Are You Using Your Spiritual Gifts the Right Way? || Pastor Aaron Levy

Could Eve be Patriot? How we feel it tonight? Oh,

we could do way better than that.

How we feel it tonight, knowing that Jesus is on

the throne? Man, what up to everybody that's watched it online?

Can you help me honor our campuses? Pomona's rots here

right now? Thank you so much for being here. You're

here every week off of East Laverne, Alameda is live

because our lead pastor, Pastor Adam and Pastor Asta are

up in Alameda. This weekend we had our first women's

event in Alameda. Over one hundred women gathered. So grateful

for the health in our campuses. It started hearing Rancho.

But God is entrusting us to expand. Amen, what's up

to everybody outside? Man is so good to be a

part of this series, And I just want to honor

our lead pastor for entrusting me to be a part

of this series. Anybody enjoying this summer series Questions for Life?

If you guys are submitting a lot of questions and

we as a preaching team are trying to tackle them.

And there's some more stuff that we're gonna do for

fun in July to help with that.

But today we're.

Gonna talk about spiritual gifts. A lot of questions came

in from the telephones, a lot of questions came in

on Instagram on spiritual gifts. And if you're new to Patriot,

if you're just tuning in, this is.

Our summer series.

So we kicked it off on week one, we talked

about purpose and calling. Now, I mean, if you guys

remember week two when we did Baptize America, Pastor Adam.

Talked about salvation. Then we have Father's Day.

But now we're back and we're talking about spiritual gifts.

I believe that after tonight and after this weekend, not

only will you know what you're wiring and how God

has uniquely gifted you, but you'll be challenged and inspired

to utilize those gifts for the glory of God. Amen,

let's all stand to our feet. We stand for the

reading of God's word because it's true. We stand for

the reading of God's words because that has the power

to change our life. We're gonna be in Romans chapter twelve.

We're gonna be verses one through three. Pomona, are you ready?

Do you have it? Height? I was testing Ranchill.

Thank you for not responding Granchill, all right, Pomona, You're ready.

All right, litt look at it.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and

acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not

be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the

renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern

what is the will of God, what is good and.

Acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me, I say to

everyone among you not to think of himself more highly

than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment,

each according to the measure of faith God has assigned

heavenly Father.

In the name of Jesus, I thank you that your

word is true. I thank you that your word is powerful.

Now, Lord, I pray that you remove our distractions, help

us to lean into your word. Use your word to

convict us, to inspire us, to empower us. In Jesus name,

we pray Amen. Amen, you may be seated, Pomona, you

may be seated.

Rancho.

Now, now, when we read the verses, some of you

are thinking, I think Pastor Aaron messed up, because tonight

we're talking about spiritual gifts, and we didn't say nothing

about spiritual gifts here, but we did say something.

About spiritual worship.

And I believe that we need to talk about spiritual

worship before we talk about spiritual gifts.

We're gonna be in Romans chapter twelve, Verse one through eight,

but our first point.

Is spiritual gifts flow from spiritual worship.

Paul is very wise.

Because he's gonna be talking about gifts and we're gonna

talk about that in point two.

But what he's saying here is it really doesn't make

any sense.

If I talk to you about your gifts if you

don't have spiritual worship, because spiritual worship gives us the

right mindset, in the right modus for why we use

our spiritual gifts. There's a quote here by John Piper.

This quote here is says spiritual gifts are never about

self promotion, they're about self sacrifice. If we're living a

life of sacrifice, then we'll can be trusted by God

to use the gifts that he's given us for his glory.

There's two things that I want to highlight about spiritual

worship when it talks about in verse one through three.

The first thing is like defining what spiritual worship is.

If we look at the scripture, it's presenting yourself to

God as a living sacrifice. If you think about the

Old Covenant and the Old Testament, the wages of sin

is death. So in the Old Testament, when people were

used to sin, they were used to have to kill

an animal as a sacrifice to atone for that sin.

And Jesus being the Lamb of God, he died for

our sin, so we don't have to die.

