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Mariners Church Weekend Messages
January 25 - What about those crazy spiritual gifts? - Eric Geiger
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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message podcast. Inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes.
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So good to have you today. I'm glad you're with us. If we haven't met, my name is Eric. The end of my senior year in high school, before I went off to college, I worked construction for that whole summer. I was a brand new Christian. I had come to faith going into my senior year, so had been a Christian a bit less than a year. There were about 300 guys on the construction job site. This was in South Louisiana, the New Orleans area. And four of us claimed to be Christian, or at least four of us let people know that we were following after Jesus. There was a Bible study that took place in the tool room every day with me and Duke and Denny and Gary. It was the tool room, but people who made fun of us for going called the chapel. Those guys are going to the chapel. They're going to the chapel. And so we would go to the chapel and read the scripture and pray. And this was the first time in my life that I heard people speaking in tongues or praying in tongues. I had never heard it before. And in Duke, Denny and Gary, all three of them would pray in tongues, speak in tongues. And it was new for me. But I wasn't intimidated because these guys were awesome. I mean, I admire these guys so much. They loved Jesus. They. They had joy and fulfillment in their life. They believed that God put them on that construction job site to serve other people and to bless other people. They adored their wives, they bragged on their kids. I mean, these were men who I wanted to be like, but I had never spoken in tongues. And I would hear them. And one of them asked me after a Bible study session, he said, do you have the gift? And I knew what he was talking about. And I said, no, I don't. I don't think so. I've never spoken in tongues. And he said, you should pray for it. You should seek it and desire it. And so at night that summer, many nights, as I was falling asleep, exhausted from work and construction, I asked God to be able to speak in tongues. I asked God to be able to pray in tongues. Later in that summer, I was invited by a friend from high school, and he was one of the few Christians at my public high school in the New Orleans area. I became a Christian going into my senior year. This guy had walked with Jesus all throughout high school. So I respected him a Ton of. We were friends. My senior year, he asked me to go to a revival service with him at a Pentecostal church. He was Pentecostal. And so it was my first time ever going to Pentecostal Church. And I was there. And the preacher who's standing like, where I'm standing at the end of his message was like, if you want more of God in your life, you come forward. I had been a Christian less than a year. I'm like, I want more of God, Yes. I want anything that I don't have from God. I want. I want everything that God has for me. And so I walked down front and I stood down front. There's like 10 or 15 of us there. He said, we're gonna pray that you will be filled with the Spirit and evidenced by you speaking in tongues. So this guy, this older man, not the one speaking like an usher down front, he puts both hands on my head, and he asked me to lift up my hands, which I do, and he starts speaking in tongues over me. And then he asked me to repeat after him. And so in this moment, I'm praying, and it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen for me. And I felt awkward, and. And after a couple moments, I went back to my seat. So early in the summer, I wanted this gift. I appreciated this gift. And then at the end of the summer, I was made very apprehensive of this. What about those crazy spiritual gifts? Is the question we're putting on the table this weekend in our teaching series, where we answer questions that you have about faith, God and life. And some of you right now are like, what. What is happening? What is this? And so if you are new to the Christian faith, let me just explain what we believe. This. This shouldn't be awkward at all, because I want you to understand that we as Christians believe in the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, one God, three persons. God the Father loves you. He created you. He made you in his image. He's always loved you. He set his love on you before you were even born. He fashioned you while you were in your mother's womb. He. And then God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus to this world to die on a cross to remove all of your sin and your shame. If you believe in Jesus, then God the Spirit moves into your life. Some of you are brand new to the Christian faith. Like, in the last couple of weeks, you have placed your faith in Jesus, and you may not have understood that this was happening, but when you believed in Jesus, the moment you did, God the Spirit moved into