job is to beat myself up

for my sin. That's the way he lived his life.

And then he had this incredible revelation. And it's a

revelation that's still with us today. He was working as

a theological professor and had this revelation just by reading

the Bible. And here's what it was. He articulated the

doctrine that we still live by today called justification by faith.

It split the church and history in two. The Reformation

is a massive moment, not just in church history, but

in human history. It changed everything. Martin Luther had incredible discernment.

He could see clearly a delineation between biblical doctrine and

church tradition. Basically what Martin Luther did was he said,

you know, we're doing a lot of stuff as Christians

that I'm not finding in my Bible. Where did we

get this from? And why do we hold to it?

And he challenged the system because of it. He spoke

up about what the church was getting wrong. Basically, his,

you know, His thoughts were that the gospel of Jesus

Christ isn't Jesus plus works equals salvation. That's kind of

how they were living. That's kind of how they were preaching.

That's kind of what they were believing. This is a bad,

really bad, no good, very bad formula. And it's not biblical.

Jesus plus anything is a bad equation if you're trying

to get what God promises. It's just Jesus. Faith in Jesus.

Salvation in Jesus. Lordship. in jesus if you're here today

and you don't know jesus all you've got to do

is put your faith in the risen savior who has

resurrected he took on the cross for your sin he

loves you he gave his life for you all you've

got to do is believe on him and you will

be saved that's what we believe and martin luther helped

us to articulate this discernment powerful so um where can

a discerner serve Where's a good place for a discerner

to serve? Really anywhere people teaching or spiritual claims need

to be carefully evaluated. Some of you have discerned some

things in my sermons that you go, I'm not sure

what the source of that was. And that's fair because

sometimes I'm not sure what the source of that was.

I just thought it was funny. But you know, sometimes

I need people who have this gift of discernment to say, hey, Fike,

you said this thing and I think I know what

you meant by it, but can I just tell you

what the implications are? Of what you said was. And

how that might affect people's theology. If you keep saying

it like that. You can't believe how helpful that is.

To a person who's trying to do it right. You

know what I'm saying. And so if you want to help.

Help.

Prayer ministry. Growth group leadership. Move group leadership. The teaching team.

Children and youth. Helping children. Helping the church leaders. Evaluate doctrine. Direction.

And supposed manifestations of the spirit. And I want you

if you would. Just to hold this phrase. Supposed. manifestations.

Just hold that in your mind as we continue forward

because we're going to come back to that phrase. Discerners

help us to ask, is this biblical? Is this really

from God? Is this person safe? Are we seeing the

whole picture? What might we be missing? This is a

good gift. And if you have this gift of discernment,

use it to help us to see God because your

gift is not for you. It's for us. So don't

keep it to yourself. Let's give it up for the

discerners in the room. If you're here, we love you.

We need you. Jump in. Okay, here's number two. Words

of wisdom. Words of wisdom. Now this is an interesting

phrase because it's not wisdom. This is not the spiritual

gift of wisdom. It's the spiritual gift of words of wisdom. Okay?

So let's kind of delineate that. Here's what I mean.

The ability to speak a message which will defend the

truth of the gospel. Or give insight and guidance to

the church for a particular need. Okay, listen to how

Paul describes it. And this is all we have to

go on. So this is really interesting. This is in

1 Corinthians 12. He's talking about the list of gifts.

And he says, to one is given a message of

wisdom through the Spirit. A message of wisdom through the Spirit.

So you're in a jam. You're in a spot. You're

in a pickle. You're in a situation. And you don't

know really what the next thing to do is. Or

maybe there's so many options and they all seem good

that you can't figure out which one's the best one.

This person who has this word of wisdom gift comes

along and helps you to see clearly. Gives you clarity.

So that's why it's in the clarity group. Word of

wisdom gifters help the rest of us gain clarity about

the faithful path forward. Some of us can get stuck, right?

