The Call to Serve: Understanding Your Spiritual Gifts

You can join me in Romans chapter 12.

Romans chapter 12.

Been so thankful for Pastor Ethan being able to come in and preach about spiritual application, right?

We hear these spiritual truths that we see in God's word, but sometimes it's the harder challenge to actually apply these truths to our lives.

And really, that's what the second part of the book of Romans is all about.

The first part of Romans, really, Romans 1 through 11 is talking all about the theological things that we know about our walk with God, what He has done for us, what he has done in salvation, what he has done in forgiveness, what he has done in way of freeing us from our sin.

But now he says, okay, because of what you have learned about God, this is how you are supposed to live.

And so In Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, we're called to be a sacrifice for God through our service.

And so we all know that we're supposed to serve God, but oftentimes we don't necessarily know how we are to serve God.

What area am I supposed to serve in?

What does it look like?

Am I supposed to serve in this ministry or this ministry in front of the church, behind the scenes?

Where does God want me to serve?

Well, he talks here in Romans chapter 12 about these different motivational ministry gifts that are given to all believers as we're going to see here through the grace of God.

And it's important for us to identify where God has gifted us so that we can know where we're motivated in service to God, what areas should we serve?

And so what we're seeing here in verse six of Romans chapter 12, he says, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.

Now we're going to stop right there because there's so much in that first part of verse six we see that every believer, every person who comes to God in faith and trusts in the person and work of Jesus Christ and His death, burial and resurrection, every person who now has the Holy Spirit living within them has, as it says here, a gift.

We've all been uniquely gifted by God through His grace.

And so what does that mean?

That means this.

If they're given to us by grace, it's not earned.

I did not earn these gifts.

You did not earn these gifts.

And so the things that God gives us by way of service, gifts we didn't earn, they, they, they're given to us by God, but they're also given to us for his glory.

So he gives it to us through his grace, not in what we earn.

And he gives it to us, not so that we can elevate ourselves, not so that we can gain more praise or attention, but that God would receive the glory.

We see that all the way back.

And verse number three, he says, for I say, though the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God have dealt to every man the measure of faith.

So as God gives us this opportunity to walk in faith, we serve him and we sacrifice for him.

Not so that people will notice us, so that people will give him the glory.

And they're given to us to minister to the body of Christ.

So it's not about ourselves.

These gifts that are given to us are so that we can edify, so that we can strengthen, so that we can bolster the strength of the Lord within the church, so that we can serve him more effectively, so that we can spread the gospel message, so that we can share the love of Christ to our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.

And so God never intended for believers to simply attend church, though we think that that's church.

In America, we're told that, hey, I'm a member of a church.

That means I go on Sunday mornings for an hour.

If the pastor is long winded, maybe an hour and a half.

By the way, in Africa, they have services over three hours.

Okay, so we might adopt some of that culture here.

No, no, no, no, no.

We understand that.

Also, by the way, it's very nice to be able to speak without having to stop every sentence and have an interpreter.

So I'm going to try to not go too quickly today because I'm excited to be back.

And by the way, there's no place like home.

Even though we enjoyed ourselves there and certainly would love to go back again.

It's so good to be here and to preach to you all.

So we see here that it's not God's ultimate plan for us just to attend church, even though attending church is so important.

We have to attend church because the Bible tells us that we should not forsake the assembly of ourselves together.

So.

So there is value, there is importance, there is a command to attend church, but that's not the end all, be all when it comes to the Christian life, that should be a given.

So.

So it's not just about attending church.

God designs every Christian to contribute to the work of God.

And so there's no pew warming ministry at Middletown Baptist Church.

It's a given that you're coming to church.

The challenge would be that I exercise the gift of grace that God has given me to further the work of the Lord within the church community and within the world around us.

And so Romans chapter 12, verse 6 says that he gives us gifts.

And it says they're differing according to the grace of God.

So they're differing, meaning not every single person has the same gift.

And that's okay.

That's actually something that we should celebrate.

We talked about this, I think the last time that I spoke.

There's this phrase that I think that we should repeat often, is that we can have unity without uniformity.

It's an amazing thing to see people from different cultures, from different backgrounds, different age groups, come together within the church and serve with the different gifts that God has given us and work together as the body of Christ.

I was able and was such a privilege to sit in a group of men there at a Bible Way Baptist church in Gahara, Rwanda.

And I didn't know what to expect.

As we sat down with the men, There was about 20 men that sat down with us, and we were doing a men's conference.

And we came in with the understanding that we want to teach them about spiritual discipleship, how we can pass on the truths of God to the next generation.

And I sat down with a man.

I didn't know what to expect.

They didn't speak the same language as me.

None of them look like me.

They all came in and sat down, and I'm going, okay, how's this going to work?

I'm just going to preach the word of God.

And as we were preaching and as.

As we were talking, Brother Bob and I, we were able to see that though we didn't speak the same language and though we had different living conditions, and though there's a lot of things that we don't have in common, the one thing that we had in common is that we had faith in Jesus Christ.

And as.

As we were able to discuss these things, I was able to hear that, hey, they're doing some of the same things that we're trying to do here in Middletown.

And they're doing that here in another country, across another continent.

And the beauty is, is that we see here is that they're different, but there's unity there, that we can find that fellowship of that one body in Christ.

And so that's exactly what he says here in verse six.

He says, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.

And so what we see is that there's really different gifts.

Now, how are they different?

Well, the list of gifts here are given to us in verses, really, we see in verses 6, 7, and 8, and we see that there's seven gifts that are listed here as motivational ministry gifts.

Now, today, what we're going to do is we're going to have an overview of these gifts, and then we're going to really narrow down on one gift here specifically today.

And so for the next foreseeable future, we're going to try to break down each one of these gifts.

What does it look like when we exercise them in the spirit?

