Word Gifts

Thanks so much for joining us today, and we're excited about you getting to hear this message from the series called Gifted.

I hope that God speaks to you.

Please let us know how we can help you take your next steps in your spiritual journey.

We want to help you any way we can.

We believe that everybody should be connected in a local church.

So let us know how we can help you wherever you live.

I'm praying that God would richly bless you as you hear the Word of God talk to you today.

Amen.

Well, uh, listen, I'm excited.

I'm excited about some things coming up.

We've got community groups that are starting up this next week.

I'm excited about that.

I'm leading a new group called Better Man myself on Wednesday night.

So if especially if you've got students that come to Youth Group on Wednesday nights, I'm going to be leading a group with James Batista.

We're going to be up here in this new modular unit studying as men together.

We're beginning a very big step of faith, and this is a holiday weekend, so our attendance is obviously down a little bit.

But we've been out of space and we're creating some new space.

Both campuses are adding a service.

Walnut Grove is going to be adding a third service.

And so we're going to be at 8.15, 945, and then 1115 in Walnut Grove.

And then in Social Circle, it's going to be 9.15 and 11.

They're adding a service down there.

It's awesome to see what God is doing.

And so I'm excited about that.

I hope you're excited about that.

Are you excited?

Praise God.

Yes.

We have to make space is an exciting thing.

God is moving and God is working.

Now, let me ask you, if you're like me, there's probably some things laying around your house that you have accumulated that at some point or time you felt like it was a good idea to buy something or receive it from somebody else because you thought you would use it.

So let me ask you this.

Do any of you have any of these laying around your house somewhere?

Dumbbells.

Any of any of you, no, be on anybody got any dumbbells laying around the house?

Be honest.

Now, the next question will be how many of you are using them?

The third question is, how many of you are using one of these to prop open a door?

So, um, how about this?

Any do any of you have one of these at home?

And I'm not talking about my, these are that's a picture of my legs.

I have been working out.

That is true.

So not my leg.

How many, y'all know, anybody got a treadmill at their house?

So how many of you have a piece of clothing hanging on the treadmill?

You don't have to answer it.

You don't have to answer it.

You're using it for something uh other than what it was created for.

Um how many of you have one of these?

You have one of these, by the way.

What let's see.

One of those.

By the way, I need one of those.

I but not not with that holds the I I just need one, just the bench itself.

So that's just a um, if you you know you contact me on Facebook.

Uh I'll pay for it.

I'll pay for it.

Um how many of you are using it for what's what it's intended to be used for?

Um, all right, so then then here's the the last thing.

How many of you have one of these?

Here's the confession.

I have one.

It sits on our counter.

I can't remember the last time we've used it.

Do you know how much juice you have to buy to make that work?

It's like, man, we're gonna go poor buying juice to make the juicer work.

And so here's the point.

Spiritual gifts are often treated the same way that we treat these items.

God gives us the spiritual gift, or he gives you a primary gift and maybe some secondary gifts, and and we put them on a shelf and they go unused.

We drop out of church, we drop out of community, we drop out of serve teams, we drop out of where God wants us to be, where we can use our gifts.

We're completely disconnected.

And it's like an outdated or unused gym membership.

We're paying for it or we're or it's there, but we're not taking advantage of the gift.

And we so we've identified spiritual gifts over the last few weeks.

These are divine gifts, they're supernatural, God-given gifts.

They're given to us by God.

They're given to us for his glory and for the good of other people.

People inside the body, but also people in the world that have yet to believe in Jesus.

And so God gives us these gifts.

We talked about it the very first week that Jesus is the model.

It's very interesting how Jesus lived 30 years, and then he went through this experience where he asked John to baptize him, and then the Holy Spirit physically manifests itself upon him, and he is given the empowerment of the gifts of the Spirit.

Now we know that Jesus, you know, was fully God, fully man, but he, for some reason, in some way, it's a mystery to me.

He he the well was full, the God well was full, but he decided to turn the God faucet off to an extent.

Now he wasn't constrained by flesh or sin.

And so in Jesus' life, we see all of the spiritual gifts operate fully in his life.

But he went through that to model for us that when we come to Jesus, we are baptized into the Holy Spirit, which means we have access to his power, and at that point we are given a spiritual gift.

Or maybe multiple gifts, a primary gift, or maybe some secondary gifts.

Somebody asked me uh uh about the use of gifts and how they might do they ever change?

