Gifted to Love W/LeMarr Jackson

Pastoring, encouragement, praying, singing, leading, and many more. The Spirit is the one who gives us gifts according to His grace. These gifts are meant for the upbuilding of the kingdom. The Bible is also explicit about what the purpose of these gifts are... in order to love! Every gift has been given to love those that we are in community with which builds the kingdom of heaven right here on earth. So, use your gifts with the authority and power given to you from God!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I really, really, really appreciate this church for allowing so many gifts to be able to be present in the house. And uh uh today I'm gonna be talking a little bit about more gifts and hopefully calling them into a place. Um I'm gonna I'm gonna give you guys an invitation to be able to share your gifts with this congregation as well, too. So in order to do that, I am gonna read some scripture, but before I get to my scripture, First Peter, I wanted to give you a little bit of background of why Peter was even writing this text. Um, and hopefully you guys can start to connect this to what the Spirit is doing to us today as well, too. So, 1 Peter is actually written to persecuted believers across Rome. Uh, and Peter really wanted the suffering Christians to recognize that their suffering is connected and tied to Jesus' suffering. It's like you're not suffering alone, you're not suffering for no reason. And if you know anything about this period of time, this is right after the great fire of Rome, and Nero is angry because he blames all of the Christians. I won't give you all of my theories about that, whether he started the fires himself or whatnot, but just know that if you look at that history time, it was very bloody, especially for people who said that they followed this Jesus character. And so Peter writes into that. He actually lets them know that to die having lived a life of holiness is not a waste. And then we get to 1 Peter 4, and he actually gives these details. He gives like four kind of really big points of how to live like we're living in the kingdom. He's like, Christians, wrap your minds around this holy living through suffering. He lets us know that it'll happen. Then he says, Yeah, be prayed up wherever you go. Make sure prayer is a part of it. And he's then he tells us, make sure that you're showing fervent love. And then he gives us this extra piece of be faithful and serving, and he ties that to what gifts the Spirit has given you. So this is all to give us a mindset of how to live life with an eternal perspective. Your purpose, there is purpose in your suffering, and there is purpose in your living. And I was there was a commercial of all things that came to mind as I was trying to think about how to express this to all of us this morning. And um me and my brother kind of have an inside joke about this commercial. Uh, because right at the end of the commercial, there was or right in the commercial, there was always this older man who would come and he had like this southern accent, and he would say, naturally, that's why we called our stuff Gatorade. Some of you are like, What? Gatorade commercial? How could that help me today? Well, in this commercial, they tell us about the invention of Gatorade. It goes all the way back to the 60s. It was invented in 1965. And I don't know if you guys know this, but Gatorade actually started as an invention of Florida, the University of Florida. They actually had a program and they started to work on this drink that could help their athletes perform better. Because when they looked at their athletes, they were like, man, they're really good, but they seem to keep losing energy, and they don't have enough energy. And so they actually started to research this and they would put things in the in their drinks to try to make it better for recovery. And then there's some people who kind of argue that, well, this commercial would really try to get you to understand that what happened was these Florida Gators started drinking this drink, and then they won a national championship. And then so the Gatorade people are like, Well, that's because they drank this drink that we made. And so they wanted them to understand that the gators, there's this part that kind of wasn't spoken, but this is what's being spoken to us. If those Florida Gators did not drink Gatorade, they would not have won that major championship. And so I actually begin to think, well, that sounds really familiar to me as well, too. And they actually did a string of ads after this, and I love these because they were always like dripping. The the at the ads were like in black and white, but then you would see them dripping in color, and it would be the color of the Gatorade that they drink. And then they were asked this really, really important question right here at the end. Hear me now. They would say, Is it in you? And I said, Well, that begins to sound like the Holy Spirit. I need refueling to be able to achieve my ultimate goal that I cannot do on my own. And at the end of my commercial, I'ma stop and ask you, is it in you? So Peter is writing to these Christians, drink Gatorade. I mean, not I'm sorry, uh, be full of the spirit. Have the spirit, is it in you? Because if it's in you, uh, some major things are about to happen. So I want you to read these words because this is one of the most outstanding passages of scripture for me when I read it, because it blows my mind. I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna get up out the way. All right, 1 