Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
Today we are concluding our study in the area of gifts in accordance
to scripture.
And the month of December has been a month of gifts.
We've looked at a couple of different elements of that.
We looked at the element of God giving us the greatest gift in
Jesus Christ.
And that's what we celebrate at Christmas time.
Jesus born in.
In a lowly place in Bethlehem, in.
In a place that we would not expect a king to be born.
But we know that he came to humble Himself, to live that perfect
life for us, to sacrifice for us, to serve those that were not
willing to love Him.
And he did that because he loves us.
John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son.
And then we know that it didn't stop there.
Jesus lives that perfect life.
He fulfilled the law.
He came and he sacrificed.
He came and he served.
And then he goes to the cross and he dies for our sins.
What an amazing truth that is.
The one who knew no sin became sin for us and paid the penalty that
we deserve.
And when he was taken down from that cross, he was put in a
tomb.
But we know he didn't stay there.
He conquered death through the resurrection and extends that gift
of grace to all of us so that we can have that eternal life as
well.
That's the excitement, that's the Gospel message.
But then it doesn't stop there, because once we trust in Jesus
Christ as our Savior, we have the opportunity to receive the gift
of grace and salvation.
But we also have the gift of sanctification.
That's our spiritual growth.
And we have the gift of service.
God gifts all believers with a gift of the Spirit or gifts of the
Spirit, so that we can utilize those gifts for his kingdom, to serve
others, to serve him, to sacrifice for others.
And so in a way, we begin to live out that Christlike life.
We model his example that we see throughout the Gospels, and we
live that out to the best of our ability in the power of the Spirit.
And that is the picture of the Christian life.
And what an amazing privilege that is to know God and to not just
to know him, but be a part of his work.
You know, God could have Just saved us and said, okay, we're going
to put you in a holding cell till you get to heaven one day.
But no, he uses us.
He allows us to be part of his work.
And I'm going to tell you here something this morning.
The Bible says not to think of ourselves higher than we ought to
think.
Folks, God does not need us.
He doesn't need you and me to get across his work, but he wants
to utilize us.
He wants us to be a part of us, part of it, because he loves
us.
And so that's something that I would like you to think about when
we get to this area of spiritual gifts, is that God is allowing
us to be a part of this.
And so it's a privilege.
It's a responsibility, yes, but it's more of a privilege to be
a part of this and to be used by God in His work for the kingdom.
And so let's go ahead and look at a few passages of scripture just
to refresh your memories.
We're going to go to First Peter, chapter four.
First Peter, chapter four, kind of gives us a summary of these
spiritual gifts and why God gives them to us.
And then we're going to go back to Romans, chapter 12, and we're
going to look at those spiritual gifts that are listed there,
the ministering gifts.
And then we're going to look at how we can grow in those areas
and how we can actually serve the Lord and serve others in that
area of our lives.
Now, as you guys are turning there, I hope you had a wonderful
Christmas season.
How many of you ate too many sweets?
Okay, some of you are good.
I'm going to raise my hand and say, I ate too many sweets.
So we're going to go ahead and just confess that now.
But we had a good time, hope that you had a great time with family,
friends, and are able to celebrate the, the coming of Jesus
here in this season.
So in First Peter, chapter four, we get to the verse number
10, and he says, as every man hath received the gift, and so we
all, as believers have received the gift of salvation, but
we've also received the gift of service.
And so many times we don't think of service or ministry as a
gift.
But the Bible says here that it is a gift.
And so every man hath received the gift.
Which means that God has not pulled back some gifts from other
people and say, okay, you're saved, but we're not going to give
you this gift.
No, God gives all believers gifts.
And he says, even so, minister the same One to another.
So the purpose of the gift is to serve one another as good stewards
of the manifold grace of God.
And so the Bible says is that this gift that you are given or these
gifts that you are given are given to you out of the grace of
God.
We didn't deserve these gifts.
We didn't earn these gifts.
And he says that really they're not our gifts because we're
stewarding them.
And then it says their manifold grace, meaning there's diversity.
And so the first thing that I want you to think about with the
gifts is diversity.
That's a big term that I want us to put in there today.
Now, I know that that word diversity can be taken out of context,
but what we see here in this case is that in the gifts of grace,
there is diversity.
And I want to emphasize this one more time.
God does not gift everybody the same way.
God does not expect everyone to serve the same way in the same
areas at the same capacities.
And I know that there's people that wrestle with that, because sometimes
comparison can be a killer.
If I look at somebody else and say, well, I wish I had that gift,
or I wish I had that ministry, or I wish I could serve at that capacity,
folks, God has gifted you with a specific gift so that you could
serve where he would will you to serve.
That might be different, that will be different than other people.
And so don't allow yourself to compare your ministry, your gift,
to somebody else's gift.
Because the Bible says it's the manifold grace of God.
God gives this person with this area, this person with this
area, both equally valuable in the body of Christ.
Not one gift is better than the other, because that's sometimes
what we think, right?
Well, look.
Look at this person.
Look, look how well they're able to do this.
I could never do that, therefore I'm not at that level.
The Bible says that there's different gifts in different areas.
And so we see that there's diversity, and that's good.
It's.
It's this.
It's being unified but not being uniformed.
We can be diverse in our gifts at the church, but.
But still be unified in our purpose.
So there's service behind the scenes there.
There.
We're going to see here in First Peter, Chapter 4 that there's
different categories of gifts.
It says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.
So there's going to be ministry gifts in which people are
going to be in the public speaking, teaching, preaching.
Okay, that's going to be an element of being upfront.
And so people are going to notice those gifts more frequently.
But then we see that there is, if any man minister, let him do it
as of the ability which God giveth.
Meaning there's going to be people that are going to be, quote,
unquote, behind the scenes.
There's going to be people that are supporting other people.
And that's just as needed as the other gifts.
And so it says that in all things, that God in all things may
be glorified.
So the.
The direction of the gift.
We have the diversity of the gifts, but we also have the direction
of the gift.
The direction of the gift is always outward.
It's never about me.
It's never about what I can pull into my own pleasure, my own
purpose, my own plans.
The gift is given to us so that we can serve God and serve others,
so that God is glorified.
It's all about him.
And so we see that the direction of the gift is an outward
direction, outward and upward, not inward.
And so there's this directional passage that we see here,
and that is to go and to serve and to glorify God through Jesus
Christ.
It's only through Jesus Christ that we're able to have these gifts.
And so there's diversity and there's direction.
But we're going to see here a little bit later on that there's
dedication to this.
God has given us the opportunity as believers to be dedicated
to what he has called us to do in our lives.
And so many Christians today are what I would consider, including
myself, apathetic or just content with what we have.
You know, I'm content with coming, filling a pew and going home.