your life. This is only good news for you. This is not a scary thing. This is great news for you. God the Spirit moving into your life means you are never alone. He's always with you. Wherever you go, he goes. You have God the Spirit living within you. You've been marked with a seal. The promised Holy Spirit. He's within you. This is all good news. This is good. And when the Spirit moved into your life, he brought you a spiritual gift. Some of you, you didn't. This is the first time you're hearing this. It's cool. I was brand new as well. What is the spiritual gift? Is it the same as an ability? I know I'm good at some things, kind of, but it's different. You have gifts and abilities that talents that you were given at your physical birth. And you've been good at things throughout your life. But a spiritual gift happened at your second birth, when you were born again, and this was supernaturally given to you. You have a gift. You may not know what your gift is yet, but you have a gift. In fact, the scripture says this about those of us who are Christians. 1 Peter 4:10. Just as each one has received a gift, so each one means you has received a gift. Use it to serve others. So your gift is not really about making you feel awesome, although it feels awesome to use your gift. The gift is really about serving others as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Okay, so far, everything I've shared, all Christians agree with this. But then there's debate among Christians among people who love Jesus and believe the Bible. Okay, what about those sign gifts? So scholars look at all the spiritual gifts listed in Scripture, and they put them in three categories. There's speaking gifts, serving gifts, and sign gifts. Nobody debates the speaking and serving gifts like everyone believes. There's teaching and wisdom and leadership and hospitality and mercy and administration, and everyone believes those are still alive today. The sign gift category, there's debate among Christians. Some Christians believe those gifts are still alive, and some people believe those gifts have ceased. Let me explain how different Christians view this. In fact, we even have these different viewpoints in the room today. And these are people who love Jesus, but they have a different perspective. All right, so there is, like, essentially two perspectives. Broadly. There's a cessationist viewpoint and a continuationist viewpoint. And one thing you can tell right now is I do not have the spiritual gift of handwriting. There's cessationists. My gosh, that's the worst. The Entire day that it's been. Can everybody read? You gotta know what I'm saying, right? Are you with me? All right, okay. You're smart only. Cause you said it, right? Awesome. So you can see the root word here. People who are cessationists believe the gifts have ceased. And continuationists believe that they have continued. So cessationists, and we have, some of you are cessationists, these people love Jesus and they love the Bible and they believe once the Bible is complete, we don't need the sign gifts anymore. Like we needed them before the Bible was complete because we needed the gift of prophecy. Cause we didn't have a completed word. We needed the gift of tongues to go to different people groups. We needed that. But now that the Scripture is complete, then the gifts have ceased. A continuationist though believes no, all of the gifts we read about em in Scripture, they're still operational. And so like, is there a verse that helps us? Well, let me show you a verse that these two groups believe is from God. This is the Bible, but they have a different interpretation of the verse. This is a famous passage. 1 Corinthians 13, 8, 10. Love never ends, but for prophecies they will come to an end. Tongues, they will cease for knowledge. As for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know in part what we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. Now let me show you how different groups read this. We see that at some point the gifts are going to come to an end. But when, when do they come to an end? When the perfect comes. So a cessationist believes that this is when the word was complete. So a cessationist believes the perfect has already come, that this was written before the word was complete. But now that the Word is complete, the perfect has come and those gifts are no longer necessary. A continuationist believes that this, the perfect comes, refers to when Christ returns. And this has not yet happened. And so when Christ returns, then we won't need those gifts. You understand? The two different perspectives. So these are both like godly people who believe the scripture. They just have a different view on these gifts. And so you may be asking, so like, where's mariners? Which one are we? Though we respect both viewpoints, we have a position and our position is the continuationist position. We believe that God has given gifts to all who belong to him and that the sign gifts are still actionable, operational, available today. Now continuationists, you know this. The longer you're a Christian, there's at least