The Danger of Idle Hands

Let's stand up all over the room as we get ready to lean in and lift our voices and sing about the faithfulness and the goodness of our God. So come on, this is the middle of this precedent and sing the Jesus. Let's sing a little more, for your mercy never fails me in all my pain. I've been held in your hands, coming home and that I'll wake up till I leave my head. Oh, I will see, of the goodness of God, for every voice on my life you've been facing me. Oh, my life you have been faithful. Oh, all my life you have been so, so good, for every breath that I am faithful. Oh, I will see, of the goodness of God, we've got a reason to sing. I love your voice, it's just good, if you haven't let me through the fire, and in the darkness now, if you are closer like no other, I've known you and your father, I've known you and your friend. Oh, when I have lived in the goodness of God, all my life, oh, my life you have been faithful, yeah, oh, my life you have been so, so good, for every breath that I am faithful, oh, and I will see, of the goodness of God, yeah. We declare the goodness of God, we remember our stories today. Oh, your goodness, it's your good, this is not an actor, it's not an actor, yeah, yeah. Nor good, this is not an actor, it's not an actor, yeah. With my life you have lived out, so when you're now, I hear you everything, it's all your thoughts. Your goodness is not an actor, it's not an actor, yeah, yeah. Your goodness is not an actor, it's not an actor, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, for good, this is not an actor, it's not an actor, yeah. With my life laying down, surrender now, I hear you everything, it's surrender. Your goodness is not an actor, it's not an actor, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Church, all my life, lift this time together, all my life, now sing it to the Lord, remember your story today. Oh, all my life, some love with every breath that I am, the able, oh, yes, I will sing. Oh, my life, oh, my life you have lived out, so, so, so, oh, with every breath that I am, the able, yes, I will sing. Oh, my goodness is not an actor, it's not an actor, it's not an actor, yeah. I know, for good, this is not an actor, it's not an actor, yeah. [MUSIC]

>> Well, good morning, church family. Great to see all of you here today. Thanks for being at church. Really, really excited. You've chosen worship with us, and I want to welcome all of our campuses. This is a one church Sunday. So wherever you are, we're glad you're here today. If you're watching at home online today, thanks for joining us in that way. And if you got a Bible or your sermon journal once, you grab it, 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is where we are going to be today. If you're new today, welcome, especially to you. We're in an 11-week journey talking about the 11 dangers for every Christian that we read right out of here in 1 Corinthians. And so we're spending a significant time talking about things that are dangers for all of us. Some of these are blatant and outright. Others of those are more subtle in nature. And today, I think this falls more in line with one of those that is subtle in nature. Today, I want to talk to you about the danger of idle hands. The danger of idle hands. You say, I don't think what in the world does that mean? Basically means not serving God with your life. And so it'll make sense as we go along here today. And here's what I'd say, today's message is about you. We always listen more when it's about us. And so today, I would just tell you this message is directly about your own life and about your own spiritual gift. And so I begin with this question, do you know what your spiritual gift is?

You ever thought about that? Do you know what your spiritual gift is? You can go online, even like right now on your phone. And you can find a spiritual gift assessment. You can take the test. And those are fun, there's nothing wrong with that. I would just say they're maybe incomplete and a little bit out of context. And so today through the Word of God, I'm going to do my best to put you on a pathway to learning what your spiritual gift is and learning how you can best use that to serve the Lord and to serve the kingdom of God. So let's look together first in the chapter 12. And I'm going to begin reading right here in verse four. Here's what the Word of God says. Now there are varieties underlying in your Bible, varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. Okay? Let me describe what's taking place here. When you put your faith in Christ, a couple of things happen. Now if you're here today and you've never trusted Christ by faith, today's message really is not for you, today you need to back up and you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ, okay? I'm not asking if you've been in church at any time in your life, I'm not asking if you have been a good moral person, I'm asking has your life been changed radically by the grace and love of our Savior Jesus Christ. If that has happened, then two things happen in your life at that moment. Number one, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God comes to live inside of you through the Holy Spirit. God Himself comes to live and dwell within you and He gives you the power to live the

