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

I am Pastor Susie.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And if you missed it, we're in a series right now on the Holy Spirit.

In the weeks after Easter, there's a period of time where many churches recognize that this is the season in the church where there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And today we want to talk about not just who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does, but what Holy Spirit has given each one of us.

So today's message is called What We Need to Know About Spiritual Gifts.

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

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

So does anyone remember that moment?

It's pretty iconic.

There's like a whole meme about it, too.

I'll jog your memory in just a second if you're forgetting.

But she started out by surprising 11 guests.

She called them each out by name.

So in the studio audience, she um she called out their first and last name and said, Hey, come join me on stage.

And after all 11 people were uh with her on stage, she delivered the news that each one of them, each one of these 11 individuals, was going home with a new car.

So there was a moment of celebration, they were in shock, they were in awe.

And then, acting like there was just one more new car to give away, she had little gift boxes delivered to the whole audience.

So people came out with platters and trays of little boxes, and she said, Now each of you is getting a little box, and to the person who has a set of keys in their box, that means that you have just won a new car.

So when she told them to open their boxes all at once, to everyone's shock and delight, each box, each box, every box had a set of keys to a new car.

And then that's when Oprah famously shouted, You get a car, you get a car, you get a car, you get a car, everybody gets a car.

And of course, the audience erupted with cries and shouts and disbelief.

So years later, while reflecting on one of the most memorable moments from her show or in TV history, Oprah explained that the reason why she felt like she had to repeat herself so much and say it so loud and emphatically and make eye contact with people was because she realized that some people couldn't believe it.

So, so they some people thought it was a mistake.

So she had to look some people in the eyes and say, no, you get a car, you get a car, you get a car, everybody gets a car.

And she said she loved seeing like the wave of realization when people's looks turned from disbelief to being overjoyed.

So people were screaming and shouting, and the whole audience went bonkers.

But but the point is that some of them had to be convinced that everybody, in fact, was getting a new car, they weren't being tricked, everyone got a gift that day.

So, like I said, we're still in our series on the Holy Spirit, and in case you missed it, when you put your hope and faith in Jesus Christ, you were given the free gift of salvation.

And when you were given the free gift of salvation, you submit yourself to the lordship of Jesus.

So if Jesus is Lord over your life, you were marked with a seal.

God put in you a deposit of his presence in you.

Each of us, when we submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives, was given the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That is proof that the Spirit of God lives in you.

So you have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit dwells in each one of us.

That's a gift that we should all be excited about.

Now we've all we've been talking a whole lot about uh the person of the Holy Spirit in this 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 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, the Holy Spirit has been given to you to live out the power of Christ in you.

Now you know I like to give invitations and challenges, and the challenge that I'm gonna poke around a little bit with today is to ask you the power of the Holy Spirit lives in you, but is there evidence of that in your life?

Can people tell?

Is there anything different about the way that you live your life, knowing that the power of the Holy Spirit is in you, that the Holy Spirit dwells in you?

Or are you allowing the power of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, to lay dormant in you?

See, the thing is that each person has been given the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you, but to each of you has also been given gifts, spiritual gifts.

That means that you have a gift, you have a gift, you have a gift, you have a gift, everybody has a gift, everybody has gifts of the Spirit, but it's been given to you, and what are you doing with it?

This might seem like a little bit of a scandalous uh reference here, but there's there's a song back in the day that I and I know it's a different context, but but but you know, the lyrics go something like, I could give it to you, but what are you gonna do with it?

What are you gonna do with it?

I could give it to you, but what you gonna do with it?

God has given to us something, but what are we doing with it?

What are we doing with the gifts that He is giving us?

Everybody has a gift, and more than likely you've got several gifts.

Now, if you're not sure of what some of those spiritual gifts are, don't worry, I got notes.

So if you turn your uh attention to the screen, there's a little list.

What does it look like?

Okay, gifts of the spirit.

Um, you you can take out your phone and you can take screenshots of this.

Uh, but if you go to the Midtown website, did you know that you can go to the Elk Grove Sermon Notes section, and these should be listed there.

But if you're like me, you probably want to take a picture of it.

And it'll be on the next several screens.

Now I'm not gonna take extensive time to go through each and every one of these, but there's scripture references next to them.

And um I want to credit, um, there's a ministry called Impact Video Ministries.

