 Good to be with you this morning. We are going to be jumping in in our continuing our hero series on Timothy. So go ahead and jump into first Timothy 4. And while you're doing that, want to welcome those in Portage and those watching online. We love you guys. Thanks for joining in this morning. Last week we heard an insanely good message from Rick Renner on the Apostle Paul. How many of you guys enjoyed that message last weekend? Come on, that was amazing. In it, we got to hear this beautiful story of this man called Paul, who was this apostle to the church, and it sets the perfect backdrop for this weekend because Timothy is described in Scripture as Paul's spiritual son. And Timothy actually got saved, most likely on Paul's first mission journey through Timothy's hometown of Lystra. The second time Paul comes through Lystra, he notices this young man. There's something about his character and his passion for Jesus. And he pulls him close and begins to mentor him. He actually invites him on his mission trip. And we see this beautiful partnership and the spiritual father-spiritual son relationship that changes the world. Timothy co-wrote six books in the New Testament with Paul. Timothy was a massive leader in Ephesus and really the part of Timothy's life that has really been stirring me this week, even as I'm looking at it, is there's just so many differences to Timothy and Paul, which stood out to me because Timothy's his spiritual son. And you would think, man, wouldn't the guy who was picking his spiritual son pick someone who was just like him? But in reality, they're actually pretty different. We learned last week that Paul, he was a purebred, he was a Hebrew of Hebrew. He came from this prestigious line. And Timothy, on the other hand, his father was Greek and his mother was Hebrew. Paul was circumcised on the eighth day. Timothy circumcised it like the 18th year. Paul asked him to be circumcised so that he could have influence and authority with the Jews. And how many of you know, they're suffering for Jesus and then there's really suffering for Jesus. And Timothy was in the really suffering for Jesus category. But Paul, he was circumcised on the eighth day. Paul came from a large city. Timothy was from the small town of Lystra. Paul had a prestigious upbringing in education and we know very little about Timothy's education. Paul we know was this evil sinner before Christ. And Timothy just kind of grew up in a Christian home and got saved early on. Finally, Paul is this brilliant communicator, unbelievable writer, bold, kind of larger-than-life personality. And Timothy is more timid. He's more reserved. When Timothy goes to Corinth, Paul says, hey, when he comes, put him to ease. Just kind of referencing Paul as a father. He's like, hey, he's probably going to be a little nervous. So make him feel at home. And Paul has to exhort Timothy constantly to not fear. And what I love about the parallel of these stories and the partnership God brought together is through Paul, we learn that God can save anyone. But through Timothy, we learn that God can use anyone. And I love finding myself in Timothy because I feel like I so relate to that. I grew up in a Christian home. I feel like there's not anything about me that you would have been like, oh, wow, that guy is so gifted or so talented or so cool. And I feel like I have humble upbringing and humble roots, and yet God is able to take the weakness and the brokenness of my life, and he's able to supernaturally multiply it. And my prayer this morning as we dive into Timothy is that you would not look at your natural giftings and say, well, that must be my ceiling that God can do through my life. And I hope that as we look through Timothy that you dream dreams again and stir yourself up to believe that God wants to use you, where you're at, the person you are at to do great things in the kingdom. So let's read from 1 Timothy 4, starting in verse 12. This is the book that Paul wrote to Timothy when Timothy was on his assignment in Ephesus. So Paul is traveling around doing big apostle things and he assigns his spiritual son Timothy to Ephesus because they're having this problem with doctrine and they're getting off from the foundation of the faith. And so in the midst of that, Paul is writing this book to encourage Timothy and he says, Timothy, let no one despise you for your youth but be an example to the believers in word and conduct and love and spirit and faith and in purity. Until I come, give attention to reading exhortation to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is within you which was given to you by prophecy and the laying out of hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things and give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all. A massive theme we see in 1 and 2 Timothy is Paul as a spiritual father calling out, speaking to and developing the spiritual gifts in Timothy. And so we're going to zoom in today on the process of developing our spiritual gifts since that's such a massive theme with Timothy. And before we do that, we want to just give just kind of a basic definition of what a spiritual gift is. A spiritual gift is an expression that is initiated by the spirit that strengthens somebody else. It's the expression and activation of faith inside of you that strengthens and