Spiritual Gifts | Pastor Chris Kouba

United City, how are we doing?

It is good to see you here today and so grateful for the worship that we just had.

Um, I hope that whatever your situation is today, that you know that that is true.

I buried my granddad yesterday.

It was way, way harder than I ever expected it to be.

Uh, way more difficult leading his service.

Uh, I know we've got a number of families in our church who are facing some pretty heavy funerals this week, some unexpected loss.

Uh, I know as I just looked out and think through uh what God is doing, that some of you are dealing with some family dynamics that are heavy, that are just hard.

And I just want to tell you, as somebody who's in the midst of a difficult situation, too, just our God reigns.

Like he's in control, like he's on the throne, like he hasn't left his duty, but instead our God reigns.

And I hope that in the midst of whatever you know is coming this week, or whatever you have perhaps that's gonna come unexpectedly this week, that that truth would not leave your hearts.

That you would be able to declare with confidence that our God reigns.

Grab your Bibles, open them up to Romans chapter 12 with me.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

I want to take this opportunity to greet all of the men and the women at our correctional facilities that are hearing this message.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate them being able to join us.

We are finishing a series today that we have entitled Forgotten.

We've spent the last four weeks looking at the forgotten member of the Holy Trinity.

Of course, we know that the Holy Trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Bible, right?

It's what it is in a lot of places.

Or the Father, the Son, and the really good worship team, right?

That's that's the key.

Or the father, the son, and the preacher who keeps my attention, right?

That that's the goal.

Or let's be honest, we're in we're in Northeast Houston.

The father, the son, and the next gen ministries.

That's really what we care most about.

No, the Trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And our attempt over the last four weeks has been to speak to, to give doctrinal clarity to the person of the Holy Spirit, the forgotten member of the Trinity.

I want us to look and to begin to think through what we've been talking about.

Each week, we've sought to answer a question in this series.

The first week we sought to answer the question: who is the Holy Spirit?

We talked about how the Holy Spirit is God and the Holy Spirit is a person.

We are to have a relationship with him.

Josh Patterson was here as our guest, and he spoke to us about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

What does the Holy Spirit do to me?

We saw it and we learned about how he convicts us, how he guides us in truth, and how he glories in Christ.

We saw last week, we answered the question, uh, how do I get more of, or how do I get less of the Holy Spirit?

And we talked about the need to be filled with the Spirit.

And we talked about how there are certain things that we can do to keep us from being filled with the Spirit, but ultimately it is the work of the Holy Spirit that gives to us more of Him if we follow and yield to His presence.

This morning, my question that I'm seeking to answer is this What does the Holy Spirit do through me?

We're gonna look at the topic of spiritual gifts as a way to answer that question.

Romans chapter 12, let's begin reading in verse six.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

It says, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

I mean takeaway from this message today.

I encourage you to take notes and to write this down.

The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts.

The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts.

If you want to know what the Holy Spirit does through you, He He works through you by giving each of you spiritual gifts.

Romans chapter 12, we see seven different spiritual gifts that are listed.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

In fact, we know there's four different places in God's word that tells us other different spiritual gifts that God gives.

But I want to point out a few things about spiritual gifts that's important for us to understand.

Number one, the Holy Spirit gives different gifts.

The Holy Spirit gives different gifts.

We don't all have the gift of teaching, we don't all have the gift of mercy, we don't all have the gift of leadership.

And before you begin to wonder why someone else isn't like you, you might recognize that that is all by God's design.

If we had a bunch of you's all over the place, the church would be great, I'm sure, but it would also be limited in its capacity and limited in what God would allow it to do.

Instead, the beauty is the fact that we have different gifts.

And we must be careful that because I've got a gift and you've got a different gift, and I don't look and wonder why you don't give up the program and do what I am gifted to do.

I remember whenever I was in seminary, Hillary and I were very early in our marriage, and I went to uh Hillary after having been at a chapel service at Dallas Theological Seminary where I was getting my master's.

And while I was in that chapel service, I heard a husband and wife began to give this service, this chapel service, talking about their marriage ministry.

I was so inspired by this.

I thought it was so cool.

They traveled around all different country and they went to different churches and they basically help equip people in their marriages.

And so I had this idea that God was gonna use us in this way to be able to help impact the church.

I knew I was called to ministry.

