Core Training | Recognizing Your Spiritual Giftedness & Calling

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. All right, well, I just want to

welcome everybody who's here with us physically and those who

are listening online. Thank you so much for joining

us. I appreciate you.

I hope that you'll also listen to our Walking in Prayer podcast

as well as the Sunday Morning Times that we're doing.

We're also going to be starting a new podcast series called The

Seven Essentials of Discipleship, and we'll be

inviting some guests outside of our church to join us and some

of those, so watch for that. Our current series here called

Core Training is really a challenge.

I'll just be honest with you to the point of I've chosen to

expand it a little bit because each week when we gather and we

walk through some of these issues, each one of these could

be about a seven week course. And I I condense them down into

one, which is really almost painful at times.

So I promise we'll go back and we'll flesh out and revisit many

of these in our times ahead. And so even beginning next week,

we're actually going to switch gears, which I'm probably the

only one who knows this, but we're actually switching gears a

little bit because based on some really good questions and some

great discussion and and some issues that have even arisen

here on in our time together. I'm going to continue this

series and take us through what I would just refer to as

theology one O 1. And what I mean by that, And

this is might sound boring, but hang in there with me for a

minute. We need to talk more about the

doctrine of God. And what I mean by that is, is

that we need to spend some time talking about the arguments for

the existence of God because we live in a world that doesn't

necessarily believe he exists. And so how do we engage

apologetically with somebody who doesn't believe that?

There are various arguments that we would talk about.

And then some of the great questions.

Robert Chadwick had a great question and whatnot.

We were just talking through one morning.

We were talking through some things and, and just kind of the

interaction within the Trinity. The Trinity is a hard thing to

understand and often is an obstacle to understanding for

not only Christians but also in an evangelistic encounter.

But, but then there are other, there are other belief systems

in the world that don't believe in the Trinity at all.

They're they're anti Trinitarian.

And so how does the Father, how did the Father and the Son and

the Holy Spirit interact? What are their various roles

and, and what does that look like?

So we're going to spend a little bit of time on that.

So what's the Trinity? I'm going to explain the Trinity

to you in an hour and a half or something or something.

But the application of these things are really going to be

very practical for you because we're going to be trying to

answer questions that you'll probably find yourself in

conversations with out in the real world.

So we'll do that, and so we'll work through some of that

because we live in a world that may debate with us about even

these most basic things that we've been studying together.

But this world also needs the truth, and we need to be ready

to share the truth very clearly with our world.

One of my heroes from church history is a person that you may

have never heard of. I don't know you know his

travelling companion, but you may not know him.

Peter Cartwright is one of my great heroes from church

history. He was a 19th century circuit

riding Methodist back when the Methodists were holding the

great revival services during the Great Awakening days.

He was the travelling companion of the Wesley's so John and

Charles Wesley. And so the, the Methodists were

actually the leaders in this part of the country and other

parts of the country and having this huge outdoor evangelistic

crusades and, and some of the great revivalist movements,

church planting and everything in the Baptist came along with

them later and kind of took over eventually in a sense for in a

lot of that tradition. But Peter Cartwright was about 6

foot four. And that day that was even

bigger than it would be today. And but he was also kind of

uncompromising. I've talked a little bit about

Cartwright one time before where he, you know, in those days you

had these huge outdoor crusades where Whitfield and Wesley and

people would preach. And at one point it, it, it's

estimated that almost all the people in the 13 colonies heard

Whitfield preach, for example. So these were huge movements in

the early days of this country. But anyway, Cartwright,

Cartwright came along and and there were hecklers in the Group

One day, and I've shared this with some of you before, and

they wouldn't stop heckling. There were people who'd get

drunk and get all kinds of stuff in these big outdoor settings

because people would use these outdoor settings as a way to

make money. And so they were selling all

kinds of stuff and doing all kinds of crazy.

Well, anyway, these two guys were heckling Cartwright one day

and he says you 2 need to desist so I can show the gospel.

And they wouldn't stop. And so finally, he says, Brother

Ira, come and lead us in another hymn.

And Cartwright proceeds to take off his coat, lay it on the

stage, walk down there and just thrash those two guys and throw

them out of the meeting. Go back up, put his coat back

on. It says, now we'll hear the

gospel. But the other story about

Cartwright that I always loved was later on.

Later on, he was really uncompromising.

One Sunday morning, he was told that President Andrew Jackson

was in the crowd and he better watch his remarks.

And he said, I understand that Andrew Jackson is here.

I've been requested to be guarded in my remarks.

Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he does not repent.

The congregation was absolutely shocked.

But after the service, Jackson came up to him and said, Sir, if

I had a regimen of men like you, I could whip the world.

And so this world needs truth. We're going to try to share it

in love, in a loving way, but we need to share it very clearly

with them. We get and we have to be guided

by Scripture, not by feeling, not by experience, not by

opinion. So I have no intentions tonight

to belittle other possible legitimate scriptural

interpretations. Now you need to remember I said

that out loud later, but I need you to listen to everything I'm

going to say to you as well because we're actually going to

hit some subject matters that are quite controversial for some

and maybe for some of you. And some of you may not agree

with my conclusions. I've mentioned to you before

also that I once had a 72 Chevrolet pickup truck with a

big 454 engine in it, this huge engine, right?

And, and I've talked about that truck more than once, but one of

the problems of that truck is the gas gauge didn't work.

And so, you know, you're talking about a gas guzzling engine.

And so it would show that I had a quarter of a tank left of gas

and I'd be stranded on the side of the road.

And no matter how hard I tried to turn that engine on, it

wasn't going to go anywhere because it was empty, had no

gas, had no, no go. And, and then I, I think I

thought recently about that truck when I was on a Bush plane

trip into the largest refugee camps in the world in northern

Uganda, or I've worked with the South Sudanese a lot.

And, and we had an earthquake. And then we also had a situation

that for four days we had no electricity whatsoever.

