By the Mercies of God First B Jackson 2016-09-04 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- We start a minute early? I got five extra minutes in the sermon. Are y'all y'all ready? Alright, if you stand up and sing with us, we're going to start right here because he lives. Scott didn't even have time to get off the stage. Hymn number three fifty eight, if you wanna look in your hymnals and find your part because he lives, we can face tomorrow. God sent his son they call him Jesus an empty grave is there to prove my savior lives because he lives I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear is gone this child can face uncertain days because he lives because he lives I can face tomorrow because he lives. All fear is gone because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives and then one day I'll cross that river. I'll fight like final war with pain. All fear is gone because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he Amen. How about the old rugged cross? Y'all know that one? Let's sing the old rugged cross. It's hymn number three twenty seven. I like this one. You like this one? Okay, good. Good old hymns this morning. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown. For the dear lamb of God left his glory above to bear it to dark cavalry for it was on that old cross Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown. Last verse. To the old rugged cross, I will ever be true. It's shame and reproach gladly bear. Then he'll call me someday to my home far away where his glory forever I'll share I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I've got quite a few announcements today. This is the time of year where everything is starting up. So, we've got a few. There are lot of em in the bulletin. If you would like, there's a nursery available downstairs and the kids zero to five are welcome down there. There's a new nursing room too and then there's one more ad up there. It says, see Bailey Morley if you're able and willing to volunteer to help take care of the nursery. It increases the pool, the size of the pool of people that are taking care of them so people have to do it less often but if you'd like to, that's available. Old Bills Fun Run, do you all know what this is? The locals that are here probably know what it is. Outertoners might not. I'm going to invite up Chuck. We use the the old bills money that is given through Old Bills through the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. We use it at this church for our local benevolence fund and speaking of local benevolence, Chuck is right here. He is, you go ahead. Tell him. Hi, I'm Chuck from the Good Samaritan Mission. Every year about this time, I come around to tell you folks that there is a Good Samaritan mission here in town. You know, if we're we're not there unless if it wasn't for you guys, you know. We have people from the church that once a month, they cook a dinner down there. The support from the churches, the individual support from the churches is what keeps us in business. In the last, I I got there in January 2011 since I got there. We got a refrigerator and a walk in box over 100 square feet each. Got a brand new kitchen. We got a new roof on it. We got new paint on the side, new windows, new carpet, new everything. That building's almost brand new. And we've done that at a fraction of the cost. I know you guys are getting ready to do your kitchen here. Our kitchen bids came in at 330,000 and 270,000. Yours is about a 100,000 less than that. We got everything done in the kitchen except our floor for $60,000 and that's because of community members like you helping us out. So it's a wonderful thing. The building is wonderfully nice and it's nice to have a building to go to so you can go to work in the morning but that's not what we're about. It's about the people that are in the building. There's a guy, Jeremiah. Jeremiah is 26 years old right now. When Jeremiah was 14 years old, he started drinking and drugging. He lived on the reservation not too far from here and he came to town after when he's 26. After all that time, while he was on the reservation, he had was married, had two kids, got divorced because of his wonderful life he was leading, couldn't support anything, and he came now five months he's been at the mission clean and sober. Five months working, five months now he's supporting his kids back home. His mom says it's the first time. His boss over at Snow King took him to lunch and said, Jeremiah, I'm gonna put you in for employee of the quarter. And he says, Chuck, that's never happened to me before. You know, those are the kind of things why we do what we do to see a life change. The different programs for people to come in there. We've got 30 beds for men. We got five for women. We say that there's no children allowed at the mission but yet up in one of our rooms, we've got a lady with her little baby. She came in pregnant to the mission, was doing everything she could to move forward. So, now, we do have a little baby. Titus staying at the mission and a mommy that is being a good mommy, taking care of her kid in the way that she should take care of her kid. That's what they were there for. For Jeremiah's, for people like Rachel that need to get there, keep their baby, and have a place for them to stay. For people like Michael, our cook who who in last year made it possible for us to serve 16,000 meals to people in the community and people that we have in our in our building. 