GIFTED // Your Gift Belongs to us // 8.16.26

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.

Welcome to the Movement Church. So glad you're with us today.

We are starting a new series today called Gifted.

But before I do that.

I just want to send some thank yous to some

folks that helped us out over the last couple of weeks.

I got to take three Sundays off, which was awesome.

So Isaiah and Jonathan led us in worship, Tim and

John and Jeff let us in teaching, and so many

others week after week serve in this church to volunteer,

to set up and tear down, to make pancakes. Like,

there's so many people that make this place happen. Can

we give everybody around up falls? Thank you for that.

We are the little engine that could, and I'm proud

of you.

Guys. It was awesome. Last week.

I drove through our parking lot during service and prayed

for you, guys, because I know if I came in here,

many of you would want to like talk to me,

and I didn't want to talk to you, So I

just drove through the parking lot and prayed for you.

I love this church. I love being your pastor. I

am rested, I am recouped. I'm ready. Are you ready

for the fall? Anybody ready for the fall?

All right?

The fall is going to be an awesome season together,

let's get moving. In July, I had the awesome opportunity

the last week of July to go to San Diego

to hang out with this guy. Andrew Girley's right over there,

Andrew Gerla. By the way, in San Diego, he's not

known as Andrew Girl. He's known as Skipper. He is

a commander in the US Navy, and he took me

on a behind the scenes look at everything that happens

in the US.

Navy, especially in San Diego.

It was incredible. It was an awesome experience. He's the

head of recruiting for the Navy in our region, and

in the fall, he's going to be the head of

recruiting for the entire US Navy. That's a big deal, right, Yeah,

Andrew is a big deal. And here's how I know,

because everywhere we went, everybody saluted him. Whether we went

to the Santa Fe which is a working submarine, everywhere

we went people were saluting him. Whether we went to

the Sunhawks training facility, which are He's B twenty two ospreys.

You ever heard of these things. They're like part helicopter,

part airplane. They're like crazy, and we are the only

nation that has them. Pretty sick. Or on the USS

Carl Vinson, which is an aircraft carrier that was docked

there in San Diego, everybody that we saw saluted Andrew

Skipper GIRLA. It was incredible. And you know, Andrew's not

just a recruiter. He served in our military. In fact,

we got to ride, and not ride, but walk on

the ship that he served three tours on. It's called

the USS Chafee. And Andrew, we got to kind of

step where he stepped, walk where he walked. We had

to look through the little windows in the command center

like you could barely see out of them, but we

got to be kind of in his footsteps. That week,

and while we were on the Carl Vincent, they call

it the Chuck e V. If you're in the know,

they call it the chuck e V. Okay, while we

were on that vessel, Andrew got to sort of send

off a person who had served in the military for

several how many years that he served Andrew twenty two

years in the military.

And so I just wanted you to see this.

It's a little muffled and it was longer than what

you're going to see. Every time he turned away from

the you couldn't hear what he was saying. So I

edited it so you could see the good parts.

Watched this.

A first sitter who the door.

Harmon of the Navy.

I'm cured by Bologna gay.

Si.

But so I'm gonna tell you right now, Jeem Sill

have been on board about twenty two days of my understanding.

Eddies one of the best sailors, one of the best leaders,

one of the best ship mates I've ever had, The

chief right here, he's the absolute best, the best.

He was really cool to see. Do you notice how

they went at ease when he said at ease? See, like,

if I did that to you, you wouldn't follow me

on that. That's how I know Andrew is a big

deal Skippers big deal. He's a big deal to everyone.

But Andrew, I asked him, hey, man, let me ask

you a question. If we were walking by one of

these sailors and they didn't salute you, would you like say, hey,

drop and give me twenty Like would you do that?

He was like no, but I could. Everywhere we went, man,

it was just an awesome experience. We toured kind of

you know, the behind the scenes look at the US Navy.

It made me really proud of our Navy. I know

there's a lot of Air Force and other groups here,

you know, at present, but just once you know that

they think they're better than you. We saw all kinds

of unique and brilliant and amazing things while we were there.

