Manage Your Gifting | Phil Daniels | 7th July

[00:00:05] This is a real simple one, but there's r1 point I want to bring out. We're going to look at a few things, but something that's really helped me on my journey and I want to get really practical this morning. Is that all right? So this is kind of a summary. You're eating your donuts. Bit of an easier, practical one this morning. It's not too tasking for us. [00:00:23] So, yeah, as I say, it's an exciting one, I think. I don't just mean our. So obviously this morning we look at manage your gifting, manage your gifting. We've all got different gifts. You know that church, don't you? All of you all made individual, you've all got a gift, you've all got something to bring all of us, everybody. But I don't just mean our spiritual gift in this morning, I mean the way God made us, the way God made all of you individually, you've all been made with a purpose, you've all been made individually, you've all got gifts. And I want us to talk about that this morning. I want to look at all of us. [00:00:57] So without sounding cheesy, I want us to be the best us we can be for Jesus. Does sound cheesy, doesn't it? But I want us to be the best us for Jesus at this church here in Newton Abbot. I want us to be the best us we can be for Jesus with how God made us, with the gifting he made us. Do you know what? He knows you inside out church. He knows you before you were born. I was praying that with Greg this morning. He knew before we were born, he knew all about us. He knew who you were going to be. He actually made you in your mother's womb. He predestined you. He knew everything about you before you were born. It's kind of sober in that, isn't it? If you actually think that the king of kings knew and wired you together, knit you together in your mother's womb and made you who you are. So what are you going to do with you? What are you going to do with how God made you? What are you going to do with the gifts God made you? [00:01:47] One thing I don't want you to do is look at others around. Look at others gifting, look at others abilities, look at others things they can do, things that you think you can't do. And I once heard when I was younger, a real great illustration on this. And he said, if you imagine your life is like a bridge, I always remember the Humber bridge, Tina, in Yorkshire, I think it is the longest bridge in England. It goes on forever. If you get on it, you're like halfway across in your car thinking, I hope this is all right because it's a long bridge, it's kind of waving a bit in the middle. But if you imagine your life is like a bridge and the end is when you die, and as a Christian, you're going to be with Jesus and at the start is when you're born, but as you walk down the bridge of your life, don't look that way and don't look that way. Yeah. If there's other, you know, like in New York, in London, where there's all these bridges going across a river, if you look to the left at somebody else's bridge that they're walking down and get envious, jealous, upset, looking on. Waste of time. Waste of time. Church. You walk down the own bridge of your life towards your saviour, towards Jesus. Walk down your bridge with the way God made you, with your gifting, with your life. Yeah. Be the best you he can be. [00:03:00] So, looking this morning at manage your gifting, just two simple areas. Church. We're going to look at this morning two simple areas. The first one is in church, obviously, in our christian journey, and the second one is at work, how we earn a living. How many of us know it's good to work? It's actually biblical to work. It's good to earn a living. So, yeah, so the gift in God made us physically in who we are and then as his church. Are you with me? Yes. [00:03:26] Nobody's going to fall asleep. [00:03:29] You've all got your sugar rush. [00:03:32] Fantastic. [00:03:34] Fantastic. Right. At first church, thinking about that bridge. Don't be jealous of others at church. Church. [00:03:43] People at church. Don't ever look on anyone else jealous or envious. We are the body of Christ. I want to say that at the outset. You make up the body of Christ. And let me tell you, the body of Christ is a precious thing. There's no plan b, you know, there's no plan C or plan D. If the body of Christ don't work out, the church doesn't come out. Jesus says, I am coming back for my glorious bride. That's you and that's me. [00:04:09] So if we're going to be a glorious bride for him, yeah. Let's not look at others with jealousy or envy. Are you with me? Come on, let's get a bit real and a bit itchy this morning. [00:04:19] The Bible tells us to prefer one another. You've heard me say that before. I really want us to be a church if we're going to reach that town out there. Do you know it starts with us? God uses his people. We're always a caveat for his love. We're always a caveat for his resources. And all he wants to do, he usually works through his people. [00:04:37] So let's prefer one another. Do you know what it actually means? Cheer one another on. So all your different gifting, who's going to cheer one another on? Great thing to do. [00:04:47] Scripture says we have one body but many parts. Famous passage. Let's just dive into it this morning. Bible's church. Will you turn to one corinthians 1212, 1231, one corinthians 12, 12 31 without to leave you hanging when it says, let me show you the most excellent way at the end. We probably all know that, being christians a while, that one corinthians in 13 really talks about love, doesn't it? So about all this gifting in the body, is that love for Jesus and love for one another. [00:05:23] But, yeah. So without going