Spiritual Gifts

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited to be in church today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited to bring the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: I count it as a privilege and an honor every time I get to open the word of God with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before I get into the message, I just wanted to... First of all, I want to thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, as I said, I count this privilege to be able to share the word with you, and I appreciate your encosements, your love, your affection that you give to me, and it doesn't go on notice, so I thank you for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But also, you know, I wanted to also say that in a weird way, it feels weird and uncomfortable as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you see me here today sharing the word and, you know,

[SPEAKER_00]: But I saw me when I was seventeen, eighteen years old, high school dropout.

[SPEAKER_00]: Parents had just left on mission alone, not knowing what God was gonna make of my broken life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And after last week, we had Zach come, who was here last week for Zach?

[SPEAKER_00]: What an amazing week in our church, what an amazing weekend.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he spoke about humility and becoming a low place and becoming people of humility and grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say that today because as I said, I really appreciate your encouragement, but also I wanted to just direct it because I don't think any of what I am is because of anything that I've done, but all because of the grace and the love of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know what God was going to make in my story back when I dropped out of school.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't know where you are at, but I don't know if you look back on your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you wonder where would I have been without for God?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so today we're going to be talking about spiritual gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe everyone has a spiritual gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe everyone has something that God has imparted to them to use for His kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to speak about that today, but I don't want to speak about it in a way that makes you feel better about yourself rather than the rather.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to speak about it in a way that makes you feel better about the person of Christ within you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he is the giver of all gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all our futile attempts to muster up our own strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: gifts and talents and abilities is all pointless really when it's not connected to the person of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just wanted to use that frame this morning and I wanted to open the word with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I love what Charles Spurgeon says.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think one of the greatest lies that we've believed is the Western Church is that mission happens out there or overseas or in a third world country.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think we've sold ourselves short because I don't think that's the purpose of the Christian life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think Charles Spurgeon understood something that maybe we should learn to grasp in our world is that mission is not something that some people do in a far off land.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mission is something that we all do wherever we are.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that mission that God calls us to is the great commission to make disciples of all nations.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in the purpose of God outworking His plan in the world, He uses people, broken, ordinary people like you and I to give us gifts to then make that happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're going to unpack a passage of scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: You saw on the video just there, there were some apostles, prophets, teachers, all of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We read that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But most of the New Testament that you would read in terms of all the New Testament books, most of them are written by a man named Apostle Paul, who his mission was to equip the church for the work of ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is speaking to churches.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is writing to churches.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is trying to get the church to understand that mission is not something that some people do, but that we're all called to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so today we're going to open our Bibles up to first Corinthians chapter twelve.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you have your Bibles with you, feel free to open up right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you don't, have your Bibles going to be up on the screen behind you, we're going to read from verse one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to read a big chunk of scripture here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope we're okay to read the Bible here in church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, but we're going to read through it from start to bottom and then we're going to pray from top to bottom, sorry, and then we're going to unpack it.

[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians, twelve, verse one.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what it says.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know that when you are pagans, you will let us stray to mute idols, however you were led.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, I want you to understand that no one's speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus is a curse.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now there are varieties of gifts but the same spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a varieties of service but the same Lord and there are varieties of activities but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: to each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

[SPEAKER_00]: For one is given through the Spirit, the utterance of wisdom to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues to another, the interpretation of tongues.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you catching it here?

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's making a point here about spiritual gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of these gifts are empowered by the one and the same spirit who abortions to each one individually as he wills.

[SPEAKER_00]: for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body though many are one body so it is with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: For in one spirit we will all baptize into one body, juice or Greek slaves or free and all were made to drink of one spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the foot should say because I'm not a hand I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less part of the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?

[SPEAKER_00]: And if the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

[SPEAKER_00]: But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose, if all were a single member, where would the body be?

[SPEAKER_00]: As it is, there are many parts, yep, one body.

[SPEAKER_00]: The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nor the head to the feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have no need of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we'd bestow the greater honor.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our unpredictable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God has so composed the body, giving great, great honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: If one member suffers all suffer together, if one member is on and all rejoice together, let's pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we're thankful for our time today to open your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we pray that as we open it, that we would be in light, we would be be awakened to what you want to speak to us today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you illuminate what you want to speak through your word?

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you be with us and begin to speak to our hearts, those deeper parts of our being.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or give this morning this time to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's unpack this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's notice from the start, I want you to notice this as well, is that Paul does something really critical from the outset of this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: He assumes something.

[SPEAKER_00]: He assumes that everyone has a gift given from God, every person.