And so I remember sitting in that 100° room with no air

movement under a mosquito netting, just praying for

mourning, you know, but but no one, those little plugs in the

wall do absolutely nothing when there's no power to them.

And, and if we're disconnected or empty spiritually, the same

thing is going to happen. And so we really do need to

understand in our discipleship and our walk with Christ what it

means to be plugged in. What does that mean?

How am I really connected to a real power?

And where does that come from? And what do I do when I lack

that power? So to be the disciples that God

uses on his mission, we need to be connected.

And one of the primary connections to the power of God

to the dunamis, the that's the word, the Greek word dunamis,

the power of God is the relationship that we have with

the Holy Spirit. And at times the Holy Spirit

might be the most misunderstood member of the Trinity, certainly

perhaps the most abused, the most misinterpreted member of

the Trinity at times. And so people often treat him

like a magic genie or as an excuse for anything and

everything. I don't know how many times in

my 1400 years of ministry that I've had somebody say to me, the

Spirit told me to and then there's just something crazy

after that, you know, something outlandish, something that the

Bible would not support, something that doesn't make any

sense. But because the Spirit told him

to do that, it has to be legitimate.

It has to be real. It's like an it's like an

excuse. It's like a covering of

authority that they get to self-proclaimed.

But that's also throughout history led to a lot of heresy

and a lot of horrible leadership, frankly, and a lot

of bad decisions. So any suggestion?

Now listen to this sentence. I worked hard on it.

Any suggestion that subjective religious or ecstatic experience

devoid of real transformed behavior and discipleship makes

you spiritually elite is just religious superstition and

that's all it is. And we don't we don't observe

magic. We we have biblical faith.

So we need to understand what the Bible really says.

So this teaching is going to help me to introduce when I'm

going to begin next time. So let's just begin discussing

very simply the the the issue of salvation and the Holy Spirit,

because even this gets confused, shouldn't, but it does.

So the Holy Spirit first of all, makes us aware of our need for

salvation. We won't spend a lot of time

there, but the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts, the Holy

Spirit is the one who reveals. The Holy Spirit helps me to know

that I am a Sinner. I need to be saved.

The Holy Spirit also, according to Scripture, removes spiritual

blindness to where all of a sudden I can understand this in

a better way. So it's making sense now because

the Holy Spirit's at work. He's helping me to understand.

He's helping me to believe. He's helping me and drawing me

to salvation. Regardless of what your view on

Calvinism or the sovereignty of God is.

Yeah, I hope you believe that God saves.

And so the. And so the one of the ways that

God saves is the Holy Spirit's work and salvation.

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. We're going to spend a lot of

time in First Corinthians tonight.

He says these things God has revealed to us through the

Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of

God. I mean, that's us.

I mean, just we could spend a week there, For we know a

person's thoughts except the spirit of that person.

For who knows a person's thought?

I'll get this right. For who knows a person's thought

except the spirit of that person, which is in him?

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the

Spirit of God. Now we have received not the

spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we

might understand the things freely given us by God.

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but

taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to

those who are spiritual. The natural person, listen to

this, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they

are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because

they are spiritually discerned. So one of the things we always

have to remember is lost people act like a lost people because

they're what? Correct, And I can get mad at

them. I can get frustrated with them,

but I also have to recognize where they really are.

They're lost and and being lost means I don't know where to go.

I don't know where I am and that's where they are

spiritually. They don't they don't understand

they they have a hard time grasping the things of God.

But then early in the letter, Paul made clear back in chapter

1, he says for the word of the cross is falling to those who

are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of

God. Then verse 23, but we preach

Christ crucified, A stumbling block to Jews and folly to

Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks,

Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

So I've often said and and and my friend Ed Stetzer, I think

coined this first. But but whenever we're trying to

share with a lost world, let's make sure that the only

stumbling block is the cross, because it's a big enough cross.

We ourselves don't need to be the stumbling block.

We need to do all that we can. And we'll talk about this when

we start talking about evangelism later this year.

How can I actually develop a relationship to where I'm not

the stumbling block, but the because the cross itself, the

truth of the gospel, it's a big enough stumbling block by

itself. And so and God's going to work

that one out. So we need the Holy Spirit

before, during, and after salvation in order to discern

spiritual truth. So at the moment of salvation,

the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us.

And I'm going to be sharing several words and there may be,

you may not agree with some of these words and how I'm using

them. And I understand that depending

upon your denominational tradition, even there are

differing interpretations of this, but we call this the

indwelling of the Holy Spirit, right?

So he comes to indwell us. He comes to live in US.

Now I believe that the Bible teaches that the indwelling and

the baptism of the Holy Spirit both takes place at salvation.

And the reason I believe that is because what the Bible says in

First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13, it says for in one

1 Corinthians 12:13

spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves

or free, and all were made to drink of 1 spirit.

So that the Scripture never discusses that there must be

some second blessing or a later baptism of the Spirit after

conversion. He's already there or you would

not be saved. You would not be a member of His

body. Don't take my word for it.

Listen to Romans 8-9. You, however, are not in the

flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in

you. Anyone who does not have the

Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.

I can't say it any clearer. You're not saved if you don't

have the Holy Spirit. It's a part of the salvific

package that goes together. So when we receive Christ, we

receive Him in full, not just in part.

And then as we understand Christ's lordship, we'll

surrender more to Him and he becomes even more evident in our

life. Now don't leave me.

You need to listen to the next part because not only do we need

to talk about salvation in the Holy Spirit, we need to talk

about the filling and the fruit of the Holy Spirit because this

is where a lot of this confusion comes into play.

So you need to understand there's a difference between the

baptism of the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy

Spirit. Again, that's not me guessing.

That's just what the Bible will teach, especially when you see

it in the original language. So we'll see this that this, but

this is often where the confusion takes place.

They are not the same thing biblically.

The Holy Spirit fills us in fresh and new ways as we walk

with Him and we serve Him. And some misinterpret this as

the baptism, so don't be confused.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place at the moment of

salvation fully. But there may be many fillings

of the Holy Spirit throughout your Christian walk.