Christian life. Just give you a little side note here. If you ever try to live the Christian life without being a Christian, it's a really hard thing to do. Okay? If you try to live the Christian life, try to follow Jesus, try to obey the Bible without the Holy Spirit of God indwelling you, you'll find that your wills are spinning in mud and you can never gain traction why, because you got to receive Christ first of all and you must have the power of the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life. Second thing that takes place when you get saved is that that same Holy Spirit, it gives you with a spiritual gift. It gives you something that you will be good at for the benefit of your church family. And so it is God and God alone who gives you this gift and that leads us to verse 7. Look at what it says. It says to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit, underline these last four words, for the common good, those last two being really the most important for the common good. Let me ask you a question. Is it possible to misuse your gift? Like can you misuse your spiritual gift? I believe the answer is yes. And I'm going to give you really two reasons or two ways that people often misuse their spiritual gift in a little section I'm calling the danger of misusing your gift. Number one is this, you use your gift with a wrong motive. You use it with the wrong motive. Now let me say I like a really basic statement to you. Why do I say that? 'Cause I think sometimes we miss the basics, all right? So here's the basics of this. Your spiritual gift is not for you, it is for serving others.

Write that down in your journal today. Your spiritual gift is not for you, it is for serving others. So to misuse your gift is to use it only for yourself and really to make it all about you. Now, in just a moment, (coughs) excuse me, just a moment. We're about to walk through nine different spiritual gifts that are mentioned in our passage today. This is not an exhaustive list. In fact, if you look elsewhere in the Bible, depending how you group them, you could find 10 plus more spiritual gifts that are in the list of the New Testament spiritual gifts, all right? But let me throw some out that are not on our list as an example, okay? Let's say you have the gift of teaching, it's not in first Corinthians 12. But let's say you have the gift of teaching and you teach a small group or you teach a class and you make it all about yourself. It's all about lifting yourself up, all about making yourself sound important or sound smart. That's misusing your spiritual gift. Or let's say you have the gift of mercy, that's mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament. And really what you've turned the mercy gift into is I like to be needed by other people. And so I like to be valued in that way

and so I give and I give and I give to someone else, not for their sake, but ultimately, so that I can feel good about myself. That is misusing your gift. It's not about the people in the small group that's listening to the message. It's not about the person that you're attempting to serve through your mercy gift. It's all about you. Anybody know your heart is wicked? Anybody besides the preacher today? Heart's wicked. And here's what I would tell you, Satan loves to turn good godly things into bad things. And to using, let's do this, into using our spiritual gifts as a megaphone for our own glory. So that's the first way you can misuse it. Here's the second way, you can misuse it. You use it only outside the church. You only use it outside of the church. Now let me be clear. You should use your spiritual gift wherever you go. It should benefit people in your business. It should benefit your own family for crying out loud, right? Like it should benefit those at your school, but it should also benefit those in your church. It's not wrong to use in any of those locations, but here's my caveat. I do think it can become wrong if you use it

in all of those other places, but you never use it within the church that you're sitting in today. In other words, a wrong maybe even be like it's too strong of a word, but I think that God intended purpose of your spiritual gift is to build up the church in which you attend. When the Bible says it is for the common good, yes, it's for the common good of the community. By all means, common good of your business, common good of your family, but you gotta remember contextually who is Paul writing to. He is writing specifically to people just like you sitting in a situation just like this. We just have air conditioning, okay? Like he's writing to people within a church, and he is saying you need to use your spiritual gift for the people who are sitting right next to you at church today. In other words, use it by all means everywhere else in your life, but the people who should be most blessed by your gifting are the people sitting next to you at church, okay? Let me give you an example of this, okay? That there's a well-known businessman in our community. I will not mention his name. He would not want me to mention his name, but this man ran a multi-billion dollar company

in our community. Long time church member and I have zero doubt 'cause I know the man. Well, I have zero doubt he used his spiritual gift at the office with his employees and with his coworkers. I have zero doubt he used it at home with his family. I have zero doubt he used it with others in the community and speaking engagements and all that type of stuff, but do you know where you would find that man every single Sunday in the midst of all of the craziness of his life? Right here at our church, using his teaching gift for the common good, not just of everybody else, but of the people within his own church family. What a great example that is of what we're talking about right here. Now, I've just talked to you about the danger of misusing your gift. Let me spend a lot of our time together this morning speaking about this. What about the danger of not using your gift? In other words, what's the danger of you just attending church and that's the extent of your spiritual life? No doubt there are thousands of you in our church who this is your story. Faithful attenders, like you're bought into who we are as a church, but there's no pouring out of yourself for the sake of other people at our church. Keep on reading, look at verse eight. Underline these gifts.

