City Central Church Podcast
Who am I, in light of God?
Chris Hippe - November 15, 2009
really pretty amazing. And when I was in the concert last Friday night, and the Lord just whispered to me, Jenna, I'm giving them beauty for ashes. I'm giving you beauty for ashes. So raise your hand if you felt a bit like an ash heap once in the last year. Anybody felt like a heap of ashes at once in the last year? Okay, so that's what the Lord whispered in my heart. Is He's giving you beauty for ashes? And I don't know about you, but I'm not... My mind used to be sharp. It's not as sharp as it was. And so I didn't remember where that was in the scriptures, but it's totally smack dab in the middle of Isaiah 61, which is a promise over our church. It's a promise over this body. It starts in the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor, and afflicted. He has set me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the physical and spiritual captives, and the opening of the prison, and the opening of the prison, and of the eyes to those who are who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who are Martin. And then this is verse three. This is the one that He spoke to my ear, so I just want to declare it over you. If you feel like ashes, you can... There was a gentleman from that church that gave a message and he talked about receiving something you take hold of. So take hold of that truth for you. You know what I'm saying? So I feel like ashes take hold of the truth that He's giving me beauty. Right now as I am fixing my eyes on the beauty of the Lord, He's giving me beauty, to grant to those who mourn and Zion, to give them an ornament of beauty instead of ashes. Anybody felt like they've been in a season of mourning over the last six months at all over anything in your life. Okay. So to give to those who mourn of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified, and they shall rebuild the ancient ruins. They shall raise up the former desolations and renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. So I just want to just declare that over us as a community. Yes, I take hold for us in our community, that you are giving us beauty instead of ashes, that you are giving us a garment of praise. It was so fun having Daniel and Esther up here. We were talking at the soccer game Saturday about, I've sown him about Kim and you guys went last night, right? You didn't go? Well, I would have thought you went because there was an impartation of joy on the stage. And she, it was just so fun. I feel like I was praying like, Lord, let the anointing that's on her just blow through this region, even if you didn't go, that just the anointing of delighting yourself in the goodness of God, would it just blow over this whole city? Would it blow over the whole Northwest? So that's encouragement number one. Okay, ready for exhortation number two? Okay, this one is one of understanding. So I would say this is kind of a word of understanding. Tyler Connell turned Chris and I on to Dutch sheets, which wasn't, well, I mean I read a book by Dutch sheets about three or four years ago called "Intercessory Prayer", an amazing book if you haven't read it. But and then he had us he's like, Jenna, have you heard this thing? It's called wisdom versus revelation. You can look it up on YouTube. It's Tyler here tonight. No, okay. He was okay. Well, maybe he's helping with kids. Yay, Tyler, go Tyler. So wisdom versus revelation. And it's so sad. How do I explain that? I don't even know how I can explain wisdom versus revelation. Wisdom being like the rooting in the Lord, the rooting in God, in the Word of God. Revelation being what the Spirit is saying in this hour. I can't encourage you to get on there enough. And so essentially I was listening to this sermon by Mike Biggle, the emergence of the Elijah ministry, which is something else God has proclaimed on our church, is that we would be an Elijah ministry. In this message I listened to was from 1998. So which is right about the time God was birthing the Elijah ministry in our community. It was fascinating. Evan and Amber gave us an iPod. And it was on there, you know. And I encountered the Lord. And I was, that was, I don't know, three months ago or four months ago even. It was before the rents went to Kona and I was just crying out to God for our church and our body. And the Lord gave me a picture that, have you ever gotten a picture from God and it gives to you for three months? So that's what happened. He gave me a picture and he goes, Jenna, wisdom and revelation are like this. Wisdom is like a flagpole. It's rooted on the Word of God. There's a huge, it's got a huge foundation. It is not going anywhere. Flagpolds don't just blow over, right? I mean, so it's strong. Revelation is the flag. It's the banner. Okay, so this is what this is about. This is how do people work together in a community. Some of us have a greater bend toward wisdom and grounding ourselves in the Word of God. Some of us have a greater bend to revelation and moving in the Spirit. Both are essential. Think about it. What it's John 4 that says, "I want you to be the true worshippers, worship me in spirit and in truth, in revelation and in the Word." Okay, so he wants us functioning together. So you've got this flagpole. Does not have a message without a flag. Does it? You walk right by a flagpole without a flag that's boring. Isn't that what's happening a lot to the church? It's not relevant. Okay, but you put a flag out there. It has a message, right? And when the wind is blowing, when the Spirit is blowing, you can see that message. Now what is revelation? What is a flag without a pole? It can get blown by the Spirit along the side of a road and be rubbish. Okay, can you see? So neither of them without one another. Do you see how essential the two functioning are together are? And I felt like, man, when I listened to this wisdom versus revelation, worth looking up on YouTube, I understand how Chris and I function a lot in our home. I was like, "Wow, this is amazing. This gives me, this is so helpful to understand our different personalities." So some of you have a bending towards the Word of God, which is of the Lord. We want everybody needs to be rooted in the Word of God. And some of us have a bend towards the