1 Cor 12:1-11 | August 2, 2026 | Will Rutt

I'm glad you're here this morning.

My name is Will.

If I haven't met you, serve as lead pastor here.

And one of the things that we do together is we study God's word, not just so that we can learn it, but so that we can place ourselves under it.

Last week we saw in the church in Corinth that there's a love problem.

They're treating the church like it's a country club.

And where there's a love problem, there's a gospel solution and a practical solution.

And so last week I encouraged us, asked us to just listen to the Lord and say, hey, what's my one word response in this church?

What's my one word?

Because for them, they're one.

Do you remember the word from last last week?

Wait.

He's like, here's here's the practical solution to this love problem.

Wait.

And I hope you I hope you came here.

I want to bring this up first to go.

Man, what we do as a church is not just trying to hear stuff.

We're saying, Lord, speak to me.

And I appreciate it.

Uh, if you listen to the podcast, I shared my one word love application and uh for for the gathering, and that is chill.

Chill because I can be so high strung on a Sunday morning.

BOW that's what did I say that actually in the service last week?

Or is that okay.

Um I had a number of people come up to me and say, hey, chill.

And the reason I need to chill is because the gathering is about not just what happens on stage or my responsibilities, but loving people.

This is what we have to be able to do together.

And so I want to remind us as we approach God's word to say, Lord, I want to be responsive to it.

I'm not just trying to be a hearer here, I want to be a doer of it.

And so I appreciate those of you who came to me this morning and said, hey, chill.

Because I kept on saying that.

Lord, help me to chill and just see people and not be so high strung.

I want to be responsive to God's word.

This morning we're moving into chapters 12 through 14.

It's about spiritual gifts.

Okay, so I want to imagine that we bring up all the kids to the stage and we say, uh, hey, we've been working hard all year on a special project.

And we are excited to give one to each of you because you matter.

That's what the kids say.

They're excited to give you a gift.

How excited are you in that moment?

About as excited as I would be.

I would be like, some of the people would be like, oh, but I'd be like, eh.

Maybe it would look a little bit something oh, I'm getting it.

Something like that.

Okay, now that is special to me.

That's a picture of it uh that one of my daughters drew for me.

Uh but it was a gift, and if the kids came up and said, hey, we have a gift for you, we'd probably expect something like that, and we'd probably think, aww.

But let's imagine something else.

Imagine the same scenario, but instead of kids coming up on the stage, it's this guy.

And he says, I've been working hard all year on a special project.

And today I'm excited to give each one.

I'm I'm excited to give one to each of you today.

Because you matter.

Are you excited now?

You excited to go back into the parking lot and be like, like, what is it?

This is Elon Musk, Tesla, if you don't know.

Um with kids, man.

No offense to the kids.

You know what's more special than a gift from kids?

A gift from this guy.

You know what's more special than a gift from this guy?

A gift from God.

Seriously.

See, that if I could, if, if, if I could wave a magic wand, or, since I don't have that, ask the Spirit of God to move in a certain way, it would be that we are actually more excited to hear about the gifts God has for his people, more excited about that than we even would be if he stood up here and said, I have a gift for each one of you.

That if if he would say that, we would be like, ooh, but if God would say, I have a gift that I want to give you, that there would be a sense that we'd go, Where is it?

Like, sign me up.

What do I gotta do?

Show me the paperwork, I'll fill it out.

If God has a gift, I'm ready.

By God's grace, that will happen this morning.

That we would be more eager about the gift that God has for us than the gift He would have for us.

So, what I want to do as we go through 1 Corinthians 12 is first we're just gonna get a biblical theology of spiritual gifts.

And then as we get a biblical theology of spiritual gifts, my hope is that it that would move us to believe I have a gift, and my gift matters, and I cannot not use it.

That's what I hope happens this morning.

So let's jump into 1 Corinthians 12 verse 1.

1 Corinthians 12:1

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.

You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.

Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed, and no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.

Okay, pause there.

So we know that anytime Paul goes to a new topic, he uses those words, those first two words from chapter 12, now concerning.

And chapters 11 through 14 is all about the corporate worship gathering, and so he's talking about spiritual gifts as expressed now in the gathering of the saints, what we what we would call church.