And the Bible says that the Christian life is so much more than
my presence.
It's so much more than just my pleasure.
Okay, I go to.
Let me tell you this as a church member.
I'm a church member of Middletown Baptist Church.
Sometimes my focus is, what does the church do for me, right?
What is offered for me, what is offered for my family.
But I think biblically speaking, the right question to ask
is, what can I bring to the church to serve others?
What can I bring to the Lord to serve him?
And so what we're seeing here is that there's this dedication that
God calls us to have in these gifts.
And eventually God is going to direct our desires towards serving
him.
I think a lot of times we see individuals lacking the desire to
serve.
And so what happens there is sometimes what we try to do is motivate
them, like we Try to have a rah rah.
Let's go, let's go.
Let's get them going.
Hey, come on, church.
We're gonna have a special month of service and we get all excited,
but what happens when that month of service is over?
We all kind of go back to just getting content with where we are.
The Bible says that there is a true desire that must change in our
hearts for us to be servant Christians.
And we're going to talk more about that as we come along here
this morning.
So let's go ahead and open up with a word of prayer and we're going
to go back to our main text in Romans, chapter 12, and we're going
to look at more of those spiritual gifts that are listed there.
Lord, I pray that you be with us in this service this morning.
I pray that we're able to see you.
We're able to see the purpose that you have given us in our lives
to serve you.
Lord, I pray that the gospel message can be on the forefront of
our minds.
Lord, we're thankful for you sending your only begotten son for
us.
We're thankful for the fact that we are directed to give gifts
to others and give gifts to you when it comes to our worship,
when it comes to our service, Lord, help us not to do it begrudgingly.
Help us to do it in a sense of joy.
Help us to do in the sense of excitement.
Lord, help us to be passionate about what you have called us to
be passionate about.
Lord, help us to have the heart of service.
Help us to have a heart of sacrifice.
Just as you have directed us in Scripture, so, Lord, I pray that
you be with us this morning.
Lord, help us to understand the gift of grace.
If there's someone here today that does not know you as savior,
Lord, help.
Help them see the truth of the gospel, the truth of forgiveness,
the truth of everlasting life.
Lord, I pray to remove distractions from our minds and from
our hearts.
Help us to see you clearly here this morning.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.
We're back at Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12 talks about this idea of the body having different
members.
If you go back to verse number four, it says, for as we have many
members in one body and all members have not the same office,
so we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one
of another.
So what the Bible says is that the church is made up of different
people.
We are all one body, but we're all serving the Lord in unison.
And that's what the Call is for us as Christians.
So he says, here, one body, many members.
There's diversity.
Then he says, having then gifts differing.
Verse 6.
According to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy.
We talked about prophecy last week.
That's the proclamation, declaration of the truth of God.
Not always just talking about speaking about the future.
It's speaking forth the truth of God.
There's proclamation.
And then what we see here is that there is the gift of ministry.
That is the gift of service.
This is a broad category, but this is a category that many folks
can be lumped into when it comes to.
Maybe it's, hey, I like to cook for other people in the church.
I, I like to help out when it comes to facilities at the church.
I like to serve other people when it comes to their needs.
Maybe it's, maybe it's a.
I'm making something for them.
It could be a broad category, but this would be looking to serve
others for the cause of the gospel.
Now, now I think it's very clear for us to understand that there's
a purpose behind these gifts because someone who is unsaved can
be serving other people.
But there's a reason that we serve as Christians, and it's to
point people to Jesus Christ, to show them the love of Christ.
So I serve so that people can see the light.
Matthew, chapter 5, verse 16.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
So there's a purpose to this ministry and there's patience to
this ministry.
But many of us are called to be servants.
All of us are called to be servants, but some of us are naturally
or supernaturally gifted in this area of service.
So we see that there's prophecy, we see that there's ministry
or service.
We see last week we looked at that area of teaching, right?
So.
So some folks are gifted in the ministry for teaching.
Now, that doesn't mean that every teacher has to be supernaturally
gifted with the gift of teaching.
But what it does mean is that there's going to be people that have
a desire to teach and that are very successful in getting across
truths in scripture to other people, making it clear for them,
putting it on a level where everyone can understand.
That's that gift of teaching.
And so we're gonna go a little bit further and we're gonna see that
there's at least three more gifts listed in this passage.
Verse 8, it says, or he that exhorteth.
Now, what's exhortation?
That's a word that we don't use quite frequently, but it literally
means comforting or challenging, encouraging.
Okay?
So it's coming alongside of someone, literally coming alongside
of someone and encouraging them and comforting them towards
living a Christlike life.
So.
So think about it this way.
You got to have the proclamation of the truth, right?
Someone's got to get up and tell someone what the truth is according
to the word of God.
We can't just sit around and go, well, everybody's right.
Someone's got to get up and say, thus saith the Lord.
And we get thus saith the Lord from Scripture.
Okay, that's.
This is the source of thus saith the Lord.
It's not Pastor Josh that gets up and says, I have a word today.
The new word is this.
We're going to start doing this.
And whoa, whoa, whoa.
That doesn't line up with scripture.
Scripture is the standard for the proclamation of truth.
Someone's got to stand up and say, this is the truth.
And it doesn't have to just be the pastor.
It could be people within the church.
We're proclaiming the truth to the world.
But then you have to have people that teach that.
Right?
Because I can get up here and say, well, you know what?
Don't do this.
But there's an element of teaching that.
Okay, what does that mean?
What does that look like?
There's the teaching element, but then sometimes with preachers
and teachers, there's not always exhortation.
There's not always encouragement in that, because what's
going to happen is that some people are going to understand intellectually
what the Bible says.
There's going to be people that even understand it completely,
but yet are challenged to practice it.
That's where the exhortation comes in.
That's where the challenge comes in.
That's where the encouragement comes in.
That literally, it's.
It's.
It's the comfort, comforting someone in that process of walking,
that spiritual walk.
Some folks here today are natural encouragers.
I think of Pastor John.
Pastor John is an encourager.
He's an exhortation gift.
I mean, he comes alongside and his smile just encourages you to
move forward.
And I know many other people in the church that have that.
And, And.
And so not everyone's gifted in that naturally.
But what we see there in exhortation is that it's going to
be a challenge for somebody to live this way.
So therefore, we need people to come alongside and encourage and
comfort and.
And it might not always be when it comes to what we think about
when it Comes to like, okay, I'm going to live my life in the
purity of the Holy Spirit.
I'm going to live my life according to the word of God.
Yes, but it also could be in times of difficulty, because sometimes
we are challenged not to trust in God.
When difficulties come, right, if everything's going well in our
life, sometimes we don't need that encouragement because the encouragement
comes from the circumstance.
Like, if everything's going my way, I might say, you know what,
it's very easy to trust in the Lord in this time.
