Unsure Where To Serve? How To Use Your God-Given Talents

Ross Sawyers: [00:00:04] We have a big week in front of us if you're a fan of the Olympics. On July 26th, the Olympic Games will kick off. Actually, that's the official kick-off, but on this Wednesday the 24th, soccer and rugby matches will begin, as a kick off the 2024 Olympics in Paris. and I look forward to the Winter Olympics. I look forward to the Summer Olympics. I look forward to reading stories of those who are Christians that are competing. I like just the athletic competitions in it. a few of the stories I've read so far that I'll highlight here in a few moments are a Paralympian named David Brown, a hurdler, named Sydney McLaughlin Levrone, and then swimmer Caleb Dressel. And I was looking up, the other day, the different sports that are represented in the Summer Olympics. I don't know if you've looked recently, but what we usually have highlighted is swimming, track and field, and then a few others certainly go with that. And then if you go to the different streaming, channels, then you can find some of the sports that maybe they don't think are as popular. But I was reading just a list of these, here's a few of the sports, archery, artistic swimming, and badminton. I get excited about that one, I was a phys ed major in college, and I took badminton as a class for a whole semester. And badminton in the Summer Olympics and curling in the Winter Olympics give me hope every year, every Olympic year that if I just really was focused, maybe I could be a part of the Olympic Games. There's canoe sprinting, breaking is a part of the Olympics, breakdancing, marathon swimming, and triathlon. I don't know, I was really assured this week as I saw some French dignitary jumping into the Seine River, I think I'm saying it correctly, to prove that it's healthy, that the water is good. But I noticed they didn't put their head underwater, so I was curious as to how that was supposed to give confidence to the swimmers. Wrestling, weightlifting, track and field, trampoline. So for all those who have their trampolines, take the nets off and let your kid explore, one day, maybe, they'll be in the Olympics as a trampoline athlete. But I love that in the Olympic Games that there's this wide variety of sports that will be happening, and each of them is their own team, there's the swim team, and the track team, and the badminton team, and yet they're all a part of team USA. It is different kinds of athletes, different kinds of skill sets, but each of them have prepared themselves, they've qualified for the Olympic Games, and they will come with their bodies being in the best possible shape, their minds being as alert as they can possibly be so that they can compete at the highest level with the hope of winning gold medals. And we will follow these next few weeks and see if team USA wins the overall medal count in the Paris Games.

Ross Sawyers: [00:03:29] If you'll turn your Bibles to First Corinthians chapter 12, and it will make sense to you, why I've spoken of the Olympic Games rather than the fact that I just enjoy them. We've been taking breaks between series, and just looking at the foundations of our faith. Earlier in the year, we looked at worship over a three-week period. Then we studied Titus verse by verse. We took a break and looked at evangelism for a three-week period. And then we studied the Ten Commandments. And now we take a two-week look at just a foundational piece of our faith, which is serving. And we know absolutely that Jesus Christ said that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. He, himself, lived the life of a servant, and the very essence of what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ is to serve and give ourselves away, that is the essence of being a follower of Jesus.

Ross Sawyers: [00:04:26] And I want us to think about, for just a few minutes in First Corinthians chapter 12 as an anchor point for us, how all of us today can serve in the body of Christ. Paul uses a metaphor for the church, and he says, the church is like a body, and everybody has a part in the body so that it can be healthy as a church, that it can excel. And what I want to invite you today with no apologies, is that if 121 is the church that God has called you to be a part of, if this is your church, then today I'm inviting you in unapologetically to participate in the church, to serve in the church. Next week, we'll talk about serving more outside the walls of the church and outside the small group of the church, we'll talk a little bit about it today, but what I want to focus on, on this day is that God has given every person in this room and online particular giftings and a part to play in the body of Christ that is team 121 and we are team 121, and we're not competing against other churches. We have team Church At the Cross, and team Cross City and we could go down the list of churches that are following hard after Jesus, and each of those teams, just like the badminton team, the track team, the swimming team, they're all competing ultimately under the banner of team USA, and all of us are competing together in our teams as Team Jesus, and every person can play. This is not the Olympic Games, where only the elite are the ones who are competing these next few weeks in the church, God has called every one of us to be a part. And I want to know today, will you be willing to say today, yes, I will serve in the church, and today you'll sign in? I'm just unapologetically asking today, you'll be familiar, probably with the passage of Scripture, but I'm just saying today, in light of God's Word and the way he's designed his church, that today would be a day that if you're not currently serving on team 121, that today you would jump in and do so. For those who are already participating, I'm not asking you to do 35 more things, be affirmed today as we move through God's Word.

