Alright, let's grab our Bibles tonight. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 12. 1 Corinthians chapter number 12. It's good to see you guys here tonight. Thank you for showing up, being here in the middle of the week. We're continuing, we're actually concluding two different studies tonight because we had a study or a series inside of a series. So we're completing the study on spiritual gifts tonight which is also going to be the exclamation point on our don't be ignorant series. There's certain things that the Bible says specifically that we're not to be ignorant of and we went over We went over those, and this is us finishing up here. Remember, we went over talking about spiritual gifts. We found out that every Christian has at least one spiritual gift, and no one Christian has all the spiritual gifts. We need one another. We need the gifts and the advantages of one another. Every spiritual gift is good, and it's beneficial to the body of Christ. We're all one body. We're not all one of that body, but we're all one body. As long as you accepted Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what denomination you claim to be or anything like that. If you're going to heaven based on Jesus' finished work and not your own, then you called on Him for salvation, you're part of the body. Your spiritual gifts, remember, are for other people. They're not for you to brag about and say, look how spiritual I am. It's for you to contribute and help out the rest of the body. Remember, the Holy Spirit is the one that gives you spiritual gifts, and they do not have to be based on your natural abilities. Don't think, well, I'm naturally this way, so my spiritual gift must be, no, not necessarily. A spiritual gift comes from the Holy Spirit, and he could put something in you that wasn't ever in there before. And remember, most importantly, why we're going over this so thoroughly is that you can seek and ask for more spiritual gifts. It's not like, okay, I got saved and I got all the spiritual gifts that God wants me to have right then and there. No, we found out in the Bible it says to covet earnestly the best gifts. And it talked, we went over several references there, talking about how you can seek to obtain more by just praying and asking God for them, because they all come from God anyway. Last time we looked at the first seven spiritual gifts, they're still up here, Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, the Gifts of Healing, remember that is plural, Working of Miracles, Prophecy, and Discerning of Spirits. We went over those last time, I believe that was about a week ago. and uh... tonight we're gonna be going over the other other seven of them so i've already warned jessica said that guy's getting axed tonight i gotta write over on that side of the board so uh... we got first corinthians chapter number twelve let's start in verse number four well look at verse one now concerning spiritual gifts brethren i would not have you ignorant okay that's why we're going over it in the don't be ignorant series verse four now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. That means two churches can do things differently, okay? Verse six, and there are diversity of operations, but it's the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all, okay? Spiritual gifts to profit everybody else. Verse 8, For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will, that he is the Holy Spirit. Verse 12, for as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. Let's pray. Amen. All right. Number eight is where we're gonna be starting off with. Our list here, I told you there's 14 of them. You can number them differently if you like. But number eight is diverse kinds of tongues. Diverse of tongues, there we go. Diverse kinds of tongues. All right, we see that in verse number 10. To another, the working of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, discerning of spirits, to another, diverse kinds of tongues. I did, I spelled that wrong. That's all right. Tongues in the Bible, what a tongue is, is the whole sum of words used by a nation or a tribe. That's what a tongue is. You know what a tongue is? It's a language, all right? Speaking in tongues, in Acts chapter 2 they were speaking in tongues, they were speaking in different languages. That was the speaking of tongues there, given by the Holy Ghost. There was confusion about this in 1 Corinthians, that's why chapter 14 is all about speaking in unknown tongues. That's different than speaking in diverse kinds of tongues. The Holy Ghost, given spiritual gift of diverse kinds of tongues, is the ability given to an individual to speak and understand different languages. All right, my wife and I, and even our oldest daughter, Jessica, we've been on this app called Duolingo. Brother Aaron mentioned it whenever he was here, because he's on it as well. And it's a way to try to teach you another language. And after two years on that, I found out this is not one of my spiritual gifts. I do not have the diverse kinds of tongues, because I just ain't getting it very quick. OK. That's what I found out. But that's all right. Nobody's got them all. I definitely don't have this one. But there are some people that God gives that gift to because they need it to do something for the body of Christ. Missionaries are often given this spiritual gift to be able to pick up the language real easy. They'll go over somewhere, especially, boy, if they go over into China somewhere and they pick up that language pretty quick, you know that's a Holy Spirit gift right there. That Mandarin, that ain't nothing to mess around with. I mean, if they pick that up, that's the Holy