Motivational Gifts #2: Humility, the River and the Gifts of God

Motivational gifts are part of a larger picture: the whole kingdom of heaven is about gifts, and God is the great Gift Giver. In this message the pastor reviews the gifts God gives believers to live and shine in a dark world, from salvation and righteousness to the Holy Spirit, and teaches that humility is the first gift, the one that lets every other gift flow. He then lays out the three gift chapters of the New Testament as preparation for teaching on each of the motivational gifts.

This is the second message in the Motivational Gifts series and continues from Motivational Gifts #1: The River, the Streams and the 21 Gifts of God. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, every key Scripture (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries and posted on June 15, 2023. The recording runs about 63 minutes and ends with a blessing and prayer for people going through hard times. The pastor admits near the end that he never reached his planned message, because the review of God’s gifts took the whole time, and he asks the church whether they still received something from it.

His reason for the series is simple. God did not save us and immediately take us home. He left us in a world that is getting worse, and He equipped us with gifts so we can show the light of His kingdom, let His love flow and help people get up and over in life.

God the Gift Giver

God is not Santa Claus, the pastor says, but He is a Gift Giver. When He created man, He made everything first. He planted a massive Garden of Eden, not a small patch, with great rivers running through it and gold in the land (Genesis 2:8–12). Then He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” and gave him dominion over the works of His hands (Genesis 1:26).

Adam gave that dominion away through disobedience to God and obedience to Satan, and the devil became the ruler of this world. But God did not panic. He said, in effect, I will get it back by giving another gift: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). We could not even believe in Jesus unless God gifted us to believe, because we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

The gifts keep coming. Those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life (Romans 5:17). Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more (Romans 5:20). After salvation comes the promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and with Him the nine gifts of the Spirit. Paul told the Romans he longed to see them so he could impart some spiritual gift to them (Romans 1:11). “That’s what the kingdom is about,” the pastor says: gifts and giving.

He is not a prophet of doom and gloom, he adds, but the world is not going to get better, and people without Christ have no hope in this world (Ephesians 2:12). That is why believers must share the blessed hope. God has prepared and equipped us to be here, in the middle of what he calls the earth-cursed system, so that His light can be seen.

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:7). The Holy Spirit is not a religious icon. He wants to manifest through every one of us. The pastor adds that the word manifestation carries the idea of an epiphany that gets you up and over. These gifts are not for selfish use; they lift burdens, encourage and empower people.

Humility, the First Gift

God is a God of laws, the pastor teaches, and since He had given rulership of the earth to Adam, Jesus had to come legally, as a man. When the angel told Mary she would bear a holy Son, she did not doubt; she only asked how. The power of the Highest would overshadow her, and she answered, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:34–38). God even chose Israel, he notes, not because it was great but because it was the least of all peoples (Deuteronomy 7:7).

So what was the very first gift God gave humanity? Humility. Before God breathed life into Adam, He fashioned him by hand from the dust and then, the pastor pictures, knelt on the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). The first thing Adam ever saw was God humbling Himself to the dirt.

The same humility marks the whole life of Jesus. The table follows the pastor’s examples.

“Pride took angels and made them devils,” he says, but “humility though takes dirt and makes someone with God.” That is why Scripture says to humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you in due time (1 Peter 5:6). When we are born again, God seats us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6) and makes us a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).

Coming to Jesus requires that humility. You never cared what people thought when you were foolish, he jokes, so why let it matter now that you are receiving eternal life? He does not care what an aunt, a mother or a father says; he wants to know what gifts God has given him so he can let God use him. “The highest place that you could ever go in life is at the feet of Jesus.”

Not a Faith Problem but a Knowledge Problem

The source of everything is God, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36). The gift of eternal life came from resurrection life: the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead and gives life to us as well (Romans 8:11). The pastor describes the Father as the great architect, Jesus as the master builder, and the Holy Spirit as the One who breathes life into everything God has planned.

Some people say they do not want the Holy Spirit, or they do not want Him to manifest because people might be offended or confused. The pastor’s answer: he did not understand math when he first saw it either, but he kept at it. God is not running a master intellectual program; “it’s a faith thing.”

