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The River ChurchSermons

Romans 9-16

You Are Gifted

Chuck Lindsey · Sunday, 26 October 2025 · Romans 12:3-8 · 54:47 · 9,956 words

Romans S27 · 12:3-8 Grand Blanc

Listen to this message

The sermon explores the passage in Romans 12, verses 3–8, where Paul teaches that every person has received at least one spiritual gift from God, given before they ever knew Him. The speaker emphasizes that true humility comes only through understanding God’s grace, which crushes pride and helps us see ourselves correctly relative to others. He challenges listeners to discover their specific gift—whether prophecy, serving, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, or mercy—and to use it actively to glorify God and serve those around them. The message asks each person to examine whether they are using their gift in their family, church, and daily life, and to do so with diligence and cheerfulness.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

gift 112 using 17 prophecy 13 person 44 given 32 dessert 6 membership 8 depression 8 prophet 15 people 68 use 23 teacher 10

Topics

Faith 10 Salvation 5 Prayer 4 Spiritual Gifts 4 Grace 3 The Body of Christ 2 The Holy Spirit 1 Judgment 1 The Wrath of God 1

Scripture referenced 28

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 12 0:41 Romans 12 0:46 Romans 12:3 0:46 Romans 12:8 0:46 Romans 12:3 4:04 Romans 12:3 12:54 Romans 12:3 12:56 Romans 12:3 14:32 Romans 1 17:42 Romans 1 18:04 Romans 12 29:46 1 Corinthians 12 29:51 1 Corinthians 12 30:00 1 Corinthians 12 30:23 1 Corinthians 12 31:37 1 Corinthians 12:11 31:42 1 Corinthians 12 32:11 Romans 12 32:19 Romans 12:6 32:29 Romans 12:6 35:20 1 Corinthians 10 41:20 Romans 12:7 42:07 Romans 12:7 43:32 Romans 12:8 45:32 Romans 12:8 45:32 Romans 12:8 46:33 Romans 12:8 49:12 Romans 12 51:43

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:35. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Josh, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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You can also visit our website at theriverchurch.cc to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Good morning to you once again.

You have a Bible. We're going to open God's Word.

Romans chapter 12 is where we will be this morning.

Romans 12, we're going to cover verses 3 down to verse 8.

We're going to talk about our gifting today for a few moments.

And before we jump into it, let's just one more time ask the Lord to speak through His Word.

Okay, Lord, we love You, and we need You.

And we just...

We just ask for You to speak this morning through Your Word to us.

Help us to hear You.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So, let me ask you, what do you do?

That's a typical question heard when men meet each other for the first time and are forced to talk to each other.

Turns into something along those lines.

What do you do?

And it's usually an attempt to figure out who a person is that you're talking to.

Based on whatever they say, you start to form...

An opinion, a picture, based on the information given.

You start to learn a little bit about who this person is.

But I want to ask you this morning, what do you do?

And I'm not talking about your job.

I'm talking about you as a person.

What are you about?

What are you focused on?

What's your...

What drives you?

What moves you forward?

Like, what are you gifted to do?

Let me ask it a different way.

What are you wired to do?

Hardwired, right?

Is like this idea of...

Being, you know, gifted in a particular way.

Passionate in a particular way.

You know, you've got some kind of drive in some specific thing.

Do you think you could answer that question?

Or are you unclear on this?

Would you be like, I'm not really sure.

I pray today by the end you'll have a better idea of what it is that you're gifted to do.

But let me ask you this question.

If you know what you're gifting is, are you using it?

And are you using it here when you're among the church?

Or when you're in the...

World or in your family?

Are you actively using the gift that God has given to you to one, glorify him.

And two, to bless the people around you.

And this is the purpose for why God has gifted you.

Let me say right from the beginning.

It's very interesting.

The Bible says that every single person has been given a gift, at least one, from God.

Regardless of whether they know him, love him.

Using it for him.

Or not.

Everyone has been given.

The Bible says the gifts and the callings of God have been given before repentance.

So you didn't get the gift when you came to know the Lord.

You got the gift when you were conceived.

Okay?

And so you've had it.

But that explains why in the world people are using their gifting to glorify themselves.

They're using incredible leadership abilities to build corporations or whatever.

All of it to glorify.

Or they can use these things to glorify God.

So what about you?

What is your gifting?

Maybe you don't know what it is.

Again, I pray that you'll leave knowing what it is.

We'll go through them specifically here in just a minute.

But I'm praying that you'll begin to use your gift if you're not already.

Okay, so let's jump into it.

Romans chapter 12, verse 3.

The apostle Paul, where we left off last week, says,

Think of himself more highly than he ought to think,

but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

So first and foremost, Paul is correcting something.

He's warning us about something.

And what he says in this warning, in this correction,

he's saying it in a spirit of thankfulness for God rescuing him,

and an understanding of God's grace.

And so he's not warning like, you know,

so hopefully you saw that just a moment ago.

We're not correcting Zach with a spirit of,

hey, we're perfect and you're not.

We're doing this all in the understanding,

there go I, but by the grace of God, right?

Okay?

So we don't go, we don't go, hey, you don't think of others, you know, you don't think of yourself

higher than others. We go, we don't think of ourselves as above anyone else. Okay. So Paul,

he is about to warn us not to be the person that he actually once was. The apostle Paul at one time,

Saul of Tarsus, was a man who was proud. By the way, God hates pride. You know this, right? He

hates pride. He resists pride in us so that we will understand he hates it. He does not want

pride. God hates pride. Paul was a proud religious man. He saw himself as better than you, better

than others, right? Paul was at the top. He had climbed. He was smarter. He was more devoted. He

was bred better. He had more money. He was in a better position, et cetera, right? He was above

others. But all of that changed.

