Whew. Man, Steve, you never heard me preach before. So there's a lot of pressure today that Steve's here and I'm a little my pits are sweating a little bit more than normal and all kinds of stuff. Sorry, John. Sometimes I say things and I just want to see what John King's reaction is. And he's like, What do you do? And John, what are you doing? Good night. Can't believe this. If I would have known who'd be preached in years after me, I probably would have just stopped and close the doors and stones River. Now displaying, yeah, do you wanna pray? Yeah. Please.
Father, we were so thankful that we can gather as a body and that we can lift one another up, to rejoice with those who rejoice to mourn with those who mourn. Father, I ask a blessing upon my brother John, that the message you've given him that he will have a firm grasp on it, and that he will be blessed through you. And bless us in bringing that message. Father, please strengthen him. Encourage him. Bless him in Jesus Christ's name, Amen.
Thank you, David, who gotta had a frog in my throat. Before we start today, I wanted to put this up on the screen. This is happening this Friday. Threshold ministries. Thank you, Julie, for kind of hooking us up with this. They are transitional housing, and they have a bunch of about 50 guys that are going to come right out here. And we're going to eat pizza. We're going to play cornhole, we're going to play spike ball, have music, all kinds of stuff. And we want the guys to come like from here if you can, right. So if anyone can come, it's at 530 is whenever it starts, if you need to get here a few minutes early, or a little bit early, you can just send me a message or whatever I will be here early. The guys from threshold around two o'clock, I think they're going to come and start setting some things up and all that kind of stuff. So it's just hanging out in eatin and talking and getting to know some of these guys that could use as Julie was say, some good and good influence, right, Julie? She's excited. Like she's really excited about that. She thinks were great for some reason. And so we're gonna so no pressure. But you know, if we blow this, then we're never going to be asked to do anything like this again. So we need nevermind, I'm gonna stop before I find myself in trouble. If you have any questions about it, let me know I'll have Larissa send an email reminder out this week. But again, it's a good times, it's just a great opportunity to get to know these guys. And then Julie has mentioned that as we do budgeting classes and do different things that will help them to be more warm to us, because they know who we are. It's the faces that they've seen. It's not just some, you know, random person that they aren't sure who they are. So it'd be great. I can't wait to do this. So guys. Come on, she did say that they could bring some of their girlfriends and stuff. So if there are a few ladies that are interested to come in, are you going to be there, Julie? Or no? They are going to bring their that's what Matt said. Okay, yeah, he said, he said that he said didn't know if they would bring them. So there are a few ladies that are like, Yeah, I'll show up. And if it's all guys, then I'll stay or I'll just leave however, whatever you want to do. I'm just being real like just to be flexible. I know this is kind of fast. And when we turn around, but for us to really as we're making this huge impact in our community, as we the Lord will allow us to do so by His grace, we have to be flexible. And so yay. All right, flexibility. We can do it. We're gonna start doing stretches before church. I just heard like three or four cracks on my shoulders when I did that. I don't know if anyone picked that up on the mic. But we'll do we'll do flexible. We'll do stretches. And we'll say, We're stones River, and we're flexible enough to remind us that we are going to be flexible. All right, so next slide, please, we'll get into the meat of the word that I'm excited about. I've shown this slide for two weeks. This is our third week of us talking about the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. And again, just to reiterate a few things a few things are as we go and we go to shine a light at Mitchell Nielsen are with these guys at threshold ministries or wherever we're at. Really, really want to see I'm just being super, super big time prayer about us knowing the giftings that we have honoring one another's giftings and really just running with those gifts. So we've been spending the last couple of weeks and we'll spend several more weeks literally going over the different gifts To the spirit, but also recognizing that the gifts of the Spirit must be used with the fruit of the Spirit, because the fruit of the Spirit is the character of the spirit, the character of God. And so to operate in the gifts of the Spirit, well, the fruit of the Spirit causes a lot of problems. And I've seen it happen. And I think many of us have seen that happen. On the other hand, to only look at the fruit of the Spirit and ignore the gifts of the Spirit. We're missing the power of God, these gifts that he that he took captivity captive, we read in Ephesians, four, and he distributed gifts to man. And so it's really exciting. I'm pumped up. I think y'all have been enjoying it. I've heard some some good comments. Okay. All right, right on, let's go to the next slide. Let's just dive in then, huh? We're gonna do what we did last week, I'm going to do a fruit and we're gonna have three gifts, and then I'm going to sandwich it that the bond will be a fruit on the end. I don't know. Sorry. But that's what we're going to do. What do we talked about with the gift with the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, our favorite one patients. I'm gonna stand here for the next 10 minutes. And we're just gonna see how patient everybody is so we can learn how to live in the fruit. Kyle was actually into that idea. Let's get practical, right. Patience is endurance, long suffering consistency. And as many of us have probably heard, hurry up God and give me patience, right?
