This is a message by Pastor Mark Fox of Antioch Community Church in Elan, North Carolina. For other sermons from Antioch, you can visit the church website at antiochchurchnc.org. Now, let's turn our hearts to the word of God. First Peter four, verses seven through 11. The end of all things is at hand, therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's ferried grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now, we're gonna be winding down our series on church foundations over the next few weeks. Today, next week, and the following week, and then we're done, right? And then we'll get back to Mark chapter 14. But even though this has been a topical study, it's been grounded in expositional teaching in God's word over different sections. Today, the section is 1 Peter chapter four, as Kelly just read. Last week, we looked at what the church should expect from the elders. And that's an important word. Last week we talked about elders are biblically qualified men whom God has raised up to shepherd the flock of God, to lead, to feed, to protect, and to care for the needs of the body. So today I would like to look at, let's flip that around, let's look at today what the church should expect from its members. What are the responsibilities for the members? And there are three that I want to cover over the next three weeks. As someone who is an elder, but is also just a member of the church, just like all of us are just members of this particular local expression, no one no better or no worse than anyone else, we are all equal in the sight of God. As someone who is a member, I am subject to these three responsibilities as well. So what I'm teaching you today is not just what I hope you will and are doing, but what I hope to do myself. So as a recovering Southern Baptist, I like alliteration where I can find it. So today we will start with ministry. What is our ministry to the church? Next week we'll talk about morals, particularly how we deal with sin when we have been sinned against in the body or we sinned against someone else very important we need to understand that and then the following week your least favorite subject and yet it's all through scripture is how do we deal with money as a member of the body of Christ what is our responsibility there So there are two things that I'm going to talk about today with ministry. I see ministry. How do we minister? And all of us are ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All of you are ministers in the church called Antioch in Elon, North Carolina. How do we minister? Well, two things. We have a ministry of presence. and we have a ministry of gifts, spiritual gifts. So let's talk about those in turn. First, we have a ministry of presence. We looked at this several weeks ago when we examined Acts chapter two, and we looked at eight different things about the first church in Jerusalem that was really cool, right? It really made that church and all churches to be healthy. And one of those was those people loved each other. And it's proven by the fact that they could not stay away from one another. They ate bread together daily in each other's homes. They gathered in the temple daily. They were always together. They just couldn't get enough. There was a ministry of presence, just like a bunch of sheep like to stay together. That's the way God has designed us as his sheep. So it starts, of course, with worship on Sunday morning. As we've told you before, Sunday morning is when we go hard after God. Think of Sunday morning as vertical, Wednesday night as horizontal. I borrowed that from John Piper. We go hard after God on Sunday morning. We come in here to worship. And worship is all that we do in this place. It's not just singing, it's praying, it's giving, it's testifying, it's sharing thanksgivings, it's hugging one another and giving each other encouragement. All of that is part of our worship. And it's listening to the word as you're doing right now. It's taking the sacraments. There's no substitute for what we do here, physically present on Sunday morning. God bless those who can't be with us right now because of different things going on in your own home. but we hope you'll come back soon, because there's no substitute for being actually physically present. And people who understand this say things like, and I've heard people say this, man, I miss the last two Sundays. We were on vacation, we went Sunday to Sunday or whatever, and I couldn't wait to get back. I mean, I loved my vacation, but man, I felt out of place almost that I wasn't with you guys on Sunday. That's a person who understands and is growing in the concept of the ministry of presence. because God has given us a love for one another and for his church that we just can't get enough of. So we need to be there on Sunday morning, but we also need to be there on Wednesday night. Sometimes groups meet on different nights. Right now I think all the home groups are meeting on Wednesday night, but those are the two ministries of presence that we ask everyone in the church to be a part of, right? Again, we go hard after each other. You can't get to know everybody in here and everything about what they're struggling with on a Sunday morning because there's just too many. And we're not a huge church, but there's still too many for you to know how everybody's doing and what they're feeling and what they're struggling with and how you can pray for them. Wednesday nights you can. Right? Wednesday night home groups are small enough. Some of them are really small right now. We hope to fix that in the fall. But we want to be able to look people across the living room in the eye and say, man, Gary, how are you doing? How's work going, man? How many lives did you save this week, homes? Because we know you're all about that. Look, that happens on Wednesday nights like it cannot happen Sunday morning. Paul talked about these two ministries, the two wings of an airplane if you will, in Acts 20 20. He said, I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and then he goes on, teaching you in public and from house to house. So there was a vertical as going hard after one another and there was a horizontal going hard after each other. Now next we have a ministry of You've already seen that. We have a ministry of spiritual gifts. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12.1, now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. It's very interesting. Paul didn't say that very often, but every now and then he would say, hey, about this thing right here, don't be ignorant. About this, don't be uninformed. Let me tell you how important, Paul says, that spiritual gifts are. Look, understanding spiritual gifts, your spiritual gift, and how they can develop and grow and help the body of Christ grow up will also trickle into your marriage, understanding spiritual gifts. And marriage is very helpful in your kids and seeing the different way God has gifted them. And even as you minister in the community, if you go to this place or that place to minister in Jesus' name, Go with your spiritual gift knowing that God has anointed you in that way. Listen, a spiritual gift is a supernatural power that God gives you that enables you to minister in a particular way. Now, Kelly just read these verses, 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11. The context of Peter's brief mention of spiritual gifts is interesting, isn't it? How does he start? Peter writes, the end of all things is at hand. That's like a doomsday prophecy right there. Now look, if Peter believed that Jesus was coming back in his lifetime, that the end of all things was gonna happen in his lifetime, what is he most concerned about as he's teaching the dispersion, the different bodies of Christ around the world? What is he most concerned about? And interestingly, what is he not at all concerned with? All right, we could develop that point, couldn't we? But I don't want to, because it's really not relevant, it might make people mad. He's not concerned about a lot, but what he is concerned about here is what the church should be doing. He says, do this, grow in character. Hey, church, grow in character, be self-controlled, be sober-minded. He's talking there about growing up, Becoming more like Jesus, looking more like the fruit of the Spirit and hanging all over you because you have submitted yourself to Christ in word and in deed and in thought. He says, hey, grow in character. And secondly, and do that for the sake of effective prayers. But above all, what does he say? But above all, keep loving one another fervently. What does that mean, Peter? Well, several things. First, he says love covers sin. If we love our brothers and sisters, we're not trying to expose sin, we're trying to cover sin, that doesn't mean we overlook it or say, oh, you're okay, just keep on sinning, brother, it's fine. No, we're helping them come to the place where it can be removed and dealt with and they can be free. Now again, we're gonna talk about this more next week. But all spiritual gifts are grounded in and controlled by love. And when we love someone enough to go to them and say, hey, there's something going on between us, and I don't want there's something between us, and so let's work this thing out. When you love somebody enough to do that, you're helping, through love, to cover over and to get rid of. that sin, someone who sinned against you or perhaps someone you've sinned against. And it leads to forgiveness so that we can say, look, when we forgive someone, this is what it's supposed to look like. Having trouble forgiving someone right now? Here's what it's supposed to look like, and this is from Ken Sandy's book, The Peacemaker. Okay, we've dealt with that. I will not dwell on this incident. I will not bring it up again and use it against you. I will not talk to anyone else about this incident. I will not allow this incident to stand between us or hinder our personal relationship. Man, that's powerful. When you are at odds with your brother, your sister, your wife, your husband, your children, and then you work through that and there's reconciliation, that should be what happens next. It's done. Love has covered it. Let's not get the shovel out and dig that thing up again, because it was nasty. And it's going to be even nastier when we bring that rotting corpse out of the ground and throw it in each other's face. Love covers sins. So that's where spiritual gifts can be powerful because love is the fuel. Think of a spiritual gift that God has given you as a vehicle. He's given you a particular vehicle. Okay, all of us get Ferraris, don't be comparing, I just got a Volkswagen. No, no, everybody gets a Ferrari, right? Or whatever your favorite vehicle is, doesn't matter. And love is the fuel that enables you to use that gift in a way that really makes a difference. Spiritual gifts serve the body and grow it up in Christ. Now look at verse 10 again. because I'm gonna give you some questions. Verse 10, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace. Okay, that's all you need right there. Number one, how many believers have a spiritual gift? What does the verse say? Each has received, all is the correct answer. Each is the correct answer, all right? Number two, how did you get, and by the way, I don't wanna hear this, well, you know, I don't know what my spiritual gift is. I must have been in the bathroom when the Lord handed them out, you know