How to Find Your Spiritual Gift (And Stop Taking Online Quizzes)

Most Christians are sitting on gifts God intended for the church. That is a problem.

In this episode, we walk through Romans 12 and what Scripture actually says about spiritual gifts, how God distributes them, and how to discover and use yours for the edification of your local church and the glory of God.

Your gifts are not personal assets. They belong to God, and He entrusted them to you for a reason.

What we cover:

• Why spiritual gifts are not your own personal spiritual assets
• The living sacrifice every Christian is called to be (Romans 12:1-2)
• Why the church is a body, and every member is essential
• The 7 gifts Paul lists in Romans 12 and what they actually mean
• Nobody in your church is unnecessary, and nobody is ultimate
• How to guard against gift envy and be content with what God has given you
• The one practical step to actually discovering your spiritual gift

📖 Key Text: Romans 12:1-8

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

What's good, everybody? In today's episode, I want to talk about the topic of stewardship, but specifically how we as Christians should steward the spiritual gifts that the Father has entrusted to us, what those gifts are, and how we are to use them to edify the church that we are a part of, but also how we use those same gifts to glorify God. And I'm going to specifically be looking at Romans chapter 12 a little bit here, but I want to talk about stewarding gifts that God has entrusted to us because the gifts that God entrusts to us are not our own personal spiritual assets, so to speak, that we just kind of hoard to ourselves. According to the Word of God, we have clear commands as to how we are to utilize these gifts for God's purposes and not just our own. And so I got some notes here I'm going to walk through, but some of what I want to address in this, as modern, you know, American Christians, one thing we struggle with, all churches struggle with, is consumerism. We are conditioned in a culture that trains us to, you know, prioritize our personal happiness or, you know, our return on our investment or to pursue relationships that are going to, you know, benefit me, kind of a thing. And so we are conditioned to be, quite frankly, just self-centered people who are looking out for our own self-interest. But then you come to faith in Christ and you read your Bible and you realize, well, the Bible is constantly telling me to be other centered, to prioritize the glory of God and the good of others, even at my own expense. Even if I'm required to sacrifice and to endure hardship, that is just how Jesus led his life and left a model for us to follow. And so as Christians, we got to constantly fight against this, you know, this mentality of, well, I will serve others or I will join this church as long as what I'm getting is worth my time and grants me all the happiness and fulfillment I'm looking for. But don't ask me to be a producer, so to speak. Don't ask me to be a contributor. I'm here to benefit. And so sometimes we treat churches or how we find a church like a gym membership where it's like, oh, I like this gym because you know it's it's close to my house and I like the price and you know the classes and programs they offer. And so, man, they offer a lot that I like and want. So I'm gonna go here. And that's sometimes how we approach church rather than, okay, Lord, give me wisdom in how I can be a blessing to this local flock, how I can help these Christians grow in the image of Jesus Christ and help the gospel advance through this church family. And so we got to keep in mind our gifts are not our personal assets, they're actually a gift entrusted to us as believers by a sovereign God, and they are entrusted to us for two purposes to edify the body of Christ and to glorify God. And so Romans chapter 12, I'm gonna I'm gonna read this real quick. But in Romans 12, Paul has before this, for 11 chapters, he's been beautifully unpacking the riches of salvation, the doctrine of justification, sanctification, and sin and all these things. And now he's starting to get into some practical aspects of, okay, what are the Christian ethics, right? How should we live in light of all the mercies of Christ you've received in your salvation? And so in Romans 12, beginning in verse 1, he says, Therefore, in light of all I've just been saying, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. So, real quick, Paul is saying, hey, in light of your salvation, offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God. Like this is your true act of worship. Now, the Old Testament imagery is all over there, right? So in the Old Testament, they had to sacrifice a perfect, spotless, blemish, uh, unblemished animal to atone for their sins. And they had to do this over and over again because the blood of animals never truly, fully atoned for sin. But Paul is saying, now that you're in Christ, Jesus has offered himself on your behalf as the ultimate sacrificial lamb, he's the ultimate high priest. So because he's offered himself on your behalf once and for all, you continuously offer yourself to him as a living sacrifice, as your true act of worship. Therefore, you essentially he's saying, devote all of your being to the service of the Lord. This reminds me of when Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment? What did he say? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Now, the challenge for us as Christians is sometimes what we do is we might lay ourselves on the altar, present ourselves. I love how he uses that word. Present our we will present ourselves on the altar as a living sacrifice. But when things get inconvenient, we get off the altar. We're off, we're presenting ourselves, we're getting off. We're presenting ourselves, we're getting off the altar. And Paul's like, no, no, no. Present yourself as a devoted living sacrifice for the glory of God and for the edification of his church. That is your true act of worship. But notice how he talks about do not be conformed to this age, but on the positive end, be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you can discern what God's good and pleasing will is. So there's that command: like, hey, you need to know, Christian, your culture, the world, and the devil are shaping you. They are conditioning you and influencing you in how you should think, how you should behave, how you should function. And you need to guard against that and not allow yourself to be conformed. That word conformed, the Greek behind that communicates the idea of being fashioned after something. Paul's saying, do not allow yourself to be fashioned after the world, but fashion yourself after Christ and his word. Let there be a renewing of your mind. And the implication there is you play a part in that renewing. God doesn't just zap you and renew your mind. You are pursuing through a knowledge, a growing knowledge of God's word, through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, you are being renewed day by day into the image of Christ, which means you're thinking more like God does. You're agreeing with God in what he says in his word, which means getting to this stewardship conversation of gifts, which means you're also starting to understand I am a vessel, I'm an instrument in God's hands, I'm a living sacrifice, and I'm here to I'm entrusted with gifts that I am to use to edify others, to glorify God. And that brings me my joy, as opposed to letting the world condition me, which tells me, no, do stuff for your own personal gain, for your own personal happiness, even use others if you need to to make yourself happy and fulfill. Paul says, don't let the world condition you in that way. Renew your mind. And so, what motivates us, though, to use our gifts in this way? And I would say you start with the gospel. When you recognize like God's extravagant and sovereign and merciful grace shown to you in salvation, that then motivates you to want to use your gifts to be a blessing to others and to glorify God. Another way to put it is God's radical generosity should produce radical generosity in his people. God was radically generous and offering his son, who voluntarily put on flesh and died to save his church from their sins, to purchase them with his own blood, to call them his bride, to call his enemies now his friends, or to adopt us as sons and daughters of the king, that radical generosity should have the effect in every disciple of Christ, one of humility, one of graciousness, one of love, and one of other centeredness, where we look at our father and we say, I want to imitate him. If God was generous towards me with all of not all of his gifts, but his greatest gift, his son, how can I not be generous with all that God has entrusted to me to be a blessing to others voluntarily to glorify God? So keep in mind, that's the motto. If God the Father held nothing back and he did hold nothing back, if he gave his son, how can we as Christians ever be prideful? How can we ever be stingy? We should be generous, we should be merciful, we should be gracious, and we should be humble. One of the most disgusting things in the life of a Christian is pride because it shows, like, man, do you even understand the gospel? Like, how can you be prideful just because you have a particular gift that someone else might not have in your church, or because you are in this season of life, or you have this ability, or whatever it is, how can a Christian who recognizes, oh yeah, I owed a sin debt to God I could never repay? His wrath and condemnation justly hung over my soul, and I was almost cast into hell for all eternity, and yet he saved me by his grace, not because I was lovable, not because he saw potential in me. God didn't save me because he thought, oh, well, maybe there'll be a pastor one day, or maybe she'll lead music or whatever it may be. Maybe they'll be a missionary. No, he saved us solely by his grace. So how on earth does that gospel truth produce pride in any of us is beyond me. It just shows how sinful our hearts are. But that kind of grace should lead us to want to be generous towards others. And so we need to keep in mind that we need to guard our hearts also from being conditional Christians. What I mean by that is Paul says, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, and that's your true act of worship, right? Sometimes I think we can say, Yes, Lord, I devote my life to you. I am a living sacrifice for you as long as you don't ask me to do anything I don't want to do, or as long as you don't ask me to do something that's really hard or inconvenient. If you do, then I'm not willing to do that. Well, then you're not a living sacrifice. You're not truly devoted to God, you're devoted to yourself. You think you know it's better than what God thinks is best for you. You're trying to sit next to God on the throne and help him with his game plan about how to sanctify you and build his church. If we're conditional Christians, and again, there's a difference in, you know, sometimes we're human, we're, we, we have remaining sin. Sometimes we don't step up to opportunities God drops right in front of us to serve others and to serve him. But I'm talking if your normal pattern as you profess faith in Christ is to pick and choose whether you obey the Lord or not, well, then that's a conditional sacrifice. You're