Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
The Role of Spiritual Gifts in the Church | Rev. Paul
Are spiritual gifts signs of spiritual maturity? Paul’s words to the Corinthians reveal a deeper truth: the Spirit’s gifts aren’t for self-promotion but for glorifying Christ and building up the church.
[0:17] All right, loved ones, may I invite you to take a seat and take your Bible out. We're going to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We're going to read verses 1 through 11. We're navigating into spiritual gifts. And something I want to validate, there are certain passages of Scripture that are all about your growth. Now, I know you could say, isn't that true of all of Scripture? That's true. But there's certain passages of Scripture that are really targeted toward breaking out of maybe a paradigm or a mold that you've been in to move into more of what God would have for you as an individual and who we are as a church. And this is one of those passages this morning. And in light of where this text goes, I don't know if you know this, a lot of times Missy and I don't get out of here on Sunday, and we delight in this, what I'm about to say, it's not a negative, it's a positive. A lot of times we don't leave here till after one o'clock. And I promise you, I'm not keeping you to one, but we're hanging out, praying with people, encouraging people. And what I want you to know that we're going to do that again today.
[1:33] It's not a counseling time. I want to be very clear. If you come up and say, hey, I've got a deep issue, want to encourage you. I care. I love you very much. and I'll help you. But we're really, the main thing is just prayer and encouragement. In light of where the text goes today, I want you to know that both Grant and I and other members of the pastoral staff that may be present, we're going to linger after the service to pray with people in light of where the text takes us. And that will become explanatory as we journey together. So hear God's Word. We're going to journey through the first 11 verses of chapter 12.
[2:13] Paul writes, now concerning spiritual gifts, sisters and brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord, and there varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all and everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles.
[3:03] To another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another, various kinds of tongues, to another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. And so before we pray for a moment, let me say a word just about the way that section of Scripture opens, because Paul is addressing people who were first-generation Christians who've come out of patterns of worshiping pagan gods at temples. And so this gives you a little bit of understanding of why he would say, you know, that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols. However, you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is a curse and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now, that may sound like holy gobbledygook in a sense to some of you, but what he's doing there is helping Christians and helping us understand that the Holy Spirit will never.
[4:08] Denigrate Jesus, that the Holy Spirit will never tear down Jesus. He'll only exalt Jesus. And we're going to pray into that right now. Jesus, thank you that you have sent the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit to fill us, to empower us, to activate us for ministry. and you've also given gifts. And as we honor the presence of the Holy Spirit, we pray along, Lord, with the inclination, the desire of our heart, make much of Jesus, make much of God the Father, make much of the work of the gospel. We pray in the name and power of Jesus, amen.
[4:50] We all know as we've been journeying together, there's a lot of brokenness and tension, dysfunction going on in the church at Corinth. And when we get to this passage of scripture today, where Paul goes, and by the way, he's responding to them because they've shared that there are problems at the Corinthian church by letter. And so now he begins addressing the use of spiritual gifts in the church at Corinth. Let me list for you the gifts that he lists. He lists the gift of wisdom, the spiritual gift of knowledge, that is a word of knowledge that God may give to someone in a circumstance. I'm going to circle back to that in a minute. The gift of faith, the gift of healing, the gift of miracles, the gift of prophecy, the gift of discernment, the gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation of tongues. I want you to know today, I'm not going to bore down into all of these, and that may be a comfort to some of you. I'm going to do that in about five weeks. We'll go a lot richer, deeper in these.
[6:00] And the reason we're waiting five weeks is we're about to take a break for a fall stewardship series. And so we'll pick it up in several weeks. But I am going to address some of these that we'll circle back to in a moment. But what's important for all of us to be aware of is that a lot of us have read this passage and we think that spiritual gifts are the problem at the church at Corinth.
[6:27] Spiritual gifts are not the problem at Corinth. If I wanted to have a cheesy moment, I would say turn to your neighbor and say spiritual gifts are not the problem at Corinth. But we don't do cheese. At least we don't do it today. I'm going to try not to. Thank you. But what's happening at the church is that they're operating in the flesh. That is the problem, not spiritual gifts. It's the church operating in their flesh rather than operating in the gift of the power of the person of the Holy Spirit. So let's ask a couple of elementary questions on the front end. First of all, what are spiritual gifts? Let's define that together.