provides faith in somebody else. And 1 Corinthians says there are many gifts but there is one spirit and that one spirit is the supplier of all of these gifts. And so spiritual gifts are not the same as natural talents. You are born with natural talents. You are given spiritual gifts by the spirit. Unbelievers can work and function in their natural talents of singing or musical ability or speaking but spiritual gifts are something that only the believers operate in. In fact, there's about 19 New Testament spiritual gifts and I just want to read them to you really quick. There's the gift of the apostle. There's tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles, healing, prophecy, faith, discernment, wisdom, knowledge, exhortation, leadership, evangelism, teaching, pastoring, serving, mercy, giving, and administration. You notice how you don't hear rockstar or brilliant singer or amazing communicator in these lists. Now it's not that God can't and doesn't want to use your talents. He does. That's another message for another time when we talk about stewardship. But when we're talking about spiritual gifts, we are talking about an expression that the spirit initiates where you release what the Holy Spirit has given you to strengthen somebody else. And Jesus gives us the perfect illustration in John 7 when he says, anybody who thirsts, come to me and drink. And if he believes out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. And the next verse says, and Jesus was speaking concerning the spirit. So Jesus is giving this clear picture. Anybody who thirsts, come and drink deep. If you come to God, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. But I love what Jesus says next. He says, but that Holy Spirit was never meant to stay inside of you. What you take in like a drink, just a, it seems like just a simple sip of water inside of you as you encounter that same Holy Spirit, it becomes this raging river. And what you took in like a drink, you open up your mouth and it comes out like a raging river. It is the Holy Spirit flowing out of you. In John 20, Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, receive the Holy Spirit. This is exactly what happened to you, the moment that you were saved. You received the Numa, the breath of Jesus as you were born again. And the Holy Spirit indwells you for the purpose of regeneration and renewal. And yet we see that same group that Jesus breathed on were filled with the Holy Spirit. They said, Terry in the city and wait until you're endued or clothed with power on high from the Holy Spirit. Well, wait a minute, I thought they were already filled with the Holy Spirit. What need then do they have for the Holy Spirit? Well, we see when they gather in Acts 1, these same people that are all filled with the Holy Spirit, something happens where there's a sound as a mighty rushing wind and flaming tongues of fire come and rest on them. And then from that moment on, we complete a task and a mission. The Holy Spirit lives in you for regeneration and renewal, but he comes on you to complete a task. And what we see in Acts is the simple fishermen, the simple men that would have nothing that makes you pay attention to them when the Holy Spirit that was in them came on them, what came out of them was supernaturally multiplied and 3,000 people were saved in a day. 3,000 people, that is the multiplication that happens when the Holy Spirit who lives in us comes on us so that we reach the world around us. I want to say it like this, the Holy Spirit comes on us to release what's in us to those around us. That is what a spiritual gift is, and I want to use a quick illustration. Pastor Stefan and I, the campus pastor at Portage, you guys can cheer for him over there. You can cheer for him here too. He's awesome here. He's not just awesome over there. He's awesome here too. He's been a personal friend for a long time. Seven years ago, we went on a mission strip to turn it out in Tobago together, and we were doing door-to-door evangelism, and we knocked on the first door, and this lady in her 60s, she came out, and I can tell right away she wasn't particularly thrilled about what was happening. And we had our evangelistic training, and we pulled out our prayer beads, and Stefan and I probably didn't study as well as we did. We're like, uh, the red bead is Jesus, and the white bead is Jesus too, and the green one is Jesus as well. We're going through this, and this lady's like, yeah, I don't care about your cheap jewelry that looks like you bought at Walmart. Like, how do I get you off my porch? And as we're talking, and it's obvious, she's got walls up, and she's not really interested, and Stefan wisely starts just sharing personal stories and experiences with him and the Holy Spirit. And as he does that, I begin praying and say, Lord, my natural talents are not enough in this moment. I'm not getting through. There's nothing I can say to convince her in this moment, but Holy Spirit, you know her. You live inside of me. I ask that you would come on me to release what's in me out of me. And right then, I feel the Holy Spirit, and I get a word of knowledge, and I jump in, and I say, you had a dream. And she doesn't react. And I said, Jesus appeared to you, and she had just told Stefan and I, like two minutes ago, that she had never heard of Jesus. She