I didn't know exactly how what that was going to look like, but I thought this is the answer.

We're gonna go and we're gonna do marriage ministry together.

And so I remember going home and I was very excited.

I'd already thought through a little bit of a kind of a five-year plan of what we could do to be able to make this thing happen and what steps we would need to take, and how we could do some writing together, and we could do some speaking together.

And so I set her down, so excited, and I began to outline this really great detailed plan as to what we were going to do in the days ahead in our ministry.

And she did awesome, she kept it together the majority of the time, and then eventually she just starts sobbing right there as I begin to tell her these dreams from my life, right?

Now you would think that I'm a I'm I'm early in my marriage, I'm smart enough.

And no, what I do is what any person does at the beginning of their marriage.

When things don't go their way, they just dig in even more, right?

And so I began to shame her and like, what's wrong with you?

Why don't you follow up to what God says here?

Like, this is what we're supposed to go and to do.

Fast forward a few months, and I remember hearing it, but I honestly didn't pay any attention to it.

It was an announcement at the end of the worship service by somebody that gets up there and they said, Hey, we need more folks to serve in the kids' ministry.

Again, I heard it, but I paid zero attention to it, right?

Because they have no desire to go and do that, and so therefore, just ignore it like it didn't exist.

But I did not realize that my wife heard it and she felt something very different.

In fact, she heard it and so she went to the children's minister and she began serving in the children's ministry, didn't tell me about it whatsoever.

So she's serving, teaching a kindergarten class.

I find out from somebody else that says, Hey, Hillary, she's really good with those kindergartners.

I'm like, what are you talking about?

She's serving in the kindergarten area every week.

Now, I know before you think, do you guys not talk?

Well, we're early married, so of course we don't talk, right?

That's the problem with all marriages, right?

You don't communicate, right?

Not only that, my Sunday morning, whenever I was an intern at this church, I was running all over the place.

I had no idea what she was doing, right?

And so I heard about this.

I had a little bit of a break in time.

I remember going over to her classroom and I walked in and it was amazing.

All of these kids were all lined up, and all of these kids were sitting in room.

She was teaching them in ways where they clearly were not just hearing the information, but they were actually learning something.

And so I walk in, having no idea what to do.

So I did the only thing I knew, which was, hey, what's going on?

And just kind of created all this chaos and derailed everything that took place, right?

And sure enough, I had a blast having fun with them, but then I walked out and left, and the whole thing was just a total disaster the rest of the time.

And so Hillary says, Hey, can you do me a favor?

Can you never come by my classroom ever again?

Here's what I want you to see.

I was disappointed and frustrated because I felt like she had not heard what God had told me was supposed to be the vision for our lives.

But the reality was this: I had one gift, she had another, and I was not appreciating the fact that God made her very differently than me.

And if you're gonna have a church that is gonna have any effectiveness, you need a preacher and you need a kindergarten teacher.

And both are vitally important.

In fact, I would even argue this you don't have that kindergarten teacher, ain't nobody's gonna hear the preacher preach.

Here's what you have to understand: God has given you different gifts, and God has allowed you to be in a situation to where you don't look at somebody else's gift and wonder, well, why don't I have that gift?

Or I don't have a gift because I don't have what they have, or maybe you're comparing yourself to somebody else, or maybe you're looking and thinking, well, I don't have any, and I would tell you this.

No, no, no, no.

All of you have gifts, it's just different.

And God uses all of us with all of our differences so that we can be able to see the church of Jesus Christ go forward in power and not just with a bunch of talking heads trying to talk to each other.

Instead, God allows us to have different passions and interests and gifts that are all beautifully put together for the building up of the church.

Let me give you another uh point about spiritual gifts.

Number two, the Holy Spirit gives everyone at least one gift.

The Holy Spirit gives everyone at least one gift.

When you think about your life, especially when you're young, there are certain days that you really look forward to.

You might even count down how long it's going to be before those days come, whenever Christmas happens or maybe your birthday, why?

Because you typically have a situation to where you know someone is gonna have thought about you and they got you a specific gift that you're gonna get to open.

Did you realize that whenever you trust Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, besides the fact that you get forgiveness of all of your sins, despite the fact that you get all of the grace and mercy, despite the fact that you also get the Holy Spirit, which now lives and indwells inside of you, you also at that time received a gift.

It's a personal gift.

