A Spiritual Checkup | 1 Corinthians 12

Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? Good to see you. I hope all is well. For those who have been on spring break, I hope it has been a good week. If this is your first time ever with us, thank you for trusting us with your Sunday morning. I hope this place feels like home quickly. We're about to jump into studying the Word of God. We believe that every time we open up this book we have an opportunity to hear from the living God. So I want to invite you right now. Let's pray, and let's ask God to speak to us.

I just want to invite you, personally, to take a moment and pray and say, "God, would you speak to my heart this morning?" Then would you pray for the people around you, the other people in this room? Would you pray that God would speak to your family, to your friends, and to the other people in the room today? Then would you pray for me that God would speak through me to you today?

Lord, we give today to you. We pray that you'd be honored and glorified. Thank you that you've given us your Word so we can hear from you. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen.

When I was in college, right around 19 or 20 years old, I came home to Dallas to go to a dentist appointment. I have a low-level anxiety when it comes to going to the dentist. I think it's because of the experience I'm about to tell you about. I went to the dentist, and I went through all of the normal hoops. The dental hygienist cleaned my teeth. They took x-rays, and then there was the final examination by the dentist where he comes in, and he has that little circular mirror and that poking device, and he begins to look around and poke on different places.

Then he gave me his assessment, and here's what he informed me of. He informed me that I had cavities. I was like, "All right. What are we talking here? Two? Three?" He was like, "You have 11 cavities." Eleven! That's double digits in cavities. I can feel the judgment in this room. I feel it. I know you're like, "What? You just stopped caring altogether, didn't you? You just totally phoned it in. In the morning and the evening, you were just like, 'Nope. Not gonna do it.'" No, that's not what was happening.

Eleven cavities. It was enough for me to be like, "I need a second opinion. I'm not going to take that as truth." So I went to see a different dentist, and the great news is that that dentist told me I only had six cavities. Six sounds a lot better than 11, doesn't it? If I had led with six, you would have been like, "That's a lot of cavities," but since I started with 11, now you're like, "You know what? Six isn't that bad. That's a lot better than 11."

Here's the deal. I didn't go in to the dentist because my teeth were hurting. I didn't go because I sensed something was wrong and I needed to get checked out. No. I was just going in for a normal routine checkup. Even the dental hygienist was like, "Your teeth are so white, if they were any whiter you could read in the dark." I was like, "Thank you very much."

So I was like, "I think things are good." It wasn't until the dentist got in there and started looking around and looked at the x-rays that he was able to assess, "No, there is actually something wrong. There's plaque buildup. There's some decay you don't even know about, but if you don't address it, this is not going to go well for you."

Come to find out, all of the cavities were between my teeth because I wasn't flossing. Now flossing is one of my hobbies. I have floss in my car. I have floss in my bag. I have floss on the table next to where I work. I floss multiple times a day. I love to floss, because I want to be healthy.

I tell you all that just to say, as we step into God's Word, today is going to feel a little bit like a spiritual checkup. We're going to, in some ways, tilt the chair back and turn that bright light on, and we're going to get out that little circular spiritual mirror and that poking device, and we're going to begin to look around the teeth of our lives and our church and answer the question…Is Watermark Community Church a healthy church?

We just need to see if there's any spiritual plaque that has built up or any decay that's happening. We don't want to just be people who look around and think, "Well, you know what? The room is pretty full, so I think things are going well. If you look at the kids' faces when they're leaving, the majority of them aren't mad. They seem to be fine. Not all of them, but most of them. So I think we're doing a pretty good job." No, we want to know… If there's something that needs to be addressed, we want to address it.

We've been in this series that we're calling A Spirit-Led Church. We've been talking about the Holy Spirit. No series on the Holy Spirit would be complete without talking about the spiritual gifts. Some of y'all are like, "Finally. That's where I wanted you to start. When you told us we were talking about the Spirit, all I wanted to know was where this church is going to stand on things like tongues and prophecy and healing." Well, you came to the right place, and you should come back next week when we talk about that.

No series on the Spirit would be complete without talking about the spiritual gifts. Now, you're like, "What does that have to do with assessing the health of the church?" What you need to know is, as we look into 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, it's the most robust passage in the Bible on spiritual gifts. So, this talk today is going to be all about spiritual gifts, but what you need to understand is there was a lot of dysfunction going on in the church in Corinth.

