 Sometimes people call the human body a machine and what they mean by that is, we know our bodies are not machines but kind of in a way they are because when God created us He gave us all these intricate parts. The psalmist talks about that in Psalm 139 about being formed in our mother's womb. And our bodies are kind of like machines in the sense that we're made up of all these different parts, the hands and the feet and the eyes and the mouth and the heart and the lungs and all these different parts to our body and yet we know that if all the parts aren't functioning in our physical body then it doesn't work very well, right? I have a great nephew who has cerebral palsy. He was born with cerebral palsy and he's 21 now, he still doesn't sit up. His body does not function properly. Debbie's over there in the book room right now suffering with a toothache which I hope doesn't explode on the plane. And her body is not functioning quite well right now. And so it's important when we think about our physical body all the parts have to be working together in order for our physical body to function. And ladies it's the same way with the spiritual body, the spiritual body of Christ. We all have to be working together as a body so that the body will function properly. And you know what happens? What happens is when one of you ladies who has a gift that you can use for the body when you're not using your spiritual gift the whole body malfunctions and it doesn't work like it should work. Just like Debbie's right now body isn't working and my great nephew has cerebral palsy. Ladies every one of us in this room who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior has a spiritual gift. At least one, maybe more and we need to be using those for the glory of God. And what I'm going to do in this session is I'm going to give you the list of all the gifts. We're going to read the passages very quickly. There are 18 spiritual gifts I'm going to define what each of them are. And then we are going to look at the five attitudes that we should have. It's one thing to use our gift, it's another thing to have the attitude that we should have as we use our spiritual gift, right? Let me say before we get into this there are some differing opinions on the spiritual gifts. In fact when my son went to the master's seminary he took a class on spiritual gifts and he told me after it was over he said mom I'm more confused about spiritual gifts than before I took the class. So I'm not an expert on this I'm just going to give you what I believe the Bible says and it would be good for you to study them out yourself, okay? So what I'm going to do is briefly read these passages and you probably want to follow along. The first listing of spiritual gifts is in Romans 12, Romans 12 verse 3 and you can follow along with me if you would. Paul says, I say through the grace given to me and every man that is among you don't think of himself more highly than you ought to think but to think so fully according to God it's dealt to every man the measure of faith. For we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members of each other having been gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us wither prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, ministry, let us wait our ministering, he that teaches on teaching, he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that gives, let him do it with liberality, he that rules with diligence, he that shows mercy with cheerfulness, let love and then we stop there, okay? And then 1 Corinthians 12, if you'll move over to 1 Corinthians 12 there is another listing of spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians is one of the books I do not have memory so I'll have to read that to you. 1 Corinthians 12. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols even as you were led, wherefore I give you understanding that no man speaks by the Spirit of God can call Jesus a curse and that no man can say Jesus is the Lord except by the Spirit. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations but the same Lord, there are diversities of operations but it's the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man in prophet, for to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues. But all these works that like one and the very same Spirit divides to every man, severally as he will, verse down to 28. That is set in the church. Some apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing helps governments, diversities of tongues. And then Ephesians 4 and 11 to 12, Paul has a little listing of gifts just in two verses. He gave some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ and then there's one more listing in 1 Peter, 1 Peter 4, 9 to 11. Use hospitality one to another without grudging as every man has received a gift, even so minister the same to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone has a speaking gift, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability God gives that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to be praised in dominion for ever and ever a man. That's where we're going to stop. OK, so what I'm going to do right now is list the 18 spiritual gifts that I just read through very quickly. I would