And in the first three verses, he says very simply that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is accursed.

And here's what you would expect somebody who's speaking by the Spirit of God to say, that it's in verse 3, Jesus is Lord.

In other words, there are certain things that you could expect to come out of a person in whom God's Spirit dwells, and there are some things you would expect not to come out of a person in whom God's Spirit dwells.

So, what are some of these things that you would expect to come out of a person in terms of spiritual gifts?

That's what he's gonna tell us.

Go to verse four.

Now there are variety of gifts, but the same spirit, there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord, there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.

But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

Okay, pause there.

And who is the giver?

God.

He actually uh he says there are a variety of gifts, but the same spirit, there are a variety of ministries, the same Lord, the variety of effects, same God.

So we have like he uses the language of the Trinity to tie the spiritual backs, the spiritual gifts back to the giver.

The giver is God, better than Elon Musk.

He's the giver.

Who were the recipients of spiritual gifts?

Well, verse 7.

But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

Who's he talking about?

Who's each one?

Not everyone, each one.

And each one is referring to all those who have put their faith in Jesus and are therefore endwelt by God's Spirit.

See, what we need to be able to really internalize about the gospel and about salvation is it's salvation is not just believing in Jesus to kind of get out of hell so now I can live however I want because God will forgive me.

That's not the gospel.

The gospel is that yes, Jesus came, he lived a perfect life, he died on the cross, taking the penalty of our sin.

He ascended to heaven and then sent the Holy Spirit so that he could take something from us, our the punishment we deserve of our sin, and give something to us himself, the Holy Spirit.

And when he gave us himself, he gave us a gift.

Every single person who's in Christ, who is a saint, one who's declared righteous, you have a spiritual gift.

That's what it says.

The giver is God, the recipients, each one, every saint.

Biblical theology.

The giver is God, the recipients, each one.

What about the purpose?

What is the purpose of spiritual gifts?

Verse 4, again.

Or sorry, verse 7.

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

What's the purpose of the spiritual gifts?

The common good.

He's talking about the church.

The common good.

Now, if we look at what the Bible has to say about uh spiritual gifts, we know that there's two chapter 12s and two chapter 4s.

We'll come back to this in a minute.

Two chapter 12s and two chapter 4s that talk about spiritual gifts.

Okay, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, two chapter 12s, two chapter 4s, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4.

All these chapters talk about spiritual gifts.

When you look at them and just kind of take the purpose statements that these other chapters give, we get a little bit more sort of comprehensive, but still the same idea.

Look at Ephesians 4, the purpose of the spiritual gift, he says, is for the building of the body.

Look at Romans 1, which also talks a little bit about spiritual gifts.

He talks about how he longs to impart a spiritual gift to them for the strengthening of their faith.

So let's just kind of put those together.

What is the purpose of a spiritual gift?

The common good, the building of the body, the strengthening of faith.

God's the giver, we, those who are in Christ, are the recipients, and the purpose is the building is the common good, the building of the body, and the strengthening of faith.

That's gonna be, I think, really, really helpful and really important for later.

One more thing as we're getting a biblical theology of spiritual gifts from these verses.

The giver is God, the recipients, each one, the purpose, common good, building of the body, strengthening of faith.

The essence.

The essence, what is a spiritual gift?

What is the essence of that gift?

It's not a thing, it's not a cyber truck.

What is it?

Verse 7 again.

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

So the essence of a spiritual gift is what?

What is the gift?

It is this it's the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

It's the showing of the Holy Spirit.

So we have two things, as we're just developing a biblical theology of spiritual gifts.

We have the fruit of the spirit, and we have gifts of the spirit.

What's the connection?

What's the difference between these?

The fruit of the spirit is how the Holy Spirit empowers people to show God's nature.

That's the fruit of the Spirit.

To show God's love and joy and peace, patience, guidance, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

That's the fruit of the spirit.

What about gifts of the spirit then?

Well, a gift of the spirit is how the Holy Spirit empowers people to grow God's family.

The fruit of the Spirit shows his nature.

