The Joy of Giving: How Spiritual Gifts Transform Lives
Join Pastor Josh Massaro as he explores the vital theme of giving, particularly focusing on the spiritual gifts bestowed upon believers for service and ministry. Emphasizing that it is better to give than to receive, Pastor Josh encourages listeners to reflect on how they can utilize their unique gifts to serve others and glorify God. He discusses the importance of humility and selflessness in the Christian life, illustrating how true service stems from living in the grace of God. As the church approaches the end of the year, this message serves as a powerful reminder to shift our focus from personal gain to communal support and encouragement. Tune in for insights on how to actively engage in ministry and embody the spirit of giving during this Christmas season.
The sermon delivered by Pastor Josh Massaro at Middletown Baptist Church presents a compelling call to action for believers to recognize and utilize their spiritual gifts in service to others. As the church gathers in the spirit of the Christmas season, Pastor Josh reflects on the true meaning of giving, urging congregants to shift their focus from mere reception to active participation in sharing God's grace. Drawing from personal experiences, he illustrates the journey from a child’s excitement over receiving gifts to an adult’s joy in giving, particularly in the context of his own children's experiences during the holidays. This narrative sets the stage for a deeper exploration of how Christians are called to share the gifts they have received from God, especially the gift of salvation.
Throughout the sermon, Pastor Josh references pivotal scripture passages, including Acts 20 and 1 Peter 4, to emphasize the biblical principles that underscore the importance of service. He eloquently argues that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and that true fulfillment comes from using one's spiritual gifts for the benefit of others. The pastor challenges the congregation to adopt a selfless attitude, reminding them that spiritual gifts are not merely for personal enrichment but are intended to edify the church and promote unity among believers. He encourages each member to reflect on their unique gifts and consider how they can serve their community, highlighting the diverse ways in which these gifts can manifest within the church.
As the sermon culminates, Pastor Josh invites the congregation to take an introspective look at their roles within the body of Christ. He emphasizes that every believer has been endowed with at least one spiritual gift, which should be exercised in faith and humility. The message resonates with a sense of urgency as he calls on church members to prepare for the new year, urging them to step out in faith and embrace their calling to serve. The overall theme of the sermon is a reminder that the essence of Christianity lies not in what one can receive, but in the profound joy that comes from giving and serving others, thereby glorifying God through their actions.
Takeaways:
- The greatest gifts we receive from God are grace, love, and forgiveness, which we must share.
- As believers, we are called to not only receive God's gifts but to actively give them.
- Understanding spiritual gifts helps us serve others effectively, promoting unity in the church body.
- Maturity in faith shifts our focus from receiving gifts to giving to others.
- The process of sanctification involves moving from self-centeredness to serving others selflessly.
- Service in the church requires humility and a sober perspective on our gifts.
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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/
00:00 - None
00:23 - Focusing on Gifts
04:10 - The Transition from Receiving to Giving
10:42 - Introduction to Spiritual Gifts
15:53 - The Body of Christ: Unity in Diversity
22:53 - Understanding Spiritual Gifts and Natural Talents
28:22 - The Gift of Prophecy
35:53 - Understanding Spiritual Gifts in Service
40:16 - Understanding Spiritual Gifts and Their Purpose
46:53 - Understanding Spiritual Gifts and Their True Purpose
51:45 - Embracing Discipleship for Growth
55:40 - The Call to Serve: Embracing Our Spiritual Gifts
Pastor Josh
Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Pastor Josh
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
Pastor Josh
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.
Pastor Josh
Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
Pastor Josh
As we come to the end of the year, we've been focusing on gifts.
Pastor Josh
We've been focusing on what God has given us, specifically in the gift of salvation.
Pastor Josh
Now we know that as a believer, the greatest gift that we can ever receive is the grace of God, the love of God, the forgiveness of God.
Pastor Josh
That is the gospel message.
Pastor Josh
And that is something that we all must rejoice in, that we all must be excited in, because the Bible challenges us to take that gospel message and share that with those around us.
Pastor Josh
We can't avoid that teaching in our Scriptures, right, that we have received the gift.
Pastor Josh
And now the challenge is for us to, yes, be recipients of that gift, beneficiaries of that gift, but also ones that are going to be able to share that gift with those around us.
Pastor Josh
And so this month we've been studying so far the gift of God in his grace in salvation.
Pastor Josh
That's the greatest gift, the greatest gift that we could ever receive.
Pastor Josh
But we're also going to study here for the next few weeks how we can be recipients of that grace and salvation, but also recipients of gifts that we can use to minister or to serve others.
Pastor Josh
And I want to take you to a few passages of scripture that kind of set that up so that we get to our main text.
Pastor Josh
You can have some context and you can have some background.
Pastor Josh
Okay, so the first passage of scripture we're going to look at is Acts, chapter 20.
Pastor Josh
You weren't expecting to go to the Book of Acts here on Christmas week, but that's what we're going to do because we're going to be looking at gifts and we're going to look at the perspective of being a gift giver, right?
Pastor Josh
How can we be a grace giver?
Pastor Josh
Now, we talked about this on the first Sunday of the month, how we can give with the material blessings that God has given us.
Pastor Josh
Certainly God has blessed us with material things, and we can take those things as stewards of God's gifts and give to the church, give to those in need.
Pastor Josh
But what we're going to talk about here for the next two weeks is the spiritual gifts that God has given us in our lives to serve others, to.
Pastor Josh
To preach the gospel to minister to those in need and to edify and to encourage those around us.
Pastor Josh
And so I.
Pastor Josh
I mentioned this last week, but I.
Pastor Josh
I kind of want to use this as an analogy again.
Pastor Josh
When I was growing up, Christmas time was all about what I could get, right?
Pastor Josh
So all year, I was getting my Christmas list ready, making sure that, you know, I got everything that I wanted.
Pastor Josh
And Christmas was all about me.
Pastor Josh
Okay?
Pastor Josh
It was all about me getting something.
Pastor Josh
And you say that sounds pretty selfish.
Pastor Josh
Well, I am an only child, and so that's kind of how it goes.
Pastor Josh
Okay?
Pastor Josh
So it was all about me.
Pastor Josh
And I was like, yes, what am I going to get this year?
Pastor Josh
And then Christmas would come, I'd rip open the presents, I would be excited, and I can't wait to tell my friends, I can't wait to tell everyone at school what I got.
Pastor Josh
And it was all about me.
Pastor Josh
But then as we got older, as I got older, the maturity level changed, and it wasn't all about me.
Pastor Josh
It was now about my children.
Pastor Josh
And now how I could find a way to make my children have that same excitement, right?
Pastor Josh
I want to share with my children what I got to experience, that excitement of Christmas getting a gift.
Pastor Josh
And so it wasn't so much about, well, what am I going to get this year?
Pastor Josh
It was more about.
Pastor Josh
The conversation in our house was like this, what are we going to get the kids this year?
Pastor Josh
Number one, what can we afford this year?
Pastor Josh
And what.
Pastor Josh
What.
Pastor Josh
What do we want to have in our house for the rest of the year?
Pastor Josh
You know, some of those gifts that you get that you don't always think about the implication of it later.
Pastor Josh
It might be really loud or you might step on in the middle of the night.
Pastor Josh
How many of you ever stepped on a Lego in the middle of the night?
Pastor Josh
That's not.
Pastor Josh
That is one of the most painful experiences I've ever had.
Pastor Josh
Okay?
Pastor Josh
But the idea for us now, as mature parents, hopefully we would say that we are, is that it's all about other people.
Pastor Josh
It's about others.
Pastor Josh
And that's what the Christian life's about, right?
Pastor Josh
At first, when we taste of the grace of God, when we hear the gospel, we're all excited, and we should be, yes, I'm saved.
Pastor Josh
Yes, I am a beneficiary of God's grace.
Pastor Josh
And so it is all about my transformation.
Pastor Josh
But in the process of that transformation, we.
Pastor Josh
We've studied that there is that spiritual growth process, what we call sanctification.
Pastor Josh
And in that sanctification process, the focus goes from what I can get to what I can give as God has given me.
Pastor Josh
And so we get to this passage here in the book of acts, Acts chapter 20, and we're going to go all the way down to the end of the chapter and we're going to look at verse number 32, verse 32, and we're going to see this perspective of, you know, actually as a believer, as we have received the grace of God, it's better that we give than we actually receive.
Pastor Josh
And so it's a humbled focus.
Pastor Josh
It's a selfless submission to what God has called us to do in service.
Pastor Josh
So first excuse, let's look at this here in Acts chapter 20.
Pastor Josh
Then we'll go to First Peter, Acts chapter 20, verse 32 says, and now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
Pastor Josh
So this speaks of we are the ones that are built up in the grace of God.