When we were on that the Chuck ev the Carl Vincent,

the tour guy told us that you could lay flat

the Eiffel Tower on the length of this aircraft carry

and I thought, that's still not enough space to land

a Southwest Airline plane.

I don't think it.

Made me nervous, but was what really stood out to

me beyond the deeply impressive attention to detail and the

broad diversity that happens. Was the broad diversity of the

people that make up the US Navy, people from all

walks of life, all kinds of people, all shapes of people,

which I appreciated. They're not all Navy seals, a wide

variety of specialists working together to make the US Naval

Force function.

It was really cool.

They need each other. They rely upon each other. Nineteen

year old submarine pilots and forty nine year old lieutenant colonels.

They serve to accomplish the same mission. They need each other,

and every person has a gift, a very special set

of skills that they've honed and crafted over the years

that beautifully contributes to the larger picture of the Navy.

Every person that we met throughout the tour would tell

us how they got there. That was my favorite part

of the experience to hear the different stories of the

different sailors and talk about, well, I joined the Navy

because my dad and my dad's dad and my grandpa's dad,

they're all navymen and joined the Navy. One person would

tell us I wanted to be Maverick. Nobody wants to

be Goose everybody wants to be Maverick right. One person said,

I wanted to be a Navy seal. Did you know

that only two percent of the people that try to

become a Navy seal become a Navy seal? Two percent?

That's incredible. One person told us that he joined the

Navy because he got his girlfriend pregnant. It's a good reason,

is any I thought, you know, there you go. But

it was great to hear all these stories. We've saw

so many people.

You know.

The only sailors that we didn't get to meet were

these guys, the Navy war dolphins. We didn't get Do

you not know about the Navy ward dolphins. This is

a real thing. There are Navy war dolphins. I don't

think this isn't confidential. This is like I saw this

on the internet too.

No, this is real.

There are Navy war dolphins, and they big timed us.

They wouldn't meet with us. I don't know why they

are in these arrogant Navy war dolphins. I think the

reason that they couldn't meet with us, the reason we

couldn't find time for them, is because they're filming a

Saturday morning action star show.

Now here's what you need to know.

Every war dolphin in the US Navy was looked over

by SeaWorld. SeaWorld gets the best of the best, okay,

and then if you can't cut it at SeaWorld, you

become a US Navy war dolphin. They're remedial war dolphins,

and they have their own show here.

It is dolphins.

Some call them a second draft boartlist, but.

They still got military purpose.

There are new people at the church today that have

no idea whether they should laugh at that or not.

We laugh here at the Movement Church. Okay, that's what

we do, right, Remedial ward out Dolphins. Some call them

a second draft porpoise, but they've still got military purpose. Okay,

that's what the lyrics of that song is. And in fact,

if you're looking for a fantasy football team named Remedial

ward Offense, I think it'll work out good for you. Now,

we met a lot of amazing sailors while we were

there in the Navy, and each of them, whether they

walked a straight path or a securitus path, they've found

their way. They found themselves. These people walk with humble

pride like they really do. They walk with it's not

just the uniform. They've found meaning and purpose. It's not

about the paycheck. They found something beyond a paycheck. They

have found a place to belong that leans upon their

uniqueness and teaches them the immense value of interdependence.

It was powerful to see to watch.

Everybody we met had that same countenance, and it reminded me,

as a pastor of a church, who I'm responsible for

and who I'm responsible to Because the US Navy functions

quite a lot like the church is supposed to, quite

a lot like the church is prescribed to like it's

designed to interdependence, INTERCONNECTIVI In this fall, as we talk

through this series called Gifted, that's what we're going to

be talking about. We're going to be talking about what

it looks like to be interconnected and interdependent. I want

you to tell the person next to you, just tell

them right now, you are gifted. Tell them right now,

you are gifted. Now, here's what's interesting about that phrase.

When you hear the phrase you are gifted, you're probably

tempted to think about you, Well, wait a minute, if

I'm gifted, then what's my gift? And what am I

supposed to be doing with my gift? That's a very

natural question to think about. But today I want to

ask you to just kind of press pause on that question,

and I want you to think about this question, who

gifted me? Who gifted me? Before we talk about the gift,

Let's talk about the giver. Amen with me. Who gifted me?