[7:07] Spiritual gifts are supernatural abilities given by the Holy Spirit to glorify God and build up the body. In other words, when spiritual gifts are in their proper operation, and this list that you saw today is only about a third of the spiritual gifts that are listed in Scripture, but when they're in operation, when you come to church and you're fellowshipping in the lobby or in a Sunday school class or a prayer group or even gathered here to worship, and when you fellowship with one another, when they're functioning, you find that people are built up, encouraged. There's bread for the soul that's coming from Jesus that's being enhanced. And so spiritual gifts are supernatural abilities by the Holy Spirit, given by the Holy Spirit, to bring glory to God and also build up the body of Christ. The Greek word for that is where we get the word edify, to build up. But there's a second question that we should ask that's relevant to this topic. If that's what spiritual gifts are, what are they not?
[8:11] And so spiritual gifts are not natural abilities, even though natural abilities, when they're yielded to God, can bring much fruit for the glory of God. Let's think about the mind of a C.S. Lewis. He had a very keen mind, Tim Keller. We could go on and on, many. And because they yielded their natural abilities to God, God used those profoundly to build up and strengthen and advance the kingdom of God. But what's important for us all to recognize is that Paul is not teaching that the church should back away from spiritual gifts. He is teaching that the Corinthian church needs to exercise spiritual gifts properly. Now, let's take a moment to validate the following. I would say there's a strong likelihood that there is a significant number of people within in the sound of my voice, that you have bumped up against somebody—this may not apply to everybody—but somebody practicing a spiritual gift, particularly some of the ones that have been listed here this morning, and you had less than a positive takeaway. Is that fair to say?
[9:27] Some of you may have bumped up against what we would call charismatic expressions of Christianity, and some of you have not had positive experiences. Now, this is called a moment where Pastor Paul's getting a broom out and he's trying to trim some things up for our understanding. Here it is. All of us biblically, okay, as a Christian, biblically, all of us should be classically charismatic. And what I mean by that is that when the Bible teaches us that God has given gifts of the Holy Spirit, those are things we should embrace. Amen? I felt your enthusiasm, okay? But I also, I want to be lovingly serious with you that you're going to see that the scriptures are very clear that this is something we should embrace. But what's happened is that parts of the body of Christ, I'm not talking about here at Christ Church, I'm just talking in general, rather than embracing what is biblically sound.
[10:36] Charismata, we've seen expressions of what I would call charismania. It's almost like what theologian Bon Jovi once said, you give love a bad name. And there are parts of the body of Christ, when we talk about spiritual gifts, have operated or even behaved in such a way that they've given spiritual gifts a bad name. And so it's important to recognize when we're reading this text that there are already divisions in the Corinthian church, and we're realizing that it's the improper use of spiritual gifts blended with an element of ignorance. And you think, pastor, is that too strong a word? Well, you're going to see that this is what the way Paul's addressing it, and that is magnifying the divisions and tensions in the church, not because spiritual gifts are in operation, but because they're in the flesh. And some of the Corinthians in the church are claiming to be spiritually superior. In other words, spiritual elites because of the operation of their spiritual gift flowing through their life, which again is a symptom of operating in the flesh. They are living, rather than Christ on the throne with selflessness, they are living in a world of comparison. And that fuels some unhealthy thought patterns. Let me explain.
[12:04] All right. Like some of you, I grew up in a sports loving family. My dad, my real father coached a lot. I, again, as you've heard me say from time to time, I have no athletic glory stories in associated with my name. I was an average athlete. I would, but I was very competitive. And when my kids, our kids played sports, I coached them from time to time. And you can judge me for this. You might say, well, pastor, I'll pray for you more, but I'm just being honest. I would say to them, I'm not a fan of participation trophies. Forgive me for that. Okay, I'm asking for grace. Please don't walk out.
[12:47] And I would say to my sons, okay, boys, there's a scoreboard. It's there for a reason. All right? So we're going to win with grace. We'll lose with class. But that's there for a reason. And so, but I'm competitive and I'm just saying, I'm just being truthful. And so if some of you don't relate to that, maybe you were the person when the test scores were handed out, you turned to the person in the desk next to you and said, what'd you make? But there's a part of us that's like this. Now, when Missy and I started dating, I only recall three times where we had tension in our relationship. One, I was, again, brand new believer, and I was reading the scripture without taking it into context. And she very lovingly said, Paul, you're taking it out of context. And in my pride, I'm like, I'm the one God's called to preach. And in my pride, I bowed up and it created tension. I was wrong. She was right, like every time. But I was wrong. She was right. And that was one. But the other two times of tension were very fleshy. That one was, but these two were extremely fleshy. Auburn beat Alabama in football.
