Here for Him | Your Role In The Church | 1 Corinthians 12:4-27 | Coleton Segars

We are finishing today.

We're finishing today a series that we've been in for about 12 weeks called Hear for Him.

And we've been looking at everything that we do in the life of the church, that it is pointed to and elevating Jesus and about Him.

And so I just real quickly wanted to run through the weeks that we went through and learned on these things as we finished.

So the first is it's very small, I'm sorry, but you can watch.

If you can read that, awesome.

If you want it, I can send it to you.

But I'm just going to read this.

This is this is what we talked about in the series.

That the church is Jesus' church.

He purchased it with his blood and has given it to us to be stewards of.

So everything that we do here is for him because it's his bride.

We preach the word because God wants to speak to us, and we were made to fully live on his words and not bread alone.

We sing because we are joining the worship of heaven that is happening right now.

And because he inhabits the praises of his people and his presence is experienced when we worship.

We eat together to be bonded as a community.

Jesus changed the world by who he ate with.

And when we eat together, we get a foretaste of the heavenly meal to come in God's kingdom.

We seek to bless through missions and caring for the world because it's our privileged right to bless, and it's to reveal what our God is like in the world.

We gather together, this is Rainey and what she taught, gather together because we need each other, and I will know God better after having been with you.

Your faith, your marriage, your parenting, your words give me a more full picture of what Jesus is actually like.

We give sacrificially of our money and possessions because God wants to protect us from the dangers of greed and to give the way that Jesus has given to us sacrificially.

We take communion to celebrate Jesus, to be reminded of his love for us.

That he took our sins penalty, uh death so that we could feast.

So he died so that we could feast.

We have elders and deacons because Jesus has established this way of leadership to care for his bride so that the church is cared for and led well.

That's what we've talked about over the last 11 weeks.

And today we're gonna finish it by looking at what is the role of the believers in the church.

Um and so to look at not just the leadership in the church, the pastors, elders, and deacons, but to look at the role of believers in the church.

And I recognize that everybody's on the same page as it as it pertains to believing in Jesus and things like that.

But as far as it's the believers in the life of the church, we want to look at what that, what your role is for this church specifically, if you are a believer who attends this church regularly.

So the teaching text for today uh is 1 Corinthians 12.

Uh, it's long, 4 through 27.

So we're gonna roll through this.

But this is Paul writing about the role uh of the church, and he says, There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them.

There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

There are different kinds of working, but in all of them, but in all of them and in every one, it is the same God at work.

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

To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit, to another faith faith by the same spirit, to another, they receive gifts of healing by that one spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits and discernment, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and still another to the interpretation of tongues.

All these are the work of one and the same spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Just as a body, the one has many parts, that all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

For we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, we were all given the one spirit to drink.

Even so, the body is not made up of one part, but of many.

Now, if the foot should say, Because I'm not the hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

And if the ear should say, Because I'm not the eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, one, that'd be weird, and then where would the sense of hearing be?

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

But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

If they were all one part, where would the body be?

As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you, and the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.

On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

And the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor.

And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.

But God has done this and put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there would be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for one another.

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.

If one part is honored, then every part rejoices in that honor.

Now, you are the body of Christ, and each one of you has a part in it.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

What is the role of believers in the in a church like ours, in a church community like ours?

I've been in ministry for almost 20 years, and there are a number of ways that I've seen people be a part of a local community and church.

Um they're rather funny, uh, and not an indictment or judgment on anyone, but this is just the way that people have attended church sometimes that I've seen.

The first that I've seen that people try to make their role and be a part of the church is the trying to be a good person churchgoer.

So this churchgoer goes to church because they're trying to be a good person, and they believe that God just wants them to go to church more often than they don't go to church.

And so they're just like, I feel like I'm just like putting another marker in the good, good column.

That's the try to be a good person churchgoer.

There's the social churchgoer.

This is the I go to church because that's where my friends go.

It's basically middle school or high school to them.

It's where my business connections are.

I'll be there when my social connections are, and if my social connections are anywhere else, I can promise you I'll go there.

I've seen that type of church goer.

Again, no shame, no judgment, just stating what I've seen in the church over 20 years.

Uh, then there's the sampler platter churchgoer.

This is like a going to like a golden chorale.

Uh, this is the type of person that like I get my worship from this church because it's more charismatic or not.

My communion over here because they really hold the Eucharist this way versus the other way.

This ministry for my kids, this ministry for my youth.

I go to this church for my marriage, this one for my mental health, this one for the preaching, and on and on.

But never really committed to any single church.

Um, but they know a bunch about every other church in the story.

And then last but not least, and my personal favorite, the I enjoy being critical churchgoer.

I'm not making this up.

This is the person that goes to church because they have problems with the church, and they just like telling people they have problems with them.

And it's like, why do you come here?

I think you hate it.

And it's like, I know.

And you're like, okay, alright.

You just your own path there.

Um but all of these, maybe not the last one, but all of these are well-meaning.

