Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and
live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this
message all. Right.
Good morning Riverbend, how you doing this morning?
That is so good being able to worship with you.
If you are new to Riverbend and we haven't had the chance to
meet yet, My name is Ben. Get the service, the lead pastor
here. We are so very thankful that you
chose to be here with us. Very front edge of Thanksgiving
break. Welcome to Riverbend.
We would love, if you're new to Riverbend, we would love to
connect with you, love to get to know you.
Probably the easiest way for that to happen is through that
connect card that you received on your way in.
We're not going to make it weird or anything like that.
We just want to connect with you and connect you with some people
maybe similar age or stage just because we realize how important
community and relationship really is.
But if you are new to Riverbend, I want to kind of bring you up
to speed. We are on the tail end of a
series to where we've been talking about this unseen
spiritual world, this unseen spiritual world and, and, and
how it is impacting my life and your life and, and in our lives.
And we, we greatly understand that there, there are two camps
there, there's, there, there's a group.
And maybe you're in this group to where you think and you, you
know, like, hey, I know about spiritual warfare and I know
that it's real. And, and, and, and we, we
encounter it every single day. And then there, there's a camp
over here that says, I'm just not quite sure about that.
And if we're talking about something that's spiritual
nature, something that's unseen, I'm just not quite sure.
And here's where I would say to both camps, welcome.
We're so glad to be able to journey through this series with
you, and here's what we would just encourage you to kind of
keep in mind. It's just because you may not be
able to see it doesn't mean that it's not real.
And just because you may not even acknowledge it, it doesn't
mean that it's not impacting your life.
You see, Just kind of make sure that we're all on the same page
throughout this series. We have today and then we have
next week to where we'll be tying a bow around everything
that we've been walking through over the past eight weeks
together. Throughout this series, we've
looked at a the vital component components of this unseen
spiritual world. We've taken a look at God and
angels in heaven, Satan, demons and and hell.
We we've talked about B how there's a spiritual war that is
raging that started in heaven. Satan's rebellion, Satan wanting
to rise to the same level of God due to his pride.
This rebellion, this war started in heaven, spilled over into our
world, and we are in counting. There's a spiritual war that's
going on between God and his angels and Satan and his demons.
And see, this spiritual world is actually affecting every single
one of us. There is no neutrality in this
spiritual war. There's absolutely no neutrality
in the spiritual war. And it's so important that we
understand the components of the spiritual world and the overall
existence of the spiritual war because we need to understand
the consequences. It's not just the consequences
of our daily actions. What I would tell you is, is,
you know, I think that we all need to come to grips.
Whether you're a man or a woman, a, a husband or a wife, a, a
parent, a grandparent, an employer, an employee, we all
need to come to grips that life is way too big for us.
Like we, we, we are not good enough, We're not smart enough,
we're not articulate enough to do life on our own.
We need the guiding presence of God in our lives.
And one of the things that the spiritual world, the spiritual
war tries to do is to try to drive a wedge between US and God
to where we see him less or we sense him less and we experience
him less through when we fall into, into sin through
temptation. One of the things that we have
been kind of riding on the, the main rail that we've been riding
on throughout this entire series is a, is a core truth, a, a, a,
a main point, a big idea. And if you're with us for the
first time, I want to introduce you to the big idea throughout
this series just so that you have a pretty good fundamental
grasp of where we've been and where we're going to be heading.
The unseen world is just as real as the one I can see, and it's
shaping my life every single day.
This unseen world just as real as the one I can see, and it's
shaping my life every single day.
If you were with us last week, we talked about, we really
answer the question, OK, if it's shaping my life, how is it
shaping my life? What is it shaping my life to
resemble, to look like, to become?
And we talked about the encouragement of this spiritual
war is God does not just give us information about this spiritual
war, He gives us an invitation to actually engage and be
equipped. You see, in the spiritual war,
when God doesn't leave us hanging at all, God actually
invites us to to engage, to be in relationship, to be in
fellowship with him. Because one of the things that
we have to understand is in a spiritual war, physical weapons
just won't cut it. We need spiritual weapons to
fight in a spiritual war. So God invites us throughout
Scripture to put on, as Paul put it in Ephesians chapter 6, put
on the full armor of God. And if you were with us last
week, we talked about what that full armor of God, those six
individual components and why they are so important for you
and I, if there's any part of this series that that that you
missed, or maybe you're out of town, or maybe maybe you were,
you were sick, I would, I highly encourage you.
