September 2, 2023 • 18 mins
Ever wondered about the deep-seated connection between your spiritual gifts and a fulfilled life in Christ? Get ready to embark on a journey with us as we unravel the mysteries of living your best, in rest, with Him. Drawing inspiration from Paul's teachings in Romans 12, (and Deuteronomy 6,) we explore how utilizing our God-given skills and gifts can lead us to an abundant life in Christ. We delve into the significance of loving the Lord wholeheartedly and the joy that springs from recognizing and utilizing our spiritual gifts.
We take a step further to discern God's will for our lives through the lens of Paul's teachings. Offering our bodies as living sacrifices and implementing our gifts in our daily lives might seem challenging, but the adventure is worth the risk. Experience the overwhelming joy that comes from recognizing and using your gifts in faith. Finally, we find solace in His presence as we navigate deepening our relationship with God and finding that peace that surpasses human understanding. Join us on this life-transforming journey as we uncover the essence of rest in Him.
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Shalom,
Noah 🕊
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Noah James Wiebe (00:06):
Welcome to the In Rest podcast with Noah James
Wiebe.
I am your host, noah.
I have been a follower of Jesusfor over 10 years.
I've been a pastor for over 7years.
I live on the east coast ofCanada with my wife, brittany,
and my four sons, and I hopethat you enjoy joining me for
the In Rest podcast as we herehow to live the Christian life
well and how to live the lifeGod intended you to live.
(00:28):
Thank you so much for joiningme today on the In Rest podcast
as you hear how to live yourbest in rest in Christ.
Let's get to it.
Today on the podcast, we aregoing to be talking about how to
give your best to live in rest,but also what it means to serve
your best, to live your best.
(00:50):
In Romans, chapter 12, paul, whois the apostle to the Gentiles
in the first century AD, is thewriter of the book of Romans.
He's also the writer of manyother if not most of I think it
is most of the New Testament.
Many of the different lettersthat we see in the New Testament
have been written by Paul.
Other letters or other letterwriters were James, peter, john,
(01:14):
other standard dude names.
The reason why there arestandard dude names is because
of these characters, right,these real people who wrote
these things down.
And Paul is among that list ofpeople who contributed so much
not only to Christians but alsoto the entire Roman world and
our society as well, long term,without even knowing it.
(01:36):
In the book of Romans, paulwrites out how, in our skills,
abilities, the work that we do,we can begin to live our best in
Christ.
The way we do that is by givingour best skills, our best gifts
, our unique way of contributingto the world, to others, by
offering ourselves, by livingout the life that God has for us
(01:59):
and in front of other people,and doing it cheerfully, doing
it diligently, doing itcompletely.
One of my favorite passages inthe Old Testament is in
Deuteronomy, chapter six, whereit says here O Israel, the Lord,
our God.
The Lord is one.
For those of you who know theBible, you probably already know
what I'm about to say next,which is love the Lord, your God
(02:21):
, with all your heart, with allyour soul and with all your
strength.
Now, in that passage inDeuteronomy, chapter six, we get
this sense of giving God ourall, and Paul draws on that a
lot in this passage in Romans,chapter 12, in order to
(02:42):
communicate this idea of givingand offering ourselves to our
fullest.
Now, in Deuteronomy, chaptersix, this loving of the Lord is
meant to happen in our heart,the place of our decision making
, our thinking, in our soul,which is our very being, which
is our everything.
The Hebrew word is nefesh,literally the word for your
throat, it's from the thing fromwhich your life comes from, and
(03:06):
then everything that goes intoyour life, you know, it's your
being, it's everything you are,and then it's strength.
Right, love the Lord, your God,with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all yourstrength.
Now, that word strength is aninteresting Hebrew word and
basically what it comes down tois not strength like physical
strength, the ability to pickthings up and put them down, it
(03:29):
is muchness.
It's your hutzpah, it's youreverything, and that word is
kind of what we're going to bebasing a lot of what we're
talking about today on.
It's giving your muchness.
Now, what would your muchnessbe, I wonder?