Paralysis of analysis, right? can get to the place where

you go i just i just don't know which way

to go next you need a word of wisdom gifter

in your life have you ever met somebody that was

wise beyond their years anybody no one's ever said that

about me um but listen to this this is important

a genuine message of wisdom and this is how you

can test it that phrase supposed manifestations a genuine message

of wisdom will never contradict scripture Never, never, never. They're

never going to give you a word of wisdom that

contradicts what's written in the word of God. Word of

wisdom gifters have a supernatural ability to apply the truth

of God in practical, everyday usage. This isn't about Bible memorization.

It's not about factoids. It's about speaking wisdom into people's

life when they need it in order to help them

move forward. Knowledge helps bring truth into focus. Wisdom helps

us respond to truth appropriately. Wisdom, biblically, is about the

skill of living rightly. There's a difference between knowing what

the rule is and following the rule, right? Knowing what

the truth is and following the truth. Wise people don't

just hear the word of God, but they do it.

You with me? And so words of wisdom is helping

you to do something, helping you to live something. Instead

of approaching the situation through the lens of Well, what

do you think about this? Their instinct is to ask,

what does the Bible say about this? This is the

source of their wisdom. Listen to how James, the brother

of Jesus, describes wisdom. He says, the wisdom from above

is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy

and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. And so this is

another great test for if a person has this words

of wisdom gift. Does it feel like this when they

speak to you? Does it sound like this when they

give you this word of wisdom? Okay, what about Jesus?

Where do we see words of wisdom showing up in

the life of Jesus? One of my favorite moments is

in Matthew 22. These Pharisees have come to Jesus and

they want to trap him. And so they ask him

this question about taxes of all things. What else would

trap Jesus but a conversation about do you pay your taxes?

It would also trap some of you in the room.

But do you pay your taxes? They say, hey, so

what do you got to say about this whole idea

about paying Caesar his taxes? And he knows that this

is a trap. He knows their hearts. He's discerning. He

knows that if he says yes, he'll look like a

traitor supporting Roman oppression. He knows that if he says no,

then they can report him to Rome as an insurrectionist.

And that's really what they're looking for is a way

to trap him. And so he uses discernment and this

words of wisdom moment to say, whose image is on

that coin, right? And they say, well, Caesar's image is

on the coin. And then this is what Jesus says.

He says, well, give them to Caesar the things that

are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

I love this. When they heard this, they were amazed.

He didn't fall into our trap. How did he do that?

They were amazed, so they left him and went away.

Jesus spoke words of wisdom. He didn't merely choose between

the two answers they offered him. He revealed the faithful

way through the dilemma. That's the gift. God supplying the

right truth for the particular need at the critical moment.

Do you have a friend like this in your life?

Do you have someone in your life who you go,

I'm stuck? I got a call, fill in the blank.

They might have this gift. Now, what is the shadow side?

What is the shadow side of someone who is so

filled with so much wisdom? If you have this gift,

you need to remember your own insufficiencies. Please do not

get a Yoda complex, okay? Learn you will. Glad I am.

You've come to me. Right you are. Don't be that guy.

Be humble. Stay human. Stay a student. The best teachers

that you'll ever meet are continuing to stay a student.

I want to tell you about a friend of mine.

Some of you know this guy. This man has this gift.

This words of wisdom gift. His name is Chris Fowler.

One of my favorite people walking the earth. Anybody here

know Chris Fowler? Here? Yeah. Chris is an elder at

another church in the Springs, and they are lucky to

have him. He's a man of incredible wisdom. And not

just that, he's a man of really few words, but

when he speaks, it's rooted in scripture, and he has

this way of unlocking me whenever I talk to him.