three different camps of continuationists. And this is probably more of a spectrum than clean categories. But you would have open but available, meaning somebody who says, I believe when I read the scripture that these gifts are still available today. But I've seen some abuses or some counterfeits. So I'm cautious. I'm sorry. I said wrong. This. This is my seventh time preaching. Give me a little grace, yo. All right. Open but cautious. They're open but cautious. That's Phil's cautious. Um, then we have charismatic. Some of you grew up in a charismatic background. Raise your hand if you had a charismatic upbringing. Raise your hand. Raise both hands. Cause you're comfortable. You're totally comfortable. And I love that you're here. Come on. We want some charismatics in this worship service. They. All right, and then there is. This would be Pentecostal. Now, you know this. In all of life right now, labels are not always helpful because you don't know what someone means when they give you the label. So let me define open but cautious would. Would mean that these people believe all of the gifts are available. Charismatic is these. It's normative. We expect that those gifts are normal in the church. That's normative. Pentecostal is normal for every Christian. Now, I do have a caution in this. In this definition right here, I do have a caution. I am cautious of this category because I never want you to be made to feel as if you don't have God. If you don't have a sign gift. The sign that you belong to God is not that you have a sign gift. The sign that you belong to God is that you believe in Jesus. You believe in Jesus. You belong to him. I never want you to be made to feel less than if you don't have a specific gift. So where's all the pastors at our church? Many of us are open but cautious, and many of us are charismatic. In fact, on this week's if I Had More Time podcast, JT who leads our outdoor worship service, he's hosting that out there now. He and I talk. I am in the open but cautious category. He'd be in the charismatic category. But we have fun. We don't think less of each other. We're charitable towards one another. I'm in the open but cautious category. Honestly, I have seen some abuses. You may ask. So did you ever get the gift of tongues when you prayed for it all summer? I never did. I've never spoken in tongues. JT on the other hand, he does. And so we have a conversation About. We're both continuationists. We both believe the sign gifts are still available today. But we. We're different on the spectrum, but we. We are kind and charitable to one another. And we. This is not a thing to fight about. This is. I'm grateful for J.T. in my life. If you struggle with happiness and joy in your life, you need some charismatic friends. Charismatics will bring joy into your life. And we want charismatics in our church. They add so much value. And so. All right, is this helpful so far? All right, let me then give you a definition of each of these sign gifts. So first, tongues. The word for tongues in the original language is glossalia. It's the word that we get glossary from. It means languages. So here's the definition for the gift of tongues. It's the supernatural ability to speak in a language unfamiliar to the speaker or mysteriously in the spirit. The gift of tongues is for prayer and praise or for prophecy with their. With an interpreter. The Apostle Paul, who wrote half the New Testament, he had the gift of tongues. This is what he said. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. A little bit of a brag there in the Bible. A little bit of a brag. Yet in the church, I would rather speak five words with my understanding in order to teach others also than 10,000 words in a tongue. So clearly, the Apostle Paul, though he spoke in tongues, gave a caution for speaking in tongues in the gathering because no one would understand him. He says, in the gathering, I'd rather speak five words in a tongue that people understand. So why did he speak in tongues? What was the whole point of him speaking in tongues? He wrote this in verse four. The person who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. He says, I speak in a tongue so that I am edified, so that I am built up. And I'm so glad that the Apostle Paul did, because as he grew, he wrote these letters that inspired us and really changed the world. And so the Apostle Paul practiced the spiritual gift of. But he says, I would rather in a gathering there be prophecy. Which brings us to the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy is the supernatural ability to speak words to someone that the Holy Spirit has sovereignly and spontaneously revealed. So some have asked Eric, is what you're doing prophecy? It's not, because this is not spontaneous. I prepared 25 hours for this message. It's not spontaneous. 