What We Need to Know About Spiritual Gifts - Pastor Susie Gamez | Sacramento

If I haven't had a chance to meet you, I'm Susie.

I'm one of the pastors here, and hopefully I'll get a chance to meet you out in the lobby or after service.

But um, okay, let's start with this.

Um little pop culture, pop quiz, trivia again for you.

Um I wonder, okay, so think back if you were alive during the 80s.

Okay.

Throughout the 80s, the 90s, and into the 2000s.

Who remembers what show was on TV faithfully, Monday through Friday at around 4 p.m.

Most places at 4 p.m.

you would see this person on TV.

Oprah.

Oprah! Someone said Donahue.

Donahue too, maybe.

I think he came on before.

But Oprah at 4 p.m.

in most major markets, right?

Now, September 13th, 2004, marks one of TV's most iconic moments.

Is is the picture already up there?

Okay, some of you already know the context behind what has now become a very popular meme.

Now, some of you were not even alive in 2004.

So if you weren't, let me give you some context from which this meme came from, okay?

So during the season 19 premiere of the Oprah Winfrey show, Oprah famously gave away almost 300 brand new cars to every person in the studio audience.

So today, you are not getting a new car.

But I'm gonna give you context.

I'm gonna tell you the story about when the people that were there on the premiere of that show got their new cars, okay?

So she started out by surprising 11 guests.

So she um they didn't know this, but she started calling people out by name.

And she said, you know, so-and-so, come and join me on stage.

So-and-so, come and join me on stage.

And then she tells them, your friends and your family members have have nominated you to be the recipient of a brand new car.

They wrote to me saying that you were deserving of a brand new car.

So today I'm giving each of you a brand new car.

And then she says, but wait, there's more.

So one more person in the audience, I am going to give away a brand new car.

So then she she calls out some of her staff and they come out with these platters, and on the platters are a bunch of little gift boxes.

And she says, Each of you is gonna get a gift box.

And if inside your gift box there is a set of keys, then you are the winner of a brand new car.

Unbeknownst to them, every single box had a key inside.

So each of them got a brand new car.

So so when she tells them to open the box, they all open it and they all see that they have a, but each person, they're looking down in their box, they think that they are the winner, right?

But then confusion kind of ensues because they thought it was just one person.

So I open my box and I'm like, ah! But then my neighbor to my left and my right are also screaming, what are they screaming for?

I got the new car.

So then this is the famous line, this is where that meme comes from.

She had to explain to them, no, no, no, no, you don't get it.

You get a car, you get a car, you get a car, everybody gets a car.

And so reflecting on it later on, she said, I had to do that because I could see confusion on people's face.

Wait, hold up, wait a minute, who actually got the new car?

So she had to tell them, no, no, no, you get a car, you get a car, you get a car.

Everybody today is getting a new car.

So we are wrapping up our series on the Holy Spirit, and I know that sounds like a hard turn, but there's a point.

And in case you missed it, when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, when you surrender to Jesus and you receive the gift of salvation, you get another gift.

You get the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So if you are a follower of Jesus, you get the Holy Spirit, you get the Holy Spirit, you get the Holy Spirit, everybody gets the Holy Spirit.

You have been marked with a seal.

He has put a deposit in you.

Every believer, every follower of Jesus gets the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We talked a little bit about this a few weeks ago.

And we've been talking a whole lot about the person of the Holy Spirit in the series.

And throughout your life, the hope is that you become more and more familiar with the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Among other things, we know the Holy Spirit as the counselor, the comforter, the wise guide, the helper, the nurturer, the constant companion, the encourager, the catalyst, the convictor, the corrector, and the one who will always point us back to Jesus.

If Jesus is Lord of your life and the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit has been given to you to live out the power of Christ in you.

Now, these are the characteristics or the functions of the Holy Spirit.

But did you know that uh not only are each of us given the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit, but we are given spiritual gifts as well.

Spiritual gifts, which are the manifestation of the Holy Spirit put into action through our lives.

So the gifts are the gifts of the Spirit are God's love, God's power, God's abilities revealed in you and through you to the glory of God, but for the sake of other people.

And for each person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, to each of us, spiritual gifts have been given.

So not only do you get the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit, you got a spiritual gift, you get a spiritual gift, you get a spiritual gift, you all, all of us, everybody gets spiritual gifts.

And more than likely, most of us have several gifts.

Now, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 tells us, do not be ignorant of the gifts.