[14:02] You see, we were dating, and Auburn had a brand-new coach named Pat Dye and a guy named Bo Jackson. And Auburn went out and beat Alabama for the first time in years. And for an hour, I couldn't talk. I couldn't talk to her. Competitive. She's an Auburn fan. She's on the other team. And it was irritating enough, all the way through the game, she's cheering for Auburn, and then they win, and I just shut down. And then, while we're dating, Missy's a good athlete, by the way, While we're dating, we go bowling, and she beats me.
[14:38] And I mean, it's a very quiet ride home. And here's what I'm getting. I think you can clearly see it. I'm so competitive that it is shutting down relationship with a person other than Jesus that I love more than anybody. I'm so competitive that when my team loses, I'm in a bad mood for an hour plus. Loved ones, I have an idol. Now, I want you to know Jesus has set me free. He has. When Alabama loses now, I'm over it in four minutes. Well, maybe five. Okay.
[15:20] But I'm just—some of the people in this room, you have this problem. This is not, I know I'm not the only one, but I can tell you honestly that the Holy Spirit early in my Christian journey began convicting me for that, and realizing I had an idol and my idols had layers. My idol was my team. My idol was winning. My idol was competitiveness. And I can share with you that that died when I yielded that to the Lord. Now I can enjoy sports, and it's not an idol. I can enjoy the Grizzlies, which we were fans of before we moved here. I can enjoy the Grizzlies. I can enjoy my football team, but it's not an idol. I can compete, but it doesn't destroy me anymore. In fact, loved ones, there's a place in me where I delight to see others bloom. I delight in it. And you know what? It's liberating. It feels good. My mind and my heart have been set free by Christ, but loved ones, what I'm illustrating is that kind of spirit was in the Corinthian church, a competitive spirit, a competitive, comparison-based, envy and jealousy-fueling, self-exalting, me-first spirit, and that kind of spirit was also in the disciples at one point because Jesus is correcting them more than once around the thread, who's the greatest?
[16:49] We recognize that it took well into the book of Acts when they were filled with the Holy Spirit for them to be liberated. But here's where I'm going, because this is what the problem was at the church at Corinth. You can operate in your gift, but still be in the flesh. That's what's happening at Corinth. They're operating in spiritual gifts, gifts of God, but they're in the flesh. This is where some of us have asked good logical questions through the years when we've bumped up against people that are operating in their gifting. How can she seem so spiritual with her gifts but be such a gossip? How can he be so prophetic in one moment but use such crude humor in the next? How can this person seem so effective with their gift but so prideful in exalting themselves? These were the patterns happening at Corinth. And so in light of that, let me give you, share with you a kingdom principle. Here it is.
[17:48] Spiritual gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity. So important that we learn that. Let me say that again. Spiritual gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity. A truly spiritual person is Christ-centered, not gift-centered. They're about Jesus and about loving Jesus and loving people. They're not about their gifting. They don't exalt their gifting. If the mark of true spirituality is Jesus-centeredness, Christ-centeredness, rather than self-centeredness and gift focus, then the focus will be on bringing glory to God, building others up, serving others around you, edifying them, serving them, not promoting self.
[18:36] Character. Christ-like character is the greatest sign of spiritual maturity. Christ-like character and Christ-like actions, which in a sense are synonymous. Now, here, I want to invite you, think with me for just a minute. Let's do this. Let's come, as the Bible says, come, let us reason together. It is no coincidence that the four times that spiritual gifts are mentioned in the New Testament, it is not a coincidence that every single context in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4, it is not a coincidence that all four times Paul writes about these in the context of love, and the word there is agape. Again, self-sacrifice, esteeming, honoring God and esteeming others better than yourself.
[19:30] Love. This is exactly why Paul writes 1 Corinthians 12, spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 13, meat in the sandwich, where he writes about love, the love chapter, which we're going to get to, and he describes what it looks like. And then he moves back to 1 Corinthians 14 and addresses the church in more detail about the proper practice of spiritual gifts in her life together. And we're reminded that God is more interested in the development of your Christ-like character than he is in the expression of his gifts, because God knows that when spiritual gifts are combined with Christ-like character and a humble pattern of abiding in Jesus Christ, then the beauty of his witness will be manifested in greater measure through the use of spiritual gifts. This is why Paul says, look with me at verse 1. Now concerning spiritual gifts, sisters and brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. Now, here's the thing. What that tells us is that you need to be informed about spiritual gifts. Now, there's a problem.