All of it. And Paul came from this opinion of himself being so high all the way down to a right

place, to a right view of himself. And what changed that? What did that? Here's the answer.

One word, grace. The grace of God will actually crush the wicked pride in our hearts. And it's

the only thing that'll do it. Religion ain't going to do it. Church attendance ain't going to do it.

It is the grace of God.

It's the grace of God. It's the only thing that will crush the pride in you and I. You can't try

to be less proud. In fact, if you did, it's also hard to measure, right? Like, hey, I think I'm

doing pretty good on pride. Dang it. Darn it, right? I'm making good progress. Actually,

you're not, right? So how do you even measure it, right? You can't try hard to not be proud.

How do you become humble? The grace of God. The man or the woman that understands

that we deserve nothing but God's judgment, God's anger, God's wrath against us cannot sit in

judgment of another person. I cannot sit superior to anyone else. If I see myself in proper position

that I am low, that he is high, I cannot sit above others. I deserve judgment. I deserve God's wrath.

I deserve God's anger. And so this humbles me, helps me to think correctly about myself. It is

only the grace of God that will crush the wicked pride in me. And so this humbles me, helps me to

grace of God that creates truly humble people. So if you are a proud person, and we all naturally

are, it's where we go. This is natural, right? The unsaved, the natural part of us, we are proud.

What will crush that is you deeply understanding the grace of God, not trying hard to be humble.

That's false humility, okay? Grace is the thing that changes every other thing, okay? Very, very

important. So Paul says this,

I'm gonna, it's corrective, but I'm saying this through the grace, the thankfulness for the grace

that I have been shown. I say to you, to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly

than he ought to think. Now, the words that Paul uses there, more highly, it means to think of

myself as I am over, or I am above other people. Now, if we're being honest, this again is something

that is very easy to do for us as people. I mean, we do this, I mean, almost, it's really naturally

we do this in our world. We, you know, you see the world, everybody's trying to be above everybody

else in all kinds of ways. But there are subtle ways this creeps into our heart where we feel like

we're above other people. You might look at somebody begging on the side of the road and

suddenly realize you just had this idea that you are above them. Hey, you know, why don't you go

get a job? Why don't you pull it together? Why don't you figure it out and do something, you

know, yourself as though I'm above because I've got some things together in my mind. You look at

the drug addict and you think, come on, man, just, just figure it out. The alcoholic, just, just get

rid of it, right? And we, we have this idea we're above, we're beyond these things. We can look at

our neighbor and we can think, man, they never cut their grass on time. They don't shovel their

driveway when they're supposed to. Ugh, see how long they left their trash cans out there? It's

good. I'm such a good house, you know, homeowner. You're such a terrible homeowner, right? Like

stupid, right? Dumb stuff.

We can see others failing in their marriage or their parenting or their devotion to the Lord.

And we can literally take this air of superiority and think, I'm above, I'm beyond, I'm better.

Like the Pharisee who went into the temple.

You remember the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus talked about them.

They both went into the temple.

The Pharisee goes right up to the front.

And it says, praying to God and says, Lord, I thank you that I am not like that tax collector.

Who barely darkened the doorway.

The Bible says he couldn't even lift his head to God.

He was so ashamed, but instead beat his chest and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Jesus said, which one of these two do you think God listened to?

I can tell you, it wasn't the man up front.

It wasn't the man pointing back.

It was the man who was beating his chest, who couldn't even look up.

That's who God heard.

Folks, there's so many reasons we might think that we are above others, right?

Maybe it's the position we have in life or the money.

Or the home we have or the clothes we wear or that we're in good shape or who knows, right?

There's so many different things, our marriage or our kids or whatever it might be.

But the reality is it's not true.

It's not true.

We're never more valuable than anyone else.

Never more important than anyone else.

And here's the thing.

One of the things I love so much, I love so much about going into jails and prisons.

I go as often as I possibly can.

It's like a.

Reset of this, this thing here, right?

You go in and you realize it's a reminder.

I am not above any person.

I am not above anyone else.

I'm not better.

I'm not more.

I'm not beyond.

In fact, so many times I'm sitting with these men and they're encouraging me and they're challenging me to, to be, to be, you know, more devoted to Christ, to love him better.

And I go, who am I thinking?

I'm more, I'm better.

I've got it more together.

Listen, we are.

We are worth the same.

Okay.

Because our worth is, is tied to whatever, right?

That thing's value is worth whatever someone's going to pay for it.

So how much are you worth?

Well, whatever someone would be willing to pay.

And here's what the scriptures say.

God paid everything to get you.

So your worth is infinite because the infinite God gave infinitely to get you.

You're not, you're not worthless.

You're worth everything.

And so this is how we know how much we're worth.

Okay.

And so every person in the same spot.

So this is what Paul is talking about.

And for us to believe that we are above, for us to believe we are more is actually insane.

And that's what the end of verse three says here.

It says, Paul says verse three there, but instead, right?

To think soberly, the word soberly there means to be of sound mind.

It means to be sane.

It means to think correctly.

And what this means is it is incorrect.

It is actually insane to think of ourselves.

Ourselves as being above anyone else.