I was talking about thisyesterday with a couple of
(03:51):
friends of mine at a leadershipconference and as we were
talking I said, hey, what wouldyou say your spiritual gifts are
?
And they thought about it for afew minutes, and so I went on
from the husband of the coupleand went out of the wife and I
said, well, what do you think?
Because obviously he's got somethinking to do.
So she started a few things,but I wanted to explain a little
(04:12):
bit further because they aretheir native language actually
wasn't English, it was Spanish.
So I was like, well, I'll askit a few different ways so that
we get the actual point across.
What's something you love to doso much that you're so so good
at, but that when you do it itmakes you feel so immensely
joyful that you just enjoy doingit?
And so when I asked thatquestion, it helped kind of
(04:33):
helped him understand, kind of,what I was asking, and then I
ended up giving my answer and itwas a great time.
So I shared about how I love toencourage others, how I love to
identify other people's needsand meet them, how I love to
help other people know that theyare loved and that they're
capable of loving, and so thatconversation was revolving
(04:54):
around spiritual gifts.
But really what we were talkingabout was what is it that God
has put in you that when you doit, you can feel the pleasure of
God on you and you feelimmensely joyful.
I can't remember which runnerit was, but a famous athlete who
specialized in cross-countryrunning.
He said once when I run, I canfeel the pleasure of God and
(05:19):
that desire, that sense of Goddelighting in you while you're
doing this thing, that you enjoy, while at the same time, you
feel this immense joy in doingso, even if it's hard work for
you and it spends your energy.
That is the concept of muchness,that's a concept of strength in
Deuteronomy, chapter 6, withall of your muchness, with
everything in you that is much,with all the things that you do
(05:43):
to the fullest extent, with allof that God, you ought to love
God.
And so, other than Romans,chapter 12, we're also going to
look at another story in theBible, or a natural specific
story in the Bible, but beforewe get there, let's get into
Romans, chapter 12.
So, like I said already,there's something in you and all
(06:04):
of us that God places in uswhen we accept Jesus as our Lord
and our Savior.
That goes beyond just a meretalent or a natural ability.
It is something in us that Godhas placed in us that when we do
it we feel joyous, and we feelespecially joyous when we use
that special giftedness, thatability, that talent, that
passion, that aptitude foradding value to another person's
(06:27):
life, to contributing tosomeone else through service.
And so Paul gets goes throughthis list of things that he
believes are spiritual gifts,gifts that are of the spirit,
not spiritual gifts, becausethey only happen when we're
meditating or that there's somesort of superpower.
Although they are kind of likesuperpowers, it is a gift of the
(06:47):
spirit.
The Greek word for gift in thiscontext is kades, and it's
essentially the word grace.
It's where we get the wordgrace, it's also where we get
the name karis, it's also wherewe get the word charisma and
it's also where we get the wordwell, as the Gen Z kids call it
riz.
But it's a very, very distantrelation to that slang term.
(07:09):
But drawing it back a littlebit, this idea of kades ma, this
gift that God gives us from Hisgrace, kades, this gift of
grace that God gives us beyondjust salvation, which is
something that the Holy Spiritdoes in and through us, and it's
(07:29):
a way that he actuallymanifests His presence.
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 12,another passage that's very
similar to Romans, chapter 12,paul mentions how we all have
the same spirit living in us ifwe put our trust in Christ One
faith, one Lord, one baptism,one God and Father of all and
one spirit in us that's doingall of this work and then,
(07:50):
through us, he's manifesting Hispresence, manifesting Himself
through these gifts, these kades, ma.
And so in Romans, chapter 12,he has just finished talking
about surrender and worship andits connectedness to living the
life that God has called us tolive and offering ourselves to
God.
I've talked about Romans,chapter 12, verses 1 to 2, many
different times in the podcastand I will do so again, but in
(08:12):
Romans, chapter 12, verses 3 andonward we're going to look at,
I believe, verses 3 to 8, paultalks about how you can use your
muchness to not only bring morejoy to your life, but also to
bring joy to God's heart and tolive the life that God's
intended for you to live.
