Harrison Faith Church
One Body - Discovering Your Gift | Pastor Scott Brandon | Nov 17, 2024
I want to ask a question, that's how I want to start off, I want to ask a question. What kind of church do you go to? What kind of church do you go to? And when someone asks that question, I want you to think there's a couple of ways you can respond to this, but what kind of church do you go to? There's two ways you can respond to this. You can talk about the being, the identity of a church, or you can talk about what that church does. So what comes to your mind when someone at work, let's say a neighbor or somebody asks you a question and they say, "I got a question. What kind of church do you go to?" It's what you say, "I go to an assembly of God church. I go to a Pentecostal church. I go to a Charismatic church. Is that your response?" Or do you go, do you say, "I go to a church that loves people. I go to a church that values the next generation. I go to a church that strives to emphasize the importance of unity." Because both statements are factual and true. One of them deals with an identity and one of them deals with what we're doing. So when someone asks you, "What's your natural response to say who you are or to say what you do?" I've got a different question. Thank you, Destiny. You're good to go. You can get out of here. You can get off the stage. You're excused. Thank you so much for what you do. Can I make you see the more offers for you? Y'all know something about Destiny? She travels home from Conway on each and every other weekend to be here and to play. And that's sacrifice because you know what? If I was her age, I'd be like, "Peace. I got a life to live. Y'all can figure out church on your own." But her heart is right, man. I love the whole Miller family. Mom and dad, y'all did a good job. Y'all did a good job. We praying for you over time. We don't know what there's yet, but we know Dominic's going to come along on these days. So what kind of church do you go to? Second question I got is this. How would you answer this? What do you do at your church? What do you do at your church? There's two ways you can answer this as well, right? What do you do at your church? You could say, well, you know, on Sundays, we sing four songs and Pastor Scott makes an awkward moment where he dismisses the pianist off the stage. And then he preaches and then we have a great time. We all say we go home and we live right to see the rest of the week. You could say that. That could be an unanswer. We response. I don't know how truthful it is in your way of life. You could say we got on Wednesday nights, we got a kid's ministry that is banging. We got a youth ministry that's incredible. We got some awesome people. We got a family dinner and we got people who volunteer. It's just incredible night. All kinds of things that are going on or you could say, oh, well, what do I do at the church? A lot. I serve in the. I help with the. And see, when we begin to ask questions like that that are personal to us or someone asks you that you find yourself on two sides of a fence here. You're either talking about the church that you attend or you're talking about the church that you're a part of. And so the question I'm asking you today is do you attend or are you a part of it? A large part that has to do with your gifts and knowing what Jesus is asking you to do. If you don't know this or not, if Jesus is your savior, you are a part of the body of Christ. And do you know that you are responsible for the body building up itself? Paul says this in Ephesians chapter four, he says, rather speaking the truth of love, we are to grow up in every way into him who was the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint. That's you. Some of y'all are members and some of y'all joints with which is equipped. When each part is working properly, that's important, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. If you're a part of the body of Christ, you belong. You have a function. You're a member. So there's to be some kind of contribution, in fact, more than just that, you have a gift. You have a gift that blesses this body. You have a gift that builds this body and you have a responsibility to build this church up. You're the foundation that we're growing from, actually Jesus, the foundation. But in terms of our servitude in humanity, you are that foundation. We grow from your ability to add to the body and add value to the body. And so Paul is asking us, are we building ourselves up in love? That's the question. Not what are we working on? Are we busy? Are we building ourselves up in love? And so if we are working properly, are we contributing to the body's growth? Are we a church that's growing in love because of the contribution? And so today I want to talk to you about three things. And this might be a little bit of a lengthy message today. So do I need to turn the air down or up? Do I need to get comfortable today? You guys okay? Because I want to help you discover your gift. I want to help you discover your gift. I want to describe to you what a gift is. I want to define what the gift is and then I want to help you discover how do you discover your gift. Because if you don't know your gift, man, you're missing out a humongous part of the walk with Christ. And today we want to tackle that. Let's pray and then we'll jump in. Father in heaven, I thank you Lord for your love. I thank you for the grace and the mercy God that we need. Scott needs every day. And I pray Lord that you would just help us understand some truths in your word. Thank you, Scott, how we're, nobody is insignificant here. Every one of us Lord is important and sometimes we buy into the lies or we get busier distracted and we forget our relevance to the body that we are members, that we are contributors. And our job