There was a moment in particular when this church launched, September,

almost three years ago, so it was like September 25th

when we had this conversation. We had 10 days of

to launch this church. And that's a long story. And

if you've never heard it, let's have lunch. I'll tell

you all about it. But we had 10 days to

launch this church. And I went from being a campus

pastor to a senior pastor overnight. And meanwhile, this person

who I really loved had really hurt me. I mean,

he had really dug deep into my soul. I was

in trouble. I was swimming in anger and in bitterness

and in unforgiveness. And this person that had hurt me

Chris has some history with this guy. And so I said,

I called him and I said, hey, I need to

meet with you because here's the thing. What I noticed

in Chris over the whole time that I've known him

since the moment where he had a very similar experience

is he never ever, not ever spoke a mean word

about this guy. He never ever came across like he

had a chip on his shoulder. He never ever came

across like he was angry, like he was right and

the other guy was wrong. And I was like, okay,

I don't know how you got there, but I've got

10 days to get there because I got to go

lead a church and I can't lead a church with

a chip on my shoulder. And so I said, I

got to meet with you. I'm stuck. And so we

talked and all I sensed from him was love and

grace and joy and forgiveness. It was incredible. I was like,

how did you get there? How did you get to

that place? He listened to me. He leaned in, he

cried with me and then he opened the word. And

when he just showed me scripture after scripture, After scripture.

And he said to me. If you're going to forgive.

You need to write out everything you think he owes you.

And you need to just take one by one. And

rip it out of a piece of paper. Burn it

if you have to. And say to the Lord. He

doesn't owe me that anymore. He doesn't owe me that.

I forgive him. I release that debt. And I said

well how long did it take you to do that?

He said about 18 months. I said I've got 10 days.

He said well you better go home. He taught me

how to forgive that day. He taught me how to

get to the place of you owe me nothing. And

I'm telling you, I don't think I could have led

this church with that chip on my shoulder. I needed

a friend like Chris Fowler. You need a friend like

Chris Fowler because now what I have in my heart

for that person that hurt me, all I have, all

I can find is love and grace and joy and forgiveness.

I pray for him all the time. I want reconciliation.

I'm praying one day that the Lord will bring us

back together. And I was not there before I met

with Chris. So, get you a friend like Chris Fowler.

Because your gift is not for you. It's for us,

and we need you. Now, the immediate place where you

can serve, if you have this gift, is on our

wisdom table. That's the name of the thing. If you

speak words of wisdom, you probably should be at the

wisdom table. Don't you think? It kind of works that way.

But listen, when we go looking for elders amongst you,

and we talk about who has elder knowledge, We're not

just looking for people that know the Bible. We're looking

for people that live the Bible. We're looking for people

who can articulate the Bible, who understand God because they

spend time in the Word. That's what we're looking for.

If this is your gift, you are needed in every

corner of the kingdom. There's nobody that doesn't need your

words of wisdom if you have them. Speak up. We're listening.

Your gift is not for you. It's for us. Don't

keep it to yourself. Can we thank the words of

wisdom people in the house? Come on, we need you.

Thank you. All right, number three. Words of knowledge. Again,

this is not the gift of knowledge. It's the gift

of words of knowledge. Look at it in verse 8

of 1 Corinthians 12. To one is given a message

of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another a message

of knowledge by the same Spirit. Now, Paul is clarifying

a distinction here. And this is as much information as

he gives us. But he's telling us that there's a

difference between a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge.

And so theologians over the years have tried to make

sense of this. And you got to be kind of

generous as we talk about it. The way I want

you to think about it is like this. A word

or a message of knowledge is the spirit-enabled ability to

bring truth about scripture, a person, a situation into the

light at the moment that it is needed. Have you

ever had someone walk up to you, some Christian, and

they say to you, I feel like the Lord is

saying something to me about you. Anybody ever have this?

It's kind of spooky, right? And you're like, well, I

want him to tell me first, okay? And then I'll

listen to you. This is kind of an interesting thing

that God does. Knowledge gifters help the rest of us

gain clarity about the truth that is not presently being seen.

How many of you know that we're all blind to

our blind spots, right? But God helps other people to

help us see ourselves through their eyes. This is an

incredible thing. A word of knowledge answers the question, what's

true here that we're not presently seeing? What's my blind spot?

Sometimes the Spirit brings a particular scripture. Sometimes a hidden

reality that just needs to be interrogated. A genuine message

of knowledge will never, ever contradict scripture. So that's another

way that we can test this. If someone comes to

you and says, the Lord is telling me that you

should bark like a dog and hop on one foot. Okay,

show me in scripture. I don't see it. I can't

find it, right? You want to find something that doesn't

contradict scripture. But the person sharing it can still misunderstand

what they're sensing. That's why every claimed manifestation must be tested.

That's true across the board for all of these spiritual gifts.

