Gaining Ground | A life that uses what God has given | Drew Sherman

Good morning, Compass. Let's stand, let's worship together. This is where I believe That You are more than enough More than enough for me You are faithful to Your promise You are strong when I am weak When I'm standing in Your presence I have everything I need The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength Oh my soul, blessed is that All that is within me saved The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength Jesus, come what may You are worthy of all Worthy of all my praise You are faithful to Your promise You are strong when I am weak When I'm standing in Your presence I have everything I need The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength Oh my soul, blessed is that All that is within me saved

The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength Let it rise up like a river Overflowing Holy Spirit Let it pour out with no limit Overflowing Holy Spirit The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength Oh my soul, blessed is that All that is within me saved Oh my soul, blessed is that All that is within me saved The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength He's my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength Here is where I lay it down Every burden, every crown This is my surrender This is my surrender Here is where I lay it down Every lie and every doubt This is my surrender And I will make room for you To do whatever you want to To do whatever you want to And I will make room for you ♪ To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to ♪

♪ Here is where I lay it down, every burden, every crown ♪ ♪ This is my surrender, this is my surrender ♪ ♪ This is my surrender, this is my surrender ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down, every lie and every doubt ♪ ♪ This is my surrender, oh, and I will make room for you, yes ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you, yes, oh ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to, yes ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to, yes ♪ ♪ Shake off the ground for my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls for my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better, yes it is, your way is better ♪ ♪ Shake off the ground for my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls for my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better, your way is better, yes it is ♪ ♪ Shake off the ground for my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls for my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better, yes it is, your way is better ♪ ♪ Shake off the ground for my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls for my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better, your way is better, yes it is ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you, to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to, yes ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to, and I will make room for you, yes Lord, to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to. To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. Jesus, all of our hope, all of our joy, every gift we have, every single thing we need rests upon you. So church, let's sing this together. A thousand generations falling down in worship to sing the song of ages to the Lamb. And all who've gone before us and all who will believe will sing the song of ages to the Lamb. Let's sing this church.

Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all, above all forms, all forms and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all and the ages cry. Holy, all creation rise. Holy, you are lifted high. Holy, holy forever. If you've been forgiven and if you've been redeemed, sing the song forever to the Lamb. And this is us. And if you want freedom, and if you bear His Name, we'll sing the song forever to the Lamb. ♪ A song forever to Him, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ We'll sing a song forever and amen ♪ ♪ And the angels cry, sing holy ♪ ♪ Our creation cries, holy ♪ ♪ You are lifted high, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ You're holy forever, we sing, hear your people sing ♪ ♪ Holy to our King of kings, because you're holy ♪ ♪ You will always be holy, holy forever, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, so sing ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all, above all the roads, ♪ ♪ All the roads, hasn't been yet, soft words, and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all, above all the roads, ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest, Your name is the greatest, ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all, above all the roads, ♪ ♪ All the roads, hasn't been yet, soft words, and positions, ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all, above all the roads, ♪ ♪ And the angels cry, holy, creation cries, holy, you are, ♪ ♪ You are lifted high, holy, you're holy forever and ever, ♪

♪ Hear people say, holy, to the king of kings, yes, holy, ♪ ♪ You will always be, holy, holy forever, you will always be, ♪ ♪ You will always be, holy, holy forever. ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Hey, 10 o'clock, how are you today? You good? All right, let's do this. Hey, welcome to Compass. Our mission is navigating people to God. I'm so glad that you're here. My name is Drew. I'm one of the pastors here. If you're a guest here at Compass today, I would love to connect with you at guest gathering. Right after the message, across from the fireplace, we love putting a name to a face, and we have a gift for you. So please stop by and see us. And can we welcome right now, the men of the Allred Unit in Wichita Falls. Men, we welcome you. You're a huge part of what we're doing here at Compass. We welcome you in the name of Jesus today. And I'm so glad that you're a part of our church. And I'm so happy to be with you today. I've been overseas the past couple of weeks with an amazing group of people from Compass. We were in the countries of Greece and Turkey,