These are the nine. "And to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit. And another faith by the same Spirit." Another gifts of healing by the one Spirit. To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another the various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues, verse 11. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit. This is very key. This last phrase. "Who apportions to each one individually, circle these last three words as he wills. God gave you the spiritual gift that he wanted to give you. Anybody else been like me at some point in my life where I look at his gifting or her gifting?" I think, man, I wish I was them, right? I wish I could do what they do, I wish I had what they had. And God gave you specifically what he gave you for a specific purpose. R.T. Kendall, who we've had here at a preaching, I mentioned his books from the time of time. He says something along these lines. He says, "To be myself in ministry has been one of the hardest things in my life." In other words, just to be content with the spiritual gifting that God has given him and the spiritual gifting that God has given you, listen to me, you will be most fulfilled serving God when you are living out the spiritual gift that he gave you. You'll be most fulfilled serving the Lord when you are living out the spiritual gifts that he gave you. Now, there are nine gifts focused here. Again, there are 10 plus more, depending how you group them in the rest of the New Testament. We'll cover these nine today. I'm not going to be exhaustive, okay?

So you've got to write quick, listen quick, and I'll go quicker. All right? But let's cover these nine together, and I'm going to rattle these off nine gifts mentioned here in first Corinthians chapter 12. Let me mention the first two together. Let's talk about wisdom and knowledge, okay? Number one and number two, wisdom and knowledge. I've couple of these together because I think they're very similar in the actual outplaying of each gift. This describes people that God gives a unique ability of discernment. God gives them a unique ability of discernment, write this statement down. These people apply wisdom and knowledge from the Bible to a situation. These people apply wisdom and knowledge from the Bible to a situation. So in other words, this is not just a wise person, this is not a person who just knows information, this is not just a person who like knows a craft, but this person looks at your situation as you describe what you're walking through and they go, "Oh, well, you need to do X, Y, and Z based on this passage and that passage." Oh, that's what you're walking through. This is what the word of God says in first Corinthians. It says this about your situation. They have a unique ability to apply the Bible to your situation. So we're not talking about like extra biblical wisdom, we're talking about biblical wisdom that God gives to these people, okay? That's the first and second gift, wisdom and knowledge. Here's the third thing, all right? It's the gift of faith, the gift of faith. I love what David K. Lowry writes about the gift of faith. He says it is an unusual measure of trusting God beyond that exercise by most Christians. You know these kind of people in your life? Like they have an unusual measure of trust in the Lord.

Let me say it to you a different way, write this statement down. People with the gift of faith believe when no one else believes. People with the gift of faith, they believe God when no one else believes the Lord, okay? So let's make this practical life. You're sitting in a small group today and somebody brings up their prodigal son or prodigal daughter. Now you've walked with them over a period of years, maybe months, maybe weeks and you've heard this story again and again and while they're saying, you know, I'd like us to pray for my prodigal daughter tonight or I'd love for us to pray for my prodigal son. You're sitting there, if you don't have the gift of faith and you're like, I mean I'm going to pray but I don't really believe that anything's going to happen. If you're the gift of faith, you're like, God I believe right now, you're going to convict their heart and you're going to turn them to Jesus, like that's a person with the gift of faith. By the way, any good have friends with a gift of faith who believe God when you struggle to believe God. Man, if you've got that kind of friend, I'd text him today and just say, man, thanks for helping me believe when I struggle to believe, okay? Let me move on, okay? Here's gifts four and five. Again, I have a couple of these together. What about the gift of healing and the working of miracles? The gift of healing and the working of miracles? We see this all the time through the ministry of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four gospels. And so both of these would be in a category that theologians call the miraculous gifts. And so I would ask you this question, are these gifts still for today? Like, that's what we got to answer today from the Bible.

