LED - Week 9: Power For Ministry

Tim Ross | February 27, 2022

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Transcription

Tim Ross: We've been in this series called Led. If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. When you're going there, I want to give a shout-out to all my Vitamin E people that are watching us from wherever you are. Shout-out to Africa, shout-out to London, shout-out to Latin America, shout-out to-- There was somebody from United Arab Emirates, Dubai. Thank you for watching. I love you guys so much.

1 Corinthians 12, starting at the first verse, here's what it says, "Dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us, I don't want you to misunderstand this. You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshipping speechless idols. I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. The spiritual gift is given to--" how many of us?

Congregation: Each of us.

Tim: How many of us?

Congregation: Each of us.

Tim: How many of us?

Congregation: Each of us.

Tim: A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can do what?

Congregation: Help each other.

Tim: We can do what?

Congregation: Help each other.

Tim: We can do what?

Congregation: Help each other.

Tim: "A spiritual gift is given to each of us so that we can help each other. To one person, the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another, the same Spirit gives a message a special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another; and to someone else, the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles and another the ability to prophesy."

"He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another Spirit. Still, another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have." Keep that up there. That last sentence is very important. "He alone decides which gift each person should have." Now, let's jump to Romans 12 starting from the 6th verse. Romans 12. Ooh, it's dope to hear some pages turning. Got some paper Bible people up in the building. That's what I'm talking about. That paper Bible won't shut down on you.

[laughter]

Tim: "My Bible app is ama--"

[laughter]

Tim: There was a person that have been using a phone so long that when they started using their paper Bible again, they got to the end of the page. Instead of turning it, they went like that.

[laughter]

Tim: God, help us in our technology-riddled world. Romas. They put it in Spanish or did they just forget the N? [chuckles] "In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing--" It does say "Romas," right?

[laughter]

Tim: I don't think that's Spanish for Romans, but it's whatever. In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. If God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you're a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. If you have a gift of showing kindness to others, do it gladly." If you're taking notes on this message, and you should be taking notes, why?

Congregation: Because nerds rule the world.

Tim: Because nerds rule the world. If you're taking notes on this message, write down these three words, "Power for ministry." I want to talk about what God has given us so that we can have power for ministry. Bow your heads. Let's pray over the Word and let's jump right in, shall we? Holy Spirit, thank you so much for giving us power for ministry. Help us to identify our giftings in Jesus' name. Amen.

This is a very practical message. I want it to be something that can be applied to your life. This is a message that is for everyone in the room. I already read you the Scripture. If you believe what Scripture says, then you understand that everyone has been given a spiritual gift so that we can help each other. Spiritual giftings have not been given to a few people here and there to become superstars in the body of Christ.

Spiritual giftings have been given to everyone in this room from the front row to the back row. Whether you are aware of your giftings or not, every single one of us has a spiritual gift given by God so we can help each other. All of us do not have the same gifting. You don't get to pick which gifting you want. He gives you a gift and the expectation is that you help someone else with the gift, which means even though it may be in you, it does not belong to you. It belongs to us.

If you don't help us with the gift that God has given you, you are being stingy. You're being greedy. You are withholding something that we actually need from you and want from you so that we can grow into the people that God has called us to be. You all know I'm super basic. If you're a first-time visitor, you've never heard of me before, and somebody duped you into coming to this church today, spoiler alert. I'm basic. I teach basic because if it's not practical and I can't use it today, I don't want to hear it.

Anybody ever been in the church service and everybody just-- It was like, "Oooh," right? It was loud and people were doing a lot and sweating, and then you left and they were like, "How was service?" You were like, "It was good." They were like, "What did the preacher talk about?" You're like, "I have no clue." You're going to say, "I have no idea what the man was talking about. No entiendo. I'm done." I'm telling you. I'm going to be so fluent one day, I'm going to come up in here and where are you all out one day?

[laughter]

Tim: We get up and be like, "Bienvenido, mi amigos, mi amigas."

[laughter]

Tim: I want to be very, very basic with these questions I want to ask. I got three questions I want to ask and I just want you to answer them, okay? Here's the first question. I told you I'm basic. It's not deep. Question number one. Which gift is yours? Which gift is yours? When you look at this list of gifts, which one is yours? Because every single one of us has them, has one of these giftings. You have to figure out which gift belongs to you.

Here's the thing. You don't need to take a gift assessment. You don't need a number two pencil and a three-page document to bubble in some stuff to figure out what your gift is. I'm going to read you this list and something's going to dawn on you and you're going to be like, "I think that one's mine." Now, you may have more than one gift and you may need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit, "Hey, which one of these gifts really belong to me?"

I promise you, you won't need to do a test and go into a classroom to figure out what these giftings are because they're basic. There's 15 of them. Some people think they're 16 combining the two lists, but there's really 15 because prophecy is listed twice. I want to read the list of all of these giftings, explain some of them. Some of them are self-explanatory. All of these don't need no deep explanation, but some of them, I just want to give you a practical understanding of what they are, okay?