Again, I'll show you this in scripture.

Don't ever take my word for much of anything.

I make really good BBQ sauce. Besides that, look at the Bible.

So so let's take a moment to understand and really examine

this Ephesians 518. It's about as simple as we can

get. And you know this verse, even

though you may not know what Ephesians 518 is, do not be

drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but what be filled

with the Spirit. So let's just break this down

here for a second. I want you to see the contrast

of the two things, OK, and this verse is, is really more about

the Holy Spirit than it is about alcohol.

But it's the idea here is, is that a person who's filled with

alcohol is controlled or dominated by alcohol.

It's presence and its power of that alcoholic beverage have

overridden normal ability and action.

They're not in their normal state.

In fact, when somebody is drunk, we often would say that they are

under what? Under the under the influence.

See, they're under the influence of this.

This, it's basically a drug. Alcohol that you drink is

actually a chemical relative of the old anesthesia ether.

If you understand that or not, it really is.

It's a chemical relative of that.

So it has the same kind of effect that the old anesthesia

ether has upon you biologically, but it's the same with the Holy

Spirit. We must be dominated by Him.

We must be under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

So instead of doing things by our own strength or our own

ability, He empowers us. Instead of only doing what we

want, He guides us. So we must replace our control

and power with His. He must override us, just like

the alcohol imagery. He must override and control us.

And then the other side of this is also, let's talk about the

word possession for a minute, right?

Because I've been asked many questions over the years about

being possessed by demons and demon possession.

That's more common than you might ever guess in my life.

And so as a believer, we are to be possessed, see, we're to be

possessed by this spirit. So there's no room for any

unclean spirits to possess us or to take control.

And so to be filled in this verse, and this is very

significant. This is a command.

So first of all, but be filled. The way this appears, it's, it's

what's called an imperative in the imperative sense.

So in the Greek language, it's a command for all of us.

And in the original language, it would say you be continuously

filled. That's the wording.

And that's how it would actually read.

So this isn't just a one time event.

This isn't like a bucket. This is a continuous.

So it could literally read this way, be filled and keep on being

filled. Or it's appropriate to say this

in Greek be being filled. So you keep on be being filled

continuously. That's, that's the, that's the

push of this verse and what Paul's trying to say.

So we need to seek this. We should be filled with the

Spirit on a continuous basis. Anything less is not God's plan.

In fact, there's an old proverb that says blessed are to those

who aim at nothing, for verily they shall hit it.

And so we've got to actually purposely aim for some, but we

must seek the mind of Christ. We must seek the Spirit and live

According to him. And this is exactly the point.

This isn't just an infomercial, it's a connection.

This is exactly the point of what I'm doing on Sundays with

the seven essentials of discipleship is that we need to

continuously seek and pursue this path of spiritual

discipline, these past, these essentials of the Christian life

in order to be continuously be being filled with the Holy

Spirit. This is the way.

This is the pathway to constantly be being filled with

the Holy Spirit. And so all these things tie

together. Everything I teach you ties

together, believe it or not, but we can't do that on our own and

we can't become that fruit producing disciple who makes

other disciples, who make other disciples without the help of

the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says that so in in

John 1426, he says, but the helper, the whole, the Holy

Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you

all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said

to you. I mean it, that last part's

really important. How am I going to remember?

I mean, how are these guys think about these guys, what they're

getting ready to go through, what they're getting ready to

experience with the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion, the

rest. How are they going to remember

anything Jesus said? You know, I know people in the

church, they can't write. I know, listen, I know doctoral

students who I can sit there and say that, you know, this is,

this is dark Gray, this is dark Gray.

This is dark Gray. This is this be a doctoral

seminar, dark Gray. Somebody raises their question.

What's your question? What color is that podium?

I'm telling you, people don't remember anything, which is why

we need relevancy and redundancy in the church.

So how in the world am I going to remember any of this stuff?

How am I going to memorize scripture?

How am I going to retain spiritual knowledge?

Well, the Holy Spirit is our paracletas.

He is our helper. He is the one who walks

alongside of us. He is the paracletas numatas.

He is the, the, the Spirit who walks alongside of us, right.

And more completely, he is the whole hagias.

He is the, the, The Who, Haggi, you numatos paracletas, the Holy

Spirit who walks alongside of us.

It's a powerful thing to think about.

That's what God provides in salvation.

So it's not just I just, I get saved, that's it.

I get baptized, that's it. I join the church, that's it,

man. That's just the beginning of an

existence where suddenly you're walking a path with His help.

So when we're filled with the Spirit, it's not a question of

there being more of him in us, as though somehow his work is

quantitative. It's not how much of the Spirit

of the Spirit we have, it's how much the Spirit has of us.

That's the key. I've submitted, I'm controlled

by you, I've given you everything.

And so to live in the fullness of the Spirit, we need to seek,

seek these rivers as Jesus would describe them, of living water

filling and flowing through our lives.

So we don't just want drops of blessing and power, not just

some light shower, not like the mist that drove me crazy driving

to work this morning, but we need rivers of this, which is

why Jesus says in John 738, whoever believes in me, as the

Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living

water. It's an overflow.

It's a pouring out. And that only happens as we're

filled because if we're not full, there's nothing to

overflow. You just become an empty

container. And that's unfortunately where

the spiritual walk is for people in some churches.

Sometimes they're so empty that they have nothing to share.

They have nothing to overflow. So your best ministry, your best

usefulness for God's going to happen in the overflow.

I'm so full of him that it can't be contained.

So listen, I've been, I've been on the Amazon River.

In fact, Dylan and I were talking today about some we're,

we're having a planning meeting Tuesday.

We're talking about some of the mission trips for next year and

things like that. And I have dear friends in

Brazil and, and I was talking to him.

We can do AI have friends who have a nice ship that I've done

the hammock on the outside boat kind of Amazon thing before with

I've told you before with monkeys waking me up in the

morning. But this is a ship.