what I mean? I was, you know, in the break room. No, no, no, none of that nonsense. You have a spiritual gift. You have been spiritually, supernaturally empowered by God to serve. Number two, how did you get your spiritual gift? It's in the text. As each one has, you received it, right? You received it. It was a gift. You didn't ask for it. You didn't lobby God for it. You didn't bend his arm so that he, okay, all right, I wasn't gonna give you teaching, but I'll give it to you. No, that's God's choice. In fact, Paul writes, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, 1 Corinthians 12, 7. And then he says in 1 Corinthians 12, 18, God has arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. He arranged us as he chose, as he pleased. How do we get them? He gave them to us. Number three, what is the purpose of the gift you have received? It's in the text. Carlene? That's right, but back it up a little. In the text it says, use it to do what? Serve one another, which results in glory to God. And it results in the body of Christ being supernaturally grown up, in ways that make a difference in the body, but also in the culture. In other words, the gift for each of us is for the common good. The purpose of the spiritual gifts is other people. The purpose of the spiritual gifts is other-centered. I was thinking about 1 Corinthians 7 where it says, you know, the husband doesn't have authority over his own body, his wife does. And the wife doesn't have authority over her own body, the husband does. So what happens in marriage is that there's glory when both of them understand that and they willingly yield that gift to one another, and there's glory in that, there's beauty in that, right? And there's marital harmony in that. And it's the same way, you know, none of us can say, well, I know I might have that gift, but I ain't giving it to y'all. You might want my gift, but you're not getting any part of it. I am sitting on it. No, you can't do that. I remember the illustration from a dinner party years ago. I tried to find a picture of this, but all the pictures that even came close looked weird or even demonic. So these people were brought into this dinner party, and they were seated across from each other at this banquet table, and then they were given a gift. They were given a plank that was like three feet long, and at the end of that plank, they strapped it on their arms. Both of them had a plank on both arms, and at the end of each plank was a fork. And then this incredible meal was set before them, and they said, all right, everybody, you can dig in, start eating. And everybody's trying to get the food, and they can get some food on their fork, but they can't get it to their mouth. Their plank is three feet long, until one of them starts to laugh. and reaches across the table and serves the person across from them. And that person said, oh yeah, okay, I got it. And they all had a great time and enjoyed a great meal. That's the spiritual gift. You've been given a gift not to serve yourself, but to serve others. And what a glorious thing it is when we reach across the table with that gift and help people grow in Christ, it's an amazing thing. And then, how do I know what gift I've received? I'm so glad you asked that question. This is so important. You know what you have to do here? You have to read the Bible. You have to study the gifts. And you have to pray and ask the Lord to show you. And you know what? You might even have to experiment a little. That's okay. If you think you have the gift of teaching, that will be borne out as how people respond when you teach. One so-called teacher said, yeah, I know I got the gift of teaching, but those people, they didn't have the gift of listening. I can tell you that right now. No, no, no, dude, when you're a teacher, people wanna hear what you have to say. When you're an exhorter, people are built up when they're around you. When you're a server, people are blessed by the way you serve in ways sometimes that we don't even see. but we're blessed by it, we know it happened. The fact is, Peter said, is the very grace of God. That means many colored, it means many variations. Aren't you glad all the birds in the world aren't the same color, with the same patterns? God is a beautiful creator who creates beautiful things and he puts beautiful gifts in his people so that they can serve one another in a way that makes people go, wow, God is really good. God is good. This is not about me. This is about Him. That's one of the things that makes churches so exciting and one of the things that makes us so frustrated because guess what? Everybody in the church isn't just like you. How many are glad that everybody in the church is not just like Me. Your hands were going up already. Look, it's a wonderful thing that we are all different and we all have been given different gifts and abilities. Paul said this, he said, if the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? One big nasty ear with hair growing out of it. No, no, we don't want that. We want ears and eyes and noses and all of the body parts working together. So that's why some people come into a church and the first thing they see, the first thing they see is, man, they need some organization up in here. There's this kind of sloppy, I mean, we need people to organize this thing. This closet over here is just a mess. Somebody needs, some other people come in and they say, You know, there's some people here that just don't understand, you know, spiritual gifts. There's some people in here that just don't understand, you know, the books of the Bible. And those are the people who have a gift of teaching, probably, because they want to help people understand truth. Other