What does it look like when we exercise these things in our flesh?

How can we serve at these capacities?

Maybe look at some biblical examples of individuals who had these gifts.

And so for the next few weeks, it will seem a little bit like we're having a teaching lesson here, because to some degree, one of the many reasons why people aren't exercising the gifts within the church is because we haven't been taught about the gifts and how to exercise those gifts.

And so I want you to turn with me to 1 Peter 4:10.

This is where we started this morning in our scripture reading.

But the Bible really tells us that these gifts are broken down into two different categories.

And we're going to talk about these categories here for the next few minutes.

Because sometimes people think, well, I'm not a person that is called to be in front of people.

I like to be behind the scenes.

I like to be unnoticed.

Well, we're going to see that there are certain gifts that are going to naturally be more in front and notice.

But there's also going to be gifts that sometimes are behind the scenes that are never noticed but are just as important.

So in First Peter, chapter 4, verse 10, it says, as every man or every person hath received the gift, even so, minister the same one to another.

So the idea would be this.

You're given a gift, serve one another.

Then he says, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Now, what's a steward?

A steward is someone who's managing something that's not theirs.

So what God does is he gives us something that's his and imparts it to us to be a good steward of, to manage it, to utilize it.

Well, we talked about this a while ago, the parable of the talents, right?

God gives us these gifts so that we can utilize them and multiply them and grow in these areas.

And so he says, you are given these gifts to serve others and to Be a good steward of the manifold.

In the King James, it says manifold, but it means various or different, the different grace of God, meaning God gives us all graces in way of gifts, but some of those are different.

And then he breaks it down into two categories.

In verse number 11, he says, if any man speak, so we would have what's called the speaking gifts.

And we're going to talk about those.

And he says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.

Meaning if you have one of these gifts that deal with speaking, whether it be teaching or preaching or exhortation, we should do it as a mouthpiece of God.

It's not like, hey, this is my opinion, these are my feelings.

Any of these gifts that deal with anything in public, speaking the truths of God, they need to be like, as if they are directly from God, from his Word.

So he says, if any man speak, let him speak of the oracles of God.

Then if any man minister, that word minister just means to serve these.

These would be the gifts that are more behind the scenes, hands on service ministries.

So if you wanted to break down these motivational gifts in Romans chapter 12 into two categories.

You would have the speaking gifts, the ones that are dealing with actual human speech, but then you would have other gifts that would deal with service.

And so he says, if any man serve or minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, meaning do everything that you can to serve at the capacity that God has gifted you.

You can't do things beyond God's gifting.

You can't do more than what he expects you to do, but do everything that he expects you to do.

That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

So again we see a reminder that the whole point of this go of these things, the goal of this thing is so that we can bring glory to God through Jesus Christ, who is the one who deserves the praise and dominion.

That's the only one that deserves praise is Jesus Christ.

And so we go back to Romans chapter 12 with those things in mind, and we see these gifts listed.

And Starting verse number six, Peter explains that these gifts fall into two broad categories.

So we go to Romans chapter 12 and we see the first one there, and verse six it says, having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy.

So we see the first word here is prophecy.

We're going to talk about prophecy in great length here this morning.

But literally what prophecy means is to speak forth or to proclaim the word of God.

To identify the truth of God and to communicate the truth of God.

And so that would obviously fall under, under one of those gifts of the speaking gifts.

And so we see here that there's prophecy.

Let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith or ministry.

Now ministry, service.

So that would fall under the service gifts.

So we see there's service or ministry in verse number seven.

And then we see more, there's teaching.

Particularly teaching is going to be falling under one of those speaking gifts because you got to speak or communicate at least to be a teacher.

So there is that teaching or he that exhorteth.

What's exhortation?

Exhortation's encouraging.

Literally it means to come alongside of and and, and edify and to build another person up.

So exhortation would mean that you have to speak.

So that would be part of the speaking gifts there.

So exhortation we see there in verse number eight.

And then we see that there's giving.

Well, giving isn't always dealt with communication.

So giving would be a service gift.

And then we see later on in verse 8, it says he that ruleth or administration, that would be leadership.

That's going to be a speaking gift.

And then last but not least, we see at the very end it says mercy or compassion, that's going to be a service gift.

So the, the two categories would be the speaking gifts, prophecy, teaching, exhortation, leadership.

And then you would have the service gifts.

Service, giving and mercy.

Now, there's going to be some overlap.

There certainly there's going to be opportunities to speak in all of those gifts.

But if you had two broad gifts, that, that's or categories of those gifts, that's what would be in those two areas.

And so let's look at a little bit more about these gifts.

Every gift serves a unique purpose.

They're all distinct.

Though there's overlap in the work of God.

There's all to some degree of method of God's grace seen through these things.

But ultimately we know that there are some differences.

And so we like the human body, which we see as an example here in Romans chapter 12.

Like the human body, every part has a different function that what we would say is equally necessary.

So, so prophecy, proclamation, preaching, what is that?

Well, the way that we could describe it is this.

It's.

It's the eyes of the truth of God.

Seeing the truth of God.

Clearly we're going to deal with prophecy a great length here this morning.

But someone who has the gift of prophecy is able to see the truth of God.

In the Word, he or she is able to see the truth of God in somebody else.

He or she is able to see that someone else is not walking in the truth of God.

And so if you were to assign a part of the body to the gift of prophecy, it would be the eyes, it's the perception.

Actually, one book even says that someone with the gift of prophecy has the gift of being a perceiver of the truth of God.

And so someone with this gift has the eyes of the truth of God.

But then we go on to see that that ministry or service that would be like the hands doing the work of God.

So someone might be able to see the truth of God in someone's life, but they might not have the gift of service, meaning acting in that truth.

And so someone who has the gift of service is the hands of the work of the Lord.

