Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.watermarkchurch.hk/sermons/15722/generosity-gifts-and-talents/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] The scripture reading today is found in Romans 12. Please follow along in your bulletin. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

[0:20] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

[0:35] For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

[0:52] For us in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.

[1:09] Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

[1:42] Let our love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.

[1:54] Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord.

[2:06] Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

[2:20] Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.

[2:32] Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

[2:49] If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

[3:10] To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.

[3:22] Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This is the reading of God's word. If you don't know me, my name is Chris.

[3:40] I help oversee the community groups here in Watermark. And it's great to see you all. And we're starting a three-part series, having a short break from the Romans series that we've been doing.

[4:01] But we're going to come back to looking at Romans at the end of the month. But we're going to do a three-part series looking at generosity. Generosity is one of our values, one of the principles that we want to be, as a church, characterized by generosity.

[4:17] And I don't know what you think when you hear that word generosity. Maybe you're thinking, oh no, they're going to ask me to do something. Or, oh no, it's about money again.

[4:28] Or something like that. But over these next three weeks, we want to see that actually the gospel that we've been hearing about in Romans has to flow out into our lives in an extravagant way.

[4:43] which affects every part of our lives. So we're going to look at, today we're going to look at generosity and gifts and talents that God has given us. We're going to look at money and we're going to look at time over the next three weeks.

[4:57] Now if you think about it, generosity isn't just a Christian idea. People in Hong Kong do generosity. But I think in society, there can be a number of different ways that we do generosity.

[5:09] One of the ways I think we can do generosity is we do generosity for show. You know, some very rich people in Hong Kong, they donate money to build hospital buildings and to build university buildings.

[5:25] And then just to show you how incredibly generous they are, they write their name on the building so that you know it was them who gave it. Or what about when people fight for the bill at a restaurant when you're paying?

[5:40] I mean, what's that about? Why? Because we want to be shown to be generous. I want people to see that I'm a generous person. I think another way we can sometimes do generosity in society is we can do it out of guilt.

[5:53] You know, if you're a parent and you haven't spent a lot of time with your kids recently, and to kind of make up for it, what do you do? You buy an expensive present.

[6:04] You have to do a fantastic day out because you feel guilty. And so you've got to be generous out of guilt. Another way we can do it is we can just do it to make ourselves feel good about myself, to prove that I'm okay.

[6:18] Okay, my aunt, she is one of the most sacrificial serving people that I know. She's not a Christian, but she has dedicated the whole of her life to serving people who are handicapped and vulnerable in society.

[6:37] And one day, just a couple of weeks ago, my mom was talking to her. And my mom said to her, okay, how are you going to work on improving your relationship?

[6:48] They had a bad relationship with your neighbors. And my aunt's response was, well, I don't have to because it's their problem. I'm perfect.

[6:59] I have lived a perfect life. You see, all the acts of generosity that had done had made her feel that she was good, that she was okay, that she was worth something in life.

[7:13] Generosity can sometimes be about making ourselves feel good about ourselves. Now, the one thing all those ways have in common is this. They're all about me.

[7:26] They're all about me. And what Paul is going to say as we look into this passage is that Christian generosity has a totally different foundation.

[7:38] So we're going to look at just a few things. We're going to look at the heart of generosity. We're going to look at how grace and this generous gift that God gives us transforms the way we view the gifts and talents we've got.

[7:51] And then we're going to look at how we know what our gifts are and how we use them. Okay, so that's where we're going. We're thinking about generosity, but particularly with gifts and talents.

[8:02] So let's start off looking at the passage. Verse 1 says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

[8:20] Paul says, I appeal to you. I want you to get this. This is what I really want you to understand at this particular moment. And he says, by God's mercies.

[8:31] I appeal to you by God's mercies. Another translation says, in view of God's mercies, in view of everything that I've been telling you all about in the previous chapters in Romans, the fact that even though we had turned away from God, we'd rejected him, we'd trampled on his children, we'd abused his creation, we were in the dock with God, God comes down, he takes our punishment, he says, not only do I declare you innocent of what you have done against me, I welcome you into my family and I bless you with so many gifts, so many blessings, that I just want you to know how generous I am.

