Use Your Gift To Serve - Bohannon, Higgins, & Ingram

Devotional

Day 1: The House Key in Your Hand

When entrusted with someone’s home, you care for what isn’t yours because the owner will return. So it is with God’s gifts—they’re not trophies to polish but tools to serve others. Every believer holds a unique gift, not earned but given by grace. Like a borrowed house key, these gifts are meant to be used faithfully, not hidden away. The world needs what’s in your hands. [49:26]

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (1 Peter 4:10, ESV)

Reflection: What gift has God placed in your hands that feels “borrowed” rather than owned? Who in your life needs you to unlock that gift for them this week?

Day 2: The Bicycle Left in the Garage

A gift unused is a tragedy—like a child’s bike gathering dust. God’s grace isn’t meant to be stored but pedaled into action. Whether your gift is visible or quiet, it’s a vital color in the prism of God’s multifaceted grace. When you withhold it, the whole church loses its full spectrum of beauty. [51:28]

“Whoever serves, [let them do so] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 4:11, ESV)

Reflection: Is there a “bicycle in your garage”—a gift you’ve neglected out of fear or comparison? What one step could make its wheels turn again?

Day 3: The Feast You Didn’t Pay For

God doesn’t ask you to host a banquet with your own resources. He’s the supplier who funds the feast of your service. When you feel inadequate, remember: the strength to serve comes from His pantry, not yours. Your role is to set the table; He’ll fill it. [54:18]

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been trying to “pay for the feast” yourself? How might leaning on God’s supply change your approach to serving this week?

Day 4: The Fingerprint of Perfection

God doesn’t demand flawless service—He wants faithful stewards. Like a parent cheering a toddler’s wobbly steps, He takes our imperfect efforts and sanctifies them through Christ. Your stumbles don’t disqualify you; they’re raw material for His glory. [55:06]

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” (2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you avoided serving because you feared imperfection? How might Jesus transform your “wobbly steps” into something holy today?

Day 5: The Question That Unlocks Purpose

Three keys open every believer’s calling: Have I received? Am I using? Am I leaning? Your gift isn’t a mystery to solve but a muscle to exercise. Ask a trusted friend where they see God’s grace flowing through you—then step into that current. [56:54]

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1:5, ESV)

Reflection: Who could you ask this week, “Where do you see God using me?” What’s one act of service that scares you enough to require His strength?

Sermon Summary

Peter sets the issue beyond keeping a congregation healthy: God has sent His people into a lost world, and that work is what they do, whatever it costs. Peter’s picture of stewardship begins like caring for somebody else’s house, key, mail, plants, or pet because the owner is coming back. God’s grace is not private property, and believers are not owners of it. Peter says each has received a gift, shutting the door on the quiet lie that some people have something to offer while others are just here.

The gift comes by grace, not performance. God gives it, so no one gets to boast about having it, and no one needs shame for not having somebody else’s gift. Peter calls the gift a tool, not a trophy. The bicycle image makes the point plain: a Christmas gift left in the garage never does what it was given to do. God’s gifts are meant to move through His people and bless other people.

Peter calls believers stewards of God’s varied grace, grace with many colors and many facets. The prism includes visible gifts and behind the scenes gifts: hospitality, encouragement, generosity, administration, prayer, hands that fix things, and ears that listen. Every color matters if the whole grace of God is going to be seen. The hard question is simple: who is being served by the gift God gave? A gift that serves nobody is sitting in the garage, and the world is poorer for it.

Peter also removes the burden of trying to serve out of personal reserves. God supplies the strength for the work, like the person putting on a feast and paying for every bit of it. God calls His people to put out the feast of their gifts, but God pays for it. Jesus takes weak, awkward, imperfect efforts and presents them to God so that God receives the glory. Failure does not mean the work is over; God says, “Get up. I can use that.”

Peter leaves three questions: Have you received a gift? Am I using it? Am I leaning on God? God’s grace was never given to hoard. God has placed somebody in the family, at work, at a restaurant, or at the golf course who needs the very thing He has gifted each believer to give.

