Anchormen Ep38 Spiritual Gifts with Jim Cross

Do you have a, or many spiritual gifts?

The Anchormen are joined this week again by Jim Cross and we are discussing some of the spiritual gifts mentioned in scripture. 

Many people really have no clue what they identify as a "Spiritual Gift" or even what a Spiritual Gift is. 

Today we are talking spiritual gifts among the Anchormen here but also what we can do to help us identify our own Spiritual Gifts.

Spiritual Gifts are identified in scripture in the following 4 places.

Romans 12:6-8

1 Corinthians 12:7-8 and v. 28

1 Peter 4:10-11

Ephesians 4

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Transcript

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In our walk with God, we often experience moments when our faith is tested. It's in these times that we truly discover what it means to be anchored in faith. Our faith is like a sturdy ship anchored in the harbor. It keeps us grounded when the waves of life toss us around. When we lean on God and His Word, we find the strength to persevere and trust in His plans. The anchormen remind us weakly that Jesus is our anchor, providing stability and assurance in the midst of uncertainty. Together, let's dive deeper into the powerful words that encourage us to hold fast to the faith in Jesus alone and not rely on our good works to gain righteousness. Everybody's quiet. I'm John Gildean. I'm not. No. I'm Bob Clark. Jim Cross is with us again. Good afternoon, Jim Cross. Good afternoon, and I appreciate y'all thinking about me. We're always thinking about you, brother. Oh yeah, well. Good or bad, we're always thinking about you. Hey, listen, that's all that's what council you're thinking of. That's it. So Jim, if I had told you or asked you what is your definition of a spiritual gift, what would you say? A spiritual gift would be me loving you. That'd be a gift for me. Is it a gift for you? Well yeah, it'd be a gift for me. Do you think it looks both ways? Do you think the love is a spiritual gift? Well it is. The Bible says it is. Okay. Does the Bible say to love as a spiritual gift? I don't know. What is the spiritual gift? Galatians 5 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love. Not the fruit. Joy. Not the fruit of the spirit. Spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts. Not the fruit of the spirit. Oh. Spiritual gifts. You got them mentioned in four different places. Write them down. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. I knew Ephesians was in there because So Romans 12 talks about spiritual gifts of encouragement, giving, leadership, mercy, prophecy, service, and teaching. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about administration, discernment, healing, interpretation of languages, prophecy, wisdom, apostle faith, helps, knowledge, miracles, and teaching. Ephesians 4 talks about apostles, pastors, teaching, evangelism, and prophecy. And finally, 1 Peter 4 is got service, serving, and teaching. Wow. I didn't realize there was 12, like 12 of them left in. Different, yeah, in different areas, four different areas. Wow. So gifts. Gifts. Spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts. Gifts given to us, or a special talent given to us by God for service. I guess service is maybe not the right word. For him. For works. What's that? Work of works. Yeah. Equipping the saints for works of service. With spiritual gifts. Okay. Yeah. So Todd, I want to start with you. What would you say some of some or one or some of your spiritual gifts are well? In the English standard Todd version. So that's ESTV. ES TV. ESTV. And that is mine, I have a passion for helping and getting information to people and connecting them with other people to better everybody and to have everybody come together. And so a way of that is the ministry here on Thursday nights. And you know, I I love connecting men together. I just love helping them. And so however that is, you know, that's that's sort of ministering. Right? I guess you could categorize it if you wanted to categorize it. Categorize it. Not categorize it. There's a difference. Categorize it. Helping others or ministering to others? I don't know, is how I guess you could sum it up. Yeah. What about you, Bob? Um I would say from Romans 12, encouragement. I try to be an encourager. Uh I think it's important to have somebody encouraging. People are a little tentative to to say what they think, or you know, just and I just I think if you encourage and um you're gonna get you tend to get amazing things out of people that they might not have said had they not been encouraged to do it. So um and then I would say and service goes with that too, I would say. Service is another I like to help people out. If people ask me to do something, I try to make myself available. So um encouragement and service, I guess, would be for me an important uh spiritual gifts. Alright, and Jim, you said, now I think you mentioned love as a spiritual gift, but it it can be as far as ministry goes, right? It could be like because you were talking about prayer just before we got recording. You and Kathy, you guys just love to pray. You guys get together and pray about a lot of things. You spend a lot of time every