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GIFTED // Equipping Gifts (Pastors & Teachers) // Pastor Richie Fike

The Movement Church CO

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  1. Welcome to the Movement Church Podcast. We want you to

  2. know that God is for you and so are we.

  3. You're about to hear a sermon from one of our

  4. weekend services in the tri-lakes of Southern Colorado. God is

  5. not a monument. He's a movement. So we're praying that

  6. this message will move you in a meaningful way. Listen

  7. closely after the message for ways to get connected with us.

  8. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in.

  9. Okay, good morning, everybody. How are we doing? You guys

  10. all right? Two people are good, right? The host and

  11. what'd you say? Your emotional support human. Yes, that was cute.

  12. Welcome to the Movement Church. I'm Richie Fike, pleased to

  13. be your pastor today. We're doing something a little different,

  14. as you can tell. We are going today to do

  15. a spiritual gifts assessment of one another, and it's going

  16. to be a lot of fun. But first, I'm going

  17. to teach for a little bit, okay? We're in this

  18. series called Gifted, where we have talked about the fact

  19. that you are, in fact, gifted by the Holy Spirit.

  20. It's a really beautiful, really unique reality that comes to us.

  21. The moment that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior,

  22. the Holy Spirit takes residence within us and then shows

  23. evidence of who he is through us. And that's what

  24. we've been talking about. This series has been really fun

  25. for me. A lot of you have been interacting with me.

  26. I think this might be my gift. I think this

  27. might be my gift. It's been really fun to hear

  28. from you about that stuff. So last week we started

  29. on the last little bulk of gifts, which are the

  30. equipping gifts. This came from Ephesians chapter four, where Paul

  31. tells us that not only do certain gifts sort of

  32. flow through us, but there are certain gifts that our

  33. people and certain people that are gifts. You're welcome. These

  34. are the gifts, he says, he himself, Jesus, gave the body,

  35. some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors,

  36. some teachers. And this is their job, to equip the

  37. saints for the work of ministry, to build up the

  38. body of Christ. And so these people, their gifts and

  39. their worth is not quantified by their personality or their

  40. skill set, but rather the building up of the church

  41. into faith, unity, and maturity. And specifically, our job, these

  42. people that are in this group, is to make sure

  43. that you are doing the work of ministry. This is

  44. how we will be measured in eternity. We are meant

  45. to be instigators. I'm good at that. We're meant to

  46. be lightning rods or enactors. Last week, we talked about

  47. these three folks, the apostles, the prophets, and evangelists. And

  48. this week, we're going to be talking about shepherds, and teachers.

  49. Shepherds and teachers. This is called, by the way, the APEST, A-P-E-S-T,

  50. in case you want to be a theological nerd like me.

  51. That's what they're called, the APEST. So today we're starting

  52. with shepherds and pastors. Shepherds and pastors. How many of

  53. you love your pastor? I'm just kidding. It's just a joke.

  54. Just kidding. Next month is pastor appreciation month. I don't No,

  55. it really is. That's not a joke. It really is.

  56. And I really do expect to be appreciated. Okay, so

  57. who are these people? Who are these pastors? People with

  58. this gift naturally protect, guide, counsel, and disciple other people.

  59. You don't have to ask them to do it. They

  60. run to it. They lean into it. They find great

  61. joy in seeing people mature in their faith, overcome besetting sin,

  62. find hope in the face of discouragement, and grow in

  63. their relationship with God. There's nothing... really more satisfying to

  64. a pastor than to see someone that they're working with

  65. have a breakthrough moment in their relationship with God. Shepherding

  66. is a spiritual gift. And these words, pastor, shepherd, overseer,

  67. they're kind of a soupy word in the New Testament.