He was the sacrifice for us, but.

We put our life as a lifting sacrifice to him,

so that way the gifts that we have we offer

up into service to God. That's what it means by

being a living sacrifice.

And the second thing is.

Spiritual worship helps us to renew our mind and to

think with sober judgment.

Say sober judgment, because.

Have you ever seen somebody that was really gifted and

they just knew that they were.

They're just feeling themselves.

And spiritual worship keeps us humble to not think just

because we're gifted, that we're better than other people. That's

why it says, don't be conformed to the world, be

transformed by the renewing of our mind. So the more

time we spend in the presence of God, we recognize

every good and.

Perfect gift comes from the.

Father above, and if He's given us these gifts, these

gifts are for His glory and.

Not for our attention.

So I want to think about something right now, because

when we talked about Romans chapter twelve, it talked about

Paul having a grace that was poured into him to

pour out to others.

And as I was thinking about my life and you

may be thinking about.

Your life, we were just worshiping and we're singing songs

and what God does in our life, these are the

gifts that He gives us. Anybody had a piggy bank

when they were a kid, This represents the grace, This

represents the testimonies. This represents the gifts that God gives you.

And then as I was a kid, I usually just

shake to see how much money I had?

Am I the only one? And some of us think

that this.

Is spiritual worship, that God gives us gifts and we

sing the God.

But spiritual worship.

Is not about how good we sound, is how much

we're surrendered. So as God pours things into our life.

The whole point is for it to be poured out

of us.

Now, this piggy bank could be open.

But sometimes in my life and maybe sometimes in your life,

we just kind of like the way we sound, and

we kind of like the way we look in front

of other people. So I remember when I was younger

and if I really wanted to buy something, I had

to break this piggy bank open.

And what God will do in is infinite wisdom.

He will try to tap us to get our attention

and say, Hey, those gifts that I've given you are

for my glory, not yours, and he gets louder and loud, oh,

shoots and sees this is some of the breakthrough that

we're praying for some of the life challenges that hit us.

But when those life challenges hit us, we can either focus.

On how we look or how we make God look.

And if we want to focus on how we make

God look, now we are open to be a blessing

to other people.

Or we can focus on wait a minute, I wasn't

supposed to look like this. I got to put myself

back together.

And sometimes we stay in a cycle of focusing on

how I look, not knowing that I was spilled out

for a purpose, and God has given me gifts to

pour out to other people. Are you allowing your life

to be broken to be poured out for the blessing

of others? Or when these things happen in your life,

are you so focused on other people helping you get

back together again? And sometimes we never get to a

point of what our spiritual gift is because we want

to make the Kingdom of God about us and not

about Jesus.

There's an example of that in Acts chapter eight.

There's a story about a magician. His name is Simon

the Magician or Simon the Sorcerer, And we have a

story up because this was a very gifted So we're

gonna go to Acts chapter eight. In the name of Jesus,

we're gonna go to Acts chapter Okay. So so we

have Acts chapter eight right here, Pomona, And to set

up the context, the gospel is spreading to different cities,

and this is a new city that is going to

and this is the narrative of a guy named Simon

who was highly gifted, but he's.

Not spiritually submitted. Okay.

But there was a man named Simon who had previously

practiced magic in this city and amaze the people. Everybody, Goo, Pomona,

you didn't do it that much, okay. And of Samaria

and saying that he himself was somebody great. They all

paid attention to him. You catch an up from the

least to the greatest, saying this man.

Is the power of God.

That is called great, and they paid attention to him.

You want to pay attention to how often the scriptures

repeat themselves, so you want to lean into like, Okay,

they're paying attention to Simon because for a long time

he had amazed them with his magic. But when they

believed Philip as he preached the good news about the

Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they

were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed.

And after being baptized, he continued with Philip and seeing

signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now I'm

gonna set up this scene. Simon is in this city.

He's amazing to everybody in the city. But all of

a sudden, here comes the evangelist Philip, and he's giving

the gospel, and people start giving their life to Christ.

People start getting baptized. Even this guy.