And so if you go to YouTube, they have concise videos that explain each of these gifts.

So if you want to go to Impact Video Ministries on YouTube, you can see this list there, and there's a different, like there's a series on the gifts of the spirit there.

But a couple of things that I want to point out, I'll read these out to you, and I'll just give a brief overview of the gifts.

Um as I read this, take some inventory and ask yourself have I seen this gift lived out in other people?

And have I lived into this gift?

Not everyone has all the gifts.

Maybe you can clearly identify one or two gifts that you may or may not have.

But I'm hoping that you can identify gifts that you think maybe you could put to use, maybe that God has given to you.

Reflect back on your life and think about times, seasons in your life where that gift has really come to life and blessed other people.

So now the gift of prophecy, that's a that's a strong one to start out with.

And oftentimes people are intimidated by this one because um people often confuse the gift of prophecy for for uh some version of fortune telling or being able to see and say what will happen in the future.

And this is not really what the gift of prophecy is.

Now think about the prophets in the Bible.

The prophets in the Old Testament, they obviously had gifts of prophecy, right?

Um and there are entire books of the Bible named after some of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Malachi, Micah.

My sons are named after two of the minor prophets, Malachi and Micah.

And think about what the prophets did.

Yes, they did point ahead to the coming of Jesus, but they also spoke truth to the current times that they were in.

This is often what a prophet will do.

They'll speak truth into a current situation.

And um, they were messengers of God.

In fact, the name Malachi, the name of our firstborn son, means messenger of God.

So prophets are often mouthpieces, messengers of God.

Um prophets were not so popular because they delivered messages that warned people of coming judgment.

They often had to tell people what you're doing right now is now cool.

So I'm gonna warn you right now, and I'm gonna invite you to confess and repent and turn your hearts towards God.

Do better.

You know, and and prophets often had to speak truth to power.

Prophets often struggled.

It wasn't always easy for them to say what they had to say.

Because sure, they may have gotten directives from God, but then they had to face the people and deliver messages that were often not well received.

So prophets had tough jobs.

And even so today, people who have prophetic voices will often have to speak uncomfortable truths.

They'll often have to um uh uh kind of rouse up the status quo, but they'll speak truth according to scripture.

That's when you know that something is prophetic.

It has to line up with scripture.

Now, again, you can um take a look at all these gifts and study them after this, but um I just want to quickly run through some of these other gifts.

The gifts of miracles.

I'll say this as well.

There are some who believe that certain gifts have ceased.

Now, that was just in the time of the early church, like the gifts of miracles or the gifts of tongues or healings, like the miraculous gifts.

Some believe that those gifts have ceased.

Now, um we're a part of the covenant denomination, and the covenant denomination holds uh holds things, tries to hold things in balance.

We don't want to be so heavy on the manifestations of the gift and the giftings and rely so heavily on that that that people might be misled into thinking that there is not evidence of the Holy Spirit if you don't have certain gifts like speaking in tongues.

But we leave room for the fact that those gifts are still gifts that are present and powerful and at work today.

So the gift of miracles is one is one that that we wish would happen every day, but they don't.

But we believe that the Holy Spirit imparts the gifts of uh the gift of miracles at different times.

Um, the gift is of evangelism.

This is one where we all know that we have been commissioned.

Jesus, before he went back to the right hand of the Father, before he ascended back into heaven, he left us with a great commission in Matthew 28.

He said, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded.

So he's giving all of us believers a mission to carry out, a co-mission to carry out.

And that will involve evangelism and discipleship.

How are you gonna disciple people of all nations if you don't lean into discipleship?

And evangelism is the crux of fulfilling the Great Commission.

So, in a way, each of us is commissioned to lean into the gift of evangelism.

But I will say, some people really have that gift and it's evident.

My mom was a person who did not shy away from sharing the gospel, the good news.

She was an evangelist.

She would go up to people on the street and just she there were times when she just really felt like the Holy Spirit would urge her to, hey, you you need to come believe in Jesus.

You know?

There were times, like even in her broken English, where it felt like her methods were unconventional.

But growing up with a mom who was just really bold about sharing her faith, I could really recognize that she had the gift of evangelism.

I I say that pretty much everybody in my family came to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ because of my mom leaning into her gift of evangelism.

Her gift of evangelism and her gift of intercession.