So let's get into it.
Romans, chapter 12.
(08:33):
So he finishes up this firstpassage, so like, if you're
looking on the screen here onthe YouTube edition, you can see
this Essentially in Romans,chapter 12, verse 3, he begins
by saying because the privilegeand authority God has given me,
I give each of you this warningDon't think you are better than
(08:55):
you really are.
That's a sobering thought.
Another translation says makesure you judge yourselves with
sober judgment, not thinkingmore highly of yourselves than
you ought to.
So if you're thinking aboutyourself as too high and mighty
to serve other people or to useGod, the gifts God has given you
, that immediately keeps youfrom living the life that God
(09:17):
has for you.
But let's continue.
So he says that.
And then he says be honest inyour evaluation of yourselves,
measuring yourselves by thefaith God has given us.
Just as our bodies have manyparts and each part has a
special function, so it is withChrist's body.
We are many parts of one bodyand we all belong to each other
In His grace.
(09:37):
God has given us differentgifts for doing certain things
well.
So if God has given you theability to prophesy, speak out
with as much faith as God hasgiven you.
If your gift is serving others,serve them well.
If you are a teacher, teachwell.
If your gift is to encourageothers, be encouraging.
If it is giving, givegenerously.
(09:59):
If God has given you leadershipability, take the
responsibility seriously.
And if you have a gift forshowing kindness to others, do
it gladly.
This is one of my favoritepassages in all of scripture,
and the reason why is because ofhow clear Paul is with his
communication about thesedifferent gifts.
I mean, think about the claritythat you would receive if you
(10:20):
had someone identify a gift inyou and they're like hey, I see
this gift in you.
You should do that thing moreoften, because I see that
potential in you to add value topeople's lives.
I think you should put thatinto practice by using your
giftedness.
And some of those thingsspecifically are not so much the
point of the passage.
He's not specifically talkingabout prophesying or serving or
(10:43):
teaching or encouragement.
What Paul is trying to getacross is if you have a gift
from God, use it.
Do not lose it.
Basically, don't lose it.
Don't lose your mind on howhigh and lofty you think you are
.
Don't lose your mind on how youthink that you have to be able
to do this or that or the otherthing.
Don't think of yourself as morehighly, more high and lofty
than you really are.
(11:03):
Think of yourself with honest,sober judgment and then use the
gifts God has given you If youbelieve that you are going to be
the one to define yourself anddirect yourself, then you're
going to miss out on the lifethat God has intended for you,
at least in a lot of the chunksand the gifts that he has for
you, in those elements of yourlife.
(11:24):
The reason is because what Paulis trying to talk about here is
listen, god gives you the gift.
If he's given it to you, then,with humility and in accordance
with your faith, do the thingthat he's given you to do.
And this is a really, reallyhelpful way of identifying God's
will for our life.
I mean, in verse 2 of thispassage, paul literally says
(11:45):
you'll be able to test andapprove what God's will is his
good, pleasing and perfect willwhen you offer your bodies as
living sacrifices, holy andpleasing to God, your true and
proper worship.
Basically, if you'resurrendering to God, you're
going to have a way, betterability to identify God's will
for your life.
And one of the ways that is kindof expressed in this passage
for understanding God's will foryour life is well, what are
(12:09):
your gifts, what are the thingsthat when you wake up in the
morning, you are excited to dothat day?
And that doesn't necessarilymean you're excited to make your
morning coffee or blend up thatevening smoothie before you
watch an episode of yourfavorite reality TV show.
What I mean is what issomething that, when you wake up
in the morning and you knowthat's ahead of you in your work
day or in a family day, thatyou are so excited to pour
(12:34):
yourself out doing that thing?
That might take place in thecontext of a hobby or a passion
or a side hustle or something ofthat nature.
But what is the answer to thatquestion for you?
What is the thing that you knowthat you're good at, or that
someone has identified in youthat you're good at, that God
wants to express through you?