was like, do you know who Jesus is? She goes, no, I've never heard of him. I said, no, he came to you, and he was dressed in white. And he said to you, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And that confused you because you're Hindu and you have many gods. But Jesus, that same Jesus who appeared to you in the dream, he spoke to us via the Holy Spirit and told two dorky white dudes to get on a plane and fly to Trinidad and Tobago, knock on your door with some cheap beads and say, that same Jesus who appeared to you is alive and well in us, and he wants you to submit your life to him today. And in that moment, her eyes popped open. She didn't say anything. I said, that's true, isn't it? She goes, yes it is. And tears filled her eyes, and the walls that she had put up that our natural talents were not enough to break through. The Holy Spirit broke through, and she said yes to Jesus right then and there, which was amazing. Come on. That story is not a story of how awesome Stephen and I are. We did nothing impressive. There was nothing that we did that you could not have done yourself. All that happened was we said, there's an expression of faith inside of us that's meant to strengthen someone else. Holy Spirit, how do you want me to do that? And oftentimes the way, the impression or the way that the Lord moves you to give yourself away to others is the spiritual gift that you're able to walk in. But the problem is we look at Acts 1 and we see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and we think, well, it's just something that happens in a moment. If it happens great, and if not, then maybe it's not for me. But what we see with Timothy is there's a development and a process to your spiritual gifting. And Paul speaks into that many times throughout First and Second Timothy and also in the book of Acts. But this morning I want to kind of jump into that process and I want to use Luke 6 because I think that Jesus gives us this process so beautifully when he says, give and it will be given. Good measure, press down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. I think we use this scripture a lot for finances and giving. However, the main context of this passage is Jesus talking about you giving yourself away. He says, if you give yourself away, you will be pressed. You will be shaken, but you will be poured out and then I will be the one to pour back into you. So we're going to look at those three words. So everyone say the word pressed with me. Pressed. You might have seen these little goodies this morning. No, I'm not doing a juice tutorial. You don't want to really try my juice. But when we talk about pressed and being pressed, I like to think of your life as this orange. And it's a good orange. You look great. Well-rounded. Great, great orange. And inside this orange, just like in you, there is nutrients and there is flavor and there are things that are meant to bless the world around you, but it's not in a form that can flow out and this peel is stopping the release of what's inside. So God has a strategy for extracting the goodies that are inside of this to the world around you. And it's called pressing. Now we hear the word cold press and we think delicious. If you're the one drinking juice, cold press is awesome. If you're the orange, it's not so awesome. And yet we think that all of a sudden in a vacuum or in a moment, we will step up and walk into the fullness of who we are and in our gifting and the reality is we have to be pressed in order for the Lord to work out the things he needs out of us and to bring out the things that are good within us. And that process is really painful. And the process of pressing is the one that nobody avoids and that first pressing is obscurity. It is the pressing of obscurity. Before your gifts will ever be revealed in public, they will be developed in private and nobody escapes this, whether it's Joseph or David on the back hills of Bethlehem or being on the run for 20 years or even Jesus himself who we know little about from ages two to 30 because he was being pressed and he was being developed in obscurity. And we also see that in Timothy. Before Paul gives Timothy these massive ministry assignments, Timothy has to be faithful with a little because the Lord has things that he wants to press out of us. But it's not because he's mad or he doesn't like us. That's not what the pressing is. The pressing is his hand on us. You know, we hear that word like, oh, his hand is on you. Like, oh, that's so sweet. Like, well, yeah, that's the good news. The bad news is it's pressing you. But Paul says we've been pressed but not crushed because in the pressing the Lord works out the pride and insecurity and the fear and the things that would hinder that gift from flowing freely. And I remember one time 10 years ago I was in a ministry and I was in a season of obscurity. I felt like nobody saw me. I felt like no one cared. I felt like the only leaders that knew me. You know, they didn't trust my motives and I felt like God had put these dreams and desires in my heart for ministry and I felt like nothing was coming to pass and I'm in the back of a worship service and the worship team is singing this really sweet song about trusting God in the midst of testing and I'm sitting there in the back with my arms folded. I'm not