But when is it difficult to trust in the Lord?
When things aren't going our way?
Maybe when a loved one passes away or maybe when I'm going through
a difficulty at work.
That's when we need the people with the gift of exhortation to come
alongside and to comfort and to challenge people to continue on
and believing what they believe about Jesus Christ.
You know, what?
We sometimes are challenged to put to practice what we believe in
our minds.
Okay?
So, for example, all of us can read a passage of Scripture and see
that, let's say Hebrews, chapter 13, that, that God's not
going to leave us nor forsake us, right?
We, we all can intellectually understand what that means, that
God is with me all the time.
And I could sit here and I could talk to you about the Greek
and I could teach you all the inner workings of how God's presence
is with us.
No matter if we're here or no matter if we're there, it doesn't
matter where we physically are.
If we're in Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells us.
And so you can understand all the nuances of that.
But what happens when, when you don't feel like he's with you?
That encourager comes alongside and says, hey, you know
what?
I know it's difficult right now, but let me share with you the
comfort of God.
Let me share with you what God has done for me.
Let me share with you the goodness of God.
And that's the exhortation that's needed, that's needed just
as much as the teaching.
That's needed just as much as the prophecy.
That's needed just as much as the service.
So there's that exhortation, that encouragement.
But then we see there's more.
Verse 8, he that giveth, so there's the gift of giving.
Now, this predominantly deals with the area of giving financially
or giving materially, but it could be giving in other areas as
well.
He that giveth, it says here, let him do it.
With simplicity.
Now that word simplicity is an interesting word there because for
many of us, that's not a word that we use quite frequently in this
context.
He that giveth, let him give with simplicity.
What does that mean?
Well, number one, it means that the person who has been given
this gift of giving is going to naturally desire to give to other
people, naturally desiring to give what they have to other people.
Not everyone has that gift.
Now, we're all called to give, by the way.
We're all called to give, but not all of us are supernaturally
gifted with that desire to give.
And so he that giveth, giveth with simplicity.
The Greek word here is this idea of generosity, openness of heart,
right?
So, so the one who is giving, the one who has been gifted in this
area of giving, we should be giving out of a genuine heart for
service to the Lord, not looking for ulterior motives, meaning
this, okay, I'm going to give to the church, but they have to do
xyz.
I'm going to give to this person, but they're going to have
to do this back for me.
No, it's giving with openness of heart of this, this genuine nature
of generosity.
And so some of us are gifted in that area.
Now, usually with the gift of giving comes the material blessings,
right?
God materially blesses many Christians, and so he's going to
give usually that gift of giving with people that are given
gifts of material blessings, right?
Because.
Because, hey, if he, if he wants to see that gift manifested,
he's going to give resources for that.
It doesn't mean that everybody that has the gift of giving is going
to be a multi millionaire.
But what it means is that God is going to provide the means in
which they can exercise that gift of giving.
Philippians, chapter 4, verse 13 says, I can do all things through
Christ, right?
That doesn't mean I can do whatever I want.
It means if God calls me to do something, if he gives me the gift
of service, if he gives me the gift of giving, he's going to give
me the resources to exercise that gift.
If he's given me the gift of teaching, he's going to give me the
resources to be able to give that gift to other people.
And so there's that gift of giving that we are all challenged
to, to live out.
But there's supernaturally folks that are given that gift.
And so we talked about in Second Corinthians, chapter 8, the
grace giving.
All of us should grow in this area, but some are naturally gifted.
Then we see the next one, he that ruleth.
Think of this word as administration.
Some people are gifted in the area of administration.
They're to administrate with diligence.
And so we see this area of administration.
Some people are just natural administrators.
They're, they're, they're not necessarily maybe the most gifted
in communicating the truth of God to other people, but they're
able to delegate, they're able to organize.
They're able to get people in the right place at the right time.
And that is a wonderful gift, because not everyone has that gift.
Okay?
There's some people that are great visionaries.
They're, they're able to see the big picture, but they're not
able to get to that end point.
And so we need those people that are gifted in the area of administration.
And that's where sometimes we see the greatest areas of diversity
within the church.
Sometimes people compliment each other.
Sometimes there's going to be a person who has these big picture
ideas, oh, we can do this and we can do this.
How are we going to get there?
Have no idea.
And there's this person over here that maybe doesn't see that
big picture.
But they say, now that I see where you're going, I can tell you
how we can get there.
And you see how God marries together these wonderful gifts and
utilizes this for the cause of the gospel.
And so we see that there's this idea of diligence with administration.
And then lastly, what we see here is he that showeth mercy with
cheerfulness.
And so there's the gift of mercy.
The gift of mercy is another broad category, but it's extending
basically mercy and grace to someone in the midst of their difficulty.
Mercy literally means to withhold what a person deserves.
You know what?
There's an opportunity sometimes for us to let someone have
it.
But the Bible says the gift of mercy is that gift of, hey, you know
what?
I'm not going to exercise my anger on this person.
I'm not going to exercise my feelings on this person.
I'm going to exercise meekness and show them mercy.
But it does say something very interesting at the end of that.
It says to show mercy with cheerfulness.
Sometimes we can show mercy to people, but we're not cheerful about
it.
You know what?
Again, this person gets me upset.
Well, I, I better not go off on them today because I can't deal
with that.
No, it's, it's.
Sometimes we can show mercy in a fleshly manner, right?
I'm showing mercy because it's not going to Benefit me if I don't.
You know, if, if I act on my flesh, I'm gonna see some problems
here.
No, the Bible says here to show mercy with cheerfulness, to
be excited to exercise mercy, going to be people that are naturally
gifted in that area.
They're just merciful people.
They're patient people.
And, and that, I think that sometimes is something that we all
have to grow in is that area of mercy in our lives.
And so there's going to be people that are gifted in that area
of mercy.
And that mercy can be something as small as.
I'm going to overlook this area of someone's flaw in their life.
And it doesn't mean overlooking sin.
Let me be very clear about that.
Now I will say that last week I had mentioned there is that area
of exercising these gifts in the Spirit and the flesh.
And so all of these gifts are manifested in a way that can be very
biblical and very spiritual.
But all these gifts, if we are walking in the flesh, can be manifested
in negative ways as well.
Right?
So someone that has the gift of administration could do it for
the cause of the gospel, or they could do it for the cause of
their own personal, you know, plan in their life.
People that have the gift of mercy could use it for cheerfulness
and grace, or they could use it for, you know what, let's just
overlook sin.
Someone who is gifted in mercy is going to naturally feel like,
hey, you know what?
We can't really tell that person that they're wrong because
we don't want to offend them.
You understand how that gift of mercy can then manifest itself
in a fleshly way?
Well, I, you know what?
I don't want to stand on the truth of God.