And that and that was a great conversation because I think that sometimes our gifts may change based on the season of life we are in or the need at that particular part in our life that we're going through and how God, how we need God to show up.

Jonah talked out of 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

He talked about how the motives behind the gifts matter.

And that there's this one extreme of passivity, and that's kind of what I'm talking about with today as we as we introduce uh this next section of gifts is that we don't use them.

We're passive.

We go to church, we might even go to church on a regular basis, but we sit and we kind of become a seat warmer rather than an active part of the body of Christ using our gifts the way that God intended.

And so Jonah talked about the other extreme.

It's the it's the abuse or or the um it's this idea that we're we're dominant, the dominant part.

Many of us have left church or been out of church because we were in a church where gifts were manipulated for the benefit of individuals over the body of Christ and the people in the church.

And so we've seen all that.

We see it now, we see it happening right.

It's never been more public when somebody messes up in church.

I mean, and so that's a little bit sad.

But we break the gifts down into three categories.

The power, and we we get this from a guy named Bobby Clinton.

This is man's kind of uh use or for to help us teach, but it doesn't say explicitly in the Bible that they're in these categories, but for our benefit, we're we're using these three categories the power gifts, the word gifts, and the love gifts.

So last week we looked at the power gifts.

We looked at the fun gifts, the gifts that we all want to talk about.

You know, the gifts of prophecy, the gift of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and so on.

And so uh the today we're gonna work look at the word gifts.

Word power gifts demonstrate the power and the presence and the reality of God.

Word gifts, we're gonna look at that today.

Word gifts clarify the nature and action and the purposes of God.

Love gifts, which we're gonna look at next week.

Love gifts manifest the love of God in practical ways.

And so today, kind of the big idea.

Sometimes I like just to have a sermon and a sentence.

Today is this the word gifts simplify.

Word gifts simplify.

You could also say clarify who Jesus is and how he works to fulfill his plans and purposes in our lives.

Now, Paul writes, we've been going back to 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, like 1 Corinthians 12, verse 27, 28.

1 Corinthians 12:27

He says, All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it.

Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church.

First are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages.

So he gives us these three gifts, the apostles, prophets, and teachers.

And and and these are leadership gifts.

We're gonna talk a little bit about how they are distinct, not more important, but they're just different.

Um, and so he says, apostles, prophets, teachers.

We're gonna talk about apostles and teachers today, or apostolic gifts, not the office of apostles.

So let's walk through these word gifts just one by one.

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

The gift of teaching.

It's one of these leadership gifts that it's not more important than any other gift, but it is a gift that is needed for the body to lead out in front and to guide the church, the whole body.

And so the gift of teaching is a spiritual gift that is Bible-centered, scripture-centered, and it seeks to clarify God's truth.

Teachers that have this gift, they don't proclaim as much as they unpack.

Does that make sense?

They help groups of Jesus followers, disciples of Jesus, understand the themes and scripture.

The themes that we see in Scripture and the principles that we see in Scripture, they help us understand them in simple terms that are that clarify for us.

In Romans 12, 7, Paul says, if your gift is serving, serve them well.

If you are a teacher, teach well.

And so a person who has the gift of teaching is one who has the ability to instruct, explain, to expose biblical truth in such a way that causes believers to be able to understand the truth of God in a way that is supernatural because it's a supernatural gift.

This gift often includes the idea when someone is teaching and using their gifts, it includes the idea of application.

Not only is it supernatural in helping us understand some of the complexities of God's word in simple, clear terms, it also helps us apply it to our life.

And I've said this a few times during this series.

We are information and knowledge addicts.

We're addicted to information.

And when I say that, I we, I'm talking about primarily the church in America.

I mean, I don't know if you've ever said this, and if you said this, and I'm not trying to pick on you, if you've ever said this to me, but I I people will say, Russ, I want something deeper.

I want something deeper.

And when they ask that, it it sometimes it it just irritates me because there's nothing deeper than the gospel.

The gospel, you know what?

I say to you, I say this to you all the time, and I and this is true in my life.

I preach the gospel to myself every day.

And you need to preach the gospel to yourself every day.

There's nothing deeper than Jesus came, Jesus lived a perfect life, Jesus surrendered and died on a Roman cross to take my place so I could have forgiveness of sins.

And then Jesus rose and was bodily resurrected from a tomb.