By the way, this is one of the fruits of what it is when you are in the church.

There's a lot of social classes sitting here.

There's a lot of circumstances sitting here.

There's a kids that grew up in trailer park sitting here.

And then there's people who grew up with a lot, right?

There's everything in between.

There's every experience under the sun, all of it.

Right.

And what does it all say?

The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

We're all standing.

We're all standing together, looking up to him.

Okay.

So we got to think soberly.

And so Paul tells us why.

And the answer is this.

God has given to each of us what we need, every one of us.

And so he is not, God has not just offered salvation to a select few because he loved

them most like, Hey, these are my select few.

I'm going to give you guys salvation because I really love you and the rest of you.

Don't really love you.

So, you know, no, no.

God has given everyone.

You're going to see it right now.

He has offered salvation to everyone and given every single person what they need to not

only be saved, to be his child forever.

God has done this.

Okay.

Let me show you verse three, the rest of it there.

It says, because, or as God has already, he has already dealt to each one, a measure of

What you need to see here in the word dealt is God has faith and then he is giving each

person what they need.

What they need in order to believe so that they can be saved forever.

So God, you know, God did not give somebody.

just like a little bit of faith, but it's not enough to save them. He did not give somebody,

you know, a whole bunch. And, and so they have to be saved. He has given every person what they need

in order to believe and be saved. And this is true for every single person on the planet. It's true

for you. It's true for your family. It's true for your kids. It's true for your community. It's true

for every single person. Every person has been given distributed by God. What is necessary to

believe and be saved forever. And what this means is, is that no one is going to be able to look at

God and say, I couldn't, I tried. I wanted to, I wanted to be saved. I wanted to believe I wanted

to follow, but I couldn't find it. I couldn't, I couldn't get there. I didn't have what I needed.

You didn't give me what I needed to be saved. You held it from me. You only gave it to certain

people. I didn't have what I need. No, no. God's going to say, listen, I have distributed to each

person, the measure of faith that is necessary.

In order to be saved. Now, the evidence of this is that people are using their faith all the time.

We, as people are constantly using the faith that we have been given. Faith is all about what you

put it in, right? You can have all the faith you want in a three-legged chair, but your faith is

misplaced when you go and sit down. Yeah. It's like, Oh, I had a lot of faith. This is going to

hold me up. And then it didn't. Right? So faith is all about what you're putting it in. And what's

really interesting is everybody's putting their faith in something.

Um, you, hopefully you are putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his salvation for your,

your, your, your, your forgiveness of your sins and salvation forever. Good job. That's the right

place to put your faith. There are other people who are putting their faith, God-given faith into

false gods. They're, they're worshiping false gods. Most people are using their God-given faith.

They are putting it in themselves. They are the makers of their own destiny. They are the masters

of their own destiny. They are the makers of their own destiny. They are the masters of their own

future and et cetera, on and on and on. Right? Most people are trusting themselves above all

others. They're putting the God-given faith that's meant for him in their own ability,

in themselves, in their intelligence, in their goodness. Many people, that's what people are

doing. And, and they believe, they believe in all kinds of things. They believe they're strong

enough. They believe they are enough. They believe all these things. You know, it's amazing to me,

right? The atheists, there are no

real atheists, by the way, the Bible is clear about this in Romans chapter one.

There are no real atheists. There are only people who suppress the knowledge

of the truth of God. God has written. He literally has hard coded his information,

who he is on the heart of every single person. And a person has to work hard to suppress that.

That's what Romans chapter one says. There are no atheists. It would be better for people to

say they are agnostics. Agnostic means I know nothing. That's better.

Then saying there is no God. And we go, how do you know? Have you been everywhere? No, no,

there's no God. You, there, there is no God. There there's, you're denying something that

doesn't exist. It's self refuting all the time, right? But Romans one is very clear. They're

suppressing. They're trying to ignore this. And it takes a lot of work, exhausting to ignore God,

right? But atheists, right? They, they believe that there is no God. They believe that very

strongly. They believe there is no absolute truth. And they tell you there is no absolute truth. You

better believe it. And you say, but what is it? And they tell you, there is no absolute truth. You

what if that's not true? No, it is true. That's the only truth. Wait, what? Right? So the agnostic

says you can't know anything. And we say, well, but how do you know that it's self refuting, right?

It's fatalistic. I am often amazed at the lengths that people will go to, to use their God given

faith to deny God. I mean, to me, it's like, this is so simple. It's easy to believe the things

people will go to the things they will believe to deny. This is astonishing to me. Uh, let me give

you a, for instance, people will use their God given faith to deny God as a creator of all things.

And they will instead believe that an explosion, watch this of nothing, nothing exploded. And then

single-celled organisms popped out. I submit to you. Okay.

trillions of years now to you from the goo to the zoo to you. Okay. Right. That trillions of years.

And this is what they do. It's not thousands of years. Cause you could kind of get your brain

around that. So they go, no, no, no, it's not, it's not thousands. It's hundreds. Wait, it's

millions of years. And you're like, it's fierce. Billions of years. You're like, oh my gosh,

I can't even fathom this. Anything could happen in billions of years, right? That's the trick.

And now apparently it's trillions of years. And I haven't been, I haven't been around that long.

Okay. Trillions of years now. Right. So, but the fantastical ideas that we will use our God-given

faith to latch onto, to deny what is clear, what is true, what is plain, what is written on the

heart, but what is being constantly suppressed. It's astonishing to me that this will happen.