things of the Spirit, which is great. We need both. But sometimes if you've ever seen a flag, a flag, blown by the wind, at times it probably feels like, "Oh, you're holding me back. I just want to go." Right? "I just want to go. Just let me go." But would you have a message if you were not high and lifted up on that flagpole? So I just want to encourage you, whether it's in your marriage, whether it's in working with people in your workplace, whether it's in your houses, that's where the scriptures say submit to one another, because some of us have a bend toward wisdom. Some of us have a bend toward revelation. And it's good, but as we come together in unity, our message is high and lifted up. We're relevant. A flagpole is irrelevant without a flag. But a flag is not lifted up if it's not if it's not tied to the security of a flagpole. Are you tracking with me? It was just a revelation God gave me of how we work together. And it's powerful. So anyway, I hope that encourages you. I hope that encourages you in your homes, in your marriages, in people you're working with, in ministry, because we can get so we're a passionate group. So I can be passionate about the Word of God. I can be passionate about saving the lost. I can be passionate about this. I can be passionate about that. And not, we're not holding one another back. We're letting everyone go forward where they're passionate. So the message can be high and lifted up over the city. Okay, that was it. So be blessed. [applause] Sermon number three. Sermon number three. Get ready. I thought that was so profound. It has helped me so much in this process of walking with the Lord. You know, it's God's heart that we would not just let each other move into each other's gifting, but we would propel each other with a violence that I would be so ready to propel each one of you forward. And everyone would come behind and not say, "Oh, you can just go ahead," but we would come behind and go, "Go, move. I'm with you. I encourage you, keep going." So I hope that you're willing to, "Hey, tonight we celebrate with all of our Arizona brothers and sisters that are down in Arizona. There's a freedom immersion down in Arizona for like, I think, a hundred people. Evan, is that about, right? I don't know if Evan is in the room right now. It's a truckload of people with a lot of teams. Michelle, how many teams did we send? How many eight teams? 55 people and eight teams of our people are down there. And so they're just slugging away. What an amazing community down there. And then how many of you have heard about what's going on at IHOP? Has anybody heard anything about what's going on at IHOP? If you haven't, God is really doing something very special at IHOP. And He's moving in such a way that we just continue to pray God come. We pray for it. We pray for Mike Bickle and Alan Hood and all these guys that are shepherding this thing, that they would be given wisdom to navigate the ways of God. And we just continue to encourage them. It's an amazing thing when the Spirit of God shows up. Your discernment has got to be at it's ten out of ten. And we just pray for them in Jesus name. So here we go. Open your Bibles tonight. I'd like you to open your Bibles to John 16. And this is what we're doing. We're talking about an Acts 2 community. We're talking about what it means. We're really talking about what it means to prepare ourselves to build for revival, to build for such a way that those promises over our community would come true. We know that God has spoken big things, that there's going to be a move of God that's coming. It's like out in the out in the ocean, you can hear the tidal wave. You know in your spirit that it's coming and it's like batten down the hatches. Are we ready? Are we prepared for what God is bringing to us? And I want to tell you that these weeks are fundamentally crucial in preparation for what God is bringing because He wants us to be prepared. He wants us to be able to be wise stewards of those that He brings into the kingdom. He wants us to be a people that are all hands-on deck functioning. And tonight is a very, very important message for that. So we've talked about the eternal mindset. We've talked about having eternity on our minds. We've talked about what it means to have enduring and enduring nature with endure being able to endure this right here with eternity on our mind. We talked about what it means to encourage one another in light of heaven coming and in light of pressing each other forward. We've talked about unforgiveness and how it blocks my relationship. How many of you got a little something out of that this week? Okay, how many of you got your heart right a little bit? Maybe that's why it feels a little bit heavy in here. I hope you're all right tonight. But I hope you dealt with your unforgiveness because we're gonna take communion, which is a really good sign. But how unforgiveness blocks us in our relationship with Jesus in our relationship one with another. And fundamentally, I cannot come and encourage you if I have bitterness towards you. And so all of these are important truths in the process. But I want us to make sure that we're not sticking in that topic of last week. I want us to really heed what Daniel shared with us tonight that we are forgiven. You confess your sins to the Lord and He's faithful and just to forgive and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So I want to encourage you, if you have confessed your sins, leave it in the past because we're moving on tonight. Everybody say moving on. We're moving on out of the unforgiveness. We're moving around, moving on out of that talk. And we're moving on to a very key topic that we had to get rid of unforgiveness to go where we need to go tonight. I want to cover tonight also that let's remind ourselves of three important priorities of life. You and I are existence on this planet. One of the things I've always appreciated about Mike Bickle is he lives priorities. And you can see his priorities in line. And number one, it's to love the Lord our God. Number one, that's it. That's it. And if you and I love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and everything that we are, we're winning. Number two, it's to love each other and it's to build each other up and grow each other. And