They're the ones doing the work.

They're hands on.

It might be behind the scenes and it might not get any credit, but someone who has the gift of service has the hands of the work of God.

But then we see the next one is a teacher.

The teacher is the one who is the.

The mind, the one explaining the intellectual truths of the word of God, explaining the thoughts and the application of the truth.

And so someone that teaches is able to explain to somebody the truths of God and bring out from the text the meaning and the explanation of the truth.

Then you have someone who's the exhorter.

The exhorter is the mouth, the one who is encouraging the.

The one who is always going to speak truth into people's lives, but at the same time encourage them.

Sometimes someone with the gift of prophecy speaks the truth, but it's not encouraging.

The, the.

The exhorter or the encourager is someone who can speak encouragement into people's lives.

Then we see someone who is the giver.

The giver is someone who is the arms providing the resources for the hands.

Sometimes the people that have the gift of the hands, the service, don't have the physical or material resources to do the work.

And so the person who is the giver may or may not be the ones with the hands, but they're the ones with the arms providing the means in which the people are serving and giving and ultimately proclaiming the truth of God.

Then we have the administrator or the one who rules.

They're the shoulders.

They're the ones that carry the responsibility.

They're the ones that carry the weight of responsibility within the church.

The planning, the organizing, the distributing.

That's going to Be someone who's gifted as the shoulders of the body.

And then we see mercy.

Mercy or compassion is someone who is the heart.

So someone who feels what other people are feeling.

Someone who cries with people who are crying, Someone who laughs and celebrates with those who are laughing and celebrating.

That's a basic understanding of all these gifts and how they fit into the body of the church.

So every Christian is called to serve in all of these areas.

One might be tempted to say, well, you know what, Pastor?

I'm not particularly gifted in the area of mercy or compassion.

I would fall under one of those categories.

I know people that if someone's crying, they're gonna cry.

They're not even sad, but they see someone else crying, they're gonna cry.

Just like an emotional support, hey, that's not me.

When I see someone else crying, I'm like, let me try to figure out what's wrong with them and get them the.

The things that they need to get better so they stop crying.

Okay?

That's the way that my mind works.

So.

So if I'm not naturally inclined for mercy and compassion, does that just mean that, well, I'm not gifted in that area, so I don't need to serve with compassion?

No, it actually means that I need to ask God to give me more compassion and to help me in those areas.

Because all of these categories of service are needed in the Christian walk.

We can't just identify one and say, well, I'm a prophet or.

Or I'm a minister or I'm a teacher, and I don't need to do any of these other ones.

No, it just means that God has made each believer especially effective in one or more areas according to his grace.

So just because I'm not naturally or supernaturally gifted in compassion, that doesn't mean that I can avoid that.

It means I need to grow in that area.

But it also does mean that maybe God has gifted me in an area that I am more prone to be motivated in serving in.

And so God, yes, has made each believer especially effective in one or more of these areas.

So we all should have mercy and compassion.

We all should serve, we all should give.

We all should.

Some to some capacity teach.

But God uniquely empowers certain believers to do things with unusual effectiveness.

So if you come across somebody that says, I'm a gifted giver, hey, that's.

They have a gift of knowing how to give and how to give in a way that's specific and helpful.

That doesn't mean that if I'm not gifted in that area of giving, I just say, well, I don't give.

No, I need to learn and grow from those people who do have the gift of giving.

So when we study these gifts, just make sure that you don't get into that, that trap of saying, well, I'm not gifted in that area, so I don't need to do that.

We all need to exercise ourselves in all of these categories.

But I do think it's very effective for us to identify areas in which God has supernaturally gifted us in to be more effective in, in our service.

So why do some believers not exercise their gifts?

Why do some believers not even know what their gift is?

If you were to take a poll today, I won't do this.

But what if I said to you this morning before you leave today, I want you to identify your gift, and you might say, I have no idea what that is.

Why is that the case?

Why have many Christians spent years in church without ever functioning in the areas that God has designed for them?

Well, I want to give you some reasons biblically why I believe that some Christians have not been able to exercise their gift or even know their gift.

Number one, I think it's very clear that maybe they've never been taught.

Maybe there's a level of ignorance to what the gifts are.

Maybe it's just like, hey, I didn't even know that there were specific gifts given by God.

I thought we all just were gifted and everyone served in every capacity.

Well, simply speaking, some don't know that spiritual gifts even exist or what they are, particularly here in Romans chapter 12.

Another reason why someone might not know what their spiritual gift is is maybe they don't possess a true genuine saving faith.

Maybe their religion is just simply them coming to church and trying to be a good person.

The Bible says that the distinction is this.

Those that are indwelled by the Spirit have these gifts.

So if there's someone who is not genuinely in Christ, in salvation, they're not going to understand these gifts.

Maybe they can produce some level of a counterfeit gift.

But the Bible says that there is clearly a need for the Holy Spirit to empower and enable a person.

Maybe they're spiritually malnourished.

Maybe an individual has saving faith, but they have not been able to grow in the word of God, in the bread of life, and as the Bible says, the sincere milk of the Word.

We had an opportunity to be a part of a sponsor meal in Rwanda and to see these children who are malnourished eventually get food.

It's a really interesting and painful, but rewarding process to see them eat, but also to know that this might not be.

This might be the only meal that they get for a while.

And to see children that are malnourished and then starve and then start eating a lot, it's.

It's kind of a picture, I think, of how sometimes we are, as Christians, we are spiritually malnourished.

Sometimes we think we have everything that we need when it comes to the nutrients of God's Word.

But at the same time, we're deceived because we need God's Word every single day.

And so the Bible tells us here that there are people that are saved, but they haven't grown and they've been stunted in their spiritual growth.

And so maybe that's one of the reasons why we're not exercising in our gifts within the church is because we just haven't grown past that stage of just getting a meal once a week.

