Do You Have the Gift of Faith? | Ken McIntyre

Faith is more than belief—it’s a spiritual gift that empowers us to trust God in impossible situations. In this message, Pastor Ken unpacks what the Bible says about faith as a spiritual gift and how we can develop a faith that moves mountains. Are you using the faith God has given you?

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kniesel, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- My oldest daughter has turned 13, and now I'm officially a parent of a teenager and something that I've, where people like feeling sorry for me in that moment just now. I felt I felt compassion. Thank you for that . One thing I've noticed is as she's gotten older, as she has this growing appreciation or concern for her body, you know, hair, makeup, hygiene, those sorts of things, my younger two kids, they don't give a rip about any of that stuff, but my oldest one now cares about those things. And it seems as if one of the marks of maturity is an increasing concern for the body. One of the marks of Christian maturity is an increasing concern of the body of Christ. You know, one of the metaphors that the Bible uses for the church is that of a human body. The apostle Paul says this, he says, just as a body though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body. So it is with Christ, for we are all baptized by one spirit, so as to form one body where the Jews, gentiles, slave, freezing, all of us, and we're all given the one spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part, but of many, this really is a wonderful metaphor for the church. You know, there's such a huge range of diversity within the human body, right? That the parts look different, they have different function, but it requires all of these different parts to work in harmony for a healthy functioning body. Paul continues and he says this, he goes, if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. It's sort of a silly image. In verse 18, he says, but in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of 'em, just as he wanted them to be. Now, no one wants to be the armpit right of the body of Christ, but we need to understand that you are, if you are a believer, if you have called onto Jesus for your salvation, then you are part of the body of Christ. And if you're the ear that says, well, because I'm not an eye, I'm not part of the body, no, you don't cease to be part of the body, whether you recognize it or not, whether you're walking in it or you aren't. You are part of the body of Christ. But there's a problem. There's a problem that all of us face, and it's actually two problems. They're closely related, but they are two separate problems. They're problems that are so there that we don't even know that they're there. They're that pervasive. They're sort of just in the milieu of who we are and in our culture. And the problems are number one, individualism. And the second problem is consumerism. These are very normal, like comfortable places for us. We just operate this way without even thinking about it. Individualism is the idea that the greatest good is your own personal rights and, uh, the need for self-reliance. We don't want to have to rely on anybody and we don't want the burden of people having to rely on us. You, you just do your thing over there. Me, I'm just gonna do my thing over here and never to our past shall cross. That's the idea of individualism. And it has this cousin named consumerism. Now, I heard a, a story or read a story about a pastor who wanted to help grow his church. And so he hired a, a marketer, not the best way to grow your church, but anyway, he did this and the marketer went throughout the community and surveyed the community asking this one question, what is it that you really want out of a church? Now once, once the marketer compiled all of the results, he came and presented them to the pastor and said, okay, pastor, listen to grow your church, you really have to understand what the people want. So if you wanna grow your church, here's what you need to do. You need to restructure everything so that your church never asks anyone to do anything ever. That's what people really want. Now, that is not you. That is not hope city. In my wildest imagination or dreams, I would never imagine. I got to be a part, let alone be a pastor at a church that is so vibrant, that is so generous, that is so faithful. So many of you intuitively understand this idea that Paul is getting at this body of Christ idea, but we have to recognize that that pole, that gravitational force of individualism, right, the vortex of consumerism, it is real. And if we're not careful, we can carry it into the church with us. Pastor Phil spoke about this idea last week. He said, if your primary disposition when you come to church is what it can do for you, right? What you can get out of it, that is a sign of spiritual immaturity or what the Bible calls, uh, spiritual milk. Hebrews five 12 says this, in fact though, by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truth of God's word all over again. The basics. The basics. You need milk, not spiritual food, not solid food. There is a time for spiritual milk, absolutely, but you can't stay there forever. It would be weird if a grown man was crushing baby formula, right? You're like, yo, what's wrong with you? Right? There's a time for it when you're a baby, right? But there's a time when you have to grow up and eat real food. And so too, as Christians, we must move from spiritual milk to solid food as new Christians. You know, this makes sense. You're in a posture of receiving just like a newborn child. You're kind of