Pastor Josh
Then he says, I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.
Pastor Josh
You know, to be a good gift giver, you can't be coveting other people's stuff.
Pastor Josh
You can't be so focused on what you want and what you can get from other people.
Pastor Josh
It's all about what you can give to other people.
Pastor Josh
And that humility says, I've showed you all things how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak.
Pastor Josh
And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Pastor Josh
I want you to think about that phrase there at the end of that verse.
Pastor Josh
It is more blessed to give than receive.
Pastor Josh
And the concept of this.
Pastor Josh
I believe that what is being taught here is that thing that we see in Philippians chapter two, that that selfless humility of Christ that that we should be looking for opportunities to minister to other people, to build other people up.
Pastor Josh
We are going to naturally be built up in Christ if we are abiding in Him.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says that if we live in Christ, if we live in his word, if we commune with him, if we fellowship with him, we are going to be built up and established in our faith.
Pastor Josh
We are going to be strengthened, we're going to be encouraged, we're going to be comforted, we're going to have all of those things that God promises us.
Pastor Josh
But that's not to hold to ourselves, that is to share with other people around us.
Pastor Josh
And so I want you to look with me to first Peter, chapter four.
Pastor Josh
So we're in Acts, chapter 20.
Pastor Josh
We're going to move to first Peter, chapter four, and we're going to kind of build this case to the spiritual gifts being lived out within our church.
Pastor Josh
So let's look at First Peter, chapter four, and we're going to look at verse number 10 and 11.
Pastor Josh
This kind of explains to us the perspective that we are to have as God gifts us with spiritual gifts that we are to share and minister to others in.
Pastor Josh
So let's go ahead and look at 1 Peter, chapter 4, and look at verse number 10 and 11.
Pastor Josh
So we've already established this idea that when we abide in Christ, we are living in his grace, we are living in his forgiveness, we are living in his love, we are living in his power.
Pastor Josh
And then we.
Pastor Josh
We then see in verse 10, it says, as every man hath received the gift.
Pastor Josh
And so here, obviously he's talking about salvation, but more than just salvation, he's talking about a spiritual gift of service.
Pastor Josh
We're going to see that here in a few moments.
Pastor Josh
So he says, you've received salvation and now you received a gift, a spiritual gift in service.
Pastor Josh
So he says, every man hath received the gift.
Pastor Josh
Even so, minister.
Pastor Josh
That word minister means to serve.
Pastor Josh
Even so, minister the same one to another.
Pastor Josh
So as we've received the gift, we are to minister one to another.
Pastor Josh
We are to serve one another.
Pastor Josh
That's the purpose here.
Pastor Josh
The purpose of the gift is to serve.
Pastor Josh
That's what he's saying.
Pastor Josh
And so he says, as you've received the gift, even so, minister the same one to another as good stewards.
Pastor Josh
That word steward means I'm managing what God already owns.
Pastor Josh
And so I'm stewarding what has been given to me as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Pastor Josh
The word manifold is not a word that we use quite frequently, but it means varied or different.
Pastor Josh
It actually literally means like, different colors.
Pastor Josh
And so what we would say there is this.
Pastor Josh
There are going to be people who are gifted differently within the church.
Pastor Josh
And it's because of.
Pastor Josh
What does it say there at the end of verse 10?
Pastor Josh
Because of God's grace.
Pastor Josh
And so God graces us with different gifts in the body of Christ, and it's his discretion.
Pastor Josh
It's.
Pastor Josh
It's not like, hey, I.
Pastor Josh
I've earned this gift today, or, you know what?
Pastor Josh
Because I'm this type of person, I have the spiritual gift.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says very clearly here that it is God's discernment, what spiritual gift he gives us.
Pastor Josh
It's because of his grace.
Pastor Josh
It's nothing that we earn.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes it's taught this way.
Pastor Josh
Hey, if you're saved and you're working really hard, God might then grace you with a spiritual gift.
Pastor Josh
That's not what this says.
Pastor Josh
This says it's because of the grace of God that he gives you this opportunity to serve.
Pastor Josh
This gift is, is literally a free gift that we did not earn.
Pastor Josh
God gives this to us.
Pastor Josh
And then it says, if any man speaks.
Pastor Josh
So this, this idea has the concept of these are public gifts.
Pastor Josh
These are gifts that are going to be more on the front side of things.
Pastor Josh
People are going to see these gifts.
Pastor Josh
If any man speak, let him speak as of the oracles of God.
Pastor Josh
Mean, let him speak in the word of God.
Pastor Josh
If any man ministers.
Pastor Josh
So then we see that there's another side of this.
Pastor Josh
There's going to be some gifts that are exercised publicly and people are going to notice, but there's also going to be ministerial gifts that are going to be behind the scenes and not everyone's going to notice.
Pastor Josh
And so he says, if you speak, speak of the oracles of God.
Pastor Josh
If any man minister or serve, let him do it.
Pastor Josh
Do it as of the ability which God giveth, meaning God is going to give you the ability to do this.
Pastor Josh
You have to rely on him to do this.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore trust and give in the grace of God.
Pastor Josh
So it says that in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, that God in all things might be glorified.
Pastor Josh
So the reason why we serve, the reason why we exercise these spiritual gifts is not so that we get glory, not so that we have the acclaim or the praise.
Pastor Josh
It says that we do these things, we serve and we speak so that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
The point of exercising our spiritual gifts is so that God would be glorified in Christ Jesus.
Pastor Josh
And then it says here, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.
Pastor Josh
So we can kind of frame this idea of the spiritual gifts in this way.
Pastor Josh
They are given to us after salvation from God through his grace, so that we can serve publicly and privately for the cause of the gospel, for the glory of God.
Pastor Josh
And we do that so that we can exalt the name of Christ.
Pastor Josh
That's the idea of a spiritual gift.
Pastor Josh
Now we're going to go to Romans chapter 12 and Romans chapter 12 is going to be our main text for the next two weeks.
Pastor Josh
And there are.
Pastor Josh
There are other passages of scripture that speak of spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
But In Romans chapter 12 we see a succinct list of what I call and what many other people call the ministering gifts, the service gifts.
Pastor Josh
These are the gifts within the church that we would practice in helping others, serving others, and ultimately teaching and guiding others in the truth of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
We're not going to go through all of them here today, but what I would like to do is I would like for us to see how we can properly exercise these spiritual gifts that God has given us, how we can properly give these gifts back to the Lord, back to people within our church, and so that we can exercise these in the truth of the Word of God.
Pastor Josh
So Romans, chapter 12, we're going to start in verse number one.
Pastor Josh
All of you are probably familiar in some way, shape or form with verses one and two, but we're going to get down from verses three through eight and we're going to look at these spiritual gifts that are listed.
Pastor Josh
So it says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, who which is your reasonable service, meaning this?
Pastor Josh
We are called by God to give him everything.
Pastor Josh
And.
Pastor Josh
And he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Pastor Josh
God wants our lives.
Pastor Josh
God wants not just your Sunday morning.
Pastor Josh
He.
Pastor Josh
He wants more than that.
Pastor Josh
He doesn't just want 10%.
Pastor Josh
He wants 100% of you.
Pastor Josh
He wants everything.
Pastor Josh
He says he wants your bodies a living sacrifice, holy or separate unto God, which is your reasonable service, meaning this is only reasonable.
Pastor Josh
This is how you serve God for what he has done for you.
Pastor Josh
And be not conformed to this world.
Pastor Josh
So don't allow the world to tell you what this looks like, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Pastor Josh
We renew our minds by the word of God and by the leading of the Spirit that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Pastor Josh
So if you want to follow in the will of God, be transformed by the renewing of your mind to the Word, so that you're not guided by the world, but you're guided by the Spirit, so that you're not guided by your flesh, but you're guided by the Lord.
Pastor Josh
And so what we can see here in this case is that there is that whole transformation that happens in salvation that happens in sanctification, that we as Christians must follow to live out these spiritual gifts in our life.
Pastor Josh
But what I will say is that I believe Scripture teaches very clearly that all Christians, all folks that have come to Jesus Christ in faith, have received at least one of these spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
Some of you might be gifted in many of these areas and And I want to preface this study with this.
Pastor Josh
I have heard some people say, well, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I'm not gifted in the gift of fill in the blank.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore, I don't need to exercise in that ministry.
Pastor Josh
Well, I would challenge you on that because we're going to see that there is the gift of exhortation or encouragement.
Pastor Josh
Well, I'm not really gifted in encouraging people, so I'm just not going to do that.
Pastor Josh
No, exercise just means all the more we need to strive to grow in these areas.
Pastor Josh
And so all of these areas are elements of a Christian's life that we should exercise.
