GIFTED // Needed & Needy // Pastor Richie Fike

Welcome to the Movement Church podcast. We want you to

know that God is for you. So you're about to

hear a sermon from one of our weekend services in

the twilights 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 connection with us. God bless you.

Thanks for tuning in.

Okay, good morning everybody. It's good to see your meeting

and greeting. You've met and gret. It's over. You've met

and you've gret. Welcome to the Movement Church. I'm pastor

Richie Fyke, please to be your pastor in this news

series called Gifted, and last week I told you three

really important words, you are gifted. How many of you

felt gifted all week long? You just felt gifted? Okay, cool,

that's good. Last week I told you that you're gifted.

This week we're going to talk about why you are gifted.

But before we do all that, I want us to

get a little existential here in church today. Anybody in

the mood to be existential. Anybody. It's the concept of

figuring out why we exist? What is this life that

we're living? Perhaps the most existential question that any of

us have ever asked is this one? Who am I?

You ever wrestled with this question? Tried to make sense

of yourself? It happens really from an early age. When

you're a parent, you see this in your kids, that

kids are born with very specific character and nature and personality.

These are my two sons. This is Justice when he

was Judah's age. Okay, can you see the difference in

these two boys? And this, by the way, is their

personality from day one, and it is their personality today.

When Justice was in the womb, he was breached. He

was time for him to come out. He was like,

I'm all set. Like he didn't want to move, He

didn't want to get out. Most kids are trying to

turn around and get, you know, find their way out.

He was like, I think I'll stay here for a while.

And that's how Justice has always been super chill, and

that's how Judah has always been, just kicking and dancing

and moving. He kicked the bag three weeks early. He said,

I'm out of here. Let's go. The world is ready

for me. We've seen these personalities in our kids. Some

kids grow up and they just have natural born athletic ability.

Anybody here just have kids that are super coordinated. Or

when you were growing up, you could play any sport.

Anybody want to be that arrogant? Okay, I see George

right on? Some people I tricked you, buddy. Sorry. Some

people are born with just a sense of like you know,

stage presence. You know, here I am, get ready world.

I love whoever this girl is. I love her. Some

kids are born shy, you know, and some are born gregarious,

you know, just like here I am. And some kids

have wisdom beyond their years. Like I saw this reel

this week and I just thought, this girl has the

world figured out. Listen to this something. You have to

remind yourself every day that it is illegal to stop

someone from being stupid. Come on, that girl is going

to be a world changer. Some kids are born fearless, right,

just do anything, jump anything. Some kids are born a

little more cautious. This kid's bubble wrapped himself to go skating.

Some kids are funny, just naturally class clowns. And some

kids are serious and they just want it their way.

Some kids are both in the same kid. I mean,

this kid's serious and then he's happy, and then he's

serious and then he's happy. This is you know, some

kids just have it all. I learned something about myself

last year when Judah was in fourth grade, because I

would ask Judah about his day. I would say, man,

how was your day at school? And he would say

it was great. I hung out all day with mister Davis.

Mister Davis is the principal at Judah's school. And I

said to Judah, Judah, why were you with mister Davis.

He goes, oh, we're friends, like we hang out all

the time. And I said huh. And what I realized was,

oh no, because when I was in fourth grade, I

hung out with mister Jackson and I thought we were

best friends. And it turns out I was a problem child.

I had no idea that I was a problem child

all this time. But personality comes with the packaging. And

we see this in the Bible. Characters that we love

before they get saved, they are a certain way. After

they get saved, they're the same way. It's just they're

pointed in a different direction. Our personality comes with the package.

They're all part of God's design. God shows us who

he is in the way that he creates these beautiful

little masterpieces in this room today. And then somewhere around adolescence,

usually right around graduation from high school, we start asking people,

these young, stupid people, questions that they're not prepared to answer,

like what do you want to do with your life?

An eighteen year old kid has no idea how to

answer that question. Where do you want to see yourself

when you're twenty five or thirty? What's your major going

to be? What kind of mark will you make on

the world. These are treacherous questions to ask a seventeen,

eighteen year old kid. Right, do you remember when you

were seventeen or eighteen You didn't have answers to these questions.