too much into the whole body, hand, feet, different things. You get in the picture though, aren't you, church? I'm sure a lot of you know this passage there. It's a picture of the church that you might have a worship leader, you might have somebody that sets up in the morning before church. You might have somebody that's doing the kids work, you might have somebody preaching, you might have somebody cleaning the toilets, you might have somebody bring in a word of encouragement. You might have all these different things working together in harmony. That's what Paul's trying to tell us here. He's talking to the church in Corinth. What is the Bible telling us? It's saying we're all different. But guess what? The church functions best with all of us together. [00:06:05] One body, many parts, but the church functions best. I've highlighted it. With what? With all of us. As I said at the start, you've all got gifting, you've all got different talents, you've all got abilities. God gave you the way that you were wide in that mother's womb, comes together to make this beautiful thing called the church. Yeah. So the church works best with all of us. I want to pick out a couple of key points, a couple of passages that just spoke to me. Verse 13. If you look at it, verse 13, he says, whatever colour I was reading, sorry, Lydia, read from the nIv, but I actually studied this week in the NLT, so some of them be thinking don't like my nIv. I quite like the NLT. So what I'm reading out is from the NLT. But whatever colour, whatever nationality, whatever background the body of Christ says in my Bible encompasses them all. Isn't that beautiful? Who remembers International Sunday? We said that, didn't it? You know, champion on all the different colours, creeds, nationalities, culture. Culture's a big one, isn't it? You go to America, the crackers told you, before you go to the cinema in America, they all start flipping, cheering. You're like, well, you shut up and we'll try to watch a film. Like, yeah, get in there, son. That's great. And you're like, we're in a cinema. You shout at football match, you don't shout in a cinema. But that's their culture. That's who they are, you know, british, guess a bit more reserved than that. You go to France, you go to Italy. They all smash into each other in the cars. It's perfectly normal. Unless you have ten bumps on your car. You're not, you know, in the club. It's quite scary. Esther and I were on our first holiday as a young married couple. Do you remember? And I was a bit crazy. I thought, pastor's daughter, let's show a bit of fun here. So hired a scooter, 250 cc scooter. She's got a little helmet on. Sat on the back with the blonde hair in the wind. I said, do you trust me? I. Yeah, yeah, I trust you. I've only been married about two months. Hired this 250 scooter. [00:08:05] Went past the coliseum in Rome. Crikey, it was about five lanes wide. And the Italians are crazy. And I'm in the middle of all these lanes with different cars flying past on this scooter. I was petrified. Ness was like, are we okay? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But their culture, the crackers, they just all smash into each other. So all these different cultures around the world, all these different nationalities, we come together as one church. That's what the Bible is telling us here. Whatever colour, whatever nationality, whatever background, whatever culture, we are the body of Christ. So what is there? There's a oneness in Christ. There's a oneness here that jumps out to me. There's a oneness together. Are you getting that? Together. We've all got these giftings, but we come together as one in Christ. As a body of what? Believers in him. [00:08:51] That's our common theme. That's our common theme together. I want to read from this in my life. Application Bible. Have any of you got a life application Bible. [00:09:00] That's about five of us. The rest of you get one. Not just when you're studying for a preach, but in your own quiet times. You have like the Bible at the top, then at bottom. Some real intelligent Bible scholars kind of explain the passage above. You don't have to go off onto Google, you don't have to go elsewhere. It's right there underneath you. It's brilliant. It really helps me as a Yorkshireman, read the Bible. So get a life application Bible. This is what it says about that passage. It says, the church is composed of many types of people from a variety of backgrounds and with a multitude of listen of gifts and abilities, it is easy for those differences to what? Divide people. [00:09:45] Have a look up at you all there. None of us are divided. No. [00:09:49] As was the case in Corinthenne. So there's nothing new under the sun, as my mother used to say in Yorkshire. So if you've got any in the church that gets on your nerves, if you've got anybody in the church that could divide you or winds you up, that happened in Corinth, that probably happened 10,000 years ago, 1000 years ago, and it probably happened a generation after us. We're all human, aren't we? So it's been very blunt here, as was the case in Corinth, but always like a. But despite the differences, they all have one thing in faith in Christ. [00:10:21] On this essential truth, the church finds what? [00:10:26] Unity. Fantastic unity. All believers are baptised into what? One Holy Spirit. Good to remember that there's only one Holy Spirit. We're all baptized into the same Holy Spirit. So listen now, we don't lose our individual identities, but instead we have our overriding oneness in Christ love, that we all share the same Holy Spirit, which means that each of us has received the same Holy Spirit. You get baptized