25. Yeah. Worked hard on it. Now there are moments when I'm preaching that the Spirit does lead me to say something that I only say in one service. There'll be things I say at the 11:30 service that I don't say at any other service. And sometimes I don't even know why, but the spirit has prompted me to say something, and I say it. And then on the patio after, somebody will say that thing that you said. Oh, my gosh, I've been praying and wrestling with that. That was exactly for me. Now, sometimes when I say something, it's not from the spirit, or sometimes I'm tempted to say something that's just my quirkiness. A couple of weeks ago, like, two weeks ago, think of the 10am Three guys right there stood up and left at the same time. And I lit. It was almost out. Almost was like, oh, that's so cute, you three guys going to the potty at the same time. I don't even know where that came from. That was not the Holy Spirit. That was me. That was me. And by God's grace, I pulled it back in and I didn't say it. You have no idea. Like, sometimes in my head as I'm talking, there's a conversation going on in my head right. Right now. And so you want to pray that Eric only speaks what the spirit tells him to say, because I can get in the way and mess up this whole thing. Now, I have benefited from prophecy. A couple years ago, I was in the Middle east, and there was a decision I was wrestling with for the future of our church, the direction of our church. I'd been praying for months, and one of our church partners in the Middle east pulled me aside, put his hands on my shoulders, and said, eric, man, I really sense that God wants me to share this with you. And in, like, 30, 45 seconds, he shared something with me that as he was sharing, I was like, the spirit of the living God is alive and speaking right now. Cause I knew that he was speaking to me through this brother. And so I'm really thankful for the gift of prophecy. All right? The gift of healing. This is how we define the gift of healing, okay? Tongues is communion with God. Prophecy is communication from God to another. So tongues, communion with God. Prophecy, communication from God to another. Healing is compassion from God. Now, we would define the gift of healing as divine intervention resulting in spiritual or physical restoration. Now, when we read this scripture, we don't get the sense that there's this one person who has the gift of healing as much as we believe that God gives gifts of healings. It's actually plural in the original language. Look at 1 Corinthians 12, verse 9, that there's gifts of healings in the parentheses is the original language by the one spirit. So that God sovereignly at times gives gifts of healings through different people. So we don't believe there's one person we don't have. Hey, you need to be healed. Go see Rob. We got Rob. He can heal you. He's in the back. Go see Rob. Anybody needs go see Rob. Rob, raise your hand, go see Rob. We don't have Rob. We don't have that guy. But we do believe that God heals people in our church. It's very routine at our church for people to be healed. Normal. It happens. So there are people who've come to me who had really severe cancer scans, and the doctors gave a devastating prognosis. And they in desperation, come to our elder prayer room at the end of service and they ask God to. For healing. And elders gather around them and anoint them with oil. And this is. I've heard this regularly. Someone will go back to the doctor, come back a week or two later and say, the doctor is blown away. I am cancer free. The scans are clear, Completely clear. God brings healings. I've been your pastor for seven and a half years. In seven and a half years, I've had at least a dozen people tell me that. My wife and I, or my husband and I, we lived with infertility for three or for four years. And in desperation, one day we went to the prayer wall or we went to the elder prayer and. And someone prayed over us and God opened the womb. In fact, I shared that at the 10 o' clock service. In between the 10 and 11:30, I'm hanging out on the patio. I'm talking. This little girl comes up to tell me, hi. Her name's Evelyn. She's four years old. She's just so adorable. Man, I love that stage of being. I would do that stage all over again as a dad. It's so fun. I'm talking to Evelyn. Her dad comes up and says, she's one that was prayed over here. Here. We were infertile and God gave her as a gift. That's why I named her Evelyn. Evelyn. She's life. I knelt down, I said, evelyn, do you know, Evelyn, that you are a gift to us? She's like, I know. I mean, so beautiful. Oh, my gosh. Ah, it was awesome. That just happened. So my heart's kind of full. There are people who have told me that I was an alcoholic. I met Jesus here I met. I met His Grace here. And I still wrestled with my alcoholism. I still craved the bottle, and I was tired of it. And one day I went to the prayer wall or I went to the elder prayer room, and I just begged God to heal me. And I have never craved a drink since. God just delivered me. He brought healing to me. So we believe that God still works in those ways. That's why we are continuationists, that the Spirit still works, works through people in those ways. So let me give you five exhortations for all of us. Number one, don't stifle the spirit. I know if you've seen some abuses or some counterfeits that you can have a sense of, I don't know, I