This is a nice air conditioned cabin ship that they take up and

down the Amazon. The Brazilian Baptists do and

they do pastors conferences, they do medical, they do all

kinds of stuff. So we were talking about what a

cool trip that might be for the near future.

You know, anybody want to go on the Amazon?

Well, I've been on the Amazon and there are parts of that

river where you can't see the other side.

You think you're on the ocean. It's overwhelming and it's

power. It's overwhelming and it's

never, ever ending. And that's this kind of imagery.

True revival only occurs when God's people truly seek to be

filled with his spirit. In fact, one of the great

prayers out of the great awakenings, out of church

history, there were massive revivals that took place in

Wales of all places. So the Welsh revivals are a

major part of church history and the Welsh revival is one of the

one of the prayers was this fill me, Holy Spirit, fill me more

than fullness. I would know I am smallest of

thy vessels, yet I much can overflow.

Paul wrote to a church that was really struggling with all this.

He wrote to the church at Corinth in First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. And he said in my speech and my

message, we're not implausible words of wisdom, but in

demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith

might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

So the Holy Spirit will strengthen our faith.

He'll fill us because he has a special task for us to fulfill.

He's going to give us the strength.

He's going to give us the strength that's commensurate to

the task or the purpose to which God has called us.

When God calls His people to do something, He will give them the

resource. He will give them the power they

need to accomplish that calling. That's the wonderful thing about

it. In fact, in Acts 4, remember,

remember some of these stories, Acts 431.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were

gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the

Holy Spirit. And what did they do then?

They they didn't, they didn't do anything other than they

continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

The verse says they were proclaiming God's word.

They needed an extra dose. They needed a filling of

strength so they might glorify the Father and the Son.

And that's what the Holy Spirit does.

The Holy Spirit never glorifies himself.

The Holy Spirit cease to glorify the Father and the Son.

That's part of his job. He seeks no attention of his

own. It's amazing how much attention

sometimes he gets. But but his attention isn't for

himself. His His goal is to be a witness.

It's to be a testimony to what the Father and the Son are

doing. Listen to John 16 When the

Spirit of truth comes, this is Jesus talking.

He will guide you into all the truth.

For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He

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

that are to come. He will glorify me.

For he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

So a test of whether it's really the Holy Spirit working or not

is whether is whether Christ or the person is glorified.

See. So no biblical character ever

said I'm filled with the Holy Spirit.

And you think about sometimes how maybe you've heard that from

people. No biblical character ever said

I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. It was always said about them.

It was a description others saw in them, not something they

claimed for themselves. And so the power to live this

holy life and serve him comes from that calling and feeling.

But only in that power can we live a life that glorifies him.

And in our strength we will fail.

We always will fail in our own strength, but thinking about

even back in our study in Acts, Peter depended upon the Holy

Spirit to empower his preaching. In Acts 4/8, he says, then Peter

filled with the Holy Spirit said to them rulers of the people and

elders, and he shared the sermon.

And the early church was commanded in Acts 6 to select

men. These became the prototype for

deacons to select a certain group of men to serve, to take

care of some problems they had in the church, and they were to

be spirit filled. Listen to Acts 63.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you 7 men of good

repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will point to

this duty. But please understand that this

is, this is a truth for every one of us as believers.

This isn't just for special people.

We're all to be filled. We all, we all are to be be

being filled constantly, continuously filled.

Confuse myself. It's not an option, it's a

command. In fact, Billy Graham said.

I mean, if Billy Graham said it, Billy once said anyone who's not

spirit filled is a defective Christian.

This is something we're to seek. This is who we're supposed to

be. But what if the full power of

the Holy Spirit was unleashed in this place?

What if the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5 was

actually the normal characteristic of all of our

lives? So we need to understand that

passage for just a second. And, and it's a little lengthy,

but in Galatians 5, starting in verse 16, it says, but I say,

walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the

flesh. Don't see, sometimes we start

way down here in verse 22. Don't start in verse 22.

Get a little context, but I say walk by the Spirit and you will

not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the

desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the

things you want to do. And did you just hear that?

So there's there's this spirit of the flesh and it's at war

with the Spirit of God. Our sinful nature wars with the

Spirit of God and our sinful nature tries to stop us from

doing the things that we should and want to do.

But if you're led by the Spirit, this is verse 18, you are not

under the law. Now the works of the flesh are

evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,

sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,

rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness,

orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you

before, that those who do such things will not inherit the

Kingdom of God. Paul got pretty frustrated with

the Galatians. They were not living at times

the way they should. And so then he says, but that

big contrast word. But the fruit of the Spirit is

Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law, and those who belong to

Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and

desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us

also keep in step with the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another in being

one another. Now what a description of the

Church, what a description of Christ filled spirit filled

people. So we submit to the Holy Spirit.

So he fills this and then we become this vessel of blessing

that he can use and, and and our world could be turned upside

down like the Roman world was in the book of Acts.

But one of the ways to do that, and I mean this, one of the best

ways to put yourself in the best position possible to be be being

filled continuously is, is seriously to become a real

disciple and practice things like we're talking about on

Sunday morning, like these 7 essentials to be that kind of

disciple that then that then part of this.

And This is why some of you came tonight.

So all that's introduction. Now we'll get to the real thing

because part of that is that we need to discover and we need to

develop our spiritual giftedness.

So the third part we need to talk about are the gifts of the

Spirit. And this is sometimes where some

more controversy will come into play.

Unfortunately, there are Christians who do not enjoy or

take full advantage of the resources at their disposal.

It's always, always interesting to me how sometimes people in

the church or Christians aren't really living the Christian life

to the fullest. I could see why you don't

necessarily enjoy the Christian life when you're not.

I could see why the Christian life could be boring.

I could see why church would be boring.

I could see why it's not relevant.

I could understand why it doesn't have any impact in your

life because because you're not actually doing it, you're not

actually living it to its fullest.

I see that sometimes in people and I I want to help them.

They've been saved. They've been indwelled by and

baptized with the Holy Spirit and the Body of Christ, and

they're going to heaven. So my primary issue of going to

heaven is not the issue here, but they're missing so much of

what God wants them to do and to be and to have in this life.

