Using Your Gifts For God's Glory

The supreme reason God gave you spiritual gifts is for His glory, not to create hierarchy or make you feel special. As Peter teaches, we are stewards of God's manifold grace, meaning our gifts belong to God and we're accountable for how we use them. This understanding destroys any pride we might have, since we received these gifts rather than earning them through our own efforts.

Jesus' parable of the talents illustrates the stakes of spiritual stewardship. The master distributed talents according to each servant's ability, and both the five-talent and two-talent servants received identical praise for their faithfulness. The one-talent servant who buried his gift was condemned not for losing it, but for doing nothing with it. This reveals that unused gifts are judged just as harshly as misused ones.

Your gift has a built-in direction - outward toward others, not inward toward yourself. God intentionally left gaps in people's stories that your specific gift is designed to fill. When you withhold your gift out of fear or busyness, someone goes without what God has assigned to reach them through you. The key is serving in God's strength rather than your own, ensuring that every faithful act points people to His glory rather than to yourself.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

So today we uh truly complete our sermon today, our series today. Now, again, because of the Easter celebration, we were a week behind schedule on our May um sermon series. And so we're supposed to have completed that last week, but then we kind of took a week off in June to complete that. The current series we are on is Gifts for Service. And again, I'm sure everyone here has their uh participation guides, gifts for service. So just for a brief recap of where we are and how we got here. In week one, we discovered that every believer had received the spiritual gift as a deliberate act of divine grace. There is no one in the Son of my voice who is truly born again, who belongs to Jesus, who has received the Holy Spirit. Now, this is the kicker. With that, the Bible says in Romans 8 that the Lord knows those who are his. And the Holy Spirit becomes, the Bible talks about the seal of his spirit. And so if you have received him and you truly came to the cross and you received him, then when you when you were born again, he came with something. He came with a spiritual gift. And um we spoke about that, and the spiritual gift was deliberate as an act of grace. You did not work for it. In week two, we examine the seven gifts, the gifts of help. And we said that that was a backbone of the church, the quiet hand that holds everything together. The one that picks up the phone and checks on somebody, the one that is kind to somebody, the one that sees the need and quietly provides the need without making an announcement out of it. Those ministries in the church are the ones that are moving the church forward quietly without everybody knowing. In week three, we address the communication gifts. We spoke about the gift of prophecy, the gift of teaching, the gift of exhortation. We said that that is the tongue of the body, the voice that makes truth land in the hearts of God's people. Now, last week was week four, we addressed the leadership gift, the shepherd who guides, the administrator who orders, the visionary who sees what others cannot see. Today is week five, and our study is focused on using your gifts for God's glory. Someone say amen to that. So in the last five weeks, I can conclusively say that we've almost covered the full landscape of the spiritual gifts. And um, again, you have resources. You can always go back to um either the YouTube channel or the uh the podcast, which is on Spotify and Apple Podcast, and all I've updated it late last night, so everything up to last week. It's on our uh what's it called? Uh Live Chat Podcast, which you can easily access the podcast from the link on your church app. Okay? And then every week, obviously, seven days, we five days in the week, we come with the daily devotions and they change every week. And so it's gonna be tomorrow. And again, if you're online, you're not in person this morning. Uh those in person have participating guides, but online also you have access to that participation guide. You can, if you have the church app, it's that's the only way you can get a guide. You can click on that link and then download it and print it so you can follow along the service. And also during the week, if you want to have a Bible study, I think what I included this week, I did last week as well, it's some interesting questions that you can ask yourself. So if you have a small group at home or you have a bunch of people at Friends who want to kind of go through what we are studying, you can also click on the link and print it the participating guide and use it in your small groups, in your family Bible study and stuff like that, also that you can make sure that the word that's been taught is it's not just leaving you when you leave the church by staying with you. But today I want to begin with uh asking a very simple question. And your answer to this question will determine whether every gift will be used or wasted, whether every gift will be celebrated or buried, or whether every gift will be deployed or hoarded. And here's my question. Very simple. We've already established that God gave every single person a gift, spiritual gift here. And over the weeks we've gone through the different gifts, not all of them, but I believe that the ones we could have done within the five books, we've gone through them. And so my question is: why did God give you a gift in the first place? And so let's say you are in this place today and you decided that God gave you a word of uh a gift of prophecy. Like God gave you uh a gift of exaltation, God gave you uh a teaching gift, or whatever God gave you, or you are part of the Ministry of Health, the gifts of helps. Whatever God gave you, the question is very simple. Why did God give you in the first place? Now tell you why He did not give it to you. God did not give it to you so that you could feel very special. You know, most of us, most people, especially, I don't know about this country, but especially in Africa, everybody who goes to pray for a gift wants to pray for the gift of prophecy. Because they feel like it's a hierarchy of gift and they feel like that puts them on the spotlight, and they feel that that gift makes it special. So I tell you that God did not give you that gift just to make it special. I tell you that God did not give you that gift just so that our church programs can run effectively, not even finally or ultimately, so that other people's needs could be met. The gifts is not necessarily that other people's gift to be met, even though it's absolutely part of it. So the gifts foster the needs of people, but that's not a primary reason why God gave you a gift. Now, if you answer that God gave you a gift for one supreme, irreducible, unmistakable reason. If you answered that the reason why God gave you that gift is so that he will be glorified through that gift, you were right. Someone say amen to that. The only reason why, and that's what we're gonna learn today, that the gift that you have is as a manifestation, it's a manifestation of the Spirit of God. In other words, we're gonna learn some interesting things today. That the reason why God gave you the teaching gift, the reason why God gave you the ministry gift, the reason why God gave you the gifts of help, is so that ultimately he gets the glory. Amen. Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 4, and I read from verse 10 to verse 11 in the new King James Version. And here's how Peter puts it. As each one has received a gift, again, this is the emphasis, each one has received a gift. So I'm wondering, as you're sitting here today, what is the spiritual gift that God has given you? Because according to scripture, each one has received a gift. So Peter was addressing this to a particular church, and he was looking at the congregation, like I'm looking at you this morning, those in person online, and Apostle Peter is telling the congregation that God has given everyone a gift. There is nobody understanding my boy this morning who is not operating under a specific spiritual gift, according to scripture. So here it comes because you received, he says, minister it to one another. Okay? So there's something that you have that is going to enhance my ministry this morning. Okay? There's something that God has given you that is going to enhance my life. There's something that God has given you that is going to enhance Cherry's life, there's something that God has given you that is going to enhance glorious life. There's something that you are sitting on that you're not supposed to, that the rest of the church is not benefit from it. He said, Minister it to one another as a good steward of the manifold grace of God. These are important words, and if you're able to underline these words in your Bible, they're very critical words. Verse 11 says, If anyone speaks, uh-huh, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies. In other words, there's no, I don't wait, keep my mouth shut. That in all things, God may be glorified through Christ Jesus. Did he say some things? In all things, everything that happens here, everything that happened in worship, everything that happens coming in, everything that happens to you now, everything that happens when we usher people in, everything that happens, the primary reason for the distribution of the gifts is so that ultimately we point it back to him, and God's getting the glory through Jesus Christ. And he ends the text by saying, To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. And life just says amen. Now, every way you look at this text, from every direction you look at it, it comes back to one thing that God may be glorified. Amen. Okay. So this morning I'm going to show you three truths that are taken, that are taken together, will transform an ordinary gift into a life that glorifies God from the inside. So let's jump to the first one. Your gift is a trust, it is not a trophy. Now, I don't know if anybody here runs track or anybody here participates in any sport, especially, you know, track events or, you know. You train, you participate in the track event, you win the event, and at the end of the day, you are given a trophy. And so you go home and you put a trophy on the stand, then everybody comes and looks at the trophy, or you you receive a gold medal that they're going to start uh the World Cup. Pros Emmanuel and I were talking about the World Cup today. I said my boys are going to win. The boys in red are going to do something amazing. Oh, you don't believe that. Okay. Which of them, the British, English, or Ghana? When I say, when I say the boys in red, I'm talking about just the English team. I don't know about the Welsh or the Scotland or everything. The boys in red, you go, you reds, that's what we call them. They're going to win the World Cup, man. They're going to take the World Cup home, they're going to give it to the king, not the queen anymore. And Britain is going to celebrate. You know, there was this uh there was this song that was banned from Britain. Because every time we sang that song, we lost. We will get very close to winning, and they will start again, football is coming up, it's coming up, and then we get we lose. So today, no football is coming on, but the World Cup is coming on, praise God. So watch this. Let's talk about this real quickly. Your gift is a trust, not a trophy. Now, the very first words in Peter's text we just read is very interesting. He says, Each one has received a gift. And this alone dismantles every what's to call the single step that people might have. Now, watch this now. Each one. Now, if you received it, it means that somebody handed it to you. Okay. And there's, you know, it's interesting, especially when we're looking at the gifts of prophecy. Paul specifically put a safeguard on that gift because of the tendency of that gift spring out of pride. Okay? And there are many people who have gifts in the kingdom, and unfortunately, pride kind of fosters around them using the gifts, thinking that the gifts were given to them as their private thing. But Paul says that each one, in other words, when you receive something, it was handed to you from another hand. It's not yours. Okay? And again, you want to look at it. If you received it means you did not achieve it by yourself. This is not about going to university, going to school, and studying and becoming a doctorate certificate at the end of seven years or eight years. You did not achieve this. You didn't end it. You didn't end it through discipline or through self-improvement. It was given to you. Now the second word that should appeal to you in the text is good stewards. Now that word dismantles laziness just as completely. Now, who is a steward? A steward does not own a thing. A steward only manages what he's been given. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 that we are received that we are stewards of the mysteries of God. And Paul puts a caveat to it. Being a steward, so in other words, okay, so you gotta stay with me here. I'm not coming up with these words myself. The text that we read, Paul says that number one, we've all Peter says number one, we've all received the gift. Okay? So understand that if you receive something, it's not yours. It was given to you. You did not achieve it, you did not work for it. Okay? Number two, Paul says that we should be good stewards of those gifts. A steward is simply a manager of a trust. He holds it in a trust on behalf of another. And he knows, and he always knows that the day of reckoning is coming. Because we're gonna look at a story in a little while. If something is handed to you to manage and it's not yours, you know that it is just for a short period of time. And the day of reckoning is coming, then you're gonna give an account for that which were given. Does it make sense to anyone? And so from the text we're looking at, Paul says, number one, God has given you a gift. He's giving you something. And that gift is to benefit all. We're gonna study. And it says that if that gift was given, it means that you didn't attain it, you didn't receive it, it was given to you. And that you should be a steward or a good manager of that gift. In other words, a steward, you put that gift in a trust and manage that trust because a day of reckoning is coming for accountability. Your gift is not a trophy. You end and now display it. It is a trust you received, and one day you are counter it. So whatever God gave you, whether it's a gift of was exaltation, whether it's a gift of help, whatever gift that you have concluded that you were given because God says He gave you a gift, the other thing you need to understand is that you are a steward of that. And the steward puts a gift in the trust, and the steward manages, stole the gift and manages the gift according to the person who gave the guidelines the person gave to him because one day the person who owns the gift is going to come for accountability and for reckoning. Okay? So now we're gonna talk about a gift that comes from grace. Pride has no footing here. Peter calls it the manifold grace of God. All right, now watch this now. Peter uses a Greek word. Are you ready, Greek scholar? The manifold in Greek, Pyokilos, Pyo Kylos, Poyo Kylos, Pikilos, Pikulos, whatever. Picilos. The word Peter uses pickelos for manifold. It's interesting. I was looking at this word yesterday, and it's really interesting. Imagine uh the word is for used to describe many colors, okay? So I don't want to use the word rainbow, but I don't want to use it. But imagine that there is a palette of colors, right? Many colors, right? That's the word manifold. Okay, it's manifaceted, like light split through a prism into a thousand distinct shades. Okay, so the manifold wisdom here means that one grace, but infinite expressions. In other words, it's interesting. I'm probably wearing a manifold shirt. Many colors, right? Now, the way you're gonna look at it is this every spiritual gift is a it's is simply one color of the inexhaustible grace assigned not by human preference or natural talent, by divine sovereign will. And so there are many colors on a color palette. Okay, you want to take a look at that many colors as one, one grace, and out of the many colors, one somebody's wearing white is one of the manifold grace of God. Somebody's wearing black, somebody's wearing a striped shirt. All these things come from the same source. So 1 Corinthians 2 11 says, but one and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. And so grace manifold, the prism, the faceted, the multicolor structure that comes from God. All right. And the Holy Spirit takes that and then he gives, distributes it as he wills. So this is not about this is what I want, and God is gonna give it to me. It's about what the Spirit of God gives you at a specific time for a specific reason. So you receive what God decides he's gonna give you. It's not what you say that I want. You did not choose your color, like somebody chose to wear white today. You did not earn your frequency, you receive what God decided to give you. And so everything you have, whatever gift you're preaching under, the Holy Spirit will the administrator decided to give you that