One of the reasons Paul knew the church was dysfunctional was because of how they were using or abusing spiritual gifts. They had kind of separated out into varsity and JV. If you were speaking in tongues, you were on the varsity team. If you had something like helping or mercy, it was JV. So, Paul is writing in 1 Corinthians 12 to talk about spiritual gifts, but what he's really doing is assessing the health of the church.

So, as we talk about spiritual gifts this morning, what we are going to do is really, in a sense, assess the health of our church. If you were here two weeks ago, we asked the question…Is there a spiritual power outage here? It's very similar. These two talks go together. They could actually be one really long talk if you combined them together. What we're trying to do is assess, "Are we everything God wants us to be?"

So, this morning, I want us to answer three questions together. These three questions are meant to be asked and answered by you on an individual basis, but they are meant to be asked and answered on a collective basis. Here are the questions. First, is Jesus Lord at Watermark? Second, are the Spirit's gifts being deployed at Watermark? Then, finally, is every member all in at Watermark? That's what we're going to talk about today. If you're not with me yet in 1 Corinthians 12, I'll invite you to get there.

1. Is Jesus Lord at Watermark? The reason we're asking that question is because of how Paul starts. He says in verse 1, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says 'Jesus is accursed!' and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit."

Do you understand Paul's point? He's saying, "Guys, remember when you were pagans. When you were pagans, you weren't free; you were enslaved. You were under the influence. You were led astray. You were in bondage to false idols, but now that you have put your trust in Jesus Christ… You've realized you're a sinner in need of a Savior. When you put your trust in Christ, God put his Spirit inside of you, and it is only because of the Spirit inside of you that you are actually able to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord."

So, the question we're starting with is…Is Jesus Lord at Watermark? It makes no sense for us to talk about spiritual gifts if the Spirit who supplies the gifts isn't first in us. That's what happens when you know Jesus. Jesus puts his Spirit inside of you. The result is that you live surrendered to Jesus Christ as Lord. Here's what I want you to know. Here at Watermark, we have no other agenda than to exalt Jesus Christ as Lord. That's our sole agenda.

The only reason we exist and the only reason we keep showing up every Sunday and gathering together is to exalt Jesus Christ as Lord. For some of y'all, that doesn't sit well, because you're like, "Well, I want you to have more agendas. Watermark should be about making marriages better" or "Watermark should take a stand in a culture that's on a moral landslide." I would say, "Absolutely," but all of that is pointless if Jesus Christ is not exalted as Lord.

When Christ is exalted as Lord in your life, just watch how much different your marriage will be. When Christ is Lord, watch how you parent differently. When Christ is Lord, just watch how you will stand up for what is right and how you will not just stand up for it and speak with your mouth, but you will show an unbelieving world where truth is really found. Christ must be Lord here at Watermark, and there is no other agenda.

If you're a believer, I want you to listen to what I'm about to say and evaluate if this is what you believe. If you're not a Christian, I want you to know this is why we do this every single Sunday. We're not here to just try to be better people. We are here because we are wholly convinced that Jesus Christ is more. "More what? Finish your sentence. It felt like you just stopped there." No. We just believe Jesus Christ is more.

"More what?" Well, more everything. You fill in the blank. More beautiful, more powerful, more captivating, more forgiving, more capable of healing, more satisfying than anything else we could ever come across or discover in this world. We believe Jesus Christ is always more, and because he is always more, then we gather together because we want to experience him more and more and more. We are excited about spending the rest of our lives here on earth excavating the depths of the beauty of Jesus Christ.

Because we believe Jesus Christ is more, we want to be all about him here. We want to consistently toss him the keys and just say, "You drive. Wherever you want to go, that's where we want to go. Whatever you want to do, that's what we want to do." We want the name of Jesus coming off the lips of preschoolers and middle schoolers and high schoolers and college students and young adults more and more and more here at Watermark Community Church.

We want the name of Jesus to be the name by which we believe healing from sin and healing in the midst of broken marriages actually occurs. It's Jesus. Here at Watermark, we want to be all about Jesus. We want Jesus to be Lord at Watermark. Do you know where it starts? It starts in our lives individually. So I invite you to evaluate. Is Jesus Christ Lord in your life? Are you living with Jesus just as your Savior or is he your Savior and your King? What do kings do? Kings rule. They reign.