Ross Sawyers: [00:07:01] So let's be encouraged, we will be in First Corinthians chapter 12, and the question that we're asking this morning is if God has good plans for you, what I would say today is part of his good plan for you is he is gifted you and he's giving you some kind of supernatural ability that's to be used in the church in which he has placed you. If you're not at 121, God has you in another church, then let me cheer you on today that when you hear this, that you go to the church that you're a part of and you get involved in using the giftings and what God has given you to serve in that particular church. We are for the church today as we think about 121.

Ross Sawyers: [00:07:43] So the first thing I would say when we look at this is that there are a variety of ways to serve. So just as there are a variety of Olympic sports, there are a number of ways to participate in the Olympic Games, there are a number of ways, a whole variety of ways for us to be able to serve in the church. In verses 1 through 3 of chapter 12, just by way of summary, Paul is writing to the Corinthian church. So he's writing to a church, he's addressed a number of issues in the church, and now he's talking about how they are a body and they've been given giftings and they're to utilize these giftings. But he's speaking to those who can say that Jesus is Lord. So this is for every person that says that Jesus is Lord in their lives. Jesus is Lord, period, it's a matter of whether we will surrender and say that and live in such a way as if Jesus is our Lord. He's the one who is in control. The persons who know Jesus are the ones who have said yes to Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross for us and in the resurrection. And it's believing what Jesus did, he gives us his life, takes ours off of us, and then transforms us, and makes us a part of the body of Christ, so Jesus is Lord. Only by the Holy Spirit of God, what we sang, Holy Spirit, Come. And for every person who believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit has descended on your life and on mine. And by the Holy Spirit, I can say today Jesus is Lord. Can you make that declaration today? Could you say that out loud in a safe place like the gathering of believers? Jesus is Lord. Can you say that as you move through the week, people who might not love it that you just said it? Can you say Jesus is Lord? And is your life growing to look more and more like it His?

Ross Sawyers: [00:09:45] Well, there are a variety of ways to serve. Verse 4, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5And there are varieties of ministries and the same Lord. 6There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons." It's interesting, in these three verses, that we see the Triune God. We believe that God is triune, that he is three persons, one substance; God is father, Son, and Spirit, each of those are listed here. So the Triune God is giving gifts to the church so that they can effectively work.

Ross Sawyers: [00:10:21] Verse 7, "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." The reason, the reason God has gifted you and that he's gifted me in particular ways, is for the common good of the church. We have this whole variety of giftings that people have for the common good of the church. So what are some of those gifts? He lists them in verses 8 through 10, "For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit". And what I would say, if you'd be game for further study, that if you went to our website to 121cc.com, there's a tab just to the right on the home screen and it says Got Questions, and where it says got questions, and it says ask me. You tap on that, and I've asked it this week multiple questions about these gifts, so I won't have time in these moments to define all of these, but I would encourage you to go and do further study. Look at the definitions of these gifts, and I found it to answer it very well, and tie it to Scripture. And maybe you'll look and say, oh, I didn't know that was a gift that God gives, and I think I have that. How can I use that in the church? I'm going to sign up today regardless, but I'm going to look and see, maybe there's something out there I'm not aware of that I have. So, "For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9to another faith by the same Spirit."