Is anyone like recognize, like, do you you don't have to raise your hand. But like, go, You know what I have? I have some patients? Or is there a lot of us that are like, that is something that I'm super struggling with. Just something just to think about? One very practical thing I want to make mention of is as we do more of this, like engaging with God's mission here in Murfreesboro, and going out, we have to have patience, we have to have to have patience. You cannot engage in ministry, because I'm telling this will happen over and over again. You'll get you'll be spending time with somebody and things are going to be going great you'd like Yeah. And it'll be like two steps forward. And then they'll take like three steps backwards. And you're gonna be like, Are you kidding me? And if you just cut them off and say, Oh, well, I'm done, then we're not going to see progress. It is going to happen every time that no one takes this like perfect trajectory trajectory to God. And like never, I mean, right? Anybody here, anybody made it perfect, and not take a couple steps back at some point in time or multiple point in time. And we're thinking, I'm thankful that God is patient with us, we have to extend the patience of God to others, because, again, these are his, this is God's character. Second, Peter three says, basically, I love Second Peter three, because basically, it's talking about people mocking God, in mocking the people of God, saying, you know, you know, where's Jesus? Where's your Lord? Where's he at? He's not coming. It's been it's been a long time now. And the response that Peter has, like, it's brought me to tears as I thought about this week, because he basically says, it's not that God is is, is delaying, like, just for the sake of delaying or not coming back says, He is patient toward you, not wishing that any would perish like, it's the reason they're mocking God. And the reality is, is God's heart is just so big, that he doesn't want anybody to perish. Like, I feel like somebody needs to hear that this morning. Like, that's how like he doesn't want you to perish like the reason he is delayed is because he loves so big that he wants to nobody to perish. And then now we are called to live with that patients to the world. That's a big That's it. That's big. And that's, that's amazing. Because this world doesn't offer a lot of patients to a lot of people. Like we're taught, you're on my dunzo list. Do you ever heard someone say that I cut you off? We're dunzo like I'm done. Instead, living out that character of God's spirit that says no, you know what I'm going to I'm going to be patient. So go to the next slide. I'm going to just pull up several like verses on patients. I don't always love doing this. Because of Next slide, please. I don't always love doing that because you got to look at everything in context. So I reckon I ask that you please would do so. But Psalm 37 opens up I skipped down a few verses after the dot, dot dot but do not fret because of the wicked Do not be envious of the wrongdoers. Basically, Psalm 37 opens up by saying he has ever experienced this. You think you people who are treating people wrong and you know, withholding their taxes and doing stuff and you're like, man, these guys are doing all right. Anyone ever thought that like that's kind of the whole idea of this, like evildoers are everything's cool. Maybe I should join them. Maybe I should stop doing what the Lord's told me to do. Because, man, I'm here broke and these guys are like living it up. Right? Don't fret about it. Don't be envious of what they have. And then he tells us to do something Commit your way to the Lord trust in Him and He will act he will make your vindication shine like the light and justice of your cause. Like the new debt noon day, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret over those who prosper in their way over those who carry out evil devices. There's this idea With patience that we just steadily do the work of the Lord, right? It doesn't mean that we become lackadaisical. That's it. That's you. I'm just waiting on the Lord. You know, and we never we don't do anything. We're not walking with God. We're not seeking His will. We're just that's, that's being lazy. But there's a reality of us patiently enduring. So as we're going into Mitchell Nelson we're doing we may not see the glory fall on day one, right? Or we've had day one, day two, day three, you know, we may not see the impact that we're making. But if we walk with the Lord, and we're patient, God is going to do some stuff in people's lives. I think he already is. But we'll see it but we have to be patient and steadfast. That's what patience is being steadfast, being long suffering, I got to experience some patients this week. I told her, I would have to work this small story into the sermon. She's like, how are you going to do that? I said, I got it. I got it. Preacher figure it out. All my pipes are jacked up in the house. I'm about to get and repipe thanks, Roscoe Brown. They paid $50 for that spot on this podcast. It was David in other areas.