in that take mode and that's okay. You receive the love of God. Maybe you received spiritual mentorship. You're receiving all these benefits of your new life in Christ. That is wonderful. And here's the thing, as you grow, God never stops giving. He's the master gift giver. And the gifts actually get better as you grow into maturity. I would much rather have prime rib than milk. I don't even like milk that much, okay? It's not all that great. God is the master gift giver. He never stops giving. But spiritual maturation notices that you have something to give as well. Now, this isn't to discourage any new Christians. In fact, let me encourage you, because unlike physical maturation, that primarily has to do with age, spiritual maturation differs. Paul was writing to one of his dear friends, Timothy, it was a pastor in the city of Ephesus, was his protege. And he was young. And he writes some of these words, don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. In other words, set an example for them in your maturity. That's all to say that you can be young in age and you can be young in the faith and you can still lead. You can still be an example to those around you. And one of the ways that you do that is you fight the pull of individualism. You fight the pull of consumerism and realize that you are part of something bigger. You're part of the body of Christ, and other people need you and you need other people. And so get to it. In this series, we're walking through the New Testament book of one Corinthians, particularly chapter 12. Now this was written to a church in the ancient city of Corinth. And this church was a mess, to say the least. There was degenerate sexual behavior. There's classism, they're abusing the Lord's supper. And more than anything, you see this chaos happening in their church services. There was so much disorder, it was filled with people who had spiritual pride filled with people looking out for themselves. It was a divided church. And First Corinthians really is a book about how to live in unity and in maturity within the church. And one of the topics that Paul broaches in this, in this book is this sort of mysterious idea to us of spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts. There's been a lot of question marks, a lot of confusion around this chapter. Spiritual gifts are any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, meaning it's not from you. It's empowered by the Holy Spirit to build up others within the church. That's what a spiritual gift is. And so in this series, we're looking through one of the lists of spiritual gifts in the Bible to help bring clarity to what they are and also to prompt you to, to poke you in order to eagerly desire them for yourself. And we wanna bring clarity and wanna prompt you to desire these things for yourself for one particular reason as to bless others. It's for the common good. That's why we've entitled this series that see, the Corinthian church, they were using their spiritual gifts, but they were not using 'em for the common good. Just because you have a spiritual gift and you know what it is, and you can use it, doesn't mean you're a mature Christian. But when you understand what your spiritual gift is and you use it in the way that it's intended, that increases your personal spiritual maturity. So there are misusing their spiritual gifts. And here's the thing, spiritual gifts. One of, one of the best ways to think about it is a spiritual gift. It is one of the tools in God's toolbox for his church. Electricians have specific tools, architects, nurses, right plumbers, they have specific tools to get their specific job done. Spiritual gifts are the toolbox for the church. What God has given us to get the job done. And every single believer has a spiritual gift, sometimes many. It's not like there's this one group of gifted Christians, and there's another group of rifted, God, ungifted Christians. No, every Christian has at least one spiritual gift. First Peter four says this, each of you should use whatever gift you have received. So there's an assumption that you have it and you know what it is, and how should you use it. You should use it to serve others. And when you serve others with this spiritual gift, you are considered a faithful steward of God's grace in its various forms. So every single person who has called out to the name of Jesus for their salvation has been given a spiritual gift. And again, part of Christian maturity is knowing what it is and knowing how to use it. And so that's what we're trying to do in this series. Let me read you first Corinthians chapter 12, verse one through 11. It says this now about the gifts of the spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you are pagans, somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the spirit of God says Jesus, be cursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kind of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, there are different kinds of working, but in all of them, and in every one, it is the same God at work. Now to each one, to everyone to you, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good. Here it is to one, there is given through the spirit a message of wisdom to another, a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit. What we're talking about here today to another faith, we're talking about faith today by the same spirit to another gifts of healing by that one spirit to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits to another, speaking in different kinds of tongues. Don't miss that week. That's gonna be fun. Okay? And still another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one