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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
This is the Sandals Church Podcast, a place for real people with real struggles learning to follow Jesus. Wherever you are right now, driving, working, or trying to make it through the day, we are really glad you're here. Let's get into today's message.
Pastor Matt Brown:It was a big, big week for the Browns this week. My mom turned 80 years old. Can you believe that? It was incredible. One of the things that I love so much about my mom is she was an incredible gift giver and an incredible celebrator of others.
Pastor Matt Brown:When I was a kid, Christmas was just something super special. Every year, she made it a point to make sure that there was something for my brother and I that we'd been longing for and desiring all year long. And her generosity just really changed my life and turned me into a gift giver. So we celebrated her eightieth birthday this week. And so when I a kid, you could only have as many friends over as the number of years you turned.
Pastor Matt Brown:And so she invited 85 friends to my house. She went over the limit by five, but she's 80, so you can't challenge that. But it was so fun watching people bring their gifts for her. And she's a great gift giver. She's working on being a gift receiver because she's so good at serving others, but she has a hard time being celebrated.
Pastor Matt Brown:But I want you to feel special today. You may not have had a mom like I did. You may not have had a dad like I did. Christmas and birthdays might have been a really, really painful day for you. But I want you to know that you have a father in heaven and he has a gift for you that was wrapped before the foundation of the earth.
Pastor Matt Brown:And my prayer for you today is that you would open it and begin to use it. Because listen to me, the day that I received my gift, the day that I opened my gift, the day that I started to use my gift is the day that God changed my life. So let's begin with the word of prayer, because I know some of you believe that you have no gift at all. And I want you to know that's not the Lord speaking, that's the enemy. Everyone listening has a gift from God.
Pastor Matt Brown:So let's pray. Father in heaven right now, God, could you just comfort, Lord, just some of those memories from Christmas or birthdays and what they weren't? And can we just embrace this moment? Can we be like a kid at Christmas, excited knowing that we have a father who loves us, knowing that we have a father who has prepared a gift for us? Lord, bless us with that today.
Pastor Matt Brown:Let us receive it, let us unwrap it, and let us begin to use it for your glory and your kingdom. And all God's people said, All right, point number one, you wanna use your spiritual gifts, look at this, I have to trust that God has a gift for me. God has a gift for you. One of the things that's so bad about social media is we see the beauty and the talent of others. And we just go, I'm not talented, I'm not beautiful.
Pastor Matt Brown:You know, in the good old days, you know, if you were a seven or an eight on the scale, you were the prettiest girl or guy in town, and now you look at Instagram and you go, Nope, not me, right? You just feel ugly. You feel out of shape. You feel out of old. Old, you feel ungifted.
Pastor Matt Brown:What I want you to do is take your attention off social media and I want you to put it on God today. So let's open our Bibles to another gift, amen, the word of God, and let's read Romans 12 verses six through eight. And I hope this sticks with you, and I'm gonna read on the screen because these old eyes can't read the text. Here we go. In his grace, I want you to underline that, in his grace, God has given past tense.
Pastor Matt Brown:So this gift is already there. God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. Listen to what he says. So if God has given you the ability to prophecy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. He goes on to say, If your gift is serving others, serve them well.
Pastor Matt Brown:And if you are a teacher, which is what I hope I'm doing right now, teach well. And if not, save your comments for somebody else. Amen. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is the gift of giving, give generously.
Pastor Matt Brown:Look at this one. If God has given you the gift of leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have the gift for showing the kindness to others, show it gladly, amen? Listen to me, I want you to hear this, gifts are given, they are not earned. You don't have to pray for it, you don't have to ask for it, you don't have to cry out for it, God has a gift for you.
Pastor Matt Brown:You see, here's what I knew as a kid. I knew that my brother had gifts waiting for him, and I knew that I had gifts waiting for me. I want you to know that your Father in heaven has gifts waiting for you today. So what I wanna challenge you to do today is to unwrap the spiritual gift that God has already placed there for you. Because here's the problem, anybody ever get a gift card?
Pastor Matt Brown:Okay, do you know why companies love to sell you gift cards? Because you lose them, that's why. And that's what some of you have done with your spiritual gift. You received it, but instead of opening it and using it, it's a gift card that you've forgotten and you left it somewhere else. Man, I remember years ago, pastor Claude gave me a gift and I love him.