  68. There's one word that kind of gets applied in different

  69. contexts to mean pastor, shepherd, overseer. It also describes a

  70. recognized leadership role in the New Testament church. That role

  71. is the role of elder. And here's what makes this

  72. distinction really interesting. Where scripture talks about those formally entrusted

  73. with oversight of the church, it places serious character requirements

  74. upon them. I sent out a text earlier in the week.

  75. Many of you responded to it. The text was, when

  76. you hear the word pastor... What comes to mind? And

  77. what do you tend to expect from your pastor, of

  78. your pastor? I'm going to share with you a few

  79. of the answers that you gave. And I won't ascribe

  80. your name to it so we won't have to embarrass anybody.

  81. But one person said a teacher, a mentor, a connector,

  82. and honestly someone to ground you in this crazy world.

  83. One person said a pastor means an advisor and safety.

  84. Expectations are to feel seen and heard. to be consoled

  85. in hard times and laugh with me in joyful times,

  86. and to continue to bond over football scores. Amen, somebody.

  87. Go Tigers. And Broncos. Come on, big game tonight. Anybody excited? Okay,

  88. right on. One person is excited. Everybody else is afraid

  89. we're going to lose. Okay. Pastor is less a title

  90. of position and more a title of responsibility. It means

  91. being entrusted with people, not just entrusted with. with a church.

  92. Another person said, pastors are being charged to tend to

  93. Jesus' sheep till he returns. Care for them, pray for them,

  94. visit them in the hospital, or when they get sick,

  95. be with them. And I love this, when life, be lifing.

  96. Come on, that's good. That's good theology right there. Another

  97. person said, that title is a lot to handle. Amen.

  98. But also extremely special because you've been put in a

  99. place where a group of people look to you for help.

  100. They look for the God in you to comfort, advise,

  101. and question. Now, a lot of your answers were beautiful.

  102. They were high-minded. They were holy. And I tend to

  103. believe that you didn't tell me the truth, that what

  104. you really expect of a pastor, you didn't actually tell

  105. me through text. So I asked ChatGPT. I said, let

  106. me give you all the answers that they've given me.

  107. What is it that they're not telling me? And here's

  108. what ChatGPT said. By the way, this is how we

  109. know we're all cooked. ChatGPT said, Someone who works one

  110. day a week but is somehow always tired. Okay, too

  111. much humor there. They also said, someone who visits you

  112. in the hospital but ideally never sees you at Costco.

  113. Someone who should challenge me but preferably not about the

  114. thing I'm currently doing. Right? Another one, someone who should

  115. be available 24-7 but have really healthy boundaries. Right? Right? Okay,

  116. no laughs on that one because you're like, I agree

  117. with that one. Basically, a Christian mayor except nobody voted

  118. for him and the town doesn't have any money. Great answers.

  119. I think a lot of you have proper expectations for

  120. what a pastor is. I think it's why you've been

  121. drawn into this congregation. It's why you feel at home

  122. here because you have expectations of a pastor that I

  123. think are appropriate. I just want to tell you, that

  124. what's happening to pastors across the nation is that pastors

  125. are struggling. Pastors are hurting. Pastors are either quitting, quiet quitting,

  126. or thinking about quitting because pastoral work is really, really hard.

  127. So all I would say to you just in just

  128. a kind of a brief moment is if you're not already,

  129. just maybe once a week for like 12 seconds, would

  130. you pray for your pastor? And by the way, pray

  131. for your elders and your leadership here at the Movement

  132. Church because we do carry a heavy burden. I heard

  133. this incredible talk from this guy named Glenn Packiam. Anybody

  134. know Glenn? He used to be on staff at New

  135. Life Church and he's out in California now. And he

  136. did this talk about what is expected of pastors. He

  137. basically said this, that lots of Christians tend to expect

  138. most of these expressions to be prominent in their pastor.

