Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Well, I really, really love being your pastor so much that I turned down an opportunity with the Texas Rangers.
[00:00:12] I don't know why we're laughing. I don't know why that would do. You need proof?
[00:00:18] I got proof.
[00:00:22] That's me, right field.
[00:00:28] I mean, I'm in the seats, but I'm close. That's.
[00:00:33] I'm kidding. I love being your pastor. There's nothing else I want to do. Also, the Rangers do not want me.
[00:00:39] I'm not gifted for baseball.
[00:00:42] I even told them I have a rookie card, and they said, you still don't have a gift, though.
[00:00:52] So today is all about gifts.
[00:00:55] Spiritual gifts, to be exact. And here's what we're gonna learn. You have a gift.
[00:01:03] It's meant to serve others through God's strength, for God's glory.
[00:01:09] You have a gift.
[00:01:13] God gave it to you to serve others. He'll give you the strength to use it for his glory. If you are a follower of Jesus, this is true of you.
[00:01:21] His spirit's working in you. And when you use the gift for his purpose, a giant flashing arrow points to God and gives him glory. So our text Today is from First Peter, Chapter 4. If you're using one of the Bibles from the back, it is on page 740, 1st Peter, 4, verses 10 and 11.
[00:01:46] So give you a little context. Peter was one of Jesus. I feel like my mic is, like, feeding back or rumbling or.
[00:01:54] No, is that just the sounds of my head again? Okay, so a little context. Peter, one of Jesus closest followers. Peter was excitable. Sometimes it seemed like his heart was bigger than his brain. One time, he cut a guy's ear off to defend Jesus. But then later, he would give his own life to defend his faith in Jesus.
[00:02:16] What we call First Peter is a letter that Peter wrote to the early church to encourage them because they were facing persecution, they were suffering.
[00:02:26] And he ended the letter by writing this. He says, my purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you're experiencing is truly pure, part of God's grace for you.
[00:02:39] So stand firm in this grace. So he knew these people were hurting. He knew they were suffering. And he said, hey, God, allowing that is part of his grace in your life.
[00:02:50] So still true for us today. If you are walking through a hard season right now, if God's allowing it, maybe the goal is that you would be drawn closer to him, that you would know his goodness even more. Just stand firm that grace.
[00:03:04] So at the time of this letter, like, government persecution wasn't rampant yet. So these people of the church were suffering at the hands of people just in their daily life, right? They weren't allowed into old friend groups. Their bosses harassed them. Neighbors turned their backs on them. Their own family wouldn't welcome them at the dinner table.
[00:03:26] So Peter wrote to Christians who were out of place in this world, but we're still called to live in this world.
[00:03:34] And he told them, God's grace is what will get you through.
[00:03:39] So here's how he urged them to live. This is 1st Peter 4, 10, 11.
[00:03:46] God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.
[00:03:52] Use them well to serve one another.
[00:03:56] Do you have the gift of speaking?
[00:03:57] Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you? Do you have the gift of helping others do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies, Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.
[00:04:12] Let's pray. God, thank you.
[00:04:14] Thank you for your word that is so relevant and alive and extremely practical for us today.
[00:04:24] We are grateful that your word is living, that it's here moving among us. God, we thank you that your spirit is here.
[00:04:33] God, we are grateful for your unfailing love.
[00:04:39] We praise you. We ask you to have your way this morning. God, would you just let your love be overwhelming in spirit? Would you preach a better sermon than I will in Jesus name? Amen.
[00:04:51] So you. You ladies are so encouraging. I hear it every Sunday morning.
[00:04:58] Oh, girl, you look beautiful.
[00:05:01] Did you get your hair did?
[00:05:03] Is that a new blouse? Girl, get it. You look beautiful. Right, guys, you're good, too.
[00:05:09] Sup?
[00:05:11] What's up?
[00:05:14] Get in, get out, right?
[00:05:16] But you ladies are such encouragers. You see something lovely in one another and you point it out. Guys, we got our own way, too. We can't help it that we're super cool and that's just how we do. But I point this out because it's hard to receive encouragement, right? And I hear that on Sunday mornings, too. I hear it deflected or explained away, which is hair dye.