Pastor Matt Brown:He bought me a belt And I didn't understand why he got me a belt. He said, because you're always asking to borrow mine. That's why he got me that gift. And I remember one day at church, my pants weren't fitting, you you don't want your pastor's pants to fall off mid sermon, amen? That's just not one of the things.
Pastor Matt Brown:And I was like, I don't have a belt. And he got so frustrated. He said, The gift I gave you is hanging on the closet wall. And I had forgotten that he got me that gift. And it was such a wonderful gift, such a useful gift, and amen, it kept me from ending up on the evening news.
Pastor Matt Brown:So I wanna encourage you today. Don't leave here today with a gift card. Leave here with a gift and say, I'm gonna unwrap this, I'm gonna use this. So to unwrap my spiritual gift, I must, look at this, I have to identify the gift that the Holy Spirit gave me. So that's really, really important.
Pastor Matt Brown:I gotta identify the gift the Holy Spirit gave me. So we all need to do this because a lot of us are like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. So let's talk today about some categories of gifts. Now I'm gonna rank these just kind of in order. I don't want you to panic because maybe you've received a gift and I didn't say it.
Pastor Matt Brown:So I'm giving a short list, maybe fifteen, sixteen gifts. I want you to know, I've seen gift lists 23, some gift lists with 30. I want you to know that no gift list is the end of all gifts. The Lord continues to give gifts to his church as culture changes and needs arise. So the first gift, which I think we all know is speaking gifts, right?
Pastor Matt Brown:We need people to be able to speak. God speaks, his people speak. These are gifts of prophecy. These are so important. Pastor Fredo, in a couple weeks is gonna talk more about this.
Pastor Matt Brown:The gift of teaching, and I want you to see this, this is different. Okay, I'm not a great teacher, I'm a gifted preacher. So what's the difference? The difference is if I take you surfing, you want my wife to teach you how to surf. She's a great teacher because I don't really care whether you can surf or not.
Pastor Matt Brown:Amen. I'm out there to enjoy myself. I'm a great preacher. I will say, go ye therefore, have a good time, God bless you. Amen.
Pastor Matt Brown:And my wife will be like, honey, he can't swim. And I'm like, the Lord walked on water, so will he. Amen. But my wife will sit with you, do this, do that. She's a great teacher.
Pastor Matt Brown:She's gifted at explaining things in detail to people who don't understand. This is so huge as a church as we move into a discipleship model, because there's so many people we just take for granted, Oh yeah, I know what a spiritual gift is. I understand what exhortation is. I understand what discernment is. You got a lot of people in this church, they don't even know what those words are and they can't even repeat after I said them.
Pastor Matt Brown:So you gotta come alongside as a teacher and build them up. Next is exhortation, the gift to encourage, to uplift, man. I mean, need exhortators on the internet ASAP, amen. Just running around random complimenting people. I love you, I wanna encourage you, you're so special.
Pastor Matt Brown:Okay, especially to me on my page, that would really be helpful. This next gift is the gift of evangelism. And we're really blessed because we have one of the world's greatest evangelists in our own hometown, Pastor Greg Glory. God used his words to save my soul, and I am forever grateful. So you're all supposed to share your faith.
Pastor Matt Brown:I So don't want you to be like, Well, I don't have the gift of evangelism, so you have to go to hell. No, that is not what you do. There are just some of us, listen, when we open our mouths, people get saved. And that's Pastor Greg Laurie's gift. He just is so gifted at evangelism.
Pastor Matt Brown:Next, and we talked about this a couple weeks ago, this is so important, words of wisdom and knowledge. Anybody know stupid people? Don't point at them. But they need this gift. Even Christians, listen to me, not gonna call them stupid because that would be sinful, but they can be unwise, amen.
Pastor Matt Brown:Don't look at them, just say, amen, amen. And so we need people with words of wisdom to guide us. Now I'm gonna shift here, okay? And not all pastors will agree with me on this, and that's okay, they have the right to be wrong, amen? But this next one is the gift of serving.
Pastor Matt Brown:So the first gifts we talked about category was speaking, this is the gift of serving. So I want you to notice, you see the first word I put on there? Pastoring. And I've separated that from preaching and teaching, and here's why. Some of you will go to churches in your lifetime where a guy or a gal is a great speaker, a great preacher, and they are great at speaking and proclaiming God, but they're not so good with people.