The Spirit's not leading me.
I'm just going to exercise this gift of the Spirit in this way.
And the Bible says very clearly that we can live in the flesh
or live in the Spirit.
And so each one of these elements can be exercised in a fleshly
manner or they can be exercised in a spiritual manner.
So, so we went back to that idea of diversity.
We went to that idea of direction.
But.
But I want you to see how we are supposed to live these gifts
out, starting in verse number nine.
So, so verse number nine through verse 13 talks about how
we are to deal with other Christians with these gifts.
And then verse 14 goes on to talk about how we're to deal with
unsaved people outside of the family of God.
And then we start talking about how to deal with all people.
But here in verse nine through verse 13.
It's how we deal with people within the body of church, within
the body of Christ.
So verse number nine says this.
Let love be without dissimulation.
Now, we need to go back and we need to look at what this is talking
about here.
He's talking about exercising the gifts of the Spirit within the
body of believers.
So he says that you need.
What do you need?
Love.
That's the first thing he mentions.
After all these things, you got to have that genuine love for
God and for others to exercise these gifts properly.
Now, how do I exercise love properly?
Love without dissimulation.
Now, how many of you use that word dissimulation every day?
Not me.
But the word dissimulation means hypocrisy, love without hypocrisy.
It literally means putting on a mask.
Like, like, okay, so you know, you go to the store and you see a
mask for a famous person and you put it on and you know, you can,
you can wear it around.
And that's what it's talking about here.
It's talking about putting on the mask of love, even though behind
the mask, you're not loving somebody.
So the way that we exercise these spiritual gifts within the
church is we love with a genuine love.
We truly love that person.
We.
We don't just put on that love for the moment.
You.
You can't exercise these spiritual gifts within the body of
believers unless you truly love the body of Christ.
Now, how do we love the body of Christ?
We love Christ.
If you do not love God, you're not going to love others.
Now you say, well, I love God, but I don't love others.
Well, there's a whole passage in one John that says, if you don't
love others, you don't love God.
You have to love others if you love God.
And so there, what we see is that as a church, we must grow in
a love for God so that we can grow in our love for others.
Love without hypocrisy.
Love without a mask.
Love without other motives.
He says here, if you're going to exercise the spiritual gifts within
the church, you must have love.
And I challenge you to grow in your love for others.
Don't just love those folks that love you.
The Bible says, Jesus says, hey, the heathens do that, right?
The unsaved people love people that love them.
The true task for a believer is to love someone that isn't necessarily
lovable to you.
You say, well, I don't know that person.
You don't have to know that person, guess what?
If they're a believer in Jesus Christ, you love them because God
loves loves them.
You don't have to love everything that they do.
You don't have to condone their sin.
You don't have to condone their wrongdoing.
But the Bible says we are to love them sacrificially.
We are to love them in that agape love.
Now we're going to talk more about brotherly love here in a few
moments.
But the Bible does say that there is that desire in our hearts
to love God.
And if we love God, we will love others.
So there is that first step of loving with genuine love.
Then we see next abhor that which is evil.
So there isn't a sacrifice in our love for evil.
What does that mean?
That means this.
We don't overlook sin in our love.
We already mentioned that.
But the idea here is this.
We should love others, but we should not condone wrongdoing.
And then the opposite of that, we should cleave to that which is
good.
Cleaving, holding onto it.
So it's not enough just to hate evil, it's to cleave to that
which is good.
You see that in the book of Ephesians, when the Bible says put
off and put on, it's not just rejecting evil in our lives, but
it's also holding onto that which is good.
So what the Bible basically says here is that we can be a double
minded person.
We can say, oh, I hate evil over here, but I'm not excited for
that which is good.
I love God, but I also love the world.
That's an issue there because the Bible says that's a contradiction.
So it's a two way path.
It's hating, abhorring that which is evil, cleaving to that which
is good.
It's very easy for Christians to call out evil in this world.
I think we should.
Okay.
There are a lot of things that are going on in our world today that
are purely, clearly evil.
Anti Bible, Antichrist.
The spirit of the Antichrist is in the world.
The Bible says in First John.
It's been here since that time and it will be here till the end.
There is a spirit against God in this world.
We should hate that.
We should hate evil.
There's nothing wrong with hating evil.
God hates evil.
But then there's that second part, cleaving or holding on to that
which is good.
There's some people very apathetic about the doing good part.
I'm all able to say that this is wrong.
But then what am I doing on the side of the good?
Well, I hate that these people are doing this.
Well, what are you doing on the side of good for that?
How are you elevating the cause of the gospel?
You know, churches for many, many years have been known for what
we are against, and we should be known for what we are against.
But we also should be known for what we are for.
What are we for?
We're for justice, seek justice, love mercy, walking humbly
with our God.
That's Micah, Micah 6.
We should be known for proclaiming hope.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
So within the spiritual gifts, it's not just calling out evil that
is one element of it, but it's also amplifying, lifting up the goodness
of God in our lives.
We should be characterized by what we are for, and we should what
we are against equally.
And so the Bible says here, abhor that which is evil, cleave
to that which is good.
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love.
So this is where the challenge comes.
I love that person, but I'm not going to do anything good for
them.
You ever heard that?
I.
I love them, but I don't like them.
Contradiction.
Because right after it tells us to love them.
With this type of love, it says, be kindly, affection one to
another with brotherly love.
So the challenge here is to prove your love, demonstrate your
love with affection, kindness, doing good unto others.
We see a passage of Scripture in the book of Ephesians.
You probably have it Memorized, Ephesians, chapter 4.
At the end of the chapter it says, and be ye kind, one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you.
So you say, well, how can I be kind and forgiving and patient with
people that are difficult?
The Bible says, you go back to what Christ has done for you.
You go back to your rebellion, you go back to your sin.
You go back to where you have fallen short.
And you see God's great affection to you, his great forgiveness
to you.
That is how we become more Christlike, living in the spirit,
being kindly, affection one to another with brotherly love.
So the idea here is to love genuinely and to love in action.
Demonstration of our love, folks.
I fail in this all the time.
I love you, brother.
I love you.
The truth is, is that sometimes I might believe that in
my mind and I might even believe that in my heart.
But I lack the application to prove that love.
Truth is, is that God demonstrated his love towards us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The greatest example of demonstration of God's love is that
he sent his only begotten Son.
So if we are to love like Christ, we are to demonstrate our
love by service and sacrifice.
If I love somebody, will I serve them?
It goes back to the spiritual gifts.
If you don't love someone enough, you're not going to want
to serve it.
You're not going to want to use the spiritual gifts within the
church if you don't love them.
But the other side of things is this.
I'll serve them until I have to sacrifice.
And at the moment of sacrifice, I'm going to stop, right?