  139. Think of this one person having to be all these things.

  140. Number one, A talented communicator. Number two, a careful theologian.

  141. Number three, a trauma-informed counselor, able to speak all of

  142. the counselor language. A visionary CEO. A compelling fundraiser. Come on, somebody,

  143. open up your pocketbooks. A social activist. And lastly, a

  144. political commentator. We tend to expect, lots of Christians tend

  145. to expect most of these things from our pastors. That's

  146. a lot, right? Anybody want to say amen? That's a lot.

  147. And I'm not half of those things, just so you know.

  148. So pray for your pastor. The more I do this job,

  149. the more I understand that there's a reason why God

  150. uses the language of shepherd and sheep. You notice that?

  151. Shepherd and sheep. Because the job of a shepherd, the

  152. job of a pastor is to feed the sheep, protect

  153. the sheep, steer the sheep, attend to the sheep. The

  154. job of a pastor very often looks like this. He's free.

  155. He's free.

  156. He's free. You got to see that in slow motion.

  157. The passion with which this sheep jumps right back into

  158. the ditch. By the way, that's as much me as

  159. it is you. That's as much me as it is you.

  160. We are all in this thing together. And sheep do

  161. really dumb things sometimes. We get stuck. We find ourselves

  162. in tough positions. And we need somebody just to pull

  163. us out. And you know what? We're probably going to

  164. run back in. And then the guy has to come

  165. and pull him right back out. That's the job of

  166. a shepherd. Now listen to what Paul says to Timothy

  167. about what an overseer, elder, pastor, shepherd is supposed to

  168. be like internally. This is a high bar. He says this.

  169. This saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to be an overseer,

  170. he desires a noble work. An overseer, therefore... Must be

  171. above reproach. That's high enough. The husband of one wife.

  172. That's all I need. Self-controlled. I probably shouldn't have said that. Sensible. Respectable. Hospitable.

  173. Able to teach. Not an excessive drinker. Not a bully,

  174. but gentle. Not quarrelsome. Not greedy. He must manage his

  175. own household competently and have his children under control. I quit.

  176. with all dignity. If anyone does not know how to

  177. manage his own household, how will he take care of

  178. God's church? He must not be a new convert or

  179. he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as

  180. the devil. Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among

  181. outsiders so that he does not fall into disgrace and

  182. the devil's trap. This is a high bar. And what

  183. the Bible is telling you, your Bible is telling you

  184. what you should be looking for in a shepherd. Some

  185. of you have church shopped. Some of you have tried

  186. to find the place that you want to be. Some

  187. of you online are church shopping right now. And I

  188. would just say if you're pastor shopping, 1 Timothy 3

  189. is a great place to start. But I can tell

  190. you that you're never going to find a guy that

  191. lives up to all of that, including me. We try

  192. really hard. We earnestly seek the Lord, but we're human.

  193. And so there's a really difficult paradigm at work. in

  194. the pastoral gift because we're just like you. We're just

  195. like that sheep that runs right back into that hole.

  196. And yet we've been tasked with the responsibility of helping

  197. pull you out of your holes. That's the hard part

  198. about this job. It's a high and holy calling. And

  199. there's a reason that the standards are so high. These words, pastor, shepherd, elder, overseer,

  200. this language is overlapping. And I think it's for a reason.

  201. It's to help us see that that role is significant.

  202. It's really, really important. Overseers who shepherd God's people. And

  203. the reason Paul wrote all that to Timothy was to

  204. tell him nobody should ever try to lead a church

  205. on their own. Every pastor needs to find other guys,

  206. other people who can help them to lead alongside. And

  207. that's why we have what we call the wisdom table

  208. here at the movement church. The wisdom table is our

  209. sort of polity of choice. The way we've set this

  210. up is that we have four elders and three strategic leaders.

  211. And that group of seven people and myself get together

  212. and we lead the church. We believe that when it

  213. says husband of one wife, that that means that an

  214. elder must be male. And so what we understand that

  215. to mean is that we're going to have four male

  216. elders who have a vote and a deciding factor whenever

  217. we have a moment of decision. And we have these

  218. three leaders. When we started this church, we decided we

  219. wanted to have the female voice at the highest level

  220. of conversation in our church. We didn't want it to

  221. just be all dudes in a room talking about how

  222. the women ought to act. We want it to be

  223. in a room together and listening well to one another.