specific gift based upon where he knows you are, where he's going to place you, and what he wants you, or how he wants you to use the gift for. Amen. And so this cuts out covetousness that I want this, and why did he give me, or I want that, I want that. No, there is something unique and specific given to you. So in 1 Corinthians 4 7, the Bible says something new, King James. It says, For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now, if you indeed received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? I prayed, and this happened. People want the spotlight to be on them like they are doing something great to no, no, you received it, and Paul says, uh, listen, be humble, because there was a reason why God gave you that gift. And so he said, if you received it, you cannot boast about it. Now watch this now. Pride in a spiritual pride in a spiritual gift, it's like a window boasting about sunlight. Imagine you woke up this morning, you went downstairs, the sun was bright, and you opened your shades and your blinds, and your window spoke to you. See what I'm doing for you. You see, I just gave you light. You didn't get it. The window did not do anything, it just simply reflected light. Amen. So when somebody receives a spiritual gift and is prideful in that spiritual gift, he's just behaving as if a window, exactly the window, we did nothing but just showed up and the sun shone through it. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 47, the Bible says, There are diversities of gifts by the same spirit. And there are diversities of adver activities by the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. Amen. So if you take a look at this statement, there are two beautiful architectural uh structures here. Paul, first of all, says the diversity of the gifts. Okay, so he says the Holy Spirit gives different gifts, right? That's what he's talking about, the diversity of the gifts. And so the level of the gifts is from one source, and then he talks about the unity of the level of the source, okay? He says that everything is given by one spirit, one Lord, one God. All right. So understanding what Paul just said destroys any idea of hierarchy of gifts. You know, there are folks who actually specifically are desiring and praying for specific gifts, okay? Thinking that that gift is better than the other gift. In God's economy this morning, people, there is. No hierarchy in gifts. Okay? The very diversity of gifts is a signature of God who is both sovereign and generous. Sovereign enough to assign equally what he wills, generous enough to give to each one. He says, not to the senior member. God did not come here this morning and say, okay, Pastor, you're a senior pastor, so I'm going to give you this specific gift. But because you just came to the church tomorrow, you were preaching on this gift. That's not how it works. He gives it as he wills, how he knows the person, how you knows you're going to use the person, you're going to give the gifts. And every gift in God's economy is the same. He did not just give ordained ministers specific gifts and left you out. He says each one has something in this economy. Does that make sense? There is no prestigious gifts, no humbling gifts in God's economy. And so whatever God has given you, wherever you are preaching, just celebrate that. Somebody say amen to that. Okay? Now, there is only, in God's economy, the only thing is not about hierarchy. It's not about, you know, when people put on show, you know what I mean? They put on show because they think they have something that somebody, the other person doesn't have. No, people. The only thing that matters, and please get this the only thing that matters in God's economy is faithfulness and unfaithfulness. There are two things. In the steward who holds it. So God is judging you not by your performance. You know, listening to me. Heaven is not rooting for you by your performance or the things you put through. Heaven is rooting for how faithful you are with what He has given you, how unfaithful you are with what you have. Does it make sense? There's only two things here: faithfulness and faithfulness. Because in God's economy, every gift, every gift is profound, every gift is prestigious, every gift is humbling, every gift is specific. Because here's the thing. If you think about it logically, if you say the one gift is less than the other, you're telling God that God is not smart, the Holy Spirit is not smart enough, and he doesn't know what he's doing. You're telling the Holy Spirit that he's got favorites. Does it make sense? Because he gave something profound to somebody. And then to the other person, he did not because he's showing favoritism. This is how we look at things. But in God's economy, the only thing that you should consider is how faithful I am with what God has given me and how unfaithful I am. And remember, the Bible says that stewards should be found faithful. Okay. So a steward will give an account. This is one thing that I need you to understand. So there are certain milestones that we need to establish here today. One of those milestones, milestones is that everyone has a gift. The other milestone is that if you have a gift, then you're a steward. The third milestone is critical. If you're a steward, you're going to give an account. There is no way that you are appointed as a steward of something that they don't reckon is not coming. Doesn't make sense. If you're a steward of something, you are going to give an account. And here it's the kicker. There is no complacency or no shelter for the complacencies in God's economy. Let's look at Matthew 25. And everybody knows the story. I read from verse 14 to 15 and verse 19. Everybody knows this parable. It says, For the kingdom of heaven, it's like a man traveling to a far country who calls his servants and delivers his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents. We know this. To another, he gave two, to another, he gave one. To each according to its own ability. So here's the thing: do not covet for somebody else's gifts. Because God knows your ability, and your gifts were given to you based upon your ability. There are things that heaven is not going to give you because you can't handle it, you can't operate in it. And here's where faithfulness comes in. Wherever you find yourself, whatever God has trusted to you, He expects you, as we're going to find out today. Somebody gave five, somebody got two, somebody got one. Okay? Let me finish reading the text we talk about. Verse 15. Verse 15. And to one he gave five talents, to another he gave two, to another he gave one. To each according to their own ability. Important. And immediately he went on his journey. Now watch this. Now here's where the accountability comes in. After a long time, the Lord of this, those servants, came and set an account with them. I promise you, man. He's coming to set an account with us. You know, the Bible talks about this day of judgment. Every single person is going to go before the throne of grace and you are going to give an account. You are a steward. Whatever you have, your life itself doesn't belong to you. You're not hearing it this morning. Whatever, you whatever makes you was handed to you, including your spiritual gifts. And if you are a steward of it, then you will one day give an account. And so we have to be very careful how we manage our lives, how we manage our finances. You know, some people talk about you where to go, the money. The money is not your money. You are a steward of it. Everything on the planet that belongs to God. And everything you have, Paul says, what is it that you received that wasn't given to you? If it was given to you, that means that one day you're going to give an account for what is given to you. Doesn't make sense. Now watch this now. The word talent, when we talk about when we hear the word talent, what comes to mind? You know, maybe you are an athlete and God has graced you with uh uh ability to sing. You know, you have a talent to do this. This is what our English mindset kind of wraps around the word talent. But unfortunately, in the um, not unfortunately, but in in Jesus' time, the word talent was used differently. Okay, in that day, the word talent was used for the largest unit of monetary measure. So, one talent, listen to this. What is the minimum wage these days in in Chicago? What's the minimum wage? How much? $15 minimum wage. Ah, I need a minimum job. I thought it was still eight dollars, Bishop. Fifteen dollars? My god, what am I doing? I don't even make minimum wage in this church. What a shame. Fifteen dollars. Watch this now. Multiply $15 by $40. How much is that? Well, the mathematicians. India, $15 by $40. How much is that?