in the Spirit, it's the same Holy Spirit that speaks to all of us. We've all got different gifts and abilities. Remember that. We've got the one Holy Spirit. Yeah. As members of God's family, we may have different interests and different gifts, but we are united by the spirit into one spiritual body. [00:11:17] Good to remember that, isn't it? This is a real sense of unity here in Corinth. But together it makes up this beautiful body of Christ, just as we are a beautiful body of Christ here in Newton Abbot. So look at your neighbour and say, you are part of a beautiful body of Christ. [00:11:40] Also look at them and say, you had two donuts, you rotter. [00:11:46] Don't say that. [00:11:48] So we have many different interests, church. We have many different gifts. That's what we'll look at this morning. Manage your gifts. But it's good that we're all different, right? It's good. Wouldn't it be boring if we were all the same? [00:12:00] Yeah, try marriage for that one. That's a good one. [00:12:05] It's great that we're different. It's great that God made us different. I want to talk about that. We're all different. We've all got different characteristics, abilities, giftings. But what's the Bible saying? Here we come together as one body. Let's remember that. [00:12:20] Verse 18. I love this as well. I'm going to read it from three translations. It says this in the nIv. But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body. Every one of them. Listen. [00:12:33] Just as he wanted them to be. [00:12:36] Wow. That's referring to his church. Remember? That's referring to his church. So all of you were placed in the body just as you are. And as he wanted you to be. Quite sober in that, isn't it? If you think of your life before you became a Christian, then you go right back to birthing. God knew me before I was born. He knew every hair on my head. He knew me. But he also knew where he was going to put you in church. And what you could do in that church. What part of the body you could be. I think it's amazing. Listen, it gets better, though. Nlt good to read other translations. Church. NLT, verse 13, verse 18. Sorry, but our bodies may have many parts. Remember, it's church. And God has put each part of them where just where he wants them. [00:13:20] It gets better. The message Bible. Just go back one verse, which just helps bring the context. If the body was an eye, how could it hear? An eye can't hear, can it? And I can see. Okay. [00:13:33] If it was an ear, how could it smell? [00:13:38] An ear can't smell, can it? My nose smells. You get this. Come together. [00:13:42] My son James, he likes to do this. He'll say, daddy, have you ever thought how many feathers there are in a car? [00:13:51] But it's the cool thing to do at 15 into the moment to ask a question that makes no sense. But hear. It makes no sense. An ear cannot smell. A nose cannot hear. But we're all different. We're all as God made us. It says this, though as it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wants it. When you think of the word carefully, God knows everything. Church. He knows all about us, but he knows all about his church. He knows all about the whole time from beginning to end. And he carefully placed you here. He carefully placed you in his body. What are you going to do with that? Because I think that's quite a sobering thing to think that the king of kings carefully placed us here for this time. Yeah. One body, many parts. He carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. So it says in the message Bible. Wow. He carefully placed you and me, all of us together. Nigel, when you got baptised the other week, what a joy it was to see your life getting baptized. He carefully placed you with us for that time. There's no mistakes with Jesus. We know that, don't we? He carefully places. Are we getting the memo? Church. So God made you and he made me. And we all have one part to play in God's body. Let's not be sloth like with it, let's not be lazy with it, let's not bother, let's not be consumer church. Let's not just turn up, let's take our part of the body seriously. Church. I know it's a simple summer challenge, but we've all got different giftings. He knew you before you were born. He knows your giftings. He carefully placed you here. What are you going to do with it? [00:15:28] Serious? Come on. I've written down. Have we got a heart to serve church? Have we got heart to serve? You've heard me say it before, but it goes all over the land, whether you're in John O'Groats or in land's End or in London, generally. Generally 70% to 80% of the work is done by 20% to 30% of the people. I'm not saying that to upset anyone. I'm not. Hear my heart gently. What I'm saying is, as a church to operate, well, wouldn't it be great if we flip that right around and most of the people were serving in church. What a privilege it is to serve in God's house. It's the soon and coming bride. It's a glorious bride, yeah. We have a privilege to serve God's house. Don't ever see it as a chore, see it as an absolute joy to serve the house of God. I mean that church. Let us be a servant hearted church. Let us be a church with loads of different abilities that come together in harmony, preferring one another in unity for all the differences we are and serve well together. [00:16:27] Yeah, we need some more kids, workers age six to eleven, those that weren't here last week when I made a gentle appeal. Come on, let's serve God's. You can do that? You can think. I can do once a month or once every six weeks. Yeah, I think it could be you this morning. Come and see me after us if you can. There's needs always in the church to serve the body of