I don't think that any of these churchgoers are seeking to do something hurtful or divisive.

Maybe the last one was.

Um, but that's not the role that believers are supposed to have in the life of the church.

That's not their space in there, that's not the way they're supposed to attend or commit to a church.

But to me, in each of those, while well-meaning, they just don't know what their role actually is.

And so because they don't know what their role actually is, they just made one up for themselves.

And it's like, I'll just do this, and I think this is completely fine.

And so, what I want to do today is really just to answer the question: what is our role?

Not to throw judgment on people who attend church differently or whatever, but just for our community to go like, here's here's what the scriptures say, like your role is actually supposed to be.

And not to be this weighty thing, but to actually be this invitation into a thing.

And so that's what I want to deal with today.

What's our role?

There are four texts, uh, and there's more, but there are primarily four texts in the scriptures that talk about the role of people, your role as a believer in Jesus, your role in the church.

They are 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4.

Easy to remember because there's 12, 12, 4, 4.

Um, based on these texts, and the teaching text what we have was 1 Corinthians 12, but we're gonna hit all of these as we're kind of rolling through today.

But based on these texts, this is the the gist of what it says about you.

It says that Jesus is the head of the body, which is the church.

If you are a believer in Jesus, he says that you are a part, you are a body part, uh-huh, and have been given a spiritual gift from the spirit of Jesus.

And the role he calls you to individually is to function, every one of you is to function as part of his body, using the gifts he has given you by his spirit.

This is the role that he has called believers to based on the text that exists when it's talking about those things.

This is that he is the head of the body, he's the one that makes the decisions, but when he's seeking to make a decision and wants the hand to move, the hand needs to move and function as part of its body so that the hands of Jesus actually are doing what they what he wants them to do in the world.

This is what he calls us to.

And so, what I want to do is I kind of want to go piece by piece through this and just explain some of this and why these things are important to us as a church.

Um not only here's the role, but why we need to fulfill that role for the church to flourish, and then where in our church you could actually begin utilizing your gifts in the life of our church.

So those are the things.

So the first is you are, Jesus says, you are a unique and integral part of the body.

You are a unique snowflake and integral part of the body of Christ.

Uh Paul said it in the teaching text.

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

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

And he's rolling through this thing, it's like there's different parts for different people.

Every believer in the church has a role to play as part of the body.

And this is really, really important for us to understand because what can happen in the life of the church is that one person can just do everything.

And just, especially in a small church, one person can just do everything.

Or a handful of people in the church can just function in every role that exists in the life of the church.

And they either do that because they feel bad and don't want to ask anybody else in the church, they're like, you're already here, I don't want to put anything else on you, or I don't know how to delegate, or I feel like actually if I gave it to you and I did delegate, you'd do a terrible job, and so I don't want that to happen.

And so, like, any of those reasons, regardless of why they're choosing to do everything for themselves, or this particular group of people is doing everything, any of those reasons are less than what we're called to and less than healthy because what it means is that one body part in the in the body is doing everything.

And I love the illustration that Paul gives here about the body or the analogy of the body because it makes so much sense.

Like we all understand this.

If if you lost the ability to use your hands and for a minute had to use your feet to drive, like you all recognize, like, I might be able to do it in a pinch, but this ain't gonna go well.

Like it's gonna be real bad.

It's not gonna happen as well as we want it to.

Or if you lost your sense of the ability to hear, and so you still needed to listen to somebody, but you had to use your eyes to listen, and so you're trying to lip read, again, you might be able to do it.

But the idea exists in the fact that, like, man, the best way to actually hear somebody speaking is to utilize the body part that's built for that.

The best way to drive is to utilize the body parts that are built for those things, those things.

And if you don't have those things, you might be able to do it for a bit, but you're never gonna function at the peak of what you're supposed to function, and then somebody's being left out because they've received that specific gifting, and they're that specific part of it, and they need to be elevated to a space of going, like, look, you're the feet, you do it.

Um, friend of mine, Helen, is here, um, just a just a warrior in the kingdom of God.

I love Helen uh so much.

Uh but we have a mutual friend named uh Dakota.

Uh Dakota, I love you if you ever listen to this.

Um and uh but Dakota is um he's like a he's a trainer, a CrossFit dude, and uh he can walk on his hands, he can do like handstand walks, like he could do it all over the place here.

Um and it's it's really interesting for him to do it, um, and they do it as competition and stuff like that.

But for him to do that, like that's not the proper way of walking.

Um, and he knows that.

And for him to do it is really impressive that he can do that, that the hands can do what the feet are supposed to do.

And I think that happens in the church.

It's like I can do everything in the church, I don't need anybody else.

It's like that's so impressive, but that's really not the way it's supposed to function.

And so for Dakota, even though he can do that, he also primarily uses his feet to do the walking.

Because he understands this is the best way moving forward.

This other way is real hard, and I get super tired and I get really, really worn out.

I use it as a workout, not as my primary experience in the life of the church.

