SPEAKER_00: Romans 15, verses 15 to 20.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul introduces what I call his ministry identity, how he works for God, who he is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the last two-thirds of the passage, he begins to tell us who he is in Christ and the way he serves God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he's just like each of us, only different.
SPEAKER_00: So listen as I read the passage to Paul talking about who God has prepared him to be.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 15, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: But on some points I have written to you quite boldly, by way of reminder, because of the grace given to me by God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God.
SPEAKER_00: For I will not venture to speak anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: So that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already known, what has already been known, lest I build on someone else's foundation.
SPEAKER_00: And I would add, I love the NIV's translation of verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known.
SPEAKER_00: I think Paul was pretty excited about getting to play his part.
SPEAKER_00: And that was what this morning is about.
SPEAKER_00: Let's ask the Spirit to lead us in this process.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we praise you for this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the quietness and the work that your spirit has already done in some of us through the worship and the singing and the prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for preparing us to receive your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving us to one another in this season of our lives, in this place, in this community, for your purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you desire to speak deeply to many of us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I ask that you get me out of the way, that I would play my part, but that your spirit would be the one in the midst doing the heavy lifting.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We release the process of the word and your work, trusting that you will fulfill your purposes in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I call it discovering your ministry identity.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, as followers of Jesus, each have an essential role to play in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As I've already said, you see, you and I are just like the Apostle Paul who talked about his calling.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are just like the Apostle Paul, only different.
SPEAKER_00: Each of us have a part to play.
SPEAKER_00: Got a letter from one of our missionaries in Asia last week in this picture from that newsletter.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we give missionaries and pastors and lead elders.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we we give higher praise and honor to those people who seem to be in more important spiritual roles.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great concept.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a particularly biblical concept.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual leadership is important, but scripture is very clear that every one of us is called by God with specific gifts and preparation to play a specific part in and out from this place.
SPEAKER_00: It's quite an amazing concept.
SPEAKER_00: I call it ministry identity.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry identity.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to utilize that outline that is in the bulletin, here's where I'm going to start referencing it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always excited when somebody has an outline in the bulletin and they actually follow it.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm actually going to be following that outline in the bulletin for your benefit, hopefully.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry identity.
SPEAKER_00: Fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: Because ministry identity is not what you do for God.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry identity is who you and I already are in Christ, waiting inside, just wanting to come out.
SPEAKER_00: It's not good works that we do for God.
SPEAKER_00: It's becoming, and actually, for most of us, it's a process of discovering the gifts and the heart passion God has placed in each of us.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to use the Apostle Paul as our model this morning because he clearly shows us this ministry identity concept to be real.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we talk about the Apostle Paul and others, consider yourself as one with a distinct ministry identity, who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 15, 15 to 20, number one, Paul understood what his spiritual gifts were.
SPEAKER_00: Paul actually clearly had three primary spiritual gifts that he had from conversion.
SPEAKER_00: They were part of his constitution, if you will, they are part of his spiritual makeup from the time he came to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Where do I get off thinking I know what the Apostle Paul's three primary spiritual gifts were?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I get off thinking I know that because he told us that.
SPEAKER_00: It's referenced in your outline, 1 Timothy 2.7, 2 Timothy 1.11, Paul clearly says, I'm an apostle, I'm an evangelist, and I'm a teacher.
SPEAKER_00: He clearly states in two different places for Timothy, and now our behalf, that he is clear on who he is from a supernatural empowerment of God.
SPEAKER_00: See, Paul is acting like who designed, well, just like who God designed him to be, as he desires for each of us.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Paul, can you make this a little bit more practical?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody else beside the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's look at Fred the Shepherd Carpenter.
SPEAKER_00: A dear friend, Fred, carpenter by trade, mostly built houses, custom houses.
SPEAKER_00: When he wasn't working, what he loved to do was to go build habitat for humanity houses as a volunteer.
SPEAKER_00: And I wish that you could have watched Fred on the roof shingling with another man, another woman with several others.
SPEAKER_00: I wish you could have watched the way Fred pastored them.
SPEAKER_00: No, not functioning in the role of pastor, but with the supernatural power of the gift of pastoring.
SPEAKER_00: He would shepherd people.
SPEAKER_00: He would encourage them.
SPEAKER_00: He would counsel them.
SPEAKER_00: He would protect them if they needed protecting.