The first gift is the gift of wisdom. If you have the gift of wisdom, all that means is you know how to give wise advice. People are always calling on you to give them wise advice. Anybody has recognized that. People are always calling you, "I just need to tell you about what I'm going through," and you talk to them. At the end, you're just like, "Man, well, you probably should break up with them."

[laughter]

Tim: Then they do it and they call you back like, "You was right. That's exactly what I should have done." You helped that person not wind up in a bad marriage by just giving them some wise advice. It's a gift of wisdom. Juliette has the gift of wisdom. A lot of people call it common sense, but it's beyond common sense. You just know the right thing to do at the right time. Juliette has always been like that. Juliette gave her life to Jesus when she was nine years old.

She's always just been a wise woman. You talk to her, she's going to tell you something. You're going to be like, "Oh, I'm going to do that then." It always works out. She has a gift of wisdom. Special knowledge. Special knowledge, we also call "word of knowledge." A lot of people get the word of knowledge or special knowledge mixed up with prophecy. I'm going to go in order. A word of special knowledge means that God gives you the ability to know something you should not know. That's all it means.

God gives you a word for somebody and you know something you should not know. When you experienced it, you're like, "Yo." The person that receives it is like, "How did you know that?" You're like, "It's the Lord," right? If you've never been a part of a presbytery service, in a presbytery service, what they do is they have some candidates that they'll give prophetic words and words of knowledge to, words of special knowledge.

Also, they'll do this thing called "words in due season." Really, whoever the people are that are given these prophetic words or these words of knowledge, they'll look out into the audience. If God gives him a word for a certain person, they'll ask him to stand up and they'll give him a word of knowledge or they'll give him a prophetic word. If you've never been a part of that, it's a dynamic experience. It's very holy and very cool.

I was a presbyter at a church about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago. There were candidates that we had to give words over, but then we also did the thing where we just looked around in the crowd and started giving words. Well, the Lord hit me with something very, very unique. I'm sitting there. While these other people were given some words of special knowledge, the Holy Spirit said to me, "There's somebody in here with a tattoo of Jeremiah 29:11."

I was like, "Okay," and he was like, "I need you to get up and ask everybody who in here has a tattoo of Jeremiah 29:11." I was like, "Sir, please just don't be playing no games with me today, sir, if this is really you. Because if they don't have the tattoo, sir, there's a lot of people in here and that's a very specific word. If they don't got the tattoo, I'm going to have to say, 'So sorry. I could be wrong.'" You can be wrong. When you are, just say that. Don't make it deep, right? This is why I don't lead a lot of things I say with, "God said." I always lead it with, "I believe the Lord is saying," because it could be what I ate last night.

[laughter]

Tim: Just in case it is, I just want to get myself out. Now, some people might be like, "Oh, you're not moving in faith. You got to know when the Lord is speaking to you." Listen, there's too much humanity here for me to always know if the Lord is speaking or if Tim is in his feelings. Put your God cards away. As a matter of fact, burn your God cards and stop, "God said" in everything because people have been around you long enough to know when you said it and God said it.

[laughter]

Tim: I got up and I was like, "Hey, so there's somebody here. Is there somebody here? Do you have a tattoo of Jeremiah 29:11?" There was silence for 30 seconds. Do you know how long-

[laughter]

Tim: -30 seconds is when you have put yourself out there?

[silence]

Tim: That was 10 seconds.

[laughter]

Tim: Can you imagine 20 more seconds of-- so I'm sitting there like--

[laughter]

Tim: "Anybody?" I'll never forget a young lady from this corner over here, sheepishly raised her hand, and she said, "I got a tattoo of Jeremiah 29:11 a week ago." Then I was like, "Hallelujah."

[laughter]

Tim: Hallelujah is code name for, "Phew, thank you, Jesus. Lord have mercy." Then the Lord had a beautiful word to share with her. It was so beautiful that God loved her so much that He pulled her out of this crowd of people to give her a special word. There's a special word of knowledge. It's a gift that God gives people. Another gift is faith. Faith is a gift. We're not talking about saving faith that brings you to a relationship with Jesus. We're talking about the type of faith that you just believe God for great things. My friend Michael Todd has a gift of faith. He wrote a book called Crazy Faith. That book is legit because everything he believed God for, he has seen it come to pass because he has crazy faith.

[laughter]

Tim: "God's about to do something right now."

[laughter]

Tim: "Oh, my God. Yo, it's about to go down." I also have the gift of faith. I just don't have his gift of energy.

[laughter]

Tim: He'd be like, "I believe God's going to do it." That's how his faith manifested. My faith would just be like, "God's going to do that."