There's nothing deeper than that.

And so sometimes we want a Greek word or we want something that that makes us feel a little bit smarter when reality is we need to already apply and to obey what we have been taught.

And God will then give us more.

All right, that's a soapbox.

I'm so sorry.

I apologize.

You know, let me tell you, um, I don't know if Pat Hardin is in the room.

He's I know he's on the property somewhere.

I saw him, I heard him.

But let me say something.

I when Pat Hardin teaches, I it it it ministers to me.

And he doesn't desire to preach on Sundays a lot.

I mean, I've said, Pat, would you I'm we've we've invited him to teach more than he does.

He doesn't seek that.

But Pat is a student of the word.

And so when he teaches, I just it ministers to me because I know, I know he is, he has learned and God has spoken to him, and he's an example.

Over the course of my life, um, I think of um uh of Tommy Nelson in Denton Bible Church in Texas.

He's just a teacher, a teacher of the word.

Um uh John MacArthur, um um uh Tommy Nelson, Chuck Swindah.

You know, his teaching, like hearing him teach, but also reading his books.

He is just an incredible teacher of the word.

And so there's a warning that comes with this.

James 3.1 says, Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.

And the church said, Amen.

And I said, Oh me.

Next is the gift of exhortation and encouragement.

The gift of exhortation and encouragement.

Romans 12.8 said, if your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.

If it is giving, give generously.

If God has given you the leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.

If you have the gift of uh for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Romans 1, 11 and 12 says, For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord.

When we get together, I want to encourage you in the faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.

This this supernatural gift is is focused on to encourage people, to exhort is the capacity to urge people to action in terms of applying the Bible to their life, to encourage people generally about biblical truth and and their call to walk with Jesus and the way of Jesus.

Urging fellow disciples, hey, let's let's go together on this journey to be Jesus followers.

One of my former pastors, his name is Mike Lynch, he's just one of the greatest encouragers and exhorters I've ever been around.

I mean, he just encourages you.

And so he he had this unique ability to just grab me in a sense.

More spiritually, it's I would, I just he would encourage me where I felt like I was hugged.

And then he would slap me spiritually.

He would, he would, he, he would exhort, exhort, exhortation is like that.

It's like just hugging somebody, saying, Man, I love you.

And then your son just, hey, stop, stop disobeying, you know, and you just pow right there.

You know, maybe that's the de facts problem.

I don't know, you may call de facts, or but but you you you do you get what I'm saying?

Exhortation is is this is this encouragement and spiritual hug with sometimes this bit of correction.

Hey, get after it.

Get after it.

It's calling other people to obey God.

Barnabas, the great, he called he was called the uh son of encouragement.

Barnabas is an encourager in scripture.

I love how Barnabas, you know, Paul had John Mark with him on a on a mission journey, and John Mark left him and abandoned him.

And so it left a bad taste in Paul's mouth.

And so later on, Paul and Barnabas were talking about another mission trip, and he said, Let's get John Mark to go with us.

And Paul says, No, he he let me down.

And and Barnabas says, Well, I mean, I feel like I need to be with him and encourage him.

I'm gonna exhort him.

Let's not give up on him.

And so Barnabas and John Mark go, and then and then Paul and Silas go, and it's a little bit sadness, but but the kingdom is advanced.

All right, the next here let me mention this dark side for encouragers.

Encouragers and exhorters are often lonely or feel alone in their journey.

That's just a unique thing, the dark side.

A lot of our gifts have have a little bit of a dark side.

The gift of apostleship.

This is not the office of an apostle.

The apostles were the twelve men that were with Jesus.

Judas betrayed Jesus, he was replaced, and then Paul was an apostle.

There were some some guidelines.

You have to you've had to you had to see Jesus, the resurrected Jesus.

You you were you were able to help contribute to the writing of Scripture, inspired Scripture, but but this gift of apostleship, it it still operates in the church.

This Greek term apostolos, it was a common term before the office of the apostle was even something that we became aware of, and it just meant someone who was a messenger or an envoy.

And so the gift of the apostolic gift is someone who is who goes about carrying out the message of spreading the gospel, and and so this supernatural gift is to, it gives the ability to create ministry, to create new ministry.

So church planters, church planting, sometimes those church planters have this apostolic gift.

I'm sitting right here looking at a guy who has the apostolic gift, and that's Larry Cheek right here.

