Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 4, 2024 | Big Weekend - Unwrapping Spiritual Gifts

Transcript

February 4, 2024 | Big Weekend - Unwrapping Spiritual Gifts · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, TBC.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jeremy McGrath.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: And as Teresa mentioned, I'm the student ministry pastor here, if you don't know me.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we are concluding this morning our winter youth retreat big weekend.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a lot of fun.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you guys.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot of fun.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Those of you may have some of you may have seen some really grumpy looking boys walk in with pink shirts.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're not happy about that, but that's over here the section, they're repping our big weekend uh merch.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you saw the back of their shirt, you would have read the words unwrapping spiritual gifts.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because this weekend was all about exploring the gifts and abilities and talents and hearts that God has given all of us as believers.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh raising up the next generation to serve.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so today we're going to be concluding this series on spiritual gifts.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: But before we do, uh up on the screen here, you see uh a bunch of our volunteers that served with us last night.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, I'm so I'm so beyond grateful and proud of our team.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm tearing up here.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I'm just tired.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we actually we have three three of them up on the screen are summer interns who are gonna be serving this year, and they just love the student ministry and they love serving so much that they decided to come out early just to come out and serve.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have people up here who've been serving in the ministry for literal decades.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have people I mean, and then they all stuck around for like another two hours just to help clean up afterwards.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even ask them to.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, this is a great group of people.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Can we give them a round of applause and just thank them for all they do?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's one more special shout out shout out I want to give someone who's not represented in this picture.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have a fairly new volunteer.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: He used to be a student in the ministry, David Crook.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and David graciously offered to help share the preaching load for me this last weekend because generally I preach four sermons, and that's a lot to do in a weekend.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so he was gonna preach two yesterday, but he got sick and he wasn't able to show up.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: But David put in hours and hours and hours and hours of work, and and I was very excited for him to be able to deliver.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I know he was really bummed out and disappointed.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: But David, if you're listening, I think he might still be at home sick, or perhaps he's feeling better to be here.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just I just want you to know personally that uh your work allowed us to still give great messages on Saturday, and then we wouldn't have been able to do without him.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I also want to give him a special round of applause if you could, and just thank him for his work.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Before I jump in, Connor told me you guys get a little uh a little grumpy if he goes past 35 minutes.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I'm gonna set my timer here because I'm gonna be honest, the sermon is a little long, and we're gonna uh we're gonna skip through a couple places if my timer goes off a little prematurely, okay?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Alrighty.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is my brother Mitchell.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You guys know Mitchell.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why, but Mitchell, the stories I have about Mitchell just make great sermon introductions.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've already had a couple with him.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, Mitchell, this is my youngest brother Mitchell, and he's about eight in this picture.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the the story I have to share with you today is actually actually occurred when he was four.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I forgot about this until my wedding a couple years ago because my brother Jacob uh shared this story uh during his wedding speech.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and so what happened was that at four years old, uh, you know, my brother Mitchell, Jacob, and I, we were out on our trampoline in our backyard, and there's a pine tree that covers the trampoline.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so there were a lot of pine needles on the trampoline all the time.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're out there, we're super bored, we don't know what to do.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and Jacob said, I don't remember this, but Jacob said, I looked at him and I gave him like the Grinch grin, right?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like the evil, like I got a really bad idea grin.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, hey Jacob, do you think we should tell Mitchell how to become a man?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Jacob's like, he doesn't know what's going on, but he's like, Yeah, yeah, we should, we should.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, okay, okay, Mitchell, Mitchell, do you wanna do you want to become a man?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, four-year-old Mitchell, he's like, Yeah, of course I want to be a man.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, how do I do it?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do I need to do?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I took a pine needle and I said, you know, Mitchell, to become a man, every man needs to pierce his nipple with a pine needle.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Every single one.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now, Mitchell, even though he was four, he was still smart enough to know that was probably total, total bull, right?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: That no, no, no, no, you don't need to do it.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: But but there was just enough, there was just enough like hope in him that that was true, he decided to try it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so for the next five minutes, he just lays on the ground, like lays on the trampoline while Jacob and I are poking him, snapping them off, and then he's crying, but he wants to be a man, so he's going through with it.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh, you know, certified man at four years old.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well done, Mitchell.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So Mitchell here was was was wondering, was interested in what the sign of a man was, right?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: What how can we tell if someone is a man?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, there are there are lots of things that we look for, lots of signs that we look for to make decisions, to figure out what something is or what something isn't, right?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: We look for a sign if we're going to get married, we look for a sign if we're ready for a particular kind of job, or we look for a sign if we're going to one college or another, right?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're always looking for signs.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna be talking about another kind of sign a lot of us are looking for, a question we ask ourselves to see if we're in the spot that we hope to be in.