One Life to Live - For Now - Part 6 (Romans 12:1-8)

Let's remain standing for the reading of the Word, you guys. And if, by God's grace, uh, we can finish today, we will do that. That's the section we've been in for six Sundays. Six of them. Six Sundays we've been looking at this titled series, "One Life to Live." For now, as believers, we are here right now, but uh, we are to live our life at full throttle for Jesus Christ. He is our number one priority in all that we do. No matter what we do, if you're heading off into the United States Army, or if you're running a, a 500, 500, uh, Fortune 500 company, it doesn't matter. You are a follower of Christ first, before all things. And uh, we have this "One Life to Live," but we've been adding the words, "for now," because we live, we live with intent and with purpose, the life that God has given us. And uh, we're thrilled to do that.

And so, uh, Romans chapter 12, and I'll begin in verse one. You guys can pick it up, verse two. Romans chapter 12. We've been discipled in this very, very deep, uh, and illuminating portion of scripture. Paul says to the church throughout the Roman Empire, mainly Rome itself, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, think of that, right here, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one, each one of us, a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, look around you, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministry. He who teaches, in teaching. He who exhorts, in exhortation. He who gives, with liberality. He who leads, with diligence. He who shows mercy, with cheerful." And all God's people said, "Amen." "Amen." You may be seated, church.

So, the great Apostle is desiring for you and I to set sail on a voyage as believers. And I, I think of that, uh, in, in the most romantic way. I think of that in the voyages of Magellan or Balboa or Columbus, where you embark from one point and you go on your expedition with great excitement and great zeal about what's going to be discovered and what is going to be experienced. And it is my opinion, it's always been my opinion, and I'm grateful for the church that I was saved in and taught in, that whenever we come together as a people, whenever we open up the Bible, we should be very, very, uh, what's the word, um, anticipating the move of God in our lives and God speaking to us in our lives. The scripture says in the book of Hebrews that this Bible is living and breathing. I love that truth. I love that reality. But when we set sail on this voyage that I'm talking about, the fact is that it's a voyage that Christ takes us on. That God is desiring for your life. And if you let Him, if you let Him, He will transform your life. He'll change your life. And what we're reading right now, what you just read a moment ago, is about a life that is willing to be changed because it is God's desire that you and I be offered up to Him as living sacrifices. I, I don't know, but I think you agree. I appreciate the word "living sacrifice," not a dead one, but a living one. He wants you to live. And if you're willing, this series of teachings brings you to the point of literally experiencing the greatest possible life that you could live because it's God living His life through you. And that's the great key to the believer's life. That's what it means to be a disciple.

And I'm always fascinated by the way. Are you fascinated by this, or maybe made nauseous by it? Politicians are always talking about the word "change." "Vote for me, I'll bring change." It's not to say that change isn't needed, but when they say "change," it makes us a little bit nervous because, number one, who's going to pay for what they're promising? I mean, we already know the answer to that. And then, even if it's a good idea, and if it's, uh, able to be paid for, uh, how you going to do it? But all these things are spoken of, and all these things are said. And I, like you, if we've lived any length of time, we didn't hear much about change until probably around, I don't know, 2006, 2008, when a senator by the name of Barack Obama said, "Vote for me, I'm going to bring change." And the word "change" became a poster, it became t-shirts, "Change." And all of a sudden, everybody seemed like they had to fall in love with the idea. "Well, I guess we got to change then." But you have to get the dictionary to what that word means by whoever is saying it. Just know this: politicians promise change, resulting almost always in destruction. When God promises change, it is always, always transformative, and it is for the great, it is for the good, it is for the best.

In any culture where Christians follow God, talking about following God, I want to ask you real quick before I read this lengthy quote, I want to ask you, who or what are you in the pursuit of in your life? Is it really God? I, please don't answer. But I, I listen. I, I was speaking last weekend in, uh, in Tennessee, and then I had a few days down, and so I'm rested. And because I'm rested, I realize, and good thing for you, I don't take much time off because I'm rested. So I feel extra honory. I feel, I feel extra, [Applause] I've got some energy to be a little bit spunky. Uh, I hope that's a good word. It was a good word when I was growing up. But, um, who or what are you living for? What's the hot pursuit of your heart? And I hope it's the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's, uh, let's be touched by what A.W. Tozer has to say to us from his remarkable book, "The Pursuit of God." Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which, briefly stated, means this: that before a man can see God, God must first have sought the man. Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him. Imperfect, it may be, but a true work nonetheless. And the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow, we pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "Quote, 'No man can come to me,' said our Lord, 'except the Father which hath sent me draw him.' And it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vis, I love this, every visage of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outward working of that impulse, here's, here's the message for us today, is our following heart after Him. And all the time we are pursuing Him, we are already in His hand. 'Thy right hand upholdeth me.' In this divine upholding and human following, there is no contradiction. All is of God. For as Von Hügel teaches, God is always previous in practice. However, that is where God's previous working meets man's present response. Man must pursue God on one part. There must be a positive reciprocation of this secret drawing of God is to eventuate an identifiable experience of the Divine. In the warm language of personal feeling, this is stated in the 42nd Psalm as, 'The heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the Living God. When shall I come and appear before God?' This deep calling unto deep, and the longing heart will understand it." Powerful, incredible words that should describe the heart of the believer in pursuit of God.