Ghost doing that. But the thing is, some missionaries are not given this gift. Some missionaries do not get gift of diverse kinds of tongues. See, God may give one missionary the ability to pick up the native tongue quickly to help spread the gospel or to build a church there or whatever the Lord's purpose is for that particular missionary in that particular area. But God may also choose not to give a missionary this gift so that a missionary learns to rely on God because he might be really eloquent in language anyway and be very persuasive. And he gets over there, maybe he's always been intelligent and stuff, oh, I'll pick it up, no problem. And he gets over there, and he's like, watch this. I can do this. And God says, you ain't getting that gift. And then they just fall flat on their face. And they're like, I don't know. I can't learn the language. Well, it sounds like you're going to have to rely on God. So it's however the Lord chooses to do that. Remember, it's the Holy Ghost that gives these gifts out. But remember, spiritual gifts are given to you to help other Christians, to help the body of Christ. Speaking in an unknown tongue does not help the body of Christ. You say, how do you know? Because the Bible says. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14. We're there real close. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. All these spiritual gifts, they're to help the body, they're to help the whole body of Christ, to help edify one another. 1 Corinthians 14, look at verse number 4. It says, He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. You see that? Here's two different gifts. One If it's an unknown tongue, it just edifies self, it just makes you look spiritual. But another one, that prophesying, remember, prophesying could be a public declaration of some truth from the Bible, or it could be public interpretation of scripture. Okay, so prophesying, if you can go in a church setting and explain the Bible to where someone understands it, that's profitable for the whole body. We get a preacher come in here and they lay out a verse that you go, man, I always had problems with that verse, but now it makes sense. Guess what? That just helped you out. But if a guy comes in here and says, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, they're going to say, what was that? You know, nothing. But if he does it in the right sway and everything, they might say, oh, look, he must be spiritual. That edifies self. That's not a good spiritual gift, OK? That's not a spiritual gift in the unknown tongues. But see, whenever a missionary goes over and he learns another language real quick, that does help that church. It does help them, he's able to minister to them. Look at verse 18, chapter 14, look at verse 18. I thank my God, this is Paul speaking, I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all. Okay, so Paul spake with more tongues than anybody else in the church. Verse 19, yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also," there's that prophesying, then 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. You see that? Paul said that he spoke in tongues more than anyone else, but he did so outside of the church. He's traveling over here, and he'll speak to the Macedonians in the Macedonian tongue, and he'll go over here to Greece, and he'll speak to them in the Greek tongue, and he'll go over here into Egypt, and he'll speak to them in the Egyptian tongue. And what's he doing? Telling about Jesus, telling about Jesus, telling about Jesus. Well, whenever they assemble together, and it's one church, he goes, I'm not gonna speak Egyptian to them, I'm not gonna speak Greek to them, I'm gonna speak to them in their language so they can understand. What's that? That's a gift, okay? That's a gift to them. So Paul says, I speak with a lot of tongues outside of the church. Once I get in the church, I want understandable words that are to be spoken to help other people. That's the gift, okay? Back to 1 Corinthians 12. That's number eight, diverse kinds of tongues. Just a lot of different languages, we can do that. Something that goes kind of along the lines with it, 1 Corinthians 12, verse 10. To another, the working of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, discerning of spirits, to another, diverse kinds of tongues, to another, the interpretation of tongues. Number nine, I-N-T, that means interpretation, because I'm not gonna try to spell that out. Interpretation of tongues. All right, well, we just went over tongues as a language. We've got interpretation of tongues. We were interpreting some languages here. You say, what's that? This is the ability to translate from one language to another, often quickly and accurately, okay? God gives some people in the church the ability to hear one language and then speak another language within seconds. There's been plenty of preachers that have gone overseas, and they'll have a translator waiting for them. They go from here over into Romania or somewhere, and they say, OK, we want you to preach for us. I don't speak Romanian. I don't know. OK, well, we've got a translator here. And so right whenever he says it, and he's just got to wait and do a sentence or whatever, and then that guy spits it right out there right after him, and then back and forth and back and forth. What's that? That guy's been given the gift of being able to translate instantly. And you know, a lot of those guys can translate several languages. That's a gift from the Holy Ghost. You tell me that doesn't benefit the body? I mean, that helps people out. We heard about, well, we just read from the ceramics. He was translating for someone preaching over there. They speak pidgin over there. And it's a mixture of a couple different languages and cursing sailor. That's what it is. If you ever hear him speak pidgin, you go, you know, that's part of their language. They can say that, OK? I ain't going to say it. But see, many of the King James Bible translators had this spiritual gift to be able to translate it. King James himself had this spiritual gift, I believe, because they were able from a young age, I think he was 10 and he could already read and write and translate back and forth in like three or four different languages. It's just amazing what you can do without TV. But, and with the Holy Ghost of God, okay? But these guys, they were just unbelievable. What's that? They had the gift of the interpretation of tongues. Our list continues. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 12, look at verse 28. We've got another list here, and there's a couple different places in the Bible. We're just going to go to a couple of them that have all these lists. We're going to combine them into one mega list here of spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12, look at verse 28. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, Helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? The answer to these is no. Do all interpret? No. but covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. So we've got another list to go over here, but some of them have already been repeated in the first half, so we won't hit them again. But the next one here that we have, number 10, number 10, the gift of an apostle. Gift of apostle. All right, an apostle is someone who is sent by the Holy Spirit to execute some important business. They're sent on a specific mission for a specific cause. It might be short term, it might be long term, but they are sent out by God to do something very specific. Jesus is called an apostle in the Bible. Why? He was sent from God with a very specific purpose. Die on the cross, pay for our sins, right? Look at Ephesians chapter 4. Keep a marker here, turn over to your right a little bit. 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, chapter number 4. We're going to see another list. The Bible has lots of lists. And you'll notice in this list also it goes over the body of Christ because that's why we have spiritual gifts is to help out the body. So I like how the Lord mentions both of them together, spiritual gifts and the body. He like reminds us every time he talks about spiritual gifts and gifts to the church. Hey, remember, you need gifts, why? It's not all about you, it's about the body, okay? Ephesians chapter four, let's start in verse four. There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Verse 8, Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. We're going to skip verse 9 and 10, it's a parathetical statement in there. We're going to pick up the narrative in verse 11, because in verse 8 it says, And gave gifts unto men, verse 11, and gave some apostles. and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. There we go, spiritual gifts for edifying the body of Christ. Again, what is this spiritual gift? Like I said, the apostle, okay, apostleship. The Bible says, we just read, oh, jump down to verse 11. No, we already did that. Alright, the Bible says that apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are gifts given from God to help and to edify the body of Christ. These are positions, but they're also spiritual gifts. You say, what do I mean? Well, the Holy Spirit has to call and enable a man to be able to fill these positions, okay? Apostle is one that is sent out on a specific mission by God. Paul, Paul the Apostle, he was led by the Spirit. So was Barnabas, so was Peter. These are apostles, they were sent out with specific missions, okay? God called missionaries, are apostles in this day and age. The closest thing we got to an apostle is a missionary or somebody that God chooses to go send on a mission for them. We've got, what, nine of them back there now? Nine or ten? We got nine? Hey, going for 10, going for 10. There we go. So what are that? Those are apostles. They're sent out, what? The Holy Ghost called them to go to Papua New Guinea or to Reunion Island or to South Africa or wherever else they're going. God sent them out there with a specific mission, start up a church, help out a Bible Institute there to win souls, do whatever God called them out to do. The Holy Spirit calls them, the Holy Spirit opens up the door, then provides for them and guides them to get them where God wants them to be to help the body of Christ there. Okay, it's a big long process. If you try to do it all by yourself and in your own power, you ain't gonna make it or you ain't gonna last. All right, it's one way or another. How do you know if a missionary is God called? Well, they make it to the field and they stay there as long as God wants them to be there. All right, the next one we would go over, it's in our list here, verse 11, and some gave apostles and some prophets, but a prophet is one that prophesies. So that is number six, all right? A prophet, that's one that prophesies. So we're not gonna put him on the list twice, but we can go to number 11. 