Why do we ask kids these questions? I don't know,

but we do. You know, their prefrontal lobe isn't formed

yet until they're twenty five, so why do they need

to figure out whe they're going to be when they're thirty? Right? Anyway,

this question who am I? Is a big, big question. Incidentally,

this week at the Movement Church, we've had some sort

of amazing things happen from people in our group. You

may not have met her yet, but this is Jalisa Hinka.

Jalisa is an American ninja warrior, and not just because

she's a ninja warrior and American, she's actually on the show. Okay,

and this past week Jalisa competed on NBC. We did

a watch party at our house and watched it, and

I want you to see what she did. Watch this.

Good quick start by Jason Marins Well Jalisa for a

tied advantage.

Wow, Jason almost didn't make that grab.

He's only five foot two. May have to make a

few extra moves. Here are the small as. They'll figuring

it out onto beehive. We with the athletes plan at

Saint so far him gopt taking extra swings on skyhawks

and there it is. He has a full obstacle lead

does Barrens.

And we've seen this from Jalsa before.

Just hold me for hook chasing Bearns is down on

the salmon ladder.

I didn't even get to finish my thought in exactly

what I was about to say.

Just happened Himken needs to get to the top of

the salmon ladder and she will send him home.

Just get a.

Turn of events and Jalisa Himka has done it. She's

now the third woman to advance to the final thirty

two bracket this season, joining Isabella Folsom and Addie Herman.

And this year, the ladies who complete the most obstacles

throughout the season will race for.

The women's crown. By going to the bracket, Jalisa will

compete in at least one more race so he can

add to her obstacle total. If she gets through Kaneline here,

she'll be up to twenty eight obstacles for the season.

And she does it, Come on, get it off for Jalisa.

Is that amazing? Is there anyone here in the room

that thinks you could beat Jalisa in the American Ninja Warrior? Anybody?

They've invited me to come to their gym and work

out with them. I'm not going. I'm not gonna do it.

I don't need that level of embarrassment at my age

not to be outdone. Another special story happened just yesterday.

You may know Isaiah and Addison. Yesterday, I don't know

where y'all went, somewhere in the mountains, but yesterday this

young man asked this young woman would she marry him

and she stupidly said, Now, I'm just kidding. She wholeheartedly said, yes,

they brought a stalker and everything. I got a video it.

It's incredible, So give it up for them. That's amazing.

God is at work. What happens when we reach a

certain moment in our life. Maybe it's post college for

Summits earlier, but you start putting puzzle pieces together. You

find a job, you find out partner like the two

of you have, Maybe you buy your first home, and

then you really find out how much you don't know

because you have a kid, and you go, is someone

else gonna help me with this? And you find out

nobody's here to help. It's just you, right, And so

then you buy yourself a many golden double and you

feel like, Okay, we've got it figured out. But then

you have to start realizing that you really haven't answered

the question. You really haven't answered the question who am I?

I mean, apart from what I've achieved, outside of how

the world perceives me, beyond what my family, my friends

in the world expects of me? Who am I? And

then a lot of us start walking down a really

dangerous road. It's a road to ruin it's a road

called comparison. We start looking around at the people around us,

and we start comparing ourselves. And here's what I want

you to know. You can't find the answer to the

question who am I? By looking around? You just can't

because all that does is it traps you. They say

comparison is the thief of joy. You've ever heard this before.

It's absolutely in competition for your clarity, looking around, measuring

your worth against how you perceive others. It just doesn't

help you. It doesn't help at all, especially when you

compare your blooper reels to everybody else's highlights. Right. If

I were to show you a video of me trying

to be an American Ninja warrior, then I would think

I am a total loser. Right, But that's because those

are her highlight reels. And that's what we do. We

compare our worst to other people's best, and we go,

I don't measure up. Looking around doesn't serve to answer

the question. So then we go, Okay, well, maybe I'll

like look inward. Maybe I'll start looking inside of myself.

Maybe I'll think about the people who shaped me. Maybe

I'll think about you know, what did I learn from

my mom and dad. What did I really observe From

the way that they handle conflict, from the way that

they handled finances, from the way that they led me.

