Sea Change Sermons

Gift Sandwich · Rooted in the Spirit, Episode 4 · July 19, 2026 · Sea Change Church · Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · 1 Peter 4:7–11

Peter doesn’t hand out spiritual gifts in a vacuum. In this closing message on the gifts of the Spirit, Pastor Adam walks through 1 Peter 4:7-11 to show how carefully Peter frames the gift he’s about to describe — sandwiched between three verses on Christian maturity (self-controlled prayer, earnest love, ungrudging hospitality) and a closing verse that points every gift back to God’s glory. Gifts without that frame, Pastor Adam argues, are dangerous.

The message centers on one word: steward. The Greek behind it, oikonomos, describes a manager entrusted with someone else’s resources — not an owner. Every believer has received a gift, and every believer is responsible for it, but none of us actually own it. It’s on loan, for the purpose of serving others, not building a platform.

Pastor Adam names a real temptation churches face: chasing crowds instead of sending disciples. Drawing on lessons from crowd psychology, he points to three ways an attractional model can quietly go wrong — diminishing personal responsibility, replacing real growth with a passing emotional high, and mistaking attendance numbers for actual ministry. The alternative he casts is a church that measures itself by how many people are equipped, engaged, and sent out, not by how many show up.

The message closes with a simple, repeatable practice: treating the threshold you cross every day — a doorway, a driveway, a garage — as a moment to ask what gift you’re carrying out with you, and who you’re being sent to serve. It’s a practical picture of what it looks like to actually live out a gift that was never meant to stay inside the building.

This is the final message in the four-week gifts portion of Rooted in the Spirit, an eight-week summer series through the Epistles that will be compiled into a forthcoming book. Next week the series moves into the book of Acts, shifting focus from the apostles to the ordinary believers who carried the gospel into their own neighborhoods.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 ESV
7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8   For to one is given
through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to
the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to
another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between
spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are
empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
Big Idea: Spiritual gifts were never meant to highlight gifted people—they were meant to reveal the
Gift-Giver.
Main Point: Every believer is gifted by the Spirit Vs. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the
Spirit for the common good.
"The gifts which the Lord has bestowed upon His Church are not intended to remain unemployed,
but ought to be applied to the common advantage of all" -John Calvin
 To each is GIVEN. Is given" (δίδοται – didotai)  Pronunciation DIDO-ME
o This verb is in the present passive indicative.
 That means- Present: God is continually giving. Passive: We receive rather
than earn. Indicative: This is a statement of fact, not a command.

 The gifts are supernatural: “the manifestation of the Spirit”.
A manifestation of the Spirit is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that makes God's presence evident

through a believer to strengthen, encourage, and build up the body of Christ.
 The Spirit is the star of this passage, not the gifts.
o The Spirit distributes them as He wills: Vs. 8   For to one is given through the Spirit
the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the
same Spirit. Vs. 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by
the one Spirit.
 In 1 Corinthians 12:7–11, the word Spirit; (Greek: πνεῦμα, pneuma) appears
six times.

Practical Takeaway:
Ask for more- 1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially
that you may prophesy.

Small Group Discussion Questions: 
1. How does knowing that every believer is gifted by the Holy Spirit change the way you see
your role in the church?
2. Have you ever experienced a manifestation of the Spirit through your life or someone elses?
What happened?
3. Why do you think Paul emphasizes the Holy Spirit more than the gifts in this passage?
4. What gift or opportunity to serve might God be calling you to use instead of leaving unused?
5. What does it look like to earnestly desire spiritual gifts while continuing to pursue love?

Every believer carries a gift from the Holy Spirit — not a select few, not the spiritually elite, every single one. In this message, Pastor Adam opens 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 to make a case that runs against the grain of how most of us think about spiritual gifting: gifts were never meant to highlight gifted people. They were meant to reveal the Gift-Giver.

The message slows down on a single Greek verb — “is given” — and unpacks what its tense actually tells us: God is continually giving, not handing gifts out once and moving on; we receive rather than earn; and this is a statement of fact about who you already are, not a command you’re failing to keep. From there, Pastor Adam draws a sharp line between spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit is grown through abiding in Christ. Gifts are given, individually, differently, to different people. Confusing the two — treating gifting as a measure of maturity — is one of the quieter ways churches get this wrong.