You can go back to the church app or through the website or
YouTube, church's YouTube channel or wherever you listen
to podcast and kind of walk back through where we've been because
it's all building to honestly, it's building to next week to
where we're going to come together and we're going to be
able to put together a personalized battle plan for
this spiritual war. But there's one last component
that we need to look at in order for us to build this
personalized spiritual, a battle plan for our lives.
And it is the component of something called spiritual
gifts. It's the component of something
that we call or the Bible calls spiritual gifts.
So if you're taking notes with us, I want to show you something
about these spiritual gifts. First of all, if you're taking
notes with us, here's the first thing that we need to
understand. If the Holy Spirit lives in me,
then the Holy Spirit has gifted me.
If the Holy Spirit lives in me, then the Holy Spirit has gifted
me. So if there's ever come a point
in time in your life to where you've asked Jesus to forgive
you of your sins, to take control of your life and to
guide you, that means that the Holy Spirit of God has come
inside of you. And if the Holy Spirit of God is
in you, then the Holy Spirit of God has gifted you.
Now let's kind of put some put some 2025 feet on what that
means. Do you remember in, back in
elementary school or middle school or or high school, there
was a select group of students that they were kind of called
out from the, from the classrooms and they were, they
were marked the gifted students. Do y'all remember?
Y'all remember the gifted students?
Maybe you were one of the gifted students.
Maybe you still hold a grudge against the gifted students.
I don't know. For me, I'm married, one of the
gifted students. So that's kind of on her, right.
She knew what she was signing up for.
If you if you've been at Riverbend for for a while,
you've probably heard me tell this story before.
But if you're new to Riverbend, I'll just go ahead and tell you
in full transparency. I took the gifted test in school
and elementary school and middle school.
I took the gifted test three times and I failed it three
times. Anybody can beat that.
Obviously, I wasn't gifted, right?
I failed the gifted test three times, so I was never part of
the gifted class at all. Yet here's a beautiful thing
that God tells us in Scripture is if you've given your life to
Jesus Christ, guess what? You're gifted.
I'm gifted. Look at the person next to you
and say I'm gifted. Look at the person next to you
and say against all odds, you're gifted.
You're gifted. You see, if the Holy Spirit of
God lives in you, then the Holy Spirit of God has specifically
gifted you. Second broad thing that we need
to understand about spiritual gifts is this is a spiritual
gift is a specific way in which, when used properly, we're going
to come back to that phrase in just a moment.
When used properly, I will be most effective in pointing
people to Jesus. A spiritual gift is a specific
way in which, when used properly, I will be most
effective in pointing people to Jesus.
So if the Holy Spirit lives in you, the Holy Spirit has gifted
you, what is the purpose of the gifting to point people to
Jesus? This is going to be your unique
way. This is going to be like, think
of a spiritual gift this way. It's going to be your greatest
asset to heaven and it's going to be your greatest threat to
hell. Your spiritual gift is going to
be your greatest asset to heaven.
It's going to be your greatest threat to hell.
It is going to be the way in which the Holy Spirit of God
living in you and through you is going to point the people around
you to Jesus. Now here's the caveat when used
properly, why is that phrase so important?
Because we need to understand if my spiritual gift is going to be
my greatest asset to heaven, is going to be my greatest threat
to hell, and it's going to be the most effective way in which
I'm, I'm able to point people to Jesus and you're able to point
people to Jesus, then it's also going to become the shadow side
of that Spiritual gifting is also going to become one of the
greatest temptations for us to start to take credit for the
effectiveness of that gift. And when we do that, when you
look at the way in which the Holy Spirit of God has gifted
you, supernaturally gifted you. And when you and I, we start to
take credit for that spiritual gifting because we see results,
because there's effectiveness, we start to slowly but surely
disconnect ourselves from the giver of the gift and the gift
itself. We start to worship the gift
rather than the God that gave the gift.