number three, it's to the last world. And so then also then we must understand that there's two predominant questions that you and I always are asking ourselves. And even unbelievers are asking themselves. The first question is who is God? Who is God? Who is he? What is he like? What are his characteristics? How do I know that? If I was to describe who God is, how would I define it? Number one, who is God? And I don't know about you, but it seems like I get an understanding a little bit and then God just throws a monkey wrench in it and I just humble myself, get on my face and go, who are you? Tell me, who are you? Tell me how do you function? Tell me who you are. It's like one minute I go man, I kind of get it and then something happens in life and I go, Lord, where are you in this process and educate me? That's the first question. And then the second question is in light of who he is, who am I? In light of who he is, who am I? Now it's important to recognize that we must never get those two out of whack. We must never be a people that go, who am I? And then who is God? In light of who I am. It starts with him and knowing him and pressing into him. That's why intimacy, the prayer rooms, the prayer watches, knowing God is key and then in light of knowing him I will always have a very fresh understanding of who I am and also who I am not. Praise God. So I want tonight to look specifically at the question of who am I in light of God? I want us to consider the characteristics of Jesus. I want us to think tonight, what do you suppose are the characteristics of Jesus? If you were to go up to Peter and he was here, Peter, what were the characteristics that you saw when you walked with him for three years? What were the, Peter, if I was to give you a sheet of paper and I numbered it down from 1 to 25 and I handed it to you and I want you to fill it out and tell me, what are the characteristics of Jesus Christ that you saw? Because I want to glean from you. You walked with him and so I want to understand. I just imagine the characteristics of who Jesus is and I start to really go, man, that is a powerful understanding for you and I. But for you and I, not only do we know the 25 characteristics that we're going to look at, but we also have it affects us very personally. And so I want us to start tonight in John 16, okay, and let's take a look at this. What we're catching is we're catching Jesus in the middle of one of his messages and this is a long amazingly fruitful message and imagine this is toward the tail end of his life and we run into him and he's having a little talk time with his disciples and he's doing some preach time and he's saying, listen, I want to share this with you. And he starts to answer some questions that I've always had. Have you ever prayed, Jesus, come be with me right now. Oh, Jesus, come, Jesus, come, Jesus. I want you to hear Jesus. I want to know you, Jesus. It's a wonderful prayer and then I start to look in John 16 verse 7 and it starts to give me a different paradigm. John 16 verse 7 says this, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. Stop." Everybody say advantage. Jesus Christ looks at his disciples that he has walked with for three years, two and a half years, whatever it is at that point. And he says, listen, it's the best thing for Ammon Schwanger that I leave you. It's the best thing that I remove myself from your life. It's the best thing that I kind of get back into the background and disappear. It's to your advantage. Now, you and I must understand what an advantage is. An advantage is imagine Peter or looking at him going, that's to my advantage. I don't get it. To my advantage is you disappearing and going away. You are my security. You're my Savior and Lord. Where are you going? But he says, "I tell you the truth. It's to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you." Everybody say helper. The helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. He sits down with his disciples and he says, listen, it's the best idea that I go away and I leave you because the one that is coming after me, he is the helper. He is the comforter and he is the one that you need. He is the one that you must come in line with. He is the one that will come and fill your life. You see, it's the coming of the Holy Spirit would be more profitable to believers than even the physical presence of Christ. The coming of the Holy Spirit would be even to more advantage for the believers than if we were standing here with Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful thing to consider since the Spirit of God is a spirit. Everybody say spirit. And so the Spirit of God, what Jesus is saying is listen, I know you don't understand this right now, but I must go and die on across and be buried and raise again and sit at the right hand of the Father and you just wait. Pentecost is coming. And the Holy Spirit is going to come on you and I know you don't understand who the Holy Spirit is right now, but I'm telling you what you're going to be thanking me because he is going to come and he is going to fill you and not only going to fill you, the 12 of you, but then he is going to fill the next pod and then the next pod. And you know what he's ultimately going to do? The Holy Spirit is going to start wreaking havoc across the world and move through believers to see Jesus' will be done to see the latter day come into existence. He says, be careful because I want you to know it's to your, everybody say, advantage. Verse 8 of chapter 16. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and in judgment. And then we read in verse 13, however, when he the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. You see, what we see here is the Holy Spirit has come to convict the world. He's come to convict the world and he's come to communicate truth to you and I. He's come to convict the world of sins. He's come to convict the world to bring them into an understanding of their depravity without him. He's come to bring a deep level of conviction of going, my sins are so grievous and I understand I need a Savior. He's come to convict the world, the unbelievers, but then he's also come to communicate truth to you and I. And one of the key truths in this revelation is that Jesus is that the Spirit would manifest 25 characteristics of Christ within a body of believers to see his will be done. One of the key truths of the Spirit of God is he's coming to communicate the truth, that there are 25 characteristics of who Jesus was on that piece of paper. And he's not only going to come by Spirit and tell, but he's going to come by Spirit and indwell. And not only is he going to indwell in one because there can only be so much in one, but he's going to create a body by which the Spirit of God rests so amazingly complete when a body comes together. The 25 characteristics of Jesus Christ are in the Holy Spirit and have been given to you and I. You can call them 25 characteristics of Christ. You can call them 25 spiritual gifts. Whatever you call them, they are the divine enablements for ministry. Characteristics of Jesus Christ that are to be manifested through the body corporate just as they were manifested through the body incarnate. You see, God has given us the Holy Spirit. And he has said, I want you to accomplish my mission here on earth, but you don't have to do it in your own power. I want you to know that I've sent you the Spirit and he indwells you. And not only does he indwell you, but he produces fruit in you. Not only does he produce fruit, but he also then gives you gifts. He is giving you gifts inside of you that you will come alive as you live within the paradigm of who you are. And you're not trying to be someone else, but be yourself and you're gifting and within a body that understands that the world will be taken over when the giftings, the 25 giftings of Jesus Christ come hand in hand and agree with the Savior Jesus Christ that his Spirit is come and sent us the gifts and we need each other and each other's gifting to accomplish what he is bringing. I'm telling you that community will live on fire, live on fire. But you know what the problem was with the Corinthian church? The problem with the Corinthian church is they were so busy with division. They were so busy looking at Paul or Apollos. And in fact, before we, let me just digress before I get there. I want to share with you a John Piper definition. Anybody familiar with John Piper? He's an extremely smart man. Praise God for him. John Piper, a spiritual gift is this. It's an ability given by the Holy Spirit to express our faith effectively and word indeed for the strengthening of someone else's faith. The spiritual gifting, number one is this, it's in all of us. There is not a person that's underneath my voice right now that has not been given by the Holy Spirit's spiritual gifts. And every one of us have got to thank the Lord that there's not a ranking system. Every one of us has to thank the Lord that the spiritual gifts have been planted in all of us and each one is the same value as the other. So there's not one of us that has not been given spiritual gifts. But then what we also must know, what Piper says here is the two main objectives of our spiritual gifts is this, is to edify each other and to see the world come to Christ. Period. And as a byproduct, you'll come alive. Number one, it's to build each other in the faith. To build each other up, to grow each other, to see each other excel, to have the other's highest good in mind, to have a great concern that I would be able to live knowing James' gifting and to see him fulfill it in his life. Our spiritual gift is meant when we understand it to build and grow each other up into their spiritual gifting. Number one, and also as equally as important is to see that world that is on their way to hell come to Jesus. You and I have gifts from the Holy Spirit. It's not just a natural ability. Can I just pop a bubble real quick and jump up on a high horse? It's not your natural ability. It's not, hey, I'm a teacher and that's the thing and it's just not something necessarily that you're good at all the time. It's not. The Holy Spirit is the one that confirms a spiritual gift inside somebody in many different ways. But also what we must understand regarding then to come off that is when we have spiritual gifts within ourselves and here, we must know what they are. Number one, and we must live in them. Number two, to then see each other built up and then see the world come to Christ. They're supernatural provisions for the edification of the church and the evangelization of the world. There are means through which believers are to grow, worship, witness, and serve. And there is no other area of doctrine more important to spiritual health and effectiveness for a body. There is no other doctrine other than understanding the Holy Spirit is inside of you. That's the first step. But number two is there's no other more important understanding for you and I for a body to live on fire. See, I hold a personal premise that I agree with this book that Jerry Fry recommended to us as a staff by Ray Steadman. It's called Body Life. And he shares this principle. He goes, there's two different arenas. There's two different arenas. There's this arena right here that hires staff and people come in to listen to them and be encouraged by them. But then the rest of the body goes out. What happens is this type of church or body ends up then adopting the practices of the world and the business principles of the world and making those a part of the body. And it becomes a pseudo-church, but it's only a form. It just becomes this thing. And then he goes, but I tell you this, and this changed my life. It really changed my life. He says, but if believers will realize the Spirit of God is inside of them, each one has been gifted. And they live in the fulfillment of that gifting and they seek to see the gifting fulfilled, not for themselves, but for the mutual benefit of others and out the world. It's not about us having a little moment of taking a survey. What's my gift? That's not the point. The point is each other and the world. So you can get your original design all you want, but if it's all about you, you're stuck. So if you're going to look at spiritual gifts through the same lens, God's desire is for others. But he said on this, when a body understands their gifting and their importance in the body and that they're fulfilling those giftings, what happens then is then understanding where the priesthood of all believers and that the