The message doesn’t stop at definition. It names a real temptation: turning gifts into a platform. It’s possible to build a following around a gift without ever building the kingdom, and Pastor Adam challenges the congregation to judge a church less by how impressive it looks and more by how well it functions as a unified body, caring for one another and moving out into the city.

The practical takeaway is direct: ask God to identify your gift, and then ask for more. Gifts aren’t static — they can grow, and Scripture repeatedly invites believers to pursue them. This week’s message sets up a churchwide spiritual gifts assessment in the coming weeks, giving the congregation a concrete next step toward putting what they’ve been given to work.

This is the third message in Rooted in the Spirit, a twelve-week series moving through the church’s four core purposes — identity, unity, maturity, and mission. Having spent two weeks in the fruit of the Spirit, the series now turns to spiritual gifts before heading into the book of Acts, where the focus shifts to what it looks like to carry these gifts out into the neighborhoods surrounding Sea Change.

John 15:1-17
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he
takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are
clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine;
you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me
you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and
the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in
you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much
fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's
commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be full. 12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if
you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his
master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known
to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and
that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17
These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Campus Pastor Joshua Pigg opens with a single question pulled straight from John 15: Are you qualified to bear fruit? The setup comes from his own Navy enlistment — a process he expected to be a quick signature that turned into months of medical evaluations, uniform inspections, rack standards, and shoelace directionality. Qualification, it turns out, is always more involved than anticipated. But when Jesus answers the same question in John 15, the criteria are stripped down to one thing: connection to Him.

The first point works through verse 2 and the Greek word airō — typically translated “takes away” but more precisely meaning “to lift up.” The image Pastor Joshua draws isn’t a severed branch discarded on the ground. It’s a branch that’s fallen into the dirt, collecting debris, receiving almost no sunlight — and a skilled vine dresser who kneels down, cleans it off, and ties it back to the trellis. Psalm 145:14 runs parallel: the Lord upholds those who are falling and raises up those who are bowed down. The takeaway lands personally — there have been seasons in ministry where he questioned whether he was producing anything at all. Looking back, God wasn’t pushing him away. He was drawing him closer.

The second point makes an identity claim before making a responsibility claim: we are not the vine, we are the branches. Jesus establishes who people are before He tells them what to do. Branches have exactly one job — hang on. The tendency to make it more complicated than that is the very thing Jesus is correcting. Andrew Murray: Abiding in Christ is not a matter of doing more, but of depending more. The fruit described in Galatians 5:22–23 cannot be produced by effort, talent, or achievement. A branch can grow nothing on its own. The counterfeit version of any fruit is possible through human striving. The real thing requires the vine.

The third point closes on verses 16–17: fruit looks like love. Not biblical fluency, not spiritual activity, not church attendance — Christlike love toward the people immediately around us. The closing challenge is direct: What is God trying to remove from your life right now so you can look more like Him?

S1E2 of a four-week series on the fruit and gifts of the Spirit. S1E1 (Pastor Adam Stadtmiller, Galatians 5:15–26) established the core distinction — fruit is grown, gifts are given. S1E2 zooms into John 15 and the mechanics of abiding.

Galatians 5:15-26

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the
desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for
these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you
are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual
immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,
rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you,
as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to
Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let
us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another,
envying one another.

Question: What does it mean to be Spirit Filled?
Big Idea: The Holy Spirit does not merely make us supernatural; It is to make you more like
Jesus in character first and acts of power second.
● The Fruit and Gifts of the Spirit become part of a redeemed and transformed identity.
○ 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Fruit is grown. Gifts are given.
The Fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of CHARACTER.
1. Fruit reveals the nature of the tree. Jesus repeatedly taught that what grows on a tree
reveals what kind of tree it is. Matt 7:17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the
diseased tree bears bad fruit.
● THREE TREES— You will know the ROOT by the FRUIT. Roots are
○ Genesis 2:8–9: Matthew 7:17 So, every healthy tree bears good
fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
○ Psalm 1:3: He is like a tree, planted by streams of water, that yields
its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does,
he prospers.
○ Revelation 22: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of
life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the

Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either
side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit each month.

The primary evidence of the Holy Spirit is not what we can do but who we are becoming.