[9:18] And in light, in view of that incredible generosity of God, we've got to respond. That's what Paul's saying.

[9:28] We've got to respond. And the way, and the only way that is a right way to respond to the way God has generously given himself to us is that we worship him.

[9:42] We worship him. Now the image that Paul uses here is that of the temple where worshipers used to bring offerings, maybe a bull or an animal, and they used to sacrifice it on the altar.

[9:59] They used to burn it and that was a way, a sign of their worship to God, their dedication to God. They're saying to God, thank you, this is for who you are. Now here, Paul is not saying you've got to bring an animal.

[10:13] You've not got to bring a few bits of chicken or an orange or some apples like some people do in Hong Kong where you offer up those things to your ancestors or whatever. He's saying there's a bigger offering that you're to bring.

[10:28] He's saying the only appropriate response to what God has done is not partial giving something else but is actually giving yourself to God.

[10:40] It's actually saying in light of what God has done for me, God, I'm at your disposal. My life is for you.

[10:51] I'm so grateful for what you've done for me. Out of gratitude for your grace, here I am. Use me. You see, gratitude overflows in worship to God and then it says putting everything at God's disposal and saying, I want to be generous with my life.

[11:13] I want to be generous with my life. It's a bit like the person who meets the person who dived into the water and saved their drowning kid risking his life, brings them back, hands them to the parent and the parent says to them, oh, well, thanks so much for what you did.

[11:33] Here's a $20 coupon for Park and Shop. He's not, that's not an appropriate response because you haven't understood the cost. No, he's saying the appropriate response is, wow, I can't, I can't say thank you enough.

[11:48] I can't say thank you enough. What, what can I do to say thank you? And so it's that demonstration. It's, worship isn't just about kind of humming a nice spiritual song to God or kind of meditating in your heart on just something, contemplation.

[12:07] That's, that's, it's about, it's about the whole of your life. It's saying, my hands, my mind, my body, my mouth, everything of your, is yours. Use me. I'm at your disposal.

[12:19] And, the thing is, we can sometimes do generosity with maybe our money, but we can be stingy with our time. We can be generous with certain people, but stingy with other people.

[12:35] And God is saying generosity is to flow from a heart attitude in all of our lives. So let's have a think about what that means in relationship to our gifts and the talents that God gives us.

[12:51] So that's the second thing we're going to look at. So, grace transforms our view of gifts and talents because, you see, the word gift in the New Testament is actually the same root word as the word grace.

[13:04] It's the word, grace is charis, gifts are charismata. They're the same thing. So what we're saying here is that the gifts and abilities that God has given you are gifts of his grace to you.

[13:18] They're an evidence of his generosity to you. But they're given so that you can be generous to others, so you can extend that grace to other people.

[13:32] Now, when you consider gifts, some people get confused with their spiritual gifts. You know, there's a list of gifts that are mentioned later on in this passage and we all have natural talents as well and sometimes we get a bit confused with them.

[13:49] But there is a difference between natural talents and the gifts that are mentioned in the Bible. But actually, you see, the spiritual gifts are really about edifying and building up other people within the body and outside for God's kingdom and for his purposes.

[14:05] Your natural talents can also be that as well. So there's a lot of overlap between your spiritual gifts and your natural talents. So you don't have to get wrapped up in, oh, is it a gift or is it a talent?

[14:17] Everything that God has given you is to be used by him, for him. So now, as we think about this, I think Paul says there are a couple of ways you can think about the things that God has given you.

[14:30] Those gifts, those talents, that God has given you. One is, you can conform. He says, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

[14:44] You see, one way you can do, you think about your gifts is conforming. How do we conform? Well, we conform when we fit into the mold or the pattern of the way that the rest of society does things.

[14:59] it's the form that's kind of fixed for you. Now, remember what we said earlier about generosity and the way society often does generosity. And the German reformer, Martin Luther, once said, sin is man curled in on himself.

[15:20] And you know, when you're curled in on yourself, you actually can't see anybody else because you're wrapped up in yourself. Now, I think in Hong Kong, we can sometimes do this a bit like this.

[15:34] And you know how annoying it is when somebody's in front of you trying to do that and you want to get past them. But the thing is, when you're wrapped up, you're distracted.