[00:05:40] But our culture is not super encouraging. I think it's because we deflect it, right? It's hard to receive. But this morning, I'm going to encourage you. And even if it's hard, I need you to listen because this is a solid truth. You have a gift.
[00:06:02] I need you to hear that. I need you to receive it. I need you to own it. You have a gift.
[00:06:08] There is no room for doubt because Peter shoots straight. He says, God has given each of you a gift.
[00:06:17] Remember, this is written to the Church. So this applies to followers of Jesus, but in his grace, God sometimes gives gifts to non believers.
[00:06:27] But to the church, this is a promise.
[00:06:32] You have at least one God given spiritual gift.
[00:06:37] So let's start with a question. Okay. What is a spiritual gift?
[00:06:43] If you've got it, what is it?
[00:06:46] Well, by its name it is spiritual.
[00:06:50] So that means it does not exist apart from God's Spirit.
[00:06:54] And then Peter's direction to use it to serve another person means it's the Spirit enabling you with something to serve another person.
[00:07:05] The author, Sam Storms, he defines it like this. He says spiritual gifts are capacities or abilities imparted to Christians by the Holy Spirit to enable them to exceed the limitations of their finite humanity in order to serve other believers to the glory of God.
[00:07:24] That's a little, a little dense, but what he's saying is it's the ability for you to go beyond what you can on your own.
[00:07:33] As in like supernatural abilities of the Spirit working through you.
[00:07:38] Right. Since your gift is from the Spirit of the living God, it allows you to go beyond your natural limits.
[00:07:47] My kids and I play that game, like, would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?
[00:07:53] Right. Which power do you want? Really? As believers, we should be like, which gift? If you could have any gift, what would it be? Teaching or encouraging?
[00:08:02] Right. Which superpower of the Spirit do you want in you?
[00:08:06] And your gift may grow out of like an interest or a talent that you have.
[00:08:11] There's a musician and author, Andrew Peterson. He tells this story about their Pastor asking his 16 year old artist son to paint a picture of the Holy Trinity. And he told the story. He says, I walked into church one Sunday and the painting was on an easel next to the podium. And the preacher referenced the painting several times over the course of the sermon and even took the painting down and passed it around to be admired by the entire congregation.
[00:08:38] I get a lump in my throat just thinking about it.
[00:08:41] What a tremendous difference this would have made to me. And as a 16 year old, it never crossed my mind when I was 16 that my gifting could be put to good use in the kingdom.
[00:08:53] I didn't think about ministry at all when I was a kid because I knew I liked comic books, Spielberg movies, fantasy novels and rock and roll. So I figured I'd never be a part of ministry.
[00:09:02] It just hadn't occurred to me there was a seat at the table for a nerdy kid like me.
[00:09:07] But everybody in the church has something really beautiful to offer.
[00:09:13] Everybody here has something really beautiful to offer.
[00:09:19] Amen Yes, I agree with you. Thank you.
[00:09:23] And that beautiful gift is meant to serve others.
[00:09:27] You have a gift that's meant to serve others. If you're wondering what your gift is this morning, that's probably the easiest way to identify it.
[00:09:36] See a need, meet that need, and let the gift find you.
[00:09:43] This happens in our church. There are people here in this church body who use their skills or their interests or their abilities to serve other people. And then God's spirit uses that in a supernatural way.
[00:09:57] Here's some that just were on the top of my mind. We have a drummer who travels the world playing with a big band, using music to serve young people, using music as a means to escape a life of trouble.
[00:10:11] We have a law enforcement instructor who uses the gift of generosity to serve and embolden young cadets who just says, yeah, just come live at my house.
[00:10:22] We have a motorcycle enthusiast who serves as a ride instructor by day and a share of the Gospel around the fire at night.
[00:10:31] We have a retired teacher. I'm trying to find you guys when I talk about this. Who used the gift of teaching to serve kids in South Africa.
[00:10:40] We have a former pastor who used the gift of preaching to serve here a few weeks ago.
[00:10:45] We have a family with a beautiful home and space to host who regularly serve through the gift of hospitality.