Listen, you can test their theory, by the way, you can do this. If you go home today,

go ahead and test their theory, their theory. I want you to just, anybody have a junk drawer?

You have a junk drawer. Okay. I want you to go home with your junk drawer. And I want you to

shake that junk drawer as much as you possibly can. I want you to shake that junk drawer as much as you

possibly can. And I want you to tell me if anything useful comes out of it. Have you ever

seen chaos, destruction, produce anything ordered? Have we ever seen chaos produce order? Never.

We've never seen it. It's always the other way around. Explosions don't create, create order,

not ever. They create disorder, right? And so here we go to these crazy lengths. We say, well,

we've never seen chaos produce order. We've never seen an explosion create anything useful.

But in this one case of the beginning of everything, it's crazy. And if you shake

the drawer, you're going to see it. You're going to see it. You're going to see it. You're going to

draw long enough. Something will come out. You know what I mean? It's just going to be a bunch

of junk. So listen, they use fancier words to make it seem intellectual, but it is not

intellectual. It is just the suppression of what they know to be true. And so, uh, this is what

happens. We all have this faith, but we, we put it in other things and, and your faith is only as

good as whatever you're putting it in. We all know this, a design necessitates a designer. You are

an extremely complicated. It is beyond comprehension how complicated you are as a design. And you would

never be walking through the forest, find a pocket watch and think that the forest had somehow whipped

that whole thing up over millions of years. You would never, you'd be like, oh, there's been people

here. Design necessitates designer. We never watch what they say we're supposed to see. We don't ever

see it anywhere. And so listen, right? This is what we're doing. Everyone has this faith. God is

given it, but it's about what you put it in. And so, uh, they're using it continually, but there's

another reason that we are not to think of ourselves as above everybody else. And that's

because of the gifts that we have been given by God. Look at verse four, four. So we're continuing

this thought as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.

So Paul is talking about you and I, uh, the church, he gives a picture of a body. He says,

as God's people, the church, we are like a human body. The human body is not just one giant hand or

one giant foot or just eyes or just a mouth, right? Obviously a body is made up of all these

different parts that make up the whole of the body. Paul uses this to talk about us as the church

individually. Each of us, we are, we are many bits and parts of this one body and each part

has its purpose. And you say, well, the appendix that doesn't do anything. I'm the appendix. You

know, no, I just read actually about the appendix and it apparently it does something. Not totally

sure what,

it's a little above my pay grade, whatever I was reading, but I was like the general,

it does something. Okay. So awesome. You can be the appendix in the church. That's fine.

Right. But like every part has a function. Okay. And so Paul talks about this. Now, when he says

we have many members side note, we are not talking about church membership. Um, often when people

first start coming, they'll say, pastor, I want to be a member. And we say, well, we don't have

church membership. And I'll say, well, why, why don't you have church membership? And I'll always

say the same thing. We don't

see modern church membership in the Bible. We just don't see it. Um, modern church membership. It's,

it's complex. There's a lot of nuance to it. It's hard to paint it with a broad brush, but at the

end of the day, right. In a good way, when it, when it's good, the goal is like ownership. That's

what membership kind of is. It's like ownership, but also accountability. You're trying to say,

you're trying to hold people to kind of accountability. The problem is we don't see it

in the Bible. In fact, I would actually go so far as to say that true membership in the church is

much more beautiful than what man has come up with. What do I mean? Well, true church membership

in the Bible is based on one thing and one thing alone. Are you looking to Jesus Christ for

salvation or not? Is he your savior or isn't he? If he is your savior, if he is your Lord and

savior, you love him. You're trusting him for salvation. Congratulations. You're a member of

the church and we can celebrate with pie and hamburgers if you want to just let me know I'll

be there. Okay. But, uh, you're in, okay. Because of your trust in him, not because you filled out

a form, you went through a class. I'm not trying to knock all of that. Again, there's good and bad

in all of it. We just don't see it biblically. What we see biblically, you trust Christ. You

are a part of the church. Okay. So you're like, how do I become a member? Do you love Jesus? Yes,

I do. You're a member. God bless you. Get this. Not just of the river. That doesn't matter. The

river grand blank. That doesn't matter. The church across the whole world, the whole world and all

of time. Isn't that better? That's so much better than some dumb little,

that makes you a member of this church. I love it. Oh, it's so much better. All right. So verse

four, we have many members. That's you right in one body, but all the members, they don't have

the same function. We don't all do the same thing. We're not clones. You know, we don't all just

robots. Like we do the exact same thing. We're all very different. Verse five. So we being many,

we are one body in Christ. And then individually, we are members of one another. And I want you to

pause for a moment and really think about this. You, I want you to insert yourself. You,

actually are a part of the church. You are as vital as a hand, as a, as an arm, as a right. You

are as vital as these, these things. You are a part. You're not a spectator is what I'm trying

to say. You're not just someone who attends a church. You're not a, you know, a bystander.

You are a vital part of the body and we need you doing what you have been gifted to do. And that's

what we're going to get to here in just a second. Uh, so please, please, please, please, please,

please hear this. Uh, not trying to beat anybody up, but listen, watching church online. It's not

enough because we don't get this part of what the church actually is. We don't get you watching

church online, online church. Listen, it is meant to give people an option when they are sick or

when they are away or when they are incapacitated, incapacitated in some way. That's the purpose of

it. Like if you're sick, if you, if you've been throwing up all night, please stay home,

please. It is my favorite thing to get a hug and be like,

how are you doing? Oh yeah. I had 105 fever and I was throwing up all night, but crawled here.