following in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, extraordinary places like Philippi and Corinth and Athens. And then maybe the most incredible biblical site in the world, ancient Ephesus. And this was our group, smaller group than normal, but we had such a great time in this particular trip. And there were 13 couples from Compass that experienced this together. And you know, when you go on these trips, you try hard to focus. I guess on what's most important, the pilgrimage aspect of it. And you go to all these biblical sites and you kind of figure out, hey man, why is this significant for my life? But along the way, a few people in our group got a little sidetracked because there were cats everywhere in Ephesus. And we had some major cat lovers on that trip. And I wasn't aware of how much they love cats. But if you know me well, you know that cats aren't really my favorite choice of pet. Like I'm a dog lover and a cat tolerator. And that's about as nice as I can put it, right? And in Ephesus, I was speaking and a cat posed with me in a picture. And here it is. And I obliged. It was, I'll be honest with you, it was kind of a cute little thing, you know?

And so in the name of church unity, I posed with the picture. And then things got out of hand. Because what happened is there were a few people in our group that had sort of the advanced levels of chat GPT. And so they began to post pictures that just were not true about me. Like this one, you know? Like I did not let a cat lick my eyeball because if a cat tried to lick my eyeball, let me tell you, it would never get to this point. Trust me, all right? And then this one, I was in the back of the bus. I was taking a nap in the back of the bus. And then this one, I mean, wow, really? Yeah. That's actually the site of Lydia's baptistry, you know? And so this is what happened. And then they decided to get Pastor Brandon in on the fun. And I actually really liked that one. I kind of like Brandon cuddling up to a bunch of kittens. But anyway, it got so out of hand that I had to honestly threaten church discipline on a few occasions. And you know, we don't excommunicate here at Compass, but the thought crossed my mind. But we're in a series on 1 Timothy chapter four, that's honestly about distraction and drift. And we're calling it gaining ground

and we're learning how to grow in our faith. How do we take ground in our relationship with Jesus? And we've learned that distractions matter and that they factor in and that spiritual drift is possible. But our distractions are a little bigger than some cute little kittens, right? And honestly, the first two messages of this series have been outstanding. I wanna thank Landon and Greg Pruitt last week for just amazing messages. Yeah, absolutely. We learned that gaining ground is the decision to stop drifting and start pursuing Jesus. We learned that we can drift into a life of spiritual mediocrity or worse, walking away from our faith altogether. Because you don't drift into strength. You don't drift into spiritual discipline. You don't drift into spiritual growth. You drift in one direction and it's not forward. We don't rise to the level of our disciplines. We fall to the level of our habits. We don't rise to the level of our disciplines and our strengths. We fall to the level of our habits and our weaknesses. Our spiritual lives are quietly formed, not by our best moments, but by our repeated choices when no one is watching. That means no amount of good intentions

can compensate for habits that pull us away from God. And this series is built around one idea, not perfection, not performance, but progress. We need to make progress in our relationship with Jesus. And our foundational verse for this series has been 1 Timothy 4, 15, where Paul says to Timothy, look, practice these things, immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. The idea that spiritual growth is not accidental, it's practiced, it's visible. Why? Because as human beings, you and I were designed to grow. Think about it. People grow in their careers, they grow in the gym, they grow in knowledge, in skills, they grow in income. But when it comes to faith, a lot of people don't know what to do and they show up in church and they believe for sure, but they feel stuck. They're growing everywhere else in their life, but not when it comes to their faith. And so in this series, we're asking the questions, what does spiritual growth actually look like? How do you know if you're growing? What are you prepared to do about it? And last week we went to work. We said, if you wanna grow in your faith, man, you gotta open your Bible. Like you gotta know God more intimately. You have to be shaped by God's word.