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this question is, what is a sign of spiritual maturity?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: What is a sign of spiritual maturity?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason we're asking this question is because this question fits very nicely into the topic of spiritual gifts.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people throughout Christian history have looked to their giftedness, and when we say spiritual giftedness, we're talking about gifts given by God to each Christian, and they've looked at their gifts and how they use their gifts, and they've used that often to determine whether or not they are spiritually mature, if they are heading in the right direction in their walk, if they are becoming more like Christ, right?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul decides to address this very question: how do we determine if we're spiritually mature in relationship to spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, today as we answer this question, what is the sign of spiritual maturity?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: We have three points.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: First, we're gonna look at the Corinthians' verified spiritual maturity.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at what the Corinthians believed, verified them as being spiritually mature.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, we're gonna look at the flaw in the Corinthians game or a flaw in the Corinthians' outlook or perception.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then number three, we're gonna look at God's verified spiritual maturity.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: What does God say?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Marks us as spiritually mature people.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna remind you guys, some of you may know, downstairs or when I'm with the students, this is how I start my sermon.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I give you the plan, and then I say, Are y'all with me?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys say, Oh yeah.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's give that a shot.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get started.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: First point here Corinthians verified spiritual maturity.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Alrighty.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing I think that we have to learn or understand about the Corinthians is they were gifted people.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we, you guys thought we were done with Corinthians.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: We went through 1 Corinthians, we went through 2nd Corinthians, you're like, I'm finally done with no, we're not done.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're going back, okay?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but but if you remember back from our Corinthian series, the Corinthians did have a lot of problems, but they were eminently gifted in many ways.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things we know about Corinth at the time that Paul, the Apostle Paul, was witnessing to them and building up their church is that they were a very important town.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: We have up on this screen uh a little map of Greece and where Corinth is situated.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if you see, it's kind of situated in this little tiny plot.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a four-mile-wide plot of land that connects southern Greece to northern Greece.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this is important is because everyone who was doing business, everyone who was traveling and going between these two areas, if they were traveling by land, needed to go through Corinth.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're going through, we have all this foot traffic going through Corinth, it's going to attract a lot of people who are seeking to make it, who are seeking to use their gifts and their talents and their abilities, their hard work ethic to make it, to make a name for themselves, to perform.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a large city that sees a lot of traffic here.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so people are coming to make their fortunes, to use their talents, and to work.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And this kind of mindset that probably would have been indicative of a lot of the Corinthians, even the non-Christian Corinthians, also carried over in the Corinthians' approach to spirituality.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't just seek to make it in the physical, in their physical life and in their physical world, but they also sought to make it spiritually.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: We actually see in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 7, that Paul does say when he's when he's building them up and encouraging them and praising them, his biggest praise to them is that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They have been greatly gifted.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And in chapter 4, verse 10, Paul says that the Corinthians have built up a personal persona of themselves, at least a desire, a perception of themselves, of great wisdom and strength and honor.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this was not true.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have any of these things, or at least Paul didn't think so, but they thought so.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: This was something they desired and were pursuing.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then in chapter 3, Paul addresses that they were constantly fighting about who was the best spiritually.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: This was important to them.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to be on top, they wanted to be making it spiritually.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this was important to the Corinthian church.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: They were gifted people, and giftedness was extremely important to them.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And because of all these things, because that they were gifted and they had this huge work ethic to be gifted and to be at the top, they believed they had spiritually made it.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: They believed they had spiritually made it.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, there were quite a few of the Corinthians who Paul says had these very flashy spiritual gifts.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know exactly what spiritual gifts are, that's okay, but for we're gonna talk a little bit more about it later.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But for right now, just know that there are some gifts that are very prominent.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some gifts like right now I'm teaching, that would be considered a spiritual gift.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so you can see me teach, right?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can see me exercising my gift, but there are other gifts that are less obvious and serve more in the background and maybe would be considered less impactful.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the Corinthians were kind of dividing themselves over these two types of gifts, and they were earnestly seeking the gifts that were flashy and that were big and that were grand.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so they were saying that those who had achieved these flashy, big, powerful, crazy spiritual gifts, these were the people who had spiritually made it.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that those who had less impressive gifts, these were people that were still still maturing.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't quite there, they were still baby Christians.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: They shouldn't be treated with as much honor.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a problem in the Corinthian church.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: There were a lot of problems in the Corinthian church, if you guys remember going through Corinthians.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: One of the problems is that worship was exceedingly disorderly.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: We learn in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 that the worship service was not like this, everyone kind of just being quiet and one person speaking.