How to Use Your Spiritual Gifts for God’s Kingdom

Stmarkdepere - October 17, 2025

By Pastor Ben Reichel, Youth & Young Adult Pastor at St. Mark Ministries

God delights in behind-the-scenes work – expressions of service that happen but no one really knows about. The spiritual gifts of those who work behind the scenes to support God’s church are just as vital as the more visible gifts, such as preaching or teaching.

Think of it this way: When you go for a routine checkup, the nurse typically wraps that cuff around your arm. They note your blood pressure, count your pulse, and then they place the stethoscope on your chest and on your back so that they can hear your heart and your lungs doing their quiet work.

That quiet work actually tells a very simple story: “Are you healthy or are you hurting? Are you steady or are you strained?”

Now imagine taking that stethoscope and putting it on our church. What would you hear?

In Romans 12:8 (NIV), Paul lists three spiritual gifts – vital signs – that are very important for a healthy body of believers. It’s the steady rhythm of encouragement when faith is running low. It’s the open-handed giving that responds to real needs. And it’s that diligent leadership that rolls up sleeves and gets after it.

But these spiritual gifts are not ways that we earn our salvation. These are actually a response to God’s love.

In other words, these gifts are “how grace sounds” as it moves through the body of Jesus’ followers. Let’s learn how to listen very carefully for these three gifts and work to strengthen them.

Why Did God Give Us Spiritual Gifts?

We’ll talk about the “how” in a little bit, but first, we have to focus on the “why.”

Paul opens Romans 12 (NIV) with a very important phrase: “In view of God’s mercy.” When we serve others with our gifts, we don’t serve because we’re earning anything or looking for someone else’s approval. We serve because we are already loved and accepted by God in Jesus. Everything else follows.

While encouraging, giving, and leading are the focus of this study, any spiritual gifts are simply a response to the mercy that God has already shown us. It’s the music that grace makes when it lands on real people!

A few verses later in Romans 12 (NIV), Paul adds this: “We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.”

Now, if my gift is given, then my gift is not how I “prove myself.” It’s how I reflect the giver. That is the heart of what we call vocation – sometimes, we use the word “calling.”

Now, a calling is not just a job description, and it’s not even that personal feeling that you get on your own. Vocation and calling are when your true self in Christ meets real needs in love. We discover that calling in community with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who can discern our gifts, notice our gifts in us, give us opportunities to test them out, and then grow into them.

That’s what it means to be a healthy body of believers.

Your calling is confirmed and strengthened with other Christians. This is not something that you do on your own. This is not an independent project or a solo endeavor. Let’s keep that in mind as we focus on these three spiritual gifts.

The Spiritual Gift of Encouraging

The first spiritual gift we’re looking at is “encouraging.”

Paul’s words “give encouragement” in Romans 12:8 (NIV) convey coming alongside someone else, comforting, strengthening, and urging them on. This has nothing to do with flattery or empty compliments. This is giving someone Jesus at just the right time when maybe they’ve forgotten who they really are—a beloved, forgiven, called child of God.

You can hear this gift at work at St. Mark.

It happens at Breakfast with Dad on a Thursday morning at St. Mark Lutheran School. When a father looks his child in the eye after studying Scripture together for just a few short minutes and says, “I can see God’s patience growing in you.” Maybe that one statement can carry that child through a very difficult week.
You can hear this in our youth and teen groups when a teen asks a very deep, very important question, but was maybe a little worried, doubtful, or afraid. Then the leader comes up to them afterwards and says, “That was a very brave question. I’m glad you asked it because God isn’t afraid of it and neither am I.” Because there are times in a teen’s life when faith is lacking, faith is weakening, but an encourager can refill their tank.
This gift is heard every single day at St. Mark Lutheran School when teachers and staff ministers come alongside their students by praying with them, pointing tiny weary hearts back to Jesus, correcting with kindness, and celebrating growth. Most of the important sermons here at St. Mark are preached on weekdays during the times of 8:00 a.m. and 3:10 p.m. with dry-erase markers and crayons.

If you have this gift of encouragement – or even if you think you might have it – there are three things that we can try this week:

Name grace out loud. Find someone and tell them specifically how you can see God at work in them.
Show up and pray. At some point this week, sit down with someone who is hurting and don’t just pray for them, pray with them.
Reach out directly. Send that text, send the email, write the note, give one person a Bible verse and a genuine, honest affirmation about what you see in them and how God is working through them.

Whether it’s in the atrium, in the parking lot, in the hallway, in the gym, in the grocery store, find one person and give them some encouragement this week.

The Spiritual Gift of Giving

The second spiritual gift that we’re going to be talking about today is the gift of giving. When Paul uses the phrase “give generously” in Romans 12:8 (NIV), he means with an open hand, not a tight clenched fist. And it means single-mindedly, not with ulterior motivations or trying to calculate to see exactly if it’s too much or maybe not enough.

When we start with this gift of giving, we don’t start with the plate or the basket. We start with Jesus: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich” 2 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV). The giver became the gift.

Now that our identity is secure in Christ, that means our stuff doesn’t have to be our savior. Our money becomes a tool for love rather than a scorecard for life. You can see this at St. Mark.

You see this on meal packing nights when you give your time, your money, and your hands for local shelters and food pantries so people in our community can actually eat a meal this week.
You see this in our St. Mark Lutheran School classrooms when teachers request materials or Bibles or sensory tools or even just field trip help and your automatic response is: “Yes, what do you need?”
You see this as we start to plan for the 2026 WELS Youth Rally. Some of you might be moved to cover a bus seat for one of our teens or maybe cover their hotel stay so that they can enjoy some fun and fellowship with people their own age connecting with Jesus. Maybe some of you might even cover the full registration because those gifts are not just memories for these kids. Some of them might become turning points in their spiritual lives.

