Q&A 3.20.26
- Mar 20
- 28 min read
Updated: Mar 24
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
We’re going into the word of God. But first, I want to invite you—online and here in the house—to this Friday discipleship. We do not have a teaching on discipleship essentials this Friday, but we have had already quite a few. You can find those on our YouTube channel or on our website. And tonight, we have Q&A. Now, some of you online, you have sent in your questions—your biblical questions, your doctrinal questions, the things that you wrestle with, or the things that you are just really curious about. And you maybe don’t want to ask it in person, or maybe you think you know the answer and you’re just trying to be provocative. Amen? Amen. That wasn’t an online question—somebody in the house sent that in. But we’re going to digest three of the questions that were brought in online this week. And we’re going to start with the very first. There are no handout notes today, so if you would like to take notes, take out your device or raise your hand. One of the ushers will get you a—not a tablet—what do we call these? A board… a clipboard. I learn every day. A clipboard with some paper and a pen, if you are old-fashioned like me.
The first question is actually kind of a question that deserves a little bit of a description. I’ll give it to you so you can write it down. The first one—this is how I worded it: Do I pray to the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? Do I pray to the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? Now, I will explain this question, because some of you may think, “Well, that’s obvious.” But when I was first saved—just maybe a month—I started to really struggle with this. And it became kind of confusing and difficult and conflicting at times, almost like I would catch myself almost doing it wrong, because I didn’t know who to pray to. I knew in my heart the genuine heart’s prayer that was beginning to spring up. But Jesus, I felt really comfortable with, because I mean, He paid for me when I deserved absolutely nothing. So I was inclined to always run to Jesus. And then I’d read in the Bible that Jesus would send me to the Father. And I kind of just wanted to run to Jesus, didn’t want to run to the Father. I had nothing against the Father—I was just really attracted, with the attraction of my heart, to pray to Jesus. And I didn’t necessarily know what to do with praying to the Father.
So I just kind of, politically correct, made sure I addressed the Father too that day, so that I could then run to my Jesus and spend time with my Jesus. And that’s one aspect of it—getting clear who I pray to and why. And then the other aspect is the prayer-confused Christian. Now, this is a little bit of a joke, but you will hear it from time to time. And now people are going to become self-conscious in this church. But you’ll hear somebody pray, and they’ll go, “Oh Jesus, I love you, Father.” And I’m like, “Wait—which one do you love? ‘Oh Jesus, help me, Father.’” And they all start to just jumble up and mix up the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—all in one prayer addressed to one person, but they name all three. And it almost sounds like that person is saying, “Well, they’re all the same—the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. It’s just one person with three different names.” And nobody would literally say that in this church—I really hope. Definitely nobody that gets to hold the mic.
But it may just sound a little bit like that is what you are actually doing or believing from time to time. You don’t want to cause confusion through your prayer life. Amen. Why do we practice hours a week—when I say “we,” I mean not me—for worship? It’s not because it has to be perfect. But when we do worship on the platform—ministry in excellence—then there are no distractions for the people that are seeking to enter into worship in the service. When there is—every song—I am not picking on anybody—but if in every song there are a couple of key mistakes, every single time somebody hears it, they stop focusing on Jesus, and now they are focusing on whether we are getting the song right. So, we don’t have to perform in church, but we do want to make sure we keep distractions out.
When you lead people into prayer—you are a… if you’re here, you are trying to follow Jesus—you’re going to lead people into prayer in your life. And you don’t want to confuse people by a prayer life that leads somebody into prayer, or seeking to provide a prayer where somebody can come in agreement with you, where you cause minor distractions because you’re just throwing all three persons of the Trinity around left and right, however it feels. And you start to use the names of God as filler words, and not because you are consciously addressing a person of the Trinity. How many—well, you don’t have to raise hands—I know many of you have struggled with using God as a filler word in your prayers. You say “Lord” so many times in your prayers, you must think He has amnesia—He forgot you were addressing Him. And we can get into that. And in the same way, we can get into a habit of just throwing in every name because we don’t exactly know why we’re talking to who in this particular situation.