encourage you, if you have an interest in this, to briefly, not briefly, but to study these out for yourself. Now, the first five gifts that I'm going to give you were given to the apostles and the prophets in the early church to confirm the gospel. They were temporary gifts, OK? The first one was healing, healing. This was given to Christ and the apostles. What is the gift of healing? The gift of healing would include a touch or perhaps a word which caused total healing to all that came. Ladies, the gift of healing was not partial. If God healed you or one of the apostles healed you, it was complete. They didn't have to have several tries at it. They didn't have to cast. I remember one time when my dad was in Tulsa and he was a pastor and Oral Roberts was still living and they invited all the pastors to this meeting. And they had time for questions and answers. This Oral Roberts thing, he's dead now, but it's funny he couldn't heal himself. But anyway, I had a time for question and answers and my dad stood up and said, Mr. Roberts, since you believe that this little white handkerchief that you send out to all your people on your mailing list, if you believe it really has the power to heal people, then why don't you clear out the hospitals in Tulsa, Oklahoma and go around and heal everybody? And they looked at my dad and they said, Mr. Pack, you can sit down now. So they never answered his question. Healing in biblical times was instant. It was permanent and it also included raising the dead. Jesus and Matthew 4, 26, 23 went about healing the sick and we know he raised Lazarus from the dead. He also gave that same gift to the apostles. Remember he said, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead. And he sent them out in Matthew 10 with charging orders. That was one of the things that they were able to do. Now, no Christian today has the gift of healing or else we'd be clearing out the hospitals. In fact, they have, many people have gone in and have exposed some of these faith healers we have. And if you know anything about it, they proved to be false and just making merchandise of people. However, I do wanna say this. I believe God is in the business of healing and I have seen him as a pastor's wife now for 38 years. I have seen some people in my church that should be dead, but God has raised them up. I have seen people in my church that should never be able to have kids. The doctor said, you will never have a baby and they've had three or four, five, six, you know? And so God can heal and I believe he can and I've seen him do it. Where doctors just say, this has to be a miracle. This is none other than a miracle. Number two, the second gift that was given to the apostles and the prophets was miracles. This was a supernatural intrusion into the natural words and its natural laws only by divine intervention such as Jesus turning the water into wine, the feeding of the 4,000, the feeding of the 5,000. These were miraculous abilities given to the apostles and other Christians to authenticate God's message. And let me say again, even though I don't believe the gift of miracles is for today, it's not given to us as individuals, I believe that God can do miracles and I've seen him do it and only he can do it. I mean, the fact that any of us are transformed is a miracle, right? I mean, that he saved a wretch like me as a miracle and but I do know that there are some pretty miraculous things that I've seen God do. Number three, tongues. The Greek word, let's talk about the Greek word for tongues. It means dialecto, which we get our English word dialect, which means human languages. This is a supernatural gift of speaking in another language without its having been learned. This is one of the things that just really boggles my mind today because Tulsa, Oklahoma, we're predominantly charismatic and we have a lot of churches that they don't believe that you're really saved unless you can speak in tongues, get the second blessing and all that. And I'm like, well, where do you even get that? I mean, you look at Acts two when the gift of tongues was given, it says, how here we every man speak in our own language wherein we were born. I mean, it's very clear what it is. So where do they get this other stuff, you know? It's beyond my understanding why they believe that or understand that. But in the biblical times, in the New Testament times, the gift of tongues was given and it was given to authenticate the gospel, not for today to have some heavenly language with God so that you can become better than everybody else and more spiritual than everybody else, which is what they try to tell you. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14-22, tongues was given as a sign for the unbeliever. And so the gift of tongues was given for authenticating the gospel. Number four would be along with that, interpretation of tongues. This was a gift given by the spirit in order to interpret the person speaking in an unknown language. For example, if God were all of a sudden I've been to Honduras three times and I've had to have a translator because I don't speak Spanish. But let's say that God gave me the gift of tongues and I could speak in a foreign language. Well, I don't know what I'm saying, right? Cause I don't know that language that someone else has got interpreted. So there had to be someone who could interpret the language that someone else was speaking and that they did not before know. Number five is apostleship. The gift of apostleship. This was a gift given only to the early church. An apostle was one who had personal contact with Jesus and they had to be an eyewitness of his resurrection. If someone tries to tell you, in fact, two Sundays ago we had a lady visit our church and I was in the bathroom with her at the same time, not in the same toilet but in the same bath. And I said, so hi, how are you? How did you learn about our church? And she goes, I go to all churches. And I said, oh, okay. And so when we got home, my husband said, did you meet the apostle today? And I said, what? And he said, yeah, that lady was an apostle. He said, I don't think she'll be back. And, but anyway, if someone tries to tell you that they're an apostle today, take them to Acts 1, 21 through 23 and 1 Corinthians 9, 1 and 2 because an apostle, according to the Bible, has to be someone that has seen the resurrected Christ. Now if someone comes in your church and tells you they're an apostle and you ask them if they've seen the resurrected Christ and they say yes and you've got another problem on your hands. Good luck with that one. Anyway, in fact, this lady's checks. She actually gave a check to the church and it said apostle Paul or apostle Paula or whatever her name was. Now, those are the five gifts that were given that are no longer today. They have ceased and you can read that according to 1 Corinthians 13. Now the remaining 13 gifts are permanent gifts and they're given to edify and build up the body. So let's look at number six is wisdom. Wisdom. What is wisdom? Wisdom is the ability to apply wisdom to the body of believers in difficult situations. This person usually knows how to apply biblical principles. They can read the scriptures and they know how to practically apply what they read. People that have the gift of wisdom usually make good counselors and good pastors. Number seven is the gift of knowledge. This is someone who can perceive and understand the truth of God's word. People that have the gift of knowledge usually make good scholars, good professors. They perceive and understand the deep things of God's word. Number eight, the eighth gift is prophecy. Prophecy simply means to speak forth or proclaim God's word. Now there is the Old Testament prophets and they foretold the future but that's different than the gift of prophecy. For example, I have the gift of prophecy in that I proclaim the truth of God's word but I cannot foretell the future. And so the New Testament gift of prophecy just means to proclaim or foretell, not foretell, proclaim or tell God's word. Number nine is discerning of spirits. Or distinguishing of spirits you might say. This is a person who can discern whether something is demonic or divine. They can usually tell what is genuine and what is spurious. Now I know first John tells us that true Christians cannot be deceived by false teachers. We will not be overcome by false teachers. We will eventually figure it out that they're false. But there are some among us who have the gift of discernment and I've been around people like that. I think I have the gift of discernment myself and I can be around someone probably about 15, 20 minutes and I don't know, I can just tell and I'm usually right on. But it's just a special gift from God to discern the true from the false. Number 10, the gift of faith. This is a gift I don't have but I would like to have more of it. This gift is a person who has a special ability to believe God to the point of anything. I mean, I have met women like that and they completely and fully trust the Lord in all situations at all times and their faith never wavers and this person usually brings everything to God in prayer with great trust knowing that he's gonna do it, he's gonna work it out. Number 11, the gift of evangelism. This is a person who has an unusual ability to persuade lost people to embrace Christ and put their faith in him. They have persuasive abilities, they're gifted. I have met a couple people in my lifetime that my dad is one, he is an evangelist. I mean, he shares the gospel with everybody and everything and he seems to have great success in persuading people. You've heard me talk about my friend Maggie Roller, I call her Maggie the evangelist. She's actually been with me on one of my trips to Cornerstone Church and Maggie doesn't know a stranger and she shares with people that are even asleep on the plane. I mean, these people that have the gift of evangelism, they seem to have a better batting average than those of us who do not have the gift but we're gonna talk more about that in this session and the next session. Number 12 is the gift of teaching. This is a person who has the ability to grasp, arrange and present truth effectively and in an organized manner so that their audience can understand the scriptures. The gift of teaching. Number 13 is pastor teacher. This is kind of related to the gift of teaching but it also includes a person who has shepherding gifts. They want to care for their sheep. This includes looking out for their