SPEAKER_00: Fred was a gifted pastor on those roofs for Habitat for Humanity.
SPEAKER_00: He was extending his local church's ministry to a rooftop.
SPEAKER_00: Touching people that none of the rest of us could have touched.
SPEAKER_00: Very interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was not only clear about his gifting, and if you want to be sure in his gifting, let's actually look briefly at the passage.
SPEAKER_00: I said Paul told us what his three gifts are.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at verses 19 and 20, the apostolic gift, he actually, as he's talking about his ministry identity, he tells us in verse 19, he says that there's movement in signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: A gifted apostle was very much involved with supernatural healings and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: That was true of Paul's ministry.
SPEAKER_00: So he met that criteria of the gift of apostle.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the end of verse 20, he says, I would so build on a foundation.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to build on someone else's foundation.
SPEAKER_00: Apostles are people who go to new places to start new works, to build up new spiritual foundations.
SPEAKER_00: Second criteria of the gift of apostles.
SPEAKER_00: So he clearly was a gifted apostle.
SPEAKER_00: How about the evangelist?
SPEAKER_00: That's the other gift that he shows clearly in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, excuse me, verse 18, he says, I will not speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience.
SPEAKER_00: I'm out there rousting out the Gentiles so they will respond to God.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 20, it's always been my ambition to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Those are things that a gifted apostle says and does.
SPEAKER_00: They want people to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So, like Fred the Carpenter, the Apostle Paul tells us who he is and shows us who he is through his words.
SPEAKER_00: Supernatural gifting, true of each one of us.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get to you in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, Paul also understood his ministry burden or passion.
SPEAKER_00: I call this the supernatural who, what, or where.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pretend that it's in the passage.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the passage.
SPEAKER_00: For whom or what or where was the Apostle Paul impassioned?
SPEAKER_00: Can somebody help us with that?
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at me, look at the passage.
SPEAKER_00: Who or what or where was Gentiles?
SPEAKER_00: Sorry?
unknown: Gentiles?
SPEAKER_00: Gentiles.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was crazy about going after Gentiles and sharing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says that clearly in the passage several different times.
SPEAKER_00: Gentiles, for the record, are non-Jews.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you look in the book of Acts, you'll find that Paul often went to synagogues and he got quite frustrated or irritated with the Jews, so he left the synagogue and he went out and he found some Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Because he wanted Gentiles to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Outside the synagogue, he wanted others to respond to God.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of Romans 15, he wants to go to Spain.
SPEAKER_00: I think the Apostle Paul wanted to go to Spain because there are lots of Gentiles in Spain.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he was passionate about reaching the who God had put on his heart, the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Paul, how about another person, another practical illustration?
SPEAKER_00: Well, from your outline, let's look at John, the I love to help stranded people on the highway guy.
SPEAKER_00: I had privilege a number of years ago to speak at a conference in college students in northern Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_00: And I flew into Pittsburgh, and a young man named John, we'll call him John since, well, that was his name.
SPEAKER_00: And so, John, um, boy, you guys, what a tough crowd.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me try that again.
SPEAKER_00: We'll call him John because, well, that was his name.
SPEAKER_00: John picked me up, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting there.
SPEAKER_00: John picked me up and we we started talking as we went along, got on the interstate and drive a couple hour drive, and and John was a bit giddy and pretty excited, and seemingly a little erratic in his driving, he said, you know, Paula, I love helping stranded people on the highway.
SPEAKER_00: Which I was, you know, don't I was excited about, but I was much more committed to getting to where we were supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted John to pay a little bit more attention to his driving, just for the record.
SPEAKER_00: And then I got to watch John move into action.
SPEAKER_00: Car on the side of the road, stranded hood up.
SPEAKER_00: It was a woman whose car had broken down.
SPEAKER_00: John pulls the car over, he gets out of his car, he goes back and he talks to the woman, finds out what's wrong, looks under the hood, goes into his trunk.
SPEAKER_00: In his trunk are no less than 1,000 individual items with which you help stranded people on the highway.
SPEAKER_00: And he got the tool that he needed, and he fixed the car within 10 minutes, and the woman was so happy and on her way.
SPEAKER_00: And John was a new person.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably the most dramatic example I've ever seen of the gift of service, but it was also John fulfilling his ministry burden or passion.
SPEAKER_00: What happened that day on that highway in northern Pennsylvania?