Your gift is not a license to bless the rest

of us willy-nilly. Your gift is a signal to test

our hearts. So not a license to bless, but a

signal to test. You may be on to something, or

you may just be on one. You might have just

had some bad pizza, and you're like, I feel like

the Lord is saying something to me. No, no, that's indigestion.

A message of knowledge does not establish new doctrines. Okay,

what about Jesus? Where do we see Jesus doing this?

One of my favorite moments where he did this was

with the woman at the well. You know this story?

There's this beautiful moment where Jesus passes through Samaria in

the middle of the day, and there's a woman there.

And she's getting water, and they have a conversation. And,

you know, many theologians talk about the idea that she

must have been going in the middle of the day

to avoid all of the people she didn't want to

see early in the morning or late at night because

that's when everybody else would go to the well. Jesus

knows something about this woman that no one told him.

Where did he get this? It's amazing. They have this

conversation about water, but it's really a conversation about thirst.

And then at a certain moment, Jesus says, Hey, go

call your husband. And she says, I don't have a husband.

He says, you have spoken correctly. You've had five husbands, right?

Very special episode of Maury Povich. And the man you're

with now is not your husband. I love the way

she responds to that. She says, sir, I perceive that

you are a prophet. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful moment.

It's so human, right? Jesus spoke something, humanly speaking, that

he would have no way of knowing. How does he

know about this woman? How does he know her story?

When the disciples show up in just a few moments,

they go, hey, who's that lady? They don't know her story,

but somehow he knows almost everything about her. In fact,

she goes into the town and says, come and meet

a man who told me everything I've ever done. Powerful moment.

The word of knowledge was information Jesus had not learned

through ordinary means. He didn't announce her history to a crowd.

He didn't use it to embarrass her. I love that

about Jesus. He doesn't get in front of everyone and say,

this woman. He doesn't do that. He has a one-on-one

moment with her. And she feels his love for her.

He came all the way to Samaria to meet with her.

He didn't use supernatural knowledge to make himself look impressive. Instead,

he showed her, listen, I already know your story. And

I'm still here offering you living water. That's who Jesus is.

And that's what it looks like if you have this

gift to operate this way. This word of knowledge, it

doesn't leave people impressed with what you know. It ain't

about you, partner. It helps them encounter the God who

knows them completely and loves them still. Beautiful. What's the

shadow side? Okay, there's a couple here. First, Don't let

the gift of knowledge turn you into a know-it-all. Anybody

know any know-it-alls? Anybody want to point at a know-it-all

in the room? Don't do it. There are people in

our lives who just know everything about everything. How many

of you are big, big fans of know-it-alls? Anybody here

love a good know-it-all? No, they're the worst. You know why?

Because the Bible says that knowledge puffs up. Okay, this

is a real picture. No, it's not. Thanks, Chatty. No,

knowledge puffs up. Knowledge can make you proud. It can

make you full of yourself. It can make you have

this superiority complex. It can make you walk into the

room and say you're welcome. Right? Christians can be puffy,

can't we? Some of us Christians can be really, really puffy.

And it's not good. It's not a good look. 1

Corinthians 8 says this. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

So let me show you another shadow side. Telling the truth...

is different than speaking the truth in love. I'm just

telling the truth. Okay, right, but where's the love? Come on,

black-eyed peas, where's the love? And that gives me a

neat opportunity to show you this. You know, most of

this teaching is from 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14. But

something has happened to 1 Corinthians 13. If you've been

to a Christian wedding, you've noticed that 1 Corinthians 13

has been co-opted by the Big Wedding Corporation. It is

turned into this passage that's all about love and marriage.

But when you read 1 Corinthians 13, especially in the

context of 12 and 14, what you find out is

Paul hasn't changed the subject in 1 Corinthians 13. He's

still talking about spiritual gifts. Look at this. He says,

if I speak human or angelic tongues but do not

have love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all

mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith

so that I can move mountains but I don't have love,

then I'm nothing. And then he tells us love is patient.

Think about your gift. Think about the way that we're

supposed to manifest our gift to one another. Love is patient.

It's kind. It does not envy. It's not boastful. It's

not arrogant or rude. It's not self-seeking. It's not irritable.