is to be responsible in building up the body but sometimes though we don't understand all the things that are available to us, namely our gifts. And I pray today you would make those known, make those known to us. Whether it be one or two or three, or put on our heart because we read through, we learn what the word says. I pray God you would tap our heart and say that's it. That's it. Challenge us today. We ask Jesus' name. Amen. When it comes, when this word comes to mind, the word charisma comes to mind, what do you think about it? The world says that if you have charisma, you have a winning personality, right? That you're a winsome. That you're someone who is marketable, that you have some zeal, some charm, some winsomeness, some influence. Webster says that you have compelling attractiveness that can inspire devotion in others. What does that mean? What does that mean? What does it mean to have charisma? And then there's a religious view of charisma. You guys have probably heard this before. It comes from the Greek word karisuma. And we use it as charismatic. Has anybody ever used that word karismatic? Have you ever used it to describe your church? I go to a charismatic church. Some of y'all use it like this. I go to a charismatic church. I go to a charismatic church. Some of y'all say it like this, I go to a charismatic church. There's two different people in the room today. Some of you are like, whoa, I'm charismatic. No, you're emotional, but you're not charismatic, right? Yes, there's a difference there. We've been taught differently, and that's not what karismatic means. It's your church, your charismatic church, it can be at times. Do you have a charismatic worship style? Yes, we do. Are you charismatic? Those are the questions that we entertain with the idea of charismatic, but then there's a biblical view, right? There's a world view, there's a religious view, and there's a biblical view. And I want to give you a biblical view because when you say you're charismatic, I want you to know what you mean when you say that. And when people ask you, do you go to a charismatic church? I want you to help them educate them. Yes, I do go to, I absolutely go to a charismatic church. Let me tell you what that means. Romans 12, verse 3 says this, "For by the grace given to me," you highlight that, circle that, "stamp it whatever you got. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." Paul jumps out the gate right here and says, "For by the grace given to me," that word grace is where we get charismatic from charisma. But the word given to me is something that we're understanding that God is, is downloading. He's giving to us. It's not something we've earned. It's not something that we stored up and I'm like, "Ball all of our spiritual currency. This fantastic gift that God's going to use for us." No, each person, if you're a part of the body of Christ, has been given a gift. But you've been given a grace gift. You've been made a charismatic because the gift that's been given to you is grace. You didn't earn it? God gave it to you and there's stipulations with the gift that God gave you. And that is simply this, that you are to benefit others with that. Look at Romans 12, 6 through 8, it says, "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us," there it is again, "let us use them." And then we'll go through there. We'll see the list about how each and every one of these things in this list talks about how we're using them. You're using them for other people. Can I tell you this, this morning, when we say that we're charismatic, what we're saying is that God has supernaturally endowed us with a gift that we did not earn and we do not deserve, but He gave it because He wanted to give us something that would help us grow other people, benefit other people. So when people ask you, "Are you charismatic?" You mean, you should say, "Do you mean that God has given me a spiritual gift so I can bless and benefit and grow you in the faith?" Absolutely, I'm charismatic. That's exactly what I am. But charisma is the instantaneous enablement of the Holy Spirit in the life of any believer to exercise a gift for the edification of the body. Let me say it this way, charisma is the grace of God working in and through the life of the believer for the benefit of others. When we say we're charismatic, what we're saying is first, we're selfless, second, we're gifted, and that's what we mean by that. When we talk about gifts, we're talking about things that God gave you for other people. We're talking about things that God gave you for you to steward, but for other people to grow and be blessed by that. So what kind of gifts are there? Well, you should know that there's three different lists, major lists of gifts in Scripture. There's Romans chapter 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians chapter 4, and there's different types, they use those as the ministry gifts, which are basically apostle prophet, evangelist, preacher and teacher. And then you have in 1 Corinthians, that was in Ephesians 4, then you have 1 Corinthians 12, and that's the manifestation gifts. Those are gifts that manifest themselves, right? No one says, I don't know if I had the gift of tongues or not. It comes out, we know it, right? If you had the gift of wisdom, you know it. All of a sudden, you didn't know some things that are sovereign in its guidance and its instruction, and now you know it, you know it's not enough yourself. The gift of knowledge helps me know what shoes I have on, even though I'm blind, right? I'm just giving an example here. But the gift of knowledge allows you to see things and know things. You know there's no way to know that. And those things make themselves known, they manifest in a way. But today, we're talking about Romans chapter 12, and we're dealing with