Key Ideas:
1. Fruit is not manufactured, it is grown by tending that which brings life.
2. Fruit will be consumed.



Practical Takeaway: This week survey the tree that is your life. Where is it planted? How is it
being tended? What needs to happen for it to begin to thrive and produce fruit?

Pastor Adam Stadtmiller opens the new series with a question the church has been asked countless times: Is your church Spirit-filled? His answer reframes the question entirely. The Pentecostal definition — tongues, healings, works of power — isn’t wrong, but it’s incomplete. Paul’s letter to the Galatians places the fruit of the Spirit before the gifts, and for good reason: you can show up to Heaven with a full portfolio of gifts and hear “depart from me, I never knew you.” You cannot show up with a life marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control without having become like Jesus. That is the distinction this series is built on — and the big idea of the message: the Holy Spirit’s primary work is not to make us supernatural, but to make us more like Christ in character first and acts of power second.

The first clarification is grammatical but theologically significant. It’s not fruits of the Spirit — it’s fruit, singular. The difference matters. When we parse it into a cornucopia, we give ourselves permission to grade on a curve: the patience cluster isn’t great, but look at the kindness over here. Paul’s point is that these qualities are one nature, not nine separate categories. As a believer abides in Christ, they come up together — like a watermelon, not a fruit basket. Against that singular, unified character, there is no law — and Pastor Adam unpacks what that means: law exists for those who break it. When you’re in agreement with God rather than merely obedient to Him, you’ve moved to a different level of maturity entirely.

The theological spine of the message is the biblical arc of trees: the garden of Genesis 2, the tree of Psalm 1:3 planted by streams of water, the tree of life in Revelation 22 yielding fruit every month. The Bible doesn’t begin and end with gifts — it begins and ends with fruit. The key distinction throughout: fruit is grown, gifts are given. Gifts are like keys to a Ferrari — handed to you, immediately drivable, completely unearned. Fruit requires tending, planting, watering, and time. Pastor Adam’s summer on a new property in East County — squirrels eating his vineyard, varmints destroying his watermelons, sixty pepper starts dead because he ignored his wife’s advice to harden them off — is the sermon’s running illustration. You don’t manufacture fruit. You create the conditions for it. John 15:4 is the method: Abide in me, and I in you. Hudson Taylor’s gloss on it is the takeaway: See to the abiding; He will see to the fruit.

The message closes with the harder truth — fruit will be consumed. Whatever you grow, you eat. Isaiah 3:10, Proverbs 1:29–31, and Galatians 6:7–9 all say the same thing: the righteous eat the fruit of their deeds, and so do the unrighteous. God’s discipline in the New Testament isn’t the Babylonians — it’s turning us over to our own desires. The people who changed Pastor Adam’s life most weren’t the most gifted: they were a youth leader named Doug who showed up through family chaos thirty years ago (and was sitting in the room that morning), a mechanic named Dave Kreisler who met weekly for scripture, a couple named Betty and Lloyd Hart who knelt beside their bed every day for twenty-eight years and prayed for Adam’s family. That is the fruit the series is chasing.

S1E1 of a new four-week series on the fruit and gifts of the Spirit, moving through the Epistles. Follows the four-part series “Rooted In the Spirit.” 

Sea Change Church
The Church

S1E4 – The Purpose of The Church Pt. 4

Mission
Pastor Adam Stadtmiller
Ephesians 3:7-13

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me
by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was
given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for
everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so
that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and
authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has
realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence
through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you,

which is your glory.

Big Idea: The Church is not merely doing God's work; it is God's masterpiece on display,
revealing His wisdom, grace, and power to the world.
Key Verse: Vs. 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made
known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
2 Corinthians 10:3–5:

"For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the
weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and

take every thought captive to obey Christ."

Key Word: What Is "Manifold Wisdom? The Greek word is: πολυποίκιλος (polupoikilos)
A compound word:
● poly = many
● poikilos = varied, diverse, multi-colored
Vs. 1 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was
given me by the working of his power.
● The Gospel: The Gospel is the good news that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the
dead, and offers forgiveness and eternal life to all who trust in Him.