[00:10:51] We have men and women who serve by keeping their heads on a swivel, ensuring our safety every week.
[00:10:58] We have a family who use their skills of leadership and organization that were refined in the military to serve in disaster relief.
[00:11:07] We have a couple with decades of ministry and marriage experience who serve in blessing and leading other couples. Thank you.
[00:11:14] We have people who love the joy of kids and serve them and grace kids.
[00:11:19] They're served by people with the gift of administration who lead them and empower them to serve.
[00:11:25] We have encouragers, prayers, kindness, showers, pizza buyers, stair builders, coffee maker contributors, and chair movers.
[00:11:34] I'm trying to serve you with the gift of brevity, so I'm going to stop there.
[00:11:40] But Jesus, who had every gift, came not to be served, but to serve others so we will never outdo what he did to serve us.
[00:11:56] So you have a gift that's meant to serve others through God's strength.
[00:12:02] This is good. This part's good. This is possible for followers of Jesus because the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.
[00:12:13] That's not a verse that we should just read like, yes, let's just stop.
[00:12:22] Jesus, who is God, came to this earth.
[00:12:26] There is consequence and punishment for the things we've done.
[00:12:31] And Jesus said, you can put that on my back.
[00:12:35] He went to the cross. He died in our place. And he died.
[00:12:40] Breath left his body. His heart stopped beating. He was put in a tomb, laid there dead for three days until the spirit of the living God rose him, brought him back to life. And he walked out of the tomb and is alive today. The spirit that brought him from death to life. When you trust him as savior is alive in you.
[00:13:07] I said, that spirit is alive in you.
[00:13:13] So when he gives you a gift, yes, he can give you more power and more ability than you have on your own.
[00:13:21] God's spirit enables you to go beyond your natural limitations when you use that gift. So your spiritual gift can change. It can throughout your life.
[00:13:33] But you never have to dig down and use your own strength to use it. Right. In order for it to be a spiritual gift, you have to totally rely on God to work through you.
[00:13:45] So if you've ever said, man, I'm really.
[00:13:49] I've got a gift for hospitality and generosity and making a meal for families when they need it. And I just tired and don't feel like doing it, but I know it's what I'm supposed to do. And then you do it and you feel energized.
[00:14:06] Maybe that's your spiritual gift. Maybe that's the spirit working through you. Think about it. If God wants to use you to show his grace to another person, you have to rely on that grace flowing through you to reach that other person.
[00:14:22] Which means your spiritual gift could take you out of your comfort zone.
[00:14:28] It could be a skill or a craft that you have mastered, like 10,000 hours. Mastered it. But God says, but I'm going to ask you to use that in a way that requires you to fully trust me.
[00:14:42] Okay? So here's another question. How do I tell if I'm serving from my own strength or from God's?
[00:14:50] That's pretty easy to answer. When you are serving from your own strength, you will feel lifted up and you will welcome praise and recognition.
[00:15:00] Tell me what a great job I did. Validate me. Let me know.
[00:15:04] There's a blue bin with complaints in the parking lot.
[00:15:10] Somebody's like, they're brown. Yes, they are.
[00:15:15] When you are serving from God's strength, you will feel awe and humility.
[00:15:24] So you have a gift that's meant to serve others through God's strength. Here's the best part.
[00:15:28] For God's glory.
[00:15:31] It is intended for God's glory. So another question.
[00:15:36] What is glory?
[00:15:40] That's harder to answer. Right.
[00:15:44] Okay.
[00:15:51] What's this?
[00:15:54] Roller skate.
[00:15:56] What is this?
[00:16:01] What is this.
[00:16:09] Argument? It's a fish.
[00:16:12] I don't know if you can see it real well.
[00:16:17] What is this?
[00:16:22] You could say a bass drum or a suitcase and both would be right. Right. He literally has drum will travel.
[00:16:33] These are all things, right? They're things. I said, what is this? And you were able to answer, glory is not really a thing.
[00:16:44] Right. It's more an attribute or a description. And the Bible helps us understand God's glory by helping us understand that we can't understand God's glory.
[00:16:59] They didn't get it. Let me try.