SPEAKER_01 28:37

No, it's the $600. $600. $150.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

$15 by $40 is $600. Okay. Take $600 multiply by $7. What is that?

unknown 28:49

$4,200.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

$4,200. Take $4,200 multiply by by uh seven. So $52, right? Okay. So $15 by $52 is how much?

unknown 28:59

I need to calculate.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

I need to calculate the shit about you.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

$218,400.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Is it a $2,000? One talent in Jesus' time was equal to 20 years of wages for a common worker. One talent. So the 218,400, so yeah, one talent. Yes, one talent was a measure of monetary value. It wasn't just something that you can run or you can do this. No, it wasn't reference. Because if you even if you read the text, it talks about my money, okay? It's referenced to money if you read the entire parable. So one talent is damage. It's imagine the person that received five. The trust that the the what's it called that the uh the Lord gave to them. This is not pocket change, okay? This is a staggering trust. And so somebody received five talents when Jesus was the master's departed. Somebody received two. Another person received 20 years of money to work with. This is like, and what you have to understand is that they received something, it was never the servant's property. So it was trust held on behalf of the master. So whenever God entrusts something to you, it's like a trust, a living trust that is held on behalf of something. And the return date was already fixed. The servant knew that one day the owner of that 20 talents were how much was it? Five talents multiplied by what is it a year?