Who the city thought was great, he gets baptized.

But just because you get baptized, and just because you believe,

doesn't mean you have a renewed mindset.

Sometimes we could be a Christian but still wanted to

be great ourselves.

So what ends up happening is the big dogs come in.

Simon Peter comes in because they haven't laid hands on

them to give them the Holy Spirit. So Simon Peter comes,

he lays hands on the people.

People get filled with the spirit.

Now let's fast forward to verse eighteen and see how

Simon the Great or Simon the Magician responded to this.

He said, Now Simon saw that the spirit was given

through the lay and all the apostles hands.

He offered them money.

He said, give me this power. Also said that anyone

on whom I lay my hands on may receive the

Holy Spirit. Now look at Peter pastor Peter, but he

still has some hood in them.

Look what he says.

He says to them, may your silver parish with you

because you thought you could obtain the gift of God

with money. What's happening is God, I want to be

gifted as long as.

I can keep the attention on myself.

I want to be gifted as long as I'm not

broken and.

Used as a vessel for your glory.

Would you not give up my stat to see Some

of the breakthrough that.

We need is humility.

Because when Pastor Peter confronted him all the way in verse.

Twenty four, look what he does.

He says, Hey, man, just pray for me that those

things that you said was gonna.

Happen me don't happen. And sometimes in life God.

Will allow us to be great to people and then

things shift. And as things shift, will we be humble

enough to focus on God's glory instead of our glory alone?

Amen.

Spiritual gifts don't equal spiritual maturity. And that's why I

wanted to start off by talking about spiritual worship before

we talked about spiritual gifting, so that we know, once

our life is surrendered to God, now my hands are open.

To use these gifts for others.

So the first point is spiritual gifts flow from spiritual worship.

Point number two is spiritual gifts don't equal spiritual response abilities.

Spiritual gifts don't equal spiritual responsibilities. Let's look at it

in Romans chapter twelve, verse four through eight. It says here,

for as in one body, we have many members, and

the members do not have the same function.

So we, though many, are one.

Body in Christ and individually members of one another.

Is very important right there.

Having gifts then that differ according to the grace given

to us. Let us use them, if prophecy in proportion

to our faith, if service and are serving the one

who teaches and is teaching, the one who exhorts and

his exhortation, the one who contributes and generosity, the one

who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of

mercy with cheerfulness. Those are the gifts that Paul is saying,

here are the gifts that God is giving to the

Kingdom of God for you to use. But he says

here you are individually members of the Kingdom of God.

And I love that tension.

Here because we are an individual, which means God has

given every single.

One of us gifts.

Every single one of us have gifts, and you are

to be yourself and not compare your gift with other people.

So you're an individual, but you're also a member because

you're on team Jesus. So sometimes that is tension, right

there because I want to be an individual, but I

still got to maintain my membership on being on the team.

So individual is gift, membership is vision.

And sometimes we want the gift to submit to the vision.

I mean, I'm sorry, we want our vision to submit

to the gift.

But it's the other way around.

God has gifted us so we can submit to whatever

the vision is for the Kingdom of God.

What God is calling all of us to do is

if we have.

These unique giftings that how can you contribute to the

team the team being patriot at your local church, or

being your kitchen table with your family or at work,

et cetera, et cetera.

Now here's what I'll say about gifts, because like, how

do I know what my gift is?

Firstly, I'll say this, your gifts not a title. Your

gifts are tendencies.

You can look at group text.

Messages that you have right now and it'll show you

what your giftings are. Now, any of you guys have

a group text message that if that group text message

got out with you and your homies, some people are

laughing right now.

I don't want.

Nobody to see this group text message. Why just so

happen to get this group text message from this member

right here.

Now, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

But we're a family, right, so I get some dat

or research. I got a group text message and it's

called Fambam twenty twenty five, and it's a group of

family members that are trying to do a family party.

You guys want to read the text messages, Okay, they'll

be on the screens, but I'll read them. Now what

we got leading, Leading is a part of the family,

he says.