I'm like, Oh Lord. Yeah. Go in my office and just squirt alcohol up my nose. You know what I mean?

Like, I don't know. Right. You're like, seriously? Like, okay. If you're sick, like stay home. It's

okay. Right. That's the point. But like, listen, it cannot replace the church because you're not

there. It cannot replace the church. If you're watching only online, you're not a part of the

church because you're not among the church to be the church. Listen, there's no online substitute

for you being here. You can't give that part of it to the rest of the church, right? You can benefit

from some of what we're doing, but we miss out on you. Okay. This is the point. So we don't get

your gifting. We don't get your involvement, your contribution. I'm not talking about money,

your gifting to the church. Okay. Now, some of you, and I'm speaking to the camera, some of you

you're watching from out of state and you consider this your church.

We are glad you benefit from it, but please hear me. This is not your church. We can't be,

you need to go and be a part of a, of a local church. You need them and they need you. So in

love, stop being lazy and stop finding, stop being hypercritical and find reasons to keep you from

engaging in the local church. Go be a part of the church. No church is perfect. No church is

perfect. So go be a part of one and continue the truth that no church is perfect, right? Because if

you find a perfect church, don't join it. Cause you're going to mess it up, you know, but do what

the Lord wants. All right. So here we are, right? Being many, we are one body in Christ. We are

individually, we are members of one another. And now listen, before we talk about gifts,

okay. Cause we're talking about gifts. I need to mention that there is a difference. You've

got to know this is very important. There's a difference between the gift list in Romans 12

and the gift list. If you're familiar with it in first Corinthians 12,

we talked about this difference a couple of years ago when we went through Corinthians, but there is

But to sum it up, right, the 1 Corinthians 12 gift list, these are given in the moment at the time of need.

What this means is these are not possessed.

They're not held by anybody.

They are given at the moment that God sees fit in the moment that they are needed or necessary.

They are not held.

No one holds on to it.

So as a for instance, right, one of the gifts that's mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is the gift of miracles of healing.

Do we believe in miracles of healing?

Well, yes, of course we do because we believe in God and God can do anything he wants to.

And so, of course, we believe in miracles.

We believe in healing.

No problem at all.

We believe in that.

But that is not a gift anyone holds on to.

That is not a gift anyone possesses.

So I am not healer Chuck, right?

I don't have the gift of healing.

But God might use me if I pray for you.

He might decide he wants to bring healing.

And so he does.

Or, you know, maybe.

Your neighbor, you say, hey, will you pray for me?

And they pray for you and God gives healing.

It's all him is the idea.

It's not the person.

Does this make sense?

So, you know, this is going to keep you from a lot of error because there's a lot of churches around right where you've got people who think themselves as holding a gift.

And you think, man, I got to get to this guy.

I got to get to this person to pray.

And if they pray for me, boom, unlock healing.

So I'm going to spend a lot of money to get there.

I'm going to do all of this.

I'm going to get to that person.

Then they're going to pray over me.

And that's the serious stuff, you know?

No, no, no, no, no, no.

You don't understand.

First Corinthians 12.

These are not gifts you hold on to.

These are gifts that are given in the moment.

And the evidence of that is that the core verse in that passage is verse 11, which says, but one in the same spirit, the spirit of God.

He's the one who works all these things.

Watch this.

But the Greek word means temporarily.

He distributes to each one individually.

Watch this.

As he wills.

Watch this.

It's in the moment.

At the time he wants to.

We don't hold on to it.

We don't possess it.

Okay?

Does this make sense?

So the main point is, First Corinthians 12 list, a lot of gifts you might be very familiar with, you don't hold on to them.

They're given in the moment.

The gift list in Romans 12, these are gifts you hold on to.

This is your wiring.

This is the gifting God has given to you.

This is what you have.

Okay?

Does that make sense?

So let's look at them, verse 6.

Having then gifts differing.

So they are different from each other.

But into the grace that is given to us, let us use them.

So we said it.

Every person has at least one gift.

You go, can I have more than one?

Yeah, for sure.

You'll probably have more than one.

But I would say there's probably one that is more prominent.

And then there's maybe some sub, you know, kind of gifts.

But listen, a gift is something given to you.

It's something that you go, how do I know what it is?

You're wired for it.

It's something that.

That you love to do.

It's something you kind of thrive in.

You excel in it.

You're passionate probably about it.

When you do it, it's just, it feels almost very natural to do it.

It might be hard, but it feels very natural to do that thing, right?

That's kind of what we're talking about in terms of gifting.

But notice it says having then gifts.

And this means you already have it.

You're not waiting to get it.

You don't need to pray for it right now.

We don't need to stop and have you pray for God to give you.

We're going to give you a gift.

You already have it.

Okay.

And you're probably already using it.

You just don't know what to call it, or you just don't recognize that it's being used.

Okay.

So we're going to, we're going to go through this, but you do already have it.

And notice that it is also different.

So my gift might be different than your gift.

We might have the same gifts, but they're going to be expressed very differently.

We might both have the gift of teaching, but listen, my experience and the things I've

gone through and the things I'm currently going through and the things you're going

through and your experience and where these are going to.

We're going to express differently, right?

We're going to overlap each other.

It's really beautiful when you think about it, that everybody is using their gifting

all according to their temperament and their personalities and their mentality.

And you know, you probably don't have a cartoon going on in your head all day, every day.