  224. And so the strategic leadership team always will have two

  225. women and one elder in training. That's the way we've

  226. structured it. And we come together and we seek consensus.

  227. And then when it's time, to vote, then the elders vote.

  228. And if they can't come together, these two guys or

  229. these four guys, then I'm the tiebreak. That's the way

  230. our structure works. We just recently worked through our budget

  231. for 26 and 27. You got a text from me

  232. if you're on our text chain about the fact that

  233. today is our last Sunday of the fiscal year. And

  234. so if you want to be a part of helping

  235. to shape the narrative of our fiscal year, this is

  236. your last shot these next two or three days. We

  237. appreciate all of your generosity. and the ways that you've

  238. contributed to the movement church. Like God has absolutely been

  239. faithful through you in our church. But we got together

  240. and we looked at the numbers and the narrative that

  241. the numbers were communicating. And we decided that our big

  242. number for 2026 and 27 is going to be $ 300, 000.

  243. That's going to be our budget for the year. And

  244. that's a bold number, but it's also a very careful

  245. number because we're looking at the ways that you all

  246. are faithfully giving and trying to make a budget that

  247. makes good sense. Guess what? It took a lot of

  248. conversation to get to that number. And then it took

  249. a lot of conversation to figure out how to make

  250. that number work. That's the process. And it's beautiful and

  251. it's plural. I want to honor two guys today. If

  252. you two guys could stand, Jeff Rudd or John Janisch.

  253. These guys have been on the wisdom table for three

  254. years and they're going off the team. That's not why

  255. we're applauding. We're applauding your faithfulness. Yeah. Jeff's applauding that

  256. he gets to go off the team. These guys were

  257. founding members of the movement church. And the way we

  258. do this is our elders serve for three years and

  259. then they're off for at least two. We want to

  260. give them a break. But what's interesting about this next

  261. wisdom table is that there isn't a single founding member

  262. on the wisdom table. It's like second generation movement church.

  263. And I'm excited about that. I'm going to show you

  264. who the team is. It's going to be me, Chico Lynch,

  265. Brad Bush, Wes Schlau, John Wilson. That's the elder level.

  266. And the strategic leadership team is Jenica Tomdale, Barb White,

  267. and Ryan Michio, who we believe we are training him

  268. up to be an elder at his next church. Ryan

  269. is military, and they're only going to be here for

  270. a certain extent of time. And so we are so

  271. pumped to be able to raise him up and send

  272. him out because this isn't just about the movement church.

  273. We are developing leaders here at this church, and I'm

  274. excited about that. So I want you to do me

  275. a favor. You should have just gotten a text somewhere

  276. in the next 10 or 15, last 15 minutes that

  277. There is a little link with this picture in that text.

  278. I would love for you to save that, print it,

  279. put it on your refrigerator, put it somewhere that will

  280. remind you to pray for these people at least once

  281. a week. Will you do that? Pray for your leaders.

  282. One last thing about this pastoring thing that I think

  283. is so cool. Do you know that moment where Jesus

  284. and Peter are having breakfast together after Peter has ruined

  285. his reputation? after he has denied Jesus three times before

  286. the rooster crowed, right? Peter has kind of gone back

  287. to his old life. He's out on a boat fishing,

  288. thinking about his mistakes. And someone says, I think I

  289. see Jesus on the shore. And Peter, who like invented,

  290. say less, like he just jumps into the boat, jumps

  291. off the boat into the water, swims to the shore. Ah,

  292. it's you, Lord. And they have this beautiful interaction. I

  293. want you to listen to this. This is in John

    John 21 chapter mention

  294. chapter 21. When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon,

  295. son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord,

  296. he said to him, for you know that I love you.