[laughter]

Tim: A gift of faith doesn't make you emotional. He just makes you sure. Oh, it's going to happen. I bet you it's going to happen. God's going to do it. I don't know how He's going to do it. I don't know when He's going to do it, but He's going to do it. I'm going to be here when He does. "That ain't going to happen. You're not going to see that come to pass." You're just sitting there just as sure as if it already happened. That's a gift of faith, okay? Another one of the spiritual gifts is healing. You can pray for people to be healed and they're healed. How do I know if I have the gift of healing? Do you pray for people and they get healed? Then you have it.

[laughter]

Tim: I told you, you didn't need no test. You can test yourself on this stuff. If you want to know if you have it or not, go pray for somebody to see if they get healed. I don't care what it is. Bunion, gout, headache, cancer. You don't have to start on no big stuff, whatever it is. Somebody got a splinter in their finger, I just believe God is going to come out in Jesus' name. It's a gift of healing.

You start exercising the gift by using it. You just start using it. See, the reason why I'm trying to teach this with such practicality is because I'm tired of the gifts being sensationalized. I'm tired of the gifts being sensationalized and I'm tired of the gifts that make it to the platform being idolized. "Did you see that gift? Oh, my God. It's stunning. I could never do that."

What Scripture clearly said, He gave a gift to all of us. It can't just be for the people on the platform. Because if it was, that would make them elite. Then what does that make you? A non-participating voyeur. From the front row to the back row, everybody in this room has a gift. Everybody watching online, you have a gift. You've always had it from the time you were born. Maybe it's just time for you to discover it and start operating in it.

Another gift is miracles. Miracles, a lot of people think that healing and miracle are two different things. No, miracles are miracles. Because miracles, you get healed from something that can be cured. A miracle is when you are healed of something, there's no way that could happen, right? There's documentation of people that have literally raised dead bodies, okay? Now, we ain't talking about dead bodies that have already gone through autopsy, been filled with embalming fluid, all their organs taken out, and lay in the casket and they get up. Because if that miracle happens-

[laughter]

Tim: -I'm going to pass out. I'm just telling you right now, there are certain miracles I'm going to need smelling salt. I might be in heaven by the time they wake up. Because if I go to a casket of a loved one and they'd be like, "Hallelujah," I'll be like [gasps].

[laughter]

Tim: I'm dead, okay? People that have been dead for hours and, in some cases, days, that didn't just happen in the Bible. That's happened in modern times as well. There was a woman in a Chinese underground church. They met in the side of a cave. Next time you complain about how bad it is in America, stop yourself. You're not going through nothing. You're going through something. Just in relation to what other people are going through around the world to profess Jesus, we ain't going through nothing. "They took prayer out of schools." Stop yourself. You don't need a law to pray in front of a school. Just go do it. They can't stop you. The moment they see your mouth moving, just stop.

[laughter]

Tim: "Still praying."

[laughter]

Tim: This woman, she was at an underground church service in the side of a cave and she only had her arm up to here. She just lifted one arm and one up praising the Lord. While she is up there praising the Lord with her full arm and this nub, it grew out. Legit grew out from here all the way out. Bone, flesh, tendons, muscles into a full hand while she's worshiping. She was like [screams].

She went around to everybody else. [screams] Here is the response of everybody else in the worship service, "Yes, yay, let's keep praising. The miracle was done so that others could believe. Now, let's keep praising God. This happened to you. It's not about you." They didn't turn her into the big advertisement for the rest of the year. "Come and see the woman whose arm has grown out," like she's some circus act, right?

The miracles are not to be sensationalized. It's to bring glory to God. That's why He gives us the opportunity to do miracles. If you want to know if you have the gift of miracles, pray for something to happen that you know cannot happen and see if it happens because you might have it. Another one of the gifts is the gift of prophecy. Prophecy is when you are given a word about something that's supposed to happen in the future and it comes to pass.

Pretty basic, right? If you give somebody a prophetic word and it comes to pass, then the person that gave you that word may have the gift of prophecy. How many people have gotten a word from the Lord through a person and it came to pass? It's a beautiful thing. How many people have gotten a word from a person and it didn't come to pass? That person's not a prophet.

[laughter]

Tim: Simple as that. I want to say something here respectfully but straightforward. Y'all know that I was paid a really dope compliment a few years ago. I didn't know it was a compliment at the time. I thought it was a slight. The more I realized, me, I was like, "Yes, that's a compliment. I'm taking it." I am irreverently reverent. I am irreverent about stuff that has nothing to do with the Lord Jesus and His Church, in church.

I kick over sacred cows all the time because if it has nothing to do with His kingdom and the advancement of it, I don't even care. I'm reverend about the things that are true to the Scripture because that's the way it is. I'm not big on titles. Everybody knows that goes to this church, I go by Tim, Juliette goes by Juliette. I am the lead pastor of this church. You don't have to keep reminding me by calling me Pastor Tim. I know it, you know it, we both know it, so Tim's fine.