Pastor Matt Brown:Amen? And then you'll go to other churches where a guy or gal is so great and so caring, so tender, such a wonderful pastor, but they're teaching or they're preaching isn't amazing. Pastoring is a serving gift. It is looking after people. It is caring for others.
Pastor Matt Brown:And here's the thing, my primary gift is not pastoring. For example, if you faint, I'm gonna go, I hope you know Jesus. You know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna do like, you know, mouth to mouth. We're not doing that, amen?
Pastor Matt Brown:But there are people in our church who wanna serve, who wanna care, and that's really their gifts. Look at this next gift, the gift of mercy. Man, you need that in the church. Some of you, if you come from churches, fundamentalist background, really unhealthy, legalistic, very, very guilt and shame based. A lot of people that come to Sandals from a Catholic background, this is their experience.
Pastor Matt Brown:You need people with the gift of mercy. They're not here to cream you, they're here to help you and lift you up and say, you know what? It's okay, it's okay. Next, the gift of helps. You want people that can serve.
Pastor Matt Brown:Man, if we didn't have people in our church with these helping gifts, nothing would ever get done. When I'm throwing that birthday party for my mom, guess who I'm calling? People with a helps gift, amen? Because they're gonna show up. They love helping, they love serving.
Pastor Matt Brown:You know, we were serving one of my mom's 80 year old friends and they were like, do you have a food service provider license? And I was gonna be like, No, but we do have a throwing the elderly over the hedge license. See, not a pastoring gift, see what I'm saying? But the next gift, and this is really, really important, and I want you to notice this the gift of hospitality. So when Paul writes about the qualifications for an elder, so somebody who's overseeing a local church, this is one of the gifts that he says you have to have.
Pastor Matt Brown:So if you're thinking about, am I called to ministry? Am I called to serve God as a pastor? You have to like people, okay? You get to spend a little time with God as a pastor and a lot of time with people. So you better like that.
Pastor Matt Brown:And unfortunately, a lot of times, people that have had a really, really bad experience in a church, they're going to a church where the pastor, the leader, the teacher, the elders, they don't like people. They don't want you over. They don't want you in their life. Next, this gift is huge. And I think this gift is so important, especially in a church like Sandals, where we've grown so much.
Pastor Matt Brown:The gift of administration. This is the gift of organizing. This is the gift of making sure that everybody's taken care of, making sure that we have teachers for every classroom, that we have, you know, 14 campuses, that there's worship leaders at every campus, that there's a band at every campus, right? That the video is edited before it goes out. Like we need organizational gifts.
Pastor Matt Brown:And a lot of you feel like that's not a supernatural gift. It is from God. And I love you and I would die without you. Amen, Dan Zombardi? That's our administrative pastor, I love him.
Pastor Matt Brown:This next gift, and some of you may have this, it's the gift of giving. Now we're all called to give, and for those of us who give our tithes and offerings to the church, we do it for one or two reasons. One is we feel like, man, I wanna help my church. I wanna help out the church, it's blessed me, it's changed my life, I wanna give to my local church. And then there's some of us like me, it's conviction, man, I feel convicted, this is what the Bible teaches, I'm gonna give 10%.
Pastor Matt Brown:But for a lot of us, 10% is the ceiling. There are some people in our congregation where 10 is the beginning. And here's how you know when you have the spiritual gift of giving, the Lord just keeps giving you more. The Lord just keeps giving you more. Matter of fact, that guy, Adam, last week that helped pay for all the improvements in the studio, this is how he opened the conversation.
Pastor Matt Brown:He said, The Lord just keeps giving us money we don't need. He said, Is there somewhere where we can give this money to the church? And here's the thing, just says, he said, Look, Matt, he said, I'm good at making money. He said, You're good at reaching people. He said, Let me make money to help you reach people, amen.
Pastor Matt Brown:And that's the gift of giving. And here's the thing. Amen. It's so cool because I learned years ago from a guy in our church who had the gift of giving. I asked the Lord to bless my giving and not my getting.
Pastor Matt Brown:Lord, I don't wanna get more, I wanna be able to give more. Do you know how you can give more? When you get more. And so ask God to grow that. This next category is huge, the gift of faith.
Pastor Matt Brown:Oh my gosh, I need you guys, especially after a bad sermon. It's not that bad pastor. You know, usually you do pretty good. You know, at least 50% of the time we hear something from Jesus. But these are the people in our lives that just know it's gonna work out.