Pastor Josh
But what the Bible says is that some of us are supernaturally gifted in some of these areas more than others.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore, exercise in these categories, you can be more effective in these categories if you follow the Spirit in your life.
Pastor Josh
And so let's look at what it says in verse three.
Pastor Josh
It says, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you.
Pastor Josh
And we see that it's every person, every person, every Christian within the church not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.
Pastor Josh
So we see again that there is that theme of humility every time we're speaking of the spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
It's not about us.
Pastor Josh
It's humility.
Pastor Josh
It's about others.
Pastor Josh
And I think that that is a phrase that we should use in our society today because it's countercultural.
Pastor Josh
What does the culture say?
Pastor Josh
Think more highly of yourself, exalt yourself.
Pastor Josh
You know, you are above everybody else.
Pastor Josh
But what does the Bible say?
Pastor Josh
This is countercultural.
Pastor Josh
This is not popular.
Pastor Josh
It says, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.
Pastor Josh
Now, it doesn't say, think less of yourself in the concept of like, think poorly of yourself, but don't think about yourself higher than you should.
Pastor Josh
So, so what does that mean?
Pastor Josh
That means, obviously, we should have respect for our bodies.
Pastor Josh
We should have respect for what we decide to do in our lives.
Pastor Josh
So it's not about harming yourself here.
Pastor Josh
It's not about degrading yourself, but it's talking about having a proper perspective of who you are in Christ.
Pastor Josh
And the moment we don't align ourselves with our position under Christ is where we have issues.
Pastor Josh
And when we start exalting ourselves as the center of the universe, like I did when I was getting those gifts, right, I had no other focus other than receiving that gift.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says, and then we've gotten ourselves in the wrong place.
Pastor Josh
And so he says, don't think of yourself more Highly than you ought to think.
Pastor Josh
But also think as it says there, but to think soberly.
Pastor Josh
The Bible calls this sober thinking, basically being serious about the right things.
Pastor Josh
All right?
Pastor Josh
H.
Pastor Josh
Having a sense of gravity to the situation that we are in.
Pastor Josh
Right.
Pastor Josh
Thinking soberly doesn't mean that you have to be serious about everything.
Pastor Josh
Right?
Pastor Josh
And you can't smile and you can't have a good time.
Pastor Josh
No, what it's talking about here is thinking seriously about the things that need to be thought seriously about.
Pastor Josh
And so he says, okay, these aspects of the spiritual gift, you have to have humility and you have to have that sober thinking, according as God have dealt to every man the measure of faith, meaning each one of you in faith has been gifted one of these spiritual gifts, at least one of these spiritual gifts so that you can live this out amongst the members of the body of believers.
Pastor Josh
And we see that in verse number four.
Pastor Josh
For as we have many members in one body, there's.
Pastor Josh
There's an explanation about this in First Corinthians, but the picture is, is that the church is a body, right?
Pastor Josh
So you have some that might be the hand, some that might be the feet.
Pastor Josh
A foot and a hand are different, right?
Pastor Josh
And they function differently, but yet they are needed for a body to be working completely properly.
Pastor Josh
And so what he says here is that we as a church have different members, different members of the body, and all members have not the same office, which means they don't have the same job.
Pastor Josh
So I'm looking around the church here and I see different folks.
Pastor Josh
If everyone said, you know what, we're all going to work in the audio visual ministry, all of us feel like that's our ministry.
Pastor Josh
A couple things might go wrong here.
Pastor Josh
We don't have a big enough sound booth to have everyone get back there.
Pastor Josh
Right.
Pastor Josh
Other things is, and the Bible says is that everyone is gifted in the same area.
Pastor Josh
There's going to be different areas where you can be gifted in and there's going to be diversity.
Pastor Josh
And that's a beautiful thing.
Pastor Josh
A lot of times we think of it as this.
Pastor Josh
There is unity, but not uniformity.
Pastor Josh
You understand what I mean by that?
Pastor Josh
We have unity working together, but there's not uniformity in the concept that we all have to be the same.
Pastor Josh
What if I got up here and said, everyone has to be like me.
Pastor Josh
Everyone has to serve in the exact ministry that I'm serving it.
Pastor Josh
Everyone has to serve in the exact way that I serve.
Pastor Josh
Everyone has to deal with other people the same way that I serve.
Pastor Josh
That's going to be a big issue, because number one, that's anti biblical, but number two, that's just not going to function well.
Pastor Josh
And so what we see here is that there's this diversity of gifts.
Pastor Josh
All members have, not the same office.
Pastor Josh
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and that's the unity there.
Pastor Josh
So if we're not working in step with each other, if we're not working in unity, then there's going to be some problems, there's going to be some pain, there's going to be some struggles.
Pastor Josh
Now, there's always going to be pain and struggles within serving the Lord.
Pastor Josh
But what the Bible tells us here is that when we work together, we're able to overcome those difficulties when we're following the plan of God and the plan that God has laid out for us as believers.
Pastor Josh
I've used this analogy many times before, but it's the best analogy that I can come up with when it comes to having a little thing causing major issues in your life.
Pastor Josh
So.
Pastor Josh
So my body, I think, I mean, this was probably when Micah was a baby, had an issue.
Pastor Josh
And the issue was one day I got home from school, I was teaching.
Pastor Josh
I wasn't.
Pastor Josh
I wasn't in school while Micah was a baby.
Pastor Josh
I was teaching in school.
Pastor Josh
Make sure I'm clear on that.
Pastor Josh
I was teaching.
Pastor Josh
I got home from school and I was like, man, got like some stomach pains.
Pastor Josh
This is not good.
Pastor Josh
So.
Pastor Josh
So I was like, I'm having some pain here.
Pastor Josh
And I told Alicia and she's like, all right, well, you know, you want some Tylenol?
Pastor Josh
And I was like, yeah, maybe grab some Tylenol.
Pastor Josh
And she's like, all right, we don't think we have any.
Pastor Josh
So I'm going to go to the store and get you some.
Pastor Josh
Some medicine.
Pastor Josh
I was feeling like just a dull pain.
Pastor Josh
And all of a sudden that pain got worse and worse and worse.
Pastor Josh
And I finally was like, oh, man, this is really bad.
Pastor Josh
And I thought I was dying.
Pastor Josh
I literally felt my stomach was about to explode.
Pastor Josh
I thought I was going to, you know, see Jesus right then and there, which I'm okay with, but it hurt a lot.
Pastor Josh
And so I didn't have my phone by me and I couldn't walk at this point.
Pastor Josh
So I crawled all the way down to the back room in our house, and I grabbed my phone and I called Alicia saying, hey, where are you?
Pastor Josh
I need to go to the hospital.
Pastor Josh
She's like, well, I'm getting you some.
Pastor Josh
Some medicine.
Pastor Josh
I'm like, that medicine is not going to help.
Pastor Josh
What's happening here right now.
Pastor Josh
I'm like, I am about to die.
Pastor Josh
So we got to the emergency room and obviously, long story, long, long story, I'll make it as short as I can.
Pastor Josh
I had kidney, a kidney stone, actually, two kidney stones at that time.
Pastor Josh
And, and so that little thing in my body caused my whole body to have pain and suffering.
Pastor Josh
Right?
Pastor Josh
My hand wasn't.
Pastor Josh
There was no issue with my hand at that point, but I wasn't like, well, at least my hand's feeling good today.
Pastor Josh
It was, it was, it was.
Pastor Josh
The issue in my kidney was that was the problem that my whole body had.
Pastor Josh
And that's how it can happen within the church.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says that, hey, we can all be functioning pretty well, but if there's one element of that body that's off, the whole body is going to feel that.
Pastor Josh
And we might not be able to discern what's going on, but there's going to be an issue there.
Pastor Josh
So we have to be unified.
Pastor Josh
And the way that we're unified is by serving in the capacity that God has us within the ministry.
Pastor Josh
And so that's what he's saying here.
Pastor Josh
He says, so, so we being many, are one body in Christ and everyone members of one another as then.
Pastor Josh
He's going to say this in verse 6, having then gifts differing according to.
Pastor Josh
We're seeing a theme here.
Pastor Josh
The grace that is given to us, it's a gift of grace.
Pastor Josh
The, the fact that God has given us an avenue of service within the ministry is a gift.
Pastor Josh
It's a gift of grace.
Pastor Josh
You didn't earn it.
Pastor Josh
You know, there, there's a lot of times in my life that I might start to be tempted to think, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I've done a good job.
Pastor Josh
And maybe, maybe God has given me this because I've earned this note.
Pastor Josh
Every element of your life that is good, the Bible says, is a gift of God.
Pastor Josh
Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from God.