Yet knowledge is the key to growth. Grace and peace are multiplied through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, and His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through that knowledge (2 Peter 1:2–3). Peter addressed believers who had obtained “like precious faith” with him (2 Peter 1:1), the same faith that saw people healed in his shadow. So the pastor’s conclusion is direct: “you don’t have a faith problem you have a knowledge problem.” Knowledge of who God is and what He has done is what makes faith bloom.

When people ask where God is and why He is not doing anything, the pastor tells of an old couple at a stop sign watching a young couple drive by, sitting so close they looked like one person with two heads. The wife asks why they do not sit like that anymore. The husband answers, “I didn’t move.” God has not gone anywhere; we are the ones who must move toward Him.

Moses saw a burning bush, and God did not speak until Moses turned aside to look (Exodus 3:3–4). That is why James says to draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4:8). When the Lord asked, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Isaiah was the only one there (Isaiah 6:8). God is asking you the same question. He wants to use you, not someone else.

There Is a River and Its Streams

The series’ foundational text is Psalm 46:1–5. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, so we will not fear, even if the earth is removed and the mountains are carried into the sea. Selah, the pastor explains, means stop and think about it. Jesus said that in this world we will have tribulation, but to be of good cheer, because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). Then verse 4: “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God.”

The river comes from heaven, but the streams are plural. When the church gathers, the pastor says, we are the river, and each believer is a stream that must start supplying. Some people complain that they do not like a church. His reply: be a stream and bring gladness to the place. That means letting God use you through spiritual gifts, through callings like apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher, and through what motivates you in life.

He links this to the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot, which celebrated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. Families built small huts with holes in the roof, both to see the stars and to let the rain in, a picture of faith for the Holy Spirit to come. On the last great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out that anyone who thirsts should come to Him and drink, and that rivers of living water would flow from the heart of everyone who believes. He spoke this of the Spirit (John 7:37–39).

Jesus had said something similar to the Samaritan woman: if you knew the gift of God, you would ask, and He would give living water that becomes a fountain springing up into everlasting life (John 4:10–14). “Please don’t be ignorant of the gift,” the pastor urges.

He then defines eternal life. The first word comes from aion and means everlasting, a quantity of life. The second, zoe, means life as God has it, a quality of life. Everyone will exist for eternity, but not everyone will have eternal life; some will be separated from God. Eternal life is not just going to heaven someday. It is God’s own life flowing now. God has gifted us to live in this evil day, and the prophets of old, he says, wished they were us.

Motivational Gifts and the Three Gift Chapters

The pastor says the New Testament has three gift chapters, and he teaches a college course on them. Romans 12:3–8 describes the seven motivational gifts, the subject of this series. 1 Corinthians 12:7–12 lists the nine gifts of the Spirit. Ephesians 4:7–13 describes the five Ascension, or fivefold ministry, gifts.

The nine gifts of the Spirit fall into three groups, matching our three-part being: spirit, soul and body. The spoken gifts are tongues, interpretation of tongues and prophecy. The power gifts are faith, the working of miracles and gifts of healings, the only plural gift, because there are many kinds of healing. God may use doctors or simply do a miracle. The revelation gifts are the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom and discerning of spirits.

The Ascension gifts were given when Christ ascended on high, led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Some ministers claim they are done away with, but the pastor calls that a lie, because they last “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” and to the fullness of Christ. Is that fullness evident in the church today? He answers honestly: no. So we still need all five. Using his hand, he teaches what each gift does.

He functions as an apostle and as a teacher, he says, but a function does not make anyone better than another, any more than a doctor is better than a mechanic. Women, he adds, have been and are apostles. He explains that a teacher can spend months on evangelism, yet when an evangelist comes and preaches the same thing, people are stirred, because that stream fed their motivation.

The fivefold ministers commit their whole lives to ministry. That is why the apostles in Acts said it was not right for them to leave the Word of God to serve tables and appointed servants, deacons, for that work (Acts 6:2–4). The motivational gifts in Romans 12 are different: every believer receives one, and they shape how each person serves.

