You’re Gift(s)

share something on your heart. I'm gonna try my best not to make this too long. I just want to get straight to the point. But before we get into it, I want to encourage you, if you haven't, go back and look at the message, uh, that Pastor Pratt Jr., our senior pastor, concluded with in the series Warning that God laid on his heart. So he concluded that series this Sunday, and he was dealing with warning. A powerful message. Go check out the whole thing. Watch in this entire context. If you got to watch 20 minutes today, 20 minutes tomorrow, look, you can commit to it. Go check it out. Um, it was very powerful, and, uh, it was— we don't have the whole series on there, and trust me, I'm working on it with the leadership team so we can be going live every Sunday no matter who there. Uh, so we're working on it. And with that being said, uh, listen, if you watch it and you're inspired, if it speaks to you, sow on it. Uh, or come, come fellowship. Just come out and fellowship. We need you all. We, we need people of God and believers. And even if you're not a believer, I say come anyway. If you hate God, if you, uh, don't— if you have an issue in your life, just come listen. We are required to love on you, uh, we'll love you right where you are. But it's our Lord and Savior, uh, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. We love you where you are, but we don't want you to stay where you are. None of us don't. I don't. I don't want nobody loving me in the state of basically like, okay, Tim, I'm accepting you who you are, but I love you enough to change you. And that's what God wants to do through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so as he works through us, the works of the believers in the local church, uh, we model that. We strive to model it through the power of God. And so much grace, much love, but at the same time, truth. So we need you. Come plug in, man. Just come fellowship with us. And like I say, uh, if that message inspires you in any kind of way, we do not have a problem with saying we need you. And that actually leads me into this segue But I wanna talk to you just for a little bit about gifts. And so I do not like saying familiar scripture, but I do believe you've probably read this before. But one thing I'll caution you with the why I don't like saying familiar is that you can read something and know it. You can know it verbatim, word for word. But there's been times in my life that I have read something on a Monday and read it again, the same thing Friday, or I've been feeding on that verse all week and then boom, God reveals some part of it that I didn't yet see. It was there the entire time. It's not that it's a new truth or anything like that. It's just a revelation because his word is living and is active. Uh, so if you return to 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4 through 11, uh, so basically what's going on right here is that, you know, Paul is just going out, he's going, uh, describing these gifts. And matter of fact, let's just read this one. So it says, there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. So he goes on to start listing wisdom, a message of knowledge, healing, prophecy, and that's, you know, whatever. We're getting into that. I want to stay focused. Discerning between different spirits, speaking in different kind of tongues, and so on and so on and so on. Then you can go look at certain things with leadership and cross-reference these gifts that he's calling out. So there are gifts, there are gifts that are given to the believers, uh, to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. And Holy Spirit helps us, you know, basically, uh, demonstrate those gifts, use those gifts. Now this is a tender relationship. Think about a bike, you know, the two wheels going this way forward, you know, if you reverse, you know, you're gonna— so just think about going this way. So yes, the Holy Spirit, he's empowered, he's equipping He's, uh, he's that driving force behind the gift, but you have a responsibility to develop and nurture and cultivate it. That's in the relationship. You don't want the Holy Spirit moving this tire and then yours trying to go this way. So, you know, like this, it's dysfunctional. That's dysfunctional. And that's not an indicator on God. You want it to be like this. So you don't want your gift— you don't want to not be pouring into yourself through being fed and, and reading certain books and getting, uh, aligned with certain people and just not doing anything. Holy Spirit still going, but your will is just like this. The bike is not going anywhere. So it's a tandem relationship. God wants to work with us and through us. Uh, I hope that really makes sense. And so what I want to talk to you about is basically staying in Corinthians, uh, but going back to 1 Corinthians 9. And where is it? Uh, 1 Corinthians 9:50. I took my wife's Bible. The words was little, so this is now my Bible. So, uh, 1 Corinthians 9:50. 15. Somebody read what Paul said. 1 Corinthians 9:15. But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any provision, for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for no necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel, for it— I do this on my own will, I have a reward. But if not, of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. So that verse 17 is so powerful to me. A matter of fact, 16 too. But the woe to me— and what Paul is saying in this context, uh, the way I believe the Lord has given it to me is that he's talking about stewardship. Um, basically, woe to me if I don't do what God calls me to do. Now, he can get a reward for it, it could be monetary gain for it, maybe, maybe so, maybe not. But at the pop, pop, Paul is saying, my mind is made up. If they sow into me, great. If they don't, great. I have been commissioned, I have been called to do this for God. I want to park right there real quick. I'm about almost 6 minutes in, so let's make this quick. This is why I say we need you. We have to get to the place where even in the secular— I believe this goes for the secular as well— and it's in the Bible, do your work as you're doing it for the Lord, paraphrasing. We have to get to the place where when we are called to leadership or a servant's heart, I hear so many people say, well, I just want to do it because the pastor is challenging me. I want to do it to honor the pastor. And, and that's all good in this proper context, but when you've been called by God to