SPEAKER_00: John extended the ministry of his local church by playing his part in a way that no one else could play, reaching someone that no one else could reach by using his gift and passion.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry burden or passion.
SPEAKER_00: God has prepared each of us with a distinct ministry identity.
SPEAKER_00: These things are a part of our calling, these gifts, this ministry burden or passion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're questioning right now, I'm not sure I'm included in the list of people of whom you're speaking about, even though I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Well, look at Ephesians 4:1, and hear what Paul has to say there.
SPEAKER_00: Lead a life worthy of your calling to which you have been called by God.
SPEAKER_00: This is all of us.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a few of us.
SPEAKER_00: Each of us have been given a distinctive calling by God to play our parts.
SPEAKER_00: Lead a life worthy of your calling.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say, lead a life worthy of your drivenness.
SPEAKER_00: No, in fact, I had privilege to, with 32 friends, to put together a devotional called Growing Deeper Together.
SPEAKER_00: And this week, amazingly, week 21, day three, a good friend of mine, Larry, had a devotional that is right in the center of our message this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what he shares.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he starts with Ephesians 4:1.
SPEAKER_00: Live a life worthy of your calling, for you indeed have been called by God.
SPEAKER_00: And then he shares these two devotional paragraphs.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Gordon MacDonald, in his book, Ordering Your Private World, talks about the difference between driven people and called people.
SPEAKER_00: Driven people are caught in the success syndrome.
SPEAKER_00: Their self-worth is measured by their accomplishments and how others see them in those successes.
SPEAKER_00: Called people, on the other hand, see themselves as stewards who manage what God gives them: their careers, their assets, their health, their talents, their spiritual gifts, their relationships, their ministry identities.
SPEAKER_00: You see, professional pastors are not the only people called by God.
SPEAKER_00: He desires all of us to fulfill the calling He has prepared in each of us.
SPEAKER_00: Fulfilling that distinct God-given purpose gives us a sense of peace and joy that driven people cannot understand.
SPEAKER_00: Fulfilling a distinctive God-given purpose, bringing peace about who I am and where I'm going, and joy.
SPEAKER_00: Joy is actually the root word of spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_00: Such is the preparation of God in giving each of us a calling of which we are to steward.
SPEAKER_00: So then that's the focus of the rest of our time.
SPEAKER_00: What is your ministry identity then?
SPEAKER_00: Who are you, gift-wise?
SPEAKER_00: What supernatural giftings has God placed within you?
SPEAKER_00: What heart passion or calling has God given to you?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, you and I are just like the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Only different because we have different gifts and passion.
SPEAKER_00: Continuing the outline, the second portion.
SPEAKER_00: How am I supernaturally designed by God to function as a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: What are your two or three?
SPEAKER_00: What are my two or three spiritual gifts?
SPEAKER_00: I know from extensive last 30 years of work with spiritual gifts that scripture teaches us that Christians have either one, two, or three primary spiritual gifts, constitutional, a part of who we are in Christ from when the Spirit filled us at conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us in this room who know Jesus have a combination of two or three very powerful spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: My primary three gifts would be exhorter, leader, and prophet.
SPEAKER_00: Exhorter, supernatural encouraging, supernaturally calling out people in such a way that they respond.
SPEAKER_00: Leadership, giving a painting a biblical vision so clear that people are willing to follow that vision, as if from God.
SPEAKER_00: And then the prophetic gift.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when I speak and I'm simply being faithful in obedience, the Spirit of God ecstatically rises up and touches people deeply, almost like electric shocks.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's got nothing to do with me.
SPEAKER_00: It's got everything to do with the greatness and power of God because, see, that's what gifts are.
SPEAKER_00: Gifts are not what we do for God, they're who we are dynamically in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me compare it to my wife.
SPEAKER_00: My wife went to the Lord four years ago, but her gifts here are very helpful to clarify a distinction between types of gifts.
SPEAKER_00: My gifts are more upfront, alongside verbal.
SPEAKER_00: My wife Julie's gifts were more alongside and quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Julie was had gifts of helps, service.
SPEAKER_00: She also had the gift of exhortation, but it came out very differently.
SPEAKER_00: While I would be encouraging from the front, she would be in the back row writing notes of encouragement to people.
SPEAKER_00: It's not uncommon for her in places we minister around the world that she'd write a personal note to every person in the room where we were training.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: She just wanted to help and serve.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so we don't get confused.
