Embrace Your Gift: The Seven Motivational Gifts of Romans 12

Welcome to Tri-State Community Church again, and thank you for your love of the saints here and joining us this morning.! I'm looking forward to sharing some truth with you. I'm excited about it. As John Hopkins mentioned, we're going to talk about different gifts from the scripture, not all of them, mostly from Romans 12.

We're going to mention some of the other ones and how really valuable and important they are for our walk with God. Let's first have a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness and kindness and the wonderful breaking of bread ceremony.

Chance as a body to remember you together. Certainly we can do this individually too, we should. Thank you for our salvation, Lord, our new life in Christ. That's amazing. It's an adventure. It's a great adventure.

We thank you for that, Lord. Help us continue to see new truths from scriptures today. Help us in our walk with you. That we're able to just emulate some of the amazing things that Pastor Jack had for us, Lord. Loving people, giving grace.

Lord, I don't want to forget that. I just thank you for him and what Jack has done for us. We praise you for continuing to pray for the family, for comfort and healing, and that they're able to move forward in their lives and just give you glory in it.

The number of people still ailing. We lift up the different ones that are struggling with cancer and Jim Potter over there and different ones. We put them in your hands, Lord, just to see your face in all this. We put this morning in your hands. Amen.

Just as I share a little bit, I'd like to, I just feel like I need to explain the outline a little bit ahead of time so you understand why I'm saying what I'm saying. So it'll make more sense. Because the actual gifts that I want to share with you, I'm going to share probably in the second half.

But I want to share how important they are in the first half. The gifts, the main gifts that I want to share, and there's many more, and we'll talk about them, is what I call the motivational gifts found in Romans 12.

And you can remember them with your body. And I'll go over this a few times so I'll help you remember them. And you might remember I gave this message. It's a little different this time, but I gave a similar message to this.

It was quite a few years ago about the gifts. But they're really important. And God's given us the gift of salvation, and we know that. It's huge. It's everything.

But he's given us some gifts additionally to that, to help us in our walk with him. And learning what those are, and implementing and employing them, you'll see that in the scriptures, is really important.

It's what's going to make this church thrive and do amazing things. And some of the, many of us are using those gifts. But maybe some of us haven't quite learned what they are, and what, how God has to use for them for our lives. So, it's a really important thing.

So, what I'm first going to share is a little bit, is from Romans. I'm going to share a little bit about why Paul wrote the letter to the Romans. So it leads into Romans chapter 12. And it starts with the word, therefore.

And we, John Wonstar had a verse that starts with therefore. There's a reason for the therefore. And we'll look into that a little bit. And then we'll talk quite a bit about how important the gifts are.

Why do we need the gifts? And after that, we'll get into the gifts, what they are. And then at the end, I want to share three, maybe even four ways to help us learn how to know what your gift is.

Some people ask me, well, I don't know what my gift is, what my spiritual gift is, or gifts are. And there's some ways I think we can think about and to learn what those gifts are. So that's a little overview of today's message. Hopefully that helps.

So, Paul's writing a letter to the Romans. And I always want to learn, why does Paul do the things he does? Why is he writing a letter to the Romans? And what's the letter about?

And ever so, he writes the letter to the Jews and Gentile believers. He's in Corinthians. Let's see if I can get this map up there. There we go.

I like maps. It helps me understand things better. This is Paul's third journey, third missionary journey. He has not been to Rome yet, yet he's writing a letter to the Romans.

And he's in Corinth. It's very far left on the left side there. That's where he's at on this third journey. He's about to head back home, which is the purple.

And he's writing a letter to the Romans. Hasn't been there yet. And this Romans letter is to help the Romans understand the Gospel. Primarily, the first probably eleven chapters is about the Gospel message.

A very deep understanding of the Gospel. And then when you get into chapter twelve, which we're going to talk about, he switches into Christian living. And using our gifts.

So I think it's good to understand a little bit about that. And also, he's writing to the Romans because he needs support, because he wants to take a fourth missionary trip to Spain. And he's asking the Romans for some help.