exaggerating for the story. This is how I was. I folded my arms and I said out loud to the Lord. I was like, I'm not singing that song. Not singing it. And how about the Lord saying, you're angry. I was like darn right I'm angry, you're right. Said, you've, you put these dreams and desires in me. You call me to do these things and then I try to make it happen and nothing happens. You're just teasing me. You're a bad father trying to stir up my desire and expectation and then you're not meeting it. And in that moment of an honest dialogue, Caleb, the Lord said, Caleb, you're angry but you're not mostly angry that man doesn't see you. You do have a problem with fear of man. We'll address that later. But in this context, the problem is when man doesn't see you, you think that I don't see you. And when man isn't applauding you, you think I'm not applauding you. And when you're on that stage or you're doing that quote unquote big ministry thing and men are applauding, you interpret that for the delight of God. But the problem is when that praise ceases and criticism comes or you're overlooked, you think that I'm overlooking you but Caleb, my eyes are locked on you and I'm filled with just as much delight for you in this moment as your bratty arms are folded in the back of the room as when you are on stage preaching or leading worship or anything that you feel called to because I am the gardener and I take delight in you in every season. And I knew what he meant when he said I'm the gardener because my grandpa was a gardener. His name was Carl which literally means gardener and so you know that you're destined to be a gardener if your name has the word gardener in it and my grandpa would wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and he would faithfully tend to all aspects of his garden. I remember one time in August when we were eating his green beans that he had picked and a bunch of our family was in the other room and my grandpa was sitting in his chair and I went to him and I said grandpa, why aren't you eating with us? You grew this and he said oh I actually hate green beans. And I remember thinking like who the heck spends all this time working for something that he doesn't actually enjoy? And in the moment I thought oh he just is doing that because he loves us, that's really sweet. Years later I understood what was happening. See it wouldn't be enough to wake up at 6 a.m. every day if the delight was only in the moment of harvest but the reality is my grandpa each and every morning the reason he set his alarm woke up early and tended that garden because he found supreme delight in that place. And the Bible describes your heart as a garden. The Lord does not just delight in the season of harvest. The Lord delights in every moment of every season because he's not looking to use you as a pawn for harvest although yes he will use you for harvest which we'll talk about. But he is more interested in your heart. He is more interested in you experiencing his delight and his favor that has not left you whether or not man sees you whether or not it's the season of harvest whether or not you're applauded or noticed. And I want to encourage you this morning that in that place of obscurity God sees you, his favor is still on you and do not interpret the season of obscurity as a sign that God's favor is not on you. God isn't denying you, he's developing you. He's not telling you that he doesn't want to use you. This is a vital part of the process but it is so important at this place we have to receive his delight right where we're at. We have to know he doesn't just love us when the harvest is here and then he throws us away in the other seasons but he loves the winter when he tills the ground he loves the spring where we're planting everything he loves the summer where we're watering and we're weeding the garden and then he loves the harvest he loves all four seasons and right now wherever you're at whether you feel seen whether you feel like you're in obscurity or not you need to know that the delight of the Lord is in you he sees you and he loves you where you're at. That's the first part of the development is the pressing, being pressed in obscurity. The second word Jesus uses is the word shaken. You notice these words that we're excited about when we're talking about finances coming in but now when we're talking about giving ourselves it doesn't feel quite as exciting. Well just like juice that has not been pressed is weak juice and so any juice that avoids obscurity is not going to taste good because it lacks nutrients. Juice that's been pressed and is filled with lots of nutrients but has been sitting still for a while has the same problem. Why? Because all of the nutrients all of the goodness sinks to the bottom and it becomes diluted. And so if we haven't given up because of the obscurity what happens is then we can be like oh well if God's in the obscurity then great let's just rent a cabin in the woods never talk to anybody never express our faith and we can just kind of live in our own world and God says no, no, no I'm developing you in obscurity but I want to reveal you and reveal what's inside of you but the problem is you can let the giftings and the things that exist within you sink to the bottom because you haven't activated and God wants to take that and just shake