The gifts of the Spirit is God giving people abilities to, for the sake of the common good, the building of the body, and the strengthening of faith.

This is the essence of the gift.

It is the Holy Spirit showing himself through his people for the growing of the body.

Okay, so let's try to combine all that and give us a simple working definition of a spiritual gift.

A spiritual gift is a God-given ability empowered by the Spirit for the common good of the church.

This is a spiritual gift.

Now, you may have a lot of questions and maybe even some pushback that I think we'll address later in terms of, okay, what do we mean by ability?

But I just want to leave it that sort of simple for now.

It's a God-given ability empowered by the Holy Spirit for the common good, for the building of the body, for the strengthening of faith.

That's the that's that's a spiritual gift.

So if there, if that's the nature of the gifts, and that's that's a definition, then what kinds of gifts give does what kind of gifts uh does God give?

And that's what we're gonna read next.

Go to verse, we'll pick up in verse 7.

For to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit, and to another, faith by the same spirit.

He's listing out some of the gifts here, and to another, gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another, the effecting of miracles, and to another, prophecy, to another, the distinguishing of spirits, to another, various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.

Okay, pause there.

You're like, ooh, tongues.

This is the chapter about tongues.

Kinda.

That's actually gonna be chapter 14, so don't get too excited.

Uh, we're not gonna talk too much about tongues.

Well, we're not really talking about tongues really at all today, but we're gonna hit it hard in chapter 14, so don't be don't be sad.

He gave a list of spiritual gifts, and if we take what he just read, what we just read nine gifts, and then um add, see, see what the other four chapters have to say, here's a list of spiritual gifts that we get.

So, like I said, two chapter 12s, two chapter four.

What we just read is in that first column: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.

Later in chapter 12, he talks about apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healings, helps, and administration.

Romans 12, prophecy, serving, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading.

Ephesians 4, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, and 1 Peter 4, serving and speaking.

Now, uh I do not think that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, that this is intended to be an exhaustive list of every spiritual gift that exists is on that list.

I don't think it's intended to be exhaustive, just like I don't think the fruit of the spirit is only captured by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

What about humility?

Is that a fruit of the spirit?

I'd say yes.

This is not intended to be exhaustive.

It does give us a flavor for the kinds of things that God gives.

Now, if we look at this list, I think uh we will notice a couple things.

Some of the gifts feel more natural, and some of them feel a little bit more supernatural.

So let's take the first three wisdom, knowledge, faith.

Can you be an unbeliever?

In other words, uh not have the Holy Spirit and have wisdom and knowledge or faith?

Uh, depending on what you mean, but yes, you can have wisdom and knowledge and faith in something, even if you don't believe in God.

What about can you uh be skilled in administration or leading or teaching and not have the Spirit of God?

Can you?

Yes, you can.

So some of these gifts uh are a little bit more natural in terms of how they come out of people.

But not all of them are healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.

I don't know how that lands on you, but depending on the church background that you either grew up in or what you kind of bring to the table, one of those categories is unsettling to you.

Either the natural gifts, because it's like, oh no, uh, that's not nearly um sort of spiritual enough for the church.

Feels very unnatural to talk about, or it feels very uncomfortable to talk about teaching as a spiritual gift.

But probably for us in this church, we're like more uh not uncertain about things like healings and miracles and tongues.

Like, ooh, we're we're not gonna start speaking in tongues, are we?

Like, let's be I bring this up to say um I think church at Sandhurst, we're gonna be uh our natural bent is gonna be more skeptical towards the miraculous, the supernatural.

And I for me at least, maybe for you, that has been one of the great um conviction points for me.

I do not want to be leading a church or part of a church that is so committed to doing things really well that if God never shows up and does something miraculous, we're okay.

Because you know, the sermon was still alright, music was still alright, finished on time, didn't lose any kids.

We're fine.

Oh, I want to have a sense of like, man, God, your spirit has been given to your people to give us gifts, to exercise for the building of the body, for the common good, for the strengthening of faith.

And I want to be not just open but cautious to see the supernatural.

I want to be open and eager to in the church be able to see and express things that can only be attributed to God.

So this is a flavor of some of the gifts, but not an exhaustive list.