Um he's there's no telling how many churches that Larry has contributed to planting.

You know, I probably countless when you think about the generations of people and how churches have kept planting churches.

And so we see throughout history, you look at look at John Wesley and George Whitfield.

John Wesley had this apostolic gift, and it led to ministries and churches and systems of discipleship that have existed that have completely transcended his his life on earth.

Where beside him was a guy named George Whitfield who had the gift of evangelism.

He didn't necessarily create denominations or systems, but man, he just always was leading people to Jesus.

And so a little bit of a uh distinction.

So this this gift of apostleship is this special ability to carry out and multiply ministries, the gift of leadership.

Romans 12, 8.

If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.

If it is giving, give generously.

If God has given you the leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.

And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

So the gift of leadership is this supernatural ability that God gives certain members in the body of Christ in accordance with God's purpose for the future of the church, the future of what's coming down the road, and to communicate maybe goals or a vision in such a way that people say, hey, we want to go on this journey with you.

It's the divine enablement to cast vision, to motivate, and direct people on a journey.

I think Moses had a gift.

People followed him, the Spirit of God, and it was a supernatural gift because Moses said, I can't speak.

His speech impediment or stutter or whatever it was, I can't speak.

But God used him supernaturally.

So leadership is about vision.

It's conceptual in nature.

It's this intense focus about the big picture and the destination.

God's called us.

We said that God's called us at the end of last year and going into this year.

Hey, let's, we there's a clear picture for us, right?

Over the next two years, we're going to see a minimum of 100 people baptized.

Is it not possible that we should, or is it not probable?

Is it not reasonable that we would see an average of one person baptized a week?

If the Spirit of God is working, it's not acceptable that 50% or less of the people who attend our church are in groups.

Because we know if they get into groups, they're more likely to be involved in discipleship.

So we said, hey, that that goal or that God-given vision is 85%.

Let's move forward with that.

Let's see the Spirit of God.

Let's believe that God would lead us to lead 200 people to go through a specific leadership process where they would be able to use their gifts to help accomplish what God has called the church to accomplish.

And we said, hey, in the next three to five years, we're going to plant one new church, and we're already in the process.

We've got three other partnering churches that have zeroed in on Good Hope, Georgia.

And some of you don't know it yet, but in the next couple of years, you're going to be helping us plant a brand new church.

We need a church planter.

Pray for a planter, for a leader.

And we believe that God's going to plant one new campus.

We believe God's just going to God's going to bring people, and we know that.

I mean, we there's a new plant being built.

And some people don't like it, and some people love it.

Whether you're there, either one of those extremes, hey, you know what?

If people are coming, I feel compelled that we need to reach them with the gospel.

And so one new campus.

And then I believe that we need to send a hundred people over the next few years on short-term mission trips.

Get back to where we're taking short-term mission trips that COVID stalled for a season.

And so the gift of leadership, the gift of shepherding and pastor, the gift of shepherding and pastor.

Ephesians 4, 11 and 12 says this.

Now, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.

Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

And so the gift of pastor or shepherd is the supernatural ability that God gives certain members, not just the pastor, certain members of the body of Christ to assume responsibility for the spiritual welfare, maybe even physical welfare, of other believers.

And so the lead pastor, depending on the size of the church, may not be personally capable of making sure everybody, or make, or doing pastoring and shepherding everyone himself.

But it's my responsibility or our responsibility to make sure that everyone is pastored and shepherded well.

And some of you, God has called to be a part of that.

And then finally, the gift of evangelism.

Now let me say this.

Every one of us is responsible for evangelism.

You know why?

Because there's this thing called the Great Commission.

In Matthew 28, 18 through 20, Jesus says, He says, um, we are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, leading them to obey all of his teachings.

And I'll be with you until the end of the age.

And so we're all responsible equally for sharing our faith.

But there is a special gift of evangelism.

It's a supernatural gift that certain believers have to uniquely communicate the gospel message.

Part of it's uniquely relate to people, uniquely clarify the gospel, and then bring them to a point of decision where they place their faith in Jesus Christ.

And I've seen individuals with this gift, they just had the ability to engage people in conversations, not in mass groups, but just on a personal level, and they were able to clarify things.

I I always wanted to be that pastor who could tell these dramatic stories of being on an airplane and how, you know, and man, I just shared shared my faith, and somebody's just, man, right there, they just pray to receive Jesus.

