John Bevere - Your Gift Is Valuable
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The Apostle Paul says it like this: we’re like the body of Christ; it’s like a human being’s body. If you look at my body, my body has many different members, and each member has a different ability. In other words, my fingers can do things that my nose can’t do, my nose can do things that my lungs can’t do, and my lungs can do things that my legs can’t do. Happy is the man or woman who knows their gift and operates in it. Miserable is the man or woman who tries to operate in somebody else’s gift.
Wouldn’t it be really weird if this morning when I woke up, my thumb said, «You know, mouth, you’ve been preaching now for 25 years; tonight at Bayside, I’m doing the preaching»? It doesn’t have the ability to preach; it doesn’t know its place. See, my thumb can do things my mouth can’t do. And do you know what? Why do we put so much emphasis on the platform? I mean, we think the pinnacle of serving God is being on the platform; that’s ridiculous! You know what Paul said? Parts of the body that are not seen are more important than the parts that are.
Okay, legs get attention. You ever hear somebody say, «Man, she’s got a great set of legs»? You know, my dad used to say all the time, «Son, you know where you got your good-looking legs from? You got them from me,» so my 95-year-old dad would say. But you know you can live without a leg! I know a guy who’s on the senior tour; he lost a leg in a car wreck, and he has a prosthetic leg. He’s still on the senior tour; he’s alive without a leg. But you know you can’t live without a liver, and I have never seen anybody walk up to someone and go, «Bernard, what a liver you got! Dude, that is an amazing liver!»
Okay, livers aren’t seen; legs are. Why do we put all the emphasis on the platform? Because God is the one who says there’s more value in the parts that aren’t seen. See, what that means is your gift is valuable to building the kingdom.