What if we only ate once a week?

That would be.

We could maybe live if we had enough water, maybe we could live by eating a meal once a week, but we would not be healthy.

We would not be strong.

And so sometimes there's Christians who are only getting one spiritual meal a week by coming to church on Sunday mornings.

That's not enough.

We need to be bathed in the word of God.

We need to gorge ourselves in the Word of God, so to speak.

And so there are spiritually malnourished Christians who are not able to recognize God's leading.

But then there's another thing.

I think that we can be distracted by the chaos of this world.

The busyness of our lives often drown out God's direction.

If I'm concerned about all the things I have to do in this material world, about my job tomorrow, what I have to do, where I have to be, all my appointments, oftentimes we're not ready to hear what God is calling us to do when it comes to the gift of grace in our life.

If I'm so focused about all of my business, I forget about the business that God has for me to do.

And so there's distractions.

Another thing that could be a major reason in hindering our spiritual growth and exercising our gifts would be sin clouding our spiritual perception.

Unconfessed sin in our life.

Sin dulls spiritual sensitivity.

The Bible says that if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

It doesn't mean that God won't hear me.

It means that God doesn't have fellowship with us when we're walking in unrepentant sin.

And the Bible tells us in 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So the idea would be this.

We don't lose our salvation when we sin, but we certainly break fellowship with God and we break that communion with him.

And in many ways we're not being perceptive to the way that God is speaking to us because we have built a divide in our lives because of sin.

Another reason might be their, their service is motivated by fleshly things, by selfish things serving to be seen rather than serving Christ.

Another reason would be that possibly individuals neglect their responsibility, basically never taking a step of faith.

Folks, we can live in America today as Christians and not exercise our faith.

I don't know about you, but I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from.

I don't have to stress about being sick and not having a doctor.

I, I, I, I have all the material needs around me and more.

One of the things, and I'll try not to talk too much about Africa here today, it's just kind of on me now and I'm trying not to pour out too much of it and overwhelm you like a fire hose of information.

But what I will say is one of the things that really challenged me when I was in Africa is we, Jeremy knows this.

We went into people's homes.

You know, when you're in the city, it's one thing.

When you go to the village, it's another thing.

But when you go and walk into their homes and you see where they're living and you see a house made of mud that's the size of probably one of our bedrooms and a whole family's living in there and they're sitting there going, God is so good.

He's amazing.

He's providing everything for us and I'm thankful he.

And I'm sitting there going, you don't even know what you're missing.

And I'm sitting there complaining that my second car is having issues in it, you know, and it's a wake up call for us as Christians to say, you know, how many of us are willy willing and ready to take a step of faith, to stretch ourselves, to make ourselves feel just in, in some degree uncomfortable for what Jesus Christ has called us to do.

Now I'm not saying all of you should go sell all of your material things and, and move out into a commune and live in a mud hut.

I'm not saying that, okay?

Because that's not God's call for everybody.

But what I am saying is that there's a wake up call for us to say, where am I able to step out in faith and try and do.

Because you know what?

I've, I've seen this, I've been part of this.

I could never do that for you, Lord.

I'm not, I'm not gifted in that area.

People might make fun of me, people might critique me, people might question what I do.

Folks, these are all things that we have to let just roll off our backs.

Because if God is calling us to do something with our gift, don't worry about what other people have to say.

Take a step of faith and trust God that he's going to sustain you and strengthen you through whatever he brings you to in your life.

So these are some reasons why Christians might not be exercising their spiritual gifts.

So how do we discover our spiritual gift?

Discovering your gift is less about taking a test, even though tests are sometimes helpful in directing you to a certain place.

But it's more about walking with Christ.

It's more about fellowshipping with him, hearing from him, obeying him.

There was a book by Henry Blackaby and I was reminded about this when we were in Africa because someone quoted it.

But you know, there's three rules to following God.

Obey, obey, obey.

Just obey what he has for you to do.

Don't ask questions.

Don't come up with your own plan and say, God, can my plan fit into your plan?

No, God, how does your plan change my life?

And so how do we discover our gifts?

Well, we've got to clean the slate.

Psalm 139.

Some of you know Psalm 139.

David is speaking here.

And I think this is a prayer for all of us as we try to identify what God has for us in our lives.

You might say, I have no idea where God wants me to serve.

I have no idea where God has gifted me.

I have no idea how he has graced me in my Life.

Well, Psalm 139 talks about how we deal with things in our life that we're harboring.

We mentioned that one of the things that holds us back from exercising our gift is unconfessed sin.

Well, Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24.

The Psalmist says, search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the Way everlasting.

It's a prayer, first and foremost, for God to inspect our life, to reveal unconfessed sin, to bring conviction so that we can find comfort, so we can find guidance, and so that ultimately we can obey and follow God in the light that he has given us in our life.

Search me, oh God, know my heart, try me and know my thoughts See if there be any wicked way in me and then this is the important part, and lead me in the way everlasting so we're calling for God to come into our lives and to change us and then to guide us.

Often times we want God to change us, but we still want to be in the driver's seat.

We want to be in control.

We want to be the ones that say, hey, you know what, God, I want everything from you, but I want to be able, the one to dictate the next step.

And the true prayer would be, lord, give me clarity in my gift and in my area of service.

And, Lord, whatever you say, I'm going to do.

And it's a rewarding and freeing feeling to know that God is in control.

So we were in Rwanda, and if you guys ever get a chance to go to Rwanda, which I hope you do, they don't have taxis there.

One of the things that they have there is called.

They call them motos, motorcycles.

So they have no taxis.

Everyone gets around by motorcycle.

So everyone just hails a motorcycle.

They jump on the back, and you zip off to where your next location is.

And so the first day we were there, I was talking to the pastor.