pastors, teachers, apostles, and prophets are meant to equip the saints to do the work. He says, I tell you this, if you see that happening, you will see a body that it was always on fire, always zealously loving Jesus and postured for revival. The church we don't want, fire that we do. So I share with you a couple more things. Apart from the direct energizing the Spirit, this topic is more vital to believers than anything else. I mean, this is very, very important. So I want to share with you four different delineations to be able to make sure that we're all on the same page. The first one is the ultimate gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit given to believers. Number two, there's spiritual offices which are positions in a local body. That's in Ephesians 4, verse 11, in fact, turn your Bibles there so we can just look at that real quick. So you have number one, the Holy Spirit's given to all believers. Number two, you have the spiritual offices and these spiritual offices are in Ephesians 4, verse 11, and it says, and he himself game some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to a measure of the stature of fullness of Christ. So the second category are spiritual offices. The third category I want to share with you is the spiritual gifts which we just defined which are ministries to the church through the Spirit and to the lost in the world. And the fourth one are spiritual fruits or spiritual graces which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is conduct, which is Christian conduct. Ephesians 5, or Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It's a Christian conduct. It's a code of conduct. It's the fruit of the Spirit. And I really believe that if a person has a revelation and to fulfill their spiritual gift with a common understanding for the body and the lost world and they're seeking out the fruit of the Spirit in their life, that is one dangerous combo. That is one dangerous, dangerous combination to take place. So what I want to do is I want us to take a deeper look into spiritual gifts. Shall we? Let me ask you this. Have any of you found yourself wondering who you really are? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Where do I come alive? What is it that God has created me to do? What is within me? What is it that God has really equipped me to see happen? I want us to take a look at this, but so go to 1 Corinthians 12 and I think you will be fascinated to see some very clear, important directives. 1 Corinthians 12. Now put your finger in 1 Corinthians 12 and then put your finger over into 1 Corinthians 1. How's everybody doing tonight? I ask you that because I'm looking at you and praise God. Okay. 1 Corinthians, so you have your finger in 12. Now go to 1 Corinthians 1 and let's take a look at the condition of the Corinthian church. What we'll find in the Corinthian church is there where division was a major problem in the church of Corinth. What was happening is they were, it was like they were choosing human leaders to follow. It was like they were choosing clicks. It was like they were, and then they were taking their spiritual gift and saying, "Well, I follow Apollos and this is the people that I run with and this is how my spiritual gift works." What was happening in the Corinthian church is they were being given many spiritual gifts, but they were lacking also than the fruit of the spirit of God. So look in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10 and it just simply describes the division. "I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church, rather be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. For some members of Chloe's household have told me about the quarrels. My dear brothers and sisters, no one's had any quarrels around here, have they? That's quiet. Okay. Verse 12, "Some of you are saying I'm a follower of Paul, others say Apollos, others say Peter, others say Christ, which is probably a good one. Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I Paul crucified for you? We're all baptized." So what he basically says is Jesus divided. Is Jesus divided? Is Jesus one that is functions in division? And the Corinthian church then finds themselves having to get a little lesson of sorts of the wholeness of the body. You see, there wasn't a care for the whole. There was only a care for the part and that's the danger that is faced in every Christian circle on the planet, is the danger is having the part and neglecting the whole. And God's design and only way to see fulfillment come is to have a whole mentality and manifest in your part. And for us, the flesh thinks in part and does not think in the whole. So what the Christians at Corinth received those abundance gifts, but they were lacking the spiritual graces. I want you to consider why the Holy Spirit had us deal with our unforgiveness last week. It's because the spiritual graces come pouring out the fruit of the Spirit, come pouring out of a person that's not living in bitter or angry with others. You see, we're working on the fruit of the Spirit being cultivated, but now I'm saying there's more. Add your spiritual gift, come alive, live in the fruit of the Spirit and watch good things happen. Everybody say amen. So keep in mind, then the Christian gifts are not necessarily a mark of Christian character or spiritual maturity. You see, what happened in the Corinthian church was they had spiritual gifts abundant, but they had so little maturity. Have you ever seen that before? So many gifts, I mean the gifts, they understood their gifts to some degree, but they were lacking the fruit of the Spirit to keep them focused on Jesus and what Jesus is doing. So now flip your Bible over to 1 Corinthians 12. And let's take a look at what Paul has to say to the Corinthian church. We could also look in Ephesians 4 to see what he said to the Ephesian church. We could see also we could look in Romans 12 if we wanted to to see what he said to the church and body there. One of the common characteristics of all three parts is the love of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit always precedes or is right after the understanding of spiritual gifts, which is very important to note. So 1 Corinthians 12, shall we take a look? Anybody up for that? How many of you think that you could use this tonight? 