And we've been pursuing God in this series. We have learned that we have "One Life to Live for Now." And during this time period of our lives being lived right here on Earth, now, in this moment, that we've learned to give God our attention. Remember that? We've learned to give God our bodies. He wants our bodies. And by the way, the world wants everything. The world wants your attention. The world wants your body. Thirdly, we learned that God wants us to give Him our, give Him our will. And the world, of course, wants your will. And so God wants us to give Him, give Him our love. And the world wants your love. And God wants us to give Him our all. All. And the world wants your all. You are caught right in the middle between two absolutely diametrically opposed forces. You can be here today and not be a Christian, and you don't even realize how you are right in the middle of an epic, eternal battle for your soul because you live forever in heaven or in hell. The human lives forever. And God loves you, and He gave Himself at the cross for you. You know this, the gospel. He rose again from the dead for you so that we might be with Him in heaven forever. But to reject that is to reject all of these things, and to pay attention to yourself, to just dote about your own body, to do your own will, to love yourself, and to ignore everybody but you. And God wants to change all that in our lives.

And so, church, this is where we left off in our teaching last time together. We learned this: that there's the discovering, verses 6 through 8. That there's the discovering what's been given to us. God has given us gifts as believers. The second thing we saw is that we're to be using what's been given to us. And here's where it gets touchy in here today. I don't know. I, I struggle. I have to tell you, I am being forced to trust God in this message because I cannot make you be used by God. I cannot make you want to be used by God. You've got to decide that on your own. If I could stand on my head, if, if I could run around, do whatever it takes to convince you, I would do it, but that's not how it works. I know. Look, we're not, we're not none of us are dumb in this room. This is just one service today. It's going to happen at every church service here today. But in this, in this room right here, it is highly possible that not all of you want to do these things. You don't want to pursue God. You don't want to have an absolute abandonment for God for Him to do what He wants to do in your life. And yet, it's the very thing that you need. It's the very thing for what you were created for. He loves you so much that He actually has, can you imagine a little gift that's wrapped up and it's got a little bow and it has your name tag on it? Remember Christmas? It had your name tag on it. And you would shake it. You'd count the days. Did you shake it? I accidentally would rip paper. Oh, I don't know how that happened. Trying to see if I can see the words like Mattel or Hot Wheels. Well, God's got a, a box. He's got a package for you, and He's just urging you to unwrap it. He's called you. You're His child, and He's given you a gift or gifts of the Holy Spirit to live out the actual meaning of your life purpose. But He won't unwrap it for you. He wants a message like this today to stir your heart so that you go home, in a sense, in a little bit of a crisis because you may not know what your spiritual gift is today. And God wants you to know that. And then we'll end today by talking about giving what's been given. So the discovery plus using plus giving equals your life and my life. It's very important.

So as we look at this, we look at the discovering as to what has been in our lives. He says, "Having then gifts differing." This is key. Mark these because we're going to get them today. "According to the grace that is given to us, let us use them." Talking to the believer, the Christian today. "If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith." So church, remember, and I don't need to belabor this, but proportion is important. Please write this down. In proportion, you are not, as a Christian, to compare yourself with other Christians about your gift. Amen. So meaning this, if, if you have the gift of, of helps or giving or evangelism or teaching, whatever it might be, you are not to compare yourself with somebody else regarding that same gift. Are you hearing me, everyone? This is important because you see, "Why do I have the gift of evangelism?" you might say, "But you're so depressed, you won't use it because you're not Billy Graham. You don't have the success rate of Billy Graham." You're not supposed to. You do not. In fact, the Bible says, and I think it's the book of Colossians, "Those who compare themselves among themselves are not wise people." Isn't that a great word? But it's human nature. It's fallen nature. But don't we look at other people and say, "Boy, I wish I was like them"? And there's this examples in the world that are contrary to that where it's, it's mass ego. So, for example, if you stop right now, I'm a, I'm a Formula 1 car driver, uh, fan. I watch on Sunday afternoons. I go home because they're usually played out in some other part of the world. And so by the time I get home on Sundays, I look at the, either the, the F1 race played over, or at least get the highlights. And listen, I guarantee you, every one of those drivers of those F1 cars, they all think they're going to win. Every single one of them think they're going to win. Only one wins, but they all think they're going to win. And now that's the carnal ego side. Are you hearing me? But in church, it should be somewhat like that, sanctified to God, meaning I want to do what God has called me to do. Nobody else can do it. You know that's true. God's called you to do what you're to be doing. And it all, listen, it has to come out of love, not compulsion. It's got to be a response to God's good work in your life.

Listen to this: Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, His poem, created in Christ Jesus for good works, here it comes, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." How many of you Christians, raise your hands? God has got your mission to live in this life for now until the end. It's already been pre-packaged and pre-arranged. Do you know what it is? You are to know it. And that's why we're together today. And so the scripture tells us, and we're going to start taking notes on this, "What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit? What, what can I expect to see or find or discover in my life?" Now, please write that question down. We're going to go through the remainder of the service answering it. We start with this, and there's a new, there's numerous lists, by the way, of the gifts of the Spirit. 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 10 and 11 says, "As each one has received" (past tense) "a gift." You see how you just rose, you raised your hand a moment ago? Listen, you should be able to say, "Every one of you who raised your hands, you should be able to say, 'I think my gift is this,' or 'I know my gift is this,' or we'll settle for this for now, 'I don't know what my gift is, but I'm intending to find out momentarily.'" This is important because you cannot deny it. Notice it says, "As each one has received a gift." By the way, the word "gift" is the word, uh, interchangeable grace, an unmerited favor, a gift given that is not of your own doing. "Minister it to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Verse 11: "If anyone speaks, any speaking refers to any of the audible gifts, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers" (or the word, some of your Bibles say "serves"), "let him do it as with the ability which God supplies." That's the proportion. That in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. That's the purpose.