16,000 meals from Michael. Who is Michael? Michael came out of detox from the hospital and he's clean and sober now and he's our chef doing meals for other people. That's what it's all about. It's helping people to become what they're supposed to be. The three programs we have, anybody can come and stay two nights emergency stay. After two nights, if you're not working, we ask you to leave. Wow, only two days? This is Jackson Hole. If you can't get a job in two days, there's something wrong with you. You know? So, if you don't work, you don't eat. That's what the Bible says. So, after two days, they start paying $12 a week. They can stay up there to up to a year at the mission but we're going to help them get first, last, and deposit so they can move in with 1,200 other guys and have place of their own. And then the third program is drug and alcohol. And if somebody comes in that's serious about drug and alcohol, they come into the program clean and sober is what we ask. It's the hardest way to get into the program but they come in, they have to stay clean and sober. The first thirty days they can't work because if they work they have money in their pocket and it makes it hard for them but then after the thirty days, I'm gonna be bugging them to get a job too but in that thirty days, they're counseling with me. I'm a biblical counselor. They're going through lessons that I've developed that are developed online for people to become right in Christ, learning how to get their life together so they can be the person. I was a drunk for thirty years and I know that how to get sober is Jesus Christ is the only answer. So, thank you guys. Old Bills is coming up. Remember, Good Samaritan Mission when you think of Old Bills and remember that that's one third of our support and if it's not there, we're not there either. Thank you. Thank you. So, the next announcement is going to be women's ministry, Fall Afresh is happening September 14 and also that not just this event but there's more to it. Nancy, would you like to tell em about that? You can tell em about this too. Go right ahead. Thank you. Next, wait, not this coming Wednesday but the following Wednesday, First Baptist Church is hosting an all community women's ministry kickoff for the fall. So, we're inviting anybody and everybody in the community to come to First Be. We're gonna have music and a speaker, ten to 11:30. A great time of fellowship but also the goal is to introduce people to what's happening this fall and all the studies around the community. So, we'll have tables in the back with sign ups and different information on how you can get plugged into a women's Bible study. To follow that, our First Baptist Women's Studies are all in the back on a table. This fall, we're gonna be doing studies in homes, small groups. So, we're really excited about that. Have a lot of different options, opportunities for you, evenings, mornings, whatever will work for your schedule. So check out the table in the back and go ahead and sign up. Yep. Lots of times and lots of different places. Smaller group rather than the corporate stuff we've been doing the past few years but it's really really good stuff. So, they're back there on the long table. I think there are like eight different options available for that. There is a creation class that's going be going on like a seminar that will happen next weekend on Saturday night and Sunday night. Dave and Mary Jo Nutting, some of you all know them. We'll be leading there, the founders of the Alpha Omega Institute. Allen and Diane Galbreath are really close friends with Dave and Mary Joe and so they'll be coming in next Saturday night, next Sunday night and there's a possibility for a Friday if you are on our mailing list, you'll hear about it. If it happens on Friday, you'll hear about it this week, okay? It's there's some question. They right now are leading a a bus tour with several buses through Yellowstone and doing like a geology tour of Yellowstone and doing classes. That's where Allen and Diane are right now too. So, creation class next weekend. September 12, Awana starts back up. So, 06:00 in the evening. It'll be sign ups. It'd be nice to get here a few minutes early but kids matter to God. Awana is pouring scripture into their heads and into their hearts. Awana starts September 12. Solid Rock is our student ministry for middle schoolers and high schoolers. That starts September 15. On that Thursday, Renzy will do the middle school thing in the evening like he normally does and then Friday morning at 07:30, I think. He does the feeding frenzy with Rinsey. For high school students, they come in. He makes breakfast by hand. It's really really like from scratch. He's really quite the cook and so high schoolers come in, believe it or not, 07:30 in the morning before school starts for blessing before the weekend and this slide, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Those fish look kind of surprised right there that they have been caught. It's a Monday night slot. They're always a little bit off kilter but Monday nights, happening at first B. They they normally happen every Monday night at six. We do skip sometimes on holidays and this is a holiday weekend. So, we're not going to have this tomorrow night. Go enjoy, have fun with the family. Take your labor day off of Monday nights at First Beat and for everything else, please do look announcements are in your bulletin. There's one more. Preset ministry starts this Thursday. Thursday morning at nine, precept ministry starts. So, if you would, rise up, gather around. No, rise up and gather together, greet one another, hugs, high fives, handshakes, welcome one another, and we'll bring you back together with a song. Worthy of honor and praise. We're here together in his name. Let's gather and let's worship some more in song. Let's remember why we're here this morning. Worshiping our king. Amen? Amen. Savior sustainer you are worthy worthy of worship and praise worthy of worthy savior sustainer you are worthy of worship and wonderful counselor, comfort, and friend savior and source of our life without end you are savior sustainer you are worthy worthy Ain't that a nice song? Amen. I just love the words in that song. Great melody too. Amen. Amen. Amazing love. This is another one. Do y'all know this one? Hymn number three fifty one. If you don't, you will by the time it's over. There are three verses. Amazing love. It's beautiful. You'll recognize. Little syncopated. Yeah. The son of God given for me amazing love oh what sacrifice the son of God given for me dead he pays amazing love oh what sacrifice the son