I said, hey, can.

Can we do that?

He goes, no, no, no, no, no.

He's like.

He's like, we can't risk you doing that because it's organized chaos.

They're all going every which direction.

They're weaving in and out of traffic.

And, you know, it's.

It's crazy.

So the very last day, we were like, can we do it?

Can we do it?

And he finally is like, all right, you can do it.

So I said, yes.

So a few of us jumped on the back of a motorcycle, and we started taking off and going.

And as we were riding on that motorcycle, I started to realize why they didn't want us to get on that motorcycle.

It was like.

And the guy.

So I'm like, this guy doesn't even speak English.

And all of a sudden, he turns around, he goes, do you understand what I'm saying?

I said, yeah.

He goes, you speak English?

I'm like, yeah.

He's like, cool.

So we were already talking.

I'm like, I am so.

I'm like, you're a good driver.

And I was trying to exercise the gift of exhortation.

I didn't know if he was a good driver or not, but I was like, you're such a good driver.

You're so safe.

You're.

You're.

You're a good guy.

I was like, I'm gonna give you a good tip when we get to the other side of town.

But when he was dipping in and out, I was just so thankful I wasn't driving that motorcycle because I would have wrecked it really quickly.

So it was freeing to know.

After a while, I realized he was a pretty good driver.

And it was freeing to know that he was in control, that he was taking me through the town and that we were going to get there safe.

It's the same thing, what it is with the Lord.

I mean, when we're walking, sometimes we think we're in control.

But if we were the ones in control, we begin ourselves in big mistakes, big problems.

But when we relinquish ourselves and trust in the Lord to say, lord, you got this.

You're going to navigate through all this chaos.

That's when we're able to see God working.

So we clean the slate.

And then, as we said first John 1:9, if we confess, that word confess is very important.

That word confess in the original language means to say the same thing when we agree with our sin, about our sin with God.

When we say the same thing about our sin that God says, then it says, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So we allow God to search our heart.

We confess and admit our sin, and we remove anything hindering our fellowship with him so that we can hear from him and so that we can follow him, and so that we can exercise our faith in what he has called us to do.

But there is a second part of this, because, yes, we do need to clean our slate.

But then secondly, we need to admit our weakness.

And sometimes admitting our weakness is the hardest thing.

I know within my own ego, I never want to admit that I'm inadequate in some degree.

But again, it's also a very freeing and rewarding feeling to know that I am not enough in my own flesh, but that God is enough.

A principle that we can find in Scripture is 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 9 and 10.

Some of you know this story.

Paul is pleading with the Lord to Remove a thorn in his flesh.

And what the Lord does, what we would think that the Lord would do, is take that thorn away from him.

But God responds in a different way to Paul.

He says in verse number nine of 2 Corinthians 12, My grace is sufficient for thee.

Some of us don't want to hear that.

I don't want to hear that.

I want God to give me all the answers.

I want God to work out all of my problems.

I want God to make it all make sense for me here right now, because it's all about me.

But what does he say here?

He says, no, it's not that I'm going to take away the thorn.

It's not that I'm going to remove you from the storm.

It's not that I'm going to give you everything that you've ever wanted.

I'm giving you all that you need.

And what is that?

My grace is sufficient.

God's grace is sufficient.

And he says, for my strength, God's strength is made perfect in weakness.

And then Paul says, most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and in distress for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then am I strong, folks?

It's when we admit our limitations and say, lord, I am not in control.

I can't do this.

That's when God takes over and that's when we can see true strength in our life.

Sometimes we lie to ourselves and we think, well, I can do this in the church without God's help.

I can do this in my life without God's help.

No part of identifying the gift is saying, lord, I need to clean the slate and I need to recognize my need for you in my life.

The other thing I would encourage you to do is to pray for opportunities.

The Bible says to pray without ceasing, or we're called to in everything, give thanks by way of prayer and supplication in our lives, folks, if we are not characterized by prayer, if we are not going to God and pleading with him to give us clarity and direction in our lives, how are we expecting God to reveal Himself to us?

And so if you are serious about identifying your spiritual gift and exercising in that spiritual gift, ask God to give you clarity and opportunity.

One of the gifts that God always gives us in a positive manner is when we ask God for an opportunity to serve him, or an opportunity to Share his gospel message with someone around us.

There's been times in my life where I've reluctantly prayed, well, Lord, give me an opportunity today.

Guarantee you that opportunity is going to come.

Now.

It's whether or not I'm going to perceive that, obey it, and walk in that.

But one of the things that I would encourage you to pray about in your life is, lord, reveal to me where you want me to serve, how you'd want me to serve.

And then I would say this.

Develop where God is leading.

Maybe God gives you a little nugget of wisdom.

Maybe he gives you a little heart of desire.

Maybe you're saying, well, I don't know much about where God has me, but I really love kids.

Well, great.

Maybe God's calling you to teach with children.

Maybe God's calling you to encourage children.

Maybe God's just calling you to give to the children's ministry folks.

I hope you understand that they're in scripture.

It doesn't just say, hey, there's a spiritual gift of children's ministry.

Spiritual gift of children's ministry is not in scripture.

What's in scripture are these motivational gifts.

So believe it or not, you could exercise any of these gifts within children's ministry.

So, so God is going to give you opportunities to serve at whatever capacity God has gifted you in at what areas that you are desiring.

So don't wait until you're certain.

Grow as God gives you those little areas of confirmation in your life.

Grow when you are serving.

I when I was planning and preparing to get into ministry, pastoral ministry, I went to my pastor and I said, what should I do?

And part of me was like, I'll start serving when I become a pastor.

And the pastor was like, no, start getting involved right now and as much as you can get involved with, and you'll very clearly find out sooner or later what you are called to do and what you're not called to do.