And so, here's a preamble to the spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1: "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant." And yet, the church in the world is ignorant of these very things. Verse 4: "There are diversities of gifts, many, many diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit." Notice, capital S. It's, it's God. "There are differences of ministries, different ways to serve, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities." Uh, we get the word in English, "energies." Interesting, huh? "But it is the same God." By the way, I've already read just now, in two verses, the Trinity. "And is the same God who works all in all." Verse 7: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all."

So, here, here we go. Mark these down. Ephesians 4, verse 4. That's, that's where we begin on this. "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you're called." The scripture says, "in one hope of your calling." He's speaking to every single one of us right now. You guys okay? Number five, or verse five: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Do you know why it says "one baptism"? It's not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He's talking about it's the baptism, one time, singular. You remember when the day that you accepted Christ, you may have been 5,000 miles away from water? Has nothing to do with water baptism. The Holy Spirit baptized you into the body of Christ at the moment of your salvation. Does that make sense? You got that? Water baptism follows. "One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all." But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Verse 11: "And He Himself gave some." Look, "some," He gave some to be apostles. You say, "Do we have apostles today?" Like the guy I saw on TV last night? No. There are the 12 apostles that operated in a certain dispensation according to God's plan. However, the gift of apostleship today, we would maybe define it this way: somebody who has the ability to, uh, go out, either physically or perhaps, uh, by transmission of the Word of God, and God uses that individual for the establishment of churches. Back in those days, Paul went out by camel, horse, or by foot. In this case, today, because all the gifts, by the way, you want to mark this down. I love teaching a non-denominational church because everybody has every flavor in this gathering right now. Some people are going to learn something what I'm about to say in a moment. Some are going to be upset with it. Doesn't matter. Your problem or your blessing lies in the Bible. Uh, don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger. The word "apostle" is found here in the book of Ephesians, and it's New Testament doctrine. And the Bible says we are to teach the full counsel of God. So just because we cannot fully explain apostleship and what it looks like in the 21st century doesn't mean it doesn't exist. God knows what it means, and God uses certain people to plant churches on an apostle-style type of scope. And, um, it's not my calling, and so I'm grateful for it, but I don't really care about it as long as others who do have it are doing it. How's that? We all benefit from those who are called to plant churches all over the place. "And some prophets." We'll explain this later. "Those who hold forth the Word of God. Some evangelists." And "some." Notice all of the "some." The sum of you, the sum of you, and the sum of you. "And some pastors and teachers." Why? Here's the point: "for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." What a great state that is. Verse 13: "Till." Here's the reason. "Till" or the point. "Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect or complete man, a very mature believer, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Verse 14: "That we should no longer be." And this is great. You don't have to, verse 14, if you've experienced these previous verses, you don't have to worry about verse 14. "That we should be, uh, uh, no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning crafting, deceitful, uh, craftiness of deceitful plotting." In other words, you will never be led astray by some scammer, some religious charlatan. Your alarms will go off. I don't care if 10 people are saying, "Isn't that great? Isn't he? Isn't she? Wasn't that amazing?" And your alarms are going off. Are you hearing me? You are knowing, "Wow, there's something wrong here. Can't put my finger on it, but I, I, this is wrong." Isn't God good to us? He's so good to us.

And so, verse 15: "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, even Christ." What a tremendous promise that is. What a great power that that is to us as believers. Discovering what has been given to us is extremely powerful. We need to know where we're at before we can frankly give anything away. I want to read this to you as well. Touched on it last time together. The Holy Spirit is the distributor of all spiritual gifts. You might want to write that down. Who gives us the gifts of the Spirit? The Spirit does. That's the Holy Spirit's job. I don't mean this in a bad way. I mean this with all affection. Jesus lived 33 and a quarter years here on Earth, and then He ascended back to Heaven. 50 days later, 50, Penta, Pentecost is 50 days. You know, if you're a Pentecostal in Eastern Europe, they call themselves 50-day Christians. Did you know that? You say, "Well, I'm a Pentecostal." Well, 50 days later, after Christ rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit came down, and the church was born. That on the, that was on the day of Pentecost. He's been here ever since, so to speak. He's God. He's eternal. He's always everywhere. But regarding the church, He came down, and He's been with us ever since. And His job is to present us to Jesus at the end of the church age. Either when Christ comes, let's say He comes today, those that have died in Christ will be resurrected, and then we will meet them in the air. Or if Christ doesn't come back for a hundred years to rapture the church, the point is this: it is the Holy Spirit's job to grant unto you a gift, given that is engineered by God, tailor-made, custom-made for you personally. Don't you want that? I don't know about you, but I think I know what my gifts are, but I want more. Not because I want more, I want more because I want more of Him. I have discovered, it's not that I've discovered this, it's just the fact that, and many of you know this, that the more you yield yourself to what God wants to do through you, the closer you get to operate with Him. You see, was that favoritism? Not at all. Present your life as a living sacrifice. You will get as close to Him as you possibly can. And once He uses you, you come back and you say, "Can You use me again?" Why? Because it's not, listen, it is not the attention, and it is not the, the lights, or the stage, or the prominence. It's none of that stuff. It's, "Lord, quite frankly, I was spiritually intoxicated being near You. Amen. I was consumed with You. I did not want to leave Your presence." Peter said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life." Closer, closer, closer. You want to press into Him more. Deeper, stronger. "Draw me near, oh Lord Jesus," is the cry of the believer. And so, He is the distributor of all spiritual gifts. He, as the conductor, appoints, arranges, and places His spiritual gifts and callings upon every true child of God within the body of the church family. This that is any local church. When He does this, He will then excite, prompt, and brood upon you in your thinking and in your pursuit of God. He will excite your life toward the use of the gifts or gift given to you. This often comes after the individual believer is brought through a crisis of faith whereby it is made clear to the gifted that it is God, the Giver, who is to receive all the glory for the great things He has done and those things He is about to do. And all God's people said, "Yes." That's what we want.