And in fact, let me give you a book recommendation of that same title, are miraculous gifts for today. It's written by four different authors. It's edited by a guy named Wayne Grudam. Let me quickly walk through these four views. Let me be clear, these views on what the miraculous gifts are, these are secondary issues in the Christian life, okay? What are first tier issues or primary issues? Jesus is the only way to salvation. Bible is the word of God. Secondary issues is healing still around today, or is it not? Does it make sense? And so we have strong beliefs as a church on secondary issues, but these are not like heaven or hell issues, okay? Like, you're gonna go to heaven with a lot of people that believe different about these things right here, okay? Here's the four views. Number one is called the cessationist view. It is called that term because they believe that these gifts have ceased when the apostolic age ended. And so they were only for times where the apostles were alive. And it was basically for the proclamation of the gospel of the affording of the gospel, okay? The second view is open but cautious. These are people who would say, "Nick, I am open to unique manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but I am cautious

as to what many say that those are." So I'm open to that, but I'm also cautious as to what I often see, all right? Third view is this, it's called a third wave continuationist view. These are those who would say, "No doubt about it, miraculous gifts. They are still around today. We should seek after them. No doubt about it, they are still around." All right? And then a fourth view would be more of a Pentecostal charismatic view. These would explain these gifts from a Pentecostal perspective, okay? Now, here's what I tell you. I have friends in all four camps, all right? Really do. Friends in all four camps who would believe the same on first tier issues but second tier issues we would just believe differently. You say, "Nick, what do you believe?" And I used to sit in theology class and my most annoying professors would never tell me what they believed because they wanted me to figure it out personally. But so I will not be that annoying. I'll tell you where I land on this and then you can study it on your own, see where you land. I land in the open but cautious view, okay?

What I mean is this, is that I think there's a lot of chaos in modern day church related to miraculous gifts. And in the other hand, I would say, I believe there's a lot of a lack of faith in modern day church. So I kind of hold both of those together and say, I think there's a lot of chaos at times. And in the other hand, I would say, and I think we need to believe God more. I don't know about you, the older I get, like maybe it's just me, is this you too? The older I get, the more I want to see the power of God on display. Like the more I want to see some things that I can't do, I can't stir up and I really want to seek the Lord for his power and his movement. So here's how I would say that, like, you sick, I'm gonna pray for you, I'm gonna lay my hands on you, I'm gonna anoint you with oil, and I'm gonna believe God that he can heal you, okay? We do that as a church in a public setting about once every two years. To be honest with you, we do it all the time privately when people ask us. James chapter five, the order is always very important to us. Never do we as pastors go to people that we know are sick and say, hey, can we anoint you with oil? James chapter five says, let the person call upon the elders of the church to anoint them with oil,

and it is their step of faith, not our step of faith. So if you're sick and you would like to be anointing with oil, that is your prerogative towards us, not our prerogative towards you. Make sense? So that is that, all right? If I hear a story of a miracle or a healing thing, like this is just open but cautious how I'm gonna view it. I'm gonna say, praise God for that. I'm not gonna critique it to death, I'm not gonna try to dissect it to death. I'm just gonna be like, hey, praise God, it's awesome. Love it, love it, name it, give God all the glory. Here's what I'd say, we all believe in healing when it's us who's on the table. Every one of you, you call that one charismatic, baddest friend that you have, and you're like, man, I didn't know who else to call. Man, can you come over tonight? And I just need you, and we just believe God, all right? I don't think they necessarily have to be I think I would not put them there But they're often put there okay. How about number six the gift of prophecy? If you view this through the third lens like a charismatic or fourth view Charismatic lens you may view this as man. I've I got a word. I got a word for you from God You're gonna die tomorrow. You're like what don't give me that way. Okay, so these are often misused Could be misunderstood And am I personally open to God giving somebody a word for my life? I? Really am but I'm I'm gonna filter it through the word of God So I'm gonna hold this above their their voice. That makes sense