[20:46] The problem is, and this is anecdotal, when I'm with the body of Christ, and it's not just here at Christ Church, it's in just North America, and I ask Christians, people who've been in church, many of them decades, what are your spiritual gifts? I get answers that go like this. People start talking about their Myers-Briggs survey or their Kersey survey or their DISC profile, and that's good. Those are great tools, but there's a naiveness among the body of Jesus Christ around spiritual gifts. A lot of Christians, too many Christians do not know what their spiritual gifts are. Look with me at the Word of God. I do not want you to be uninformed. In the 14th chapter, verse 1, Paul will say this to Christians.
[21:39] Earnestly desire spiritual gifts. Now think about what God's saying to you this morning, right now, in this moment. Sister, brother, son, daughter, I don't want you to be uninformed about this. I don't want you to be ignorant. Also, I want you to earnestly desire this so that you are manifesting the ministry of Jesus Christ. So process that. We have a lot of thinkers in our congregation. Process that, loved one. Process that in a holy unto God manner. And imagine what the church would look like if the body understands what her spiritual gifts are and operates in them. So I've got, here's an action item. Ready?
[22:23] Tomorrow morning in words from Pastor Paul, there will be a link to a spiritual gifts assessment. And I want to encourage you, if you don't know what your spiritual gifts are, just click that link. It'll take you 12 minutes to fill out the survey, and you're going to know something about yourself after you take that. You're going to know what your spiritual gifts are. I want to encourage you to do that. Now, loved ones, hear this quote from Sinclair Ferguson. He said, when we exercise the gifts which Christ has given us, we really are saying to our fellow Christians and others. See how much the Lord Jesus Christ loves you and cares for you. He has sent me to serve you in this way. He is using my hands and feet, my lips and ears to show his love. It is a tragic mistake if we think that the message is, see what a superb Christian I am. See the wonderful gifts I have. Gifts are for service, not for self-advancement. Glory to God. Now, here's a question.
[23:20] This is so elementary. I I confess that on the front end. You are aware that as a believer, you were designed to manifest the presence of God.
[23:32] That's a strong word, but you are designed by God to manifest the presence of God. Now, it's possible you're going, that's for other people. I don't know that I can do that. But if you have put your faith in Jesus, if you were birthed into the kingdom, this is what God through his servant Paul says about you. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Now, what that means is, loved one, you have the manifestation of the Holy Spirit living in you. Can somebody say amen to that? Listen, this is kind of a growth study this morning, and I realize it's a little different. But you have the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in you. That's what God has declared about your life. And spiritual gifts are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Now, that word manifestation is one I use a lot, but let me give you the definition out of a Greek-English lexicon. The definition of manifestation is a clear indication of the existence or presence or nature of some person or thing. So a spiritual gift is a clear expression of the Holy Spirit in a believer. Now, you may remember ago when we read the list of spiritual gifts. This list is primarily a supernatural list. Let me say a few words about this, and then I want to share a couple of stories with you.
[24:57] As Westerners, when we read that, that's outside of our paradigm for most of us. That's outside of our box. And so we read things like God giving someone a supernatural word of wisdom or knowledge or a healing taking place or a miracle. That's outside our box. Now, if we were to journey outside of Western culture, that's not a big leap for people because outside of Western culture, where they haven't, their culture has not been fueled by enlightenment thinking, that's not as big a hurdle for people around the world to step through, for lack of better terms. Church family, I would remind you or highlight.
[25:50] That God has not stopped being God. I would highlight that what the scripture says about God, God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And every now and then, I've heard a pastor in Western culture who says, I hold to the Word of God. We should never lift experience over the Word of God. And I would agree with that. That the Word of God, we should submit to the authority of Scripture. I agree with that. But bear with me. Let me illustrate this because this is relevant for somebody. And the tools of interpretation of Scripture, of not elevating their experience over Scripture, applies until they get to this. and they began to reason, are you seeing people healed? No. Are you seeing miracles happen? No. Therefore, that just all died out with the apostles. And I want to submit to you that miracles do happen around the world that God has done. And I want to submit to you that they happen here in Western culture. I am not one of those that says, when I go overseas, I see God do wonderful things that don't happen in North America. I would submit to you, they do happen in North America, but what happens when they happen here, we rationalize them. That we have a way sometimes of dumbing them down to the natural, and therefore we diminish the glory of God. Let me give you an example, word of knowledge.