He's not just like handing them out generically, instead, it's specific based upon your passions, based upon your talents, based upon your interests, based upon how God desires you to use those gifts for his kingdom.

And it is specific.

And how wonderful is it to know that according to God's varied grace, he gives you gifts.

Listen to this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 4 through 7.

1 Corinthians 12:4–7

Now there are varieties of 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 and everyone.

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

This means that you have a spiritual, supernatural gift if you're a believer in Jesus.

This isn't just God's given you to where you're really interested in something, or God's given you to where you happen to excel in that particular area of interest.

No, these are supernatural things that can be explained no other way than God desires to do something where everyone is like, How did you do that?

God clearly is using you in such a way where you know, I ain't that good.

But instead, God uses these things in our lives ultimately, we know to bring him glory, but he does it for each and every one of us.

Spiritual gifts are different than just natural abilities because they have a different purpose.

They're not earned or learned, but they are given.

And part of being a believer means that you've been given a spiritual gift.

1 Peter chapter 4, verses 10 and 11 says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.

1 Peter 4:10

As good stewards of God's varied 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 being belong glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

This leads to another important truth.

The Holy Spirit wants you to use your gift for his glory.

Holy Spirit wants you to use your gift for his glory.

The best statistic that I could find as I began to look this week, I honestly think it's a little high, but I I read some some different reports that said that on average, an average church engages 40 to 50 percent of its members in serving.

40 to 50 percent.

Now, clearly they haven't been a part of a Baptist church where you can be a member for your entire life long after you're dead, right?

Kind of a thing, right?

But but the idea is that those who go to a church ther 40 to 50 percent engage in serving.

Now I want you to think about this.

Texans kick off here in just a few minutes, and how effective would the Texans be if they only gave a 40% effort in the game?

Now I know what you're probably thinking, well, it'd be like the last few years, right?

Basically, that's pretty much what it's exactly what it would be like.

Okay, okay, great.

Forget that.

Your team on Friday night, whoever your team was yesterday, or whatever team's gonna be playing this afternoon, whatever that looks like, how effective would your team be if they only gave 40% effort?

Think about this.

How effective would our schools be if the teachers, only 40% of them, actually prepared to be able to teach, would it have the effectiveness that all of us long and desire our teachers of our kids to have?

Let's ask this.

In your office, if only 40% of the people showed up for work, how effective do you think your office would be?

Yet why then in the Church of Jesus Christ, if God has given each, every person a spiritual gift, only 40% do anything with it?

Here's a question that I lay at night, lay in bed at night and think about a lot.

What do we need to do in order to double in size and multiply our impact?

And I often wonder while there's certain things that we can do, yes.

I do wonder this.

Is God not withholding greater blessing to us because we are not in a position to be able to handle it?

Does he look and find a church where 60% aren't doing anything with what he's already given them?

Why would he give them more?

But instead, what could be said about a people who say, God, we know that look, anything that we would be able to do is for your glory.

And so therefore, we would say we are available and willing to serve in whatever capacity that you would allow us to.

Our yes is on the table before our preference list is met.

If we had that posture, if God would not pour out his blessing, the Bible says, 2 Chronicles chapter 16, verse 9, for the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

2 Chronicles 16:9

Is it possible that God is not looking out thinking, what church is ready for me?

Don't get me wrong, we're gonna talk about it in just a second.

God's been doing some really, really cool stuff here at United City Church, but he wants to do way more than just what he's already done.

He desires to do exponentially more.

The question ultimately is this Are we gonna be a people who are ready?

Let me ask it another way.

Are you a 60% or are you a 40%?

Because again, I think that number is kind of high in general.

And so I would say, are you someone who is in the game, or are you someone instead who may be putting a cap on what God may want to do?

Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 14 says, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of God, of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Ephesians 4:11–14

It's important that we see the point of spiritual gifts is to grow the church to be mature and to build up the church.

Because a lot of times when it comes to spiritual gifts, we view it like it's like going to gifts our us.

You just kind of show up and you're like, I'll try that one on.

I want that one right there, right?

And then you maybe try it on and you see how it fits, and then maybe it isn't quite what you expect, and so therefore you want to try something else.

And the problem with that mentality is that that is approaching the situation asking the wrong question.

You see, whenever we approach it like its gifts are us, then here's the question we ask: Do I like doing this?

It's the wrong question.