And that is a very subtle, yet common, yet very, very enticing
temptation that we always need to be aware of.
So in just a few moments when we start going through individual
spiritual gifts, and maybe you already know your spiritual gift
or maybe the whole concept of spiritual gifting is brand new
to you and you're going to be on this journey of finding out,
discovering your spiritual gift. One of the things that I would
tell you from the very forefront of this discovery is be very,
very aware that the temptation is going to come your way to
start taking credit for the effectiveness of that spiritual
gift. But my spiritual gift is a
specific way in which I will be most effective in pointing
people to Jesus. Third major thing that we need
to understand about spiritual gifting is this.
My spiritual gift. And sometimes the Holy Spirit
gives us more than one. My spiritual gift is designed
and assigned to me by God. It is designed and assigned to
me by God. I want to show you what Paul
writes in the book of First Corinthians.
Check this out. All these and the these that
he's talking about are spiritual gifts.
All these are empowered by 1 and the same Spirit who apportions
to each one individually as He wills.
That means that my spiritual gift, your spiritual gift, is
designed and assigned to you, to me by God.
We don't sign up for it. We don't get to choose our
spiritual gifting. Why is this so important?
As a matter of fact, if you look at the top of your note sheet,
there are 4 scriptural references passages.
All four of those passages speak directly to spiritual gifting.
But all four of those passages also speak directly to the fact
that our spiritual gifts are designed and assigned to us by
God. We're not the ones that sign up
for. Why is that so important for us
to understand? It's, it's really important for
us to understand this Third Point that is assigned and
designed, designed and assigned by God.
Because when we're starting to, when we're tempted to start to
become arrogant, we're reminded, no, no, no, no.
It's the spiritual gift that the Holy Spirit has given me nothing
that I've done to earn it or deserve it or work for it.
So I can't, I can't boast, I can't brag.
I can't, I can't take credit for a gift that was given to me by
the Holy Spirit. It also, it also warns us about
about becoming envious of of another person's spiritual
gifting, about another person's spiritual gifting.
Throughout the New Testament, the apostle Paul is going to use
kind of a metaphor for the for the church as the body of
Christ. Though there are many members,
not all members serve the same purpose.
So there are many of us in this room and online that this the
Holy Spirit of God has gifted in a variety of ways.
And if we're not careful and we don't really check ourselves and
check our egos, then we'll start to become envious of another
person's spiritual gifting. I want to pass along a quote to
you. Nobody's really sure who to
attribute it to throughout time and history.
So if you want to jot it down and you want to attribute it,
you can attribute it either to Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln or
or or or Aristotle or or even Tupac maybe, maybe any of those
said it here. Here's the here's the statement.
No one can give you what God hasn't given you yet.
No one can ever take away what God has given you.
No one can give you what God hasn't given you yet.
No one can ever take away what God has given you.
No one's bigger than God. No one's bigger than God.
So our spiritual gifts, they are designed and assigned to us by
God. Think of my spiritual gifting,
your spiritual gifting, our spiritual gifting, as being
tailor made for you. They're tailor made for you,
designed and assigned to you specifically and personally by
God himself. That's a broad overview of
spiritual giftings. So here's what I want to do.
I want to kind of set the stage for where we're going to be
heading next week. And I want to set the stage and
I want to walk through the specific spiritual giftings that
the New Testament lays out for us, the specific spiritual
giftings, what they are and what they're for.
All right, So if you're taking notes with us, here's the first
thing that we need to understand.
Many members, different gifts. First thing that we need to
understand, we're going to say that there's 18 gifts, 3
categories, one purpose now, 18 gifts.
There's some people that would say there's up to 27 gifts
listed in the New Testament. As your pastor, I'm not going to
fight anybody over that. If you want to say there's 27,
awesome. If you say there's 18, awesome,
for our purposes, we're going to look at 18.
The reason that I feel, and I say that there's 18 is because
many of the spiritual gifts that are listed, you can put them
kind of together almost as synonyms of one another.
So let me kind of give you an example.