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1 says this. Now concerning spiritual gifts, so it's kind of like someone asked him a question. Now, okay, now getting to that question that you wrote to me about. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be misinformed or ignorant or ignorant. I do not want you to be ignorant on this topic. What he is basically saying is pay close attention, play close attention. This is a critical truth for you to know. So he says I don't want you to be ignorant on this topic, okay, and now go to verse 4. There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are divisions of activities, but is the same God who works all in all. Notice that he's walking a fine line of describing a body that he's saying you're diverse, but you're one. You're diverse, but you're one. You're diverse, but you're one. We are diverse, but we're one. Let it be said we're diverse in such an amazing way, but we're one. You see it's the principle of the human body that how many pregnant moms are in here right now. Pregnant moms? One, two, three, okay. It's the start of human life. The human life starts with one cell with the original design of the creator. One cell, one design never changes. And what happens to that cell, specifically in the first three months, I pray for you women if you are in that stage in Jesus' name right now. What happens when that one cell starts to multiply, but it doesn't become a different entity in and of itself. It keeps the original design, but it has a special function. And it continues to multiply what happens is it creates a small human body that you eventually see. And it's no different than you and I. We have the original design of our creator within us. He's the spirit of God inside of us. But each one of us has a different gifting, but the same design. The different gifting, but the same mission. A different gifting. You see? That's the point that he's trying to declare here. So he says there's diversity of gifts. And you can define the word gifts like this because you see here, he says there's gifts, there's ministries, and there's activities. There's gifts, there's differing gifts, then there's differing ministries, and then there's differing activities. You can define the gift again. This is kind of a teaching night if you haven't seen that yet. A gift is a specific capacity or function in function given to us directly by the Holy Spirit. So there's a differing of gifts. And as we've talked about, we'll look about a little further, is there's 25 different gifts that we could probably round it out to. And then there are differing ministries. And a ministry is a sphere in which a gift is performed. So not only are there differing gifts, what's inside of you, but there are differing ministries, which is the sphere in which a gift is performed. And then on top of that, the third part of that is there's differing activities, which is the degree of power by which a gift is manifested or ministered on a specific occasion. So what we see here is you and I have been given certain gifts in this room. And not only have we been given different gifts, but we've been given different ministries, which is the sphere by which the gift manifests. And then not only that, but then we have been given a differing level of activity. So that is the degree by which the gift is functioning at the God ordained time because it's up to Jesus and not man. And so I can be, I can have the gift of helps, let's say. And I am in working in sozo. And I have differing levels of energizing as the word for for for for activities. It's the differing energizing of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever found yourself in gifting where it's just like, man, it's tacking hot tonight. It's like the Spirit of God is doing something. It's like tacking out. And then there's other times that you did the exact same exact thing you just showed up and it just feels literally. There's differing levels that the Holy Spirit is the one that's in control and brings those manifestations of your gifts in your ministry. Amen. So we see here, he's clear with the Corinthian church, but in the same God who works all in all, verse the end of verse six, verse seven, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all. Everybody say the prophet of all. The prophet of all is for your benefit, for you're growing, for you to be encouraged and edified. The prophet of all is you have been given your, you've been given your gift, you've been given your ministry, and you've been given your activity in order for the prophet of all. Each other and the dying one. Amen. Verse eight, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit. So what we see here is we just don't have time to dig into these, but you see wisdom is given to some and then the knowledge is given to some. So you get a word of knowledge which is oftentimes comes out of the word of God and you're praying and the Holy Spirit come give me, give me more, you get a word and the wisdom is then the application of the word of knowledge. Then you have people that are just gifted with faith. We all have been given, we're all created to have faith. We're all created to live in a certain faith, but there's certain people that live in this faith that challenge everybody around them and they believe God's just for such miraculous things that you get provoked to believe more for God around them. It's their gifting and they're at home. And the problem is this is schism comes when we don't know each other's gifting and don't appreciate each other's gifting. If you don't believe me, you can just flip the page right over then to verse 20 whatever. I don't know where it is right now, sorry. It's schism comes into a body when we don't understand each other and press each other into our calling or we try to make someone like us. We all have the egomaniac inside of us. No one? Come on. Any of us? We all have this egotistical nature that if you were to put down, if you were to get really tired and allow yourself to get grumpy a little bit, you fundamentally think everybody needs to be like you. And I fundamentally think everybody needs to be like me. Fundamental brass tacks you've got to acknowledge that it's part of the flesh nature. So the only way