1 to express the power of His supernatural love THROUGH us! Acts 1:8: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. METRO CORE SESSION #15 THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT February 26, 2014 Greg Cahalan & Jeremy Schossau Tonight is Part 3 of this round of Core Sessions on the Holy Spirit. In week one, we talked about the PROMISE of the Spirit. In week two, we talked about the BAPTISM with the Spirit. And tonight, we are talking about the GIFTS of the Spirit. And let me tell why I am so excited about tonight s topic. It is not mainly because we are going to talk about things like healings, miracles, prophecies and speaking in tongues although we are going to talk in depth about those things. The reason I am so excited about this is because Spiritual Gifts are for EXPERIENCING and SHARING the LOVE of God! And this is what the world needs most. This is what I need most. This is what you need most. This is what our families, and neighbors, and co-workers and friends need most. We need to EXPERIENCE the love of God, and then we need to SHARE the love of God with others! There needs to be less TALK about the love of God, and more EXPERIENCE of it. Even right here in this room, there are discouraged people who need to be encouraged by the love of God. There are sick people who need to be healed by the love of God. There are confused people who need guidance from the love of God. There are weak people who need to be strengthened by the love of God. This is what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for. They are manifestations of the love of God, because they are manifestations of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is the personification of God s love, so the gifts of the Spirit are for experiencing and sharing God s love. Here is the Apostle Paul s command to us: Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1). So that is what we are going to do tonight. Are you with me? Do you want to experience and share the love of God? Are you ready to PURSUE love and EARNESTLY DESIRE Spiritual Gifts? Coming into this group of Core Sessions on the Holy Spirit, I really felt that the time was right time to lead our church into a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit, and the feedback I have been receiving has confirmed this. I believe God is up to something extraordinary among us! I have heard from many of you that God is stirring something deep inside of you. One thing I know for sure: God wants to POUR OUT His Spirit on us and give us POWER to be Jesus witnesses in this world! He wants Tonight we are going to explore what this power looks like. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let s begin by reviewing the promises from two weeks ago and renewing the commitments we made last week. The PROMISE of the Holy Spirit The Promise of a NEW HEART with NEW DESIRES (Ezekiel 36:26,27). The Promise of POWER from God (John 14:12). The Promise of the PRESENCE and LOVE of God (Romans 5:5). The Promise of JOY! (1 Peter 1:8). The Promise of PEACE (Philippians 4:7 The Promise of POWER OVER SIN (Romans 8:13). The Promise of POWER to LOVE, HEAL and SAVE (Matt. 10:7-8, 19-20). The BAPTISM with the Holy Spirit Baptism with the Spirit comes through JESUS (Acts 2:32-33) Baptism with the Spirit comes through REPENTANCE (Acts 2:38) Baptism with the Spirit comes through TOTAL SURRENDER (Acts 2:38) Baptism with the Spirit comes through ASKING (Luke 11:13) Baptism with the Spirit comes by FAITH (Galatians 3:5) Baptism with the Spirit produces WORSHIP (Ephesians 5:18) Baptism with the Spirit gives POWER for WITNESS (Acts 1:8) The question we must ask ourselves daily is Do I want this? Do I want to be filled with God s Spirit today? Do I want the love of God to be poured into my heart? Do I want to be filled with God s joy and peace? Do I want power over sin? Do I want the power of God to love people with His love, to heal them, and to save them? It is available to us if we will trust His promises, turn away from all sin, and surrender our lives to follow Jesus into His mission of spreading God s love! The Apostle Paul calls us to LIVE this way as the habit of our lives. Look at this sampling from the Book of Galatians: Receive the Spirit (3:2, 3:14) Walk by the Spirit (5:16, 5:25) Be led by the Spirit (5:18) Bear the fruit of the Spirit (5:22) Live by the Spirit (5:25) Sow to the Spirit (6:8)
