Spiritual Gifts and Character

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.

Amen.

Amen.

Hey, y'all giving up for a kids' grove, kids.

Sitting in here all nice and quiet.

Any of uh y'all ever heard the redneck definition of mayonnaise?

Mayonnaise a lot of people here.

Hey, uh man, I'm excited for this morning.

Uh, if you do not know me, my name is Jonah Faulkner, and I'm the student pastor here at Church of the Grove.

Um, and I am going to continue the gifted series that we started last week.

I'm excited for the series because I truly believe it's it's going to kind of launch um this church, this body of Christ, into what God um as a staff, what we feel like God is calling us to, um, and I believe that God is gonna do um just amazing things through this series.

So uh we're gonna start out this morning.

Uh, do you think there is such a thing as a bad gift?

Do you think there's such a thing as a bad gift?

Trash gift.

No, like yes or no?

Like yeah, yeah.

Okay, there we go.

Yeah.

Hey, if it get so the the logic might be if a gift is something that we freely receive, if someone gives it to us for free, um, then there could be an argument of like, well, if if if we get it for free, then I mean it it can't be that bad.

But um I I I beg to differ.

So we're gonna start off this morning.

I'm gonna flash some pictures up on the screen here in just a second.

Uh and and what you're going to do is you're gonna vocally with your voice say good or bad, good or bad, okay?

Pretty simple.

So we'll go with our first first gift here.

Good or bad.

Good, yeah.

Okay, I guess I should have set this up.

The the scenario is maybe maybe a significant other, um, but this is just kind of like a random gift that you show up with on a Tuesday um or something like that.

It's not necessarily Christmas or anything like that.

It's just, hey, you know, I I'm giving you this to show you, you know, how much you mean to me.

All right, good gift.

I love candy.

All right, what's next?

Good?

Oh man.

I I feel like you could get in trouble if you just showed up at your house on a Tuesday and gave your wife a toothbrush.

Um said, Hey, I was walking through Walmart and thought of you when I saw this.

Um, all right, I'm I would say bad.

I would say bad.

All right, what's next?

Good, yeah, yeah, yeah, good.

Easy.

Okay, yeah.

Hey, this this will tell you a lot about your significant other.

If they think that's a good gift, then uh I'm sorry.

All right, yeah, that's a bad gift.

Rapid wrinkle repair.

Y'all think your wife would enjoy if you gave that to her randomly?

Good, yeah.

Some people say cash is a bad gift.

Um, if you got any extra, I would I would I will gladly take it.

Good, good.

Those are my wife's favorite flowers, right?

Yeah, how about that?

Walk away the pounds.

Be walking your hiney out the door is what you'll be doing.

All right, I think that's the last picture.

Last picture.

All right, yeah, there we go.

So this is all to say, um, man, no, regardless of what the gift is, the most important thing about a good gift is that the person you're giving the gift to knows that you're giving it to them out of love, um, for their good, for their encouragement, um, for you know, you want to build them up with your gift.

If a gift is not given out of love, and there's some love in giving someone that has bad breath of toothbrush.

There's some love in that, but the the thing is, a good gift is one that encourages and builds up someone else.

A bad gift is one when you give it to them, they felt discouraged or um they they feel tore down.

Um, that's the whole purpose of a good gift.

And last week we learned that we have all been given these spiritual gifts.

We've been given these supernatural um gifts that that come as a result of placing our faith in Christ.

And when we place our faith in Christ, we are filled with the same Holy Spirit, the same power that filled Jesus to do the ministry that he did on this earth.

And as believers, we are filled with this Holy Spirit.

Um, we are given these gifts, these manifestations of the Spirit to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

This is what God has equipped us with to do ministry.

So, similar to giving bad gifts, um, sometimes we can abuse the spiritual gifts God has given us by by not using them properly.

So last week we talked about just kind of introduced spiritual gifts, um, what they were, um, and things like that.

And this week we're gonna more so focus on the purpose of the gifts and and really the character of the person that is using um spiritual gifts.

So um we, you know, the the whole purpose of this sermon is to get you to see that we have been given spiritual gifts for the common good, for the building up of others.

Um, and ultimately all of these are backed by a character that is full of love.