Pastor Matt Brown:They don't know how they know, they just know. And we need these people to speak faith over our marriage when we don't have faith in our marriage. We need people to speak faith over our kids when we're worried about our kids' souls, their lives, and their future. We need these people to speak over our health. We need these people to speak over our church.
Pastor Matt Brown:We need these people in our lives, the gift of faith. They just know it's gonna work out. And I wish I had that gift. Can I get an amen? Because I'm the guy that's like, Yeah, we're not gonna make it.
Pastor Matt Brown:Next, this is the gift of signs. These are huge. The gift of healing. And let me tell you something, there's some people in this church, when you pray for miraculous healing, it happens. It happens.
Pastor Matt Brown:I've seen it. I have seen people in our church who have this dynamic gift, and for some reason consistently when they pray for a miraculous healing, it happens. I feel like my wife has this gift. I always tell people, You wanna be healed? Ask her to pray, because I'm like, You're done.
Pastor Matt Brown:You know what I'm saying? It's over. But there are some of you in here, listen to me, you have that gift. It's a weird thing. Was working on my sermon and a friend of mine who's going through a medical procedure right now, his life is on the line.
Pastor Matt Brown:He texts me during the sermon prep. And right as I was at this point, it was interesting that he texts me. It's like there's a God and he knows what's going on, amen? And my friend has the gift of healing. And I told him, I said, It's so weird that you text me right now because I'm thinking of you and your gift.
Pastor Matt Brown:The Lord has blessed you with this gift. Next is the gift of miracles. This is just people when they pray things happen. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it just happens.
Pastor Matt Brown:You can't explain it. There's no way to understand it. We were all doomed. We were never gonna make it. They prayed something happened, man.
Pastor Matt Brown:This is incredible stuff. And God may use you to do stuff like this. It might be like me where you get it one time, you know, because you pray over somebody and they come back from the dead. That's amazing. But, you know, I've also prayed over people and they've died.
Pastor Matt Brown:So I don't have this gift all the time. I've seen this gift work through me once. And then we talked about last week, the gift of tongues. This is really important. An ability to pray, an ability to talk to God in a way that you don't understand.
Pastor Matt Brown:And then there's the interpretation of tongues. And that's the ability to interpret what someone else is saying. This last one is huge. This is so important, especially in the world today of social media influencers who are being influenced by AI and chat GPT and they've not read their Bibles. And you're like, that's the deepest thing I've ever seen.
Pastor Matt Brown:Listen to me, people with the gift of discernment don't call BS, that's a cuss word, they call FS, false spirit. Listen to me, the devil knows stuff too. And some of you need to have discernment. Is this of God? Is this from God?
Pastor Matt Brown:Is this where God is leading? Is this a wise person? Is this a safe person? Is this someone that we can trust? Because one of the ways the devil tears a church apart is through gossip and slander in the name of, I just wanna share, or I need prayer.
Pastor Matt Brown:And so this is a gift to be able to discern, hey, this is of the Lord, or this is not of the Lord. And let me just say this, as you pray into these gifts, and this is just some of the gifts, there are all kinds of other gifts. Some of you feel like, Well, I'm not qualified, Pastor Matt. I'm never gonna be able to lead. I'm never gonna be able to speak.
Pastor Matt Brown:I'm never gonna be able to see a sign. Listen to me, God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called. Amen? He qualifies the called.
Pastor Matt Brown:You're gonna make mistakes. You're gonna make mistakes. Last week at the 11:45 service, I made one of the biggest blunders I've made in a long time, and I'm gonna share it with all of you. I was passionately preaching. I was using my gift.
Pastor Matt Brown:I was speaking for God, and I meant to say city. Let's say it together. City. But in start... Instead of starting with s, I started with t.
Pastor Matt Brown:All the sinners got it. And everyone in the audience knew what I said, and I was like, dude, did I say did I say titty? Is that is that is that what I said? You guys, it was such a great point, and it was completely lost because I fumbled my gift. Listen to me.
Pastor Matt Brown:It happens. It happens. It was embarrassing, and now you all know it. Okay? I had to share it because it was gonna get out.
Pastor Matt Brown:Amen? Romans eleven twenty nine, For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. Man, God doesn't give you something to take it away. He's not gonna take away my speaking gift because I flubbed it. Matter of fact, it just reminded me all the more that I need his gifting, amen, to preach.