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was a bunch of people all trying to speak at one time and speak in tongues, some other kind of language, or to give a prophecy, or or do some like sporadic worship.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's trying to contribute because everyone wants to be seen.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have this disorderly worship and nothing's getting done.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: No one's learning anything, no one's growing.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing we learn is that they were devaluing each other.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: If we have a group that thinks they're superior, that they're closer to God because they have the big flashy gifts and the people that are that don't are lesser.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have this big divide in the Church of Corinth between these two groups.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the division and anger and animosity is growing.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul notes this.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the problem here?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because actually, I'm gonna reference this later.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: In in Ephesians, Paul says that spiritual gifts are given in order to mature us.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: They are a mark of maturity.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: So why are a people who are so gifted, clearly in the spirit, why are they producing such awful things?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: What's going wrong?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, the answer, and then what's the solution more importantly?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the solution is not not that they need more gifts.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they just need more people.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Those people who are lower on the totem pole just need to be more gifted.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the solution.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I would also argue it's not because they need to use their gifts more, they were already using their gifts too much, interrupting the service, right?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's not that they needed to attain more gifts or use their gifts more, what's the solution to their problem?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the solution to their problem is that they need to exercise more love with their gifts.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go to our second point here, the flaw in the Corinthians game.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not noticing this flaw, I'm not calling it out, but Paul is.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Paul in the end of chapter 12 and all of chapter 13 is writing directly against the Corinthians' understanding of themselves as spiritually mature.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he notices and identifies the flaw and how they utilize spiritual gifts and their understanding of maturity.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna be camping out in this passage for most of this morning.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's up on the screen here, but if you want to turn in your Bibles, we're gonna be starting at the very end of chapter 12, verse 31, and then we're gonna be reading through 13, 1 through 7 here.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead and read God's word.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 12, verse 31.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: But earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you still more an excellent way.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, so, real quick, I'm gonna pause there.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: All of chapter 12 is talking about spiritual gifts.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's saying that they're important, so Paul's saying that they're necessary, and he also taught the Corinthians how to utilize them and how to view them properly.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, yeah, keep desiring spiritual gifts, those are important.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: If he didn't say that, we would have just wasted our whole weekend, right?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so spiritual gifts are still important, all right, but we're gonna add something more important, as Paul says.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right, students.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: So so spiritual gifts are important, but guys, there's something even more important you have to know before you even start utilizing spiritual gifts.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: So what is this?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: 13 verse 1.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or clinging symbol.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but I do not have love, I'm nothing.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Continuing on in verse 3.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: If I give away all that I have, even if I deliver up my body to be burned for another, but I don't have love, I gain nothing.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: What is love?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go back, we just went back to verses one through two, because I want to highlight here uh what Paul's saying in verses one through three.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Paul first actually references a spiritual gift that the Corinthians are most proud of, most proud of having.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Corinthians think the spiritual gift of tongues, which is the ability to speak in some either heavenly language or foreign language that one does not know, and communicating with God, they think this is the greatest gift one can have, and the greatest sign of spiritual maturity says, look, if you have this gift, but you don't have love, you are nothing but uh a noisy gong or a clinging symbol.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially what that translates to is you accomplish nothing.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: You accomplish nothing.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna break breaking all of these down.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, you accomplish nothing if you use your gifts without love.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then in verse two, um he says that you are nothing if you use your gifts without love.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then if we go to verse three here, he says you gain nothing if you use your gifts without love.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Are we tracking?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you accomplish nothing, you are nothing, and you gain nothing if you use your gifts without love.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So let's break all of these down and show why this is true.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: So first, accomplish nothing.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Where am I getting this from?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: How can I say that I accomplish nothing?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because Paul uses this weird metaphor.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you speak in tongues, uh you're but you don't have love, you're nothing but a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys have or have had kids who have like that little kid's piano and they're growing up, they're like two, three, four.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know how to play, they just like they bang on it, right?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Any of us have have those kids or have had those kids?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's wonderful, right?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, never get a headache from that.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um so Caroline, my wife, she nannies, and we've had lots of kids who do that.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And often kids like to bring you over, they're so excited, and they say, Look, look, look, look, look.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just made a song.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I made a song, okay?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so they start banging on the piano, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and then they say, This is my happy song.