unknown 30:43

21800.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

218,400 multiplied by by that's a year. Multiplied by five. No, no, 20, something like that. Crazy. It's a crazy amount of money. Okay? Yeah, it's it's a lot of money that the person entrusted in the hands to trade with. Now remember, the reason why he received the five was because the the Lord of the house knew his ability to be able to work with that. So it wasn't a dick. Then he gave the other person two. It wasn't because he he liked that one, he gave five more, but because knowing that the master knew them, he knew that the person's ability was able to handle one. Okay? And then the other one was one. Now, the day was coming because it was already settled that the master was coming back for accountability. Okay? So the phrase here is the word that the Bible uses something. It says to come back to settle accounts with them. Okay? And the whole parable hinges on this word, settle account with them. The accounting was always coming. So the servants knew that it wasn't an issue, that he was going to give me this and he was going to go and forget about it. He knew that one day the accounting was always coming. He knew that one day the day of reckon is coming. And the way you got to look at it was that he wasn't threatening them. This accounting day was built in the regional transaction. Okay? So, whatever God has given you, as we've already established, as one of the milestones that you're a steward, we know that the day of accountability is coming. It's not a threat. I'm not here trying to threaten you. It's a fact that the day coming because why? It's already built in a transaction before the transaction was even established. Before God gave it to you, He knew that it wasn't yours. You were just a steward. So every gift God gives us comes with the same embedded clause. There is a settlement day. Okay? So whether it's your finances, whether it's your life, whether whatever God has given you to manage, there is something built in it. There's a clause built in that. And that clause is a day of settlement. It's coming. Okay? One day, the only currency that will matter is not your brilliance. It's not your eloquence. It's not how many people came to hear you. The only thing that matters is the only currency here that we're discussing this morning is how faithful you were with what you were given. Does it make sense to anyone? Now watch this. The five-talent servant doubled his investment. Read the rest of the story. The two-talent man doubled his investment. Okay? So according to ability, the five master came, we're going to read it. The servant says, Here, this is you gave me five, this is five. Doubled it. The president was given two, same thing. This is two, this is two, doubled it. Now watch this now. Both of them received the same glorious verdict, word for word, identical. Okay? Because the standard was never the size of the gift. The standard was the faithfulness of the steward. The master had an expectation that this person is 20 is good. I'm going to give you five talents. And I know that he's wise enough. I know that he has his roles altogether. I know that he's going to invest this thing, and I know that he's going to give me a return. And when the master returned, he wasn't disappointed. The person with the two talent, the master knew his ability. So he said, I'm going to give him two. And expectedly, the person who received the two also put into work. And those additional two. Doesn't make sense to everyone. And so it was never the size of what was given, it was always the expectation that the master had for faithfulness for them to put into use. And faithfulness, they're dead. Now imagine how many of you who was, well, I know Glara was a bank manager once. Anyone who has worked here as a bank before as a teller? Okay. So you come to your office in the morning as a teller and they give you your draw, right? And your draw, they count thousands of dollars and put in the draw for you. Now, Glara was, I think Glora was telling me the matter 20 years ago about this. You work in a bank and you have no respect for money because you know that what you're looking for is not yours. In the morning, your money is counted, okay? In your draw. You take the draw and you transact with it. In the evening, you have to balance your draw. Does it make sense? You gotta balance your draw. There is no teller that's sitting in the bank thinking that the money I have is mine. Because he knows for a fact that evening is coming and there's accountability, and my draw needs to balance. Does it make sense? Okay? Man, look at all this money. Because you know that if you do that, in the evening, you're not gonna be able to balance your draw, and then there's gonna be consequences. Okay? FDI is on your tail. Okay? So your spiritual gifts are counted in your draw when God made you and placed you in his church. The master is coming back to count it. If anybody tells you that you just came into the kingdom, you received the gift, and that gift was just to pleasure you and to do what you want to do. And when you die, he passes away. That person seriously lied to you. Because the master is invested, listen to me carefully. He himself, he says, the Holy Spirit, he says, will that he distribute that gift to you, and he is well vested in that he's given you. And he gave it to you, the reason being for the benefit of every single person. So if you are not using it properly, you think it is mine to keep the day of reckoning, it's coming. The question is not how much he deposited, the question is, what did you do with it whilst he was away? So you come into the church, you got saved, you came to the cross. Lord Jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the Lord, hallelujah, praise the Lord. And God says, Welcome into my fold. And when God was bringing you in the fold, he gave you something unique. Knowing where you be, knowing the church he has planned for you. It's not about the size of the congregation, it's not about where the church is, it's about where he leads you. And he says, Now these things are given you for the benefit to build my body. And one day I'm gonna sit down with you and you're gonna tell me exactly how you used it to build the kingdom. Okay? So let's talk about your gift is for others, it's not for yourself. Now, Peter is surgically precise about the direction every gift must flow. Minister it to one another. Your gift is not for a showmanship, your gift is not to get clicks on Facebook, your gift is not to be placed upon a pedestal to think that oh, I'm something special or anybody else. Your gift is primary giving for him to get the glory and also for you to minister to one another. And so, whatever gifts that uh, what's it called, Harrison has, he has to minister that gift to Pasemano for Pasemano to benefit from that gift. Does it make sense? When we come to church, what is your gift? What are you using to enhance the experience of the person sitting next to you? The gift has a built-in trajectory upwards. It is not a private possession, it is for public ministry. God never gave you what he gave you for a private possession. You don't hear with me. A gift turned inward is a gift under judgment. A gift poured outward is a gift fulfilling his divine design. So the spirit gave you a gift for the profit of the whole body. 1 Corinthians 12, something says, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. And so God, in this infinite wisdom, the Holy Spirit, infinite wisdom, putting things together, figuring out life, touching what we're gonna do and how he wants us to be established, and how he wants us to affect the community around us. Decided, you know, I never knew that I was a gentleman called Kwami when I was born in the village I was born in. I never knew that was if somebody called Bishop Gogo. Welcome, sir. I forgot to welcome you back. Please forgive me. Welcome. He just came back from missions and welcome, sir. So forgive me, please. I was so much in the spirit, I forgot. Welcome. He looks powerful today as well. Welcome, sir. We love you, man. Good man. 20 years ago, I never knew there was somebody called go-go. That God was going to plant somewhere in my life who was going to help the vision he's giving me to be established. I never knew that. Danielle, Mississippi, where was I going to meet you from? You see, most of the time we take a lot of things for granted. We just take things for granted. Oh, a friend invited me and I went to church and I love the church and I want to call it my home church. We just take things for granted, but we don't know that this is the working of the Holy Spirit. And we don't appreciate the fact that he himself, understanding the calling of each one, placed each one in a specific place at a specific time for a specific reason to enhance his church. So Paul says that the manifestation, in other words, the expression of the gift, when somebody's speaking the gift of prophecy, when you're the expression of that gift, it's a manifestation of the Holy Spirit and it's given, and the primary reason is to profit everybody. Amen. So for the profit of all, he says, it's your gift job description. You know, whenever you apply for a job, they tell you what your job description is, correct? And everyone's single person knows the job description. When God gave you a gift, your job description was to profit every single person. Does it make sense? And was written by the Holy Spirit Himself. It's not for the profit of all who has, not for the benefit of those who are just nearby, but the profit of all. In other words, every single person in your circle of influence needs to benefit from what God has given you. Christian or non-Christian. Does it make sense? Every single person in the circle of influence needs to. This is not just something that we're just walking by. And so watch this. You have a teaching gift. Your teaching gift is not for your own intellectual pleasure, it is for the believers, a believer who is drowning in confusion, who needs truth with handles on it. There's somebody who needs clarity. But God has blessed you with teaching. And because you are so busy. Messy gifts. Your messy gift is not a personality trait you enjoy expressing. It is God's supply line to the person in your church who is suffering alone and has stated, started to wonder whether anyone cares. There are times that yesterday I had to reach out to Levette, Sister Levet. And I apologized to her. She was supposed to be in church, no one she didn't show up. But she had bronchitis, and I think it led to the flu and that sort of thing. I spoke to her a couple of times. But in that time of sickness, I wonder if anybody here picked up the phone and called there, went to visit there. Somebody's wondering. There are so many people who feel hurt in churches, and they leave the church because they wonder nobody cares. Nobody follows up, nobody is talking to me, nobody's, nobody really cares, right? And that's the reason why God gave you a messy gift. God gave somebody here a giving gift. Your giving gift is not for personal spiritual discipline, it is a fool that keeps our missionary on the fields and families from going without. Every gift is a missing place in somebody's else's story. Does