Paul writes to the believers at the church in Corinth and he tells them now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

So he's essentially telling them, I don't want you to be ignorant to the fact that everybody gets spiritual gifts.

And I don't want you to be uninformed about the fact that you have spiritual gifts, and I don't want you to be uninformed about the fact about what your spiritual gifts are.

So don't be ignorant about the fact that you've got spiritual gifts, and don't be ignorant about what your spiritual gifts are.

Now at this point, in this room, there's a variety of people.

There may be people who for the first time are hearing or realizing or believing or leaning into the idea that you have spiritual gifts.

Um, you have access to spiritual gifts.

Uh and then there may be others who who are like, well, okay, I'm hearing that, I'm believing it, but I don't know what my spiritual gifts are.

What are the spiritual gifts?

So I've got a few slides coming up here, and uh you can actually go to the app and find these this list in your sermon notes.

So it's on the website, but if you want to, you can take some screenshots of these.

And this is just uh a list, it's not an exhaustive list, but it's it's a good-sized list of many of the spiritual gifts and some of the spiritual the scripture references that go with it.

So let me just read through this list and then I'll stop to describe or explain just a few of them.

I'm not gonna go through all of them.

Uh, and somebody suggested this in first service.

Maybe we should have a class specifically about the spiritual gifts.

So be on the lookout for that.

Um we do also, uh, I'll I'll point you to next week, we do something called Midtown Orientation.

And generally it's for people who are newer to Midtown, but even if you've been here a long time and you want to get reacquainted uh with who Midtown is and what we do and how you can get better involved.

At the end of Midtown Orientation, we also send you a link where you can take a spiritual gifts inventory.

So if you're interested in having access to that as well, after service, go to the connect booth and get more information about it or register for our class next week.

But here are the here's a list of the gifts of the Spirit.

First says the gift of prophecy, talked about in Romans 12, also in 1 Corinthians 12.

There's the gift of miracles, there's a gift of evangelism, tongues, the interpretation of tongues, healing, pastoring, teaching, leading, service, there's a gift of helps, a gift of faith, there's a gift of being able to discern spirits or discernment, there's a gift of mercy, gift of exhortation or encouragement, there's a gift of giving or generosity, a gift of administration, words of knowledge, there's words of wisdom, there's a gift of apostleship as well.

So there's a lot of these, and so I again you can go to uh the sermon notes to see that list, or maybe you've taken some screenshots of it.

But I want to talk just a little bit about some of these.

I want to talk about prophecy real quick, because it's the first one listed, but also because this is one that gets misunderstood a lot.

It gets misunderstood and sometimes even abused.

And yes, the gift of prophecy can be impressive or impactful because essentially it is the ability to receive and communicate a message from God.

And of course, that can be pretty impactful.

Um, but people often confuse the gift of prophecy for some version of fortune telling or being able to see and say what will happen in the future.

But the primary purpose of prophecy is not to predict the future, but to bring encouragement, to bring exhortation or encourage or edification and comfort.

So rather than thinking of prophecy as foretelling, think of it as forthelling or speaking forth God's truth or God's counsel to build up, edify, strengthen, or even correct.

Another thing to note, it's important, a prophetic word should always align with the truth of Scripture.

Um there are some people who are particularly gifted at evangelism.

When I was in college, there was a campus ministry leader named Darwin Dewar.

His first name was Darwin.

Um, and he actually in Canada won an award for Evangelist of the Year.

I know, I didn't know there was such a thing, right?

But whoever gave him this award, they recognized what anyone else who knew or interacted with Darwin already knew for themselves.

They knew that Darwin was passionate about and very gifted at evangelism.

And the irony of his name wasn't lost on anyone either.

In fact, he used his name as a great entry point into conversations about God.

So his parents may have had one thing in mind by naming him after the guy behind the theory of evolution, but God foreknew who Darwin Dewer would be when he gave him an extra measure of the gift of evangelism.

So there are people in the world like Darwin Dewer who are exceptionally gifted at evangelism.

And while I don't think that every gift is for everyone, there are some gifts that I think that every believer should have some of.

There are some gifts that I think that each of us should embrace, nurture, and even challenge ourselves to grow in.

And the gift of evangelism is one of them.

And I know you might say, well, that's just not my personality.

I'm not the type of person who's gonna meet somebody at the DMV and strike up a conversation about who's drive, who's in the driver's seat of your life, right?

I'm not that kind of person who's looking to talk to the person uh next to me on an airplane.