2 It is possible to LIVE by the Spirit in the every-day moments of our lives. It is possible to walk by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, and bear the fruit of the Spirit. Listen friends, there is MORE available to us than we are currently experiencing. It is time for us to JUMP into the mission of Jesus and RECEIVE God s power to experience and share His love! It is time for us to receive the promised Holy Spirit! If we will, the Holy Spirit will MANIFEST His love to the world through us! And the way He will do this is by giving us Spiritual Gifts. So what are Spiritual Gifts? Check this out: 1 Corinthians 12:1, 4-11: Now concerning spiritual gifts There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. Here s the deal: Spiritual gifts = The Holy Spirit expressing the power of God s love IN us and THROUGH us! The Scripture calls these gifts the manifestations of the Spirit. They are the ways that the Spirit of God SHOWS God s love to the world. They are not merely things that WE do, although we ARE the ones doing them. Instead, they are things that God Himself does IN us and THROUGH us! There are a few misconceptions about these gifts that we have to clear up before getting into the specific gifts themselves. First, many people believe that when God gives them a spiritual gift, it is permanently THEIR gift that they can use whenever they want. For example, I have heard people say things like: My spiritual gift is teaching or I have the gift of speaking in tongues or I have the gift of administration or the gift encouragement. But I don t see this in the Scriptures. I do not believe it is accurate to say that I have the spiritual gift of teaching or I have the gift of speaking of tongues. Instead, the way the Bible speaks seems to be that God gives us whatever gifts He pleases, whenever He pleases, for whatever purposes He pleases! 1 Corinthians 12:11 says that the Spirit gives these gifts to each one just as He determines and 12:31 and 14:1 tell us to eagerly desire them ALL of them. It s not as if we have one gift that is ours and we can t have any of the others. On the contrary, the picture seems to be that Spiritual gifts are given for a specific TASK at a specific MOMENT when God wants to express the power of His love through us! In other words, Spiritual gifts are TOOLS for the job! If you need a hammer, you need a hammer. If you need a screwdriver, you need a screwdriver. Whatever job God asks you to do, He will give you the right tool to do it. He will give you whatever spiritual gift you need to experience and share His love in the moment you are in. God will never ask you to do something that He will not empower you to do. God EMPOWERS those that He CALLS. He might call you to do a specific job on a regular basis (for example, he asks Pastor Jeremy to preach every week), or He might call you to do a different job every day. In either case, spiritual gifts are available in the moments that we need them. They are not our own personal possessions that we carry around with us. They are given when we need a specific tool for the job. A second myth we need explode is that spiritual gifts are the same thing as natural abilities. This is a very widespread misconception among Christians today. Many churches even use spiritual gift assessment tests to help people discover their spiritual gifts. Ever taken one? These are basically questionnaires that help you figure out what you are naturally good at and then classify it as your spiritual gift. This is completely foreign to the Bible. Natural abilities are NOT Spiritual gifts. Your natural abilities are definitely gifts from God, but they are NOT what the Bible means by Spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are SUPERNATURAL! DON T SETTLE for the natural seek what is SUPERNATURAL! Spiritual gifts are way bigger than what you are naturally good at! They are manifestations of the supernatural presence and power of God! I don t believe that anybody HAS a Spiritual gift. On the contrary, the Scripture tells us: Pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:1). These gifts don t belong to us. Instead, we are told to eagerly desire them, to SEEK them. God wants us to ASK for them as we are pursuing love. Pastor Jeremy does not HAVE the gift of teaching. Yes, God has called Pastor Jeremy to teach, and He makes the spiritual gift of teaching available to Him, but he must ASK for and RECEIVE this gift from God every time he teaches. If he does not, he will be teaching in his own strength, from his own natural ability, and there will be nothing supernatural about it. This is why EVERY time before I get up to teach, I specifically ASK God to give me the gifts of teaching and prophecy. I ASK Him to express His presence and His power through me. The Spirit gives spiritual gifts to each one just as He determines, and we are commanded to eagerly desire them and to ask for them as we love people. In light of this, let s look at the different Spiritual gifts that the Bible mentions, both in one Corinthians 12 and elsewhere. 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28: Word of wisdom Word of knowledge