day, pray. We don't, I mean, we don't necessarily get it done every day, but it's there's always something coming up that she'll say, Oh, I gotta pause and pray. And so will somebody will be sick, or somebody will be and uh, but it's uh I I like the way Bob put it in to uh he was talking about uh encouragement. And isn't that what Jesus constantly did with the disciples? He tried to encourage them and he uh he loved them. He never hesitated to tell them he loved them. Yeah. And it's hey, you know. I mean he even he even went so far as to tell like a Samaritan woman as well. Yeah. I I love you, or no one, you know, even the the woman that was caught in adultery. Yeah, he said that that was really neat in the Bible because when he says, Girl, where are your accusers? They had all left when he said, Well, throw the first stone. And she says, Man, I'm going back to town telling this guy knows everything there is to know about me, and but it's yeah. And he said to that, what did he say to her? I don't condemn you either. Yeah. Yeah, neither do I. Yeah. So he he loved her too, and that just showed the love that he has for people. What about you, John? I think mine I would have to, if I had to narrow it down, uh, I try to be an encourager. Um and I also think that uh as as Bob mentioned about serving, I I do believe that I'm I like to serve. Um I I like the idea of my you mentioned about a passion that I have. It's like like you thought I have a passion for men's ministry. Because uh I just feel as though ever since the first time I started going to Nick Angelich's uh huddle that he called it, he always encouraged me to take seat the men. The men are the core of the church, you know, and always his his line was always keep the man, keep the family, keep the family, and keep the church. And and I don't remember that succession, the line of succession that he used, but it always stuck with me. And I go, yeah, you gotta make sure that the man is encouraged and stay stays in his faith. Yeah, because that's uh scriptural as far as uh the the man is the leader and he is the scriptural, the uh scriptural leader for the family. Yeah. And uh you take away that father figure out of the family, what happens? Yeah. Yeah, you don't have, yeah. Yeah. I'd like to reverse the tables now and actually reverse the table, where we'll start with you, and I'd like for us to take turns talking about each person and what we see are your spiritual gifts. And so Jim, Bob, and I will comment about you, John, about the things that that we see and that we've gotten to know over the years. You want to start, Bob? Sure. I think John is very affected at serving, and I've seen him in serving roles uh at the church, in his small group, just in community on our Thursday nights. Um he's always yeah he's always looking out for people and making sure that they're comfortable and they got what they need. And uh I spent some time with John uh in Florida and he was very service focused in a very good way. So um I see you as an encourager, like you said. Um you are very dedicated to men and and to ministry, but that ministry isn't only for God, also, you know, you're involved with your amputee group that you lead. You go to other amputee groups to learn more so that you can be better equipped to provide things for your group and and make your group better. And um, you know, you're also a yes guide where I mean when people need you, whether it's moving or whatever, you don't let your leg be an excuse. You use it as a yes to show people that I'm willing to help, regardless of whatever the situation is or might be. And I think that that's that's pretty admirable. Thanks. Yep. I totally agree. So we're going to pick it up here and we're gonna say what I see in Jim. Jim, I see you as a a prayer warrior. You're the guy that uh your follow-up, you're an encourager to other people. You really encourage me to not take everything so seriously. It's really, it's it's like you said, God wants us to laugh. And I think uh it's it's it's a gift of yours to make people not on purpose to laugh, not a joke teller, but just to be not take your life so seriously. You know, God God is gonna take care of us no matter what. Yeah, and that's why I see that exactly you know, encourage us to and also from uh an act of service. I've mentioned it a couple times here, and he doesn't like when I do it because he doesn't want attention for it, but he comes in usually the day after we have our meetings here every Thursday and comes into my office here and cleans up after everybody. Yeah, and um that is an act of service as well. No, never, never, and he and he's very dependable in here, so much so that Mary, my office manager, when he doesn't show up, she gets concerned and worried over him and that something may have happened to him. Yeah, and Mary is so positive, and she's easy to work with, and because I tell her, you know, she's on that phone a lot. I said, listen, if this vacuum cleaner is too loud, let me know. Yeah, I don't need you fighting that vacuum cleaner to talk to a client. Yeah, I look at it as I'm using this facility. Now, these other guys, I don't care, you know. I mean, I look at it as, hey, I'm using this, I need to clean up after myself, and