Like I do, right?

I need things to be so simple.

And so the way I speak hopefully is very simple because that's how I need it.

I need it to be simple.

I need to see it.

I'm very visual in that way, right?

But you might not be.

And so it's very neat.

The way that.

You know, God has done this.

And so lastly, before we really jump into the list, you need to know that it's been

given to you for two purposes.

It's been given to you to serve him and to bless his people.

Okay.

This is why you've been gifted to serve him and to bless his people.

You're, you're a leader.

Awesome. Above all things, lead people in his ways. You're a teacher? Fantastic. Above all things,

teach people who he is, okay? That's the idea. So the important thing is that you know what you

are gifted to do, but then very importantly, secondly, actually using it. Look what it says

there, verse six. Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us,

let us use them. It is so important that you use the gift that has been given to you. By the way,

I think this is one of the reasons a lot of people deal with depression, okay? I'm not saying it's

the only reason. I'm saying it's one of the factors. When you are not doing what you have

been wired to do, that is discouraging. That is depressing. When you are not using the gift that

God has given to you, you're going to end up in a state of depression. You're going to end up

in a state of depression. You're going to end up in a state of depression. You're going to end up

in a state of depression. You're going to end up in a state of depression. You're going to end up

in a state of depression. You're going to end up in a state of depression. You're going to end up

in a place of discouragement. And so very often, and the enemy is going to be against you,

whatever your gift is, he's going to be against you so that you don't use it. But like, you need

to start doing what God has called you to do, using your gift to bless him and to bless others.

And so look what it says. Let's begin with the first one, which is prophecy. We'll go quickly

through these. Prophecy. Let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Do you have the gift

of prophecy? Well, let me tell you what it means.

Okay. The word prophecy, we often think about, you know, the old Testament prophets. When we hear

this, we think of people foretelling the future. We hear, we think fortune tellers or something.

Listen, this is part of what the prophets did in the old Testament. But it was not the primary

thing that they did. A prophet, strictly speaking, please hear me strictly speaking, a prophet took

what God told them and then they gave it to the people. That's what a prophet did. And they didn't

come up with their own messages and then preach those messages. They didn't do that. They didn't

take their own words. They didn't take their own words and then they gave it to the people.

They didn't take their own words and then give them to somebody else. So this is why the prophets

often predicted the future, not because they saw the future, but because God was giving it to them.

And then they were giving it and God sees the future as he sees the past and has no problem,

right? So God can do this, right? So a prophet, a person can have the gift of prophecy. You

might have the gift of prophecy. You say, well, what does that look like? Well, it does not mean

that you are a prophet like in the old Testament. Okay. By the way, if you refer to yourself as

prophet Bill or something, prophet Jenny, right? Just a tip for you. If someone refers to

themselves as prophet anything, that is typically when I run the other direction. Okay. Just want

you to understand. That's when I ignore everything they say. Okay. Right. Some churches have whole

teams of prophets and prophetess and they, you know, all they do is pretend to divine the will

of God for you. They've got some connection to God that you don't have, et cetera. All they are is

fortune tellers and about as useful as religious fortune tellers as well. Okay. So then not a thing

prophecy. The actual gift of prophecy is typically going to take what God has said his word. And you

are going to communicate that to people in such a way that they not only understand, but they know

what they're supposed to do with it. Okay. So not just here it is, but here's what you do with it.

Okay. So let me just make this clear. There is no new revelation. There's no new revelation. God is

done with revelation. So I have no revelation for you. No revelation for you. God has, he's done

with the revelation of himself and his word. Everything he intended to ever say, he has said

in the person of Jesus Christ. That's what Hebrews one, one says, God who at various times and in

various ways in time past spoke to the fathers through prophets. That's how God used to reveal

himself has in these last days spoken to us by his son, the Lord Jesus.

Everything God wants to say, he has said, I got no revelation for you. Thus say it, the Lord,

this, that, and the other thing, you know, there's none of that because God has already spoken. The

new Testament is the teaching of Jesus explained, written down, explained, applied. That's what the

new Testament is. Okay. And so there is no, uh, there is no revelation, no new revelation. That's

all done. It is very simply, there is declaration and application, and that's what a prophet is

going to do. They're going to tell you what to do. They're going to tell you what to do. They're

going to tell you what God, God's word says, and then they are going to help apply that so that you

understand what you're supposed to do with it. A real gift of prophecy is going to be seen by a

person who shares what God has already said, and then has a heavy emphasis on what to do with that

thing.

here's what God says. Here's what we need to do with it. And in this way, you can see there's

probably a lot of prophets among us. Am I right? Are you a person who is very, very passionate

about sharing what God has said and what people are supposed to do with it? Is that like a drive

in you? You're like, man, I want people to know. I want people to see it. I want people to get it.

I want people to obey God and follow him and do what he's saying. You might have the gift of

prophecy. Use it. Don't be annoying, but use it. Okay. Yeah. Is that your gift? Well, listen,

if it is your gift, you're told here to do this, to use it in proportion to your faith. What does

this mean? Well, it means that we should only be communicating what we understand and believe.

Very often people will communicate something that God has said, but they don't have any

understanding of it. And then that's kind of a problem. You know what I'm saying? You're talking

about things you don't understand. You shouldn't do that. So someone might say, well, you know,

hey brother, God won't give you more than you can handle. And you go, what? I don't think that's

what that says because it doesn't, right? So yeah, you may be using your gift of prophecy to try to

tell someone what God has said and try to apply it, but you don't understand it. And so the

application is wrong. Does this make sense? So we got to understand that's not what the passage

says. It's coming out of first Corinthians chapter 10. The passage is very simple. God is not going

to give you so much. He's not going to let temptation be so powerful that you have to

give into it. He's always going to make a way of escape so that you don't have to give into sin.