3 Faith Healings Working of miracles Prophecy Distinguishing between spirits Tongues Interpretation of tongues Helping Administration Romans 12:6-8 Serving Teaching Encouraging Generosity Leading Showing mercy These are all various ways that God wants to express the presence and the power of His love through us. When you really look at them, they break down into three major categories. They are gifts are gifts for SPEAKING, gifts for PRAYING, and gifts for SERVING. The Spirit wants to SPEAK through you! The Spirit wants to PRAY through you! The Spirit wants to SERVE people through you! When God wants to speak through us, He gives us one or more of these gifts: Gifts for Speaking: Prophecy Word of wisdom Word of knowledge Teaching Word of encouragement Probably the most misunderstood gift on this list is the gift of prophecy. And that is a problem, since EVERY Christian is told to seek it. Eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. (1 Corinthians 14:1). A lot of people think the gift of prophecy is about foretelling the future, but that is almost never what this gift is in the New Testament. A lot of people also get confused because they think the New Testament gift of prophecy is the same thing as the Old Testament prophets who wrote the Bible. But prophecy in the NT is never considered infallible or inspired by God like the Old Testament prophets who wrote the Scriptures. So if NT prophecy is not about foretelling the future, and it is not infallible like the Bible, then what is it? Well, when you look at this gift in the New Testament, here is a good definition: Prophecy = speaking a spontaneous word from God that is exactly what is needed in the moment. God gives you the gift of prophecy when He spontaneously brings something to your mind that is exactly what another person needs to hear in that moment. And we are told to constantly seek this gift. Personally, I think God gives me this gift more than any other. Any time I meet with someone, or any time I am in a Metro or Unite programming meeting, I ask God for the gift of prophecy so I can speak a word from Him into that moment. And I think this is a gift that many of you have experienced, even if you didn t know what to call it. I ve heard conversations where God gives you an opportunity to speak truth into someone s life, and it amazes me how God gives some of you just the right thing to say in that moment. The gift of prophecy works very closely together with the gifts word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and word of encouragement. In fact, it seems that these three are various expressions of the gift of prophecy. Word of wisdom = speaking a spontaneous word from God to help someone make a specific decision according to the will of God. Word of knowledge = speaking a spontaneous word from God that He revealed to you about another person s life or thoughts in order to open their hearts to Him. Word of encouragement = speaking a spontaneous word from God that brings encouragement and strength to another person when they are discouraged or weak. We should be SEEKING these gifts! And to really exercise these gifts, we have to be able to LISTEN to God and RECOGNIZE God s voice. Last week I told the story about my friend Mike when a woman came to him for advice about problems she was having in her marriage, and God revealed to him the NAME of a woman that her husband was having an affair with. Mike had two choices at that moment, he could either JUMP into God s will and confront the man, or he could DOUBT whether God really spoke to him and keep silent. Well, Mike jumped, and when he confronted the man, and spoke the name of the woman that God had revealed to him, the man broke down, repented of his sin, came back to God, and it saved his marriage. That s the POWER of these gifts! It is God expressing His presence and His power through us! It is God Himself SPEAKING through us! Ok, one more thing needs to be said about these prophetic gifts, and it s this: We need to lose our fear of being wrong, and anytime we think God is revealing something to us, we need to be humble and acknowledge the possibility that we could be wrong. There is nothing infallible about these gifts. The revelations God gives through the gift of prophecy are not on the same level as the revelations He has given us through the Bible. So all words of prophecy need to be TESTED by the Scriptures, and PROVEN by fulfillment. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold on to what is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). In light of the fact that there is nothing infallible about this, whenever you are speaking a prophetic word, you should say things like I believe God wants me to share this with you or I feel like God gave me this word for you. You should never say This is the word of God or God told me this. BUT we should not let the possibility that we could be wrong keep us from JUMPING when we feel God has brought something to our minds that He wants us to say. We should ask God for these gifts, listen for His voice,