Pastor Josh
That's James, chapter one.
Pastor Josh
And so what we can see here in our life is that sometimes the, the temptation for us is to think about the opportunity to serve as not a gift, but as an inconvenience.
Pastor Josh
You ever think about that?
Pastor Josh
You ever think like, oh, boy, I got to do something nice for someone, I got to go out of my way?
Pastor Josh
No, the Bible says that is a gift.
Pastor Josh
That is a blessing to be able to, to serve, that is a blessing to teach, it is a blessing to serve God in your capacity within the body of believers.
Pastor Josh
You might say, well, what does this have to do with Christmas?
Pastor Josh
Well, not really anything but the idea is, is that we as a, we as a church have been gifted so much.
Pastor Josh
Number one in salvation, but number two in the concept of service.
Pastor Josh
Like, to.
Pastor Josh
To be able to serve other Christians is a blessing.
Pastor Josh
It should.
Pastor Josh
It should excite us.
Pastor Josh
We should wake up in the morning and go, wow, I get to do this for the Lord.
Pastor Josh
I get to do this for his people.
Pastor Josh
I get to teach, I get to preach.
Pastor Josh
I get to serve.
Pastor Josh
I get to encourage.
Pastor Josh
I get to give.
Pastor Josh
And so the whole point here is that we as Christians sometimes, if we're not careful, can be.
Pastor Josh
You ever seen that story, the, the Christmas Carol?
Pastor Josh
You have Ebenezer Scrooge.
Pastor Josh
You guys know who Ebenezer Scrooge is, right?
Pastor Josh
He hoards everything to himself.
Pastor Josh
He doesn't want to give it to anybody.
Pastor Josh
Look at all this wealth.
Pastor Josh
Look at all these storehouses, folks.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes we can be like Ebenezer Scrooge in our Christian faith.
Pastor Josh
It's all about me.
Pastor Josh
It's all about what I can get.
Pastor Josh
All the prayers are for me.
Pastor Josh
And the focus sometimes misses the point in the fact that we are supposed to be here for others.
Pastor Josh
That's what the Bible tells us.
Pastor Josh
We're not here for ourselves.
Pastor Josh
We're here for the Lord ultimately and for his people.
Pastor Josh
So it says then having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.
Pastor Josh
And then he starts to list some of these gifts, and we're going to talk about these.
Pastor Josh
And, and the goal for us through these two studies is for you to see what scripture has to say about these ministering gifts, these service gifts, and see where you fall in on these gifts.
Pastor Josh
I'm going to tell you that each one of you, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ and you have faith, have an opportunity to exercise these gifts within the ministry.
Pastor Josh
Service ministries.
Pastor Josh
Now, let me go ahead and kind of clarify another thing.
Pastor Josh
This is going to sound somewhat like a teaching lesson here today, but I, I need to teach you this because I think that sometimes I've even fallen into this trap.
Pastor Josh
Okay, so let's say there's someone here that's a great cook, okay?
Pastor Josh
You're the best cook in town, and I don't doubt that you are.
Pastor Josh
I've heard some people say, well, my spiritual gift is cooking.
Pastor Josh
Well, let me, let me stop you on that.
Pastor Josh
I don't see anywhere in Scripture where it says, spiritual gift is cooking.
Pastor Josh
Now, if you can find a passage of scripture, I would love to see that.
Pastor Josh
But I do see that there are many spiritual Gifts that.
Pastor Josh
That could fall under, right?
Pastor Josh
So God gives us natural talents.
Pastor Josh
Do you have to be a Christian to be a good cook?
Pastor Josh
I don't think so.
Pastor Josh
I don't go and ask every single, you know, chef that's at this, the, you know, restaurants, hey, are you a believer?
Pastor Josh
Do you have the spiritual gift of cooking?
Pastor Josh
No, I enjoy the food and I eat it.
Pastor Josh
Right.
Pastor Josh
And so there's this concept that I think sometimes that we conflate.
Pastor Josh
We.
Pastor Josh
We put together natural gifts that God gives us in our life, and we conflate them with spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
Now, if God has naturally gifted you in cooking, you could use that for all of these categories.
Pastor Josh
You could use this for the, you could teach other people how to cook and use that for the ministry.
Pastor Josh
You could encourage people by cooking them food.
Pastor Josh
You.
Pastor Josh
You could serve people, right?
Pastor Josh
That's a great opportunity.
Pastor Josh
So you see the difference God can give people with, with these awesome talents, let's call them talents, right?
Pastor Josh
Someone could get up and sing, right?
Pastor Josh
That's a natural talent.
Pastor Josh
But we know that that's not only like something that a Christian indwelled by the Spirit can do.
Pastor Josh
And so what we're going to actually see is that within the context of spiritual gifts, you must have the Holy Spirit indwelling you to exercise these properly.
Pastor Josh
And so God gives us natural talents in our life so that we can utilize them for these spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
So the first one we're going to see here in verse number six, then is this says, and whether prophecy.
Pastor Josh
Now some of you might say prophecy, what is that?
Pastor Josh
Literally, prophecy means to speak forth the truth.
Pastor Josh
Now, when we hear that word, prophecy, what do we naturally think?
Pastor Josh
We think about someone talking about the future, right?
Pastor Josh
I'm going to prophetically tell you what your day is going to be like tomorrow.
Pastor Josh
Okay?
Pastor Josh
That's not exclusively what this word means.
Pastor Josh
It actually primarily is used in scripture with speaking forth the truth of God.
Pastor Josh
Now, in many cases in the Old Testament, it was God speaking through prophets and speaking about the future, right?
Pastor Josh
And so the fulfilled word of God comes along and there's elements of those prophecies being fulfilled.
Pastor Josh
And obviously, we see many of the prophecies in the Old Testament pointing to Jesus Christ and the Messiah, right?
Pastor Josh
He's going to be born in Bethlehem.
Pastor Josh
He's going to ride in on a donkey eventually, right?
Pastor Josh
There's all these different.
Pastor Josh
He's going to die on the cross for our sins.
Pastor Josh
Isaiah 53 is a prophetic passage.
Pastor Josh
But I will say that that gift of prophecy today is primarily seen through speaking forth the word of God.
Pastor Josh
So an individual who is gifted in the area of prophecy is going to be someone that gets up and is able to proclaim the truth of God publicly or maybe even in the setting of private preaching forth the word of God.
Pastor Josh
So you could ultimately lump this together with someone who is a preacher, someone who is able to preach and proclaim the word of God.
Pastor Josh
Now, the word preach just literally means to proclaim.
Pastor Josh
And so someone who is gifted in the gift of prophecy is able to speak forth the truth of God clearly.
Pastor Josh
And in this case, in many ways would be able to speak for different elements of the truth of God.
Pastor Josh
Many times prophecy is going to be tied in with teaching, but it doesn't always have to be tied in with teaching.
Pastor Josh
So someone exercising the gift of prophecy within the guidance of the Spirit is going to clearly and properly present and proclaim the truth of God to others around them.
Pastor Josh
And so someone who is preaching is exercising the gift of prophecy.
Pastor Josh
They're speaking forth the truth of God.
Pastor Josh
Now you might say, well, I'm not a pastor, so I can't have this gift.
Pastor Josh
I don't think that that's the case.
Pastor Josh
It doesn't link this with the office of the pastor.
Pastor Josh
There is a list in the book of Ephesians that speaks to different offices within the church.
Pastor Josh
That's not what this is talking about.
Pastor Josh
I believe that this is talking about someone who is able to proclaim the truth of God to those that are around them.
Pastor Josh
And so we see that it says, if they are going to prophesy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.
Pastor Josh
And there's a lot of scholars who will argue about what that phrase means.
Pastor Josh
But what I will say is that we, as people that are proclaiming the truth of God must believe what we are preaching.
Pastor Josh
We must understand it, we must believe it, and we must proclaim it in faith.
Pastor Josh
And as God gives you different elements of faith in your life and grows your faith, you are able then to proclaim more truths about God in that proportion of faith.
Pastor Josh
You know what?
Pastor Josh
I preach much different now than I did 10 years ago.
Pastor Josh
Because of certain elements in my life, my faith has grown in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
I preach different than I preached a year ago.
Pastor Josh
Because let me tell you, most of you understand this.
Pastor Josh
As you have certain elements happen in your life.
Pastor Josh
You are tested.
Pastor Josh
You are tested in a trial.
Pastor Josh
And what does that trial do?
Pastor Josh
That trial either builds your faith, or for many people, it destroys their faith.
Pastor Josh
And so for a lot of people in their life, because of a hardship, they go, you know, What?
Pastor Josh
I just don't believe in this anymore.