Pastor Matt Brown:City, city, I'm gonna be practicing. To unwrap my spiritual gift, I must ask the Holy Spirit to guide me to my gift. Okay, the Holy Spirit's gonna give you a gift, the Holy Spirit can guide you to your gift. Let's take a look at one Corinthians twelve eleven. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts.
Pastor Matt Brown:He alone decides which gift each person should have. I think about my mom as she would wrap our gifts the night before Christmas, thinking about what Nathan, my brother needed, thinking about what I wanted. And here's the thing, she gave individual gifts that were just right for each of us. So stop wishing you got somebody else's gift and praise God for the gift you got. It was made for you.
Pastor Matt Brown:So ask the Holy Spirit, and we're gonna do that at the end of service today. You say, Holy Spirit, would you guide me? What gift do you have for me? Help me to see it, help me to unwrap it, help me to begin to use it. To unwrap my spiritual gift, I must, and this is important, ask for input and prayer from trusted leaders.
Pastor Matt Brown:It's okay to not know. I would say this is the number one thing I hear from Christians. I don't know what my gift is. Let me say that's okay. That's okay.
Pastor Matt Brown:But what you need to do is ask somebody to pray over you. Look at what Timothy is told by Paul. He says, Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received. Now, when did he receive it? Through the prophecy spoken over you, look at this, when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.
Pastor Matt Brown:So when did Timothy receive his gift? When did he get it? When elders of the church prophetically spoke over him. And here's the thing, you don't see this yet, Timothy. You haven't experienced this yet, Timothy.
Pastor Matt Brown:You haven't done this yet, Timothy, but God is going to do this through you. And we need to speak prophetically over people in our church. So how can that happen? You can come forward for church, for prayer after church, and ask the ministers to pray over you. And say, I don't know, I don't know what my gift is.
Pastor Matt Brown:I don't know what my place is. I don't know what my calling is. Now, of us we're gonna get it immediately and some of us have to figure it out over time. And some of us, listen to me, think we have a gift and it's the wrong gift. We have an amazing pastor in our church and I love him, but I'm gonna pick on him.
Pastor Matt Brown:His name is pastor Dan Crowley. He is amazing. I met Dan over twenty years ago. We were attending the same college together, Biola University in LA, and I found out he was in the apologetics program. And if you know Dan, Dan is like the nicest guy.
Pastor Matt Brown:He would be a great counselor, man. He definitely has the gift of mercy, but he told me he was in the apologetics program. And if you don't know what that is, that's people who wanna argue people into heaven. And I'm like, Dan, what are you doing? I go, you are not an apologetics guy.
Pastor Matt Brown:I said, you're wasting your money and your time. I said, you should be in spiritual formation. And he got mad at me. He got mad at me. And then he went and changed majors and has been blessed, amen?
Pastor Matt Brown:Because that's the thing, sometimes people can see in us the gifts we can't see in ourselves. And people gotta direct you. And think about our church over the last twenty years, how we have all been so blessed by him being in the right program. Can you imagine if he went to apologetics and greed and he just ran around going, False, untrue, you're a sinner, going to hell, not saved. Like, wouldn't even like Dan.
Pastor Matt Brown:Amen? But instead he's just like, tell me about that. Spiritual formation. Spiritual formation. Okay.
Pastor Matt Brown:To unwrap my spiritual gift, this is important. I'm a study God's word and open my heart. So look, the Holy Spirit might give you your gift today and you might understand it. You might come forward for prayer. You might have to figure it out.
Pastor Matt Brown:For some of you, listen to me, the journey to unwrapping your gift and discovering it is as important as the gift itself. And God wants to take you on a journey. So let me give you some scriptures that you can kind of pray through, work through, and kind of study through. So we've already covered Romans 12, and I just briefly talked about six through eight, but you can go three through eight. You can also go to one Corinthians two chapters, chapter 12 to 14.
Pastor Matt Brown:And unfortunately, that's really two chapters on the misuse of gifts. If you've ever been hurt in church, that's what can happen when people misuse gifts. Ephesians four:seven through 13, an amazing passage about gifts. And then one Peter four ten-eleven. So I wanna encourage you, on your own journey and just say, God, what is my gift?
