Jun 30
8:14 AM
Serve to Find Your Gifts
Jun 30
8:14 AM
Jun 30
8:14 AM
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
1 Corinthians 12:4-6
This week, we're talking about how to improve your serve. And I'm not talking about how tennis players yell and sound like they're having a seizure because they think it makes them serve better. I think the belief is that when you exhale, you exert more power, but anyway I'm not talking about that kind of serve. I'm talking about the towel over the arm, "How can I serve you?" type. Like a waiter serves us when we go to a restaurant, we want to have that attitude to serve. Last time, in June 28th's Life Lifter, I argued that if you want to improve your serve, serve like Jesus Christ. Mark 10:45 tells us that Jesus Christ came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.
Today, I want to help you with this by helping you find your gifts. So for instance, the Bible teaches that when you become a Christian you have spiritual gifts. You have certain gifts, others have certain gifts, everybody has different spiritual gifts, and different gift combinations. The Bible says the moment you become a Christian, you have spiritual gifts. A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability to do certain things well. The Bible has different gift lists in different places in the Bible that tell you all the spiritual gifts that God gives to people. So once you understand and believe that, the next question is how do you know what gifts you have? The answer is, you have to serve to find your gifts. You're never going to find your gifts by just thinking you have certain gifts. The only way you know is by serving.
Once you serve, and you do it well, and you do it effectively, and others affirm that, then you know, you got the gift. I get that from 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. Look at what it says, "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men." God works out these gifts. And if you notice, it's through the Trinity, verse four says, "the same Spirit," verse five, "the same Lord," verse six, "the same God." That's the Holy Spirit, the Son, and the Father in that order. He's saying God works through us to manifest these gifts. Well, if God is going to work through us to manifest these gifts, guess what we have to do to discover the gifts? Gotta use them. Some people want to know their spiritual gifts without using them. That's like saying, "I want to know how to drive a car, but I never plan to get behind the wheel." I mean, it's silly. Some people say "I want I want to buy $1,000 set of golf clubs, but I never plan to play." There are a lot of people who have spiritual gifts, but they have no desire to use them. That's almost antithetical to being a Christian. But here's the thing, if you want to know what gifts you have, you have to use them.
At Lakeshore, we teach a three step process. Here's the first number one, discover what spiritual gifts there are, and which ones it seems you might have. We have a class called Discover Your Purpose where we will help you get a start on what your gifts are. The second is deploy. You have to get out and use your gifts. Once you get out and use them, you'll start to say, "I thought I had that gift, but I used it and it didn't work. Or, I used it and it did work." Trial and error. So, the steps are discover, deploy, and then develop. Once you know from deploying what your gifts are, you develop those gifts. Just because you have a gift does not mean you're automatically great at it. I have certain gifts and I'm not always automatically great at them, I have to work at it. I have the gift of teaching, I don't just roll out of bed able to teach automatically. I have to learn the material I'm teaching, and I have to own it and do it well. So you have to develop your gifts. But here's my point, God gave you some amazing gifts, and if you don't use them, you will lose out. So how do you use them? You deploy them. You use them. The number one place the Bible talks about using your gifts is in the church. I've never met a pastor or a church in my life that said, "Oh my goodness, we don't need any more volunteers." I've never met one. And it's certainly not the case here. We need your gifts here. For those of you who serve in our church or your church, if it's a different one, good for you. You get it. For those of you who don't, maybe you've never understood that using your gifts is natural, and it's a work of God in your life as we just saw in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6.
Here at Lakeshore we will help you to take Discover Your Purpose. We'll help you try a ministry. If that ministry works out, great. If it doesn't, we'll help you find the next one. But we're here to help you because the only way we'll understand what gifts you have is to deploy them. Father, thanks for these amazing thing called gifts. Forgive us for not using them as you want, and encourage everybody watching to use them the best way they can, starting right now. Whether it's in the church or someplace else, help them in Jesus' name, amen.