That's happened to me many years ago and it happened in a public setting at our church I would say probably 17 years ago. Okay, I'll be very general to protect identity of people but there was a very famous man that we had in to speak at a conference and this was right before we were about to begin the Faithful campus and so They brought me up in front of the conference to pray over me and this man kind of gave a word of prophecy over me in the congregation Lord we are praying and I'm believing that you're gonna you're gonna have Nick reach 10,000 people through this new campus And he's praying and and you know part of me's thinking at some point like Now we're meeting in a strip mall We have five hundred and sixty seats in the worship center like I love your faith, but ten thousand and So like I didn't feel any pressure like people people came to me. I'm like man. I mean you feel pressure on the way I really I really don't cuz again This is superior over anything from a man or a woman. Okay If I if I am super gracious in the open but cautious view I Have wondered 17 years later is this a word for my life now in our church? Because our church is more than 10,000 people and so, you know, I don't know well whatever I just leave that up to the Lord what I what I am bent towards believing the gift of prophecy is is really It's about preaching the Word of God the clear proclamation of the Bible to you Okay, and so let me say it very simply for you prophecy is for the building up of people it's for the building up of people and So I would I would say regardless. Let's say you have a different viewpoint than I do on that I would say you still got to filter it through is it for the is what they said for the building up of the body If not, I don't think that's a gift of prophecy. Okay, let's keep going number seven is the distinguishing between the spirits The ability to distinguish between the spirits. I love this one. I'm thankful for those of you who have this gift Okay, what is this gift right this down? This is the ability to distinguish Who is influencing a person? the ability to distinguish Who is influencing a person and we're getting like in the spiritual realm here Are they listening to the Holy Spirit's voice or are they listening to the voice of the enemy? Are they listening to demonic voices or are they listening to the Holy Spirit's voice and those of you who are great Like counselors of people

Some of you may do that for a living like you're you're a trained and professional counselor And you use your spiritual gift to help people do that others if you don't you don't do that for a living But without a doubt you are helping fulfill that within your spiritual gift right here within the church Okay, so praise God for you. If that is you we need that. Okay number eight nine last two again group together You'll see why it's various kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues various kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues now Every one of these could have a separate message about them. Okay, so this is not an exhaustive teaching on all this Especially when we start start speaking about tongues, which is often the one that gets the most hype one That gets the most controversy and so here's how I was simply defining This is someone who speaks in a language that they do not know Now there are a lot of different beliefs on on tongues For the sake of time, I don't I cannot give an exhaustive thing on that But let me give you another book recommendation that I think will give you not only a word on the gift of tongues But also a strong biblical take on all of the giftings that is a book called spiritual gifts What they are and why they matter by Thomas R. Shreiner So if you're like really nerd now over what I'm saying to like dude, I was my favorite sermon I you've ever preached right here if that's you then I would say this is a great book for you. Okay Tom Shreiner is a professor at Southern Seminary and Gives a great book right here. Here. Here's how he defines it. It's a long course pull out your phone, snap a picture, okay? Here's what he says about it. He says, "The gift of tongues is the gift "of speaking in human languages. "Therefore, tongue-speaking is not, as many today believe, "speaking with ecstatic utterances, "that is to say speaking words with no discernible code "or linguistic pattern." So here's what I believe the Bible teaches. When the Bible is speaking about tongues, I believe this gift primarily speaks

to the age of the apostles when God would use someone to share the gospel in a language that they did not know. So in the moment, the Holy Spirit allows them to speak a different language than what they are. So I'm an English speaker and I'm able to speak Spanish, not by my own power or ability, but by the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. Now, I am open to this still happening today and cautious at the same time. So you hear about this sometimes on the mission field of like, man, I pulled up in this place and I went to this tribe. I had no idea how to speak their language and God allowed me to speak the word of God, to speak the gospel in their language. Am I open to that? Oh yeah, oh yeah, I really am, okay? Am I cautious as to what many go down the line on tongue speaking today? Oh yeah, I'm cautious on a lot of that, okay? So now that I have properly opened a can of worms, I will not put the top on, I will just leave it at the table and encourage you to do whatever you would like with that, okay? Let's spend the rest of our time on verse 12, okay? Says for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, so many are one body, so it is with Christ, all right? We are one body with many members. We are one family with many members of that family and so today is a great day to recognize,