Pastor Matt Brown:What is my place in this church? And let me say this, we're all called to serve. We're all called to give. We're all called to worship. We're all called to pray.
Pastor Matt Brown:But in those attitudes of service, there are some of us that will have just extraordinary power and gifting from God to do other things extremely well. Next to unwrap my spiritual gift, I must use my spiritual gift to serve the church. This is so important. If you wanna learn to fully use your gift, listen, the only way you're gonna get better at soccer is if you practice on the field. The only way you're ever gonna get better at your spiritual gifts is if you utilize them in the place that God designed them to be utilized.
Pastor Matt Brown:And that is in the church. And I wanna encourage you, don't run off and start some social media ministry, use it in the church. The church is God's plan a and there is no plan b. And we need your gift here. We need it.
Pastor Matt Brown:Imagine a baseball team with no first baseman. And every time we catch the ball, we make a great play, we throw it to first, but no one's there because they're running a social media ministry. Listen, if God's made you a first baseman, where do we need you? On the field, on first base. Okay?
Pastor Matt Brown:Not writing a blog about how you identify as a first baseman. We actually need you there with a mitt, amen? Okay, one Peter four ten. God has given each of you a gift from his variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
Pastor Matt Brown:Everyone has a gift. Now let me say this, years ago, we used to do spiritual gifts tests. I don't if you've ever been to a church where they have you take a test and we had a leader in our church that was like, I have all of them. No, that's called pride. Amen.
Pastor Matt Brown:You know what I'm saying? That's a sin, not a gift. Listen, nobody has all the gifts. You are not a fully self contained church. Okay?
Pastor Matt Brown:You are a gifted person. You are a gift from God, but you have a gift. Some of you may identify with one, two or three gifts. Some of you might only have one gift. Whatever you have, use it faithfully to serve the church.
Pastor Matt Brown:Man, I was surfing with a couple of buddies of mine and one of the guys from the church, he has the gift of helps. And we were done surfing, my arms were tired, and we were walking back to the car and here comes this mom. She's got two beach chairs, she's got a cooler, She's carrying a body board and she's got three kids. None of them can carry their surfboards and they're just dragging on the asphalt. And you know there's no dad present because he would have been losing his mind.
Pastor Matt Brown:You know what my friend who has the gift of helps did? He set his board down and he carried each board for the mom. And I sat there and thought, that's a good idea. Someone should help her. Is there a Christian around maybe a pastor?
Pastor Matt Brown:But listen to me, it didn't even occur to me. I just thought, look at those kids running those beautiful boards. But my friend with the gift of help set down his board, went and helped them. And then said pastor, and I was like, yes, yes, yes, it's coming, coming. Alright.
Pastor Matt Brown:To unwrap my spiritual gift, this is so important. I need to understand that every spiritual gift matters and is essential. You see what the world thinks matters is people in public, people upfront, people on stage, people with the platform. Jesus said that's not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God values every single member and every single role.
Pastor Matt Brown:And let me tell you something as your pastor, you are so precious to me whether you are on stage or not, because here's the thing, I can only be on stage if I have people in this church who help me get on stage. I don't even know how to turn this thing on. Can I get an amen? I don't know how anything works. People ask me all the time, how does this work?
Pastor Matt Brown:I'm like, you're talking to the wrong guy. First Corinthians twelve twenty seven, all of you together are Christ's body and each of you are a part of it. You see the world celebrates certain parts, right? The face, the mouth, the neck, because it turns the head. And you're like, it doesn't matter.
Pastor Matt Brown:I'm not an important part. Look, we're all important parts. How many of guys ever hurt a part of your body you didn't think was important? You done that? You know what I did this week?
Pastor Matt Brown:Broke my pinky. Some of you thought this was just style. It freaked me out. I was surfing and my my hand got caught in the leash. And I actually have a friend of mine, she lost both of her fingers to that.
Pastor Matt Brown:And I came up, my finger was bleeding. Was like, oh my gosh, I have never appreciated my pinky more. You don't you don't know what your pinky did for you today. You don't even know all the things your pinky went through for you today. Some of you need to go home today and apologize to your pinky.
Pastor Matt Brown:Because let me tell you something, you need it. You need it. It does things you don't even know about. Supporting your strong fingers. But let me tell you something.
