Chris Wall | gifted

[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hey, everyone. Welcome to Love Y' All get out conversations to help you get out and live the mission. My name's Chad, and I'm your host. And I want you to know that every time you press play, what you're going to get is something that will encourage and challenge your faith. And today we get to take a deeper dive into Sunday's sermon. My special guest today is Pastor Chris Wall. Chris, I'm so glad you're here, man. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Thankful for this podcast. I'm thankful this medium that we're taking to our church and our community. And so. And thank you for leading the way in this. [00:00:43] Speaker A: Well, it's. It's a fun way to get to take really just kind of a more specific look at some of the things that just make church life happen that. That benefit our lives as individuals and families. And it's just, you know, something you can listen to in your car on your way to work. It's just a lot of ways. A lot of ways it can be used. And so thanks for being a part of it. Now, I know I hear you talk about the pulpit periodically, but you're in a new stage of life, right? You are now. I mean, we tease Keith Davis about being the oldest member of our lead staff, but at this point, you're a grandfather and he's not most grandchildren. [00:01:18] Speaker B: It's going to take a while for you all to catch up. [00:01:20] Speaker A: We're going to just take a little while for us. So what's your favorite part of being a grandfather? [00:01:23] Speaker B: Oh, man. You know, I get in a lot of trouble. For example, the other day, I made the mistake of, you know, talking about my grandkids. I do that a lot. And I said, I talked about Carissa, which is our new grandchild, and Emily has not officially released the name. [00:01:39] Speaker A: So Chris is technically on the way. [00:01:41] Speaker B: Right. And I released the name without understanding that I wasn't supposed to do that. So I do that all the time, man. Being a grandfather, Robin and I have moved into this stage, and it's rapid. I mean, six years ago, none of our kids were married. And in six years, now everyone's married. And our fifth grandchild is on the way. [00:02:02] Speaker A: Six years, five grandkids. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Yes. And so that's unbelievable. No, they say if you play with the instruments, you'll get music. And so. But marriage is. It's been great. But, yeah, the embracing of two sons in laws, a daughter in law, and, you know, we gave away these daughters and launched a son, and we had to buy a bigger table. It's A lot of fun. Oh, it's so. Such joy. Such a joy. It's hard to pin down what the greatest thing about being a grand grandparent is. It is. Man, it's a strange experience because you look at your children and you love them so much. And then you have a grandchild and your love expands, and then they say that you're gonna have another one. You're like, how can I love more? Is there any room to love more than I do? And then it's unbelievable. This love tank that God gives us, it just doesn't have a bottom or a top. It just keeps expanding, and it's just absolutely incredible. But, you know, if I'm going to narrow it down to my favorite one thing, I think it is such a joy watching our children become parents and embrace that calling, to watch them develop a love for their children and then seeing them parent a little different than you, but awesome. [00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:30] Speaker B: And. And I think that's what is. It was. It's just been so fun. That's very cool to watch. That adult relationship with our kids has been. We lamented it at first because all things have changed, but, man, so many joys have come. [00:03:48] Speaker A: You give away a daughter, you get grandkids. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Right? [00:03:51] Speaker A: That's kind of cool. [00:03:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, you. You are. There's an element of sadness when your kids leave your home. We. That's why we've been thinking a lot about the empty nest and. And just that phase of life. And. And. And that's something that we've been meditating. Robin and I have been really meditating on. And. But the joys that have come have been something we've not. We didn't realize. We don't want to miss them. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Didn't know what you were getting into. [00:04:20] Speaker B: Yes. But so excited that you did the Jo. [00:04:23] Speaker A: Cool. I'm really proud of you and your family. It's fun to see just the way your family functions together, but also blesses so many people out in our community. It's really cool. Now, this last Sunday, we began a brand new sermon series called Gifted. It began in First Corinthians, chapter 12. That's where you preached this last Sunday. And really between now and the end of October, we're going to be through the end of First Corinthians. And gifted is really that. Chapter 12 is really about our spiritual gifts. And you did a great job just kind of unpacking what chapter 12 is all about. I was sitting there thinking, kind of as you were preaching, if someone didn't know what their spiritual gifts were. How would they. How. How would you suggest they figure out what their spiritual gifts are? [00:05:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good question. And in chapter 12 through 14 in First Corinthians, this is that gifted. We're going to process those for the next several weeks and. But, you know, we don't. You don't discover your gifts by yourself. You have