So there are two aspects to this. I shared what I struggled with when I was first saved. I felt more comfortable with one person of the Trinity than the other two—kind of unfamiliar, didn’t really know. And then there’s the aspect of, well, you just throw everything into your prayer, and you’re just praying to God and naming Him all these names—but are you, in your heart, actually intentionally addressing the Father, addressing the Son, addressing the Holy Spirit? And maybe you ask yourself: Am I even supposed to? Is it biblical? So let’s look at what the Bible says. Do I pray to the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit? Well, the main person we seek to learn from is Jesus. So let’s start with His words, right here in Matthew 6:9. Jesus says it very clearly: “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” So you are, by all means, supposed to have a conversation—a prayer life—that intentionally and continually addresses the Father. That’s what Jesus tells us.
You should be praying to the Father who is in heaven. That’s where He is. Amen. The Father doesn’t live in your heart. I heard a very quiet amen. The Father is in heaven, and we are called to pray to the Father. Who told you to come and pray to the Father? Jesus did. Sometimes I don’t feel very good about myself, and that’s how I open my prayer: “Father, I’m here. Jesus told me to be here, so I’m here. I don’t really know what to say. I don’t really feel worthy right now to pray, but Jesus told me to show up, so I’m here. And I may need some help in learning how to pray.” And we also see Jesus Himself pray to the Father. Mark 1, verse 35. Now, you could argue in this particular Scripture He could have also been praying to the Spirit, but let me read you the Scripture first.
Mark 1:35: “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He—that is, Jesus—went out and departed to a solitary place, an alone place, a ‘me and Jesus’ kind of place. In His case, Jesus and the Father, or Jesus and the Spirit—and there He prayed.” So we know that Jesus went out and prayed. Jesus, who was fully God and became fully man, had a prayer life. Just sit on that for a second. Jesus, who had all of heaven’s resources, no sin, walked in perfection, took time out of His day to go and pray. In John 17, we see Him address the Father directly. Verse 1: “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.’” So you and I are instructed by Jesus to pray to the Father. Jesus also sets the example of praying to the Father, coming to the Father. But then the Bible also tells us there are times where we ask things of the Son—of Jesus.
John 14, verses 13–16. Again, Jesus speaking: “Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” So Jesus literally here says, “If you ask Me—that is, Jesus—if you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” And then He goes as far as to say, “By the way, when you have asked Me—when you have asked Jesus anything—then I turn to the Father and I make sure it gets done. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever.” So not only does Jesus tell us that we are to address the Father in prayer, Jesus also says, “When you ask Me anything, I will do it for you.” But He also continually keeps praying to the Father for you. There’s a continuous, relational, family-style relationship that we are all intertwined in and a part of—and it all has a purpose.
Now, praying to the Spirit—there’s actually a whole lot less direct Scripture that relates to praying to the Holy Spirit. And here is why I believe that is: The Holy Spirit does come to live in our heart. The Bible explains the Spirit as being very relational. We hear from the Spirit. We receive empowerment from the Spirit to become men and women that we could never be in our own strength, to even accomplish biblical tasks—tasks that God places before us in our generation to accomplish our call. The Bible tells us that God gives you and I the Spirit so that, all of a sudden, we can do what we could never do before—so that ministry doesn’t wear you out and doesn’t break you. No raise of hands, but I know there are people in this room that have done ministry in their own strength. You’re trying to do a God-work with a human resource, and it will break you and drain you. You can even become afraid of being asked to serve, wounded by how much it costs when you are doing it in your own strength. The Holy Spirit is relational. He is to be empowering us, and He is educational. He teaches us things we don’t know.
He helps us to do things we cannot do. And He helps us enter into relationship that we never had. And so what we see with the Holy Spirit, throughout the Scripture, is more of a conversation-style prayer life—a conversational relationship. And I’ll read to you John 16, verses 13 and 14: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”
Here, Jesus says the Holy Spirit—who is going to walk with you and live inside of you—He’s going to have a conversation with you. He’s going to educate you. He’s going to strengthen you. He’s going to explain things to you that you don’t know yet, help you understand things you couldn’t understand before.
So we’ve addressed, biblically speaking: the Father—prayer; speaking and asking of the Son; and a conversation with the Holy Spirit, who comes to walk with us and live in our heart. But how do we make it simple? How do I know when I talk to who? When do we speak to what person? I’m going to tell you something very simple. It’s not for every single situation in life, but when you understand the following thing, this is what made it simple for me in almost all situations I’ve ever found myself in. And there’s a disclaimer as well, but let’s get into the simplicity first. First of all, the Father made the promises. That’s what you want to understand. If you have that clear—the Father made the promises. Jesus makes you qualified for the promises. That’s why we worship Jesus, we praise Jesus. Without Jesus, it didn’t really matter for us that God had made promises. And the Holy Spirit executes the work of those promises in our lives.