There is a gift that Paul's going to layout for us, the gift
of administration, and we'll get to what that means in just a
moment. But then later on in another
passage, he's going to layout for us the gift of leadership.
Some people would say no, no, those are two completely
different gifts. I think that they're probably
more one in the same type of gifts.
So for our purposes, 18 gifts, 3 categories.
These three categories are going to help us, even though they
don't come directly from the Bible, these three categories,
they're going to help us breakdown, understand, and apply
these spiritual giftings just a little bit better.
They're going to help us wrap our minds around the way in
which God wants to use these spiritual giftings to point
other people to Jesus. And then the final thing, one
purpose. This is the most important thing
about spiritual gifts, by far the most important thing about
spiritual gifts. Every spiritual gift is given
regardless of gift, regardless of category, regardless of
individual. Every spiritual gift is given
for one singular purpose, and that is to point people to
Jesus. Period.
The end one purpose, point people to Jesus.
So with that said, let's jump into the first grouping.
Let's jump into that first category.
We're going to call these miraculous gifts.
So we're going to start pretty easy, right?
If you're raised Baptist, you know that was a joke.
Miraculous gifts, the gift of tongues, gift of interpreting
tongues, gift of miracles, gift of healing.
We're going to put these spiritual gifts in the category
of what we would call miraculous gifts.
Let me kind of walk through them briefly.
Gift of tongues is a supernatural ability to be able
to speak a previously unknown language for the purposes of
pointing other people to Jesus. Gift of interpreting tongues It
is a supernatural ability given by the Holy Spirit of God to
interpret previously unknown languages that point other
people to Jesus. The gift of miracles,
supernatural ability given by the Holy Spirit of God to
perform signs and wonders, all to point people to Jesus.
And the gift of healing is that supernatural spiritual ability
to provide healing of a disease, a disorder, or an infirmity.
So let me go ahead and address the elephant in the room about
miraculous gifts. If you were raised Southern
Baptist, these freak us out. And let me go ahead and say I
get it. I really do, as somebody that
was raised in a Southern Baptist church who went to, graduated
from a Georgia Baptist college, went to a Southern Baptist
seminary, went on to pastor for 10 years, a First Baptist Church
in Jacksonville. And if you're new to church and
you don't know what First Baptist means, it means Baptist
on steroids. And then now I'm pastoring
Riverbend Church that is Southern Baptist.
I fully get it. I fully get how these miraculous
gifts, they kind of freak us out, don't they?
They kind of freak us out. We just don't quite know what to
do with these gifts. And here's where I would tell
you there's two camps when it comes to the miraculous gifts.
There's one camp, Camp A says that these gifts were given,
they were designed and assigned by God.
They were given by the Holy Spirit to, to, to, to the
apostles. And they were utilized and up
until the completion of the New Testament.
And then after the New Testament was completed and, and, and
disseminated and spread widely, these gifts were no longer
needed or necessary. So these, these gifts are no
longer used. They, they, they cease to be
used. Camp 2.
Camp 2 says, no, these gifts, they were given and they were
designed and assigned during the time of the apostles and they
pointed people to Jesus and they are still used by God when God
sees fit to point people to Jesus.
As your pastor, I fall into Camp 2.
I believe that these gifts are still active.
I think these gifts are still assigned to people.
I think these gifts are still used by God.
Now as your pastor, let me go ahead and qualify what I just
said because some of you may think, does that mean, Ben, if
you believe that the gift of tongues is still given by God
and used by God to point people to Jesus, do you believe that
Riverbend Church will be a a place to where we stand up and
we start speaking in tongues? I don't and here's why.
What is the main purpose of all spiritual gifts?
To point people to Jesus? Now follow me on this.
Somebody start standing up and speaking in tongues.
How many of us are going to leave here talking about Jesus?
Most of us are going to be going, talking at lunch, going,
hey, that was weird. Don't know what went on there,
right? But just because we may not
experience here, that doesn't mean that God doesn't use it
elsewhere. Just because we may not
experience it ourselves, it doesn't mean that it's not
valid. And then let me also say this.