Verse 7: "We learn that He's desiring to use us, and we're to use what's been given to us." Some of you young people today, please listen up. I am sick and tired. I'm angry that when this culture, uh, has taught you that you're just an animal, your life doesn't mean anything. And that's why, you know what? Listen, all of this demonic trash about, you know, "Your life's so messed up, you should change yourself." It's just an advanced stage of demonism. It used to be in the old days, you know, "You're so messed up, you should make a New Year's resolution." Oh, if things were so simple. And now we're in such a dark age, and Satan is so wicked that, like anything in life, and he's so famous for this from the beginning of time, he always goes after children. And Satan is out after our kids and grandkids to pervert them and to twist them, to lie to them that they are not the image bearers of God. And if that, if you don't like the way that you, you are, then you can go, uh, find somebody to change you. And, you know, that goes as something as, as benign as someone saying, you know, "Take my five-step course." Of course, it's $1,000 a course, but take my five-step course and you'll be a new person. You know, that's a form of deception, and you're setting somebody up for failure. But then put it on the other side of the pendulum where it swings all the way over, and Satan begins to sow the seed of, you know what? You're not, you're not really happy in your body, are you? How many of you used to be teenagers? Raise your hand. Apparently, a lot of you did not understand a word I just said. By that, I'll confess it for you. At some point in time, when we were teenagers, we despaired of life. We didn't fit in. For many of us, yes, many of us, including myself, 15 years old, thinking suicide is the answer. Satan, like, listen, he's out to rob you, to kill you, and to destroy you. Jesus said, Jesus said, "I've come to give you life," and in that is absolute purpose and meaning and hope. And today, our young people have been given an elixir, a, a toxic drink of hopelessness because, you know what happens? You can have all your gender parts cut off and rearranged, and you will be absolutely more miserable than you were beforehand because it is a matter of the heart. It is a matter of the soul. And God loves you, body, soul, and spirit. He makes no mistakes. But dear friends, young people, listen, at least believe me on this one. Can you take a deep breath? Pull back from the hormone replacement therapy or the surgery schedule? Can you just pull back and take a big deep breath and consider this thought: Has an expert ever been wrong before? Press pause. And ask God if He's real. Press pause. And ask Him to change your life. Press pause. And ask Him to reveal Himself to you and see if He's real. He will transform your life like no other can. And only then you will find out who you really are. You want to know what your identity is? It's found in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone. I am not preaching church, and I'm not preaching politics. I'm not preaching religion. I'm not preaching self-help. I am preaching Jesus Christ, who alone died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead. God loves you. He says so.

"And in ministering or service," verse 7, "let us use it in our ministry." All of us believers are to be serving one another. "He who teaches." This is redundant, but I'll say it. "Let us use it in teaching." And so, knowing and using your spiritual gift will be an awesome benefit to all other believers. All other believers. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 2 says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us" (past tense) "all things pertaining to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us, or called us by glory and virtue." What a tremendous statement. In other words, God knows why you're alive. Consult Him. Have Him give you the answer and go for it.

So, I wrote in my notes, if you're following me, "Try working out with real weights." See, "What do you mean by that?" Well, listen, um, because dumbbells cannot lift up your life or your wife, excuse me. You can work out all you want here at LA Fitness, which, you know what? Were they closed today? They look closed to me. We need that building. Can you guys start praying they can go work in? They can go work out somewhere else. We need that building. Plus, it has a swimming pool in it. We can start baptizing people every Sunday. Please, Lord, Thy will be done. But I'm praying that Thy will is no more LA Fitness. Wouldn't that be great? Anyway, why did I bring that up? Oh, listen. You can work out with weights, but you're not going to, it's not going to benefit your, your wife at all. You said, "No, you don't understand. She likes, she loves my most." No, no, no, no, no. Listen, listen. Working out with weights, it's good for you. Working out with weights. The thing is, it's not going to change your daughter's life. It's not going to change your son's life. It's not going to change your husband's life. And you can do, I wrote this down, not even sure what I wrote down, um, but, uh, nor can you do Pilates and save your husband or save your wife. Do men do Pilates? I don't know what they are. When I first saw the word "Pilates," I thought they were served with sour cream and hot sauce. Doesn't it sound like I would like to take, you know, a chicken fillet and some beef Pilates? I thought that's what I, I had to look it up today. I had to look it up. You can work out all you want. Listen. Oh, you look great, you feel good. I'm not knocking that. In fact, listen, what the Bible says about working out. The Bible says, "Work out." Did you know that? Just, just know what you're getting yourself into. First Timothy 4:7 says, "Exercise yourself toward godliness." You're doing that right now, by the way. Did you know that? You said, "I'm just sitting here." No, you're not. Me, your body sitting here, but your spirit's working out, man, right now, okay? But watch this. Verse 8: "For bodily exercise profits a little." The Bible doesn't say it's worthless. The Bible says, you know, go work out. Just know this: it only profits for a little. And by the way, it only profits for a little that's eternally. It only profits for a little that's in time. It only profits a little. And, um, it only profits a little because you got to go back tomorrow and do it again. He doesn't say, the Bible doesn't say don't work out. The Bible says just know what you're getting yourself into. You're going to pay those guys all that money for us to not be able to use that building, and you're going to have to go back every day because the moment you work out and you, wow, you know, when you're in the mirror, you know those rooms are surrounded by mirrors, and you're like, "Nobody gets out of bed the next day and goes, 'Wow.'" No, you got to go over there to get all that to happen. Listen, I mean this. You don't have to go to church to be a Christian, but because you are a Christian, you should go to church because that's where we work out. See, "What do you mean, workout?" Just like those people are all over that equipment over there. You're sitting down right here, but your spirit's hearing this, and your spirit is saying, "Yeah, I need to do that." And then your flesh is saying, "I don't want to be near these people that are sitting around me." And your spirit is saying, "But, but we need to do this. This is called church." Yeah, but this guy smells. I don't like her. That guy, I can't believe I cut that guy's parking spot out, and now he's sitting right next to me. Oh, my goodness. That's called church, and that's how we work out. Got to love one another. Serve one another. "How can I serve?" should be the motto of the church.