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, okay, that's great.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then they bring you over a little later, and then they start doing it again, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and then they say, This is my angry song.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, that sounded very similar to your happy song.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the start of like some bipolar thing?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, okay, no, we get a little worried for our kids.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: But but it doesn't, it doesn't communicate anything, right?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: They can say what it means, but to us it's all the same note.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's one discordant note that doesn't communicate anything, right?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why composers are so important for music.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we appreciate great composers like Mozart because they can weave notes and melodies together in such a way that it communicates and makes us feel something, right?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: But one single discordant note, like a clanging gong or cymbal, communicates nothing.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what Paul's saying here to the Corinthians, it's not so much that if you use your gifts without love, you're not communicating anything.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said earlier, you're not communicating anything of value.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're not accomplishing anything of kingdom or eternal value.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, what we see in Corinth is that they're going into the church and they're fighting for the spotlight, right?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're in service and they're using these great gifts, these wildly spiritual, miraculous gifts, but they're just fighting to be seen.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're not fighting to serve those around them.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're not fighting to show love and deference, they're fighting for the spotlight, right?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what they're communicating by using their gifts in this way, they're just communicating that they're important.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: But spiritual gifts were not meant to be, I told this to the students the other day, they weren't meant to be admired.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were meant to be used.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritual gifts are not meant to be admired, they're meant to be used.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're not meant to build us up and make us look good.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're meant to be used for the kingdom.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you use your gifts without love, you are not accomplishing anything of eternal value.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why is Jesus says, the world will know you are my disciples because of how you love one another.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' goal for what we were supposed to do in this life is to show everyone whose we are and his love.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we cannot do that if we're utilizing our spiritual gifts selfishly.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you might say, well, okay, this is a little irrelevant to us, right?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, Pastor Jim hasn't once interrupted my sermon with like a French hymn or something, like speaking in tongues, right?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: He hasn't done that.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: We don't do this here, okay?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor Jim, do you know French?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like you would.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: He probably knows other languages.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, I don't know, okay.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, so he hasn't done that though.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so is this even relevant to us, to our situation?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're not like the Corinthian church in this way.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're not trying to be showy with our gifts, especially during service.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: But the takeaway here is that gifts devoid of love fail to communicate God's message.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And let me give you a couple examples here.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: One of the constant things I have to battle with, again, I believe I have the spiritual gift of teaching, but one of the things I have to battle with is pride that I can preach with, right?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: That I can teach with.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can get prideful and arrogant and self important when I come up on the stage.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what's communicated, because if I come with this attitude that I'm just coming to impress people, then what's communicated to you, like I said earlier, is that I'm important.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not that God's important, that I'm important.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember that great sermon that the youth pastor preached and that funny joke.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: He told and all that thing.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was just telling my students this if you just remember me and you didn't say, Man, I don't remember who preached this a year ago, but I remember I encountered God then.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: I just wasted my time.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to remember me at the end of the day.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But if I'm speaking with pride, that's what's gonna come out and that's what's gonna result.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you find out that I'm speaking from a place of pride and I'm teaching from a place of pride, you're just gonna be like, well, there's another arrogant person who likes hearing themselves talk.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing special here.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: How many teachers and leaders do we know like that?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're everywhere.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing special of note here.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: What about hospitality or generosity or service?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: These are other spiritual gifts that we're given.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Some people, you would think, well, you you have to love if you have the gift of generosity or service, right?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: That has to be out of love.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: But man, I know so many people have these gifts who exercise them out of insecurity.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: They really don't want people thinking poorly of them.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: They want people to think that they're selfless and they don't want people to think that they're selfish.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're constantly driven to serve and to give because they don't want people thinking poorly of them.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so what they're communicating is not see how much God loves you.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to prove to you how much God loves you and how I love God.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're communicating, I'm so terrified that you'll think I'm a selfish person.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when you learn this, then what you're receiving from them is this idea, man, they don't care about me.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: They just care about their own image.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're not seeing someone, even if they're exercising constantly, you're not seeing someone who's different, who you're like, man, they really love me.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're just like, okay.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice that they're doing this, but they're just doing it for them their own image, for themselves.