We have been given spiritual gifts, these manifestations of the Holy Spirit for the common good and building up of others.

So, our big idea for this morning is that we are gifted to be a gift.

We are gifted with the Holy Spirit, with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to be a gift to others, to uh a gift to the body of Christ, a gift to the church.

Um, and ultimately all this is given to bring glory to God.

So this morning we're gonna be going through 1 Corinthians 12.

Um, if you know me well, usually when I preach, I just take scripture and just go through verse by verse.

Um, so that's exactly what we're doing this morning with 1 Corinthians 12.

We're gonna go through the whole chapter um and we're gonna do our best to see what God is trying to say to us about um just the purpose of spiritual gifts, why we've been given them, um, and the character that we are called to have when we use our spiritual gifts.

So start in 1 Corinthians 12, um, we're gonna read verses 1 through 3.

So this is Paul writing to Corinthians.

He says, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

So this first verse kind of implies that the Corinthians had asked Paul throughout the book of 1 Corinthians, he refers to a letter that they had wrote them.

So, or a letter the Corinthians had wrote to him.

So they had asked him about spiritual gifts, and he says, I do not want you to be uninformed.

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 speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

So, um, man, that first verse, I do not want you to be uninformed.

This is the whole reason Paul writes this chapter.

He wants to inform the Corinthians who who had kind of been abusing um the spiritual gifts they had been given.

Um, he wants to inform them on spiritual gifts.

What's the point of these things?

And I can't help but think that we need to be informed on spiritual gifts probably more than the Corinthians needed it.

Man, I even I, as I prepared um for this sermon, just learned so much new things about spiritual gifts that I had I had never thought about or never heard of before.

We need to be informed on these spiritual gifts because they're so um important.

We might have a past where you know, past teachings or past experiences or the lack of past teaching, the lack of past experience has misformed and and and just blurred this whole idea of spiritual gifts in our mind.

But Paul starts out this chapter just this laying down this broad principle.

The purpose of a spiritual gift is to bring glory to Jesus.

It's all about Jesus.

The purpose of these spiritual gifts is to bring glory to Jesus.

Therefore, if someone is using a spiritual gift and it's not bringing glory to Jesus, then it is not a spiritual gift.

This that's the whole purpose of verses two and three.

Um, no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed.

In other words, no one speaking in the spirit of God or or using their spiritual gifts will ever accursed or or or bring glory away from Jesus.

Rather, no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit, meaning that when we use the gifts of the Holy Spirit properly, Jesus is going to be glorified.

So that's just a broad principle that Paul lays down at the beginning.

So after laying this down, he begins to go more in depth of kind of the purpose of gifts and what they're for.

So this is what he says in verses four through eleven.

He says, Now there are a variety of gifts, talking about spiritual gifts, but the same spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in every one.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another, faith by the same spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

So there's a lot of stuff in this passage, but two things we need to recognize is one that there are a variety of gifts but the same Lord.

Paul says that seventeen times in 17 different ways, but there are a variety of gifts but the same Lord, the same God who empowers them.

So that's one thing, and we're gonna cover that a little later.

But what I really want to point out is kind of how he ends it, that each of us are gifted according to his will.

Each of us are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he will.

So each of us are gifted according to God's will.

Um what this means is that when you place in place your faith in Christ, you are gifted with the Holy Spirit according to God's will.

Each of us as Christians, as believers, are gifted according to God's will.

God does not pick and choose who gets spiritual gifts, but rather he picks and chooses what spiritual gifts we get as believers.

So sometimes, you know, we like to chase after certain gifts, or or we we we want to be a certain person, and we spend our entire life chasing that down rather than trying to discover what is it that God has already gifted you with according to his will, according to his purpose, um, that that he wants to use for your good.

But again and again throughout this passage, um Paul is just trying to get us to realize it is God who gives us these gifts.

He doesn't even focus so much on the gifts themselves, he just kind of goes through and lists them for the purpose of for us to see that God uses all these different kinds of gifts and he apportions and gives them to us individually as he wills, according to his plan.