This is why I always encourage us do not give up on interceding.

Do not give up on sowing things into prayer that feel like they are out of your control.

And the only thing, but the best thing that you can do is to continue to pray.

It's a great gift.

Um, okay, so then there's the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues.

Uh, there's a gift of healing, there's a gift of pastoring, there's a gift of teaching, there's a gift of leading, there's a gift of service and helps.

Now, service and helps is one that I want to pause on because I also think that these are also gifts that all of us can lead and lean into.

And some people have it stronger than others.

But we can all be inspired to serve and to help.

I think that's a universal thing that we as believers ought to do.

Um, I wanted to make sure I didn't forget.

Is Sam in the room?

Sam Cadot?

He's not, but he might still be outside.

Oh, where is he?

Oh, he's in the back.

Okay.

So um Pastor Tyrone was telling me, reminding me of his last name, because I wanted to mention him, and I know he gets mentioned sometimes.

Um, but he he's got a really great ministry that I think often gets overlooked.

He's the guy who puts the signs out every Sunday.

And there are a number of people who, when we ask them, how did you find out about Midtown Elk Grove?

They'll say, Oh, it's because I was driving down Elk Grove Boulevard, all the way out there at Elk Grove Boulevard, and I saw a sign, right?

Um, here's the interesting thing.

Sam, he he's so humble, he doesn't want to go noticed and whatnot, but he does it faithfully.

He's out there early doing it.

Sam's last name, so I grew up in Canada, so we have to learn French in Canada.

So there are certain words that I still remember.

And when Pastor Tyrone told me oh, his last name is Cadot, I was like, oh, how's he spell it?

C-A-D-E-A-U-X.

That in French means gift.

So Sam's last name is literally gift, and he serves with his gifts in a way that might go unnoticed, but has a great impact.

Each of us has gifts.

Um, and I think we can be inspired by people like Sam.

Um, some people have extraordinary faith.

Now the gift of faith sounds strange too, but there are some people who just have levels of faith where you get inspired by them, where they just have this strong, we sang that song, I trust in God.

Maybe we didn't sing it like that, but you know, I trust in God, my Savior, right?

But if sometimes that's the spirit with which we gotta sing it with, right?

You gotta stir up that faith.

Man, it's it's sometimes it's easy to trust God, and there's other times where you gotta like, maybe you gotta look in the mirror and just tell yourself, I trust in God.

And maybe that's that's fanning into flame the gift of faith.

No, I'm going to lean into the faith that I know that I know that I know that God is who God says he is, right?

Here's another really good gift: discerning spirits.

We could use a lot more people who have a strong gift of discernment.

We need people in the body of Christ to discern well, to know whether this spirit is from God, whether it's of God or not from God.

We could use a lot of wise, discerning people.

The gift of mercy is another really beautiful one.

Um, Mother Teresa, one of my heroes of the faith, her gift of mercy was so evident.

She she said that she would look at people, that other people, literally in India, there are, you know, there are the people who are considered the untouchables, the lowest of the low in the caste society, where people would not even want to look at them, let alone associate with them.

And these were the people that she went out of her way to see and to love and minister to as if it were Jesus Himself.

She would often say, I can minister to a person who has leprosy, I can minister to a person that nobody else would want to engage with, because when I see that person, I see Jesus.

And this is why her gift of mercy was so strong.

The gift of exhortation.

Right, just right before we came up here, Gloria.

She was she was back here talking about um where's Gloria at?

She's probably back there somewhere.

Gloria's over here singing on the worship team, but Gloria is just like, she's just she's just um she's encouraging people.

She she's she's an oh she there she is.

She's an encourager.

And she's so humble, she's mad at me for pointing her out right now.

But but uh, Gloria, you have such a great gift of exhortation.

And I was just telling you, she said, she said, some people can't can't take encouragement, just receive it.

You know, when you give encouragement, just receive it and say thank you, or praise God, right?

Um and she's not doing it to make people bigheaded, she's really just trying to encourage, speak courage into them, speak truth.

Here's what I see in you.

And she is exhorting them to use their gifts for the glory of God, right?

And so uh Gloria was saying, um, you know, I'm all I'm doing is speaking truth.

I said, but you know what?

That doesn't come easy to everyone.

Not everybody is a great encourager.

Not everyone does it come naturally, or or have they been given that extra gift to be able to exhort and encourage and help people feel built up.