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, another one, leaders.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: If someone leads for power, the sake of power or not love, what they're communicating is trust in me, not trust in God.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we're gonna learn from them is we don't need to have reliance on God when we have this strong, powerful leader.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, I could go on and on and on and on and on about how every single one of these spiritual gifts, if we use them without love, communicates the wrong thing, and thereby communicating the wrong thing erases any chance that we will see God through each other.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: You see, there are a lot of mega churches with a lot of money, with a lot of power, with a lot of influence, but I guarantee you there are a lot of those mega churches you will go to and you will never see God.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can't find God in a church, what are we doing here?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to transition here to the next one.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 2.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Without love, we are nothing.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not just we accomplish nothing, but we are nothing.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are nothing.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's a strong statement.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: To illustrate the statement, I'm gonna need some volunteers.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, uh, Doug and Jeremiah, you guys look ready.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you come up?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Give them a round of applause.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Doug and Jeremiah, thank you for volunteering.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I actually volunteered them as of an hour ago.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm very excited for this demonstration, guys, because because we're in this demonstration, Doug's normally my boss, but I'm his boss today.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is exciting.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm his boss.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, so I I own this company in my imaginary world.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great world.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: I own my own company, and and these are my employees.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I come in to my employees.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can you can step over here, Jeremiah.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so I come up to my employees and I say, Today, today, gentlemen, we have received two pianos.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: We've received two pianos.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what I need for you to do, your day's work, I need you to tune the piano, I need you guys to clean it up and fix any imperfections.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Can you do that for me?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, great.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so these gentlemen are gonna go to their work, and I'm gonna leave for a second.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: But and Jeremiah, he's a good employee.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to do what the company wants, and so he starts tuning, he starts cleaning the piano, he's doing doing what I asked.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: But Doug, Doug looks out and he sees, man, there's a lot of people out there.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm hot stuff.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: They need to know that.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so Doug decides instead of tuning or cleaning the piano, he's going to perform a little concerto.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, are you doing?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I asked you to clean this piano and tune and not play.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: What Jeremiah, thank you for doing what I asked.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: You see, I I asked you guys to do this because we're the company is here to give these pianos away to children who need it.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not only one child is gonna get a piano.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Doug, thank you.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, give them a round of applause.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, what was that all about?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: So my company exists.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Our goal is to give pianos away to children and provide them in a good condition so they can use them, okay, in this imaginary company, right?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Jeremiah accomplished that goal, but but Doug, although he was impressive, uh although he impressed all of us, and he's obviously quite talented, was he of any use to our company?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: He could have sat on his butt and he would have been and not played anything, and he would have been the same amount of use as if he had played an even greater song.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Translate to the kingdom of God.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: If we use our gifts for anything other than kingdom purposes, we can't be considered useful in the kingdom.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we can't be really considered anything.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: We can't go before God at the end of time and say, God, look at all of these things I done, I've done.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an important person, right?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: You couldn't have done it without me.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm important in the kingdom.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: God's gonna look at you if you didn't have love and say, You did nothing.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: You were nothing for my kingdom.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to hear those words.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, I don't want to hear those words.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so the only way we can accomplish, we can we can say that we are something in the kingdom of God is if we step forward with all that we do and say, and all the ways we serve, with the love of God.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because these are kingdom goals.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of goal is not just to use your gifts, it's to do so with love.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, let's look at the last one.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Without love, we gain nothing.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Without love, we gain nothing.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I just alluded to, the Corinthians were thinking that when they stood before God, they were going to receive a well-done, good, and faithful servant, and they were gonna get all of these riches for the rest of eternity because of how weird they sounded speaking in tongues, right?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they were, that's what they were gonna receive.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul eliminates their ability to believe this because he he ultimately says they will gain nothing, even if, even if, I want to go back to this, even if you lay down your life for someone, even even if you give all you have to the poor, like, man, that that's gotta be loving, right?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're it's gotta be good.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, man, if it's not without if it's not with love, you gain nothing of reward.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to reference here.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's uh there's a YouTube channel I follow, and I'm forgetting the name, but I think it's like therapy movies or therapy, so something like this.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's a therapist and a movie critic, and they they analyze certain movies through the eyes of therapy, okay?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and they were watching the Christmas movie Claws.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Have you guys seen this?