So I had a bunch of water under my house. So I left my thing, you know, a crawlspace door open to like, let it dry out. So you know, you come home from being a Gatlinburg for a week and you're which four days, four nights, five nights, whatever, and you just want to relax, you know, and you walk in the door and go, the boy the boys go, what is that smell and they're like, you know, over exaggerating everything. And so basically this morning, I worked on my sermon and cleaned a dead cat from underneath my house. And I won't go into the details, but it wasn't pleasant. So the Lord is teaching me patience with my house because I swear I feel like something keeps going wrong. Then God nothing like super super major has happened. But anyways, or maybe that's just the enemy tried to steal from me. But I learned patients actually breathe like I was like, You know what, because I was thinking I was teaching this like, Alright, look, hey, this is not the end of the world. This could be a whole lot worse. All it is is dead cat cleaned out. Done. Right. Go the next slide, dojo, Luke chapter eight. I love this. I love this, y'all because this is when he's talking about the spreading of the of the seed and there's a soil, the soil that fell along the path, the soil that fell among the thorns, and we all go, I want to be the good soil, but look like look at what he says like, but as for. But as for that in the good soil. These are the ones when they hear the word, hold it fast, in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with what patient doors. So it's this, it's this is this patient and it was a steadiness, there's a steadfastness, which is with the word patient that we just continue, despite circumstances, despite maybe getting feeling bored, we just continue to patiently do what God's called us to do. And just be intentional and straightforward with Romans chapter two, for he will repay this is talking about God's justice and his or in his righteousness. That's what the context is, for he will repay according to each one's deeds, those who by patiently doing good, seek for glory and honor and immortality. I don't know about you, but I'm seeking for glory, honor and immortality. And I'm not ashamed of that. I'm excited about that. He will give life while those who are self seeking, Megan had actually brought that up to a perfect actually. And who obey not the truth but wickedness will be in wrath and fury. So this saying that this is all about us. Seeking to patiently do good to selflessly do what God's calling us to do versus someone who is self seeking. But there's a patient's to that. There's patients do it because it gets tiring. Anybody ever get tired of it? Sometimes? I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one that just like, I kind of want to mix it up. I wouldn't mind doing some wickedness. Okay, Lord, no, I don't need to do that. But I'm just, I don't know. Like. But listen to that. If we if we patiently go about it, we're not we don't seek we don't get something that's just like, temporal. Like if I decided to go crazy for a little while, we get glory, honor and immortality. That's, I think I'm gonna go with the patients I don't know about you all. And then lastly, that is put on here. Love is patient love is kind love is is not envious or boastful, arrogant, that is in the context of spiritual gifts. And so if we say we love our brothers and sisters, then we must be patient with them or we're not actually loving them. That's part of what love is. That's why when we love our kids big time, it's not as difficult to be patient with our kid. Yes, our kids will drive us crazy. But we forgive them and we keep going with them. That's what God's called us to do as his body to be patient with one another. You guys love patients. But it's good, man. It's so good to have that that steadfastness. Alright, let's go to Romans chapter 12. Thank you Megan, for doing verse one and two, we're going to start on verse three. That wasn't planned. And we're going to talk about three, see, I didn't edit it, or anything like that that's taught on this. I don't know, we a month or two ago, we talked about on the altar, if y'all remember us talking about what that is, Thank you Megan to for just reminding us of some of those things. We've talked about the gifts that were in Ephesians, we're going to start going through some of these gifts here in Romans, some of them are duplicated, we're not going to talk about them again. But in verse three, just to reiterate what Megan said earlier that we're called to be this living sacrifice. And part of that process is that our minds are renewed, so that we can discern what God's will is meaning the world is flowing one way, and he's saying in my kingdom, you're going to have to flow in other way, you're going to have to have your mind renew, it's going to look different than this world. Right.