And I hope it instills in you an eagerness to be part of a church where we get to see God work in ways that can only be attributed to Him.

Um so this is a quick biblical theology of gifts, and my hope is that we can move from a biblical theology of gifts to a like a deeply held sort of inner burning that that goes, May I have I have a gift, and my gift matters, and I cannot not employ it.

I have a gift.

Um the nature of gifts is that they tend to breed comparison.

When I look at myself compared to you, do you know what I see?

The gifting I wish I had.

There's something about gifts that we tend to compare ourselves and compare our gifting to someone else's gifting.

Uh you've experienced it when you were a little kid.

I remember a Christmas one time, and my cousins were getting all these cool like footballs and stuff.

I was like maybe six, and then I got a Noah's Ark puzzle.

And I just remember as like a little kid, like I opened it and my parents told me, you know, say thank you, and I'm trying to act excited, but I'm my little chin starts to quiver because I wanted that, and I had this a Noah's Ark puzzle.

And and maybe like being part of a church, there is a sense that okay, the people with the best gifts, they're the people for the stage, and everyone else is just kind of JV.

Because certain gifts are just better.

Gifts tend to breed comparison.

You have a gift, but maybe you look around and you look at somebody else's gift and go, I wish I had that.

A little bit later in my life, I kind of felt um I think the church I grew up at unintentionally, but um kind of you might say pedestaled the gift of leadership as kind of like the gift.

That's like varsity and everything else, in my mind, at least the way I heard it, just was kind of everything else was JV.

And I remember um being in, I think I was in sixth grade, and the restaurant Moe's had just moved to Jacksonville, I think.

Whatever the case, there was a thing uh that started in the youth group where somebody would walk into the into the middle of the room and say, Welcome to Moe's, and everybody else would say, Welcome to Moes, and it was great.

And I was I'm in sixth grade.

I was like, alright, I'm gonna try.

And I'm like, excited.

Leadership man.

And I go, welcome to Moes! Silence.

Did you know I went home and cried as a little sixth grader?

And I've tried to think like what was going on in me that that was such a big deal to me.

And here's what it was I saw how other people were gifted, and it's all that's not me.

But I wish I was.

But I'm not.

Bummer.

So yeah, I just I've learned I have grown-up versions now of what I had with when it was Noah's Ark or Welcome to Moe's.

I have my grown-up versions of it now.

And if you relate to that, if you can make a list of other people's giftings and have a sense of, I wish I was gifted like they were, but I'm just me.

I hope verse 11 will be the treasure to you that it's been to me.

Go to verse 11.

Right after he lists the gifts, he says this.

But one and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just as he wills.

That is, verse 11 is so good.

He distributes individually to each one just as he wills.

Just imagine, just imagine with me for a second.

God going through this heavenly storehouse of spiritual gifts from before the foundations of the world, because God is just that big and amazing.

And he's going through this heavily warehouse of spiritual gifts with you on his mind and going, okay, what can I give Chris Hanley for the common good, for the building of the body, for the strengthening of faith?

What can I give him?

And then he distributed to you individually just as he wills.

You have what God planned before the foundations of the earth.

That's good news.

Like, and then we we do what we teach five-year-olds not to do.

Get a gift from God by his Holy Spirit and go, oh, I want that.

Like if your five-year-old do that, you stop that.

I'm so sorry.

He loves it, you know.

I've used this illustration before, but it connects with me, so I'm gonna use it again.

When I get in this comparison game, and it's easy for me to look around at other people's gifting and be like, God, I wish I was more like fill in the blank.

I feel like God gave some people this gift of, particularly in terms of teaching and communicating and shepherding and pastoring.

Chainsaw effectiveness.

Like what an important distinction between a spiritual gift and when you say a natural gift, they're both from God, okay?

Every natural gift, that's that's from God.

He's the giver of those two.

But the spiritual gift is one where God uniquely works not to just be impressive, but to be effective towards the goal, common good, the building of the body, strengthening and of faith, okay?

I feel like God gave some people a chainsaw.

When they teach, like people are falling down, not like literally, but people are changing, they sh they share the gospel, boom, people are coming to know Jesus.