Now, if you have something likethe gift of prophecy, for
(12:55):
example, now I'm to thepersuasion that prophecy is a
real, active gift that iscurrently acting in the church
today, or active in the churchtoday, it is still a very valid,
helpful way that God expressesand manifests his presence in
the context of his people.
I also believe that speaking intongues is also another way
that God continues to expresswho he is through his spirit.
(13:15):
Now, I don't think too much ofthese gifts because, again, the
point of this passage and thepoint of other biblical
instruction about spiritualgifts is not the point of
establishing some sort ofdenominational distinctive or
communicating some deeptheological truth about this or
that other divisive issue.
The point is if you have a gift, use it.
(13:36):
If you have the gift ofspeaking in tongues, don't be
afraid to use it in accordancewith your faith.
If you're like I don't know, Idon't feel like my gift in
teaching is developed enough forme to really put into practice
fully, that's okay.
One of the ways that you canlearn or prepare to use your
gifts for ministry or use yourgifts for service, use your
gifts to help others, isliterally just to put them into
(13:56):
practice in very small ways, inan atomic habits kind of way.
Atomic habits was a bookwritten by James Clear and he
talks about how, if you want tohave a habit, you want to
develop a habit, to establish it.
Take it in really, really small, bite-sized pieces so that you
can build the habit and thenimprove from there.
The same could definitely betrue of your spiritual gifts and
(14:17):
putting them into practice.
Now, a lot of times when we arefirst initially accepting
Christ, he pours out these giftsinto our life and it's hard to
deny that they're there.
But as life goes on and webecome more familiar with our
life and with our life with God,or as God introduces new gifts
into our life.
It can actually be kind of scaryto put into practice something
that previously we'd neverthought possible for us, such as
(14:38):
teaching, speaking publicly orpraying for someone out loud
instead of just in your head.
Even giving is actuallysomething that still requires
faith, but it's also somethingthat will be done generously.
But one of the easiest ways todo that is just by doing that
gift, whatever it looks like inthe smallest form possible, and
just seeing what God does withit and seeing what he is doing
(14:59):
in that moment.
Now, earlier I had mentionedthat muchness, and one of the
connecting points of muchness isjoy.
It's the delight that you feelfrom God when you do it, but
also the joy that you experience, the joy that you get from
doing that thing or acting inthat way Joy.
The Greek word for joy is Kara.
It's basically derived from thesame Greek word for grace or
(15:21):
gift, karis.
So Kara is like, is essentiallythe word for a gift received.
It's like what happens when youput your hands onto a gift,
when you open it up on Christmasmorning and you experience it.
That's Kara, and that joy andthat blessing comes more by
giving than it does by receiving.
Ironically, when we actuallyoffer something to someone from
(15:46):
something within us that God hasplaced in us, it creates a real
sense of joy because we fullyreceive that thing.
We can't give to someoneanything that we don't actually
have, and if you don't believethat you have a gift, whether
you have it or you don't, thenthere is no joy that's
experienced in having that thing.
If you have the gift ofprophesying but never prophesy,
if you have the gift of faithbut then never really put that
(16:07):
faith into practice withsomething worthy of it, if you
have the gift of mercy but don'treally go out of your way to
treat other people with kindnessbecause you'd rather stay
inside of your house watching,you know, endless episodes of
the same TV show that you'vealways watched so as to keep
maintaining that sense ofsecurity, you probably aren't
going to develop that gift.
And so the reason why I mentionall of those things is because
(16:28):
the Greek word for Kara or joyis received, is essentially the
word for received, and so thatmoment of receiving is really
done when we believe that thatgift belongs to us and we put it
into practice by acting on itand by using our faith to do it.
So what is it for you?
What is something in this listof gifts or in some other list
(16:51):
of gifts that you could identifyto help you grow in your joy,
to live your best, not only bylearning more about yourself,
but by putting into practicesomething that is something
that's going to give joy to you,joy to God and joy to the
people that you end up serving.
So identify those gifts andfigure that out, and we'll talk
more about that as we go alongto the podcast.