[27:17] And I have shared this with you on numerous occasions, but a lot of us can hear it. Well, what a fascinating coincidence. But when God led us to Memphis, there were three different people over a series of six months that had a word of knowledge for us, and that is that God had spoken something to them about our circumstance, and those three individuals who were all mature Christ followers said to me on three different occasions, Paul, I think God is getting ready to shift you. Now, I confess that, that I am worthy of having a dunce cap put on my head because I didn't connect those. And I want to be honest and tell you that it didn't sink in until God began to speak to me. But what I'm illustrating is that here in the West, there are things that happen that align with the revelation that we have in this passage, and we need to pay attention. Let me give you another one. Is that legal? May I do that? I'm going to anyway, but I'm just trying to be kind.
[28:31] This one I've shared with you before, and I shared it recently in our small group. But when I was a brand new believer and my pastor strongly recommended that I leave the school that I was enrolled in and move to a private liberal arts Christian college because he knew I was so green and I needed help, he was right, and I transferred to Asbury College, which is now Asbury University. And during finals, I got very, very sick. And I'm trying to study, and my head is pounding. My body's fluish. I've got a fever. I've been to the clinic. It's not helping. And I'm very sick. And I remember the morning I was the most sick, a friend of mine named Mark Feller, who lived on the hall in the dorm, said, Paul, we're going to pray for you tonight for God to heal you. And I remember that my flesh kind of reacted. Who were you to say that, blah, blah, blah. And I just kind of bowed up a little bit. That's my old nature, just bowing up, my naivete, my pride. But that night, I'm feeling even worse.
[29:41] And Mark opens the door and a couple of guys come around me and help me walk down the hall, put me in a chair, and they begin to sing over me. And I could sense God's presence. I sometimes call God's presence liquid love. I could just sense this liquid love that was just present, manifestation. And one of the brothers, I think it was Mark, he says, Paul, we're going to pray for you. But while we pray for you, just so your heart's in harmony with the Lord, would you, I know you don't feel good, but would you begin praising Jesus? Would you be willing to do that? And you know what? you have to let go of your pride. Because here I am, sick as a dog, and I'm like sitting here in front of these people that I'm really just getting to know. And you notice how awkward it is? You're just going to sit here and go, praise you, Jesus. Praise you, Jesus. Praise you, Jesus. But let me share with you, as I reflect on that.
[30:42] I was taking a step of faith. And it's not that it's up to your faith, but God honors faith. That doesn't mean he always heals. We're going to get to that. But I was taking a step of faith. Praise you, Jesus. Praise you, Jesus. And they put their hands on my shoulders and they began to pray. And the liquid love that I was describing intensified. His presence, his manifest presence is beautiful. Comfort, peace, a sense of joy, and I felt my headache begin to just loosen. I literally heard these little pops. My headache just diminished, completely gone. This presence of Jesus just drew near, and my body began to—the fever broke. I felt good. It was all in a matter of minutes. I mean, I felt as good as I feel right now, and that's pretty good. I felt good. And I got up in a matter of minutes, and he healed me. Now, here's a question.
[32:00] Since that time, I've probably, I don't know how many people I've prayed for to be healed, including my own children when they're sick, including my wife when she's ill, and God hasn't healed. And if you want to ask me, you want to ask me the question, Pastor Paul, why does God not always heal? Listen, here's my fancy theological answer. I don't know. But I do know this. More people get healed when we pray for people to be healed than when we don't pray for people to be healed.
[32:34] Amen, child. And so we recognize, what I'm affirming is that as Christians who are products of the Western Enlightenment, We need to recognize that our God's enchanted enough, and I mean that in a reverent way, to move supernaturally at times.
[32:58] And we don't need to be closed off to that because it's a part of his gifts. Those are not what we've looked at today. These are not all spiritual gifts. There are many more, but we recognize, again, 1 Corinthians 7, To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, to build up the body of Christ, to edify you so that when you're together, we're not thinking about my needs, but we're honoring others and pouring into others. And spiritual gifts are given to every Christian. It may or may not be the ones on this list. It may be on the list that come in other sections of Scripture, but every believer has spiritual gifts. And they're not just for special, silting six Christians. No, they're for everybody. That's what the scripture says. Young people, older people, middle-aged people, female, male.