if you've ever walked into this big church and thought, man, everything's running fine. I don't think they really need me. Do we need you? Yes, we need you. I often have said it like this as I've taught passages like this. If not you, then who? Like if God has given you a spiritual gift and it's primary place about playing that spiritual gift is right here within your church family. If you're not doing that, then who is going to do that? 'Cause nobody is like you. Nobody has the background of you, the experiences of you, nobody has the gifting of you. So if not you, then who? You are, listen to me loud and clear to every campus. You are needed here. You are wanted here. You are valued here, okay? And here's what many of you like, like the temptation of today is to hear a message like this and you're going to go home and you're going to find some random spiritual gifts assessment online, which is fun, go do it. But you're going to pick it, you're going to fill it out, you're going to print it out, you're going to walk to somebody here at the church and be like, all right, boom. Here's my spiritual gift, where do I go? And again, that's not wrong.

It's just maybe incomplete, okay? And I don't think they're the most effective. Let me tell you the story. When Meredith and I were first married, we moved to Dallas, Texas. We lived in Plano, which is North Dallas. I worked at a church there while going to seminary. Meredith worked downtown in Dallas and we met a couple by the name of Bill and Pam Borenstein, okay? Let me tell you their story. Bill and Pam had, a few years earlier, had moved to the Dallas area from Las Vegas. They were both like uber successful in real estate in Vegas. You say, well, how successful? Well, when they moved from Las Vegas, they sold their home to the old tennis player by the name of Andre Agassi. Remember Andre Agassi? Okay, if you don't, like cool '90s tennis player, all right? And so they sold their house for Andre Agassi, moved to Dallas for another business venture. At some point in the first few years of their time in Dallas, somebody invited them to the church that we were working at. And yeah, I'm looking at Meg's Miller over here from that church and invited them to Prestonwood where we worked and went to a Christmas Eve service. And somebody connected them with one of the pastors

in our church who was just like soul winner of all soul winners. And this pastor led Bill and Pam to faith in Christ. And when Bill and Pam got saved, I'm talking about they're gone, so you know what I'm saying? Like, you ever know people like that who when they got changed by Christ, it was a radical reorientation of their lives, which is, what's-- Bill and Pam got radically changed by Christ, and by the time that I arrived on the scene few years after they were saved, God had called Bill to ministry. So he was now the men's pastor at Prestonwood where I worked. And so I worked for Bill, and Bill would sometimes have me sit down with men that he was counseling. I had no purpose in being there. I wouldn't really say anything. I'd just like sit in the room. He'd be like, "Hey, this is Nick, one of our other pastors. He just had a hangout with us today." And he would talk to these men who were often struggling in their walk, and he'd have some diagnostic questions for them. And I didn't realize it at the time, but now I realize that Bill was discipling me while he was discipling them. Don't ever underestimate just having somebody else in the room with you, having somebody else at the lunch with you. And I heard Bill say this statement again and again and again to different men and women. He would say this. He would talk to them about spiritual gifts and finding their place in the church, and he would say this. He'd say, "Start serving, and God will reveal to you your spiritual gift. Start serving, and God will reveal to you your spiritual gift." We often like to think of spiritual gifts in terms of a straight line.

I took a test, and I know what it is, and now I should find the exact perfect place for me to work in the church. And I'm only going to find fulfillment when I have a specific role that lines up with that piece of paper, and it's all together, and everything's great. And I, as your pastor, can I give you some pastoral advice, is what I'll call it today, all right? Stop thinking about spiritual gifts like a straight line, and look at it more like surrender today. Stop thinking about it like a straight line, and start thinking about it like knees to the floor surrendering before the Lord. You know, in any church, there are both needs and there are roles. Have you noticed that? There are needs and there are roles. And we all prefer roles over needs. We all say, well, I want to lead that ministry. I want to play a significant part in that small group. Like, I want to lead. I want to lead. I want to lead. We hear an announcement that the somebody appears says, "Hey, we need more volunteers at blank, you know, ministry." Or somebody on our team or staff comes up to you and says, "Hey, have you ever thought about helping us in filling the blank area?" And here's what I would tell you. If you'll focus on needs, you'll find your role. So that's my encouragement today. Focus on the needs of the church, and you'll find your role. For instance, some of you, and no doubt, in our room this big and all the rooms that we have today, some of you are in a role right now that you're like, dude, this does not line up with my gifting.

Like I had the gift of faith, and yet they asked me to stand at the north doors and be a greeter. So I got all this faith and I'm just shaking hands. Did you realize that any sphere should get that you have can play out in any role that you were given? Here's what this looks like. Okay? Let's say you're a greeter on the north side. Here's what this looks like. "Hey, man, it's great to have you today." So glad. Oh, look at that dress. So pretty. Hey, welcome to church day. We're so glad you're here. They walk off. Lord, I'm praying that you would save that family today. Man, I'm believing God that you would restore. I can tell there's issues. Where would you save them? Hey, it's great to see you. Man, what's up? High-five little kids. Lord, I pray that that little boy, he'd meet Jesus today, pray you put the right friends around him. God, I'm just believing. Do you see that? Does it make sense? Any gift can play out in any way like this. You may say, "I've got the gift of administration."

That's elsewhere I mentioned in the Bible. And they put me over the prayer team on our small group. I'm not even a good prayer, and I'm in charge of prayer. You know what it looks like to have the gift of administration? I am going to administrate this to death. We had eight needs that were mentioned in class today. I'm divvying that out between eight people to pray. There's going to be another eight people that are going to follow up by Wednesday this week. We're going to pray these people to their death, okay? That's what it looks like. You see what I'm saying? Any gift can play out in any role, but you just got to need a need, okay? Just because you started in one thing doesn't mean you won't be moved to another thing. Could it be that God is asking some of you, "Are you willing to meet a need before God gives you a role?" Are you just willing to serve the Lord and to serve other people in the church? Just to fill a need. and some of you come to that. It's all month long, you're invited to that. It's up at Pinnacle Hills on Thursdays at lunch for this month. And this past week we had Tony Dungy, like Super Bowl winning Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy. I am a football nerd, as you know. Highlight of my life, okay? Like marriage, birth of my kids, Tony Dungy, all right? I'm just kidding. It's an incredible interview and learned a lot. What a godly man.

What I learned in the pre-meeting was this, as we're sitting in my office, is that he lives in Tampa and he came from the same church that Mark Hutchinson is at. So Mark was the connection. Mark knew Tony Dungy from being at the church there. And Tony Dungy, when they began attending that church in Tampa, his kids starting to get involved on Wednesday night. And so he thought, well, I'd like to serve the church in some way. So he approached the church and said, hey, is there any place that I can serve on Wednesday nights? And they said, well, coach, we need help in the parking lot. You know what Tony Dungy said? Okay. And Tony Dungy went out there for three weeks in a row. And then he was such a distraction because he was so famous. They fired him from the parking team. And they said, coach, this is not working. It's not really helping 'cause everybody's wanting to stop and talk to you. But what do you think about teaching a Bible study on Wednesday night? And to this day, he teaches a Bible study. He took a late flight out because he didn't want to miss his Bible study Wednesday night. Talk about humility, not too wealthy, not too famous,

not too busy. Yeah, you need me to, right here, yeah. It's great. Hey, great to see you. Hey, yeah, right here, right here. Focus on a need. God will give you a role. You'll be most fulfilled serving the Lord when you are using your spiritual gift, no matter what place that is, no matter how you use it. And so as you might expect right now, I'm about to push you to deeper involvement in the church. And not just involvement. Some of you are involved, meaning men. Yeah, I'm here every Sunday and I attend a small group. Talk about service to the Lord through your church. Service for the common good of other people in your church. If not you, then who will that be? If you're here today, you say like I'm bought in, man. I like I'm here every Sunday. I just, man, I'm grateful for your attendance, but there is so much more. Some of you would say, Nick, I'm a titheer, man. Like I'm very generous to the church with my money. Praise God, cannot say thank you enough. There's so much more for you as well. Serving God and serving other people through your church. It's my prayer today, my prayer, that across our four campuses,

we would enlist 1,000 new people who are trying to find their place in service to others and to the Lord through this church, okay? So I'm going to give you two action steps, all right? Action step number one, this is plan A, what I would encourage you to do. If you're here to then you say, Nick, I want to find my place, I want to meet a need, I want to use my spiritual gift, what do I do? I'm going to ask you right now, or not right now, wait until I'm done, as soon as we dismiss, I want you to walk to one of our next steps areas in the lobby, okay? Our team is fully prepared for you. We have prepared for this day as a special day, and they are going to be there, ready to receive you, as you say, hey, I'd like to help in some way. What are the opportunities? And they're going to go, hey, these are some opportunities right here. And they're going to help you get that figured out, okay? If you're here today and you're like, Nick, I got a bolt, 'cause I'm trying to meet, beat all the other people, you know, area churches to brunch. Okay, that's fine, here's the second option for you, okay? Text the word serve to the number on the screen, okay? This is true for those of you online as well, but for those of you who are here in this room, you text the number on the screen, and you just text the word serve,

and somebody will be in touch with you, okay? Can I give a word, like this wasn't in my notes today, it just came out at the eight o'clock at Fayetteville before the helicopter came and took me here. (audience laughs) It's no helicopter, it's a joke, I bet you'll. All right, can I give a word to the men of the church? God's called us to lead. Not only lead your family, but God's called you to lead in the church. We need men who are leading small groups. We need men who will lead small groups. If you're married, your wife is right there alongside of you, and here's what we need. We need, within this big families, we need a lot of small families, a lot of small families. Because when life hits the fan and you end up in the hospital, you need a small family around you who shows up at the hospital. Our greatest thing that happens is when we show up as pastors and the small groups are already there. It's the best thing in the world. It's the church being the church. And so I just want to put out a call to men of God in our church. We need you to lead. And we need many new small group leaders. You say, I don't know if I'm a teacher. You can do it. Can you lead 12 people? Okay, you could lead a small group. Can you take some questions that we give you from the sermon to lead a discussion on? You can lead a small group. You know what?

It really looks like a lead small group. Can you love other people well? Really, really just you're an extension of us as pastors. Can you pastor well and just shepherd people? Just move people towards spiritual growth and you say, hey, with these 10 people or with these 30 people or whatever size it is, you say, hey, I'm like me and my wife, we're going towards Jesus and we're asking you to just come with us. That's what it means to lead a small group right there. So don't over blow it, don't over hype it, don't think you're not ready. I'm asking you as the pastor of this church, I need you to lead a small group. And it's not even that I need you to lead a small group. It's all these people around you who don't have a home that like they're in the big family but not in a little family, we need you to go and be a father and help lead a little family. All right? So out of all that we're going to ask you to do, that's my special plea to the men of God in our church, okay? Men, do you receive that word? I don't know if you did, but we'll go for it. Okay. Let's pray together. Our staff's going to make the way the front of each aisle. We're not going to do a traditional what we normally do on a Sunday. But I want you to know this, our staff's going to be here after the service and for some of you, this message is about spiritual gifts is not really for you. The very first part of it was for you, that if you've never trusted Christ today, today is the day to be saved. And in your mind right now, you may have all the excuses in the world of why this is not the day. And I just want to tell you today is the day.

But if you've never trusted Christ in a moment, as we dismiss everybody else and they walk out the back, I'm going to encourage you from the balcony to the front, to the back. You just walk forward. All you've got to do is take their hand and just say, "I need to meet Jesus today." And in a very private setting, they'll lead you to faith in Christ. Would you do that today? For everybody else, I want to pray for you. And then as we dismiss, if God's moved in your heart in that way, I'm going to ask you to take one of those two steps. You either go to the next step's booth in the lobby or you text that number, "serve." Text the word "serve" to that number. Okay. Let me pray for you. It's our desire to be a kingdom force in this community, a force for good, and a Father, it is our desire that you would move in 1,000 people's hearts today to find their place of service. Many people in this room have been committed and have served you for a long time, and maybe they're not anymore, but they were doing that at some point, for whatever reason. We're not allowed to pray for new life and new breath that you would breathe into them. Lord, we proclaim the truth of this passage that we will be most fulfilled serving you when we are playing out what you've given us as a spiritual gift. So Lord, would you make that clear? Would you make that evident? Would you give us a heart to meet a need? And we trust you by faith to do that. In Jesus' name that we pray, amen.