You start looking inward, and that helps us to make

sense of the road we've traveled, but it doesn't help

to make sense of where we're headed. So you tried

looking around, no help. You start looking inward. That's a

good start. But for most people in this room, and

I would say almost everybody here that I know, there's

a moment where instead of looking around, instead of looking in,

you look up. Right. That's a big moment. You look

up to the God who created you. You look up

to the God who guided you throughout your days, the

God who pursued you, who persuaded you, who protected you,

the God who claims to have a purpose for your life.

Most of the people in this room had a very real,

very important, very catalytic conversation with that God, And in

that moment, you decided to put your faith in the

Son of God, the one we sang about earlier, Jesus Christ,

who came from heaven to Earth, gave his life for

us so that we could have life. You had a

very catalytic conversation where you said, I'm going to turn

away from my old life. I'm not going to worry

about looking around. I'm not gonna worry about looking in

headed your direction. And for the people in the room

who are not Christians, can I just tell you there's

a word for what I just described. It's called repentance,

and it's the beginning of answering the question who am I?

When you turn away from your old stuff and you

turn towards this God who created you with a purpose.

Answering the question who is God? Is the actual first

step in answering the question who am I? Because he's

the one that made you. He's the one that created you.

And as we discussed last week, the Bible has some

incredible promises. Once you make that decision, not only are

you saved, awesome, you are saved. Not only is your

past redeemed and your future secured. Not only are you

called into action, but listen to this. You are now

the moving residence of the Living God. Everywhere that you go,

he goes with you. Everything that you experience, he helps

you to process it. That's an incredible claim that the

Bible has to offer us. It's beautiful, this spiritual alchemy

that happens when who you are mixes with who God is,

and when that happens, something amazing happens. That's what the

series is about, because who God is through you is

who God designed you to be. Who God is through

you is who God designed you to be all along.

I told you last week that our theme verse of

the series is this one. It's first Corinthians twelve seven

says this, a manifestation of the spirit is given to

each person for the common good. And I told you

there's three lessons to learn from this verse, and it's these.

God chooses your gift. You don't get to choose your gift.

God chooses it. Everybody gets a gift. Nobody's left out.

And your gift is not for you, it's for me.

It's for us. My gift is not for me, it's

for all of you. That's the way it works. It's beautiful.

It's about interdependency and inter connectivity. I'm going to show

you today that God's answer to your existential question who

am I? Only makes sense in the context of community.

You can't even find this on your own in an island.

You find it when you interact with other believers, because

who you are isn't actually about you. It's really not,

it's about us. So we're going to look at First

Corinthians twelve eleven through twenty seven today, and we're going

to answer this question, why did God give you a

spiritual gift? Do you ever wonder about that? Like he

didn't have to do that? Why did God give you

a spiritual gift? So, if you have a Bible, open

it up. You got a device fired up, if you've

got eyeballs, look up at the screen. We're going to

be in First Corinthians twelve and we're starting at verse eleven.

I'm in the CSB translation. It says this one in

the same spirit is active in all these, distributing to

each person at as he wills. For just as the

body is one and has many parts, and all the

parts of that body, though many, are one body, so

also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one

spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves

are free, and we were all given one spirit to drink. Indeed,

the body is not one but many. It's beautiful. Why

did God give you a spiritual gift? Here's the first answer,

and then we'll we'll unpack it together. Why did God

give you a spiritual gift to build up what you

belong to? To build up what you belong to? I

love the brilliance of the Bible here in this moment,

as Paul is describing this to the church at Corinth,

he could have used a lot of different analogies that

would have made a lot of sense. And I think

maybe if you were trying to make it make sense

to us in this modern culture, he might have used

one of these analogies. You guys, all of you together

are like a team, or you're like a family, or

you're like an army. But that's not what he did.

He said, you're like a body, a body that's interconnected

and interdependent. Let's work through some of these metaphors so

you can see the difference. He could have said, you

are the team of God. Teams are good. There's nothing

wrong with teams. I'm on a tennis team, and I'm

sure many of you are on different teams. There's bowling

teams in the room, maybe God forbid pickleball teams in

the room. But there are people that are on teams

in the room. Teams are good. Everybody plays a significant role.

Each team member relies upon the others. Each team member

impact success or failure to varying degrees. But it's football

season almost who's ready for football? Anybody? Anybody ready? Okay?