[00:17:01] The Bible helps us understand God's glory by helping us understand we can't understand God's glory.
[00:17:11] So the prophet Isaiah shows this with one simple question. He said, who else has held the oceans in his hand?
[00:17:23] Can I get one of our students to volunteer?
[00:17:31] Leanna. Thank you.
[00:17:33] Come on. Yes. Let's welcome leanna.
[00:17:46] Leanna, will you tell the people your name?
[00:17:49] Leanna's name is Leanna.
[00:17:52] Okay. So the Earth's oceans are estimated to contain 352 quintillion gallons of water.
[00:18:01] To kind of help you understand it. The scientific explanation says 352 and then a whole mess of zeros after it.
[00:18:08] Here we have one gallon of water.
[00:18:12] One gallon. Leanna, what I need you to do, cup your hands and hold this entire gallon of water in your hands. Can you do that?
[00:18:24] No. All of it? The whole gallon and the whole, like, get the whole.
[00:18:31] Okay, good try. Good try. You're a good sport. Thank you.
[00:18:38] Yes. Let's give a hand to Leanna.
[00:18:42] So you guys are in the splash zone.
[00:18:49] So the human hands can't even hold 1 gallon of water.
[00:18:54] And God held 352 quintillion gallons in his hands before he poured out the oceans.
[00:19:02] That is glory, right? God is glory.
[00:19:08] But then the gifts he give us are intended to point to that glory.
[00:19:14] So when you do something to serve another person and it even surprises you that you were able to do it, and that person says, thank you, you can honestly say that was not me. All glory to God.
[00:19:27] And that's what God wants us to do. You have a gift that's meant to serve others through God's strength for God's glory. And one day that glory will be inescapable.
[00:19:40] The prophet Habakkuk says, as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.
[00:19:49] So this earth, the one that's filled with selfish desires. The one that's filled with seeking after our own glory will be filled, washed over by an awareness, by knowledge, by the reality of, oh, it's here, of God's glory.
[00:20:08] That glory will fill every place like water fills the seas.
[00:20:13] And it will be relief for those of us who've been waiting for will be terrifying for those who prefer their own glory.
[00:20:23] It'll be peace for those who consider God's kingdom their home and chaos for those who've been building their own kingdom.
[00:20:30] And we experience a hint of God's glory in this life right when we stand at the edge of the ocean, when we're on top of the mountain.
[00:20:43] The first cry of a newborn baby, the last bite of a great meal.
[00:20:52] When God says yes to an impossible prayer, when somebody we love walks away from an accident that should have been a tragedy, when we really mess up. And through our fear we go, I messed up. I'm sorry. And somebody goes, it's okay, right? We experience just a hint of God's glory, but we somehow become more impressed with ourselves.
[00:21:21] We get a taste and. And then we become more impressed with me.
[00:21:25] We're not the first people to do it. Psalm 106. Our ancestors were not impressed by the Lord's miraculous deeds.
[00:21:31] They soon forgot his many acts of kindness to them.
[00:21:35] Instead, they rebelled against Him.
[00:21:37] Even so, he saved them to defend the honor of his name.
[00:21:44] God saved his people for his name.
[00:21:47] For his glory, he offers the same to us. God says, I alone will blot out your sins for my own sake, and we'll never think of them again.
[00:21:57] God offers to forgive us for his sake, for his glory.
[00:22:03] And he knows we chase our own glory more than His.
[00:22:07] We forget.
[00:22:08] We rebel.
[00:22:09] And knowing all of that, he saves us for his glory.
[00:22:14] You know what he asks us to do?
[00:22:17] Just to believe that he really could love us that much.
[00:22:23] Because he gave his son Jesus to die in the place of our selfish desires, of our rebellion. So the greatest way you can glorify God is trusting his son, Jesus as Savior.
[00:22:35] And that salvation is offered to you today freely.
[00:22:40] All God asks is that we would believe that he could love us that much.
[00:22:45] And when you experience that salvation, you are given a gift.
[00:22:50] You receive a gift meant to serve others through God's strength, for his glory. So how will you use that gift?
[00:23:04] Maybe you've been exercising that gift, but you've just never said, well, God, I guess this is yours.