  297. Now listen to the instruction. Jesus is going to give

  298. this same similar instruction three times. Same question three times,

  299. same instruction three times. Feed my lambs, he told him.

  300. Second time he asked, do you love me? Yes, Lord,

  301. you know that I love you. Shepherd my sheep. Then

  302. he asked him a third time, Simon, son of John,

  303. do you love me? Do you love me? He says, Lord,

  304. you know everything. You know that I love you. Okay.

  305. Feed my sheep. And I want you to think about

  306. the significance and the symmetry of this. Because earlier, just

  307. a few months earlier, Jesus makes this grand pronouncement about Peter.

  308. He says that he is the rock upon which I

  309. will build my church. So let me just ask you

  310. a question. Whose church? It's not Peter's church. It's Jesus's church.

  311. This is the rock upon which I will build my church,

  312. Jesus says. And here, when he asked Peter, do you

  313. love me? He says, listen, I want to give you

  314. some instruction. Feed and shepherd who? My sheep. Hey, Peter,

  315. they're not your sheep. They don't belong to you. They

  316. belong to me. This is what Jesus is saying. And

  317. so it's important to Jesus that Peter knows two things.

  318. Jesus is holding Peter responsible for the well-being and welfare

  319. of his people. And Jesus is in charge. That's important

  320. for Peter to know. And guess what? It's important for

  321. us to know at the Movement Church. Jesus is holding

  322. Richie Fike and the Wisdom Table of the Movement Church

  323. responsible for the welfare and the well-being of you. And

  324. Jesus is in charge. Can I hear an amen? Amen.

  325. You're not my sheep. You don't belong to me. You

  326. don't need to know my voice. You need to know

  327. his voice. And my job as your pastor is to

  328. lift your head so that you can see him clearly

  329. and hear him fully. That's the job of a pastor

  330. because Jesus is the good shepherd. He's the leader of

  331. his church. Every pastor you've ever met, myself included, is

  332. an under shepherd. We come under the authority of Jesus

  333. to care for you. that's why god gave you us

  334. that's why god gave you me to come under his

  335. authority to care well for you that's the job of

  336. a pastor and the way that we show pastors the

  337. way that we show the lord that we love him

  338. is by caring well for you isn't that beautiful That's

  339. the way it's supposed to work. Man, when I first

  340. got this job five years ago, I was like shook.

  341. I was like, I'm not the right guy for this.

  342. I shouldn't be the pastor. Surely there's someone else. And

  343. I went to a friend of mine, Al Pittman, who'd

  344. been a pastor for 40 years. And I said, hey, Al,

  345. I need some advice. Tell me how to do this

  346. job that you've done for so long. And he goes,

  347. real simple. You're a mailman. You're a bus driver. I

  348. was like, can you expound please? You're a mailman, you're

  349. a bus driver. Mailman didn't write the letter. Mailman just

  350. delivers the letter. It ain't his letter. It ain't his message.

  351. It's somebody else's message. Now once in a while, somebody

  352. might ask the mailman, can you read this message for me?

  353. Of course, do it. But it ain't your message. So

  354. don't put yourself in it. You're a mailman. He said,

  355. you're a bus driver. Bus driver doesn't own the bus.

  356. Bus driver drives the bus. Somebody else drives the bus.

  357. You are not in charge of what happens in this bus.

  358. Your job is to keep the thing moving forward and

  359. make frequent stops. Let people on. Some people are getting off.