That is how these three persons in one God—a triune God—that’s how that practically functions on the day-to-day. So when I don’t have strength, I thank the Father, who has made the promises. I thank Jesus for the fact that I can believe for those promises for my own life. And I say, “Holy Spirit, come now and give me the strength, because I cannot do this.” I know who to speak to because I understand their personality. The Father makes the promises. Jesus brings me into the promises. And the Holy Spirit does the work to bring it to pass in my life. A big thing to be conscious of—because I don’t want you to get all caught up in the details and get worried about addressing the right person all the time, worried about praying right—here’s a very important thing to keep on the forefront of your mind: The Father wants relationship. He sent His only begotten Son. The Son said, “I’m not going to leave you orphans; I’m going to send My Spirit.” The Father does not want you to be alone. That’s what you get from that. The Father sent His Son. The Son sent the Holy Spirit. God does not want you to be alone. He wants relationship.
Even if you address the wrong person in the Trinity with the wrong topic or question, there’s no angel sitting on the side of the throne going, “He did it again.” “Sorry, Jesus is busy—you should have said the Father.” There’s no track record being kept on you getting this wrong. The reason we want to get this right is so that we don’t feel uncomfortable with one person in the Trinity, and we also represent the God we serve—a triune God. We want to represent that God clearly and effectively as we do relationship with other people and in your prayer life. When you get into a relationship with somebody, you become a friend of somebody—you’re a Christian—you bring your prayer life with you. Sooner or later, you’re going to end up praying with that person.
Not necessarily because they need it—they may be a saved friend—but when you go for a long drive, before you drive, you pray that the Lord may give you traveling mercies, that He may keep your composure in check when somebody cuts you off, and that He brings you home safe. And it may be something very simple, just throughout your day. But when you become a friend to someone—saved or unsaved—you bring your prayer life with you. And your prayer life is one of these things that, if it is placed in the hands of God, placed in the hands of the Holy Spirit who lives in you, He’s going to use it, because people are on their way to hell. And the Father desires relationship so much that He sent His Son. And the Son, when lifted back up to heaven, sent His Spirit—because He wants relationship with as many people as possible.
The Father wants relationship. Jesus made it happen. And the Spirit gives us a sneak peek of that relationship. A Let me explain that. So there we have, again, three persons serving certain purposes. The Father wants relationship. Jesus made that happen. And the Spirit gives us a sneak peek. We have not met the Father yet—amen. But we have seen Him if we have seen the Son. That’s what the Bible tells us. And the only way we can, in our heart—with the eyes of our heart—clearly see the Son is if the Father reveals the Son. How does He do that? Through the Spirit fulfilling the promises that the blind will see—amen—that the deaf will hear. And so the Holy Spirit allows us, in small measure, to already see with the eyes of our heart and know, with the intent of our heart, the Father somewhat. But it’s only a shadow of how intimately and clearly we are going to know the Father and know Jesus once we are united with the Lord in heaven. And so, while I’m here on earth, I’m incredibly, forever grateful to the Father. I honor the Father. I pray to the Father. I ask of the Father. I praise the Father for all the promises.
But Jesus is the reason that I can even come to the Father. And I am daily so dependent on the Holy Spirit, because without the Holy Spirit there is no fulfilling of the promises in my life. The Holy Spirit needs to bring that strength. The Holy Spirit needs to help me understand the Bible. The Holy Spirit needs to help me actually worship Jesus and not sing for myself or seek to be touched in my own emotions.
The Holy Spirit has to glorify Jesus in a man like me. I am fully dependent on His ministry. So there we have the three persons that we are called to address. And I hope that this answer, with the Scriptures I’ve given you, helps you understand why, at times, you choose to talk to the Holy Spirit; why, at times, you specifically choose to talk to the Father; and why, at times, you run to Jesus. Amen. Amen. Are you still with me? Second question for tonight. This is a little bit of a long one. You can write down your own version of this question if you want to make it shorter. I didn’t make up this question—it was sent in. When it says—and I’m assuming this person is referring to the Bible—when it says women are supposed to be silent in church, are we going against doctrine? When it says women are supposed to be silent in church, are we going against doctrine? Now, I’m assuming the second part of the question is coming from a place of knowing that women get to speak in this church. That’s what I’m assuming, and I think I’m right. So, let’s first look at the place in Scripture that this question, I believe, is referring to: 1 Corinthians 14, verses 34 and 35. “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home. For it is shameful for women to speak in church.”
