Pastor Brian – Welcome
1. Well, it is 10:30, on Sunday morning 26th October 2025. We are more than 3 quarters of the way through 2025. That’s hard for me to believe. I watch a show, every few months but especially when it comes to months like October. It’s an American show and they run like 25-30 clips of people on news programs, and they’re all starting by saying, ‘Can you believe it’s October’ or ‘I can’t believe it’s October’. Over and over again, because, I think we’re all amazed at the march of time. I feel like it was a short time ago, a 25-year-old kid becoming the pastor of this church. And now, I’m a 55-year-old kid, still working here.
2. I don’t know where time goes. But I know this, there is One who was and is and is to come. He’s Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. And wherever we are in life right now, He’s here with us this very moment. He was with us every step of the way, and He has already journeyed with us, until the end. And I know that He who began a good work in you, He is going to be faithful to the very end, to complete everything He started. (Philippians 1:6) Can you say Amen to that?
3. Isn’t that good news? If it is let’s fill this place with praise.

Eleni Atmatsidou – Reading of the Word
1. Would you please remain standing for the reading of the Word. We’re going to read from Ephesians 4:7-10, “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.’ (What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)”

Pastor Brian – Prayer
1. Thank you, Lord, that you are here with us and among us today. Lord, we always thank you that you draw close to us. But, Lord, we’re singing, draw us close to you. And, Lord, I don’t know what you have in store for us this morning. But I believe you want to draw us close to you.
2. Lord, I believe you want to touch hearts and minds. Lord, I believe you want to touch bodies today. Lord, I believe you want to change circumstances and situations. Lord, I believe you want to make a way for your people today. Lord, I believe that you are here to minister your graces. Lord, I believe you’re here to demonstrate your power.
3. And so, Lord, we just invite you today. Lord, have your way. Have your way, Lord. In us and among us, Lord. Lord, I pray that you would move on your people to bring ministry today. Lord, we would not wait, Lord, for everything to come from above or from the front, Lord. But, Lord, I pray for the administration, for the ministry of your spirit among us today. Lord, move in your grace. Move in your power, Lord. Move in your love.
4. I say it again, Lord. Just have your way. Somebody needs to pray out to the Lord from their spirit today. Just release that prayer that’s in your heart. Lord, let it minister to your body today.
5. Thank you, Holy Spirit. I just sense that there’s another, and if you will pray out, I believe it’s going to bring a release in your spirit, and it’s going to bring a release to others. Just exercise the ministry of the Holy Spirit today. Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
6. I’m just going to ask you. If you’re comfortable, just reach to somebody close to you and just lay your hand on their shoulder. Angelo? Angelo? Would you do me a favor? Come up here. As we lay hands on one another, there’s biblical example. There’s something important, something that’s powerful about laying hands. Even in the natural, there’s something important about touch. We know that. But I’m telling you today that in the supernatural, there is something important about laying hands on each other. And we don’t need a superstar preacher to do it. We just need the move of the Holy Spirit.
7. So, I’m going to ask Angelo to pray a prayer of release, just a prayer of the anointing of the Holy Spirit on, in, and through each one of us. That the Lord would touch, that He would deliver, that He would heal, that He would encourage, that He would guide and direct, that whatever it is that you need in your life today, that person touching you doesn’t even need to know it or pray it. It’s just the Holy Spirit. Angelo, would you pray?
8. Focus our mind to God today. God is here. We felt the presence of God in this place today. And I believe in my heart, just like the song says. Cast me not away, O God. But I ask you, don’t take the Holy Spirit from me. The anointing always brings power to each and every one of us. Don’t take the anointing from us, Lord, today. Father, thank you for letting us know that we received the anointing in us.
9. Each of us has the privilege to have this in our life. Because we know, apart from your anointing, we are powerless. I have nothing, O God. I’m empty, Lord. Many times, I doubt you. Many times, I fail you. But I know, Father God, that I don’t sense only your anointing in me. But I know in my heart that I have it with me. And today, Father God, thank you for using me as a channel, Father God, of releasing your anointing.
10. Thank you, Lord, I thought I lost the anointing. But, Father God, your love endures forever. It never fails, O God, and today, Father God, use my hand, Lord. Lift our hands together, Church. If we want to receive that anointing today, lift our hands, lift our head up high to the Lord. God is the source of anointing. We don’t have the anointing. And, Father God, thank you that you have this anointing. And right now, Father God, at this moment, just like Pastor says, release the anointing, O God.