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Key Takeaways

1. Grace makes every believer a steward [50:37] Peter roots every gift in grace rather than talent, status, or spiritual achievement. God gives the gift, so pride has no place, but neither does the excuse of feeling useless. Stewardship means receiving God’s kindness with open hands and putting it to work for somebody else’s good. [50:37]
2. A gift is a tool, not trophy [51:28] The bicycle left in the garage pictures a gift that never reaches its purpose. God’s gifts are not meant to decorate a life or create comparison with others. Grace becomes visible when it moves through a believer into the needs of another person. [51:28]
3. God supplies strength for the feast [53:28] God does not send His servants out on personal energy, wisdom, or emotional reserve. God pays for the feast He calls them to put on, supplying what the work requires. Service becomes bitter and dry when it rests on self, but it becomes freeing when it rests on God’s strength. [53:28]
4. Jesus redeems imperfect attempts to serve [55:06] Jesus receives small, clumsy, and incomplete efforts offered in faith. God gets glory not because His servants perform perfectly, but because Christ makes their service acceptable before Him. Failure can become proof that somebody is trying, learning, and getting back up under God’s care.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[48:52] - The World Is Lost and Waiting
[49:26] - Stewards of God’s Grace
[50:02] - Every Believer Has a Gift
[51:28] - Gifts Are Tools for Service
[52:40] - The Many Colors of Grace
[53:28] - Serving in God’s Strength
[54:45] - Glory Through Jesus Christ
[55:50] - Get Up After Failure
[56:22] - Three Questions for This Week
[57:58] - Grace Was Not Given to Hoard

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1 Peter 4:10-11
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” [49:51]

Observation questions

In 1 Peter 4:10–11, what has each believer received, and what is each believer told to do with it? [49:51]
What examples show the “varied” or many-colored grace of God in the life of a church? [52:40]
What contrast does Peter make between speaking and serving, and what is the source for both kinds of ministry? [53:22]
According to the passage, what is the final purpose of believers using their gifts? [54:40]

Interpretation questions

Why does calling believers “stewards” of God’s grace matter? How does the difference between an owner and a steward shape the way a person views his or her abilities and opportunities? [52:00]
Peter says every believer has received a gift. How does this truth challenge both pride in those with visible gifts and discouragement in those whose service is mostly unseen? [50:48]
What does it look like in real life to serve “in the strength that God supplies” rather than out of personal energy alone? What warning signs may show that someone is serving mainly from his or her own reserves? [53:44]
Why is it important that God is glorified through Jesus Christ when believers serve imperfectly? How does that give hope to someone who has failed or feels awkward in serving others? [55:01]

Application questions

Which lie is easier to believe: “I have nothing to offer,” or “what I have is more important than what others bring”? How does the truth that every believer has received a gift speak to that lie? [50:26]
Who is being served by the gift God has given you right now? If the answer is unclear, what is one person or need you could pay closer attention to this week? [52:12]
Think about the kinds of grace named here—hospitality, encouragement, generosity, administration, prayer, practical help, and listening. Which one may describe a way God has already used you, even if it seems ordinary or behind the scenes? [52:51]
Is there a gift or opportunity that has been sitting “in the garage”—something you have received but have not been using to bless others? What may be keeping you from taking a first step? [51:38]
Before serving this week, where do you especially need to ask God for strength: energy, courage, patience, wisdom, or love? What would it look like to depend on Him in that specific situation? [54:18]
When have you held back from serving because you were afraid of doing it poorly? How does the promise that Jesus receives and presents imperfect efforts help you get up and try again? [55:42]
Who is one trusted Christian you could ask, “Where do you see God using me?” How could that conversation help you find a practical way to serve someone this week? [57:14]

Sermon Clips

37s

#UseYourGifts

“Here's a hard question, and I want you to answer it for yourself. Who's being served by your gift? Who is being blessed by your gift right now in all of that? If the answer is nobody, then that gift's sitting in your garage and the world is poorer for it. You got a gift. It was meant to be used. It was meant to be experienced, and it's given to you by God's varied grace. That word varied means multicolored or multifaceted grace, a prism. Everybody has different kinds of gifts. You really do.”

38s

#GoodSteward

“If you get your child a a bicycle on Christmas morning, the child leaves it in the garage and never rides it. That gift never achieves what it was meant to do, which was to bring joy to that child. It never gets that if that child never uses it at all. Well, that's exactly the gifts of God. When he gives them to them, they're meant to move through us to other people. And that's why he calls us good stewards of the very grace of God. You're not the owner. A steward's not an owner. You're the manager of God's grace, and the whole household of faith, all of the church benefits from the gifts that you have.”

30s

#GodsStrength

“You don't serve out of your own reserve. You don't serve out of your own wisdom. You don't serve out of your own strength. If you do, you're gonna burn out, you're gonna resent people, and you're gonna run dry. But God supplies the strength. In fact, the word that he uses for supplies is an interesting word because in the Greek, it's talking about a person who puts on a feast, and the one who pays for all the food and the rental of the place is the one who supplies it.”

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Use Your Gift To Serve - Bohannon, Higgins, & Ingram - Oct 11, 2026-5pm