the motivational gifts. That these gifts, God gives to us to motivate the body, to build the body, to stimulate the body. And I'm all for manifestation gifts. In fact, if you're Pentecostal or Silvia God, that's classic Pentecostalism is 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We stay in that. But what I need you to understand is that we need to be a good steward with the motivational gifts. Because these gifts, chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians is there to bring unity to the body. But with this, we're trying to build the body. And so we're talking about how to be function as one body. You need to know how we function as a body. So we want to go down through each one of these today. I think there's seven altogether. And I want to just describe them to you. And as we go through there, I want you to ask yourself, "Lord, is that me? Is that me?" Now, there's also, you don't just have one gift. You can have what they call as a gift mix. But you're dominant in one, and you're going to be a secondary and tertiary type of gift. But look for the one that you know is just resonating in you. And if you don't know what your gift is, let me challenge you to pursue God. We're going to talk about that at the very end. Let's start with the gift of prophecy. Romans chapter 12 verse 6 says, "If prophesied, proportioned to their faith, the gift to receive and communicate on a message of encouragement from God to his people." That is the gift of prophecy. Prophecy is a message of encouragement from God through a person. It is meant to bring exhortation, edification, and comfort. First Corinthians chapter 4 talks about this. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their building and encouragement and consolation. The spiritual New Testament gift of prophecy is always encouragement. Prophecy does not need to correct. Listen to me, prophecy does not need to be corrected, because it has the power to convince. In the Old Testament we see that, but in the New Testament what we see is that prophecy has the ability to convict the sinner and expose the secrets of the sinner. And when this happens, glory has been given to God. Look at 1 Corinthians 14. But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to an account by all, and the secrets of his heart are disclosed. And so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. We talk about prophecy. We're talking about God using a message to be given to an individual that will exhort the body, that will comfort the body, and encourage the body. That can mean not only just members of the body, but future members of the body as well. For if we prophesy, then a person is convicted, and the secrets of their heart is exposed, and they surrender their life to God, and we all praise God together for what he's done. Do you have that gift of prophecy? Second is the gift of ministry. This is probably the widest used gift and employed gift. Romans 12, 7 says, "If service in our serving, the gift to recognize and meet spiritual needs in a practical way is called the gift of ministry." The gift of ministry simply is another word for service that is meeting spiritual needs in a very practical way, things that we need to get done, but we know they have spiritual implications. They have spiritual impact. And without those people who operate in this gift, can I tell you, this church would fail miserably, because we need so many people operating in their ministry gift that helping people, coming alongside of them, can I tell you, every bus driver, every nursery worker, every JBQ teacher, kids volunteer, usher, Wednesday night volunteer worship member, media guy, everybody, all of those things have the gift of ministry because they're realizing there's a spiritual need, but we have a practical way of walking this out. I can't even begin to tell you how much this church would just, if the volunteer, if we were on a strike for some reason, I don't know why that would be, I've never heard that before, but if that happened, we would absolutely come to our hall, because I can tell you right now that me, Cindy, Caleb, and Kylie, and Heather, we ain't got it, we ain't got it. That is not, we can't make this church run. You are more than essential. You are more significant. If you serve in any capacity at this church, don't you ever feel like you don't matter. You matter beyond words. That's why we always have a celebration every year, trying to remind you that your gift is absolutely needed by us. Paul says this directly, as he speaks to this gift in Ephesians 4-12, he says, "To equip the saints for the work of the ministry." There's five offices he talks about that he says, "Their job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry," and you know what sometimes what happens is that we feel like that we can relax and let the paid people do it, let the church staff do it, but that's not really how it works. In fact, that's what's wrong with our government. Let the government do it. Let the government feed the homeless. Let the government take care of the unborn. Let the government take care of the homeless or the orphans. When that was the church's responsibility all along, if the church is being the church, the government has no reason to jump into it. I know we've already been through politics and I'm done with all that, but I want you to remind yourself is that the reason why government grows is because people get apathetic. They lay off the gift. They quit acting in a way that God has called the church to act in such a way, and it's the same way inside the church as well, that if the body is not operating in their gifts and in their ministry, then what you find is a clergy-heavy structure where they're giving all the commands and all of the power is at the top when it's never supposed to be that way. So