11. Lift your hands for those who want to receive the anointing of God. We cannot move on without the anointing. Receive it. The anointing of God is available to each and every one of us. And it’s free. All you have to do is just open your hearts and receive it.
12. The Bible says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are all saved by grace. And only by grace, we can be able to receive the anointing also. Receive it. Lift your hands to the Lord and believe that you have it with you. Thank you, Father. Everybody said, thank you, Lord, for the anointing.
13. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father God. Thank you, Jesus. Angelo, sing this.

Pastor Brian – Announcements
1. I hate moving away from the keyboards. We have another song. I’m going to save it for the end. I apologize for the sound of my voice. If I end up coughing a lot during the service, forgive me. I’ve been traveling the last week with a group of Americans and they infected me. Parasites, those people. For those who don’t know, I’m an American. The Lord has been healing me.
2. I have to travel on Tuesday, so please pray for me. Not just for me, but for those on the airplane with me. Nothing that people love more than to have somebody coughing right beside them on an airplane. They look at you like you are the embodiment of COVID. So, I would really like to be well before Tuesday. Strike that, I’d like to be well by the end of this service today.
3. We do have a few announcements. Don’t forget Wednesdays as usual. Join us in the building. We’d really love to see you. If you can’t do that, jump online and pray with us. It’s important that we pray together as a church.
4. We’re not going to talk our way through the breakthroughs that we need. We’re not going to talk our way through the problems. We’re not going to talk our way through the healings we need to see. We’re not going to talk our way through the financial miracles we need to see. Whatever it is, prayer is the answer. We need not talk to each other. That’s good and all.
5. Years ago, we had a series and it still is the truth. Pray first. I want to see so many things happen. And I know that only God can make it happen. Pray for pastor Gail, she’s in the States already. She’ll be ministering in a church there today, several services. Then on Wednesday, we will begin our, our ministry has an annual board meeting that we have to lead, we have to attend.
6. Stavro, stand up, show everybody your shirt. EME Ministries, that’s our mission ministry. EME. EME Ministries. We say it stands for what we do. I have to come over here. Enable Mission Endeavors. Yeah, it doesn’t work in Greek. It also stands for where we work, Europe and the Middle East. And EME ministries needs the direction of the Lord.
7. We are truly wrestling very hard with letting the Lord lead us in what we should be doing. There are so many opportunities. But how many know that every good thing is not necessarily a God thing? And so, we’re asking the Lord to put blinders on our faces and let us see only the God things. For the sake of the kingdom. For the sake of our lives and energy. And for the sake of taking good care of the resources of the Lord.
8. So, if you would think about it this week, I would ask you just to pray for us. And for our board members all gathering from around the world. That above all, the Lord will be present with us. We need that.
9. Again, I bring you greetings from Pastor Gale. She’s disappointed that she’s not here. But the church she’s at today wanted her and not me. So, there you go. So, pray for her today. At about 3 p.m. our time, she’ll be heading into church. We just changed clock, so it’s still the same because they changed already.
10. About 3 p.m. our time today, she’ll be heading into church. So that’s a good time to pray. I’m going to ask us, and I know this is a little odd arrangement of service, but we’re going to take up our offering today. And I’m going to lead into that by asking us to do what we preached about some weeks ago.
11. The Lord knows the need of this church. He knows the need of what we need to be doing. And he knows what you should give. So, I’m asking you to take a moment. Don’t pull anything out of your pocket until you pray. Ask the Lord. What is my gift today? What do you want from me? And as we always say, you need not give any more. He’s the director. But don’t give less because we rely on the Lord to speak to your heart. And my heart, to do what we should do for the good of God’s house and for the ministry of the Kingdom.
12. So, Lord, we pray in your name today, that you would just by your Spirit speak into us. And tell us what we need to hear. Lord, we pray that the gifts that we give today, Lord that our tithes and our offerings would be touched by Your hand. That You would bless it and use it in great ways. And Lord that You would return to everyone a generous blessing. Because that is who You are. You are a generous God.
13. And so, Lord we just rest right now in that Spirit of generosity. Let us receive. Let us give. And let us receive again. In Jesus’ name. Amen and Amen.

Pastor Brian – Main Message
1. As the ushers come around, you can turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. We’re going to begin by reading verses 4 through 6. I know it’s on the screen but please open it in your Bible. We continue to try to create habits as well as to create images in our minds. The Word of God is not just an assortment of chapters and verses. But it’s a living testament of God’s desire for us, what He wants us to hear.