● A Minister: A minister is anyone who serves Christ by helping others grow in Him.
● Of Grace and Working in Power: A minister of grace is a believer entrusted with God's
gifts, serving others so they can experience God's love, truth, and transforming power.
○ A community transformed by the power of God is marked by restored families,
healed hearts and bodies, changed lives, united people, and a tangible awareness
of the presence and power of Jesus.

Changing Communities

The Church changes culture when ordinary people, transformed by Jesus, faithfully represent

Him in every sphere of influence.
1. Family
2. Church / Faith
3. Education
4. Government
5. Business
6. Media / Communications
7. Arts, Entertainment & Sports
8. Health, Science & Technology

Practical Takeaway: This week, identify where God has strategically placed you and take one
intentional step to bring the love, truth, and presence of Jesus into that sphere of influence.
Small Group Discussion Questions:
1. What does it mean to you that God has chosen the Church to display His manifold
wisdom to the world?
2. In what sphere of influence (family, work, school, community, etc.) has God uniquely
positioned you to represent Jesus?
3. How can you become a more effective minister of God's grace to the people around you?
4. What strongholds, false beliefs, or barriers need to be torn down for the Gospel to have a
greater impact in your life or community?
5. What is one practical step you can take this week to help make Jesus known where God has placed you.

In the series finale of The Church, Pastor Adam Stadtmiller arrives at the fourth and final purpose — Mission — and immediately reframes what that word means. Mission isn’t the program or the outreach event or the sandwich line, though it can include all of those. Mission is something far larger: the Church functioning as God’s masterpiece on display, making His manifold wisdom known to every power and authority — seen and unseen — through the transformed lives of ordinary people.

The theological anchor is Ephesians 3:10, and Pastor Adam slows down on the Greek word behind “manifold”: polupoikilos — poly (many) plus poikilos (varied, diverse, multicolored). The word picture is a tapestry. Every believer is a unique, unrepeatable thread woven into a design only God can see from above. This isn’t abstract theology — it’s the direct argument against the lie that your sphere is too small to matter. Adam’s mother, still in the hospital during the message, invited her nurse to church from an ICU bed. The tapestry doesn’t wait for ideal conditions.

Grounding the cosmic scope in daily reality, Pastor Adam turns to 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 — the weapons of our warfare have divine power to destroy strongholds — and maps eight spheres of cultural influence where that power is meant to operate: family, church, education, government, business, media, arts and entertainment, and health and science. The call to action is concrete: identify which sphere God has placed you in, and take one intentional step this week to bring the love, truth, and presence of Jesus into it. The message closes with two field stories — a prayer on the floor of a church in England that restored a homeless man to his family and job a year later, and a worship circle on a deserted high street that drew forty strangers out of a pub to sing.

Final episode of a four-part series. S1E1: Identity. S1E2: Unity. S1E3: Maturity. S1E4: Mission. Next series: Gifts and Fruit, moving into Ephesians and Galatians.

Sea Change Church
The Church

S1E3 – The Purpose of The Church Pt. 3

Maturity
Pastor Adam Stadtmiller
Ephesians 4:1-7

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which
you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another
in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and
one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But
grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

4 Purposes of the church: Identity—Unity—Maturity—Mission
4 Corners of the church: Heart—Home—Church—World
Key Word: Maturity
Key Idea: The goal of the church is not attendance, but rather maturity.
Key Point: The destination of salvation is not heaven—it is Christlikeness.
Vs. 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to
which you have been called. Vs. 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with
one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

● Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many
brothers.
“Many people settle for looking Christian rather than becoming Christlike.”

1 John 2:6

"Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."

Five Marks of Maturity: Vs. 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a
manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in
the bond of peace.
1. Humility
2. Stability
3. Love
4. Unity and Peace
5. Service: Ephesians 4:12And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the
shepherds [a] and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the
body of Christ,
Practical Takeaway: This week, choose one area where you know you don't look like Jesus yet,
and intentionally practice Christlikeness in that area every day.
Small Group Discussion Questions:
1. Which of the five marks of maturity (humility, stability, love, unity, or service) is
strongest in your life right now? Which needs the most growth?
2. What does it practically look like to "walk in a manner worthy of your calling" this
week?
3. Why do you think becoming like Jesus is more important than simply attending church?
4. How can you help maintain the unity of the Spirit in your family, small group, or church?
5. What is one specific step you can take this week to grow in Christlikeness?