it make sense? You have a story, man. And God intentionally left a gap in that story. And God gave Danae a specific gift. And that gift that Danae gave you was the missing piece. I don't know if anybody here does puzzles. And you always do a puzzle and figure out there's a missing piece. So that gift that you have is the missing piece in someone else's story. Okay? God place your gift, their gift in you for them. You know why? Because in God's economy, we are all interchangeable. We're supposed to be connected to one another. So when you withhold your gifts, when you withhold your gifts, and why do we withhold our gifts? There are so many times that you are here and you have an impression to do something, but you are holding that gift. Why? Because you are fearful. What about what I'm saying is not right? What about if the pastor snaps at me? What about people begin to laugh at me out of fear? Through comfort. Some of us are so comfortable where we are that we don't want to stretch ourselves. And because you know that when you begin to do this thing, it's going to require more from you. And it's going to kind of sort of interrupt your workflow or your entertainment flow or something, you decide I'm going to hold back. Why? Because I'm comfortable here. I don't want to extend myself anymore. Some of us, through our business, we are so busy, like we want to chase everything our moves, and we are so busy with our lives that you know that the moment you begin to operate in your gift is going to alter the other things you do. So because of that, you hold back. But when you're holding back, what you are refusing to understand is that that's a puzzle that God intentionally placed in you for somebody else. And that person is never going to find wholeness until you step out of your comfort, you step out of a busy life and decide that I'm going to put the time aside to now fulfill the mission that God created me. Or through the quiet lies that say, and this is the Malpian, this is the most profound one. The quiet lie. There's always Satan drops a lie in your head, and this is a lie telling you someone else is going to do it. I'm too busy. But Bishop Gogo is going to do it. I know. It's 9 o'clock, and I can go to church and help out. Uncle Tony is going to always open up at 9 o'clock because he's going to be there. So I can walk in 11, 12 o'clock, no problem. You are refusing to step out. Why? Because you have a quiet lie that keeps telling you someone else is going to do it. But look around. But there's a consequence, man. Somebody goes without what God assigned to reach them through you. So whenever you refuse to put a puzzle in place, remember that somebody else is struggling. Somebody else is going to go without. Because the way God has done it, and God, I don't know how, well, that's why it's God, and nobody can ever understand him. He decides to put these things in order. He decides that Dr. Gogo needs something Augustine needs. And if he's not around Augustine, Augustine's going to be in trouble. Because I intentionally put him there and put that in him to keep Augustine balance so that you might not think that you are all. And so if Dr. Gogo decides I'm not going to do it because I'm too busy working, I'm just going to keep just like a like a what do you call a bull in the channel shop. Just breaking everything. Because the press who's supposed to keep it balanced decided I can't do this because I'm too busy. So there's consequence. There's this huge uh warehouse that I went to a couple of days ago. Uh Mike Master's Curry. And you enter there and you look at the supply chain, it's just amazing the way packages are moving up and down. The supply chain. If you refuse to step out and to do what God has asked you to do, the supply chain breaks. And you know where the supply chain breaks, it breaks at your end. And so if there's a supply chain, and I'm supposed to be picking a box this year, right? So my box should go here, and somebody's box should go there, and I decide I'm too tired, I'm not gonna do it. What's gonna happen? I'm gonna break the chain, and if I break that, it's at your end. So it's not Satan who's doing it. It is a decision that you made, the choice that you've taken, that you are too busy to put your hands to work. That's where the problem is. Now, we're gonna talk about the very gift is the rebuild gift. Heaven judges what is unused. Come with Matthew 25, verse 21 to 23 quickly. What am I doing for time? His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. Listen to it carefully. That is the one five. So in God's account, even the five talents, God says it's it's a few things. Oh, you didn't get that. Whatever God gave you for promotion, God says he just gave you something very little to test you. You still don't get it. If you have not passed the test with this little thing that God gave you, how do you expect him to give you greater things? Because if you look at the response of the Lord, he says, Well then, you good and faithful servant, you were faithful with a few things. So when you think that you have the inner most thing, God says, What I gave is very the tiny thing of what I can give you. He said, I will make you a ruler. Now comes a promise, I'll make you a ruler over many things, because your faithfulness in small things now positions you for greater things. And here's a reward: enter into the jaw of the Lord. Verse 22. He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I have gained two more talents besides them. 23. And he said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. Identical words, you have been faithful. He didn't say the one that gave him five that's more faithful than you. No, because according to your ability, everyone has different ability. According to your ability, you are faithful with it. Therefore, you are faithful of a few things. I will make you a ruler of many things according to your ability. Enter into the jaw of the Lord. You see? The five talents, seven, traded, and returned ten. The two talents traded and returned four. Neither performance was identical. Yet the verdict was the same. Well then, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful with a few things. I will make you now ruler over many things. Enter into the job of the Lord. The words were identical. The two talent men received the exact same commendation as the five talent man. Why? It's critical right now. Because in God's economy, people listen to me. The standard is not the size of the return. The standard is always the faithfulness of the servant. Okay? It's always your faithfulness, what you did with the little I gave you. Let the whole world say something, let the whole world ridicule you. Let everyone say you're mad for doing what you're doing. You know who called you. You know that according to your ability, you're giving God your best. And this is the best thing you're giving him. And God says, Well done at the end of the day. Why? Because you were faithful with the little gave you. He didn't give you a small check and say, Man, Lord, I want a big church, so I'm not going to serve you anymore. No. You go by it every single day. I crack at it every single day. Because finally, Matthew 25 is coming. Well done. Go to faithful seven. The seven will five talent was not twice as praised as the seven who two. They were equally praised because they were equally faithful with what they were given. Now, watch this. Now, what happened to one talent man? Let's go to Matthew 25, 26 to 27 quickly. But the Lord answered and said to him, the one talent man, you wicked, lazy servant. That's incredible. Because if we read the text, the man did not lose anything. He simply did not gain anything on it. And so God has given you talent, and you are not really losing it. You're not using it. You're just sitting on it. This is God's expression to you. Wicked, lazy servant. You are so comfortable. You are so you are so strict. You are so mindful of the things you want to gain that nobody else is benefiting from your goodness. You lazy talent, he says. You knew that I root where I've been sown and I scattered aware of what's called and and I got aware of not scattered. So you ought to have deposited my money. Now we come to the text. He's talking about money now. Okay? Now it's about money. Talents about money. So now he says you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I will receive back my own with interest. Whatever God has given. You know what the interest is? The interest is how well the gifts are being used to develop other people and how well other people are growing into the faithfulness of God. That's the interest God is looking for. You didn't hear me. He's not interested. He never squandered the talent. He wasn't through reckless living. He didn't lose it through carelessness. He simply buried it. He dug it back out. He dug a hole, placed it in the ground, covered it, and then returned it to the master. Watch this. The principle's intact. Not a penny diminished. And God says, You're wicked and lazy. Why? You give me something, I give it back to you the same thing. Why am I wicked? Whatever God gives you, He expects you to increase and to multiply. So look around you. You're a leader of department. You have people under you. How well are you doing to develop those people under you? Or your life is all about yourself. You think Christianity is all about me? I worship, I'm good. I don't cheat, I don't steal, I don't fornicate, I'm good. My life is good. God says no. We can take that in parallel with our lives. He expects an increase, okay? Interest. So whatever God has given you, you live you're living a life in your own lane. You don't trouble anybody else. You know, there's a thin line between faithfulness and laziness. The safe ground is in the middle. Don't do anything, don't have anybody, I'm good. No. Because doing nothing is what God gave, doing nothing what God gave you is not a natural act. It is not the safe middle ground between faithfulness and failure. Burying your gift is a theological statement. Do you know what that statement is? Anybody who has a gift that the body of Christ is not benefiting from the gift, I have a theological statement for you. In essence, this is how you are communicating to God. I do not trust you enough to take a risk for using what you gave me. So I'm going to figure stuff out myself. That's what you, in essence, that's what God has given you. You are called to ministry. There are things that God has given you, and you are not operating that capacity. What you are telling God is that listen, man, I don't trust you. Because you know what? If I don't take this in myself, if I don't do this myself, I can't take care of me. What you gave me, I'm not sure you gave me anything. And you treat that grace as an insurance rather than as an assignment. Does it make sense? Well, God gives you insurance is what is your backup plan. That's what you hold on to. You don't understand that what God gave you is an assignment. Heaven does not only judge gifts that are misused, heaven judges gifts that are unused. So if you're you're a steward of something, God is not going to say, God is not just going to judge you because you did not use your gifts. Because you you misplaced your gifts, you misused your gifts.