in the same spirit, and he distributes them to each one just as he determines. So we're talking about the gift of faith today. And this might be confusing because we just read that God gives gifts to different people as he sees fit. It follows that some people then have the gift of faith, and some people don't have the gift of faith. And there's tension in that because isn't faith like the thing, like isn't faith in Christ a, a, a synonym of being a Christian? How could it be that some people have the gift of faith and other people don't have the gift of faith? If the gift of faith is a thing that makes a Christian A. Christian? Well, the problem is solved quite easily by noting that the gift of faith is actually a different nature of faith that we tend to think of when we think of faith. In fact, the Bible has three different, um, ways to talk about faith. The first way that it talks about is what we call maybe a saving faith. This is the initial faith that we have when we come to Christ, when we repent and we turn from our ways and we, and we come to Christ and we say, save me, save me. You know, Paul writes about this in Ephesians two, where he says, for it is by grace that you have been saved. Grace is when we get something that we don't deserve. Being saved from the penalty of sin, which is separation and death apart from God is by grace that you have been saved. How? Through faith, not through not, uh, this is not from selves. It is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. This type of faith is beautiful. It results in the regeneration of our hearts. It results in us being justified before God. Meaning we can stand before God and he declares us righteous and doesn't, uh, count our sins against us anymore. This is beautiful. Our hearts are regenerated, we're justified and can stand before God forgiven. But it gets even better in this moment. We're also adopted into God's family as his sons and daughters. John one says to all who receive him, to all believe in his name, that's a saving faith. He gave the right to become children of God. Man, saving faith is beautiful. Every Christian who is a Christian has this kind of faith or has experienced this saving faith. But this is not what Paul's talking about in one Corinthians 12. The second type of faith, I I would just call sanctifying faith. This is the grind of faith. This is the daily, you know, moment by moment faith that we have in, in Jesus, the confidence that he is who he says he is, that he'll do what he says he's going to do. Now, sanctified just means to be made more holy or to be made like Christ. It's his faith that that kind of takes us from where we are now. And it, and it matures us over time. It's what Paul had in mind when he wrote this in Galatians two 20. He says, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So this sanctifying faith, it doesn't live in our heads. It's not like a list of doctrines, right? It's not, it's not doctrinal, ascent. It doesn't like live in our hearts where it's just like a feeling of faith. No, this type of faith, sanctifying faith, it's lived out, it's confirmed in our actions. It's, it's evidenced by our life. Now, this type of faith is one that all Christians have, but they have it to varying degrees. And I would argue that this type of faith, sanctifying faith, is the premier tenet. It is the core way that we are differentiated in our maturity. If you have more sanctifying faith, you are more mature as a Christian. If you have less of this type of faith, you are less mature as a Christian. This is the type of faith that pleases God. We read about in Hebrews 11, six, sanctifying faith. Paul is not talking about sanctifying faith either. So he's not talking about saving faith, he's not talking about sanctifying faith. He's talking about something totally different. He's talking about supernatural faith. Supernatural faith, supernatural faith is not something that a believer experiences on a continual basis under every circumstance, but it's given by God on special occasions where an extraordinary confidence in God is necessary. One way that I like to describe this gift is it's the gift that you know, that you know, okay, maybe that's the way to say it. This is a gift of I, I just know it. I just know it and who I am. I can't explain it, but I just know it. Meaning you can have this, this severe confidence and peace in your life about a particular issue, even though the circumstances and the setting and all the details are gonna tell you otherwise. It's when you get that doctor's report and you tell people and they feel so sorry for you and, and it's just like their hearts are broken for you, but for some reason you just know that you know that God's gonna take care of it. It's a supernatural faith for this particular circumstance. You might be nervous about the bills at the end of the month, but in this place, you have the supernatural faith. It's that, it's that idea that someone gets laid off, right? And, and they really have on paper no way to, to make things, uh, mean at the end of the month. But yet they know that they know that God has got them in this moment. It's this instantaneous supernatural gift for God in the impossible. It's not wishful thinking, okay? It's not ignorant optimism. It's not just sending good vibes out to the universe. It's not that it's not, you know, hearing bad news and sticking your fingers in your ears. It's like la la la la I can't hear. It's not that. It's supernatural and an instantaneous gift of full confidence in God for the impossible. So in that sense, it's not God given. It's uh, it is God-given. Excuse me. It's not man