Instead, the question should be does the church get built up when I do this?

What I've discovered is that whenever you begin to ask the right question, God begins to provide the right answers.

Brian Powell is uh one of our key leaders here at our church, and Brian is not here this morning because he's participating in Jubilee Weekend.

We've got a number of our men who are actually in the prisons this weekend, and they have been sharing their testimonies and sharing the gospel.

Brian's sharing his testimony this afternoon at two o'clock.

I ask you to pray for Brian as he does that.

Uh, and here's the crazy thing Brian is a former police officer.

Brian is a servant, Brian's one of those guys that will do whatever God calls him to do.

But Brian, and all of the things that he ever could have thought that he would ever be used to do, he never could have imagined that God would send him into the prisons, the very place that he sent people to.

Yet he has discovered in the midst of going and serving the prisons that God is doing something in the midst of his life because the church is being built up.

He's asking the right questions, so he was willing, because he saw a need, and guess what?

He got an unexpected blessing.

He got 15 people that are gonna be going to LA this week, and they think that they're actually going to help these two church plants in LA.

And they will, by God's grace, they will do great things.

But here's what always happens when you go on a mission trip you end up being blessed maybe way more than anybody that you had a chance to bless when you went.

Folks, you gotta ask the right question.

You gotta say, God, what do I need to do in order to bring you glory?

And what you will discover is that whenever you seek the glory of God, you get to benefit too.

You get to be along with that.

But if you begin to ask questions, well, I don't like this, or I kind of want one that's a little bit more up front, or I want one that's not so much up front, and you begin to put all of these disclaimers, most often what happens is that you find yourself sitting around waiting for God to tell me what to do.

When all along he just wants you to go work and serve, and he'll direct you where he wants you to go.

Let's look at what some of these spiritual gifts are in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

I just want to walk through a few of them.

Uh, one is prophecy.

This gift expresses itself through proclaiming God's word to people.

There's a difference between prophets in the Bible and somebody who has the gift of prophecy.

Prophecy is a spiritual gift, is the ability to declare truths that convicts, that builds up, that edifies, that challenges the church.

Most often this is involved in a public speaking venue, but it isn't limited to That by any means.

I believe God's given me the spiritual gift of prophecy to where I know that it is my responsibility to speak to you the word of God and let it encourage you and let it convict you and let God figure out which one of those it's gonna be.

Instead, I want to be faithful to say what it says and not nothing more.

One of the things I would ask you, I asked you this at the beginning of the series, I would ask you to continue to do this.

Would you pray for God's anointing on my life as I go and I speak to you the words of God?

Because I don't just want to come up here and give a TED talk with a verse.

I want to come up to you and speak to you the weighty things of God, the mysteries of God, the whole counsel of God.

And so therefore I know I'm gonna have to be judged with greater strictness, is what it says in James chapter 3, as a result of that.

James 3 · chapter mention

And so I would ask that you would come alongside and you would pray for me in this.

Let me give you another one, another spiritual gift mentioned is service.

This is someone who has the ability to identify needs and to get them done.

There's so much that can fit into this category.

Let me just mention a brand new serve opportunity that we've got that maybe this resonates with you.

Uh, some of you, you spend a lot of time thinking through what you're going to post on your social media every single day.

In fact, you may map this thing out and plan this whole thing out.

And while you would never have called yourself this, you are a professional videographer and photographer based upon just the sheer number of tries that you do to get the perfect angle and the perfect setup to be able to get that post with the perfect caption and all the perfect things in order to, you would never call it this because it doesn't sound good, but it's exactly what you're doing in order to build your brand.

What if you did all that stuff for the church?

Like what if you saw that you've got the spiritual gift of service and you recognize that what we want to do is tell the story of what God is doing through this place that He's using in this season of time called United City Church?

And is it possible that you could use the things that you spend?

By the way, you don't want to know how much time you actually spend doing it, all right?

If you were to actually examine that, it'd shock you.

What if you use some of that same time to be able to serve the church?

We got a ministry called United City Creative, we're starting up.

And basically it's an attempt to be able to get new people that can help us do photography and videography, and those who can do social media strategy, and those who can do content creation, and those who can write copyright, and all of these things that we take for granted that you do on a constant basis, that guess what?

God may want to use you to do that to build his church.

You see, it doesn't have to be radically opposite.