of God given for me my dead he pays and my death he dies Y'all can have a seat and I'm gonna invite the frontline team to come forward. Would y'all pray with me? God, I thank you for every soul here in the building today and I thank you for every family that they represent, For this community, Lord, that so many come to to see your wonderful creation. I thank you. And God, I thank you for all that you've given to us. Every good and perfect gift comes from above. You're our savior, but you are our sustainer too and lord. So, God, knowing that, knowing that you sustain and that you give, you have asked us in faith to give. Back a portion of what you've given to us so that others might know, so that others might live. I saw the last line of that that rivers of Christ's love will flow out of this place. God, I pray that the overwhelming flood of being filled with your spirit and filled to the brim lord that it will spill over and that others may come to know you. Lord, would you take these tithes and offerings this morning and bless and multiply them like you did the loaves and fishes. Feed them to be full, of your word. Save them. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask you for your continued blessing in Jesus name. Amen. Welcome, Lorna. Thank you very much. That piano has gotten a workout this morning. We played, I saw the light in the first service. I thought that Florine was gonna fly off of the stool over there. It was fantastic. Good job. That's great. Thirty five years and going strong on the grand over there. That's fantastic. So, I'm excited to be back. Last week, I took a vacation for those of you who weren't here. I've had two weeks to build up now of this before expressing this whole sermon. So, I really enjoyed Carl's presentation from last week. I did not hear it because I didn't it has not been recorded and put up on the internet like the sermons are at that time but I did read it. He scripts everything out, you know, and then he goes off script occasionally but his sermon last week is such a grounding for the sermon this week. I want to just quickly go through that again. I'm not re preaching it. He did a great job but I do want to say, he started off Romans twelve one. He used the NIV version and so I'm gonna continue with NIV when I get to my portion this morning but he read it. Therefore, I urge you, good word, urge. You brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. He talked about how Romans one through 11 is what to believe. It's a lot of theology. Honestly, for me to go out of town when we're starting Romans 12 was kinda hard to do because I've been walking through this deep mud since January 17 doing theology and this is good stuff, all good stuff but it's about how this is what we need to believe to get our grounding up under us and then, after you get up through chapter eight, you're ready for, okay, how do we put that into practice? Well, Paul takes a parenthesis from chapter nine through 11 and he talks about the problem of Israel. What do we do about Israel? What's the whole deal going on there? Because this was a Jewish and Gentile flavored church. So, one through eight, good theology about what to believe. Romans nine through 11, still good theology but it's about Israel primarily and whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord being the center point and then chapter 12 through 16 is how to behave. How we put that into practice. His sermon was the outworking of God's righteousness in the conduct of believers and he answered these three questions and he did so kind of generally because those two verses are very general. He gets more specific and the text that I'm going through today, he is more specific. So, I'm going to try to go through that and get even more specific for the here and now but what is God calling me to do? Why should I do that and how does that happen are answered in those first couple of verses. So, what is it that God's calling me to do? He's calling me to offer my body as a living sacrifice. That's good. It's general but it's good. Why should I do that in view of God's mercy? You should do that because God has given to you that which you don't deserve instead of giving you what you do deserve because of God's mercy. We all in the first few chapters see from 118 to three twenty of Romans, we see that no one is righteous, no, not one. Yet, he makes an offer to save and for those who believe, he saves. So, in view of that, in view of God's mercy, that's why you should do that and then how does this happen? Twelve two says, by the renewing of your mind. So, those three important questions are really really good to think about. I see when looking at his sermon and looking at this, these are the things that stand out to me. In view of God's Murphy and proper and he did a good job of explaining that word for proper in the old KJV. It's right there. Reasonable. This is your rational and reasonable response. Rational and reasonable response. It's not outlandish or unthinkable. It's rational and reasonable because of the mercies of God. Now, by the mercies of God, I shared in the first service. I I had a buddy named Seth Waller when I was in elementary school and Seth Waller was kind of a nerdy guy and we're really really close, good friends and he got dumped in a trash can upside down one day, just thrown in. You know, feet sticking out and he's down in the trash can and he stood up like this and he was a, honestly, he's a weakling, you know. So, he's got a trash can on his head, both arms like this and he said, by the power of grace, go. Y'all don't know that. This was a cartoon in the eighties that he was really paying attention to. He Man and She Ra and Grayskull was this magnificent, magical castle or something and so he's like, by the power of Grayskull, he was kind of using that as the grounding for what he was about to do was escape this trash can. Of course, grace goal has no power whatsoever and he looked more like a weakling than ever and a bigger nerd than he had before he got in the trash can. So, didn't