I feel like God gave some people that effectiveness, and God gave me this.

Is this true?

Does God give some people this kind of effectiveness and others this kind of effectiveness?

Is that true?

Yes.

And we can play the comparison game and sit the sidelines because I want to be this and the person I look up to is this and I'm this, or I can use my brain and think back to God, verse 11, that God has distributed individually to each one, just as He wills.

You have what God wants you to have.

And that's good because every tool has a purpose, every gift has a purpose.

And there are some things this is gonna be great for.

You have your versions of this.

The person, the people you look up to that you wish, God, I wish I was gifted like that.

Really?

Like in the holiest part of you for the common good, the building of the body, for the strengthening of faith.

And God gave you this.

But there are things that this can do that that can't do.

And God gave that to you.

Verse 11 distributed individually to each one.

How?

Praise the Lord.

You have a gift.

And your gift matters.

Go with me to verse.

Well, we'll go to verse 12 and we're gonna read through 26.

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, we're gonna be in this passage actually next week as well.

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

For by the one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves are free, we were all made to drink of one spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot says, Because I'm not a hand, I'm not part of the body, it is not for this reason any less part of the body.

And if the ear says, Because I'm not an eye, I'm not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less part of the body.

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

If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.

He says it again.

Verse 19, if they were all one member, where would the where would the body be?

But now there are many members, but one body.

And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

On the contrary, listen to this.

It is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body which de which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor.

And our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.

But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

That's gonna be important for next week.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Many members, one body.

So you've got a church, they've gotten to a point where they believe they have a gift, but in their minds, some gifts were better than others.

And for them, their chainsaw gift, the one that everybody wanted to have, was tongues.

That was their gift.

And they're forming these divisions around, and it's causing disunity, which is why he brings them back to the same God who gave the gift and distributed individually to each one just as he wills.

One body, many members, and he's making the simple but extremely profound point that if everybody were the same thing, it would be nobody at all.

It is just true.

You don't know how much you like need a part of the body until that part of the body is either gone or uh like hurt.

I feel like every time I like scrape my elbow really bad, I'm like, I feel like I knock my elbow all the time.

Like, oh, oh, oh.

It turns out I use my elbow a lot and I only know it when it's sensitive.

We are one body, many members, many gifts.

And what what God is doing with this body and giving us gifts is not this.

Not giving gifts to country club members so that they can, you know, chill out a little bit more, but giving many gifts to the one body so that the one body wouldn't be country club, but would be on mission, so that the one body would look a little bit more like that.

One body on mission, focused.

I have a gift, and my gift matters, every part of that body to help us illustrate, to help us feel this a little bit more.

Um, Taylor Lee, come on up here.

You're gonna hate me.

You already do hate me now that I've called you, but come on up here, Taylor.

Uh Taylor is a friend of mine, and uh Taylor put me through a little bit of misery when he was a student, and so this is returning the favor.

Quick, quick Taylor story as he's coming up is he uh we're on a retreat a retreat at Garden City Chapel up on the top floor, and we needed to take the milk downstairs.

So I was like, Taylor, will you take the milk downstairs?

Next thing I know, I see Taylor just chucking the milk off of he said he literally looked at me like I was crazy.

He goes, You told me to take it downstairs.

This is Taylor.

Okay, the reason Taylor is up here is because as you can see, Taylor has been to the gym before.

Alright?

And um if you if Taylor and I were to get in a wrestling match, who would you assume would win?

Okay, we don't need to answer so confidently there.

Actually, last time we wrestled, I'm not gonna say I lost.

This depends how you define winning.

Um Taylor's gonna represent the church for us, okay?

The church, one body, many members, on mission.

And and you could say that mission in a number of different ways, but here's a great way to say it to love and obey God by the power of his spirit for the praise of his glory and help others do the same.

He's got one body, many members, but let's just say that this one body, many members, the many members just don't want to play along with this whole spiritual gift kind of being on mission thing.

And let's just say that the people, the hands, let me see your hands, put your hands out, the hands that are gifted for serving, because serving is listed as a spiritual gift, um, the hands that are gifted for serving uh are too busy to be serving in the body.