  360. Sometimes you're going to look in that beautiful mirror, that

  361. big mirror, and you're going to see people that you love,

  362. that God is calling to another assignment. And your job

  363. is to bless them on the way out. Sometimes there's

  364. people that are coming on the bus and you're not

  365. so sure about these people. That's okay. Keep the bus

  366. moving forward. You're a mailman. You're a bus driver. And

  367. I'll tell you, in my career so far, five years

  368. into being a lead pastor, senior pastor, that word of

  369. advice has been so useful to me in the way

  370. that I've experienced this job. Because there's been people who

  371. I really love who've had to get off the bus

  372. because God called them to another assignment. And you just

  373. bless them and you go, I love you and I'm

  374. going to miss you. But I'll tell you, That I'm

  375. really excited for all of you who are on the

  376. bus right now. And I'm praying that you stay on

  377. the bus forever. I hope you never leave. But I

  378. know that God is crazy. And God calls us to

  379. do things that we never saw coming. And some of you, 5, 6,

  380. 12 years from now, you won't be sitting here. Because

  381. you'll be on another assignment. And my job is to

  382. bless you. You're a mailman. You're a bus driver. That's

  383. what a pastor is. Jesus is the shepherd. You are

  384. his people. He's holding your leaders accountable for taking good

  385. care of you. Pastors are entrusted with a great deal

  386. of expectation, a great deal of responsibility. And while that's true,

  387. that a lot is expected of us, there is something

  388. that's expected of you. It's called Pastor Appreciation Month. Just

  389. once a month? Come on, people. No, it's true that

  390. honor is expected of the body of Christ for its overseers.

  391. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians. He says,

  392. now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition

  393. to those who labor among you and lead you in

  394. the Lord and admonish you and to regard them very

  395. highly in love because of their work. Be at peace

  396. among yourselves. So that's your responsibility. Now let me just

  397. ask you, there are probably people in the room who

  398. have this pastoral gift and have been denying it for

  399. years and years. So let me just ask you some

  400. open-ended questions. Do you notice when someone begins drifting away?

  401. You might be a pastor. Do you pursue people so

  402. that they'll know that they're loved? Do you continue to

  403. show care after the immediate crisis has passed? Do you

  404. help people take responsibility for their spiritual growth? Do you

  405. seek to protect people from the dangers? you see coming?

  406. And do you lean into difficult conversations? Some of you,

  407. everything I just said, you're like, dang it, I'm a pastor.

  408. This is beautiful. This means that your responsibility, your opportunity

  409. at this church is to serve. You can use this

  410. gift as a growth group leader, as a move group leader,

  411. a ministry leader, or as a member of the wisdom

  412. table eventually. Your gift is not for you, it's for us.

  413. Don't keep it to yourself. Amen? You with me? All right,

  414. last one, and we're done for the whole series. Teachers. Teachers. Teachers.

  415. My mom and dad are both teachers. I got this

  416. sort of curse from them to love teaching, to love learning.

  417. Let's talk about teachers. The ability to understand and communicate

  418. biblical truth in a clear and relevant manner so that

  419. there is understanding and application. Teachers are not settled with

  420. just telling you something that's true. They want to see

  421. you apply it to your life. Learning, researching, communicating, and

  422. illustrating truth are qualities that an individual will manifest when

  423. exercising the gift of teaching. Jesus, of course, was called

  424. a rabbi. Rabbi means teacher. People went to him. They thought,

  425. there's so much I can learn from this man. Jesus

  426. taught as one who had authority. All the other rabbis

  427. that were around in that day, they taught, but not

  428. like Jesus. He taught in a way that caused fear.

  429. a stir, it caused action in people's lives. This is

  430. the nerd gift, the teaching gift, in case you're curious.

  431. This week at our Young Adults Move group, Addison Babcock,

  432. our wonderful children's director, said to me, Fike, you're kind

  433. of a dork. You're kind of dorky. And I was like,

  434. thank you, I receive it. And she said it wasn't

  435. a compliment. But that's okay, I received it as one.