And so for us to operate as his body in the gifts, we are going to have to operate different, there's going to have to be some transformation that we're going to have to have in order to do this is what Paul saying, we can't just keep we can't do things our same old way because the world I mean, let's be real, it's it's selfish, right? You should get what you want, whenever you want, do whatever you want. But we have to do we have to operate differently in order to show the world the body I don't want to forget to mention that we've said several times the reason for spiritual gifts is for building up the body so that we can show the world the mature Christ. I can't show the world and mature Christ and myself. We have its together, I can't people can't see the fullness of Christ. In John, He can see the fullness of Christ and John and John and Deborah and Larissa and, and that's all together because we all have these different gifts, and we all have, and we're all expressing them. And that's so beautiful. But we are showing the world we are literally the body of Christ. All right. Verse three, four, by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. So again, us going into this idea of body and giftings, we were reminded, as Megan reminded us, that we can't for this to work, we can't think My gift is the best and you got your gift is poo. I mean, you know, I'm just gonna be real. And it's easy to do that. It's easy to be deceived, and easy to get frustrated with someone else who doesn't operate in your gift as well as you do, right. I mean, why don't you I can't believe that, that you're not as prophetic as I am. But maybe they're excellent and exhortation is we're going to talk about and we can encourage that. Instead, think sensibly as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. And we talked about that as well, that God that there is a measure of faith that God has given each and every one of us. The question is, what are we going to do with that measure of faith? What have you done with it? How do you How does your faith grow? It grows by using it. And by exercising it. Right? Remember Paul telling Timothy stir up rekindle the gift, like in order for us to see we look at men and women go man, what a man or woman of faith. The reason that they're usually a man or woman of faith is because if they used it, they didn't start at some place where they're like soaring like Superman. They just took the measure of faith God gave him and said, Okay, I'm gonna trust you with this god. Okay, I'm gonna trust you with this god. I'm gonna walk out in faith here, God, oh, god, okay, you told me to do this. Let's do that. And then you look and go, Oh, my God, that's how you look at them ago, man. It's just like exercising. Like you have to use the muscles. And if we're not growing in faith, it's probably because we're not exercising faith. We're not. We're not putting ourselves in positions to do so. I'll tell you if you start to be intentional about hearing God if we do and doing what he says he's going to put you out on some opportunities to stretch your faith. I mean, even going to do this thing on Friday. Some of you guys may be tough, like, Man, I don't know about these guys. I don't like to be around new people. For some of you. This reality, there's people that a lot of guys like, I don't mind it. But that's my personality. For some of you, it is a stretch, stretch. Go you know what, I'm gonna make this a priority. I'm gonna go meet some new people and not when I'm not. I'm gonna go talk to at least one new person. And I'm gonna grow I'm gonna grow I'm doing this for the Lord. I'm doing this for his body. Now, this is verse four. Now as we have many parts in one body in all these parts do not have the same function. In the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually, members of one another. So again, it reiterates the fact that us all God is too creative to paint us all as drones of each other. Clones. He's so creative, he's painted us all differently. And Paul saying that the Holy Spirit has distributed gifts differently because of that. And yet, in this beautiful painting that God has, and this distributed of gift that God has, in his genius brilliance We're all one. And then that line that line gives me tingles when I read that it says that we're members of one another. Like there is no solo Christianity like, I mean seriously the more that I've read this word outside of like my Western American lens, and like really thought looked through like what what is Paul saying in the in the first century? You know, what are the Jewish people doing as Emery like there is no following Jesus outside of the community of faith we it's together, you can't divorce yourself from his body or from his from his bride. You can't is his body. Like I can't say well forget Deborah and Larissa and Noah and all these been Mike, you don't care about them that you're saying he don't care about that part of Jesus's body. In that ain't good. When we get that Lord continue to give us that revelation Holy Spirit is right now you continue to give us the revelation of your body and how we're, we are individually members of one another.