Now, exhortation could come backed up with the truth of scripture.

All of these giftings should be in alignment with scripture, scripture.

I'm gonna quickly go through a few more of them.

Uh, the gift of giving is another one.

Literally, we have an event called the gift of giving uh at the end of the year, but it really is a gift to be able to give.

Sometimes people will call this the gift of generosity.

Some people, it takes a lot of work in the muscle to give.

It takes a lot of discipline to give, but the more you work it, the easier it becomes, and that muscle gets bigger.

We need a lot of people who are generous in the church too, because there are a lot of needs all around us.

And the church, one of our strongest gifts is to be able to look at our brothers and sisters, look at our community, and say nobody is going to go without, because the body of Christ is going to give of ourselves generously.

Um administration.

That's a gift that um many people have uh and doesn't it doesn't get celebrated enough.

Uh, especially in ministry, administration is so needed.

Uh, and oftentimes um pastors especially don't have the gift of administration.

So if it takes us a while to return emails and and get some, you know, stuff like that, just you know, we're working on those gifts, right?

Um, but the body of Christ is needed to bring some organization and administration instruction, oversight uh in places, even and especially within the church.

Now, quickly, the word of knowledge.

Do you guys know what a word of knowledge is?

Um, that also is considered one of those supernatural gifts where sometimes uh people will be in prayer and they'll just get a word from the Lord.

They know they that they know that they know it's from the Lord.

Maybe they'll get a picture or a vision or a word.

Uh, just a few weeks ago, a sister was praying for me, and in a very timely way, did I share this story with y'all about the whole you can do this thing?

Oh gosh, I'm gonna go over time if I go on these tangents all the time.

But I'll I'll tell it really quickly.

I had a moment, I was just wrestling with the Lord, and I literally was saying to God, I don't think I can do this.

I don't think I can do this.

So I have my wrestling match with God literally in my closet.

Come out of the closet, and 30 minutes later, um, I look at my phone, and there's a text on my phone from a woman who had been praying for me, and she says, A word from the Lord for you.

In all caps, it said, You can do this.

That was a very timely word.

It was a word of knowledge.

Similar to words of knowledge, there are words of wisdom.

Now, wisdom, exhortation, discernment, those gifts can all um overlap, but we need people who have who can exercise words of wisdom as well.

And then there's apostleship.

Uh, apostles were ones who could uh uh share vision and start new things.

They had initiative, they could rally people around them and get people on a mission and and start things.

This is having an apostolic heart.

Now, again, there are more gifts that we could go through, but here's what I want to point you to.

Um gosh, Pastor Tyrone, what's the date for mid?

Orientation.

Is it in three weeks?

June 14th.

So however many weeks that is, oh, you guys announced it.

And they'll announce it in a few weeks and pay attention to the announcements.

But we have a class every month called Midtown Orientation.

And if even if you've been here a while, if you want to take it again, or if you want to get more familiar with who Midtown is, the DNA of Midtown, at the end of that class, we also give a spiritual gifts inventory.

So you can take a quiz, okay, and it'll ask you all of these random questions, and you can fill out the quiz, and it'll help generate a list of what may be spiritual gifts that you have.

Now, not everybody loves the spiritual gifts inventory, but it's a great tool.

And here's what I want to say about that.

Yes, take the spiritual gifts inventory test.

But more than taking a test, I think a more reliable way to discover and confirm your gifts is to start serving.

Start serving.

Remember, I said serving and helps is one way that I think every believer should exercise their gifts.

Start serving wherever there's a need.

If you can, serve.

And then you'll start to discover what you're good at.

You'll start to discover what gives you life.

Now, you might be able to change a diaper, but I'll say this: I got four kids, but I was not gifted for children's ministry.

So I started out serving.

When my kids were young, I served in children's ministry.

But that was not the thing that I was like, okay, I need to steward my gifting and use my giftings for children's ministry.

But there are different places where I can serve.

And depending on the need, and depending on your gifting, and depending on what brings you life, these things can all come together and you may discover your strongest spiritual gifts.

Start serving and see what makes you come alive.

Start serving and see what things are affirmed and confirmed by others in you.

I hate to take too much time to talk about myself, but I I don't I don't know that I've ever really shared like a broad stroke of my ministry journey and how I ended up here.