not an unconditional sacrifice before the Lord. A true living sacrifice says, you know what, Lord, my life is not my own. Your word says that you purchased me so that I no longer live for myself, but that I will live for you, who died and rose from the dead. And so what you think is best is what's best for me. Give me the faith to obey and to find joy in that obedience. Give me the joy of finding it a privilege to be an instrument in your hands to do anything in your economy. God is sovereign and self-sufficient. He does not need anything, he does not need any of us. The fact that he entrusts gifts to us to use to edify his church and to bring people to saving faith in Christ is beyond me. Like, God, why would you choose to use broken, you know, rebellious children and your grand scheme of redemption to accomplish your purposes? I have no idea. Other than the word says he does and it glorifies him, and he loves to work through means. And so praise God that we get to share in God's divine plan of redemption. But I love how in Romans 12, later on, if you look at verses three through five, getting into the gifts now, he says in verse three, for by grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. Now, as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way, we who are many are one body, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. I love the body language. There's many metaphors in the Bible used to describe the church, but Paul chooses here to use the language of a body, which means every member is essential. You need every member of your body, trust me. I remember many years ago when my wife and I got married, and on our uh at the end of our honeymoon, when we got back home, I had some pain in my side, which ended up becoming appendicitis. Never heard of an appendix before that. And I'll never forget the surgeon in the ER saying, we need to remove your appendix immediately before it bursts because it can poison you and maybe even kill you. And my first question to him was, What is an appendix? And secondly, do I need it? We need our every member of our body, right? No one would say, Yeah, you know what, I don't need my left hand, I don't need my right foot, or you know what, my spinal cord's not that important, or my lung, uh, I don't really need both of them. Like none of us would say that because we understand that our body is essential. And so that communicates over into the local church. Every member is important. Every church member plays a role. This is why church membership is important, why every Christian should be committed to a local church that they're a member of, because that lets them know who here am I responsible for? Who here am I, am I called by the Lord to disciple and to do life with and to encourage and exhort and to use the word of God to you know help them grow in their faith in Christ. That is important because every member has a function. At my church, I love to tell people like, hey, if you're a member of Redeemer Church, welcome to the staff. We all are called to do vine work, so to speak. We're all here to do one another word ministry towards one another. And so a body of Christ, a and and Paul's not talking about a Romans 12. He's not talking about the universal church primarily. He's talking about a local church. So, yes, we're all a member of the universal church, but local churches are what make the universal church visible. And so his instructions here are for the church in Rome. Therefore, he's speaking to a local church saying, you guys are all one organism. You all need each other, which means in the life of a church, think about this. This is so humbling. Nobody is unnecessary and nobody is ultimate. No one in the church is someone that you could say, oh, we really don't need them over there. Like we can actually just ax that category of members over there. Or we all should just look at that member because he or she has the gifts that we all should be benefiting from. No, nobody is ultimate and nobody is unnecessary. We all intermingle with our gifts to be a blessing to each other. I love that. That just shows God's wisdom and his design of the local church to bless his children, to do what he expects them to do in accordance with his word. And that is a beautiful thing because that means if you're a member of a local church, you are essential. I mean, I think about my role, you know, yes, I serve as a pastor, but a pastor is a member of a church first, which means I need every member of Redeemer Church. I am deficient without the saints of Redeemer Church using their gifts to edify me, which means the members of my church who I've covenanted with, their personal walk with Jesus has a direct effect on my personal walk with Jesus. And my personal walk with Jesus has a direct effect on their walk with Jesus. It's this like reverberating effect throughout the life of a local church. And so nobody can ever say, I don't need the church, or the church doesn't need me. No one can say that with the Bible backing them. You cannot say, I don't need a church, or the church doesn't need me. No, you do need the church. And we all benefit. And we can't say the church doesn't need me because the church does need you. And that is beautiful because you are a part of that body, that organism. And so saying I don't need the church is wrong and saying the church doesn't need me is wrong. You are essential to the health of a local church. Now, let me do this. I I want to, on the second part of this, walk through briefly each of the gifts that Paul lists in uh verses six through eight. And before I do, keep in mind this is not an exhaustive list. There are passages, for instance, in 1 Peter and in 1 Corinthians