You'll see some scriptures on that. In fact, that's my next one. This is Paul later in Romans. He says, So he's looking to do a fourth missionary trip, which he doesn't really get to do, because he becomes incarcerated.

So the book of Romans, a little bit more, it's about who God is, what he has done.

It tells us about ourselves and that our sin separates us from him. And what we will become after putting our faith in him. There's some great verses about the Gospel message that we memorize and we share with people from Romans.

Romans chapter three and four talk about faith. We're saved by faith alone. Romans makes it clear. It's a very in-depth study of faith, what it means. Romans chapter six.

I like this beginning of six. I'm going to read that about grace. There's a great chapter on the grace of God. What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Of course, we're not to continue in sin.

We live by grace. We get to do amazing things for God. And chapters nine through 11 talks, Paul explains a little bit of the history of Israel and that God has not completely rejected Israel.

And so we get to therefore. So we go to Romans chapter 12. And this is an amazing two verses that we read many times.

This is not particularly what my message is about, but it helps us set the pace, the tone for getting into the gifts of God. Which starts in about verse seven, six and seven in there.

And he says, Therefore, I exhort your brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship, service of worship.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.

So after this great gospel presentation in the first 11 chapters, he says, Therefore, therefore, now, and he's switching gears into our Christian living, we're a living sacrifice.

Do not be conformed to this world. Don't we need to hear that? The world is just pounding on us to be conformed to the world.

Money and power and all the things of the world is just, it's, it's, wow. We get to be a sacrifice of God. We've been talking in the Colossians about the rules.

We're not under rules. We get to serve God. We get to help people. It's an amazing gift from God. We get to be a part of this great adventure.

There's a church in town called the Great Adventure Church. That's a good name. This should be a great adventure for us, following God. And God's setting the tone for this amazing adventure.

So let's get to the scripture verses that I want to primarily talk about today. Romans starting with verse 3 through 8 is the passage that I want to share about these particular gifts.

And as I said, we're going to talk, once we read it, then I'm going to talk a little bit about why the gifts are so important. So let's read it. For through the grace given to me, I say to each one among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound thinking, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another, but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

These are the seven, what I call motivational gifts.

You feel motivated. My gift, I'm pretty certain, is service. When I look around, I see chairs that maybe are out of place. I want to put them back together. I see cracks in the wall that need to be fixed.

I like to fix them. I can't help myself. I just like doing things around my home. I'll fix things. I'll help my kids. I'm all over it.

I enjoy it. I know I'm a pastor, so I've got to let other people do things, but please let me do a few things of service. Okay? Don't take it all away from me.

So, you know, they let me mud and tape a wall downstairs that was so fun. You know, so these are the seven gifts that we want to talk about.

Maybe I'll think it's good to repeat. So let's just, I'll show you how I have it memorized. The head. It steers the body. It's the leader.

It's the leader. The brain. The mind. It's the teacher. It's the teacher. It understands things well. It can study scriptures, and it's the teacher.

The eyes is the prophecy. They look out to the church so they can see things. They see the sin in the church. The mouth exhortation. The mouth exhortation. They can encourage, come alongside, exhort you to do things.

They're good at it. The arms. The giver. They'll give their checkbook away if you let them. You've got to be careful. They love to give. They can discern giving really well.

The hands. That's the service person. They're great at physical things. Lots of tasks and doing things with their hands, and they can get service projects done. And mercy. The heart of the heart.

Oh, I'm so sorry, brother, you're going through that. They can come alongside and just make you feel great when you're down and out. So that's a quick overview. We're going to detail that later.

So, as I said, motivational gifts. In chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter, so this is Romans 12. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about other types of gifts, many types of gifts.

I like to call them the manifestation gifts. We're going to read a couple of verses a little bit about that later. And in Ephesians 4, and also in 12, there's office or ministry gifts. Pastor, evangelist, and you can read more about those gifts.