Sometimes it is, but a lot of times it's within the vein of what you're already naturally gifted towards.

But the difference is I'm doing it for the purpose of building up the church, service.

This may be you.

Let me mention another one, teaching.

This is different than prophecy, in that one declares God's word, another helps explain God's word to people in a way that they can understand.

This requires work and discipline and study.

And when someone has the gift of teaching, you know it and are drawn to it.

Maybe your small group leader has the gift of teaching.

They have a way of breaking down and leading a discussion to where you're like, that makes total sense.

Like, I see that.

I get that.

And whether you are teaching the three-year-olds or you're teaching the senior adults, God has given all of us the ability to take his word and to explain it in a way that helps people apply it.

Exhortation number four.

This is someone who comes alongside of another person with words and actions which provide comfort and care.

An exhorter is an encourager, but they can also confront and help move people towards truth.

There's a number of folks in our church who have the gift of exhortation.

You want to know how I know?

They texted me this week.

And can I tell you what happened?

God used every one of those text messages to be received at the exact right time.

And man, it was encouraging.

It just helped.

For some of you, I would tell you this: if God gives you an impulse towards somebody else, you send that impulse, that text message to them, recognizing that God may be using you to use your spiritual gift of encouragement and your spiritual gifts of exhortation to be able to be sent to somebody at the exact right moment when they need to hear it.

Giving is another one.

This is someone who tends to be seriously concerned about financial matters and who joyfully gives no matter the amount of wealth that they have.

I know what most of you are thinking, I don't have this gift, I can assure you of that, no question about it.

I'm not talking about whether you should be a generous person.

God's word is very clear about how you should handle your finances and you should live in God's economy.

What I want to talk about here though, these are above and beyond people.

These are folks who live in such a way where they are fiscally responsible because they want to see needs and meet those needs.

And so God has given them not only the capacity, whatever income level that they have, but the desire to go and to use their resources for building up the kingdom of God.

Leading is another one.

This is the ability to lead people and teams.

This person gives guidance and motivation and has the ability to organize and administrate people while also inspiring them.

This gift is characterized by calm, clear thinking, wisdom, and insight.

It says there in Romans 12 this person is to use their gift with zeal, meaning they have a determined focus and an initiative that they use.

We just went through a leadership series through the journey.

All of us are leaders, that is all a given, but there's some people who are just next level.

God just works and has the mind in them to be able to execute and to think and to put people in places that just rallies folks in a way that is particularly unique.

Number seven, mercy.

This person has a sensitivity towards the needs of others, have both sympathy and empathy for people.

People know whether you are helping them out of duty or you are helping them because you genuinely care for them.

When someone uses the gift of mercy, they have a cheerfulness about them that is contagious.

My wife has this gift.

It just oozes from her, right?

It's just so natural and normal.

Maybe that is the case from you.

Other gifts mentioned in Ephesians chapter 4, 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, 1 Peter chapter 4, there's a big old list and a bunch of different ones.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention 1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

Some of the ones that are mentioned are the gift of administration or the gift of evangelism.

Before we move on, though, I want to address some of the more controversial gifts.

Would you turn with me over to 1 Corinthians chapter 12?

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

I want to read for you a passage that lists some spiritual gifts.

That if you grew up in a church like mine, it's the reason that you never talked about spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning in verse 7.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

It says, 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.

These are some of the more charismatic gifts that can oftentimes be confusing and oftentimes be scary.

Some churches take two different approaches on this.

Some, this is the only spiritual gifts that you've ever heard about.

Because basically, this is the mark of whether you are truly spiritual or not.

If you've ever spoken in tongues, you are told that is how you know if you have the Holy Spirit in your life.

And if you've not spoken in tongues, then you are less than, or if you haven't spoken enough in tongues, then that means that you haven't really walked with faith and walked by the Spirit of God.

I would tell you, that type of leading and thinking is contrary to what the Bible teaches.

On the other hand, what we don't want is to look over here, and because we're so scared of this, we do like what my church did growing up is that basically it was the father of the son, and you better make sure you read your Bible.

And we never talked about the Holy Spirit because we were terrified of the Holy Spirit.

We didn't know what to do with the Holy Spirit.

I would tell you, I answered this a couple of weeks ago.

This is sort of what I would tell you, our church, how it stands on this specific issue, is that I am open but cautious.