In that, Lord, that as we continue to seek your will for our city, that we would offer it like that, Lord, forgive us if we've ever thought more highly of ourselves, or to help us to just love each other and to actually use the gifts the way you would have us to to build one another out. Yeah, yeah. All right, verse six. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts. If prophecy use it according to the proportion sorry, of one's faith. We've discussed prophecy, so I'm not going to continue to hit on that. But that's really, in the simplest form. I said last week. For those who weren't there. I called last week, I think like demystifying the gifts, not that I'm taking the spiritual out, it just demystifying means to simplify like taking away all these added things that man has made and stuff to the gifts and really prophecy is revealing the heart of God. That's what it is. It's and it's in it can be, it can be as simple as someone going, Man, I just really feel like we need to do this this is this is I feel like there's a direction that God's telling us to and you have that fire and you go and the guy says, Is it this? Is it this is it. This is a it could be a word for someone. I just feel like God saying this. But there's it's just really just revealing God's heart. What is his will what is his heart to his people and you having that strong conviction about that. All right, use according to one's faith, if service or ministry in serving so go to the next slide. ministry or service is gift that we're going to talk about for a second, this is interesting part of this gift is it's it's not as simple in the sense of like Paul even says in verse in First Corinthians 12, which we'll end up going through that there are many services, it actually uses the same Greek word, or there's many Diakonie is, so there's different when we talk about service, there's different sides and elements to the side of this. All right. And you know that that Greek word is actually the same word whether we get Deacon. So if you look at Deacon, and the frustrating part is, there's not any great like there's descriptions for what a deacon should, like qualifications, but there's not this great, this is what a deacon is, and they should do this, this, this, this, this and this, it gets sometimes I get frustrated when maybe God's like, Man, why you got to look for a definition all the time. I don't know what it's like to just want to know it. But it's translated ministry most in most translations, either ministry or Diakonie, or service or attendance or whatever. You guys ever see someone and you just go that person has a servant's heart. You just like, again, this is a keep saying this about spiritual gifts. It's not like yeah, go to the next slide. So that whenever we look at these gifts, it's not like, well, I'm immune to that gift. I don't have to have that, like I don't need to serve. But it's just as simple as going. Wow. Matt Winterboard would hate for me saying this, but he has a servant's heart. And I just see that in that. And I just know it. Like if you see the grounds around here and all this stuff, like the reason that is kept up half the time is because oh man, I didn't know that until I started working over there. Then like Good night. This guy's doing stuff left and right. That's why I brought up Matthew 2025. But Jesus said to him, Jesus called to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them in the great ones are tyrants over them. Many of us have heard this so many times when we read it again. It will not be so among you, but he wishes to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wishes to be first of all, you must be your slave just as a Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. This goes back to the renewing of the mind because the world doesn't say to do this. The world constantly tells you to look out for yourself for number one, right and you deserve this car and you deserve this house and you deserve this and that and all in all these things and What happens is we have this, this, this this selfishness that pervades, and Jesus comes in with his kingdom and goes actually real living is exactly opposite of that. Oh my gosh. And that's a call that's a call to us. And I think oftentimes we miss out on real living, because we fail to just practice what Jesus said. Like, just trust what he says. I mean, I don't know about you, but I wish to be first. Like I do. Like, it doesn't say there's any problem with wishing to be greater first. It doesn't say, Well, you're wrong, Greg for wishing to be first he says, actually, if you want to great, go serve, and you'll be first. So when we get into the New Kingdom, we're gonna see the ones who serve the most at first, and the ones who serve themselves last. And we might be like, Oh, wow, I didn't know that person.
It's real. It's just the it's the grand reversal. It's amazing. And in all of it comes through, like, as I said with patients is because of God's character and who he is. That's who He is. God Himself has chose to give his life as a ransom for many he chose to come and to not be served, but to serve. He said, do what I did. This is how I've made you. It's the fall that's got us all jacked up, realigned with the way that we were actually created. And that is to serve brought up a couple of verses just so we can see kind of this, the differences and the different pieces of service. But in Luke 10, you know, Martha is going around doing a whole bunch of things, cleaning the house, cooking and do all these things. And it says, But Martha was distracted by her many tasks is the same Greek word there. So she, so she came to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself and tell her to help me and Jesus, of course, toasts married? No, it does Partha, she can stay here, but just wanted to kind of give you an idea that that same word had to do with cleaning, how to do with cooking, how to do with the simplicity of just taking care hosting Jesus. I think many of us can say, I got some of that in me, right, go the next slide, please. Let's go to x six real quick, because I think X six is a really good example of different types of service that God calls us into. I'm just gonna dive right in. We're just going to rip through this x six verse 171, sorry, not seven. In those days, the disciples were increasing in numbers there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews. So here we go, Megan, here we go again, the Jews in the in the Gentiles. This is what's happening. So there's basically there's this fight that breaks out that they're like, why are the Hebrew Jews getting this this food distribution? Why the widow is getting that no one cares about the Hellenistic, the Greek Jews, like so they're fighting you everyone looks at the early church and goes, Man, everything was perfect. It wasn't. They had arguments, but you know what I like about it. They dealt with it. I think that's cool, too. Maybe it wasn't fun. I don't know. I wonder if there was shouting involved, maybe. Good chance, who knows? He braked Jews, that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. So what does the early church do? What did the 12 What are the apostles do? Whenever there's a complaint against him? It says the 12 summoned the whole company of the disciples said it would be it