So, why are the gifts? They're essential to the growth of this church. I can't begin to tell you how important they are. They are given by God to be used for the betterment of the church.

If you look at 1 Peter 4.10, as each one has received a gift.

Each one. Each one. Everyone. Employ it. Don't put it in your pocket.

Employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. These gifts are for serving the body. Yes, there's a service gift, but they're all, in essence, a type of serving.

Whether you're giving or teaching, it's a type of serving in the body. Gifts are to serve others. We need to employ our gifts. God's commanding us to do that.

The gifts also aren't to be glorified in and of themselves. We glorify God. Not our gifts. It can be a hindrance sometimes.

We're really gifted at something and, oh, kind of look at me there. Go upstairs, look at the wall that I had mud and taped the other day. Looks pretty good, you know. We can glorify our gifts, what we do, and we've got to be careful of that.

Let's read a verse about that. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. Or do you not know that your body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God. We glorify God in our body. He's the one that gets the glory, not our gifts. Gifts are for everyone.

Not that we get every gift. We all get gifts. God's given us gifts. It's amazing. James 1, 17. Where do they come from?

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

It comes from God. We all get them. We all get gifts. It's not for the privileged. We see in the world there's privileged people who get certain things for certain things.

We all get gifts from God. Not just the pastor. Oh, he's spiritual. He's gonna have more gifts. Nope. It's not how it works. He's gifted all of us that believe in God, that have a relationship with God.

We all have gifts. It's really important. And each kid, like when I give gifts to my kids, I pretty much do it equally, but differently.

It's never perfect. You know, as a father, I kind of know what each kid likes. Our Heavenly Father knows exactly what each of us need and our gifts should be.

Their gifts are for everyone as God sees fit. He's given us amazing gifts. When the gifts are not used, the church suffers and can become stagnant. Boy, when someone, when I give a gift to my kid, I sure want to see him open it and enjoy it.

What a heartache when someone opens up a gift and a pair of socks or whatever, right? Gifts are important and valuable.

When you open up a gift for God, we need to use that gift. It's from him. And don't try and use someone else's gift. If he's given you the gift of mercy or if it's the gift of service that we're talking about, that means God knows what's best for you and we need to employ that gift.

Use that gift for his glory. Like I said, we'll get into what they are in a little bit. Gifts are incredibly important. What a shame if someone gives you a gift and you don't use it, right?

God doesn't make mistakes. He does not make mistakes with gifting. He knows exactly the gift you need just for you, tailor-made, with your personality and what you do in life, man or woman, makes no difference.

He's all about you. Precious gifts. I'd want to know what that is. I want to know what that gift is.

And I want to use it. I want to go to, so here's a little bit of 1 Corinthians 12 gifts.

He's talking, God's talking about the 1 Corinthians 12 gifts. I call them the manifestation gifts. You'll see that word even in this scripture here. But I think it's going to help us understand, again, more of the why and how important gifts are.

Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are a variety of ministries and the same Lord. There are a variety of workings, but the same God who works everything in everyone.

We are special. But to each one is given the manifestation, why I like to call these the manifestation gifts of the Spirit for what is profitable.

What is profitable? Gifts are to make us profitable, to do good things for Him. We're to employ the gifts, we're to use our gifts, and they're profitable.

God's calling us for profitable gifts. I was just kind of reading through these gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. One of them is faith. You say, well, wait a minute, we're all to live by faith.

We do. There's a gift of faith. Someone in here, maybe a few of you in here, have an exceptional gift of faith. I often thought Pastor Jack had that.

You can believe in a deeper, believe God in bigger things. I don't know exactly how it works. I don't think I have it. Maybe I do at times. Maybe it will manifest itself when I need it.

Someone in here has the gift of wisdom. You have this extra ability of wisdom. It's all in 1 Corinthians 12. It's a chapter you've got to spend some time to read about it.

It's good. They're important. We need them. Discernment. I want that guy on my team. Someone that's got discernment. Tell us who this goes to.

This person, I don't think that person's good for that job. Maybe this one's better. They can discern things really well. Let's find out what our gifts are and implement them for his glory and purpose.