Christ. Finally. Okay, verse 25 and 26. Still with me? [00:16:52] Sugar's doing its job. That's what we want. It says this. This makes for what? Harmony amongst the members. So that all the members of what? Of God's church care for each other. [00:17:07] If one part suffers, all parts suffer with it. And if one part is honoured, if one part is honoured, all parts are glad. [00:17:18] Bit of a difficult one that, isn't it? Wow, church. There's a real blueprint for us there. [00:17:23] If one part suffers, we should all gather around and help that person. I think we do that well here as a church. I want to applaud you. I do. [00:17:32] Ade and Mary have just bought a new house and aids been administered for 15 years. And it's not a job you go into for a financial reward. It's a heart thing. And they bought the best house they could afford, but they needed some work doing. And I said, ade, let's get a body of guys around. We'll come and help you. Apart from me scratching, you know, when the Bible, I've still got one here. You know, it talks about a thorn in the flesh. We ripped out Ada and Mary's garden that was very overgrown with a lot of thorns. We did get some thorns in the flesh, but what a joy. It was just 5 hours on a Saturday morning. Mary made us some brilliant bacon sandwiches. And it's such a joy to serve one another. And I know that wasn't a suffering, but they needed help and it was great that the church could help. The body of Christ is the best thing ever. That's what I say to all my friends. You know, your non christian friends ask you say if you just knew what it was like to be a member of Christ church, it is the best thing out. So if one of us is suffering, if one of us is a need, come on, church. I know we do it well. Let's be the best. We can be serving one another because you're serving him as you do that. If one part suffers, we can all gather around, we can pray, we can support, we can make a meal, church. We can send a text of encouragement. That's not just the pastor's job. Come on. If you've got somebody on your heart that week and you're praying for them. Send them a little text, say, how are you? You don't know the difference it can make sometimes. The amount of times I've sent a text and a person said, you know, I so needed to hear that. Because the Holy Spirit works through his people. Remember I said that all the different parts. Anyone can send a text, but sometimes God tells us to send a text at the right point when that person needed to hear it to you, you just send in a text to someone else. It's the best encouragement in that week. Yeah, send a text, go around, care. Honestly, it's the best thing ever. It's Christ's body. It is the best thing ever. One body, many parts. We're all different. [00:19:23] So finally, on our gifting as a church, I love what Paul says here. He says if one part is honoured, all parts are glad. [00:19:32] Good on that, isn't it? Four. Tough one. Are you going to truly champion one another on. Are you going to truly praise one another if somebody else does well, are you truly going to say, well done? Well done. I saw what you did in that kid's work. I saw what you did when you did that. I saw what you did when you did that with a real lovely heart saying, come on, let's prefer one another. Let's champion each other on. Because they're working in their gifting for Christ. Yeah, we should see that and go and encourage them. [00:20:04] I think the best way for you to do that I've written down here, is to think of your own body if you want to think of championing another one on if you're running a race. I used to do a lot of running. I don't run now, but I used to do a lot of running in my thirties. I was a lot slimmer. I used to love running and the only way I'm a park runner on a Saturday morning, to beat the time from last week, I had to kind of not eat too bad, not too much fish and chips in Yorkshire, not too much nonsense. And you have to go out and train at least twice in the week. So if I used to go out and run five or ten k through the week on a Monday and a Wednesday, and I'd eaten well, I knew that on that next Saturday, I'd have a chance of beating my time from the week before. Being a salesman used to love that. And I used to run down the Warrington park run and there was like, as you came around the corner, there was like a 200 meters, sprint right to the end. And I always used to save a bit left. And I was, I was physically sick when there was a tree, right? Literally, you go over the finish line, there's a tree about there, and, like, be leant on the tree, spewing up, because I'd given everything I had, right? And I used to see about four or five people in front. I'd see a guy with some, say, pink shorts on, I'd get something in the distance, think, right, I'm going to beat him. And I'd run with all that had. But, you know, as I went over the finish line, what I'm talking about here as a church, what was doing the work? My legs, maybe my lungs. That was the main thing that was in my work. It was all on my legs. But as you went over the finish line, you're like, yes. And the jubilation that you get is a mental thing. You're happy, your heart's pumping, going, wow, come on. Do you know what I mean? There's a smile on your face. Can you think? Yes, I beat my time. I look down, there's a jubilation inside. So my one body from my legs doing probably 90% of the work, the rest of my body was overjoyed. That's how it should be in God's church. You see somebody do great with your kids, right? You see your kids coming home on a Sunday, saying about a great kids work. And we do do this because I've seen it text the kids work and say, thank you. Thank you for what