There you have it, folks. At first glance, that seems pretty black and white—pretty clear. Amen? But why would Paul, who wrote this letter to the Corinthians, be outlining the order in which a woman should be speaking in church within the congregation right there in the same letter, a few chapters before—same letter, to the same people? Is Paul contradicting himself? Did he forget what he just wrote, and now he’s saying, “Nah, never mind—don’t let them talk”? What is going on? Let me take you a few chapters earlier so you can see it for yourself. A lot of you are very familiar with this Scripture portion: 1 Corinthians 11:5–10. “But every woman,”—talking about the order of service right here—“but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.”
Now, that last sentence throws a lot of people a curveball, because if this Scripture portion was not controversial enough, it ends with: “For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.” Wait a minute—what does that mean? Well, if you study this Scripture portion, where Paul is making clear that women pray and publicly prophesy—speaking the Word of God in truth, in season, for certain people—then it should be orderly. That’s what he’s teaching. And he starts to talk about this—head shaved, not shaved, covered, authority.
When you actually go back—because Paul didn’t write this to every church that he was pastoring—but when you actually go back to the historical context and the cultural context of this Corinthian church, you will find that order was really a thing to be desired. And on top of that, when you actually pull this word “angel” apart in the original text, what it’s really saying is “messenger.” And this particular word for angel was used for guest preachers. And that is really the key to understanding this Scripture, because Paul actually continues—we haven’t read it tonight—he continues, and at the end of this statement he says, “But if anybody wants to fight about this, forget I ever said it. Let the churches have no habit of such.”
So, what is Paul doing? He is creating a little piece of order. Because women pray publicly and lead others into prayer; because women prophesy—which is really a modern-day equivalent of preaching, sharing a word from God’s heart for people that need to hear it so they can respond and grow in their relationship with Jesus, or even start a relationship with Jesus—because women publicly share words from the Lord, Paul says: When there’s a guest preacher there—for the sake of the angels, when there’s a messenger in your midst—and there’s already one or two or three that have shared a word, as the Word says, “two or three prophesy,” that guest preacher, who’s in charge, needs to know if this is happening orderly. He needs to know if this married woman—because the Word says that the husband is the head of the woman—if this woman has a head covering. Is this woman actually under the authority of a man who is saved, who knows her walk with the Lord, and who has said her walk with the Lord is solid? “She has my covering. She is allowed to speak in church. She is allowed to share with others. I can vouch for her.”
That’s what Paul was saying. It needs to be clear to the guest preacher, who doesn’t know everybody, if this woman that is getting up to say something is speaking in order, or if she is rebellious and just starting to yell because she’s got something to say. The old people would call her a Karen. The young people would call her a Jessica. Amen? Amen. Paul is organizing how this should go down so that whoever is leading in the church at that particular moment knows if this is good for the people—what is happening right now—and this woman is allowed to share because her husband has given his blessing, his authority to her; or this is something that should be shut down because there’s already somebody speaking. That is the order that he gives. And then, a couple of chapters later, why would Paul say that a woman should stay silent and not actively participate, as it were, in public ministry?
Well, let’s read the Bible. Amen. Let’s read the couple of verses before verse 34 and 35. As a matter of fact, let me read verse 34 and 35 again—we just read them: “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home. For it is shameful for women to speak in church.” Again—seems so clear. Now, let’s read just the few verses right before it, starting at verse 29: “Let two or three prophets speak”—remember, same letter to the same people—“and let the others judge.” Some of you have been going through life saying, “Oh no, I shouldn’t judge, I shouldn’t judge.” Let the others judge. Verse 30: “But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one.” Why is that? Because you have the Spirit, “that all may learn and all may be encouraged.”
What do you learn from this prophecy? You’re supposed to be learning something. You’re supposed to be getting encouraged—that’s when you know it’s prophecy. “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” In other words, you’re never out of control. The Spirit will never take away your ability to make choices. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home. It is shameful—it is shameful—for women to speak in the church.” So this is the context. Paul, again, is writing to them, explaining how stuff should go down in the service—that’s what he’s doing.
