Gifted for Ministry

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We are finishing up our gifted series and this will be the last portion as we talk about gifted for ministry. And so our hope is that we are able to take these things that we've talked about for the past five weeks and so that way you'll be able to implement some of these things that are already there so that maybe you kind of have, I don't know, some sort of structure or background of what this looks like, what God is calling you in specifically, what are your gifts, and how you can use it to glorify the kingdom of God. And so we talked about from the very early weeks, talked about what it means to be gifted by grace, and we talked about spiritual gifts, we talked about gifted with talents and for godliness, and today I like to think it's kind of the overarching theme that really sums everything up. Gifted for ministry. That means people like you and I. Now, we see many times that there is a cultural shift going on at this very moment. We see that churches are decreasing in attendance. You know, to go to church is not really a popular thing anymore. But then we also see, because of that, churches have made a shift in, okay, so how are we going to be able to get people to sit in the pews? How are we going to get people to be able to worship with us each and every Sunday? How about this? We'll create a service where it's more comfortable for them, so that way they can relax, they can sit in nice comfy chairs, maybe like what you're sitting in right here, you know, or maybe we'll just sum it all up in one Sunday, so that way they can get their Sunday fix and go about their week serving God. And see, because we started to do that, we started to do church more than be the church. Am I correct? And so what we're seeing now is we have more dependency on people that stand up front, or people that sing, or people that preach, or people that set up, and so that way we cater for 90% of the people that come to our church doors each and every Sunday. There's a problem with that, right? Because, honestly, it's not going to happen from someone like me who's standing up here, or someone like John, or whatever that may be. It has to be at the moment where we realize that we are gifted in a way, all of us, each and one of us, that are gifted to be able to carry out the ministry of God. And we're going to talk about what that looks like, and what that means, and how we are going to be able to do that today. We've used this quote before, and this is from a guy named Dan Kimball. I think John actually used it. It comes from a book called Emerging Church. He sums it up really perfectly, so I want to be able to read this for you right now. If we can't live the sacred journey with Christ daily, and are not actively drawing others into that journey way outside the worship center, or sanctuary, or outside of our stained glass windows, or silk plant ghettos, we can't expect to do anything in an hour on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night. We just can't expect results to happen if we just gather here, and we just kind of go about our typical Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It just doesn't work that way. And so as we leave this place, as we conclude this series, I'm actually going to challenge you to be able to take a step. Maybe it is a step out of your comfort zone, but maybe a step that God is calling you specifically into. Whether you serve here at this church, but I'm also talking about the church at large. Now, a little disclaimer about this message too. This has nothing, absolutely nothing to do to guilt trip you into serving more with us at Thrive. Okay? It has nothing to do with like, oh, we need more help here in this area. It has nothing to do with that, okay? Now, I understand that's important with what we do, but we're talking about a bigger theme about how God appoints us for ministry, and with these different categories. It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do your identity with Christ, and John shared this the very first week about what it means to have this by faith through grace thing, and this grace thing overtaking your life, and knowing that your identity is that, and because your identity is in God, in grace, in Christ Jesus, that is what's going to be able to propel you into something more, what God has called you into specifically. And see, that is the goal, and so you're going to see in your sermon notes today, there's a bunch of quotes and a bunch of things that we're talking about as far as, you know, apostles, shepherds, teachers, and all that stuff, but at the very end of this, and I want you to say this at the very end, or even when you go home, we're giving you an inventory of what maybe best fits your personal calling, okay? So we want you to be able to apply this and use this in your neighborhoods, at home, in your workplace, in your dorms...