If you put me out, then I'm not going to serve anymore.
The Bible says that Jesus loved us enough to die for us, okay?
He went past service and went to sacrifice.
And that's biblical love.
Okay?
There are my three children.
If my three children were up here right now, I would do everything
in this world to take away their pain.
I would do everything in this world to die for them.
Some of you that are parents understand that concept, okay?
I would sacrifice to prove my love for them.
I would sacrifice to prove my love for my spouse and for my family.
And the truth is, is that if we truly love God and we truly love
others, we will be willing to be put out for them.
We will be willing to sacrifice our time, our treasure,
our talents, everything if we truly love.
And so he says here, be kindly affectionate one to another with
brotherly love, in honor, in honor, preferring one another.
This speaks of that humility that we talked about at the very
beginning.
Putting myself below others.
You say, well, that that's not that.
Because culture has told you that that is wrong.
Culture has told you that humility is weakness, that humility
is vulnerability.
And that is bad.
But the Bible says something completely different.
Humility is the greatest aspect.
Humility is the greatest character trait that we could ever
have.
You say, I don't believe you, Pastor.
I don't believe you.
It's hard for me to even call you pastor by saying that.
Well, I'm glad you said that because I want to show you.
In Philippians chapter two, what does it say?
This is not my opinion.
Humility is a necessity.
Philippians chapter 2.
You say you want to be like Christ.
Verse 3.
Watch.
Go back to verse 2.
Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded, having the same Love
being of one accord, of one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.
Don't be, don't, don't be.
Don't do anything that's going to cause pressure and strife and
fighting amongst the brethren.
Don't do anything for selfish glory.
But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ.
Jesus says, that's the path that Jesus took.
You need to be like Christ Jesus.
Therefore humble yourselves.
Put others before yourself.
That's what is being taught there in Philippians.
That's what's being taught here in Romans chapter 12.
In honor, preferring one another.
That means I prefer that you take first.
I prefer that you get what I want.
I prefer this.
I.
I'm going to put myself behind you.
Me last, him first.
It's that, you know, at Christmas time we sing joy to the
world.
There's an acronym that I always remember when I was a little
kid.
It's J.
Jesus, Others, you.
Sometimes we get that acronym flipped, right?
Me, it's all about me.
And the Bible says, no, the spiritual gifts are not about us.
They're about God and they're about others.
So he says, in honor, preferring one another.
So we know so far that there is the diversity of the gifts.
We know the direction of the gift, that is to the Lord and to
others.
But then we see here that there's this dedication, verse 12,
rejoicing in hope.
So there's joy in doing this.
He says, hey, you know what?
When you have this type of hope in your life, there's joy.
And in that joy comes this.
It says, patient in tribulation.
So when we have this proper perspective, it brings us to a place
of joy, which brings us to a place of hope, which brings us to
the place of dedication.
Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
That word, fervent means boiling.
It actually has the picture of a fire.
And so what he's saying here is this.
Be on fire for God.
You say, I want to be on fire for God.
How do I get there?
He's just told you the path to get there.
Love.
Genuinely hate evil.
Cling to what is good.
Demonstrate your love.
Humble yourself.
Don't be slothful in business.
What does that mean?
It means I got to get to work every day.
Work 60 hours a week.
No, he's talking about don't get lazy in what God has called you
to do in Your life.
The challenge here is this many of us are going to get to a
place in our life where we get comfortable, apathetic, careless
in what God has called us to do.
But he says, passionate, fervent in spirit, boiling on fire
for God, serving the Lord.
He says, don't get passionate about the things that don't matter.
How many of you, okay, including myself, how many of you
have spent a lot of time fervent and cheering for a sports
team so much to say that you're like, my life is invested
in how this team is going to do this year.
My happiness on Monday morning is going to be affected by how this
team goes.
Okay?
Some of you say, I've never been tempted to do that.
How many of you have done that with the stock market?
How many of you have done that with, you know, whatever we can list
on.
All of us are invested in things in this world so much that
we are passionate about that.
Like, so, for example, you know, someone came up to me and they
say, you know, who are you?
You know, most of the time, we men, we say what we do for a living
and what we're passionate about, right?
So I'm a pastor, and I'm passionate about the outdoors.
I like sports, right?
So the Bible says, don't pour out your passion on something that
isn't eternal.
Now, now you can be passionate about a hobby.
I'm.
I'm passionate about a lot of things in my life, but if those things
steal away my passion for God, I'm missing the point.
My passion for God should be so evident.
My.
My fervent spirit for God should be so evident that when I
go out into the world, people see that it says, rejoicing in hope,
patient in tribulation.
The way that you can do that is not being slothful in business,
not allowing yourself to lose your passion in the spirit serving
the Lord.
So, for example, if.
If I am married and I have my wife and, you know, I'm called to
love her 100.
Everything in me is called to love her.
I'm not supposed to love any other woman on the planet the same
way that I love my wife.
Okay, I love my mom, but that's a different love than my wife.
And what happens is, when we.
Let's talk about the marriage context right now.
What happens is that many times marriages begin to crumble
and fail when someone's passion for their spouse is stolen
by another.
Like, so, for example, I suppose I'm gonna love my wife with
everything but this work relationship over Here has pulled
my passion just a little bit away from my wife.
I'm stealing from her and giving it to somebody else.
That's exactly what happens in the Christian walk when we take our
passion that's designed to go to God.
Our worship that's designed to go to God.
And we take that and we reallocate it to something else.
The Bible says in the Old Testament that this is called spiritual
adultery, that I'm taking my love for God and I'm appropriating
it to something else.
Folks, we lose our passion for the Lord when we put our passion
into other things.
All of us have a passion for something.
All of us have a.
Have an innate desire in our hearts to worship something.
And so the question is, is where are we going to take that passion?
Where are we going to take that worship?
And so it goes further in verse 13.
Excuse me, verse 12.
Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in
prayer.
So the Bible says here, to live this way, to live with this
fervent spirit, to live with this hope, to live with this patience,
we must be continuing instant or constantly in prayer.
Prayer is a necessity for spiritual growth.
Prayer is a necessity for spiritual service.
Prayer is a necessity for us to live with this genuine love, with
this genuine application of this passage.
So he says, rejoicing in hope, patient and tribulation, continuing
incident prayer, distributing to the necessity of the saints.
Meaning we do all of these things so that we can distribute
the needs to the other believers.
Folks, we all have spiritual needs.
All of us have needs, whether we want to admit them or not.
Most of the time when we come into the building, most of the time
we come into the building and we want everyone to think that we're
okay.
I don't have any needs.
Hey, how you doing?
I'm doing great.
In our heart of hearts, we're doing terrible.
How's your life going?
Going fantastic.
