Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: And when you find where it is that God is really called you, you're the best steward. You're the best administrator. You're the best manager of what God has given you. And you make your best contribution to something that's bigger than yourself, the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Spiritual Gifts. Let's listen in as JP gives part two of Stewarding Your Gifts.

JP Jones: Now, your gifts may be obvious. In other words, you may look at your life and the transformation that's taken place in your life as a Christ follower, and you may be able to recognize and other people may be able to recognize how you've been gifted.

When I first became a Christian, I was 16 years old and my brother bought me a Bible and said, "You need to read this every day." And so I did. Within the first year, I read through the New Testament. And then that summer before I went off to college, I read the Old Testament. And then I began to read the Old Testament and the New Testament every day. And with the desire and the discipline of studying scripture, I found myself unintentionally getting in conversations with people all the time: guys I played football with, students that were in my classes, people that I lived next door to, talking about spiritual things, talking about the Lord, explaining passages of scripture.

So as a fairly young Christian, it became obvious to me and to others I had spiritual gifts in this whole idea of communicating God's word. It was obvious. But for other people, it's not as obvious. It may be obvious how God has designed you to make a contribution to the body of Christ. It may not be obvious, and if it's not obvious, then you need to discover. You need to be in a process of discovery. Sometimes we discover things that we can do that we never thought we could do.

There's a true story. I'm at the beach with my family, all my kids. We're with Dino and his kids. We're enjoying the beach. We're down in San Clemente. My son, Taylor, is about to go off to college. He said, "Do you know what? I can catch a seagull." I said, "What?" He goes, "I know how to catch a seagull." I said, "You cannot catch a seagull." He goes, "I can. Watch." He said, "I'm going to lay down. Now put a towel over me." So I got this beach towel and I covered him up with a beach towel completely, head to toe. And he said, "Now take we had these popcorn munchies. Put some of those popcorn munchies on my chest."

He's laying out in the sand. I had a towel covering him up. I put some of the popcorn munchies on his chest and then I put them a little on the sand right around him. I had no more done that and then gone back to my beach chair and sat down when this seagull starts hovering around him. And all of a sudden, right in front of us, the seagull lands on the sand and then takes the popcorn right off the sand and is eating and looking around. And then it's like in his little seagull brain, "Oh, look at all that popcorn right there on top of that towel." And then he goes pop and the seagull hops up on my son's chest and then he bends down to get some of the popcorn. My son's laying there like that and as soon as the seagull did, he went boom and he grabbed it. He caught a seagull.

I have never laughed so hard in my life. Our sides were aching. People all around were going, "Oh my gosh!" And my son's holding this seagull and he let it fly off. Do you think he just woke up one day and said, "I can catch seagulls"? I said, "How in the world did you know you could do that?" He goes, "I tried." I go, "What?" He goes, "I was at the beach one day and I thought I bet I could catch a seagull. The first time I did it, I couldn't catch it. No seagull landed. The second time I did it, a seagull landed but it got away. And then the third time I mastered the art and I caught it."

Why he wants to catch seagulls, I don't know. It probably has to do something with his mother. But anyway, she's not here. I can say that. At the first service, I said it had to do with me, but he figured out how to do it because he tried it. Do you know you may have spiritual gifts you don't even know you have until you try something? There are all kinds of serving opportunities inside the church, outside the church, with missions organizations, in the community, at a men's Bible study, women's ministry, recovery ministry, prayer ministry, all kinds of serving opportunities that may have your name all over them. But all you have to do is try and you discover how it is that God has gifted you.

Peter says here in 1 Peter chapter four, we've all received a spiritual gift and we're to use it in serving one another. It may be obvious. You may have to discover yours. We are to use our gifts to serve others. Spiritual gifts have not been given to try to impress people, to throw into a resume. Spiritual gifts are not given to lie dormant. Spiritual gifts are given to serve, to make a contribution, to build up others, to be a part of God's family, to make a difference in this world.