you do with my kids. Thank you. Come on, let's be the great. Let's let the whole body rejoice. Yeah, that's what Paul's telling us here. It's how God's church should be there for one another, using our gifting to help each other. And then what? Rejoice when we see them excelling in their gifting, all serving together in harmony. Have we got that? That's God's blueprint for the church in terms of some spiritual gifting. I don't spend too much time on this. There is a thing called the Apez test, which I'm sure a lot of you have heard of, prophets, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. Okay, so if you're not sure, maybe what your gifting is, you can go online and spend a tenner. It is clever. I refuse to do it. Sorry, that would be wrong. When we were on the church planting academy, Mark Pugh sent out to all of us to do the a pest. And as a Yorkshireman, I thought, what a load of tosh. So I didn't do it right. Then I got an email from Mark. I'd like you to do it, Phil. You're the only one that hasn't done it. [00:22:58] We're meeting up as an academy next Saturday to talk about this. Can you do yours? Thought, better do it now. So I did it. And it's like a series of questions that without you realizing, quite subtly, are digging down into you, into how God made you. It's digging down into how you wired. It's digging down into who you are, right? Maybe if you're younger and you're thinking, I don't know what fully all my giftings are yet, it's a great thing to do. And it will show you, give you some results. It will ask you a series of questions. And the way that you answer them, it's got a formula working in the background to work out who you are. And it is pretty accurate and pretty good. So you could do that. You could do the air pest apostle and shepherd. And I do like people. I've got my faults, but I do. If somebody leaves the church, I sometimes would chase after them and have a coffee with them. So don't go. [00:23:52] Yeah, I care for people. And I think the apostle thing is probably more being a business leader and making decisions and think sometimes as an MD, you're like looking over your shoulder thinking, I don't know who to ask this question because you've got to make a decision. So it is clever. It is clever, but none of them are right, Nigel. None of them are better than any others. It's the way God made us. So there's lots of different giftings there that serve God's church. So you might have a teaching gift. You might have a teaching gift that comes out of the A pest. There's only four Sundays in a month. We can't get everybody up to teach the word of God. But I tell you what, you can teach your kids. You could maybe teach your life group. You could maybe go out for a coffee with somebody, say, can I just open up this passage of scripture and just encourage you with this today? Nothing heavy, just five minutes of what you've had. A great quiet time. Can really bless somebody else. So do the apest. It's good. Whatever you do, though. Will you use your gifting for him? Yeah, use your gifting for Jesus. Right, moving on. I don't know how we are for time at work. At work or the work of our hands. So we've looked at church, now let's look at work. [00:24:53] I just said earlier on that God has given us all different gifts and abilities. I believe it's biblical and good for us to work. [00:25:01] I haven't actually got a scripture on that, but I could give you a few if I'd have spent time to prepare it more. I was rushing yesterday, and there's lots of passages that talk about not being lazy and that it's good for a man to work. Right? So it's good to work. It's good to use the way God made you to work. [00:25:19] But I've got one main point. To bring about your gifts in the workplace and the gifts in who you are practically in your life outside of church. It's a simple point, but I tell you what, it's blessed the socks off me and really helped me. It's a simple point. So about. [00:25:35] I don't know, about 25, 26. I heard a sermon once at Stoneleigh Bible week. Anyone remember Stoneleigh Bible week? We knew frontiers. It was great. Me and Esther were there at the same time. We never met each other. [00:25:48] Yeah, Reuben would have been 24 if we'd have met each other. There s so at that. That Stoneleigh Bible week, I heard a preach and he was talking about this passage and he said this one thing, and he said, if you're four out of ten in an area of gifting, he said, why would you go and study? And why would you go and bust a gut to try and make you better in that area? Have you ever thought, it's not the way God's made you? And he went on to say he kind of padded it out, but basically the point being was, if you're a four out of ten, like with. I am absolutely rubbish at DIY. And I mean rubbish. Esther bought a bed the other day and I just opened it all up. There's about 55 screws, about 200 washers. The instruction book was about 16 pages. I'm like, we have a little guy. We know it's literally 40 quid for 3 hours. He put it together in 2 hours. Well, Esther tried to do it and he finished it. Plesser. I just run a mile. I just don't. I can't do that. I once put an Ikea wardrobe up. I was like, come on, I can do this. And as I stood it up, right. The door just fell off, right. [00:26:56] I had a big hole in my hand, right? And the mirror. There's supposed to be two mirrors. How stupid I am, right? One mirror was facing in. Right, so as you shut the door, the mirror faced in. So basically the clothes on the shelves will be looking at themselves. Yeah, you're looking good today. [00:27:12] T shirts on the shelves saying, you're gonna look great on Phil today. So you should have had a mirror