get nervous when people talk about those sign gifts. But I don't want you ever to be afraid of the Holy Spirit. You believe as a Christian in God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. I don't want your faith to be only God the Father and God the Son. I want you to enjoy the Holy Spirit. I want you not to stifle the Spirit. This is from the Scripture, 1st Thessalonians 5, verse 19. Don't stifle the Spirit. Don't despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good. My prayer for you as we've moved into this weekend is that you will be awakened in this gathering to not stifle the spirit of the living God. That you will remember the that the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead now lives in you if you belong to him. And that when we gather, you will welcome the Holy Spirit's work in your life, that you will long for the Spirit to move, that when we gather, that you will be filled with a sense of expectation that God is gonna do something gracious in my life, that he's gonna speak to me, that he's gonna teach me. That you wouldn't show up at church and just check it off your list. That you wouldn't come here and just play church, but that you would want to meet with the spirit of the living God in this place. That you would believe that there's people who are gonna go and receive prayer. They're gonna go to the elder prayer room. There's people that are gonna be healed today. That you're gonna believe that people are gonna be set free, that God is gonna speak to you, that you would long to meet with the spirit of the living God. So don't stifle the spirit. At the same time, the verse says to test the prophecies. The longer you live as a Christian, the more likely that somebody's gonna give you a word that they say is from God that's not really from God. This happens often to me, I think, partly because of my position. It feels like at times that some will try to manipulate me to say something that they want me to say by saying, you know, God really told me that you should say this. According to the scripture, I should test. I shouldn't despise prophecies, but I should test the prophecies. So how do I test the prophecy? Well, here's how I've tested. Here's how I've Learned in my 30 years of walking with Jesus. I've spent more time with Jesus than any person in the world. And so I've learned his voice in my life. I've learned that when someone gives me a prophetic word, that if I'm walking with him, the prophetic word is going to confirm where he's leading me. It's never going to bring confusion to where he's leading me. So if someone has a word for you and it brings confusion to you, it's not from him. And for sure you know that the word's not from him if it contradicts what he's already said in his Scripture. If someone says to you, here's what I believe for your life, and it goes against the Scripture. It's not from God, because God will never speak against his own word. He will never violate his own word. And so you test what someone tells you with the Scripture. All right? So number one, don't despise the Spirit or stifle the Spirit. Number two, be filled with the Spirit. Okay, I want to teach you two phrases that you'll hear the longer you are a Christian. And I don't want you to be afraid of either phrase because they're both in the Bible, baptized by the Spirit. Some people are nervous by that phrase because someone may say to you, have you been baptized by the Spirit? And you're like, I don't. I don't know if I have. What does that mean? And some have misused the phrase to say, you've only been baptized by the Spirit if you do a sign gift. That's not what the Scripture teaches. The Apostle Paul writes in First Corinthians 12, for just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many are one, so also is Christ. For we were all baptized, so notice we were all this is to all who are Christians. We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body. Here's what the apostle Paul says. When you became a Christian, you became a part of the body of Christ. You were baptized by the Spirit. So when were you baptized by the Spirit? Listen. When you became a Christian, when you believed in Jesus, the Spirit baptized me. Baptized means immerse the Spirit of God. Immersed your whole life, you were washed clean by the sacrifice of Jesus. You were washed by the Spirit. All your sin and shame is gone. When you believed in him, you were baptized by the Spirit. The Spirit of God now owns you, lives with you. You. You are his forever. You were baptized by the Spirit. It's not a phrase you should be afraid of. It's a phrase you should be grateful for. And if you've believed in him, you were baptized by Him. Now, what about filled with the Spirit? It's another verse. The Scripture says, in Ephesians 5:18, don't get drunk on wine, but be filled with the Spirit. What is filled with the Spirit mean? Let me illustrate this way. This is you before you became a Christian. You're like the 2% milk, okay? And this is. I've been working hard on this all week. Not Hershey's, sir, but Holy Spirit. All right, this is Holy Spirit. Come