flock, protecting their flock from false teachers. They like to encourage those that are sick, discouraged. I know my husband is a pastor teacher. There's many times I have the gift of teaching but I don't think I'm pastor teacher because I know many times he'll say, well, you know, aren't we gonna go to the, you know, I remember one time I got a call in the night and I said, oh, so and so fell and he turned on the light and I said, what are you doing? He said, we're going to the hospital. I said, he said, I'm going to the hospital, aren't you? I go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm coming. I'm coming, you know. And he puts me to shame. That's why I dedicated my first book to him. He has lived the epistle of James before me. He is a pastor teacher. He cares for his sheep. He protects his sheep. He's not afraid to mention false teachers by name. He goes the extra mile. I have known him to fly a thousand miles to go to someone's funeral. And I'm like, really? And, but he is a pastor teacher. He has a pastor's heart. Number 14 is exhortation. This is a person who has ability to convince others to get their life back in harmony with God's will. They admonish, they encourage. These people also make good counselors. Number 15 is helps or service. This is someone who likes to assist in labor behind the scenes. Vacuum, do the tape ministry, the nursery. They don't like to be seen, but they enjoy serving. They have the gift of helps. Number 16, I don't have this gift either, but I would like to have more of it. Showing mercy. This is someone who relieves the distress of others who are in some kind of pain, misery, anxiety. My discipleship motto used to be it's change because the Lord is growing me in mercy. Don't quit laughing over there. I'm just teasing. I used to disciple her so I can say that. But it used to be snap out of it, you know? Get with it. But I am, the Lord has grown me a lot in mercy, but I still have a lot to go on that gift. Number 17 is giving. Giving, this is a person who has ability to invest material things, so much so that they actually can reap my, I believe my husband has that gift. God has given him wisdom in how to invest material things so that he can make the most out of his investments in order so that he can give to others. And, you know, we need to get back to that method of why we work. Paul says we work with our hands so that we can give to others. You know, we don't go out and get a job. We do go out and get a job, swing pay bills and have food and all that, but the purpose behind that also is so that we can give and help others who need help in some way financially. Number 18, the last one is administration or ruling. This is a person who can give wise direction. They like to head up mission committees, youth functions, head of women's ministries, they're very organized, and they're very good at administration. Now, there are some spiritual gift tests out there, and I have found most of them not to be very good. I do have one at home that I do think is probably one of the better ones. If after this lesson today, you still don't know what your gifts are, if you will email me, I will send it to you. But some of them are a little bit weird, so I'd kind of stay away from out there. But you know, when you think about in the biblical times, you know, they didn't have a spiritual gift test. You know, what are your spiritual gifts? But they just knew. In fact, last night after our session, Debbie and I were in the car and heading back to the hotel and she said, what do you think Alicia's spiritual gifts are? And I listed the top three and what I thought. And so when we saw Alicia later, I said, Alicia, Deb wants to know what your spiritual gifts are. She listed all three of them. Now, how did I know that? Because I can see Alicia. I see where God's gifted her and how he uses her and where her loves are and her interests are. And so I know for me, my main gifts are teaching, prophecy and exhortation. And I didn't have to take a gift test to know that. I love to help women who are faltering and not living for Christ. I wanna help them get back on track. I love to study God's word. I love to memorize God's word and I love to teach God's word. I feel like God's given me a ability to put it in an organized manner to know where to share it with others. And so I didn't take a test but it was just something that God moved me in that way. Another good way, if you don't know what your gifts are, ask your husband. Where do you think my gifts lie? Or ask your best friend or someone who watches your life and knows you. Where do you think I'm gifted? And that will help you. But as I said, if you want more help, I can send you that test if you would like it. Now, those are the gifts. But ladies, after you, and I know I'm going through this pretty fast because of time, but after you kind of look through those and maybe do some research on your own, you come up with, well, these are my gifts. Then that's not the end of it, okay? Okay, so I have the gift of teaching, prophecy and exhortation. Now, as I use my gifts, there are attitudes that the Lord wants present in my life. Okay, as I serve him and as you serve him. And so you're already in first Peter and here we're gonna see five