11, an evangelist. Spiritual gift of evangelism. An evangelist is simply one who proclaims the gospel to unbelievers. Whenever you are telling someone about Jesus Christ, whenever you're handing out a gospel tract, whenever you're giving someone your testimony in an effort to let them know about Jesus Christ and how to get to heaven, you are evangelizing. Okay, that is what you're doing. Philip the evangelist proclaimed the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter number eight. It is a gift of the Holy Ghost to be skilled at proclaiming the gospel to the lost. All right, there's a gift aspect there of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost gives some believers extra boldness, or opportunities, or direction, or even success in witnessing. And if you've ever been around somebody that you know for sure they have this gift of evangelism, you know they got it. I remember, I've met a couple of guys that I've no doubt I can say, yep, he's got it. You know, how do you know? They just, they know how to turn everything to the gospel. They know how to turn everything, any conversation, boy, it sure is a nice day out today. Yeah, you know, God created the sun and the moon and the stars, and let me tell you about Jesus Christ and everything, and it was like, they just said it was a nice day, you know? And it doesn't matter what the conversation's about. They can turn it to Jesus Christ and try to get that person saved. There was a guy up there in Idaho that did that. They'd have a god and country rally up there. You remember Mike? He'd be over there, and they'd set up a tent there, and they'd have a table, and you'd have a Gideon table down there, and they'd have all these different tables and booths and all this stuff there. And he'd have it set up, and he's like, OK, we need those two chairs right here, a table right here. And he goes, oh, and this person, hey, come over here for a minute, would you? And he just brings him in, and he just starts talking to him and stuff. And I was like, whoa, they weren't even doing anything. I was like, they weren't even interested or nothing. He just, yeah, come on over. And he'd be able to talk to and witness to him for 20 minutes. And I was like, how'd that work? And he's like, here, you try it. And I'm like, OK. And I get over there, and I got this little girl and her dad and everything, and I'm like, Uh, well, you know you're a sinner, right? And dad's like, okay, we're gone. My little girl's no sinner and stuff. And I'm like, okay, you know, what's that? Some people got the gift of evangelism. But I want you to understand this. God expects all of us to witness whether we have the gift of evangelism or not. Don't say, well, I can't tell anybody about Jesus Christ because I don't think I've got the spiritual gift of evangelism. Doesn't matter. You're still told to. You might struggle with witnessing. You might be full of fear or nervous. You might forget all the scripture. You might trip over yourself, the whole thing. But you can still hand out a gospel track. You can still give them your testimony. You can still invite people to church so they can hear the gospel. You can open up doors. Don't think that, well, I don't have this gift so I don't have to evangelize. We're all supposed to. It's a great commission. Why? It's for everybody. Everybody do it, they tell everybody else. Some of us have to develop witnessing skills through practice, patience, and prayer. If you don't have this gift, you go out, you try witnessing, and you say, I fell flat on my face. Well, go out and try again. Well, it didn't go out right. They slammed the door on my face, or they yelled at me. OK, go out again. And you know what happens? You start learning that from every failure, I get stronger. Every time they stump me, I go, ugh. And then you go and you look it out, and the next time someone tries to pull that one on you, you go, ha ha, I know scripture for that. And what's that? You're just building up. The Lord will still help you out, even if he hasn't specifically given you the gift of evangelism. This is a good spiritual gift to covet and to pray for. Remember, God can give you any one of these spiritual gifts. And he can give them to you at any time. Ask him for it. God, I want to be a better witness. Can you give me the gift of evangelism? God, I'm horrible at it, and I don't want to do it to puff myself up or to put a notch on my Bible or on my belt or anything like that. I want to help the body of Christ, and I want to lead people to Jesus Christ. Lord, would you please give me the gift of evangelism? Hey, I don't have to be famous. I don't even have to have a YouTube channel or anything like that. Lord, I want to win souls for Jesus Christ. Could you give me this gift? And you know what else, this could often be a spiritual gift that you might already have, but you haven't tried witnessing enough to discover that you actually have this gift. I think this one could be laying dormant in a lot of us. So, oh, well, you know, he'll give you the drive. He doesn't say he'll give you the drive. He'll give you the ability whenever you try it. And sometimes whenever you witness, you found out you got a lot further along with him than what you thought. And you go, well, I don't know anything about it. Well, go try. And then once someone encourages you enough to go and try, you do, and you go, you know, I didn't have most of those verses memorized, but they just kind of came into mind whenever I was talking to this person. That's the Holy Ghost helping you out. OK? It's all right. Remember, the power of these gifts come from God. They don't come from you. They're spiritual gifts that come. The power comes from the Spirit. It doesn't come from you. So pray for this one if you don't have it. Number 12, our list there, verse 11. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. The Bible lumps this one together here, so I will too. Pastors and teachers. Alright? Pastors and teachers. Those are the The men, the pastors, gotta be men only. Teachers, that could be men or women. These are the individuals, the pastors are the men who have charge and care over the souls of a congregation. Alright? Pastors and teachers are gifts that God gives to a local assembly to help perfect and edify the body of believers. Alright? Church isn't just a gathering place where we all spit out our own opinions and stuff like that and just go home thinking we're right and they're wrong. No, God puts someone in charge of a local body and he speaks to that man and he says, hey, go and tell them this this Sunday. Okay. And then hopefully, Lord willing, goes and tells them that Sunday. And then on Wednesday night, tells them what God wants them to say there. And he's got to stay in tune with God and be filled with the Spirit when necessary and just keep going. The ability to pastor and to teach the Bible is also a gift that God gives somebody. God's got to give that gift out. The Holy Ghost calls a man to be a pastor. He enables him to pastor. Then he puts that man in a ministry somewhere and says, this is where you're going to be. I want you to know that being a pastor was not in my plans. Ask my wife. She married a mechanic. She did not marry a preacher. So I have people ask her, that's your chance to amen just real nice and loud there, baby. But they'll say, oh, so you married a pastor. No, I married a mechanic. That's what she said. What? God didn't let me know. I had my own plans and stuff like that. But being a pastor was not in my plans until after God called me to Bible school at the age of 31. What happened? It was just the next step in the road for me. That's the next step in plans that he had for me. God has a purpose and a plan for every believer. Okay? For some men, God wants them to work a job, raise a family, and be faithful to their church, witness, and that's about it. And they can be totally, fully in God's will, doing exactly what He wants them to do, even though it seems kind of mundane, or just kind of regular. And you say, well, you know, God never called me to do anything. Well, maybe He called you to be a plumber, or an electrician, or a housewife, or a mom, or He can call you to do all sorts of things. All you do is you do to the best of your Christian ability in whatever situation he's put you in. And what happens is whenever you draw closer to him, he might add something to the list. And say, OK, listen, now I want you to start door knocking. Now I want you to start having a Bible study. Now I want you to start, you know, and it just can go anywhere. You know, if God calls a man to be a pastor or a Bible teacher, at some point in time, God will usually give that man this spiritual gift for the benefit of the body of Christ. The ability to pastor and to teach the Bible. That doesn't mean God gives it to him right whenever He calls him. OK, we were talking about that earlier today. Noah said, is your first sermon on sermon audio? We said, no. He said, why not? He said, for good reason. We waited until well over a year of pastoring before we're like, someone else might actually want to hear some of these. Like, oh, that might be beneficial, because the first year, the folks here are just like, well, bless his heart. And I'm like, pray for me. What's that? Sometimes, like I said, the Lord gives you the gifts when He wants you to have them. Don't think that just because someone's got a position that God's given them a spiritual gift to fulfill that position yet. Alright, back to 1 Corinthians 12. Let's go back to our other set of lists here. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 27. 1 Corinthians 12, 27. The Bible says, now are you the body of Christ, and members in particular, and God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps. That's a gift. That's a spiritual gift. That's number 13 here. The gift of helps. And if you've ever taken an online or an old written test to find out what your spiritual gift is, and they didn't find anything else, or they just wanted more people to serve in the church, they gave you the gift of helps. And they said, ha, you got it. Because they want you to pitch in or do something. I don't know. But there is a spiritual gift of helps. That is a spiritual gift. To help, that is to furnish strength for successful performance of any action. What's that? To pitch in, to help out. You know what it means to help? These are the behind-the-scene workers in the body of Christ, okay? These are kind of like the blood sales, you know? They do a lot of things, they don't get a lot of credit for it. These are the kind of individuals that they see a need, they feel a need, and they don't have to get the credit or any glory for it. They just do something because they see it. They take out the trash because they saw it was full. They see someone struggling, they offer to help. They see something overgrown, so they trim it up. They see something falling apart, so they just fix it. They don't have to be told. They don't have to be applauded. They don't have to get a thank you card in the mail. They just do it. It is not a burden to people who have the gift of helps. It's not a burden to them to pitch in and get a job done. These people, the ones that act on this gift and really have let the Lord grow this gift within them, these people are usually very selfless, and they're very willing, and they're often observational. They notice when someone else needs help. Why? They're looking on the needs of others. Okay? Noah. has the gifts of help, gift of help. I do believe he does. He asked me last week, he said, which one do you think I got? I said, we're going over yours next time. I said, your main one. He just jumps in. He'll help with anything. He says, you do any little thing, or he'll just offer. We were at the grocery store