It will be the most rewarding experience that you can ever imagine. It's fun. It's fun. It's fun to use your gifts. I love it. So let's get now to our passage back to Romans chapter 12.

And we're still not quite there yet. There's still a couple more things we need to prepare ourselves for the gifts because they're important. may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may Satan, if there's one thing he's going to get, he's going to make us be proud.

And we're no good when we're proud. Because God says, I'm opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He's preparing us to share the gifts, but he's first setting the tone here.

Humble yourself. Don't think highly of yourself. What I do in you, I do in you. Let's give God credit for that. Don't think highly of yourself. How important humility will be as we use our gifts from God.

It's easy to get proud of our gifts, as I mentioned already. It really is. I've seen it. I've seen it. It's easy to stumble and think, oh man, I'm good at that.

Try and let people know it. Even subtly, we can try and let people, you know, go take a look at that wall downstairs, you know. It can be very subtle.

It's so secretive that we're trying to get compliments and trying to get people to look at us and not God. I've done it. I've done it. Last Sunday, the message about the disciples, one, one, and sit on the right, one, one, and sit on the left.

That's about pride. Put me up there. It was a good lesson. It was a good lesson. It was a good lesson. The next couple of verses here.

For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

It's so important to see ourselves as a member of a team. I like football. I just do. I like watching it.

I like all the different parts of the team. I like watching the linemen build a hole so the running backs can go through. I like watching the receivers, the tight ends, the defensive backs.

They all have a purpose. When each one is using their gift the way it was designed to, that's a winning team. But when you start having multiple people on a team not using their gift the way they're supposed to, maybe they're even in the right position, they're gifted for that position, and they don't use it, that's a losing team.

Sometimes you can get by with a few. You know, one guy misses a tackle, the other team's going to go for a touchdown. He's not using his gift the way God intended it. So every gift is precious, and we need the use of it.

It makes this church run amazing. Reaching Dubuque, that's what Jack was all about. I said, well, I want to be a part of that. But I need your help.

We need each other's help. I need, I need, I'm worried about who's going to fill the mercy role of Pastor Jack. He had the gift of mercy.

You'll see that, he had it to a T. Exceptionally great at that. The, uh, I don't have a slide for it, but, again, I can't share everything at one Sunday here, but in 1 Corinthians 12, talk is about members.

I'm going to read you 1 Corinthians 12, verses 14 and 15. For also the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, it is not for the reason, and, nevertheless, a part of the body.

We're all, we're all part of the body. We need each other. Every part of my body needs the other parts to work. My fingers are working because my brain's telling them to work.

They're all needed. You are all special. We need each and every one here in your special gift. There's no accident you're sitting here today. When we use our gift well, we can be a part of a touchdown and a winning team and a winning record.

I want to go to the Super Bowl, so to speak. I've been watching a little bit of the Brewers. They're going to the World Series.

Maybe you don't know baseball, but they say that they're playing the game the right way. They're using their gifts appropriately. They call it small ball. There's no big home run hitter on that team, and yet they're winning.

They're playing the game right. We can play the game right, using our gifts in the right position, in the right spot. All right, it's going to get exciting here.

We're going to get to the gifts here. Just get a start here. But having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, whether prophecy in agreement with the faith.

Having gifts, but having gifts that differ. We all have gifts, and they're going to be different. They're going to be different. The first one here is prophecy. I already mentioned the seven gifts, right?

We all have different gifts. That's okay. We embrace it. Embrace your gift. Embrace it. Help God show you how to use it better.

Embrace it. The gift of God should be cherished, and we should be thanking him for it. Even just writing that down, I'm like, I can't remember the last time I thanked God for my gift.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of service. Thank him for it. Okay, here we go. The first gift.

Oops, we're still there. Prophecy. Yeah, yeah, I guess we need to go one more verse. Prophecy. 1 Corinthians 14.1 talks about prophecy as well.

Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. Here we go again. Gifts are important.