And we were taught from 1 Timothy 4, 13 by Greg Pruitt, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching and to teaching. And today we're gonna continue as we make our way through this sort of power-packed section of scripture. And we're gonna focus on just five words today. It's that simple. In verse 14, Paul says, do not, Timothy, do not neglect your gift. Do not neglect. the gift that God has given you, which was given you through the prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. So he says to Timothy, man, don't neglect your gift. You can't make progress if you're neglecting what God already gave you. Because sometimes we actually pray for what God has already provided. Oh, I just wish I had some gifts. I wish I had, and he's already given it to us. So Paul doesn't say to Timothy, hey, go get a gift. He says, hey, use what you already have. And I want us to go back to the basics with this, because I know some of you are new to faith and you're new to compass. And you're asking, hey man, what is a spiritual gift? What is that? Well, I believe it's a God-given ability by the Holy Spirit to build up the church and serve others. It's a God-given ability by the Holy Spirit of God

to build up the church and serve others. What does that mean? It means, listen, your gift is less about you being fulfilled and more about others being strengthened. Now, just an observation. I don't think Paul is calling out sin in Timothy. He doesn't say Timothy rejected his calling. He's saying Timothy might be neglecting it and there's a difference. And I've noticed that neglect is usually subtle. It's not always rebellious. Neglect looks like, I'll do it later when things settle down in life. I'm too busy right now. Someone else can handle it. I'm not ready yet. Neglect doesn't require bad intentions, just inattention. Spiritual gifts don't disappear when unused, but they do atrophy, just like muscles, just like relationships, just like faith. And the scary part is you can be sincere and faithful and still be stagnant. You can be a drifting disciple. And it's probably all over this room. There are people in the room, good people, faithful people, sincere believers, but you're kind of drifting in your faith. It's more common than you think. And notice Paul's solution is not a class.

It's not a book. It's, you know, it's not a conference. It's, hey man, use your gift. You don't discover your gifts by avoiding people. You discover by serving people. You don't grow confident by waiting until you feel ready. You grow confident by stepping out when you still feel nervous. Let's be honest, most of us are waiting for more time and more clarity and more confidence. But God says, no, no, start now, right now, with what you have. And I wanna walk through sort of a biblical foundation of gifts. So there's gonna be a good chunk of theology upfront. And then I wanna get super practical with this. Paul talks about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, three chapters. We don't have time to unpack three chapters, but I can unpack a few verses. In verse four of chapter 12, he says this, there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit is the source of them. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it's the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so that we can help each other. Spiritual gifts are to build up others,

equipping and building the body, not self-expression, but self-giving love, not self-centric, but other oriented. Now, depending on your faith tradition, you may have learned to really value spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts were everything, almost elite, or maybe you were kind of scared of them. And what I mean by that is what some people call the higher gifts or the sign gifts, things like speaking in tongues or prophetic words, which some of us might tend to hear that, and we might lean weird or hard to understand. But let me demystify that for you. A spiritual gift is not weird. It's not reserved for the elite. It's not reserved for the uber spiritual or special people. If your gift encourages people to be more like Jesus, it counts. If generosity stirs your heart and moves people toward Christ, it counts. If it builds people and points to Jesus, it counts. Teaching, serving, helping, being hospitable. There's a common thing. If it builds people and points to Jesus, it counts as a spiritual gift. But I want to get super practical. I'm going to show you how a few people right here at Compass are using their gifts every day. Take a look. I'm a mom of five.

I'm also a registered nurse. I have been in financial services for the last 15 years. I'm in technology. I'm a stay at home mother. I'm married. I have two children. I'm also a teacher. When I think about teaching as my profession, it's also one of the things that I tend to see as a gift. And so being able to see opportunities on how to demonstrate the gifts that I have in a way that doesn't get me in trouble, but also presents God in a way to people that may not necessarily know what they believe yet or are looking for something. I'm a special needs mom. And in advocating for my family and using my gift of patience, I ironically get to raise a miracle little family that we've been given. I feel like God has gifted me with the spiritual gifts of leadership and teaching. And so I get to do that with my team, helping to develop them, but also then developing other leaders. I feel like a big part of that is also just showing up with the Holy Spirit and the workplace. And so because I'm going into meetings and rooms and Zoom calls where those people may never step foot in a church, I'm getting to be there representing Christ and being an ambassador for Him. When it comes to work, I've come to find out that the Bible is full of leadership principles,

full of just so many examples of leaders in the Bible that I try to take that into work. And when you look at the way the world is, they say you can't talk about God at work. But I can live out God at work. God has given me the spiritual gifts of service and encouragement and discernment. And I feel like as a mother and as a nurse, I almost use those hourly, if not minute, by the minute, just trying to lift up the patients that I care for and my children in our daily walk. I love that. I'm so proud of all of our people at Compass who are using their gifts to build other people up in the workplace, in our communities, at home, and of course, within the body of Christ. And look, if you wanna take the next step in this, I wanna encourage you, check out Compass Academy. We offer it right here. Some of you, you wanted to go to Bible college, you wanted to be in ministry, but it never happened for you. You can be a part of that. You can literally relive that in a couple of years here, learning about leadership and learning about the Bible right here at Compass called Compass Academy. Check it out. But maybe you're wondering, like, when do I get spiritual gifts? Like, when do they come? Well, 1 Corinthians 12 gives us a little window into that.