Ross Sawyers: [00:11:54] I'll highlight a few of these. So when we think about faith, there are some of you, all of us are to have faith, we walk by faith, not by sight, but some people have a supernatural gifting of faith; they can see things, they'll step into things, they have the courage to step into it when a number of other people won't step into it. We need people in the body of Christ for the common good, so we don't get stuck so we can step in faith and step into things where maybe we can't see how it will all work out, but there are people who have the gift of faith that help us make those steps into what God is calling us to do by the same Spirit. To another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the effecting of miracles through those who have those particular giftings, and to another prophecy. I think that prophecy can be misunderstood today. All of these, by the way, could be misunderstood and taken advantage of if not done in the way that God calls us to do them. Prophecy we would look at and say, it could be what I'm doing right now, and I'm bringing what God has from His Word to everyone that's in the room and online. It can also be, some people would say, a gift in that I can see something for you, and so I come to you and I bring it as an encouraging and comforting word for you and to think about, maybe God has this for you. I did this yesterday, I don't really think of myself as having a gift of prophecy, but there's been something on my mind about a couple, and I just called them yesterday and said, hey, this is what I believe God might be saying to y'all. I may be dead wrong, so chunk it out the window, but I haven't been able to let it go so I'm passing this on to you. That could be a word of prophecy, perhaps for them. And then to another, there's the distinguishing of spirits, there are those who can determine the difference between the demonic and what is not demonic. Now, in the US, we tend to shake off the demonic, and we try to make everything natural causes of what's going on. But the demonic is heavily at work, and we only have to look at the blinding of our country and the flipping of the morality of our country to see the demonic hard at work. And there are people that can distinguish between, okay, is this something that's sinful in your flesh that's the problem, or is this something where the demonic has gotten a stronghold on you and that needs to be released in you? And there are people that have that gift, they can sense, and they can see it, and that's a common good of the body. There are various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.

Ross Sawyers: [00:14:42] And then we can look in Romans chapter 12, and in verses 6 through 8, there's another listing of gifts, and we see that there's the gift of service. All of us are called to serve, but some people, there is just something in them, and they are just looking for the next moment to serve. There is a supernatural gifting in them beyond that natural kind of serving; they're waiting, they're listening, they're stepping up to the plate, and they're saying to us, just tell us where you need us, we'll do it. Some people have that supernatural gift of serving.

Ross Sawyers: [00:15:22] Exhorting, the word exhorting means to urge, it's the ability to get people to move and do something. And so there are some people that they can get people moving among our body. You can say, hey, can you get 7 or 8 people to be a part of this, and you just know they'll be able to do it. They can exhort and encourage people to do it. Somebody else might try the same thing, and everybody just looks at them and says, yeah, probably not. Do we all do that? Yes, but there are some people that are gifted in that way in the body to urge people on.

Ross Sawyers: [00:16:00] Some people have the gift of giving. There are some people, this isn't a matter if you have a lot of money or a little money, but sometimes there are people with a lot of money, and I'm thinking, just give and take care of this need and be done with it. But instead, they're sitting there pondering it, they're going to think about it, it's going to take them forever, and maybe they'll do it, or maybe they won't do it. There are other people who are just sitting there and they've said to me, let me know when there's a need in the church, I want to give to it. I call them, and they just take care of it. There are people who listen when we talk about a Bible translation, and they just are sitting there ready to write a check or to put their card down or whatever it is that we're delivering on the monetary side. But there are people that just have a generosity about them, and they're listening for what they can give to and make it happen through their giving. That's a supernatural gift, we're all called to give, but some people have a gifting of generosity.

Ross Sawyers: [00:17:00] Leading is a gift. Mercy is a gift, my wife and I were visiting her mother in Arkansas in a nursing home this weekend, and when I walked around there, I realized this is not my gift. And I'm so grateful for people that look at all the needs that are in there, their heart bends towards it and they just get in there and go after it. I'm thinking, can I go upstairs and lead a Bible study or something? Some people, we are all called to be merciful, but some people just their heart bends towards and have compassion towards and get in there and say, I'm going to get in here and meet that need with them. I can sit with them; I'll get in the most menial of things with them so that their needs can be met. There are so many different giftings.