[33:53] Every race, every ethnicity for the glory of God. So as we wrap up, let me say this, church, this has been kind of a growth teaching. I recognize that. But as we learn about spiritual gifts and as we move toward the ministry fair on September 28, may I help you prepare for a moment as you're praying and discerning how God may lead you? Can we put the acronym up here, tech team? And what I want to encourage you to do is to discover and explore what we would call your shape for ministry. All of us have a ministry. The Bible says we live in what's called the priesthood of all believers. I am not, because I stand on a platform, that doesn't make me superior in any way. The ground's level at the foot of the cross.
[34:39] Amen good talking with you and so first of all you need to discover what your spiritual gifts are and if you don't know tomorrow morning's word from pastor paul click the link and take the assessment all right so need to learn that remember uh don't want you to be uninformed earnestly desire spiritual gifts that's right out of the bible secondly what's your heart for ministry. As you follow Jesus, what's your heart for ministry? Do you have a heart for children and children learning to read in our city or in ministry here on our campus? What's your heart for ministry? Is it students? Is it adults? Is it unwed mothers?
[35:25] Again, the list goes on and on. What is your heart? What's your heart drawn to? Discern that. Pray into that. God, what's my heart drawn to? A, what are your abilities? What are you good at? You know, some people, you have a natural ability to organize things. Some of you, your natural abilities are you like to connect people together. You know, that kind of thing. Just what are your abilities? What are you good at? What's your personality? Are you an introvert? In other words, when you see people coming and you're in conversation, it drains you. Are you an extrovert? And if you're an extrovert, you know, there's some things you should think about lining up with. Like we always, you know, having greeters at doors on our campus, it matters, church. You ever walked into a dinner party and you don't know anybody and you're standing there and nobody's talking to you? The Bible's full of the spiritual gift of hospitality as well as utilizing it for the glory of God. And if you're that kind of person, you make a great difference in the lives of people in building a bridge with them so they have the opportunity not only to hear the gospel and respond to it, but also be a part of the body of Christ and much, much more. What's your personality wired for? And then finally, what are your experiences? What experiences have you had that gear you for particular types of ministry? Loved ones, you've probably heard the cliche, God never wastes a hurt.
[36:52] Some of you have been through some tragedies and some very dark challenges in your life that God has redeemed, that you've gotten to the other side and you look back and it hurt like you know what. But God was faithful to you. He's healed you. He's done a work. But now your life, your part of your purpose is bringing glory to God by helping others walked through what it is you walked through or what you walked through similarly years ago. This is a part of how God's redemption works for his glory. So final assignment as we wrap up, really for real, it's not just preacher talk. We're really wrapping up. But first, three things to do. One, discover your spiritual gifts. Number two, develop your spiritual gifts. Once you know what they are, labor to pray into them. Develop them as you grow in relationship with Christ, and then dedicate the direction of the utilizing spiritual gifts, not only to bring glory to God, but to build up the body of Christ and to minister to a hurting and broken world. So church, all of us in this room, you know that God sent, emphasis on that word, sent Jesus.
[38:10] Let me ask you a question. Do you know the purpose of your life? I mean, really, if somebody walked up to you and says, what's your purpose? Do you know the purpose of your life? Let me quote a Bible verse.
[38:25] God uses everything for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And I want to remind you, that's a great Bible verse. But I say it shouldn't be quoted without quoting the next verse, because people don't know the good that God is after. Because good doesn't mean that we don't have trial and tribulation.
[38:46] Good is the good that God's after is something far more significant. So let's quote that verse with the next one, that God uses everything for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Therefore, those he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, Jesus Christ. The good that he's after is developing you into the image of Jesus. That's the good he's after. That's your purpose, to know him and fellowship with him. And then out of your purpose of him developing you and using the classroom of your circumstance to develop you in this life into Christ's likeness, you have a mission. And your mission is fulfilled, your salty mission for Jesus is fulfilled through the development of the character of Jesus in your life and the gifts, spiritual gifts of Jesus in your life. And it's this twofold combination that empowers saltiness at your office, in this city, in this nation and beyond, and in the ministry of the local church. God, give us grace to hear and grace to apply and to integrate for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let's pray.
[40:07] So God, I again pray for each of these people that you love so deeply. And sometimes I tremble because I realize I'm standing before people that are made in your image. and that makes this moment holy, holy. And I pray that the word would not come back empty and void, but would sow deeply into the hearts and minds of these that have been made in your image and mold and shape us individually and as families and as a church into a loving force for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.