it up and this is what Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, 6, and 7 you can turn the page with me if you're still in 1 Timothy 4 just turn the page and in 2 Timothy 1, 6, and 7 Paul says to Timothy therefore I remind you stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying out of hands for God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind. First time Paul says don't neglect the gift don't give up on it just because you're in obscurity but the second time he says Timothy you got to stir it up a little bit you got to shake it up a little bit because I want your life to be filled with the nutrients and the riches that are inside of you and just when we, right when we feel like we're tempted to give up an obscurity God starts to shake us up and what I love about the language of this and I hope that we feel this this morning is when he says don't neglect the gift and stir up the gift did you notice who the onus is on for walking in the spiritual gift? It's Timothy nobody else is responsible ultimately for you walking in the gifting that God has given you and that should be good news because if man has the power to stop you then you are powerless if the enemy is strong enough to stop you then you can be incapacitated but if there's no power in heaven or hell that can stop you from walking the calling that God has given you you are free and you are liberated but the problem is we don't stir up the giftings within us because we keep waiting for something to be handed to us you know we're like well that's great but if you know if I'm given a full-time salary and a budget and I'm given a title and if you give me that stage then I can walk in my spiritual gift and Paul says to Timothy it doesn't work like that you got to stir it up today where you're at you are uniquely gifted by God and are given an activation of faith inside of you that the world around you needs and nobody can stop it but you have to be the one to decide to walk in it I mentioned it last night but we have a congregant named Mark Degraff and he approached me a few months ago and asked to meet with me and when we sat down he said Caleb I you know I love I love Radiant Church you know man I love the messages but I have one problem like uh oh like he's gonna be like I hate the worship and you need to go like I didn't know what was coming next and he goes when I'm sitting there in those services I'm experiencing the presence of God but then later that day I go and I drive downtown and I see the homeless the hurting and the broken and I think man they're the ones who need to be in here hearing that message and he goes I have an idea what if we got a tent and what if we got a sound system and chairs and bibles and we just set it up right by the gospel mission and every weekend we'd have an outdoor service and I can help facilitate it and we'll just minister to whoever the Lord sends in and so I said okay what do you need to make that happen and to be honest part of me always expects in those moments like oh nothing just you know $80,000 a year salary and bias of a huge tent and a sound system and you need to announce me from stage and send out tweets that where you tag my handle that way you know I can walk in my spiritual gift and he goes no I just need radiant church's blessing and if you do have any bibles then we'd love to use those and they minister a lot of the weekends you go ahead and put that picture up on the screen a lot of weekends this service is being played downtown and different ones come through and there's a whole team that ministers every weekend why do I love that story so much because he stirred up the spiritual gift he didn't wait for something to be handed to him he didn't wait for a title to be given or a check to be written but he said God has uniquely called me because why because he looked through eyes of compassion for the ones who are hurting and broken see we can think the gift that God gives is for us like wow thank you God for my gift now everyone can see how amazing I am I'm gifted God goes that gift ain't for you sure you're holding on to the gift but that gift is for everybody else and the reason I think that we don't walk in our spiritual giftings and we don't stir up the giftings is because we're looking at our gift as a way to elevate ourselves rather than looking with Jesus' eyes which are there are people around me that need to be strengthened and how can I strengthen them and that's how we activate the spiritual gifts we get analysis paralysis when it comes to spiritual gifts we think I gotta know exactly what the spiritual gift is I have to take a spiritual gift test online I need 10 liters to confirm it I need someone to walk up to me in my grocery store and confirm it with a prophetic word and I need to go to school full time for it and I need to go in online course to develop and then I can walk in my spiritual gifting and then we're like oh I guess I'm not gifted no no no you don't actually need to know exactly what your New Testament spiritual gift is often times it is just simply the way that you would even naturally communicate or strengthen somebody else if you see someone in need if you naturally be like man I just want to give to help them you might have the spiritual gift of giving if you feel a compassion and a mercy that you want to