[15:45] We're so distracted in Hong Kong. We've got so many things that even if I'm using my gifts, they're all about me. I'm just so wrapped up in it that I can't see anybody else. I can't see anybody else.

[15:58] And I can't see how I can use the gifts and talents to serve other people other than myself. You see, for example, for me, if I was to invite somebody over for food, hospitality, and you know, I'm cooking some fish and the fish is burning in the corner, at that moment, I'm beginning to panic.

[16:21] Now, as I'm panicking, I am not thinking, it's so sad that the people that I've invited, they're going to have to taste burnt fish. I'm thinking, what are they going to think about me?

[16:33] They're going to think I'm a terrible cook, they're going to tell everybody else, and nobody's ever going to want to come. Now, just by way of warning, if I ever invite you to my house, bring McDonald's or something else with you, because you just want to, you never know what's going to happen.

[16:47] So we can be wrapped up in ourselves in that way, or you can sometimes be wrapped up in yourself when, you know, I actually think I'm good at something.

[16:59] You know, maybe people come to me for advice, and you know, lots of people come for advice, and you know, after a while, you begin to think, well, you know, if you want to come to advice, just come to me, because I'm Dr. Wise, you know, just give me a call.

[17:16] I'll sort you out, no problems. You see, when I get to that point where it's actually become all about me, if somebody actually gives me any criticism or suggestions on ways I could do it better, I feel they're attacking me because my worth and my value is wrapped up in me thinking that I'm good about it.

[17:40] or if someone doesn't appreciate me and say, thank you for what you did there, then I feel hurt and I feel neglected because I've made it all about me.

[17:53] And you know, sometimes I make being a good teacher, being a good leader, giving good advice, not about the people I'm serving, but actually about me.

[18:09] And Paul says, if you're a Christian, don't be conformed to the way that everybody else does it. I want you to be transformed.

[18:22] Transformed. That word transformed, it's the word metamorpho, where we get metamorphosis from. You know, where like a caterpillar changes into a butterfly.

[18:32] And you know, a caterpillar was never meant to stay as a caterpillar. A caterpillar was meant to spread their wings and fly.

[18:46] And you see, God wants to change us from being like caterpillars in a process of metamorphosis. He wants to transform us.

[18:58] It's not instantaneous, it's a process. But he wants to metamorphosize us into those butterflies where we can fly to be everything God has called us to be and has given us the gifts and talents to be with generous hearts because that's what God made us to be.

[19:20] How does it happen? How do you get transformed? Well, through the renewal of your mind. Through God's word constantly changing your perspective of yourself, your perspective of others and the situations around you.

[19:40] And it's a journey. Step by step, it's a journey. So let me read the next part. It says, For by the grace given to me, I said every one of you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

[20:04] You see, here's how transformation works in this situation. He says, God has assigned a measure of faith. Now, there's two possible interpretations of that.

[20:15] One is, he gives each person their own kind of bit of faith connected to their gifts. But the other, what I think Paul is saying is here that in the context of Romans, there is a standard of faith, the gospel, the word of God that God has put forward and you are to judge yourself, your gifts, your talents in line with God's word and what he says about you.

[20:39] You know, the gospel says, you are more sinful and broken than you could possibly imagine, but you are more loved than you could possibly dare to believe. You are sinful yet forgiven, broken yet accepted.

[20:54] And when you see that the gifts that you've given are not because you're any better or any worse, it's just grace, undeserved, that he's given you these talents and gifts, it transforms the way you view yourself.

[21:10] Because sometimes you can, and I can, overvalue myself. I often do this. You know, I think the world won't revolve. You know, the solar system will come to an end if I'm not involved in this situation.

[21:25] You know, I think I'm so essential at times that I become over busy. Do you know that kind of, I've got to lead this, I've got to do this, I've got to lead the Bible, so I've got to sort everybody else's problems and I'm running around like a headless chicken thinking I've got to save the world because I've actually overvalued myself, I've made me the center of it and I've not got right perspective.

[21:48] Or, you can undervalue yourself and you look at everybody else and you think, wow, they're so much better than me. Look at all the gifts they've got. Listen, I can't speak like he can, I can't sing like Jeremy or Wing can.