Peter chapter 4. We're gonna start at verse 7. We'll have it on the screens if we can stand, uh, in acknowledgement of reading of the word of God. Just a few verses to read this morning. Here's what Peter has in 1 Peter 4. Starting at verse 7. Here's what he says: the end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Then he says, Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If any of if anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. You may be seated. This is the word of the Lord. Really quick, spiritual gifts are these special abilities given to us by the Holy Spirit. Uh, there's plenty of other texts that we could pull from, but this is what the Bible teaches us that the Spirit gives us gifts, and those gifts are meant for the building up of God's people, the kingdom of God, advancing it right here on earth. And these gifts are super diverse. You've seen a ton of them this morning, and I hope that you will continue to see them, and I hope that you play a role in it. But in order for us to really understand this message, I thought that it might be good for me to be personal. So today I am gonna tell a bit of testimony in hopes that my testimony can actually help you guys out there as you hear it, you can be encouraged to use the gifts that God has given you. Because God has not called us to be bench warmers, He has called you to be a part of the game. Okay, so but first, you guys might ask, and I I do this with young people, and so I get this question a lot as well. Too, they kind of wonder, what is my gift? Some of them are like, I don't even know what my gifts are. Well, let me tell you this. Did you know that you were designed on purpose with a purpose? And the God of order did not haphazardly create you, he designed you and he gave you a specific gift or giftedness, and your unique design points to what that is, and so God just so happened to add a little extra swaggoo when he created me, but when he created you, he put on his own little spice as well, too, because all of you have a signature, and then you, whatever your gifts and giftedness are, they actually point to what your purpose is, it's what you're created to do. See, in Ephesians, Paul actually tells us that we are his handiwork, and then it says we're created to do what good work, and he tells us that this it was prepared in advance for us to do this. All sounds like design. God is telling you, you're not gonna walk around here accidentally, like no, you're walking around life on purpose. Now, I have to give this note because we can kind of get this the order of this mixed up because I'm talking about the second part today. But I need you guys to first understand that we are human beings first, so we do need to be before we do. Okay, we we need to be before we do, and I want to give you a couple examples of that in scripture first so that you understand that that's not even just Lamar saying it, but it's actually the idea of when God created everything. It says on the sixth day, he created humans, and then on day seven, what did he create? Rest. He said, I'm gonna create humans, and what do we do on our first day? Rest. He simply says, Be with me. And then after being with God, then the work begins. So we be with him first and then we work. One more example in scripture, I love this one in Mark. We actually find it tells us that Jesus had a really busy day. You know, he was doing other things, he was healing, he was preaching, he was doing his thing, thing, and then they go to sleep. I imagine he's tired, and then the Bible tells us very early in the morning, he got up, and then it tells us that he got up to go be in a solitary place, to go be by himself so that he can be with his father. And so he prays and he connects with the father, and then when he comes back to the group, they're like, We've been looking for you, we've been looking for you, and then he just says, Here's the mission that God has given me. He's being, and now it's time to start to do. So that's the proper context of that Ephesians 2:10 verse. Where his handiwork to do good work, but we got to understand that we are first being with him, and then we get the work and we can live out the gifts that he's called into us. Now, here's the thing about learning about what your gift is. See, I actually teach a leadership course, and it's nine, it's a nine-month course. In the first two to three months, we only do self-assessments because we realize that in order to lead where God has called me, then it actually helps me to understand how he has designed me. So if God has given me a tool, then he probably wants me to use it in a certain space. What your gifts are, the tools that he has given you, all lead to what your purpose is and he's calling you to. So, how might you find out what your gifts are? Well, you could take a test. I mean, there's a ton of them out there, and I won't even say that they're foolproof, but the cool thing about these tests is that they help you to be able to reflect. And through that reflection, you can learn on how God has designed you specifically. And these are the coolest kinds of tests because you can't get them wrong, because you have all their answers, they're about you. So, yeah, don't be afraid. Take a test. What are my spiritual gifts? Type it into Google. Uh, other ways you can pray. If the spirit is the giver of gifts, then wouldn't it be nice to ask the spirit what gifts the spirit gave me? That's how I believe God works. I hope you believe the same thing. He speaks to us. So then, after I pray and I ask the question, then I might want to