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas movie Clause?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Couple of us.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you haven't, this is an instant classic.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's a really good movie.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and in the movie, the main character is kind of selfish, all right?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't care about anyone around him very clearly, but he's trying to get out of Dodge, get out of the city he's in, and the only way he can do that is by doing good for other people.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's doing all of these good things, but he's doing it for a very selfish motive.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't care at all for the people around him.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And something really odd struck me because the therapist who's analyzing this movie, this was his quote, he says, Doing good for selfish motives is still good at doing good.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Intentions only matter so much.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: What matters is results.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't go see that therapist.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let me read that one more time.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Doing good for selfish motives is still doing good.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Intentions only matter so much.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: What matters is results.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, here's the reason this is so wrong.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is clear.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't just want to fix the world, he wants to fix you.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't just want to fix the world.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: He could do that all on his own, but he wants to fix you.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're doing all of these good things, you're serving all of these people, you're changing people's lives, you're performing these miraculous signs, but you have not been changed, you've gained nothing.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because the true gift of being in the kingdom, the true gift of being a son or a daughter of Christ is the fact that we get to be like him, and we can be nothing like him if we have no love.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul strips them of this delusion that they can accomplish anything, that they are anything, or that they gain anything without love.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, this is the first takeaway that I want you guys to register here.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Church doesn't need more gifted people.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Church needs more loving people.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Church doesn't need more gifted people, church needs more loving people.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is important, especially students hear me.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: I had the students take some spiritual gift tests the other day.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you guys may have walked away and still been a little confused.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Still thinking, man, I don't know if I'm very gifted.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I ranked pretty low on some of my gifts that were supposed to be my top ones.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you guys feel this way.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: You don't feel particularly gifted in any way.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: What Paul is communicating to you, what God is communicating to you, is that if you want to make it in the kingdom of God, you don't need any of those fancy gifts if you but have love.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you have love, you will be considered the greatest in the kingdom, you will be considered far greater than any person you can think of who's the greatest, most gifted person if you have love.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: All of us can do that.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: I said this to kind of a very similar thing to my sophomore boys' Bible study.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: I told them, uh, we're doing some leadership training, and I said, guys, do you do you love God?
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love God?
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and they were thinking about it.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, the reason I ask, the reason I ask is, I don't want to do any more of this leadership training if you don't love God.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: The church doesn't need any more leaders that don't love God.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: So this is our priority.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: The greater way Paul is calling us to is not to become more gifted, but to become more in love with Christ and show more love to others.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go to our final point here: God's verified spiritual maturity.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: We saw the flaw with the Corinthians' view that spiritual gifts was a sign of maturity, and the flaw is that they lack love.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: But let's talk about why love is a sign of spiritual maturity to wrap up.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And let me check my time here because we might have to speed run this.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, we got four minutes.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's read this one more time.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read verses four through seven, um, and we're gonna hop around a bunch because we only have time for a couple things here.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Love is patient and love is kind.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: So he's describing what love is here.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, reminder, I said a little while back that in Ephesians, Paul tells us the reason for spiritual gifts.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: The reason for spiritual gifts is to create maturity within us individually, to create unity with us collectively, and to glorify God.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is the purpose of spiritual gifts.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is then, if that is the purpose of spiritual gifts, but we can only really truly attain that maturity if we're exercising them with love.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: How does love accomplish this?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's consider the word maturity.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys would say, if you have little kids, that your little kids, maybe one through six, love you?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, all of us who have those kids in that reign would raise our hands.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they love us, okay?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys who have had kids, you'd say, yes, they love us.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: But we know that kids are immature.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because maturity is growing up, is changing, is becoming more like you're supposed to be.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Is becoming more aware of the people around you, is becoming more aware of who you are, right?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is maturity.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're immature, but they love you.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: And but because they're immature, their love is also slightly mature.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: And let me let me kind of prove it to you.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'd say that our children love us, but but man, they throw tantrums when they don't get what they want.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we just read here, we just read that love does not insist on its own way, it's not irritable, it doesn't envy.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: But kids often display all of these things, but they still love us, but they love us immaturely.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Not fully.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: What else?