This should lead us to this deep place of humility to see God at work, to see what God has gifted us with, um, and and and really to a place where we can never use this gift for our own advantage or for our own glory, but rather since God is the one who gived you know gave it to us, we would use this gift for his glory and for his name to be known.

But again, Paul doesn't focus so much on the list of gifts, rather, he just focuses and wants us to see where these gifts come from, that we are each, as believers, giving gifts according to God's will.

So, in short, God has gifted us.

So now we got to ask for what purpose have we been gifted?

What purpose has he given us these spiritual gifts?

So Paul says in in verse 7, kind of lays it out plainly, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

This is the main purpose of why God has given us spiritual gifts, the common good, the building up of others.

Again, we are gifted to be a gift.

We are gifted to be a gift to the people around us, a gift to the body of Christ.

God is not given these spiritual gifts for our own benefit or our own comfort or our own glory.

Rather, he has gifted us these things for for the well-being of the body of Christ.

He has gifted us these things so that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus and serve the people around us, serve the people in our church.

Um so to elaborate more on the purpose uh of these spiritual gifts, Paul uses the example of the human body, which he he does a lot throughout the different letters he wrote.

But first Corinthians 12, 12 through 13, he goes on.

He says, For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body through many are one body, so it is with Christ.

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

Jews or Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

So Paul is saying the church is one body.

We have many members, many different people, many different people that are a part of this family, but the church is one body.

There's a lot of different people, a lot of different gifts, but we're all one because we have been baptized into Christ.

So he uses this example of the human body.

You you think about your human body, each member of your body has it has a different gift.

Your your ears have the gift of hearing or listening, your eyes have the gift of sight, your feet have the gift of walking and stability, um, your hands have the gift of grabbing things, holding things.

All these different members of our body have different gifts, but they're all contributing to one thing, the the well-being of our body.

You see, God, God doesn't give us spiritual gifts simply for our own benefit, but rather he has gifted us so that collectively, when we come together collectively, we function in the way that he intended his church to function.

We function as one body, one family.

We function as the body of Christ, the hands and feet of Christ in our community.

So once again, God has arranged these gifts.

He is He has purposely in His sovereignty ordained each gift that He has given to believers so that collectively we would work as the body of Christ.

However, as Paul goes on, he he kind of starts going into how we often misuse these spiritual gifts that God has given us because we are humans, we're sinful, we fall short, and we take good things that God has created and we use them for bad.

That's just because we're humans and we're sinful.

So we often misuse these gifts that God has given us, um, and we usually misuse them in one of two ways, and that's kind of what Paul focuses on the rest of this chapter.

Um, so that's kind of where we're gonna focus on the rest of this morning.

So the first way we typically misuse the spiritual gifts God has given us is that we are passive members of the body of Christ.

We passively um or or we we we you know go on our days just passively coming to church, doing our thing, and then leaving.

We are passive members of the body of Christ.

So he talks about this in verses 14 through 20.

So he he continues with his example of the human body.

For the body does not consist of one member, but of many.

If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not long belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body.

And if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

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

But as it is, God has 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.

So once again, some of us might have the tendency to think that that since we're not a pastor, or since we can't sing like all these people sing up here, we can't play an instrument, um, then we we have no purpose or role in the body of Christ.

America has has cheapened the body of Christ to people who are on staff at a church.

And sometimes we think because we're not one of those people that are on staff at the church, then I don't really have a role in God's mission in this world.

We we think that there's no way that God would use me, or else He would have, I would be working for a church, or I would be a pastor, or something like that.

But what Paul is trying to get us to see here, that there's there's so many different areas, so many different gifts that God uses to collectively bring together the body of Christ.

To say that since you're not a pastor or since you're not a worship leader, um, then then God has no use of you.

It it's equivalent to thinking that since your foot is not a hand, then then you don't need your foot.

Or if your hand, since your hand's not a foot, you don't need your hand.

That's that's kind of what Paul is saying, that when we when we think because we're not one thing, that God wants nothing to do with us, this is what he's equating it to.

In reality, if you take away your foot, the entire well-being of your body is affected.

Anybody ever broken a bone before?

Broken a bone?

Um I've I've broken close 12 to 13 bones or so um throughout my life.

And there's one thing about a broken bone.

You never realize how much you need it until it's broken.