What I mean by that is this I believe that the Bible teaches that there is a God, God is a God of order.

And most of the time, when it comes to these more charismatic gifts, they are a lot of times abused and they're used in a way that causes confusion and chaos as opposed to order.

Remember, the goal is to build up the church.

Meaning a lot of crazy isn't helping the church.

Instead, we believe that the Bible teaches that this is something, when done, has specific rules.

In fact, this specific gift has specific instructions in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 as to how it is supposed to go.

That being said, I'd also tell you this.

I don't believe that the Bible teaches anywhere that it's gone, that it that it doesn't exist.

And so therefore, my phrase would be I am open but cautious.

I would encourage you to be the same way.

But I want you to recognize 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 11, all these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

1 Corinthians 12:11

I know a lot of times when it comes to these specific charismatic gifts, what do we do is we think, well, I want that.

I want that.

I should have that.

Again, you're not going to gifts our us.

God wants you to do what you do, He doesn't want you to do what He's given somebody else.

And so the question ultimately then becomes what does the Holy Spirit do through me?

He gives us spiritual gifts.

Well, then the question is, well, how do I know what my spiritual gift is?

For some of you, this means taking a spiritual gifts test to help steer you in the right direction.

It is not uh law or gospel, it is a guide to help you begin the journey of discovering what your spiritual gift is.

If you go online to unitedcity.church forward slash growth track, uh, you can find a link to a spiritual gifts test that you can take and you can begin to know what your spiritual gift is.

Let me encourage you, it takes you about 15 minutes or so to do this.

At the end of the spiritual gifts test, do us a huge favor and put your name and your email address and send it to us because it will actually send us a copy of that spiritual gifts test.

We will put it in our profile and it will allow us to better serve you as we help equip you to do the work of the ministry that we believe God's called you to do.

There's the link right there that you can take as well, the QR code, and you can take that spiritual gifts test.

Another way to determine your spiritual gifts is to do this.

Ask this question What am I frustrated by?

People tend to complain about the areas where they have the most giftedness.

So gifted teachers complain that the teaching is weak.

Or gifted administrators complain when things are not organized.

And I would tell you this we got tons of people that complain and tell us what we don't do right.

All right, we don't need any more of that.

But we do need you who have a tendency to complain about a specific area, to say, well, maybe God wants me to be the solution.

Maybe the reason why this frustrates me is because God's given me the spiritual gift to not only notice it, but do something about it.

So what we need is folks who can get in the game.

Don't be a 60% who tells us what we're not doing right.

Be a part of the even greater group that experiences the grace of God, not only to the church, but when they receive it.

It's not just what you want to do, it's what the church affirms that you are effective at doing.

Another way you can know what your spiritual gift is, is uh, and that probably the best way of all is to discover where has the church been valued or had it at where has the church experienced great benefit because of the fact that you've used your gifts.

Do people respond when you teach?

That may mean you have the gift of teaching.

Do people respond whenever you love them and encourage them when they may be struggling and they feel the words and the affirmation to them really helps them?

Maybe you have the gift of exhortation.

It's not just what you want to do, it's what the church affirms that you're effective at doing.

Let me mention the last one is this the best way that you can use and discover your spiritual gift is to get involved and start serving in different areas.

Instead of sitting around waiting and saying, Well, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, I don't know what God hasn't told me yet, I haven't figured it out yet.

God directs moving vehicles.

If you just get up and you serve and you decide this is what I'm gonna do, you hear about a need and you step up to do it, I promise you this God can direct you and change you and move you in the right places, but He's not if you're just gonna sit there and say, Well, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

Instead, get involved, get engaged, get in the action.

I have the amazing privilege of standing up here every single week and opening up God's word and telling you what it says.

I also have the incredible opportunity and the privilege of every single week giving an invitation.

And almost every single week at almost every single service, we see people respond.

We see people take a next step.

We've baptized 185 people this year, this calendar year already.

That means that they've decided they want to be a member of United City Church.

Folks, we've been able to see an incredible number of folks get plugged in in groups.

We've seen new groups that have launched, we've seen folks that are connecting in ways like never before.

And the question ultimately is this are you gonna be someone who is the 60% who gets to see the action?

Are you gonna be somebody who gets to add to the 40%?

Who gets to be a part of the action?

Get to be a part of stories like Keaton White.