would not be right for us to give up preaching the Word of God to wait on tables about that irritates a lot of people. Seriously, like I would like What do you mean, there's people who need food and you're not willing to do it? Because your calling is to preach the Word to serve the word Oh, am I stepping on people's toes? I love this part. It's in the scriptures. Man this is what they say. You know what it really is it's a recognition of gifts and an operating in those gifts. This is what I want to see us like be excel in. No one back goes back to them. It goes well you guys I can't believe you're not willing to wait on tables. You too good for that. But the reality was is they were people there are people who are gifted in serving the word and serving the word to people and to prayer and they make this decision, hey, I want you to be able to focus, don't when you love someone to go, I want you to really be able to focus on where you're gifted. Right? I think everyone loves that. Yeah, at work or wherever you're at like not that you don't have other things to do. But I want you to excel at your gift. And that's what the early church is saying here. Like there are people that are gifting this Excel and then what are we going to do? Brothers and sisters select Versary select from among you seven men of good reputation for the Spirit and wisdom whom we get appointed this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer into the ministry of the word and then it says that this proposal pleased pleased them. So what they did was they saw men that had wisdom and that were very gifted in this type of service. And recognized Hey, you guys focus on the This type of service while we focus on serving the word and guess what happened? It went well. It's okay. Like it's, you know, you know what I love. So this week, I was reading an article. And you know, Tennessee baseball is really good. All of a sudden, if anyone doesn't matter, I'm not gonna get into too much details. But we haven't been good for a long time. But this is there's a point to this. We have a new young, great coach, we beat Vanderbilt two games in a row can't believe it. Vanderbilt is great, okay, they've been amazing for a long time, way better than us.
But what happened earlier this week in their first game, was dude gets up and he knocks one out of the park home run. And then the Vanderbilt coach, rightfully so goes, Hey, where's the sticker on the bat, because what you have to do now is I have to test these bats and like thing, and make sure they ring properly, make sure you're not you know, stuffing the bat with stuff that you shouldn't be putting in the bat so that you can hit homeruns. And their stickers that like a like a foolproof seal that they put on baseball bats now can you believe that? It has to be approved, that you cannot swing a bat without that seal? Well, it had fallen off in the previous game. Guess what he's out? So they're talking to the they talked to the coach afterwards? And like, man, what are you going to do? And this is what he said, I mean, he and I loved it. This is why it caught my attention. He said, Look, we got to get better at that I'm not gifted in that I gotta find someone to do that. Like he was just like, that's my gift is not checking bats in Oregon to being like a super detail oriented person on that. And I actually respected someone who could say, I'm not super good at that. I'm gonna find someone that will. I think we've got to be like that. Now we could use it as an excuse to be lazy and not to do things. But I'll tell you what, I find myself struggling to do that sometimes. Because I don't want to make people feel like I'm putting my stuff off on them. Anybody else experienced that? Like, so I try to do things that I'm probably not the best at. Because I'm I should just call Kyle and say, Hey, Kyle, man, can you help me with this. And then, instead of what we see here in the early church, go, and you know what you guys excel at that. You excel at this, let's Excel together. Let's do this thing together. Let's serve together. And these are varieties because in here, it says serve the word exact same sack, same Greek word there. So their service and serving the word, their service and waiting tables, their service in having hospitality for Jesus, these acts of service, and there are people all of us are called to serve. But there are some of us who are extremely gifted. And just again, saying, Man, that person's a servant. That person is a servant. Excelling that don't like I've heard people be like, you know, like, I read Mother Teresa. A lot. And she would be like, Man, I'm not really like, great at any things. But I know how to serve people. And she changed the world. Like that's all we're looking. All you're looking for is people who say, you know, I'm going to start I'm going to do what God calls me do and those types of people. Man, that's that's that ministry. That's that that gift of ministry. If you go to the next slide. I love that gift. Thank you. Two more of these. And then we'll do a fruit of these will be pretty quick. The gift of exhortation or of encouragement. Did y'all know that the Greek word is pear Cleo, which is the same comes from the same word as pear cleat. You know what that is who that is? That's the Holy Spirit. That's why that word Exort actually means to call to one side or to come to one side. And it has to do with encouragement. I think the NIV uses the word encouragement, admonishment comfort, this is so important. I talked to chuck and Ben, before this started, Chuck came in gave me a word of encouragement. And I said, Chuck, thank you for that. Because I'll tell you what, in this world we have right now. We need some encouragement. And some of us feel small, because I don't have the super, you know, apostolic or prophetic gift. All I have is a gift of encouragement that is hugely needed. Do you know how many pastors I know that are terribly depressed and bummed out? I'm just being real. They need someone to go, Hey, you, thank you for what you do. Like you know what I mean? I know that there are plenty of gifts and encouragement here in this church. In fact, I even when my my grandmother passed a couple weeks ago, I got several handwritten notes in that made that was super encouraging to me. I wasn't bummed out about grandma. But it was just super, it was just super encouraging to know someone took the time to not just get a card, but to literally write something out, stick it in the mail, put an envelope and send it to my house. And I was like, I don't know, I just loved it. It was so encouraging. Anybody else experienced that before? I know for a fact that Matt wouldn't be doing this without Diane, bugging him and encouraging him to lead in singing. Is that right? I mean, that's true. That's 100% True. So that gift of encouragement has Matt excelling in his gift that is what it means to use the gift to build The body, that's what it looks like. Like it's so practical. The body is being built up. And now Matt is ministering and building up the body with his gifts because of Diane's gift of encouragement to Matt to say, Dude, you need to do this. And I would love to see how she said it, because she's probably pretty straightforward. I like it. I like that. But we can't, like downplay how important this gift is.