2. 1 Corinthians 12:4. This is going to be an introduction into what we’ll be talking about next week. We’ve been talking about being gifted by the Holy Spirit for the purposes of God. I’m going to be giving you three categories today. We’ve already covered two of them.
3. But I want to back up and put kind of a framework here. Now I’m not going to stand here and tell you that I think the Apostle Paul, when he wrote this, was thinking of the systematic presentation I’m going to give you today.
4. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t. But I do believe that there’s something that we can see here that helps us to put some things in perspective. I don’t personally believe that it’s accidental. It ended up in the Word, in a certain way, and so I’m going to present it the way that I interpret that.
5. But I want to preface that by saying something like the Apostle Paul said, now this is Brian speaking. I think it’s purposeful. I think it’s helpful. I think it’s even, in some sense, revelatory. But I’m not going to say this is exactly what Paul had in mind. Everybody’s okay with me, right? I’m going to show it to you from the Word, so we’re okay.
6. So, I’m going to show you what I believe are three categories of giftings revealed to us in the Bible. And it’s inherent in specific words. Paul says, verse 4, there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. And if you’re one to take notes or mark your Bible, I would underline the word gifts and Spirit.
7. Verse 5, there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. You could underline service and Lord. Verse 6, there are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work. And there I would underline the word working and God.
8. The first thing that we see in this passage is a revelation of the Trinity. You have the Spirit, the Son, and the Father all active. He says, the same Spirit distributes, the same Lord gives service, and the same God is at work in it all.
9. So, I believe we have a revelation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work together in a particular way. And for me, I’ve been studying this for 38 years. Don’t ask me, I still do not understand the mystery of the Trinity.
10. Stavro, I know the Lord our God is one, and yet somehow, he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, I always get a little uncomfortable when we start speaking of them in different terms, as though one’s doing this, one’s doing that, one’s doing that. Because the fact is, they’re all working together in unity.
11. We know the Father sent the Son, we know the Son sent the Holy Spirit, yet they are all God, were all God, will always be God. It’s a perfect unity. One of my favorites, forgive me, but one of my favorite icons. We’re in an evangelical church; you have to whisper it. One of my favorite icons is of the three members of the Godhead dancing in a circle. All joined together, they’re not separate, in a perfect movement of unity.
12. I can’t tell you how that works, but we see it throughout the New Testament. So here, the Trinity is in perfect unity, empowering, guiding, energizing, working with the people of God to carry out his purposes. So, everybody say, ‘thank God’. One God, three persons. Alright, we’re all together on this, right? But in this, he tells us about different kinds of gifts and their purposes. So, I’m going to give you the three up front, then we’re going to talk about it quickly.
13. The first we call the manifestation gifts. Or the demonstration gifts. The word here, it says there are different kinds of gifts in the Greek ‘harisma’. And with the ‘harisma’, the Spirit distributes them.
14. Then it talks about the ministry or the service gifts. And the Greek word there is ‘diaconia’. We know that word. It’s the kind of serving in the church. And it says that the Son, the Lord, gives those into the church.
15. And then it talks about motivational, or what we call the energy gifts. Coming from the Greek word in the Scripture, ‘energima’. And it tells us that God energizes His people and that He’s working in all of it.
16. Now I’m not going to tell you that the lists that we go through are complete. I think God can deal with revealing His gifts to you. But it is what we find in Scripture, and I think it pretty much encompasses anything else you’re going to think of.
17. So, I’m going to take these three categories today and share them with you. I’m going to reorder them because I want number one to come last because that’s going to lead us into next week. So, let’s talk about number two.
18. The service gifts, the ministry gifts. And this is where we find the Son directing the church. We find this in Ephesians, I believe, in Ephesians 4:11. We spoke about this some weeks ago. Notice how it begins. “So, Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers. To equip his people. To equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up”.
19. We read in our Scripture it said there are, “different kinds of service but the same Lord”. Jesus is the one assigning the work of the church. It is not for us to look at people and say, oh you’re an apostle. You’re a prophet, you’re a teacher. It’s for us to recognize the calling that God has put on the life of someone. Because the calling is not ours, it’s from the Lord. Christ Himself gave. Jesus is the head of the church. Pastor Gail is not the head of this church. None of us are.
20. We have one head; his name is Jesus. He’s the chief shepherd. And he decides how to organize the church. It is for us to recognize those gifts. The Bible shows us that the apostle Paul laid hands on people like Timothy and conferred, approved the gift of the Holy Spirit in them.