  436. Are you a little dorky like me? Do you like

  437. studying and researching? To be a good teacher, you gotta

  438. be a good student. And when you study, you tend

  439. to go deeper and you chase rabbit holes and you

  440. love it. Is this you? Do you love imparting a

  441. biblical truth to others? When you learn something, are you

  442. just looking for somebody to share it with? Right, that's

  443. the teacher gift. Teaching gifters are able to apply the

  444. wealth of scripture to the grind of daily life. They

  445. see the direct application. You know, sometimes you're reading the

  446. Bible and you go, I don't get it. What's the

  447. point of this? Well, how does this relate to me?

  448. A teacher's like, I know and I'll share it. That's

  449. what they love doing. Through your gift, people learn to

  450. read scripture more carefully. They recognize what's true and they

  451. put it into practice. You can help people become grounded

  452. enough to follow Jesus when you're not there to explain

  453. it to them. There are some shadow sides to the

  454. teaching gift. One is this, teaching gifters tend to work

  455. in the realm of ideas. We love ideas. It's not bad,

  456. but when you're dealing with ideas, you can become idealistic.

  457. And when you become too idealistic, you can become a

  458. little legalistic, right? And so the deal is it's a

  459. lot easier to work with ideas than it is to

  460. work with people because people are complicated. And so when

  461. you're working with people, when you're wrestling with topics like identity, self-esteem,

  462. or faith, platitudes just won't work. And so if you

  463. know this, if you have this teaching gift, you've learned this,

  464. that sometimes you have to figure out how to contextualize

  465. what you've learned to the person. Teaching gifters have spent

  466. lots of time thinking, studying, and exploring ideas. And so

  467. when I get up here on a Sunday, and you

  468. can't imagine, I know my sermons are long, you can't

  469. imagine how much I've cut from my manuscript to be

  470. this brief. You can't imagine it. I mean, just the

  471. amount of editing that happens between Monday and Sunday is

  472. wild to me and hurtful to me because I want

  473. to share all of it with you, right? And so

  474. here's what happens. We have a hard time slowing down

  475. the things that we've learned in order for you to

  476. learn them. Teaching gifters, you got to slow down because

  477. the people that you're talking to are not living at

  478. your speed. So you got to find ways to communicate

  479. with them at their speed. Give people time to understand

  480. what you've learned, and stay humble enough to learn something

  481. from their questions. Some of the best lessons I've ever

  482. learned from preaching is when someone comes up to me

  483. and says, I don't have any idea what it is

  484. you were just saying up there. That made no sense

  485. to me. I go, that's awesome. What was unclear? What

  486. did I miss? Because that helps me to slow down

  487. and teach at your level. Not that I'm at a

  488. higher level and you're not, just that I've spent so

  489. much time in the text That there's things that I've

  490. sort of skipped past that I didn't communicate with you.

  491. Does that make sense? And so teaching gifters, slow down.

  492. And remember, you're a mailman. You didn't write the letter.

  493. It's not your message. It's God's message. Don't make it

  494. about you. And by the way, I think that lesson

  495. is important for all the spiritual gifts. None of us

  496. should ever make our giftedness about us. It's about God.

  497. Your spiritual gift is not for you. It's for us.

  498. It's for me. And so teaching gifters, if you make

  499. your gift about you, I'll tell you the danger there

  500. is that you can easily become one of the worst

  501. categories in the Bible. And that is a false teacher.

  502. Someone who has a hidden motive to why they're teaching.

  503. Here's what a false teacher is. A really gifted teacher

  504. can make really compelling arguments couched in really biblical language

  505. and convince really genuine people to believe really appealing truths.

  506. That's what it is. what false teaching is. That's what

  507. it does. People, you and I, are already naturally oriented

  508. towards justifying our sin. False teachers give them permission to

  509. do that. False teachers couch biblical ideas and in a

  510. way that make you think that God has changed and

  511. he hasn't. So if this is your gift, I want

  512. you to use your gift to teach our kids, to

  513. lead a group, to invest in our students, and yes,

  514. to join our teaching team. We would love to have you.