They're living half full, half empty.

They're missing out on what the Christian life really is because

the Christian life isn't just salvation, it's just part of it.

Going to heaven, it's just part of it.

It's the relationship and the walk you have with God in

between those times that's incredibly special.

And so their spiritual disciplines are inconsistent.

They have no burden for evangelism.

Their prayer, their prayers are tedious.

Their sins remain unconfessed. In fact, people who know them

don't necessarily even know that they're a believer.

They, they were baptized, but they're not being filled.

Their spiritual gifts are unknown or their spiritual gifts

are unused and there's no spiritual fruit in their life,

right? I have students, you know, I

would teach classes on evangelism and missions and I'm

just about every semester, if not every semester, I'd have

students who would confess later on because they have to do

weekly evangelism reports in my class.

I should make everybody do that. We should all do that.

And they had to fill out these reports every week of who they

showed the gospel with. It didn't mean somebody had to

be saved. We don't control that.

But they had to make a faith effort, a good effort to really

share the gospel of a gospel conversation with somebody.

Every semester I'd have students who said it's the first time

they've ever done that. But then I'd have students who'd

also go and they would do it. And that's the semester went on.

They got, they got more used to it.

They got more comfortable in it because we're also teaching them

how along the way. Here's a, here's a good way to

approach somebody. Here's a good thing to do,

Here's how to share a testimony. Here's how to lead a

conversation to Christ. And I'm going to share all that

stuff with you later this year. And I'd have a student come to

me finally. And they say, you know, I went

home for Thanksgiving and I LED my uncle to the Lord and, and

there were semesters where we would have, I don't know, 50

different people saved. You know, that's our least

reported fantastic. But but then the student would

say, and my uncle's really mad at me and I'd say what, what,

what's going on? And the and their uncle would

say, so you knew about this all along and you didn't tell me

about this yet. I mean, think about all the

years I've wasted, 60 years I've wasted, and now I hear this.

And you knew about this and you knew about this the whole time.

How come you didn't share this with me?

How come I didn't see this in you?

And I had to pick the student up off the floor, you know, and

encourage him. Do people know who you are?

Can they see it in you? Because Paul says to a church

that got really messed up about this and really confused about

this in Corinth, he says that we need to know about spiritual

gifts. This church was divided over.

They were fighting over it. And he says in First Corinthians

12/1. Now concerning spiritual gifts,

brothers, I don't want to be uninformed.

So we need to know what these are.

We need to talk about this for a few minutes.

Some of you I know have gone through tests and, and, and you

know, you score out. So I know I'm a prophet or I'm

a, I'm a, I'm a leader or I'm a server or whatever you are.

I'm not belittling that there's some of those.

They're more beneficial than others, I think.

But a spiritual gift is a spirit given ability to serve God.

Don't make it harder than that. It's a spirit given ability to

serve God, to join him on his mission to be a disciple, right?

And the Bible uses a lot of different words to define or

describe them, but most of them are a variation of 2 words.

Either the word pneuma, which is the word for spirit, or the word

charis, the word for grace. So these words are often

combined, and they all stress that this comes from the Holy

Spirit and that this is absolutely supernatural.

This is not something you create, right?

Charismata. You know that charismatic

charismata comes straight from this Greek language, this grace

gift idea. And so it's used in First

Corinthians 12, Romans 12, where you'll find descriptions and

lists of some of the gifts. You even have a word energymata,

which I thought so was a cool word.

But most of the time this is karis or pneuma.

Sometimes there's a very simple word, demata, which just means

gift. That's a very general word for

gift demata. But we know that these are gifts

that are special abilities. These are special activities

given by God. These are not your inerrant

natural talents. And sometimes it's hard to

distinguish between a natural talent and a spiritual gift.

In fact, I know Christians who sometimes use their natural

talents and kind of claim it as their giftedness, kind of get by

with that, and they're still not living their fullest right

because these are not inherent human natural talents.

These are gifts of grace from the Holy Spirit.

Everybody, because we're made in the image of God, are going to

possess certain natural talents. No matter how poorly you think

of yourself, you have certain things about you that are

special and wonderful and God-given, OK?

And these natural talents help every human being, to be honest

with you, have a unique personality.

It helps us be who we are, right?

Part of our self identity is wrapped up in the particular mix

of talents that we possess. But even atheists have natural

talents, but they don't have spiritual gifts.

They're extremely talented atheists.

Very intelligent musical artistic authors who don't

believe in God. And so one way you can tell the

difference is to ask when it was developed in you and how it is

used. Could you do or feel this

passionate about something before you were saved?

Can you do this by your own power and see results?

Then at last part's the important part, not whether you

can pull it off and fool everybody, but do you actually

see any results? What type of spiritual results

are you seeing because of your life?

And you can say, man, this is foreign to me.

I don't even know what you're talking about.

But that's part of the problem, isn't it?

I mean, you guys got to understand who I am and who I'm

not and who I was and who I'm not.

When I was growing up as a kid, I stuttered like everything.

I've mentioned that to you before.

I could talk to a teacher, I couldn't talk to a coach, I

couldn't talk to anybody. And if I got nervous, it was

really bad. I went to therapy.

I'm semi deaf in one ear. And I mean, I hear weird.

I hear with things weirdly. Put your hand over your ear.

That's how I hear everything, which is why I'm loud sometimes.

But what a silly thing God has done for a kid who stuttered his

face off that I make my living shoot my mouth off.

I mean, I can't talk so pretty. So spiritual gifts will reveal

themselves by the fruit or the result of their use.

So gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit are not the

same either that we just read about, right?

I mean, God intends for all of his children to be like him and

to bear his fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit is

the normal. I mean, he's got to understand,

it may seem odd and unusual and special, but the fruit of the

Spirit should be the normal, expected outcome of Christian

maturity. We should all be displaying the

fruit, all of us. So being a true disciple of

Jesus should produce the fruit of the Spirit.