We've talked about it in these terms before, but I want to invite you to evaluate right now. Is Jesus Christ preeminent, significant, or irrelevant in your life? When I say, "Is Jesus Christ preeminent?" what does that word mean? It just means he takes first place. Does Jesus take first place in your life? If he takes first place, there is only one thing that sits at the top of your life.

Maybe Jesus is significant. You hear that, and you're like, "Well, that's a good thing. For Jesus to be significant, that sounds like I'm right where I want to be." For Jesus to be significant is for him to be a part of your life, and he's a part of your week. That's a good thing, but here's the reality: a lot of different things can be significant in your life at the same time. Exercising can be significant to you. Working hard can be significant to you. Parenting really well can be significant to you.

All of those are good things, but I'm asking you… What is the one thing that is above every other thing? So, maybe Jesus is significant or maybe, if you're honest, he's irrelevant. The only time Jesus has any relevance to your life is right now. It's during the hour and a half that you're on this campus on Sundays. Otherwise, there are no touch points, and there's really no need for you to be connected to him. Just evaluate.

If you're sitting there saying, "You know what? He's significant, but not preeminent," that's great that you realize that. Right now, just invite him in. Say, "Christ, you take first place in my life." If he's irrelevant, right now… Don't let another second pass by. Just say, "Jesus Christ, you have the right to rule in my life. I want you to be my Savior. I want you to be my King."

If you're not a Christian or if you're just checking things out here, I want to make sure you know what we believe. We believe Jesus Christ was crucified like a criminal for your sins and for mine, but when he rose from the grave on the third day, he rose as a victorious and conquering king. Because of what he has done, conquering Satan, sin, and death for you and for me, we believe he is now the King who is above all kings, and he has every right to rule and reign in every area of our lives. Jesus Christ is Lord.

2. Are the Spirit's gifts being deployed at Watermark? Look back at chapter 12. Let's look at what Paul says, starting again in verse 1. "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed." Great. Here's a good question: Are you informed or uninformed when it comes to spiritual gifts?

When I say the phrase spiritual gifts, what comes to mind? If the only thing you think about are tongues, prophecy, and healing, it's too narrow of an understanding of spiritual gifts. If you think I'm talking about just natural talents or wiring you have, then I'm going to invite you to try to figure out how to glorify God with those things. That's not exactly what I'm talking about. We are talking about spiritual gifts.

Paul goes on in verse 4. Listen to what he says. "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."

When we talk about spiritual gifts, I want to be very clear on what I'm talking about. I want to give you Tom Schreiner's… He's one of my favorite New Testament scholars. This is his definition for spiritual gifts. He says spiritual gifts are "gifts of grace granted by the Holy Spirit that are designed for the edification of the church."

So, when we talk about spiritual gifts, we're not just talking about natural talents or wiring, even though these might work in tandem with your spiritual gifts. What we are talking about are abilities that have been given as unearned, undeserved gifts, and they were given to you only after you became a Christian. So, if you're not a Christian, you don't have spiritual gifts yet.

These are gifts that have been given to you once you put your trust in Christ. They're unearned and undeserved. They are just gifts out of the overflow of God's grace in your life. These are abilities that are activated by the Holy Spirit for the specific purposes of serving, strengthening, and improving the church.

So, here's what I need you to understand about spiritual gifts. The first thing I need you to understand is that every believer in Jesus Christ has at least one gift. Did you see what Paul said in verse 7? "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit…" To each. You're included in that each. No one has been overlooked. No one has been passed by.

God didn't forget about anyone. He has given every single believer at least one gift for the specific purposes of serving, strengthening, and improving the church. But here's the reality. The Spirit's gifts can't be deployed in the church if the gifts haven't first been discovered. So, my question to you is…Do you know what your spiritual gift or gifts are? If not, I want to help you right now.

When you look in the Scriptures, there are multiple passages that give different lists of the gifts. There's no one passage that is an exhaustive list of the gifts, and even if we put all of the passages together, we probably still don't have an exhaustive list. I want to rattle off 14 right now. Some of y'all are like, "Oh, please no. How late are we going to be here today?" A long time. No, I'm just kidding. I'm going to roll through 14, and this isn't even going to include all of them, because we're going to get to others next week.