Paul talks about this. He says, we have all been baptized into one body, one spirit, we all share the same spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. But Peter breaks it down in Acts chapter two. He says this, each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So if you've made a decision for Christ, you've received the spirit and you have gifts waiting to be used for the kingdom, for building others up and serving others. So it makes sense to say that spiritual gifts are given at the moment of salvation, but sort of revealed through the church. What do I mean by that? Well, God places something in you when you come to Christ, but you often don't recognize it until the body of Christ reflects it back to you. It's when people who love Jesus look at your life and say, wow, you're really good at that. Like, when you do that, people are ministered to. You should think about doing that some more. And here's why some people come to church for 30 or 40 years and they never clearly see their gift, because spiritual gifts are discovered in motion, not in theory. You don't find your gifts by sitting around and analyzing yourself.

You find it by serving and stepping in and getting involved. That's why spiritual gifts are not a personality test. You can't take a quiz, read the result, and spend the rest of your life making excuses. Like, spiritual gifts, it's not Enneagram, okay? And I don't have anything against Enneagram. Enneagram's great, but it's not Enneagram. You can't say, sorry, I was harsh, I'm an eight. No, you're not an eight, you're a jerk, okay? So there's a big difference. And I can say that because I'm an eight, all right? Like, that's the truth. Spiritual gifts don't excuse behavior, they shape responsibility, okay? They shape responsibility. And while they aren't discovered through personality tests, they can be discerned through passion assessment. What stirs you? What moves you? What burden? you feel compelled to act on. God often reveals your gift at the intersection of what you're passionate about and what builds others up. So the best way to do that here at Compass is to come to starting point. I know you hear this every week, but I just spent about 10 minutes with 15 people in a room in there and they're fired up about using their gifts to build others up and serve the church.

And so they're learning about that today. And this is where we give spiritual gifts assessments and we walk through that with you and we hopefully get you placed in a place where you can serve. You can still take the test and not be a part of it, but we'd like you to go to starting point to kind of dive in and fully immerse yourself into what God has planned for you. But let's answer one more question that's really important. How do I discover spiritual gifts? Well, I wanna give you some questions to ask of yourself that I've always found helpful, okay? And if you really wanna know what your spiritual gifts are, ask yourself these questions and begin to think about it. Number one, when you walk into a room, what's the first thing you notice? What's the first thing you notice? Some of you walk into a space and immediately notice the decor and the details, whether people feel welcomed. That may be because you carry the gift of hospitality. You have it. Others of you walk into a public place like a rental car facility or the DMV, anywhere where there's a long line and you don't just see a line, you see a problem. Your brain goes to efficiency. You think, if I were in charge, this would be different.

My wife over here on the third row, Michelle, she's heard me say this a hundred times. Baby, if I were in charge of this place, this thing would run differently. And she says the same thing. I'm sure it would, sweetie. I'm sure it would. But that may be because you have the gift of leadership. Like I find myself thinking that all the time. So take it for what it's worth. Some of you walk into a room and you notice people. You see the person who's hurting, the one who looks overwhelmed, the one who needs help. That's often a mercy gift. Some of you, when you see someone, you think, I'm gonna light them up. I'm gonna help them. I'm gonna encourage them because you have the gift of encouragement. Some of you sense when something feels off. You see tension, danger, spiritual pressure before anyone says a word. That's because you might have the gift of discernment. The point is this, your instincts are not random. What naturally catches your attention may be God revealing how he's designed you to serve. And then you need to ask yourself, where am I effective? Where am I effective? What do I excel at? One of the themes of this entire series