In my heart, I'm questioning whether or not I even want to continue
to go to church or read my Bible or pray.
And the truth is, is that as a believer, it is my job.
It is my responsibility to distribute the gift that God has
given me to the necessity or the needs of the saints.
So what does that mean?
That means that you and your spiritual gift might be what is needed
today for me to be able to see the grace of God and to grow in my
life and to see that need fulfilled in my life.
It's ultimately God, it's ultimately God giving this.
But God is using us as his vessels.
For these areas of needs in our church.
So, so, one, we need to be authentically open about some of
the things that we are struggling with.
I, I think that all the more we need to be open about that.
Now.
I know that there's discernment with that.
We can't go around telling everybody every little issue that
we have.
But we need to be open and ready to seek after God's presence
in our church to say, you know what, hey, I struggle with this.
I need help with this.
But then on the other side of things, the people that are in the
church, we need to be ready to exercise our spiritual gifts to help
other people around us.
We have to walk circumspectly.
We have to walk open and willing and ready to serve people
in these areas.
It says distributing to the necessity of the saints given to
hospitality.
It takes hospitality to do this.
You know, a good host is someone who is not focused on their
own needs.
Like, if someone's coming over to your house and you're a good host,
you're not going to sit there and go, well, I really want the first
dibs on that, that turkey, I cooked it.
So I'm going to, I'm going to jump ahead and I've got guests here,
but I'm going to eat it real fast and get all the good parts and
then give it to you.
A good host doesn't set their place and say, well, figure it out
on your own.
I don't know, you sit wherever you want.
A good host is going to have everything ready, right?
It's about them.
It's about the, it's about the guest.
The Bible says that's the kind of spirit that we have to have to
exercise these spiritual gifts.
To be a good host means to put others before yourself.
To, to, to have that hospitality means I'm going to seek.
What, what do you need?
You need a drink of water?
Do you need.
Here's where the restroom is.
Here, here's where you can get this.
Here's where you can get that.
That's a good host.
A good host is looking out for the needs of others.
And that's what the Bible says here.
We have to be focused on the distribution to the necessity of
the saints.
And so we take all that and we say, okay, so far, what have we learned?
We've learned that there's diversity of gifts.
We've learned that there's the direction of those gifts, and we've
learned that there's the dedication needed for those gifts
to be lived out.
But how can I grow in these?
How.
How can I grow in my gift?
Okay, so, for example, maybe you say, well, I really feel like
God has gifted me in the area of teaching, but I don't know how
to exercise that.
I don't know how to I grow in that.
The Bible says that.
That God will give you the desires to exercise in that gift.
So, for example, I've had people come up to me and say, well,
I don't know what my spiritual gift is.
And what I say to them next sometimes throws them off.
I say, what do you like?
What?
Well, I don't.
I don't know.
I don't.
I don't know what I like.
Well, what do you enjoy doing in your life?
And you say, well, what does that mean?
Well, the Bible says that God will give us the desires to exercise
in our spiritual gifts.
I want you to see a passage of scripture that talks about this.
It's Psalm 37.
Say, well, how can I discern my spiritual gift?
Well, one of the areas is that if you're walking in obedience to
the Lord, he's going to give you the desire to do these things.
You have no desire to serve in any capacity within the church.
There's a time where you need to revitalize your life.
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, but you don't have a passion
to serve, there might be a time in your life where you say,
what is causing me not to have this desire?
In Psalm 37.
Psalm 37, verse 4 is one of the most quoted verses of Scripture,
but most of the time quoted out of context.
Okay, we're going to look at this because I want you to see that
your spiritual gift or gifts, they're accessible to you.
And it's not like this very vague thing that God just has out
in the ether that you have to find accidentally.
God has given you everything that you need to exercise these spiritual
gifts within the church.
It's just a matter of discerning it and embracing it.
So verse 4 of Psalm 37.
Delight thyself in the Lord.
That's the first step.
Okay.
Reading this in context is important.
So a lot of people.
I'll read the verse and I'll tell you how a lot of people interpret
this verse.
Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires
of thine heart.
Okay, well, I love God and I want a Ferrari.
So I'm just going to pray a lot, and God better give me the desire
of my heart.
The problem is that you're Reading that out of context, because
if you read down, it's not talking about getting material things
necessarily.
Verse 1.
Fret not thyself because of evildoers.
So we're dealing with people that are being persecuted.
We're dealing with people that are doing the right thing.
They're walking the path of obedience.
Says, neither be thou envious against workers of iniquity.
Meaning, don't want what sinful people have.
Verse 2.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as
the green herb.
He says, those people that are seeking their fleshly desires, they're
going to lose all that one day.
Verse 3.
Trust in the Lord.
So there's an element of trust in this trust in the Lord, have faith
in the Lord and do good.
So.
So it's getting your life in order in obedience to God.
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
So God is already providing your needs.
And then it says, delight yourself in the Lord.
So it's more than just vaguely saying, I love God is having a delight
in the things of God.
It's growing in your spiritual disciplines.
It's growing in my prayer life.
It's growing in my Bible study.
It's growing in my time with him.
It's growing in my service.
I'm delighting myself in the things that God delights in.
God delights in when you serve.
God delights when you pray.
God delights when you share your faith with other people.
God delights when you obey his word.
So.
So when you are delighting in the things that God delights in,
and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart means this.
As you grow in your knowledge of God, as you grow in your love
for God, as you begin to love the things that God loves, as you
begin to desire the things that God desires, your desires change.
Your desires move and blend into his will for your life.
Before, it was Josh's will over here, God's will over here,
and it was this conflict.
I want this.
Does God.
I hope that God blesses me here, but I don't know for sure.
But then as time progresses and you become more and more in a
close relationship with God, your will and his will begin to mend
together.
And the things that you desire are the things that he desires.
And so no longer are you desiring those fleshly things.
Well, God, I.
I want all these spiritual gifts so that people will say that
I'm a great person.
Eventually it becomes God.
Thank you for this wonderful gift that you've given me.
How can I serve others with this?
God's going to give you desires.
I want to serve someone with this.
I want to give someone this.
And he's going to give you the desires of your heart because your
desires are his desires.
So I would encourage you to think about your desires.
Do your desires focus on God's will or your own will?
Is it my wants, my dreams, My passions?
Or is it his dreams, his passions, his wants in my life?
And the Bible says eventually those desires, if you're walking
with him, will draw you to a place of service within the church.
As you guys head out today, you don't have to take one, but on
the desk out there, there's going to be these spiritual gifts
test for you.
And these aren't perfect.
They're only as good as your honesty.
But I will say that it will help you.
If you have not discerned a spiritual gift in your life, it will
help you discern a direction in which God has blessed you with,
and it links to your desires.
So, for example, if you get to the teaching section and you have
no desire in any of those categories, you put a one on every
category.