But we have to start taking that step of faith and be willing to be used by God to see God open and close doors.

And so God, yes, sometimes will close doors, sometimes he will open doors.

But develop as God is leading and then evaluate your motivation, evaluate your heart.

Remember, it's not about giving glory to ourselves, but going back to what naturally excites me, what burdens my heart.

Where do I consistently see God pulling me to and guiding me in?

Those are areas that we need to evaluate because we what's our motivation?

Is my motivation and service about people noticing me and giving me praise?

Or is it, hey, I'm feeling drawn to this.

To give glory to God, well, that's our motivation and we need to go to that.

Then I would also say seek wise confirmation and counsel with other Christians that we trust.

Number one, search your heart.

Number two, look to other believers for wisdom and advice.

Look to church leadership.

Look to ultimately the Lord to give you wise confirmation in your life because God will confirm your heart as he guides you in certain directions.

So I would say get busy serving.

You rarely discover your gift when you're on the sidelines.

I think I mentioned this a couple weeks ago.

You know, we, we have someone here, maybe they have an amazing gift in athletics and we have an athletic team in our church and they sit there and go, yeah, I have all these skills, but I don't really want to exercise those.

It would be a waste.

So how can we know if God is having us work in a certain capacity if we're not willing to take a step off the sidelines and get onto the battlefield?

And so where is God blessing you?

Where is God teaching you?

Well, I would say that he's going to lead you to areas.

All you have to do is be perceptive and go after that.

And so what we're going to do here just for the next few moments, we're going to conclude here in a few minutes.

But what I will say is this, I want us to dive deep into this first gift, this first gift of prophecy.

This morning we look at this gift and we say, okay, so a prophet.

What's a prophet?

Well, I think of Elijah and Jeremiah and Isaiah and all these people, sure they were, they were people that had the role of a prophet.

But there's also something here called the gift of prophecy, the gift of proclamation, the gift of identifying truth.

And so what is this New Testament gift?

Well, the New Testament motivational gift of prophecy is not primarily predicting future events, even though that one, that would be one angle of prophecy.

Most often it is a spirit enabled ability to perceive and to proclaim and to apply and to defend God's truth.

I'll say that again.

The gift of prophecy most often is seen through the spirits of ability through our lives to perceive, proclaim, apply and defend God's truth.

The prophets.

The person who is working in prophecy is always motivated by truth.

He or she desires to expose error and call people back to the word of God.

And so some of the characteristics of someone who is gifted in the area of prophecy would be that they discern spiritual problems quickly.

You could walk into a room and you can immediately say, okay, that person's burdened with the sin of whatever it is that that person right there is obviously not discerning the word of God.

Clearly, they detect hypocrisy very easily.

I think some of my kids are gifted in the gift of prophecy because they can see right through my hypocrisy sometimes.

The idea would be this.

They can detect someone who is not being authentic.

A person gifted in the area of prophecy values truth over popularity.

They desire holiness for themselves and for others.

They warn against sin.

They speak with conviction.

They protect others from deception.

So there's an element of protection with someone who is gifted in prophecy.

They pursue justice.

They want justice to be had.

They want people to be treated fairly.

And they feel compelled to say what is true.

Some of you are compelled to say, what's truth?

You say, that's their problem.

That's their thing.

That's not my issue.

And some of you can't help but tell someone what the truth is.

Okay, I'm going to tell you that you're wrong.

And I'm going to tell you the five ways in which you need to get right.

That's the person who's gifted in prophecy.

Now, those are all when someone is walking in the spirit.

So when someone surrendered to the Holy Spirit with the gift of prophecy, they're going to speak the truth, but they're going to speak it in love.

Because in a few moments we're going to talk about how someone can exercise the spiritual gift of prophecy not in the spirit, but in the flesh, and not do it in love.

But someone who's walking in the gift of prophecy is going to do it in the spirit as someone who is speaking the truth, but speaking the truth in love.

Most of you know that passage of scripture.

In the book of Ephesians, we're called to speak the truth.

Yes, but we're called to speak it in love.

Someone that's walking in the gift of prophecy that spirit filled will be someone who corrects with humility.

So, yes, I want to correct the problem, but I'm going to do it with humility.

Remember verse three of Romans 12.

To do to.

To do it in humility.

To not to think of myself higher than I ought to think.

Someone who is spirit filled in the area of prophecy would be someone who wants to protect the church.

Someone who is in this gift would also call people to repentance, to balance conviction with compassion.

But someone who is not being filled with the spirit in this gift that would be exercising in the flesh Might look differently.

They may overreact to someone's failure, might go overboard on someone who makes a mistake.

How could you ever sin?

Don't you know what God's done for you?

We're going to write you off.

No second chances.

That's someone who has the gift of prophecy but might be walking in the spirit.

Someone who would expect instant repentance.

You ever met someone like that?

Like, you got called out in your sin?

Okay, well, forgive.

You get forgiveness right now.

Well, I got to work through this.

No, no, you got to go right now.

Okay.

That's someone who would be walking in the flesh.

Someone who would judge before gathering all the facts.

Someone who is exercising the gift of prophecy in the.

In the flesh might not wait for all the facts to come in.

They might just act on it.

Well, you're obviously in rebellion to God if you're doing that.

So here we go.

You're going through judgment.

You're going through church discipline right now.

And now it's hearing all the facts.

They might become unforgiving.

They might focus only on the wrong things, the bad things.

They might leave little room for grace, and they might mistake harshness for holiness.

They might say, hey, I'm being harsh because I'm holy and they need to be holy.

So, hey, that's a harsh thing.

But again, I think that we need to understand those that are gifted in this area.

Truth without love wounds.

Truth without love can be painful.

And so we're not called to remove the truth, but we're called to infuse the truth with love.

Love, though, without truth, deceives.