Our gifts are given to us to serve others. It says here in 1 Peter four that each one should use whatever gift he's received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. We're to faithfully administer God's grace. This word faithfully administer is the Greek word oikonomia. We get the word economy. It's translated in some passages as steward or stewardship. It's translated in other passages as managing or management.

The concept is simple. The biblical concept of stewardship we understand often with respect to money, but it has to do with everything that God has given to us. God gives us His resources and we take care of it for Him. If we take care of it in a way that brings Him glory and honor, we've been good stewards. If we take care of it in a way that it diminishes from His glory or honor, we've been bad stewards. It's as simple as that.

It's just like us when we're in a position where maybe we have some discretionary income and we want to invest it and we want to get some expertise outside of ourselves. So we go to some kind of financial planner and they tell us various tools and instruments that can be used for investing our money. And we look at the rate of return we possibly could get out of it and we look at the expertise that the person provides. So we give them our money. They take our money. It's not theirs, but they are to manage it. They are to steward it. They watch over the investment of it. And if they do a good job, there's a return on it and they're happy and we're happy.

Stewardship. We understand that. Peter is taking that concept and saying grace has been given to us in the form of spiritual gifts and we're to steward it. And the way we steward it is to give it away to other people. When we serve other people, when we serve in the area of our spiritual gifts, when we make a contribution, we are good stewards. When we don't, we're bad stewards.

In fact, Jesus taught a lot on that. He used several parables to illustrate this principle of stewardship. And the key to Jesus's parables on stewardship in Matthew chapter 24 and Matthew chapter 25, Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 16 is being faithful. Being faithful. In fact, Jesus actually gave a very interesting parable in Luke chapter 16 where he takes this word oikonomos, steward, and in the action verbal idea of it, oikonomia, stewardship. And in Luke chapter 16, he actually uses a positive teaching from a negative example. It's the parable of the shrewd steward.

Maybe some of you remember that story. Luke chapter 16 verses 1 to 8 give you the gist of it. It talks about a guy who gets called on the carpet by the owner of the company because he hadn't been a good steward. And so he leaves after being reamed by the guy, getting a bad review. He goes to all the different people who have accounts with the owner and he says, "Change your bill. Change the numbers. We're going to cook the books here so that it's going to represent that there's a better return than what really has been happening."

And he goes and does that for all the people and then Jesus commends the shrewd steward. He doesn't commend the dishonesty. What he commends is all of a sudden the guy had a wake-up call and he realized I need to do something with the stewardship that's been given to me, so I'm going to go into overdrive to make the most and the best presentation I can. Jesus commends that. And then he goes on to say, "The people of this world are shrewder in the way they deal with money than we as kingdom citizens are with the way we deal with eternal rewards."

Jesus says this principle of stewardship the business community understands. We as Christ followers ought to understand it all the more and be good stewards, good managers, good administrators of what's been given to us. Peter says what's been given to us that we're to steward and to manage and administer: grace, and grace in the form of spiritual gifts. How is it that we are good stewards? By using our gifts. By using our gifts.

You may be a person who has a lot of talents, a lot of abilities, a lot of areas to contribute, but God has specifically gifted you in a zone where you make the maximum contribution. I saw this movie Friday night which I will heartily recommend, Invincible. Great movie, true story. I'm not giving anything away. This comes off the trailers. It's a story about a guy, Vince Papale, in Philadelphia. It's a 30-year-old bartender who goes for an open tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles and makes the football team.

It is a phenomenal story, very inspiring. But here's the deal. Vince Papale played high school football, didn't even play in college. He was a teacher and he was out of work, and so he was working as a bartender. All his buddies recognized that the guy had this really good ability and when Dick Vermeil comes to Philadelphia back in 1976 and took over and became the head football coach of the Eagles, just to get the city support, he promotes an open tryout. Anybody can come out and try out for the team. Well, you got all these guys, they're not really athletes, but they're just out there because they're Eagles fans.