[00:23:10] So would you use it through me?
[00:23:13] How will you use your gift?
[00:23:16] What if you just start like this.
[00:23:19] Just look around.
[00:23:21] It will not take long to see someone who's hurting and then move towards their pain and just say, God, would you just speak through me?
[00:23:33] It won't take long to see somebody close to you who maybe has lost their job. And just a little generosity won't just help their family, it'll also help their faith.
[00:23:43] You know, your spouse needs to know grace.
[00:23:48] Your kids need to experience mercy. So just say, God, would you just make me a river of grace and mercy that flows through my home, through the rhythms of our life. And you may say, buddy, grace and mercy don't live at my house again.
[00:24:04] God's spirit can do more in you than you can do.
[00:24:07] So just ask if your neighbor's sick and their grass is overgrown. Buddy, crank up that mower.
[00:24:15] That's how you do it, right?
[00:24:20] If you see somebody alone at school, offer them a seat next to you.
[00:24:25] If there's a widow on your block, take her to the football game or church. You know, if you really care.
[00:24:36] When somebody close to you experiences tragedy and you don't know what to say, just let a great home cooked meal do the talking.
[00:24:46] When your co worker's falling behind, instead of pointing it out, maybe just help them pick up the slack.
[00:24:51] You might be saying, hey, that all sounds great, but I'm in a season of life that most of my time is just spent in the doctor's office waiting on tests.
[00:25:01] Well, if you're there, use the gift of prayer to lift up that medical team that they would just be channels of God's healing.
[00:25:07] If your nest is empty, use the gift of encouragement towards those whose nests are full and hectic.
[00:25:15] And when you come to church and you feel like something's missing or it could be better, consider that an opportunity.
[00:25:25] When you see somebody who's in need, maybe you're the solution.
[00:25:32] In summary, when you see a problem, be the answer.
[00:25:37] Because when we meet the needs of others, God meets us right there. So let's get to work.
[00:25:42] Let's use the gifts he's given us to serve others through God's strength for his glory.
[00:25:50] Amen.
[00:25:51] Amen. So let's. It's very important.
[00:25:56] This should be practical.
[00:25:58] I'm not going to tell you what you should go do now, but I'm going to ask you consider your own life.
[00:26:04] Like there are needs close to you.
[00:26:08] It may be sitting next to you, maybe on your street, maybe at work, maybe at school.
[00:26:16] There are needs.
[00:26:21] And also you have unique skills and talents and abilities.
[00:26:27] Everybody up here has gifts and skills I mean, we can make drums out of suitcases, guys.
[00:26:34] Using the gifts to serve others.
[00:26:37] So I just want to give you a moment, really think about.
[00:26:43] Think about your life, your rhythms. What are the needs?
[00:26:46] What gift has God given you? How can you use it to serve him?
[00:26:51] And something really helpful. Maybe ask people in your life, in your family, people close to you. Like, do you.
[00:26:58] Do you see something in me like God could use or.
[00:27:03] Because sometimes others see it clearer than we do. It's like, oh, yeah, we are always doing this. And it's not just who you are, that's God working through you.
[00:27:11] So just. We're just going to give us some nice.
[00:27:18] So you can bow your head, you can do whatever you like. You can ask God to speak to you. Just consider in your life, how is God calling you to use the gift he's given you to serve others through his strength for his glory? Just take a moment.
[00:28:07] Well, God, we thank you most of all for your son Jesus.
[00:28:12] We praise you for your glory.
[00:28:19] God, that you love us so much, that you gave your son Jesus to save us.
[00:28:24] And even then, you give us gifts that we get to be part of what you're doing.
[00:28:30] So I pray for the people in this room, for this church, that we would use those gifts, that it would make a difference to the people around us, that if this church closed and no longer existed, that this community would go, oh, no, what are we going to do now?
[00:28:47] That we make a difference to the people around us, that we wouldn't be intimidated by that or think, oh, man, I don't have time for that. But we would think, oh, I get to experience the spirit of a living God moving through me.
[00:29:01] Would all of that be for your glory?
[00:29:05] Amen.