4 and then JUMP when we feel He has given us something to say. If you JUMP, you will be amazed at what God will do through you! The other speaking gift is pretty obvious. The Spiritual gift of teaching = the Holy Spirit expressing the presence and the power of God through us as we teach the Bible. No reason to explain we understand that one. The gifts for prayer are the most controversial. When the Holy Spirit wants to pray through us, He gives us one of these gifts: Gifts for prayer: Tongues Interpretation of tongues There is a lot of confusion about these gifts, and it has always been this way. In fact, the entire chapter of one Corinthians 14 was written to clear up some of this confusion by comparing and contrasting the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues. But let me just start by telling you the story of my own mother: Several years ago, my mom was experiencing some health problems which led to some emotional issues in her life. She fell into a time of great loneliness and depression and rarely even felt like leaving the small condo where she lives. She felt that God must be done with her on this earth and she often just wanted to die. Maybe you can relate to that. It is a dark and dreary place to be. One night when she was feeling this way, she began praying for God to help her. All of a sudden, she felt a warm embrace come over her. She was so filled with emotion that tears started streaming down her face. She began to utter syllables that made no sense to her. It scared her at first, but at the same time she had never felt closer to God and had never had such a strong sense of His presence and His love. While this was happening, she grabbed a picture of Jesus that she keeps on her table and she just hugged it and rocked back and forth while she continued to speak and weep with joy. I ll never forget when she called me the next day. I answered the phone and she said, Greg, I might be going crazy, but I had the strangest and most amazing experience last night. She told me all about it, and asked if I had ever heard of such a thing. I knew immediately what it was, and I told her that God had given her the gift of speaking in tongues. She had no idea that s what it was. I told her to read one Corinthians 14 if she wanted to learn more about it. Since then, she has continued to experience this beautiful gift at times in her life when there are not adequate human words to express the longings of her heart to God. She describes it as a taste of heaven on earth. Since her first experience of this, her loneliness and depression are gone and have been replaced with a vibrant ministry and relationship with God. She now helps lead the Celebrate Recovery ministry at Connection Church in Canton helping women recover from different forms of abuse and addiction. Listen, I don t know what your experience has been of the gift of tongues up to this point. I know a lot of people think this gift is weird, but I am here tonight to tell you that this gift is real, and it is a very moving and powerful experience for those who experience it. My mom s experience was real. But the problem is there are a lot of fakes out there. A lot of people claim to speak in tongues, but it s counterfeit. And one Corinthians 14 of the Bible is there to help us figure it out. Let s start with a definition. Tongues = a Spiritual gift to overcome the limitations of human language in expressing prayer, praise and thanksgiving to God. Tongues is NOT God talking to men. Instead, it is men talking to God. Tongues is a gift for PRAYER! Anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God (1 Cor. 14:2). In one Cor. 14:14-17, it is called praying with your spirit, singing with your spirit, praising God with your spirit, and giving thanks with your spirit. God gives this gift during times of prayer that are so intense that there just aren t adequate human words to express the prayer. This is a gift that FILLS up the speaker with God s love so that He can overflow in love toward those around him. We talked about this last week you can t give what you don t have. You will never be able to SHARE God s love until you have first EXPERIENCED God s love for yourself. This is what tongues is for. Tongues is for speaking to God in times of intense worship and prayer when human words just aren t adequate. So it does not appear that tongues represent human languages. I believe this is one of the most common misunderstandings about this gift. A lot of people think that tongues is when someone speaks a foreign language, like Spanish, that they have never learned. I would call that a miracle, but not the gift of tongues. Instead, the Bible says: For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit (1 Cor. 14:2). If NO ONE understands him, it s hard for me to see how this could be an existing human language of some kind. I don t even think they were human languages when they first appeared in Acts 2. If you look closely at Acts two, you find that the disciples spoke in tongues, and the people who heard it each heard it differently. Some heard it in one language, some heard it in another language, and some just thought they were drunk. There were two miracles going on in Acts two the gift of speaking in tongues, and the gift of being able to HEAR with understanding what was spoken in tongues. So I do not believe that tongues are ever ordinary human languages.