21. That’s necessary because we can’t just decide either what we are. I may wake up one day and think, oh the Lord has called me to be a prophet. That may be. But if nobody else in authority in the church recognizes that in you, you are not. In 35 years of local church ministry, I’ve had many people announce to me what they were.
22. I’m exactly the opposite. I like to announce what I’m not and what I don’t want to be. The calling is not ours; it is God’s, it is the Lord’s. And this is why we give recognition and honor to those gifts because God has set them in place.
23. Pastor Gail’s probably my best friend in the earth. But you will almost always hear me call her Pastor Gail. Not because it’s necessary. Not because she asks for it. Not because of some tradition. But I do it because I recognize what God has asked of her and what that place is in my life. And so, I give the honor and the recognition not because it’s needed. But because of what it does in my mind. And my spirit.
24. If I say that I recognize Anton is a teacher. I think it would probably be weird if we walked around calling him teacher Anton. I guess we could go Old Testament and call him Rabbi. Didn’t Jesus say somewhere don’t call any man Rabbi so let’s not do that. But it’s important that we honor the gifts that God has placed among us. So that the order and the flow of that brings the life that he intended into the church. And don’t forget these people aren’t just there to be there. They’re there to train all of us to do the work of the ministry.
25. And in some way, we all represent some aspect of those things in our Christian life. You are an apostle because you’re sent by the Lord to the world. You are sometimes a prophet by speaking what God has put into your mind and into your heart. Or for a situation.
26. Some of us exhibit pastoral care. Is Evy still sitting there? Evy just cares for people. There’s a pastoral gifting in that. Evangelists, teachers we’re all that in some aspect. But there are those among us who are called to teach us to train us to help us know how to be those things.
27. And even if they’re not speaking it, if they’re not training it from the pulpit. You get around a real pastor and you will feel their heart and that does something to affect you. That’s called impartation. Impartation. Giving from one to the other. So, we should all be receiving this. But God calls some to be the examples and the givers of that.
28. Different callings different roles. But serving one Lord. When you are moving in your calling. You’re not just doing a job you’re not just performing some role. You are literally accomplishing a purpose given to you by the King of kings. So, the Lord puts service in the body.
29. Then we have the workings, the energy. The father energizes us. These are the gifts we talked about a few weeks ago that motivate us. They’re just kind of in us. Paul declares there are different kinds of workings, but the same God works them all in everyone. Say, ‘in everyone’. Who did that leave out? Again, we’ve said it many times but settle on that again. ‘Everyone’.
30. When we’re born again. In the same way that when I was born in the natural. God created certain things in me. Some of them got messed up along the way because I know He created me to be a world class athlete. But sin and circumstance just messed it up. If I was meant to be a world class athlete, I’d be a world class athlete.
31. This is only for English speakers. As it is I’m a guy with a dad bod with no children. Who knows what a dad bod is? There’s a few. It’s when this stuff up here (at chest level) drops lower (at stomach level). We joke that it’s a body for daddies. So, I have a dad bod but no children. Maybe I’m a miracle.
32. But the father energizes. Romans 12:6. “We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying then prophesy in accordance with your faith. If it is serving then serve. If it is teaching then teach. If it is to encourage then give encouragement. If it is giving then give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully”.
33. If you didn’t hear Anton’s teaching on that a few Sundays ago, go to the web page, find the archives and listen to that. But these are a kind of gifting that it’s just what energizes us. It makes us want to do stuff. And I guarantee you there is something in you that when you were born again the Lord put a spark to that. And He said, ‘this is who I want you to be for My people. This is who I want you to be for the world’.
34. I was so delighted last week she’s not here today. I think it was last week I can’t remember but I made a comment about if you want to organize files in an office come talk to me, or to pastor Gail. And at the coffee time upstairs I literally had somebody come and say, ‘you won’t believe this but I love organizing files.’
35. Well, the first thing I said was, ‘bless God a miracle has taken place’. And the second thing I said was, let’s talk to Pastor Gail and arrange a time. Come on in and clean up our mess. We got about five full cabinets full of sermons and Bible studies and personnel files and all kinds of craziness. Probably 50% of it doesn’t need to be there anymore. Probably another 30% will never be looked at again, but we’ll keep it anyway. Because that’s what church offices do, especially when it comes to sermons. But it was just simply somebody saying, you know what, I have a gift of administration. I can help sort that out.
36. Gifts of service. Hey, Evy and Leto, I could help sort food out and take it to people. I could help cart all this garbage that every person in three cities around us brings to us because they think we’re going to do something with it.