if I end up cleaning up after them, why so be it. But it's like, and I'm not trying to show somebody or say it it's a common sense thing. Yeah. I mean, when you're working in your shop and you get done, you clean up after yourself. No, that's true, so that you don't track that crap in the house. That's true. And very considerate of other people. That's that's you. Well, I try I try to be because that is that is a habit that I started. So just really quick, where it where Jesus says, go and make disciples. Right. The word make we we found out through study and was added later. And actually, it's go and disciple, it's teaching. It's teaching people about Jesus because what what happens or talking to them. Because what happens is we can't make anybody into something that God doesn't already know that they're going to be. But I'm I'm I'm looking at it from a standpoint of so if I asked all of you, what do you think Brad's gift is? We already know what it what it is, it's teaching. And you may not be a teacher, I may not be a teacher, Bob may not be a teacher, Jim, you may not be a teacher. But that's a spiritual gift that God has bestowed upon Brad. And so we all have our own things. And I was thinking, you know, like back with you, John, too, one of the other things you have is an administration gift. You love doing this technical stuff with the podcast, you know, putting it together. But um I make it as simple as possible. But I'm just saying that that there's stuff that I think sometimes we can be blinded to our own self because you take it for granted. That's just the way that the Holy Spirit moves you to talk to people or do something for somebody else. And um, you know, and that's where Jim, I you're always very humble about what you do here as far as cleaning up and stuff. And I think it's because it just comes natural for you. I I find one of Jim's uh spiritual gifts is uh wisdom. A lot of times we're in the middle of a discussion and we'll ask Jim what his thoughts are, and I always look forward to his answers because um they always shed some light on it that maybe I hadn't thought of in the first place. So a lot of times Jim's not a regular speaker, but when he does speak, I always enjoy it because there's wisdom, he shares wisdom with us. And everybody in this, I mean, it's constantly somebody's coming up with something that, oh, I never thought of that. Sure, you know, he'll say this and he'll say that. And it goes right back to like Todd said, we disciple each other in that room. We're a room of disciples, we're discipling each other. And I I thought when we first started this, that I've been involved in that 500 turkeys two different times now, and it's always you can see how people are interacting and how you know and I saw down in Carolina I had to go to Todd with this. Uh I would help people get stuck to their vehicles, and and then I would try to give them this money, and these people they didn't have anything, they lost everything in that. And they said, Oh no. So finally, um Todd had been cooking up and they, you know, fed everybody that wanted to eat, and then I went to Todd and I said, Listen, I got this money you give me, and I can't get anybody to take it. And he says, Well, go see so-and-so over there, and then that lady, well, I was a preacher's wife, and then she put me in touch with somebody else, and then then they took that put the money in in uh uh a fund for disaster relief. But I mean I couldn't get these people to take it. Yeah, well, it's amazing how how that that happened. It was an amazing time that a lot of learning. We did a lot of learning that week. We we were taught a lot. Um so I'm gonna start off with Bob. I think uh one of the things I see with Bob, like he mentioned serving. Um Bob's one of the guys, if he's available, he's he's gonna help. He's he is very much a uh hands-on guy. I'll help you, no matter what. I don't care if if you're even if your health isn't as great as you'd like it to be, but you still, despite that, you're still doing what you do. He always will say yes. Always say yes. Even if it's a water heater. And if he doesn't know how to do it, he's willing to put it in there and help and learn. Like, even with like your daughter's car. A couple weeks ago we went down by Ernest, and you were not afraid to get under there and work on that car. You had no idea what you were doing. But Ernest kind of gave you the direction, you went under that car and you were doing it. That's that thing actually got changed because of you. And you do that for anybody. Who was you changing, homie? Uh air compressor. Air conditioning compressor. Okay, yeah. I like to, what what I really admire with with Bob from a gift standpoint is his very upbeat, outgoing personality, to where he's one of those guys that draws everybody that's in the room. People don't go away from him, they're drawn to him. And um, because I think he treats everybody with respect. If he's never met you or if he's known you for a long time, he'll treat everybody respectfully. And because of that, people want to be around him all the time. And I know that he's very directed and focused on helping his family, just like you were talking about with the with the car. He will do