I've had people say, "No, it's a sign of respect that I call you Tim." No, it's a sign of respect that you respect what my mama named me and that's Tim. "Well, you're a pastor and I just want to show honor to your position." That's fine, but pastor is a verb. It's not a noun. I am Tim and I pastor. That's it. It just describes what I do, but it's not who I am, right? If somebody says, "I'm a prophet," "Hey, no. Well, why don't you let me be the judge of that?"

[laughter]

Tim: If you say something and it comes to pass, I will be like, "You have propheted. Amen." If Michael Phelps came in this room right now, you wouldn't be like, "Swimmer Mike. Oh, my goodness, Swimmer Mike, it's so good to see you." If Usain Bolt walked in here right now, you wouldn't be like, "Runner Usain. Runner Usain. Oh man, we love to see you sprint, Runner Usain." Titles just describe what you do. They're not who you are. I've seen some prophets come through churches, "I'm a prophet," and they say stuff and it doesn't come to pass. I'm like, "Can we stone you? I'm just playing."

[laughter]

Tim: That's Old Testament. That's what you were told to do in the Old Testament if a prophetic word didn't come to pass. Pick up some rocks, "I bet you won't say it again."

[laughter]

Tim: I don't like going crazy with titles because titles just describe what you do. They are not who you are. I've seen a lot of people with great, dignified titles. Character, in the sewer. Integrity, abysmal. I like to just keep it plain. If somebody does have a prophetic gifting, we'll know it because every time you do it, it will come to pass. We don't want to put the pressure on you because I've seen some prophets. They carry that moniker. Now, everywhere they go, they feel like they have to have a word and that's when they start missing. "There's 15 people in here. They're supposed to give $10,000." It's like, "Sir, you are in the hood."

[laughter]

Tim: "If these people get $10,000, they are not putting it in this offering. They're about to catch up on their bills."

[laughter]

Tim: Prophecy is a beautiful thing. Again, it's not to be sensationalized. If it comes to pass, amen. Let it be done with that. We don't want to venerate and put people on pedestals because God used them. God is working with them and it's a beautiful thing. The next one is discernment. Discernment is a powerful, powerful gift. I love this gift.

All of them are amazing, but discernment is when you can discern whether somebody has the Spirit of God or they're operating in another spirit. This is another gift Juliette has because you can have more than one gift. Juliette has a gift of discernment. She can see through lead. Do you hear me? I love everybody. I'd be walking and be like, "Oh, my God, you're such amazing," and I'd be, "This is my wife Juliette. Oh, my God." Then afterwards, I'd be like, "Baby, ain't they cool?" She's like, "No."

[laughter]

Tim: "Something off with them," and I'm like, "Oh, my God. No, they're amazing." She was like, "No, I'm not fooling with them." Three weeks later, I'm like, "Girl, you was right."

[laughter]

Tim: Another person that has the gift of discernment is my mama, Maxine Hardy Ross. My parents, I had no idea how sophisticated and strategic they were when we were growing up until I was an adult. Because when I was a kid, my parents always had people come to our house. We could never go to their house. All our friends had to come to our house. My dad got cable when it was first invented. We had WWF, the first WrestleMania when Hulk Hogan body-slammed André the Giant. Gen-X, stand up. Do you remember that? He would get 12 boxes of pizza and all of our friends would come over. I had no clue at the time that this entire thing was set up so my mom could walk through the living room.

[laughter]

Tim: After it was all over, everybody left, then my mom come to us. We just, "Oh, my God, that was a great party," and my mom walked to us, "Who is Chad?"

[laughter]

Tim: I was like, "Mama, he just goes to our school. It's just a homie from down the street." "He can't come back in here no more. God showed me."

[laughter]

Tim: "I don't want him in my house no more." "Mama, you're being so mean." "He can't come back in here. Chad has a foul spirit."

[laughter]

Tim: Three months later, Chad got arrested for selling dope. "Mama, you was right. You was right. Chad was selling crack. I had no idea. I didn't even know he had crack when he was over here. I had no idea, Jesus." The gift of discernment lets you know if something is from the Lord. Before I got saved, I remember being at clubs. This is part of me being an empath, but it's part of discernment as well. I'd be in the club and I sensed when the atmosphere changed. I am not saved. I'm there for it. We're getting it.

[laughter]

Tim: We're doing the whole thing. Popping it, all the things, dropping it, locking it, all of it, and then I'd be like, "We got to go." They're like, "What's that? We just got here 45 minutes ago." I'm like, "Hey, bro, we got to go." Every time we left, club got shot up, fight broke out. "Oh man, fight broke out. Two dudes got stabbed." "Oh." "Was y'all at that place?" "We was."

[laughter]

Tim: Then I left. Next one, unknown languages. Now, this is not, necessarily, a heavenly language, but this is an unknown language that may be heavenly and a message for the church or it may be a known language that the person that is speaking it does not know at the time. I've covered this in the past. I have a friend that's from Boston, the inner city of Boston, that went on a mission trip to Brazil.