  515. We don't want this to be the Richie Fike show

  516. at the Movement Church. We really are trying to develop leaders.

  517. That's why I'm so proud of people like John Wilson

  518. and Jeff Rutter who stand up on this platform And

  519. teach from the word of God and use their gift.

  520. And it's totally different than the way I do it.

  521. Have you noticed that? They have their own flavor, their

  522. own style. Because the Lord manifests himself through them uniquely.

  523. And that's what it's about. God already has a Richie Fike.

  524. He wants you. Amen? So teaching gifters, your gift is

  525. not for you. It's for us. Don't keep it to yourself. Okay,

  526. everybody breathe deep. We did it. We covered it. Come on,

  527. we did it. We covered all 20. We covered the

  528. functional gifts. We covered the clarity gifts. We covered the

  529. sign gifts. We covered the equipping gifts. And now, just

  530. as a reminder, here's our theme verse, that a manifestation

  531. of the Spirit is given to each person for the

  532. common good. What does that mean? It means God chooses

  533. your gift. You don't choose it. It means everybody gets

  534. a gift. It means your gift is not for you.

  535. It's for us. And it means that you are both

  536. needed and and needy in this body, in this season,

  537. in this moment. So if God gave you something for

  538. the common good and you refuse to use it for

  539. the common good, it's not just you that's missing out.

  540. All of us are missing out on your unwillingness to

  541. share who God made you to be. You are gifted.

  542. And so what we did, if you look at these

  543. packets we have on your tables, and if you're watching

  544. this online, we will have this available. It'll be in

  545. the YouTube link and it'll also be in the podcast link.

  546. You'll be able to find this PDF and use it, okay?

  547. What we did was we made a little quiz here,

  548. and so what you're going to do is you're going

  549. to go through each of these questions, and you are

  550. going to assess yourself. Now, listen to me. Before you

  551. start answering these questions, I just want to give you

  552. some really clear boundaries and sort of a way to

  553. approach this. It says up top, look at the categories,

  554. one through five. It says one is almost never, two

  555. is rarely, which are really the same thing. Sometimes is three,

  556. often is four, consistently is five. If you answer every

  557. question as a three, at the end of this test,

  558. you're going to have every spiritual gift. So what I

  559. want you to do is answer the question honestly. earnestly.

  560. Let me give you an example. I'll talk about me.

  561. Number 34 says, conversations about Jesus with people who do

  562. not yet follow him tend to energize rather than intimidate me.

  563. That's a good question. What do you think it's fishing for?

  564. It's fishing for evangelism. Now here's the reality. For me,

  565. conversations about Jesus that don't end in salvation frustrate me.

  566. They do not energize me. And so I would put

  567. a one on that. Do you understand what I'm saying? Now,

  568. there are some questions on here that you're going to go, yeah,

  569. you know, sometimes I think I'm that way. If you

  570. feel like, yeah, you know, sometimes please answer a one.

  571. What you're going to notice is that the answers that

  572. are most five for you are your gift. And so

  573. the ones where you go, dude, that's me all day,

  574. every day, put a five. And if it's not a five,

  575. Live in the realm of one and two so that

  576. you can have more clarity at the end of the gift.

  577. You with me? Everybody clear? Do this at home. Do

  578. this online. And let us know what your gift is.

  579. Email us at the email address that's online. We'd love

  580. to hear about this. And for you guys in the room, ready? Go.

  581. So what's God leading you to do next? And how

  582. can we help? Send us an email to info at movementchurch.co

  583. and tell us how we can pray for you and

  584. help you to take the next step in your spiritual journey.

  585. If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry, you

  586. can text the amount you'd like to give to this number, 833-725-0132.

  587. That's 833-725-0132.

  588. Or just look us up online at movementchurch.co. You can

  589. find the Movement Church on all social media platforms. And

  590. we hope that you'll give us a follow. God bless you.

  591. And remember, God is for you and so are we.