SPEAKER_00: Which of those is more important?
SPEAKER_00: My upfront speaking, calling out, training, or my wife's alongside.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you should know that April 5th was in Uganda and they built and dedicated a building to my wife.
SPEAKER_00: The quiet one.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's ever going to dedicate a building to me, just for the record, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But what is amazing about that is sometimes we build a hierarchy of gifting, but scripture teaches that all of these gifts are equal.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife's impact on at-risk women and teenage moms was so significant that they wanted to honor her.
SPEAKER_00: My wife, at this big deal, there's a four-hour celebration, and my wife would have said, Stop talking, stop talking, you know, quit, quit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just move on with the ministry of serving and loving others.
SPEAKER_00: So whatever your gifts, they are of equal importance.
SPEAKER_00: Whether strong, equipping, verbal, whether more quiet, action, serving, supporting.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the things we'll be talking about in the gifts class this next month, is that distinction?
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, then, God has also given me a heart passion, as he has the majority view.
SPEAKER_00: My heart passion is to give my life away to leaders in other cultures as God leads relationally.
SPEAKER_00: That's why go to Uganda and other places, raise money to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Some people think I'm a bit of a crazy guy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a crazy guy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just being faithful to using my gifts, investing in the people that God gives me.
SPEAKER_00: It's the funnest thing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's why I hurt my back.
SPEAKER_00: It's 22 hours of sitting after it costs.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: It's who I am, it's not what I do for God.
SPEAKER_00: See, I'm just like you.
SPEAKER_00: Only different.
SPEAKER_00: I give you examples here of what it what some ministry burdens or passions.
SPEAKER_00: Look there on your outline, the what.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are ministry burden or passions is an activity.
SPEAKER_00: Teaching the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, this church has dozens of powerful, spiritually gifted teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Part of the uniqueness of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: But equally so in Scripture is the calling out to feed the poor, to serve orphans and widows.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are passionate and have supporting gifts to serve those needs.
SPEAKER_00: Don't want to teach the word, but love to care for the needy.
SPEAKER_00: There's some of you in here who can show mercy supernaturally in a way that I, as a trained pastor, never could do.
SPEAKER_00: I go to the hospital and I come away from a hospital visitation and I'm worn out.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of scares me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why, but some of you, never trained, are gifted to show mercy and thrive in loving people in crisis and brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: What's that about?
SPEAKER_00: It's about the greatness of God and all of us being needed.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, some of us, our ministry burner, passion is tied to a who.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul, for him, it was the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: For my wife, it was at-risk women and midschoolers.
SPEAKER_00: She would give, she gave her life away for those two groups of people.
SPEAKER_00: Single moms.
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, it might be caring for the elderly.
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, it might be teenagers.
SPEAKER_00: I know that if you have a heart passion for midschoolers, that definitely is a calling from God.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Crazy time of life.
SPEAKER_00: But God prepares some of us to just love that.
SPEAKER_00: Are you getting the idea here then?
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, specific location, the where.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are passionate.
SPEAKER_00: The missionary I mentioned earlier was passionate about going to Asia.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because their family felt like God was calling them to go, so they they've gone.
SPEAKER_00: Or your apartment complex, your condo complex.
SPEAKER_00: You're passionate about people God has placed right by.
SPEAKER_00: Your neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_00: One or two of you in here since the Ukraine-Russia war started have this deep sense that you need to do something about helping people in Ukraine.
SPEAKER_00: Where did that come from?
SPEAKER_00: Well, well, that could be God calling a part of your ministry burden or passion out.
SPEAKER_00: I remember I went my early days here.
SPEAKER_00: Um I went to lunch with a guy who was my intercessor.
SPEAKER_00: And long story short, he was actively involved with his business.
SPEAKER_00: And since that time, he has moved into a new sense of calling, change distinctive, a part of who he is and what he did, to fulfill a ministry burden or passion that God placed on his heart.
SPEAKER_00: God causes people to do crazy things because as he impassions their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So, ministry burden or passion.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pretend that this is true.
SPEAKER_00: Here, let's pretend that this is true in this place.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry burden or passion.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear from several of you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're interested, the toughest groups in the body of Christ to do this with are Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians.
SPEAKER_00: They're not big on speaking up in church, just for the record, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So you stand, I stand warned, but let's pretend that you get this concept.
