{"id":48908,"date":"2002-10-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-10-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/stir-up-your-gifts\/"},"modified":"2002-10-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2002-10-14T00:00:00","slug":"stir-up-your-gifts","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/stir-up-your-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Stir Up Your Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reverend Thomas Tewell writes:<\/p>\n\n

\n

My friend Andy Eddington, once the president of Shriner College in Texas, would go to prisons and preach to men on death row in Huntsville, Texas. I used to go with Andy every now and then, and on one of those trips we stopped at a greasy spoon on our way home to Dallas. Andy loved sugar in his coffee, so he took not one, not two, but three teaspoonfuls of sugar. As the waitress watched, Andy said, "Ma'am, we're going to need more sugar for this table." This Texas waitress looked at Andy and said, "Listen, bud, before I give you more sugar, you stir what you got."<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

Now, there's a sermon there, and the sermon is: Stir what you got. Use your gifts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[406,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3942,4055,5048,5077],"tax_ctp_topics":[378],"class_list":["post-48908","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-gifts-of-holy-spirit","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-gifts","tax_ctp_tags-stewardship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nStir Up Your Gifts - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/stir-up-your-gifts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stir Up Your Gifts - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reverend Thomas Tewell writes: My friend Andy Eddington, once the president of Shriner College in Texas, would go to prisons and preach to men on death row in Huntsville, Texas. 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