to. The Lord will reveal to you what you're good at, what you're naturally drawn to. Like, sometimes people look at. I'm not an introvert. I'm an extrovert. [00:05:35] Speaker A: No way. [00:05:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You know, some introverts look at them. So, oh, I can't do what Chris does. You're not supposed to. You're not supposed to be. You're. God made you. God made you like you are. And so you have these natural things that you're good at. But it. But I think the best place to discover your gifts is in your church and in the relationship with God's people. Because long, long time ago, there's a young girl in our church, in our youth ministry, my youth, named Jody Johnson, super, super shy. And she came to me and says, chris, I want to serve the Lord, but I don't know how. I said, jody, you know what you're good at? I go, you notice the one? Yeah. You don't. She goes, don't. Please don't ever call me up on stage to talk. I was like, don't worry, I won't. But you know what she did in our youth ministry years ago? She would be at the back and she would notice a kid that walked in that looked nervous, and she went up to that one. And I watched the Lord use her in absolutely tremendous ways. And she needed her church to go, this is what I see in you. And this is where we live in a day where sometimes people, they're distant from their church in their habit of coming, or their real engagement, and it's within the body. God designed the body of Christ, the church, the local church, to be this relationship hub that we encourage, admonish, challenge, push, Hebrews 10. But to spur one another on towards love and good deeds. So it's within. And then he says, don't forsake meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but do this all the more even as you see the day approaching. So as you think about the environment to understand your spiritual gifts, it really is your local church. This is why I'd encourage you. If you're listening to plug into a group, we say this almost Every week, plug into a group. Group, dig in, participate. That's the first thing of participating and. And coming to church. And because it is in the body that you may not understand how God can use your gifts until someone says, man, God used that in my life. And so that's really the best environment to understand your spiritual gifts. [00:08:04] Speaker A: It's a safe place to explore your strengths and your weaknesses. And my mom's a lot like Jody. She doesn't like being on the stage in front of people. But for as long as I've watched her interact with people in her small group, her group always grows. Doesn't matter which one she's in. And part of the reason is she's that one person who walks up. She makes everybody feel welcome. Everybody thinks they're her best friend, and they just love being around her. And. And that is an incredible giftedness that not everybody has, but she does, and she's using it well. And she doesn't need to be on a platform. She doesn't want to be, but she has a platform. And that's. That's really exceptional. And it is. One of the things we've said about this, this podcast is that sometimes we're just going to talk church. And the way we've said it is we're going to talk about the decisions or the ideas that allow us, as a local body of believers, to give strength to and gain strength from one another. And that's what happens when we use our gifts or we discover our gifts in the context of a local body of believers and why being a part of a group and part of a church is. So it's interesting that passage, First Corinthians 12 in verse 7, it actually clarifies why God's given us spiritual gifts. It says, I've given you these gifts for the common good. In other words, I didn't necessarily give you these spiritual gifts because of you. I gave you these spiritual gifts because of how you can use them to benefit others. And so what are some things, what are some ways you've seen people beyond someone like Jody use their gifts in the life of a church or in the life of a community to just benefit others. [00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah, you. So when you are using the gifts God gave you, that's your sweet spot. That's where joy comes in your life. And joy is contagious. Joy is something that people notice, and it's attractive. And I'm not just saying we are trying to just be this. Oh, I want to just be attractive. But. But it. And I'm Talking about, I'm not talking about appearance. I'm talking about just the people are longing for hope. And, you know, you think about Romans 15:13, May the God of hope fill us with joy in believing that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so I think when somebody discovers their gifts, God expects us to do that. God actually calls us to do that. And when you serve the Lord and do what you're called to do, it's right. And it's in so much of the Old Testament, the New Testament we just finished, you know, Chronicles and the Jeremiah and, and all those things. It's all come to a head in our Bible reading. And the problem with God's people is they weren't obeying the Lord. And so when you are discovering your gifts, which is a calling we have, and then using your gifts, which is a responsibility that we have, it's right for us. It is not always easy, but it's good. And it's good for you, it's good for your family, it's good for the others in your life. And when we help others, our life feels it's meaningful. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah. It's almost like those gifts, when we practice them, they bring glory to God, they bring a benefit to others, and they, they produce the fruits of the spirit and joy in us. And what an incredible blessing that is. [00:11:42] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, because when you. Everybody lost and saved wants to. Wants their life to matter. [00:11:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:53] Speaker B: Want to know that I'm not just worm dirt when I. And that's true. [00:11:57] Speaker A: We're not that there's more to, there's [00:11:58] Speaker B: more to this life. And, and no one wants to just exist with. For no purpose. And we're not meant to do that. [00:12:07] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:07] Speaker B: God has said the moment we're saved, he imparts gifts to us. And when we use them, I guess an analogy I've always heard, it's like a train that gets put on a track. [00:12:24] Speaker A: It goes, it just goes where it's supposed to. [00:12:27] Speaker B: If it's not on the track, it doesn't go. It may can move some, but not like it was intended, not like it was designed. And when you discover your gifts, what you embrace and understand is that you're. You begin, you begin to live like God designed. And that has implications both in this life and most importantly, in the life to come. And, you know, I think that we'll understand when we get to heaven what we did for the Lord, what we did in, in God's design. We're going to even be more glad yeah. That we did that. [00:13:13] Speaker A: And I think there's ways that we, we. There's so many times we just do something right. And, and when we do it under that, under the, under the, the banner of our spiritual gifts and for the glory of God, I don't think we ever see the full possibility or effect of what God's done. And it's in heaven. We'll see that. [00:13:31] Speaker B: And we're. You, you're going to see this. In Corinthians, we see a poor reflection in a mirror. One day we will see clearly. [00:13:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:39] Speaker B: And so even the. We understand from now the Bible is revealed enough for us to know we want to follow the Lord. We want to seek the Lord forever. It's right to do so. It has eternal rewards. There are crowns in heaven. We really don't fully understand those, but one of the things that we will recognize is that when we're in our spiritual gifts, that's when those crowns are earned and won. And, and, and that is not selfish. And that is like, when we get to heaven, we're going to be like, wow, I wish I'd have done more of those. [00:14:18] Speaker A: I didn't even know I was a part of all that. [00:14:20] Speaker B: But that's cool. But, but, you know, I think that this is why we're called in the church, to first of all recognize God imparts spiritual gifts, then discover those gifts and then use those gifts and develop them. [00:14:36] Speaker A: And then develop them. [00:14:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And so this is in the way the design of God has been the local church. Yeah. Not it is a big church, but it's executed locally. And I love how we describe it here, there and everywhere. That's the progression. And, you know, it's going to be good as we learn to deploy those. It's going to produce eternal results, that we're going to get to heaven and be like, wow, that was. I'm so glad I got to be a part of that. We want to know that. We want to discover that now. [00:15:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:20] Speaker B: And that's what we're called. To do that now. [00:15:23] Speaker A: I think that's brilliant. I love, I love that. And you mentioned a verse actually about how we don't see things quite clearly yet. That's actually in chapter 13. That's where you're headed this coming Sunday. And when Everybody thinks about First Corinthians 13, they think, oh, it's the love chapter. It's about marriage. But I think it's interesting because in chapter 12, it lists all these gifts that at some level are kind of. They feel miraculous. Or fantastic gifts of healing, gifts of tongues, gifts of prophecy and preaching and, and, and all unserving and all of those things, all of those are fantastic gifts. But the last verse of chapter 12, Paul says, hey, all these gifts are cool, but I'm going to show you a more excellent way. And that's, that's really what you're preaching about this coming Sunday. What is the more excellent way? [00:16:11] Speaker B: It's really fascinating to think about, and I've been just kind of wrestling through that all week. But, you know, this excellent way. Let's consider this, he says. Then he, then he shifts to faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love and these gifts. Faith, the gift of faith, the gift of hope and the gift of love. And it says in the, in these abide, these remain. Chapter 13 says that now what we need to understand, or I hope we understand on Sunday, is that these other gifts are good and they are meant for this world. They will not be in heaven. We won't need the gift of tongues, which I believe is language we'll understand in heaven. You know, prophecy. We won't. That prophecy is the proclamation. Now, will we understand God's word? Yes, but there won't be a need for preachers to preaching is the, hey, you ought to follow Jesus in heaven. [00:17:19] Speaker A: We're going to go, we'll just follow Jesus. [00:17:20] Speaker B: He's right there. But it's interesting, the reason Paul pushes us to those three, because those are the three gifts that will be in heaven continually. Faith. Our faith will be sight. We'll understand. Our faith will, like according to the glory now revealed that we looked at in our heaven study a couple years ago, that we'll be. Our faith will be continually confirmed in heaven. The hope that we have, our hope will be sight. Hebrews 11. Being sure of what we hope for certain of what we cannot see. So we'll further explore the power of the hope that we've had in heaven. And we won't need those other gifts. And then love, the greatest of these. We will know the love of Christ and experience the love of Christ more and more, deeper and deeper. I think it's an eternity of trying to comprehend and understand that love. And so what Paul is doing is saying, hey, you, Corinthian church, you were. They were kind of out of balance because they were looking for these magnificent, these kind of all the bells and whistles. [00:18:39] Speaker A: Fireworks. [00:18:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And, and they were thinking, that's more important. And we struggle with that today. Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of people, oh, I speak in tongues, or I got all these miracles, or we [00:18:49] Speaker A: see the guy on the stage. [00:18:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:50] Speaker A: And we know he must be important. [00:18:52] Speaker B: Right. And when you think about, we want to look at. Oh, I want to see a miracle, Lord. And let's think about that craving, Lord, show me a miracle. Well, let's just consider the miracle that we all experienced this morning. We woke up on a ball floating in the universe in an orbit around the sun. How is that even. And it rained two days ago. Well, we needed it. [00:19:28] Speaker A: Yes. [00:19:28] Speaker B: We rained hard. And you know what? Fatal raindrops hit my flowers that I've planted. And you know what? It fell from thousands of feet in the air and it actually nourished the flowers in my yard. [00:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:47] Speaker B: And so we sometimes are fall into that trap that the Corinthians fell into of, I want to see this miracle over here. And God's like, hey, what about the miracle of you I got today? I had a quiet time today. And in. The Lord opened his word. We opened his word, and the spirit of God spoke and comforted. We prayed. Robin and I prayed together. And I interacted with the king of kings and he heard me. [00:20:17] Speaker A: That's pretty miraculous. [00:20:18] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. And so what I think the Corinthian church was in a struggle of. They were like, oh, Lord, I'm in these big miraculous things. I want that. And he's like, actually what you want are faith, hope, and love. That's what you really. Those are. The more. Those are the better things. [00:20:40] Speaker A: Those are the things that stick. [00:20:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:42] Speaker A: And those are for now, but for all. [00:20:43] Speaker B: All eternity. Yeah. And so. So that's an important lesson for us, I think, and I pray that we get that on Sunday. [00:20:51] Speaker A: And I love the way you said that just a minute ago. In heaven, our faith becomes sight, our hope becomes certain, and our love becomes complete. That's a. It's a great way to think about that. I love that. I'm looking forward to Sunday. [00:21:08] Speaker B: It'll be a good to wrestle through. And I pray that the Lord will move us to be like, understand the love of Christ, because the more we understand his love for us, the more we are able to take our spiritual temperature with this list that's in chapter 13. Because. And it's like the, the. The. The more you understand the grace of God, the more you want to follow the Lord and back to being a grandparent and a parent. I. I've learned like, we blessed our children. We. We did. We provided for them. We, you know, we got them a car. We. We blessed them. We gave them allowances as they grew up, and we helped them go to college and we taught them how to use a spoon. We did. And, and you know what? That we. That blessing of as we bless them, that didn't cause them to hate us. [00:22:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:22] Speaker B: Or rebel against us. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:24] Speaker B: It caused them to love us. And now we're watching them love their children, provide for their children and love them. And I pray that you know that love, I anticipate that love will move their children to go, I want to love you, mom and dad, and ultimately, Lord, I want to love you and follow you. [00:22:48] Speaker A: That's really good. I love that. Well, I really am looking forward to this Sunday. And. And I hope that you'll participate online or better than that, come see us because we would love to be able to meet you face to face. It's going to be a great day. We're going to take a look at First Corinthians, chapter 13 and just continue in this series called Gifted. And I'm just so grateful that you've taken some time to press play on love. Y' all get out today. I hope that you'll subscribe, that you'll like, that you'll share, that you'll make comments, that you'll tell people about it, because it really is a great opportunity for us to just take some unhurried time to think a little more deeply about scripture, about what we're doing in the life of our ministry that God's given to us, whether it's through the church or out in the community, wherever you be, that you'll be using your gifts not simply for yourself, but for the benefit of others, and that you'll find that more excellent way. So thanks so much for tuning in today, Chris. Thanks for being here. We really appreciate it. Yeah. But between now and next time, I always do this. I look at the camera and I say, love y'. All. Get out. [00:23:50] Speaker B: Get out. Sam.