Who gifted me? And I'm going to tell you right now,

I've kind of developed like a thesis statement for this series.

It's a four part thesis statement, and I want you

to see it here. It is. This is the first part.

God the Father sent Christ the Son to redeem us.

This is just a big theological, big picture idea. Okay,

God the Father sent Christ the Son to redeem us. Next,

Jesus and the Father sent the Holy Spirit to dwell us.

And next the Holy Spirit manifests himself uniquely through each

of us. And last, your gift isn't for you, it's

for the rest of us. That is the big picture

of what we're going to cover in this series. And

so just so you know you don't think that I

made all that stuff up, I want you to see

this scripturally.

Let's talk about this.

The first one, God the Father sent Christ the Son

to redeem us. There are tons of passages of scripture

that would echo that sentiment. There's a really good one

in Galatians.

Look at this.

Galatians four says this, when the time came to completion,

God sent his son, born of a woman, born under

the law, to redeem those under the law, so that

we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons,

God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts,

crying Abbah, Father. So you are no longer a slave,

but a son. And if a son, then God has

made you an heir. So the idea here is that

God redeems us through what he did through Jesus. On

Easter Sunday this year, I made the point that everything

that God did through Jesus, everything that Jesus did, said accomplished,

all of it was for the purpose of reuniting you

with the Father.

With his Father, with our father, with the Father.

Everything that Jesus came to accomplish was about you having

a relationship with the Father. And so everything he taught,

he modeled, he lived for, he died for, he resurrected.

For it was this giant neon arrow that pointed to

the Father. That's why he came and did what he did.

He basically was saying with everything that he said, look up,

he was communicating with everything he did, look up the Father,

Connect to the Father.

And here's the point.

Salvation hinges upon whether or not you believe that you

understand that you put your faith in the birth, the life,

the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus isn't the King of kings, if he isn't

the Lord of lords, if he isn't the messiah sent

from heaven to reconcile the lost sheep of the Father's flock,

then he's just a good teacher who drew crowds and

got killed for it. If he isn't who he said

he was. But if he is what the Bible says

he is, and he did do what the Bible says

he did, then he is the key to your ability

to say abbah, father to the Father, to his father,

to our father, to your father. Everything Jesus did was

to reunite you with the Father, reunited and it feels

so good.

Come on, that's what it's about, right.

So my question for you today, just in the middle

of the sermon, before we get further into this whole

idea is.

Do you believe in Jesus.

Do you believe that Jesus is who he says he is,

that he does what he says he does, that he

is the Savior. Have you put your faith in Jesus

if you've come here today because you said, you know what,

I'm not so sure about this Jesus guy. I'm here

to kind of figure it out. Can I just tell

you it's the best decision you'll ever make, And all

the Christians said, it's the best decisions you'll ever make,

is to put your faith in the Son of God

so that you can be reunited with your Father.

Do it today.

Don't miss out on Jesus, don't miss out on the Father,

don't miss out on the Spirit. Okay, that's the first part.

God the Father sent Christ, the Son to redeem us.

Everybody with me?

So far with me? Amen?

Here's the second part. Jesus and the Father sent the

Holy Spirit. This is a big kind of idea, but

to endwell us, to dwell Christians, people who put their

faith in Christ, not just to live with us, but

to live within us. Now here's what's interesting. I'm going

to show you three different passages from John fourteen, fifteen,

and sixteen. John was a young guy, young disciple that

followed this Jesus around and tried his best to remember

everything that he said. And what's interesting is when you

read everything that John writes about what Jesus said about

the Holy Spirit, it gets a little cloudy, it gets

a little.

Hard to make sense of.

I'm going to show you three different passages that gives

us this kind of conglomerate view of this idea. Look

at John fourteen sixteen. It says this, and I will

ask the Father. This is Jesus speaking. I will ask

the Father, and he will give you another counselor to

be with you forever. He is the spirit of truth.