[22:04] I've got nothing to offer. Or we become jealous of the people who've got other things that we really want but we don't have. You know, it's, when you're transformed, you see that you have been given grace.

[22:21] It's undeserved gift. You don't have to be like everybody else. God's given you grace, so it's not about you, it's about how you serve generously with what you have been given to others.

[22:36] Because being transformed as well, it's another thing, it means you also see others differently. You see yourself as part of a body.

[22:47] You're not just an individual by yourself, you're part of a body. And your gifts are given for the benefit of the people around you.

[22:59] What that means is you value difference in people. Everybody doesn't have to be exactly like you. Some people have upfront gifts, some people have backstage gifts, some people are just great at getting alongside people, going for coffee with people.

[23:15] And we don't seem to notice them, we don't seem to plug them on stage, but actually those are precious, valuable gifts. Everybody has got something to give. Everybody.

[23:27] Now imagine, you see, Paul's using this body image, imagine if the nose says to your finger, man, you know, one day, you could become like me.

[23:38] You could become a nose. I mean, it's ridiculous. Or imagine if the teeth suddenly think, oh, the eyes, you are so beautiful.

[23:51] I wish I could be an eye. I think I'm just rubbish as teeth, I'm just going to stop being teeth. You know, I've even got a filling. You know? Because, it's ridiculous.

[24:05] Each of us has immense value in the body. And each of us, God has graced you with something which the body will lack if you don't use it.

[24:18] Imagine, it's Christmas and someone gives a present to the whole of your family. And you are told that you have the responsibility of opening that present.

[24:30] And you say, I'm not going to open it because everybody else has got better presents than me. I'm going to hide it. I don't want you to have it.

[24:41] I'm going to have it for me. What's the problem? It's actually all become about me. I haven't seen that we're part of a family.

[24:53] But imagine the joy of the family if you open it and you share it with the other people because it's meant to be for the family and you rejoice in the gifts that other people have got.

[25:05] If you can't sing, rejoice in the people who can. Okay? And maybe don't sing as loudly as them. Okay? That's a joke. Okay? Being conformed means we make it all about ourselves.

[25:19] Being transformed means we change perspective. It's not all about us. We're part of a body. We've been given gifts. We can use them to bless and serve other people. The last thing I want to look at and I'm going to just spend a few minutes on this is you may be saying, okay, you say we've got gifts, you say we've got these things, but I don't know what my gifts are.

[25:44] How do I find out what my gifts are and how do I use them? In verse 6 to 8, Paul says this, having gifts that differ, okay, so you have gifts that differ, you're not all the same.

[26:00] According to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith is service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

[26:23] See, Paul's giving, this is not an exhaustive list of all the gifts and you're looking and saying, oh, I don't think I've got any of those. This is an example list of what Paul is saying that each of us have things which we can use.

[26:38] How do you know what those gifts are? Look around you at the people who are around you. Look at the community and the needs of people around you. Think about what opportunities there are to serve and think about what are your interests?

[26:56] What are your passions? What things do you enjoy? What things are you good at? Because those might be clues to actually the way you can serve people around you in the body.

[27:06] You see, sometimes you won't find your spiritual gift if you're thinking, okay, I need to find my spiritual gift. Okay, let me just meditate for a while and then I'll have enlightenment on my spiritual gift.

[27:19] You won't actually find your spiritual gift if you just fill in a spiritual gifts questionnaire. Those can be helpful but they rely on past experience. Okay, Jesus with his disciples, I don't think right at the beginning he said, okay, I'm going to call you to myself and then he sat them down and think, I don't know what to do with you.

[27:36] Okay, let's do a spiritual gift questionnaire to find out what you're going to be. Okay, no, he just got on with doing things and as they did things, people, they discover what you're good at, what you're not good at.

[27:49] You discover what are areas where you can serve and bless things. If you don't know what your gifts are, try something. Many of us don't know what our gifts are because we haven't tried enough things.

[28:04] because maybe we're worried we can't do it well enough or all those kind of things but as you try things, what you find is you find what you're interested in. You find what you resonate with. You find what you enjoy doing and then you get on and do it.