earlier, and I didn't have to tell him. He saw some lady about to push her cart back. He said, ma'am, can I take that back for you? Oh, yeah, you know, and stuff. She's not used to that. He's just used to helping. Why? She was taking an empty cart back. That's what these people do, and that's good. The gift of helps, this is a great spiritual gift to have and to covet due to its high yield in heaven. This one really pays off. It helps the body of Christ, it absolutely does, but it has heavenly rewards that are just phenomenal. You say, how so? Well, keep a marker here, turn to Matthew chapter number six. Matthew chapter number six. There's a premise established here, or a principle established here in Matthew chapter six. And I want you to understand, because remember, God's not gonna let anybody go unpunished, that deserves punishment. And God's not gonna let anybody go unrewarded, that deserves reward. And whenever you're just working hard and just helping out, especially in the body of Christ, helping out around church, or helping out believers, or helping out lost people in hopes to see them get saved, whenever you're just pitching in and helping out, and you don't care about getting rewarded here, people usually aren't gonna reward you here, but God's not gonna forget. Matthew chapter six, look at verse one. take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them, alms that's given out to somebody else, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. So they're handing out, they're giving handouts, but they're doing it to be seen of men, and they said God's not going to give you any reward in heaven for that. Verse two, therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men, Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. You get the pat on the back here, that's all you get. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret, and thy father, here it is, which seeth in secret himself, shall reward thee openly. God sees what you do in secret. You don't get glory of men, and God says, I'm going to reward you for that. He's gonna reward you up in heaven for that. You say, oh, that's just for alms. Look at verse six. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father, which is in secret, and thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Verse 18. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father, which is in secret, that thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. You see that? Every time you're doing something for the Lord or help out somebody else for the cause of Christ and you don't get the recognition for it now, God sees what you do secretly and He will reward you later for it. Guaranteed. Look at verse 19. Look what just happens after three times. God sees in secret, He's gonna reward you openly. Verse 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Why are they getting treasures up in heaven? Because their mind and their hearts on heavenly things. It's on God. It's on doing things for the Lord. That's where their rewards are. If you're here doing things to be seen of men, your heart's here. I want them to see me. I want everybody to know what a great guy I am. This is where your treasure is. I've got a pat on the back. Yay. I could have had treasure in heaven, but I wanted the credit now. I believe the most rewarded people in heaven are going to be the humble who did things for God without earthly recognition or rewards. I believe these people, these helpers, these people with the gift of helps, they're gonna end up having much more rewards than all the people that you see, all the famous Christians down here. All the ones that are getting glory of men down here. They're not gonna have squat up in heaven. The gift of helps is essential for the body of Christ. The body of Christ needs help. It takes a lot to keep a body going. Every member of the body needs help at some point in time. Not all of us have all these gifts. Anybody with any one of these gifts, at some point in time, they need some help. They need someone to pray for them. They need someone to bring them a meal. They just need, we need, we need help. I believe that this gift, since it is so needed, is given out of the spirit more than any other spiritual gift. I believe it is, because we all need it. And I do believe that most people have this gift or could easily obtain this gift if asked. I believe this is one of the quickest gifts given out by the Spirit when sought and prayed for. The problem is a lot of Christians don't want this gift. They don't want it. I want my reward now. I want everybody to know how great I am now. I don't want to wait until heaven. The Bible says the first shall be last and last shall be first. The greatest among you, let him be your servant. I just want it now. I'm used to the microwave Christianity of today. Just give it to me now. Who is it? Benny Hinn? Give me my gold mansion now. I want my mansion now. I don't want it up in heaven. He might not even have to worry about it. I don't know. I don't know if I'll get saved or not. This is a good one to pray for. God, I want to help the body. Could you give me the gift of help? Last one, number 14. Back to 1 Corinthians 12. And verse number 28. 