Our Online Giving Platform at St. Mark Ministries

If you feel called to give, we make it very easy to do through our online giving platform.

You can choose any of these categories and give any amount to any of those ministries, whether it’s scholarships or individual ministries that we have going on here at St. Mark. You can give a one-time gift or a recurring gift. You set the amount and you get to give what you want to support. This goes above and beyond your regular giving.

If you have this spiritual gift of giving, find ways to use that blessing for others. Now, this is for all of us, not just those who have that spiritual gift. For all of us who give, I have three simple habits for us this week.

Make it a priority. This means give first. Don’t just give of your leftovers. Don’t give God what you have left. Give of your best. Give your first fruits. If God has blessed you with financial blessings, you can use those blessings to bless others.
If you haven’t already gotten into this habit, give a percentage. Pick one and go with it. Own it. In the Old Testament, God made a law that it was 10% of your income and your crops. We don’t make giving into a law anymore. You pick what percentage you want to give and then follow through on it.
Think in terms of progressive giving. Ask yourself, what’s my next faithful step when it comes to this spiritual gift? What goes above and beyond what I’m doing now because God has blessed me?

After you’ve gone through those three habits and you’ve asked yourself that question, I have one challenge for those of you who have this spiritual gift: Give one quiet gift.

Find a need that you can fill that only Jesus will know. Let love be your reward. You can sponsor that teen’s registration. You can ask how your hidden generosity can be an open door for the gospel. Maybe you ask one of your child(ren)’s teachers, “What would bless your classroom this month?” and then go do it.

The Spiritual Gift of Leading

Our third spiritual gift for today is the gift of leading. When Paul says “lead diligently” in Romans 12:8 (NIV), he means eagerly, attentively, and with follow-through.

We have to remember that leading in God’s kingdom does not mean standing above others. It means kneeling below. Remember Jesus’ words from Mark 10:43-45 (NIV): “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

That behind-the-scenes work is actually the greatest in God’s kingdom. Let’s ask ourselves: “How can I serve first this week?”

You can feel this at St. Mark:

With our teens in our RISE group when they lead a prayer or a devotion with their peers.
When our Pathfinders group sets up our room with tables and chairs and then greets new faces with a smile, that’s leadership that’s learned shoulder to shoulder with other peers and leaders and spiritual guides.
We also see this leadership in ministries like Little Lambs, Children’s Church, Cross Training, and Breakfast with Dads at St. Mark Lutheran School. When our ministry leaders, coordinators, and volunteers equip people for works of service in these areas – and they also go first.
We see servant leadership modeled every single day at St. Mark Lutheran School when our teachers and staff ministers craft lessons for different learners, when they call parents and they stay late with a student to meet that student where they’re at. That is diligence. That is love.
As we collaborate with other congregations in our Green Bay area for Mission Together and planning that youth rally, we’re coordinating budgets, buses, and spiritual care so that young people and older people can meet Jesus together. That is leadership for the sake of mission.

If you’re looking for a next step, do this:

If you are a leader in any area of ministry, clarify the next step for your team or for your classroom or even for your own family. Communicate it well and follow through on it.
Equip a new person for your ministry. Invite them along on this journey with you. Train them on how to use their gifts and then encourage them to continue serving.
If you are a Type A leader like I am, maybe you just need to finish one lingering task that you didn’t get to last week. I have a list of about seven or eight that I need to accomplish. But just do one. Do it quietly. Do it faithfully. Do it for the people that you are serving, but do it to the glory of God.

Our Spiritual Gifts Don’t Earn Favor with God

Now, that was an intense study of three spiritual gifts. We need to zoom out just for a second because these three gifts in particular – encouraging and giving and leading – they’re not duties, they’re not jobs, they’re not obligations. These are expressions of who you are in Christ.

In Jesus, you have freedom from this false notion that you have to earn love or anyone else’s approval or acceptance. In Jesus, you are freed to live out your true redeemed self, the one that God actually made in service for others. That is vocation. That is calling, because God has woven into you a particular set and a particular mix of your own personal story, your own strengths – and yes, even your own struggles.

But God delights to use that uniqueness in his body and through you. We help one another discern our gifts in community with the body of Christ. We figure out what those gifts are. We test them out and then we encourage others to use them and to put them into practice. We don’t do this alone.

For all of us – no matter what your gifts are, if you have some of these gifts or whether you have the gifts that we talked about over the last few weeks – I want you to remember two things today:

#1: You Have Freedom

The church doesn’t need clones; it needs you. You don’t have to be someone else to be useful in God’s kingdom.

#2: You Have Direction

This gives us direction because calling points you outward.

Where does your deep-seated joy and fulfillment meet and intersect with a real need right here and right now? Maybe it’s a student who needs a mentor. Maybe a classroom that just needs a helper. Maybe it’s a family who needs a meal or a ministry that needs a steady leader. Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance and then take one small step forward.

Our Gifts Don’t Save Us – Jesus Does

Here’s the best news today: You are not saved by your gifts! You are gifted because you are saved!

Jesus encouraged the faint-hearted. He gave himself without measure. He led by laying down his life on the cross. On that cross, all of our sins, all of our failures, even when it comes to our spiritual gifts, our careless words, our tight-fistedness and our selfish leading, all of those things were placed on him on that cross. In his resurrection, our new life in him has already begun.

Now Jesus lives out these gifts through his body, through his church, through you.

Through that dad who makes time and space for breakfast with dads once a month. Through that quiet giver who sponsors a scholarship or a registration. Through that teen who prays out loud for the very first time. Through a teacher who prays with their student after class. Through a staff minister who makes a very difficult phone call but uses gentle words.

That’s the sound of grace because grace has a sound.

So let’s be the church that has a heartbeat you can actually hear.