help you might have the gift of mercy if you want to encourage them you might have the gift of encouragement if you have a prophetic word you might have the gift of prophecy but those things won't be activated if you're trying to learn them intellectually those things are activated when you look at the world around you and say God you have uniquely positioned me to minister to these people how can I pour myself out how can the Holy Spirit that I took in like a drink come out like a raging river in this moment I feel like I can say this because I've really only been here two years in this church has been here going on 22 years this is the best ministry place that I've ever been in for developing spiritual leaders and those walking in spiritual gifts and Rachel and I our story of even coming here before I knew anything about you or Kalamazoo or radiant church or even what my position or title will be the Lord spoke to me and said Caleb you need a spiritual father and I knew right away who he was speaking of because Pastor Lee years before had been investing and sewing into me and calling things out in me way before he knew that we would be doing ministry together because that's just who he is he's a spiritual father who develops young leaders and even last year I was in my yearly review with Lee and he called me in he said Caleb you're fired I'm just kidding he didn't say that I said Caleb I love what's happening here's some things you're doing really well here's some things I love for you to work on but I also want to call out I think you have these three spiritual gifts and this one in particular I think you need to really lean into and activate and I could leave that meeting like Timothy with Paul when Paul says hey you've been given this opportunity through the laying out of hands and I could be like awesome well now you all need to recognize that spiritual gift thing you know Lee I need more leadership opportunity I need more this I need more budget to make that happen no it's up to me to stir up that gift I have to decide do I believe that this is true and then am I using this as an opportunity to be seen or is this what God has uniquely gifted me with to serve other people do you know the context of the love chapter we love love is patient love is kind does not envy we love reading it at weddings it's not actually the wedding chapter although it's great you can read it at your wedding no judgment I will I will read it for you if you have me marry you that's fine but first Corinthians 12 and 14 are talking about spiritual gifts the context of the love chapters why does it anchor on that theme because if we do not have love then it does not matter how gifted we are we're a banging symbol we're a gong that is an annoying noise that same gifting without love is powerless but with love it can change the universe and it can change the world but we have to shake it up and the way we shake it up is not being like alright time to be awesome like time to be awesome in my gifting and I just got to do it no the way that we shake up the gift is we encounter the love of God which causes us to look with eyes of faith and eyes of compassion on the hurting world around us and then we stir up the spiritual gift that is inside of us your spiritual gift does not require a stage it does not require a microphone it does not require a leadership title it requires one thing and one thing alone willingness willingness it just requires you to say God I am willing to be used whether it looks amazing to men or it looks foolish I am willing and the Lord can use us the last word that Jesus uses is this word overflowing or flowing over and I want to read from Matthew 14 you're welcome to turn with me this is the story that a lot of us will be familiar with it's the story of the feeding of the 5000 starting in verse 15 when it was evening his disciples came to him saying this is a deserted place and the hour is already late send the multitude away that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves but Jesus said to them they do not need to go away you give them something to eat and he said to them we have only five loaves and two fish and he said bring them to me then he commanded the multitudes to sit down in the grass he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven he blessed broke and gave the loaves to the disciples and the disciples gave to the multitudes so they all ate and were filled and they took up 12 baskets full of the fragments that remained your Bible might have the title over it that says Jesus feeds the 5000 and I would beg to differ with that editor why? because Jesus said to the disciples you feed them and Jesus never took that command back what was happening was more than just Jesus meeting a need he was teaching the disciples something because there was going to be a time where Jesus is no longer with them in the flesh and if the disciples think we just sit back and do nothing while Jesus feeds everybody when Jesus is not there anymore they are going to be incapacitated and they are not going to stir anything up within them and so they brought what they had in their hands and Jesus broke it he blessed it and he gave it to the disciples who distributed it and in our lives we can see the problems around us issues in our church people that are hurting and broken we are