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they show immaturity when they do not consider others' problems.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've met some pretty thoughtful kids in my day, but most of the time, kids are concerned about what they're doing next, about the dessert they're going to get, about the playdate that they're going to, right?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: About the boo-boo that they got.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And like your whole world as parents could be falling apart, you lost your job, you don't know what's happening, but like your kids, your kids just saying, okay, mom, you need to deal with my problems right now, okay?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm important.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, so they're not concerned with others' needs.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't fully matured in love.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we, at the very least, we should say our child's love is imperfect or immature because it is not expressed consistently or well.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing, the reason I bring this up, is the first thing that we learn about love is that love is indeed an action.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things that are listed here, they're actions.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Love is patient.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be patient.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Kindness is something that we do.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um we uh we're not irritable, we have to prevent ourselves from being irritable, right?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of these things are things that we do.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Love is an action.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And to become more mature, we need to perform these actions more.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not just an action.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: If we go back to verses one through three, Paul says, if you do not have love, you are nothing.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: He he again, he doesn't say, he doesn't say if you don't, if you don't act in ways that are loving, you are nothing.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if you do not have love.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I know he's not talking about an action in verses one through three is because again, one of the things he cites is very unloving, and a loving thing we can do is giving all we have to the poor.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: On the outside, that's a very loving action.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what's called Paul's concerned about in verses one through three is that we have no motivation or true love in our heart for the people that we're serving.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: So love is both an action, but it is also a feeling.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is also heart posture.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: So don't just think that you can pretend love.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like we know this, we know this to be true.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because like if you have a subordinate who's kind of sucking up to the boss because they want a promotion, they'll act in lots of ways that are loving, right?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's my timer.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay, we're fine.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're you guys are gracious, and you're gonna give me approximately three more minutes.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's subordinate though, subordinate, okay?
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: They'll suck up to their boss and they'll do things that seem loving on the outside, but they have no heart.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: They have no heart of love.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're just trying to achieve something, to get something.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so the feeling and the action are both important, okay?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're important to achieve maturity in Christ.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this is, I'm gonna skip something here because we don't have time.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the reason, the reason it's important to achieve this level of maturity in Christ, both a heart of love for others, and then a life that's constantly acting in love towards others, is because love best reveals the gospel.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we said that the last purpose of spiritual gifts is to better glorify the name of Christ to each other and to those around us.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Explain to me how utilizing your spiritual gifts over and over and over again to be applauded, to be seen, and to be recognized has anything to do with what Jesus did on the cross.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't come and say, Look at me, look at how cool I am, come worship me.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: He was worshipped, he was great, but he said, the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he showed us that the gospel, the good news, the reason that we're here as Christians today, is that Jesus came and he was not concerned about his needs, but he gave all of himself.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because he loved us, he gave all of himself while he was on this earth to us.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: All of our needs, everything, everything that we were concerned about, he was concerned about, and he's pouring himself out like a drink offering, like Paul says, until the very end when he gave his life out of love.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard this message a lot of times, but hearing it alone does very little to help you understand and appreciate it.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: But seeing Christ's love in the person sitting next to you and in the way they serve you radically, man, that'll help us to see Christ and appreciate Christ like no other.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do we do with this?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have some application points for you, especially for you students, okay, as we're considering their spiritual gifts and how to use them properly.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: One of the first things I'd ask you guys to do is to approach church to give and not to get.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, we have this weird mindset in Western Christianity that church is a place where I come to receive my needs and get my receive and get my needs met.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you come because you're excited to see your friends and you're hoping that the pastor speaks exactly what you need, and you're hoping that the worship fills you and refuels you so that you can go and just survive another week.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of what the church offers.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: But if that's all you approach the church for, you're doing it wrong.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about this, right, over the weekend.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: You are the church.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: You are the hands and feet of Christ.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: All of you are gifted.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you must come to church because you wish to be that impact and that life and that filling on those around you.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: So change your mindset and approach to church.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, practice unseen selflessness.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, the most dangerous thing we can do is practice our spiritual gift in order to gain something for ourselves.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: In order, we perform these spiritual gifts because we're motivated by selfishness.