The world is unable to receive him because it doesn't

see him or know him. But you do know him

because he remains with you and will be in you. Okay,

So two questions. Who is sending the Holy Spirit? In

this verse he says, I will ask the Father and

he will give you another counselor. Who's sending the Holy Spirit?

The Father is right, Father is sending the Holy Spirit.

Now where does the Holy Spirit live? It's at the

very end. He remains with you, and he will be

in you. Okay, so we're seeing it now. Look at

John fifteen. This is John fifteen twenty six, when the

counselor comes the one I. This is Jesus speaking the

one I will send to you from the Father, the

Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father. He will

testify about me. Now in John fifteen, who is sending

the Holy Spirit? Jesus says, I'm sending him from where

from the Father?

You see that?

And where's he going to live? He's going to live

with us, He's going to live within us. Look at

John sixteen seven, Jesus says, nevertheless, I'm telling you the truth.

It is for your benefit that I go away, because

if I don't go away, the counselor will not come

to you. This is an incredible passage of scripture. These

guys are walking and talking with the living embodiment of

God and he says, hey, I got a good news.

I'm out of here. They're like, that's not good news.

We want you to stay with us forever and ever.

He's like, no, no, it's good news. It's for your

benefit that I go away, because when I go away,

if I don't go away. The counselor will not come

to you. But if I go, who's going to send him? Jesus,

I will send him to you.

Okay.

So the big idea that we're seeing here is that

God the Father in Christ the Son. We're going to

see this in John seventeen if you keep reading, are one.

If you see Jesus, you see the Father, you.

See the Father. You see they are one. That's the idea.

And so because of that, Jesus can clearly say the

Father and I are sending you the Holy Spirit. So

God the Father sent Christ the Son to redeemus, and

Jesus and the Father both together united, sent the Holy

Spirit to indwell us.

This is crazy cool to me.

If you think about the way that the Temple of

God works itself out throughout the whole Bible and the

Old Testament. God is just roaming the earth. And then

they put him in a box it's called the Ark

of the Covenant, and they put him on a tent

and he's rolling around and that you can only take

seven steps, and then you have to stop and praise him.

And then eventually somebody says, that's getting tedious. Let's put

him in a temple. So they put God in a

temple and only one person can access him once a year,

and he hopes he doesn't die because he gets close

to God. And then eventually Jesus comes and he is

the embodiment of God. He is the temple of God.

And he says, I got good news. I'm out of here.

Why because I had even better news. Now you are

the temple of the Living God. So everywhere you go

you bring God with you. That's wild.

That's an incredible thing.

When you go to work, when you go to school,

when you go to work out, when you go wherever

you go, you are bringing God with you. Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that incredible? Jesus and the Father sent the Holy

Spirit to dwell us. Now listen, if we stop there

with those two ideas, genuinely, that would be enough for

you to live out your Christianity personally, just individually. If

we stopped right there, you could just that would be enough.

That's scripture enough, that's theology enough for you to personally

live out your faith in Christ. But it's not enough

for the whole narrative of the Bible. Because God is

not building little islands. He's not building little islands that

are not connected. He's building an interconnected, interdependent kingdom. And

so you have to understand how this implication, how this

idea that the Holy Spirit lives within you, how it

affects the way that you interact with other Christians. And

that's why we get to these two points. The Holy

Spirit manifests himself uniquely through each of us, and your

gift isn't for you, it's for the rest of us.

That right there is what we're going to unpack the

rest of today. The Apostle Paul is going to give

us in our cortex. First Corinthians twelve one through seven.

Why and how this whole system works. It's beautiful, it's powerful.

So growth groups this week, this will be the passage

that we'll be studying together.

Okay.

One Corinthians twelve one through seven. It says this now

concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, everybody, I do not

want you to be unaware. You know that when you

were pagans used to be enticed and led astray by

mute idols. Therefore, I want you to know that no

one speaking by the spirit of God says Jesus is cursed,

and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by

the Holy Spirit.

Listen to this. This is so cool.

Now.

There are different gifts, but the same spirit. There are

different ministries but the same Lord. And there are different activities,

but the same God works all of them in each person.