attitudes that should accompany our gifts. And we already read the passage, so I'm not gonna reread it. But notice he says that we are to use hospitable, and I didn't even eat as much as you guys did. I knew better. I'm saving my carrot cake for my trip to the airport here in a little bit. But we're to be hospitable, which is a serving gift, okay? We're to be hospitable one to another without grudging, without grumbling. And ladies, let me say this. We should use whatever gifts God has given us without grumbling, without murmuring. In fact, the Greek term for grumbling or murmuring means in a low murmuring tone of voice. I hate having these people over for dinner. I wish I didn't have to have 20 people for dinner tonight. What do I have to do with it? That's exact, you know, murmuring spoils hospitality, doesn't it? Grumbling spoils hospitality, but it spoils any gift. What if I told my husband, and I actually heard one woman lady's speakers say this one time, I was appalled. And I was at a gathering with several women who are public speakers and she's someone you know, and I'm not gonna mention her name because I'm not gonna slander her gossip. But she actually said to me at the kitchen sink, I hate these women conferences with women mauling all over me. And I know the next morning my husband said to the lady by shame on her, it is a privilege to serve the Lord God. What if I were had to say to my husband Wednesday morning we left, I just hate the fact that I had to get up at 2.30 this morning to catch this plane and I don't really know why. Why in the world, you know, I am just so tired. And then I get home and I've only got three days before I go to India. Now, do you think that's pleasing to the Lord? That is not pleasing to the Lord. And so ladies, as we use our gifts, we're not to do it with an, you know, it's a privilege to serve the Lord God. Demi and I have talked about this. I love serving the Lord. I wanna serve the Lord more. I wanna pour out my life. I told my son asked me the other day last Sunday at our house and he said, Mom, if you could paint your future with a brush, what would it look like? And I said, Charles, I'd be traveling every weekend. I love doing what I do. I love it, but I said, I won't do that now because of your dad, but I'll do what I can do. I love serving the Lord Christ. What a privilege it is that he saved me to serve him and I wanna use my gifts for his glory. And so ladies, as you serve the Lord God, if it's doing the tape ministry or singing up here or whatever it is you do, it's with an attitude of no grumbling, no complaining. That's why I love traveling with Deb, even though she's got a toothache right now. I mean, she's a trooper. And this will be her first time to complain, Sherry. Probably, we'll have to. So the first attitude that should accompany our gifts is no complaining, no complaining. In fact, even that inward complaining that you do, ladies, even if you don't outwardly do it, it'll be judged one day, right? So you don't wanna even inwardly complain. Well, Paul gives a second attitude that should be present, look at verse 10. As everyone has received a gift, he says minister to one another. In other words, whatever gift God has given to you, you are to be a good steward of it. And did you notice it's a gift? He gave it to you, just like your salvation. It is a gift. And you know, that frees me up because then I don't have to fret about what gifts I don't have. Because if they're given to me by God, a sovereign God and the Holy Spirit gives severally to whomever he wills, then I don't have to worry about so-and-so that has gifts that I don't have. And I don't have to be jealous and I don't have to be upset about it because I just need to focus on the gifts that God has given me. Now, also, I wanna say here, even though you may not have certain gifts, like maybe evangelism or mercy, you can't cop out. Because just say you don't have the gift of evangelism. You can't cop out because we're to go, everyone in here is supposed to be sharing the gospel, right? That's a great commission. Or just because you don't have the gift of mercy, I don't think I have a gift of mercy. I'm supposed to be merciful, right? Because it's one of the commands. I'm to be merciful to everybody, even my enemies. I'm to show kindness to them. So don't cop out and say, well, I don't have the gifts, so I don't have to do that. But I will say that there are gifts that God has given to you that he will not give to anyone else. He has given them to you. The point is not what gifts you've been blessed with, but the point is using them. That Peter says, if you have a gift, he says minister to each other. Minister to one another as the good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Ladies, it's such a joy to be in a church where all the people are using their gifts for the glory of God. And it is a hardship to be in a church where you only have a few, like five people trying to do all the work of 100 people. It puts a strain on the body. In fact, I remember when my kids were growing up, I taught my kids to work. I mean, they could help vacuum the floor and do the laundry. I taught them how to cook because it made that, first of all, they need to be learning these things. But secondly, it makes us all feel like a family. We all do our part together. And so the same it is in a spiritual body. And so ladies, attitude number two, that must be present as we serve the Lord. Paul says we minister same to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So as we use our gift, we must have an attitude of serving the Lord with a servant's heart. Peter says we minister as good stewards. A good steward of what God has given us. We are his servants. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, 1, and 2, let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. It's interesting when Peter says manifold, the manifold grace of God, it means many varied colors or types. For example, as God gives gifts, some of you may have the gift of teaching, but isn't it great that we all aren't the same? Like we're not clones because not everyone wants to teach like me and not everyone wants to do things the way everyone does them. But there's a variety in the gifts and that's what is so beautiful about the body of Christ. As God gives it, it's a manifold variety ways that God has given it to us. Now, as we went with verse 11, Peter gives us the last three attitudes that must accompany our spiritual gifts. Notice what he says. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. What Peter is saying here is if you have a speaking gift, teaching, prophecy, exhortation, any of those type of gifts, you should be using them with an attitude as unto the Lord, as unto the Lord, as speaking as if the Lord were speaking. Would the Lord say this? Would the Lord do this? If you have a speaking gift, teaching, preaching, evangelism, exhortation, you should be conscious of what you say as you are speaking God's message. Ladies, it should not be your opinion. That's why when I teach ladies conferences, I teach the Bible because I want to speak truth. I don't have anything to say apart from this book. In fact, I remember one conference I did in Ohio, I think it was last year and the man that was doing the taping, he raked me over the coals the next morning and I said, sir, you've got the wrong conference speaker. If you're asking me to compromise God's word, I'm not going to do that. So maybe I better just go home because I'm not going to water down the message. And so we need to be careful. If we have gifts, speaking gifts, we better be speaking as God would have us to speak and speaking truth. That's why one of my greatest fears, I think, when I get up and teach is I know that teachers are going to receive a stricter judgment for the things they say. And so I'm like, okay, I want to make sure I'm teaching truth and not error. I think it was John Calvin that said it would be better for him as he's coming up this platform, it'd be better for him to fall and to break his neck than to get up and speak anything that wasn't God's truth. Now I haven't prayed that yet, but if I ever fall and break my neck, well then you'll know that God was keeping me from saying anything that wasn't true. So we need to be careful as we use our gifts. It's with the attitude as unto the Lord. Is this what God would say? Is this what the Lord would do, even in our gifts of helps? Is this what God would do? Is this how he would sing? Is this how he would run the tape ministry? Is this how he would vacuum the church nursery? Is this how he would clean the toilets at church? And so we need to be thinking about that. Well, Peter gives us the fourth attitude that must be present. He says, if any one minister, let him do it with the ability that God gives. And so attitude number four that must be present as we serve is with the ability that God gives. Ladies, if you try to minister your gift in your own strength, it won't work. I have done that before and it doesn't work. And so you want to minister in the ability that God gives and through the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4-7, what are you so puffed up about? What do you have that God hasn't given you? He gave it to you. And if all you have is from God, why do you act as though you're so great and as though you have accomplished something on your own, Paul says? Ladies, when we use our spiritual gifts, we have to remember it's God that gives us the ability. God gives us the ability. In fact, if you had ever told me in time past that I would be a teacher of the word of God, I would tell you, you were absolutely crazy and you lost your mind. Because I did not like studying in school. I hated English class, you know, where you had to give up and give those talks. I mean, I would be shaking like this and I did not like getting up in front of people. It terrified me to death. And so that's how I know this is a gift from God. Because within myself, within Susan Joy Hexelf, she can't do this. But it's God that gives us the ability and the strength. Now, the fifth attitude that must be present is found in the last phrase that Peter gives here. Notice what he says, that God in all things might be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praised and dominion forever and ever, amen. What is the fifth attitude that must be present as we serve Christ? The attitude is the goal to glorify God. Ladies, not you. That's a sign of a false teacher, you know? They wanna pat