Pastor Josh
But for other people, a trial brings them closer to the Lord and strengthens them in Christ.
Pastor Josh
And so what I would encourage you to do is, if you are feeling like, hey, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I'm.
Pastor Josh
I'm proclaiming the truth of God to people around me.
Pastor Josh
I'm proclaiming the truth of God in.
Pastor Josh
In his word, then do that in faith.
Pastor Josh
Do that as God has tested you and guided you in that proportion of faith.
Pastor Josh
And so that's one gift.
Pastor Josh
I'm going to say number two here, you see the next one.
Pastor Josh
It says verse seven, or ministry.
Pastor Josh
Ministry or service.
Pastor Josh
That word, ministry literally means service.
Pastor Josh
The Greek word is the word that we get the word deacon from, right?
Pastor Josh
The role of a deacon within the church is to serve.
Pastor Josh
Say, no, no, no, that's not what it means.
Pastor Josh
Literally, the word deacon is service.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore, this word is not talking about the office of a deacon, but this is talking about the characteristic of service within the ministry.
Pastor Josh
And so it says here, or ministry, let us wait on our ministry.
Pastor Josh
Let's be patient in our ministry.
Pastor Josh
And so the Bible says that there is a spiritual gift of service.
Pastor Josh
Now, this is a broad category.
Pastor Josh
This is a category in which can be exercised in many different ways within the body of believers.
Pastor Josh
How can you serve someone?
Pastor Josh
Well, you can serve someone a lot of different ways.
Pastor Josh
You can serve them by providing something financial for them.
Pastor Josh
You can serve them by providing something material for them.
Pastor Josh
Maybe you can serve them by coming and bringing them food if they're hungry, maybe clothing them if they need clothing, serving them, supporting them.
Pastor Josh
And so this speaks to this idea of humility and service that we are called to follow in Christ.
Pastor Josh
Christ, as it says, humbled himself as a servant.
Pastor Josh
And so all of us, I believe all of us are called to exercise this spiritual gift within our life, whether it's natural or not.
Pastor Josh
I do know that in this area of service, we all must in some ways grow in the element of our faith.
Pastor Josh
And so ministry.
Pastor Josh
Let us wait on our ministering.
Pastor Josh
There's this idea of patience here.
Pastor Josh
You ever been challenged to be patient in your service to another?
Pastor Josh
Um, the Bible says to be patient in that.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says to wait on the Lord in that case.
Pastor Josh
Because, you know, one of the things that I'm challenged with is I'm happy with serving somebody when everything goes my way and when they're thankful and when things go well and no one complains, but, you know, when I'm tempted not to serve, when somebody isn't thankful for what I do.
Pastor Josh
Or when someone says, oh, you gave me this, well, I really wanted this.
Pastor Josh
You ever got someone a gift and they were looking at it and you could tell that they weren't happy with it and they're like, well, thank you.
Pastor Josh
It's like, oh man, my, my flesh wants to say, well, you know what, I'm not going to give you a gift of anyone.
Pastor Josh
But, but, but the Bible says that's not why we serve.
Pastor Josh
We go back.
Pastor Josh
Why?
Pastor Josh
Why do we serve?
Pastor Josh
We serve because we are called by God and we are equipped by God to love others, even love people that are difficult, even love people that are against us.
Pastor Josh
And so that's the element of service here.
Pastor Josh
Folks, I would, I would encourage you to think about how God has you to serve within the ministry.
Pastor Josh
Not everybody.
Pastor Josh
Now remind, let me remind you, not everyone is called to serve in the same capacity.
Pastor Josh
Not everyone's even called to serve in the same area.
Pastor Josh
I know that sometimes there's some conflict within the church with that.
Pastor Josh
What do I mean by that?
Pastor Josh
Let's say there's someone here who.
Pastor Josh
Years have passed and there are certain physical ailments that have come up in their life.
Pastor Josh
And I've heard even people say, you know, I wish I could do more.
Pastor Josh
And I understand that sentiment.
Pastor Josh
But folks, not all of us are able to do the same amount of work.
Pastor Josh
Maybe we're not even physically able to.
Pastor Josh
It doesn't mean you're less of a Christian.
Pastor Josh
It doesn't mean that you're less of a member of the church.
Pastor Josh
It just means that you're a different stage of life.
Pastor Josh
What if I came up here and I said, how many strong men do we have in this room?
Pastor Josh
And you know, most of us men, we all think at some degree we're kind of strong, right?
Pastor Josh
I mean, everyone in the room said, I'm strong for my size.
Pastor Josh
And I brought up, and I brought a big weight up here and I said, okay, if you're a true man, you need to come up here and lift this.
Pastor Josh
And maybe a few guys can come up here and lift it and some of the other guys get up here and they can't lift it.
Pastor Josh
We don't go, well, and let's say there's a guy, he comes up here and he's, I don't know if we have any 90 year old men in here, but if a 90 year old man goes up and doesn't lift it, we go, well, that guy's really weak.
Pastor Josh
No, we would just say he's at a different stage of life.
Pastor Josh
Maybe 70 years ago, he was able to lift that thing up over his head.
Pastor Josh
But he's at a different stage of life.
Pastor Josh
And what we see that within the church sometimes is we feel like, well, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I can't be used by God anymore.
Pastor Josh
You can be used by God.
Pastor Josh
Maybe not in the same capacity of service, but you can be used of God.
Pastor Josh
The Bible doesn't say that there's an expiration date to any of these spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
So what I would encourage you to do is think about, hey, how can I serve at Middletown Baptist Church?
Pastor Josh
How can I serve people in my community?
Pastor Josh
How can I serve my family?
Pastor Josh
How can I serve others around me?
Pastor Josh
How can I ultimately serve the Lord?
Pastor Josh
So there's this idea of service here, ministering.
Pastor Josh
Let us wait on our ministering.
Pastor Josh
Then it says here, or he that teacheth on teaching.
Pastor Josh
Now we do see very clearly that the gift of prophecy and the gift of proclamation is separated from the gift of teaching.
Pastor Josh
And some would argue that those go hand in hand.
Pastor Josh
And I would say in a lot of cases, the gift of prophecy and the gift of teaching do go hand in hand.
Pastor Josh
But what I would say is that there are people that maybe aren't gifted naturally in the preaching element, but they are very gifted in teaching.
Pastor Josh
And someone who is a gifted teacher is someone who's able to clearly explain passages of scripture and clearly frame it in a way that people can understand.
Pastor Josh
And so, you know, the one thing that I would say that a good teacher is able to take very complex topics and make them sound simple.
Pastor Josh
The way that I explain this to people is explain this to a 5 year old.
Pastor Josh
If you are a gifted teacher, you're able to take very complex issues and put them down on a level where people can understand it.
Pastor Josh
I would say it this way.
Pastor Josh
There's a, there's a.
Pastor Josh
You.
Pastor Josh
I don't know if you guys watch YouTube.
Pastor Josh
Be careful on the Internet, okay?
Pastor Josh
Just don't just scroll everywhere.
Pastor Josh
But there is a series on YouTube where they take these like rocket.
Pastor Josh
What is it?
Pastor Josh
What's rocket scientist?
Pastor Josh
Or whatever.
Pastor Josh
They take like a rocket scientist and they say, okay, you're going to explain a concept in your field to a 5 year old, to a 15 year old, to a 30 year old, and.
Pastor Josh
Or they might say, you know, you're going to explain this to someone who has zero intelligence in this area, someone who maybe is like in high school, someone is in college.
Pastor Josh
And there's a way that we explain certain things to different people, right?
Pastor Josh
And so with the element of teaching comes the discernment of knowing who your audience is, understanding what vernacular they use, understanding how someone can hear it.
Pastor Josh
So, for example, if I was sitting in front of a Children's Church, 10 year olds and down, and I get up here and I say, okay, we're going to talk about some really complex issues today.
Pastor Josh
We're going to talk about the hypostatic union of, of God, of Jesus, and we're going to talk about the, the justification, sanctification, propitiation.
Pastor Josh
Immediately, some of you are like, okay, I'm already lost.
Pastor Josh
Some of you already have, like, I've lost you already.
Pastor Josh
But, but, right, you, you see that there isn't the discernment of knowing the audience and understanding that.
Pastor Josh
And so with the gift of teaching comes the gift of understanding and knowing who your audience is and being able to frame it in a way that's obtainable.
Pastor Josh
And so, and so we see these three gifts and you would say, well, why do I need to know that?
Pastor Josh
Because it's very, very effective within a church ministry to know where you are gifted so that you can effectively serve Jesus Christ in these areas.
Pastor Josh
Now, now I have heard people say, I'm not serving in any areas until I figure out my gift.
Pastor Josh
I would say that's probably not a good, good path.