And then, listen, verse 8 tells us that we are to be living "One Life to Live for Now." So give God your all. And that is in the area of giving what's been given. Look at verse 8: "And he who exhorts." And I'm going to use this, it's required. "He who exhorts, let us use it in exhortation. He who gives, let us use it with liberty or liberality. He who leads, let us use it with diligence. And he who shows mercy, let us use it with cheerfulness." So I'm going to, I want you to write down these three things here. You guys, note number one in my notes, page seven, is this: By using that is given away what you have been given, you'll become faithful at it. Church family, I need, I need you're, I need to know that you're hearing me right now. What, what I'm about to say, can you hear me in the back? Somebody? Okay. How about over here? Anybody? Okay, here's the deal. Guess what? If you're a believer, there's going to be a day when you and I stand before the Judgment Seat of Jesus. It's not the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20, you can thank God for that. In Revelation 20, no one that is judged goes to heaven. They all go to hell. But what is done there is that all of their evil deeds are stapled, so to speak, upon them. They get the report card, and then the, the report card, uh, is the indicator as to how torturous their hell is. It's all hell. It's all bad. All are tortured that are Christless. They, listen, when people say, "We're so ignorant." When people say this, "Well, I do good works." Don't say that because you're going to be judged by your works, and your work standard will be judged up to Jesus's work standard, which you ain't going to meet. And without the blood of Christ covering you, if you go, "Hey, God, I, I did pretty good," don't be surprised if Gabriel walks over and grabs the lever and pulls the button, and the door opens up, and down you go. The floor just eats you up. The only way that you can avoid that is by the blood of Christ. If you're a Christian, you don't appear before the Judgment Seat of Almighty God. You appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Big difference. Where Jesus will evaluate His own church. One criterion, one only, only one. Were you faithful? That's it. Faithful to God. To be faithful to God presupposes something regarding God and you that's settled. He's going to ask, "What I'm asking you, Jack, were you faithful?" It implies I knew what I was supposed to be faithful to. Are you hearing me? Every one of you who raised your hands a little while ago should be able to say, "I get it. This I must be faithful to in my life. I'm going to be judged on this calling that's upon my life." So I must discover it. I must just use it. I must give God all the glory by it. And that's the living of a church. Number one note: This, by using, giving away what you've been given, you'll become faithful at it. Number two: Others will be served by you too, and their lives will confirm your gifting. What does that mean? People will be blessed by the calling upon your life. Has anyone ever said to you some form of thank you or appreciation that God spoke to them? God did something to them through your life? We call it confirmation. Number three: Those of the church will verbally confirm your gifting and calling by actually saying so. And listen, it won't go to your head. It will go to your heart. I'll often tell our worship ministry, "That was an awesome set. That was great worship. That was fantastic." Make sure that goes to your heart and not your head. We can survive an enlarged heart, amen. We cannot survive an enlarged head. That's just weird looking. Well, you know, when your head's big, you're off balance. You're, you're weird. So, um, we got to, we have to. Right now, it's, I've been going slow. Are you ready? We have to go fast now. We should have given you guys some energy drinks before coming in here.

The various gifts of the Holy Spirit. Church family, take a deep breath and relax. It depends on what book you're reading, by what author, from what denomination. There's an argument, there's seven gifts, there's nine gifts, some say there's 12 gifts, someone has said there's 21 gifts. Listen, all these gifts. Listen, Bez, Bez in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon him, and he was gifted to cut stones for the building of the temple. I'm just saying, don't limit God, is what I'm saying. But we'll go through the ones that are the predominant listed gifts of the New Testament.

The gift of prophecy. We're going to run through these. Prophecy, lot here, uh, but it's important that we do this. Thus speaking forth, that's what it means. A discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden, especially by foretelling future events. To prophesy is to declare the divine will of God, that's found in the Bible, to interpret the purposes of God found in the Bible, or to make known in any way the truth of God that is designed to influence people. Guess where it's found? In the Bible. The gift of prophecy. Take a picture. If you're wondering, "Do I have this gift?" Maybe God might show you that, yes, in fact, you do.