And so we're going to learn more and more about what that means

on our Sunday study. But the spiritual fruit is not

discovered as are the gifts. It's developed through the

believers walk with God and through discipleship.

Fruit should develop as we grow in the seven essentials.

But the fruit of the Spirit is the both the foundation for

exercising 1's spiritual giftedness as well as the result

of exercising one's spiritual giftedness.

I don't know if you understood what I just said.

It's the beginning point. It's the foundation of helping

us to understand our giftedness. But it also be ought to be the

output, the result of us practicing our spiritual

giftedness. The fruits eternal, the gifts

are temporary. Fruit of the Spirit will last

forever. So we're all to bear the various

aspects of the fruit. But the Holy Spirit does not

give all the same gifts to everybody, which is the magic of

the church, The wonderful thing of the church.

We're weird and different and yet we work together.

So God wants us all to be like Him in character.

Think of it this way, fruit, character characteristics, but

not necessarily all the same in our abilities.

He needs us to be able to do different things.

So the church functions like a body.

Paul even states that the fruit is more important to this church

because he discusses the part of the fruit called agape love in

chapter 13 of First Corinthians and he says this is more

important. So let's be clear.

What are definitions of spiritual gifts?

I give you 3. I could give you 30 Doctor Ken

Hemphill to find spiritual gifts as individualized endowments of

grace from God equipping you to play a vital role in his plan

for the redemption of the world. So this is this is how I fit in

to the mission. This is my shape that goes into

that jigsaw puzzle of me joining God's mission.

Tom Shriner Dr. Shriner Ken Hephill was president of a

seminary. He's also.

I was a pastor for many years. He still works in a Christian

college. Tom Shriner is a brilliant,

genius level theologian who works at one of our seminaries.

He defines them as gifts of grace granted by the Holy

Spirit, which are designed for the edification of the church.

So not only is this the peace that fits me into the grand

mission of God, but this is also exactly how I help.

I help build up the church. And I don't know if you

recognize this. Every single one of you is

supposed to be helping to build up the church, and you got to do

that with more than just your attendance.

There's something you're supposed to be adding to the

equation. And Kenneth Burning, another

theologian, adds that the gifts designate ministry functions and

roles people are to fulfil. So it also helps us understand

who's supposed to be this or that.

Some people are teachers and have a gift of teaching,

etcetera. So God distributes giftedness

throughout the church in order to enable the whole church to

accomplish his mission and to bears fruit and the only way the

church will be fully effective is is through each believer

using their abilities and gifts. The Spirit gives an illustration

that I beat to death with our staff is a multi celled selling

ship. And I and I put these images in

front of our staff. Probably too much, but you got

to think about one of those old fashioned sailing ships was all

the little sails. Every sail mattered.

And, and if and if one of those sails is not unfurled and angled

properly, the effectiveness of the hole is reduced.

So every single sail where the the giant sail, the little bitty

sail, every one of them has to be angled and positioned and and

and full of the wind in order for the ship to do what it's

supposed to do. That's the church.

And don't ever miss the fact that the Greek word for wind and

the Greek word for spirit are the same word, pneuma.

So we need the rest of the church to be complete and

positioned. You understand that we need the

you need this. You need the rest of us complete

and positioned. And we need you to be complete

and positioned, everyone of us. And when one of us doesn't do

it, the whole suffers. And you might think, well, it

doesn't matter if I do anything or not.

I don't matter. It doesn't matter at all.

The big church, that's a big church.

I don't even know I'm here. It matters.

There's somebody ought to be sitting right here or right over

there or right back there, or somebody who ought to be

discipled right now. And if we all did what we're

supposed to do together, you'd never know what God would do.

So nobody is supposed to stand alone, and we're all supposed to

use our giftedness in and through the church to help us

all bear fruit. And so I've been trying to tell

you how important your participation, membership, and

service in the church. I preached sermon after sermon

of why do we need the church? Why do I need to be baptized?

Why do I need to? There's a reason everything ties

together. So those who believe they can

stay away from the church, as I've said many times, and I will

say many more times, those who are listening right now online

because the others are here, those who believe they can stay

away from church engagement and will still be all God wants them

to be, are simply not studying the New Testament.

There's not, no matter what justification they lay on it,

they're not. God wants them to be completely

positioned, and they are incompletely positioned when

they're not a part of the body. So the Holy Spirit gives gifts

to His mission so His mission can be fulfilled.

We serve to help the church fulfill the mission and the

vision that He's given us to bear fruit, to help one another

become disciples. All these pieces tying together.

But to use or brag about your giftedness for your own glory is

sin. How's that put a period there?

And and was part of the problem that Paul had to address with

this church in Corinth. Humans tend to love competition

more than they love to complement one another.

And so Paul had to deal with this in First Corinthians 3.

But I, brother, could not address you as spiritual people,

but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for

it. And even now you are not ready,

for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and

strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving only in

a human way? And do not ever forget that

these kinds of passages are written to the Church.

He's not talking to lost people, He's talking to Christian people

or people are supposed to be Christians.

So Paul diagnosis, their problem is this massive spiritual

immaturity, their old fleshly nature, except still exercise

too much dominion. It's like that alcohol, too much

control, too much influence on their life.

And their lives were reflecting more of the world's power than

they were of the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so they were arguing in their spiritual gift

competitions. So these gifts can be distorted.

They can be confused to work against the cause of Christ that

they're actually intended to serve in the 1st place.

And this discussion still causes division today.

Denominations and individual Christians divide over beliefs

about spiritual gifts this secondary to even tertiary

issue, right? And this division normally falls

into two categories. So let me make sure you know

these words and then you can write to see

[email protected]. Just for the record, I feel like

I should confess that's not really his e-mail address.

So you feel free to write to that all you want.

I don't know who's going to get it, but it'll be fun to watch.

So there are two divisions here. Some people believe that the

gifts, or at least some of them, are no longer active or given

because they're no longer needed.