37. Hey, you know what? I can teach children. I can give. Whatever it is. Seek that out in the Holy Spirit. And it’s not hard. Just ask, ‘what makes me happy? What makes me feel good? What am I good at? Why has God given this to me?’
38. And then finally, we’ll get into this more next week. We’re going to talk about the manifestation gifts. Or the demonstration gifts. And we go back to our scripture in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 to look at these. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”
39. So here we find a kind of a gift that the Holy Spirit distributes at His will. These are not natural abilities. They’re not things that are just in us, in our nature. But they’re supernatural endowments that come from heaven at a particular place and time. I used to have a pastor who would say this, ‘When you receive the Holy Spirit, he doesn’t just give you goosebumps. But he gives you power. The Spirit equips you with gifts of healing and prophecy and wisdom and tongues and all the rest.’
40. Why? So that we can display to the world and to each other that Jesus is alive. He is alive and He’s working in us. And sometimes He says things through us that we didn’t know. And He does things through us that we could not do. The gifts may look different in each believer. I happen to believe that these are given as possibilities to every one of us.
41. I happen to believe that what differentiates us is a person’s willingness to be open to a gift. But however this works, the Holy Spirit knows, who can I use, at what time, in what way, so that I can accomplish this thing. They come from the same source, the same Holy Spirit breathing life into every member of the church.
42. You might exercise different gifts than your brother or sister. But it’s the same anointing that is flowing through all of us. So, we don’t compare. We don’t compete. I’m going to make you repeat that. We don’t compare. We don’t compare; we don’t compete. I don’t have to be you; you don’t have to be me. But let the Holy Spirit empower you. Let Jesus direct you. Let the Father energize you. Because when all three persons are working through the life of the church, we know from the example of the Bible, the result is unstoppable power. The result is unshakable unity.
43. And I like this one. The result is undeniable glory. God will be glorified. And in time we will be glorified with Him. Different gifts, different callings, different workings, but one Spirit, one Lord, one Father, working through us all.
44. So, I ask you today, as we bring this to a close, who is Jesus calling you to be? What gifts has God placed in your soul to energize you? How often do you just allow the Holy Spirit to use you? We stopped earlier in the service today. I really felt that the Lord had a prayer in somebody’s heart. I’m thankful that Leto responded. I’m thankful that Rebecca prayed. I think they were both valid and used to the Lord. I also still believe that there was someone else.
45. And I do not have anybody in my mind. I have no idea. But I believe the Holy Spirit told me that if the person would pray, it would break something in them, some bondage and some stoppage in them. And that it would release something for the rest of us.
46. I could be wrong. I’m not a prophet and I’m certainly not perfect at hearing the word of the Lord. And I’m not afraid to say that. But here’s the point. I’m not afraid to be wrong. Listen to me. I’m not afraid to be wrong. I’m afraid to stop the work of the Holy Spirit.
47. And we believe the church has order. We’re not looking for everybody to just start running around praying and prophesying. But we do believe that the Lord wants to see a greater release of his gifts in this church.
48. It was a time a few weeks ago, I don’t remember how long. Somebody got Leto’s attention and just said, I feel like I have a word for the church. They didn’t run to the front of the church saying, the saith the Lord. But they found a leader and said, I feel like I have a word. Leto came to pastor Gail. Pastor Gail called the individual up. And a word was given that by testimony meant something significant to somebody in this house.
49. That’s the Holy Spirit. I do believe that when Rebecca prayed out earlier, that she prayed a word from the Lord, I do believe that. I still believe somebody else should have probably prayed it. But he got his word out anyway.
50. But if we’re not willing to explore our giftings, our purpose, our contributions, then we are never going to grow into what we’re supposed to be. I’ve prayed for hundreds of people to be healed. I could probably count on one hand how many of them I have seen healed.
51. But there may be people sitting in this room who have a heart of faith that praise that prayer, that would pray that prayer. And they might see dozens instead of a few. No one or two or five individuals are gifted to do everything. But every one of us is gifted to do something.
52. So, we’re asking you, as we go into this teaching next week, spend some time asking the Lord. Or put it in the words of the song we often sing. Or used to often sing. If you can use anything, Lord. You can use me. You can. You can use me to sing. You can use me to pray. You can use me to serve. You can use me to love. You can use me to help. You can use me to teach. You can use me to prophesy. You can use me to give words of wisdom and knowledge.
53. Whatever it is, Lord, you can use me. Would you pray that with me? Just bow your heads.
54. Amen. “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace”. (Numbers 6:24-26). Amen, go in His grace.