help him but if you look at this for our grounding, the mercies of God is what by the mercies of God, I will present my body as a living sacrifice. That's my reasonable service. Whatever he asks of me, is it too great? If he has saved me from damnation, from hell, death, hell, and the grave. Whatever he ask of me to do is reasonable. Is that true? Are you with me? Okay, fantastic. So, in view of God's mercy, this is my proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I like to point out verb tenses a lot of times too and I think this one makes a difference. So, I'm going to do that. Do not be conforming. It's a continual present tense action verb. So do not be conforming. You are in a cultural milieu of the world. You are. Every everywhere in the world, there's a society that you can just flow along with it. And our American society, our worldly society can just take you downstream. This says do not allow that to happen. Do not be conforming to the pattern of this world, the here and now world. Do not be conforming to it but and it's a passive here. So, but be being transformed. God is the one who will transform. That's what he promises to do To those who believe, to those who are willing, he says, I will transform you. Christ said, I will build my church. Do not be being do not be conforming to the pattern of this world but be being transformed by the renewing of your mind. And God does that by the gospel of Jesus Christ. So what is the pattern of this world? If we think about it and we were to look around, what would you see as a pattern in The United States Of America and in Jackson more particularly? Do you see this? We are incredibly individualistic. The Bible was written in a culture that was much more communal than we are. We typically look out for number one. It's a saying, looking out for number one. We are self indulgent. Do you think that's true? We are self sufficient. We would rather do it on our own doggone and pull my boot my myself up by my bootstraps. I don't need anybody self sufficient. We are self centered. Have you read Facebook lately? Anybody? I don't care what kind of sandwich you ate for supper. I mean, that's we are self centered. Are we greedy? In general, as a people, worldliness is greediness. Greed is good. Remember? Mister Gecko from Wall Street. Defensive. We don't want anybody talking about us. And if they do, we will defend ourselves. We are proud generally, and God resists what? The proud. He gives grace to the humble. And we are xenophobic. Do you agree? Fear of the other, fear of the outsider, xenophobic. That is the pattern of this world. And I think that that's the pattern most everywhere. There are some societies, of course, that are less self centered and self indulgent. But in this place, I think that that can be said with pretty good accuracy. Do you agree with me? Okay. Alright. So in view of God's mercy, that's the pattern of the world. By the renewing of your mind, you are not to be that way. So, if you're in view of God's mercy and your mind is being renewed and you're being transformed, then, you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. I think it's interesting that you'll be able to test and approve. You might test and it's not God's will for you. I say that if you feel like God is leading you into something, try. Go for it. Do it. If you feel like God is leading you into it, go for it. Test. It might not be. If you set out to teach and nobody learns, you might not be a teacher. If you set out to lead and nobody follows, you might not be a leader. Test and approve what God's will is. His good and his pleasing and his perfect will. He sets the rest of the sermon up with those two verses. Now, the three through 10, I'm going to call a reasonable service. The same reasonable service that he talks about your proper active worship. I do not do a lot of how to sermons because I do not see them in the text of scripture very often often where it's a how to. This one is a how to. There's no doubt about whether it is or isn't. So, we're to present it just like it is. How to be presenting yourself as a living sacrifice. We're going to go generally first and then specifically. I'm speaking a little faster this sermon because I was five minutes over last last hour. Generally, for all Christians in all ages, the following is true and Paul starts off in verse three going through this. We're going to go generally first and we'll come back and speak specifically to Jackson. First B, today, here and now. So, the three important questions. What's God calling me to do? Well, the text says present myself, my body as a living sacrifice. If you've been keeping up online or if you've been here for the last six, seven months, eight months, you'll know that we've hit the word present before. Presenting your members or presenting your body as a living sacrifice sounds a lot like Romans six nineteen. For just as you presented in the past, your members as slaves to impurity and the lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness. So now present or be presenting your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification. That sounds the same. Right? Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Present your members as slaves to righteousness. Actually, the KJV and I I prefer this usage. I prefer the yielded. I like yielding. Present sounds very active. Present yourself. That's very active and that's good. It's a military term in the first place. You are presenting yourself for service. You have already made the decision. You will follow whatever order your commander gives. So, present yourselves for orders and then you yield to those orders. Whatever he says, you take that hill, you go in that hole, you dig that hole, you dump that latrine. Whatever he says to do, you do. You yield it. You yield it when you signed on, right? So, as you have yielded in the past, your members, servants to uncleanness and iniquity, sin unto even more iniquity. Even so, just in that way, now, be yielding your members as servants to righteousness unto holiness. I like the KGV every once in a while. That's good. It's good. Really good. Why should I do that? Well, it's my reasonable service according to verse two. In view of God's verse one, in view of God's mercy and how does that happen? By allowing God to be transforming me by the renewing of my mind and that's all precursor to this. Paul starts his hortatory instruction. It's this is an exhortation, an encouragement to do something. Finally, for by the grace that was given me, I say to everyone of you, when I see grace there, I automatically think up two verses to by the mercies of God and he's saying now, by the grace given me, by the mercy of God and by the grace given me, I'm going to now instruct you. That brings me to this. The intersection of mercy and grace. What's the difference? What's the difference in mercy and grace? Can anybody tell me? Y'all don't want to. Y'all not very loud today. That's fine. Grace is getting something good that is undeserved. Heaven is a grace from God. We do not deserve heaven yet he gives it freely. His love is not deserved yet he gives it freely. So, that's getting. We can give it too because God has first loved us. We can love others. Grace is giving something good that is undeserved. Mercy is not getting something bad that is deserved. Like hell. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve, the punishment that you deserve or not giving it to punish someone else deserves. I'm not ever gonna talk to that guy again. He don't. He he doesn't deserve it but you can still extend it. This comes up a lot. This comes up a lot in premarital counseling. Comes up more than that in post marital counseling. Grace and mercy are absolutely essential. Getting and giving something that's undeserved and not getting or giving something that is deserved. Alright. So, by the grace given me. Now, consider what Paul's grace that God had given was. He was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, followers of the way. As he's going to Damascus, he is all of a sudden blinded with a strong light and Jesus standing before him says, Paul, no, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He was persecuting Christ and Christ's body on Earth, the church and what did he deserve for that? Smiting. God could've very well just taken him out right there but what did he give him? Mercifully, he did not kill him, smite him. He did not but graciously, he saved him. The grace that was given Paul was salvation and a complete and quick understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the learning curve was cramped for Paul, right? After this, he's been he's been now doing this for twenty two, twenty three years and he has learned a lot about the gospel presenting it in synagogues and presenting it to Gentiles and seeing the church grow. He has been instructing now for quite some time. The grace that was given to Paul was this incredible knowledge of God and he's willing to extend it. By the grace that God gave me, I say to every single one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. Don't be puffed up. Don't be filled up any more than you should be, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment. Consider who you are, really not who you wanna be, not who you might think you are. Report accurately. Think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith that God has distributed to each of you. That sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn't it? Esteem others as better than yourselves. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, this is easy for us to all to understand because we have a body. Just as each one of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function. So, in Christ, we, though many, form one body, the body of Christ and each member belongs to all the others. Does that go with the pattern of this world? If we're individualistic and we're not really a part of anything, doggone it, I choose what I'm gonna be a part of. We all belong to one another. There's a community to the body of Christ. In that community, we're tied together. Actually, he covers it in first Corinthians 12. We've already covered that several months back. Couple years back actually. Just as a body, though one has many parts but all its parts, many parts form one body and so it is with Christ for we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body, unity, and diversity. Whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, we were all given the one spirit to drink. And even so, the body is not made up of one part but of many. Exactly the same thing here. Just as each of us has one body with many members, these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ, though many form one body and each member belongs to all of the others. Martin Luther King. I love Martin Luther King. I read several sermons this week that he presented at Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta, Georgia near where I'm from. And I love what he has to say about this. In a real sense, all life is interrelated. All persons are caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. Now, when you hear that, you might think, oh, peace, Nick. That was just the sixties. That's the way it was. They wanted to kumbaya, have a coke, and a smile, and everybody get together. He's a pastor. He was a preacher. He's a minister of the gospel and he presented this to ministers of the gospel. Other pastors, it's actually a part of letters from a Birmingham jail and he was presenting to other pastors primarily in the Southeast about how we are tied together as a body of Christ. Romans six twelve six goes on and says, we have different gifts according to the grace given to each one of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. Amen. I told you last week that prophets and people who prophesy, it is forth telling the word of God. This is what God hath said. Now, there are folks who believe that it is this is what God is saying right now and in accordance with your faith, if you feel that way, I'm not going to tie your arms