Ross Sawyers: [00:17:52] Ephesians 4:11 and 12, there are gifts that are designed to equip the body. They're around apostles, apostles can tend to be, you might tend to think of an apostle as someone who is sent to start something. There are prophets we've talked about, evangelists, we're all called to evangelize, but for some people, it's just their thing. Jermaine was talking about a mission trip we just had recently, and one of the guys, he just walks up to people and says, hey, do you know if you're going to heaven or hell? And it becomes a conversation and people get in on the conversation. You might do that, and that person is going to turn and run from you. With this guy, they just sit there and kind of ease into the dialog with him. We are all called to do it, but some people God has gifted them, and they just do it.

Ross Sawyers: [00:18:50] So there's a number of gifts then that we could look at. In First Corinthians 12:27 and 28 we see a kind of rehashing of these giftings, this time it includes help and administration. There are people who have administrative gifts, they're really good at the behind-the-scenes things. When I was a youth minister for 12 years, people would say to me that I have a gift of administration. And I was, I could do things and put it together and organize and so forth. When we came and started 121, I was all of a sudden around people that I didn't know this existed, the kind of detail and the ways they thought and could get things done at such a detailed level. And I realized, someone said to me, look at who you're comparing yourself to, to other youth ministers, that doesn't tend to be the most administrative bunch. And so I looked pretty good compared to them, but that ultimately is not my gifting, and there are people that can do the back end behind the scenes and make things work for the people who have gifts that are more kind of people generated gifts. And so God has given this whole variety of gifts to people. There's a variety of them. For us to be team 121, and to walk in a way that just is really a beautiful picture of Christ as this church works together in all the different giftings.

Ross Sawyers: [00:20:20] Caleb Dressel has already won seven gold medals in past Olympics, and he'll be competing in four events, I believe in the 2024 games. He grew up in a Christian home, and when he was in high school, as a senior, he had kind of a mental breakdown, kind of got away from his faith, stopped swimming, and got away from that, he recovered from that. In college, we tend to think about people losing their minds in college, but college was a time for him, we see it again and again when people do not just lose their minds in college, there are so many, and that's where God gets their mind, and totally changes their heart. And Caleb Dressel was one of those, and at the University of Florida he grew in his faith, and he grew in his swimming. as well. And this is what he said about his gifting in swimming, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And God gave me the talent, so I'm going to do that for him, for myself, for my family and my friends. God gave me the talent, so I'm going to do it for him. In verse 11, "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills." God has individually distributed to you a spiritual gifting so that you can be an active part of the Body of Christ. He's distributed to you and it's for the common good of everyone else. It's Caleb, God gave me a talent, and I'm going to use it for him. God has given you a gifting and a talent, and he's asking you to get in and use it for him.

Ross Sawyers: [00:22:04] So what are your giftings and where will you serve in the church? This is, by the way, for children, we have so many children that are already serving in the church. This is for teenagers; we have an army of teenagers that serve throughout our church body. This is for college students. This is for young marrieds. This is if you have kids, you don't have kids, this if you don't have kids, this if you have one kid, two kids, seven kids. This is if you are in the middle of the busiest season of your life, this is if you're an empty nester, or if you're retired, this is all the way to the end. This is not a team mom idea, a team mom gets in there with their kid and says they're playing soccer right now, somebody's got to do it and make sure they have all their refreshments, and all the things get organized, and I'll be the team mom. But there are very few team moms that keep being the team mom when their kid's not on the team. This is not a team mom idea, this is not coaching your kid, and then when he grows up, you're done, and now somebody else takes it, I'm done. This is about a lifetime of being a part of the body of Christ, there are a variety of gifts. And if anything, as you get older, it ought to amp up what you're doing in the church. There are different seasons of time, and we have opportunities for you to serve in weekly roles, once a month roles. People will say, well, I travel a lot, I have a lake house, I have a mountain house. I'm just not here, so I really can't. No, we have every opportunity imaginable for whatever your scenario is, and in whatever season you're in, God has called you in now to serve, to be a part of the body using what your giftings are. You can use those on a Sunday morning. You can use them in your life group. You can use them on mission efforts and projects. There are a number of ways that we can utilize all of these different kinds of giftings.