it's important for you to operate in this gift. It's important for us to equip you for the work of the ministry because that builds up the body of Christ in what Scripture says. The uniqueness about this gift is that you have given your time as a sacrificial offering. If you have the ability, you may not have any money, you may not have any expertise, but if you've got time, then you have what it takes to be in the ministry, to be in this gift. Service requires your time. Some of y'all have a lot of time, some of y'all have a little time, but whatever time you have to operate in this gift is essential. And the third one is this is the gift of teaching, Romans 12 and 7 says, "The one who teaches in his teaching." This gift is to clearly communicate truth, fostering growth and understanding in others. In this gift, God gives us really two different gifts is what we see. He first off gives a gift to the person who's operating in his teaching element, but then he gives the church by giving them a teacher. Just that Paul says his gift is in his teaching and not his title. So if you're not teaching, then you're not operating in your gift. If you're a gifted teacher, you need to be teaching. And can I tell you that if you're teaching, there should be someone listening. There's no such thing as a teacher and no listeners. There's no such thing as a teacher and no students. If you've taught classes before and nobody shows up, maybe that's not what you've been gifted to do. Just wondering, you know, maybe there's a reason why God gives us certain gifts and those gifts are to benefit the body, but if the body does not want to be benefited by your gift, then ask God again, "Lord, are you sure this is my gift?" If you're singing and nobody wants to worship with you, you might have to ask yourself, "Lord, is this my gift?" If you're meeting people at the front door and nobody smiles and responds to you, you might have to ask yourself, "Lord, do I really have to give the hospitality?" You know, there should be some kind of confirmation. Are y'all allowed to think, "Okay, all right, y'all can have you buy yourself, Scott. You're just up there by yourself." And so the gift of teaching needs someone to respond to that. And if you had this gift, if you had this gift, just know that you have a desire to clarify the truth. I can tell you that there's one thing that drives me crazy is when I hear someone teaching something and I start to hear some error, it absolutely, I can't sit. Like I have to leave because I know I'm going to say something soon. I'm counting down the time before I say, "Um, uh, actually, you know, it's that moment." And so I have to work on getting out of the room in time. And I love to read books that are mostly wrong, most of the time I don't know why, because it challenges me. It challenges me to know what I know well. And if you have this gift of teaching, you're a very black and white person. You don't have to raise your hand, but I know my teacher's out there. If you've been given this gift, we don't see things kind of grayish. It is or it ain't. When we get to heaven, it's not like, "Well, we'll let you slide." So it is or it ain't, it's when it comes down to it. And as a teacher, we're responsible for teaching you things that are or are not, because we don't want you to slide in between the two and say, "Well, you know, past your sky," I say, "Maybe there were some borders there, we can kind of feel this out." No, it is or it isn't. And if you're a teacher, you have that black and whiteness inside of you. There's no middle ground, there's no murkiness, you know the truth or the lie. And that is the thing that compels us. The problem that we have sometimes as teachers is that even though we have this insatiable desire to not only just learn and to speak, but there's also this insecurity that we fight sometimes as a teacher, and that is approval. Do you approve? Do you approve? That's why some preachers won't preach the truth. That's why some teachers won't say those hard things, because they want the approval. But Paul, he speaks to those who have this gift. And he reminds us of how important it is for us to preach the truth, to profit the body. Even when truths are hard to hear, he says, in Acts 20, "How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and Greeks, the repentance towards God and a faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul says, "I was not going to shrink back." Why? Because if I did, you didn't profit from it. And if you have the gift of teaching, there's something inside of you that says, "I've got to preach rightly. I've got to preach the truth. Even if people don't accept it, I still have to declare it, because I'm not bound to the people. I'm bound to the one who gave me the gift to declare the truth of God." Then there's a gift of exhortation, how I love this gift. If you have the gift of exhortation, I just dub you my best friend. Right away. I dub you my best friend. And if you're an Eor, do you know what an Eor is? If you're an Eor, I won't call no names. But if you are, find you someone with the gift of exhortation. Finds you somebody. Romans 12, 8 says, "The one who exhorts in his exhortation, the gift to minister words of comfort, consolation, encouragement, and counsel to other members of the body in such a way that they feel helped and healed." We look at Acts 4, 36, Barnabas was labeled the son of exhortation. We read, "Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles, Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus." It was often used to encourage the church in hard times. You know why it's so important for us to have an encourager? Well, let me just read me to you. Hebrews chapter 10, 20, 30, 25. If you're an exhortor, if this is your gift, pay attention. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. He's operating his gift of encouragement right here. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without waver. There's a reason to waver. There's a struggle. There's a hardship that's happening, especially the Hebrew church. He says, "Hold fast the confessions of our hope without wavering, for he who is promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near." You know what's essential about it? If this is your gift, I'm just going to tell you, this is Scott's preference, okay? If you're an exhortor, you ought to not ever, ever miss one single solitary Sunday service. You don't understand how important you are. You don't understand how important you are because the church exists for the broken. The church exists for the sick, the church exists for people who have come in and they are desperate, they are depressed, they are undone, and they need someone to say, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promise is faithful." They need someone to speak life into them, something to speak encouragement, to remind them that this is just a season, but we're talking about a lifetime, and when you're not here, exhortor, then who makes that moment happen? That person comes in and they leave and they've missed out on an opportunity to be built back up because the body, the member of the body was not here that day to pour into them and invest into them. We need exhortors. We need people who encourage, I love an encourager because regardless of what I'm messing with or dealing with or pushing through, an encourager has the ability to speak so sincerely that they can split all your superficial defenses and speak right to the truth of the matter and pump you up and say, "That's right. That's right." Can I tell you sometimes when I'm preaching, I'll walk out of here and kind of discourage because I know that what I said didn't match with what was in my heart, and I feel like I didn't get it out. That man, I know what that, but it was here, better than it was here, and I've had people come up to me and encourage me, and I know they're trying to be nice, but then sometimes a person will walk up and they'll just split right all of my excuses and just say something and encourage me and just remind me, "Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right. The Lord does not rely on me for the power of His word to be brought forth. It's powerful already. It does its work already. It does not need Scott Brandon." And so that encourage will come along and encourage me, "If you're married to an encourager, what is your house like?" Right? Are you in the class? Matter of fact, if you're an encourager, you're probably married to an EO, that's usually how that thing works sometimes, you know? You're a motivator. Let me tell you, if you had this gift, you may not be the person who has time and money and relationships or expertise, but when you operate in your gift, encourager, people work harder, people give more, people endure relational hardships. And when they find themselves face to face with challenging situations, an encourager can come along and remind them that there is a hope. Let me just remind you that you are critical to this body. We need encouragers. And then we have the gift of giving, Romans 12, 8 says, "The one who contributes in generosity." Notice what he says. The one who contributes, not just contributes, but his contribution is in generosity. It's above the normal contribution, he's being generous or she's being generous. The gift to generously and joyfully, the gift to generously and joyfully provide resources for the building of the kingdom, going beyond the standard ties and offering. When you have the gift of giving, it's marked by a generous spirit. It's your ability to willingly share of your own possessions, right? Not an institutional giving, you're not managing funds for something, but this is what comes from your own desire. And so when I say if you have a gift of giving, it doesn't mean because you're a wealthy person. That does not mean that at all. The gift of giving can happen to the poor among us. In fact, that's what we see here in 2 Corinthians 8, Paul is speaking to the church, the Macedonian church, about the Macedonian church, to the church in Corinth. And he's saying the Macedonian church, they ain't pull y'all, they ain't got no money at all. But he says, "Look, look how he reads this." He says, "I want you to know brothers," he's talking to the church in Corinth. "I want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia." Notice he says about the grace, there's that gift right there that has been given amongst the churches of Macedonia for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy. They're going through some hard stuff right now. They're going through some affliction right now. But even in the midst of that, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. What is Paul saying? Paul is saying, they're going through some hard times, they ain't got nothing to give, but they're joyful to give whatever they're giving. That is a gift of generosity right there. For they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means, on their own accord. Paul says, I didn't ask them to do this, they wanted to do this. Another part of Scripture, Paul says, I asked them not to do this, and they did it anyway because it was in their heart to give. He says, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this was not as we expected, but they gave, notice here, they gave themselves first to the Lord. They were obedience. People who have the gift of giving have really a high yield on obedience because you guys know the hardest thing to give is to give away your surplus, is to give away your money. That's a difficult thing to give, but when you have the gift of giving, you realize that obedience