So we're going to talk about the one who's the mercy or the compassion later on in the study.

They're the type of people that might say this.

Well, I'm just going to lie to them to make them feel better.

Okay.

I'll just sacrifice truth to make that person feel good and feel encouraged.

So.

So that's another error.

So the gift of prophecy would say this truth with love.

God calls us to both.

And so I would encourage you that might say, hey, some of those things that.

You're listening, Pastor, that characterizes me, I. I'm like, I'm ready to tell people where they're wrong.

I'm ready to tell people how to come to repentance.

That is fantastic.

Great.

But remember to exercise it filled by the spirit and have grace and mercy and patience as we do so.

Some examples of a biblical prophet would be John the Baptist.

Remember John the Baptist.

I. I want to read a Few quotes from John the Baptist because I think it's important to see John the Baptist because maybe some of you guys might say, yeah, that's me, that whatever John the Baptist says, that's.

That's kind of how I exercise myself there.

So Matthew, chapter 21, verse 32.

For John came unto you in the way of righteousness.

This is Jesus speaking.

So he says, john the Baptist comes to you in the way of righteousness or the way of truth.

And ye believed him not, but the publicans and the harlots believed him.

And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might have believed.

And so the Bible says that John the Baptist came to the people in the way of righteousness, meaning he.

He preached righteousness to them.

He preached holiness to them.

We also know in another occasion that John the Baptist calls out the sin of the people around him.

Luke, chapter three.

Luke, chapter three, verse number two, all the way down to verse number 20, tells us that John the Baptist called out Herod for the sake of time.

We won't go through this whole passage, but you remember John the Baptist saw Herod and the sin that he had by taking his brother's wife.

And he called that sin out at great cost.

By the way, John the Baptist was killed for his speaking the truth.

But John the Baptist spoke the truth no matter what the outcome would be.

That would be an example of a prophet.

Another prophet in Scripture would be a guy named Peter.

Some of you know Peter, some of you know how Peter acted.

He wasn't perfect.

Sometimes he exercised his gift of prophecy in a way that was very fleshly.

Think about the time Peter took out his knife and sword and he cut the ear off of.

Of the guy there, right?

He was doing that because he was like, I'm fighting for Jesus without understanding the whole scheme of what Jesus was doing.

But other times Peter preached in the book of Acts, Acts, Chapter 5, Acts, Chapter 8, even Acts Chapter 2, he preached the message to the Jewish people there.

To say basically this, you guys are the ones that are in rebellion.

You need Jesus Christ.

You need forgiveness.

And so Peter was the one who could identify the truth of God.

There was.

And we even know that in Matthew chapter 16, and in John chapter 6, when Jesus comes to Peter, he says, peter, whom do men say that I am?

And he says, well, many people say that you're a prophet.

And then he says, who do you say that I am?

And Peter goes, well, you're the Christ, the son of the living God.

Peter was able to identify the Truth of God in Jesus Christ.

Other time, many people left Jesus.

If you remember, Jesus was preaching some hard messages and a bunch of people left.

And he turns to Peter and he says, are you gonna leave me too?

And Peter goes, no.

Where could I go?

Who else has the truth of God?

Who else has the way to life?

Peter was able to identify the truth of God around him.

And so Peter was a man who was gifted in the gift of prophecy.

He was quick to identify truth and error.

John the Baptist was fearlessly confronting sin around him.

Others in the Old Testament, like Jeremiah, Jeremiah called Judah to repentance, and he was rejected.

Isaiah boldly proclaimed God's holiness.

Jonah is a great example of someone who had the gift of prophecy, but he also struggled with compassion, if you remember.

What, what did God say?

Jonah, go preach to the Ninevites.

And Jonah didn't want to go preach to them.

Why did he not want to go to preach to them?

I was always taught that Jonah was afraid that he was going to get killed.

But if you look deeper into Jonah's narrative, there in that book, he did not want to go because he said, I know that they're going to believe in you, Lord.

I know that you can change them.

And I don't like them and I don't want them to be saved.

He lacked compassion, and he had more compassion for that plant that gave him shade than the people of Nineveh.

So.

So Jonah was someone who had the gift of prophecy, but he was exercising in his flesh and he lacked compassion.

So any of us that are gifted in the area of prophecy, we have to understand that, yes, there is a stand for truth, but at the same time, we have to have compassion.

And those have to be pulled together to understand the full scope of how that gift should look.

Jesus is the perfect example.

Jesus spoke the truth, but he did it in love.

He didn't back down to the truth.

He never compromised the truth.

But at the same time, he exuded love in every aspect of his ministry.

So our theme could be Ephesians 4:15, speaking the truth in love.

And I would say, even if you are not gifted in the area of prophecy, every Christian is commanded to speak the truth.

Truth is everyone's responsibility.

Whether or not I'm gifted in perceiving it, or I need God's help in perceiving it, I must stand in truth if I am a believer.

The gift simply gives certain believers unusual effectiveness.

But all of us should stand in the truth.

Jesus tells us this.

I just want to point out a few passages, and then we're going to be done.

John 8, 32, John chapter 8, verse 32, Jesus is speaking about what it means to be his disciple.

And I think it's so important for us to see this, because In John chapter 8, he talks about the truth.

And he says, verse 31, if ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed.

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

So to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, it's to walk in his truth.

There's other verses.

John 17, 17, Sanctify them by thy truth.

Thy word is truth.

Many other passages speak to this idea of being a Christian grounded in truth.

Now, where do we find our truth?

I asked the guys in Rwanda, where do we find our truth?

And you know what?

They gave me the right answer.

They held up their Kirwandan Bibles and they said, this is where we find truth.

I said, amen.

It's not from culture, it's not from media, it's not from.

It's from the word of God.

And so when we're gifted in the gift of prophecy, it's not about giving our opinions, it's not about giving our feelings.