That's the passage. So don't say God won't give me more than I can handle. That's, that's dumb.

That's not in the scriptures. That might be on a cat poster, but it's not in the scriptures. Okay.

God will always give you more than you can handle. Why? Because he wants you to cling to him.

And if he gave you what you could handle, you don't need him. So it's stupid. It's,

it's stupid. Okay. Sorry. Off my soapbox. Okay. Lesson here is if you are going to use your gift

of prophecy, please do it with understanding.

Please know what you're talking about so that the applications are correct. Okay, good.

Many a teacher needs that lesson, right? Okay. Verse seven, look what it says or ministry.

Who's the person with ministry? Let us use it in our ministry. Well, the word there is,

is the word we get deacon. It means to serve. And so the person with the gift of ministry or

service is going to be the person who focuses on practical ways of helping people. These are the

doers. They are not teachers. They are doers. They're going to try to lighten your load,

right? They're, they're the ones that are going to mow your yard.

And pick up your groceries and shovel your driveway and help watch your kids. And is this

you? Is this your gift? You're like, listen, I don't know how to explain it all, but I'm going

to be there. I'm going to get your mail for you. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know what else

to do, but this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do something practical to help you.

Someone needs help. You're there. You're like, you're building a deck. I'm your guy. And I'm

just going to let all of you know, if you're building a deck, I am not your guy. Letting

over and I will distract you while you're doing that. But I'm not your guy. Okay. So, but some of

you, this is your gift. And so you're like, Hey, you're building the deck. Let me know. That's how

I show love. That's how I use my gifting. Awesome. At this point, you might be saying, can I have

more than one gift? Again, the answer, yes, but probably a primary and then sub sub ones. So the

next one is teaching a verse seven, he, he, or she who teaches in teaching the word teaching

means to convey doctrine. Uh, let me tell you, uh, the person with the gift of teaching, how do I know

if I have the gift of teaching? Because you are always trying to make yourself clear and it's

annoying to everyone. You're always like, no, no, no, no, no. You're not understanding what I'm

saying. I'm always like, Oh, that's a teacher right there, man. That is a teacher. Teachers

are all about understanding. They want you to know what's being said because we genuinely believe

if you think correctly, you will act correctly. It'll change things if you think correctly. So

after you're thinking, that is what a teacher does. Here is what it is. And if you're not there,

we're going to keep working until you are. And that's why we're annoying. Okay. You drive

everybody crazy in your whole life. Cause you're like, wow, you've said it 75 different ways.

And we're like, that's because we're teachers and we're trying to get you to believe this thing.

Even if we're not even right, we're going to keep going. I remember as a kid, I did this all the

time. I really, I had this, I've had this since I was a kid. I remember telling people things,

trying to get them to understand.

And I realized now I had no idea what I was talking about. No idea, but I wanted them to

really understand whatever error I was talking about, you know, and it drove me crazy when

people didn't get it. Is this you?

you're like, you've just unlocked a secret in our marriage, man. Like, yeah, one of you is a

teacher, one of you is not. And one of you is annoying, and I'll let you figure out which one

it is, right? But this is the drive of the teacher. Understanding. Understanding, right?

You say, well, how do I know if I have the gift of teaching? Is this your drive? You need people

to understand. Are people being instructed? Are people listening when you're teaching? You might

have the gift. Well, verse eight talks to you. Encouragers look at verse eight. He who exhorts

in exhortation, is this you? So some of you very natural encouragers, we see you. Your focus is

always on encouraging people. You're helping them to feel loved and seen. The word exhortation means

you come alongside for help. You're trying to help them. It's counsel and it's encouragement.

And it's like, come on, you can let, come on, let's go. Let's move forward. And some of you,

this is your gifting. You do it really well. You're like, all right, we fell down. We're

going to get up. Let's go. Here we go. I'm going to help you along. And so you may not know exactly

what to do to help, but you're going to try to help move someone forward, shoulder the weight

with them, right? Take some of the load so that they can move forward. And some of you, this is

your gift. You're gifted at it. It's wonderful. You're texting, you're calling, you're inviting

yourself over, you're offering help. It's fantastic. Is this your gift? Wonderful. If your goal is to

help people get through what they're going through, it's probably your gift. Okay. Next is

Look at verse eight. He or she who gives with liberality. So this is the person who is a funnel

with their resources rather than a jar. Do you know what I'm talking about? We've talked about

this before. You can either be a jar where everything you have is to be stored up for you

in case of anything, or you're a funnel where God pours through you to other people. The people with

the gift of giving, they want to be funnels. They want God to bless other people through them. So

God just pours into them so that they can pour out to other people and they love it.

They love it. You say, how do I know if I have the gift of giving? Because when you go to gift,

give someone a gift, is it like quick, take it, take it, take it before I think about it. You

know what I mean? Is that, that's probably not your gift. You know, you're like, I'm so glad

they don't pass anything here for the offering. Cause I'm like, Oh Lord, here we go. You know,

probably not your gift. You know, the people that have this gift, they love it. They loved it. And

listen, it has nothing to do with how wealthy you are or not wealthy. It has nothing to do with what

you have. People that have this gift, man, if they have nothing, they still want to bless you.