is that there are people in our church who just crush it everywhere else in life, at work, in leadership, in creativity, in problem solving. And then they step into the church and honestly, they don't know what to do with these same abilities. But here's what we believe. If God is the creator, then he didn't accidentally create you. He formed you. He wired you. He designed you on purpose. He's an infinite designer. And the things you're naturally good at are not random. Some of you build things with your hands. Some of you build systems with your mind. Some of you see solutions when other people see chaos. Some of you carry empathy and compassion and it changes the room. And when those abilities are surrendered to God, they don't just produce success. They unleash compassion and truth and mercy and good in the lives of other people. Here's the key. Clarity doesn't come before obedience. It comes through obedience. Listen to that. Clarity doesn't come through obedience. I'm sorry, before obedience. It comes through obedience.

You learn what God wants to do through you stepping out and using what he's already placed inside of you. Here's another question, real important. What do other Christians see in me? What do other people see and say about me? I wanna take you back to 1983, okay? I was a junior in high school. I grew up in Indiana, a small school in Indiana, and I graduated in 1984, but I was a junior in 1983. And just to get us in the moment, I'm gonna put on my leather jacket, which is a huge risk here today because it doesn't fit like it used to. It's somewhat there. I turned it on. My wife said, you know, it's a little tight. And I said, yeah. I said, I think that's because my biceps are so much bigger now than when I was in high school. And I think that's, you know, biceps are restricting. But anyway, that's what I'm going with. Anyway, I was in a leadership club called Key Club. I don't know if you were in Key Club, I don't even know if they still have it. But I was an officer in Key Club, a leadership club, and they, our church, our school, was starting some career evaluation counseling among. And so they put together this combination of personality testing and passion assessment

and then our academic record. And they kind of looked at all three of those and then they had a counselor visit with us and say, okay, here's what we think. And so my counselor, her name was Mrs. Joyce and she gave me a piece of paper, almost like a glorified Post-it note, and I still have it, I still have it. And my mom actually preserved it for me and put it in a book with all my high school stuff. And it says on that, I'm just gonna read it to you. She said, Drew, I had a lot of fun. You're a very unusual person. She picked up on that, she was very perceptive. 40 years later, I choose to believe she meant you're an unusually good person. But anyway, she probably was in a hurry and didn't write all that out. But anyway, but here's what she said. Your career needs to involve, listen to this, I just can't make this up, compelling speech. And I said, well, what does that mean, Mrs. Joyce? And she goes, well, I think you could be like you could be a salesperson. She goes, personally, I think you could sell swampland in the desert, okay? And then she said, or you could maybe be an attorney, like a trial lawyer. And your teachers tell me you argue with the best. I believe that.

And then she said, or maybe like broadcast journalism, like maybe sports, you're a sports guy, maybe sports casting. But here was her summation. Your future will be made, your livelihood will be made with conversation and compelling speech. And I never forgot that. Now she never mentioned ministry, but I never forgot that. What do people say about you? What do others see in you? Because it matters. And here's another thing. If you think something amazing about someone, here's an idea, speak into their life. You say it. Have you ever heard that? If you see something, say something. We kind of think about it in a negative tone. What if you did that in a positive way? If you see something amazing, if you see a gift in someone, say something. What do other people see in you? Because sometimes you can't see it yourself. When someone who loves Jesus shows fruit in their life and is devoted to scripture, they see something in you, receive it, and then go ahead and test it if you want. Take it to God, take it to his word, take it to prayer. Lord, this is what I've been told. Do you see that in me? Lord, do you see that same thing in me?

Because if you do, I definitely don't wanna neglect that gift that you've given me. Now you gotta be careful with this. Some people are a little crazy and they can be wrong about you. For example, if someone claims a prophecy that doesn't line up with scripture, it's not from God, it's noise. But on the other hand, if someone lovingly calls out some sin in your life, and maybe you don't like it, because usually when people call out sin in our life, we usually don't like it, right? But maybe you should listen. Like maybe you should pay attention to that and receive that. And maybe you should say to them, hey, thank you for caring enough to tell me about that. And if you have a godly auntie or uncle or grandparent, someone seasoned in grace, you should probably listen to them. God often uses voices like that to unlock a deeper level of growth and progress in your life. But here's the best advice I can give you today on spiritual gifts. The best spiritual gift in your life will be the one you actually use. The best spiritual gift in your life will be the one you use. Peter talks about this in 1 Peter 4.