And here's our core verse for the day. A manifestation

of the Spirit is given to each person for the

common good. There's a lot unpack in that Noose seven verses,

a lot that we can look at. First, Paul wants

us to know. The reason I'm telling you about this

is you can't walk around as a Christian and be

ignorant about these things. I don't want you to be unaware.

A second, we see that God wants us to be

fluent on this topic. He wants us to be to

the place where we fully understand our place in the

Kingdom of God. Think of this, What would Christian life

look like if we were unaware about spiritual gifts? How

would Christian living be diminished apart from interconnectivity and interdependence.

What would you do with your spiritual giftedness if you

had no one to share it with? How would the

Church have taken shape if spiritual giftedness weren't a major

part of the picture. These are the questions we're going

to be swimming in in this series. I know I'm

a broken record on what I'm about to say. You've

probably heard me say this one hundred times. It'll probably

be written on my tombstone. But this is the truth. Christians.

You can't be in on God and out on Christian community.

Amen. You can't do it.

You can't say I'm in on this whole God thing,

not so much the whole church thing.

See.

God calls Christian community a very divisive word.

Do you know what it is? Church?

That's a very divisive word because people have what's called

church hurt.

Anybody want to say Amen?

In church today people have church hurt and they're reticent

to kind of step into a church experience. If you're

watching this online this week, can I just tell you

give it a shot? Give it a shot, because you

can't be in on God and out on church. His

church belongs to him, So if you belong to Him,

then you belong to his church. You can't be in

on God and out on church.

Guys.

It's just not Christian. It's just not Christian. Paul says,

don't be unaware. There's nothing blissful about your ignorance, right,

don't be unaware, and then he unfolds the idea. He says,

there are different gifts, and different ministries and different activities,

but the same God works all of them in each person.

So last week I had my last Sunday off before

I came back, and I decided I wanted to go

to another of the local churches here in our town.

There are several great churches in Monument, Colorado. I'm lucky

enough and blessed enough to know some of those pastors

and have become friends with some of those pastors, and

I love those guys. And in fact, in the fall,

I want us to start on a weekly basis praying

for the other churches in Monument in the Tri Lakes area,

because we want to see God move powerfully, not just

here but all throughout Monument, Colorado. Can I hear an amen?

So I went last week to another church. You know,

Jeff Rutter last week said in his sermon that there

is nothing normal about Richie Fike. I heard that, Jeff,

and I think I received it. I think I do.

But the point is that our church is going to

reflect its leader. And what was interesting about going to

this other church. I won't name it, but going to

this other church, it absolutely reflects my friend who's the pastor.

It reflects his personality, it reflects his gifts, his countenance.

That church reflects its leader. And that's beautiful because God

loves variety. He says, a manifestation of the spirit is

given to each person for the common good. So everything

I've said today has led us to this moment. I

just want you to see this. These are three points

that we're going to uncover today, and this is what

I want you to think about for the rest of

this series and in particular the rest of this week.

If you're a note taker or a picture taker of

these slides, this is a good one to take. First,

God chooses your gift. Second, everybody gets a gift. And third,

your gift is not for you. Your gift is not

for you. God chooses your gift. Everybody gets one. Your

gift's not for you. Let's unpack that. He says, infestation

of the spirit is given to each person for the

common goods. Or right here we see that your gift,

your spiritual gift is not something that you earn. It's

not something that you achieve. It's not something that you

aspire to, even it's given to you. Verse eleven later

says one and the same spirit is active in all these,

distributing to each person as he wills. How many people

know about the Princess Bride? You know that movie? What's

the phrase? And the Princess Bride? As you wish? That's

not God's attitude about spiritual gifts. We don't get to

say to God, I would like this gift, and God says,

as you wish. Now, God determines what your gift is

as he wills. That's how it works. Now this ought

to be it's meant to be liberating because He's the

source of it, not you. It's not earned or purchased

or accomplished. God just decides I'm going to give you

this gift. That's how he thinks about it. It's beautiful.

So that's the first one. God is the one who

gives a gift. Second, everybody gets a gift. What if

that weren't true. What if only a few of us

in the room got gifts and the rest of us didn't. Sorry,

and you missed out. We ever been to a Christmas

party where someone forgot.