unknown 56:36

No.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

You're also going to judge because you were, you didn't use them. The buried gift insults the giver because the giver gives it as a tremendous cost. The cost of his son, and to bury it, says that the transaction was not worth the risk. This morning during communion, we spoke about how the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and the way you gotta understand it's this is what caused God to be able to give you what He gave you. And whenever you decide to bury that gift, dig a hole and bury it, and live a life by yourself. You're telling him that that tremendous cost wasn't worth it. And watch this now. This there comes a final devastating declare. Matthew 25, 28. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. The gift you refuse to use, listen carefully, will be given to someone else who will use it. God does not leave these purposes unfulfilled, he simply moves the assignment to another steward. Do you think you're gonna hold God captive? You're not gonna do what He tells you to do. Trust me, He's preparing somebody to carry on. And one day you give an account. Matthew 25, verse 29 to 30 quickly. For to anyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance. But for him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Verse 30. And then cast your unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I came across this illustration, which I thought was profound. I did not know that the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, both of them are sourced from the river Jordan. So the Jordan pours the same water into both. Okay? The Sea of Galilee themes with fish, live, birds, vegetation, villages, both on the shores for Millennians. The Dead Sea cannot support a single living organism. The water that flows into is identical to the water that flows from the Galilee. In other words, they have the same source. Jordan, uh, Galilee, Dead Sea, same source. The difference, what is the difference? The difference is that the water that is coming in, the difference is not the water that's coming in, the difference is what each sea does with what it receives. Okay? The Galilee receives and releases. The Dead Sea receives and retains. Because not flowing, because not flowing out, the mineral concentrates, the soul builds to lethal levels, and the sea earns the most accurate name in the ancient world. Watch this now. A believer who only receives and never pours out becomes a Dead Sea soul. Spiritually toxic, spiritually stagnant, a place where nothing grows. Your gift is not a reservoir, people. It is a river, and rivers are meant to run. Wonder was preaching somewhere many years ago. And I said, I'm looking at a lot of spiritually constipated Christians. You know why spiritually constipated? Because you eat, eat, eat, and you don't pass out anything. So you are miserable. Your gift is powered by God for his glory. Let's go back to 1 Peter 4 11, New King James. A few minutes. If anyone speaks, let him speak as an oracle of God. If anyone ministers, let them do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Christ Jesus, to whom belongs the glory and the dominion forever and ever. So Peter literally takes the entire spiritual activity and then he compresses them into two categories. He says speaking and ministering or serves. So the word ministering here means to serve us all, serving is the same word as ministry. You know, when we talk about minister, people think you're preaching and prophesy. No, it's just simply serving. So Peter says, if anyone is doing two profound things, he takes the whole spiritual activity and he puts it in two categories when you're speaking and when you're ministering. Okay? He gives the church the oppression instruction for both categories. The first category is this if you're speaking, he said, as you speak as though God Himself is speaking. Okay? He says, let him speak as the oracle of God. The Greek word he uses here, logion, from the root word logia, means a brief utterance, a divine oracle. It means a divine utterance. So what Peter is saying, Peter is not saying that any man, any preacher man proclaiming is producing his inspired infallible scriptures. He's not saying that. What Peter is saying is he's saying that every person who rises to speak in God's name must carry the weight of the office, the gravity of the office, the seriousness of someone delivering a message from the living God himself. Amen. If you're not willing to fill the slot in this, so basically, when when whenever somebody stands to proclaim something on behalf of God, Peter is saying that you gotta understand something, that you are not uh filling a slot in a program, you are not performing, you know, a content, but actually you are speaking on behalf of God Himself. He says, You are herald and is standing between the eternal God and the people he died and saved. You speak accordingly. Okay? Now this year destroys every casual on seven crowd-pleasing preaching. There are people who tell their messages according to the crowd they are speaking to. It destroys a ministry that is more interested in in trend than in truth. More interested in making people comfortable than in making people holy. Every time you stand in a capacity as a minister, remember that you're speaking on behalf of somebody. And I'm not speaking to keep you happy or to make you no, no, no, no. And that's what Peter is saying here. Speak as an oracle. If your words are not rooted in scripture, saturated with the Holy Spirit and aimed at the glory of God, you have just left the category of oracles and entered into the category of noise. And this happens in pulpits every Sunday. Speaking as though God is speaking, because in the truest sense, when the word is faithfully proclaimed, God is speaking. He says, if you serve, serve in the strength God supplies, not your own strength. Now, this year had to let me pause this week to kind of really take a deep look at what I am myself up doing. He said, If anybody ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies. This is never supposed to be your strength. The word he uses here in the Greek is very, very interesting. All right, it's a vivid, official, civil life word that Peter uses for supplies. In the ancient world, when um a wealthy citizen is assigned, let's say there is a uh what's called a uh a parade or something, right? There's uh a festival going on. They'll come to the community and they will assign a wealthy person, okay? To basically sponsor, be a patron of the activity, okay? Gorrigos. So Peter uses the word group word gorigo, right? Which is a group word, which is a vivid specific word he uses. And let's say I have a festival coming tomorrow, and I come to Tony and I say, Tony, you are the person that's you're the patron of this festival. And the patron takes care of all the bills, right? You pay for every single thing, everything is okay. You know, like there's someone who sponsors something. They put your name on like a sponsor. You pay for everything. That word here is Carigos. Okay. So uh the Carigos personally underwrites the entire production, costume. Rehearsals, musicians, everything. The chorus perform without financial anxiety because the patron absorbs every cost. Well, Peter uses this word deliberate here for supplies. Okay. He said, if you minister, minister as the one that supplies. Peter is calling God here corrigos. Okay? He says he personally underwrites the entire cost of your ministry, the resources you need to serve, the energy that serves requires the courage that obedience demands in all of his underwriting by the inexhaustible supply of God who has never run short of resources. Okay? So honestly, I was looking at it this week, and right now in the Christian circle, there's the word ministry bent out is very pro, it's it's just prof, it's just, you hear it all the time. Now tragically, it is real. Tragically, there's a lot of bent out, and there's a season in my life that felt that I was even burning out myself in ministry. But praise be to God. You always learn when God teaches. He says, it is not God's design for his servants to ever feel bent out. Do you know why? Because bent out is what happens when