is more important than anything you possess. You got to obey, you got to do it, you got to do it because you understand also that God has given things to you to get things through you. He knows what He's called you for. If you're a giver, this is who Paul is talking to, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God he gave them to us. It was God's will. But notice he says this, the next line, but as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness and in our love for you, seek that you excel in this act of grace also. The gift of giving is an act of grace and he equates it and says, as you're growing in your faith and as you're growing your ability to speak and present the gospel and as you're growing your knowledge of the Word of God, don't forget how important this gift is to the gift of giving. So they give, here's some characteristics of a giver, they give it, their abundance of joy, they give cheerfully for the Lord loves a cheerful giver. They gave beyond their means, they gave sacrificially, it's because they trusted God with their action, right? And then notice this, again he equates this with giving to excel along with faith, speech and knowledge, those who are gifted with this type of gift are able to give above and beyond the Spirit's prompting even in spite of affliction or poverty. Thank God for those who have the gift of giving. And then there's the gift of ruling, verse 7 says, the one who leads was zeal, the gift to inspire others to work together willingly and harmoniously to achieve the vision God has shown for his glory. Can I just tell you, if you have the gift to lead, the gift to rule, God help you? That's what I was saying, God help you. Because if you have the gift to lead, that means you got to lead people with you. And people don't always want to go where you want to go. And then to accomplish that, God not only gives you the ability to lead, to influence people and have them work together, but then he gives you the vision to lead. That means he's going to show you things that nobody else is going to see. He's going to show you places that he wants you to go that nobody else will be able to see. And your job as the leader, as to have this gift, is to move them from Egypt to the promised land and minimize the grumbling in between. You say, "Oh God, thank you for the gift of leadership. Thank you Lord, thank you for giving me this gift to convince these people to look beyond the noun, to look into the future." But it is a noble gift. We talked about that last week with Nehemiah. Nehemiah had a vision from God and his ability to see what God wanted him to do and then convey that to the people and get them to work together. In spite of the hardships and the oppression of the enemy, the Nehemiah's job was to lead them to a place that ultimately exalted God. In fact, let me just remind you of something else that you may have forgotten if you have this gift that this gift requires something of us, otherwise we render it ineffective. Hebrews 13, 17 says this, "To obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account and let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be no advantage to you." So you see what he's saying here. He's saying, "Submit to the leaders because if you don't and you cause it to be a vexing position, then they lack the joy because they're dealing with the groaning of the people. And when they do that, they render them no effect. Your leadership becomes ineffective if you're trying to lead people and you don't have joy." See, that's what you miss sometimes. If you're a leader and you realize that you don't want to love what you do, you don't want to love the people that you're working with, if you lack that, then you're not an effective leader. You're not a leader at all. You're a facilitator. And so if God has called you to lead and He's giving you that gift to lead, then go back to the thing that gives you the joy. Go back to the thing that reminds you, "This is why I do what I do because the people I'm leaving, they may not see the right, they may not see the beyond right now. But if I can just get them to work together, if I can just get them to believe and trust in, then we'll move into the Promised Land and they'll see everything that God has given for us. But it is a challenge which you must maintain your joy. This person has the ability to see what no one else sees. And you have to balance your joy as well. Moses says, "Lord, I need some help with these people because they're driving me crazy." And then he says this, the very end, he says, "If you don't help me," he goes, "I fear," he goes, "I fear because they may see my wretchedness." In other words, Moses says, "Lord, if you don't help me with leading these people, they're going to cause me to become somebody I don't want to be." And in fact, that's what happened, right? Because Moses got angry at the very end. And when Jesus said, "Speak to the rock," what did he do? He struck it twice. Right? And what happened was, is he sinned. And all up until that time, Moses was God's man. But at that moment, boom, his wretchedness showed up and the Lord said, "No, you can't do that. You can't go into the Promised Land because you became like them. You became faithless." And so if you're a ruler, you have to understand if God's giving you that ability to lead, we have to go back and we have to guard, guard our joy, guard our joy. Because if we lose our joy, we become ineffective. The last gift is the gift of mercy. The one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness, the gift to deeply empathize with those in distress and express Christ's love through joyful, compassionate actions that bring relief and hope. Thank God for you. I need you in my life. You know, sometimes when you're raised a certain way, we didn't have compassion