You never realize how much you need your foot until you gotta get around on one foot.

You never know how much you need your arm until you gotta take a test and you can't write with your arm.

You never know how much you need a shoulder or a knee or all these different things until they're taken away.

You see, when you break one body in your bone or one bone in your body, um the entire, the entire well-being of your body is affected by that.

Does that make sense, everybody?

So when you take one part of your body away, your entire body is affected.

So similarly, when we don't use our gifts, how God has intended and specifically purposed for us to use them, the entire well-being of the body of Christ is affected.

So when you think that since I'm not a pastor, I'm just gonna, you know, come to church, do my thing, go home, go to work on Monday, and go about with life, when you have that thinking, the entire well-being of the body of Christ is affected.

Not to say that God's plan won't be fulfilled and that his mission won't be fulfilled, but the entire well-being of this even local body of Christ is affected because one member of the body is is taken away.

You see, God does not give us these spiritual gifts, so we can come here, we can warm a seat, and then passively just be a member of the body of Christ.

God has gifted us these things to contribute to the well-being of others, to contribute and build up one another, build up his church and the body of Christ.

So that's that's one way we typically misuse our spiritual gifts is through passivity, just going through the motions, you know, not realizing that we have a purpose in God's plan.

So the second way we typically and most often misuse spiritual gifts is through dominance.

So the second way is we are dominant members of the body of Christ.

Rather than passive, we we dominate, we we take over, we tear down others who do not have the same gift as us.

So Paul again goes back to the body.

He says in verse 21, 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 actually indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which are more presentable 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 that the members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers, all suffer together, and if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

So the Corinthians, this is the tendency that they had to be dominant members of the body of Christ.

They had a big thing with tongues, um, that if you know tongues was was up here, and if you didn't speak in tongues, then you know, sorry, you're you're not that important.

They had this dominant personality using their spiritual gifts that God has given them to dominate other people, to discourage and tear down other people.

So while I believe that that many of us struggle more with with being passive and just kind of going through the motions, um that I also know that there's some people here who may have even been hurt by these dominant, you know, members of the church that have used their spiritual gifts to tear down or discouraged, um, discouraged someone else.

That that might be a reason why many of us tend to think that, oh, well, I don't really play a part because I can't speak in tongues, or I'm not a pastor, so and I don't have all these different gifts, so maybe I don't really have a role.

Some of us have been torn down by dominant people that have misused their gifts in a way that that discourages others.

This is when someone gives off the impression that their spiritual gift um is greater than someone else's.

Um and ultimately this results when someone allows pride to come in and think that the the gift they have is as a result of their own doing, and it's not a free gift of God.

Um, and pride takes over and begins to tear down other people around them.

So rather than using their gift for the common good, they use their gifts to make much of themselves, take away glory from Christ.

And really make less of others and degrade them for the gifts that they have.

So again, many of us might have been hurt by dominant people in the past, whether that was your pastor or a member in the church, whatever it may be, many of us have been hurt by these people.

And again, we have the tendency to think, well, since I'm not that, or since I don't have this, then what could God use me for?

Perhaps you've convinced yourself that you're disqualified from being a useful or powerful Christian because your gifts are not as flashy or your gifts seem less honorable than another.

But what Paul is trying to say is that that cannot be further from the truth.

That is never the case.

Rather, God has purposely, intentionally given you a gift that he believes you are going to be infective in giving it.

He has intentionally given each of you who have placed your faith in Christ a gift to contribute to his mission, contribute to his church, contribute to the well-being of the body of Christ.

God has a purpose for everyone who makes up the body of Christ.

Paul says actually that the parts that seem to be weaker are actually indispensable, which means they're absolutely necessary.

So the parts that tend to get torn down or tend to get discouraged or kind of pushed to the side are actually the parts of the body that are absolutely necessary.

That when those parts are gone, the rest of the body can't even function in the way that it was meant to function.

So similarly, there are spiritual gifts that seem to be weaker, but they're absolutely necessary to the body of Christ.

If you're not familiar with all the spiritual gifts, there's a few that I want to list out that I think are absolutely necessary to the body of Christ.

And when these gifts aren't present, it does not matter what happens on the stage.