themselves on the back. Why do we use our gifts anyway? Peter says, so God will be glorified for his glory, his pleasure, his will. And then Peter says, amen. It's not even the end of the letter. So be it. This is true. It's for God's glory. We are to use our gifts to the glory of God. Ladies, are you pleasing the Lord by using your gifts for the glory of God? If not, why not? Well, maybe you don't know what your gifts are. Then you need to find out what your gifts are and start using them. For those of you who know your gifts, are these attitudes present? No complaining, servant's heart. Attitude is unto the Lord. Serving with the ability the Lord gives you. An attitude of glorifying God. Maybe you do know what your gifts are, but you don't like what God's called you to do. Or maybe you're jealous over what someone else has and you don't have that gift. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, those that compare themselves among themselves are not wise. Not wise. I look at people like Deb, she has gifts of helps. I mean, you know, she picks up those 50 pound boxes of books and carries them. I mean, we're trying to figure out how we're gonna do all this in India. I don't have to worry about it. She's got, you know, she can do that. I'm not, I mean, you know, I'm not that strong. I am strong, but not quite as strong as that. She also has ability to work with children. God didn't give me that gift. And I marvel, you know, she just is able to do that. It's a gift from God. God gives us different gifts and different creativity in how to use his gifts. You need to recognize your limitations and focus on what God has called you to do. And be thankful for other people in this congregation that have gifts you don't have and pray for them. And pray that they will use their gift to the glory of God. Or maybe you're upset you only have one gift or maybe you're upset because I think you have too many gifts. You know, why did God give me so many? In fact, I was telling also Debbie last night on the way home in the car that I think Alicia probably has every spiritual gift. I hadn't thought about that till I said that to her. I said, actually, I think she has all the gifts, the all the today gifts, not the past gifts. She doesn't have, she's not an apostle. She doesn't have the gift of miracles or tongues or interpretation, but she has the gifts of today. I think she has all of them. But I do know that the three I mentioned were her primary gifts. You know, it really doesn't matter if you have one gift, all the gifts, what does matter is you use them all for God's glory, right? Every one of them. Now, if you're not using your spiritual gifts that God has given you, I would challenge you to do that. Now, I also know some of you are using your gifts and you're tired, you're weary. Ladies, I have a word for you too. Paul says, my dear sister, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Why knowing your labor in the Lord is not in vain. It's not, it's not. Also, Paul says in Hebrews 6, 10, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you've shown toward his name and that you minister to all the saints and do minister. In fact, I like what one guy says, wanted. Gifted volunteers for difficult service in the local expression of the kingdom of God. Motivation to serve should be obedience to God, gratitude, gladness, forgiveness, humility and love. Service will rarely be glorious, temptation to quit, place of service will sometimes be strong. Volunteers must be faithful in spite of long hours, little or no visible results, and possibly no recognition except from God in eternity. So true. So ladies, discover your gifts, accept your gifts and use your gifts. And I pray you'll do that to the glory of God and to show others that you are a woman who pleases the Lord. Francis Havergale, who wrote my favorite hymn, we've sung it several times already this weekend. She's the one I mentioned to you before, memorized all the New Testament, Isaiah and all the minor prophets. Actually, she memorized all the New Testament and Isaiah in her teenage years. And then she memorized the minor prophets in her latter year. She died at the age of 43. She didn't die of scripture memory, but she did die at the age of 43. And she died of consumption. And her sister and her would do the scripture memorization as they'd go on walks together every day. And so she has been an inspiration to me in my journey through scripture memorization, but also just her life. If you've ever read her book, Take My Life, which is actually a little book for the master that is a springboard from this song that she wrote, Take My Life and Let It Be. Anyway, she lost her mother when she was 11 years old. And her mother's final words to this young girl were, Fanny dear, pray to God to prepare you for all he is preparing for you. Fanny dear, pray to God to prepare you for all he is preparing for you. Have you and I, and are you and I prepared for what God has prepared for us in this life? Do we know what he has called us to be and to do and are we using what he has given us to his glory? Ladies, I would challenge you to think seriously about that. And I don't know if we have time to sing that song. If we don't, it's okay. Take My Life and Let It Be.