Vince Papale goes out. He was the only guy picked out of everybody to even be invited to training camp. And the whole gist of the movie are his experiences at training camp. Come the end of the camp, he actually makes the team. He played three years in the NFL. Unbelievable story, 30-year-old bartender. Now here's the deal. The guy was a good teacher. I'm sure he was a great bartender. But when he tripped into his zone is when he made the Eagles and played in the NFL.

There is a zone for you here. You may not know it, but be involved in the process of discovering it. Why do I know that's true? Because God's given you spiritual gifts and with those spiritual gifts you can administer God's grace. And when you find where it is that God has really called you, you're the best steward. You're the best administrator. You're the best manager of what God has given you. And you make your best contribution to something that's bigger than yourself, the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ.

There's a context for using spiritual gifts and there's the command to be stewards of our spiritual gifts. And lastly, there's the conditions for bringing God's glory with our gifts. Because that's the payoff. We get to bring God glory. Because it says this: each one has received a gift, he ought to use it in serving one another, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

Peter uses two words here: the word for glory, doxazo, which means to glorify, and doxa, which means to glory. In other words, Peter is telling us there is a very practical, tangible way where our lives can glorify God. Our lives can contribute to bringing God glory. You know what it is? Using the gifts that God's given to us. If it's speaking, speak. If it's serving, serve. When we do that, God gets glory.

And I'll tell you, for the last 2000 years, Christians have pretty much agreed that the primary chief end of man is to glorify God. What you've really been created for is something bigger than yourself. In fact, it's bigger than this church. It's even bigger than what God is doing in the world right now. It's the big picture of bringing God glory.

That word glory, doxa, in the New Testament, the Hebrew word is kabod. It means the presence of God. When God's presence is made known, that is His glory. To glorify God is to manifest His presence or, to put it in a layman's term, to glorify God is to give God the attention, to point people to God. Whenever you say anything, do anything, live in any way that points people's attention to God, you've glorified Him. And we can do that practically by using our gifts, serving as God has called us to serve.

Now, Peter breaks it down here into two categories. He says if it's speaking, speak. If it's serving, serve. The word for speaking here is the Greek word laleo. It's just a very general, generic term for communication. The word for serving is diakoneo, that word that was used in the previous verse, a very general word for serving or ministering or ministry. He puts it in these two broad categories.

It's like in a game of football, there are 11 positions on offense, 11 positions on defense, and then you got special teams. So you get 22 plus positions. But anybody who's ever played pop warner or high school, college, or even the pros knows that in a game of football they always break it down into two categories: linemen and backs. Now, there are a bunch of different types of linemen. There's offensive guards, there's defensive tackles, there's offensive centers, there's defensive guards. There's nose tackles. There's a lot of different types of linemen, a lot of different types of backs: halfbacks, fullbacks, wide backs, receivers, defensive backs. A lot of different types of backs, but there's linemen and there's backs.

In the same way, in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, there are 20 spiritual gifts mentioned. But Peter says they break down into these two categories: speaking and serving. In fact, you can take the 20 spiritual gifts that we've looked at in our study and see how they fit into one of those two categories. In fact, I've done it.

Speaking gifts: look at Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. These are the speaking gifts: prophecy, teaching, encouraging, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and evangelism. Those are all the speaking gifts mentioned in the New Testament.

Serving gifts: these are all the serving gifts mentioned: serving, giving, leadership, mercy, faith, miracles, distinguishing of spirits, apostleship, helps, administration, and pastor. If you have a speaking gift, speak. If you have a serving gift, serve.