people come in and say, we need, you know, we need baby showers and we need You know, we need people to set up tables, and we need somebody to clean that front porch. Did nobody think about taking a broom and sweeping off that front porch before the church gathered here this morning? We need people who have those kinds of gifts and desires. Who would do that? Other people come in and say, I can tell this church needs some resources. I can tell they don't have enough room in their fellowship hall, so I'm going to gift them $200,000 so we can expand the fellowship hall. Is that person here today? If you would, please raise your hand. Others say, man, we need lost people to get saved. I'm gonna gather whoever will go with me. We're gonna go door to door in this neighborhood and share the gospel, right? Because they have the gift of evangelism. Others say somebody needs to come early on church and make sure the chairs are all set up, et cetera. Look, there are two broad categories of gifts. Look at verse 11 again, verse 11. Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies. The two categories are speaking and serving gifts. Very broad categories. There are gifts that are primarily exercised through speaking. There are gifts that are primarily exercised through serving. That does not mean that the speakers never serve. And it does not mean that the servers never speak. But what it means is that the speakers love the body through speaking, through teaching, through exhorting one-on-one. It doesn't have to be in a crowd like this either. It can be one-on-one teaching or small group Bible studies. But they love to teach and exhort and help people grow up by speaking into their lives. That's how they serve. The servers love the body through giving. Through showing mercy, through organizing, that's how they speak. And look, I wrote this down this week, not knowing what would happen this morning. Serving includes so many things from playing an instrument. or singing with the worship team. So even when the people who are supposed to be leading us couldn't do it, right? It includes cooking for the men's breakfast or the women's dinners. It includes taking home the tablecloths after a shared meal. Does anybody ever think about that? Wow, who cleans those tablecloths on Sundays after we have that meal? Well, the servers notice things like that. It includes keeping up with the finances. I'm glad we've got Ben and others who know how to do that. They serve the body in a way that keeps us financially afloat. It includes organizing prayer teams. Thank you, Beth and others. Sending a meal or a note to someone who's out sick or just sending a note to your pastor and your elders as one of you did this week, all seven of us. much more. The point is that we all serve. We all are serving in different ways and we are empowered by God to do that. Notice the encouragement Peter gives to each group. If you're speaking, speak as one who's been given a word for God. You see, some people speak because they have something to say. Other people speak because they have to say something. Try not to be the latter category. Try to be in the former category. If you're serving, he says, serve as one who's been given strength that comes from God. Okay, speak from the oracles of God, serve from the strength of God. What's the common denominator here in the gifts? God, right. It's not about us. The source of each gift is God. If anyone is to boast about anything, it shouldn't be about himself or herself or his gift or her gift, it should be about God. Look what God is doing. in his body. And what happens is when we use our gifts, God is glorified, as per Carlene's point, and Peter breaks into song here. He breaks into doxology. He's praising God. What does he say here at the end? To him be all glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. He's excited about this thing. Hey, the end of all things is at hand. So love one another. and use your gifts. Now, I want you to turn to Romans 12, because I want us to see another passage on gifts. The gifts are basically in the 12s and the 4s. So we got 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4 and Ephesians 4, but I want us to look at Romans chapter 12. You remember, Romans is considered to be the magnus opus. His greatest work was the letter to the church at Rome. This was his Moby Dick, this was his Ulysses greatest work, whatever. And yet, in Romans 12, he only mentions seven gifts. Let's look at these seven gifts. I'll put a picture up here, you can see them all. Romans 12, beginning with verse three. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not have all the same functions, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. This is interesting. I heard a teaching years ago, and I've seen this in other places, not just this one place, but I've seen other people say that maybe the reason Paul just listed seven gifts in this letter to the church at Rome, which is considered his greatest work, is because that there are only seven primary spiritual gifts. You might have others that go along with these, but the idea is that each believer has one of these as their primary. And it's almost like a pair of glasses that when you're born again, right, the Holy Spirit puts this pair of glasses and you see everything through those glasses. You see the church as a prophet. You see the church as a mercy. You see the church as a server. So maybe this will help some of you in understanding what your gift is. Prophecy, this is not foretelling. You know, the Lord has shown me that in 2027. No, no, no, this is foretelling. It's speaking forth the word of God to proclaim truth and to expose sin. Prophets are the one who sees, man, we got