behind your back and shut your mouth. I feel like primarily the prophet's job is forth telling what God has said. One of the main reasons is because the standard by which a prophet should be judged all through the Old Testament is whether or not his prophecies came true. The foretelling of the future. If a prophet spoke forth a prophecy that turned out not to be true, the punishment was to be stoning. I'm not willing to say a whole lot about what's going to come to pass. I don't want stones thrown. If I were under the conviction that I had to, thus saith the Lord, maybe. But prophecy in accordance with your faith. It's primarily proclaiming what God has said. If it's serving, then serve. If it's teaching, then teach. If it's to encourage, then give encouragement. If it is giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it's to show mercy, then do it cheerfully. Amen. So, as far as spiritual gifts go in the Bible, there are three primary list from Paul and here they are. Romans 12, we just covered prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, sorry, it's misspelled, mercy. First Corinthians 12, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, discernment, tongues, interpretation, apostleship, helps, administration, and then Ephesians four, apostleship is also in this list. I don't know why it didn't make it to the slide. Apostle, evangelist, and pastor, pastor, teacher. In Ephesians four. So, those are the three places in Paul. I like Peter's way of expressing the spiritual gifts. It's a little simpler. He says, there are two primarily, speaking and service. Speaking and service. I don't... I hope it doesn't mean that speaking is not service, but I hope that serving, I'm serving by speaking now. And we had been on the field as missionaries for seven years, serving, building a school for the deaf, helping to try to teach. So service had been our life. That had been the gifts that God was primarily using while we're on the field and when I got here, if any y'all remember the banana sermon, the very first sermon that I did here, the banana sermon was was me transitioning from being a service oriented guy and having the green bananas, the immature gift of speaking and I was scared to death. Quite honestly, scared to death but speaking is something that God grows us into. I was testing and then, hopefully, approving that that was something that he wanted for me to do. That's from first Peter four, ten, and 11. And here it is. Each of you should use whatever gift that you have received. There's some certainty there to serve others. As faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. You are carrying a divine communication. So, when you speak, speak as though you're carrying the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do it with the strength that God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. Amen. So, now, I wanna go back and look a little more specifically but at each one of the gifts. Already mentioned about prophesying is normally forthtelling. Thus, saith the Lord. I use God's word to say, he has said this, there's certainty there. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. I automatically always think of this guy too because like I said, I was minding my own business when God sent us to Mexico. I think of Amos. Amos was talking to Amaziah. He'd already given the prophecy that God had sent him to give to Amaziah and Amaziah was not really keen on listening to it. It was not necessarily good news And so Amos answered Amaziah, and I can just hear the tone of voice. Listen, I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd and I also took care of sycamore fig trees. I'm a farmer. But the Lord took me the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, go prophesy to my people, Israel. Now then, hear the word of the Lord. Do you see the transition there between him receiving instruction and him immediately obeying? Praise God. He was not a prophet, didn't know it, but test and approve. God spoke. He said, go and tell and he went and told and then, after he'd explained that to him again, he said the same thing. This is what God has given. This is what he has said. This needs to be listened. You need to listen to this. Alright. So, we have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is serving, then serve. That's simple, right? If your gift is serving, then serve. It's also kind of broad because service can look a lot of different ways. So I'll get more specific in a minute, but if your gift is serving, serve. If your gift is teaching, then teach. That's simple too. Right? But not many of you should become teachers. James says, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. There are some restraints that need to be given. If I say, prophesy. If your gift is prophecy, prophesy and you all of a sudden immediately go into this glorious. God says, he's going to build this place up and it's going to be wonderful. When that's not what God has actually said, he said, serve me with grace and dignity. Walk humbly before the Lord your God. Same way with teachers. If your gift is teaching, teach. You might not know your gift is teaching but if people listen and they learn as you're speaking, then it might be. Go for it. If God is leading you to teach a Bible study or lead a small group, do it. If your gift is to encourage, then give encouragement. This is a very encouraging church. I I know that because I came into this pretty green and y'all have encouraged me all along the way and it's not just me. I see you encouraging one another. I think of Scott Eichen, Scotty that was here before. I I get a text from him out of the blue. They'll say, Ray, you're such a blah blah blah. Good things, good things, good things. It's a sweet, nice thing and he believes him and he thought about it and he has to tell it. Carl's a very encouraging guy. A lot of y'all, I can see right now. You're encouraged just with the gentle nod and the smile. You're encouraging. If your gift is to encourage, then do that. Give encouragement. If your gift