driven. There's instantaneous confidence in God for the impossible. Now, the Bible is full of these stories. Mark five, there's this woman who's who has this debilitating disease, an issue with blood for 12 years, and she spends all her money on doctors and all her money on medicine and nothing can help her. But then she sees Jesus and she just knows that she knows. And she says this, if I can just touch his clothes, then I will be healed. That's the gift of faith. It's beautiful. It's Acts three. There's this lame man at the gate called beautiful. And, and Peter and John, they're walking by and, and the lame man, he asks for money. And Peter says, listen, silver or gold, I, I, I can't give you, I'm broke, but what I do have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk. He sees him and he just knows that he knows that God is in this situation explaining how he was healed. A few verses later, he says this, it is in Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see supernatural faith in this sense, it is, it's heroic, it, it's contagious, it's inspirational. It breeds courage in other people. Like you hear the story of the woman, you hear the story of the layman and you're like, ah, there's something about it. You're like, I trust God more because I hear these stories. And that's why it's for the common good.'cause other people need to hear about your extraordinary confidence in God because of their situation. They're consumed with worry. They're consumed with fear. So they need to hear about your extraordinary peace that you got from God in your situation. That's why it's for the common good. I recently had a conversation with someone from our church who had lost their job. And it's in a tight market. It's not like there's a lot of these jobs and they're the soul, you know, breadwinner, you could say in their family. And the situation looked dire. And when I was told this news, I know this person well, and my heart was just broken. So I was just praying for their family and praying for their, their kids. And I was just, I was just overwhelmed 'cause it just felt. So, I just put pictured myself in that situation, man. I got, I got mouths. I gotta feed. I got bills I gotta pay, and here's this person just out of the blue just loses their job. And so I'm so heartbroken and so I go to pray for this person'cause that's what I'm supposed to do, right? Like, I'm like, no faith. I'm just like, oh God, just help. I don't know. Just, just do something. And the dude's just smiling the whole time. He's like, pastor Ken, I know that, I know that God is in this and that we're gonna be okay. And so I go to pray for this poor soul, right? And I'm the one who walks away blessed and encouraged because of his extraordinary confidence in God. Now I know him. He doesn't always have this sort of, this sort of supernatural faith. But in this situation, God had graced him with that spiritual gift. It's amazing. Just two weeks ago I was talking to, uh, a woman from our church whose daughter has a debilitating illness. And every time I see her daughter, I just get, I just get worked up in my spirit. I'm just, I'm just sad because I'm a, I'm a dad of daughters. And so there's a little soft spot and, and just I feel for this, I, I feel for this, this young lady and her mom, no doubt about it, has shed more tears than you can count. But she knows something that I don't know. She knows that God's hand is, is on her and she knows that God is going to heal her. And little old me comes along just trying to like, bring a little bit of realism and just like, Hey, listen, even if God doesn't heal her, God's still good. And she's like, yeah, but he is going to, it's like, get outta here, pastor . It's like, I got this. I got this gift of faith. I know, I just know that I know I have supernatural confidence that God is gonna do something. She's not delusional. She's not being ignorant to the situation. She knows very well that no doctor, no medicine can heal, but she just knows that she knows that God is in it. I want that kind of faith. I want it for my family. I want it for the city. I want it for this church. I was praying this week, God give me this type of faith for you and your situations, for your particular marriage and, and your family and your kid has walked away from the Lord for your womb that's not open. And you desire to have a kid like give me faith for those situations for you. What a blessing that would be. I want that. I want to do, I wanna bless you with supernatural faith given by God and I want you to bless me. Come on. Do it. Like bless me with your supernatural faith. You should want do that for me and I should wanna do that for you. One Corinthians 14, one Paul says this, he says, follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts. We're gonna come back to this week after week. So, so key eagerly desire spiritual gifts. In other words, don't just sit back and say, well, if I get this gift, I get this gift. If I don't get this gift, well maybe I'll get another one. That's not the posture we are to take when it comes to spiritual gifts. It's an eagerly desirable state. You're saying, God, I want this. I need it. God, please. And maybe it'd argue, well, if God is the one who distributes gifts as he sees fit, well then what's really the point? I mean, if I get it, I get it. Now, why would we be told to eagerly desire it if our eagerness had absolutely nothing to do with the possibility of receiving the gift? Right? Your eagerness is, is what sp what opens up the possibility to receive your gift. Sam Storm says this, he's a pastor. He goes, not every member of the body of Christ is granted the