get into a space where I can stop and listen. Allow the spirit time to respond to you. The spirit has many ways to reach out to you. They can it can speak to you through the little voice in the back of your head, it can speak to you when you begin to open up the scripture and read it. It can speak to you through the people that you are in contact with and through community and neighborhood. The spirit can speak to you. We just have to be able to listen. So we pray, we can look through scripture, we can ask the spirit for guidance, and then another really cool way is actually engaging in community and definitely engaging and serving in that community, and you just might accidentally find out what your gifts are. Fun fact that kind of is how I get to stand before you today. I'm gonna tell a little bit of that story in just a moment. But context for that story. Uh, Palm Sunday wasn't that long ago, and in the reading, there was a reflection that kind of came back up to me. If you know the story of Palm Sunday, Jesus tells his disciples, Hey, I'm about to go get ready to go into Jerusalem, but I need a donkey. So here's what I need you to do. I need you to go in town, I need you to grab uh these couple donkeys from this guy. If this guy asks you uh why do you need it? This is what I want you to tell him. The Lord has need of it. And they go and they go get the donkeys and actually had to stop and pause for a second and put myself in the position of the owner of those donkeys. And I asked, Well, would I be ready if the Lord said, The Lord has need of something that I have to just give it up? Would I be ready? Story time. Growing up, I loved rap and hip hop. I always told people that the way that I fell in love with it was actually that my older brother, he's five years older than me, he would walk around the house just rapping. And he just walked around the house rapping. I was like a little kid just looking at it. Oh man, that sounds really cool. Oh, that's nice. And it's funny because the person he was rapping about, I don't even like to this day, but hearing my brother rap it, there was something about it that struck my ear, and I was like, that's cool. So then I became a student of rap. Like, man, if y'all knew me when I was a teenager, y'all would know a little bit different. Me, like I studied rap. Like I would find certain people that did certain things, and I would say, Oh, I like that, I'm gonna practice doing exactly what they did. Oh, another person does this. Oh, I like that, I'm gonna practice doing exactly what they did, and I began to actually hone a craft. And what I want you guys to understand that this this is very real for me. This did not happen in the church. Weird, very weird. See, that when I turned 18, a friend of mine actually came to me and said, Yo, you I know you write down poetry and stuff, you do the rap, you go with the booms and the baps and all that. Hey, there's a spoken word place. I want you to come perform here. And I said, sure, why not? And he takes me there. And when I was when I begin to perform, it's actually the first time that I it was the first time I begin to perform the my own work in front of people. And I don't, you guys probably do not think this of me, but I actually have a huge stage fright. Really ironic that God has called me to talk in front of people as well, too. But it was in spoken word was actually how I was able to get comfortable on stages, and then along this journey, still wasn't Christian yet. Along this journey, there was a woman by the name of Miriam DeYoung. I began to work for a place called Camp Tall Turf. And Miriam DeYo, she was uh she was my supervisor, and she began to see me, and she would see the gifts that I had, and she knew that I did these things, she knew I was cool with the booms and the bats, and so she said, Here's what I want you to do, Lamar. I'm giving a devotion somewhere, I'm doing a sermon somewhere. I want you to come and I want you to actually write a rap, and I want the people to hear it, and she would put me in spaces where I was able to start rapping in Christian spaces, and then that's when I really started to love it. That's when it really started to actually waken up something in me. See, another thing about my childhood and growing up was that a lot of people came to me and said, Lamar, you're gonna be a pastor, you should be a pastor, you're gonna be a pastor. And if you know anything about the childhood, Lamar, you would know that he hated it. I ran for it for so long. That's why I often tell people that my story does reflect Jonah quite a bit, but I ran for it from it so long because I didn't want to do that. I thought it was really cool, but I did not think that God had called me to speak in front of people. And it was actually through these conversations and how Miriam began to pour into me and build me up and put me in on platforms and spin in Christian spaces is when I begin to understand that the Lord was asking me or telling me, Lamar, the Lord has need of your gift. That began to bless me. The reason I stand before you right here today, I can give a ton of credit to Miriam for calling out the gifts that she saw in me. And then that brings these two major points of this in mind. Sometimes in our lives, you guys are gonna be the disciples. Where Jesus says, Go ask that person, tell them that the Lord has need of their gift. Sometimes that's gonna be you, so you gotta be seeking and looking and engaging with people and finding out what their gifts are because some of them are waiting for you to ask them or tell them the Lord