They're going to, they're going to bring you to their table and they're going to set meals in

front of you. And it's their, they love it. It's a joy to use what they have to bless and help you.

It's beautiful. And so you're told if you have this gift to do it with liberality, with joy,

with freedom, just don't even worry about it. Let the Lord move through you. This is a beautiful

gift. It's a joy for you. It's a blessing for the person. All right. So how about this? Verse

eight, we learned there are some gifted leaders, he or she who leads with diligence. So those

with the gift of leadership, if you have this gift,

very, very focused on setting an example for others to follow. You're like, Hey, come on,

let me show you, let me show you the way this is what you do, right? This is what it is. You want

people to see the path. You want them to get it. You want them to begin to walk themselves.

Leaders, man, they lead in so many different ways. They're focused on people being,

you know, following and going the right way. You say, how do I know if I have the gift of

leadership? Turn around. Is there anybody behind you? You're like, no. Hey, you probably don't

have the gift of leadership. Sorry. But if you turn around and it's like, there's people that

are like, okay, let's go, right? Lead, show the right way. Show people what to do, what to be,

what to say, show them, lead. Follow me as I follow Christ, Paul said. All right. Let's talk

to you feelers. Finally, last one here. Verse eight. Let's talk to you feelers. He or she who

shows mercy with cheerfulness. Is this your gift? The word mercy means you feel, you feel everything.

The people with this gift,

they feel all of your happy. They feel all of your sad. They cry with you. They laugh with you.

They hurt with you. They're stressed with you. That's why you got to be careful with feelers.

You can't be calling them up with all your stress because you're just going to make them stressed.

They thought the world was sunshine and roses till you call. Now, all of a sudden the world's

falling apart. That's exactly right. That's right. They, the, the, the, the, the person with mercy,

they feel everything. Everyone's going through. They're often said they've got big hearts, right?

we

We describe people this way.

They want to love on you.

They don't maybe know what to counsel you or advise you,

but they just want to sit with you.

They'll just be there.

They'll bring you soup when you're sick.

They'll be waiting in the waiting room when you're having surgery.

Like, they're just going to be there with you.

And listen, we need you.

You people with mercy, we need you.

It's okay that you don't know what to say.

Don't worry about it.

Just be in there.

Use your gift.

It's a blessing.

You just be in there.

You don't even realize what that does.

This is a needed gift.

It's given by God, and it's wonderful.

It's wonderful.

So this person, their primary goal is to make you feel better.

Is that you?

Is that your gifting?

You're like, you know what?

I just want them to be okay.

If you're a person with a gift of mercy, you're told to do this with gladness.

Very interesting.

And I think that's because very often you're entering into difficult situations.

You're going into hard stuff, and you are suffering with people.

And so you're told to do it with cheerfulness, with gladness.

Not like, another thing.

You know?

So I close with my favorite illustration of the difference in spiritual gifts that we all possess as Christians.

And it's an imaginary picture, but I love this picture.

It's been great.

So one of my Bible college professors way back in the day said it, and I've always remembered it.

So here's what he said.

He said,

Imagine seven people around a dinner table having dinner together.

The hostess walks in with a dessert tray, and she accidentally trips and spills the tray.

How would the seven people, representing each of the seven guests,

and the seven gifts in Romans chapter 12, respond to the spilled dessert?

The person with the gift of prophecy would say,

Well, that's what happens when you're not careful.

Their motivation is to convict people of their wrongdoing, of their sin.

So, okay.

The person with the gift of serving might say,

I will help you clean this up.

They have the desire to meet a practical need.

The person with the gift of teaching might say,

Well, the reason that it fell is that you put too many things on this side of the tray

and needed to be able to clean it up.

If you balance it out on the other side of the tray, the weight wasn't correct.

You need to work on that.

They want to clarify truth.

The person with the gift of exhortation would say,

Next time, we could actually serve the meal and the dessert at the same time.

Then we don't have to worry about it.

We reduce the number of trays, and no problem.

Their goal is a practical solution to the problem.

The person with the gift of giving will say,

Hold on, I'll go buy a new dessert.

I love that.

They use their personal assets to meet a practical need.

The person with the gift of mercy would respond by hugging the hostess

and saying,

It's okay, honey. Don't feel badly.

It could happen to anyone.

She doesn't care about the dessert or the seven people around the table.

She's empathizing with the person who is in distress at that moment.

And then the person with the gift of leading would respond by saying,

Bob, you get some towels to wipe up the table.

Mary, grab the mop on the floor.

Jane, help me fix another dessert, right?

I mean, where do you fall?

Where do you fall?

And that's a simple example.

But beautiful to see, right?

The ways that these things are.

You have a gift.

Are you using it?

Unto the glory of God and for the benefit of other people.

Use your gifts.

And God will enable it.

And God will bring fruit.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for your faithfulness to us and your love.

Thank you for gifting us, Lord, in amazing ways.

We're grateful.

Lord, we recognize, though, that the greatest gift is you.

You gave yourself to us.

You came and died on that cross for our sin,

giving yourself up for us that we might be saved.

Lord, I pray for any person here today or watching that doesn't know you.

I pray that they would turn to you now and trust you.

Turn to Jesus this morning if you have not.

He's listening to you.

Turn to him and admit your need for forgiveness and salvation.

He will hear you and he will save.

We love you, Lord.

We thank you for loving us.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

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