The Gifts that Keep Giving - Part 2 of 2

Greg Laurie: You'll never know what your spiritual gift is until you take some steps of faith. Be a risk-taker and watch what the Lord will do.
Guest (Male): Do you want to be used of God? God wants to use you. And coming up today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says, the Lord may equip you in some special ways.
Greg Laurie: Maybe you're a great visionary, but you're not great at nuts and bolts. Then again, you might be more of a detail person. Everyone has a role to play, a gift given to them by God.
Music: (Song plays: "This is the day when the lost are found, this is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace now sweet the sound, oh can you hear the angels are singing? This is the day today when life begins.")
Greg Laurie: Great things really happen when we're deep inside our comfort zones. No one's ever heard of the great lazy boy revival or the evangelistic hammock crusade. No, somebody's got to get up and do something.
Guest (Male): And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us some good news. God empowers and equips those he calls into service.
Greg Laurie: You may already have a special God-given talent you're not even aware of.
Guest (Male): Today, we'll learn how to identify and use those abilities.
Music: (Song plays: "This is the day today when life begins.")
Greg Laurie: Let's think now a little bit about the gifts of the Spirit and let's go over to Romans 12 and see what Paul says. Romans 12 verse 6. In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. If God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you're a teacher, teach well. If your gift is encouraging others, that's a gift of exhortation, be encouraging. If your gift is giving, then give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take that responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. I'll stop there. Certain terms bubble up here, do it well, generously, gladly, take this responsibility seriously. The gift of teaching is mentioned here. And if you're called to teach, he says, "teach well." It's an awesome responsibility to be called to teach. The Bible says in Second Timothy 2:15, we should know how to handle the word of God correctly. And then James 3:1 says, "Brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly." People have asked me, "What's it like to stand up there on that stage at the crusade? That must be a real ego trip for you, right?" No, not at all, actually. It's kind of scary and it's kind of an awesome responsibility. Because I recognize I'm speaking for God. I know that there are certain people that will be there that may never come to an event like that again, they may never go to a church again. So I don't want to misrepresent God. It's a lot of weight and there's a lot of spiritual warfare involved in it as well. I'm not asking for your sympathy, I'm just telling you, there's responsibility that comes with teaching. And I spend a lot of time in preparation before I speak. You probably can't tell, but I do. Because the Bible says, "Study to show yourself approved unto God, one that doesn't need to be ashamed because he rightly divides the word of God." You need to learn how to exegete a scripture, which is a theological term that simply means to see what the text is actually saying. You need to interpret in its proper context and then you bring the application and so forth. But here's what I don't get. Some people think they're called to be teachers or maybe pastors and they're boring. How can you take the action-packed, powerful, living word of God and make it dull? That's on you. Not on the Bible, and it's not on God. It's on you. Some preachers are so dull, watching paint dry is more entertaining. Right? Maybe you have a gifting in another area. You need to find that area. The funny thing is, me being called to teach is laughable because I was the worst student. I was always getting in trouble in school. My grades were very low, I'll tell you that up front. My grades literally were like D, D. C, C was a, was a victory. C. D, D, F, yes, F, F, F. By the way, I learned a little trick, if you put one line in an F, it becomes an A. Just make sure you use the same colored ink or they'll know you did it. And then I'd have one A. Art. That's it. Everything D, C, D, F, D, C, A, back to D's and C's. And I was always getting in trouble in class. I was always being disrespectful to the teachers. And there was this one teacher I had in my class, and then there was a class right next door, and this teacher heard about what I used to do in the class to disrupt it. She announced to her class one day, "I would like to take Greg Laurie, bury him up to his neck in the sand in the blazing sun and watch ants eat him alive." She literally said this. And some of the kids came up to me and told me what she said, and I thought, that's kind of cool. See, I was so twisted, I liked that. And they wanted to expel me and my mother would meet with the principal and say, "You expel him, I'll sue you." So I stayed in school. No one would have ever thought I'd become a teacher, but who knows, you know, God has a sense of humor, doesn't he? I wasn't the teacher's pet, I was the teacher's monster. But the Lord called me to do this and maybe he's called you to do something you never thought you would do. Then there is the gift of encouraging others. Look at verse 8. If your gift is to encourage others, I love this. Be encouraging. If this is actually your gift then be an encouraging person. Some people are not encouraging, they're discouraging. I jokingly call them Debbie Downer and her boyfriend Bobby Buzzkill. Right? They