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Keywords, use and serve. They're meant to be used. We had a recent episode on the Gaining Ground podcast. I would love for you to look up. If you haven't listened to our podcast, we've been pretty overwhelmed by the amount of people listening on YouTube or where you get your podcasts. My son, Landon, and I are doing this. We're releasing a new one every two weeks. And we talked about, in this podcast, how to be a faith-driven business leader. And our guest was a young man named Maquinda Candle, an amazing young Christian leader. And he leads a ministry called Faith Hustle. And here's a snippet of our conversation. Take a look. What you're saying is that as you're building your business, you're building a life and you're demonstrating the love of Jesus at the same time in the heart of Jesus. Absolutely. Instead of bumper stickers and slogans. God has a heart for the marketplace because he has a heart for the world. I think 3% of the church is in vocational ministry, so on staff.

of leaders at a local body or a parish church organization or ministry, that leaves 97% of the rest of us, we're in the marketplace. And it's like, if we're thinking the 3% is gonna do it, this is gonna be a long journey. It's like, no, no, no. Well, we're also gonna lose. Yeah. Like in the battle for eternity. Yeah. It's just up to those 3%. Look, 97 to 98% of us are not pastors or church staff. And if the ministry of the church depends on that two or 3%, we don't win, we lose. Our pastors at Compass are gifted, they're faithful, they're passionate, but they can't know everyone. They can't be everywhere and they can't do everything. And that's not a flaw on the system. That's the design of the church. In this room right now, and those of you that are watching online, there are people with enormous spiritual gifts. You have the gifts, you have the ability, you just have to say yes. And you've got to figure out what is it that I can do to serve others and build up the church. God's plan on this has always been from the beginning, ordinary people doing extraordinary things

through the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And by the way, you have the ability, you just have to say yes. Because what gets me excited is normal people with abnormal faith. You work a normal job. You're an accountant, you're a teacher, you work at a gym, you sell cars, but you walk in those places with a faith that actually works, a faith that has fruit. And suddenly light shows up and your classroom feels different and your office feels different and your living room feels different. Not because you're special, but because God is working through you. Because you said yes to what God wanted you to do. So if you have the gift of teaching, then brother or sister, you need to teach. And if you have the gift of encouragement, then maybe you need to encourage and open up your home and create inviting environments of warmth for people or serve on a team that throws open the doors and makes people feel invited here at Compass. Some of you have been blessed financially and your gift is giving. Look it up in Romans 12, it's a thing. There's a gift of giving, it's biblical. You should be generous to your church. We had a leadership summit recently

and one of our amazing Compass members stood up and he said, this man said, I could be retired. I could have retired five years ago. I work so that I can give. I work in order to give. He has the gift of giving. Maybe you have the gift of administration and you can organize and help administer things around here to help us navigate more people to Jesus. If you're gifted to cook, then invite me over because I'm gifted to eat. Because the best spiritual gift in your life is the one that you're gonna actually use. There's a group of guys at our Colleyville campus who are a part of this Gaining Ground Men's Movement that we've been going on, which by the way, it's the first Wednesday of every month, guys. I'm gonna throw up some stuff about this. Every month, 6.30 in the morning, the first Wednesday, the men of our church gather. We're at Compass Center across the street here at Colleyville over 700 men coming to first Wednesday over three. You say, who in the world would show up for a Bible study at 6.30 in the morning? Well, six to 700 men are showing up here at Compass. So we would love to have you. You can get more information on gaininggroundmen.com. The next one is May the 6th, May the 6th. And we're there for an hour, that's it. But we'd love to have you.