When these gifts that seem less honorable are not present, then regardless of what is taught, regardless of what is sung, the body of Christ is not healthy.

So first it is there's this gift of service.

Some people are gifted to serve beyond measure, to serve without second guessing it.

I I think I wrote down here Larry Potts.

If you know him, I think he usually comes at 11 o'clock.

He's over here, he's gonna hate if I call him out.

He is over there, he's got his head down.

Larry Potts is a is a servant.

Um and he he he serves regardless of where whether people are watching or not.

Um and the fact that to get to my point, when if Larry's not here, you you will notice.

You'll you'll notice.

At least I I notice um because he serves in a way that he's not seen, but when he's not there, you know he wasn't there.

That makes sense.

Next one gift of faith.

Some people have faith that just encourages everyone around them, a faith that isn't probably seen because it's not being taught or anything like that, but they have stories.

They have faith that can be seen so easily when you talk to them that encourages the the person they're talking about.

I have a mom renowned for this.

My mom, she has the strongest faith out of anyone I've ever met, and you probably maybe don't even know her, maybe never even talked to her, but she's encouraged me in so many ways.

And when that kind of faith is taken away, it affects the entire body of Christ.

It affects the entire well-being, the gift of hospitality.

That's another gift that is so often unseen, but but when hospitality is gone, there's no there's no building up, there's no fellowship, that nothing happens in the body of Christ that contributes to the well-being.

I'm taking too too long on these.

Gift of exhortation and encouragement.

We need people that are just filled with the gift of encouragement, the gift of discernment, people to say, hey, this this is we we believe this is God's will.

We we don't believe this is God's will.

That's where the elders of our church come in, this gift of discernment to try to decide and determine where God is calling us.

Gifts of mercy, gift of shepherding.

Man, I I I usually make fun of Russ when I'm up here, but man, we we know Russ for his, he has a great gift of teaching, a great gift of teaching.

He teaches so well, but but what we so often don't see or think about is the gift of shepherding that he has, the gift of of taking a body, a group of people, and leading them to where God wants them to go, of caring for them.

When when one runs away going after them and chasing after them, this is a spiritual gift that so many people in this church have.

And when that is taken away, then all there there's no there's no vision, there's no guidance.

So this gift of shepherding is another spiritual gift that seems unnecessary, but it's actually absolutely necessary to the well-being of the body of Christ.

So these are the gifts that contribute to ministering to people that come to Church of the Grove, not just teaching at them.

These are the gifts that minister to people, minister to the next generation, minister to kids grove, minister to grove student ministry.

These are the gifts that greet people, greet first-time guests on Sunday morning to show them that there are a people.

There's a body that cares for them, that loves them, and desires to see them come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

These are the gifts that that meet the needs of others through hospitality and service.

These are gifts that are absolutely necessary.

So the bottom line, once again, is that we are gifted to be a gift, regardless of what our gift is, regardless of how important we think it is or not.

We are gifted to be a gift.

We're not gifted to be passive and not contribute to the body of Christ.

And we're also not gifted to be dominant and tear down other members of the body of Christ.

We are gifted to be a gift.

So Paul closes out this chapter about spiritual gifts.

Again, he doesn't focus so much on the gifts themselves, but rather the character of the person that is using the gifts and the purpose of them.

But still, he closes out this chapter and kind of moves on in a new direction by showing us still a more excellent way.

So this is 1 Corinthians 12, 27, and it goes through the first three verses of chapter 13.

Paul says, now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Man, if some of y'all might just need to hear that.

If you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

You you are the body of Christ as individuals, and you are individually members of it.

That is everyone ever been a part of something that just makes them feel important?

Man, there is no greater honor than being a part of the body of Christ.

You are the body of Christ and individually members of it, and God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating in various kinds of tongues.

Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, do all work miracles?

Do all possess gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues?

Do all interpret?

These are all rhetorical questions saying, No, not everyone has the same gift.

And then he says, But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

So we should desire gifts, we should desire spiritual gifts.

And then he says, And I will show you still a more excellent way.

What is this excellent way?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clinging symbol.

And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Man, so often we've when it comes to spiritual gifts, we focus so much on the gifts rather than the purpose of the gifts, rather than than the character that that comes with these gifts.