He warns that motivation can cause problems. People tend to think everyone should share their burden. He recalls a prophetically motivated man who felt God tell him not to watch television, smashed his set with a sledgehammer, and then told the whole church that everyone should do the same. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8:14), and each person must be led individually. Married fifty years, the pastor also compares this to a husband who answers every problem his wife mentions with a list of fixes when she wants to be heard. Every gift is beautiful; let others do their thing.

When God gave us a new heart and put His Spirit in us (Ezekiel 36:26), He then told us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Learning one another’s motivational gifts is part of that work, and when people find their place, it strengthens yours rather than hindering it.

Living Your Gifts This Week

The pastor ends by blessing the church and praying for people going through difficult seasons. These practical steps come from this message on motivational gifts:

• Thank God as Giver. List the gifts you have already received, from salvation and righteousness to the Holy Spirit, and thank Him for each.
• Choose humility. Ask God where pride is blocking His gifts, and take the low place at the feet of Jesus.
• Grow in knowledge. Read 2 Peter 1:2–3 and learn what God has already given you, rather than asking for more faith.
• Move toward God. Like Moses at the bush, turn aside daily to draw near, and let Him use you when He asks, as He asked Isaiah.
• Be a stream. Bring gladness to your church this week instead of waiting for it to serve you.
• Honor other motivations. When someone serves differently than you, help them find their place instead of correcting them.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 The kingdom is about gifts
• 1:10 Dominion lost and God’s answer
• 2:17 Grace and the gift of righteousness
• 5:24 The manifestation of the Spirit
• 7:47 Humility, the first gift
• 9:01 Jesus’ humble life
• 10:15 Pride made angels devils
• 12:54 Architect, builder and breath
• 15:25 A knowledge problem; Psalm 46
• 17:36 “I didn’t move”
• 18:37 Moses, James 4:8 and Isaiah 6:8
• 19:41 There is a river and its streams
• 21:00 The Feast of Tabernacles: John 7
• 23:11 Aion and zoe: eternal life
• 24:27 The three gift chapters
• 25:42 The nine gifts of the Spirit
• 29:10 The Ascension gifts: Ephesians 4
• 32:33 The ministry of the hand
• 36:35 Romans 12: the motivational gifts
• 54:49 When motivation causes problems
• 57:39 Led by the Spirit of God
• 1:01:10 Blessing and prayer

Motivational Gifts Series

This message is part of a ten-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Go back to the first message or continue where this one leaves off:

• Previous: Motivational Gifts #1: The River, the Streams and the 21 Gifts of God
• You are here: Motivational Gifts #2: Humility, the River and the Gifts of God
• Next: Motivational Gifts #3: Romans 12, the Recipe for Your Gift and the Gift of Prophecy

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the gifts of healings against using doctors?

No. The pastor explains that gifts of healings is the only plural gift in the list because there are many ways God heals. He says God may use doctors to see people healed, or He may simply do a miracle, and he asks how many in the room have received a miracle healing. He also mentions that some people are unwell because of the way they think, and that this kind of healing is included too.

Why do the gifts of the Spirit come in groups of three?

The pastor connects the three groups to the way God made us: a spirit, a soul and a body, which he calls an earth suitcase. The spoken gifts, the power gifts and the revelation gifts each minister to different parts of a person. He sees this pattern as another sign of how carefully God designed His gifts to meet the whole person.

Can a person have more than one gift?

Yes, as the pastor describes it. The Spirit distributes the nine gifts as He wills, but every believer should be moving in several of them, and people often grow skilled in the ones that match their motivation. He himself functions as both an apostle and a teacher. The fivefold ministry gifts, however, are given only to some, who devote their whole lives to equipping the church.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Romans 12:3–8 — the motivational gifts
• 1 Corinthians 12:7–12 — the nine gifts of the Spirit
• Ephesians 4:7–13 — the Ascension gifts
• Psalm 46:1–5 — there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God
• Genesis 2:7 — God breathes the breath of life into man
• 1 Peter 5:6 — humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand
• 2 Peter 1:2–3 — all things through the knowledge of Him
• John 7:37–39 — rivers of living water

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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