Pastor Josh
Because what I would say is one of the areas that helped me understand where God has gifted me was serving in a lot of capacities.
Pastor Josh
Right.
Pastor Josh
Because if you serve in a lot of capacities, you're able to see where it fits and where it doesn't fit.
Pastor Josh
And I would say, be able to say, you know, I'm going to be flexible and I'm going to stretch myself.
Pastor Josh
The best growing happens when we are stretched.
Pastor Josh
The best growing happens when we're able to move out of our comfort zone.
Pastor Josh
And so we see we're only going to look at these three gifts here this morning.
Pastor Josh
We're looking at the gift of prophecy, the gift of service, and the gift of teaching.
Pastor Josh
And you would say, well, look, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I don't know if any of those areas are something that I'm gifted in.
Pastor Josh
Well, next week what I'm going to do, and I know that this isn't typical, but what I'm going to do is at the end of the service, what I would like for us to do is you could take some spiritual gift tests home with you.
Pastor Josh
We have them on paper now.
Pastor Josh
Are spiritual gifts tests foolproof?
Pastor Josh
No.
Pastor Josh
Okay.
Pastor Josh
Because you can lie on them.
Pastor Josh
Okay.
Pastor Josh
You know, there, there's a, there's a scale there and you can say, do I enjoy doing this.
Pastor Josh
And you might say, yeah, I kind of enjoy that.
Pastor Josh
Like, it's, it's only a little bit helpful to guide you in a direction to discern what gift God has given you or gifts that God has given you.
Pastor Josh
And, and so the idea for us next week is for me to kind of go through all of these different gifts and be able to see where you fall in that category and then explain to you at what capacity you could use those gifts within our ministry here in Middletown Baptist Church or how you could use those gifts out in your community.
Pastor Josh
Because my goal is not for, for me just to tell you what these gifts are, but to explain to you where you can functionally use these gifts within your life.
Pastor Josh
Folks, this is not.
Pastor Josh
We don't see in this passage of scripture God saying you're going to get a gift, but it's up to you.
Pastor Josh
You know, you really don't have to exercise it.
Pastor Josh
Just, you know, it's there if you want it.
Pastor Josh
No, the challenge is for us to use these gifts for the cause of the gospel.
Pastor Josh
What did it say at the very beginning so that God would be glorified through Jesus Christ?
Pastor Josh
And so we point people to Jesus through exercising our spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
They're not there for us.
Pastor Josh
They're not there for our own self exaltation.
Pastor Josh
They're there because we exalt Christ.
Pastor Josh
And so it's that humility, it's that sober mindedness, it's that understanding that we are to trust in God to give us these gifts and to exercise these gifts.
Pastor Josh
Is it going to be easy?
Pastor Josh
No, not it's not going to be easy, but it's a lot more easy when within our life to serve God, when we know the framework and the marching orders.
Pastor Josh
What if I just told you, what if I got up here today and I said, okay, all of you at Middletown Baptist Church need to start serving right now.
Pastor Josh
Start serving.
Pastor Josh
And you go, okay, where do I serve?
Pastor Josh
You're looking around.
Pastor Josh
Okay, how can I help, Pastor?
Pastor Josh
Well, you just better help.
Pastor Josh
Okay, get busy.
Pastor Josh
A good Christian is a busy Christian.
Pastor Josh
Do you see sometimes how busyness isn't always effective?
Pastor Josh
Because what if everyone's just running around like crazy and bumping into each other and I thought we were going to do this.
Pastor Josh
I thought we were going to do this.
Pastor Josh
No, because we're going to get to other passages next week that talk about there's the gift of administration, right?
Pastor Josh
Maybe someone that isn't gifted in the gift of administration, but maybe they're gifted in service and they're able to be like, hey, where should I go?
Pastor Josh
And then we have someone who isn't the greatest person that's able to be a gift of mercy.
Pastor Josh
But maybe they're great in the ministration and they're able to exercise certain things.
Pastor Josh
Here we can't expect everyone to be the same, and we can't judge other people because they don't have the same gifts as we have.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes that's another issue.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes, like, right, I don't.
Pastor Josh
I naturally.
Pastor Josh
This.
Pastor Josh
I, I'm not naturally gifted in the gift of mercy.
Pastor Josh
I walk around, you know what I'm gifted in?
Pastor Josh
I'm gifted in exhortation.
Pastor Josh
And, and the gift of proclamation to say, well, here's what you gotta do to fix it.
Pastor Josh
Just do that, like, get over it, like, get, get to work.
Pastor Josh
But I'm having such a bad day.
Pastor Josh
Well, just, just, just grind, go forward, push forward.
Pastor Josh
And, and so the gift of mercy is not something natural to me.
Pastor Josh
And sometimes when I see someone with the gift of mercy, do you know what I do?
Pastor Josh
I sometimes go like, come on, how can you be so gullible?
Pastor Josh
Like, why are you so nice to them?
Pastor Josh
Why are you so patient with them?
Pastor Josh
Because they have the gift of mercy.
Pastor Josh
And it's easy for me not to see it from their perspective and then get kind of frustrated.
Pastor Josh
The truth is, is that there's going to be different people with different gifts, and we're able to be patient with them and love them in the grace of God and say, we need people with the gift of mercy just as much as we need people with the gift of proclamation.
Pastor Josh
We need the gift of people with exhortation just as much as we need the people with the gift of teaching.
Pastor Josh
Right?
Pastor Josh
It, it.
Pastor Josh
It goes all hand in hand.
Pastor Josh
And for Middletown Baptist Church to thrive, for you to thrive as an individual, it's exercising these spiritual gifts with those around you.
Pastor Josh
It's not so that Middletown Baptist can build this empire.
Pastor Josh
It's so that we follow the word of God.
Pastor Josh
Go back to what verse number, verse number two said in Romans, chapter 12.
Pastor Josh
What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Pastor Josh
This is the will of God to work out in the midst, in the body of Christ, the spiritual gifts that he has given us.
Pastor Josh
Specifically in this area, the ministering gifts.
Pastor Josh
Now let me tie this all back in together with the idea of the gift.
Pastor Josh
Now, the reason why we exercise the spiritual gifts is because of the greatest gift that was ever given to us in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
You know, we, we get the opportunity to say, I am a Servant of Jesus Christ because of his gift of salvation.
Pastor Josh
You don't just become a servant of Jesus Christ because you want to be.
Pastor Josh
You have a.
Pastor Josh
You're a servant of Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit's indwelling you.
Pastor Josh
And these gifts are perfected through the indwelling of the Spirit.
Pastor Josh
But not just the indwelling of the Spirit.
Pastor Josh
Because what the indwelling of the Spirit is is that when you're saved, the Holy Spirit now lives within you.
Pastor Josh
That's the amazing thing.
Pastor Josh
As a believer, you have the Holy Spirit living within you.
Pastor Josh
But these gifts aren't alone exercised by just the indwelling of the Spirit.
Pastor Josh
These gifts are exercised by the filling of the Spirit.
Pastor Josh
What do I mean by the filling of the Spirit?
Pastor Josh
The filling of the Spirit is the opportunity for us not to just have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, but, but the Holy Spirit guiding us in our life.
Pastor Josh
Folks, as a Christian, the Bible says very clearly and Paul talks about this.
Pastor Josh
There is the wrestling of the flesh and the Spirit.
Pastor Josh
Okay, so, so there could be people with these spiritual gifts, but not exercising these spiritual gifts properly.
Pastor Josh
Because why they're living in the flesh.
Pastor Josh
Because all of these gifts can be exercised in a spiritual manner or they can be exercised in a fleshly manner.
Pastor Josh
If I am guided by my Spirit, I'm going to be like the one that gets upset with people when they have mercy.
Pastor Josh
If, if I'm a person of service, I'm going to serve in the flesh.
Pastor Josh
What does that look like?
Pastor Josh
Well, I'm going to serve for my benefit.
Pastor Josh
I'm going to serve so that people notice me.
Pastor Josh
I'm going to serve so that people can lift me up.
Pastor Josh
And when someone doesn't lift me up, I don't want to serve anymore.
Pastor Josh
You see how the gift of service can then be fleshly, flesh focused.
Pastor Josh
The gift of proclamation, the gift of prophecy.
Pastor Josh
Have we ever heard someone preach for the praise of themselves?
Pastor Josh
Right.
Pastor Josh
It can happen.
Pastor Josh
God can allow someone to be so gifted in the area of proclaiming the word of God, but they do it for the wrong principles.
Pastor Josh
They do it for their self focus.
Pastor Josh
They do that for praise, they do that for acclaim.
Pastor Josh
And the Bible says that these gifts are given, but they can be exercised in a very fleshly manner.