in my upbringing. Right? It was different. It was different. And so I thank God, Aubrey, she's the most compassionate person in the world. Sometimes she's just like, "Dad, they just need a love and hug and they need to be cared for." I'm like, "Whatever they do not, they need a swift kick and a good instructions what they need." And she's like, "Dad, what would Jesus do?" "Dad, you're a pastor." I'm a sinner trying to be a saint first. You know what I mean? That's what I'm trying to be. Don't let that pastor title mess you up too much. I'm still trying to be sanctified. But I thank God for the people who have the gift of mercy who had the ability to say, "I know, even though I've never been there, I know what they're going through. I understand that." And can I tell you that if that's your gift, if you have that gift of mercy, man, your ability to minister to other people is incredible. Your ability to relate to other people is incredible. Let me just say that if you're this type of person, you'll tend to find yourself thriving in hospital visitations, benevolence ministries, counseling. Those are fantastic places to get involved in. And let me also just say this, there's a gift mix that if you had the gift of mercy, you probably have a real high probability for the gift of healing as well. Because you see, when Jesus offered the New Testament, when people would cry out to Jesus, they would say this, and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me." And it says that He healed them all. You see, when someone understands the difficulty that someone else is going through in life, they have a burden to help them alleviate that problem. And God gives them the gift of healing to help them escape those bondages, those changes, those sicknesses and those diseases. And so if you had the gift of mercy, if you're a highly compassionate person, you probably could be walking in the gift of healing as well, but you ought to pursue it. All right, so those are your gifts right there. Maybe they'll tap your heart. Let me talk about how you can discover those, right? Three things, and I'm done. In fact, Destiny, if you'll just come back to the stage, I just need you alone and everybody else can hold on. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 through 2 says this, "There's three principles you need to establish." It says, "As I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice." You need to know that if you want to discover your gift, the first thing you have to do is to present your body as a living sacrifice. That means saying, "God, here I am. Here I am. Make yourself available. Present yourself to God knowing that the reason why God has given you purpose and a calling." We'll probably talk about that next week. I think next week we're going to talk about the calling and the purpose that God has for your life. Now that you know you have a gift or you're discovering a gift, what's my calling? How do I match that? What am I supposed to be doing? It's nothing worse in life to walk around without any idea what your purpose is. It's not just because you don't know who you are, what you're doing. It's because you're vulnerable to the enemy to give you a purpose that's false, that will break you and cause destruction in your life. You need to know what your purpose is. Just number one, to guard yourself from the enemy's schemes for your life. So how do we match our gifts and our purposes together? Well, first off, know what your gift is and that is simply present yourself to God saying, "God, here I am." I present myself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to you. That's my spiritual worship. It's just an act of surrender to the Lord. We have the principle of lordship, but then we have the principle of stewardship. Paul says this in verse 3 through 4 of Romans 12, "By the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more hotter than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function. Paul says think, think, think three times. Why is that important? Because you have a renewed mind. You think differently than you used to. And since you're thinking differently than you used to, if you'll think with a stewardship mindset, you'll realize that the reason why God has given you what you have is not for you, but it's for other people. So let me ask you, are you living life and are you in your relationships? Are you others minded? Or are your relationships about you? Do you know people up for your sake? Do you connect with people for your benefit? Or do you honestly walk into a relationship and say, how can I impact? How can I give? What can I do to grow this part of the body? That is the principle of stewardship here, and we ought to not think of ourselves more hotter than we ought to. The principle of stewardship is the act of using our gifts for the benefit of others. As you remember the story, the parable, God gave parables to three different men, but the one man who was selfish, the one man who only thought about himself because he would not multiply or invest it, and so he wanted to guard it so he wouldn't look bad when the master came. He was only thinking about himself, what happened? Well the master came at and took his gift, took his talent, and he gave it to somebody else who was being a good steward. If we want the gift, we got to be others minded. We have to ask ourselves, Lord, what does this mean? And so the principle of stewardship is the act of using our gifts for the benefit of others. And lastly, there is the principle of fellowship. Members four and fives as far as one, as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function so we, though many, are one body in Christ. And individually, members of one another. You belong to me, and I belong to you. What does it look like if I'm not operating in my