Earnestly desire them. I don't even know what my gift is. Well, pay attention. We're going to learn. We're going to learn more about gifts. Earnestly desire them, especially that you may prophecy, which is the first one on the list.

The eyes. They can see the sin in the church. It's the first on the list. Must be important. It says earnestly desire these, especially prophecy.

So what is a prophet? Well, we've already got the prophecies all written in the Bible. Yeah, we do. A New Testament prophecy gift is someone that can see sin in the church.

They warn of sin and want to make sure people are connecting with God. They see sin in the church. They can just see it. They're gifted. They can walk into a room.

They can see all the problems. There's a problem there. There's a problem there. There's a problem there. And they see it. That's a good thing. There's problems here. I want to know what they are. They should be careful not to only open up their mouth if it's for the betterment of the church.

There's warnings on every gift. Every gift has a warning. You're going to see that come out here this morning. They're very bold in speaking. Another example, even though it's in the Old Testament, a friend shared this with me.

When King David committed murder and adultery, Nathan the prophet came to him. And what did he say to David? You're a sinner. You did wrong.

And what did David do? He listened to him. And he repented. That's the kind of a New Testament person that has prophecy, even if it's in the Old Testament form.

They see sin and they're willing to share it. But appropriately. It's easy to do it wrong and maybe be too tough. The goal of the prophet in the New Testament is restoration and building up the church to give glory to God.

We really need them. And we have to humble ourselves to listen to these people when they share their gift. They share about sin. We say, oh, yep.

Let's think about that. What's going on? What's wrong? We need the prophet in the church. They can see things that I can't see. I need them. One more danger of the prophet.

Prophecy in the New Testament depend on speaking and not the Holy Spirit. And can be insensitive at times. So there's a warning. We've got to be careful. We give grace.

We give grace to one another. So that's the first gift. Prophecy. That's the eyes. They can see. See out into the church. They can see sin. Where am I at now?

Yeah, there we are. Or service in his serving. Or he who teaches in his teaching. Here's the next two. So let's talk about service. The hands. Okay, as I mentioned before, I feel pretty confident this is my spiritual gift.

Because this is what I think about. I think about it a lot. I'm motivated in serving. That's good. That's a good thing. They are able to meet the needs of physical tasks of the church.

Highly motivated. And they love to serve. Workhorse of the church. I bet you know many, many, I know many people in this church that have the gift of service. They quietly in the background are the workhorse.

They do a lot of things around here. You don't even know it. Highly motivated. And they love to serve. They don't mind doing things when no one else is around.

But they do need some encouragement. So if you see someone serving a lot, give them a little word of encouragement. They don't need a lot. Just give them some. Give them some.

In fact, the danger is they can become bitter if they don't get any encouragement. I'm doing all this stuff and no one said nothing to me. So we all have a task at this.

Remember, this is a team. Every football player needs a little encouragement. Linemen don't get hardly any. They don't get no ride. They don't.

Yeah. I'm tongue-tied. Yeah. They need encouragement. You know, the running backs and the quarterbacks, they get all the limelight. They're nothing without the linemen.

Nothing. Linemen let the defensive guy through. He's sacked. Broken arm, whatever. Happens all the time. Service.

Do you have the gift of service? Do you have the gift of service? Is that what you think about when you come here? Teaching. Teaching. The mind. They do very well explaining the truths of Christ.

If you have a doctrine and you can explain it effectively, not arrogantly, then you likely might have this gift. You just love telling the scriptures and maybe other things, but this is a spiritual gift.

You're able to explain the doctrines of scriptures to people. People will regularly understand what you teach them.

It's not that you just do it, but they'll understand what you're saying. It's not necessary to be in the pulpit. Men and women alike can have this gift. Men and women alike have.

They should, but be careful, they should only teach what you know. Don't try and teach something you don't know. Learn what you learn. Teach what you learn. Start sharing with your friends and family and let your gifts start to shine.