whatever it takes to help his family out, but then it extends out into public. You know, he's helped me with several projects um around the house and offices, and and uh, you know, it's it's been very, very beneficial to me versus I would have had to have hired somebody and paid them and everything else, but he's he's always been there for me. I think that a lot of what he did in his life, God prepared him for the rest of his life. Meaning, like with his trial and preparing for all of that, Bob can do that at a moment's notice with anything. Whether it's a podcast or whether it's Thursday evening here, whatever is needed, Bob always will say yes. And he'll always do it, and it will look as though he had had it planned for two weeks. And I think it's because of the preparation that he had through his life of work and everything. And um, you know, I I appreciate that about him a lot. A lot of the things that when Bob does these things, he doesn't judge people, he does not judge people at all. He's always always an encouraging to be an ask to help. Because he'll even if you don't know somebody, or even if you know Bob, even if you know people, you're right there. You're gonna love on them people no matter what. You're Bob's a hugger, he likes to hug people, and I think he's he's proud of that, but he should be. Well, they created they created a position for that at 500 turkeys for when people leave just because of him doing it instinctively and just wanting to do it and love on people on his own. Yep. This is on uh you mentioned it, Jim. You mentioned love. There's a quite uh the perfect picture of it. Absolutely, yeah. And how about you, Jim? What do you think seeing in Bob? I I see uh I see comfort. He's comfortable to be around a lot of these people that we interface with out here, they intimidate me. And but I don't get that with the Clark man. And you have to be emanate comfort or whatever, I think, in order to reach people. You you have to be able to come on to somebody to get them to pick up what you're putting down, in which case now you have to have a degree of comfort. Yeah, I was I was blessed with some of the circumstances growing up in a big family and some of the things that have happened to learn compassion at a young age and how important it was. And I saw the people that extended that toward me and what it made a difference to me. So I try to be compassionate and try not to be judgmental because I don't know what's going on with them. But it regardless of what's going on with them, I want to treat them fair and show them compassion. And you do, whether they're being very aggressive or whether they're you know just struggling and quiet. Well, I even I think too, I think about moments that we've had in our group on Thursday nights, formerly on Tuesday nights, and I think about people that have gotten very vulnerable where they shared about their past, where it's really rocked all of our worlds, you know, like, oh, I can't believe they went through that. And Bob takes all of that very personal and emotionally because of some of the stuff that he went through, and he's able to relate emotionally with those people, and he will always go up to them afterwards and hug them and talk to them and say, Hey, I I appreciate that that you did this, and he'll let them know that you know some of the struggles that he's been through, and you know, again, I think it all boils down to that word encourager. He's he's a great encourager. Well, I appreciate that. I owe all that to God, right? No, he he blesses all of us with gifts, right? Yeah, and and and Todd, I think one of the thing that stands out to me about your personalities, you're always trying to help people. I even if it's an impossible situation, you still want to help them. You always want to be helpful, you want to be, yeah, you always you're gonna go the extra mile to try to help somebody. Because I mean, look at what you do, even in your business, what you do for your work, you see it in your work because you're trying to help all your clients in your job. So that bleeds over into the community, obviously, because it's part of your community, and then that bleeds over into what we're doing here on Thursday nights, what you do at your church, you're always trying to help. You're always trying to help, like over at uh in South Bend, they're at the uh at the camp. You're trying to help them up there. You're always thinking about helping and serving somebody, and that's one of the most encouraging things I see in you, positive things I see in you. I would agree with that. I think Todd is a good leader, and he's also he's learned to hear the spirit talk to him and tell him you should do this, and then he just does it. Obedience. He's obedient to the call of the spirit to the point where most people would either doubt that that's what they should do or check their watch and say, I don't really have time for that. Todd, we'll just go and do it. And he's like, I would, I just decided, I just decided I saw this, and I just decided to do this, and so I I think he's very obedient to the spirit, which is first you have to have the spirit, then you have to hear the spirit, then you have to trust the spirit, then you have to act on what