Ross Sawyers: [00:24:18] And you may say, you know what, I'd be glad to do that, I just don't know what to do. All you have to do is step out of this room when we're done in the hallway, and they are waiting for you at a kiosk to help you. Or you can go online and there's this big purple banner on our website, you can't miss it. Tap it and it'll lead you through, and then someone will connect with you. But I would just say today that you might know...And then we have a QR code, I think I need to get out of the way of the QR, I don't know. Can you take a picture through me to the QR code? Does it work? Nobody has a phone, so it doesn't matter. But, if you want it, there's a QR code, so that's the way you can get the information.

Ross Sawyers: [00:25:05] And we have the opportunity, in moving ahead with a second campus in Keller, now we need to be building more and more depth in all of our areas to serve. When we launch that campus, we need to launch at least 70 to 100 people that are in serving capacities, and then we're asking God for 200 plus to be a part of that campus. But now is the time that we build the depth and build the substance of serving now, opportunity abounds.

Ross Sawyers: [00:25:36] And my hunch is, that for these Olympic athletes, somebody probably along the way said to them, I can see you doing this and I think you would excel at it. And all of a sudden that kid got all fired up and didn't quit shooting baskets and didn't come in till they were told they had to come in, kept begging to be able to get trained in this or that because somebody believed in them and saw something in them. What if we were continually looking around at each other and said, you know what? I could see you doing this. Why don't you give it a try?

Ross Sawyers: [00:26:20] I've been reading Bob Goff's book, Love Does, that guy just kind of does whatever. I just wonder if we just want to have a little bit of adventure and say, you know what? I don't know what my giftings are but tell me something and I'm going to try it. You might be terrible at it, and you say, you know what, this wasn't your gift, but there's something else. Would you just be willing to get in there and try something? Ask somebody, what could you see me doing in the church? What could you see me doing?

Ross Sawyers: [00:26:56] So there are a variety of gifts, a variety of opportunities for us. And there's an ongoing thing that Paul says here, so I wanted to spend the bulk of the time there, but I want to highlight a few more things that he says that I hope will be an encouragement to you; each person has value in serving. So each person has value, and Paul goes on to say in First Corinthians 12, he does almost a comical analogy, but it's a metaphor for the church starting in verse 14, "For the body is not one member, but many." I was reading Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's story, and her preparations every day, she has a track coach who's specific to her hurdles, she has a nutritionist, she has therapists, massage therapists, and she has just multiple kinds of trainers. I would assume she has a sleep therapist, like babies have now. And so I would assume then that she just has this whole team of people, so they're many, but they're one. So we have this whole team, all of us have a role because there's a variety of gifts and yet there's a unity to it. Then he says, "If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?" I think I skipped the hand and the foot, but you've got the foot saying of the hand, the ear saying to the eye, you know, there's kind of an inferiority thing here. So sometimes we look and say, you know what? I feel inferior to everybody else; they know more than I do, and they've been around longer than I have. No, Paul's saying, nobody's inferior in this, we just go where we are, and we move from there. "If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?" It would kind of be ridiculous if we'd just be one giant eye. Everybody has their part, and it's a beautiful thing when everybody's doing their part.