Just because just because we see it abused and misunderstood, it
doesn't mean that it's not real. Let me give you 2 sub points
about the miraculous gifts. Here's the first one.
These gifts are not more spiritual in nature.
They just show God's power in a more noticeable way.
They're not more spiritual in nature.
You see, one of the one of the issues that we have with these
miraculous gifts are there are some that say that unless you
speak in tongues, that's not really evidence that you have
the Holy Spirit of God living in you.
Paul never talks about how there's a gift of tongues that
is above all other gifts. All gifts are designed and
assigned by God uniquely and tailor made for the individual
for that individual to point people to Jesus.
That is not the litmus test of a person speaking in tongues.
They are not more spiritual in nature.
They just show God's power in a more noticeable way.
Second thing that we need to understand about these
miraculous gifts, just because these gifts lend themselves to a
lot of skepticism, that doesn't mean that they are illegitimate
just because these gifts lend themselves to a lot of
skepticism, that doesn't mean that they are illegitimate.
Let me kind of share a quick story with you When I was in 7th
or 8th grade me and my buddy, we would walk from our middle
school after class got over, we'd walk over to from our
middle school we'd walk over to our church that we grew up in
because his dad was on staff. My mom was on staff and we
would, we would walk over there and then before it was time for
them to leave, we would just kind of like roam the campus,
roam in the buildings and, you know, just to kill Tom.
So there was an education building on our, on our church
campus. And we, we went into this room
and there was ATV on a cart, not mounted on a wall.
There was ATV on a cart and it was plugged in and, and we
turned it on and we were just trying to catch like a baseball
game, right? See if see if the Braves were
on, on TBS or the Cubs on WGN. And we're we're flipping through
the channels and a TV preacher comes on like through through
the fuzzy screen. Now these are the days before
plasma screens and LED. So I don't know if this works on
those, but I know back in the day, these big like deep tube
TV's, we're watching this like TV preacher and and he he gets
to the end and he flashes the phone number on the bottom of
the screen and goes just put your hand on the television and
I'll send you a prayer hanky you'll be healed.
So me and my buddy were 7th and 8th grade, just like little
idiots. And we start putting our hands
on the television and the static from the screen shocks us and we
run out screaming. Now I don't think that that was
the exercise of a spiritual gift of God.
Let me go ahead and tell you if anyone, if anyone, charges
admission to administer the spiritual gifts of God, they're
a con. So just because these gifts lend
themselves to a lot of skepticism, it doesn't mean that
they are not legitimate. It doesn't mean that they are
not legitimate category #2 We'll call these enabling gifts gift
of faith, gift of discernment, gift of wisdom, gift of
knowledge. Call these enabling gifts.
So the gift of faith, gift of faith is a supernatural ability
to have a deep, deep trust in God regardless of how situations
and circumstances may speak otherwise.
The gift of faith can be seen as that friend of yours or that man
or that woman, that person in your life that you go to when
you when you just keep hitting dead end and after dead end
after dead end, that reminds you with authenticity and
legitimacy. Listen, if God's still in it, it
ain't over. Don't give up.
Think about the gift of faith, almost like a like Daniel before
he's thrown into the lions den. That's the gift of faith.
The gift of discernment is the supernatural spiritual ability
that's given by the Holy Spirit of God that allows the person to
have have a knowledge about God and have a knowledge about God's
Word, and to apply that knowledge in a way to where
they're able to easily discern what is true and what is false,
what is right and what is wrong. That's the gift of discernment,
the gift of wisdom. The gift of wisdom is this
supernatural ability to not only be able to synthesize knowledge
about God and from Scripture about God, but to actually apply
that into day-to-day situations. And then the gift of knowledge
is this supernatural spiritual ability given by the Holy Spirit
of God to where there is knowledge that is imparted from
God that could not be known from another source of information.
That is the spiritual gift of knowledge. 2 quick things that
we need to know about these enabling gifts.
First of all, these gifts are uniquely designed to help people
navigate deep inner tensions, questions, and battles.