Okay, fam just shit the sign.

Up sheet, lock in the food, the games, to set

up and clean up church or order Let's go strong emoji.

Then Serving Serving always responds Fast Serving says, I'll be

there early to set up the tents and haul the grills.

Just tell me where you need me. Fisbump. Then here

comes teaching love it.

I'll bring the ribs and I'll show these teenagers how

to grillam write this season laughing fire emoji. Then here

comes prophecy. They're always telling the true family. Let's keep

our words honoring. This isn't just a barbecue, it's legacy.

Let's speak life. This weekend prayer emoji. Here comes exert.

Exhortation is always lifting up the room.

Yes, come on, fam, I'm bringing a playlist in the

good vibes speaker.

Here comes giving.

I booked a bounce house and pay for Grandma's hotel.

I'll cover anything else we need. Just say the word.

Here comes mercy. Let's make room for cousin. Receive.

Crowds overwhelm him. I'll sit with him when he arrives.

Receive gets added to the text message. Wait can I

bring life? Five more people? And y'all got to gold containers.

So if you look at that text message exchange, you're

kind of seeing the tendencies of the people that are

in the group. And some of you may be saying,

I don't know my clear gift yet.

Here's what I will say. Just don't be received.

As you're looking at the list of people contributing.

One of the things that we do.

If we want to add to the Kingdom party, we

can either see what's missing and add value to the

text thread, or the people that already know their gifting

help them, help them pull the grill in or help

them with the finances. Whatever you see here, because all

of us get text messages. So whatever you see in

a text message through it. When somebody's putting something together,

the things that you tend to do start taking action on,

and they may be actually exposing what your giftings are.

So it's not necessarily kneeling in prayer getting oil from

a pastor and I believe that you're gifting. Don't take

all that. How do you act in community? What tends

to make you angry, what tends to excite you? You

always see that things are missing. Now if we look

at the text message threat, oh it's gone.

But if we looked at it. One of the things

why we don't want.

To be received for starters is because received did not

have an iPhone. Have you ever been in a text

message threat when you're sitting everybody's blue, everybody's blue, and

then somebody can, oh, bro.

I can't even do the thumbs up. I can't.

But here's what receive is thinking. Receive is thinking, you

know what, here's my spiritual gift that everybody else helps me,

that everybody else participates to help me. Because many times

in life this.

Is how we meet receive.

We meet receive in a broken place and receive and

see the mercy Gift said, Hey, we need to make

space for receive now. Even when you're broken, you still

have something to offer. And sometimes we're in a season

of I'm not focusing on spiritual gifts.

I'm not focused on serving right now until I get

put back together. But maybe you getting put.

Back together is connected to the contribution that you're giving

in this season. Right now, what I want to do

is I want to take a moment to go over

each gifting in more detail, and then I'm gonna give

you an opportunity to lean in and discover.

What your gifting is. You guys ready, Pimona, are you ready?

All right?

Check this out. Let's go to the first one. Let's

talk about prophecy.

If I could reduce it to a phrase, is say

what God says. You speak the truth boldly and lovingly,

even when it's hard to hear. So if the people

around you a lot of times affirm what.

Your gift is.

But have you ever the person that's like, well, here's

the elephant in the room.

This is what we need to talk about.

Sometimes you are the one that has the gift of prophecy.

It's not that you're telling the future. Is that you're

telling the truth. But here's the challenge. We could have

the gifting, but remember, our spiritual gift is not our

spiritual responsibility.

We still have to be responsible with our lips.

So sometimes even if we have the gift of prophecy,

we may reckon ie. People aren't sharing things with me

because we may have the gift of prophecy to tell

the truth, and sometimes we just tell our neighbor. So

gossip can prevent us from utilizing and operating our gift.

Because no matter what your gift is, we're all responsible

to speak.

The truth and love. Amen, let's look at the next one.

Service service. See the need, meet the need, meet the need.

If you're gifting is service. You're the one when you

get the text message can you help me move?

And nobody's responding. You're the one. You're the first one

to say, you know what, I'll pull up.