What I want you to know is if you try to write down these definitions that are going to be on the screen, you will fail. I'm just telling you. So don't try it. You can always go back and listen to the message. You can take screenshots of them if you want, but let me roll through them. Before I do, I want to give you a second to pray and say, "God, by the power of your Spirit, would you show me…? Would you help me to know what gifts you have given to me?" Just pray that really quickly.

Lord, help us. Show us how you have wired and gifted us to serve your church. Amen.

The first gift is leadership. Leadership is the ability to provide the church with vision, direction, and oversight so that the church may fulfill its purpose. The second gift is administration. The word in the Greek is used of a pilot or a captain of a boat. It's the ability to help steer the church toward the fulfillment of the purpose.

Leadership and administration kind of go hand in hand. One source said leadership is kind of like the owner of the boat and administration is like the captain of the boat. The owner of the boat determines the destination. The captain of the boat, the administrator, determines how they're going to get to the destination.

Next, the gift of teaching is the ability to understand, explain, and instruct from the Word of God. The gift of knowledge is closely associated with the gift of teaching. Some believe it's actually just a synonym for the gift of teaching, but it's an exceptional ability to understand the deep things of God as revealed in his Word, combined with an ability to share them with others.

The gift of wisdom is also closely associated with the gift of teaching. It's the ability to skillfully apply the Word of God to life's situations and specific needs arising in the church. The gift of discernment is the ability to distinguish between what is true and what is false. It's the ability to discern between truth and untruth. Some refer to this gift as the gift of distinguishing of spirits. It's to know what's from God and what's from the Deceiver.

The gift of exhortation or encouragement. We are all meant to encourage one another, but some people have a unique ability to build up and strengthen those who are weak in faith or in need of comfort or correction. The gift of shepherding or pastoring is a special ability for those holding the office of pastor or elder to care for, protect, and cultivate the spiritual well-being of people in the church.

The gift of faith. To be clear, we're not talking about saving faith, because every believer in Jesus has saving faith. We're talking about an unordinary and unshakeable confidence in the sovereignty, power, and promises of God and an expectancy that he's going to move even if it seems impossible. Then there's the gift of evangelism. We're all called to share our faith, yet some people are given the gift of evangelism, which means they have a special ability to winsomely and effortlessly communicate the message of the gospel to nonbelievers.

The gift of apostleship, in a strict sense, is a gift that was only for those who saw the risen Christ and were commissioned by him, so the gift of apostleship is technically not on the table any longer today. It was limited to the twelve apostles and a handful of others. But in a less strict sense, this gift can refer to a person who has a unique ability to take the gospel to places it has not yet gone.

The gift of helping or service is an exceptional ability to identify and meet practical needs in the body so that others are free to minister to others with their gifts and the mission of the church is advanced. The gift of mercy is a special capacity to demonstrate deep compassion and sensitivity toward those who are suffering. The gift of giving. We're all called to give to what God is doing here at Watermark, yet some have the gift of giving, which is a remarkable tendency to share your resources with pleasure for the benefit of others and without the need to see them return.

So just think. Did one or a few of those resonate with you as you heard me sharing them? If so, if something kind of jumped out at you or stuck with you, it's possible that might be your spiritual gift or your spiritual gifts. So, if you're beginning to identify what your gift is, then I need you to know something else. Did you see how verse 7 continued? It said, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."

The other thing I need you to know is gifts exist for the common good. Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter 4:10: "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace…" The reason God, in his kindness, has put his Spirit in you and given you a gift of the Spirit is for you to serve, strengthen, and improve the church.

If the greatest beneficiary of your spiritual gift is you, something is going terribly wrong. God has not given you that gift for you. He gave it to you for a specific purpose for you to play a key role at the church you're a member of. So, if you're a member here at Watermark, God intends for you to use your gift to make this place stronger and healthier.

Now, this is the part in the routine exam when the dentist has that little circular mirror and that poking device, and he's kind of poking around, and then he lands on one spot, and then he taps on it a little bit more, and you're like, "Yeah, I'd like for you to stop doing that," because it's deeply sensitive. It hurts. You don't like it, yet he keeps pushing.

It's like, "What are we doing here? I'm paying you to do this. This is all sorts of crazy that I'm going to pay for this type of treatment." What's happening is he is identifying a spot where something needs to be addressed. There's something unhealthy. This is that moment. Get excited. I'm going to start pressing on an area, and some of y'all are going to be like, "I want you to stop that." That's okay, because I'm going to keep going.