But notice how Paul, throughout this entire chapter, he puts less focus on the gifts themselves and more focus on the purpose of them, the character of the one who is using them and how they use what God has given them.

Man, for those three verses in 1 Corinthians 13, that that chapter, if you don't know, is the popular chapter of love.

The next verses is love is patient, love is kind.

So we know that chapter, but when you think about the context that that chapter comes in, when Paul's talking about these gifts, how God has given us all these different gifts to contribute to the well-being of Christ, but then he says, I will show you still a more excellent way.

Man, spiritual gifts are powerful, and God has given them to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

But there is no more excellent way than to walk in love, to walk in a way that loves others, builds them up, encourages them, and contributes to their will well-being.

There's no greater way, no more excellent way than love.

If you have all these spiritual gifts, if you speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, you are a noisy gon or clanging symbol, meaning your words, your tongues that you're speaking, they don't matter.

They don't matter.

If you have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, if you have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, you are nothing.

That's what Scripture tells us.

If you're the most generous person you can think of, if you give away all that you have, even if you deliver up your body to be burned, but have not love, you gain nothing.

Love is the key when it comes to these spiritual gifts.

We have to act, we have to live out of love for others.

That's why we contribute to the well-being of the body of Christ, because we love one another.

Man, I want to see y'all grow in your faith.

I want to see y'all come to a deeper knowledge of who God is.

I want y'all to fall in love with Scripture.

That's why I teach, that's why I preach, because I want y'all to know who God is and how much He has loved you and how much He has done for you.

That's why everyone on this staff, that's why we work for the church because we desire to see your well-being.

We desire to see you built up.

We desire you to see the mission that God has called you to.

That's why we do this.

That's why we give our gifts out of love for y'all.

In the same way, He has gifted each of y'all to use your gifts for for the well-being.

Use your gifts out of love for one another.

That's where that's where all these things tie together is ultimately love.

Going back to our original example of the gifts you give, it doesn't matter what the gift is.

If it's not given out of love, then it it really doesn't matter.

You can give your wife all the wrinkle cream you can buy, but if it's not out of love, she she's not going to appreciate it.

At the end of the day, all these gifts, it comes back to how well are we loving others.

So as we seek to use these spiritual gifts and we move into throughout this series, we you know, we we learn more about what the gifts actually are and how they're used.

Um, we have got to look at the person of Jesus.

Ultimately, everything goes back to Jesus.

We have got to look at the person of Jesus to see how he used his spiritual gifts.

Russ talked about last week that Jesus was, he embodied all of them perfectly.

Every spiritual gift, Jesus embodied perfectly.

Therefore, he is the perfect example to look at.

So Jesus had access to the fullness of every spiritual gift.

But what's so incredible is that even as the Son of God, he used every gift he had for the well-being, for the building up of other people, and he used them and walked in love.

Think about it.

Jesus, the Son of God, was perfect.

You talk about someone who could have lived their life passively and still went to heaven.

It was Jesus.

He was perfect.

He could have came down to this earth, did his thing, worshiped the Lord, perfect obedience, and then he could have just gone back home.

He could have been the best passive Christian in all of history.

However, he does just the complete opposite.

He has all these gifts.

He's the Son of God.

He has all authority, and yet he lays down his own life.

He has all these gifts, all this power, all this knowledge and wisdom, yet he uses his entire life to teach 12 untrained, uneducated men about the love of God.

There is no greater example than Jesus.

And if Jesus had lived this passive life, we would have no hope and we would have no way to be reconciled to our Father.

On the flip side of that, imagine if Jesus used all this power, all this divinity, all this authority to be dominant, to tear others down.

He could have made us look silly with his holiness and his perfection.

He could have walked around condemning everybody.

But what does he do?

Rather, he he stoops down beside the adulterous woman and steps in front of her as she's about to be stoned for her sin.

And he forgives her of her uh of her sin.

He uses his authority and his power to heal people who have been outcasted for their entire lives and bring them into the family, the kingdom of God.

Jesus could have walked through the streets demanding perfection and punishing anything else less than that, but yet he served and he gave himself freely.

Thankfully, neither of these are the case.

Jesus was not passive and he was not dominant.

He was a perfect, loving Savior.

But still, just as Paul says, even looking at the life of Christ, all the incredible things he did, all the incredible miracles that he performed, still, as we look to the life of Christ, there is still a more excellent way to be seen in the way that he loved.

Man, he loved.

He loved his father.

He displayed a perfect love for God and what that looks like.

But also he loved the people around him to the point of death.

There is no greater act of love, no greater example of love than the love of Christ when he willingly gave himself on the cross.

There is no deeper, no more controlling and persuading love than the love of Christ.

Jesus willingly giving his life as a ransom for all who would believe in him by bearing the wrath of his own father for sins that he didn't even commit.

Because Jesus loved us and was willing to give his own life for our salvation, for our well-being, and the well-being of our souls, we have the good news of the gospel.

Man, as we look to use our spiritual gifts and be the hands and feet of Jesus, we have to look at Jesus as the ultimate example.

He is the example that we must follow.

So this begs the question: how are you using the spiritual gifts that God has given you?

Do you consider yourself lesser than other members in the body of Christ?

Are you spending your life as a child of God in passivity, just going through the motions week after week, never really contributing or even accepting the mission that God has called you to and contributing to the well-being of the body of Christ?

Do you currently think that because of your gifts, you are somehow better than other believers in the church?

Or are you using your gifts for the well-being, the building up of the body of Christ?

So the same way Russ challenged us last week, I want to challenge you to just jump in and man, serve somewhere.

It doesn't have to be at church or the grove.

I know we push serving here and we really do need people to serve.

That wall out there needs, we need that wall filled.

The little serve cards out there, Russ is going to touch on it in hosting.

But man, we do need people to serve.

But really, hop in and serve wherever, wherever you feel like God is calling you to go, whatever mission, um, what whatever ministry you feel like God is calling you to go, jump in and serve somewhere.

There's no better way to figure out what gifts God has given you than by just figuring it out.

You know, just figure out what what God is, what gifts He's given you by what you're good at, what you enjoy, what you feel like glorifies God in a way that that brings you joy, and what way that that builds others up.

There's no better way to discover your spiritual gifts than um to just start serving.

Man, y'all have been gifted by God.

If you have placed your faith in Christ, you have been gifted by God.

And there is no greater honor, there's no greater privilege than to think that you get to be a part of his mission.

You get to be a part of the body of Christ, and you get to contribute to the well-being of others.

There's no greater mission, no greater mission.

And if you're not a part of it, if you haven't placed your faith in Christ, then he's inviting you to be a part of that today by placing your faith in him as your Lord and Savior.

We we saw so many testimonies in baptism.

That's the life change and transformation that happens when you place your faith in Christ and you are welcomed into the family of God as a son and as a daughter.

So let me pray, and we're gonna close um in some more worship.

Father, thank you for who you are.

Thank you for your character, your steadfast love, your faithfulness to us.

Um, Father, thank you for the gospel.

Thank you for the life, the death, the resurrection of Christ.

Thank you that even though we were sinful and had fallen in sin, um and doomed to death and eternal separation from you, Father, you did not continue in passivity, but rather you made a way for us to be reconciled to you through the blood, the death, and the resurrection of your Son.

And Father, I thank you for your faithfulness, not only to send us Jesus, but to fill us with your Holy Spirit, to give us the power of the Holy Spirit, to give us gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we would be equipped to do ministry, equipped to fulfill the mission that you have called us to.

So, Father, I pray that as we just close in worship, close in a time of just praising you, that we would also just evaluate how are we using our spiritual gifts?

How are we using the blessings and the gifts you've given us to be a gift to other people?

How are we contributing to the well-being of the body of Christ?

How are we contributing to the mission that you've called us to?

And Father, I pray lastly, that if anyone in here cannot claim that they are a part of the family of God, that they are a part of the body of Christ, and would you draw them to yourself?

Would you open their eyes to their sinfulness?

And Father, give them faith to place their faith in Jesus and then fill them with your Holy Spirit and let them experience the gifts that you so faithfully give us.

Father, you are good and deserving all praise and all honor.

And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.