We don't need that gift anymore. And that's called cessationism,

OK? They've ceased.

They no longer exist. They were used in a moment in

history for a specific purpose. They're no longer needed.

We don't need that anymore. Others will distinguish between

what you would call the signed gifts and the ministry gifts as

to whether they are continuing today.

So some gifts continue, but some don't, right.

Others would would go on and believe that every spiritual

gift mentioned in Scripture are still active today.

That's called continuationism. They continue, you're going to

fall somewhere in there. And like many doctrinal,

interpretational, interpretational issues on

secondary, tertiary levels, there are all kinds of subsets

of those two primary categories. I can show you volumes of books

where great Bible scholars take the various positions in this

discussion. I actually reviewed 18

theological textbooks just for tonight, and I could show you

maybe not 18 different perspectives, but several.

So there are also, let me layer this.

There are also multiple lists of gifts in the Bible.

So you find some in First Corinthians, you find some in

Romans, and you find some in Ephesians.

Those three places are the three primary places most people would

say here are the spiritual gifts.

So another question is, are these all the possible gifts or

are these lists simply representative?

And there are actually many more gifts as well that God has

produced for his church, especially his times have

changed and the needs of the church have changed.

He creates new spiritual gifts to meet the current demands, so

to speak. Or is it just this list and this

list and there can be nothing else other than those gifts.

And when you take one of the spiritual gift surveys, it's

going to be a locked set usually of these sets with no other

possibility. Now, Inglewood Baptist Church

hosts to the Baptist of Faith in Message 2000, which, as it would

be as inconveniently as possible, states no specific

position. It does have strong words about

the Holy Spirit, but doesn't speak specifically about these

various views of spiritual giftedness.

As I am in eschatology, I am a hybrid myself between

cessationism and continuationism.

I think there are normative patterns that God uses and I

think there are non normative patterns that God does not use

except in extreme situations. Today as a missionary on the

mission field, there are moments in pioneer areas of missions

that I see some giftedness perhaps used in those kinds of

contexts that would not normally be used in a an American

evangelical church. I do know that I believe

strongly that there is the misuse and misinterpretation of

certain gifts. Even if you believe the gift is

still active today, it's not done properly.

It's not performed biblically according to just the Word of

God. And I see that often in some

situations. And so we need to be careful

because regardless of the discussions, gifts must be used

to bring God great glory and not for the attention of the

individual or even for the specific church for that matter.

I'll never forget one time and regardless of what you believe

about this or not, Teresa and I were in a pastors conference and

it was the last session. Last day, Chuck, Chuck Swindoll

happened to be preaching and a man stood up about 3 rows in the

middle and started speaking in tongues.

It disrupted Dr. Swindoll. I don't know if you know much

about Chuck Swindell. He's no Marine.

He doesn't like being disrupted. And so when the man was done, he

said, are you finished? And then the man said, Oh no,

Doctor Swindell, now I need to interpret what God just said

through me. Now, whether you know the Bible

or not, a, whether somebody should speak in tongues at all

is part of the conversation. But the Bible's very clear.

Even if you do believe you can speak in tongues, you can't

interpret yourself. So Swindoll said no, that's not

right. And he actually escorted the man

out and so that they could talk to him about what the Bible

really said. It was done in a nice way, but

Peter says this in First Peter 4.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good

stewards of God's very grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks

oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the

strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may

be glorified through Jesus Christ.

To him belong glory and dominion, forever and ever.

Amen. So the Lordship of Jesus Christ

must be the criteria. This is the criterion by which

our gifts are going to be assessed.

Our giftedness is intended to communicate that Jesus is Lord.

That's the purpose here, not that we are somehow superior,

which is what the Corinthians were doing.

So someone can can claim to have certain giftedness and some that

then then even claim to possess a a more deep, a more mature

spirituality because of that. We need to be very careful.

They can even claim amazing experiences because of that.

But if they're not living in submission to Jesus Christ,

they're failing. And what's most important, he

goes on to the Corinthians. He says in First Corinthians 12,

he says, you know that when you were pagans, you were LED astray

to mute idols. However you were led.

Therefore, I want you to understand that no one's

speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed.

And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

And as Doctor Shriner points out, he says in a world where

subjective experience is often used as the measure of our

spiritual lives, Paul brings us back to the objective baseline

of Christian experience, the Lordship of Jesus.

So since Jesus is Lord and the Holy Spirit is sovereign,

giftedness is given as needed. But the Bible never states how

many gifts a person's going to get.

We don't know how many. It does never say that.

It doesn't say how many gifts a person might be given, nor does

it say a person will only receive 1 gift, and doesn't ever

say that. Romans 12 says For by the grace

given to me, I say to everyone among you, to not think of

himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think

with sober judgement, each according to the measure of

faith that God is assigned. And both of those phrases at the

beginning and the end would refer to spiritual giftedness,

but by the grace given and by the measure of faith that God

has given in that passage, because that passage is also one

of those places you're going to find giftedness.

So we need to recognize who God intends for us to be.

Quit trying to be someone we're not.

Our Calling from God and our giftedness are very closely

associated. Who does God want us to be and

why? That's that's why you're going

to get the gifts you get or the gift you get and He doesn't call

you to do something that He didn't gift you to fulfill it.

But one beautiful aspect of spiritual giftedness is the way

that God has designed each of us to be individually, the servant

He seeks for us to be. But we don't long for greatness

because of that. God doesn't intend for you to

achieve or possess some greatness.

Do not think too high. Live yourself, as Paul said, and

allow God to lead you to be somebody you're not.

Find that special and perfect place, that place of

completeness that God has created just for you to fill in

His body, to help the body as a whole.

Sometimes other Christians can help you understand your

giftedness. They can be very helpful

Christian friends. They can help you discern.

They can help you confirm giftedness in your life.

You say, I have no idea what my giftedness is.

Well, we're going to try to help you with that.

So you need to watch for further very specific training on

spiritual gift discovery and then ministry placement.

Those two things go together. We want you to discover your

design and discover your place. So how do I serve in the church?