has need of your gift. But the only way you do that is in community, and sometimes we are the owners of the donkey, we're the owners where when the Lord is gonna come tell us the Lord has need of what your gift is, and your job is to be obedient. Doing spoken word on stages is actually how I overcame a stage right thing, but it's also the only time that I felt comfortable giving sermons, so people pouring into that gift, not looking at that and saying, Oh, that's bad, oh that's worldly, oh, leave that over there on the worldly side, but calling me into a space, an invitation where I can share and be a part of the kingdom of God. God used it. Whenever I take those tests, if you're wondering, I very often get like pastoring and encouragement. And here's a really cool thing that God does because pastoring or even encouragement doesn't look the same for everybody. So there's actually a hidden thing within this that I want you guys to understand that there's a word that uh the in Greek it actually is charisma. It's really interesting that that is the word because today uh the young people use that word and they shorten and they call it ris, right? And they usually talk about like when they're trying to talk to a special someone to make that special someone a special someone to them. They say, Do you rism? You know, uh, and so they say that you gotta have riz when you're speaking to somebody, right? And so here's what I want, here's why I bring that point up in with this point right here. See, how the Lord has designed you specifically is how you're supposed to use the gifts that you've been given. If you need to speak with riz, then God has called you to speak with riz. But guess what? Not everybody can do that like you. Only you can, if he gave you the slang to do it, then you can speak with the slang that he gave you to do it with. In my generation, we called it swag. That's why I told you earlier that God just put a little extra swag in me when he made me. What did God put in you that makes you you, and that's when you combine that with your spiritual gift, is you living on purpose with a purpose, amen. So, whatever it is that your gift is given to you, pastor, encouragement, whatever it is, use the spice that God has given you specifically in the way that only you can. Because for me, it does often come out in spoken word poetry. There's many other ways that we do it, man. I love what was that last week, a couple weeks ago, when we had the young people who are up here and they're like, yo, we write notes and we stuff them in each other's lockers and we do like that's a gift of encouragement. That's a spiritual gift that's given to you from the spirit. Continue to fan that flame. That's our job to fan the flame of the people who we hear those stories about and let them know the Lord will continually have a need of your gift. All right. One of the best ways to show that we appreciate a gift is to use it. One of the best ways to show appreciation for a gift that we receive is to use it. The parable of the talents is really interesting because, yeah, talents is not actually like a gift talent, it's a currency, it's a form of money. And the and in the scripture tells us that the man comes and he gives somebody five and he gives somebody else two talents, and somebody else one. The person with five goes out and doubles their money and gets ten. The person with two goes out, doubles it, and comes back with four. The person with one hides their one. And it's curious, it's very interesting to me that the Bible calls them talents, which is a currency form, but it actually does relate to what I'm talking about the gifts, because the message that we're supposed to take from this is that you should not let fear rule over your gift. The one with the one who had one hid it because they were afraid, but the ones who had two and five, they went out and doubled it. They saw an increase exponential in many ways because they were not afraid to use their gifts. You have gifts. Your job, the the way we show appreciation to God for receiving those gifts is using them. I love that. This also came on the Sunday that we talked. We got to hear about what the deacons do because deaconing is actually. Specifically listed in scripture as a spiritual gift. And some of you might be thinking, I might want to be a part of that. Oh, that sounds really cool. And there's many different ways you can do that. You can give to the deacon fund. You might ask to be able to sign up to be able to become a deacon. There are so many different ways to be a part of these things. All I got, all I can tell you is that you should be. What your gift is, in order to show appreciation of God, we actually use it. And so some of you might be like, but what if I get I take the test and I get the pastoring thing? I don't want to be up in front of people. Like I said, neither to me. Some of us, you you should anyway, but check this out. What's cool about this is that it doesn't only take place in between these walls. Pastoring doesn't only come from a pulpit. All of us should be pastoring at home. There's different ways that you can do it in community. There's other ways that you can serve in the church, but outside of the church. Your gift needs to be used because the Lord has need of it. I gotta close, I know. So I want us to walk away with this. The gifts that you've been given have been given to you to go out and love. The gifts that we've been given actually show the grace of God. Because gifts are grace is undeserved favor. I love comparing Jesus to Santa Claus because it's so