you serve in your own strength. You're sitting here and God is giving a gift and you see the need in the house, you don't want to do it. But you feel like it's going to take too much out of me. What Peter is saying is that whoever ministers ministers the supplies that God gives. In other words, you are never supposed to serve out of your own strength. You are not never supposed to serve off your own schedule, not for your own purpose, from the depleted resources you have. When you serve in the strength God supplies, draw from the account rather than your own. Amen. He does not call you to do what he will not resource. He does not assign what he will not equip. The servant who says, I have nothing left, has been drawn from their wrong account. God is courageous. He has inexhaustible supply. He takes care of the ministry work before he calls you to do it. And the reason why he does that, then all things that God may be glorified. Not some things, all things. Here's where the arrow finds his target. Then all things, God may be glorified through Christ Jesus. Not in some things, not in the obvious things, not in the Sunday service, in the prayer meetings, the former ministry moments, all things. Every exercise of every gift, the sermon crafted at midnight, the meals delivered to the grieving widow, the meeting ran with administrative excellence, the offering given in quiet faith, the word of encouragement spoken in the parking lot. Every single act, when you do it in the strength God supplies, for the one who gave the gift becomes an act of worship. Now, every gift rightly used is an arrow. The target is always and only the glory of God through Jesus Christ. This is the defining line between religious performance and spirit-filled ministry. Religious performance ends with the audience applausing you. Spirit-filled ministry ends with the audience worshiping God. The question you might always ask every act of service, every sermon preached, every visit, every act of giving, every hour of leadership, it's not did they notice me? Always has to be, did they see him? I've never been to an orchestra before. Somebody had been to a symphony before, an orchestra. What we know is that at the end of the play, all the musicians on stage, maybe a hundred of them, will point to the conductor. The violinist doesn't come up and say, Watch what I did. Everybody knows that the conductor is the one that the glory comes because before the first musical was struck, he saw the tune. And when he goes like that, everybody follows him. Everybody knew that he was the one that orchestrated the orchestra. So when it's all done at the crescendo, they all rise up and give glory to him. Why is this important? We notice what happened in Matthew 25. When the the five the five talent servants returned, we know what he said. God is a conductor of the orchestra. When your gift lands somewhere, when through the gift that God has given you, somebody comes to revelation, somebody comes to fulfillment, somebody comes to understanding who God is. It is never, look what I did. You are just part of the orchestra. It is always the conductor who was able to conduct the music with the skulls, whatever they call it, to have a beautiful orchestra. Does it make sense? So we always, always point to him, the conductor of the orchestra. When you're giving make beautiful music in somebody's life, when a broken person is comforted, when a confused man is cleared, when a lost soul is found, do not step forward or point to the conductor. And notice what happens in Matthew 25 when the five talents several returns. He did not stand before his master and say, Look what I achieved. He said, Lord, you deliver to me five talents. I gain five more. He called the gift your talent. He returned the gift to the owner. He claimed no credit for the principle. He simply placed the increase at the master's feet. That is a life that glorifies God. Please take it down. Today, as we conclude. Next week, we're gonna go to something else. I want to give you the whole message in three sentences. And I want you to carry them out with you today. Number one, your gift is a trust, it is not a trophy. Hold that gift in humility. What is it that you received that wasn't given to you? Number two, your gift is for others, not yourself. Pour it out freely. God never gave you that gift to be a private property, He gave it to you to pour it out for the benefit of everybody to establish his kingdom on planet earth. Number three, your gift is powered by God, and the reason why he powers himself is because of his glory. So you serve in the strength for his name alone. Surely as God lives, the day is coming, and it's coming for every single person in this room when the master will return and settle an account. On that day, the person he calls forward will not be the one with the largest congregation, trust me, or the most impressive ministry resume. The one he calls forward will be the faithful steel, the one who looked at what they were given, however small it seems, and said, This is not mine to keep. This belongs to the one who gave it to me. I will pour it out to work for his glory and trust him for the increase. And to that steward, he will say the only words that will matter when everything else had been stripped away. Well done, good and faithful servant. The verdict is available to every single person in this room, not just the five talented persons, not just the ordained, not just the one with visible platform-level gifts. It is equally available to the two talent servants who quietly, faithfully doubled what they were given in obscurity. The standard is not the size of the gift. The standard is the faithfulness of the steward. Please take this home with you. It is the faithfulness of the steward. Here's my closing question for you. So, I'm gonna ask you plainly. Before you walk out of this building today, what are you doing with what God has given you? It's your give buried in the comfortable soul of fear. It's your buried in a comfortable soul of afraid to fail. It's you'll get buried in a comfortable soul of afraid to be seen, afraid that what you have is not enough. It is buried in the uh what's it called, seductive soil of business, so occupied with life that you have no bandwidth left for the assignment of God. You are called to do something. And the American dream has captured you, and you want everything that American has. You've forgotten that it's just a matter of time before you pass from time to eternity. And God is never going to commend you for the things you build materially. He's gonna commend you for the thing how faithful you were with what he gave you handed into your hands. And so, to the person who is listening to me, who the seductive soil of business have crowded you, is it buried in a proud soil of self-sufficiency, serving in your own strength, and buried, burning out before you can even reach the finish line? Or will you be the servant who returns to the master with a gift of faithfulness and say, Lord, you gave it to me. I put it to work for you. Here is what you entrusted with increase. You know, at the beginning of the year, we um introduced something here called the one-to-one-to-one principle. One member, rich and one person every quarter. This is what I call stewardship in skin and shoes. Your gift is a vehicle. Listen carefully. The lost people in your circular sphere of influence is a mission failed. The glory of God is the destination. So to end, do not bury it, do not hoard it, do not perform with it for your own applause. Testament is a deploy it. Serve with it, surrender it back to the one who gave it to you, and let it be said of life check community church. Let it be said of every gift exercise in this house. Let it be said of every gift exercise in this house that in all things, through every hand, and every voice, and every act of faithful stewardship, God was glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I end with this verse. Now to him, please stand, who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you forwardless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Oh Allah, brother June. To God, our Savior, who alone is wise, the glory, majesty, dominion, power, both now and forevermore.