And I think the same is true for the church.

The church can function with just one body part or a few body parts doing all of the things that the body is supposed to do.

It can function, it just will get tired and it will get burnt out, and it will never live up to its proper potential that it has, and it won't be doing the thing that Jesus actually wants it to do.

Every body part is supposed to move in unison with the head, and that means that it has a role.

And so for you, you are a unique, integral part of the body.

And so you have a space in the life of the church that no one else can meet because he has made you to meet that specific space in the church.

And if anybody else tries to do that for you, move them along and say, do your thing, stay in your lane, not in a mean way, but in order for the unity of the body to stay connected, the hand has to do this one, and this hand has to do this one, and if this one jumps over here and tries to get in this one's way, we think like, oh, there might be unity splitting these things up, or uh, we might be division splitting these things up and making this hand do this and this hand do this.

But we actually know the opposite is true.

If my hand tries to overtake this one, there becomes a wrestling match in this one, and I want to do this.

And that's what actually happens in the church.

And so it needs to be this space for us where we look at the roles that we have and understand you're a unique, integral part of the body, and you need to function in the body.

Um, and that's the way Jesus has set it up.

If you are a believer, that's what he's called you to.

Unique, integral part.

All right.

So that's the first.

The second is you are a unique integral part of the body, and you should operate in the body according to your gifting.

Romans 12, Paul says this says, For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy, in accordance with your faith.

If it's serving, then serve, if it's teaching, then teach.

If it's to encourage, then encourage.

Um, if it is giving, then give generously, and it is to lead, then do it diligently, and if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

And then Peter agrees with Paul when he talks about this exact same thing to a completely different church.

And he says this, he says, To the church, each of you, use whatever gift that you've received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in various forms.

If anyone speaks, they should speak as the one speaking the very works of God.

If anyone serves, they should do it with the strength that God provides.

And so what he's what both of them are saying, and what the scriptures are testifying to, is like you should operate not just as your body part, but you should operate in line with the gifting that you've received from the Spirit.

You are a body part with a gift, and you're to use that thing for the life of the church.

Um Patrick Lincioni is uh a leadership writer, and I love Patrick Lincioni, um, but he wrote this book here called uh Six Types of Working Genius, which I would recommend to anyone, if you're in leadership or not.

This is a phenomenal book.

Um but in it, he talks about the idea that there are six different types of work in any project.

If you're if you're doing the dishes, there are six different types of work in even doing the dishes, and he broke broke them all down from like the idea stage to the execution stage and all these different things.

And so the point of the book is to look at the six different types and go, for every person, go to the next slide here.

For every person, you have two types that give you joy, starting on the left.

You have two types that give you joy, passion, and fill you with energy.

You have two types that are neutral, they don't fill you or drain you, and then you have two types that steal your joy and energy and drain you.

And so the book is basically helping you to take an assessment to go, which types of work do you enjoy?

Because he wrote it going, I have, he's like, I have my own business, I have my own employees, I'm no one's no one's a boss over me, and yet I hate my job.

Why do I hate my job?

It's my my business.

Why do I hate my own business?

And he realized he's like, oh, I used to do this in my job when I owned the business, and then something happened over time, and I started doing this type of work, and this type of work steals from me.

And all he decided to do was to write the book to go, you if you have these things and you can figure them out, try to align your work with these because they give you joy.

Work in the neutral ones if you have to or want to, and then if you can, work to delegate the ones that give them to somebody else.

Because the idea is if you have a job that steals from you, or a type of work that steals from you, someone else loves that type of work.

They just love it.

Like if somebody, Rainy, Rainey, she could be given a task every single day and just loves a task and a checklist and all those different things.

If somebody gave me a task with a hundred different tasks to do as an Enneagram three, I would lose my mind.

I mean, I'll I'll do it and try and finish it as fast as I possibly can, but that is not work I enjoy.

But if someone says, like, hey, this thing over here, it's broken, we don't have any idea how to fix it.

So we just want you to go over there and fix it.

I'm like, this is gonna be the best day of my life.

Um so if I'm doing the dishes, and let's just say somebody comes in and tries to tell me how I should do the dishes, that doesn't go super well for Colton because that's not the type of work I enjoy to do.

But if somebody says, go do the dishes and however you want to do them, that's up to you.

And if I just shove them back in the cupboard, that's fine.

Um but in all those things, like it's just a different type of work.

And your type of work that steals from you gives joy and passion to other people.

And so the whole point is again to try and figure these things out.

And the reason I say all that is because I think it works the same with spiritual gifts.

It's supposed to work the same in the church.

You are given a spiritual gift that comes from the spirit of Jesus, and when you utilize that thing in the life of the church, it gives you passion and it fills you.

And the reason it does that is because it's not coming from you, it didn't initiate in you.

You're being poured into by the Spirit of Jesus that's then empowering you to do a thing.

And so when you do that, you could do it a lot, all over and over and over again, but when you do that, you're not tired or worn out or empty at the end.