Secondly, serving or ministering. Also refers to this gift. Involves providing service of any kind to the church. It is the broad application of practical help to those in need. Serving is a translation of the Greek word, uh, *diakoneo*, from which we get the English "deacon."

Next, teaching. This gift involves the analysis and proclamation of the Word of God, the Bible, explaining the meaning, context, and application to the hearer's life. The Bible teacher is one who has the unique ability to clearly instruct and to communicate knowledge, specifically the doctrines of the faith.

Encouraging or encouragement, also referred to in scripture as exhortation. This gift is evident in those who consistently call upon others to heed and follow God's truth, that is the Bible, which may involve correction, or building up others by strengthening weak faith, or, uh, comforting in trials. Are you guys getting it? Is you okay? Okay.

Giving. Gifted givers are those who joyfully. I love that, because the Bible commands that to give joyfully. If you, if you're not a happy giver, you don't have the gift of giving. Sharing what they have been given by God with others, whether it is financial, material, or the giving of personal time. And I would, I would have put, or attention. The giver is concerned for the needs of others and seeks opportunities to share goods, money, time with them as needs arise. By the way, these are all the Greek meanings to these words found in your Bible, uh, in detail.

Leadership. The gifted leader, by the way, remember the word "gifted" also means "graced," the unearned, unmerited favor that God gives. For the leader is one who rules, presides over, or has the management of other people in the church. The word literally means "guide" and carries with it the idea of one who steers a ship. One with the gift of leadership rules with wisdom and grace and exhibits the fruit of the Spirit in life as they lead by observable example. In other words, leaders that God gives you are accessible leaders that lead by word and by what they do. I love that.

Next, mercy. Closely linked with the gift of encouragement, the gift of mercy is obvious in those who are compassionate toward others who are in distress, showing sympathy and sensitivity coupled with a desire and the resource to lessen their suffering in a kind and cheerful manner. Don't you want, have you ever been to the doctor's or been to the hospital? You ever gotten hurt? Don't you want a merciful caregiver? There's nothing worse than a caregiver that lacks mercy. As much as that is important, these are supernatural attributes. These are not earth-based. These are not like, "Oh, this person's so merciful." Yeah, that's great. We need people like that. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about you possessing any one of these in a supernatural sense to where you're the one most shocked that you're merciful. Are you hearing me? Where you would never, there's no way you could be a leader. Ain't no way. Well, you better watch out because God might just make you a leader because God will get all the glory, and you get all the shock.

Words of wisdom. By the way, I believe all of these are in operation today. Write me all the letters you want. I'm not going to read them. Um, "Oh, I only believe in part of the gifts," or "I only believe in three-quarters of them." Or "I only believe." Go ahead. You cannot show me anywhere in the Bible where any of the gifts have ceased. You can be taught that at some denomination, that's their problem. The Bible says in the book of Romans, "God's gifts are given without Him revoking them." So words of wisdom is supernatural. The fact that this gift is described as the word of wisdom indicates that it is one of the speaking gifts. This gift describes someone who can understand and speak forth biblical truth in such a way as to skillfully apply it to any of life's situations with discernment. It's supernatural, though it's not a talent.

Next, word of knowledge. This is another speaking gift that involves understanding truth with an insight that only comes by revelation from God. Those with the gift of knowledge, remember it's supernatural, it's not human, it's not earthbound, understand the deep things of God. They're granted insights and the mysteries of the Word, and yet can convey them simply.

Faith. Everybody, listen. If you trust Christ today as Lord and Savior, we all have faith. This is not the kind of faith we're talking about here. This is not saving faith. This is not operational faith. This is supernatural faith. Everybody in this church has got to have. For this church to work right, some of you have this. Some of you have every, listen, every topic that we've come down, some of you have. Don't miss this. A primary gifting with maybe a secondary. But if you discover what your gift is and you use it, this church will shake, shake the foundations of hell. This church will be unstoppable. You want to know why? Because Jesus is the head, and He's out front leading the way, and you can't stop a church like that. You can't stop a Christian like that. Faith. All believers possess faith in some measure because it is one of the gifts of the Spirit bestowed on

All who come to Christ in faith, the spiritual gift of faith is exhibited by one with a strong and unshakeable confidence. Portion of faith in God, his word, his promises, and the power of prayer to affect miracles. Wow.

Next, healing. Technically, Greek, from the Greek language, it should be healings, plural, but we'll say healing. The divine gifting to pray to act to elevate, to alleviate, sorry, the pain and suffering of another. To pray a prayer of faith in total reliance upon God to do his will according to the scriptures. In other words, this person is prompted. It's a funny thing. Listen, um, you can, you can be, you can think for a moment that this doesn't apply to you as a believer. That's just not my thing. But then there's a time, maybe in life, it could be a lot, could be not so much, could be once. It depends on God. The Holy Spirit at is at any given moment where you just feel overwhelmingly compelled and burdened. I've got to pray for this person's healing. You ever had that where you just got to do it? And you, and you, you put your hands on them. You don't have to put your hands on them, but you can. And you pray. Listen, some people in the Bible were healed and Jesus wasn't even near them. They were in the next town over and somebody said, "Can you pray for this person?" Jesus prayed and they were healed. They weren't even there. Man, that's awesome.