But there's a group of men that have come out of that movement. A beautiful conglomerate of backgrounds, construction, retired CEOs from accounting firms, medical device companies, and even high school kids. And they just noticed that they all kind of had a gift of working with their hands, craftsmanship. And so they just started asking if people needed help. And so they would come to your house and change a light bulb for an old faithful 85-year-old widow or mow the grass for a single mom. And most recently, they redid the backyard for a 40-year Compass member, faithful husband and wife, wife suffering from ALS, but they redid this yard so they could host a wedding in their backyard. It's that simple, y'all. If it builds up others, if it's not self-focused, if it's not platform-driven, meaning if you aren't doing it for the likes or the clout, if it's not comparison-driven, if you're not doing it to add another jewel in your crown because you're better than her or better than him, it's a beautiful thing. So what's the danger? Well, the danger is that you can neglect your gift, not because you don't care, but because you're busy, you're distracted, you're unsure, you're always waiting for the right moment. Slowly, you're becoming a drifting disciple.

Some of you know it, you can feel it. You can't remember the last time you served the church, used your gifts, gave your time, leveraged the resources that God has given you. And that's why we've been using a simple phrase in the Gaining Ground series. It's kind of become a mantra for us, get 1% better every day. Because growth isn't found in one big moment, but in daily faithful decisions. The victory's in the process. And the same is true spiritually. Even small steps toward Jesus are still steps toward Jesus. Growth can feel intimidating, but one step is super doable. I've seen it. I've seen alcoholics put the bottle down because Jesus is better. I've seen men who were spiritually passive choose to leave their homes, not all at once, but moment by moment. I've seen moms and dads get together with kids before school and say, we're gonna pray before school. We're gonna spend five minutes with the Lord. It's choosing encouragement instead of gossip. Faithfulness instead of comfort. Obedience instead of excuses. So maybe getting 1% better means recognizing, hey, I have the gift of hospitality. I should call that person that I know is lonely

and invite them around my table. Maybe it's generosity. And you've always had the approach, man, I give to certain things, but I'll let the rich people support compass, right? I'm not rich. I'll let the rich people take care of that. Or how about you give faithfully for the first time? You become part of what we're doing here and you surrender a little bit. Maybe it's leadership and you step in to lead a group of seventh graders on Wednesday nights. Maybe it's administration and you help us get more organized so we can help navigate more people to Jesus. There's a lot you can do. You have a gift. You're either using it or you're neglecting it. There's no neutral. So as we close, I wanna just take a moment of reflection. I wanna ask you this question and I just want you to sit in it for a moment. Where am I drifting? Where am I drifting? Where do you see God wanting to use you, but you keep choosing not to step in? Not because you don't believe. But because you don't feel ready. You don't know if you have what it takes. There's that hesitation.

There's a fear, maybe even a little apathy. And if we're honest, it's hard to say out loud, but our calendars and our choices often reveal that what we've been prioritizing, that we've been prioritizing everything else ahead of our own faith. I'll probably get beat up for this, but I'm astounded when I hear people choosing sports over church on Sunday morning. I'm sorry, I think we're sending the wrong message to our kids. Maybe there's a habit you know you need to walk away from, but you've been making excuses. You need guardrails, but you keep postponing them. Or maybe there's a relationship in your life that consistently pulls you away from who God is calling you to be. Friends who never leave you stronger, lighter, or more anchored in Christ. So that's the first question. Where are you drifting? And then where do I need to use my gift? And here's my guess. You already know the answer. As you've been listening, something's been stirring in your heart. I need to start that community group. I need to serve. I need to be more intentional with my kids when it comes to spiritual growth.

What am I thinking? I see a need and I know I can help. You don't need more information. You need a better moment. You just need some courage. So here's the takeaway. Just do it. Not perfectly, not loudly, just faithfully. Paul believed in Timothy enough to challenge him. And God believes enough in you to call you. Because the life that grows isn't a life that grows more. It's a life that uses what God has already given. So let's stop storing our gifts and let's stop shelving our calling. And let's start using what God placed in us for his glory and for the good of others. Sound good? Sound good? Let's make room for Jesus to do whatever he wants in our life. Let me pray over you. Father, we hear you today from your word and we don't wanna neglect a gift that you've given us. We wanna use it to serve others and to build up this great church. And so we pray your blessing on this next step, God. We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Hey, let's stand for worship. I love you guys. ♪ And I will make room for you ♪

♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you, yes Lord ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Shake up the ground, form my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls, form my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better, your way is better ♪ ♪ Shake up the ground, form my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls, form my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better, your way is better ♪ ♪ I will make room for you, yes ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you, to do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to ♪