As soon as he got off the plane, God gave him the Portuguese language. He understood it, then he started talking it. He thought he was talking English. He was talking full correct pronunciation of the Portuguese language. The Lord just gave him the language. An unknown language that is given is a special message from heaven to His church for the encouragement of the church. It's an association with the next spiritual gift, which is interpretations.

The interpretation gift is somebody is hearing this unknown, heavenly language being spoken, and they can interpret that language into a dialect that people can understand who heard the unknown language. It brings edification, it brings encouragement, and it brings comfort to those that heard it. Has anybody ever been in a service where there was an unknown language being spoken and then an interpretation being spoken? If you've ever been in that type of service, it's one of the most beautiful things that you can ever experience in your whole life, pero-

[laughter]

Tim: -if you are in a service where somebody gets up and starts speaking in an unknown language and there is no interpretation, it's one of the most confusing, chaotic things that has ever happened in your whole life because, at the end of it, the person is just like [gasps]. There's no interpretation coming. The whole service is kind of off. All the attention is on the individual and then they're just like--

[laughter]

Tim: That's random. Why does He give these gifts of unknown language and interpretation? Again, because He wants to communicate to His body and let them know how much He loves Him, or sometimes it could be a correction or sometimes it could be a warning, a preparation, but prophecy is always given. The unknown languages are always given for encouragement, edification, and comfort.

Say that with me. Encouragement, edification, and comfort. One more time. Encouragement, edification, and comfort. If you receive a special word of knowledge or a prophetic word or you hear an unknown language that's interpreted and you cannot classify it as encouraging, edifying, or comforting, it does not come from the Spirit of God. I have been at some church services with some mean prophets. "Thus said the Lord, y'all about to bust hell wide open."

[laughter]

Tim: You're just sitting there like, "My dad in heaven just told you to tell me I'm going to bust hell wide open?"

[laughter]

Tim: "When He put his Son on the cross to spare me from this devastating act of eternity disconnected from Him and His hot message from heaven given to you with sweat pouring down your face and the angriest look on your face is, 'You're going to bust hell wide open,' I do not receive this, sir."

[laughter]

Tim: Because sometimes the communicator of the message with the gift can be so bitter that because they haven't dealt with their own trauma and their own soul, they can't hear daddy talking to them without hearing their own daddy talking to them. I felt that. Here's how a loving message of the same kind would be said, "Thus said the Lord, the God of the universe and that who created you is also your dad."

"He loves you so much that He does not want to be and spend another minute without having a relationship with you. It is breaking His heart that He is disconnected from you. He would love nothing more than to be reunited with you by you placing your faith and your trust in Him. For without that, the worst hell that you could ever experience is to be disconnected from your dad for eternity." Much better than, "You're going to bust hell wide open." Agreed?

Congregation: Agreed.

Tim: It has to be encouraging, has to be edifying, has to be comforting. The next gift is serving. That's a gift. You got the gift to serve? Oh, I have the gift to serve. That's the only way I see my gift of preaching is I could iron your clothes or preach, it don't matter to me. I'm being very, very honest with you. In the 26 years that I've been a believer in Jesus Christ, I have wrapped for Jesus. I've done mine for Jesus. I've greeted at the door for Jesus. I have done spoken word for Jesus. Craig knows.

I have done human video for Jesus. I have written for Jesus. I have done blogs for Jesus. I have preached for Jesus. I have taught for Jesus. If I do one more, I'm going to drop this mic. I have done all these things because I'm just a servant. I can lose my voice this afternoon and never preach again. I'll still be serving in the kingdom. I was made to do this. I used to greet at a door when I was a youth volunteer and more traffic came through my door than any other door to get into the church. That wasn't the only door to get into the church, but everybody was coming through my door. You know why? I was hugging everybody. "How are you doing? Yes."

[laughter]

Tim: "Yes, yes. Girl, I ain't seen you in four weeks. Where have you been? Okay. Yes."

[laughter]

Tim: Because I'm just a servant. When you see all of these giftings as just serving with the gifts, you won't get big-headed. You won't become a narcissist. You won't be walking around like, "Yes, I got it, you don't." No, we all got something and we're all supposed to use it. Gift of teaching. It's a spiritual gifting. The gift of teaching. If you have the gift of teaching, teach. Again, everything is not for the platform. If you're a teacher, you teach.

I had a guy come to me a few years ago and he became a young adult pastor and he said, "I'm really nervous about giving my sermon because I've only preached eight times." I said, "How is it that you're a preacher and you've only preached eight times?" He said, "Well, I've only had eight opportunities to preach." I said, "In public?" He said, "Yes." I said, "You practice on people?" He said, "Huh?" I said, "That's malpractice. I don't want you practicing on me."

"If you're called to preach, you should be preaching to yourself, by yourself over and over and over again. As a matter of fact, the first time you preached your first message, it should be like the 10th or 11th time you've preached it. It may be the first time that they've heard it, but it should be the fifth, sixth, seventh time, eighth time that you've preached it. Why? Because preachers preach, teachers teach, painters paint, players play, fishermen fish, writers write."

"You don't wait for somebody to notice. You just start doing it. If you got a passion to teach and preach, it should be like fire shut up in your bones. If you're looking for an audience, you're doing this for the wrong reason. By the time the audience comes, if you don't have this on the inside of you, I don't want you practicing on me." "Well, I haven't done this much, but--" There was nobody playing in the Super Bowl that just ran that route on that day."

[laughter]

Tim: I'm serious about that. Encouragement is a gift. Encouraging is a gift. I'm glad you said something, because this girl right here is a walking ball of encouragement. You are. Jolise is a walking ball-- If you ever get it within a three-foot radius of Jolise and you can't smile, you're dead inside, because that girl is just like [exclaims]. That's why the kids upstairs love her and the adults down here do, too.

Because when you have a gift of encouragement, you're just like, "Oh, my goodness. Every time I get around this person, they put courage on the inside of me." That's what encouragement means. Encouragement is not flattery. "You look so good. You smell so good. You act so good. You walk so good. You talk so good. You do so good." That's flattery. Flattery don't help nobody, but encouragement. You feel like you're not going to make it and somebody comes and puts courage on the inside of you. "You're going to make it through this day." "What? I am?" "Yes, you are. You're not going to die like this."

God's put someone on the inside of you, I guarantee you, by this time next week, you will not be feeling the same way. You better get yourself up. God has something for you. There's a purpose and a destiny on the inside of you. Get up. That's encouragement. Put courage on the inside of somebody. We have so many cynical people, so many negative people. We need some people that's going to put courage on the inside of somebody. It's just good.

Giving. Giving is a spiritual gift. Scripture said it. We read it in Romans Chapter 12. "If your gift is to give, give generously." I am a giver. I have the gift of giving. I've had the gift of giving when I had a little money in my bank account. I have the gift of giving even though I got a little bit more money in my bank account. I can give. It's a competition to me. When I give, it's a dopamine hit. I give to people, I'd be like, "Woah. Thank you, Jesus."

I love giving. I am a giver of resources, of time, of money. Whatever I have, if it's in my power, I give it. The only time I will not give, the fastest way to lock up my gift of giving is for you to feel like I'm obligated to give to you. You'd shut down in a minute. [chuckles] I feel that even as I'm saying that. You want to lock up a giver, tell them they have to. They'll be like, "No." That well just went dry.

Now, listen. All of these giftings are given, why? So we can help each other, right? Which means that all of these giftings, if used with a perverted spirit will be manipulative. If your gift of giving is coming through an impure heart and motive, then that gift has strings attached. If your gift of prophecy comes through an impure heart with impure motives, then you'll use it to manipulate people to get them to do something you want them to do, but when you have a pure heart, it'll be used in a pure way.

Lastly, there's the gift of leadership. I don't need to explain that one. There's certain people that have a gift that people just follow them. They look up and people are just following them. They didn't even ask them to follow them, they just following them. There's just something on you I just feel I can learn from and I want to be around you. That's not the last one, that's the second to the last one.

There's leadership, and then this last one, again, basic, is kindness. Did you know that that was gift? It is a gift to be kind, because when you're kind you can be kind to people that deserve it and people that don't deserve it. That's when you know you're operating in a gift, because you have a grace to do something that other people are like, "I could never be nice to that person." A gift of kindness, I just pray everybody gets that gift. Even though the Lord distributes them all, I pray that everybody gets the gift to kindness because our world needs that.

Just be nice. Most people expect interactions with other people to just be rude. When you are kind, they're shocked. I can't tell you how many upgrades me and Juliet have gotten at hotels just because we were nice to the receptionist. We walked in, we look right at their name tag and we were like, "Hi, Sonya. How are you doing? We are the Rosses. We're checking in for three nights." Because Juliet and I do that all the time. We get away from them kids and it ain't around anniversary. It's just random. On a Thursday, we out. You got some food in the fridge, we out. Call us, we will Uber Eats y'all something to the house, we out.

We'll get to the hotel, "Hi, Sonya. It's so good to see you today." They're like, "Oh, my God. Thank you for saying my name. No one said my name." "How come they haven't said your name, Sonya? Your name is beautiful." "Oh, my goodness. Yes." Then she's like, "You know what, let me just see. I've just upgraded you to a suite." "Sonya. Oh, my goodness. That's so nice. You're so sweet."

Then she's like, "Everybody that comes in here is so bougie, they're so stuck up." I'm like, "Why would they be stuck up?" "They think they're better than us." "They think they're better than us?" "They think they're better than everybody." "Sonya, I'm so sorry to hear that. I love you." You know what? I found a villa. I know it's only two of y'all, it's 1,800 square feet. Knock yourselves out. Lay in the floor if you want to." "Sonya."

Kindness goes a long way. I dare you to use somebody's name. I'm talking about this at a practical level. I order Uber Eats, as soon as the person picks it up, I text them, "Jose, thank you so much for picking up my order. I truly appreciate you." "Oh, my goodness. My pleasure, man. I'll be there in four minutes." "I know, man. It's Mooyah Burger, it's around the corner, I didn't feel like leaving. I got on a onesie." I did just be kind to strangers. Just be kind to them and you'll see something happen. Let me give you these two follow-up questions that I have, and then we out. Y'all good?

Congregation: Yes.

Tim: Point number two. Please write this down. Who are you helping? You've got one of these giftings. The list is up there. Wisdom, special knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, unknown languages, interpretation, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, kindness. Who are you helping? Because remember, it doesn't belong to you, it belongs to us.

I have the gift to speak. I have the gift to teach. It's not my gift. It's in my body, but it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to us. I actually can't go where I want to with it, I always got to ask the Holy Spirit where he wants me to be with it. I get invited to preach all around the world. We say no way more than we say yes, but the things we say yes to is because we've prayed about it.

Am I in relationship with these people? God, even if I am in relationship with these people, is this a season that you want my gift to be there? You gave me this gift, but it doesn't belong to me. It's your gift in my body. I can't be stingy with it. Where do you want me to go with it? I have preached to thousands of people, thousands and thousands of people, and I still preach to dozens of people.

26 years in ministry, it makes me-- No, never mind. If the conference has 27,000 people or 27 people. Fact check. Eunice will tell you. That's my executive administrator. She gets me all around the world. Don't ever ask me where I'm going be, ask her because I don't know. She literally runs my life. It does not matter to me if the church has 150,000 people and a million people following them on Instagram, or if it has 150 people and 4 people following them on Instagram. If God wants me to be there, I'm going to be there, because the gift does not belong to me. It's in me, it belongs to us. I go where He tells me to go with his gift it in my body.

Congregation: Amen.

Tim: Who are you helping? Are you only helping if they pay you? Are you only helping if it's going to be on platform? Well, my gift is [unintelligible 00:49:33]. I have heard some crazy where people are walking around with a gift on the inside of their body that they did not give themselves. Well, I have a mainstage gift. What does that even mean? I don't even know what that means, man. You're about to get punched in the mouth. I don't know what that means. What are you talking about? "I have a mainstage gift. I have a conference anointing." What is a conference anointing? "Sir? Sir?"

I was in a major conference one year, this dude walked in with 15 people in entourage. I'm talking deep. I didn't know if this was about to be a boxing match or an urban rap league rap battle. This joker walked in. "About to crush." Crush what? Why are you so violent? Why you rough, man? You walked in here rough. "About to tear the roof off the place." That's exactly what you're going to do. You're going to tear the roof off the place, but not even one yoke will be destroyed, and not one chain will be broken, because you think it's all about you instead of all about Him.

This dude walked in and he said-- Remember, he got 15 people with him. Flew in from another state, got to the green room and said, "I need some peppermint tea." Conference host panicked because they had all kinds of refreshments in there for the speaker, but nobody had peppermint tea. He didn't mention peppermint tea until he got in the greenroom.

Everybody panicked. [exclaims] "The speaker is about to speak, he needs peppermint tea." Somebody runs down the hall. [imitates running] I'm standing in the hall, they run straight into me.

They were like, [gasping]. I said, "What's the problem? What's the problem?" He said, "Our speaker needs peppermint tea." I said, "He needs peppermint tea for what?" "He said he needs peppermint tea before he speaks." I said, "Isn't 15 people working with him? None of them knew he needed peppermint tea? When he left the state he lived in, knowing that peppermint tea was essential to him being able to communicate God's word effectively, he didn't bring his own peppermint tea?"

I reached in my pocket, pulled out a peppermint. I'm talking about that old-school white with red striped peppermint in plastic twisty. I pulled out one singular peppermint. I put it in the host's hand. I said, "Go make some hot water and drop this peppermint into the water. Give it to him." I said, "If he don't take it, I'm preaching the session." You know what happened? Him preached that message.

[laughter]

Tim: Without him peppermint tea. Do you know how bougie people have gotten? Because they actually think they're the gift coming to the conference.

[applause]

Tim: "I'm the dude. The psalmist has arrived. God's presence will permeate the place because I'm singing tonight." Nothing's going to happen. Your ego's going to permeate the place. "You're gonna get a real word tonight because I'm preaching." No, no, no. Do you know how indispensable you are? I did tell you that everybody's got a gift from the front row to the row.

If I dropped dead today, somebody will preach next week. Y'all will cry, you should because I'm dead. I won't be crying. I'm in heaven. He's going to wipe every tear from my eye. I won't be thinking about y'all until y'all get there. I promise you, I won't. I'll be talking to my brother, Miles, who preceded me and death, and my grandma, and my grandpa, and I'll be having a whole party. When you all get there, I'm going to be like, "When did you get here? Did you die on stage like I did?" That's so morbid. I'm so sorry.