It's about saying this is what God has said.

Thus saith the Lord, as hard as it is, we have to proclaim that, but at the same time, we do it in the measure of our faith.

Romans 12:6 says, those that have the gift of prophecy, they do it according to the proportion of faith.

What does that mean?

It means that God has connected the gift of prophecy, the proclamation of truth, and tied that to what we're believing in.

So the prophetic believer should not speak to impress others, should not speak beyond biblical conviction, not seek personal recognition.

But instead, the person who is gifted in the gift of proclamation of the truth should only proclaim what he or she believes about God and His Word.

The issue is not about how loudly we speak, but how faithfully we speak.

And so what it means here to prophesy in proportion of faith, it really means this.

We can only truly proclaim the truth of God according to what we believe about God and what he has done.

So if I got up here today and said to you, trust God in everything, believe that he's got you under his love and his grace, and that I don't act like that, I don't believe that myself, it will not be compelling obedience to the Lord.

I can only preach to the level of my faith.

I can only proclaim the word of God that I believe.

Now I can get up here and lie to you.

I could get up here and proclaim something that I truly don't believe in.

But.

But what the Bible says is that a true prophet can only proclaim what he believes in or what she believes in.

So what we would say here today is that, by the way, a prophet is not just someone from behind the pulpit.

There are women that are gifted in the area of prophecy.

You say what?

Pastor, you're about to upset the apple cart.

I didn't say they're called to be a pastor here.

I didn't say that they're going to be preaching from behind the pulpit.

What I'll say is that there are people that are individually gifted to proclaim the word of God wherever they are.

So.

So what I would say is this.

Don't isolate these gifts to a specific position.

There are pastors who are naturally gifted in prophecy, and there's pastors that are not naturally gifted in prophecy.

It doesn't mean that you're limited by your role.

You don't have to be a ministry leader to have this gift.

These are all gifts that are given to everyone to exercise at the capacity God has called you to exercise them in.

So understand that.

So we can only truly proclaim the truth of God according to what we believe about him.

One commentator I read this week said we are to proclaim God's truth according to the confidence and conviction God has given us, doing so in humility rather than pride.

Our authority comes from God's word, not ourselves.

So in conclusion to all of this, it's simply this.

Every believer has been gifted by grace.

The church functions best when every member serves where God has equipped them.

If God has given you the gift of prophecy.

So if what I've said this morning about the gift of prophecy speaks to you, well, love the truth, speak the truth, defend the truth.

But always remember when we do it, to bring it together with truth and love.

Truth without love becomes harsh.

Spiritual love without truth becomes compromise.

So may we ask the Lord to give us the power to speak God's truth with both conviction and Christlike compassion?

The two words I want you to think about if God has gifted you in the area of prophecy or in the area of trying to proclaim God's word more in your life, whether you're gifted or not.

Think about those two words, compassion and conviction.

Compassion for those that are hurting, compassion for those that need the truth, but also conviction to the truth, to not waver.

Folks, you know, one of the areas that I struggle in is seeing Someone who is broken.

And I look at them and I say, you know what?

They're broken because of all their bad decisions.

If they wouldn't have just done that sin, they would be fine.

That's conviction without compassion.

But then if I look at someone with compassion and say, oh, you know what?

They're good people.

They didn't mean to do this.

So.

So we don't need it to have them change.

They can just keep doing what they want to do.

We just keep giving them things.

That would be compassion without conviction.

So as a Christian, the way we do this is we say, yes, that person has sin in their life and they have problems because of that sin, and they need to have the truth, but at the same time, they need to have the love of God imparted to them and so that they can understand the compassion of Jesus Christ.

I'm thankful God didn't write me off on my first mistake.

And so as we come to the end here, what we see is this.

A few questions.

Am I serving where God has gifted me?

Do I know where God is gifting me?

Is there any unconfessed sin in my life that's hindering my work?

Are there distractions that are pulling me away?

Am I operating under the power of the spirit or under the energy of the flesh?

And if God has given me the gift of prophecy or perception, do people experience both truth and grace when I minister to them?

And so spiritual gifts are expressions of God's grace.

We're empowered by the Holy Spirit, and God intends us to build up his body, not ourselves.

With these gifts, those gifted in prophecy are called to courageously proclaim the truth of God around them, but always in the character of Jesus Christ.

And so we're going to come back next time and we're going to look more at these other gifts.

If you say I'm not the gift of prophecy, that's okay.

It's maybe an area that you need to grow in and proclaiming the truth of God around you.

But I guarantee you, if you're honest and you're open to what God is doing in your life, one of these gifts will jump off the page to you and you will say, this is where God has called me.

Now how do I exercise that within the church?

And we'll talk more in the study about the application of these gifts within the church body.

And so if you're able to this morning stand with me, every head bowed, every head closed, we're gonna come to the end here this morning.

Thank you for your patience.

But I never want to end a sermon without an opportunity to respond.

What is God speaking to you about here this morning?

Is it number one, just having faith in Him?

Maybe you've gotten to a place in your life where you're religious, but the truth of God has not pierced your heart and brought you to a place of humble submission to him in faith and repentance.

Folks, the first step of identifying how you can serve God is by knowing him in a personal way.

But secondly, if you have trusted in Jesus as your Savior, are you asking him to identify and to recognize and to exercise your gift within the church body?

If so, praise God.

Continue on that path.

It's a never ending path of spiritual growth.

But if not today, make that your goal.

To identify areas of service opportunities within the church and within the community.

Lord, I pray that you be with us in this time.

I pray that you work in hearts and lives.

Lord, help us to be the ones who proclaim truth, but to do it in a way with conviction and compassion.

I pray that you walk with us as we leave here today.

We thank you and we love you.

In Jesus name, amen.