You may be thinking, "I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure how God has wired me." Well, step away from the particular gifts and think of ministry. What are some of the speaking kinds of ministries? Well, here they are: there's preaching, there's teaching a class, teaching a Bible study, leading a small group, counseling, evangelizing, missions opportunities, mentoring other people, speaking words of encouragement or correction, speaking a message in tongues, interpreting a message given in tongues, speaking words of wisdom to people, speaking words of knowledge to people, speaking words of wisdom or knowledge to a group, greeting people, visiting people in the hospital. I mean, you can just go on and on and on. Stuff that happens here on a Sunday, the stuff that happens all term of the week. Stuff that happens with a formal title and ministry behind it, and stuff that just happens spontaneously as you get together with people. But the idea is ministry is happening through some form of communication.

How about in the area of serving? Well, there's tons of things that go on in the life of a church, in the life of this church, where we can serve. There's setting up for church, tearing down from church, volunteering in the office, helping in women's Bible study, helping in men's Bible study, helping with children's ministry, helping with youth ministry, helping with adult small groups, prayer team, care team, visitation team, administration of women's retreat, administration of men's retreat, administration of mission teams, mentoring people, leading a small group, technical support, financial support, follow-up of visitors, babysitting. You can go on and on and on.

The point is this: Peter tells us we are to be good stewards of the spiritual gifts that we've received. If they're speaking gifts, speak. If they're serving gifts, serve. And when we do it, God is glorified. When we do it, God is glorified. It's the most practical way that we can fulfill what we've really been created for. The most practical way we can fulfill what we've really been created for, that's to glorify God. That's to point people's attention to God.

We can actually leave here with a game plan of how we can be the people God's created us to be. And we can do it together, you see. We can do it as a community. We can do it as a family. We can do it as a church when we take the grace that God has given to us and we faithfully steward it by serving one another.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're looking at 1 Peter chapter four and talking about spiritual gifts. And in this passage, Peter says that God has designed us to live for His glory, to live to bless others, and to live to experience true joy. And the way that we do that is by stewarding the grace that he's been given to us. You see, God has given us spiritual gifts, and those gifts are an expression of His grace in our lives. And when we use our gifts, we bring Him glory, we bless others, and we experience true joy. It's a win-win-win scenario. That's what God wants for every believer.

Stewardship is the key to experiencing the glory of God and to living a life that blesses others and finds real joy for ourselves. In 1 Peter 4:10-11, it says this: Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

Living for the glory of God: that's what every one of us aspires to as followers of Jesus Christ. And this passage gives us a strategy to actually do it. We glorify God when we use our spiritual gifts to serve others. And Peter tells us here in this passage that those gifts are in two areas. There are speaking gifts and there are serving gifts.

Some of us have been gifted by God to speak His words to others, and some of us have been gifted by God to serve and build up others. Both are equally valuable. Both are important. Just like in a football team, there are linemen and there are backs. Just like in a baseball team, there are infielders and there are outfielders. You see, in God's team, there are people who speak and there are people who serve.

And both are important. And if you have been designed by God to be a speaker, speak to the glory of God. If you have been designed by God to be a servant, serve to the glory of God. And when you use the gifts that he's given to us, whether it's speaking or serving, when you use them to the fullest capacity that you've been given, it glorifies God. It is a stewardship of grace and it blesses others and it gives you joy.

God's glorified, others are blessed, and you find joy. That's God's design in the body of Christ. Peter's telling us here in 1 Peter 4:10-11 that the stewardship of our spiritual gifts is the way we glorify God, the way we bless others, and the way we find our true joy. Is that what you want? Do you want to glorify God? Do you want to bless other people? Do you want to find true joy?

Then take the grace that's been given to you and fully invest it in God's kingdom. Fully use it. Use it by expressing your spiritual gifts. Speak the words of God and serve with the power that God gives to you. If that's your desire, why don't you commit that to the Lord in prayer right now?

Lord, we thank you that you've given us grace. And we thank you that that grace is expressed in the spiritual gifts that we have before you. Help us use our gifts to your glory. Help us use our gifts to bless others. Help us use our gifts so that we find our true joy. Help us use our gifts to the greatest stewardship possible in your kingdom plan. And we ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.