You're actually more full.

I just did a thing that I was empowered to do, and it wasn't something I was constantly trying to urge, like get this stuff out of me to do it.

And so some of you understand that if you've served in the church in different ways, you're like, I love doing this, and I hate doing this.

And it's not like, and you feel bad saying it, like I don't hate Jesus or those people, but like, good Lord, please could anybody else do that thing?

And I and and that's actually normal.

That's supposed to be the thing, but the idea is this space for you that you're gifting and passion, you're supposed to do this thing and then allow other people to operate in their gifts in these spaces that drain you and stuff like that.

So, for example, I have a dear friend named Sean Darnell, and um, she used to work for me at the last church, and um I do not have the gift of mercy.

Um and so my friend Sean has like mercy, she's filled with it, the power of the spirit to listen to the longest and saddest stories, and to me, sometimes the most boring on and on stories from people.

And I love these people, but like I just don't have this, it's not a gift.

I have to really work at being merciful, but she she really doesn't have to.

And I would obviously, when people would come to us at the last church, I would listen to these people.

I wouldn't be like, hey, I don't have the gift of mercy, so get out of my face.

Like I'd never do that.

But it would be this space where we'd be like, Man, it's just if I have to sit and counsel people for so long, it's so draining on me.

And it's not that I don't want to do it.

I know there's there's parts of it, like you got to do some of this work, and that's just part of it.

Um, but that's a that's a piece that's draining on me.

You asked me to preach a weekend crusade thing, like, yes, I'm in, I'll do it.

How many times you need me to preach, I'm ready.

Um, but that's just not my thing.

But for her, it is.

And so it became a joke in our church that uh anytime a person would walk up to me and if they had tears in their eyes, then I would immediately start looking at like I'd be talking to them, but immediately like scanning the room, looking for Sean, and be like, we got a stage five crier here.

Like, Sean, what you got?

And uh, and normally, like, if she learned, like if she would, if she ever saw me, and I'm like, over here.

She would run in, she would run into the thing and be like, hey, is there something?

And I'm like, oh my goodness, Sean, thank you so much.

So glad you're here.

This is so-and-so.

They are really going through really hard time.

And I just I just wanted to connect.

She okay.

And it wasn't that I don't care, it's just like, look, man, I cannot help you the way that Sean can help you.

What you need is something I just don't have.

And she has it in droves, and she can help you tremendously, and it's empowered by the Spirit of God to do this thing for her.

And so the good thing about it was one, obviously, I you you don't walk away.

Sorry, I don't deal with cries, get out.

You don't do that.

Uh, and I would never do that.

And I don't even not like those people.

It's not that.

It's just like, I know this is gonna drain me, and you're not gonna receive the fullness of what you actually could have if you would go talk with Sean.

She would really benefit you.

And so the gift turned into where people were talking to Sean, where it was like, man, not only was she filled up with passion because she's utilizing her spiritual gift, but then also the people are receiving something directly from God Himself into their lives because she is pouring out what's been poured in.

And for me, I'm going, I'm just digging from an empty well here, going, like, here's some mercy, I think.

Like, I don't know, best practices.

But Sean was able to do it, and it was really wonderful.

And um, honestly, she doesn't work for me anymore.

It makes me sad.

Uh, but um so if you have the gift of mercy, just give me an I, you know, thing, and I'll be like, I'm like, we got a stage five crier over here.

Um but it's supposed to be that way.

Like you're supposed to know your gifting in order to be utilized in the life of the church, to be delegated to, like, hey, this thing is super important, and if I do it, I can do it.

But if you do it, it will come from a space in you that gives you passion and gives you joy.

And then it's also coming from a space where like the Lord Himself has equipped you to do a thing that can help.

Happen in the life of the church that's good for you.

And so the idea is not only are you integral and you're unique as a part of the body, but you have a gift that you should utilize in the life of the church because no one can do it the way that you do it, because God has empowered you to do it that way.

So operate in the church in accordance with your gift.

Some of you may not know your gifting, and we want to do a course on the gifts over the summer or possibly into the fall.

Because I don't really, I don't, I don't, if you've done an assessment, no shame on assessments.

I've done assessments on spiritual gifts too.

I don't believe much in assessments.

I think primarily the spirit, they didn't have them back in Paul's day.

They weren't like, and just take the assessment that I sent to Lyodicea and you're gonna love it.

Uh that's not, he didn't do that.

They were normally like they uh something that was you were in a community together, you knew each other, and so you were able to just see it.

Like it's just happening in front of you.

And you're like, you have the gift of teaching, you're calling things out of people, things that they that you because you're in such rich community, they're able to speak into you.

This clearly is something that God has empowered you to do.

So primarily they happen through relationships, but also you can just ask the gift giver.

Um, I if I ever give Teddy a gift or something like that, and he's like, Who gave this to me?

I am very quick to be like, I did.

I want all that credit.

I want to, I want no one else.

I gave it to him.