Can I just encourage you as the Broncos begin to play,

get a DVR so you don't miss church. Okay, get

a DVR that you're not going to miss anything. In fact,

if you get a DVR, then you don't have to

watch commercials. Praise God. Okay. Anyway, so it's football season.

I'm going to give you a football now. When the

offensive line is on the field, football fans, what are

the defensive backs doing to help them? The answer is nothing.

And when the defensive backs are swatting away hail Mary's,

what's the offensive line doing? Especially in Mile High? They're

getting oxygen? Okay, they're recovering. They're not interdependent. Yes they're

on the same team, but they serve different roles. Teams

are good. They work for a common purpose, but not

always together. They don't actually need to be functioning simultaneously.

Try that with your heart and with your lungs. Your

heart and your lungs, though they're doing different things, they

are working interconnectedly. That's the picture that God's given us.

So the team analogy is good, but it's not complete.

What about family? Families are good. Each family member serves

a specific role or function. Each family member relies upon

the other. That's good. Each family member impacts the peace

or enmity of the gatherings, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Right,

each family member has an unearned, unpurchased place of belonging.

That's awesome. That's a beautiful analogy, and in a lot

of ways we talk about being the family of God. However,

the ultimate goal of any great family is not interdependence.

It's independence. From the moment that you get that little

bundle of joy that comes to you from the stork,

ladies and gentlemen, the moment that you get that little

bundle of joy, your job is to train that child

to function in the world on their own right. You

don't want to have a thirty seven year old son

living in your basement that you're cutting up chicken nuggies

for them so you can finance their xbox addiction. That's

not a good family. Right that we haven't succeeded the

idea is to send them into the world with a

full cup, ready to contribute. So the family analogy is good,

but it's not complete. What about out the army. How

many military folks in the room today. I know we've

got some. Come on. How many of you were offended

that I didn't talk about you last week when I

talked so much about the Navy? Some of you? Amen,

may I call book Girl is not here today, so

I'll say you're all just as good. Okay, But armies

are good. The different soldiers serve different roles, different abilities,

different assignments, different levels of visibility, but they all serve

one mission that sounds like what we're doing right. Nobody

wins a war by themselves, so this teaches us a

lot about coordination. But armies intentionally organize people into units

that can operate independently. One platoon can be here while

another platoon is somewhere else. Air support doesn't have to

be physically attached to the infantry. Intelligence can gather information

thousands of miles away. Do you see what I'm saying.

They're all contributing towards the same mission, but they're not

necessarily sharing the same life. The army analogy is good,

but it's not complete. God is brilliant, is the point

I'm making. He gives us the perfect analogy. He says

that each individual part of the body is needed. No

one function, no one part functions best on its own,

no one part is more meaningful than the others. And

the goal of the body is never independence, never ever.

So why did God give you a spiritual gift to

build up what you belong to? Newsflash, you belong to

us and we belong to you. That's what God is

doing here, especially here at the Movement Church. If you're

a Christ follower, you belong to Christ's body, and He's

given you a gift that's meant to build us up. So,

by the way, don't miss this because it's a beautiful

reversal of the way the world works. It's a beautiful

turn on how the world teaches us to understand life.

This is what God is saying. He's saying, you don't

belong in the body because of your gift. You're gifted

because you belong. Listen to it again in verse thirteen.

For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body.

We have this in common, one spirit into one body,

doesn't matter where you came from, doesn't matter what your

past was, whether your Jews or Greek slaves are free.

We were all given one spirit, the Holy Spirit, to drink. Indeed,

the body is not one part, but many. He's saying

to us, you don't belong in the body because you're gifted.

You don't have to earn it, you don't have to

deserve it. You're gifted because you belong. That's not how

the world works. The world teaches us to earn your spot,

to defend your spot, to keep earning your spot. Right,

that's the way the world works. Anybody remember when Tony

Romo retired from the Cowboys. I remember it so vividly

because he used a word that I had never heard

used before, and I love words. He was retiring from

the Cowboys because Dak Prescott was the future of the

Cowboy and he said this. He said, the game of

football is a meritocracy. You ever heard that word, a meritocracy?

What does it mean? It means you earn your spot,

you keep earning your spot, and the moment that you

let up, someone's gonna jump in and take your spot.