I put my airpods in and I don't want to talk to them, right?

And that's okay.

We have different personalities.

But I want to remind you of this.

When Jesus left the earth to go be with the Father again, he left us with something called the Great Commission.

And in Matthew 28, his famous last words or his last instructions to us was to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded.

And he reminds us, and surely I am with you.

The Holy Spirit is with you, always to the very end of the age.

So he gives us a co-mission to fulfill.

Every believer, every follower of Jesus, we are the ones that are to carry out the rest of the mission.

Jesus came and did the thing, and he told us to finish it.

He said, I am telling you to go tell people about me.

And if you don't tell people about me, how is the great commission going to be fulfilled?

So each one of us has some degree of responsibility to evangelize.

Your life should preach.

Your life should be able to point people to Jesus.

And if you are leaning into the reality that the Holy Spirit dwells within you and that you have been given gifts unto the glory of God to build up and serve other people, you will point people to Jesus.

So that's a gift that each one of us should lean into.

Um I said I wasn't gonna go through all the gifts, but I do want to say that when it comes to gifts like miracles and tongues and healing and words of knowledge, these are the gifts that tend to get debated on.

Because on the one hand, there are folks who believe that these gifts have gone away, that they've ceased.

They existed in the time of the early church to serve the purpose of the early church, but now those gifts are no longer at play.

There are some that believe that those gifts have ceased.

And then on the other hand, there are some who might say gifts like speaking in tongues is the evidence that the Holy Spirit lives in you, and that you haven't really even received the Holy Spirit until you speak in tongues.

Pastor Ephraim reminded us a few weeks ago that Midtown is part of the Evangelical Covenant denomination.

And our denomination holds the belief that miracles and signs and wonders like speaking in tongues and miraculous healings and visions and words from the Lord still happen today.

So we don't believe that those gifts have ceased.

And you're gonna have to argue with a lot of us who have seen miracles and signs and wonders happen in our lives now and today, and it's a key part of our testimony.

But we also know that speaking in tongues is not the only evidence that the Holy Spirit lives in us.

You know, uh, gifts, the the miraculous gifts, uh, they still happen today, but they're not the only gifts.

In fact, they're not even the most important gifts.

So if you don't speak in tongues, it doesn't mean that you don't have the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3.16 tells us that we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1 tells us that we are marked and sealed and given the deposit of the Holy Spirit.

Um, 1 Corinthians 3.16, I'll read it for you.

It says, Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?

And it's not conditional on whether or not you have received a certain gift.

In fact, in 1 Corinthians 14 12, Paul tells us that our gifts are for the sake of others.

And so he says this since you are eager for the gifts of the spirit, because in that time the gifts were abundant, there were a lot of miraculous things happening.

And people were starting to get eager to experience miraculous gifts or be given the gifts, these miraculous gifts.

So he says to them, Since you are eager for the gifts of the spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.

If you're gonna desire the gifts, if you're you're eagerly wanting to see the spirit of God move in you, eagerly desire, try to excel in those that build up the church, the ones that serve other people.

Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 14, which I know this sounds obvious, but 1 Corinthians 14 comes after 1 Corinthians 13.

And 1 Corinthians 13 is well known for being the chapter on love.

It's the famous love chapter.

And the most famous part of 1 Corinthians 13 is the part that starts with love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

See, we read this at weddings.

Right before we hear two people promise to one another, I promise to always put you first.

I promise to never go to bed angry.

I promise never to make assumptions other than to assume the best of you.

I know it sounds like I'm making fun.

I am.

And I I promise to miss you every second that I'm away from you.

I promise never to have bad breath.

I promise never to leave my socks under the couch, I promise never to like take a long time in the bathroom, I promise to not get annoyed at you when you chew loud.

You know, this is what it starts to sound like, where you're like, you're making all these promises, and you're like, ooh, you're about to find out, right?

So now when people ask me to officiate their wedding, I feel like it is my duty to tell them, yes, love is patient, but it's not gonna be easy to be patient all the time.

And yes, love is kind, but it's not always easy to be kind.

And yeah, you may love this person, but sometimes you are going to feel easily angered when they chew too loud or take too long in the bathroom.

And you gotta pray that God helps you keep no record of wrongs.

That's a really tough one.

It's a tough one because we're human.

And this is where evidence of love being a supernatural gift, something that we need help with through the Spirit of God, this is this is where we really know because it it is hard to be patient and kind and not keep a record of wrongs.

But this is why we need God's help.