I think the father is like, Who gave me what gift do I have?

Like, I'll tell you.

I will tell you because I gave it to you.

Just ask him.

He will he will show those things to you.

He's a loving father who loves to talk to his kids.

But here, I wanted to give them to you quickly because I wanted to roll through all the gifts.

I can't talk about them because there's a bunch of them, but just rather quickly, if you have a phone and you want to take pictures of these, that's great.

You're welcome to.

Um, but I'm gonna roll through them rather quickly.

They're in alphabetical order.

So, this is all the text, all four texts in one.

Um, all the different gifts, and they're not, I mean, anyways, that's this all four texts in one.

Uh so the gift of administration, one who organizes towards God's mission, apostleship, one who is sent to advance the gospel in the kingdom.

Discernment, one who can distinguish the ministry of the Holy Spirit from false spirits.

Evangelism, one who shares the gospel and draws seekers in.

Exhortation, one who encourages and is a catalyst for growth in people.

Next slide.

Faith, a supernatural ability to trust God or inspire trust in God.

Andrew Banker has that.

Uh giving, one who keeps the church resource for mission.

Thank you so much.

We have a mission trip coming up.

Um, healing, one who demonstrates God's powerful hand through healing.

That still happens.

I hope you all believe that still happens.

Interpretation, one who can understand another language or heavenly language in order to share God's message.

Knowledge, one who provides spiritual insight, leadership, one who provides direction and focus on the mission.

Next slide.

Mercy, Sean Darnell, one who displays God's love, patience listening and care.

And I just don't have it.

Miracles, one who demonstrates God's powerful hand through various kinds of miracles, prophecy, one who can discern and declare the will of God.

Serving, one who meets practical needs and keeps ministry going, and shepherding, one who uh nurtures and protects the flock.

The next slide.

Teaching, one who keeps the church learning and growing tongues, a supernatural ability to communicate in another language or heavenly language, and wisdom, one who is gifted with guidance and direction for life and godliness.

Those are these spiritual gifts.

And again, they're not, I mean, scholars will go back and forth on like, is this all of them, or are there more?

I don't know, but this is the ones that are mentioned in the scriptures.

So that's what they are.

This is what Tim Keller says.

It's a great quote on the spiritual gifts.

He says, Everyone, everyone receives, every Christian receives a spiritual gift.

A spiritual or spiritual gift, excuse me.

A spiritual gift is an ability that comes to you freely for the purpose of ministering to the needs so as to build up Christian community in size and in depth.

Every believer has an almost unique gift matrix.

We have different gifts for different ministry venues and objects.

We have different levels of ability.

On top of this, there are different seasons in our lives when the context we live in call for the gifts, call gifts out of us in different ways.

He says, put these variables together, and each person's ministry may be as unique as a thumbprint.

Notice that line that your ministry may be completely different than someone else's in the church, and that's the way the Lord set it up because it has to.

The needs are too great for one person to do everything.

Your thumbprint is yours, and your thumbprint in spiritual gifts is useful for the church.

Unique is the thumbprint.

Then he says, by implication, there are some deeds in life that only you can do.

There are some people to reach, whom only you can reach.

Spiritual gifts fit you for mission in life, for your mission in life.

And then he quotes Ephesians 2.10, 4, we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I love that quote.

I think it's so rich and it kind of consolidates all these.

And Keller is so good at consolidating all of the text into one very simple idea and just going like, it is unique to you.

You have something, whether you were young or old.

If you are a believer in Jesus, he has bought you by his blood and then given you this thing.

It's like, hey, I'll not only did I buy you, but I also bought something for you.

Here it is, and he gives you this gift.

It's like steward in the life of the church.

It's not, it is yours, but it's not for you, it's for the church.

And if the church doesn't have it displayed in the life of the church, then the church will not be as healthy as it possibly can.

And it won't receive the care that it needs and all the different things.

And so use those things.

There are things that you and only you can do.

And so for us, those two things are very important.

You are, you're who you are, you're an integral, unique part of the body with a unique gift that's given to you that might be shared.

Ray has the gift of teaching, I have the gift of teaching, but we do that very differently in the way that we do.

And so it's supposed to be given into the life of the church in different ways so that the church can be built up.

Now, I want to go into why.

There's two whys, why they're so important for us, why these things need to happen in the life of the church.

The first reason that this is so important for us, that you are a part of the body and that you need to operate in your gifts, is that if you don't, the church will not be built up if you do not use your gift in the body.

And when I say built up, I don't say like numbers, although that that might be a part of it, but it's primarily like depth and all that the the word is edify, and it's the idea of like being uh developed into happiness and holiness and godliness, like the church will not experience all the riches of Christ's fullness if if you don't utilize your gift, because the way that you're able to contribute to the life of the church in the way that I am completely different.

But yours is so necessary and so is mine.

And so if you don't, the church will not be built up.

Notice what Paul says here in Ephesians 2, excuse me, Ephesians 4.