[28:20] And I don't know if you noticed that a lot of the gifts that are mentioned here are actually things that every Christian should be doing. Did you notice that? I mean, serving, exhorting, showing acts of mercy, all those kind of things every Christian should do.

[28:34] So what's the difference between a spiritual gift and just doing those things? Well, I think it's that if you have a spiritual gift you are wired in a way where you resonate with it. It's a passion of yours.

[28:44] You enjoy it. It's got something where you get a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction after you've done it. You know, if you're in your community group and you think you see that somebody else is on their own, somebody else hasn't been able to contribute and you're thinking why doesn't anybody else notice them?

[29:03] Listen, maybe it's because it's your spiritual gift and you're the one who's meant to do something about it. Or maybe you think why is everyone so disorganized here?

[29:15] Or maybe it's because you're the one who's meant to start helping, to organize us. If it was down to me, I dread to think what would happen.

[29:27] You see, I lived in my flat for two years and we always had a problem with fruit flies in the rubbish bin. You know, we put food waste in the bin and then, I mean, they were breeding so quickly they were overtaking the population of China.

[29:41] You know, and every day I had to empty the rubbish bin. And it was just so frustrating I didn't know what to do. Fiona moves into her flat after we got married and she says, why don't you put your food waste in a separate bag and just throw it outside so you don't have to put it in the rubbish bin?

[30:01] And I thought, wow. I'd never thought of that. That's genius.

[30:13] You see, she's so much more practical than I am because she solves the issue and she's wired in that way. You see, if everybody in this church had the same gifts as me, it would be chaos.

[30:27] This place would be full of fruit flies everywhere. But you see, you're different. Things you notice, you will notice different things.

[30:38] Those are things you can use. Get on and serve. Use them. Let me give you a scenario to think how this can actually look like practically. Someone in the church says maybe, okay, I'd love to get people together and we could learn how to cook some dishes, for example.

[30:55] And so they invite some different people and one of those people says, oh, I know what, I'll invite Chris because I've heard how bad his cooking is and you know, they might die if he's continued to allow cooking the way he does.

[31:08] Someone else says, you know, I've got a friend who's not a Christian. It would be great to see so they could come and see our community. Somebody else says, I'll organize a WhatsApp group so we can communicate together and we can organize each other.

[31:20] Someone else says, you know, I can babysit for you guys so you can get out and do it. What's happening? You know, someone's taking a natural talent and there are now gifts of leading, taking the initiative, showing mercy to me, evangelism, thinking about those outside, organization, okay, can you see how the body works all together?

[31:47] It's very normal. But we often don't think. We're thinking, my gift has got to be something spectacular. No. You imagine if you are not using your gift in that, if you're the organized one and you're not helping organize, imagine the chaos.

[32:06] You've all got something to contribute. It's not rocket science. So don't focus on finding my gift. Focus on, how can I serve? How can I try something? Where are the opportunities?

[32:17] There are opportunities in the children's ministry this summer. If you've never worked in the children's, you're thinking, I could never do that. Why don't you try it? Try it. There's prayer team. If you have a passion for praying, go and join the prayer team.

[32:31] There's, in your community groups, maybe there are people there who don't connect outside. Maybe you could be the one who just sends a text, says, hey, do you want to meet up for coffee? Very simple, normal things, but that's how the body works.

[32:46] Some of us don't know our gifting, because we're so afraid to try things out, which we don't feel so competent in, because we're afraid we might fail.

[32:58] But you know, in view of God's mercies, your identity is not bound up in whether you succeed or you fail. Your identity is found in Christ. So you can be free to try things.

[33:12] If we're waiting for the perfect opportunity where I can be competent, you know, you're an investor, you're great at investing, and you're waiting for Watermark to have $200 million for you to invest, you're going to be waiting a very long time.

[33:25] So don't wait for something perfect to come along that's just for you. Just get on and look around you, see who the people are around you, see where the needs are, and just try something.

[33:38] That also means that sometimes we also need to operate outside of the area where we're gifted in. You don't always do things you're gifted in. For example, if someone comes to me and, you know, they're crying, they're struggling with their problem, and I say to them, stop right there.

[33:56] I don't have a gift of mercy. You need to go to the lady three doors down over there. She's the mercy one. Okay? It's ridiculous. Sometimes we just have to, because you see, it's not about me.