there, a blank bit in the middle and a mirror there. I had one going in and one going out, honestly. And I looked. I just started laughing. I actually fell on my bed and just laughed my head off. I am so useless at DIY, to the point where somebody often shows me things. And I think that was so jolly obvious, but I didn't see it, so I'm not wired that way. Do you know what I mean? I'm not good at that. So what this pastor was saying was, if you're four out of ten, yes, I could go and do a carpenter's degree. Yeah. And I'm sure I could get better, but it's not the way God made me. I've never been good at it. Yeah, but what he did say was, if you're an eight out of ten in an area, go and make yourself a nine and a half. [00:27:57] Go and use the gifting God's given you and hone your skill. What a blessing you can be to yourself, to this church all around you, if you give the gifting God made you and hone that skill. Right, now I'm gonna have a bit of fun with you before I explain that one. Things can be taught. So I don't want you to go home. Think Phil's saying nothing can be taught? They can. University is good, school's good. You can go make yourself better. I am totally with that. You might not know what you're going to be. So I'm not being remiss here to study. [00:28:29] You can definitely progress yourself. Things can be taught. Bit of fun, Ruben, when he was about ten months old, mums are probably know better than me. I don't know what age you actually start talking, but I know we moved out of this house when he was exactly one. And he had this little blue rocker. So he might have been eleven months, but it was either ten or eleven months and he'd not uttered a word yet. So this learned behavior, you know, you're getting taught something. And I kept. She's obviously, most babies going, mamade. The first word I was going, Leeds, Leeds, Leeds, Leeds. So when Esther wasn't looking, I kept going, Leeds, Leeds. And sure enough, one day I can remember where we were in Warrenton, in this first house we had together. He was in this little blue rocker. And he looked up at me with a beaming smile. It was probably about eleven months. And he went, liv lids. I'm like, come on, that's my boy. It was the best feeling ever. And he literally said leads, leads as its first words, because it was taught so you can learn things. You can, you can learn things. So I'm not being remiss to education. You want to hear that? Done. Another funny one with him actually. [00:29:31] Where we were was about ten houses away from a local parish church in Warrington. [00:29:36] And the bells used to ring on the hour. Dying 01:00 dying, dying, dying 03:00 you know, you get the picture. Anyway, I was putting him to bed, which was probably 07:00 and I was totally unaware the bells had just gone off. And Reuben looked up at me and this happened for about four nights and I could see he would try to tell to me and he was going buzz, buzz. And pointing, right? And it had been about maybe one then 1214 months. I'm like, Buzz. I thought, what is he on about? Right? And then I just heard the bells going, this would probably happen for about five nights running, right as I go to bed, Buzz. [00:30:12] And then suddenly I heard the bells and I went, oh, bells. And honestly, in a way a 14 month old cud 18 month old with his eyes going, yes, dad, I've been trying to tell you for the last flipping week, the bells. Yeah, because Esther would obviously go, the bells, you know, this learned behaviour. So he's going, the bells. He's going, Buzz. [00:30:33] But he almost went, yes, the bells. You're flipping plonker, daddy. So you can learn things. You can learn things, church. And you can study and you should study and you can go on and maybe in that study you'll find out who you are. Because in your study and you remember at school, you take nine GCSE's, that becomes three a levels and then you do a degree and along that way you're finding out what you naturally come. I hated biology at school with a passion. [00:30:59] What was it? Photosynthesis? Why do I want to know about flipping leaf? I don't care. Complete irrelevance to my life. Chemistry stunk. I hated it. The chemistry teacher was weird. I used to wash my brush out and put the bottom out. It used to cost me ten p every time I had to send a letter home to my dad and we. I just didn't get chemistry and biology. I just thought, I am not going to be a scientist because I just do not understand this at all, right? But I loved business studies, I loved maths, I loved. And the things I did well in economics, do you know what I mean? I went to see the alliance and Leicester Building Society had just merged recently before I doing this thing. You had to do coursework then? I was the first year, the second year of GCSE, and I sat with both managers and asked them questions and I got on a. With distinction in economics and it was the only one that I did, by the way. But I thought, I'm thriving in my lane. I enjoy this, do you know what I mean? I enjoy business. I could see at a young age, and you will see in your studies, young people, the way God's wired you. Yeah. So I'm not saying you can't study, but to get from that eight to a nine and a half, use the gift that you've got, right, and hone it and make it better. That's my main point on a practical this morning. To the point where just. I want you to hear one last story before we go, right? I've shared with you before that I lost my business. I had a large steel company in my thirties. I started when I was 28, right? He employed 150 people. None of this is to show off, far from it. And then I started another business, building caravans with slide outside. Brought this