And then what happens is when they see that you're

willing to take to take the lead.

Other people, fine, O'll help. Now there's other people. I

ain't got that gift, but but you're the type of.

Person that you know what when I when I see

someone on the ground.

I just I just pick it up. You know what,

I just really want to help. I just whatever, whatever

the vision is, just sign me up. I just want to.

Help see it all the way through. And that might

be your gift right now. Now, some of y'all are

saying that's not my spiritual gift, but that doesn't exempt

you from serving. We all, because we're on Team Jesus,

have a responsibility to serve amen. And that's why when

we look at our next one, our next one is giving.

And that's why we have Kingdom Builders here at Patriot

because somebody would a serve gift have have more time

to serve in Patriot Kids. Pause, caill you help me

honor our Patriot Kids teams from Patriot Alameda, Patriot Pomona,

and Patriot Rancho. We have one hundred and thirty volunteers

that are going to be serving our Patriot VBS.

We cannot do this with our Patriot Kids. We could

give them.

More honor for that, thank you so much, But there

are some of us that don't have that time.

But we recognize. You know how much does it cost

to run vbs. Let me just underwrite the whole thing.

Let me give scholarships for kids that you are serving.

You are a part.

You're doing your part, just like somebody that's serving with

their hands. You're using your hands in the marketplace.

To help fuel the vision. Amen.

You use your resources to meet the needs and fun

what matters.

Let's talk about the next one, teaching. Make the truth click.

You explain things clearly so others can understand it and grow.

These are basketball coaches, these are teachers. These are people

that do ted talks.

They have ever seen a ted talk and they just

know it by heart and they just speaking what careers.

They have a teaching gift.

That's what a teaching gift is, and it doesn't necessarily

need a pullpit. The best teaching happens at a kitchen table.

If anybody says that they have the gift of teaching,

and you have children or you have grandchildren, start with

them being in your classroom and your classroom being the

living room.

Amen, we go to our next one. Exhortation.

I like this here because this is a DJ and

exhortation is somebody that lifts the room. So think about

what Pastor Sammy did or whoever did exhortation in Pomona

when we sang worship songs somebody came on stage and

just lifted the room and charged us with a verse

and charged us with the story.

These are the ones that are just the life coaches.

These are the ones that have you ever had a

workout trainer that just yells at you, come on, let's go,

and you hate it, but you love it at the

same time.

It's like, are they disrespecting me? But no, they're helping

me grow. That's a gift of exhortation. Amen. They encourage,

they challenge, Okay, we're moving on. And then the last

one is leading. They carry the way with vision.

You take responsibility, organize people, move things forward with purpose. Now,

as we look at all of these gifts, one more

gift on here we have mercy gift. Let's talk about

the mercy gift. Mercy gift, you sit with the broken.

There are some people. I remember it was a few

years ago. I was at a wedding and there was

somebody in the wedding that was there at the party

that was grieving, and they went to the back and

there was just something in me.

While everybody was on the dance.

Floor, I just moved to the back room and sat

with that person while they cried, that's a mercy gift.

You walk into the room and you can sense.

The people that feel like they don't belong and you

have the courage to sit next to them.

So these people, they.

Moved towards pain. They're patient, they're counselors, not away from it.

You feel deeply and you love gently. Now here's what

we can't say. Well, I don't got the mercy gift,

so you got to talk to somebody else. No, no, no, everybody

has this spiritual responsibility to forgive. Everybody has the spiritual

responsibility to love. When you're gifted in a certain area,

this is what brings you life, This is what brings

you joy. Amen, Yeah, thank you. Now this is an

area where we can all participate because as we've broken

down these gifts, some of your antennas are going up.

But you know, I think that's me. I think I

have a giving gift, or you know.

I think that's me. We're talking about the barbecue. I

think I have a leading gift. I'm always the one

that's starting the text message to and then I name it.

I get the ball rolling right. Well, here's what you

can do.

You can pull out your smartphone, right now and you

could text gift here, I pull out your smartphone text

gift to seven one seven sixty seven.