Pastor Josh
And so the challenge for us is to number one, identify where God has gifted us.
Pastor Josh
But then number two, to live in the Spirit, to abide in Christ so that we can exercise these for the cause of the Gospel.
Pastor Josh
I challenge us here not to be able to see these things as a, as a Thing that we do, a thing that we accomplish, a checklist in our life.
Pastor Josh
But it's a way that we can commune with God.
Pastor Josh
And so each one of these gifts that we talk about can be exercised in a fleshly focus.
Pastor Josh
And so the challenge is, number one, to find the gift that God has given us or the gifts that God has given us.
Pastor Josh
But then, number two, to exercise these gifts in the guidance of the Spirit in our life.
Pastor Josh
To yield to the Spirit and not to the flesh.
Pastor Josh
I would encourage you to read through the book of Galatians.
Pastor Josh
The book of Galatians speaks of the fruit of the Spirit and then the works of the flesh.
Pastor Josh
You know what the.
Pastor Josh
The test will be?
Pastor Josh
Let's.
Pastor Josh
Let's go there really quickly.
Pastor Josh
We got to see this, guys.
Pastor Josh
We got to see this.
Pastor Josh
And then we'll wrap it up.
Pastor Josh
Because a lot of people might say, well, how do I know if I'm living in the Spirit?
Pastor Josh
How do I know if I'm yielded to the Spirit?
Pastor Josh
Well, there's this amazing thing in scripture that tells us what we look like when we are yielded to the Spirit.
Pastor Josh
It's found in Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22.
Pastor Josh
This is the test.
Pastor Josh
You know, am I.
Pastor Josh
Am I acting in the Spirit to my wife?
Pastor Josh
Am I responding in the Spirit to my children?
Pastor Josh
Am I living in the Spirit at the workplace?
Pastor Josh
Here's the test.
Pastor Josh
Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22.
Pastor Josh
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering.
Pastor Josh
That's patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Pastor Josh
That's self control.
Pastor Josh
Against such, there is no law.
Pastor Josh
So your test is, am I responding to my wife?
Pastor Josh
Well, did you respond in love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, and the like?
Pastor Josh
Well, no, you know, it was just she.
Pastor Josh
She got under my skin.
Pastor Josh
And so you were acting in the flesh.
Pastor Josh
Okay, this has been something that's been very convicting in my life because a lot of times I'm willing to justify my actions because, hey, look what happened to me.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says, in anything, have you respond in the fruit of the Spirit.
Pastor Josh
If you have, then you've responded in the Spirit.
Pastor Josh
If you respond in anything outside of the fruit of the Spirit, it's in the flesh.
Pastor Josh
And we don't have time to go in Galatians 5.
Pastor Josh
But it talks about all these different things that are works of the flesh.
Pastor Josh
And so when we exercise our spiritual gifts, when we serve other people, the true test is not are we serving right as Christians?
Pastor Josh
Actually, we see in Scripture that basically it's the assumption that Christians are going to be serving that Christians are going to be ministering.
Pastor Josh
So, so it's a really rare thing to see people that proclaim to be Christians but have no action in their life.
Pastor Josh
That, that, that's not really even seen in Scripture.
Pastor Josh
Jesus says, when ye fast, when ye pray.
Pastor Josh
Right?
Pastor Josh
It's just the assumption that if we love God, we're going to be serving him.
Pastor Josh
But the true test that we see in First Corinthians is, why did you do this?
Pastor Josh
Why did you do this?
Pastor Josh
What are your motives?
Pastor Josh
And so I would, I would go deeper in the spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
It's like, are you giving gifts to other people?
Pastor Josh
Are you serving in the grace of God?
Pastor Josh
Yes, but why are you doing that?
Pastor Josh
That's the motivation.
Pastor Josh
Why, why do I get up and preach on Sundays?
Pastor Josh
Why do we have a Sunday school class?
Pastor Josh
Why do we have a ministry over here?
Pastor Josh
That's, that's the true test.
Pastor Josh
Like, why, why am I giving gifts if you are giving?
Pastor Josh
So, so here's how it goes sometimes in, in the world.
Pastor Josh
Okay, let me give you a gift now.
Pastor Josh
I've given you a gift.
Pastor Josh
The assumption is, is that you're gonna, what are you gonna give me now?
Pastor Josh
Like, you know, like, sometimes I struggle with that.
Pastor Josh
Like, someone gives me a gift that I wasn't expecting, I'm like, oh, now I gotta go get them a gift.
Pastor Josh
I gotta go do that.
Pastor Josh
And, and I understand why we do that.
Pastor Josh
But, but a lot of times, if the motivation is that I'm gonna give something to somebody because I want something back, that's not the heart of giving.
Pastor Josh
That's not the heart of service.
Pastor Josh
That's not the heart of agape love.
Pastor Josh
And so the Bible says that we give these gifts not for response.
Pastor Josh
We don't give these gifts for any type of praise.
Pastor Josh
We give these gifts out of the humility of our hearts.
Pastor Josh
We saw that in First Peter.
Pastor Josh
We saw that in Acts, chapter 20.
Pastor Josh
We saw that in Romans, chapter 12.
Pastor Josh
It's all about humility.
Pastor Josh
And so it's the why behind the exercising of these spiritual gifts in our life.
Pastor Josh
We're going to come back next week and we're going to look at the rest of these gifts.
Pastor Josh
We're going to look at the gift of exhortation.
Pastor Josh
We're going to look at the gift of ruling or administration.
Pastor Josh
We're going to look at the gift of mercy, and we're going to see all of these things lived out in our midst, hopefully within the church.
Pastor Josh
Now, I, I, I challenge you to think about this from the perspective of not like, well, hey, I wonder what their gift is, or I wonder if they're exercising this in the flesh.
Pastor Josh
I want this to be a time of introspection for you to say, like, you know, I really want to design our desire.
Pastor Josh
I really want to desire and discern what God has given me in my life in ministering.
Pastor Josh
The idea for us at the church is for that you can serve at the capacity that God has you to serve in.
Pastor Josh
I don't want to put someone in a box, you know, if I sat in your Sunday school class, I might be like, I would teach that this way.
Pastor Josh
But if you're teaching the truth of God, it's not my job to tell you whether it's the right or wrong way, because you might have a different path than me.
Pastor Josh
You know, service.
Pastor Josh
I.
Pastor Josh
I might not have served that way to that person.
Pastor Josh
Well, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I'm not the one doing the service.
Pastor Josh
They're doing the service if they're doing it with the spirit of God and they're doing it for the cause of edification, the cause of exhortation, the cause of the gospel, you know what?
Pastor Josh
It's not my job to judge and look over there and say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I would have done it differently.
Pastor Josh
And the truth is, is that that's how we function within the church.
Pastor Josh
That's how the body of believers function.
Pastor Josh
So God has gifted you so, so well in your life to do the things that he has called you to do.
Pastor Josh
The truth is, is, are we going to be willing to exercise those gifts within the body of believers?
Pastor Josh
Are we going to be willing to humble ourselves, to say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
This doesn't bring me any benefit, but I'm going to do this because Jesus expects this from me.
Pastor Josh
I'm going to do this because he calls me to be a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service.
Pastor Josh
I want to be transformed and not conformed to this world.
Pastor Josh
And I encourage you to think about how you as a believer can exercise these gifts in 2025.
Pastor Josh
There's nothing more rewarding in your life behind salvation than to exercise the will of God out in your life.
Pastor Josh
The safest place to be is in the will of God.
Pastor Josh
The most rewarding place to be is in the will of God.
Pastor Josh
The most joyful place to be is in the will of God.
Pastor Josh
And I would encourage you to think about that this year.
Pastor Josh
We want to be joyful Christians.
Pastor Josh
Walk in the way that God has you to walk in your life.
Pastor Josh
Exercise the gift that God has given you in your life, because that's how you should function.
Pastor Josh
You know, it's using the right tools for the right situations.
Pastor Josh
My dad's here today.
Pastor Josh
And I remember when I.
Pastor Josh
When I first got married and, you know, I needed help at my house.
Pastor Josh
What would I do?
Pastor Josh
Hey, dad, come over to my house.
Pastor Josh
I need.
Pastor Josh
I need this fixed.
Pastor Josh
So.
Pastor Josh
So that was cool for a while until I moved to Delaware, and he wasn't able to hop on a plane every time that happened.
Pastor Josh
So I call him, I say, dad, I'm underneath the car and I don't know what to do.
Pastor Josh
And he's like, well, what tool do you have?
Pastor Josh
And I'm like, I don't know.
Pastor Josh
It's this thing that looks like this.
Pastor Josh
And he's like, no, no, no, no, no.