1 Corinthians 12.28 And God had said, some in the church, first, apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversity of tongues, gift of governments. You say, what's that? This is the gift of being able to take people's hard-earned money and give it to special interest groups to stay in power for decades. No, no, that's our government. That's not the gift of governments. the gift of governments, okay? To govern is to direct or control the action of men, all right? People with the spiritual gift of government are given the ability to plan things out well, to orchestrate an event or an idea, to organize, structure, delegate, what can that, they can make things flow, okay? It is not that they come up with great ideas necessarily. Some of them do, but that's not part of the gift. But whatever ideas they are given, they can come up with good and efficient ways to get things done. I'll give you an example. If I say tonight, I want us to have a special meeting with a special preacher next year, and I even give you the preacher's name and everything, and I say, I want a meeting next year. Someone who has the gift of government If you have that gift, you can come up with the best time next year, work with that preacher's schedule, work with our schedule, plan out the meals, book the hotel, organize people to help with prep and cleanup of everything, and just make sure everything runs smoothly. someone with the gift of government, they are given a task because our government was established by the people. We're the ones that put them there. Okay. They are given an authority, some authority with goal in mind, they're supposed to be doing something. Our government's not the best example of this. I should have come up with a better one. But they're given some authority, they're given a task, and they are to organize and orchestrate things to make that goal come to pass in an efficient way. And some people are like that. Like I said, There's some of these I say, oh, I think I got that gift. This one I'm like, no, no. Thank you all for not amening on that one. I appreciate that. Hold it in. Hold it in. You missed your chance earlier. You got to hold that one in. But I am not organized. I'm not super organized. But see, we're all members of one body, OK? I'm just up here pastoring and preaching and stuff like that. I'm glad I've got people I can go to that have the gift of government. And I could say, here's what I want to do. Can that happen? Well, yeah, that can happen. Good. Set it up. And they're just like, here you go. Itinerary. I'm like, ha ha, I can do this. OK? That's the gift of government. This is a good spiritual gift to have. It's helpful for the body. It keeps it healthy and flourishing. But notice, see, because some gifts, some people hear and they say, ooh, I either have that one or I want that one. I want the authority. I want to be in government. I want it for the wrong reason, right? I want you to notice, though, its place of priority in the body. Look at verse 28. And God hath set some in the church, first, apostles, the ones on a mission. Secondarily, prophets, those that are helping teach the Bible and preach and expound. Thirdly, teachers. Okay, we've got Sunday school classes, great. After that, miracles. Then, gifts of healings, helps, governments. Diversity of tongues. That's a list of priorities within the church. You see, it says first, second, next, or thirdly, then, then, and it, governments is listed after helps. You say, why is that? The body of Christ needs more Indians and less chiefs. Too many chiefs, not enough Indians. What's that? Too many people want to be the boss and nobody wants to help out. Too many people want to criticize the boss and how things are run. Well, I can decide that. I can orchestrate that better. I can plan that. God didn't ask you to. God didn't lay that one on you. But if you can't help, notice that the best leaders are those that have worked their way up from the bottom, the ones that have been in and helped and helped and helped and helped. And then some leader says, hey, I got an open position here. And you're always there. You're always helping out. You're very faithful. You're looking for something to do. You're a hard worker. Why don't you move up here? The best people in government are those that know what it's like to be governed. So don't think if you got this gift, oh, man, I've already got the best one. It's listed after, helps. I want to give a couple of warnings about this gift, and then we'll be done. A couple of warnings about the gift of governments. It's a good gift to be given. It is necessary. Man, it's needful. I cherish those of you that have this gift. But there's some warnings. Number one, if you have this gift, be careful about pride. This gift will often put you in a position of authority, which would make it easy to become proud. Someone puts you in charge of doing something, and now you're over all these other people. Now you're the boss. Now you're the head honcho. Now everybody's got to listen to me, and we're doing it my way. Watch out. Watch out. That pride could well up, and God's not going to stick around while your pride's in charge. All right, God resisteth the proud. And they giveth grace unto the humble. So that's the first warning, watch out for pride. Number two, be careful not to exercise authority not given to you. No one likes government trying to rule in areas that doesn't belong to them. Nobody likes government overreach. Right? Someone puts you in a, with a task, and they delegated that to you, and they said, okay, this is your baby, you take care of it, and everything, and they say, ah, but I've done so well with this, let me help them with theirs, and let me just start this, and I'm going to go ahead and do this, and it's a, they just run. They get a little bit of authority, and they run off with it. Be careful. Be careful. Because whenever a government takes too much control, those being governed revolt. Okay? Gotta watch out for that. But it's a good, good necessary gift. So, that's all the spiritual gifts. We went over all of them. Any questions on these that we hit tonight?