Sermons aren't good until you apply them.

So anybody that's saying, hey, I want to know what

my gift is and I don't know yet, when you

text this number, will send.

You a quiz, no strings attached. We'll just send you

a quiz.

We'll send you a couple of questions and based upon

what comes out of you is showing you what more

than likely your gifting or you're wiring is amen.

Text gift to seven one seven six seven.

What a practical way to just look at how you

would answer these questions and based upon that, you know what,

that's my tendency, not my title.

What we're not gonna do is we get this. We're

gonna look at the tests.

Oh shoot, I'm screenshot and this this says I'm a

prophet and then you just put it on your resume

and no, you know these are tendencies, these are wiring,

and this is just getting you to know yourself better,

not for your glory, but for God's glory.

Amen.

All right, So we talked about that our spiritual gifts

are not equal to spiritual responsibilities, because even once you

know you're gifting, all of us as Christians have our

responsibility to love and to forgive and.

To serve, et cetera, et cetera.

The giftings that God has graced you and I with

is what makes you feel alive and what makes you

most effective as you're on team Jesus.

So our last point is spiritual gifts are discovered to

be deployed.

Spiritual gifts are discovered to be deployed. We live in

an age right now where we if we want to

know a random fact, we could just put it in

our phone juck.

GBT, how old is so and so? And it's like,

what am I doing with this information? I'm just nosy? Right,

So we just have all.

This information we're discovering, but we're discovering our gifts.

So they could be deployed.

Does that make sense if we go if we look

again the Romans Chapter twelve, verse six, it says, having

gifts that differ according to the grace giving to us,

let us use them.

So I know my gift, now use it. Verse Peter

four ten says, as each has received a gift, use

it to serve one another. As good stewards of God's

varied grace. There's a good quote here by Christine Kane.

Here it says, you're calling may be different, but your

commitment should be the same, no matter you're gifting, no

matter where you're called in the Body of Christ, We're

all called to be committed to what our part is,

not necessarily what the platform is. So you may be thinking, man,

I'm starting to lean into my call in my gifting.

I'm gonna fill this out and I take it serious,

but like, what do I do next? How do I

do this? And I was thinking about that because if

we're not careful, we'll start deploying our gifts.

For our glory and not God's glory. You know what,

I am a good teacher, So then you know what.

I'm gonna launch a podcast today. That might not be

your season.

Your season may be to help somebody who already has

a podcast, because member spiritual gifting doesn't mean that you're

spiritually mature yet. And it made me think about active

duty military orders. We have people that are in the

military and then all of a sudden they get these

active duty orders, and these active duty orders tell you

where you're headed when you're leaving.

How long it's going to be. I think we have

an example of it.

So if we look at this example right here, this

person is leaving on the twenty second of November and

they're in this spot until May eleven, two thousand and

thirty one, and they're going to Colleen, Texas, and their

position is a communications staff officer.

When are they going? Now? How long are they going

for the next nine years?

And in the military that's known that this is not negotiated,

they'd be like, wait.

I'm not Texas. No no, no, no, no, no no.

I thought I was going to San Diego. I need

to talk to somebody two thousand and thirty one. No, no, no, no,

I do this till like spring twenty twenty six.

That's not how it works.

But somehow, in the Kingdom of God, we think that's

how it works. You know, I have some intimate knowledge

about this because when I worked that Bank of America,

I would serve as customers that are military customers.

Because there's there's what's called.

The SCR SCR, the Service Member Civil Relief Act, meaning

that when somebody is on active duty military orders that

got to pick clows on your house your interest rate

can't exceed six percent, etcetera, etcetera. But certain protections that

are held for relief for people that were serving. Now,

when I worked a Bank of America, I would have

teams that would help serve those customers. And it's unfortunate,

but what would happen is people would send in military

orders and say, Hey, I need relief on my mortgage

because these are my active duty orders.

And then when we would look at the active.

Duty orders, we're say, but you're not on active duty.