fun to me. But it's like if we were rated and we got put on the naughty or nice list, Jesus says, you know what? All of you are on the naughty list because you sin. But his grace says you still get a gift. He says, All the people on the naughty list, you're gonna get a gift. That's the Jesus that we serve. And it's out of that grace, hopefully, understanding that and still receiving the gift, hopefully that changes your behavior in such a way that you want to show appreciation by going out and using your gift. And the use of your gift should look like love. When they ask Jesus, Jesus, what's the most important command? You know, he gives them love God, put nothing above him. And then he's like, But I can't let you go away after hearing just that. You need to hear the second one because it's just like it. Then he says, Go and love people and yourself. And actually, what Jesus is telling us is how we love God is by loving people and self. It's one of the ways that we show love to God. Okay, and then so what this is one of the coolest things I found out in scripture. Man, I was researching this really hard and I found this out. When Peter, when Paul talks about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, anybody know what happens in 1 Corinthians 13? It's the most famous wedding text in the history of man. It talks about what love is. And the fun thing about that is that Paul is not, he doesn't see a separation between your gifts and love. He says they have to go together. He said, You can have the greatest gift there is, but if you if you don't have love, then you have nothing. So he says they have to go together, but it's not just Paul in First Corinthians. In this text that we just saw in Peter, we actually see him connected to love as well. He talks about love first, and then he says, Yo, whatever gift you have, use it with the authority and the power that God has given it to you too. Yo, it doesn't stop there. When Paul talks about gifts in Romans 12, he also talks about love. And then again, when Paul talks about it in Ephesians and in 1 Timothy, he talks about gifts, he also talks about love. I could not find one scripture that talked about these gifts and didn't come back two verses or another away from each other and talk about love. I couldn't find it. I think God is trying to tell you something. The way that we show love to neighbor and self, one of those ways is using our gifts. I wish I had time to sit here and tell you all the times that I've been blessed by people using their gifts. That's the Miriam in my life. She had the gift of encouragement, she encouraged me to be in this space. There's other people who are who are using their gifts. Yo, that that and every time you use your gift, you're loving people in yourself. And that's how we show love to God. So that's the really, really cool connection. I didn't want you guys to walk out of here leaving without. Not only I'm not trying to guilt trip anybody, I'm actually trying to give you an invitation to living into the kingdom of God. And here's what it looks like: it looks like loving each other. And what loving each other looks like, a part of that is using our gifts because our gifts will build each other up. I can't tell you how many times it was. Man, I felt so lower than I heard this word of poetry, and somehow it picked up my soul. Something about what you said spoke to me. You guys have experienced it. The love of experiencing the spiritual gifts that the Spirit has given all of us. This is what living in the kingdom looks like. The loving of the loving kingdom of God is one who uses gifts. We are the kingdom of God. We are living on purpose. So be confident in the gifts that you have received. Search for what your gift is, find opportunities to use it. And remember what Peter says here, because this blows my mind. He says, use it with the authority and the power that God has given you. If your gift is to speak words, speak it like it's the words of God, because the Spirit is God. P.A. told us that last week. The Spirit is God. And so the Spirit giving you a gift is you using God's power. That's what Peter wants us to know. Use your gift. Find the opportunities. Use it as God Himself is fueling you because I want you guys to know He is in you. We serve with the power of God for the glory of God. When we're using our gifts that Spirit has given us, then we're using the power of God. We aren't God, but God lives in us through the Spirit. Using spiritual gifts in a manner like this reflects God's grace and strength, ensuring that all glory goes to Him. You are members of the kingdom. Go and live like it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for being a God who cares so much that you couldn't stay out of our lives without giving us gifts. So, Lord, as we get these gifts, I pray, Lord, that you help us all to open them and to pour out your love through each and every one of those gifts that you've given us. I pray, Lord, that you give us the eyes to be able to call in other people because of the gifts that they have. Give them an invitation to play a role in the kingdom. Give us the words to say to ask people. Give us the mindset that says that my gift is not just for me, but it is for us. And I pray, Lord, that you give platforms to all of us. Whether that platform be our neighborhood, whether that platform be a platform, whether that platform be our living room, whether that platform just be by a locker, Lord, I pray that we engage in using your gifts to love each other. Thank you. In the name of Jesus, we pray. We thank you, Lord. Amen.