He was saying, I'm no longer good enough to be

QB one for the Cowboys. It's time for me to

step back and let someone else have that position. He

no longer belonged on the Cowboys roster. He believed because

he couldn't perform up to what was expected. Some Cowboys

fans would say he never performed up to okay, and

in a meritocracy, that's the unpardonable sin. That's the world

we live in. Earn your spot, deserve your spot, defend

your spot. That's not how the kingdom works. That's not

the way the Kingdom of God works. The world constantly

evaluates you and then decides whether you belong. Are you

good enough, Are you sharp enough? Are you creative enough?

God makes you belong and then gives you something of

value to contribute. Hey, there's a reason I brought you here,

because you can bring this to the equation. Powerful Paul

says that before you ever contributed a single thing to

this Body of Christ, you belong not because of you,

but because of what Jesus Christ did for you. One body,

one spirit, one baptism, one experience together. So you don't

belong in the body because of your gift. You're gifted

because you belong and unlike the world, this grand meritocracy

that we live in, every single one of us is

essential to God's design. Nobody is giftless, nobody is expendable.

We haven't talked yet in this series about the people

of the Church in Corinth. Here's what we know about them.

They were highly competitive, highly comparative, and they the reason

why Paul's writing this. It's a corrective letter that he's

writing to the book, to the people at the Church

of Corinth. He's correcting their attitude because their attitude had

become my gift's better than your gift. Your gift's better

than my gift. He's better because he has that gift.

My gift isn't really all that showy, or I don't

get to stand on the stage with my gift. And

so they were comparing and competing with each other, and

Paul saying, guys, all of you are wrong. Comparison always

produces one of two things, either inferiority because I'm not

what you are, I must not matter, or superiority because

you're not what I am, then I must not need you.

Do you see how sick that is, how wrong that is,

how anti Christian that is? He says, they're both lies.

You're not going to find the answer to your question

by looking around. This is so good. Listen to what

he says in verse fifteen. He says, if the foot

should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong

to the body, it's not for that reason any lefe

a part of the body. And if the ear should say,

because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body,

it's not for that reason any less a part of

the body. If the whole body were an eye, can

you imagine that we're all just one big eyeball with

like little feet. If the whole body were an eye,

where would the hearing be, If the whole body were

an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But

as it is, God has arranged each one of the

parts in the body just as he wanted. So here's

our second answer to our big question today. Why did

God give you a spiritual gift? Here's why, so that

you could participate in God's purposes. So that you could

participate in God's purposes, think about this. The gospel of

Jesus Christ is not that you once were bad and

now you're good. That's not the gospel. It's not that

you once were useless and now you have gifts. That's

not the gospel. The gospel is you once were dead,

I mean the walking dead, and Jesus Christ gave you life.

Anybody want to say, Amen, that's the gospel. You were

dead and now you're alive. So I would say the

greatest gift that God ever gave us was the salvation

that we find when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

That's the greatest gift that He ever gave us. But

you know what, the second greatest gift He ever gave

us was the idea that you and I get to

participate in what He is doing on this earth, in

this moment right now, that we get to participate in

what he's doing. See, eternal life doesn't start the moment

that we breathe our last breath and awaken an eternity.

You're living your eternal life right now. Do you know

that you're in it? This is it? This is eternal life.

You have found it. It's right here at Bear Creek

Elementary School. You're in it. You're in your eternal life.

It doesn't start one day down the road. It's right

now and you get to live it with purpose and

with passion to live by participating in what God is

doing on the earth. He doesn't just snatch us up

into heaven. What if he did. What if the moment

you said you know what, I believe in Jesus, zap

there you go. I mean that would kind of be better, right,

we get to be with God forever. Instead, he leaves

these new lives on this old world and he says,

work with me. I got some ideas. Let's go work together.

This is beautiful because movement church. God is still moving.

And then he's still pursuing. He's still persuading, he's still protecting,

he's still preserving. He's still passionate about you and about

the lost people in your life that don't know Jesus,

people that are the walking dead that you know and love.

Those people. He is pursuing them, you know how, through you,

Through every time that you interact with him, every time

you serve them, every time you love them, every time

you wait for the moment to talk about your faith

in Jesus. He's using you. That's what your gift is for.