technology to the UK. We got on tv with it, it went massive. It was this big new thing. But I borrowed so much money from a steel company to start this new company. In the end, I had to sell out for a pound. All my suppliers got paid. We were very honourable s nine business. I lost everything and I had to start again. And it was a real tough lesson. But you know what? There was 40 lads in a factory I set up in Widnes, near where we're in Warrington, building these caravans. I had a great idea. I saw this concept in America. They have all these slide out walls and what they call an rv, don't they, over there? So you get to site and the wall makes the caravan bigger. And I did. We nearly. We made 200 of them. But the first 50 were rubbish. They kept falling apart and having warranty claims and that was the problem. But as I would walk around that production line, right, I didn't know what I was doing. I had the idea commercially in business. But to actually encourage those lads and go around where we were making mistakes, I couldn't see it because I don't see diY, as I've said to you, I don't see practical things. So somebody with a more of a practical skill as an MD running that company, would walk around, clipped the lads around the ears. You don't make them that way, you make them this way. And those caravans would have been all right, because the actual business concept was brilliant. But then that production line didn't work, mainly because of me. A leader leads, and I was leading them in an area that I wasn't gifted in. And eventually it didn't work. So we lost everything. We moved in with Esther's parents, literally lost everything we had. It's only money. But it was a real tough lesson for me. And I met. [00:34:03] I'm really good friends with a guy, you know, John Kirby, who runs Captain Christians against poverty. He grew up in the same town as me, and we've always got on well, John and I. And he sort of took me under his wing at that time. He's a lovely guy. And he introduced me to a really wealthy goat farmer. Okay, I won't say his name in case it's recorded. And this guy, we'll call him John. [00:34:25] It was at the clasp of the caravan business, just about to probably go into liquidation. It was on the edge of struggling, and he came down to sit with me, and he walked around the production line, and this guy was a wealthy business guy, very, very successful. His goats were sold all around the world. They were the best goats cheese and the best goat's milk. He's a really good business guy, and he was honing his skill well. And what wasn't really was God had sent him into my life for me to learn something. And he sat me down, he walked around the production. He gave me four days of his time. Very intelligent man, because he was doing a favour for John, who was helping me. And he said, at the end of it all, he said, phil, you're spent here. And I was a bit like, huh, thanks. [00:35:05] Is that the advice you've got from him? He said, this isn't for you. He said, I've done a bit of digging. He was a very, very bright guy. He said, I've done a bit of digging in your history, and your steel company was pretty good. You did well. [00:35:16] He said, I think you're gonna have to let this one go. He said, I could lend you some money, which I wanted him to do, was to have some shares and help me do it. I said, I'd have to take it over, and I don't want to do. I haven't time. He said, but this isn't you. [00:35:29] This isn't the way God made you. This isn't what you are. He said, you've run a production line here, you've had an idea but you haven't seen it through. And he was quite firm with me, he didn't mess around. But I needed to hear this. And he said, I said, what do I do then John, he said, you're going to have to let this one go down. I said, well, if I do, I'll sell my steel business. Somebody wants to buy it for a pound and pay all my debts off. He said do that, that's God honouring. So I did. So I sold my steel business for a pound. All the debts got paid off and we walked away with nothing. [00:35:57] And John said to me, he said, go back to steel, that you know best and do it better next time. He says, you're only 40 years old. He says, go back to steel. And I said, will you lend me some money to do that? He said no. I said that'd be too easy. I said, you've done it before, do it again. I'm thinking I did it before when I was 28 with no mortgage, no kids, wife. And I thought, okay, if that's what his advice is for me. And I went away and I prayed without boring with it all. God was so faithful and so kind. He brought a guy into my life who sells steel cutting machines where the steel that I sell, he cuts. He gave me 25% of a business. We started a new one. He said, phil, let me put some money in, I'll back you. And then three years later he let me buy him out to the company that I have now, eight years later. And God has really blessed it. But you know what? I've learned some tough lessons right before. We kept growing and growing and growing without counting the cost. I wasn't thinking right. So the overheads were getting higher and higher, so we were getting bigger, selling loads of steel but not making any more money. And I wasn't a good steward of that business. This time I thought, right, I'll keep, I only still only have ten staff. I think I'll keep my overheads low, I'll sell the products that make the most profit margin. And we now have a much smaller business that makes more money than the bigger one. [00:37:12] Sorry. John said to me, go back, do what you did, but do it better. And that's what I want to say to you. Church this morning, it's one point I wanted to really challenge some of us