[34:08] It's not about me just having to do everything that suits me. It's actually about us. How can I serve others? So what have we said?

[34:21] We've said that the heart of a generous person is not making it about me, but it's realizing the amazing generosity of God God.

[34:34] And in light of that, responding by saying, God, just use me where you can. Use me with the people around. Show me, open my eyes so I'm not so wrapped up in myself that I can look around and I can see beyond my sense of pride, my identity, the things that I want so I can see the people around me.

[34:55] Now, every one of us is at a different place. Every one of us has different capacities. Every one of us has different energy levels.

[35:06] That's okay. God has given each of you grace for something. God has given each of you grace for something. And His grace is given so you can extend it to others.

[35:20] Listen, if you know that you're one of those people who are so wrapped up in yourself, in your work, in your family, that you never notice anybody else, here's a suggestion.

[35:31] When you're next on the MTR, the meeting, going to the bathroom, and you're tempted just to get out your phone and you know you're going to play your next Flappy Bird game or you're going to create your mega mind, metrocity, on your phone, this amazing city or whatever, or you're going to go on Facebook and connect with everybody else, stop.

[35:54] Get into the discipline and say, okay, for one minute, one minute every day I'm going to stop and I'm going to think, who can I serve in the community? Who can I pray for?

[36:06] Who can I reach out to this week? Maybe it's, I just send them a text. Maybe that's my capacity. I just say, I can pray for you. And you think, what are they going to think about me if I've never texted them before?

[36:18] Are they going to think I'm strange? Maybe. Who cares? Because you can extend grace to people. It's not about you. Make it a regular discipline if you're that busy.

[36:34] Have disciplines where you stop for one minute and you say, who can I serve? Who can I think? If you're one of those people who rush into church and if your own experience and you're Christian and your own experience of church communities that you come in, you go out, you come to CG, you go out and you have no interaction, nothing else throughout the week, maybe you're conforming to being wrapped up in yourself and maybe God's call is stop for a minute, look at someone around you, go up to someone who's on their own, talk to the person next to you for two minutes because that may be extending grace to them and you may never know the impact that that one thing did.

[37:18] some of you though are serving, some of you though are serving in lots of different ways and some of you may be serving out of duty, you know, you've been doing it for a long time now and you've just grown tired, some of you may have grown discouraged because when you've been serving everyone else has responded not necessarily the way you wanted to, they didn't take up the suggestions you gave them, they didn't answer your emails when you try to organize something and you're tearing your hair out and you're getting frustrated, why isn't anybody else interested in what I'm interested in?

[38:05] You see, Paul says, and it's very challenging, he says, if you lead, lead with zeal, if you show acts of mercy, do it with cheerfulness, how can you use your gifts with that kind of attitude?

[38:20] It's only when you stop and you remember the generosity of God towards you. In view of his mercies, I will persevere with my gifts because Jesus persevered with me.

[38:32] I was ungrateful, I was unresponsive and yet Jesus went to the cross, poured out his life for me. Let his grace capture your heart again so that actually you have that sense of thankfulness.

[38:49] It's not about me, it's not about how people respond to me, it's just about I want to worship you with my life, with my service, with how I can do these things. God's given us gifts, talents, every single one of us.

[39:03] He's given us people around us, he's given us opportunities, he's given us needs. So in view of God's mercies, let us get on and use them and let us build each other up in being his body.

[39:18] Let's pray. Father, I confess that I do often forget about your mercies and I so naturally have that tendency to make it all about me.

[39:43] Forgive me for that. I pray that you would open our eyes to see increasingly, day by day, reminding ourselves of just what you have done, just how generous you have been to us.

[39:57] Help that not just to become an idea in my head, but let that be something in my heart. Pray for us as a congregation that that would become real to us. If we've been using our gifts or if we haven't, Lord, I pray that your mercy would just excite us again, that we realize that the gifts that you've given us are another evidence of your grace towards us.

[40:22] Please help us to be a body where we encourage each other, where we build each other up, where we look out for each other, where we be the people transformed into those beautiful butterflies, into those beautiful creations that we were meant to be.

[40:38]  Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you that you're taking us on this journey. I praise you for what you're doing. Amen.