Ross Sawyers: [00:29:05] Verse 18, "But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." Now, you might have thought that you chose 121 to be your church, but God actually chose you. So whatever circumstances he orchestrated for you to be here, God is the one who placed you here. We've already seen the Holy Spirit is the one who distributes gifts, they're for the common good of the body, so if God has placed you at 121, he's giving you a gift so that you can be a vital part so that we have a really healthy body at 121. God has placed you here and he has a place for you.

Ross Sawyers: [00:29:50] And then he goes on and there's the idea of mutuality, I'll not read it, but it's the idea then, of superiority where one of the body parts thinks it's better than the other body part. So we can have either problem. We can have a problem of being inferior or a problem of thinking, well, what I do is way more important than what you do. I want you to know today that the person in the parking lot is as valuable as the role that I'm in. Because if you got mad coming into our parking lot, you're going to be mad the rest of the morning. But if we've greeted you well, from the time that you came on to the parking lot, and somebody helped you find a spot, and then you were greeted warmly when you came through the door, then whatever was going on in your world starts to ease, and then perhaps we can hear and see what God has for us as we move through the rest of the morning. My son does the parking lot at the church he's in in Fort Worth. It's one of the hardest places to get people to serve, and it's one of the most valuable things we could do today, is to be the first smile when somebody comes onto this campus. Inferior, superior? No. And then he goes on to say that as a body, we suffer together and we rejoice together, that we get down in the dirt and the hard things with each other, and we celebrate with each other when things go well. That's what we're called to do, each person has value, and we do this together. Where will you serve in the church? You're not inferior, and you're not superior. You and I are part of the same body, and we each have something to offer. We want to encourage each other and build each other up for the common good.

Ross Sawyers: [00:32:10] Love drives our serving. We read First Corinthians 13 at weddings, "Love is patient, love is kind." Probably if you're married, there is a good shot that was read at your wedding. It's actually not wedding verses, it's spiritual gifts in the body of Christ verses. The way we're to use our gift is to be patient, kind, not jealous, humble, not arrogant, respectful, not selfish, forget the wrongs been done against us, bear up, believe, hope, love never fails. So the driving motivator for us when we think about our gifts is a love, a love for God, a love for people, the Ten Commandments, a love for God, a love for people, and so that's our driving motivator. So we want to serve in a way that is driven by a love for people. Where will you serve in the church?

Ross Sawyers: [00:33:20] God strengthens us to serve. Paralympian David Brown is the fastest completely blind man in the world. He has run the 100m in 10.99 seconds, completely blind. He won the gold medal at Rio de Janeiro in the 2016 games, and he'll be competing in the Paris Games. And I want you just to see how he does it, he has a guide that runs with him, so there you go, they are tethered together by a six-inch piece of string. Jeremy Avery is on the right, that is his guide, he's in his 40s and he's running Sub 11 second 100m. So David Brown grew up, and at 15 months old his mom was told that her son had Kawasaki disease, which means he would lose his sight before he got out of his childhood, by the time he was 13, he was completely blind. He grew up in a faith tradition that kept telling him he had a spirit of infirmity and just needed to get that out. Imagine putting that pressure on a child. He had suicidal thoughts and attempts, but God brought him out of that. He started to see how he could use the way God had gifted him in a way that he didn't know before. He realized he could actually compete in the Olympic Games. He started having guides several years ago, and then eventually Jeremy Avery became his guide to run, they train together, and they do everything together. A great documentary, Untethered, about those two guys.

Ross Sawyers: [00:35:32] But I want to tie that to First Peter chapter 4, verses 10 and 11, it says, "Each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever." So sometimes we think, well, I can't do that, I'm not ready to do that, I'm not able to do that. I want you to remember what you just saw there as a completely blind man ran the 100m in 10.99 seconds and imagine the kind of training that it took for him to be able to get to that place and the strength that God has supplied him. He and his wife now are studying to be biblical counselors. He's now competing in blind soccer, he said, who knew there would even be something like that? God will give you the strength you need for whatever the giftings are he's given you. And if you feel like you don't know how to utilize that gift yet, God will strengthen you. Actually, the best place to be is a place of I can't do that, then I have no choice but to depend on God to do that and God gets the glory for it, you and I don't get the glory for it. And it's a beautiful thing in the body of Christ when we're leaning on his strength for things.