spiritual gift of faith as a regular normative reality. However, any member of the body of Christ is a potential candidate for this particular manifestation of the spirit. It is a gift like all others that should be earnestly desired. God can give any member of this church of hope city the gift of supernatural faith. So eagerly desire it. Well, how do you eagerly desire this gift? We have to create an atmosphere in our life, in our heart where it's possible for us to receive this. And so I, I'm gonna give you three ways that you can create an atmosphere in your life to receive the gift of faith. The first and most obvious one is simply this. Ask for it. Ask for it. When was the last time you asked for this gift of faith? You wonder, I'd like to have that, but I've never asked for it. You need to ask for, I'm much more likely to give my child a gift that they eagerly desire than one that they don't ask for. This past Christmas, again, my 13-year-old, she wanted black and red. Nike Air Force ones very particular. She wanted these things. And so I looked 'em up online and they're like $160. She was like 12 at the time. And I'm like, yeah, okay, we're gonna Payless like I'm not gonna buy this for you. Kept on asking, what do you, you know, sweetie, what do you want for Christmas? I want these Air force. Please, please. You know what I did? I bought her those dang air force once , I bought it for her. Her asking for it weared me down, her asking for it, prompted my giving it to her. So specifically, ask for the gift of faith through bold prayers. God, I want the gift of faith for my family. Lord, help me to breed courage and inspiration in them through my supernatural trust in you. God, like Peter and the lay man who who saw, who saw sickness and and just believed and just knew, had this confidence that you could do something. God give me that for people in my life. Give that for people in, in my church. I wanna have that confidence in you that you can still heal people. Now the gift of faith, we, we, amen. All of these gifts are for the common good, but that doesn't mean that God won't give it to you for your own good as well. We think about again, that woman in Mark five, the issue of the blood, right? If I can just touch him, then I will be healed. So pray. Pray for the gift of faith, for your own life, for your own trial, for your own situation. Allow God to just expand your trust and confidence in what he can do. You have not because you ask not. So the first way that we eagerly desire, the first way that we create an atmosphere in our life for the possibility of the reception of this gift is we ask for it. That's so basic. But can you ask for the gift of faith this week in your life? The second thing that we do is we read about it. We read about it. If you wanna create an expectation for what God could do in your life and you need to read about it in scripture, the very first pages of the book, God creates everything out of nothing. He speaks and things are made. God spoke back then and he still speaks today. God opened up the womb of women who lost all hope. Sarah, Rebecca, Hannah, Elizabeth, God still does that. If you're waiting for a miracle, listen, God can still do that in your life. The nation of Israel passes through the Red Sea on dry ground. God still makes ways where there seems to be no way. The impenetrable fortress of Jericho, it wasn't brought down by a few sweet sack solos, okay? That's not how it was brought down. It was brought down by the hand of God who removed the obstacle. And he still can remove any obstacle and anything you face in your life. David, he takes a sling and he beats He, he who is told to be unbeatable Goliath. And still there's no weapon formed against you that can prosper against you. Daniel. He's thrown into the lion's den and comes out unharmed. And the God who shut the mouths of the lions can disarm your enemies and the enemies of God's people. Jesus, he feeds 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish you don't think he could provide for you at the end of this month. He can't provide for you for your pressing. Of course he can. Of course he can. Jesus, he's on the boat and there's wind and there's waves going on all around him. And at a word they stop in a moment. Total peace. You don't think God can bring peace into your broken family, to your broken situation, to your broken heart? He can bring it. He can bring that peace. Jesus. In John 11, he stands in front of Lazarus tomb. Lazarus is dead man. And he calls them out to new life. You don't think God can revive dead dreams or dead words, dead promises that are in your heart, let alone whatever sickness you may be facing. God can do it. If you wanna create an atmosphere in your life to receive this gift of faith, ask for it and read about it. But lastly, you need to step out in it. You need to step out. And this applies to all spiritual gifts, not just faith. You will not understand this. You will not know what gifts you have and you will not grow in the gifts you have until you step out of your comfort zone. You step out of individualism, you step out of consumerism and you step out of your comfort zone and you allow God to use you. Spiritual gift assessments, assessments are great. They, they give us a good bearing. But just because your gift assessment says you have the gift of prophecy, you can't just go around saying, I'm a prophet.'cause it says it's on your sheet, right? It's like, no, I'm told, have you ever processed it? No, no. But it says, but I did the assessment. Right? It's like, okay, they're helpful, but you have to use that in convergence with reality, right? You actually have to