It doesn't keep a record of wrong. It finds no

joy in unrighteousness, but it rejoices in the truth. It

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures

all things. That's what love looks like, and that's what

your gift is supposed to feel like when it manifests

in your life. So word of knowledge, people. Speaking the

truth doesn't work unless you speak it in love. That's

how it's supposed to work. See, each of us is

gifted to manifest the Lord for the common good. God

is love, so that's how his gifts are meant to

be shared. Amen, you with me? So let me tell

you a story about this guy. This is my good friend,

Trace Hicks. None of you know him. Hopefully one day

I'll have him come here and lead worship. He's a

really good worship leader. Trace was my music director when

I worked at Doxology Church in Fort Worth, Texas. And

this was a pivotal season in my life. Somewhere around 2019,

Trace and I were having a lot of conflict and

it's because he was sensing things in me that he

was right about that I wasn't ready to receive. This

was basically our relationship right here the whole time. I

would be just having a great time, and this is

as much of a smile as Trace would give me.

I mean, just like he never showed me his teeth.

I could never get him to smile real big. Everybody

else is cutting up. He's like, I don't know if

I trust you. That's our relationship in a nutshell. I

love this guy. Trace came to me because he sensed

a disengagement in my spirit. He sensed that I was

going through the motions. I'd been a worship leader for

22 years and I was tired. And I was like,

I don't know if I can keep doing this. I

wasn't speaking about any of this like a good man.

You never tell anybody what you're feeling, right? You just

keep it to yourself. But it was showing up in

my actions. And one day he came to me and

he said, you know, I don't think you're fully present

right now. I don't think you're fully present. And he

was right. He was right. I just was not giving

my whole heart. I was not doing the hokey pokey.

as a worship pastor. I was not putting my whole

self in and shaking it all about. I was just

keeping a lot to myself. And one day, man, he

said to me, and it was a very holy moment,

and I wasn't ready to hear it. He said this.

He said, man, I just sense that this job is

just a gig to you. Let me tell you about

stabbed in the heart. And I'm telling you, I received

it so beautifully. I mean, I just received it. Of

course not. Do you know who you're talking to, young man? Like,

do you know what I've accomplished? Who are you to

say something like that to me? This was my attitude.

Wasn't ready to hear it. But in the months that followed,

the Lord started working on me and speaking to me.

He was like, hey, remember that thing Trace told you?

I told him to tell you that. That's the way

it works. See, the truth was that the only thing

I liked about that job was the platform. And I'll

tell you, as a leader of any size of any church,

if what you're living for is the platform, you need

to quit. The platform is the cherry on top of

the cake, the opportunity to pastor you, to love you,

to know you, to serve you. That's the cake. Getting

to stand up here and preach a sermon, that's the cherry.

getting to stand up there and lead worship, that's the

joy of the job. It shouldn't be the thing that

I was living for, and it was. And so what

he spoke to me, I needed to hear it. And

so in the fall of 2020, just still kind of

stabbing around, trying to figure out what am I supposed

to do, I entered into seminary at Southwestern in Fort Worth.

And then a year later, a year later, I was

the campus pastor of a church called Vanguard Palmer Lake.

And our first Sunday, we had 12 people in the

room and four of them were fikes. I went from

leading worship for thousands of people to starting this thing

and going, what am I doing here? And really all

of it was kicked off by Trace. He had no

idea that what he was sensing was a much needed

catalyst for me. He knew something was off. He really

didn't know exactly how to say it. This is what

the Lord had spoken to him. And he spoke the

truth that I needed to wrestle with. He simply named

something that was true about me before I was willing

or able to see it in myself. Get you a

friend like Trace Hicks that'll speak the truth to you

in love, even if you're not ready to hear it.