SPEAKER_00: Tell us what for you is a ministry burner passion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what I'm not asking you to tell us is what the church ought to do.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm asking.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking who or what or where is God placed on your heart to have impact?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are already doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you out of this very morning's message are struck by something that's been in your craw for years that you've never acted on.
SPEAKER_00: So, I'm a person of faith.
SPEAKER_00: So, one or two of you, what's it what's what's a potential ministry burden or passion that you might have?
SPEAKER_00: The ushers will wait.
SPEAKER_00: See, I'm a total man of person of faith here.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Say again?
SPEAKER_00: Working with kids.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Look at that face.
SPEAKER_00: Look at that excitement.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably a part of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably God's fault.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for sharing.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: Working with kids.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Say it a little louder.
SPEAKER_00: I sorry, I still couldn't hear you.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't have to ask why.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: Special ed.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is what God has done is He has placed the body where everybody is uniquely different, differently prepared.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you both.
SPEAKER_00: One last one.
SPEAKER_00: Time does not allow us more, but one last one, somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Working with people that other people don't like working with.
SPEAKER_00: Did you get that part of what she said?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Animals.
SPEAKER_00: There are different things, different places, different things that God calls each of us to that are part of the way He wants us to reach the world.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I are called as a part of that deal.
SPEAKER_00: If we continued on, uh I remember in a Lutheran church once it took three minutes for anybody to speak, and then I had to shut them down after ten minutes.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't stop talking.
SPEAKER_00: People were, listen to me, people were beginning to identify with the reality that God had called them in a special way, and that they had a part to play and that they fit.
SPEAKER_00: See, I've been told that motivation of laypersons in the local church is the big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Motivation of laypersons in the local church is not a problem.
SPEAKER_00: Once people understand that they've been gifted and called by God and that there's this process of discovery, wow.
SPEAKER_00: Motivation is not a problem.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get out of people's way when they have a clarity on their ministry identity.
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Last point of the outline, number three.
SPEAKER_00: And actually, you'd apologize to spiritual leadership and staff here.
SPEAKER_00: It's a typo.
SPEAKER_00: It says, as each of us begins to understand and live out our ministry identities, that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: By my guesstimate, and I'm probably low in my estimation, there are at least a hundred people in our body, probably more, who already have a clear sense of their gifting and their burden or passion, the who, what, or where, and are playing it out.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to thank you all who are among that here this morning, because you are our role models for playing your called-out part.
SPEAKER_00: No, it should say, and if please edit your outlines here so I correct my mistake.
SPEAKER_00: It should say, as more of us begin to understand and live out our ministry identities at APC, then together we can reach the world of people around us.
SPEAKER_00: We have a dismissal statement that we'll be reading here in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Every week we're together.
SPEAKER_00: It says, as we go forth and serve our city and our world in the name of Christ, this is what that's about.
SPEAKER_00: When we say that in five or six minutes, this is what that's about.
SPEAKER_00: This is about all of us understanding and discovering and fulfilling our parts so that we might go forth in our city, in the DMV, in our world for the sake of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And nobody else can play your part.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: If I were God, I wouldn't have designed the deal to work that way, just for the record.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the good news is I'm not God.
SPEAKER_00: But that's how he prepared the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what you don't know about me is that I spent 10 years in full-time ministry helping churches establish lay-mobilizing ministries, what we're going to talk about in conclusion today.
SPEAKER_00: I worked with 250 churches over 10 years, and I learned that a room like this has three different kinds of people.
SPEAKER_00: The first group are the people who are already clear on their gifting and their burden or passion and are already doing it.
SPEAKER_00: The second group, always, in all 250 settings where I was over those 10 years, this second group was larger than the first group.
SPEAKER_00: And the second group is people who are ready to discover, or not ready or willing, or run away from, to discover your ministry identity for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: To seek to understand those gifts and passion already waiting to come out, that that is by far the largest group represented here today, if this is a normal congregation.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, and this one always intrigued me, there are leaders in this church, if this church follows suit, who have been doing a certain ministry for five or ten or fifteen or twenty years.
SPEAKER_00: As a result of seeking to understand better their gifts and their calling, there's a new sense of passion or a new gift, a latent gift that causes them to want to step away from what they've been doing and moving into a whole new area.
SPEAKER_00: What is that about?