To give you a gift? That sucks.

You're looking at everybody else open their gifts and you're like,

what about me? God's not that way. Everybody gets a gift.

And the third idea, the third idea, is that your

gift is not for you. What would Christian life be

like if it were the opposite of these three big ideas?

What if your gift was only for you? What if

it wasn't meant to bless others? He says that every

person is given a gift for the common good, which

is to say that the purpose of what God gave you,

that gift that he gave you was for me. God

gave you a gift for me, and he gave me

gifts for you. If it wasn't that way, if you'll

allow me, I would like to just put a mirror

up to culture for a moment. I love to do this.

I love to think about what our culture is feeding

us and then juxtapose it against what the Bible is

teaching us. Okay, so the real I think food source

in cinematic universes these last twenty five years or so

have been superhero movies. Have you noticed this ever since

that two thousand and two Spider Man movie, the first

big Spider Man movie, This is what has dominated the cinema.

This is big box money, right, I mean, this is

where it comes from. All of the movies that we

see are coming from these superhero universes. In fact, this year,

the Brand New Day movie is the highest grossing movie

in cinematic history. This is what is dominating us. So

I just want to interrogate it if we can for

a little bit, because I think what these movies are

doing is it's causing us to think in a different

way than God wants us to.

Like, what if you chose your gift?

Have you ever been at a dinner party and someone

asked the question, Hey, if you could have one superpower,

what would it be? I have you ever heard that question?

Have you ever thought about what your answer would be?

Some people say they would like to have super strength?

Anybody super strength in the house? You'd like to have

super strength? Okay, you're waiting. How about super speed? Anybody

super speed? My man is the slow family? What about invisibility?

Anybody here? Creepers just want to be able to watch

watch what everybody else is doing. Don't want to be seen?

How about all knowing this like that, of this idea

of you can understand and know it all? My man,

I saw you, Brad, that was that was a shorthand.

But how many of you would just love to be

a remedial war dophin? Anybody? Come on, that's a superpower

right there. Notice how quickly when we hear that question

we turn immediately to how the power serves us. We

think about the superpower not about how we can help others,

but how it can serve us. People who want to

have superpowers super strength, they want to have that so

that nobody can hurt them.

People who want to.

Have super speed, they want to have that so that

nobody can catch them. People who want to have invisibility

again creepers, but they don't want anybody to see them,

and they want to be able to see everything. People

who want to have all knowingness, they want for no

one to be able to stop them. Right, how many

people would actually choose the powers of Spider Man. Every

time one of my sons got bit by a spider

I would say to them, have you tested it? I mean,

have you gone to see if you can crawl on

a wall. Now, let's go check this thing out. And

you know, usually it gets them to stop crying a

little bit. But who would pick the powers.

Of ant Man?

Anybody who want to be ant Man? A couple of you? Okay,

my guy, I see it. How about Plastic Man? Anybody

want to be Plastic Man? By the way, any of

us in the room could have the powers of Batman

because he doesn't have superpowers. Batman is just a billionaire

in a rodent cop Okay, he's not a superhero. You

can fight me on it, my man, thank you.

Okay.

But all of these stories have one thing in common,

a once regular person reckoning with supernatural giftedness. They once

were a normal person and now they've got these powers,

and they're going, what am I going to do with this?

How's this going to affect my social life? How are

people going to treat me? What am I going to

do with these powers? Culture is reckoning with this idea

that God is the one who chooses your gift and

arguing with the idea that everyone gets one. They believe

that there are special people and not so special people.

It's a tention point. Now, to be fair, the best

moments in any superhero movie. We're going to see this

in Avengers Doomsday later this year, is when all the

superheroes find a way to work together, right, They compliment

one another, they realize how to be a team. That's

the best parts. But what about the normies? What about

Aunt may have any powers? What about Lois Lane or

Commissioner Gordon or Bruce Wayne, because again, he doesn't have

any superpowers, he's just a billionaire in a roadent costume.

Right.

What these comic stories all have in common is that

they see the world as the haves and the have nots,

as the heroes and those they protect. That's not the

picture of the Bible. That's not the story that we're getting.