Insight.

Help you out here.

Insight is a spiritual gift where you get to you can you can read God's word and you just get it in a way that a lot of people just don't get it.

I think one of uh the people in my life group has the gift of insight.

I've affirmed that in her.

The gift of insight.

Uh the the people with the eyes of insight, uh too insecure to share what they see in scripture because um it's just insecure.

This is the church.

Put your feet together.

How beautiful are the of those who bring good news.

Um those who are gifted with evangelism.

Those who are gifted with evangelism um too too scared to share the gospel, too afraid to take the gospel to people who don't have it.

Scared.

People leadership is listed as one of the gifts.

Like a God-given ability empowered by the Spirit for the common good, the building of the body, the strengthening of faith.

People gifted, leadership is moving people, okay?

Your legs, you're moving people.

Golly.

Because what if I fail in my leadership?

What if I what if I went above and beyond as a life group leader and really tried to go for something as a life group?

And then it didn't work.

And I just feel dumb.

People gifted with arms of hospitality.

Not extending their arms out to welcome people.

Because church, I mean, don't I don't really want to have anybody expect anything of me in church.

I don't want to like show hospitality.

I kind of want to just want to watch a show.

I could keep keep going on.

I'm not gonna put any more tape on you for right now.

Um because I don't want to lose the point.

That this is representing the church, one body, many members, and the members gifted by God to be able to advance the gospel, take spiritual ground for the common good, the building of the body, the strengthening of faith.

And this is what the church looks like when those who are in it don't employ their gifts that God has given them.

This is what we look like, and it's a tragedy.

People who are gifted with encouragement, not speaking words of encouragement.

Because you only got we only got ourselves on our mind.

And I don't have thoughts to encourage you, because I'm just thinking about me.

The more, the more I like thought about this and just try to absorb myself in it, the more I saw that this church, that the church becomes like this when the church is just all about me and I and what I'm afraid of or what I want because I think I deserve.

That's how the church begins to look like this.

According to Lifeway research, pastors estimated that 42% of their congregation served in their church.

Can you imagine if 42% of your body worked?

42% of your car worked.

You know what kind of that kind of unemployment would do to a country?

Ruin it in a day.

And this is the unemployment rate in the church.

58%.

What?

See, um in some ways I want to give us like I wait first to give us a little bit of a kick in the pants.

Holy cow.

Sorry, I just looked at the time.

Okay.

Um, in some ways, I want 1 Corinthians 12 to give us a kick in the pants.

In some ways, I I want it to draw our hearts to say, God, you've given me a gift.

I have a gift, my gift matters, and I cannot not use my gift because to the extent that I'm not using my gift, my church, the church, looks more like this.

And we need more people who have hands to serve.

Say Wow, okay, flex.

Thank you.

Of arms of hospitality to say, hey, I want you, I want you to feel at home wherever I am.

And I'm gonna get out of my comfort zone and my little section and my row in my church to actually show hospitality and some people who have the gift of evangelism.

I really believe that there are people in here who have the gift of evangelism that when you share the gospel, people just believe.

We have people here who have the gift, but don't know you have the gift because we've been stuck in a pedestal eye, and having risked going into a scary, haven't shared the gospel.

Man, there's got to be people in this church who are gifted with evangelism.

Legs of leadership, moving people, eyes of insight, willing to say, here's here's what I see.

And give it up, Taylor.

You're good, thank you.

All right.

Um church, I want a biblical theology to go to help us go.

I have a gift.

My gift matters.

I cannot not use my gift.

So how do how how do I identify my gift and how do I then employ it in the church?

Because this is what we're we're after.

Not just a theology, but employing our gift.

Um, you could take a spiritual gift test.

Um, and that would potentially be somewhat helpful.

If you're interested in that, we took one as a staff and it's it was interesting.

That may be helpful, but I would propose a better way than taking a spiritual gift test, and that is this serve.

Um, this is better than taking a test.

If we start with the gift, if we just start with the gift, we can just get stuck so easily.

Trying to go, okay, what's my gift?

I think my gift is that is that.

No, maybe it's not that many.

And if instead of starting with the gift, we start with the purpose, now we can take some ground.