Right? Tell me. I'll listen to you. Hey, Tim, I got this. I'm learning this. I'd love to hear it. Any of it. Other pastors, I'm sure, would. But if you feel like maybe you got this gift, start sharing with someone.

Go to a Bible study. Maybe afterwards you can share something with somebody. You got to try. You just have to try. Try things. Beware of pride.

A danger. Beware of pride. Because explaining things really well, you can puff yourself up. Right? Really, all the gifts, there's a danger of that. They love to study the scriptures.

They just love to study the scriptures. Perhaps you have the gift of teaching. We need it. We need people to teach each other the scriptures. Because some of us don't understand the scriptures as well as others do.

Right? Nothing wrong with that. God's created some to know it better than others. That's great. The last four gifts here.

Exhort. He or he who exhorts in his exhortation. He who gives with generosity. He who leads with diligence. He who sows mercy with cheerfulness. Exhortation.

The mouth. The mouth. Inspiring people to do something. Encouraging people. They come alongside of someone to spur them on. They're able to encourage someone in their faith, whether they are down and out or doing well.

Equally. They're good at correction. They are practical and positive. And they might come alongside of you and say, Tim, why don't you go help serve in that chairs over there?

And they can do it really great. Just their words are exhorting you to do something. They have a great encouragement when you're down.

We need that. We need someone to encourage us, don't we? They're good at it. They're very good at it. Maybe that's your gift. Do you like to come alongside someone and give them a word of encouragement?

Is that something you like to do? It might be your gift. This body needs it. Gives. The arms. So that was the mouth. Now we're going into the arms.

Gives generously. Usually able to give financially, but not inclusively. You don't have to be rich to have this gift. There's lots of things you can give. Give someone a ride.

Give financially. They love to give and they see the need for giving. And they are discerning about this. Tim, could you give this $100 to this couple over there?

I really think they're hurting and I just kind of noticed that they need to have a need. Okay. I've done that many times. I bring you to the attention of the pastors.

Hey, there's a need there. Here, I want to help meet that need. They're good at it. Very discerning. It's fun. Fun to give. You've got to let go.

You might have that gift, but you've got to start using it. You've got to take a chance. They use their personal assets to further the ministry of the Lord. It's about you and what you have.

What God's provided for you to do. They can give quietly and sometimes secretly to motivate others to give. And I'll say this.

All the gifts, we can help someone else be better at that gift. Must be careful not to focus on material needs instead of the spiritual needs.

Ultimately, we want to help people spiritually with our gift. It's easy to get focused on the material part of the money part. Which God can use that for spiritually, right? If you're married, if you have the gift and you're married, you need to be careful not to miss giving your kids.

And your spouse. Because sometimes you want to give everything away. And the kids are like, keep giving everything away. We don't get nothing. There's a little bit where you've got to kind of show them that, hey, they can be a receiver of the gifts too, right?

Use discernment in that. The head. Leads with diligence. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention this.

A couple of these gifts have a little more detail. Serve in serving. The leadership one has an extra word next to it. Lead with diligence. Joseph in the Old Testament, if you've ever read that story, it's an amazing story of a man of God, right?

He clearly had to get the leadership. As he led Egypt, right, when he was in slavery and ran everything. Everything he did, he was orchestrating everything. He did an amazing job.

The ability to see what needs to be done, set goals, and attract, and lead, and motivate people to accomplish the work of the ministry.

A leader. Likely someone's following you. You have people that kind of on the wings that like to be around you. Maybe you've got to get the leadership.

They are vision-oriented. They can see what needs to be and the ability to accomplish it. They will employ the right people to accomplish God's work. They see long-term goals and usually they're organized.

Very, very responsible. Remember I said they've got to lead with diligence? You've got to be careful not to get lazy. God says lead with diligence. They must be careful not to be pushy and proud of their accomplishments because they're often in the limelight.

So we've got to, again, we've got to stick with God. Stay close to God. Be accountable to someone. Hey, don't you think you're being a little pushy there? Oh, yeah.