always bring you down, always negative, always critical, critical, critical, critical. Never a compliment from these people. Well, the gift of exhortation or the gift of encouraging, doesn't include correction at times, but it also includes encouraging. And I think when you have to speak to someone critically, the Bible says in Ephesians 4:15, "Speak the truth in love." We should keep each other accountable. If we see a Christian friend going the wrong direction or making the wrong decisions, we might say, "Hey, you shouldn't do that, the Bible says thus and so." But before you correct, try to compliment. Jesus modeled this for us. When he spoke to the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation. Loose paraphrase, he says, "I know you guys are discerning, I know you're hard working, I appreciate all these things about you, but I have this against you, you have left your first love, so remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the first works quickly." I love that. Compliment, doing this well, doing that well, doing a good job over here, but there's this one area. So let's talk about that. That's the right way to do it. Deposit a compliment before you make the withdrawal of a criticism. Married couples, listen to what I'm saying. Because sometimes it's always critical, critical. He doesn't do this right. She doesn't do that right. Always sniping at each other. When's the last time you complimented your husband? When's the last time you complimented your wife? Remember again, deposit a compliment before you make the withdrawal of a criticism. Otherwise, it's destructive criticism when it should be productive criticism. We need people to teach us and we need people to exhort us. See, teaching tells me what the text says, but the gift of exhortation makes me want to do what the text says. Sometimes people are gifted with both of those skills. But you can think of some teachers, you heard a message, "Wow, that was very helpful. I learned a lotologically, I never understood that. That was great." But then you hear someone else, you're just all fired up. "Oh, man, I want to, I want to pray more, I want to serve more, I want to share the gospel more." Whatever it is, these gifts are all important. But exhorting is something we should all do. Hebrews 10:24 says, "Consider one another to provoke each other to love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another daily and so much more as we see the day of the Lord approaching." Then there's the gift of giving. Romans 12:8. "If your gift is giving, then give generously." Why is it then when we talk about money in the church, people recoil? Probably because there's abuse. There are times where it's used wrongly and people are guilted into giving and there's too much pressure put on people. But if we throw the baby out with the bathwater, we're missing the blessing of giving. Every Christian should give of their finances to the Lord. Every Christian, in my opinion, should tithe. It's a joy, it's a privilege, it's an opportunity, it's an investment in the Kingdom of God. Because you should be doing your giving while you're living, then you're knowing where it's going. Right? And God makes a promise in the book of Malachi where he says, "Put me to the test on this one. Bring your tithe into the storehouse and watch if I will not open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you won't even have room enough to receive it." It's a happy thing to give. Because Jesus said, "Blessed are those who give, or it's more blessed to give than it is to receive." And the word blessed means happy or happy making. But that's not what this verse is talking about. Every Christian should give, but there's a supernatural gift of giving. So he says, "If you have this gift, do it with simplicity and generosity." The person with the true gift of giving probably would never tell you they have the gift. And you wouldn't even know all they're doing because they would do it kind of quietly. They wouldn't blow a little trumpet or drop hints or just, "I gave this much to." No, no, they'd just do it. But everyone would have a story about that person. "Oh yeah, they helped me here and they helped me there and I've never told this story before, but when I was in need, they did this for me." That's a person with the gift of giving. And guess what? You don't have to be wealthy to have the gift of giving. I know some people who are not wealthy at all, who are very generous people. And it's not just generosity with your money, it's generosity with your time. It's generosity with everything. You're just one of those giving people. And that's a gift that God perhaps has given you.
Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.
Greg Laurie: You know, I've heard people describe a trip to Israel as seeing the Bible actually come to life. Hey everybody, Greg Laurie. And I've been to Israel many times and I've led a lot of tours and I have to say that's absolutely true. Listen, when you're walking on the same stones that Jesus himself walked on, well that's something that's enriching to your faith. It's not just a travel experience, it actually energizes and enhances your study of the Bible. Think of it this way, it's a vacation with a purpose. And we're going to be taking a tour of Israel, April 6th to 15th, 2027. You can find out more at Israel.Harvest.org.
Guest (Male): Step right into biblical history. Join Pastor Greg for a tour of the Holy Land, April 6th through 15th, 2027. Get details at Israel.Harvest.org.
Guest (Male): Well, we're considering the way God makes gifts available to his children for the works he calls us to do. Pastor Greg continues now.