where some other gifts are mentioned, but I don't think the Bible is ever giving an exhaustive list saying these are all the spiritual gifts. That's not what's happening here, okay? Um, however, this list is helpful, but keep in mind God is a distributor of these gifts, which means they're not ours, they're his. He owns the intellectual rights to what they are and how they are to be utilized and function in the life of a local church. And that also should, as Paul said, that should also keep us humble. If God's the one entrusting gifts sovereignly to his people, then that means we should not be prideful bragging or boasting about, well, I have this gift and I'm better than this person. No, that just makes you a sinfully prideful Christian. God sovereignly bestows gifts on whom he chooses. But another implication is according to the New Testament, every single member of a church has at least one spiritual gift. And God does not distribute based on it, seems, you know, from the text that he doesn't discriminate. So new believers or someone who's been a Christian for 20 years, men, women, pastors, deacons, church members, small group leaders, everybody has a gift, and everyone is needed to use their gifts for the edification of their local church. So, with that being said, let's briefly walk through the gifts that Paul lists. With number one in verses six through eight is prophecy. Now, this is not Old Testament prophecy where, you know, prophets were appointed by God and they received direct special revelation that they were to speak on behalf of God and sometimes even communicate future events. Prophecy here seems to be clearly speaking God's word faithfully in alignment with Scripture. Uh so for instance, sometimes the New Testament authors will use the term the faith, referring to the body of doctrine we believe to be Christianity. So prophecy seems to be maybe primarily, not always, but primarily connected to the office of pastor, teacher, where they are to prophesy, to communicate God's word in an understandable and edifying way to help people walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. Paul says, if you have the gift of prophecy, prophesy. One, you know, application of this as someone who preaches regularly is I love it sometimes when someone comes up to me after a service or sends me a text later and says, like, man, were you like in my house this week or were you preaching directly to me? Because maybe the way the Holy Spirit applied his truth while it was being preached, you know, penetrated their heart, whether it was in a convicting way or in a you know comforting and encouraging way. And most of the time when those, you know, thoughts come, when people share that with me, I'm like, I did not remotely have you in mind, but praise God, you know, if his word edified you. So Paul says prophecy is a is a great gift. As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians, when he talks about the spiritual gifts, Paul actually says, I wish that more people would prophesy. It's almost like he's saying, I wish more people had the gift of faithfully and clearly and persuasively communicating God's word so that people can come to know the Lord and grow in their understanding of God's will. But the second gift is service. This is meeting practical needs. This could be people who are behind the scenes just serving, edifying the flock without recognition, without a formal title, but they find it a great joy to be a worker for the joy of others. That's really how I tend to summarize not just pastoral ministry, but all of ministry is to be a worker for the joy of others. I strive with God's help to promote the joy of the Lord in the hearts of other people, whether that's through helping them understand God's word, battling sin and temptation, whatever it is. And when as I'm doing that, as I'm serving my brothers or sisters in Christ, and when I see through the Holy Spirit's work the light bulb click and they they understand that concept of scripture or they they start getting getting some headway over that temptation and sin, that's where I find my joy. I don't need to be celebrated for that. No one needs to even know it's happening. That could be the act of service where you're just serving behind the scenes. And then the next gift is teaching, which is different from prophecy. I'm sure they kind of correlate in some respects, but teaching is simply uh teaching the word of God in a way that is clear and understandable. That could, and that can mean a host of things. So don't think of a formal classroom, a Sunday school teacher, right? Not that that's not important or that's not teaching. It absolutely is. But man, this could be, you know, maybe the person who's just gifted at communicating God's word to youth in a way that, you know, they understand it at their level, at their level of maturity. Maybe it's someone who is gifted at, you know, one-on-one sitting down with someone over coffee and helping people understand the Bible. Maybe it's a really gifted small group leader who doesn't just facilitate discussion, but actually can instruct people in a winsome and persuasive and loving way. This is this is the gift of teaching. And keep in mind, too, this is another conversation, but when you look at the qualifications of pastors, it does say that he must be an elder must be able to. Teach. However, that doesn't mean he has to be able to stand up and preach a Sunday sermon. Preaching and teaching are two different things. There are many faithful elders who might have zero desire to preach a sermon, but they might be really faithful and gifted teachers who can lead a Sunday school class, who can uh mentor people in small