We we can't live in this way of love without a supernatural source of strength to enable us to love in this way.

And and here's how 1 Corinthians 13 actually starts.

After telling us about the many spiritual gifts, including miracles and healing and speaking in tongues, in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes all these gifts.

And then leading into 1 Corinthians 13, he goes on to say, and now I'm gonna show you the most excellent way.

So all of chapter 12, he's talking about all of the different gifts, the way that the gifts build one another up, the importance of these gifts, and he affirms the gifts, but then he says, and now I'm gonna show you the most excellent way.

And in verse 1, he says, If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, so if I've got the gift of tongues, then cool, but if I have not love, then I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.

I'm just making a bunch of noise.

It doesn't matter if I can speak in tongues, but I have not love.

Love has to be at the heart of these gifts.

And he says, um, uh, if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love, then I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, so I can do amazing things.

I can do things that look selfless and impressive, but if if I do all these things but have not love, I gain nothing.

So none of these gifts matter if love is not at the center of it.

All of these amazing things, all of these impressive things, even miraculous things, matter not if I have not love.

And here, here's what is a sign that the Spirit of God and the love of God lives in you.

Here's the evidence of it it's patience, it's kindness, it's forgiveness, it's keeping no record of wrongs.

And in verse 13, Paul reiterates that love is the greatest expression of God's spirit in you.

He says, and now these three remain faith, hope, and love.

And the greatest of these.

I wonder how much we often um just meditate on the fact that love is the greatest spiritual gift that we can embody and demonstrate.

This is what points people to who Jesus is.

This is what builds people up.

And and yes, they love is expressed through our unique spiritual gifts.

And you know what?

Using your spiritual gifts to serve others is a vital part of your discipleship.

So when we invite you to give, when we invite you to serve, when we invite you to lean into community, these are not things just because we like it's not like we've got a checklist and oh, I haven't done my job, if I haven't asked the church.

No, it this is really a part.

Of your growth and discipleship, all of us.

If you feel like you're not growing or that you've grown stagnant in your spiritual walk, I wonder if you're letting your gifts go unused.

If you want to grow, serve.

If you want to grow, give.

That's what your gifts are for.

To use your gifts to serve others.

But to use your gifts, you first have to acknowledge that you've got gifts.

Then you have to identify what your gifts are, and then you've got to be willing to use your gifts.

Back in 1925, uh French sociologist Marcel Most wrote an essay called The Gift.

In it, he argues that gift giving across societies is driven by three obligations.

He says, this is how gift giving works.

First, somebody gives a gift and another person receives a gift.

Seems really simple and straightforward, right?

But there's a third part.

He says, then that gift is reciprocated.

So although we say that what makes a gift a gift is that it's free and that there shouldn't be any strings attached, it's very human to want to reciprocate.

Sometimes just a thank you is enough.

But reciprocation is one of the core ways that we bond with one another.

Reciprocating actually helps strengthen relationships.

How many of you know the song Lean on Me?

Right?

Sing it with me if you know it, okay?

So lean on me when you're not strong, and I'll be your friend.

I'll help you carry on for it won't be long till I'm gonna need somebody to clean up.

You sound good.

Do you understand?

Do you understand that that verse is about reciprocation?

I know you want to keep singing it.

Go find somebody to go sing it with in your call.

Do carpool karaoke after this, right?

But the point of this song, the reason why that verse in particular, did you realize that that verse is about reciprocation?

This is reciprocity.

The gift of friendship, relationships are built on reciprocity.

Call on me when you need something because you know what?

There's gonna come a time when I'm gonna wanna have to call on you.

And that's what makes a solid relationship.

I want you to feel like you can count on me because I want to be able to count on you.

If I give you the gift of friendship, I want you to receive it.

And low-key, maybe not low-key, I want you to reciprocate as well.

This is what makes a great relationship.

If I'm the only one putting in effort, it's not really a great relationship.

Likewise, God wants a relationship with you.

God gave you the gift of salvation, and if you received it, you also got the gifts of the Spirit.

And you're able to reciprocate, you're able to say thank you to God by using those gifts unto God's glory to serve one another.

I first started to recognize that I enjoyed teaching the Bible when I was in college.

Um, I volunteered as a youth group Sunday school teacher.

And not only did I enjoy it, but the girls told me that they helped make the Bible more understandable.

I mean, one of them was like, you make the Bible less boring.

And in her words, that was an affirmation, right?