Miraculous Powers. Miracles, also known as the working of Miracles, involving supernatural acts that could only be attributed to the power of God. You see this in the mission field, by the way. Seen most often in the realm of unreached people through missionary activity. You say, "Well, I haven't seen a miracle." Well, it's because you live in Chino Hills. Well, I'm not seeing any. I, I didn't see anybody raised from the dead. It's because you live in LA. It's not that God can't do it in Chino Hills or LA. He doesn't need to do that. Listen, Miracles are, the Bible says Miracles are to confirm the word of God. Listen, the word of God doesn't confirm the miracle. It's an interesting. Miracles say, "You see, did you hear that? In Jesus' name, this man was made whole." And then people come away knowing, "Wow, the word of God is powerful." You are never to walk away and saying, "Wow, Miracles are powerful. I'm going to study Miracles. I'm going to become a disciple of Miracles." You do that, you'll be a weirdo. Seriously, you'll become a weirdo. You'll be chasing every weird thing that's going on. Are we done? Or we, is there more? Oh, there's so many more. Lord, please stop the clock.

Discerning of spirits. Probably the most needed thing today in our world. The unique ability to determine, that is, call out the true message of God from that of the deceiver, Satan, whose methods include, uh, prying, uh, deceptive and erroneous doctrine. This gift of discerning of spirits is given to the church to protect it from satanic infiltrators.

Speaking in tongues. Or we'll just say tongues. Involves, listen, involving the divine ability to speak in languages previously unknown to the speaker. In other words, they are languages of this world, but you don't know it. Again, this happens much on the mission field. This gift authenticates the message of the gospel and those who preached it as coming from God. The phrase "diversity of tongues," King James version, listen carefully everyone, "different kinds of tongues," effectively eliminates the idea of a personal prayer language. Let me explain, as being a spiritual gift, but rather a tool of prayer for all. Not to be confused with the gift of tongues. Let me mention this really quick. Some people, listen up, Pentecostals, some of you have been told if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved. That's from hell, right? Some speak in tongues, some not. All. It is a language that is known in this world, but not by you. In other words, if there was an afterglow setting, or you're somewhere, however, whatever, a sentence or a word or words would be, would be just downloaded into your head and you don't understand it. And you say it. And you say something and nobody understands you except those two people that are sitting over there in the corner, and they just happen to be from France, or from Bolivia, or from Russia, or from Argentina. Are you hearing me? And they understand the wonderful works of God. And you're shocked. They're blessed. God did that. Prayer language, that is something that the Bible says is to be operated privately for all believers. It's not a gift. Did you know that? The prayer language that a believer has, it's not a gift. Every believer has that ability to do that alone with God. You should all go figure out what that is. But don't confuse the two.

Next, interpretation of tongues. It's, I kind of almost just said that. A person with the gift of interpreting tongues could understand what a tongues speaker was saying, even though he did not know the language that was being spoken. That's, by the way, that's the book of Acts. Bunch of Galileans started speaking in tongues. They didn't know what they were saying. But people standing around them said, "What in the world is happening? I'm from Caposa. This guy is a Galilean speaking Capian. I'm from Bethania. He's speaking my home tongue, my language." And the book of Acts says, "Even in our own dialect." That's just awesome because you can be, listen, even in California, it's all languages everywhere around the world. In California, we speak, we don't speak English, we speak American. Big difference. There's English. If you want to know English, you need to go to England to hear it for real, like Elizabethan English. We speak American. Like, yo. Uh, you, you say in England, you say like, "See you." And they're like, "What?" But did you know that people who don't live here can tell if you're from Northern California or Southern California? That's wild to me. See, we, we get, we don't think so. God's got the ability to speak to other people, even to the point of dialect. Read Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 3. The tongues interpreted would then communicate the message of the tongue speaker to everyone else, so all could understand.

Are we done yet? Helps. The gift of helps. This is awesome. This church could not function without this gift. Thank God for the thousands of people who have this gift in operation. Those with the gift of helps are those who can aid or render assistance to others in the church with compassion and grace. This is a broad range of possibilities for application. Most import, most importantly, this is the unique ability to identify those who are struggling with doubt, fears, or other spiritual battles, to move toward those in spiritual need with a kind word and understanding and compassionate demeanor, and to speak scriptural truth that is both convicting and loving. The response in the moment of need is that it. Yes, that's it.

We have to wrap this up. I'll read this to you now. Hang on to your seats. We'll come across the finish line. We're going to make it. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I'll start there. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are diversities of Ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it's the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the Same Spirit, to another Faith by The Same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by The Same Spirit, to another the working of Miracles, to another prophecy, to another Discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, works all things, distributing to each one individually as He Wills."