He says, “Let two or three speak.” If somebody has a word that you can learn something from, or it is encouraging, let it be max two or three. And he says, “Let the others judge. Let the others say, ‘Well, is this really biblical? Is this really what the Spirit is teaching us right now?’” Then he explains that God doesn’t cause confusion—that someone who speaks is fully in control. They may be animated, they may be led by the Spirit, but they are not overpowered, so to speak, by the Spirit. And then he says, while all of this is going on—a few people speak, the rest judge—let the women stay out of that. Let the women keep silent, for they are not permitted to speak right now, but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something—in other words, if they say, “I don’t know about what he shared right now; I understand that differently”—Paul says, “This is not the time for you to speak up.” Because Pastor Stan’s wife is going to be awfully upset when you, as a lady, stand up and start to correct her husband right then and there. This is going to cause major trouble in the church when we are judging the word that is coming forth right here and right now.
He says that part—I want the women to stay out of. You’ve got questions about it? Go talk to your husband at home, and he can quietly come back to the next meeting and say, “Oh, brother… I thought about what you said. I thought about what you said—did you really mean this or that? Or isn’t it more like this or that?” Paul says, if you don’t do this—if you have somebody’s wife perceived attacking somebody else’s husband who just shared something, and vice versa—he’s like, “It’s going to be a mess. Don’t do that.” Let the women be quiet as far as it goes in judging the words that have just been spoken. If they have questions about it, just let them ask at home. It’s going to avoid a lot of trouble. Here’s the conclusion for that one: Are women allowed to speak in the church? Are we going against doctrine? Here it is. A woman, if she is tested and with the extended authority of a man over her, is allowed to pray and prophesy publicly, speaking in a meeting. However, as far as judging goes—if a man is to be corrected in his speaking or questioned in his speaking—a woman is not to be doing that in a public meeting of the church. She can bring it up with her husband at home. That’s what the Word teaches on this. Amen? Amen. It’s a good place to clap, church. We’re going to transition. That was good. Some of y’all didn’t know that. I studied really hard for that.
Question three. How do you teach people to identify and use their spiritual gifts? How do you teach people to identify and use their spiritual gifts? Are y’all recovering from the whole woman thing? You guys okay? Amen. Amen. How do you teach people to identify and use their spiritual gifts? Great, great question. I actually see a lot of Christians that have had this question, and this question was important to them at some point in time. And it almost seems like they’ve kind of made peace with the fact that they’re either not sure what spiritual gifts they have, or they’ve made peace with not using them—at least not in the biblical way. Let me read to you Mark 16:17 and 18: “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” When we are talking about giftings from heaven, you have to simplify it.
Church, remember—always—when things become complicated to you, it doesn’t really matter what biblical topic it is. I do it. It works. When anything—any biblical thing, topic, issue—becomes a little complicated, heavy, big, confusing to you, you need to remember that the Bible says that the kingdom belongs to children. If it’s complicated, the Holy Spirit hasn’t touched it yet. You don’t understand what God means yet, because a child can understand the things of the kingdom. When the Holy Spirit touches something in my life—I’ve said it many times—I always feel a little bit dumb, because I go, “Of course—how did I not see that before?” That is so simple. The kingdom belongs to children. Giftings—we can make them big, and we can get a certain taste in our mouth when we think of the giftings of God, or we think about certain men or women or events or big things, small things—you name it.
Spiritual giftings means that you got something you didn’t ask for, you didn’t pay for—you got it for free, because somebody else paid for it. Anything that falls within that parameter, in all technicality, is a spiritual gift that you have received, because Jesus paid and Jesus purchased it—because Jesus wanted to give that to you. It’s not because you made the correct wish list, and you prayed hard enough, and you pulled the strings of the heart of the Father, and you finally convinced Him to also give you a little bit of His Spirit and maybe a gifting or two. No. Jesus paid the price to buy gifts that He wanted to give to you. And when you are His son, His daughter, He gives good gifts to His kids. That’s what He does. You have a generous Lord. You have a generous King. And that is the simplicity of how a gift works: somebody else paid for it, somebody else came up with it, somebody else purchased it, and somebody else gave it to you for free. And the Word says, “These signs—this is what it’s going to look like if people begin to believe in Me.” That’s what Jesus says.