this morning. Use the gift that God gave you for all your heart, for Jesus and for your life. Hone, the skill that you've got and make it better. Don't look to the left or to the right. Make your eight out of ten, because we've all been given different gifts. Got that? Yeah. Make your eight out of ten. Nine and a half out of ten. None of us are going to be ten. None of us are going to be perfect. But use the gift God gave you for his kingdom, right? And use it well. Right. Don't look at other gifts. One last little point. [00:37:55] I was out with a lovely lady the other day having something to eat, and I think this lady is brilliant at hospitality, right? And she was telling me about a sister who was better than her at hospitality and we'll call her Sarah. I said, sarah, you are amazing at hospitality. I don't know your sister. You are amazing. And isn't it easy to look at another gifting and think they're better than me? [00:38:17] That is just a waste of time. In our life, there's always somebody, you know what I mean? Be the best year you can be with the gifting God gave you. For Jesus. Excel in the gifting God gave you. You don't realize your own gifting sometimes. One last little point. When I had the big steel company in Yorkshire, I had a works manager who was my best pal growing up. He was brilliant with his hands, you know, I said, I'm rubbish. He was brilliant. He was absolutely brilliant. But I remember him when he was 16, he bought a car from a scrapyard. 16. And he opened my window and there's nick on his drive, and he bought three scaffolding poles, right? And he kind of chained them together, took the engine out of the car. Do you remember the old Polaroid cameras? And took pictures all the way out, what he was doing, so he could put it back together again how it looked before, no manual, no script, but it was an Opel Chevette, if anyone remember it. And he bought an engine from an opal cavalier, Vauxhall Cavalier, that was the same engine, and put it in this car and it worked. I'm like, nick, how the heck did he do that? He was so good with his hands. Well, he came to work with me and we had, back in Yorkshire, what was called a decoiling machine. So it unravels steel coils, big things, 28 ton. And it was the biggest in the UK at the time. [00:39:30] And we had quite a major fault with it, mainly because I tried to put 20 mil through the line and it was made as 15 mil. And I always thought it was quite a gutsy machine. I thought it would be alright. So we put this 20 mil through and the load pressure on it, it bust the machine bad. So we had to get the specialist to come out. But it was going to be six weeks. I thought with six weeks without any work nightmare. Nick said, I reckon I can fix it, Phil. And he took the whole thing apart. This is a 60 ton machine. Took it all apart. Remembered his thing with little pictures along the way. This time on a digital phone. Put it all back together and fixed it. And just at the end the specialist came in to give us a quote for the job. I saw actually it's done, it's working. So he came down, he said, who's done this? And I said him. He said, wow. And he came to see me afterwards and looked, checked his work. He said he is the best works manager I've ever meth. He was thriving in his gifting. You know what Nichols used to say to me? He said, phil, you should hear yourself on the phone. He said, you are so good with customers, I could never do your job. You know, we can compare our gifting to others. And I'm like, I'm just on the telephone talking to somebody. He's like, but Phil, you do it so well. But I'm like, but Nick, you've just taken the decoiler apart and put it back together again and we can do that. It's a waste of time, right? Cheer on one another's giftings. Cheer them on. Right. Don't look to the right or to the left. And use your gifting for what God made you. Remember this church. Walk down your own bridge. Don't compare. [00:40:52] Be the all that you can be for Jesus. One last thing. Little tip. The wrong road never becomes the right road. Just in finishing. If you walk down a road of your life into another area, try and like mads to make you a different YouTube. Usually it doesn't work. The wrong road doesn't become the right road. That might be in a relationship, not just a job, that might be in all areas of our life. The wrong road doesn't become the right road. [00:41:18] Let's conclude here. But are you coming up the band at the end? No. [00:41:24] Should we do one song to finish church? Yes. [00:41:28] Can we do holy forever to finish? Do you think we'll pull that one off, Esther? [00:41:33] If you all sing. If you all sing. Come on, let's stand, let's stand. We'll sing holy forever at the end. [00:41:40] So manage our gifting church. Just to summarise, remember we are a diverse church from all different cultures, nationalities let's prefer one another because it's God's church remember let's help one another when somebody's suffering the big one remember to champion one another on and rejoice in each other's gifting serve God's church with a joyful heart don't be a church consumer come on he's the soon and coming king he deserves it in life let's be that nine and a half out of ten and use our gift for God remember what we said at the beginning because he carefully made your gift he carefully put you here he carefully made us for his glory so let's use it for him if you're not sure do the apest test I started with this cheesy line but be the best you for Jesus you can be and that's what I want to finish with don't waste your life everyone counts in this life they do church everybody counts so use your gifting for Jesus with a full heart amen.