So we would have to go to the DOJ website

and we would have to confirm is this person really

on active duty? And there would be times where certain

people were not on active duty, but they were expecting

the relief that was.

Promised from active duty.

So we would have to have the tough conversations that

the relief that you're asking for is connected to your

service and right now you're not serving.

And that had me think about the.

Kingdom of God, because in the Kingdom of God, we

pray often about God to give.

Us relief in certain areas, and.

The relief that God has given us is not connected

to our giftings.

They're connected to our service.

See when we see Jesus, he's not gonna say well done,

my good and famous gifted. He's gonna say, well done,

my good and faithful servant. So let's not let our

gifting outweigh our service and letting us not be praying

for different reliefs and protection but not focusing on what

team Jesus operations look like.

So as you, hey man, thank you for clapping. Bro.

As you, as we conclude today, I want you to

think about, Okay, the spiritual gifts that He's given me

are connected.

To how I worship God. So if I'm.

Living a life as a sacrifice to God, that means

when God gives me gifts, I could be trusted to

use them for His glory. But no matter what gifts

I have, I still have responsibility. So what that means

is you may not know your gift today, but you

do know your duty today is to serve, is to love,

is to be in community. And the more that you're

in community and the more you're walking with Jesus, the

more it's easy to determine what your spiritual gifts are.

But as you have these spiritual gifts, we live a

life of sacrifice for them. Continuing to be deployed, not

for our attention, but for God's attention. Not for our glory,

but for God's glory. You know, anytime I'm thinking about

getting somebody a gift, and I don't know exactly what

they need, but I want to honor them, I give

them a gift gift card.

You about to give a gift card.

And the thing about a gift card is it gives

you access to use this gift. But before there's some

instructions on the back. Many times you'll have to peel

this off and you'll have to call the owner to

access the gifts that are given. And partly what God

wants to do as we conclude this message, is he's

telling us I don't want the requirement for you to

be using your gifts.

It is for you to go through a cycle of brokenness.

And the only way that I can get your attention

is letting life break you down to be able to

be poured out.

There is an.

Availability that I can put something in you as long

as you stay connected with me and call me right

all right?

So as God has given you specific.

Spiritual gifts, the question is have you called and got

access to your gifts from the Father.

That's the whole point of this message. Yes, you're gifted,

but why are you gifted?

Because there is an owner and his love language is glory,

and God gets glorified when we live our lives as

a living sacrifice, having access to these gifts to be

poured out in service for Jesus. Lord, thank you for

this message that you've challenged us, and you've reminded us.

That our life is to be a living sacrifice for you, you've

gifted us and for some of us.

God, you've given us more interpretation of our suffering and

of our brokenness.

You're trying to get our attention.

And as you're grabbing our attention and your infinite wisdom,

help us to pour out our gifts for you. Help

us to stay in community, so that way, as we're

in community, that the people that are around us will

affirm our tendencies. And God, may we not think that

just because we're gifted, that we're exempt from spiritual responsibilities

to love you and to serve you and make you

known in Jesus name. We pray Amen and Amen. You know,

before we get out of here, what's more important than

your spiritual gift? Is your spiritual condition. And I don't

want to take for granted that some of you guys

are going to take the gift test and you're going

to know what your gifts are and so forth.

But before we do that, we.

Don't want to skip steps. You may know church, but

that doesn't equal you know Jesus. So when we're talking

about the calling card and I'm sorry, I'm sorry, the

gift card and calling to access your gifts? Have you

called the Father yet to access his forgiveness? Because his

freedom and his forgiveness is available to all of us.

There are some of us in this room tonight that

when we were singing worship songs there were things that

are going on in your mind that you're hoping that

Jesus comes in and intervenes, and he will do that

because he loves you. But what Jesus is thinking about

in this moment is what are you going to do

after I heal? What are you gonna do after I restore?

He is saying, will you surrender your life to me?

So the thing about God the Father, he loves us

so much.

He didn't want.

Relationship without us, but we chose sin, and being that

we chose sin. Sin separates us from God the Father.