some messed up people, and what people need to hear is a message of repentance and spiritual growth and dying to self and all of that. Prophets are always kind of seeing what needs to happen to help people go from bad to good, right? Or from good to great. They are truth givers and if they're not careful and if they're not humble, prophets can be truth givers without grace. We don't wanna be that way. Servers, serving, servers serve. They don't mind being in the background. In fact, they prefer it. They make things happen so those who have other jobs to do can do their jobs. Servers are absolutely And all of these are absolutely irreplaceable. Teaching, this is the person who cares most that people know the Bible. Again, when they walk into a church, they sense that, hey, there are a lot of people here that just don't really understand how the Bible works, and the Old Testament and the New Testament, you know, the survey of theology and doctrine that we're going through right now, and they want to help people understand that. In fact, teachers like to tell anybody anything that they know. And that's not always bad. Exhorting. This is the discipler. And exhorter is encouraging there, but it's called exhorter here in the text. He or she is mostly motivated by a desire to help people grow in their faith. Right? Many people believe that Paul, his primary gift, his motivational gift was exhorter. He had so many people that he brought into the ministry, didn't he? Right? Teachers, sometimes, they're all about what they're teaching. And Paul was a tremendous, obviously, theologian. Greatest, perhaps, ever. And yet, he was primarily interested in getting people involved in the ministry. Just look at the list of people he names in Romans 16. All these men and women, he said, I'm co-laborers with. Even these two women who are in trouble in Philippi, right? Iodi and Syntyche, or some people say Odius and Suntuchi, right? He says, they are co-laborers with me in the gospel. So brothers, help these women, right? Work out their difficulties. He was an exhorter. The word is parakaleo, same word we saw last week. It's someone who comes alongside, like a Barnabas, to encourage spiritual growth. Giving. This is the one who's mostly motivated by the desire to see the work of God resourced. They give of their own resources, and look, you can be a giver whether you have $100,000 in the bank or whether you have $10 in the bank. Givers, God doesn't just give the gift of giving to people who are wealthy. He gives the gift of giving to a lot of people who can only give by, you know, Making a meal for someone but they'd love to make a meal and bring to someone that's the way they give to someone right or Helping them with their kids or what do they give of their time? But givers also want to help other people see how they can give to the body So they're often people who look to enlist others who can help with a need, like that sanctuary and fellowship hall renovation. Leading. This is sometimes called organizing, sometimes it's called administrator, and the word simply means, literally in Greek, it means to stand before or to preside over. A leader is someone who is taking responsibility for a task or for a group of people. If you love being in charge of a project and getting people to come alongside and help you get this thing done, maybe there's part exhorter there, because you love getting people to help, but your focus is on the task. You want to lead a group to do something. And there are leaders in this church, and there are givers and exhorters, et cetera. This person is most motivated by helping others who are in distress or in need, right? They help people who are sick. They help people who are down and out. They bring people into their homes, sometimes animals into their homes. Mercy, mercy just, everything is, I just wanna take away your suffering as much as I can take away your suffering. Do we have mercies in this church? Everybody said. Oh yeah. Now the problem with mercy is just like prophets. You know, one end is prophesying and you can do that in truth without love. And the other end is mercy and you can do that in love without a whole lot of truth or without a whole lot of thought sometimes given. And so they're grace givers, but sometimes they're not truth givers. So they will even sometimes color the truth a little bit to make the person feel better. And that's really sometimes not a good idea. Now it's interesting to ponder the idea that many suggested that Paul went on from this text to give a word of instruction for each of these gifts. So look back at Romans chapter 12. We had the first three through 8 and then he goes 9 through 16 and think about it like this each verse refers to each gift above in turn So he says to the prophets let love be genuine abhor what is evil hold fast to what is good in other words Hey, mr. Prophet, you're gonna be a prophet. You're gonna be talking about other people's sins and helping them overcome it You better make sure you're not a hypocrite You better abhor evil and hold fast to truth in your own life or you lose your effectiveness as a prophet. Next verse, verse 10. Those who serve, he says, he says, love one another, outdo one another in showing honor. And look, I would say this, those who serve, make sure you do so because of love, because you prefer others. Otherwise, you get all twisted up and become bitter when you serve and no one serves you or no one thanks you. How many understand, as a server, that a lot of times nobody says thank you? And so Paul says, hey, outdo one another in showing honor. Don't think about what people are saying back to you. Verse 11, teachers, do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. In other words, teachers, make sure you're working hard enough to prepare so you're not dry as dust. Teachers know a lot of stuff, but sometimes they don't know how to communicate that information in such a way that people don't fall asleep. Work hard, be diligent, and that's gonna be hard work for you. Number 12, those who exhort. Number 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Wow, if you're a discipler, do you need those things, right? If you're coming alongside somebody who's trying to get them to grow up in the faith and they're not growing like the way you want them to, he's saying, hey, Be willing to have patience in discipling sinners saved by grace. Be willing to suffer with them. Be steadfast, be constant in prayer. Verse 13. Goes along with givers, right? Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Hey, those who give, make sure you're giving first to the church, right? This is Galatians 6, verse 10. Do good to everyone, and especially to those of the household of faith. Givers, give of your time and money, but also open your home. And this is not just givers, this is all of us. We're told to offer hospitality without grumbling. And then verse 14, this has to do with leaders. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Wow, do I need to even say anymore about that? Those who lead, be ready to bless those who don't appreciate your leadership. Bless them and don't curse them. Verse 15, this goes with mercy. Verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Those who show mercy are to do those things. All right, two final words, then we're done. And then Aaron's gonna come and share about Bolivia. Two words on spiritual gifts. First word. Can you see how as we mature in the Lord Jesus, as we get closer to the Lord and more like the Lord, that we mature in all of the gifts of the Spirit? Because Jesus had how many of them? How did he have them? Halfway? Perfectly, right? And so we become more like Jesus. We become better at serving when we say, that's not my gift. None of us can say, I'm not gonna set up a table, that's not my gift. I'm not gonna vacuum that carpet in there. Man, I got more important things to do. No, you don't. If the carpet needs vacuuming and you're the elder or the pastor or you're anybody else, then don't look around, just do it. Yes, goes back to what I said last week. I heard somebody say to the church, to his church, to their church, not his church. Hey, are you a renter or an owner? You know what? Owners can't walk from here to the bathroom without picking up trash on the floor. because they say this is our building, this is Antioch's building. I'm not going to leave that trash on the floor and wait for Jeff to come along and pick it up. I'm going to pick it up. I'm going to do it. I'm going to make sure that things look good. word when the church is healthy ministering to one another with the gifts that God supplies then something beyond these four walls happens with greater and greater impact. Remember the purpose of these gifts is so that the body may be edified and the Lord may be glorified that's why Peter says in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, and he's working in us for the purpose of reaching the whole world with the gospel, and that starts here in this community. I like this quote from Megan Hill. I've told you about this book that Cindy and I are reading called A Place to Belong. She says, the church's disciple-making mission is an all-hands-on-deck congregational task, with each member contributing to the work. The church powerfully proclaims to the world the good news of Christ, and its members are co-workers. So what are we to do? We're to minister with our presence. You can't use your spiritual gift through Zoom. I mean, you can do some, but you know, I can't give you a hug through Zoom. We can't help the body grow up unless we show up. And then secondly, use your gifts. You're not sure what your gift is? Then this Wednesday night, ask the people who know you best in your home group, what do you think my gift is? Because a lot of times, people can see it in us before we see it in ourselves. But pray, seek the Lord, and then certainly take hold of that supernatural power. You got a superpower, folks. We can't fly, we can't become invisible, we can't see through walls. But we can serve the body of Christ with a spiritual gift that's Holy Spirit powered. And that's really exciting. Let's pray. Father, I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit who is in us today, those of us who know Christ, and has sealed us for heaven, but has also gifted us for earth for this time that we have between the dashes, or between the birth and the death in the dash, Lord, that we might serve the body of Christ. And so I pray for my brothers and sisters. I know the gifts are in powerful operation in this church. And yet there are some who just, you know, various reasons just can't seem to find their gift or not able to show up and use it, and so I pray for all of us, Lord, that we might grow and mature in these areas, that we might continue to grow in character, that we might continue to grow in love for one another, above all things, to love each other with a fervent love, and that we might grow in this area of serving the body of Christ with the gift that you've given us. And we will give you all the glory in Jesus' name. Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Mark Fox of Antioch Community Church in Elon, North Carolina. Antioch meets every Sunday for worship at 10 o'clock a.m. at 1600 Powerline Road in Elon. You can download other messages by Pastor Fox at antiochchurch.cc. You can also learn how to order his books or subscribe to his blog at jmarkfox.com. you