SPEAKER_00: It's about the greatness of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's about the fact that God prepares each one of us and gives us something that's a part of our calling that even can be new for those of us who've been serving for a long time.
unknown: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And so then, God is really smart.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Our God is wise and has prepared us.
SPEAKER_00: He's brought us here, He's selected us to be here as a part of this process.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in response to this message, the first thing that we're going to do next, you're aware from the bulletin references the last three or four weeks, that I'm going to be teaching a class for the next four Sundays on Sunday afternoon in June to help go deeper on this idea of ministry identity.
SPEAKER_00: There are some of you who are so excited about that you'll spend two hours, four Sunday afternoons in June to do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's how excited people get about this.
SPEAKER_00: I had three or four people come to me first service and say, I'm going to be there.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00: I really need this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make time work to come in June.
SPEAKER_00: That's God.
SPEAKER_00: But that is there for any of you who would like.
SPEAKER_00: But we're actually starting today.
SPEAKER_00: We have, I've been given permission by leadership of our church to shake the bushes today.
SPEAKER_00: And this is my closing today.
SPEAKER_00: I've also learned that when God prepares a church like APC to go deeper with a lay mobilizing ministry to help more people find their places, their ministry identities, that God always prepares what I call spiritual gift coaches.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual gift coaches are laypersons who want to help other laypersons discover their gifts and find their place.
SPEAKER_00: I have found that God always prepares people like that who want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, if God wants us to develop a lay mobilizing ministry, a new one, He's calling.
SPEAKER_00: He will have already prepared some of the people in the body to help with it.
SPEAKER_00: Called spiritual gift coaching.
SPEAKER_00: And so I shake, today I'm going to shake the bushes.
SPEAKER_00: 1230 to 130 in room 112.
SPEAKER_00: If any of you want to learn more about the spiritual gift coaching and what it could be about to help others discover their gifts and play their part, come join us from 1230 to 130.
SPEAKER_00: But we didn't have any notice.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that was on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you shake the bushes and you get to trust God, you can't tell people.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to just tell them and see what God does.
SPEAKER_00: See if he brings anybody out of passion.
SPEAKER_00: So I found this to be true many hundreds of times.
SPEAKER_00: People come to me afterwards and say, I didn't know I wanted to be a spiritual gifts coach until you said it today.
SPEAKER_00: But man, I think I've wanted to be this the whole of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And where does that?
SPEAKER_00: That's got nothing to do with, I'm not a good motivational speaker.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's the power and the greatness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what if you don't feel that?
SPEAKER_00: Well then don't come.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Don't come.
SPEAKER_00: What a no guilt approach?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: See, the greatest excitement about this isn't this is a no-guilt approach.
SPEAKER_00: This has to be God.
SPEAKER_00: We're shaking the bushes.
SPEAKER_00: If nobody shows up from 12:30 to 1.30, that isn't God's time or place.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: We're not, Paul Ford's not trying to start a ministry.
SPEAKER_00: We're seeking God as a body to see if he wants us to help more of you discover your gifts and passion.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to reach even more in our city, in the DMV, and in the world.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm shaking the bushes.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome to come 12:30 to 1.30.
SPEAKER_00: That would be in about 20 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome to join.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see who shows and see if God is wanting us to look at starting something more intentional.
SPEAKER_00: So back to point to close the message.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are called.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the Apostle Paul, only different.
SPEAKER_00: Our parts are essential by God's design.
SPEAKER_00: I challenge you for the sake of the kingdom and for the extended growth of APC, that you continue to seek out or for the first time seek anew, being a good steward of your ministry identity.
SPEAKER_00: Let me close with a prayer from one of the other partners in ministry I have.
SPEAKER_00: Just pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: This prayer that Mark wrote.
SPEAKER_00: Today, Lord, as we've entered your presence, Father, we ask that you would once again stir up the spiritual gifts you have placed in us.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us once again, or even the first time, of the unique role in churches, in our church's ministry to the city and world that you have given to each one of us.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us, Father, how important each of our parts, and help us to not give in to the lies of the enemy when he tries to cause us to diminish our role or to say we're not important or to say we have no gifts.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that you would give us a new sense of urgency and boldness to both serve and lead and help employing these gifts.
SPEAKER_00: We know that you will assure our hearts in the process that we are walking in a holy calling with you, each one of us.
SPEAKER_00: Our desire is to make you smile.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.