You know, it's okay to talk to people, help people, and are gifting. A service guy, when I'm on a project, I can just run right over people. I can remember doing a project out in the back out there, some moving dirt around or something like that.

Get going. How come you're not putting that shovel over there, you know? It's easy just to get pushy in our gifting. And mercy.

He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Is that not Jack? Pastor Jack had the gift of mercy with cheerfulness.

I have to mention him here. It's amazing. Maybe you have this gift. Who's going to fill in the hole? Someone here, many of you here I know have the gift of mercy.

I know it. All these gifts are here. They're sitting right out here. All these are. Mercy. Mercy. To minister cheerfully to people who are suffering or undeserving. Yeah.

To identify with and comfort those who are in distress. Oh, brother, sister. I am so sorry you're going through that. They have a way of, I can't even do it right because I don't have that gift.

But they do. How they smile and a warm welcome. They do it. Think of Jack. Jack. You can think of Jack on this one easily. How he make you feel warm.

If you're ever in trouble and you got with him, you know what I'm talking about. So at the service yesterday, sorry I'm going a little long. I'm almost done.

This is uncommon for doffing. You know that. You guys owe me, I always get done early, so you owe me some minutes. All right? So I was walking in the service yesterday, and they had Jack's Bible sitting up here.

All worn out, and I opened it up. And I was just reading a couple of verses, and it didn't take me long at all. And I found this verse. This is totally from God.

There it is. This one came up. This verse, it was highlighted, it was underlined, and circled.

The second half was, Though he scoffs at the scoffers, yet he gives grace to the afflicted. That was Jack.

Jack gave grace to the afflicted people. That's no accident, right? I mean, I only looked at a couple of verses. Right there. The next day, we're teaching on this.

There's people out here who have the gift of mercy. We need it. We've got to fill that hole. They are patient and attracted to people in need.

They can understand feelings. Danger. It is difficult for them to be firm, and they sometimes resent those who don't have this gift.

To be careful also in raising kids if you have this gift, because kids need a firm touch sometimes, don't they? They've got to learn right and wrong. So that's just a danger.

So there's the seven gifts. The mouth, exhortation. The eyes, prophecy. They see the sin. The brain, teaching.

They explain the scriptures really well. The head, steers the whole thing. They're a leader. The arms is giving. The hands is serving. And the heart is the mercy. So how do you, I'm almost done.

How can you figure out your gift? How can you figure out your gift? Number one. It's a negative one. When you get upset, I ain't serving you.

Forget you. Well, I'm not going to teach you anything anymore. You think of your gift when you get upset. It's really true.

It can happen. That might help you understand your gift when you get upset. It comes out. You want to do the opposite of it. I'm not giving no money to that person anymore. Forget that. The giving.

The second one is, is you're looking around and, and, and this is, again, this is what I see. I don't see people picking up, putting the chairs away, the servant. How come they're not doing that?

Well, it's because that's my gift. That's what I see. So think, think, again, a kind of negative. And the third one, maybe this is the best one, is you got to figure this out between you and God.

He can show you the gift that he's given you if you got to let him. You got to connect with him. How many times we got to say it? You got to connect to the word. He'll show you.

I know he will. Why wouldn't he? Father loves his kids. He wants them to know their gifts. Certainly you can ask friends and family what they think your gift is.

Friends, family, pastors. But, but I can't go around. Pastors can't go around. Every person say, that's your gift. That's not, I don't think that's the way it needs to be.

So, so there's the gifts. Hopefully, something got, struck your mind there today. You feel like, empower that, that you're going to move forward and practice your gift.

get involved in a Bible study. Start serving out in the, the, Jim, what's your ministry? Where you, the welcome team.

Yeah, the welcome team. Cleaning up here, whatever, whatever it is. Find somewhere to get involved so you can find out this gift and employ it. Use it. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the grace that I've been given to go a little long this morning. Thank you so much. I love these, your gifts, Lord. It's, it's amazing. Show us all the truth, how to employ our gifts, how to find out what they are.

We give you the glory and praise. Amen.