In One Corinthians twelve seven, here's the story we're getting.

If you have faith in Jesus, then you are the

residence of the Holy Spirit, the moving Temple of God,

and He intends to manifest himself through you. That's amazing,

and that flips the whole comic culture on its ear,

because God chooses your gift and everybody gets one. But

here's the point, and this is the big idea of today.

Your gift is not for you your gift is not

for you. In fact, the title of today's sermon is

your gift belongs to us. That's the big idea. This

is why I love studying culture and trying to make

sense of it, because you know, in comic book movies,

are you know comic books that themselves, there are kind

of two kinds of people superheroes, supervillains. Superheroes and supervillains.

And here's what's cool about that. They're right because anyone

who would use their powers for their own gain, what

are they?

They're super villains. Anyone who would use their powers for

the good of others, what are they? Superheroes?

Now, this is where they've got it right, Because your

gift is not for you, it's for us, Paul says,

it's for the common good. And so here's what that means.

Anyone who would use their giftedness to do common harm,

that they would wield their gift to do harm to you,

well they're corrupted. Anyone who would use their gifts for

personal gain, well they're corrupting them. And anyone who would

use their giftedness for public acclaim are just corrupt. And

this is where some of our church hurt comes from.

Because we have seen people who have stood on platforms

like this one and tried to make everything that they

did about themselves to get attention, to get praised, to

get affirmed. They walk around going, please tell me that

what I'm doing has really impacted you. It's all about me,

and that is capital g gross. It's corrupt. Your gift

is not for you, and you're not supposed to be

benefiting from it. You're supposed to be benefiting everyone else.

Can hear an amen? Okay, So God gives gifts to

each of us. He manifests himself uniquely through each of

us so that the rest of us can experience the

broad and beautiful character and nature of God through one another.

That is incredible. Because you weren't gifted by God so

that you could bless yourself, that's not the point. You

weren't gifted by God so that you could impress people.

And you weren't.

Gifted by God for your own personal gain. You were

gifted by God. Hear me, because I need to experience

Him through you. I need to see God, to experience God,

to hear God through you, that's the whole point. I

need to see that side of the gemstone that only

shines through your life and your giftedness. Maybe the most

famous scene in comic book movie history happened in that

first Spider Man movie with Uncle Ben and Peter Parker.

Do you remember the moment? Do you remember the advice

that Peter Parker got from Uncle Ben.

Wat's this, Peter, These are the years when a man

changes into the man he's going to become the rest

of his life. Just be careful change into Remember, with

great power comes great responsibility.

Bingo, Uncle Ben's got a right. With great power comes

great responsibility. You are gifted and you are responsible to

share your gift. Show us what God looks like through you.

Help us to experience Him through you. We want to

see that character and that angle on the character and

nature of God that only shines through when you operate

in your gifts. That's the idea. I need what God

does uniquely through you. We need it.

This is the good stuff.

This is why you can't be in on God and

out on church. And why would you want to be

If you get to experience the fullness and this diverse

and broad experience of knowing God because you're in community,

why would you skip out on that? And By the way,

this is why we encourage you so much to be

a part of a growth group here at the Movement Church.

Church is awesome, Church services are awesome. If you're watching

this online, please be with us next week. We love

to get together and to worship. We love to be challenged,

We love to be filled up and set out on mission.

Amen.

Right, That's why we love to come. We love to

be together and worship together. But guess what, relationships, deep

meaningful relationships happen in circles, not in rows. So plug

into one of these growth groups so that you can

be known and so that people can know you, so

that you can experience the other the beautiful, the broad

experience of knowing God. Church is awesome, But growth groups,

that's where we're practicing interconnectivity and interdependence. This last couple

of weeks has been incredible to watch how people have

gathered around Karen Murphy, a person on our staff who

we love. Her dad died recently and I went to

the funeral yesterday. It was a beautiful celebration. You can't

believe the amount of people who have gathered around Karen

Murphy to love her, to care for her, and to

show her different perspectives and sides of the character and

nature of God. That's what we're doing here the Movement Church.