gift? If I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do, then what does it look like to you? Think about how much you have to suffer, right? The body's the same way that if you don't operate in your gift, we're having to work as hard. Do you know that a part of your body that is not considered to be a member of the body is just an appendage, is something that's weak, something that doesn't support the body. And if you have a part of your body that you're not addressing, it's not functioning, and that thing becomes weak to the point it eventually falls off, and no longer is used anymore. And you and I have to understand that if we're really going to be operating in gifts, then you have to operate in the gift for the benefit of the body, and here's the cool thing, that when you do operate in that gift, then the body will validate you in that gift. Because I know this every time I raise my hand with a fort, my mouth validates my hand and says good job, good job, good job, right? If my foot goes to grab a fort, my mouth goes I don't know what you're doing. That is not your gift, quit singing, right? Quit teaching, right? Quit trying to fake smile, that's not your gift. The body will validate your gift. And so if you'll operate in your gift, you'll hear people say you know what? You should think about teaching. You know what? You're an encourager, you know what? Every time I need something, you're just faithful to be there to always serve, administer and help me out. You're always available, it seems like, man, you know what, I see in you every time someone has a need, I see you wanting to give to help somebody else. The body will validate your gift, but it'll only validate your gift if you're in the body. In your seats today, there is a card that has several different places that you can serve around here in church. Can I tell you this, that sometimes when I often hear people say, gosh, Scott, I don't know where I can serve, I don't know what to do, it seems like every area is in need. Can I just tell you, even if it looks like those positions are full, what you need to know is this, here's some faith, we practice health, we practice rotations. I do not want you to sign up for position until Jesus comes back, that's not my goal. What I want you to do is sign up so somebody else can be in ministry, somebody else can be in a sanctuary, somebody else can benefit by you allowing them an opportunity to not serve all the time. So, what is it that God's calling you to do, here's what I want you to do, we're going to sit in here just a minute and pray and be dismissed, but I want you to take this home, and I want you to pray, and I want you to say, God, I really want you to show me, I really want you to show me what you're calling me to do, because I want to be a member of the body, I want to operate in my gift, I want to walk out my purpose that you've given me, and I want to do that in confidence, knowing that I am a contributor not a consumer, not a consumer. Will you stand with me this afternoon? If you say, "Pashil Scott, I don't know my gift, but I'm searching for it right now, I don't know my gift, but I'm in pursuit of it, I want you to raise your hand, just show me, I don't know my gift, but I'm in pursuit of it," there's nothing to be ashamed here, if you don't know, that's why we're here y'all, right, okay. If you say, "Pashil Scott, I know my gift, I've just not been obedient to it." Okay, okay, that's good, that's good, church, the rest of you, I don't know where you guys are are, somebody else said, "Well, you ask if I know Jesus, because I need to know that first." I need you to know this church, we need you so bad, but listen, what's more important is not that you're serving in a Harrison faith, what's more important is that you're in the body of Christ, that's the most important thing, if you left our church and went somewhere else, I prayed to God, you would serve, but you'd find your gift, you'd operate in that, because if you don't, what happens is this, slowly you realize you don't have an impact, slowly you realize you feel less and less purposeless, and slowly you feel like, you know what, I'm not needed, I'm insignificant, and my relationship with the God who loves me has given me a gift, no longer exists, and you, you, you wane away, you wane away, so know what your gift is, pursue it, ask the Lord to reveal it to you, and then have Him open the doors for you to operate in that gift, we are a better church when you know your gift, we are a better church when you practice your gift, and the church is a better church as a whole, the bride of Christ when we are a healthy church, so I'm gonna pray with you today, we're gonna leave out of here, that God will help you understand what your gift is, and then walk in that gift, Father in Heaven, you see your people today, you know the calling upon the life, Lord, you know the purpose is God that you've given them, and more importantly God you gave gifts to us, gifts, you made us charismatic God, you caused us to have a supernatural endowment, God eats one of us have a gift, maybe some of us just don't know what that is or how that works, but what I pray you would bring that to the top Lord, allow us to understand it, and walk in the purpose that you, you birth in us God, you brought us to this earth for a reason, there was a purpose God for each and every person in here, and I pray God you would show them the purpose, show them the gift, allow them to walk in the fulfillment of not just knowing you, belonging to the body of Christ, and ask it in Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen, amen. I love you guys, get connected, find something to use your gift, and we'll see you Wednesday at 545 for dinner at 630 for classes, y'all dismissed. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]