Greg Laurie: One last gift to look at, the gift of showing kindness and mercy. That's an actual gift. Should every Christian show kindness and mercy? Yes. But do some people have a supernatural ability to do this on the next level? Again, yes. Romans 12:8, "If you have a gift of showing kindness to others", do it gladly. Do it gladly. There are people who have an extraordinary, supernatural ability from God to show mercy and compassion and kindness to those who are in need. I'm amazed at people that work in care facilities, people that are involved in hospice care, people that will hold the hand of someone that is sick or old and can't help themselves. And I just marvel at the patience and the love and the compassion of a person like this. It's a gift of mercy. My wife Kathy has this gift. You want someone to show you compassion and mercy, talk to Kathy. You want a sermon or a lame joke, come to me. It's different gifting. So if you're in a hospital bed, do you need someone with the gift of teaching or evangelism? Maybe, but what you probably really need is someone with the gift of mercy. That would come and just take you by the hand and sit there with you and not try to explain everything to you and just be a loving Christian and walk with you through it. You may have that gift. And you didn't even know you had that gift. Here's the bottom line. Just start taking bold steps of faith and see what the Lord will do. I found out I wasn't called to be a musician some years ago. At Calvary Chapel, in the days of the Jesus movement, all these bands were forming all the time. Love song, Blessed Faith, Country Faith, Mustard Seed Faith, lots of groups with the name faith in them. So I was at this little home Bible study and there was a man there who was a good guitar player and singer. And he wrote a song. He says, "I wrote this song" and he sang the song and we're all singing along in the home Bible study with his new song. And then there was this very talented flautist, someone who could play a flute beautifully and they're playing. And so I'm sort of keeping percussion on the, on the little coffee table. So someone said, "Let's form a band." Next thing I know, we're booked at Calvary Chapel to perform. So here's this packed out church, I remember it vividly in my mind, here's the guy who can play guitar, here's the guy who can play the flute, and I'm up there with a conga drum. And they start playing, I realized, "I really don't have that great of a sense of rhythm and why am I here and I don't want to be here." Okay, good, process of elimination. I'm not called to conga drums. It was later I discovered what I was called to do, but sometimes again, it's process of elimination. But here's what I'm saying. You'll never know what your spiritual gift is until you take some steps of faith. Some have musical and artistic talent. Some have more of a technical talent like crunching numbers. "Well, that's not spiritual. We don't need anybody to, you know, balance the budget." No, you do. You need all these people to do their job. Maybe you're a great visionary, but you're not great at nuts and bolts. Then again, you might be more of a detail person. Everyone is a role to play, a gift given to them by God. Be a risk-taker and watch what the Lord will do. Again, the Bible says, "Don't neglect the gift that is in you", or as another translation puts it again, "Keep your gift dusted off." Here's something to think about in closing. You're never too small for God to use, only too big. Does that make sense? You're never too small for God to use, only too big. So you think, "Oh, God could never use me." Oh, actually, you might be more qualified than you think. Because God goes out of his way to find unexpected people to do unexpected things. God chooses the foolish things of the world, the Bible says, to what? Confound the wise. So then someone will say, "There's no way that person is called to do." Yeah, they are called to do that, you see. So just be available to the Lord. The church is a family and you have a seat at the table. We are not a perfect family, but there is no such thing as a perfect family. The church is a dysfunctional family. Right? It's true. I came from a dysfunctional family and now I'm the head of a dysfunctional family. But I try to put the fun in dysfunction. Look, we're flawed. What are you looking for? What do you expect? We're flawed people working together. But you have a place at this table. You see, before I was a Christian, I wanted a family because I didn't really have one. My mom was gone every night out working. I was just home alone. She gave me enough money to go over to a place called the Snack Shop. Later to become Coco's, later to become Ruby's on Pacific Coast Highway, same location. And I would go there every night and I would buy a hamburger, French fries and a vanilla shake. Every night, hamburger, French fries and a vanilla shake. I have to admit, I was pretty happy with that as a kid. But after a while, I got kind of tired of eating by myself, even though it was a hamburger, French fries and a vanilla shake. So I would tell my friends, "Yeah, this is what I eat every night." They'd say, "You're so lucky. We have to go home and sit with our family." I say, "Yeah." But then one of these kids invited me over to his home one night for a family meal and I kept going back. And the food wasn't even good. I actually kind of missed the hamburger, French fries and vanilla shake. But I liked this idea of a family. There's a mom, there's a dad. Wow. Brothers and sisters talking together. But they ate things I don't like. I don't like peas. They had peas, "Oh." But I liked family. And I think deep down inside we all long for family. And maybe some of you came from a broken family or a messed up family and you've never had family. You have a family now, you're with your family, this is the family, we're the church. There's a place at the table for you. There's room at the cross for you, as the old song says. Though many have come, there's still room for one. There's room at the cross for you. If you're not in our family, if you're not in God's family, you can join right now. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now that feels unloved, unappreciated, unnoticed. I want you to know that God loves you. God appreciates you. God notices you. Some people think God is mad at them. No, God is mad about you. I love that blessing that the priest would pronounce over the people recorded in Numbers 6. They would say this over and over again to the people of Israel, like as a reminder. And they would say, you know it, "The Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you, the Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace." That tells me a lot about God. How does it start? "The Lord mess your life up"? Is that what it says? It says, "The Lord bless you." God loves to bless you. God wants to bless you even more than you want to be blessed. "The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you." We worry about our future, "What if this happens to me? What if that happens to me? What if I walk away from my faith?" Excuse me. "The Lord bless you, the Lord keep you." He'll keep you. "The Lord make his face shine upon you." What does that mean? That means when you walk in the room, God's face lights up. He loves to see you. And to have his countenance shine upon you means you have God's full attention. Sometimes little kids are trying to get the attention of their mom or dad. They'll say, "Mom, mom, dad, dad", and mom and dad are looking at the phone or doing something else. And I've seen little kids like kick the face of the parent in their little hands. "Mom", you know. And sometimes we may feel that way with God. "Lord, Lord, are you listening?" Yeah, he's watching. You have his full attention. He's interested in you and he loves you and he cares about you. That's God. Some people have an opposite view of God. But God loves you and he loves you so much he sent his only son Jesus to die on the cross for your sin. Why did that even have to happen? Because you and I have broken God's commandments, you and I have sinned against God, but the Bible says, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Christ died for you so you could have a relationship with him. And I want to close with a prayer. If you're not sure if Jesus is living in your heart, if you've not yet joined the family of God, if you want your sin forgiven, this is your opportunity to do it. Right here, right now. Let's all pray. Father, speak to those that do not know you, draw them to yourself. Help them to see their need for you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
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Guest (Male): And if you feel you need to make a change today in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg Laurie wants to help you do that before today's edition of A New Beginning wraps up. So please stay with us. That's just a moment away. Are you receiving Pastor Greg's daily devotions each day via email? If not, let's take care of that right now. You can sign up today, free of charge at Harvest.org. And you'll receive a daily inspirational thought from God's word each day in your inbox. Again, go to Harvest.org. And then here's Pastor Greg once again.
Greg Laurie: Let me close with this thought, would you like to know that you will go to heaven when you die? Would you like to feel that big hole deep inside of you? Listen, it's about a relationship with God. And here's the good news. God loved you so much that 2,000 years ago he sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins and then to rise again from the dead. And now Jesus, who died and rose, is standing at the door of your life and he is knocking and he says, "If you'll hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in." Would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like your sin forgiven? Would you like to fill the hole in your soul? Would you like to go to heaven when you die? If so, just stop what you're doing and pray this prayer with me. You can pray it out loud if you like, you can pray it in the quietness of your heart if you choose, but pray this prayer. This is a prayer of asking Jesus Christ to come into your life. Pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from that sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Hey, did you just pray that prayer? If so, I want to congratulate you and be the first to say, welcome to the family of God.
Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right. And listen, we want to help you get started in this new walk with the Lord. We want to send you Pastor Greg's new believers Bible. It's in an easy to understand translation and it features hundreds of helps, especially for new believers. It'll answer many of your questions and help you build a strong foundation for your faith. We'll send it free of charge, so get in touch and ask for the new believers Bible. You can call us at 1-800-821-3300. Call anytime, 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to Harvest.org and click 'No God'. And Pastor Greg, we're so thankful for the work God is doing through this ministry.
Greg Laurie: Yeah.
Guest (Male): We're touching lives for eternity.
Greg Laurie: Mhm.
Guest (Male): And we're really thankful for our friends who see the fruit of this ministry and invest so this work can reach even further. Isn't that right?
Greg Laurie: Absolutely. When you invest in Harvest Ministries, you're investing in the souls of men and women, boys and girls. And what is the value of a soul? Well, let me personalize it. What's the value of your soul? What's the value of the soul of your husband, your wife, your son or your daughter, or your mom or your dad? Or your best friend? Well, I would say you probably couldn't put a price tag on it. It's so valuable. Well, listen, God says, "All souls are mine." God loves us and sent his son to die on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins so we could be forgiven and come into a relationship with him. I can't think of a better investment of my resources, of my money, than in the work of the Kingdom of God. So we would ask you to prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries as we continue on to fulfill the Great Commission.
Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right. And you can make your donation right now at Harvest.org. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time Pastor Greg highlights those characteristics that reveal if we've been spending time with Jesus. It's good insight. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible Teacher Greg Laurie.
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