I think it would be safe to say that God has not naturally or
supernaturally gifted you in the area of teaching.
Doesn't mean you can't teach.
It just means that's not an area that you necessarily want to
exercise.
And so God works through your desires.
If you're walking with him, go, go back on that.
The, the preface to God guiding you through your desires
is that if you're walking with him and you're delighting in his
heart.
So let's say a person comes off the street, they haven't been
in church in, in 50 years, and they've been living their lives the
way that they want to live it for 50 years.
And they come and they go, well, God's given me a desire to
teach, so I must be a teacher.
We don't know for sure, right?
Because they have not been walking in obedience and delighting
in the things of God.
Your desires will align with his desires when your heart is delighting
in his heart.
And so I would encourage you to think about that when we come
to this season of trying to find where God has you to fit in
within the church.
And so there's diversity, there's direction, there's dedication,
and there's desire.
And all of those things allow us to understand these serving gifts
in Romans chapter 12, so that we can say, you know what I'm called
To do this in the church now, I, I, I need to be very clear because
I know that churches for many, many years have just said, serve
anywhere we need you.
Are you a warm body?
Do you have a pulse?
You're qualified for the children's ministry?
I want to be very careful to say, I don't think you should be
like, well, I can't serve anywhere because I'm, I'm, I can
only serve in this one area, or I can't serve it all because,
because that's why God made these categories so broad.
Right?
The gift of service.
Can you serve in the children's ministry?
Yeah.
Can you serve in the adult ministry?
Yeah, you can serve in any area of any ministry.
And so I think a lot of times we get so narrowed in our focus that
I can only do this, and so therefore, I'm not going to be open.
You know, one of the ways to learn where you're gifted is serving
in many areas.
My pastor, when, when I was looking into ministry, he was like,
I want you to serve in every ministry in the church.
I, I served in the nursery ministry, believe it or not.
They, they let me serve.
My wife was there.
They let me serve in the nursery ministry.
I was in kids ministry.
I was working in the soundboard.
I was up on the camera.
I was in the orchestra.
You said, how did you have enough time to do all that?
It was just running around every single week, rotating between
all of them.
But the goal was, for me, there were some areas I, I didn't.
Guess what, I didn't feel called to the children's ministry.
That wasn't where I felt like my gift was.
But you know what?
I was there and I exercised it, and I said, you know, that's
not for me.
And so what we do is we don't just go, well, I don't feel like
I'm gifted, so I'm not going to serve.
It's exercising service in the church and then having the humility
to say, you know, that's not me.
But what I will say is that there are some times where God allows
us to stretch ourselves.
My pastor in Florida was like, okay, I need you to preach on Wednesday
night.
Coming up in two weeks, I might preach.
I had never preached in front of anybody my whole life.
I was a teacher.
I taught in front of a classroom because I want you to preach
on Wednesday night.
You know what I did?
I was so stressed.
I was like, I don't, I can't preach.
I can't get up there and talk in front of people.
I can't.
What am I going to preach on?
There's a, that's a big book.
What am I going to preach on?
I had no idea.
And so it took me all my free time for two weeks.
They come up with a 20 minute sermon.
I got up there and I was like this, the whole podium was shaking,
my knees were knocking and I was like, I am going to fail.
And I probably did to many degrees.
But the idea was for me is I never would have dreamed that was
an opportunity that I could ever serve in.
Until my pastor said, hey, you want to give it a shot?
So sure.
And the more I was able to do it, the more it was like, okay, I
see a desire here.
And so what I would challenge you is if you're sitting there and
you go, I don't have any ministries.
Get involved, get involved and see where God has you.
And you might find a desire that you never thought would be there.
But what I would say is this way too, folks.
God has gifted you all with so many natural talents.
I'm looking, you know, I know you're not supposed to be jealous,
but sometimes I look at some of these fellows who are super handy
in the church and I'm like, man, I wish I just had 10% of that.
We're, we're trying to put together a thing that we got at Christmas
time and I'm like, dad, you figure it out.
I, I can't figure it out.
I, I don't have the patience for that.
But the truth is, is that again, going back to that comparison,
look, I might not be called to use my hands to build something at
the church, but you might be.
I might not be called to work with the two and three year olds,
but you might be, that might be your position in the kingdom of
God is to be an influence to these three year olds.
And you say, well, what does that have to do in the cause of the
grand scheme of eternity, folks?
You ministering to someone behind the scenes could be everything.
You know, some of the greatest people in my life that I feel were
influences to me were my Sunday school teachers that probably
thought that I wasn't listening and probably I wasn't listening
in a lot of cases.
But they were there and they were faithful and they were in their
place and they thought probably, I don't know for sure,
but they probably didn't think in any way that their influence in
my life would influence anybody else.
And the truth is, is that I'm able to utilize the love that they
gave to me so that I could serve other people.
And that's all of us, all of us have that story.
All of us have someone in our life that probably unassumingly helped
us in a way that we can help others with.
And so what I would encourage you to think about is this, in the
spirit of all of this, finding your gift, exercising your gift,
being in the will of God, having that desire.
Just go back to the spirit of what Jesus Christ told us in Matthew.
Excuse me, Mark, chapter 10.
This is where I'm going to end.
This is the spirit of all of this, okay?
Because I, I want to go back and I want to talk about this.
It is.
Hear, hear me out this morning.
I got to speak from my heart.
Church has become such a consumer driven product in this world.
I don't care what denomination you are, I don't care if you're contemporary.
Traditional church has become consumeristic.
Meaning I need to produce as a pastor, as a leader, I need to produce
a product that the people like to hear that, that they will come
back for.
And the church is this, this.
And what happens is, is that now you have reviews on churches.
So people come into churches and they write their review.
Well, this church has good music, but you know, the preaching's
a little weak or this church has great children's programs and
it becomes now like a business.
Folks, I understand there are elements of the church that have
to be elements of business.
But when we lose sight of what the church is, who is the church?
You, me, the people, not the building.
The church is not the programs.
The church is the people.
And so what do we see in Mark, chapter 10, verse 25.
This is the heart of all of this.
I have the wrong passage of scripture.
That's, that's, that's the wrong passage.
If you turn to Mark, chapter 10, verse 25.
Don't look at that.
You can look at it.
Now.
It's actually the verse that says and, and it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of the needle than a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God.
I don't know if that was divine inspiration to take me to
that verse, but that, but, but I'm gonna get that passage for you
here in a second.
But what we will see here is that Jesus is talking about his purpose
of coming to this earth.
He.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
He came to serve.
Jesus came to serve and he came to minister.
He didn't come for people to do things for him.
Even Though he would be the one that would do that.
Luke, chapter 17, verse 33.