I've tried that many times.

Most of the time I get I get a stiff arm.

I mean, I mean, literally, sometimes just a hand in the face.

Sometimes people have been more receptive, but but but some people just have this unique ability to share their faith.

2 Timothy 4, 5 says, as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

We're living in a unique age in our nation where more and more people are farther and farther away from faith.

It's a unique time.

It's a bit of a scary time, but it's also an exciting time.

I mean, for me, I get excited because I know that there's times like this that the Spirit of God is likely to be poured out and revival happens.

And people respond to the gospel.

We may or may not have another Billy Graham that gathers people in mass stadiums, but we might have a churches where we're all using our gifts and whatever percentage of that it is that has the gift of evangelism, we're all there, all those people are engaged in sharing their faith, and people are responding to the gospel.

And so here's what I'm praying for.

My prayer is that these spiritual gifts will be discovered in our lives.

That we'll pursue it.

Now, we've showed, we've asked you to go to church at the grove.com forward slash shape, and you can take an assessment.

And I, you know, that's great.

That's great, but that's not the final answer.

The best way to discover your gifts is to jump in and start serving somewhere, and and then you ask the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you.

Amen.

And so you seek God and you serve, and God will reveal to you your gifts.

The second thing that I that I that I just I'm believing for is for the church to return to practicing spiritual disciplines where it's just a normal part of our life.

It's not a five or ten minute devotional, but we're spending 30 minutes or an hour where we're taking time out of our day or getting up early, or we're taking a lunch break, or we're taking, we're taking really, we're digging into the word of God and spending time in prayer.

And disciplines are important.

We are fasting, we are praying, we are practicing Sabbath.

We're doing what God has called us to do.

So spiritual gifts, spiritual disciplines, and then I'm praying for this unique outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And you take those three things together, and there's no telling what God can do.

Amen.

Now, there's I'm telling you, you can discover your spiritual gifts.

I want you to encourage you to do that.

You have control over practicing the spiritual disciplines.

We don't necessarily have control, but we can beg God for revival, can't we?

I want something unique.

I want something that'll change our generation.

And so, would you pray with me?

We're gonna pray together and then we're going to share communion together.

We're gonna remember the broken body and the spilled blood of Jesus, partaking of communion together.

But before we do that, I want to ask you, maybe you, where you are right now in your life, you can't for sure say that you are a follower of Jesus.

And you either don't have a testimony, you don't remember a time where you had the opportunity to put your faith in Jesus or you experienced transformation, life change, or maybe you went through a ritual, or you went through some kind of repeated prayer or whatever, whatever it was, but but but you don't know if it was real.

I want you right now to have the opportunity to put your faith in Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that we must admit that we are a sinner.

Jesus said to repent and believe.

And so repentance is turning.

It means that we've admitted that we fall short of the glory of God and we are turning and putting our faith in what Christ did in his life and his death on the cross and his bodily resurrection, that those that that is how we are saved, that we are believing and trusting in his death and his resurrection to be sufficient for our salvation.

There is not a prayer to repeat, but we say that it's just it's coming and admitting honestly to God that you've fallen short of the glory, his standard.

It's believing, putting your faith in what he's done for you, and it's confessing him as your Lord, it's really turning and beginning to walk in the way of Jesus.

And so, if that's you this morning, you say, Russ, I need to turn and follow Jesus.

I need to put my faith in Jesus.

I just want to give you a chance to raise your hand in social circle right now.

There's some of you that have yet to put your faith in Jesus.

And Dylan is down there hosting this morning.

I want him to be able to look and see.

Raise your hand up if you say, I need to follow Jesus, right here in Walnut Grove.

If that's you, would you raise your hand up?

Raise your hand up and say, I need to follow Jesus.

I see that?

I see that I need to trust Jesus.

I need I need to turn and put my faith in Jesus.

Anybody else?

Anyone else in social circle?

Father, you see these hearts.

God, I pray for them to fully understand with clarity what it means to turn and follow and to repent of their sins.

God, I pray that you would continue to work through your church.

God, that we would be seekers of our spiritual gift, and that we would also, God, that we would be diligent in our spiritual disciplines, and that God, that we would be beggars, beggars before a holy God asking you to work and to pour out your spirit.

That we would see revival.

We would see something unique to our generation.

I believe there's pockets of places, but God, I want to be a part of it right here in Walton County.

It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

We're gonna