Pastor Matt Brown:I was so grateful that I didn't lose it because I could have lost it. Every single one of you matter, every single one of you are essential. One Corinthians twelve twenty, yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, I don't need you. The head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
Pastor Matt Brown:This is the letter to the Corinthians because they thought some people mattered and some people didn't. That is a church ripe for abuse. We don't wanna be a church with people with cool gifts and people with uncool gifts. They're all cool. They're all from God.
Pastor Matt Brown:They're all essential. Every single one of you matter. Next to unwrap my spiritual gift, I gotta surround myself with people who encourage me to use my gifts. I'm so grateful that my mom and dad growing up encouraged me to use my gifts. If you didn't have that kind of mom and dad, listen to me, you are in a church that welcomes you and celebrates the gifts that you've received from God.
Pastor Matt Brown:And we want you to use those gifts. Even if it's clumsy, even if it's off, even if you make mistakes, look, this is a great place to learn. Listen to me, the church is where we practice our faith. It's where we grow up and we have to give each other grace because we all need it. Two Timothy one:six, This is why I remind you to fan into flame the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.
Pastor Matt Brown:Every one of us will get discouraged. Even people with a gift of faith can lose their faith for a bit. And you need a church, you need a pastor, you need a small group, you need a discipleship group, you need a team that you serve on for people to fan back into flame and say, No, no, come back, don't give up. God is with you, God is gonna use you. This is just a season, this is not the story.
Pastor Matt Brown:We all need to be encouraged. But here's what's so important. And I wanna close with this. To unwrap my spiritual gift, I must remind myself daily, listen to me, that I am a gift to my local church. And I don't just mean me, I mean you.
Pastor Matt Brown:Some of you, you wanna fix your marriage, listen up. There were for years I knew my wife had gifts. Who do you think wrapped this? It was not me. You know, some of you, if I wrapped it, you'd be like, I don't want it.
Pastor Matt Brown:For years, I would have said, Tammy has gifts. My marriage changed when I realized she didn't just have gifts, she was a gift. Amen? Listen to me, in the church, you don't just have gifts, you are a gift to us. You.
Pastor Matt Brown:And that's the thing, some of you are gonna leave here confused. I don't know what my gift is. You're the gift. You're the gift. And everything we all need, already need is already inside you, we just gotta unlock it.
Pastor Matt Brown:We just gotta figure it out. You are the gift. So when the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians four eleven, listen to what he says. He says, Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church. So what gifts did God give to the church?
Pastor Matt Brown:Listen to these gifts. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These aren't just arbitrary gifts, these are people. These are people. How many of guys ever been blessed by a pastor?
Pastor Matt Brown:Raise your hands. How many ever been blessed by a teacher? Raise your hands. Man, these are people that God put in your life that are gifts to the church and gifts for us. Listen to me, don't you leave here today.
Pastor Matt Brown:Don't you dare leave here today believing Satan that you don't have a gift. You tell him I am a gift. I am a gift and I matter in this place. Because we value everybody, even if you're a pinky, amen? We value you and we love you.
Pastor Matt Brown:So let's close in prayer and let's humbly ask God, would you reveal my gift? And if you don't get anything, would you give me the courage God to go up and receive prayer? And if you still don't get anything, would you say, God, would you give me the stamina to study your scriptures and trust what you said? Because God has never lied not once that I have a gift. And if I keep searching and seeking, I'm gonna unlock it.
Pastor Matt Brown:Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we pray in the name of Jesus. Oh, I pray over the discouraged and the disheartened. Lord, for those who believe they're untalented, Lord, this is a lie from hell. Let us all hear a voice from heaven right now.
Pastor Matt Brown:We are all gifted. We all have talent, divine gifts, beautiful gifts, amazing gifts given to us to serve your glorious church. Let us unwrap them and let us learn to use them. We pray this in Jesus name and all God's people said, amen. Love you, man.
Pastor Matt Brown:Love you.
Pastor Justin Kowalski:Thank you to pastor Matt for an incredible word on how to help us identify the gifts that God has for us, not just to to build his kingdom, but to serve your church. And so to everyone who's watching, I wanna encourage you guys, look for your gifts. Like talk to people to figure out like, what are the gifts that you have, how you can serve us at Sandals Church. And so Sandals Church has been a blessing to you. It's been a part of your your spiritual journey, we encourage you and we wanna invite you to partner with us.
Pastor Justin Kowalski:And you can do that by going to sandalschurch.com/support. Be well.