Well, let's, let's talk about what your giftedness is.

The two ought to go together. So God seeks in his miraculous

thing called the church, God seeks to build through the unity

of His Spirit and the diversity of our giftedness.

It's really quite amazing. He goes on in First Corinthians

12. Now there are a variety of

gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are a variety of service

but the same Lord, and there are a variety of activities, but

it's the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for

the common good, where each given it.

But it's to be used for all of us, so we'll not have the same

gifts, but we do share the same ultimate goal of bringing God

great glory and fulfilling His mission.

Later on in First Corinthians 12, he goes on, now you are the

body of Christ and individually members of it, and God has

appointed in the church. First apostle, second prophets,

third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping,

administration, administrating in various kinds of tongues are

all apostles are all prophets are all teachers?

Do all work miracles? Do all possessed gifts of

healing? Do all speak with tongues, do

all interpret but earnestly desire the higher gifts when

Corinthian church was making these spiritual gifts a a

competition of spiritual superiority and one of my

dearest old professors who dramatically helped me in my

personal life, Doctor Jack Mcgorman, who's passed away.

I'd spend time with Doctor Mcgorman in his office.

I once took a course on 1st Corinthians with him in my

Master's degree and I never forget.

He said spiritual gifts are not personal merit badges to be worn

for our own self glorification. Gifts are by their very nature

gifts of grace. Just like salvation.

It's a gift and they prove nothing about the possessor

they've knew. Prove nothing about you.

They prove everything about the one who gave it to you.

So we we need to recognize and celebrate one another's

uniqueness, one another's unique giftedness, and and the way it

contributes to the common good. Again, in First Corinthians 12,

for the body does not consist of 1 member, but of many.

If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong

to the body, would that would not make it any less a part of

the body. And if the ear should say,

because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would

not make it any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of where

would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear,

where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of

them as He chose. If all were a single member,

where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts,

yet one body, every member. Every member counts and must be

considered precious and absolutely necessary to the

health of the whole body. Do you see why I find an active

church membership such a horrible thing?

It robs us all of who we're supposed to be.

We must mourn when one wanders or is lost, when one is inactive

or rebellious in their discipleship.

We need to reach them, every pun intended, reach them through our

connect groups and relationships.

Let me also just read a couple more verses here.

In first Corinthians 12, the I cannot say to the hand, I have

no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need

of you. On the contrary, the parts of

the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those

parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the

great, we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable

parts are treated with greater modesty.

Which which are more, which are more presentative parts do not

require. But God has so composed the

body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that

there may be no division in the body, but the members may have

the same care for one another. If one member suffer, all suffer

together. If one member is honored, I'll

rejoice together. So different gifts are given to

unite us in the sovereign, supernatural diversity.

It's a wonderful thing to church.

They're given so that we may bear fruit, love one another, as

we saw in First Corinthians 13. Paul makes it plain there that

the gifts without love are worthless.

The gifts without love are useless.

It's a lot of noise. It's clanging cymbals, right?

But there's no lasting value. In fact, he says in verse two of

First Corinthians 13. And if I have prophetic powers

and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all

faiths so as to remove mountains, but have not love,

what I am what nothing. And he means that.

And you know what that word means in the original language.

I've looked carefully at it. You know what it means Nothing

agape love. A willful decision to love no

matter what. A willful decision to love is

the very character of God, and it's superior to any gift

competition. So a loving church is going to

reach maturity, is going to reach unity by encouraging,

empowering our members to discover who they truly are in

Christ and what he seeks for each of us to do.

And the discovery of an use of our spiritual giftness can be an

anchor to that, to the context of community, as Doctor Hemphill

added. He says when you find your true

gifted identity in Christ, you will discover why you were here

and how to please your Creator. So a truly loving church is

going to constantly seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

We're going to BBB and being being be filled.

We want it to overflow. We want out of our heart to flow

rivers of a living water. So we're going to discuss the

Holy Spirit a lot more in future lessons as we we begin to talk

through the doctrine of God. We've only scratched the surface

today of his role and his activity because he does so much

more. And and we've always got to

remember the great doctrine of the Ascension that we often

neglect. We talk a lot about the

crucifixion. We even talk about the

incarnation. We'll talk about the crucifixion

and we talk about the resurrection.

We also need to talk about the ascension because Jesus told us

that I got to go. I got to go so that he can come.

And if I don't go, he won't come.

And so when Jesus, in that physical God man incarnation

left, the Spirit of God gets unleashed so that he can indwell

all of us. He can be everywhere all at once

and working all of our lives. What fruit do you bear?

What gift do you possess? What commitment do you make to

the body as a whole? You don't stand alone in

Christianity. It's never been designed that

way. We stand together as a family,

as a church. Father, thank you that you knew

we needed each other. And that, Father, you've

designed us in such a way that we're dependent upon one

another. And Father, thank you that you

equip us, You resource us, you empower us, you fill us, You

indwell us in order to not only serve you, but to serve with one

another, to help one another, to edify, to build up one another.

And Father, I pray that that we would be so full of you, that

Father, there's no room for anything else.

That, Father, we're so full of what you want.

That Father, there's nothing else in our focus.

There's nothing else to distract us.

How can I serve you, Lord? How can I serve your bride?

How can I be a part of your body?

How can I be used in your building?

How can I be a disciple? So, Father, thank you.

I'm not sure our small brains will every fully comprehend the

Trinity, but Father, I look forward to talking about it and

seeing what you say about it in Your Word.

But thank you, Father, for sending the Spirit that he might

live in us, that we might become the temple of the Holy Spirit,

the place where not only we meet with you, but we help others

meet you too. So, Father, I pray that you will

fill us and empower us even as we go tonight.

Bring us back Sunday, Father, so that we can learn how to engage

your Word in a way that will be transformative for us and our

families. Thank you for that opportunity

in Christ's name, Amen. Good night everybody.

Thank you. Thank you so much for listening

today. And I also hope that you'll go

to [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.