on, come on, come on. This is Holy Spirit. So this is you before you became a Christian. If you are not a Christian, you don't have the Holy Spirit. In fact, one of the reasons that I think it's ridiculous that people get frustrated with people who are not Christians for not living like Christians is they can't. They don't have the Holy Spirit. You don't display the fruit of God in your life until you have the Holy Spirit. So, like, we should be super patient and compassionate towards those who are not Christian because they don't have the Holy Spirit yet. But when you believe in Jesus, the moment you are his, the Spirit of God moves into your life. Hang with me. It's going to be good. Being filled with the Spirit does not mean you get more Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit means the Holy Spirit gets more of you. Being filled with the Spirit means so. Ephesians 5:18. Don't get drunk on wine. Be filled with the Spirit. When you're drunk on wine, you're controlled by what you drink. Instead, be controlled, filled by the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit means you give control and ownership of every part of your life to the Spirit that the Spirit is stirred up continually in your life. We believe in One baptism of the Spirit that happened when you became a Christian. But continual filling. You're to be continually filled, constantly handing over every area of your life to his leadership and ownership. You're giving him your career, your finances, your relationships. You're giving him your goals, your dreams, everything. You're letting him be stirred up in your life, be continually filled by the Spirit so he has access and control over everything. And when you do, life tastes so much better. It's so much better. Okay, I gotta move really fast. Three more. Number three. Care more about spiritual fruit than spiritual gifts. There's a lot of fascination with spiritual gifts, but God actually cares more about your spiritual fruit than your spiritual gifts. In fact, you know this. You've seen a lot of people who are gifted who make an absolute mess of their life because their competence outpaces their character, because their gifting outpaces the grace of God at work in their life. Spiritual gifting is external. And your external gift will look different perhaps than my external gift. But spiritual fruit is internal. And spiritual fruit looks the same for every Christian. Galatians 5, 22 and 23 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. This is what the fruit of the Spirit's work in our lives looks like. Be fascinated with this, with the Spirit. Control every part of you. John Stott said, the evidence of the Spirit's fullness is not the exercise of his gifts, but the ripening of his fruit. And so allow the Spirit to give you fruit in your life. All right, number four. Use your gifts wisely now, because we're talking about sign gifts this weekend. I've been here seven and a half years. I've never shared this. This is like two minutes of me giving some instruction to you who have the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy. I'm grateful you have those gifts. Our church needs your gifts. But I want you to use your gifts wisely. If you have the gift of prophecy, this means you hear from God a word for someone else. I encourage you. I know this about you. You want to use your gift in a way that adds clarity and not confusion to people. So here's what I encourage you to do. Don't go to someone and say, the Lord told me this for you, or the Lord said, you should do this. I know you don't mean this, but you can unintentionally give the impression that you are equating your word with God's word. Much better. Is if you say this something like this. I have sensed from God that I should share this with you. But, I mean, it's possible that I'm not saying it in the exact right way, but I want to share this with you because he's impressed this on me to share with you. But you spent time with him and you pray about it and you test it. That allows you to have a humble posture. You're sharing what God has called you to share, but you're doing it in a way that doesn't send a signal that you believe your word is equal to God's word. If you have the gift of tongues. I have many friends who have the gift of tongues in our church. According to the scripture, I want you to use your gift of tongues. But the apostle Paul says he uses it so that he is edified. And in the gathering, he. He would rather speak five words that everyone understands than 10,000 in tongues. So use your gift of tongues. But because we don't provide an interpreter in our worship services, use your gift in your private prayer time and praise time with God. Okay, Number five. Serve to discover your gifts. Anytime we talk about spiritual gifts, I've taught on spiritual gifts, people are fascinated. And you should be. I mean, this is thrilling. Wait a second, Eric. You're saying that the God of the universe wants to use me? He delights in using you. He loves to use you. He has a blast using you. Get this. He doesn't need you for anything, but he loves to partner