There was a time where it was communicated that serving is no longer a requirement for membership here at Watermark, so word got out. People took that, and they heard, "Serving is no longer a requirement for membership at Watermark." So, what do you think happened in the area of serving? It declined. Now we find ourselves in this really interesting space where we are turning children away from our children's ministries because we don't have enough people serving to accommodate all of the kids who are coming.

We're turning away patients from Watermark Health because we don't have enough people serving. We have people waiting to get into groups at re:generation because we need more leaders. We have Community Groups that need to be launched, and we need more people who are serving in the role of community launcher. We have prospective members who need to sit down and share their testimony with a member of our Believe Team, but we need more people on the Believe Team who can actually do that.

So, this is where I want to press in. I want to help you understand that the reason the elders made the decision that serving is no longer a requirement for membership is we were trying to address extenuating circumstances. It's because we, as elders, didn't feel that great about people who were undergoing severe cancer treatments or caring for a dying loved one or trying to figure out which way was up after just having twins two weeks ago…

We didn't feel great, as elders, about sending those people a letter and saying, "Hey, we just need you to know that if you don't start serving quickly, your membership is in question." That felt off. It felt insensitive or inconsiderate. That is the only reason serving was no longer a requirement for membership. We were trying to address that problem.

So, let me bring a little bit more clarity. While serving might not be a requirement for membership, it's an assumption and an expectation for anyone who's a member. The assumption is that you would serve. Why? Well, because you've been saved into a family. The beautiful reality of the gospel is God hasn't just saved you to experience him individually; he has saved you into a family. The language Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 12 is you've been saved to be a part of the body of Christ.

This is one of the beautiful privileges. God saves you. He puts his Spirit inside of you, and he actually gives you a significant part to play in the health of his body. So the assumption is you would feel an urgency to serve, not to check a box or fill a requirement, but as a calling from God. He has wired you and gifted you, and to not deploy the gifts he has given you is to live with an incorrect understanding of your role in the body of Christ.

Let me just say this. That's the assumption and the expectation. If you're in one of those extenuating circumstances, the assumption is that when your circumstances change, you're going to jump right back into serving, not to fulfill a requirement but because this is what we do. We want to be healthy people who belong to a healthy church, and we cannot be a healthy church if people are not discovering and deploying their gifts in the church.

So, let me just say this. Some of y'all are like, "Stop pressing." This is where I'm going to press a little bit more. Some of y'all are looking for a church that feels more like an all-inclusive resort. You've got to pay for it. That's your tithe. But, hey, good news: you're going to get a tax benefit from it. But once you've paid, just sit back and relax. We'll take it from here, and you just enjoy yourself. We have children's ministry. That's like our Kids Club.

That's where you just drop off your kids so you can enjoy some kid-free, adult-only worship in this room. And good news: we've hired some really talented musicians. They're going to play you all of the most popular worship songs. Just sit back and enjoy and listen. Then we're going to put someone in this place, and he's going to give you a nice pep talk, and you're going to leave here pumping your fist. You're going to be excited about life, and you're going to be feeling good about yourself.

I'd just say if that's what you're looking for, Watermark might not be the church for you. It just might not be the place for you. You might be consistently disappointed, because we have a deep conviction that if we are going to be a healthy church, then the Spirit's gifts will be discovered and deployed here by each member, which brings me to my third question.

3. Is every member all in at Watermark? If you consider yourself… I'm not asking if you consider yourself one. It's just you're a member or you're not. You don't get to a point where you're like, "I'm a member now." You don't get to declare that. We actually have a process for that. If you have gone through the process and said, "I want to be a member here," then the question for you to answer is…Are you all in?

What do I mean by being all in? Well, I'm going to let the Scriptures drive here. Here's what I mean. In the latter half of 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is going to use the metaphor, or the picture, of a physical body to unpack for us what a healthy church looks like. If you think about it, Jesus Christ is the head of the body, and then we are the members of the body. We are the different parts of the body. That's how Paul is going to explain it.

To be all in is to come to a place where you realize the body, Watermark Community Church, needs you and you need the body. If this is where you call home, if you are a member here at Watermark, then to be all in is to come to a place where you realize the body needs you. The body needs you to play the part God has called you to play, but not just that. You need the body. Let me show you where I'm getting that from Scripture. Listen to what Paul says in verse 14.