That is the idea, that's the good stuff. It's where

each of our unique giftedness manifests itself in powerful ways.

Come to church, absolutely, come to church, yes and amen,

But be the church for one another. That's how we

practice our Christianity. My time in San Diego was incredible

to watch the US Navy and to watch the way

that people are interconnected, To watch the way Andrew Gerla

has earned the respect that he has, not just from

the years of service, but the way he served.

To watch the way.

Different people express themselves and find themselves in that environment,

it was powerful. Every single person that I met was

devoted to their station, to their responsibility, and fully trusted,

fully countered on the idea that the other people at

the other stations were fully devoted to their station. That's

how it works, That's how the Body of Christ works.

That's what we're going to talk about a lot this fall,

interconnectivity and interdependence. Because the ordinary Americans that I met

working in the US Navy, they are the superheroes. They're

the ones that are living out there, calling that have

found their place, and it made me so confident that

that attitude, that idea is exactly what we should be

fighting for at the Movement Church. As we move forward,

Can I hear an amen? That's the idea. Tell the

person next to you, the one you didn't want to

talk to, Tell them you are gifted. Tell them, come on,

you are gifted and you are responsible to share your gift.

Hide it under a bushel.

No, you got to let us shine baby, right.

You've been gifted by the Father who sent Jesus to

redeem you. You've been gifted by the spirit who's taken

residence within you, and you've been gifted by a sovereign

God who knows what your community needs and it's you.

It's time that you share that gift. That's what we're

going to talk about this full gifted. We'll spend the

next several weeks talking about how to make sense of

your giftedness. But for the next week, as you spend

time with God, I just want you to kind of

think about these big three ideas this week. Think about

the profound nature of these ideas. God chose a gift

and he gave it to you. Everybody's got one, nobody's

more special, more important than the other. And your gift

is not for you, it's for us. If you believe

those three statements, it will absolutely affect the way you

live out your faith. This idea is as important as

your morality. Being interconnected with the body of Christ is

deeply meaningful to God. He says, a manifestation of the

spirit is given to each person for the common good.

And do you notice what's at the end of this verse.

There's a colon. What does a colon mean? It means

there's something else coming in this sentence. Now do me

a favor. Don't rush into what's coming, because what's coming

after that colon is a list of spiritual gifts. That's

week three of this series. We're going to start talking

about gifts. Don't rush there. I don't want you to

think about yourself just yet. I want you to think

about the giver, because every gift you've ever gotten didn't

get there by accident. There was intentional thought and consideration.

Someone thought about you and said, I think this is

a good gift for you. Personal attention was given to you,

and packaging and delivery was handled for you. Every gift

you've ever gotten came to you by the Father who

loves you. You are gifted by the God who loves

you so much that he bridged the gap that once

kept you separated. Praise God for that.

And guess what.

You were gifted by the God who loves me so

much that he sent you into my life right here,

right now to show me more of himself through you.

That's who our God is. And so this week, what

I want you to do. I'm going to give you

a prayer to pray, and if you want to take

a picture of this or write it down, I'll read

it a couple times. This is the prayer that I

think will help you to get ready for what's coming

this fall. It's a really simple prayer. It just says

Holy Spirit. And I love that we're starting by speaking

directly to the Holy Spirit. He is not an it,

he is a he. The Holy Spirit is the third

part of God. He's the third character and nature of God.

So speak directly to him, Holy Spirit. Since you desire

to manifest yourself through me for their good, make me

willing to embrace what You've chosen to give me and

cultivate a passion within me to give your gift away. Man,

if you'll pray that prayer every day this week and

really wrestle with what it's saying, it will impact you.

Read it one more time for those listening on audio,

Holy Spirit. Since you desire to manifest yourself through me

for their good, make me willing to embrace what you've

chosen to give me and cultivate a passion within me

to give your gift away. Pray it with open hands,

Pray it amongst community, Pray it help others to see

God through you. Because I'm telling you, what's incredible about

our God and what's amazing about you is that you

are gifted.

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

can we help? Send us an email to info at

Momentchurch dot com 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 give to this number A three three seven two

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