with you. This is awesome. The God who created everything wants to work through you. And so when people hear about their spiritual gifts, they're blown away. I wanna know what my gift is. And so many times people will ask chatgpt, give me a test so I can identify my spiritual gift. Or they'll google, how do I find my spiritual gift? There are a lot. If you do that, you'll find assessments and tests, spiritual gift tests, online. And those can be helpful. But I do want you to understand. Listen, the Bible does not give you an assessment. The Bible gives you a command to serve. And if you will obey the command to serve as you serve, you will discover what your spiritual gift is. The way for you to learn what your gift is is just to throw yourself in to serving. Which is why we're going to end our service today, helping you find a place to serve. When you came in today, you were handed two handouts. We tried to hand them to you. Some of you are like, I don't want that. That's your fault, man. It's your fault. That wasn't a word from God. That was just me just now. That was just me. This one right here. If you would fill out your information on the front side. Notice the backside. These are places where you can serve. Have places for you to serve in our weekend experience team. From guest services to production to worship. You can serve next gen kids, special needs ministry, junior high and high school. Be a group leader like we saw Matthew on that video we have serving with a Mariners community care and recovery or rooted. I talked to a guy in the patio in between services. He lost his son many years ago. And he said, eric, which one do you think would be good for me? He was telling me a story. I said, man, God met with you in your deep pain. We have people in our church who are in pain. You'd be great for this, man. You know, our church needs you and our church needs you. You have a gift that God's given you. Serve with operations Admin Support team, Bookstore Safety and medical. You can scan the QR code, you can fill this out. Drop it off with an usher on your way out. But also on the patio, we're gonna have people around tables. I would love to talk with you. A year after I graduated high school and a year after working construction with Duke, Denny and Gary, I went back to New Orleans where I grew up. And I was with my father. And he said, eric, do you want to stop by the church? There's like a men's event going on. You can maybe see some of the guys, you know. I said, yeah. So we stopped by. It was ending right as we pulled up and we walked towards the building. And everyone was leaving at that time. It's a small building and I saw Duke, Denny and Gary. I was like, dude, oh, man. I hugged those guys, man. I missed you guys. I loved the time that I had with you. Duke was kind of the leader of the group. He starts speaking, he's got tears coming down his face. He says, eric, you're not going to believe this, man. Since you left, we can't even fit in the tool room chapel anymore. We now meet in the cafeteria. Because so many guys on the job site have met Jesus. We can't even fit in the tool room. So awesome. These were guys that understood that the ultimate purpose of their gift was for other people. Even a gift like tongues, was for them to be equipped and edified to take the gospel to other people. You have a gift that God has given you and it's for others. Some of you have had the wrong impression of church you have thought, and you love your church, you love our church, but you have thought. This is a normal perception. So if this has been yours, I don't want you to feel badly. This would be totally logical to think this way. You perhaps think, I love that people are being ministered to. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna. I'm gonna give some money, and then they can pay pastors like Eric to minister to people. But you know, that's not how the scripture says the church is set up. You know, there's only one verse in the Bible that describes my job. It's Ephesians 4:11 through 13. And it says that the role of pastor teacher is to equip God's people for ministry. That my job's not to do the ministry, my job is to equip you to do ministry. And if I don't equip you to do ministry, you'll live your life thinking that your whole job is just to pay people like me to do ministry. Your job is to do ministry. You have a gift. Now mine is, too. Because I'm a Christian, my job's to do ministry. Not because I'm a pastor. My job's to do ministry. Because I'm a Christian, my job as a pastor is to equip all of us to do ministry. And if you don't find your gift and do ministry, you're gonna miss out on God working through you. I don't want you to miss out. So grab that sheet of paper and express interest in one of those areas. Let us help you just throw yourself in and get started. All right, Extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.
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Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the show notes or download the Mariners app at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it.