It's powerful. Jesus didn't save you. He didn't just save

you from something. He saved you for something, and he

saved you into something. Look at this. He saved you

from death into life. He saved you from sin into Christ.

He saved you from isolation into community. He saved you

from emptiness into participation. Shake and bake and we get

to help. That's the idea. It's powerful. Living on mission

is not the price of salvation. It's the privilege. It's

the privilege. You don't participate, so you belong. You belong

and therefore you get to participate. Now listen, none of

you are God's gift to humanity. You can tell the

person next to you you're not God's gift to humanity.

You can tell them, Just tell them nicely. Okay, You're

not God's gift to humanity. That's Jesus. Jesus is God's

gift to humanity. We get to participate in what he's doing.

Your gift is meant to catapult you into action. Your

gift is meant to help the rest of us grow

and mature. Your gift is meant to give you a

place for participation. It's beautiful. So why do guy give

you a spiritual gift? Number one? To build up what

you belong to and number two to participate in God's purposes.

Let's keep reading. Starting in verse nineteen, he says, and

if they were all the same part, If all these

different body parts that are envious of one another, if

they were all the same part, where would the body be?

As it is? There are many parts but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you.

First of all, if you're not looking, how could you

see it? Right? The eye cannot see to the hand,

I don't need you. Or again the head can't say

to the feet, I don't need you. On the contrary,

those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable.

And if you have a CSB version, I would tell

you underline, circle, star, highlight, arrows, unicorns right there that

word indus pencile. I love it. Instead, God has put

the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable,

so that there would be no division in the body,

but that the members would have the same concern for

each other. So if one member suffers, then all the

members suffer with it. And if one member is honored,

then all the members rejoice with it. Now you are

the body of Christ, and individual members of it. I'm

going to give you the point that we'll unpack it.

Why did God give you a spiritual gift so that

we could demonstrate our dependence, so that we could demonstrate

our dependence. This is crazy in the world that we

live in, that we would walk around and demonstrate our

need our dependence upon one another. The world we live

in has a very clear, true north, a very clear

height of success. If you want to know what the

world thinks you ought to be chasing, it's this needlessness,

total self sufficiency. That's what the world champions, that's what

the world advertises, that's what the world feeds us, tells

us that we should be chasing after needlessness. That you

would have enough money that you don't need anybody, That

you would have enough influence that nobody can tell you no.

You'd have enough property come on, monument that nobody can

bother you. You can have enough confidence so you never

have to ask for help. Needlessness. The world calls that success.

Paul calls that dysfunction. He says, that's not the way

we're supposed to operate. That's not what we're after. Because

an eye saying to an ear, I don't need you

isn't strong, it's thick. It doesn't work independence. Independence isn't

merely less ideal. In Paul's metaphor, a body part. Attempting

independence is pathological, it's certifiable. It's mental, it's ridiculous. This

is not how it's meant to work. And the Kingdom

of God, the ultimate goal is not independence. It's inter dependence.

It is not my job as your pastor to teach

you self sufficiency. That is contrary to what we're trying

to do here. It's contrary to the Kingdom of God.

In fact, my job is the opposite, because the height

of Christian living on this side of eternity is interdependence.

That we would not covet one another's usefulness, that we

would celebrate each other's uniqueness. Amen, you with me. This

is radical. It's radical, and I bet it's rattling you

a little bit to think about this. Wait a minute.

I have to depend on someone else. I've spent my

whole life trying not to have to do that. I

don't really want to depend on anybody. I'd rather depend

on me. I can count on me, I can't count

on anybody else. I understand. It takes humility it takes

faith to live like this. This is radical, it's alien,

It's distinctly different. He says. The eye cannot say to

the hand, I don't need you. You cannot say to

the person sitting next to you, I don't need you.

You just can't do it, he says. The feet can't

say to the head, I don't need you. It doesn't

work that way. In fact, on the contrary, those parts

of the body that are weaker are indispensable. How does

the world treat the weaker parts? What does the world

do with people that can't measure up? We kick them

to the curb, We dispense of them, the parts that

can't contribute as much as others, the parts that are

more reliant than reliable. What do we do with people

like that in the world that's enough of you? Opposite

of what we do in the Kingdom and the Kingdom

of God. Every participant is indispensable. I mean it. Tell

the person next to you loud, Tell them you are indispensable.