go and you're never going to be able to do that. It's not like you just, oh, I know I have it, so I'm gonna go do. No, you just go and you allow God to use you, but you gotta step out first. It's when we step out that God equips us with the gifts, we need to bless others. That's how it works. It's an act of faith. So how do we step out? Well, you primarily step out by opening up your eyes to the needs around you, particularly within the church. There's no shortage of people who are hurting. Remember, your gifts are others focused. So you have to be others focused. Do you think you're more likely to give someone an encouraging word or a prophetic word? If on the way to church you're praying, God, I pray that you'd use me to encourage others, Lord, even a stranger, that you would just gimme a word to encourage their hearts. Do you think you're more likely to to be given that, that gift, to bless someone else? If you're praying for it, if you're seeking it, if you're looking for it, when you get into church, your eyes are scanning. Who is it? God? Do you think that someone is more likely to be healed? If you take your hands outta your pockets and you put it on their shoulder, you say, God, I pray that you would heal them. Do you think they're more likely to get healed in that scenario than if you just keep your hands in your pockets and you walk right by, you have to step out in order to see God use you in order to see the gifts that he has given you be activated. You have to step out of your comfort zone. So a better question, a better question isn't God, what is my spiritual gift? The better question is God who is in need. And then you step out, you meet that need and you realize, ah, that's how God has wired me. That's a gift God has given me. That's how it works. I pray that God would fill you with his presence so that you would have the gift of faith for your scenario, for your family, for your community, and for this church. I pray that you would have the gift of faith. I pray that you have extraordinary confidence in God to do the impossible in your life, that you wouldn't be so weighed down by intellectualism that all you can see, touch, taste, and smell. That's all there is. No, no, no. God breaks through our regular life time and time again and he can still do it. So I pray that you have extraordinary confidence in God for your situation and for others. I pray that God would use you to build this church up. We need you. You can't just rest on a few. It has to be all of us that you would realize that and that you'd know more than ever that God has placed you in this church for a reason. And it's not just to take, but it's also to contribute and give because you are the body of Christ. Lemme pray. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the toolbox. You have given the church to build one another up. You have told us that is by our love for one another, that we will be known. Lord, we are in a time and place where it doesn't come most natural to be others focused, but to be self-focused. And Lord, we recognize that and we don't always know how to combat that. But God, I pray that you would give each and every person here just eyes for one another. Lord. They would see a need and they would trust you that you could use them to fill it. Lord, there's there. There are people here today who are lacking so much confidence in you who are lacking confidence in themselves. They're wondering if you could ever use them. God, I pray right now by your Holy Spirit that you just inject faith into their heart right now, that they would know. They would know that they know that they're a part of this body and they have a part to play. God, I pray in your grace and your kindness, you would help us to see exactly what that is. Lord, I pray for confidence to come upon people, to be out and minister, to not keep their hands in their pockets or their mouth closed, but to pray and to lay hands on people and to give people encouraging words, to have gifts of faith for other people, to encourage them by their extraordinary trust. Lord, there are people here today who are facing a mountain and they're facing an obstacle and they are overwhelmed by the reality of that God, I pray that you would raise up people in this church with a gift of faith to be able to walk over to that person and just breed courage into them, that they would have a gift of faith for other people's terrible situations and turn, Lord, that you would raise up faith in this place and trust. And so I thank you God for these gifts. Lord, I pray that as a church we would grow in them not to a place of chaos or disorder, but a place in spiritual maturity that results in building one another up. So we thank you Jesus. You are the head of the church. Um, but we are its members and you have asked us to work. And so God help us get to work. We pray this in your name. Amen. Amen. If you're here today and you do not know Jesus Christ is your Lord, but you would like to understand what that looks like or maybe today you're ready to make that decision, I'd love to help you do that. Uh, we're gonna have some pastors and leaders gonna be up the front left here who would love to pray with you, listen to your story, hear your name. You can also scan the QR code on the screen or on your seat back to help you take a next step. I also wanna encourage you, if you haven't done the assessment yet, do the spiritual gifts assessment. It does give you some bearings. You can either scan that QR code or go to Hope city.ca/gifts. You made it coldest day in forever and you made it gold Star in heaven, but not here. I don't have any on me. Okay? We'll see you next week.