But for now, identify one smallthing that you can do to begin
(17:14):
expressing that muchness thatGod has given you.
Thank you so much for joining mefor the InRest podcast.
If you could please leave afive-star review in Spotify.
If you're listening to this onSpotify or if you're watching
this on YouTube, hit thesubscribe button and the like
button.
That really helps with gettingthe word out about this message
of living the life that God hasintended us to live.
Again, my name is Noah.
I'm so glad that you joined metoday for the InRest podcast.
(17:36):
God bless, thank you.
Welcome to the In Rest podcast with Noah James
Wiebe.
I am your host, noah.
I have been a follower of Jesusfor over 10 years.
I've been a pastor for over 7years.
I live on the east coast ofCanada with my wife, brittany,
and my four sons, and I hopethat you enjoy joining me for
the In Rest podcast as we herehow to live the Christian life
well and how to live the lifeGod intended you to live.
(00:28):
Thank you so much for joiningme today on the In Rest podcast
as you hear how to live yourbest in rest in Christ.
Let's get to it.
Today on the podcast, we aregoing to be talking about how to
give your best to live in rest,but also what it means to serve
your best, to live your best.
(00:50):
In Romans, chapter 12, paul, whois the apostle to the Gentiles
in the first century AD, is thewriter of the book of Romans.
He's also the writer of manyother if not most of I think it
is most of the New Testament.
Many of the different lettersthat we see in the New Testament
have been written by Paul.
Other letters or other letterwriters were James, peter, john,
(01:14):
other standard dude names.
The reason why there arestandard dude names is because
of these characters, right,these real people who wrote
these things down.
And Paul is among that list ofpeople who contributed so much
not only to Christians but alsoto the entire Roman world and
our society as well, long term,without even knowing it.
(01:36):
In the book of Romans, paulwrites out how, in our skills,
abilities, the work that we do,we can begin to live our best in
Christ.
The way we do that is by givingour best skills, our best gifts
, our unique way of contributingto the world, to others, by
offering ourselves, by livingout the life that God has for us
(01:59):
and in front of other people,and doing it cheerfully, doing
it diligently, doing itcompletely.
One of my favorite passages inthe Old Testament is in
Deuteronomy, chapter six, whereit says here O Israel, the Lord,
our God.
The Lord is one.
For those of you who know theBible, you probably already know
what I'm about to say next,which is love the Lord, your God
(02:21):
, with all your heart, with allyour soul and with all your
strength.
Now, in that passage inDeuteronomy, chapter six, we get
this sense of giving God ourall, and Paul draws on that a
lot in this passage in Romans,chapter 12, in order to
(02:42):
communicate this idea of givingand offering ourselves to our
fullest.
Now, in Deuteronomy, chaptersix, this loving of the Lord is
meant to happen in our heart,the place of our decision making
, our thinking, in our soul,which is our very being, which
is our everything.
The Hebrew word is nefesh,literally the word for your
throat, it's from the thing fromwhich your life comes from, and
(03:06):
then everything that goes intoyour life, you know, it's your
being, it's everything you are,and then it's strength.
Right, love the Lord, your God,with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all yourstrength.
Now, that word strength is aninteresting Hebrew word and
basically what it comes down tois not strength like physical
strength, the ability to pickthings up and put them down, it
(03:29):
is muchness.
It's your hutzpah, it's youreverything, and that word is
kind of what we're going to bebasing a lot of what we're
talking about today on.
It's giving your muchness.
Now, what would your muchnessbe, I wonder?
I was talking about thisyesterday with a couple of
(03:51):
friends of mine at a leadershipconference and as we were
talking I said, hey, what wouldyou say your spiritual gifts are
?
And they thought about it for afew minutes, and so I went on
from the husband of the coupleand went out of the wife and I
said, well, what do you think?
Because obviously he's got somethinking to do.
So she started a few things,but I wanted to explain a little
(04:12):
bit further because they aretheir native language actually
wasn't English, it was Spanish.
So I was like, well, I'll askit a few different ways so that
we get the actual point across.
What's something you love to doso much that you're so so good
at, but that when you do it itmakes you feel so immensely
joyful that you just enjoy doingit?
And so when I asked thatquestion, it helped kind of
(04:33):
helped him understand, kind of,what I was asking, and then I
ended up giving my answer and itwas a great time.
So I shared about how I love toencourage others, how I love to
identify other people's needsand meet them, how I love to
help other people know that theyare loved and that they're
capable of loving, and so thatconversation was revolving
(04:54):
around spiritual gifts.
But really what we were talkingabout was what is it that God
has put in you that when you doit, you can feel the pleasure of
God on you and you feelimmensely joyful.
I can't remember which runnerit was, but a famous athlete who
specialized in cross-countryrunning.
He said once when I run, I canfeel the pleasure of God and
(05:19):
that desire, that sense of Goddelighting in you while you're
doing this thing, that you enjoy, while at the same time, you
feel this immense joy in doingso, even if it's hard work for
you and it spends your energy.
That is the concept of muchness,that's a concept of strength in
Deuteronomy, chapter 6, withall of your muchness, with
everything in you that is much,with all the things that you do
(05:43):
to the fullest extent, with allof that God, you ought to love
God.
And so, other than Romans,chapter 12, we're also going to
look at another story in theBible, or a natural specific
story in the Bible, but beforewe get there, let's get into
Romans, chapter 12.
So, like I said already,there's something in you and all
(06:04):
of us that God places in uswhen we accept Jesus as our Lord
and our Savior.
That goes beyond just a meretalent or a natural ability.
It is something in us that Godhas placed in us that when we do
it we feel joyous, and we feelespecially joyous when we use
that special giftedness, thatability, that talent, that
passion, that aptitude foradding value to another person's
(06:27):
life, to contributing tosomeone else through service.
And so Paul gets goes throughthis list of things that he
believes are spiritual gifts,gifts that are of the spirit,
not spiritual gifts, becausethey only happen when we're
meditating or that there's somesort of superpower.
Although they are kind of likesuperpowers, it is a gift of the
(06:47):
spirit.
The Greek word for gift in thiscontext is kades, and it's
essentially the word grace.
It's where we get the wordgrace, it's also where we get
the name karis, it's also wherewe get the word charisma and
it's also where we get the wordwell, as the Gen Z kids call it
riz.
But it's a very, very distantrelation to that slang term.
(07:09):
But drawing it back a littlebit, this idea of kades ma, this
gift that God gives us from Hisgrace, kades, this gift of
grace that God gives us beyondjust salvation, which is
something that the Holy Spiritdoes in and through us, and it's
(07:29):
a way that he actuallymanifests His presence.
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 12,another passage that's very
similar to Romans, chapter 12,paul mentions how we all have
the same spirit living in us ifwe put our trust in Christ One
faith, one Lord, one baptism,one God and Father of all and
one spirit in us that's doingall of this work and then,
(07:50):
through us, he's manifesting Hispresence, manifesting Himself
through these gifts, these kades, ma.
And so in Romans, chapter 12,he has just finished talking
about surrender and worship andits connectedness to living the
life that God has called us tolive and offering ourselves to
God.
I've talked about Romans,chapter 12, verses 1 to 2, many
different times in the podcastand I will do so again, but in
(08:12):
Romans, chapter 12, verses 3 andonward we're going to look at,
I believe, verses 3 to 8, paultalks about how you can use your
muchness to not only bring morejoy to your life, but also to
bring joy to God's heart and tolive the life that God's
intended for you to live.
So let's get into it.
Romans, chapter 12.
(08:33):
So he finishes up this firstpassage, so like, if you're
looking on the screen here onthe YouTube edition, you can see
this Essentially in Romans,chapter 12, verse 3, he begins
by saying because the privilegeand authority God has given me,
I give each of you this warningDon't think you are better than
(08:55):
you really are.
That's a sobering thought.
Another translation says makesure you judge yourselves with
sober judgment, not thinkingmore highly of yourselves than
you ought to.
So if you're thinking aboutyourself as too high and mighty
to serve other people or to useGod, the gifts God has given you
, that immediately keeps youfrom living the life that God
(09:17):
has for you.
But let's continue.
So he says that.
And then he says be honest inyour evaluation of yourselves,
measuring yourselves by thefaith God has given us.
Just as our bodies have manyparts and each part has a
special function, so it is withChrist's body.
We are many parts of one bodyand we all belong to each other
In His grace.
(09:37):
God has given us differentgifts for doing certain things
well.
So if God has given you theability to prophesy, speak out
with as much faith as God hasgiven you.
If your gift is serving others,serve them well.
If you are a teacher, teachwell.
If your gift is to encourageothers, be encouraging.
If it is giving, givegenerously.
(09:59):
If God has given you leadershipability, take the
responsibility seriously.
And if you have a gift forshowing kindness to others, do
it gladly.
This is one of my favoritepassages in all of scripture,
and the reason why is because ofhow clear Paul is with his
communication about thesedifferent gifts.
I mean, think about the claritythat you would receive if you
(10:20):
had someone identify a gift inyou and they're like hey, I see
this gift in you.
You should do that thing moreoften, because I see that
potential in you to add value topeople's lives.
I think you should put thatinto practice by using your
giftedness.
And some of those thingsspecifically are not so much the
point of the passage.
He's not specifically talkingabout prophesying or serving or
(10:43):
teaching or encouragement.
What Paul is trying to getacross is if you have a gift
from God, use it.
Do not lose it.
Basically, don't lose it.
Don't lose your mind on howhigh and lofty you think you are
.
Don't lose your mind on how youthink that you have to be able
to do this or that or the otherthing.
Don't think of yourself as morehighly, more high and lofty
than you really are.
(11:03):
Think of yourself with honest,sober judgment and then use the
gifts God has given you If youbelieve that you are going to be
the one to define yourself anddirect yourself, then you're
going to miss out on the lifethat God has intended for you,
at least in a lot of the chunksand the gifts that he has for
you, in those elements of yourlife.
(11:24):
The reason is because what Paulis trying to talk about here is
listen, god gives you the gift.
If he's given it to you, then,with humility and in accordance
with your faith, do the thingthat he's given you to do.
And this is a really, reallyhelpful way of identifying God's
will for our life.
I mean, in verse 2 of thispassage, paul literally says
(11:45):
you'll be able to test andapprove what God's will is his
good, pleasing and perfect willwhen you offer your bodies as
living sacrifices, holy andpleasing to God, your true and
proper worship.
Basically, if you'resurrendering to God, you're
going to have a way, betterability to identify God's will
for your life.
And one of the ways that is kindof expressed in this passage
for understanding God's will foryour life is well, what are
(12:09):
your gifts, what are the thingsthat when you wake up in the
morning, you are excited to dothat day?
And that doesn't necessarilymean you're excited to make your
morning coffee or blend up thatevening smoothie before you
watch an episode of yourfavorite reality TV show.
What I mean is what issomething that, when you wake up
in the morning and you knowthat's ahead of you in your work
day or in a family day, thatyou are so excited to pour
(12:34):
yourself out doing that thing?
That might take place in thecontext of a hobby or a passion
or a side hustle or something ofthat nature.
But what is the answer to thatquestion for you?
What is the thing that you knowthat you're good at, or that
someone has identified in youthat you're good at, that God
wants to express through you?
Now, if you have something likethe gift of prophecy, for
(12:55):
example, now I'm to thepersuasion that prophecy is a
real, active gift that iscurrently acting in the church
today, or active in the churchtoday, it is still a very valid,
helpful way that God expressesand manifests his presence in
the context of his people.
I also believe that speaking intongues is also another way
that God continues to expresswho he is through his spirit.
(13:15):
Now, I don't think too much ofthese gifts because, again, the
point of this passage and thepoint of other biblical
instruction about spiritualgifts is not the point of
establishing some sort ofdenominational distinctive or
communicating some deeptheological truth about this or
that other divisive issue.
The point is if you have a gift, use it.
(13:36):
If you have the gift ofspeaking in tongues, don't be
afraid to use it in accordancewith your faith.
If you're like I don't know, Idon't feel like my gift in
teaching is developed enough forme to really put into practice
fully, that's okay.
One of the ways that you canlearn or prepare to use your
gifts for ministry or use yourgifts for service, use your
gifts to help others, isliterally just to put them into
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practice in very small ways, inan atomic habits kind of way.
Atomic habits was a bookwritten by James Clear and he
talks about how, if you want tohave a habit, you want to
develop a habit, to establish it.
Take it in really, really small, bite-sized pieces so that you
can build the habit and thenimprove from there.
The same could definitely betrue of your spiritual gifts and
(14:17):
putting them into practice.
Now, a lot of times when we arefirst initially accepting
Christ, he pours out these giftsinto our life and it's hard to
deny that they're there.
But as life goes on and webecome more familiar with our
life and with our life with God,or as God introduces new gifts
into our life.
It can actually be kind of scaryto put into practice something
that previously we'd neverthought possible for us, such as
(14:38):
teaching, speaking publicly orpraying for someone out loud
instead of just in your head.
Even giving is actuallysomething that still requires
faith, but it's also somethingthat will be done generously.
But one of the easiest ways todo that is just by doing that
gift, whatever it looks like inthe smallest form possible, and
just seeing what God does withit and seeing what he is doing
(14:59):
in that moment.
Now, earlier I had mentionedthat muchness, and one of the
connecting points of muchness isjoy.
It's the delight that you feelfrom God when you do it, but
also the joy that you experience, the joy that you get from
doing that thing or acting inthat way Joy.
The Greek word for joy is Kara.
It's basically derived from thesame Greek word for grace or
(15:21):
gift, karis.
So Kara is like, is essentiallythe word for a gift received.
It's like what happens when youput your hands onto a gift,
when you open it up on Christmasmorning and you experience it.
That's Kara, and that joy andthat blessing comes more by
giving than it does by receiving.
Ironically, when we actuallyoffer something to someone from
(15:46):
something within us that God hasplaced in us, it creates a real
sense of joy because we fullyreceive that thing.
We can't give to someoneanything that we don't actually
have, and if you don't believethat you have a gift, whether
you have it or you don't, thenthere is no joy that's
experienced in having that thing.
If you have the gift ofprophesying but never prophesy,
if you have the gift of faithbut then never really put that
(16:07):
faith into practice withsomething worthy of it, if you
have the gift of mercy but don'treally go out of your way to
treat other people with kindnessbecause you'd rather stay
inside of your house watching,you know, endless episodes of
the same TV show that you'vealways watched so as to keep
maintaining that sense ofsecurity, you probably aren't
going to develop that gift.
And so the reason why I mentionall of those things is because
(16:28):
the Greek word for Kara or joyis received, is essentially the
word for received, and so thatmoment of receiving is really
done when we believe that thatgift belongs to us and we put it
into practice by acting on itand by using our faith to do it.
So what is it for you?
What is something in this listof gifts or in some other list
(16:51):
of gifts that you could identifyto help you grow in your joy,
to live your best, not only bylearning more about yourself,
but by putting into practicesomething that is something
that's going to give joy to you,joy to God and joy to the
people that you end up serving.
So identify those gifts andfigure that out, and we'll talk
more about that as we go alongto the podcast.
But for now, identify one smallthing that you can do to begin
(17:14):
expressing that muchness thatGod has given you.
Thank you so much for joining mefor the InRest podcast.
If you could please leave afive-star review in Spotify.
If you're listening to this onSpotify or if you're watching
this on YouTube, hit thesubscribe button and the like
button.
That really helps with gettingthe word out about this message
of living the life that God hasintended us to live.
Again, my name is Noah.
I'm so glad that you joined metoday for the InRest podcast.
(17:36):
God bless, thank you.
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