Um how am I doing on time?

Okay.

Um he didn't answer me, so I'm just gonna keep going.

So I there's there's other things that I want to get to, but I I don't know how quickly I should move through this.

But I wrote it out, so I'm gonna read it to you, okay, so I don't go on too many tangents.

Here's what my my ministry broadstroke journey looked like.

Um I realize too that the older I get, the longer it takes to tell the story.

Um But I want to give you really abbreviated cliff notes on how I discovered and embraced the gifts of teaching and preaching.

It's funny because one thing that I've heard people say to me or say about me over the years is that I seem really confident, especially when I preach.

And it's probably something that I've developed more of over the years, but confidence did not come naturally to me.

In fact, like many people, I wrestled with self-doubt for a long time.

This is a personal example of why I believe representation matters so much.

I think because I rarely saw people who looked like me standing in the pulpit, preaching the gospel, teaching the word, or leading in the church, it was especially hard for me to embrace the idea that someone that looks like me could have preaching pastoral or prophetic gifts.

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

I was still living in Vancouver, and I volunteered as a youth group Sunday school teacher.

And I moved up with a group of girls from their freshman year to senior, um senior years in high school.

So not only did I enjoy it, but the girls would confirm to me that I helped make the Bible more understandable and less boring.

Um and and I didn't know it at the time, but God would later call me into full-time ministry, and those years of serving, volunteering, and cultivating a gift prepared me to be a youth pastor.

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

And even then, it wasn't because I aspired to lead youth ministry.

In fact, the guy who was leading the youth ministry, um, his mother got sick, and so he said, Oh, I'm gonna be right back.

My mom's sick, I have to go out of state and uh take care of my mom, but he never came back.

So I filled in for what I thought was gonna be for a few months, and then he said, and then and then God said, Um, a few months is gonna turn into several years.

So I did youth ministry for about 10 years.

And uh, youth ministry is not for the faint of heart.

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

But I preached and the kids listened, and there might have been something to the gift that God wanted me to fan into flame in faithfully teaching a small group of youth every Friday.

And in that time, taking the dreams of the vision, uh the dreams and the vision of the youth from our community, we partnered with outside churches and organizations and generous individuals, and we raised$1.5 million to transform an old warehouse into a two-story teen community center right across the street from a public high school.

Marcos and I got married the same year, the Teen Community Center opened.

And um, though the first two babies, they they were like ministry babies, they went wherever we went.

Um, but by the time baby number three came, ministry for me became more focused in the home, and ministry shifted for me for some time.

Honestly, it kind of felt like I was I was on the bench for a while.

But really, God wanted me to focus ministry in the home.

And then baby number four was our surprise baby, and this baby, this pregnancy was also the thing that had me convinced that perhaps this desire to preach and teach was made up in my own mind.

Because surely a a mom with four young kids wasn't gonna have margin for ministry outside of the home.

Preaching was something that I enjoyed, and I was even told that I was good at it, but because of my circumstances, I started to believe that it wasn't for me.

Long story short, even with two, three, four young kids at home, God opened the door, God opened door after door after door for me, convincing me that it wasn't selfish ambition that led me to these invitations.

They were assignments ordained by God.

And in huge part, God used my husband, who believed in the gifts that God gave me more than I did.

Uh I joke that he used to be that guy, because he used to work for Compassion International.

He was the regional church engagement director.

And so he would work with all of these different churches, and and he was like the street hustler who'd be like, Hey, you you need preacher?

And he would all and he would tell them about me.

He'd say, Hey, you need a woman speaker for your next women's conference?

I got one for you, right?

And and especially if these were churches that like to talk about diversity and reconciliation and cross-cultural dynamics, he'd be like, I got an Asian woman speaker for you.

And he'd send them a little YouTube clip.

And so so God used my husband to believe for me when I was doubting, and he helped to fan me into flame.

But again, it took time for me to embrace and even say out loud, you know what?

I actually do think that God has given me a gift of preaching and teaching.

And you know what?

I actually like it.

And you know what?

Maybe we could even do this.

I think that maybe God is assigning me to some places.

And that, long story short, is what brought us to Midtown Church.

So I'll say this to you too.

One way to ensure that you will actually use the gifts that God has given to you is to be able to identify and name the gifts that God has given to you.

Identify, name, and celebrate the gifts.