These enabling gifts these enabling gifts are uniquely
designed to help people navigate deep inner tensions, questions
and battles. More times than not, people that
have the spiritual gifts of this category, these enabling gifts,
they're going to be most effective in pointing people to
Jesus in small group environments, in one-on-one type
of encounters, and also in counseling type of situations.
Which then leads us to the second thing that we need to
understand about these spiritual gifts.
Just because these gifts are quieter in nature, that doesn't
mean that they are any less valuable or vital just because
they are quieter. And here's what I mean.
When you look at the enabling gifts and you put them up beside
the miraculous gifts, the miraculous gifts, they look like
big and bold and flashy and like, wow, those are, those are
super supernatural, right? As if they come from like a
hyped up version of the Holy Spirit.
And here's why I would tell you, just because the exhibition and
the usage of these spiritual gifts, these enabling gifts,
just because they're quieter in nature, they're more one-on-one,
It doesn't mean that they're any less vital or necessary.
As a matter of fact, they are just as vital and just as
necessary. I'm not going to ask you to
raise your hand in here, but I, I wonder what the split would be
in the room and online between if I were to say, hey, raise
your hand if you're an extrovert.
And then, you know, OK, put your hand down.
Raise your hand if you're an introvert.
Here's one of the things as an extrovert.
Extroverts typically like the the the big and and and and the
bold and and and. The more the merrier right to
where people can be pointed to Jesus in those contexts.
Introverts. Introverts like the big and the
more, the merrier the crowd. It drains introverts.
What introverts are fueled by are kind of the one-on-one and
the small group type of environments.
So God uses both categories, the miraculous gifts and the
enabling gifts, the big, what we would call the big bowl flashy
gifts, and the quieter in nature gifts.
Because listen, it's not at all about the gift anyway.
It's all about our effectiveness and pointing people to Jesus.
Here's the third category of spiritual gifts, what we'll call
team gifts. The team gifts are gift of the
apostle, gift of evangelism, gift of prophecy, gift of
teaching, gift of encouragement, gift of shepherding, gift of
serving, gift of mercy, gift of giving, and gift of
administration. These gifts these gifts gift of
the apostle is going to be a supernatural spirit LED ability
to to plant churches to go till a previously spiritual dry
ground and to plant a thriving congregation to start a movement
of the gospel. The gift of evangelism.
There are men and women that have the gift of evangelism to
where when they open their mouths and they start to speak
Jesus and preach Jesus, there is an anointing on them to where
people respond there, there is a there, there, there's a cut to
the heart, directly to to the heart.
That's a gift of evangelism. Gift of prophecy is the
supernatural ability to be able to boldly stand where God stands
and be able to boldly proclaim what God proclaims and not to be
moved off of that. The gift of teaching is the
ability, the Spirit LED ability to take scripture and to take
the word of God and the concepts of God and the character of God
and to be able to break it down into easily understandable bits
to where we can grasp what the Bible's teaching.
The gift of encouragement is that person that has that spirit
LED ability to not only to lift you up and to, to keep you up,
but to encourage you not to, not to give up.
And it's not it's, it's not a put on, it's not a facade.
They truly are an encourager. And I don't know about you, but
there's several, God has blessed me with several people in my
life that I know that they have the gift of encouragement.
So valuable, the gift of shepherding is that Spirit LED
ability, that Holy Spirit given ability to be able to to build
and to convey an environment and a setting that basically
communicates, hey, I've got you, I've got you.
That's the gift of the shepherd. The gift of serving is that
supernaturally spirit LED ability to see a need and to
meet a need with great effectiveness.
The gift of mercy is being able to look at someone through the
lens of of grace and mercy, not at the exclusion of truth, but
to exercise an extra measure of sympathy and empathy in their
communication with people to point them to Jesus.
The gift of giving is that supernatural spirit LED Holy
Spirit given gift to be able to give irrationally, to be able
to, to to give to, to be an irrational giver, a rational
generosity. And I know many people that have
or several people that have that gift and that that pray bold,
bold prayers, knowing that that is the gift that God has given
them. And the gift of administration
is that Holy Spirit LED ability to be able to line things, that
set things up and set things in motion, to organize people and
resources, all for Kingdom advances.