But Jesus loves you and I so much. He says,

you know what, the death that they deserve. Put that

on me and let me resurrect and sit at your

right hand, and let me await those that respond to

my call of forgiveness and my call of freedom. This

is not about improvement. This is not about behavior modification.

This is just about surrender. This is just about a

call of confession, of saying, you know what. I believe

that Jesus Christ died on the cross from my sins.

I believe he's the only way to heaven, and I

believe I don't have enough to make it there.

So I will love everybody to close their eyes for

a moment. Have you prayed that prayer to give your

life to Jesus? I know you've heard other people praying it,

But have you done that.

As our eyes are closed and our heads are about

Maybe you prayed that prayer years ago you gave your

life to Jesus. There's just certain situations that have happened

in your life.

And you're just cautious. It's just we just started straying

away from Jesus. We're still doing the same rhythms. We're

coming to church, but we just don't feel less close

to Jesus. Let's rejedicate our life tonight.

I'm gonna ask everybody to pray this prayer to repeat

after me.

This prayer is not.

Gonna save you, but it's that feeling you have in

your soul that you want freedom in. You're gonna get

set free tonight. There's two groups of people in here.

You're gonna give your life to Jesus for the first

time or the second group you're gonna continue in your

faith journey rededicating your life to Jesus, and we.

As a community. Let's pray that prayer to cather to

encourage those that.

Are praying this prayer for the first time or for

the last time, repeat.

This after me.

Please say, dear Lord Jesus, I believe that you died

on the cross for all of my sin. From this

moment forward, you are my savior and my Lord. Teach

me to trust you, give me a desire to be

in your word.

Surround me with community that points me to you. In

Jesus' name, we pray. Let's all open our eyes online

lock in with me.

If you just pray that prayer for the first time

to give your life to Christ.

You just prayed that prayer to rededicate your life to Christ.

If you're in the building, when I count to three,

I want you to shoot your hand very high in the.

Air like this to just declare your freedom.

If you are online, what I want you to do

is just give me a yes, what an exclamation point?

Just give me the hand emoji on the counter of three.

We are doing this for Jesus one two. Let's students,

for Jesus one two three. Go ahead and raise your

hand high, Raise your hand high.

Come on Church. Look at all the hands that are

raised up high. Come on Church.

We can do way better than that. Congratulations. Thank you

for your courage. Jesus loves you. He's right there with you,

and he's right.

There for you. Hallelujah. Wait.

Hey, if you just prayed that prayer for the first

time or the last time, we have some information on

the screens. If you go to www dot Grow dot faith,

we want to put a PDF book in your hand

from pastor Diego. It just talks about your next steps

in the faith journey. And speaking of your faith journey,

maybe your next step is going to growth track.

It's a class we have every Sunday at nine am.

Teaches you more about Patriots vision and values, but more

about your gifts and how God has uniquely wired you

to make a difference in His kingdom.

Amen. Also, I don't want you.

To forget if you text gift to seven one, seven

sixty seven, we want to send that test out to you.

Just answer the questions.

It'll take you less than two minutes to answer the questions.

We just want you to lean into more of who

you are and how God has wired you to make

a difference.

Amen, let's all stand to our feet. There's hundreds of kids.

That are going to be on the property this upcoming weeks.

So I want to pray for our VBS. And if

you want to get your kids shirts, they'll be in

the courtyard.

And also this is like the last chance.

That you can get your tickets, so that you can

go ahead and get your tickets. They'll be in the

courtyard right in the center. And if you need specific prayer,

there'll be a prayer team that'll pray for you. Heavenly Father,

we pray for our VBS this weekend. Our vacation Bible school.

I thank you for our volunteers, I thank you for

our staff.

I thank you.

Father God that it will be a safe haven for

kids to be transformed by the gospel. I pray in

the name of Jesus for salvation, and I pray that

these kids will know how much you love them and

are for them. And may this week for these kids

becore memories in their mind. May vacation Bible School impact families.

In Jesus' name, we pray. Hey, man, God, bless you.

You're dismissed. Thank you so much.