A just a simple word to come alongside somebody doesn't have to be some great sermon that someone gives, like, it can just be come alongside and going, Hey, brother, sister, even, as Greg mentioned earlier, even with what we're talking about right here going, I see this gift in you, I just went out, I want you to excel in that gift. That is a word of encouragement. And some of us are excellent that and if you're excellent, I just encourage you to just continue to do it, and maybe even spread your wings more like look for more intentional opportunities, right? I know people that are good and like a small circle, maybe just say, Hey, man, who are other people that really could use and ask the Holy Spirit Lord, I just ask that you would reveal to show me who needs a word of encouragement. And to start living that life or we're looking around and those encouragers are doing it? Does that mean that we're not supposed to encourage if we don't have the gift of encouragement? No. But there are people who excel in it. And I know people in this room, I can say their names, and they probably be embarrassed. But they have been encouragers to me, to my family to many. And I know many of you always say you know exactly right now we're thinking of people in our minds, Excel, we need that we need that as we go to mental notes. And we need it when as we are going through things and man, maybe we're not seeing some of the difference. And we are going through that patient stretch where we're learning patients. And they encouraged me to go no, come on, you guys are doing great. Let's go. Don't forget that encouragement, though. And all these gifts are for building up the body. So make sure that we're encouraging people to do things that the Lord would have us to do. I'd say it, because you could be like, Oh, this this, sweetie, that's just such a good idea. And you're like Jesus, like, oh, I don't know if you should be encouraging them to do that. I think we all knew that. But I thought I'd say it. Because you just never know. Because that's because it's all about the gift to build up the body. All right, the next one. The next one that he brings up here, and this is the gift of giving. And the real The cool thing about this is what it really means is it's the it's when you look at the Greek it is about sharing, and big time givers. You guys know, I think whenever I say these gifts people have you guys have people popping in your minds? Like not you're asking yourself to like, do I have this gift Am I operating in this gift? And if you do again, like we said at the very first week, stir that gift up rekindle that gift. I think there's a lot of us who have gifts that we've allowed them to kind of simmer a little bit. And we don't we need to go and blow those things into flame and just go at it just really excel in it. But the giver in the gift the people that I know that have that real gift of giving. I believe in my life, see that their possessions, they're just stewarding gods. I'm just being real like so when it comes to financial giving. There's just yeah, like, it's not that it doesn't call us to be reckless. It's not calling you to be reckless. But you guys know those people there's like, they're the first one there. You know what, if they feel like God is telling me to give, they're gonna give that when it comes to time, they're the ones that are given their time. That man I really needed somewhere to spend some time with and that they're they are extremely good at giving of their time or whatever that may be good at letting other people use their possessions. You guys know those people that are just like, you know what my house is your house, like come over my pool is your pool come over. I'm there just to give her in. Like you sense that their whole life is like just recognizing that they're just inviting other people to participate in what God has given them. And it's all one. And that's what we that's the cool thing is that's what we see. You know, in the early church I love it like that's it like this is there are people who excel and I want to tell you how important you are. Like, whenever we've gone and done coffee and doughnuts, we'll talk about financial giving, we couldn't do it if people didn't give. You know that right? Because guys, I love it that it's in a hugely important part of the body of Christ and the enemy lies to people about this because I know people recently who have told me that they feel in the moment, this moment in their life that they are supposed to excel in business to financially support the work of the ministry and they struggle over and over with the enemy telling them you're not doing the work you're not really doing the work you're not really doing the work and they're gonna No no really feel like I'm called to that but oh yeah, but you're not down to your boots are not always on the ground. It's not like these people I know are like they do like, live lives out loud for Jesus. But they get you know, you hear these cool stories of this person to come in to know the Lord or this person reading the Bible for the first time. You know, this is not happening. And but recognizing that those things couldn't happen without people supporting and being givers. It just can't. And there are times in our lives whenever you know, people that's that Is there a gift and I just encourage you just excel at it. If God said, be a big giver, and I gifted you with that, then be a dang good giver. If I can say that, and stop letting the enemy lie to you, and act like you're not doing what he told you to do.