I don't know if you noticed this or not about the commonality of
these team gifts, but these team gifts, here's the two things
that I would tell you about them.
Number one, these team gifts are going to be most effective when
they operate within the context of the local church.
These team gifts are going to be most effective when they operate
within the context of the local church.
Every single one of these gifts, you know one of the things that
they all have in common, none of them are given as Lone Ranger
gifts. None of them are given as Lone
Ranger gifts. They are all most effective
within the context of community. Remember right after God created
Adam and and and and God gave Adam the task.
He tend tend to the garden and and and into all the creation
and then he looks down and he says it's not good for man to be
alone instead of suitable helper.
Was it found for Adam so that God created Eve?
What does that tell you about our nature that God create us
with? It's not a result of sin, but
God created every single one of us with the innate need for
community. We need one another.
Introverts, fellow introverts. We need one another, right?
We need one another, so it makes all the sense in the world that
if God created us for community, the most effective that we can
be in pointing other people to Jesus is for us to lock arms
together and to walk in lockstep as the local body and as the
church as we point people to Jesus.
Second thing that we need to understand about these gifts
though, is just because these gifts may be more public in
nature, that doesn't mean that the deep, continual private work
of the Holy Spirit isn't needed. Let me kind of unpack that
thought. Some of these gifts are the team
gifts. Some of these gifts are very
public in nature. They're very public in nature,
right? And here's where I would tell
you about public gifts. Many times public gifts, one of
the things that comes along with a public gift is a platform or a
stage. Can I let you in on something?
And I've already, I've talked to several of you about this
already, a platform, a stage, and a set of lights.
They give you the thought that they're actually making you when
in fact they're baking you, when in fact they're baking you.
The more public the stage, the deeper, the deeper the work the
Holy Spirit has to do and the person.
I'll go ahead and tell you this as well.
There's not a single one of us in this room.
Despite your age, despite your experience, despite your faith
journey, despite your giftedness, there's not a single
one of us that is beyond the deep, continual private work of
the Holy Spirit in our lives. I need it, you need it.
This series has not been about, hey, let me give you all the
answers. This series has really been
about, hey, let me point you to God and God's word for you to
discover what God has for you and for you to experience what
God has for us together. That is going to take a
commitment to the deep continual private work of the Holy Spirit
in our lives. I want to direct your attention
to the bottom of that note sheet.
You can even flip it over to that QR code.
You can go to the link at the bottom of the note sheet, or you
can click on that QR code, take your phone out, click on the the
the link tree and it'll, it'll pull up a listing about a
spiritual gift online assessment.
Here's what I would encourage you as your pastor, I would
greatly encourage you to spend some time, go home today, go
home today. Click on that link.
Spend some time walking through that free online assessment.
If you, if you, if you have a pretty good idea of what your
spiritual gifting already is, This may be confirmation.
It may be, you may find out, hey, maybe in a new season and
new stage of life, maybe God has shifted my spiritual gifting.
Maybe you're new to this entire concept and it is the very first
step in a journey to discover how God wants to use you, how
you can be heaven's greatest asset and Hell's greatest threat
as you walk day-to-day through life.
But as you do that, this isn't in your notes, but it's really
important for you to hear me say, do not use your spiritual
gifting or the lack thereof as a crutch.
Here's what I mean by that. I want to take just a few of
these. You may say, well, Ben, I took
the spiritual gift inventory. I don't have the gift of
evangelism. I don't have really that
spiritual gift of being able to just open my mouth, tell people
about Jesus and they respond to the gospel.
That doesn't mean just because you don't have the gift of
evangelism, it doesn't mean that you're not called to tell people
about Jesus. You may say, well, Ben, I don't
have the gift of encouragement. So I can just be a pessimist,
right? No, Ben, I don't have the gift
of mercy. So is it OK for me to be a jerk
in Jesus name? No, Ben, I don't have the gift
of serving. Listen, you may not have the
supernatural, holy spiritual gift of serving, but that
doesn't mean that God hasn't called us to serve together, to
link arms and to walk in lockstep.
Ben, I don't have the gift of giving.