You celebrate the gifts by using those gifts.

And when you use those gifts, you use those gifts to bless other people.

That's what the gifts are for, to bless others, to build up the body of Christ.

Gifts are not used to puff yourself up or make you advance.

The gifts that are given to the body of Christ are for the body of Christ.

So use your gifts for the glory of God and for the good of other people.

So here's my challenge.

Do you know what your gifts are?

And if you do, are you nurturing your gifts?

Are you stewarding your gifts?

Are you developing your gifts?

Or are you pretending like you ain't got a gift?

Because remember, everybody has a gift.

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

Everybody has a gift.

And we got to use those gifts.

So I'm gonna quickly rip through a couple more um scriptures just to back up this point, okay?

So 1 Corinthians 12, 1, it tells us do not be ignorant of your gifts.

Paul tells the church, do not be ignorant or uninformed about the fact that everybody has a gift.

Don't be uninformed about the fact that you got gifts that you're supposed to use for the glory of God.

And do not be ignorant about the gifts means do not be ignorant about the gifts that you have.

Everybody has a gift.

What are they?

Um, 1 Corinthians 3 16 tells us that we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

Maybe we should have started there.

Because you are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is in you.

Are you gonna live like it?

Or are you gonna live like the Holy Spirit is not alive dwelling in you?

Believe and live like the Holy Spirit lives in you because we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

1 Timothy 4.14 tells us, do not neglect or waste your gift.

This is a stern warning.

You've been given gifts.

Do not waste, do not neglect your gifts.

This is a whole sermon in itself.

So Pastor Tyrone might choose to uh preach that sermon at another time.

Uh but 1 Timothy 4.14, do not neglect your gifts.

Do not waste your gifts.

1 Corinthians 4 14, 12 tells us that our gifts are for the sake of others.

Our gifts are for the sake of others.

And it says that since you are eager for the gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.

So there's lots of gifts, but be especially hungry for the ones that build up the church.

And then 1 Corinthians 12 and also in Romans 12, it tells us to celebrate the beauty and the need for the diversity of gifts.

There is a diversity of gifts, and everyone is valuable.

Everyone is necessary, and we need to celebrate that.

Yeah, I'm gonna read these scriptures out to you real quick.

It says in uh 1 Corinthians 12, 14 through 19, it says, indeed, the body is not one part, but many.

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's 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 eye, that's crazy.

Um 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 tells us something serious 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 in one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts.

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

If service, use it in service, if teaching in if teaching in teaching, if exhorting in exhortation, giving with generosity, leading with diligence, showing mercy with cheerfulness.

Okay.

If you go back and study those chapters, the thing that you will come away with is that every part of the body is valuable, necessary, and beautiful.

When we say at Midtown Church, we we celebrate the diversity of the body of Christ, it's not just you take a scan around the room and look, oh look, many cultures are represented.

We're celebrating diversity in a lot of things.

Generationally.

I think that's one thing that makes Midtown also incredibly beautiful.

There are some churches that like cater to certain age groups, and this church is not only multi-ethnic, it is intergenerational.

There are people with so many gifts within this body as well.

And as I as I get to know each of you, I went on a walk with Jessica earlier this week.

And as I'm getting to like, every time I get to know people within the body and I hear their gifts emerge, she just came back from a spiritual formation retreat.

And already I'm like, ooh, Jessica, we need to put those gifts to work.

Let's see, let's do something at Midtown Church.

But every time I learn about your gifts and the ways that God has uniquely gifted you, it brings something alive in me.

It's like, ooh, these gifts are meant to build up the body of Christ.

Um I know I'm out of time, but I'm gonna share this last story.

Um earlier this week, um I saw just a snapshot within 24 hours.

I saw a snapshot of what a beautiful canvas God has given us.

So on Wednesday night, my daughter has started singing with the worship team at with the youth group in Sacramento and at the Sacramento campus.

And so I have to drop her off, or I get to drop her off early and observe, right?

And on Wednesday night, I'm just again struck by the beautiful diversity of our body.

We've got Miss Gloria there sometimes, right?

And she's got her son there, and we've got intergeneration, we've got we've got young adults, college students, moms, dads, grandparents that are there on Wednesday nights to serve and pour into the youth.

Some of these same youth serve on Sunday to help out with our children's ministry.