It doesn't always arrive as secret supernatural information accompanied by

dramatic music. I really wish it had that day. I

really wish it was like, oh, you think it's just

a gig? Like I wish that had happened. But instead,

it was just this really quiet, really still, really true

moment that pierced my soul. Man, you need people who

can speak like this into your life. Sometimes the Spirit

enables someone to see what others have missed or what

you've been hiding from yourself and gives them the courage

to bring that truth into life. So if you have

this gift, wisdom of knowledge gifters, your gift is not

for you. It's for us, and we need you. We

need you in our prayer ministry. We need you in

our care ministry, in our growth groups. We need you

mentoring and discipling young people to help understand the reality

of who Jesus is. Now, I just want to say

one thing. If you have this gift, please be careful

not to ambush people with your word of knowledge, okay?

Please give them a heads up. Look, there's something I

want to speak to you about. I think the Lord's

telling me, let's get lunch and talk about it. Don't

just And then when you do it, don't show up

and say, look, God told me this about you and

so therefore I'm right and you're wrong and you're going

to hell and I'm going to be in heaven and

too bad for you. You know what I'm saying? Don't

play the God card. The way to do it is

to say, look, I may be wrong, but I sense

something that might be important. Can I share it with you?

If you come at it like that, then you're coming

at it with a 1 Corinthians 13 attitude, right? A

message of knowledge should help someone feel seen by God

not exposed by you. So your gift is not for

demonstrating how much you know. It's for helping someone encounter

the God who already knows them completely and is willing

to travel to meet with them. Your gift's not for you.

It's for us. Don't keep it to yourself. Let's give

it up for word of knowledge gifters. Please be courageous.

Don't be afraid. Speak up. All right, here's our last one.

The spiritual gift of faith. The spiritual gift of faith.

Look how Paul says this. Some are given words of wisdom.

Some are given words of knowledge. By the same Spirit

to another, faith. By the same Spirit. So that means

that there are people that have a spiritual gift beyond

what is normal to the human existence of faith. It

is this spiritual gift of faith. Here's what it means.

Faith is the Spirit-given capacity to trust God's character, promises,

and power with unusual confidence in a particular situation and

to help the body move forward. Are you noticing a theme?

All of these gifts are helping people to step into

what God is asking of them. Faith gifters help the

rest of us gain clarity about God's trustworthiness when the

outcome remains unclear. They have an uncommon capacity to trust

in God. You hear them say things like God is

able God is faithful. God will never leave us or

forsake us. Nothing is impossible for God. This is just

what flows out of them. Faith gifters don't play the results.

They don't look at how things turn out and go, okay, well,

I think I trust God because he did it my way.

That's not how they do it. They're confident with whatever happens.

God's going to remain faithful and present. And they believe

that God's plans are always good. Faith gifters view obstacles

as opportunities to trust God with the impossible. Do you

know anybody like this? Do you have anybody like this

in your life? That just nothing seems to make them

not have faith in God? It's powerful. You might think

of the story in Daniel 3 between Shadrach, Meshach, and

a billy goat. You know that story, right? These guys

in Daniel 3, they have this incredible moment. They're about

to get burned alive and they speak to the king

and they say, if we are thrown into the blazing furnace,

the God whom we serve is able to save us.

He will rescue us from your power, your majesty, but

even if he doesn't, and that's where the faith is,

even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear

to you, your majesty, that we will never serve your

gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.

Even if he doesn't, we have faith In our God.

That's faith. You know how you know if you have

the spiritual gift of faith? You sleep. You don't toss.

You don't turn. You don't struggle. You just sleep. God's

going to handle it. I'm all good. Right? I mean,

you have the spiritual gift of faith. Peaceful, confident trust

that God is in control. Faith gifters see God at work.

And they want others to see him as vividly as

they do. Do you know anybody like this? All right,

what about Jesus? Where do we see this gift of

faith in Jesus? Jesus is God, and he's walking around,

hanging out with human beings all day, every day. And

we often marvel at the works and the wonders and

the words of Jesus. You know what Jesus marveled at? Faith.

Every single time that Jesus came in contact with a

human being that exhibited, that manifested supernatural faith, It's like

as if he had a DVD and he could just

pause it and then go, everybody, just everybody look. Stop,

stop what you're doing. Look at that. That's incredible. One

of my favorite stories in the New Testament, my favorite

characters is this guy, the Roman centurion. This is in

Matthew 8. He walks up to Jesus. He's not a Christian.