Keaton White one month ago went and started serving in our uh sixth grade area, uh coming alongside, being a table group or a small group leader with Brett Williams, and in the midst of being able to do that, he thought he was just trying to get engaged and get involved.

And two Wednesday nights ago, his son Eli, at an invitation just like I'm giving to you right now, had an opportunity to hear the gospel.

And when he was given an opportunity to stand up and to make a decision, Eli stood up and he came forward, and his dad had the opportunity to lead him to Christ.

Right about the story of Jeff Oliver.

Jeff Oliver, 69 years old, about three weeks ago, was listening to our services online and knew God was telling him in such clear clarity that his next step was to follow through and to be baptized.

And so two weeks ago, Jeff Oliver was baptized here at our church.

And Jeff is now gonna be leading a Bible study at an assisted living home called Reunion Court in our area.

Here's what I would tell you.

We still have story after story after story.

I pray to God, we've already seen it from our first service.

There's gonna be even more from today.

But I want you so badly to be not just an observer, but a participant.

Allowing the Holy Spirit to use you and to use us for his glory to reach Northeast Houston.

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes all across this room?

What is your next step?

Maybe for some of you it means you need to step up and serve.

Stop talking about it.

Maybe for some of you, your story is like Jeff Oliver and you need to go and to follow through in believers of baptism.

You've given your life to Jesus, but you've never followed through, making it public by being baptized.

Maybe some of you, your story is like Keaton.

You need to step up and serve.

I can assure you of this.

While the uniqueness of Keaton's story is one that is amazing.

The fact that he got to see God use him in a way that is unexpected happens all the time.

So maybe for you, you may not feel qualified.

Maybe the enemy has spoken in your ears for years how you're not good enough, you're not worthy enough, you got too much baggage, too much mess, you're not smart enough.

There's no way you could do that, and maybe you just need to tell the enemy the truth.

And the truth is this God's given you a gift, He wants you to use it, use it for His glory.

So maybe today what you need to do is you just need to confess those things and instead embrace, God, what do you want me to do?

My schedule's crazy, that's fine.

God uses people with crazy schedules, but I don't feel like I know what to do.

That's okay.

We train people to do what God calls them to do.

Maybe for some of you, your story is like Eli's.

You're hearing this message today, and you've heard about Jesus.

Maybe you've been around Jesus, you've heard the things of the gospel, but for whatever reason, you've never given your life over to him.

I want you to know this is that the reason why you don't have your spiritual gift is because you haven't received the first gift.

That's the gift of salvation.

Bible tells us that all of us are sinners, all of us fall short of God's standard, but God sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for our sins.

He rose from the dead and he gives you right now the opportunity to receive his gift of eternal life, the forgiveness of all of your sins, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a spiritual gift for you to use.

If that's you today, would you respond just like Eli did?

And in just a moment, we're all gonna stand up and I'm gonna ask you to come forward like we had quite a few our first service do.

We've got folks that are on the sides, we've got folks that are in the front.

If today you need to receive Jesus, I'm gonna ask you to lead the way.

If some of you need to join United City Church, God's making this your church home.

We're gonna be a church that is gonna be doctrinally true, but we're also gonna be led by the Spirit.

If God is leading you to be a part of a church that desires to reach Northeast Houston, would you come forward today?

Maybe some of you need to be baptized, maybe some of you just need prayer.

Whatever decision God is leading you to make, I want to encourage you to do this.

Don't push the spirit aside.

Follow his leading, his guidance in your life in these moments.

Respond to him.

Father in heaven, we come before you and we thank you.

We thank you for your blessing upon our services today.

We thank you, God, for the way that you've already called people to yourself, even in our first service.

And God, I pray that you would use these final moments that we have left together.

And that God, you would move in power, calling people to yourself.

In the name of Jesus, I pray all of these things.

Amen.

Wow, what an amazing message we got to hear this morning.

I hope the Lord showed himself to you in a fresh, new way.

Hey, if you made a decision today to follow Jesus or a decision for Christ, we would love to process that with you.

And so text the word next to 55498, and someone from our team will be more than happy to reach out and process that with you.

If you missed the message or you missed the note or two and you want to go back, don't worry.

We've got the option for that as well.

It's gonna be available on Spotify as well as Apple Music.

This has been an amazing morning.

We love you guys so much, and we hope to see you next week.

Bye-bye.