groups or one-on-one and in an understandable and clear, persuasive and loving way, handle God's word faithfully. And notice how these gifts are just matter-of-fact, right? Paul's like, hey, if you have to get the prophecy, prophesy. If you can teach, teach. Serve, serve. He's like, if you got the gift, go do it. Right. Uh, fourth is exhortation. The idea here is to comfort the afflicted or to afflict the comfortable. The same Greek word here is actually the same word used of the Holy Spirit as the helper. So exhortation is more of like teaching in a counseling sense, or a counseling tone, maybe is a better way to put that, with a flavor of, you know, putting a hand on someone's back and walking alongside them and explaining to them God's word and applying it, right? Practical theology, applying God's truth to their lives in a way that brings comfort and encouragement and counsel so that they can walk with the Lord. But that's that's exhortation. But then he says, here's an interesting one: the gift of giving, giving. This is someone who might seize a need and they're moved to meet that need. Now, I'm not sure if Paul is primarily thinking of financial giving here as a spiritual gift. I wonder if he's also thinking of those who are just gifted in just being very generous with their time, their resources, such as they're quick to, man, there's a there's a need in my church. There's a single mother who's struggling financially. We got a spare room. We're gonna invite that sister and her child to come live with us for a season to help her get on her feet. Like there's some who just have that gift of giving where they find it a joy to go above and beyond the regular cheerful giving to their local church, but maybe they they decide to help a member out whose car broke down. They know that you know they're a one-income family and you know they're they're they're in a difficult situation. And so they decide, hey, I want to cover uh your mechanic bill just to be a blessing to you. And they're just gifted in that way. And so we got prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving. And then Paul says leading. He says, if you're leading, or if you have the gift of leadership, lead. Now, there's some debate as to is this specifically referring to, again, the office of elder, but I mean, let's just be frank. There are some people who seem to be gifted leaders where people want to follow them because they feel like, man, when I'm around this brother or sister, like I'm edified in the faith. They they seem to, uh I think of Paul when he says, imitate me as I imitate Christ, it's almost like Paul is saying, I don't think he's being prideful. He's he's certainly not. It's like he's saying, Hey, I'm living my life in a way that I'm trying to pattern everything I do after Jesus. If that's your desire, then follow my leadership. Follow my life and imitate it, and that will lead you to further godliness in your walk with the Lord. And so this is like those who just have a gift to lead others well to the glory of God. Uh, number seven is mercy. This is compassion with cheerfulness, according to Paul, like showing compassion with cheerfulness. He says, if you have the gift of mercy, then show mercy. Again, these are all matter of fact. But as I said, this list is not exhaustive. There are uh there are other gifts out there as well. So this isn't a, you know, write all these down and these are the only ones and figure out which one of these you have. Yeah, some of us might only have one gift, some of us might have several, some might have a particular gift only for a season of life. Again, God is sovereign over how he entrusts these to his bride. But we got to keep some things in mind too, right? We need to guard our hearts from gift envy. So sometimes someone might struggle with discontentment with their spiritual gift because they're looking at somebody else and saying, well, I want that gift, or I want to be able to do that too. Now, sometimes we gotta be careful with that because that could be, that could have some sinful motivation behind it, right? Because maybe you're looking at, well, I like how members respect that brother or sister because they have a good teaching gift. I want people to look at me like that way. I want people to respect me and honor me the way that they recognize that individual. Well, maybe that's why the Lord hasn't entrusted you with that gift because he knows your heart and he loves you enough to not put you in a place of vulnerability where you're going to be tempted to sin and covet and be envious of others. So we should be content with the gifts that the Lord has entrusted to us. And sometimes we need to ask ourselves: if we're being envious about someone else's gift, we're probably not even using the gift God has given us. And so, why would God entrust you with more when you're not even being faithful what you currently have been entrusted with? And especially if you have the wrong heart motivation behind how you view the gifts as well. So God distributes, distributes his gifts how he chooses, but our job is not to compare ourselves with others, but just to be faithful with what the Lord has given us and to be humble, to recognize God. God doesn't need me. So the fact that he would even entrust me with gifts to edify his church is a humble blessing. Now, a natural question after reading a verse like this and listening to something like this would be how do I find my spiritual gifts? I would say, number one, do not go take a spiritual gifts quiz online. I do not like those things because number one, they are reductionistic because if the Bible doesn't give us an exhaustive list, well, if you take a survey online, it's