is giving, then give generously. Now, I could take the moment right here and say, give, dig deep, give generously. I could. There are other places in the Bible where there's no bad doubt about it. That's exactly what it says. This one, generously, the word for generously is haplontetti. Haplotetti. It means give in simplicity. Give in sincerity. Give in purity. Give in uprightness or frankness, straightforwardness. Don't give duplicitously. Don't give hoping to receive, honestly. Don't give with an ulterior motive. Don't give to get your name up in lights. Give out of simplicity, out of devotion to Christ. It is your natural and reasonable response to give. So it's not just for those who have tons of money to give tons of money. It is for all of us to give simply and sincerely and graciously. So we all have different gifts. If your gift is to lead, it doesn't say lead. If your gift is to lead, do it diligently. I appreciate that subtle difference. If your gift is to lead, do it diligently. Because if a leader lapses or doesn't continue faithfully, it has really, really harmful effects on everybody that he's been leading. So... Or she's been leading. If your gift is to lead, then do it with diligence. Put your heart to the leading and stay faithful and true to that. Next, if your gift is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Some of y'all are mercy gifted and some of you are not. The begrudging gift to help the guy. This is saying, if you're if if you're gifted to show mercy, do it cheerfully. One of my favorite parts of this job, and Diane and I get the chance to administrate the local benevolence fund. And when people come and they are in need, we are able to say yes. A part of that is because of your giving through old bills that amplifies your gift and we use that money for local benevolence. But we're able to say yes. I got a picture last night on my phone from one of my best friends and he goes to churches. He works with International Friship Ministries and he goes to churches and he went to this church and when he got all the way up to the door, there's an eight and a half by 11 piece of paper folded over in half. It had an about 18 type. No. In capital letters. No. Handouts. No handouts. We don't do that. We do that. We actually do help. And it breaks my heart. Breaks my heart for that church. It breaks my heart for the person that walked from the curb, swallowing their pride, and trying to go up and get in there to the door. It's not big enough to see from the street but seeing that little thing and going, just turning around and being turned away. So, praise God for Chuck at the Good Samaritan but thank you to you who give so that we can give to others. I love that you do it cheerfully too and I do see that happen. I love. If your gift is to show mercy, then do it but do it cheerfully. Be happy about it. Don't do it begrudgingly. So, those, that's the list And if you're considering now what is the pattern of this world, we've already said it's under individualistic and self sufficient, self conceited, self centered. What's the pattern of this world? In our society today, and I'm not decrying capitalism. It's a great scheme. No doubt. But whether you like it or not, we live in a consumer culture. And if our churches look like our culture, then everybody flocks to the hottest thing, and it's a consumer culture. If we are to be different by the transforming, by the renewing, not conforming, but the renewing of our minds, we're not gonna be that here. Consuming is not a spiritual gift on anyone's list. Not on Paul, not on Peter, not on Jesus, not on John's. Consuming is not a spiritual gift. In fact, the more and more I considered this analogy of the body, I thought of this. What what do you call a cell that only consumes and offers no benefit to the body at all? It's cancer. It's cancer. I feel like Amos, the prophet right now. It is cancer. If all you do is consume, but you do not let anything flow through. Jesus said, if anyone accepts me, rivers of living water will flow out of him. It's not just taken in. It's letting go of it too. So, consuming, not a spiritual gift. So, specifically for Christians who are here and now, considering what Paul has done in this passage three through 10. Prophesying, proclaiming God's word is happening right here, right now and there are opportunities that exist for doing that. Carl sat in or stood in for me last week. Eric stood in for me a few... A couple months back. There are other places not just here where you're providing what God has said in people's lives. Counseling is part of this proclaiming God's word to people. Serving. There are people that are serving this church. There are quite a bunch of people that are serving in this church. It's not all of us though. If we're honest, it's not all of us. Teaching, there are opportunities in all the small groups that Nancy was talking about and that is open If you're feeling that God is leading you in the direction of leading a small group or teaching a class, by all means, let us know. We want to give you a chance. We're our job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So, we want for you to do that. If teaching is your gift, we want for you to teach. Encouragement. Praise God. There are bunch of y'all here who are very encouraging. There are some of you who are discouraging. I won't lie. But for the most part, there is there is encouragement abounding here. Giving. Giving is one of those things and giving with sincerity, with purity, with simplicity, not hoping for the return necessarily. It's not a seed money type of thing where you're given so that God will bless you. It's a giving with simplicity because he says to give. He does say that giving is better than receiving. He never promises what kind of outcome is going to happen no matter who says that he he does. Giving is good in and of itself. Leading. We have a a team of elders. There are 10 elders right now and I'm one of those. Carl is one of those and they are, I believe, leading this church well. We have a board of