And and for me, I realized I did, I felt like I was coming alive and I was using gifts that God has given me when I could see the light of understanding turn on in their eyes.

When I could see them lean in and like, oh, that makes sense.

When I could see breakthrough happen in their lives, when they understand the truth of scripture.

So I started using the gifts that God had given me, and I didn't even realize at the time that God was preparing me to be a youth pastor later on.

I did youth ministry in South Central LA for more than 10 years.

And even then, it wasn't because I sought out to be a youth leader.

Um, there was a guy who was leading the youth ministry at the time, and his mom got sick, and he asked me, Hey, would you fill in for me for just a few weeks?

A few weeks turned into more than 10 years.

But those years were years where I got to live into my gift.

Those were years that um that, yeah, I understood ministry is not for the faint of heart.

Youth ministry is not for the faint of heart.

Youth ministry in South Central is not for the faint of heart.

But being faithful, available, and teachable prepared me and prepared Marcos for all of the other yeses that would come throughout our life.

But it started with a yes, it started with a willingness to serve, it started with an availability, a faithfulness and a teachability.

So I wonder, do you know what your gifts are?

And if you do, are you saying yes?

And are you nurturing your gifts?

Are you stewarding your gifts?

Are you developing your gifts?

Or are they going wasted?

I want to share with you just a few more scriptures that give us directives and warnings about our gifts and what to do with them.

So first 1 Timothy 4 14 tells us, do not neglect or waste your gifts.

Paul is telling his son in the faith, Timothy, he said, do not neglect your gift, which was given to you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

So he's saying, Timothy, remember, we affirmed you in your giftings.

We commissioned you to go and use your giftings.

And now I get it, life is hard right now, and ministry circumstances make it tough for you, but don't neglect your gift.

This is also in the same passage where he tells him, fan your fan your gifts into flame.

Don't let what God has given you go to waste.

And this is a word that can apply to all of us.

If you've got a gift, use it, nurture it, steward it for the glory of God.

When Jesus tells the parable uh about the um the the the rich the rich master who has um has three uh three people that he gives talents to.

Okay, talents was a sum of money, okay?

But just for the sake of this example, let's let's use the word gifts, okay?

So this this uh this boss gives his um his employees different gifts to steward, to use, to manage.

And to one, he gives five gifts, to the other, he gives three, and to the other he gives just one.

But to each of them, he gives them a responsibility to take what they've been given and use it for good, multiply it.

He's a businessman, he wants them to make profit, multiply it, right?

But what happened to the one that only had the one talent or the one gift?

He buried it in the sand.

The one that had five and the one that had two, they multiplied it.

But the one who only had one was so scared of losing the one thing that they were entrusted with and didn't know what to do with it, so he went and buried it in the sand.

And when they had to come and answer to their boss, what happened?

The one with the one talent, who still at the end of it only had one talent while the other ones had doubled?

He he got scolded.

He got called wicked and lazy.

Meanwhile, the other ones, the boss says to them, Well done, good and faithful servant.

This needs to be a word of warning to us.

Each of us has been given gifts.

But are we burying our gifts in the sand or are we stewarding, nurturing, and multiplying our gifts for the glory of God and for the good of others?

First Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, these passages both tell us to celebrate the beauty and the need for diversity in our giftings.

So in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says, indeed, the body, so the community of God, the church, the body of Christ, is not one part but many.

Now, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, it is not for that reason any less a part of that body.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, it is not for that reason any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?

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

But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as He wanted.

And if they were all the same part, where would the body be?

Romans 12 says something similar.

It says, now, as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way, we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

This is where he later says, if one part of the body is hurting, the whole body hurts with it.

For me, one part of my body might, my hip might be hurting.

But my hip doesn't hurt just on its own as if it's not part of my entire body.

My whole body is aware of the fact that my hip hurts a whole lot, right?

And so when your body is hurting, if one part of the body is hurting, hurt with it.

If one part of the body is rejoicing, rejoice with it.

We are all part of one another.

It says according to the grace given to us, we have different gifts.

If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one's faith.

If service, use it in service, if teaching in teaching, if exhorting in exhortation, if giving, give generously.

If leading, lead with diligence, if showing mercy, do it with cheerfulness.

Say whatever you do, whatever your gifts are, however you think that it compare, don't compare it to another gift.

Every gift is important.

And whatever gift you have, do it to the best of your ability and do it unto the glory of God to the benefit of others.

Now, again, I have never said that I have the gift of singing, but I know that people learn through song, and for the sake of this teaching, I'm gonna sing again.