5 Also, we need know that: Not everyone who is baptized with the Spirit speaks in tongues. I believe this is another of the major misunderstandings about this gift. Classical Pentecostals teach that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of baptism with the Spirit, and that if you don t speak in tongues then you haven t been baptized with the Spirit. Personally, I don t see this in the Bible. In one Corinthians 12:30, Paul asks the rhetorical question: Do all speak with tongues? And the answer is NO. Tongues is just ONE of the gifts of the Spirit, and God does not give it to everyone. Another thing that is clear from one Cor. 14 is that Tongues is primarily for PRIVATE use, not PUBLIC use. The only time tongues is permitted in public is when it is interpreted. When tongues is interpreted, it takes the form of public praise and thanksgiving TO God, never a message FROM God. This is one of the ways I know that most of the tongues I have seen in my life have been fake. Every time I have ever heard an interpretation of tongues in real life, it was in the form of a message from God. This does not appear to be consistent with the Bible. Tongues is always PRAYER in the Bible! It is men talking to God, not God talking to men. Perhaps the primary purpose of one Corinthians 14 was to correct the Corinthian church s misunderstanding that PUBLIC speaking in tongues without interpretation was somehow a sign of God s blessing on their church. Everyone would speak in tongues all at once without any interpretation, and they thought it was a sign of God s blessing. Paul, however, writes that Tongues are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers (1 Cor 14:22). He then quotes a passage from the Old Testament that makes clear that God only speaks to people in a language they can t understand when it is an act of judgment on unbelievers. Paul s says that this is NOT what tongues is for. Tongues are NOT supposed to be a sign of God s judgment! Spiritual gifts are for LOVING people, not judging them. The public use of tongues without interpretation will drive unbelievers away from God, so it must never be done! Paul says: In the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue (1 Cor 14:19). He borders on forbidding the public use of tongues. Instead, he says: If anyone speaks in a tongue, two-- or at the most three-- should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God (1 Cor 14:27-28). Finally, Tongues is not something people can do whenever they want. Just like the other gifts, tongues is given by God in a moment when you need it. It is given during those times of prayer that are so intense that you need help to express them. This is why Paul could say: I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you (1 Cor. 14:18). If he could do it whenever he wanted, it would make no sense to thank GOD for how often he does it. I do not believe that anybody HAS the gift of tongues. It does not belong to them. It is something God gives whenever He pleases. He may give it to some people on a regular basis, but it does not belong to them. They need to receive it from God every time they express it. It is a gift for those moments when there are not adequate human words to express our prayers. It is a TOOL for the JOB of prayer. It is designed to fill us with the love of God in private prayer and worship so that we can overflow in public love for others. Ok. Now it s time to move quickly through the gifts for SERVING. The Spirit not only wants to SPEAK through you and PRAY through you, but He also wants to SERVE other people through you. The serving gifts the Bible mentions can be categorized like this: Gifts for serving: Helping the weak (Helping, Working of miracles) Caring for the sick (Healings) Giving gifts (Generosity) Showing hospitality (Serving) Overcoming evil (Faith, Distinguishing between spirits, Showing mercy, Administration, Leading). Let me try to define these as quickly as I can: The gift of HELPING is the Holy Spirit s power to meet the needs of the weak at the point of their weakness whether that weakness be financial, emotional, physical, or spiritual. And sometimes helping the weak will require MIRACLES. We should never underestimate God s desire to empower us as we join him in helping the weak. Miracles for the poor and homeless might include being used by God to provide them a job or a home. Miracles for widows and orphans might include being used by God to join them to a new family. Miracles for the disabled and elderly might include being used by God to give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, movement to the lame, and clarity to the impaired. And miracles for the spiritually weak might include everything from casting out demons to something as simple as commanding a house fly in order to strengthen someone s faith. Let me tell you a story about our very own Chris Pasik. A few years ago, he was involved in a conversation with his mom about the power of God, and his mom was expressing some doubts about whether God still does miracles today. While they were talking, a house fly was buzzing around driving both of them crazy. At that moment, Chris felt led to ask his mom: If God enables me to catch that fly with my bare hands, will you believe that He still does miracles today? Chris s mom just rolled her eyes and said, You will never be able to catch that fly with your bare hands! So Chris walked over to the fly, and just picked it up off the table. It didn t even try to fly away. He put it in the palm of his hand, walked over to his mom, and said LOOK! Now do you believe? And the fly just sat there in the palm of his hand for about 30 seconds before it flew away. And ever since, Chris mom s faith in the power of God has been strong! So God wants to give us supernatural ability to meet