[SPEAKER_00]: No matter how far in faith you are, no matter how distant you are from faith, even if you're not in the faith at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Such is the grace of God that He gives gifts to all people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul, sometimes I think in our churches we try to like, we have a lot of talks like this trying to muster up gifts or find gifts or unveil gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think if we're really honest with ourselves, we know the gift that God has given us.

[SPEAKER_00]: I might not know it, but I'm telling you, you right now, you know something that is within you, that God has given you, that is unique to you,

[SPEAKER_00]: and Paul assumes that everyone knows what that gift is.

[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is not a lack of gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: The problem that Paul is addressing is a lack of obedience with your gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I unpacked it, he says, I do not want you to be uninformed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is actually here correcting the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: The church very clearly and current has gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: The church here today has gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody here has a gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: The question is not whether you have a gift or not.

[SPEAKER_00]: The question is what are you using your gift for?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul assumes that from the outset, because I want to tell you before you even a follower of Jesus, before you even live your life for Jesus, you had a gift that God gave you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when your gifts are disconnected from the giver, your gift becomes confused and void of meaning and purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul here is in a weird way, disciplining the church, correcting the church about the use of their gift because the problem is an inactivity in gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's obedience to the gift that God has given you.

[SPEAKER_00]: and so Paul uses this metaphor.

[SPEAKER_00]: He, in the start of this passage, assumes that everyone has a gift and then he uses this metaphor about a body.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is a metaphor that Paul would use multiple times throughout Scripture to try and explain the reality of the church and the purpose of the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here he is using the metaphor of the body in relation to spiritual gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he identifies two different things that we can do with our gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And more so he's identifying two things that he wants to correct in our gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: You catch in that with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're gonna unpack these two things today.

[SPEAKER_00]: That Paul is correcting in the church when it comes to the use of their gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the first thing is this is Paul is correcting a jealous gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's addressing a jealous gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice what it says.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: That would not make it any less part of the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if the ears should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul is talking about maybe a dialogue that is happening within the Corinthian church here, where there's people in the church that's saying, maybe this is what we could put it into our context.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm not a preacher, that means I don't have anything or any part to play.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't serve in any musical instruments, that means I don't have a part to play.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's an inbuilt jealousy of going, well, like, I wish I had that gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if I could play that, if I could do that, then maybe I'd be useful to the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul is addressing this trying to correct this mindset because I think sometimes we long so much for the gift that somebody else has that we forget to get the gift that's right in front of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me explain this.

[SPEAKER_00]: When I was in prep, we had this Christmas in July, and it was like a Chris Kringle and we all bought a gift for someone in the class, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is embarrassing story for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're all opening our gifts, we're all opening them up, and I noticed one of my good friends got something that I really wanted.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was like a really cool car.

[SPEAKER_00]: and I lost it, absolutely lost it, trying my eyes out because I wanted the gift that my friend got.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember trying and trying and trying and eventually my dad came and picked me up, I was still crying at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And my dad said, Zeek, you know when you cry about the gift that that person got a new wish you had, you're not dishonoring that person, you're dishonoring the person that gave you the gift that you have.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tell you what a jealous gift does.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not dishonoring the person who has the gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's dishonoring the person who gave you your gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the same way.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we dishonor the gift and we long to have something that someone else has, we're not dishonoring that person.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're dishonoring God.

[SPEAKER_00]: The giver of all gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's how bad my memory is.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even remember the gift that was in my hand in prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: It blinds us to the things that God has for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have many jealous gifts with the church and often jealous gifts are more concerned with visibility than with faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And ultimately, jealous gifts tell God that he got it wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, God, when you gave me that, you're wrong because I wanted that one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tell God that we got it wrong and ultimately a jealous gift turns partners in ministry to competitors.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now we're fighting.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no unity in the body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And ultimately, when you get down to the ground level, when you strip it all back, the real motivation behind this sort of gift, when you're longing for something else that you don't have, in a gift sense,

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not so much concerned about worshiping God, you're more concerned about worshiping yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the gift that you don't have has become an idol to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And jealous gifts rob the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't rob the church of money.

[SPEAKER_00]: They rob the church of purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I love this picture, this metaphor that Paul uses of the body, because when we don't operate in the gift that God has given us, we turn into a limping church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we wonder why our mission or efforts feel so hard, and they take so much time, and we feel like it's just a wrestle all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's because we're not being faithful with the thing that God has given us in our hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have this church that everyone wants to be a hand or everyone wants to be the eyes or everyone wants to be the mouth and rather than just being obedient with the thing that God has given us.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be a church who can run, but it means we all need to operate in the thing that God has given us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it isn't just jealous gifts that God and that Paul is speaking to here.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that he's not just that he's trying to correct.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's also trying to correct the prideful gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice this.

[SPEAKER_00]: The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And often, maybe some of you in here, like rubbing your hands, like we identify these gifts, the prideful gift, and we go, right, it's time for the preachers and the worship leaders to get a lesson today.

[SPEAKER_00]: The prideful gift can creep in in anyone's life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not just people on platform, yes, there is an inherent risk around being up in front of people for pride to creep in, but pride can creep in at any level, in any gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: And ultimately, the heart of this prideful heart is, I don't need anyone else to help me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's saying, you know, you can do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll just do my thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't need anyone to help me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want anyone around me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need any accountability.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need anyone to work with me through this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm good by myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you think, and often in our culture, we see that it's strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: Self-sufficiency is seen as a strength in our modern culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: How good is it when people don't need help?

[SPEAKER_00]: How good is it when we can do things all by ourselves?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is something that we celebrate in our culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we think it's a strength, but in the kingdom of God, in the body of Christ, it's actually sabotaging the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: and ultimately the prideful gift thinks they're the point of the thing when really they're just the part of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It leads you to believe that you are the main thing when actually it is crossed through the main thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's funny how both the jealous gift and the prideful gift make an idol of the very thing that they're chasing and God gets it he thrown.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted to just take a moment here because when your gift and the prideful gift begins to take root in a church, what happens?

[SPEAKER_00]: The church community becomes the casualty of your ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just wanted to take a moment to apologize to anyone in this room.

[SPEAKER_00]: who has served under a leader where pride took root in their heart and their gift became the point of everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: When it actually was never meant to be that, it's meant to be the person of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted to take a moment to apologize for anyone in this room as a result of someone's ministry who's been hurt.

[SPEAKER_00]: who's been, maybe, pushed out or damaged because of someone in ministry who's allowed pride to take heart and root.

[SPEAKER_00]: I apologize for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I apologize on the church as barra.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's just something that, it's true that what happens when pride gets in our hearts and when you allow our gifts to rule and reign in our own lives, the church is the casualty of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The very body that you're a part of is the thing that you hurt the most.

[SPEAKER_00]: And my question to you this morning is what party you're playing or refuse the play.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you feel like your gift isn't valuable and you wish you had someone else's gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you think your gift is too valuable and you want to flaunt it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some of you just sit back because it's easier to consume rather than to contribute.

[SPEAKER_00]: In our spoke a couple months ago, last month, about sin and how it damages churches and how it hurts our churches.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's true, but I cannot tell you what else damages and hurts the church, sitting, doing nothing with your gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if we really are to believe the words of Paul, that we all are a part of the body, that we all have a part to play when we refuse to use it.

[SPEAKER_00]: is only hurting the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: We turn into a limping church, a crawling church, a church that is ineffective.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now I know what's in your mind right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you turn your attention to the screen, there's going to be a QR code to join Team Discovery.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm joking, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not about a team drive.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not signing up for Team today.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not what we're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually deeper than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about feeling roster positions.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about getting you to do something here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, that might be your step, but that's not the point of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The point of it is that I want you to know that you have a gift that is to serve the capital sea church to serve the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we actually need to learn that each person, some people, someone's breakthrough today might just be that my gift is valuable.

[SPEAKER_00]: My gift can be used.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it doesn't fit in one of the boxes that we do here at church.

[SPEAKER_00]: But hey, when I'm down at the cafe, I can use it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some people need to believe that what God has given them is valuable, and it is given honor, and it's worth celebrating.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people need to break the live of their life that they have nothing to contribute.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this is the plight of the Western churches that there's, usually it's the small amount that serve the many.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if we're a part of a community where it was the whole serving all?

[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine a church where each person is activated where they are, where each person is activated in their church, in their community, in their workplace, in their uni, in their school.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we are all sent that we're all partnering with one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine that picture for a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And imagine this picture.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we don't, if we leave here and just go, good measure is eat, but it's all good.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll just move on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be a good message next week though.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tell you what happens in our churches, three things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Honor leaves our church.

[SPEAKER_00]: on a culture is gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: We no longer honor each other because we're so prideful in our own gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: Second thing, celebration dies.

[SPEAKER_00]: We no longer can celebrate the winds of other people because we are so jealous of what that other person has achieved.

[SPEAKER_00]: But ultimately, if you get down to the root of it, crisis and glorified,

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, one part suffers, it says right there, and one part suffers all suffer.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when one is honored, all are honored.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I said at the start of this message, how about we rather than being a community that are in competition with each other?

[SPEAKER_00]: or jealous of one another, or prideful of the thing that we bring.

[SPEAKER_00]: We would just have an onoculture and a celebration culture where we acknowledge the gifts that people have in them, not because they've mastered them up themselves, but because Christ has put them in them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we can lift each other up because when we lift each other up, Christ is glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you something, there's this thing that we think in our culture where we can't talk to up people too much.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not true because we think that we like, oh, they might get powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they might.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like you were a part of a body of Christ that careful and looked after and journey with each other and keep each other accountable.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here in this room, I believe, and I don't understand, but I don't understand it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why can't just Jesus do it all for us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why couldn't he just come, done the cross, risen again, come back straight away, fix all the problems that we have, and then we'll be good, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would he just do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why does he choose to use broken people to outwork his purposes?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great mystery.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I know in his word, it says, that's how he works.

[SPEAKER_00]: And someone needs to believe today that you are his chosen instrument to outwork his kingdom here on this earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what, there's a couple of people I want on here today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ian Kirkwood, right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you don't know what he does or the skills or the talents that he gives, but he was instrumental in us being able to launch the Franks in campus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you don't even know the work and the hours and the time that he put in for that to happen, but he did and it came at significant cost, not just to him, but to his family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to thank you and on you for what you gave to this church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Jerry Nyhouse, up here.

[SPEAKER_00]: This man, I don't know if you've had the pleasure of having a conversation with this man.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sits there every week, so you can go sit next to him if you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jerry is one of the most encouraging uplifting people you ever meet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know, I don't know many people in this church who would see a new person, even a young adult, and just walk up and say, hey, once you come sit with us,

[SPEAKER_00]: comes it with our family.

[SPEAKER_00]: We may see that as a small thing that's not important.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm telling you, Jerry Knighthouse welcomes and opens up his table for people he's displaying the hospitality and the love of Christ as he opens his arms and opens his family table.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Jerry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Gabby.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Gabby, some of you may know her, but she's worse, she worse, she bleeds on our team, but that's not what I want to honor her for.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may know her husband more, he's here often, he's up front, he speaks, Vin, we love Vin.

[SPEAKER_00]: But lots of people don't know the cost of someone standing in ministry, that someone who's got to be at home.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paying the price for raising kids, raising children, and she still serves our church, and she still gives herself

[SPEAKER_00]: But man, Gabby, I just want to say that I see you, God sees you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're a gift to this church.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're a gift to the body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're a gift to Vin who gets the common serve and uses gifts, but also just more than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to say that you're a beautiful expression of serving God in this season.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you think that just because you're having families and kids that you're, your season needs to slow down or stop, no, no, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: Serving your family and kids is ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the great commission says, go and make disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, Gabby has no choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's got kids with her all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: She has to disciple them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But hey, could you stand with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: What now?

[SPEAKER_00]: What now?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's really practical.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got just a couple practical things for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just identify a gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just close your eyes for a moment, babe.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to tell you what your gift is, you know what it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Christ has given that to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So identify your gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: Confess prior to jealousy, things that have taken your gift and misused it, redirected it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just confess that in your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you need to celebrate someone, on a someone.

[SPEAKER_00]: On of the gift and other people, because it's no quicker way to kill pride and jealousy than to honor and celebrate someone else for the Christ that is in them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, you know, what does it you need to do to serve?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it is serving, I'd seen here, maybe it's not that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, maybe you run a business, maybe you're out in the world, maybe you're a teacher, a lecturer, or a doctor, or nurse, or whatever it is, how can you serve?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you're gifted is important.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Lord, you see each person here and you see what they're walking through, you know they're gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you gave it to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Lord, we pray as they confess as they come before you.

[SPEAKER_00]: and say, hey, hey, Lord, I know my gift has been.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe caught up in jealousy or caught up in pride.

[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't been using my gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, hiding it away or maybe I've been faunting it and taking the credit for someone that wasn't ever meant to be my credit Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, we're just praying for a community of believers who would say, hey, God, you've given me this gift and I'm gonna use it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not for our glory or our fame, but Lord, it's for your glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: to bring you praise, to bring you honor, to put you on the throne, to put you in your rightful place, Lord, which you destroy the idols that we've placed in our own heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: The idols where we think that we don't need anyone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need anyone to walk with us that we're all good by ourselves, which you destroy that idol this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: and Lord would you destroy jealousy where we wish that we were someone else, that we wish we had the gift of someone else, that we wish we were like that other person or remind them that you made them, that you formed them, that you've given them gifts and you have a plan and a purpose for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Lord we pray for this whole room.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray that we'd be a church so that's not the few serving the manning, but many serving on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Lord, we pray all these things in your precious and powerful name.

[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody said, and everybody said, Amen, team, can you lead us in some worship?

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.