He says, So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, pastors like myself, and teachers.

He says, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry so that the body of Christ may be built up.

And this is what he's saying, like they the Jesus gave these people to the church to do this thing so that the body of Christ may be built up.

How we normally think of it is the next slide here.

Next slide, there we go.

It doesn't say this.

So Christ gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers, so that the body of Christ may be built up.

It would seem that that would be enough.

Like, man, it's got apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers.

Then the church will be built up, but it doesn't say that.

We were like the the leadership or whatever in the church was given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, then the church will be built up.

Like I can't do this by myself.

I was never made to do this by myself.

No pastor was ever made to build up the church by himself.

It was always made to like pastors utilizing their gifts, evangelists and apostles utilizing their gifts to steward them in a way that develops those in the church as believers to utilize their gifts, empower them to have ministry and agency in the life of the church, then the body of Christ will actually be built up.

The church needs both of these things.

And if it doesn't have that, if our church doesn't have those things, then the church will never receive all the care that it could possibly receive.

There will there will be needs that will be left unmet.

There will be things that we won't experience about Jesus that we should experience about Jesus.

Your story and testimony that should have encouraged and led someone else to faith will not lead that person to faith if you don't have a space to do those things.

Your ability to utilize those gifts is supposed to be this building up thing.

Tons of people come to faith by preaching, and it's awesome.

But there's also tons of people that come to faith by watching someone be crazy generous and be like, why are you being so generous to me?

And it's like, oh, that's because Jesus has made me that way.

He's done that to me, and so I'm just gonna do that to you.

And it's like, I want to know you're Jesus.

And it's like, he didn't preach.

There's no teaching that took place.

It was just somebody responding, like living out their gift, and then people seeing that thing happen.

The faith of, I mean, you see this in Jesus dying on the cross.

As soon as he dies on the cross, the centurion that was helping kill him, he watches the way Jesus dies and the way that he suffered in faith.

And the centurion who killed him was like, Surely he was the Son of God.

Like, what?

There's no preaching that took place.

No one's quoting from John 3.16 in this story.

He just watched faith, a spiritual gift of faith that Jesus had and watched him suffer in the midst of it, and was like, the way that he suffered, no one should suffer like that.

Certainly he is who they who who he's claimed to be.

And I think for us, your gift of utilizing your spiritual gift, your thing that you have, can lead people to faith, even though it's not preaching.

You're not able to evangelize, that's okay.

I mean, we still should try.

But maybe just utilizing your gift of service and utilizing your gift of leadership and utilizing your gift of prophecy or knowledge or wisdom, utilizing those things will lead other people to be like, what is this?

Your ability to encourage me feels so much better than everybody else's ability to encourage me.

It's like, oh man, I've been empowered from on high.

And it's not a selfish, awesome, like self-aggrandizing thing.

It's like I'm giving praise and glory to the one who actually gave me the gift so that I can use that.

And so for us, you have a huge part to play in the church for it to be built up.

And when it happens, when it happens in the life of the church, um, go to the next slide here.

When it happens in the life of the church, uh, this is what Paul says when the when these saints are equipped for the work of the ministry so that the body of Christ may be built up, then we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head.

That is Christ.

From him, the whole body, joined together and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.

As each part does its work.

I mean, it's it's right there, like as the parts continue to do their work.

And so for us, we need to utilize these things so that the church can be built up.

And if we don't, if we don't press into those things, then the church won't be built up.

The second reason why it's important is because we need to use our gifts in the church in order for people to actually see more of Jesus.

And we need that in the church, and we need that for the people that enter into the church, and we need that outside the church.

Utilizing your gift helps people see Jesus.

The gift of the Spirit, and these things that you have in you individually, like they're given to us by the Spirit of Jesus.

So it's a it's a it's a tiny bit of like what Jesus is actually like.

And so when you are, if you have the gift of hospitality and you stand at the door and you're welcoming people, the reason you do that is not because we're like just you know, churches in the south need to have somebody at the door.

Like, not that.

Like, if that's why we do it, I'm like, boy, that what a terrible reason.

Um, but like you are doing that, you're being hospitable because the way that you practice your gift of hospitality in front of people helps people realize, oh, this is what the welcome of Jesus must be like.

Like we're so welcoming in a way, and I realize maybe too much to some people who are introverts, but we're so well, like the people who do it and practice this, like we're so welcoming.

It's like, man, I've never felt more known.

And it's like, you know why?

Because we're utilizing a gift and he wants to know you.

It came from him and he wants to know you this way.

This is why we do those things.

Your gift, Sean's gift of mercy and yours, if you have it, reveals how patient and caring and compassionate Jesus is.

Your gift of generosity towards others reveals how generous God actually is and wants to be.

That's his generous nature.

Your gift of exhortation helps others hear and feel the way that Jesus thinks about them.

To hear exhortation and to hear this is what Jesus actually thinks about you, to feel encouraged is like, why, why do I feel this way?

It's like this is the way that the Father wants to speak to you.