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, we all fall into this sometimes.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so, if that's you, the only, one of the only ways we can kind of buck this trend is if, like Christ says, we practice selflessness without being seen.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: We serve someone, we make that meal, and we bring it to the person's house, but we don't ring the doorbell, and we don't let them try to pay us.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't, right, and we don't get this recognition.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: We leave it at the door, we ring the doorbell, we leave.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we never tell them.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or someone's struggling with their homework at school, and and you know, you can tell they're just they're really struggling, and you you go out and you print out uh this article or document that you read that was really helpful in understanding it, and you just leave it on their desk and you leave.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, we need to practice unseen selflessness because we need to get to a place where we're okay just with the act of love and not with any recognition that comes from it.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Third, if this is a real struggle for you, maybe you need to step back from the spotlight.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a position in this church of leadership.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're up on the worship team, maybe you teach a small group in some fashion or a Bible study, maybe you're in charge of a ministry that we have, and it just goes straight to your head.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't want it to, but it does.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a struggle over and over and over and over again, and you can't seem to buck it.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to step back for a little bit.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because God's clear, this isn't just like a minor inconvenience if we're constantly serving for our own desires.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: This makes everything you're doing nothing.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a minor inconvenience.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: If this is a real struggle for you, let's take a step back and prayerfully seek to change our heart.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the final point.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Make love your daily prayer.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, something I learned from Francis Chan that I've been trying to implement, he's a famous pastor, if you don't know him, that I've been trying to implement for the last year is before every sermon.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of when I start getting the butterflies, recognizing that I'm getting nervous before preaching, I recognize that that's that's my pride speaking.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because oftentimes we get nervous when we're worried about how we're going to be perceived.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to be worried about how I'm perceived.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be worried about how God's perceived.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so before every sermon, I pray that instead of this worry and this concern for my image, that God would replace it with the heart of love for the students that I'm teaching.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that I would just be so concerned they would receive what God has for them that day.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so I ask you guys to do that in your ministries as well.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, guys, you are a gifted church like the Corinthians.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: And also I know that there is a lot of love in this congregation.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: I see it daily.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to become a church that is known not just by a few that show love, but by all of its people showing love to each other, because when that happens, we will make God famous here in Topeka.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: And even with something beautiful that you've given us, a gift of the Spirit meant to make an impact in your kingdom for those around us, Lord, we can even twist that.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we don't want to twist it.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: We want to use it to its fullest potential.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: We want people to see the way we serve with such radical love that they can't help but praise your name, Christian or non-Christian.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, I pray that within this church you would have a revival of our spirits.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: That we would not just serve in abundance, but that we would love in abundance.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your name.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, we're going to be switching to a time of communion here, just as we close out.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is very fitting.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because remember, we cannot serve well unless we understand the gospel.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we understand the love of Christ, which will motivate us to serve well.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you who are new or who don't know much about this Christianity thing, as I referenced earlier, communion is a time where we reflect on the greatest thing that ever happened in the whole world, which is that God, who created you, came down to be a sacrifice for you.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because you see, there was this division between man and God.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about all of this selfishness today that we often exhibit, and this selfishness is indicative of a larger problem.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: This problem is sin.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's a desire to go our own way and to not follow God and to not become people of Him that are indicative and marked by love.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so God said, Man, instead of starting over or instead of punishing you for your wickedness, I'm going to come down, teach you who I am, form a relationship with you, and I'm going to pay the penalty that you were supposed to have.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it is out of this expression of love that all of us sit here in this room this morning.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: And all of us have hope in the future of not just seeing loved ones, but of seeing God face to face and being with him for eternity.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so today we remember the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: We remember that he died for our sins and that he paid that penalty.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want you guys to reflect a moment.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to reflect on all of the things that you have to do.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to want you to reflect even on all of the blessings that God or Christ has given you.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just want you to reflect on the immense and awe-inspiring and heavenly love that Christ displayed on the cross.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: Try to grasp it.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let your heart be moved by it.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then as it's moved, I will come back up and we will take the elements together.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke the bread and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: Eat this in remembrance of me.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: Drink this as often as you drink in remembrance of me.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for participating in communion.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.