do something, you, you've truly been called, you've answered the call of God, and you've been chosen and equipped to do it because he's called you to do it. And I don't mean this— and I know my dad happens to be my pastor as well as I'm very close to my father-in-law. I really don't— I'm not even gonna say care. They don't have to check up on me. They don't have to come searching for me. They don't have to do— and I don't say that in an arrogant way of saying that. I'm just saying that I fear God more than I fear them. So what I mean is that I'm going to do it because God called me to do it. Now there's order and things I have to follow because they're the under shepherd, or if they had put certain people in certain parameters in place, I'll follow those guidelines. But at the end of the day, I don't need for them to speak motivation in my life because I fear God. Because as Paul was saying, whether they say my name or not, whether they give me a salary or not, whether they command or call it like the Great Commandment or something like that or not, is what I'm trying to say. Whatever they do, I'm not worried about that because I'm going to steward over the gift through the power of God, that he— the gifts that he has given me to respond to the calling that he has also given me in my life. So we have to get to that place where it's not doing it for the pastor, not doing it just for the local church, but it's doing it because the church, the, the, the body of Christ, that's a God thing. That's, that's a Jesus thing. Like, they— and they're all one. I don't believe in the separation. They're all one. But that's a Jesus thing. And then he left and said, okay, I'm going to leave the Holy Spirit to work through you, through the believers, through the body of Christ. So the last point that I want to make is this: that your gift is needed. I opened this video and said this was a great segue. It's saying that your gift is needed for the local body of Christ as well as others too. But just imagine if somebody has the gift of wisdom, the gift of healing, the gift of faith, the gift of leadership. For one, that gift is not even for them. If I— if God has given me ability to write, speak, preach, teach the gospel, it's not for me. I don't want to ever get to a place where I'm worshiping the gift and not the gift giver. The gift is to point to the gift giver. It's to draw to the gift giver, not draw to your teacher, not draw on who has the gift. And unfortunately, in ministry, in a lot of churches, we have designated what we'd like to call platform gifts. So somebody could have the gift of wisdom and the gift of faith, but because they're not on the platform, the stage, we focus on the preaching and teaching and the worship and things like that, the singing and worship facilitating. So we have done a bad job at making these platform gifts the focal point and overlooking that all the gifts are equal. It's a level playing field. And so your gift is important. When, uh, just to share this with you, with my leg Uh, for a year and a half I was going through physical therapy, didn't get it, did an MRI, and how, you know, basically thought it was hamstring or whatever, and we found out what it was. And so certain things happened for over a year and a half. My leg, or maybe 2 years, have been just in this, just, just this severe pain. And then so when I went to get an MRI and I was told or whatever, and I didn't realize why I was in this pain, the point I'm making is that it was putting so much pressure on other parts of my body, and then it started making those parts hurt because of the— because this part wasn't functioning right. So what I'm trying to say, people of God, is that if you're in a local church, even if you're in the secular world, this works. And you're not pulling your weight, you're not using your gift effectively, you're putting a lot of pressure on other people. You're doing it. It's the 80/20 rule. They said all the time, 20% of people most of the time carry 80% of the ministry. 20% of people usually carry 80% of the finances of the church. Now, that might not be yours, and praise God, but typically it is the 80/20 rule for a lot of places, a lot of organizations, and so on and so on. So I want to encourage you, commit, commit, just commit to the call of God and commit to being a self-starter. And I'm not saying self-sufficient, but I'm saying the necessary discipline. Just commit. Develop your gift, nurture your gift, go get challenged, link with me. I don't care, I'll work with anybody. And if it's not me, work with somebody. Look, say, I mean, who's using it? Like, it's some similarities, and look at how they're using their gift and give honor where honor is due. And then ask them, hey, let's have a peer-to-peer mentor relationship. Don't waste their time. So think outside of the box, or think inside of the box, you know, or whatever it is. Let God use you however you would determine. I've seen good arguments for both of them. But if it's outside of the box or inside of the box, at the end of the day, partner with someone, commit, commit to the local church and use your gift effectively. As Paul said, no matter what, woe unto me. That's a warning. Woe unto me. That's a warning. Meaning, in other words, listen, I don't want to be cursed. I don't want to go into great danger and walk in disobedience because I'm not using my gift. It's the way God has called and graced me to use it. So listen, I hope that helps, man. I just wanted to jump in here and share. Definitely went longer than I thought, about at the 12-minute mark. But like I said, go back and check the video out. Uh, more to come with this ministry and just in general. So listen, I love you all, man. Um, I just, I love you all. I love people. Uh, I just, I just want to do God's will. That's where I'm at in my life. I don't care about all the editing. Um, I don't, I don't have any fear anymore because at the end of the day, it's an audience of one, and I just want to please God. So be blessed. I love you, people of God. If there's anything I can do for you, uh, if there's anything I can do for you, if, if I can do it the Lord's will or point you in the right direction, trust me, uh, I will. Uh, necessary boundaries will be in place, but nevertheless, I will do it. So be blessed, man. Enjoy the rest of your time. If this video touched you in any kind of way, share it with a friend, uh, share it on your page. And like I say, just let God continue to use you and commit. Bye.