Tell them right now. So that was too loud, Josh,

that was too loud. It'll make it on you too,

But it was a little too loud. I appreciate the

passion though, why did God give you a spiritual gift

to demonstrate our dependence. The world stresses reliability, The Kingdom

teaches reliance. The world measures behavior. The Kingdom provides belonging,

the world encourages competition, The Kingdom teaches connection. The world

celebrates independence, and the Kingdom values interdependence. I want you

to just think for a moment about the people you

know that don't know Jesus, that aren't walking in faith

with him, and think about the world they're living in.

Think about the race they're running. Think about how they

are up against it every day, this merciless meritocracy that

is the world that we live in, constantly measuring themselves

against others, trying to earn and keep and deserve their

spots everywhere they go. And think about what it would

look like if they were to peer into your life

and see you inter depending upon other people, not worried

about what people think about you, not concerned whether your

gift measures up to someone else. Think about what a

difference that would make. They're living in a world that

wants to chew them up and spit them out, and you,

if you're doing it right, are living in a world

with absolute and total freedom and peace. That's the difference.

This is the difference. Can you imagine the kind of

impact that you can have on the lives, on their lives,

These people that are just like you used to be

the walking dead, just by leaning into this wild prescription

that God's laying out for us to interdepend Why aren't

you consumed with competition like I am? Why are you

able to celebrate other people's victories. I don't know how

to do that. Why is it that you are so

at peace with playing your part? Don't you think you

ought to have somebody else's part? No, I don't think

about how wild that is in this world. God chooses

your gift. Everybody gets a gift, and your gift is

not for you. So, because we're talking about this, I

just want to repeat these points to you again. Why

did God give you a spiritual gift to build up

what you belong to? You don't belong to an army,

You belong to the body of Christ. To participate in

God's purposes, you get to be a part of what

He's doing. A number three to demonstrate our dependence upon

one another and upon the God that lives within each

of us. Now, if you're paying attention. I know a

lot of you are. You've probably noticed that we're two

weeks into this series and I haven't mentioned a single gift.

Have you noticed this? Is anybody itching to get into

the gifts and go I want to know what my

gift is. Okay, there's a reason I'm holding that list

at bay. We're going to get to it in the

coming weeks. It's because your gift is not your identity.

It's just not. Your gift is not about you. It's

about God. It's about his brilliance in putting a community

of faith together and saying, oh, this is cool. That

guy has this gift, this lady has that gift. Wat's

how they need each other. It's powerful. It's amazing. His brilliance,

his design, his wisdom, his care. He made you, and

this is important. He made you to be both reliant

I need to be able to rely upon you and reliable.

He made you dependent and dependable. He made you to

be needed and to be needy. Neither of these things

is better than the other. This is the body of Christ.

Lots of people use lots of different methods to find

an answer to the question. We talked about earlier, who

am I? They go to self help, they go to counseling,

they go to different world religions, they try to find

a way to answer this question, who am I? I

gotta tell you you're not going to find this answer until

you find this answer, whose am I? First off, you

belong to a god who loved you so much that

he sent his son to die for you. Second off,

he didn't just give you himself so that you could

live on an island. He gave you all of us.

You belong not just to Christ, but to his body.

That is powerful. Now, I said earlier that looking around

is no help. Right If you look around to compare

yourself to everybody else, it's not going to help you

find the answer. But check this out. Once you found

whose you are, you know who you are, you know

where you belong, then you can look up to discover

who you are. And now you can look around for

a different reason. You can look around to see who

you're connected to. In fact, do that for me right now,

everybody just kind of look around this room at some

of these crazy people that are here in this room today.

Look around you see these people. These people are people

that you belong to and they belonged to you. If

you're all in at the movement church, if you're a

part of a growth group, part of a move group,

if you're helping us to make this idea loud in

the community, that God is for you and so are we.

Then look around at these people and realize this is

who God sent you, and you are who God sent

to them. It's powerful. You're gifted. Each person in the

room is your gift. Each person in this room is

a gift to everyone else. See. Once we looked around

to determine our value. Am I as good as him?

Am I as smart as her? Can I be an

American ninja warrior? Right? We looked around and we compared ourselves.