"For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body."

Remember what I told you about the church in Corinth. They were in this place where they had varsity and JV. Because people were identifying themselves as superior or inferior, the people who felt inferior didn't feel necessary or needed in the church. Paul is like, "No, that's not right at all. You are needed. The body needs you."

What would that mentality look like in 2024 at Watermark, for you to believe the lie that you're not needed? Here's what it would look like. It'd be you coming here, looking around, and saying, "You know what? This is a church of 7,000 members, so we can slide in on Sunday. We can consume, we can take in, and the church is never going to feel it if that's all we do. If we never fully invest ourselves here, the church won't be any better, and the church won't be any worse."

That's a lie. That mentality is actually unbiblical, because Paul goes on. Look at what he says in verse 17. "If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?" See, we might tend to think that what I'm doing is the most important thing. So, as long as someone on the stage has the gift of teaching, the church can go on, but without the gift of teaching, the church won't make it. So, as long as we have someone with the gift of teaching, we're fine. Paul is like, "No, that's not how it works."

"If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body."

The point is Watermark would implode if everyone only had the gift of teaching. We would actually cease to exist. We would have to shut our doors, because so much would be left undone. We would just be an ear or a hand. If you're a Watermark member, you have been given a gift by God for the purpose of serving, strengthening, and improving this body of believers.

You are needed, and we will never be the healthiest version of Watermark when members are sitting on the sidelines or just coming and consuming and not investing. But then it's important to note… The point I was just making is to be all in you're going to live with the understanding that the body needs you, but to be all in, also, is to live with the mentality that it's not just that the body needs you; you actually need the body. That's why Paul goes on and says this:

"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another."

I hope you don't miss what I'm telling you. This is the problem with where our culture is headed. We've bought into this lie of individualism. It's like, "I don't need the church as long as I have Jesus. It's just Jesus and me. As long as I have Jesus and Jesus has me, I don't need the church." This is the problem with the mentality of "You know what? I can just stream church consistently at home, and it's no different." No, it is different.

The reason it's different is because the picture is of a body, and Christ is the head of the body. You're just one part of the body. You're a foot. You're an ear. You're a nose. So, if you're not connected to the body, how can you experience all of the power and the presence and the purposes of Christ? If he's the head and we are meant to be the body, but you're not connected to the body, how are you going to experience all that Christ has intended for his people to experience if you're not connected to the people of God? It's not possible.

Some of y'all might have been wondering what this is. This is an ear. That's what that is. Some of y'all in the front row are like, "I knew it. I could see it. Yeah, that's an ear." Some of you in the balcony are like, "I had no clue that that's where this was headed." You're like, "What is an ear doing on the stage?" Not really anything. It's doing nothing. You look at this, and this is just some cheap thing I bought off of Amazon on Friday, late afternoon.

The only natural question to ask when you see an ear on the stage is "What the heck is a random ear doing on the stage, and where is the rest of the head?" But you know what? If the worship team were to walk out right now, they all have ears, but their ears are connected to a face that's connected to a body that has arms and legs. If they were to walk out and open their mouths and start using their gifts, no one would question why they're on the stage.

You'd be like, "Yeah, that makes sense. They are functioning and doing and utilizing and leading exactly how they're supposed to." But when you just see an ear, it begs the question, "Where's the rest of the head?" This is probably not biblical at all. I'm just going to say that. But as I was preparing, I just had this thought, which, again, is not biblical. This was just me thinking.

I just pictured angels up in heaven looking at all of us as literal parts of the body. I imagined angels being like, "God, why does that foot keep wishing it was a nose?" Or "Why does that nose not even know it's a nose and its job is to sniff? And that hand right there only wants to work occasionally because they're busy, which has to be super frustrating to the rest of the body."

The rest of the body is like, "Hey, we want to pick that up right now. We want to be useful. We'd like to eat. Please put the food to the mouth." Yet the hand is like, "No, thanks. I'm good. I'm going to do something else right now." Then you've got that ear who thinks it's completely fine on its own, yet there's no life to that ear. That ear is incapable of doing what it was meant to do, which is hearing for the body.

So, I just want to share with you… I was so encouraged this week, because I sent off an email to different staff members and said, "Hey, would you share with me the names of people in our body who are using their gifts, who have discovered their gifts and are deploying them for the sake of the body?" The response was overwhelming. I mean, my inbox was full of your names and explanations of how God is using you here to serve and strengthen and improve the body.