trustees that has about seven members on it and they are leading well with the temporal things of the church. Elders typically lead with spiritual direction which works its way out in this real world specifically through the board of trustees and they're doing a good job with leading, I think. They've determined some things that need to happen. Some things that it feels like, we feel like God is leading us into as a body, we've made some decisions to do that. The leaders of the church. Praise God and mercy. I feel like mercy is pretty strongly represented here. Y'all do like it seems that y'all are very encouraging especially as the church is able to act on merciful giving and you seem to do it very cheerfully. If I had to say the two things that were standing out as lacking here, I'd say serving and giving are those. And for serving, actually, serving, the analogy that I've heard recently that I like a lot is like a football game. You got 80,000 people in the stands desperately in need of some exercise, watching 22 people on the field who are desperately in need of some rest. We need to be all of us serving and not just serving our family or not just serve. We needed serve our families but not just our family but our church family. This body needs to serve one another. I see that coming together after milepost events in life accidents or deaths, benevolent stuff comes to the fore at that time But I think as a constant thing, we ought to be serving one another. There are some more specific examples. The nursery. It was the first announcement today. We have been asking for a while. We still need nursery volunteers. The more of them we have, the less often people have to do it but some of you are gifted and you would love taking care of kids. You just don't know it yet. I ask you, test and approve, okay? Test and approve. Talk to Bailey Morley afterwards serving And giving. Right now, I think it's in the bulletin. We've started putting it back in the bulletin. We have for years been doing well on giving and our budget has been increasing each year and so has the scope of ministry available to this community and this world because of your giving. This year, right now, specifically, we are about $16,000 behind on our planned budgeted whatever. Just throw it out there. Giving. The other thing is, we have leadership of the church has decided that a kitchen remodel is one of the ways that we will be able to love God by loving people. It's the most used room around here. For Monday nights, we use it. For its Bible studies, we use it. We use kitchen all of the time and it like the piano keeps on getting better after thirty years. Kitchen, not so much. We've got some problems in the kitchen that need to be fixed And so we've decided for a kitchen remodel that's gonna cost between about a 150 or $200,000. So giving towards that. Expect we are gonna start a campaign, a giving campaign soon. But general fund and this extra capital campaign. Those are two things that I feel like we could specifically do that are straight from the text this morning. Is there anything else? Yes. Verses nine and ten. So nine says, love must be sincere. Love must be sincere. Amy Carmichael, great protestant missionary to India. I love her books. She has great insight. She says this, you can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving. And she gave her life basically to serve the under served in India. You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving. Hate what is evil. The worldly scheme is from the father of lies. This individuality and this self sufficiency and all of that stuff is the devil's lie. Hate that. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good. The gospel of Jesus Christ. The mercy of God and the grace. Let it flow through you. Be devoted to one another in love, not begrudgingly. Love must be sincere. Be devoted to one another in love and honor one another above yourselves. Think more of the other than of yourself and love a man. So, in Jesus name, I'll steal five minutes long. Would you stand up? And we'll sing this last song. Take my life and let it be. Take my life, lead me, lord. Take my life, lead me, lord. Make my life useful to thee. Lord, would you do just that? Hymn number six sixty four. Take my life lead my life lead me lord lord make my life useful to thee, take my life, teach me lord, take my life, teach me lord, make my life useful to thee take my life teach me lord take my life teach me lord make my life useful to thee here am I send me lord here am I send me lord make my life useful to thee here am I send me lord here am I send me lord make my life useful to thee Amen. I've got the R McD, the Ray McDaniel version of first Peter four ten and eleven up here and I'll share that with you in a minute but in the first service, I I threw out the things that we definitely need and I did that in this service too but I threw out a couple of other ideas. One of em, a guy came up to me a while back and said, can we do an automotive clinic like once a month for people who don't really do that? For the minor stuff, changing brakes and things like that, that we could do some of those type things. That was his idea. I said, yeah, there's no reason why we couldn't. And we can refer if we need to but yeah, we could we could do that. So, I'm not trying to limit you with just what I said, okay? Whatever it is and this is what this these two verses point to. Just as each one of y'all and that means every single one of y'all. Just as each of y'all has received a gift, you should use it to serve others. Whatever that gift is, as good stewards of the variegated, multiple, manifold, many colored is what the word means. All of the different stripes of the grace of God. Whatever he's given to you to do. If anyone of y'all speaks, do so as an oracle of God as if you're transmitting divine communication. If anyone of y'all serves, then do so with the strength that God is supplying present tense so that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen and amen. Amen. Y'all are dismissed.