He's not even Jewish. He's Roman. He's their enemy. He

walks up to this Jesus and he says, listen, my servant,

a lot of people think it might be his son,

But my servant is sick and dying. And he says

this phrase. But look, just say the word and my

son will be healed. My servant will be healed. And

Jesus goes, whoa. Did you guys hear that? Did you

hear what he just said? I haven't seen faith like

this anywhere. Take a look at this guy. This guy

who you hate. This guy who opposes you. This guy

gets it. Faith. And Jesus marvels at human faith. He

marvels at it. We sing about amazing grace. Jesus would

sing about amazing faith because he marveled at it. Jesus

also demonstrated what faith looks like in powerful ways. You

think about that moment in the Garden of Gethsemane where

he's hours away from one of the worst experiences any

human being has ever had. He prays a Shadrach, Meshach,

and Billy Goat prayer. He says, my father, if it's possible,

let this cup pass from me. But even if it doesn't,

yet not as I will, but as you will. He says, Lord,

I don't really want to go through this, but I

trust you. I'm putting my faith in your plans. And

then he took that faith all the way to Calvary

and he died on a sinner's cross for you and

for me. We marvel at Jesus, but Jesus marvels at

our faith. All of us are saved. through grace or

by grace through faith. All of us are instructed to

walk by faith and faith gifters are granted an extra

helping of faith. Do you know anybody like this? Do

you have anybody in your life like this? Because your

gift is not for you, it's for us. We need you.

Most of us have experienced seasons of faith, maybe moments

of faith, little whispers of faith and all of us

have experienced seasons of doubt, Moments of doubt, whispers of doubt.

One of the wildest moments in the Bible happened just

before Jesus ascended into heaven, just before the Great Commission.

All of the disciples are gathered around Jesus. They've spent

40 days with him. Some of them have touched the

wounds that he had. Some of them have eaten breakfast

with him. They've seen him walk through walls. He did

all kinds of cool tricks for them. It was awesome.

They spent 40 days with Jesus. And then there's this

moment right before he ascends. And look at what the

Bible says in Matthew 28, 16. The 11 disciples, that's

a tragic phrase, isn't it? Who were we missing? Judas,

who didn't have faith in Jesus. The 11 disciples traveled

to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.

When they saw him, they worshiped. What if Matthew stopped

it right there and put a period there? When they

saw him, they worshiped. I love this phrase. But some doubted.

They are looking face to face at Jesus, worshiping him. Meanwhile,

there's doubt in their hearts. What a grace that this

verse is in your Bible because you don't have to

admit it right now, but I know that you have

doubts because I do. I'm your pastor and I go

through moments and seasons where I go, oh, I don't

think I quite get this. I worship Jesus. I give

him my whole heart, but there's doubt. This is the

human condition. This is why Jesus marveled at faith because

this is what it's supposed to be like. So when

you put your faith in Jesus, when you have the

spiritual gift of faith and you live like that, it

is marvelous. It's incredible. This is why Jesus so deeply

marveled because faith is supernatural and doubt is deeply human.

Just so you know, if you have doubt right now,

you're not doing it wrong. You are living the Christian

life the way you're supposed to. Now, what do you

do with your doubt? That's the question. See, sometimes faith

means continuing to worship and obey Jesus even while your

doubts are still being worked out. That's why we need

faith gifters. When our confidence is weak, you guys help

us to keep walking with Jesus, towards Jesus, besides Jesus,

worshiping Jesus, trusting in Jesus. You guys help us to

see him. We borrow from your faith. Okay, what's the

shadow side? Uh, Listen, faith gifters, I've got some bad

news for you. Just because you have faith, it doesn't

mean you're allowed to be irresponsible. I have faith. I

don't need a job. Yes, you need a job. I

have faith. Everything's going to work out. Right, but are

you going to be responsible? I have the spiritual gift

of faith, and I can tell you that there are

major shadow sides to this gift. One of them is

I never lock anything. And I'm inviting you now to

test that if you'd like. Probably shouldn't put this on

the internet. But I just never, there have been days

where I've sat in Chick-fil-A and I'm gathering all my

stuff and I'm like, where are my keys? I don't know.