like wow Jesus you better start feeding these people man I've seen all these issues and these problems like are you going to take care of it Jesus or what? and Jesus says to us you give them something to eat but God I only have five loaves and two fish I'm not crazy talented I can't teach like Pastor Lee I can't lead workship like Pastor Croy I don't have those same talents and Jesus says I didn't command you to have 5,000 loaves and fishes I just asked you to bring whatever you have bring it to me and then you feed them what goes in like a drink comes out like a river God is in the business of supernatural multiplication I know you don't feel that your gifting is that incredible or amazing or you look at who you are and what you are able to do in the natural and you say I am limited and Jesus says that's not your job your job is willingness your job is to look with eyes and to see the hungry and the hurting and the broken and then bring all that you are it's not much but what it is when it's broken and blessed by Jesus it's enough to feed multitudes you give them something to eat you have the Holy Spirit inside of you you have the one who came and created the heavens and the earth and he not only lives in you but he wants to come on you to release what is inside of you to the world around you you give them something to eat you give them something to eat and what I love about this story is that there are 12 baskets left over how many disciples are there why does this matter I think it's just so tender because all of us have had those seasons to say God if we give ourselves away will there be any left for us God if I give myself away won't I be mocked won't I be ridiculed won't I be overlooked it's not worth experiencing that pain of being rejected I give myself away and Jesus says if you come to me and you bring what little you have not only will I supernaturally multiply it but there's going to be enough left for you if you walk in your spiritual gifting that overflow that happens in your life only sets you up to receive more from the Holy Spirit and that's how our river works if a river has any moments where it stops overflowing that water becomes stagnant but if you let the Holy Spirit flow out of you the Holy Spirit will pour back into you and watch like Timothy God use your life in a way you couldn't imagine you know what I love about Timothy even though he is shy even though he has to overcome fear Paul says you have the gift of evangelism do you know how Timothy died he stood up in a pagan festival in Ephesus and he preached the gospel that gift of God that Paul put in him he didn't align with his natural gifting he stood up and he preached the gospel and he was beat to death as he declared who Jesus was he ended victorious and God took Timothy this man that you would never look at and think this guy is just incredible and he did incredible things through him because God is in the business of multiplication he's not looking for the most talented he's looking for the most willing are you willing to look with eyes of compassion to the lost and the hurting around you you are gifted every one of us has been given spiritual gifts were uniquely positioned within God to have things about us that the Holy Spirit wants to pull out of us but it requires a willing heart go ahead and stand I want to pray for us this morning the Holy Spirit would stir up the gifts that are inside of us we might stir up the gifts but it's the Holy Spirit who supplies them so whether you are in that place where you feel like you want to give up because of the obscurity or you feel like you want to shrink back in fear and the Lord is shaking it up let's just bring our hearts before him and bring our willingness Holy Spirit I thank you for what you're doing at Radiant Church I thank you for this beautiful people God I thank you for this incredible leadership team God I thank you for for how you even set up your church that even even with how incredible of a leader pastor Lee is God he can't do it alone God our leadership team can't do it alone we need everyone in the body walking in their spiritual gift we need everybody stepping out in faith and obedience and willingness to serve the hurting and the broken and so Holy Spirit in this moment right now I ask that you would stir up the gifts Holy Spirit I ask that you would heal, hurt and brokenness that has happened through obscurity God I ask that you would deliver us from fear and being incapacitated and that you would come with a spirit of love God you have not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a strong mind that same exhortation that Paul released to Timothy God I ask that you would release that to us today God that you would stir us up to see the hurting and broken God you would stir up the gifts God I ask for the gift of evangelism teaching, shepherding administration, tongues interpretation of tongues prophecy, faith, healing God I ask for administration Lord all encouragement God all of the gifts of the spirit God we want it all because we want all of you and God we know that we need your help to reach our city so would you take our five loaves and take our two fish God and would you multiply it God we ask that you would feed the five thousand in our city God that we would see you do something miraculous in the name of Jesus Amen