“In My name they will cast out demons.” In other words, they’re going to be so gifted, so bathed in spiritual gifts, that even demons need to listen to them. They used to be sinners. They used to be abused by sin. They used to, in some cases, be abused by the enemy and his workers. And I’m going to give them the kind of spiritual gifts that is going to transform that man and transform that woman, that when you see them, they leave a trail, as it were, of their life behind, where you see demons have no power anymore. When that person comes around, they’ve gotten a lot of gifts, and they know how to use them. They know how to spend them. The Word says they will speak with new tongues. Now, usually people instantly assume this is talking about the gift of speaking in another language—a prayer language or a spoken language on earth—and it can be, but that is not super, super clear in this Scripture.
What is clear is that, in every case, you are going to speak different. Whether this is referring directly to that particular gifting, or this is literally saying you’re going to very easily tell when they’ve believed in Me because they’re going to talk so different—there are words and habits that I will take out of their mouth, and I will pour hope and life into their mouth, and you’re going to be able to tell the difference. They’re going to speak with new tongues. They’re going to have a whole new talk, a whole new walk. The Word says they’ll take up serpents, which we know is a reference to the serpent of old—in other words, the enemy. They can just pick them up. There’s nothing the enemy can do anymore. His weapons have been rendered powerless. His authority has been stripped from him.
Then the Word says, “And if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them.” Even when they sin, right? We partake of living water, and here there’s the parable of drinking something deadly—the opposite of living water. Even when these people that have believed in Jesus make mistakes or abuse their freedom and go and drink something deadly, you’re going to see that it cannot hurt them anymore—that it cannot make them guilty before God anymore.
It will by no means hurt them. And when they lay hands on the sick, they will recover. They’re going to bring life. They’re going to bring healing. They’re going to be gifted people—people that walk around with a lot of gifts that somebody else paid for, somebody else gifted to them. Then we have 1 Corinthians 12, which also gives us a list of various giftings that the Word says the believer will operate in: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith—the gift of faith—healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and then interpretation of tongues. And there’s many more. Really, anything that Jesus paid for and gave to you is a spiritual gift in your life.
But the question was this: how do you teach people to identify and use their spiritual gifts? A gift is something you didn’t work for. A gift is something that was handed to you. Now, they had no wrapping paper in Bible times, so it’s not implied, biblically, that you have to unwrap anything. It’s handed to you. It’s given to you, ready to be used. You know what’s in it. It’s not wrapped—it’s given to you. But you can neglect it. The Word teaches you can be given incredible giftings that Jesus paid for—Jesus personally picked them out with you in mind and had them brought to you by the Holy Spirit and gifted to you—and you can neglect it. So helping people identify the giftings and actually use what God has given them—I like to learn the best way to do it directly from the Word. That’s where I’m going to take you. 1 Timothy 4, verses 12–16. Paul writing to Timothy he says this: “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.
Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them. For in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” So helping people identify what they should give themselves to entirely, and what they should meditate on so that they don’t neglect the gifts of God—it is entirely possible, and I think everyone here understands it at least to one degree, that Jesus bled and died to buy things you’re not using. And the only person benefiting from that is the enemy of your soul—the one who seeks to accuse and destroy and kill and rob—to such an extent that Paul tells one of the guys that he has discipled: “Do not neglect the gift that is in you.” But he also tells him how to do that—how to not only identify but how to use the gift. And he says, “You’ve got to give yourself entirely to it.” In other words, when God—when heaven—gives you gifts, that is God making clear to you what He wants you to spend your life on. And Paul says, you make sure that the gifts that you were given—you give yourself entirely to them, because that is the opposite of neglecting them.
If you give yourself partially to the things that God has placed in your life—the things that Christ has purchased, the things that He bought—if you give yourself to it partially, you will end up beginning to neglect, and eventually neglecting, the giftings of God in your life. And so what do we see Paul do? He encourages: “Let no one despise your youth. Don’t worry about it.”
We have people in our life, we have an enemy in our life, and we are often our own worst enemy as well, where we come up with all of these reasons why we cannot contribute greatly today to someone’s salvation, or someone’s walk, or someone’s day. There are so many reasons—and Paul cuts it all down. In Timothy’s case, he was kind of young to be doing what he was doing. And Paul goes, “Let no one despise your youth. Go back to wholly giving yourself to that gift. Don’t neglect it. Give yourself to it.”