6 the needs of the weak. And he also wants to give us supernatural ability to care for the sick. As we encounter sick people in homes, hospitals, nursing homes, churches, or anywhere else, we should never fail to ask God for gifts of HEALING in order to reveal the presence and the power of God to the world around us! Whenever you encounter a sick person JUST JUMP, and ask God to heal them! You will be amazed at what God will sometimes do! I have seen God heal my dad of lung cancer, and I have seen God heal my mom of a debilitating muscular disease! God can, and still DOES heal today! BUT God will only heal if it will further His mission in the world and draw people closer to Him. Healing is always subject to God s will and God s mission. And God also wants to give us supernatural power to give gifts! It is only appropriate that God would give a Spiritual Gift for giving gifts to others it is the Gift of GENEROSITY. This gift is supernatural power for sacrificial, abundant, and cheerful giving to those in need or just simply to bless others. We should be sensitive to God s voice and willing to be generous when God moves our hearts. This gift often functions together with the gift of prophecy, where God reveals to you that someone has a specific need and He moves your heart to generously meet that need. For example, you might be at a restaurant, and God reveals to you that your waitress is a single mom who is struggling financially, and He moves your heart to leave her a $100 tip in the name of Jesus. Ok, we are pretty much out of time, but let me just say something about this category of overcoming evil. The task of overcoming evil in the world requires the supernatural gifts of faith, distinguishing between spirits, administration, leading and showing mercy. With all of the evil in the world, it takes supernatural FAITH to believe that we can be used by God to overcome it. Do you believe it is possible to be used by God to overcome abortion, prejudice, abuse, addictions, pollution, and the distortions of marriage and family? We need to ask God for a supernatural gift of faith that can move mountains in overcoming evil! And evil is so deceptive that we need special power to discern when it comes in disguise. We need the gift of DISTINGUISHING between spirits. Jesus knew the devil and his demons when he saw them do you? When we encounter evil spirits, we need to seek the power from God to cast them out and deliver people from them. It also takes special ability to organize and lead God s people in the fight against evil. God wants to empower people in this way through the Spiritual Gifts of ADMINISTRATION and LEADING! There are some people in this room that God that God wants you to seek these organizational gifts. We need people with these gifts at Metro! power of God more than showing MERCY to people! This is supernatural power to love the sinful people of this world. It is power to love the sinner, while hating the sin. In the words of Jesus, we are even to love our enemies. And God wants to give us supernatural power to do this! Spiritual gifts are God expressing the power of His love through us! The Holy Spirit wants to speak through us, pray through and serve through us, so that we can experience and share God s love! If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 13:1-3, 14:1). So Metro, here is what I want us to do tonight. I want us to jump into this! I want us to pursue love and to eagerly desire spiritual gifts! I want us to experience and share God s love! I want us to ask God to SPEAK through us, and I want us to ask God to SERVE through us and express His LOVE through us! So here is what I think God wants us to do. I feel that He wants us to break into groups of no less than two and no more than 4 people. So at first I want you to spend a few minutes asking God to lead you to the right group for you. Once you are with a group, I want you to discuss ways that you can jump into the mission of sharing God s love both for each other and for the world. Start by sharing your personal needs with each other, but instead of moving immediately to prayer like we usually do, depend on God to speak through you and show you how you can serve each other. If anyone in your group is sick, ask God for a gift of healing. And then move beyond the needs of your group, and ask God to use you in your homes, workplaces and communities. For some of you who don t already have someplace you need to be after church tonight, I want you to ask God to reveal to you where you should go immediately after leaving the church. Some of you might go to a restaurant. Some of you might go to Downtown Detroit. Some of you might go to a hospital emergency room. Some of you might go to Walmart or Meijer. I don t know. But wherever you go, ask God to speak through you and serve through you. Ask Him for spiritual gifts to express His presence and power through you to your waitress, to a homeless person, to a sick person, or to just some random person in a store or parking lot. Let s just JUMP and see what God does! And let s let today be the beginning of a HABIT of living this way of walking by the Spirit and being led by the Spirit and receiving the gifts of the Spirit. And finally, the work of overcoming evil requires the gift of SHOWING MERCY. Nothing shows the presence and