I'm telling you, don't ever think that you are God's gift. I don't mean this as a threat or anything ugly. We can be replaced so quickly. I'm doing this because God wants me to do it. The moment He tells me to stop, I'm going to stop. I promise you, whenever the Lord tells me, "Don't pastor this church more," I'm going to be like, "Why?" Then I'm going to be like, "Yes, sir." Because I never want to do anything a day after He tells me to stop.

[applause]

Tim: Listen, I'm trying to produce a culture of believers that exercise the giftings that God gave them with all humility. This is not about us, this is not about me. The weekend is not The Tim Show. The most important part of the weekend is the altar call. Did anybody come to Jesus? People that are far, I want them to come near. People that are near, I want them to come closer.

That's the goal of this church, of setting the world with the message, love and hope of Jesus Christ. It's not about us showcasing and displaying our gifts, it's about us giving God an expression of our praise, serving each other so that we can grow in the knowledge of our relationship with God. Last question I want to ask and then I'm done. Is this good to anybody?

Congregation: Yes.

Tim: Okay, good. Last question I want to ask, and if this question feels like you're getting popped on your hiney, deal with that. I want to say this with as much love and pastoral grace as I can without being manipulative, but very serious. Question number three, please write this down. Are you helping here? Are you helping here? If God's called you to Embassy City Church, Ciudad de Embajado. 

If he's called you to this church for you to be a resident of our community, I don't want you to rob us of the gift God gave you. I don't want the gift God gave you to be dormant in the house. Whether we empower that gift to be used in a way that people can see it, or used in a way that people don't see it, or blessed and released so other people can see it, I just want to know, are you doing something with that gift here.

I have been in church for 46 years, I've been a participant in church for 26 years, I have never served and I've never been in any church where I did not serve with the gifts God gave me. They had to go somewhere. Even if it didn't match what I really felt like I was called to do, I still had to serve somewhere. I was a door greeter because they wouldn't let me speak. They were like, "You can't speak until you get credentialed and all that kind of stuff," so I just went to the door. It wasn't like, "Well, I have a platform anointing." Let me tell you something. People get so deep with church stuff, they start making up anointings. I can't even list those in the Bible. Where is the platform anointing in scripture Nowhere.

I served, I did door greeting. I always have people in our house. We're always praying for people. I'm always serving counsel people. Wherever God wants me to do, there's been no part of my life that I haven't been doing something for the Lord. I don't want you to sit on your gifting. There's nothing more dynamic than a church that is alive with the power of the Holy Spirit and people are using their gifting to help each other out.

While I'm just greeting at the door, do you know what that smile is doing to a person that's coming to sit down? I'm just helping people find a seat. Do you know what that's doing to a person that has gone through one of the craziest weeks of their life? Well, I have on the neon vest and I'm just helping people park their cars. Do you know you're helping somebody not get hit by one?

Every single gift is important. If we would just ask the Holy Spirit, "Which one of these is mine? Did you give me wisdom? Did you give me special knowledge? Did you give me faith? Did give me healing? Did you give me miracles? Did you give me prophecy? Discernment, unknown languages interpretation, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, kindness? Holy Spirit, which one is mine?" That's one of the questions you should ask the Lord, "Which one of these is mine?" Now here's the reason why I'm asking you to ask Him, because you don't get to pick. "You know what, I think I'm going to take prophecy."

[laughter]

Tim: "That one gets a lot of attention. I'm going take leading too because I like having some followers. I'm going to go ahead and take from my third one, discernment, because I do want to see what everybody's doing."

[laughter]

Tim: You don't get to choose. Right? If you ask Him, He'll make it very, very clear you have wisdom. You don't even know you have wisdom. People confide in you because they can trust you. Just be comfortable with it. Don't be intimidated by it, don't be big-headed with it. Just serve. Power for a ministry is so that we can help each other become better at being believers in Jesus Christ.

All right. That's it. That's my whole message, all right? Would you all please bow your heads, close your eyes? Let me pray over you real quick. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? My hope and my prayer is that whatever He says, you will do. Whatever He shows you, you will lean into, and that you just say, "Lord, if you call me to teach, I'll just start teaching right where I am.

If you give me the gift of healing, I'll start praying for the people around me. I don't have to have a healing crusade, and pitch a tent, and make flyers. If I can lay hands on my mama and she'd get better, and my kids and they'd get better, myself and I get better, I'll be all good." If I can help some co-workers with this, because it's not just for believers, it's for the whole world. If I can put some encouragement in some people, I want to be able to do it.

God, I thank you so much for my brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters. Thank you for the opportunity that you have given us from the front row to the back row, back row to the front row, all the way online and around the world. You've given us a gift. Holy Spirit, would you help us identify those gifts so that they can be used for us to help other people, not for our credit, all for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. I love you guys so much. Have a great week.