Church family, before I keep reading, if the Spirit of God is invited by us to have His way with us, we ain't seen nothing yet as a church. I continue, verse 12: "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body. In other words, the body is made up of all kinds of parts and pieces, so also is Christ. For by one, that is the Holy Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink of one Spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many. Verse 15: But if the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, by the way, how's the ear going to say this? It's only an ear anyway. 'Because I'm not an eye, I'm not of the body,' is it therefore not of a body? Verse 17: If the whole body were an eye, that's creepy. What a weird thing. Wow. What's that? This giant eyeball. Where would its hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smell be? Or where would the, where would it be able to smell? But now God has set the members, that's each and every one of us, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you.' Can you imagine that? My eyeball says to my hand, 'I have no need of you.' What are you? What are you for? Nor again the head to the feet. Can you imagine the feet? The head. Everybody wants to be the head. The feet. Can you imagine the feet living in darkness most of the time? Stinks. Hot. You got all these others inside there with you, and they're stinking up the whole room. You and I wonder if the big toe gets an argument wanting to be the little toe, or does the little toe want to be the big toe? And they say, 'I have no need of you.' No, much rather these members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary." Did you hear that? Think about your own body. The weak parts of your body are very, very necessary. "And those members of the body which you think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor. And our unpresentable parts have greater modesty. Verse 24: But our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism. Your body, let me put it this way, there should be no spasms or freakish activity when you should, your body war against itself. The hand doesn't slap the face, and the foot doesn't kick you in the rear. You just don't do that to yourself. Why would a church do that to itself? Why would somebody over here slap somebody over here? Are you see how important this is? But that the members should have the same care one for another. And if members, oh boy, and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it."

I'm going to end here. But, um, you know, God is a, God's amazing. He's good. He's, he's amazing. Amen. And I got to tell you that as a Bible teacher, this always happens. I've often said to you guys, and you know, you think I'm joking around, but I think when I invite any one of our staff to travel with me somewhere, I think they get nervous. They get nervous. Why? Because they know something's going to go wrong. It just does. So I'm getting ready to fly back home the other day, and I got up, uh, oh my gosh, it was crazy. I was on East Coast time, so I had two hours sleep. Turned out to be a two-hour sleep and a 27-hour day. Uh, drove and ric storm, get to the airport, and getting ready, going home, coming back to you. Yes. And lightning hits our plane on the at the gate. And now this is church. So I heard things like, "What in the beep people? What?" [Music] [Applause] "Beep people standing up. I'm gonna miss my flight." And and where, what am I doing? I'm like this. Everybody jumps back to the gate. I got to get to Chicago. I got to get to Miami. I got to get to, well, I had to get to LA, or at least Orange County, or or Ontario. So there's this huge line, people cussing and freaking out. And the poor woman behind the counter was just overwhelmed. And she just said, "You can go to the Delta Airline helpline. The phones are right there. You just pick it up." And nobody moved. So I thought, maybe that's from God. I went over and I picked it up. And this woman goes, "Hello, how can I help you?" And I said, "Our plane got hit by lightning." "I, what?" "She goes, 'I don't need to know all that. I just need to know your name.'" "Yes." "Well, here's my name." "Well," and I just thought this was awesome. "Well, darling, you just hang on." And she goes, uh, she goes, "I see your original flight was to put you in at, uh, Ontario at 2:00 PM or whatever." She goes, "I can, I can be about 15 minutes off from that if you're willing to let me put you on an American Airline flight heading to Philadelphia." And I mean, "You mean the Super Bowl [Music] winners?" "Yeah." "Can you do that?" And I said, "And I'll get home only 15 minutes later than normal?" "I'll do it." And I said, "Now, just, did you say there's only two seats left in that flight to LA?" "Was to LA?" And she said, "Yeah." And I said, "Oh, I hope it's still available." She goes, "Oh, honey, I, I, I reserved it the moment you picked up the." And I'm thinking, man, we need this lady at church, right? And I, I mean, and I, I got home. And here's the thing. Is the, the plane got hit by lightning. That's so normal for me. That's just normal. So I was staying in a, in a friend's house, an old house, 100-year-old home with real windows, you know, none of this plastic stuff. Real wood with, you know, the kind of glass that's so old it's wavy. And I had to open the window because it was a really beautiful day. And I couldn't open the window. It's a two-way. It's an up and downer, like a, I call it now, a guillotine window. And I'm, I'm pulling and I'm pulling and I'm hitting it, trying to loosen it up. And it, and it budged a little bit. I got my fingers underneath and I'm, I'm pulling and pulling and pulling. And it goes up. And at the same time, this 80-pound window coming down, it releases from the top and it comes down. And I am all alone. I'm in unbelievable pain. Go ahead, I'll show you my fingers. I'm in un, unbelievable pain. I'm got this window. I'm like, there's nobody there. And I'm bent over a chair and I'm, the pain is so intense, I feel like everything starts to go dark. It hurts so bad. And I thought, and listen, I'm going to rebuke myself right now, okay? You don't have to do it later. I'm doing it now. My first thought was, "Hey Siri, call 911." Oh my gosh. Check your phone. Maybe your phone might have done that. Look at your phone. It might be dialing 911. Poor, poor police department. They're going to get all these calls right now. The phone was so far in the other room, it couldn't hear me. I'm stuck like in a bear trap. I can't get out. There's nobody there to exercise their spiritual gifts for me. No mercy, no helps. I was helpless. And as God is my witness, I said, "Dear Lord Jesus, you must help me." Out loud. I said, "Dear Lord Jesus, please help." And the bottom window, which was a huge window, look, my fingers, it was huge. They look pretty good now, though. The window went up two inches. It's impossible. The window went up two inches all by itself. I got my fingers out. And why do I say that? My fingers are still kind of numb and they still hurt. This was a week ago. But here's the deal. You know what her, you know what? Look at this. This finger. When this finger hurt, everything hurt. That's how God teaches Bible teachers. You're going to, hey Jack, next week you're going to talk in the body of Christ, and when one member suffers, they all suffer. Well, here you go. Let's all stand. We need you. You're needed. You're valuable. God wants to do amazing things in your life. I went way over, so they're going to play worship and you're going to go out with joy. Amen. God bless you.