He wants to encourage you.

Your gift of wisdom, discernment, knowledge, prophecy helps people encounter the mind of God, the wisdom of God, the thoughts of God, the direction of God.

Rainy's gift of teaching helps people experience and learn and understand Jesus in a way that's different than the way that I can do it.

And the church needs every voice in order to have those things.

Every voice, every gift, and all those things.

So when you express your gift, you make an invisible God very visible to people.

And people need that.

I need that.

And when you utilize those things, and so if you don't know your gift, figure out what that is.

Do the work of trying to figure out who you are and who he has made you to be so that you can figure out how to actually utilize those things in the life of the church.

Okay.

The believer's role.

You are a unique, integral part of the body of Jesus.

You should operate in the body according to your gifting so that the church will be built up and that people will experience more of Jesus.

This is the role of our church specifically, but I believe according to the scriptures, this is the role of every person in the life of the church.

And so, for us, here's some teams that if you that you can serve on.

Uh, and they're not all inclusive, but there's a couple of things.

But we want you to join these things.

These are things that we've sought to build, things that were here at the get-go.

And if you find a team on here that's not yours, you're like, I don't, I don't want to do any of that.

I got this other thing.

Please come tell me.

We want to add to this thing.

This isn't something that's like, I just felt like I needed to preach on.

Like, I was so excited.

I waited to the end to preach this one.

Because I was like, I want this one to be the last one because I'm so excited about the idea of like, one, just the people here in this church and the caliber of people here in this church.

Or then they go like, but then there's also space in here where I've seen things in you and you have things in you.

That's like, I don't know, I just want to, I want to put that into the life of the church.

And I love that.

And so there's some spaces here where you can serve.

I put the person who's in charge of that thing, um, not as a dictator, but just as a leader and a point person, just so you know.

Um, but Tommy does a lot.

Tommy does set up and tear down.

So if you have the act of service and you're just gifted in that, come on, do that thing.

Uh, Tommy, welcome, hospitality, exhortation.

Tommy, kids' ministry, teaching, exhortation, mercy, service, those are things.

Um, and if you don't have those gifts, it's not like, sorry, I'm not qualified for kids' ministry.

Not that.

Like, yeah, I do think that we need to serve in in spaces where it might not be our complete gifting, and we need to sacrifice in those ways.

But Patty, pastoral care, mercy, service, exhortation.

Uh Brenda, uh, kind of in charge of our communion, and then she has a team that does those things.

Uh, administration, service, Rainey, women's ministry, teaching, hospitality, leadership.

Barbara's uh our deacon over prayer, faith, healing, wisdom, knowledge, prophecy.

Kim uh Balden does our event planning and things like that.

So administration, leadership, hospitality.

She also does some decorating up front.

It'll be done next week for Easter, which is really cool, but I have nothing of value to offer decorating.

I gotta be honest.

And so I don't have that gift in any capacity.

Uh August uh sets up our call to worship and leads call to worship.

So if you want to be a part of the call to worship, that area of service, Colin does our tech and our liturgy.

If you have a gift of liturgy or you just like, I just love clicking a computer, man, service.

Go over there, do that thing, give Colin a break.

Me, preaching, teaching men's ministry.

If you can preach and teach, I mean, I'd need to hear you first, but if you're like, I got that gift, man, I have that thing, great.

Uh Jennifer Hahn is not here, but I had this, I had this dream that Jennifer Hahn was preaching in the church.

And I'm not saying it's prophetic, I have no idea, but like Jennifer, if you listen, but I was like, I was like, man, so I called John and I was like, does she preach?

And he was like, you should talk to her about it.

So, anyways, but if you feel like if you feel like I'm a man, I got I don't I don't want anybody hungry for the mic because that you're probably disqualifying yourself in the in that way, but um men's ministry, things like that.

Like we're we do events and we have stuff like that.

We have Bible studies that we want to start, men's ministry, uh, mission trip, giving, service, administration, leadership.

If you can come, if you can't come, you can give all those things.

There's those are the spaces that we have right now.

And we want to add to those things.

They're not gonna be like on the website and spaces like that, but we do want to have space where it's going, you have a gift, great.

Here's the ministry that you could serve within as a part of that role so that your gift is plugged in and invested in the life of our church.

And if you don't see yours there, let's find one and let's figure out how to do that thing.

I am committed to doing that.

Okay.

Uh, our specific areas of need right now, those are the places that we have.

Here's the areas of need.

We need at least one weekly women's discipleship group.

And we need at least one more weekly men's discipleship group.

We have no weekly women's discipleship group in our church, and we only have one East Memphis discipleship group in our church, and that's not good.

There's too many people in this church, and the caliber of people is too strong in this church to only have, to have none.

Um, and I think Sally does one like once a month or something like that, which is beautiful and wonderful.

But we need a weekly women's discipleship group in our church.

And I want to say a hard thing, um, because I believe clarity is kindness.

Clarity is kindness.

I've heard that somewhere, and it feels true.

I think our church is the best.

I love this church.

I think it's healthy in so many ways.

I think we're unhealthy in this way, and especially this way.

If it's gonna be if there's something biblical gonna be led in the life of this church, it's normally led by a pastor, and that's not what Paul talks to Timothy about.

Like he says, he says, you should entrust trustworthy people with what you've been taught, so that they then can entrust those exact same things that you've been taught into other people in the life of the church.

It should not just be discipleship run by one person or one pastor or just the pastors.

You have people in here who are not pastors, who are lay people, have gifts of teaching and all these different things, and it's like you've been called to utilize that thing.

And so that's a space where I believe that a church like ours that's been around for 11 years, to not have a weekly women's Bible study and to only have one men's Bible study, 11 years.

It's just not that's not the healthiest way to do it.

It's got to change.

And it really does need to move forward in order for our church to actually be functioning healthy.

We need something for the new women and the people, women in our church that have this space where it's like, I want to press in and I want to learn more.

We need to have a space for that.

And so those are things, those are the needs that we actually have as a church, and that's not meant towards anybody or at anybody, it's just stating a clarifying fact about our church that needs to shift in the near future.

We need a weekly women's Bible study and one more men's Bible study.

So you may say, I've never I was never asked, like no one's ever asked me to do that, and that's fine.

But now you know, even if you're not asked, you've been commanded from on high.

Like you've been given a gift by God, and he's like steward it.

1 Peter 4, again, he says, Each of you, here's the here's the ask, each of you, use whatever gift you've received for the good of the church to serve others.

Like that's it.

And so you have a gift that's vital to the church.

You are a hand or a foot or an ear or something.

You have some role that's not sitting there just going like, I don't know, I don't really need it.

If that happened, if you when you get sick and your nose stops working and you can't breathe through your nose, hard to sleep at night.

And it's so frustrating.

We get frustrated.

If you had a space where you're like, oh, you know, somebody was laid up with a leg thing and you couldn't like move your foot, it's so annoying.

I can't run as fast as I used to.

I can't walk.

I look funny.

Like I just, all the things are wrong.

We need everybody utilizing their gift in the way they've been built up.

And so that's what I want us to do.

I want this to come across as you, I see you as vital in the health of this church moving forward is all of us, the saints, being equipped for the work of the ministry, so that when people come in and when people are here, they go, Man, yes, the preaching was great, the worship was great.

Hopefully, the preaching was great.

The worship's always good, the the time is, you know, getting together is always good.

The coffee's normally better because we're serving bankers, but we got Dunkin' Donuts today, which is fine.

Um, but like, like everything's really, really good.

But like I had a conversation with someone that had the gift of exhortation.

I barely know her name, but it changed my life.

Like those stories are real and they can happen and they should happen.

I've never felt more welcome in a space.

And I've just honestly I've been kicked out of the last church, or the last church didn't do this.

But I tell you what, I walked into that church and somebody with the gift of hospitality welcomed me and felt like they wrapped me in their arms and was like, you were with me.

You are seen, known, heard, loved, and wanted here, and that is testifying to them.

I didn't feel that way about that.

Jesus felt that way about me, but now I feel that way.

We need that to happen in the life of the church.

And so that's what I want.

Sorry, I got a little fast there at the end.

I got a little passionate.

All right.

You have a gift, let's utilize it in the life of the church.

Let me pray.

Uh Father, in your kindness, you have um not kept all your power to yourself.

Uh you have sought to give it to people like you did with Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall.

I was like, let's do this thing together, let's cultivate together.

I could I've I've, you know, you spoke light into existence, you spoke ground and everything into existence.

All you had to do was speak more, and these things would have happened, but you chose to partner with people in order to share in the glory of bringing beauty from chaos.

And uh Lord, you just want to do that now through the church.

And so thank you for giving us gifts.

Thank you that we have these special things that the world knows nothing about, and that we're able to do things that others just can't do because you've just chosen to gift us.

And so, Father, would you uh do in our church what you long and have longed to do in the life of the churches that Paul wrote to and that Peter wrote to, that the saints would be equipped for the work of the ministry so that the church may be built up, that it would flourish and be served in a way that's healthy and good in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're gonna take communion.

We do this every week, and um we switched it a couple weeks ago.

So if you weren't here a couple of weeks ago, we switched it a couple weeks ago to take coming grabbing the elements of communion uh and then taking them back to your seat because we want to commune together.

We would like to take and eat together, we'd like to take and drink together.

Uh communion was always supposed to be that.

And so if you help serve communion and set up communion, please come and uh serve the elements, and then for you, just and Randy, you're good too.

Thanks.

Um and then for you, please come receive the elements, the bread and the uh juice.

And I would just encourage you if you if you can, just hold that until uh you get back to your seat, and then we will read a liturgy together, and then we will partake together as a body.

And uh yeah, we'll do that.

So take some time in your seats to prepare, and then uh we'll take this together.