Because Paul says, in the end, when you do this—when you give yourself entirely—he says you will, in doing so, both save yourself and your hearers. He says this is all about being delivered. This is all about people getting saved. Encouragement: let no one despise your youth. Every reason as to why you should forever be in the pew and not be used by the Spirit of God to see people come to know Jesus Christ—for the forgiveness of their sins, the joy of their soul, the peace of God upon their life—every reason, let it be done away with. Encourage one another.
But that’s what I seek to do with you guys—to encourage you out of neglecting any of the giftings, to encourage you away from that behavior, as Paul taught right here. He did with Timothy. And then discipleship—encouragement and discipleship—that’s the answer. That’s what Paul shows us right here. Discipleship. He says, “Pay attention to reading. Exhortation—using what you read in somebody else’s life. Doctrine—pay attention to what you believe.” And then he also says, pay attention to yourself. “Take heed to yourself.”
In doing so, you will save yourself and your hearers. Paul says this is serious business. We are dependent on what God has given us. Ultimately—church, I want you to get this, I want you to get it so clear in your heart—ultimately, Christ is the greatest gift heaven has ever sent your way. And you need to understand this: every minor, other gift that was ever sent your way—every single one of them—is to get the greatest gift of all presented into another person’s life.
That’s what every gift is supposed to contribute to. And that’s why it is so important that you and I do not neglect it—that we don’t let the devil talk us out of it, that we don’t let him use our mistakes and our sin as a stick to beat us down, or our age to disqualify us, or whatever it may be in your life. That we encourage one another and say: there’s no reason for you not to be used in the kingdom of God. You’re not too young. You’re not too old. You haven’t made too many mistakes.
Pay attention to reading. Spend time with Jesus every day. Use what you read—it’s not only for you. You step out by faith. You start to use what you read. You begin to exhort. You begin to think daily: when was the last time you sat down for five minutes to meditate on what you believe? And pay attention to yourself. Am I living it, or have I learned to just say—give all the right answers? Am I still living it? Am I still seeking and saving the lost? Do I still allow the Spirit of God to move me every day so that I give myself entirely to those things that God purchased and had delivered into my life by His Holy Spirit, on assignment to make me a man or a woman that becomes effective in bringing the greatest gift that heaven has ever had and ever given out into the lives of someone else? Church, the enemy does not want you to give yourself entirely to those things that Jesus purchased for you. They’re easy to identify—you didn’t have them before. You didn’t really care for people. You didn’t have thoughts of prayer pop into your mind throughout the day. You didn’t have a heart to one day be a man, or to be a woman, that would boldly speak the wonderful works of God. But then, when you met Jesus, these new things were in your heart. They are gifts from heaven. And Paul says, “Don’t neglect them. Read the Scriptures. Use the Scriptures.” Think on what you believe.
Make sure that you yourself are also walking by it, that you’re walking it out. Don’t let the enemy talk you out of anything. Because if he can get you—and your own mistakes can get you—to give yourself only partially, sooner or later you’re going to end up neglecting the giftings that Jesus paid for. The small gifts that make the big gift possible in the lives of people that don’t know Jesus yet. The small giftings of the Spirit of God—small compared to heaven giving us Jesus. The small giftings of the Spirit are vital to you becoming effective to carry that greatest gift of all—our Lord and Savior—into the lives of other people. The enemy doesn’t want you to be effective in that. So, if he can just get you to only give yourself partially to it, you’re still pretty peaceful. You’re still doing stuff. You’re still kind of excited about Jesus. And I’ve seen it time and time again, church—ten years down the road—the heart has grown indifferent, a big head, a lot of knowledge.
But a person like that can’t make my heart burn anymore when they talk. They can’t make me want to spend time with Jesus anymore. Something has died inside of them. They’ve neglected something that was supposed to serve a divine purpose. And now they walk in the natural again. They’re not always horrific sinners. They’re not always clearly bad people on the outside, but they began to neglect the gifting. Now, they don’t read as much in the Scriptures. They don’t use the Scriptures as much in the lives of others. They don’t give as much thought to their belief system every day. They don’t really see anymore that their life doesn’t line up with what Jesus said believers would look like in their generation. Do not neglect the gifting.
-Pastor Stan Mons