That doesn't mean that we that we don't give God our first and
our finest. Don't use your spiritual gift or
the lack thereof as a crutch not to be the core basic son or
daughter of God walking in that holy responsibility that he's
called us to. It's going to be really
important for us to come back to next week as we come together
and we build out a personal battle plan together.
But before we close out, I want to acknowledge a couple things.
Number one, we've walked through a lot of info.
We've walked through a lot of info, and I don't want all the
info to drown out the main point.
You know what the main point of this morning is?
It's Jesus. You know what the main point of
spiritual gifting is? It's Jesus.
The main point is Jesus. It's, it's always Jesus, always
will be Jesus. The main point is Jesus.
So with that said, I just want to simply ask you a question.
If you're new to Riverbend, awesome welcome.
If you call Riverbend home, awesome welcome with us in the
room online. I want to ask us all the same
question. What is your relationship with
Jesus like? What's your relationship with
Jesus like? I didn't say what's your
relationship with a man upstairs?
I didn't say what's your relationship like?
Hey, when times are good, I throw up a prayer.
I'm saying like, what is your relationship with Jesus like?
Is there a close intimacy? There is there is there a growth
there? You you may be here with us this
morning or maybe with us online this morning.
You say, well, Ben, I you, I have a belief in Jesus, but I
wouldn't say that I have a relationship with Jesus.
And if that's you, then the most important thing that we can talk
through and that we can pray through is how to transition a
belief in Jesus into a relationship with Jesus.
A belief in Jesus that's not really going to change anything.
Even the demons in hell believe and they shudder.
But a relationship with Jesus, that changes everything.
So if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, I would
love to pray with you. I'd love to talk with you,
encourage you. But if you do have a
relationship with Jesus, what is the status of that relationship?
Is there a closeness? Is there a distance there?
Is there something between you? Is there unconfessed sin between
you and God? In just a moment we're going to
have an opportunity just to come down and spend some time with
Jesus through prayer. But second question is not only
what is your relationship with Jesus like, but who in your life
are you fairly confident needs Jesus?
And one of the things that we've been doing throughout this
series, and we'll continue doing way after this series is just
emphasizing the overall power of being able to lift someone up by
name, to be able to come down to be able to kneel and and say
Holy Spirit of God. This person in my home, this
person in my family is person that is, that is near and dear
to my to my heart, God, they're not here this morning.
But God, I pray that you would unleash your Holy Spirit God
that you would go to where they are and that you would invade
their hearts and their minds. God draw them close to you.
And there's a great honor and privilege and power being able
to lift up someone else by name through prayer.
So here's what we're going to do.
I want to pray over us and then we're going to open up this
front, open up the altar for a time of response.
So myself and and Pastor Todd will be down here.
Will we love to pray with you. If you want to have somebody
else come down and pray with you down here.
This front is open for you to do.
However, God is calling you to respond.
God, we love you and we thank you for the fact that you not
only inform us of truth, but God, you invite us to live in
your truth. God, this whole issue of
spiritual war. God, I pray that you would help
us to understand that we are not, we're not sitting ducks.
We're not, we're not bait. God, we, we are not inevitable
prey for our enemy. But God, you invite us to become
warriors, God, by by placing our trust, by placing our faith in
you. God, we thank you for the fact
that you love us so much, that you would forgive us of our sins
through the cross of Jesus, that you love us so much that you
would walk with us daily and God us, but God also that you love
us so much that you would even be so bold to use us to point
other people to Jesus. So God, I pray that throughout
this time together, as we get to stand and worship one more time
together this morning, as as an opportunity to be able to come
and kneel in your presence. God, that you would bring us
back to a closeness with you. God, that you would bring the
people that we are close to that God we know that needs you.
God, that we would lift them up to you.
God that we would pray for them on their behalf.
God to launch your Holy Spirit into their lives, to track them
down. God to envelope them in your
love and in your grace and in your mercy.
God, I pray that you would have your will.
I pray that you would have your way during this time.
And it's in Jesus name that we pray.
Amen. Thank you for listening to the
Riverbend Church Podcast. Learn more about who we are as a
church and how to connect. You can head over to our
website, Riverbend Church dot Life.