I don't know how I got Mark, chapter 10 in there.
Luke, chapter 17, verse33.
Jesus comes and, and he says, whosoever shall seek to save his
life shall lose it.
And whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
This idea of dying to our flesh, dying to ourselves, dying
to the fact that.
You know what?
It's not about me.
It's not about what people can do for me.
It's about what I can do for others.
Jesus came as a servant.
Jesus came as a humbled person that was willing to sacrifice, was
willing to serve.
You know, for me, I think that that's what we have to get back to.
We have to get back to that passage of scripture.
Mark, chapter 10, verse 45.
I'm so sorry.
I was all over the place there for a second.
Mark, chapter 10, verse 45.
I have my handwriting and it's not good.
So when you.
When I make notes that are not typed out, can't read it.
Mark 10:45.
Even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many.
That's the spirit of all this.
That's the spirit of church.
That's the spirit of service.
That's the spirit of our spiritual gifts.
That's the spirit of everything that we do in our lives,
is to have that same spirit of Jesus Christ.
He came not to be ministered unto, but to be minister and to give
his life a ransom for many.
So you would say, well, so am I supposed to go to a church that
doesn't serve me?
What's the point of coming?
Folks, if your purpose is to serve others and other per.
Other people's purpose is to serve others, you.
You guess what the outcome is.
You will be ministered to.
But that's not the focus.
So.
So for if I come into a church and I say, well, who's going to minister
to me today?
And everybody has that same spirit.
Let's say everyone that walks in this building today says, who's
going to minister to me today?
No one's going to get ministered to.
Why?
Because everyone's thinking about who's going to minister to
them.
But if everyone comes in with the spirit of how can I minister
to others?
Guess what?
We're all going to minister each to each other.
And there's going to be.
There's going to be people that fall through the cracks.
And what I would say is this, as a Christian, we go back to the
spirit of things.
We.
To not assume the worst in a brother or sister.
Well, no one, no one ministered to me today, so I'm not
ministering to anybody else for the rest of my life.
Folks.
That's the wrong spirit to have when you don't get ministered
to.
Minister to people more.
That's what Jesus did.
Think, think about.
Think about the, the time in which Jesus was the most rejected.
What.
What was the time where Jesus was the most rejected, the most forgotten
about?
Right before he went to the cross.
Right.
What did he do then?
He gave everything.
At the moment, he was the most rejected.
So, so this isn't today to say, well, let's give examples of
people like they're getting forgotten about, but it's all about
having the purpose in our hearts.
And that is that purpose of having that desire serve.
And so I encourage you to think about that as you head out
today.
I want you to think about maybe possibly taking it.
We've got 50 in the back, 50 of these spiritual gift tests in
the back.
If we run out of that, we can get more.
Okay?
And I would like you to go through it if you can.
Today is COIN and NEA Sunday.
It's our fifth Sunday, so we don't have an evening service and
we always encourage people to get together.
We don't have a study guide today, but what we do have is this
spiritual gift test.
And to go through it and just to see where you stand on that, you
might be.
You.
You might look and say, well, I'm gifted in a lot of these areas.
So then the next step after that would be this.
Okay, I'm gifted in the area of teaching exhortation and mercy.
Pastor, where do I fit in there?
Well, hey, you know what?
We have an area of teaching in this, in this area here we have an
adult teaching class.
We have a children's teaching class.
Hey, you can serve in mercy in a lot of categories.
You can serve in exhortation in many areas.
And so it's finding a place for you at Middletown Baptist Church.
For me, it's.
It's wanting to be able to be utilized by God in his will.
And I think that's the biggest thing for all of us to be in the
will of God.
And so this morning, I'm going to ask you to, if you're able to.
To stand with me, every head bowed, every eye closed.
We have a moment of response here.
I know nothing earth shattering was preached this morning.
A lot of it's been Teaching.
But what I want you to know is this.
God has a purpose and a plan for you.
He has given you a specific gift to use within the body of believers.
And the true test is, number one, do I know what that gift is
or gifts are?
And number two, am I exercising those gifts within the
body of believers in the power of the spirit?
That be the case?
Praise God.
Then keep passionate in service, fervent in spirit, serving
the Lord.
Don't get your eyes off of the prize, so to speak.
But maybe some of you have said, it's been a long time since
I've been able to exercise my spiritual gift within the church.
Say, well, maybe, Pastor, you don't know my physical state.
You don't know what I'm going through at home.
I don't know.
But God knows and God understands.
So God's not asking everyone to serve at the same capacity here
at Middletown Baptist Church.
Maybe for your ministry, it's a ministry of calling someone, sending
a letter.
Maybe it's not what it used to be.
Maybe you're not out running on the bus and going through every
neighborhood, knocking on every door, but maybe you can be
an encouragement to one person here this year.
You know, if one person encouraged another person and that
continued on here at the church, all of us would grow in those
areas of encouragement, and we would be able to grow in our understanding
of the goodness of God if we just exercised the best that we could
in the place that we are in.
So I encourage you to think about that here this morning.
Hey, you can't exercise these spiritual gifts without knowing Jesus
as your personal savior.
We celebrated Christmas this past week, and Christmas is a wonderful
holiday, but it's empty without the message of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.
There was a lot of babies born over the years in Bethlehem.
There's still babies being born in Bethlehem today.
But the truth is, is that that baby that was born in Bethlehem was
different because of the gospel message.
The gospel message of his life, his death, his burial, his
resurrection and his power and who he is.
He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
If you have not put your faith and trust in the King of Kings and
the Lord of Lords, the Messiah, the Jesus Christ, everything
in our lives.
If you have not put your faith in him, today is the day to do that,
to trust in Jesus as your Savior, to take the path of spiritual
growth.
So here this morning, I ask you to respond to him.
Maybe it's this.
Just thought about this.
Maybe you've been exercising love, but not with genuine spirit,
not with a genuine spirit.
Maybe it's been hypocrisy.
Maybe it's been love with the mask.
Or maybe it's been love with ulterior motives.
Maybe it's been love seeking something else.
Hey, today, maybe dedicate your life and your spiritual walk
to loving the Lord genuinely and loving others.
Love covers a multitude of sins.
Love Love will be able to let you overlook people's flaws and their
inadequacies because that's what happens in our own life.
Jesus forgave us not because we earned it, but because of our
faith in Him.
And that's what makes us unique.
That's what makes us unified.
That's what makes us gifted is the gift of his grace through faith.
And so this morning, exercise that faith here by loving him and
loving others.
Lord, I pray that you'd be, in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
We thank you for your love and your grace.
I pray that we're able to exercise these spiritual gifts that
you've called us to exercise.
We thank you and we love you.
In Jesus name, amen.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletown baptist church.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh massaroiddletownbaptistchurch.com
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.