Instead of going, okay, what's my gift?

Maybe it's that, I start with, what's the purpose of the gift?

Common good, building the body, strengthening of faith, that's the purpose.

And do that.

That is easier to identify.

Okay, how what's in me?

What can I do for the common good, for the building of the body, the strengthening of faith?

Go do that.

And what you do in reliance on God's spirit with the degree of effectiveness towards the goal, that's your spiritual gift.

You don't need to identify it to be able to do it.

And that I I believe that's a true statement.

You don't need to put a label on it to be able to do it.

I went to one day of wrestling practice because my brother was a wrestler and he'd beat the mess out of me.

And and somebody tried to take me down, and I did something to try to not let him take me down.

And the wrestling coach said, he said, You just did the wizard.

I was like, What was the wizzer?

He was like, Well, the wizard is the move you just did.

And I didn't know the move, I didn't know I was doing the wizard.

I just knew the goal was to not be taken down.

I didn't need to be able to put a label on the wizard to be able to do the wizard because I knew what the goal was.

What I'm trying to say is you don't need to be able to put a label on your gift to be able to use your gift, you just need to know what the goal is.

The common good, the building of the body, strengthening a faith.

So serve.

Serve.

I'm so thankful that we got to send off Christina and part of her heart for missions that was already present.

That fan got flamed as she served and kids on mission in in uh Wednesday nights and hosted and taught our missions portion for like the last couple years.

Serve, church.

If you go to if you go to our website, that's what you'll find.

Serve so that we can be a church that is the church that God has called us to be.

Serve, church, serve.

That has gifted us.

We cannot not use our gift.

If you are not serving in this body.

And if you're part of the body but not contributing to the life of the body, you are a wart.

And that's what Adam Richardson said.

So you if you're part of the life of the body but not contributing to the life of the body, you're wart, don't be a wart.

Go on the website and sign up so that.

We can be a church that's serving.

So serve, also speak.

Speak.

Go ahead and come up.

Speak.

While you don't need to be able to label your gift, it does help when somebody affirms something in you that helps you go, man, I am gifted in that way.

Quick story.

We were in staff meetings, this is years ago, and Adam was going around and he was affirming the giftedness that he saw in each person.

And as he was coming around, I was kind of like, you know, thinking, what's he gonna say about me?

And I thought he knew what he was gonna say about me.

And he said something different.

And he said, Well, I think you have the gift of faith to take God at his word and just believe it and act on it.

And there have been a lot of days where I've kind of felt like I don't have much in my faith tank right now.

But it's helped me when somebody else affirmed something, said, Hey, I see this.

So speak it.

And if and probably if there's something in you, it's like, man, I want to affirm that.

Probably you have the gift of exhortation, just so you know.

There's so many people who are gifted in our in our church, they don't have time to go through it.

Um but uh just I'll close with this.

This guy's not here and he doesn't have Teslas for us, but we have something better.

The Holy Spirit who's given us gifts, and Teslas lose their charge and um die.

But the gifts that God has given and the mission that we are part of is eternal.

So whatever God gave you, let's say, Lord, thank you, and employ our gift together as one body.

And to close, then go ahead and stand with me.

Uh to close, I cannot talk about spiritual gifts without um closing on the spirit who gives the gift.

And so just want to together do what we've been doing every week, and that is to go.

I don't want to go gift, you serve, gift, serve without going, Holy Spirit, you are my supply.

That if I'm gonna use my gift by his power, then that's going to be living by faith, considering him and going, Lord, would you help me to use me in the way that you've gifted me for the building of the body, for the common good, for the strengthening of faith, that we would be a church on mission together.

Lord, help us.

Let's pray, Father.

Um, just I want to say thank you.

I want to thank you for the gifts that you gave me and you gave us and for the gifts you didn't.

And I pray that verse 11 would set our hearts free when we're uh um dissatisfied or discontent or jealous.

We say, Thank you, you've distributed to me individually just as you willed for the common good, the building of the body, strengthening faith, and this good.

So we say, Yes, Lord, help Lord to loving and obeying you by your power for your glory.

So we help others do the same.

Amen.

Saying