Some of these same youth are part of the midterm program, and so they serve church, or they serve coffee at church on Sunday.

Uh they serve as greeters outside.

And so you see this beautiful, like the beauty of the diverse body of Christ at work to serve one another.

And then on Thursday morning, um, Pastor Rich, how many of you know Pastor Rich?

You'd be praying for him.

He um he fell uh about uh a month ago and he he injured his knee.

And so he had to have knee surgery, and he's been recovering at home.

Pastor Rich is such an extrovert.

Pastor Rich loves to be with people.

He just he can't help but be a pastor.

His he those gifts are are like um out the window with him.

Like they're they're they're just he loves being with people, loves ministering to people.

But he's asked us, even this morning, he texted us and said, Hey, would you let people know I'm recovering well, but pray for me because can't wait to get back.

Um be praying for Pastor Rich.

But because he's out, um, on Thursday morning, I led uh the group that he usually leads on Thursday morning called 55 and better.

So on Thursday mornings over at the Sacramento campus, there's a group of people who, for the last three years, have been meeting together, and their group is a group of people who are 55 and better.

And with that group, um, I said, you know what, let's just take, let's just take a few minutes right now.

There's probably about 20 people in the room.

I said, tell us your name, tell us um how long you've been at Midtown, and then tell us one thing that you would consider yourself an expert in.

These are people who are 55 and better.

I said, you've got a lot of life experience now, so there's got to be something that you might consider yourself an expert in.

And then I said, just for fun, add something that might be like a unique thing that people might not know about you.

So we took a long time to go around the room, and people at first were really sheepish about it.

I don't know what I would call myself an expert in.

But people, you know, sparking ideas and people were getting bolder over time.

And at the end of that conversation, we read 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, and we talked about the diverse body of Christ.

And then we talked about Ephesians 4, where I want to end.

Because Ephesians 4 tells us this.

Ephesians 4, 11 and 12 tells us this.

He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ.

So for those of us who are in full-time ministry, for those of us who are leaders in the church, we are called to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

We are not called to do the work of ministry for the body of Christ.

Our job is to equip the body for the work of ministry.

Because church is not just the building and the gathering here on Sunday morning.

We are the church.

And we are the body of Christ called to live out the Great Commission out there.

So when we leave here on Sunday morning, you haven't checked off the list and oh, I did church.

No, this is just the beginning.

This is the huddle.

This is the after this, we break and we go, right?

We go into the mission field and we run the play, right?

I'm not an athlete, but I've been starting to use all these athletic parallels.

Anyways, um, but but but this but our point is this each one of us, if we take inventory, have been given gifts by the Spirit for his glory for the sake of others.

So take my challenge to you, and like I challenge the 55 and better group, take inventory.

Where are the places in your life where these gifts have emerged?

And ask yourself have I been sleeping on some of these gifts?

Have I been letting them run dormant?

Have I not been have I been letting them go to waste?

And what are some of the gifts that you can bring back to life for the glory of God, for the good of other people?

And watch and see how much you come alive.

Watch and see how empowered by the Holy Spirit, how invigorated by the Holy Spirit you feel.

If you want to take action from what we've been talking about this morning, if you're not currently serving, I'm gonna ask you why.

Why are you not serving?

What's holding you back?

You have an opportunity right now, uh, right out these doors in the in the lobby right here.

We have a connect table.

If you are interested in serving somewhere, and especially if you don't know where to start, go talk to somebody at the connect table.

They'll give you a little form or they'll have you scan a QR code and just tell them I'm interested.

Put me in, coach.

Right?

This is the commission that the body is given, and I hope that as a result of some of the things that you've heard today, more life will come out of you and to other people.

Let's pray.

God, thank you so much for the things that you have reminded us of this morning.

We started in worship, just setting our eyes on you, remembering that Jesus, you are our champion.

God, you are our savor and you are Lord.

And God, we thank you for being the giver of good gifts.

We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and we thank you for the gifts that you have given each one of us.

So, God, enable us to see the gifts, enable us to embrace the gifts, enable us to celebrate the gifts for your glory and for the good of the body, Lord.

So, God, I pray for every brother and sister who needs some fanning into flame right now.

God, if there are places in their life that have gone dormant or dead, God, bring them back to life.

And God, Holy Spirit, we continue to make room.

Grow us into the people that you want us to be for your glory.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.