And I get back into my car and they're in

the ignition of my truck. They've been there all day.

That's not good. Okay, I admit it. That's not good.

I admit it. You're not allowed to be irresponsible just

because you have the gift of faith. That's why the

gift of faith can be both exciting and dangerous and

the people on the wisdom table of this church are

fully aware of that because they have watched me just

operate in faith and go hey that seems reckless that

have you thought about all of the potholes no i

didn't i don't think there will be any i think

it's all going to be good faith gifters your confidence

in god does not make every idea do you know

how hard this was for me to write on paper

it does not make every idea you have divine okay

I don't get to play the trump card because I

have the gift of faith. That's not faith. That's presumption.

Faith says God can do this. Presumption says God has

to do this because I decided to attempt it. Come on,

that's wrong, right? That's the shadow side. Faith without wisdom

can become presumption. Faith without discernment can become gullibility. And

faith without administration can become chaos. I have a good

friend in my life. who has really helped me with this,

to see the other side of this thing. And his

name is Jeff Rudder. Many of you know Jeff Rudder.

And Jeff said this at my birthday party the other night.

He said, Richie Fike is a visionary leader. What a

nice thing to say. Then he said, I've never known

anyone so comfortable being so wrong about so many things. Thanks, Jeff.

Now that's from three years of serving on the wisdom.

table and going, I don't know about that, Fike. That's right.

Jeff and I have been iron sharpening iron, and he

has served so well on our team. Working with Jeff

as an elder of our church has absolutely made me

a better leader, and that wasn't hard to write on paper.

That's the truth. Jeff doesn't extinguish my faith. He helps

keep my faith from becoming recklessness. And my faith helps

keep his discernment from becoming paralysis. We need each other.

That's the beauty of this spiritual gift idea. Your gift

is not for you. It's for us. We need you.

So if you have this gift, man, you might be

well-suited for church planning or for missions or for prayer ministry,

care ministry, generosity, vision, and leadership. Anywhere obedience requires courage,

your gift of faith is useful. Faith gifters walk into

rooms where everyone else sees a wall, and they remind

us that God may still provide a door or a

window or a secret tunnel, right? But God's going to

open a way where there is no way. They remind

us of what God has done, and they help us

trust what God has promised. They lend us courage when

ours is running low. But faith gifters should never operate alone.

Bring your faith to the table. And invite wisdom, discernment,

and administration to sit beside you. Your gift should make

the body braver, not reckless. Okay? That's it. So your

gift is not for you. It's for us. Don't keep

it to yourself. Let's give it up for the faith

gifters in the room. Yep. Okay. These guys, all of

these people, they help the rest of us gain meaningful

clarity on the road before us. The people that have

this word of knowledge gift, their kind of quote is,

there's something you're not seeing, and I can help. Discernment, folks,

they say this isn't what it seems and I can help.

Words of wisdom, people, they say there's a faithful way

forward and I can help. People with the gift of faith,

they say God can be trusted with what happens next

and I can help. That's the idea. A word of

knowledge reveals the truth. Discernment identifies the source. A word

of wisdom illuminates the path. And faith encourages us to

trust God with the outcome. So, Pay attention to where

the body already reaches for your gift. You may not

have even known how to articulate this before today. Maybe

you go, huh, turns out I got the word of

knowledge gift. I didn't even know that. That's awesome. What

are you going to do with it? What's beautiful about

your gift, all of your gift, is when who you

are yields to whose you are, you make the invisible

God visible to the rest of us, and we need

to see God. So our core verse for this whole

passage is the manifestation of the Spirit is given to

each person for the common good Your gift is not

for you. It's for the rest of us. And we

need you because you are gifted. Amen.

So what's God leading you to do next? And how

can we help? Send us an email to info at movementchurch.co

and tell us how we can pray for you and

help you to take the next step in your spiritual journey.

If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry, you

can text the amount you'd like to give to this number. 833-725-0132.

That's 833-725-0132. Or just look us up online at movementchurch.co.

You can find the Movement Church on all social media platforms.

And we hope that you'll give us a follow. God

bless you. And remember, God is for you and so

are we.