Ross Sawyers: [00:37:20] When we think about our physical bodies, when we're injured, it makes it hard on the rest of the body. If you have a knee injury, it's not just the knee that ends up hurting, you end up hurting multiple things, you start limping and then something over here starts hurting, then you got to work on that. So when we're injured, it can be more difficult, but we can still be a part of what God's doing. We need people in the body to help us diagnose what even the injuries are when we think about this spiritually. I was told a few months ago that my quad was inactive. I didn't even know you could have parts of your body that were inactive. And you know what? My knee hurt, but it wasn't my knee that was the problem. The funny part is when you go to the doctor, you know, my knee hurts. I think it's because of your shoulder. Who knew? Or you've got an ankle issue, that's why your hip hurts, take care of the ankle and your hip is not going to hurt. I'm sure I've got all this wrong, but you've got the idea. So we have injuries, we get inactive, and when we do that, it puts a strain on everything else. So just know today that if God has placed you in the body and you're opting not to participate in the way that God has called you and given a gift to you, then you're putting a strain on everybody else, just like a physical injury does to our body. If you're an inactive part of the body, it strains the body somewhere else. So we get in there with the strength that God supplies and let him work through us. Are you willing to do that?

Ross Sawyers: [00:39:22] It's grace that starts us on the path to service. If you really know Jesus today, it's hard for me to understand how you and I would not be so motivated by the grace of God in our lives to not be a vibrant, active part of the Body of Christ using what the Holy Spirit has distributed to you and to me for the common good of everybody else in the body, motivated by the grace of God and the love of God.

Ross Sawyers: [00:40:06] Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone just set the world record for 400-meter hurdles at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. She'll be the medal favorite, the gold medal favorite in the Olympic Games. She's a follower of Jesus and she said, "If you have success without Jesus, it's empty." She did that for a while. But after she set that world record, the first thing she said was that anything's possible in Christ, and he said praise God that he would do that. And she said the one thing in her life, the one thing that matters and that she cannot do without, is her unchanging faith in Jesus Christ. I'm not asking you today to be David Brown, Caleb Dressel, or Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone as a part of team USA. I'm simply asking you to be a part of team 121, and to se the giftings that the Holy Spirit of God has distributed to you, that we might be such a beautiful and vibrant picture. I love watching the Olympics, I love watching the elite athletes. What a beautiful picture when someone who doesn't know Christ sees the body of Christ actively living out the way that God has called us to live. It's a way that each of us has our sufferings and rejoicings met. It's a way a lost world sees the beauty of Christ in the church. Today, today. Where will you sign up to serve in the church where God has placed you?

Ross Sawyers: [00:42:25] Father, thank you for our space together. And God, thank you for so many who are serving so well, and that do make this such a beautiful place in the ways that they serve and bring different giftings, different talents, and different abilities with different effects on each of us, God, so thank you. And God, thank you that you didn't give us all, all of it and overwhelm us. But you've given us, parts so that together, as we work together, God, that everything would be taken care of. So, Father, help us be a vibrant, healthy body, and not sit inactive. Father, where we're injured, help us to help each other work through the injury. And, God, I know there are some athletes who compete with their injuries and others that may be so serious they need to take a quick time out and get healed, so, God, help us do both. And Father, I pray that you would take every person in whatever season of time they're in. and the ways you've wired them and gifted them now, to put that into play at 121. So, God, we thank you for that today and look forward to what you do. And I pray these things in Jesus' name.

Ross Sawyers: [00:43:44] Let's just be still before the Lord and then respond to him, in a song of magnifying Christ today. And as we do that, we can think about those good plans he has for us and for the church, and how we can be a part of those to magnify his name.



Recorded in Grapevine, Texas.