Pastor Josh
You got the wrong tool.
Pastor Josh
Okay?
Pastor Josh
I admittedly, I'm not handy in any way.
Pastor Josh
And so I'm like.
Pastor Josh
And he's like, just grab this tool over here.
Pastor Josh
And I grabbed that tool and it just was like, it worked really well.
Pastor Josh
I was like, well, you got to have the right tool, right?
Pastor Josh
And sometimes what we try.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes what we're trying to do in the church is we're trying to jam a square peg into a round hole.
Pastor Josh
And we're trying, we're trying, we're trying, we're working.
Pastor Josh
But sometimes it's about the idea of submitting to God and allowing us to do the right thing.
Pastor Josh
That might mean that we need to change certain things.
Pastor Josh
Well, Pastor, we've always done it this way, and we can't change that.
Pastor Josh
Well, what if the Spirit is guiding us?
Pastor Josh
A separate path.
Pastor Josh
Not an unbiblical path, but a path that says, you know what?
Pastor Josh
This ministry could be more effectively in the cause of the Great Commission in this path.
Pastor Josh
Not.
Pastor Josh
Not to remove ministries for the sake of removing.
Pastor Josh
I had one, one pastor friend say, the first thing you gotta do when you become a new pastor is just flip the script, do everything different just to change them, put them on their toes.
Pastor Josh
I was like, no, I don't want to do that.
Pastor Josh
So.
Pastor Josh
So it's not changing just the change, but it's changing as God directs and wills it.
Pastor Josh
And that's what we have to do within the church.
Pastor Josh
You say, well, I've been in this ministry for 50 years.
Pastor Josh
Great.
Pastor Josh
That's awesome.
Pastor Josh
Maybe God has you moving from that ministry to another ministry.
Pastor Josh
Would we be willing to say, you know, I've been here for this long, but I could do this?
Pastor Josh
Or maybe you could say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I've been doing this ministry this way, but these kids aren't acting the way they used to act 25 years ago, I might be able to benefit from someone coming in explaining to me how some of these kids start to think differently these days.
Pastor Josh
We don't just say, well, these kids are different, so we just forget about them.
Pastor Josh
We just throw them to the side.
Pastor Josh
We adapt and we adjust.
Pastor Josh
And.
Pastor Josh
And so that's the idea here in Romans chapter 12.
Pastor Josh
It's.
Pastor Josh
It's seeing the gifts and being able to move and adjust and say, lord, you have me here for this purpose.
Pastor Josh
And so I encourage you to think about that here in 2025 as we come into.
Pastor Josh
Is it.
Pastor Josh
Isn't it amazing?
Pastor Josh
We're right here.
Pastor Josh
We're almost to the end of the year.
Pastor Josh
We look back on 2024, and we see all the things that God has done this year, and it's been a great year.
Pastor Josh
One of the goals at the very beginning of the year was discipleship.
Pastor Josh
Our theme for 2024 was through the discipleship direction.
Pastor Josh
And I believe that we have fostered an environment where there's more desire for that discipleship process to happen and to grow and to individually invest into people's lives.
Pastor Josh
But what I would say is that there is that point where we internally build ourselves up, but there also is that desire for us at a point where, hey, you know what?
Pastor Josh
We're ready to go.
Pastor Josh
We're ready to take these gifts and.
Pastor Josh
And utilize them for other people, because it was about me growing, but now it's about how can I help other people grow.
Pastor Josh
And I would encourage you to think about how that transformation can happen in your life.
Pastor Josh
You know what, as God buil and he's always going to be building us, but there is a point where as we are being built up in him, that we say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I want to take someone along with me.
Pastor Josh
I.
Pastor Josh
I want to take another group along with me in this process.
Pastor Josh
That's how we grow the church.
Pastor Josh
We don't grow the church by saying, hey, I heard that other church across town is having issues.
Pastor Josh
So we just want to, like, go in and get a bunch of other Christians and bring them over here.
Pastor Josh
That.
Pastor Josh
I mean, we.
Pastor Josh
We welcome other Christians into our building.
Pastor Josh
But you know, what an amazing thing is, is biblically, there is a model for us to reach the lost and to bring them into the church and then grow them up.
Pastor Josh
That is an amazing opportunity that we have.
Pastor Josh
All of us have been on that process.
Pastor Josh
At some point in our life, we need to see more, we need to grow.
Pastor Josh
We need to go.
Pastor Josh
And that's how we show is the spiritual gifts for the cause of the Gospel.
Pastor Josh
I'm gonna ask if you're able to to stand with me.
Pastor Josh
Every head bowed, every eye closed as the music plays this morning.
Pastor Josh
I know this was a different type of message, but I think it's a message that we all need to hear in the Christmas season.
Pastor Josh
See, why do we need to hear in the Christmas season?
Pastor Josh
Because we are more spiritually focused on gifts, right?
Pastor Josh
Man, you know what?
Pastor Josh
It's better to give than receive.
Pastor Josh
Well, the way that a Christian gives is not just by vaguely being kind to people.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says very clearly that there are specific areas of service that we are all challenged to exercise ourselves in.
Pastor Josh
Specifically in the area of ministry.
Pastor Josh
That word ministry sometimes gets confused.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes people think that, oh, ministry is just pastors.
Pastor Josh
Ministry is just people running the ministry.
Pastor Josh
Folks, all of us, every single believer here today is called to have a ministry.
Pastor Josh
You might not even have a name to that ministry, but the ministry of its servants, it's serving others.
Pastor Josh
How can I serve others?
Pastor Josh
Is it in the area of proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ?
Pastor Josh
Is it in the area of service to others?
Pastor Josh
Now, two very different ministries.
Pastor Josh
Remember in First Peter, Chapter 4, it said that there's going to be some that are speaking ministries, upfront ministries, ministries that are going to receive notice.
Pastor Josh
But there's other ministries like the service ministry that many times never gets noticed.
Pastor Josh
But the beauty of that is that those are the ministries that God notices.
Pastor Josh
Those are the ministries that may be overlooked in the concept of leadership and administration.
Pastor Josh
But you know what?
Pastor Josh
That ministry of service is a vital ministry.
Pastor Josh
It's the heartbeat of the church.
Pastor Josh
And you might say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I'm not able to get up and teach.
Pastor Josh
I'm not able to lead a Sunday school class.
Pastor Josh
But what I can do is I can serve and I can lift others up.
Pastor Josh
I can lift others up so that the cause of the Gospel is pushed forward.
Pastor Josh
You don't have to be upfront.
Pastor Josh
You don't have to have a ministry title.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says all of us can serve.
Pastor Josh
And maybe for some of us, you say, you know what?
Pastor Josh
I want to be a teacher.
Pastor Josh
And teaching is something that I love.
Pastor Josh
Teaching is something.
Pastor Josh
And teaching isn't always in the classroom.
Pastor Josh
I would say a lot of teaching happens within the church outside of the classroom.
Pastor Josh
By the way that we live our lives, nothing resonates more with people than when a life is backed up with what is being taught in the classroom.
Pastor Josh
People can talk to talk.
Pastor Josh
But how about let's walk the walk and Teaching the next generation about Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation.
Pastor Josh
I pray that you work in hearts and lives.
Pastor Josh
I pray that you allow us to see you clearly here this morning.
Pastor Josh
Lord, I pray that you challenge us to a place in which we can follow you in giving those gifts of service to other people.
Pastor Josh
We love you.
Pastor Josh
In Jesus name, Amen.
Pastor Josh
As the music plays here this morning, you can come forward.
Pastor Josh
You can rededicate your life to serving the Lord in those spiritual areas of service, of teaching, of exhortation, of.
Pastor Josh
Of mercy.
Pastor Josh
And I would also challenge you on this.
Pastor Josh
You know what, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, you can't exercise these spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
So what I would say is that if you've been trusting in something else outside of Jesus Christ, if you've been trusting in anything outside of faith in Jesus Christ and what he has done for you by coming to this earth, living a perfect life, dying on the cross, conquering death of the resurrection.
Pastor Josh
Hey, you know what?
Pastor Josh
You can trust in Jesus today.
Pastor Josh
What better season than the Christmas season?
Pastor Josh
Turn your life over to Christ and receive that gift of salvation and the gift of service.
Pastor Josh
So as we have prayed, you can come forward, you can kneel in your pew.
Pastor Josh
We're going to take a few moments to focus on the Lord here this morning.
Pastor Josh
Respond to him as the Lord leaves.
Pastor Josh
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.
Pastor Josh
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
Pastor Josh
If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
Pastor Josh
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.
Pastor Josh
Thank you so much.
Pastor Josh
God bless.
Pastor Josh
Have a wonderful day.
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