Now we look around because we're connected, and we go,

this is awesome. I don't have to be an American

and jee warrior because we've already got one. Come on,

praise God. Right. Once we looked around and we said

what do you have that I don't? And now we

look around and we say what does God put in

you that I need? You see the attitude change. Once

we looked around and we said how do I measure up?

And now we look around and we say, how can

I build you up? Let's choose to answer the question

the way Paul answers it for us in this passage,

Who are you? You're his? You belong to God. You

belong to him, and because you're His, you're ours. You're

needed and you're needy. There's no shame in that you're

needed and you're needy, and so am I. You're gifted.

You have something to offer us, you have something that

we're meant to rely upon. And you're not an accident.

No one here is an accident. By the way, You're

not here by accident either. If you're here and you're

plugged in and you're connected, God brought you here. He

stirred you, He showed you a path that you didn't see,

and he brought you to this Bear Creek Elementary School

in the middle of August in twenty twenty six, in

this moment, in this season of monument Colorado, it's not

an accident. It's by purpose. And you're not expendable. You're indispensable,

and you don't have to earn your spot. This is

not a meritocracy. This is the body of Christ. You

don't belong because you're gifted You're gifted because you belong.

So as I close, I just want to give you

two questions this week that I want you to ponder

as you spend some time this week reflecting on what

we've talked about today. Go back and read that passage again,

and I just want you to look at these two questions,

where are you needed? And what do you need? Now,

here's what's interesting. I know a lot of you, a

lot of you have no problem answering the first question.

In fact, you love to answer that first question. You

love to be the first two or three phone calls

when a problem arises. You want to be a problem solver.

But you struggle with that second question, what do you need?

What do you need? You're operating like an eyeball that's

trying to be a body. Okay, it doesn't work. You

need to understand that you are both needed and needy.

So where where are you needed? And what do you need?

If you spent this week praying and journaling about those

two questions, it might unlock for you the ways in

which you've attempted to answer that existential question. You may

not know the answer to these questions. That's okay, ask

God to show you what the answers are. Ask him

to show you where he wants you to give and

where you need to receive. Where are you needed? What

do you need? Really think about what's been missing in

your life? Are there people in this church that you admire,

people that you go I wish I knew more about him.

I wish I knew more about her because I think

they're awesome and they have something that I don't. I

think I need them. I got a text this week

from a young guy that I've mentored for a long time,

and he sent me this beautiful text. I really blessed me,

he said, out of the blue, he said, just in

case you didn't think it. I have an incredible amount

of love, respect, and admiration for you. Bruh, you really

are my hero, he says. I count it a blessing

that I get to have a mentor and a best

friend wrapped up in one You know how much that

meant to me. To receive that from this guy that

I've poured into for so many years. That really blessed me.

I guarantee you there's someone in your life that needs

to get a text from you like this, where you

just go I just want to tell you, I think

you're awesome. There's so much in you that I see

that I just want to affirm where you needed? What

do you need? So let's be dependable, Let's be dependent,

Let's be reliable, Let's be reliant, Let's be needed, and

let's be needy. That's who you are. That's what Paul

is telling us. When you want to have an answer

to the question who am I, it's this, You're needed

and you're needy. Okay. So our theme verse is a

manifestation of the spirit is given to each person for

the common good. And I want to talk just for

a moment as we close, about this word manifestation. What

does it mean. It means when something invisible becomes visible.

That's what this whole passage is about. When you operate

in the gift that God gave you, it allows us

to see God in and through your life in ways

that we have a hard time seeing him everywhere else.

It's a manifestation. He makes what's invisible visible. So when

a lonely person gets welcomed, we see God. When a

hurting person finds consideration, when a discouraged person experiences hope,

when a need is met, when a burden is shared,

when suffering meets community, when one of us conquers and

the rest of us celebrate the victory. That's God making

manifest the invisible God and through your life, and that

is what we're trying to do. I'm telling you, guys,

you're gifted.

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

can we help? Send us an email to info at

Movementchurch dot co and tell us how we can pray

for you and help you to take the next step

in your spiritual journey. If you like to contribute financially

to our ministry.

You can text the amount you'd like to get to

this number A three three seven two five zero one

three two. That's A three three seven two five zero

one three two, or just look us up online.

At Movementchurch dot com. 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.