I heard about Davis Powell using his gift of leadership as the new CEO of our Bible translation partner; Libby Burgess using her gift of administration as the operational hand behind Prodigal; Chuck Adair using his gift of teaching as a re:gen and prison ministry leader; Mary Gibson, Addi Wikle, and Rose Delph using their gifts of exhortation and encouragement as single women's community shepherds.

Jason and Rachael Delph used their gifts of administration to create Recess after catching a vision for special needs ministry. Paul Sanchez uses his gift of evangelism as a Porch leader and as a Multiply group leader. Amy Galvin and Shoni Tucker have used their gifts of exhortation and encouragement as re:gen leaders. Seth Jackson uses his gift of helping/serving to serve both at the 9:00 a.m. and the 4:00 p.m. service with elementary kids every Sunday, and then he attends the 11:15 service in between.

Julie Nicholson and Lynette Thweatt have used their gifts of mercy to create the ministry Shift to care for those experiencing the loss of a loved one. Scot and Michelle Buchanan use their gifts of wisdom as faithful Foundation Group leaders. Leon Bradshaw uses his gift of faith as a men's re:gen leader. Alli Gasca uses her gift of evangelism and has a strong heart for the nations and the next generation.

Charlie Shelby uses his gift of administration as a reliable thought partner with Watermark Vision, being a Summit leader, and serving as a CDC board member. Mallorie Bradlau uses her gift of knowledge as a re:gen leader. Bill and Susie Ashbaugh use their gifts of helping and serving by serving on the community leadership team. Dawn Johnson uses her gift of wisdom to lead the women of South Dallas through a weekly time in the book of Hebrews.

Steve Nagle-Perkins uses his gift of mercy as a re:gen leader to serve those who often have nowhere else to turn. Paul Coppedge, Robby Herrera, and Kelly Trapp use their gifts of mercy to faithfully lead our Refuge ministry to those suffering with chronic illness and their caretakers. Jonathan Landon used his gift of helping and serving by spending nights and weekends to build the Join the Journey app.

These are just a few. The amount of names and explanations that came in was so encouraging, because what email after email was stating is these people refuse to just be an ear all alone. They've discovered their gifts, and now they're deploying their gifts to serve, strengthen, and improve this body.

So, I just want to invite you into that. I want to invite you to be a part of what God is doing here at Watermark. I want to invite you to be all in. If you are a member at Watermark Community Church, I want to invite you to realize that the body needs you and you need the body. I just want to invite you to take a step. What does that look like? Let me give you a few steps you can take quickly.

First, you can pray. We're a praying church. I'd encourage you this week to sit with God and just ask him, "God, would you reveal to me what my spiritual gifts are?" Secondly, seek counsel. Go to your Community Group this week. Take the list of gifts I gave y'all. Sit with your group and ask your group, "Where do you see God gifting me? What do you believe are the gifts God has given me to serve the body?"

Thirdly, I want to invite you to start serving. Don't wait until you find the perfect ministry that matches with your gift. A lot of times, God confirms your gifting when you just jump in because you know there's a need and you commit to serving. You'll be surprised what God will reveal to you if you just volunteer to help park cars, because it's so much more than that. There is a need. If there is a need, jump in and just watch what God will reveal to you.

Fourthly, if you're not a member here at Watermark, jump in. Join the church. One of the best ways to serve the body is by first getting connected to this local body. Then, finally, it makes no sense for you to try to find your spiritual gifts if you don't first have the Spirit of God.

The only way to have the Spirit of God living in you is by coming to a place where you realize you're a sinner desperately in need of a Savior, yet God in his love for you has sent his Son Jesus, who died in your place and rose, conquering Satan, sin, and death, so that through faith in Jesus Christ you could be brought into a right relationship with God. My hope is that we would be a healthy church, but in order for us to be a healthy church, Jesus Christ must be Lord, the Spirit's gifts must be deployed, and we need to be all in. May that be true. Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, would you have your way in our lives today? Father, thank you that you have sent your Son. Thank you, Jesus, that you have sent the Spirit. I pray, God, that your Spirit would lead and guide us into truth, that this week we would understand our gifting more, and that you would show us exactly how we can serve the church so that Watermark Community Church would be a beautiful display of the realities of Jesus. We need you. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen.