Spiritual Gifts | Zac Hudson | Definition Church

The Collective 4/6/2026

This week we all took part in a Spiritual Gifts Test that would reveal our Top Five Spiritual Gifts and give verses in the Bible that explain them. If you would also like to partake in this test as well, this link will take you there: https://giftstest.com

Transcript

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Come on, man. I don't even need to preach anymore. Golly. You believe he said he was nervous before he got up here? Good gracious. Good job, Daniel. Wherever you are at, my dog. Y'all can head back to your seats. It is so good to see everybody, see all your beautiful faces today. I hope you all had an amazing Easter. I know we did here at Definition Church, but I hope you just enjoyed your time and he is risen. If you remember anything else for the rest of your life, just remember that there is a real God who rose from the dead for you specifically. But I'm so excited to be with you guys tonight. We're going to be wrapping up our series on spiritual gifts tonight. Anyone else like really enjoyed this series? I know I have. I've learned a whole whole lot. Pastor Steve did an amazing job last week, but we're going to wrap things up today. And next week, we're going to be hopping into a new series called What What Now? It's going to be all about what do we do after we're saved? How do we keep connecting with the Lord after we have given our lives to Jesus? You do not want to miss next week. There's going to be a very, very special guest speaking next week. You do not want to miss it, so be here. Anyways, we're going to wrap things up tonight. Just a quick question for you guys. Any of you guys in here movie buffs? Like you love movies? Let me see your hands. Anybody? I'm a big movie buff. I have watched so many films. You can follow me on Letterboxd. If you know what Letterboxd is, then I know you're a movie buff. Because most people don't know what that is. But there's this really good film called Hacksaw Ridge. Anybody ever seen Hacksaw Ridge? Great, great movie. If you've never seen the movie before, Hacksaw Ridge is about this guy. His name is Desmond Doss. And Desmond Doss is a deeply devoted and faithful Christian who enlists in the army during World War II. But the thing about Desmond is he's so committed to his faith that he refuses to kill or harm anybody to the point that he refuses to even carry a weapon when he's in when he's fighting all the enemies. And this is all just from his convictions from the Lord. And so during his basic training, he's like mocked and beaten up on and made fun of, and he's nearly expelled from the military altogether because his belief that he should not serve holding a weapon. And eventually at the like the focal point of the movie, there's this battle at this place called Okinawa, specifically on this brutal cliffside known as Hacksaw Ridge. That's where the movie gets its name from. And his unit goes into Hacksaw Ridge and they're just getting obliterated. I mean, they're just getting, people are getting shot left and right, and they're forced to retreat. And they climb down this massive mountain, except one person, Desmond Doss. He decides to stay behind on top of this mountain alone in enemy territory. And one by one, he just starts going through the battlefield and finding soldiers, his own men, and dragging them to safety at the cliffside and like lowering them down so that they would not be killed by the incoming enemies. And each time he goes back, he just says this prayer over and over again. Lord, help me get one more. Every single time he goes back. Lord, help me get one more. And by the end of the movie, he saves around 75 men without ever firing a weapon. He is directly responsible for 75 men having their lives saved, basically. They would have died if Desmond had not stepped in and helped them out. And because of this, this is all a true story. I really push you, go watch the movie. It's awesome. And read about it on your own. There's even crazier things that happen in the movie or in the real life story that they don't even talk about. But Desmond was given the Medal of Honor for this. He's given the bronze heart and the purple heart for all of his efforts. And here's the thing is Desmond did not come from a family of privilege. He wasn't a star soldier, he didn't have everything figured out, but he was used in a spectacular way by the Lord. He is what I like to call a true underdog story. The person who felt like they had nothing to contribute, who didn't bring anything to the table, ended up saving the lives of 75 men. And you see, this entire series, up to this point, we've just been laying foundation after foundation about spiritual gifts. Week one, Parker gave a great message about how your character affects your spiritual gifts and your ability to use them, how you gotta learn to walk before you can work for the Lord. Week two, I talked about where do our spiritual gifts come from? I talked about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And we just had an incredible moment where people filled the altars and just uh opened their hands up to the Holy Spirit in amazing ways. And then last week, Pastor Steve he brought an amazing word about the kind of controversial gifts. He talked about speaking in tongues, he talked about visions, he talked about prophecy and all those things. I really would challenge you to go back and listen to that. We've just been laying foundation and then talked about spiritual gifts. And tonight we're gonna dive into the rest of the spiritual gifts in a practical sense. I'm just gonna give you definitions for them. But before we do that, I have to address attention in the room that some of you may not feel right now, but you might feel eventually. And I'm just gonna go ahead and I'm just gonna attack a lie that I know the enemy is gonna try to whisper to you in this space. And that is the lie of inadequacy and comparison. Because you see, like I said at the beginning of this series, we're gonna give everyone in this room an opportunity to take a spiritual gifts test in your small group. And tonight is that night. You're gonna get the opportunity to take a spiritual gifts test. And some of you, when you take that test, you may get a gift that does not seem super important. It doesn't seem super cool, or it doesn't quote unquote fill stadiums or allow you to stand on a stage. And here's what I need you to understand. Here's the tension. Before we can start defining these spiritual gifts, I want you to write down this phrase. It's one of my favorite phrases. God is just as impressed with spreadsheets as sermons. Write that down. God is just as impressed with spreadsheets as sermons. Now, I know that kind of sounds like a cheesy phrase, but it's really important. Because you see, in our Americanized faith, in the churches that we go to, we have done a poor job of lifting up gifts that don't fill stadiums. We are traditionally inclined towards gifts that are more attractive or more charismatic. So gifts like preaching, gifts like teaching, gifts like evangelism, even gifts that may be weird, but oftentimes do display themselves outwardly, like prophecy and like tongues. We have devoted our lives to uplifting those gifts in our culture because it gives us a product that we can hold on to. But the problem was this, the problem with this is we have made the mouths of the body of Christ, the ones who speak out. We have made the mouths of the body of Christ the representatives of the church. And this is a completely American idea, not a biblical one. And so that's why I say this phrase that God is just as impressed with good spreadsheets as he is with good sermons. Because he beams with as much pride towards you when he sees someone walking in the gift of administration and helping people walk out this gift of leadership, things that fall behind the scenes that oftentimes people don't see. He is just as impressed with those gifts as he is with my gift to be able to stand up and preach, or Pastor Allen's gift to be able to stand up and preach. He is just as impressed with those gifts, and that's what makes God so beautiful. Is because he can get as much glory from someone standing up and proclaiming his name as someone standing behind the scenes and filling out a spreadsheet on his behalf. That is what makes God so beautiful. And so for all of you, I want you to understand that just because our culture, just because a certain church or social media lifts up other gifts and diminishes these other gifts, does not mean that you should. You are equally called to the body of Christ as much as me, as much as the person sitting to your left or to your right. We are all called to be a part of the body of Christ. This is why I like to call spiritual underdogs. Because truth be told, they are the backbone of the modern church. If we didn't have all these gifts, the church would fall apart. I am not gifted in administration. You can ask Lathan and Amber after this service, they will double hands in the air, say, absolutely. That is not my gift. But if I did not have them, if I didn't have people who were gifted in that, we would have no collective. Because it's not enough to just be able to stand up and preach. We have to have the full body of Christ at our disposal. And this isn't just me talking, this is a biblical idea as well. 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 7, it says this there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work. We serve a God of equal power across all people. That is what makes him so beautiful. And so no matter what gift you get, how inadequate you may feel, that tension you may feel of like, oh, this isn't really an awesome, cool gift. I want you to know that you are leading people to the Lord no matter what gift you have. You are called to lead people to the throne room of God no matter what gift you have. And so don't excuse yourself from leading people to the Lord because you don't have a gift that seems to project itself onto other people. You just as much contribute to the salvation of your friends, of your unbelieving people in your life when you have the gift of administration as you do if you have the gift of preaching or teaching. You are just as responsible and a part of this body as I am. All gifts help the body, not just the gifts that build platforms. The body of Christ is not dependent on a platform to succeed. It is dependent on the body of Christ and people being willing from all backgrounds and personalities to step together in unison to help the body. And here's the sad thing is like so many churches today, or people in church today, feel insecure or they feel useless because they either don't have an understanding of the gifts that they have or they're not in a place that exemplifies all the gifts of the Spirit. And so something I'm very passionate about here at the collective and just in my life in general is helping young adults step into their gifting and abilities with the Lord. I want you guys to succeed and feel like you are passionate about the gifts that the Lord has given you. This is why we have a student leadership team here at the collective. If you're on the student leadership team, raise your hand real quick. We got a lot of student leaders in the room. Our student leadership team, I'm not joking, they run the collective. They run everything, they do everything to the point I could not show up and it would still happen. And the reason that is, is because I want them to feel confident to step in the strengths and abilities that the Lord has given them. And they've done a phenomenal job. Phenomenal job. And so many of them do things that you would never see. And so if you commit to this ministry, I promise you that I will put you in positions for you to be able to grow in your spiritual gifts and abilities. It's not enough for us to be ignorant of our gifts. We don't have that excuse. We are called to be a part of the body of Christ, and so we can't just plead ignorance and then wonder why our lives are not changing. Ignorance of our gifts should not be an option for us. When we know our gifts at a deep level, we know how we belong in the body. So many of you are insecure or struggling in your faith because you have the gift to be the hand of the body of Christ, but you're trying to be the feet. You're trying to be someone else or take on someone else's gift or ability. When the Lord is like, hey man, I've uniquely wired you for this specific gift, I want you to step into that. And that may not be your fault. You may just not be aware. That's why I'm here to help you guys understand and learn. You already belong in the body of Christ. This is all an invitation to belong deeper and deeper and deeper. And again, 1 Corinthians 12, 1, it says this. Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. Paul literally says to the Corinthians, he doesn't want them to be uninformed. And if you don't know the context of 1 Corinthians, the people in Corinth were abusing the spiritual gifts. And Paul's solution to the abuse of the spiritual gifts is not less of the Holy Spirit, it's more awareness of how other people are called to live in the Holy Spirit. And so we have our lives transformed when we stop lifting up the gifts that fill stadiums and start equally dispersing the Holy Spirit across all people, all personalities, and all age groups for all who are willing to call on the name of the Lord. That's what transforms our culture. Ignorance is a weight that keeps us from running full force towards Jesus. And again, I'm not saying that to shame you. A lot of people just don't know the gifts they have. And that's okay. This is all an invitation for you to understand at a deeper level. But ignorance of your gifts can be a weight keeping you back from running full force after the Lord. Because if you don't see the Lord and what you're doing, it's like trying to run a race with your legs tied together. You can't run full force because you don't even know what battle you're fighting or what weapons you have. And so I just want us to remember that. And so, with that, how do I know my spiritual gifts? How do I know my spiritual gifts? Well, we're gonna give you the opportunity to take a test in your small groups to be um to understand that, but that's not where we stop. There's three ideas I want you to understand about how you begin to understand your spiritual gifts. And it's inward reflection, upward prayer, and outward service. Let's say that again. Inward reflection, upward prayer, and outward service. These are all three very key invitations for you to begin to understand the gifts that the Lord has given you. So, first, inward reflection. Just know yourself. God created you as the way you are for a reason. He's not ashamed of your personality. He's not ashamed that some of you are extroverted and some of you are introverted. He's not ashamed that some of you have natural leadership tendencies and some of you have natural follower tendencies. He's not ashamed of those things. He equipped you in that way. So know yourself. Ask yourself, what are my passions? What am I passionate about? What keeps me up at night because I just love thinking about it? What are my desires for my life? What are my loves in my life? What do I think about all the time more than anything else? You see, when I was an unbeliever, I got saved at 17, but when I was an unbeliever, there was still this kind of like push in my spirit to continue talking about the church, even though I didn't really believe in the church. It's really weird. I don't know how to explain it, but I was always a defender of the church and talked about the church, but I just didn't think it was for me. And so eventually when I came to Christ, it like started making so much sense. It's like God had brought me into all these conversations where I had seen churches kind of abuse people and misuse things and just do terrible things, and I would be like, well, that can't be right. And I would have a lot of conversations about the church. And when I came to Christ, it's like, oh, this is what the Lord was saving me for. This ability to preach and defend his church. And so just think about those things. Know yourself. What are you passionate about? What do you desire? What do you love? Invite your like what is your future plans? All those things can be invitations to understand more about the spiritual gifts. Second, outward service. Serve the body. Serve the body. This is so important. If you are unwilling to serve, you will never have full clarity on your giftings. They go hand in hand. You can't just sit in a seat every single week and then walk away and be like, I don't even understand what I'm gifted at and what has the Lord given me to do. If you are willing to take a step of faith and serve those around you, Jesus was the suffering servant. He was the one man who didn't need to serve anybody, but who served everybody. And so if Jesus can serve, so can you. And so take a step of faith and begin to serve. And as you serve the people around you, as you serve in places that need your help, the Lord will start unlocking things in your mind. So as you're serving, start thinking. When you serve, what do you look forward to the most? What makes you come alive when you serve? Just for example, there's some people in here, and when you serve in, maybe you serve in kids' ministry, and you're like, man, I love serving kids. And you just have a natural inclination towards like patience with these kids, and they may be complete knuckleheads doing backflips off the bookshelf, crazy things, throwing stuff, saying six, seven all the time. They may be doing that, but you're just like have this heart that just beats for them, and you just show them forgiveness after forgiveness after forgiveness. That may be an invitation that you have the gift of mercy. That may be an invitation towards you have the gift of mercy. And so when we serve other people in humility, the Lord begins to unlock our understanding of what truly makes us come alive. Lastly, is upward prayer. It's simple. Ask God. Ask God when you know yourself, when you're serving others, when you know those things with full clarity, then begin inviting the Lord into this process. And this is where this idea of radical honesty that we talk about all the time here at the collective comes in. Because you can be fully transparent with God. I say it all the time. God already knows everything that you're thinking. And so us being honest is a reflection for us to understand Him more, how He loves us more. And so you can invite God in. Say, God, I don't understand what my gifts are. I'm serving, I feel like I know myself really well, but I don't really understand what my gifts are. Can you help me? Start praying more, seeking the Lord more. Tell Him, literally tell Him, like, God, I need you to make it 100% clear in these moments where you are moving because I struggle to see it. Like, mate, let put the stress on His shoulders. Stop trying to fit into someone else's box and take the stress that you have trying to be someone else and put it on the Lord and say, God, I want you to show me who I am called to be. And trust that He will. Ask God. Inward reflection, outward service, upward prayer. And it's funny because we do this with so many other things in our lives, especially college students. Like I've I talked to a lot of college students, obviously, and you guys love to make people let people know like what your Enneagram type is. You love to let people know, oh, my star sign is this, and that's why you made that terrible decision. Some of you just don't have, you just make bad choices. Stop putting it on your star sign. Um we love to apply this to everything else, or like our generation, and I'm guilty of this as well. We all have seen those millennial core memes. Y'all seen those memes? Those are hilarious. We're like, I could never be like that generation, because my generation is defined by this. We do this with so many other things, but then we're ignorant to how we're called to operate in the Lord, which gives us the most fruit and the most abundant way of life. And so if you know everything about your personality outside of the Lord, why would you not invite the Lord in to know everything about who you are within him? Don't just settle for knowing your personality. Know how the Lord called you to move and operate. And like I said, we can ask the Lord about these things. Matthew 7, 7 through 8 says this. This is one of my favorite verses. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives. And the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be open. This is Jesus talking here. Jesus is chosen. Challenging these people. Ask me and I will give. Believe in faith and I will show you the answers. And so all we have to do is be willing to ask and surrender ourselves over. And I just know so many of you feel as if you are not a contributor to the kingdom of God because of how God made you. And that makes me so sad because that is not how God sees you in any way, shape, or form. You can you have an opportunity to contribute to the kingdom of God, whether you feel it or not. God made you. Some of you feel like you're missing something. And it may just be you don't know what gift you have. And these are all inward indicators of invitations to more in Jesus. Don't just settle for salvation. Don't just settle and stop there. Begin figuring out how I can contribute to the kingdom of God? What is my call in this? I mean, to tie all this back to Desmond Doss and Hacksaw Ridge, Desmond didn't come from a family of means, like I said. He wasn't a star soldier. He was a simple man. And what allowed Desmond, a simple man, to be used mightily by God was his willingness to just say, One more, Lord. One more, Lord. Over and over, one more, Lord. In other words, God, if you are willing to continue to use me, I will be used for your glory. God, if you are willing to use me as your vessel, I will be used for your glory. You see, all gifts, whether they fill stadiums or whether they fill spreadsheets, require humility. Every single gift requires humility. And if you are a humble vessel who just opens yourself up and you're just willing to say, Whatever you need, Lord, I am here. Whatever you need, send me. You will do miraculous, amazing things for the Lord. And it may not fill the stadiums in the way you think, but you will do amazing things even if you don't see it that way. Because here's the thing when you get to the gate of heaven, the things that you thought nobody saw, the things that you thought were forgotten, that nobody celebrated, God will look down at you specifically and say, Well done, my good and faithful servant. Because of the gifts that you have and what you did in secret, God will look at you and say, Well done, my good and faithful servant. You are faithful with what I gave to you. And so we can trust a God like that. So with all that in mind, here's how this is gonna work. I'm gonna go over a bunch of spiritual gifts, and this is gonna be an information heavy section. I'm just like lecturing like I'm in a New Testament class right here. This is an information heavy section. So have your pens, notebooks, whatever you need. Take pictures of the screen when the things come up as you need it. And I'm just gonna go over these spiritual gifts. Like this is the feedback I got of how you guys wanted it, so this is how we're gonna do it. We're just gonna go over the spiritual gifts. And then I'm gonna define it. I'm gonna show you where it is in scripture, and then if I have a story or an experience with that gift, I'll go over that as well. So everything will be on the screen behind me. Um we're gonna breeze through these. I know we usually hold our Bibles up, but I don't really have a base passage for this. Um, but if you need to go back and do your own research, look at these three passages. I think I have them on screen. 1 Corinthians 12. Do we have that slide? If you need to take a picture of this, this is a couple chapters that mainly talk about spiritual gifts. So if you need to go back and do your own research, go and look at those passages. That's where I pulled a lot of these from. So we're just gonna breeze through these, okay? Y'all ready? Y'all ready? Sweet. All right. First and foremost, the gift of serving, otherwise known as helps. This comes from 1 Corinthians 12, 28. I'm not gonna read the verse because that would take a long time, and I have five minutes left. So you can look up that verse on your own. Basically, what this means is a special ability to come alongside others and support them or lift them up from a place of need. We all know people who are really great at this. They're really good at lifting other people up and just caring for other people. I would say your small group leaders have this gift. So if you have never thanked them, thank them. Because here's the truth: they're giving up time with their husbands or wives, they're giving up time with their kids, they're giving up time to just chillax at home and watch the final four like I wish I was doing right now. I'm just kidding. Um, I'm just joking. Um, they're giving up their time to come and serve you because they care about you. And their heart lies in this idea that they feel like the Lord has equipped them to serve the next generation. And so your small group leaders could be an example of someone having the supernatural ability of helping or serving. Next is the gift of faith. This comes from 1 Corinthians 12, 9. Spiritual gift of faith is not to be confused with saving faith. All Christians have been given saving faith. We learn this from Ephesians, but not all receive the special gift of faith. The gift of faith is an unusual confidence in the Lord's proud power and promises that inspires others to trust him. Y'all ever know those people who it's just like they're going through crazy stuff and they're just like, God is good all the time. You know, all the time, God is good. These are people who have the supernatural gift of faith. I'll be first to admit I do not have this gift. This is something that I'm a very logical person. I'm like A plus B equals C, like that type of thing. And so people with the supernatural gift of faith, they just have this radical trust in the Lord. I know for a fact this is my mom. My mom was here last week. If you didn't get to meet her, that woman has been through hell and back and not batted an eye. Um, she's been divorced twice, been through crazy stuff, almost lost her house, insane stuff. And she would just be like, God's gonna take care of us. God's gonna take care of us. And I'd be like, You are literally insane. We're about to be homeless right now. And she's like, hey, God is good. And so that's just like a prime example of the supernatural ability of faith to just trust the Lord in everything that we're doing. Trust the Lord no matter what's going on. We just have faith that the Lord is always gonna pull through. Next is the supernatural or spiritual gift of leading. This comes from Romans 12, 8. This is the spirit-given capacity to cast vision, organize people, and move others towards God's purpose. Now, there's a uh temptation here to think this is specifically just like pastoring. Those are two entirely different things. Someone can be a great leader but not have the gift of pastoring. Someone can be a great leader, but not have the gift of teaching. The Holy Spirit gives the spiritual gift of leadership to people in the church to care for God's people and lead them into deeper relationships with Christ and with each other. They base their success on how well they help others succeed in their suit in their spiritual walk with Jesus. They are able to accomplish many different tasks and objectives as they lead, but they will always lead relationally and with a deep concern for those around them. These are just strong leader people. If you ever get the chance, there's someone on staff here whose name's Pastor Eric. Eric is incredible. And I'll never forget the first time I met Eric. I was interviewing literally almost a year ago or over a year ago. Um I was backstage when I was interviewing, and I walk up to Eric, shake his hand, I'm like, hey, so what do you do here? And he's like, My calling is to be second in command and make sure the man standing on the stage is fully equipped to do his job. Eric is just a phenomenal leader. If you don't know, he literally runs a leadership organization that's used by over like 600 churches across America. He just is amazing at leading and developing people. And so he, without a shadow of a doubt, has the spiritual gift of leadership. And here's the thing is that dude doesn't even like preaching. He could care less if he ever stands on a stage. He just wants to lead people. And so that's someone with the spiritual gift of leadership. Next is the gift of mercy. This comes from Romans 12 8. This is the concern for the physical as well as the spiritual need of those who are hurting. Um, those are people who are covered by the gift of mercy. So those with this gift have great empathy. Like I talked about earlier, if you like feel this mercy towards kids who are going crazy and things like that. It's just this great empathy towards people in their sufferings and their tribe, their trials. They're able to come alongside people for extended periods of time and just be in their presence and just care for and love for people. Their heart breaks as other people's heart breaks. They're a part of their healing process. They are the hands and feet of Jesus. Next is the gift of exhortation. Exhortation comes from Romans 12, 8. And that means to exhort, call upon, encourage, and strengthen others. The Spirit of God gives this gift to people in the church to strengthen and encourage people who are wavering in their faith. They're just called to lift people up. And I know as someone who's a drastic overthinker like myself, I need people like this in my life, or I would be suffering because I'm such a self-critic of myself. And so when there's people in my life who, no matter what, they're always uplifting and encouraging my heart and saying, like, Zach, you've got this. God is doing something incredible with you. I know we all have people in our lives who, like, no matter what's going on, they just have the supernatural ability to always say the right thing in the right moment, to speak directly to your heart. That's this example of the spiritual gift of exhortation. Next is the spiritual gift of giving. This comes from Romans 12 8, the spirit-driven desire and ability to give resources generously and joyfully to advance God's work. So some people they just have this supernatural ability to give things away without any worry or fear. I know I don't have this gift either. I know for me, like giving, I struggle trusting that the Lord is going to take care of me financially at times. But some people just have this supernatural gift to just give everything away to the Lord and not really bat an eye. I don't know how to explain it, they just have it. And so that's an example of the supernatural gift of giving. All right, two more. Next is the gift of administration. This comes from 1 Corinthians 12, 28. This is the ability for certain Christians to organize, direct, implement plans, to lead others in the various ministries of the church. These people are the backbone of ministry. We would not be able to function without them. Amber, wherever she's at, she is our administrator, she has this gift for the collective. I said it earlier. She is my administrator, she holds this ministry up in ways that y'all don't even know about. Or yeah, wherever, I don't know where she's at. But uh also Kim and Nicole, they're on staff here. They run all of our administrative work for the for the for the church. They're scheduling events, they're booking rooms, they're making sure all the details are taken care of. Pastor Chelsea, all those people, they have this gift. And here's the crazy thing is like people like this could not be more opposite than me, because I'm like such a vision guy, and they're like, I love making spreadsheets. I'm like, wow, that's amazing. I'm so glad you love that. I don't. Um, but I just love how the Lord uniquely wires people. These people are the backbone of ministry. Truly, we could not do anything that we do without them. All of our follow-up procedures here at the collective, anytime you scan a QR code on the back of a C, all those go through people who are gifted with this supernatural ability. Last is the gift of apostleship, which is Ephesians 4, 11. This is the ability to pioneer new ministries, plant churches, build spiritual foundations in new places. Now, this gift is oftentimes debated because it's kind of shifted since the old since the New Testament times. A lot of people think this gift has ended. I don't really see it that way, and there's a lot of theologians who don't see it that way. I really think this is just someone with the ability and gift to witness for Jesus. So think about your missionaries who are going into school systems, teaching students about Jesus, or who are flying overseas to countries they've never been, that are completely war-torn, and they're just proclaiming the name of Jesus all over those spaces. Or I moved here from Texas and I worked with a guy and he had planted over 600 churches. And he had this gift, like without a shadow of a doubt. His, he didn't want to stand on the stage, he just wanted to help pastors step in and be able to proclaim the name of Jesus in their city. So that's an example of the gift of apostleship. So those are all of our gifts. I know that's super kind of lectionary. I can see some of you are like falling asleep right now. Come back next week, it'll be even more exciting. I'll yell at you a little bit more. But all these things are important because I want you guys to be able to walk in confidence with the Lord. Like I want you to feel like you contribute something to the body of Christ, and you're not just relying on all these other people to contribute while you just stand on the sidelines. So I want you to be able to take these results from your supernatural spiritual gifts test and learn to walk them out in community. Walk them out together with the person to your left or to your right. And here's my challenge: for those of you who may have a gift or feel a burning in your life, like a call to ministry or something that may get you on the stage, learn to humble yourself enough to lift up someone who may never step on the stage. Learn to humble your heart to lift up and celebrate somebody who may not have a gift that looks exactly like yours. For all my people who have the gifts of visions and prophecy and all those things, those are amazing things. I love those gifts. Learn to lift up people who have gifts that may not often speak directly to the heart of somebody else. Learn to lift up and celebrate people who have gifts that may not be able to just crazily know somebody's past and share what the Lord has for them in that moment. Learn to lift those people up and not just surround yourself with people who look and act and think and do exactly like you do. Because here's the thing: if we come to church and we walk away and we're all just the hands of Jesus, we have failed. We can't save anybody if we're just all hands of Jesus. We are called to be a body of believers. So learn to celebrate everybody, no matter if they have a gift that you think is for you or not. And just remember inward reflection, outward service, upward prayer. Don't take when you take this test, don't take these results as just like straight gospel and like draw hard lines in the sand and say, this is it. Instead, take this test and just learn, like I said, lift it up in prayer, walk it out in community, reflect on how it affects your heart, how it speaks to you personally. And finally, I just want all of us to remember that all of these things are good things. They're not given as a means of comparison or judgment. The only reason we have these things is because we serve a God who is so good that he went to a cross and died on our behalf. The man who had all these gifts, walked them out perfectly, walked in unison with other believers, who never sinned against anybody, took up the cross on our behalf and died so that we could experience more of him. And so, in the midst of this process, just learn to thank Jesus that he's even given you the ability to learn more about how you relate to him. Thank Jesus that he died on the cross for you to be able to step into more of him and never forget that this was all because of Jesus. Everything we do. I love these things, they're awesome. I love spiritual gifts. I've come a long way in understanding them. But if I miss for a second that this is rooted in the cross, if I think for a second that it's about me and what I can do for other people, then I've missed it. This is all about celebrating and lifting up the name of Jesus. Okay? All right. Well, that's all I got for you guys, okay? So here's how it's gonna work. We're not really gonna do a confession moment. If you need to confess, we're gonna do that in small groups if you need it. But I'm just gonna pray. We're gonna go to small groups and we're gonna take these spiritual gifts tests, and it's gonna be awesome. So if you have any, hey, if you like need to talk about these things, I'm available. You can come talk to me about all these things. If you're confused, misunderstood, any of that, come talk to me if you need to. But I'm gonna pray and we're gonna dismiss the small groups, all right? Everyone, bow your heads and close your eyes, please. God, thank you for these amazing students. God, thank you that you have given them supernatural gifts to be able to understand you more. And so, God, I just pray for these students that they will encounter you in a new way tonight. God, I pray for excitement in small groups as they discover more about themselves. God, I pray that they feel a new wave of just joy as they discover, wow, I didn't know that about myself, or that's something new I didn't understand before. God, I just pray that they can feel the joy of that and that they can celebrate with their brothers and sisters in Christ as well. And God, I just pray that in all of this they keep their eyes rooted on the cross. That in everything they do, they just say, focused on the cross and remember that it is all because of you that we get to do any of this. That we get to be welcomed into the kingdom of God. So, Father God, we love you, we worship you in your holy almighty name. Amen.