Right? Don't let people look down on you. Because, well, you know, you weren't here during this brother, sister. Well, I was working my butt off so that you can do that, right? I mean, let's, it's good. It's good. It's good. All right, let's go to the last thing. I'll talk about real quick. Kindness. And that word, kindness has to do with a goodness or a useful kindness. So it's not just like smiling. It's like building the body up, you're using that kindness? Is is is is underlying. All that we're talking about here, is I really believe that. That's it. Remember that that's why I start with one and end with one. Like when we talk about exporting, and we talked about being really good. encouragers we talked about being big time givers. Like giving and not giving with kindness doesn't really work too. Well, does it? Here's your money. Oh, yeah, I guess you could have a couple hours of my time. You'd be I'd be like, bro, I only want to spend time with you then stop acting like you're you're given a you don't even give it with kindness. The world needs some kindness, doesn't it? I see a lot of like the world out there needs people, believers, the church to show the kindness of God. Right. It's the kindness of God that's supposed to what lead us to repentance, like renewal, like changing our minds and actually changing our lives. But it's God's kindness that does us God is that you ever think about that God is kind. God is good. In that kindness does something inside of us. So as we think about these gifts, let us not forget to again think about these fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. So as we're thinking about the gift of apostles and prophets and teachers, as we've talked about, pastors are pasture teachers and, and exporting and all these things. Let us not forget that God has called us to love. We can do all these crazy things. But if we don't have love while we're doing it, it's not worth anything. I can, I can give you an amazing prophetic word. And if I don't have loving it, Paul is basically like just a Western waste of your time. Love have joy gel. I love to joy last week. I talked about that, because we churches lost, we need some joy. We just need sometimes we need to express it to others, we just need to run around the building a little bit and hoot and holler. Everyone doesn't have to. But you know, I know there's some people that can get down in here and start looking around at y'all. And it's okay to have the joy. I share that about the Mexican restaurant last week. And there's you guys have all this joy and I was like, I don't know. Like it's Dewey. I mean, like it's, it's we should be joyous because of what Christ is. Because of who he is. peace, have peace in the midst of that joy, patience as we talked about indoor, indoor, indoor, indoor, steady, steadfast, and kind. Be kind. Be kind as you operating this give be kind as we express this character of God to the world. All right, I'm gonna pray. And as we've been doing, as we've been growing in the gifts, one of the gifts that we want to grow in and this is an opportunity to practice is hearing God's voice. So as the worship, you guys can come up here and play a song I kind of liked doing that. As they're singing as we're singing together. In one accord. asked the Lord, is there a word? prophetic word you have? Is there a word of encouragement that you have for this body? Is there a word of teaching? I don't mean preach another sermon. But if there's something is there something that Laura's wanting to share, and every week lately, someone has had something? And oftentimes, it's funny, oftentimes, it's things that I went, oh, shoot, I meant to say that and I forgot so the Holy Spirit was like, Alright, cool. I'll make sure that it gets said. So Lord, You are You are our Lord. You are our King and you are beautiful. You are lovely. We just we love. When I think about the fruit of the Spirit, it brings me to tears because I love everything about you. I love that you are that you're that you are love, that you have joy that you're kind that you have patience, the Lord that You are good God. I just love who you are God and I desire we desire to show the world, your character to show the world the full mature Body of Christ that operates in those Holy Spirit. We love your gifts. We are desirous of them. As we'll learn here in a few weeks, we're going to strive after your gifts.
I just continue to ask that you would bring revelation to the gifts that we have, and that you would continue to fan those into flame God that like this week that it wouldn't just be a good sermon or whatever that we hear, Lord, that we would tomorrow that we would say, I'm gifted here and I need to start using it as our stepping out in faith, taking the measure of faith God has given me and start using that gift to build up the body. And I thank you for that father. And you're so good in Jesus name, Amen.