the spirit's telling you. And those are all four steps that everybody doesn't necessarily follow or can can reach, and he's reached those. And as a result, I think he's very uh very willing to say, hey guys, I got an idea, let's do this. Yeah, whatever it might be. And 99% of the time we all say yes, and we agree to donate, or donate our time, or give service, or follow up with that person, or invite them and make sure they feel comfortable, and all that stuff's very important. Yeah, well, one of the things that Todd said to me, and and he's he's the idea man, right? He comes up with a lot of ideas. He may not have all the answers on how to do it, but he'll have the idea. You know, I can see the vision of this, and I can see it happening. Well, I see that with the way he handled the Carolina trip by getting all this stuff together, right? And you know, some of it came to his house, and some of it went here, some of it, but it all ended up in the back of that semi. Yep. And it was like, man, this is cool. So an idea that came from Todd's head turned into a whole community of people pulling together and making it happen. Just because of an idea that Todd had and said, let's, you know, he was obedient to the call. Let's do it. And it it influenced people. He definitely encouraged this guy to empty his pockets. It's like, hey. I appreciate the kind words. I I will say this that for me, most of my ideas don't involve me, but they involve groups. And in order to take care of groups, you need a group. And that's why I love the anchormen so much, because um everybody's willing to step forward, and and I know who my leaders are, you know, the people that I I can trust, my circle of trust that have been there forever to run ideas by, and you know, even if if I get upset or something bothers me about you know, an individual, I usually will run it by somebody because I don't want to act just on my own impulse. I did that for a long time and it didn't turn out too well. And uh definitely seen I I've definitely seen in the last five years a lot of growth in every one of us, you know, but I've seen a lot of growth in Utah, so it's uh big difference. Big difference. It's made this whole message of grace that we're learning. Yeah. I agree with that, John. I think the the frustration that he used to experience has turned now into uh you know a spiritual call to do something about stuff as opposed to just getting angry and frustrated about it. So um just the other side of the same situation. Motivation. Yeah, the other side of the same situation. That's actually how the North Carolina thing birthed. I actually was very frustrated at what I perceived to be the lack of government doing anything about it, just that going from frustration or focused on what's going on in the moment as opposed to taking a bigger look at stuff. Yeah, he's got a grander view of things that makes him much more spirit-led than you know, just react reactionary. Right. And you have a lot of frustration in this country right now. You have people frustrated because they can't make enough money or can't get enough money to put food on their table or gas in their cars, right? And and you hear you got this massive government. Come on. I mean, yeah, well I'd like to challenge the people that that listen to this to give some thought to think about what their spiritual gifts are and what some of their spiritual gifts are of their their loved ones that they're close to. And I think the uh another key factor to that is if you can't think of what your spiritual gift might be, ask somebody. Like like we just did. Ask somebody, how what do you think my spiritual gift is? Because a lot of times you can't see it. Somebody else can see it in you and you don't know it. Yes, sir. Yeah. But that's where we're gonna close off today. And uh Romans 12, 6 through 8, 1 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, and 28. And then 1 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10 and 28. Those are listings of spiritual gifts for reference for people. I'm gonna close this in prayer. Lord, thank you for these amazing spiritual gifts that you give to us, and the fact that we're able to recognize them and apply them outwardly towards others, and we're trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus who showed all these characteristics and all these gifts in his ministry, and to the extent that we can we can produce these gifts and and and and uh change lives through communication and compassion. Uh, we're more blessed for it. And thank you for the anchormen as a group and individually for the uh fellowship that we share and the opportunity that we have to to spend time with men and invest in each other. Amen. Amen. Now that's the full prayer. There we go. Thank you. Thank you very much. It didn't suck. No, it didn't. Thanks everybody for listening. You guys have a great day. Thank you for listening to Anchorman Anchored by Grace Podcast. Please share, like, and listen each week right here on our website or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to our podcast and never miss a new episode. Reach out to us at AnchoredBy Grace at Duck.com. Thank you again from John, Bob, and Todd, your anchormen, Anchored by Grace.