I already sang once, okay?

And if you know this one, please do sing along because it's really powerful.

One of the churches that I used to attend in LA, they would always end their services with this song.

This song that goes like this I need you.

You need me.

We're all a part of God's body.

Stand with me, agree with me.

We're all a part of God's body.

It is his will that every need be supplied.

You are important to me.

I need you to survive.

You know why this was so powerful?

Every week it was a small church, but we would stand in a circle and we would sing this, looking at one another.

I need you to survive.

We're all a part of one body.

This it was so life-giving, it was so affirming, it was it enabled us to see one another.

I need you to survive.

And I want you to be able to lean on me because at some point I'm gonna have to lean on you.

This is a beautiful reminder of the necessity of the body of Christ and the diversity of gifts within the body of Christ.

And finally, I want to leave us with Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12.

Ephesians 4:11

Ephesians 4, 11 and 12 is what we really want to live into at Midtown Church.

Because we don't come here on Sundays just to talk about the Bible or to talk about Jesus or to talk about being spiritual people.

We actually want to be equipped to do the work of ministry.

We want to function as the body of Christ.

We don't come to church, we want to go and be the church, right?

So you and I are all living, active participants, parts of the body.

And so in verse 11 it says this He Himself, God, gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ.

So he's saying some of us have giftings in apostleship, and you know, you're a visionary, you start things, you have an apostolic heart.

Some are prophetic, some are prophets, some are evangelists, some are pastors and teachers, and they're particularly gifted in those areas.

But the point of these gifts is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

Our work as pastors and leaders is not to do the work of ministry ourselves.

We are called to equip the saints, the church, all of you, all of us to do the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ together because you got a gift, you got a gift, you got a gift.

We all got gifts.

And I know I've used I've used this um example before, but some of us have to get out of the thinking that Sunday, attending a Sunday service is the work of ministry.

Attending service together is part of you being built up to go and be the body of Christ.

So so it's like, okay, sports analogy here, okay?

Um, so it's like you're huddling up on Sunday, okay?

So we're all like you're getting the play right now, okay?

Here's what we're gonna do.

You're the quarterback, you're the cornerback, you're the linebacker.

I'm trying to remember all the you're the thing and the other guy and the kicker, and right?

Um but we all have a role to play.

And so we huddle up on Sundays, and a good football team is not gonna huddle up and then go sit on the bench and then wait till next Sunday to just huddle up again, right?

What we're gonna do is we're gonna huddle up, we're gonna hear the play, and then we're gonna go run the play, right?

We're gonna go play our positions, we're gonna use our gifts to build one another up unto the glory of God.

There is a great commission to fulfill.

And he has given each one of us gifts.

You got a gift, you got a gift, you got a gift.

Everybody's got a gift.

So you need to ask yourself this question if not, you're not using your gifts right now, if you're not serving, it's okay.

Maybe today, for the first time you heard or you were convinced, oh, I do got a gift.

And maybe from this point you have to go find out what those gifts are.

And here's the invitation, too.

When you leave, out those doors to the left, the connection booth might be real busy today, but it's alright.

You can even go online, you can sign up, and you can say, Hey, I'm interested in serving.

Put me in.

Put me in, coach.

I'm still trying to figure out where my position is, but I I know I want to serve, I want to discover my gifts.

Put me in where the need is great.

Put me in where I might be able to discover, oh, this makes me come alive.

I'm actually really good at this.

I can serve the body of Christ in this way.

Say that you're willing and see what God does.

Janet, I'm looking at you right now on Tuesday, the last two Tuesdays.

She did a how to read the Bible class.

She has a gift for teaching, and she said, Hey, let's do a class, let's see who comes.

More than 200 people showed up for a class on Tuesday to learn how to read the Bible.

She's got a gift.

Are we going to be faithful, available, and teachable with our gifts?

He's invited us and challenging us to use our gifts for his glory and for the good of God.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you that you have given us this reminder that you have given us great gifts.

You have given us the gift of your Son, the Holy Spirit, and you have given us access in relationship to you.

So, with that in mind, there is nothing that we can't do if you call us to it.

So, God, equip us for the work of ministry.

We want to be faithful ambassadors.

We want to live into our identity as sons and daughters of God who know that we bear your image and we have been given uh great gifts to steward.

So, God, we pray that we would be willing, that we would be faithful and teachable throughout this process, and we pray, Lord, that you would build us up so that the body of Christ would be built up for your glory.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.