almost like they are making it a set list that's exhaustive. So be careful with that. And those quizzes do not know you. They don't know you personally, they don't know your character and things like that. So it might tell you, yeah, you're gifted to teach, but your church might say, well, there might be some character issues. We wouldn't actually give you the opportunity to teach right now because we want to work on some things in your character. And so be careful with that. I think one of the best ways, if not the best way, to just try to figure out what your spiritual gifts are, serve your local church. Just start trying some things. And as you do, see what the Lord stirs up in your heart. Avail yourself of your pastors. Ask yourself, or ask your pastors rather, what are some of the greatest needs in our church and how can I be of service? Maybe you've never thought about serving in the kids' ministry because, oh, I'm not great with kids or whatever. How do you know unless you actually try? And you might find out, well, this isn't easy, but I realize these kids seem to listen when I teach the Bible. They seem to actually retain some stuff. Maybe, maybe I want to give this a longer shot and see what the Lord does. But I think one of the most strategic ways to find your spiritual gifts is just serve your church. And I don't mean that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be in a formal programmatic ministry and you have to have some kind of title and you get a lanyard you wear on Sunday, right? No, start by, you know, inviting someone over to your house for dinner and asking meaningful questions around spiritual conversations and see what the Lord does with that. See if you have a desire to, you know, to ask good questions, to draw people's hearts out, to apply truth in a way that is understandable and persuasive and loving. Maybe that desire grows. You know, offer to read the Bible with somebody for a couple of months, to study the book of Ephesians, invite a small group into doing that and see what the Lord does. You know, maybe you have gifts of hospitality or teaching or exhortation. And so serve your church, avail yourself of your elders because keep in mind, according to Ephesians 4, elders exist to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. You are the ministry uh leaders in your church. If you're a member of a church, your pastors, according to God's word, are a gift to your church to equip you to do the work of ministry. And so avail yourself of your elders and ask them, hey, what have you seen in me since you've known me that, you know, give me some counsel on how do you think I would be fruitful in this church in helping edify other members of this church? And that would be a great, a great place to start as well. But guard against being a church filled with relics. Some churches are museums where, you know, people have gifts, but they're just put up on a shelf and they're relics that everyone just kind of looks at, right? You don't want to be that type of church. You don't want to be that type of Christian or church member. Be the type of person who is actively using your gifts for the edification of others. I think I am thoroughly convinced that the best way you can spend your Christian life on this side of heaven is helping other people follow Jesus as you follow Jesus. When you die, your retirement doesn't go with you, your possessions don't go with you, your prestige, your recognition, your accomplishments, none of it goes with you. But you can be a worker for others' joy on this side of heaven that leads to eternal riches on the other side of heaven. So the most strategic thing you can do is to use the gifts God has entrusted to you to edify your local flock and glorify your heavenly father. I love how Mike Bolmer, who's a pastor and author, says that we should aspire to excellence without making praise for that excellence the goal of our aspirations. I love that. So when you do serve and use your gifts, do so with excellence. Don't do so haphazardly. Don't do so with little effort and commitment. Man, make this your your chief aim, your chief work. Like, man, I get to serve God by serving his people and do it with excellence. I love how my man Paul says, listen, you know, if I compare myself to the, I'm paraphrasing here, but as I compare myself to the other apostles, I worked harder than all of them. Yet it wasn't me, it was Christ working in me. That's how we should strive to work. Or I love Colossians 1, 28 through 29, where Paul says, Hey, my goal is to present everyone mature in Christ. And I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me. Paul's saying, it is my chief aim to strive and labor to help Christians mature in Christ, which happens by helping people know God's word and apply God's word in daily life. What a joyful privilege that is to spend someone's life. And that begins in your home if you're a spouse, if you're a parent. It starts in your household to use your gifts there and then in your church body. Do so with excellence. Don't be passive. Don't sit on your hands. Don't be a consumer saying, well, everybody else will use their gifts. I'm just going to benefit and consume and show up on Sunday and give regularly to the church. Man, what a whack and boring Christian life. Get in the game, serve the Lord and his people and glorify your heavenly father. And remember, he held nothing back for you. He gave his all in his son to redeem you. So why wouldn't you reflect that same generosity by being a blessing to others? All right. I hope this was helpful. If it was, please leave a comment, subscribe, and like and share with anyone you think this might edify as well. God bless.