to dismantle is it and say yes, I agree. A husband can try to make his wife like him. A wife can try to make a husband like this. Friends try to make themselves each other. All the while, there's 25 different combinations and no combinations are the same. I've never met one evangelist. It's just like the other evangelist. I've never met another teacher that's just like the other teacher. I've never seen that happen. So you and I are so individual in nature that if we try to think and propel ourselves on other people will be a sad miserable depressed community. Just a little depressed community sitting in the corner. Sucking our thumb. Seriously. But if we acknowledge and we realize that God has created in each person a specific area and function, I think it would be very enlightening. Thank you, sir. Oh, that's good stuff. Thank you. That's the good stuff. So I want to draw this thing down down to a close if it's possible. We're going to have to do this in two weeks, okay? But I want to tell you that if you look at through the gifts, what I want you to see, there's faith and there's healing and there's miracles and there's prophecy. There's discerning of spirits. There's different kind of tongues. There's interpretations of tongues. And you can see that each one in verse 11 has been distributing to each one individually as God wills. God is the one that willed it. He determined it. He created you. He's the one and has given it to you as he wills, okay? And so as you look through this, first Corinthians 12, it just continues to build and to grow. You can see that it talks about differing vessels and we're just going to have to pick it up next week, okay? But I want to tell you this. I want to tell you this. That I want to ask you, have you been struggling a little bit to figure out who you are and how you're gifted? Who you are and how you're gifted? You see, there's so many differing types of giftings. There's categories of gifts from leadership gifts like administration and pastoral. And then there's practical gifts like discernment of spirits and helps. Then there's a category of signed gifts which is healing and miracles. And then there's also the whole category of communication gifts from exhortation and teaching. This breaks it down into 25 categories, but I just want to ask you, do you know who you are? And do you have appreciation of the fact that every person in this room is completely different than you and you and I cannot do it without them? Can't. One person leaves, we can't do it without them. You see, it's God's design for every person in here within your God ordained gifting and ministry and activity to press the kingdom of God forward, to build each other up in the faith and to see the world come to Christ. And so I ask you tonight, do you know who you are? Do you know who you are? Have you been trying to figure it out? Have you been trying to figure it out? Am I an administrative gift or a discernment of spirits or what about evangelism or the gift of exhortation or giving or faith or healing or helps or hospitality or intercession? I want to ask you, do you know the gifts? Have we become ignorant to the gifts? And I want to tell you that God's design is that we would wholeheartedly dig into what He is saying for our personal lives but more importantly for each other and the world. So I want to ask you this question. How many of you have come in here tonight and you have never received your original design? Which means we haven't prayed for you and asked the Lord, how is this person created? Anyone in here like that that you have not got your original design before? Don't be scared. I'm not going to ask you to come up front. I'm not going to give you an altar call. Don't worry. Anyone? We'll let you figure out if you want that prayer. We'll pray for you if you want that prayer. But for some of us, we have our original design but we don't know where to root it into the Word of God. We have our original design but we don't know where it roots in. Is that administration? Is that leadership? What is the biblical principle that I lock that thing into and it will feed my soul and awaken me to another level because I'll come alive as a byproduct. Amen? So stand up with me. So remember, in order to say you know you're gifting, if you're not walking in it, you really don't know you're gifting. We don't know our gifting if we're not walking actually fulfilling God's gifting in our lives. And so for some of you tonight, you're just going to be really encouraged by the fact that you're living within, you're gifting. And sometimes God reveals in sections and awakens us through other people. I encourage you this week to ask a friend, where do you think my spiritual gifts are? Ask someone close to you. Seek God. Dig into Scripture. Dig into 1 Corinthians 12. Dig into Romans 12. Dig into 1 Peter 4, 10, which says everyone's been given a gift. Use it for the edification of the body and those that are lost around the world. Amen? So tonight we're going to take communion. Let's go before the Lord. Father, I just I thank you tonight for this really good news that I don't have to do it by myself. I just thank you for the relief out of the balloon of tension of going God I could be lonely, I could be misunderstood, I could be I don't know but I don't have to do this thing alone. I don't have to be able to know how to do all these other gifts. I don't have to figure it all out but I need my brothers and sisters. Can we can we just say amen to that? Can we just tell the Lord I I need I need my brothers and sisters. Just just telling me right now I need my brothers and sisters. I need help. I I I I need it. Every way I've cast judgment on another person tried to make them like me. Just confess that to the Lord. God have mercy forgive me. I repent of that. Thank you. I receive that forgiveness right now. I'm done. I fire myself trying to make another person like me. They don't have to be like me. They need to be themselves and it's my job to see them fulfill that in their lives. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. That's really good news really good news and so Father tonight just even as we as we are just prepare our hearts for communion as we prepare our minds and our hearts for communion. Lord we want to be a people that come together tonight around the communion table. Father we thank you that for just how it's been literally almost a year and a half since we've taken communion together and there's so much of your sovereign hand in that but tonight we can we can reflect on the one loaf that every piece of bread came off of representing Jesus Christ and his body being being crucified on a cross for me. Father that every one of us are important. Every one of us are necessary. Every one of us need to see you come into us into our body in general in Jesus name and so let's just let's just father so we just even for communion tonight we ask that you would bless it. We just ask the team to come down and to get ready to prepare and this is how I want to take communion tonight. I think Daniel's gonna get a worship over us tonight and really just fill this the the presence of the Holy Spirit but this is not a religious activity. This is us coming together and saying I am peace of the body and another person saying I'm peace of the body and I'm peace of the body and we are ones that have the original design of the Creator inside of me and I am I've been created a certain way and I've been given a certain ministry and a certain and a certain activity that's part of it and so God I want to be one that fulfills that and actually lives in that this week. Some of us just need to set apart a day this week and fast and cry out to the Lord and just ask Holy Spirit show me who am I? Show me who am I? Give me revelation. Some of us might be in that tension spot of just because just because you don't know who you are and God wants to reveal that to us this week but as we take the communion we want to take it together as one we want to take it together as one body and so Father we just want to declare over some certain things tonight that we just declare to you and if you agree with this we declare to you we need each other in Jesus name. We declare that we're desperate for others and their giftings and their passions and their desires. Not only are we desperate for it for ourselves but we want we're desperate to press each other into their giftings. We're desperate to see them fulfilled we're desperate to see them pressed their their arenas forward in Jesus name. Father I pray that you would dawn on us a new day that we would celebrate over every other person that if a person has the gift of helps we would celebrate over their helps if a person has a gift of administration we would celebrate them in their gift of administration that Father we would not be ones that elevate certain gifts but we would say all 25 they're yours all 25 they're yours all 25 we we just allow everybody not only allow them but we press them forward into their calling and their destiny and so Lord tonight we just acknowledge that. We thank you that your word declares that those that are upfront those gifts that are more prominent in nature that others see are not to be given the honor the honors to go to the lesser gifts the honors to go to the helps and the administrations and and those Father the less are to be called into the greatness I pray that we would be that community in Jesus name I pray that you would even right now God give us encouraging words for one another I pray you give us understanding for one another in Jesus name I pray Lord that you would give us not only just appreciation but a depth of love today in Jesus name and so we just invite the communion team we have our communion set up this is what we're going to do tonight is I want you to if you're married I want you to get with another couple you don't know so well tonight and if you're single tonight I want you to get with someone maybe that you know but other people that you don't know and I want you to pray because as we take this this is very important us to come unified together tonight in unity and so I want you to go before the Lord and in each one of you thank him for what he's done thank him for the blood that he shed thank him for dying on a cross this is meant to be joy filled amen do you know in the early church they would go outrageous they would scream yell chant whoo Jesus did this for me he did this for me and God thank you there's joy when we take communion there's joy when we take communion and it's not something that happens in a dead church down the road or something you grew up in I'm telling you what this is a place that we celebrate what our Savior and King has done on a cross and so I don't have it in me to exhort you to happiness tonight I don't I don't have the encouragement to make you feel great but you have the spirit of God inside of you to make a decision to rejoice in what Jesus did tonight to defeat any kind of heaviness that's over you tonight by the blood of Jesus Christ and come with a joy filled heart and look with the eternal mindset and stop looking at the things of the world you have got to take it and go it's mine and I receive it and now it's time to go that's what the body is created to do amen so Father we blessed this in Jesus name even right now Jesus even as Daniel starts praying a plan and I'm just going to pray I want you to get into your groups of four so Father we just designate this night and we set it apart and if you have sin in your heart tonight and you know it do not take communion without getting it right with the Lord I tell you do not take communion if you have sin against a brother or sister and you're functioning and known sin in your life you might need to just take a second right now and just go God forgive me even today right there when I got offended with my sister or God forgive me right there the night I just got angry with my brother or God forgive me for just having this deeply seated thing in my life I give it to you and I put it under the blood and I receive the grace of Jesus Christ so I invite you to take get your hearts right tonight celebrate with one another get with three other people and let's celebrate together I want you when you take it tonight I want each person to come with a thankful heart to the communion table each person gets an opportunity to thank the Lord tonight each person gets an opportunity if you want to to thank Jesus for something or what he has done on the cross so we take it in the right way in Jesus name thank you Lord