Spiritual Gifts
This week is going to be a little different than expected. I was going to go through and look at the individual gifts to see whether people were talented in these areas. However, upon studying Scripture on Spiritual Gifts, I think I missed the boat on what Paul was actually talking about in reference to those gifts. So, instead of tackling them one by one, today we are going to shift gears and speed up this sermon series. We’re going to learn the lesson that I did this week.
Have you ever gotten so wrapped up in a project that you lost sight of where you were intending to go? There is a story of a drunk who was walking and approached a police officer on the street corner and said, “Pardon me, officer, but where am I?” “Well,” the officer replied, “you’re at the corner of Main and Forsyth.” The drunk scoffed and replied, “Never mind the details! What town am I in?” As humans, we have a tendency to worry more over the details than we do about the idea of the big picture. Don’t get me wrong, details are important, no doubt. It’s when we fuss about them is when we get into trouble.
I want to read out of Ephesians this morning, starting in chapter 4:1-16. It is a different book, but the same author writing to a different church about Spiritual Gifts. Let’s take a look at what Paul is telling the church in Ephesus.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 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 to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”
9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
In order to understand what Paul is saying, we have to first know that the letter to the church in Ephesus is one of the Prison Epistles, a letter written to a church while Paul was in the prison in Rome. Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon are the other 3. So, when Paul opens up this chapter by saying he is a prisoner for the Lord, he means it. He is actually in prison because of his boldness in proclaiming the Lord’s message of salvation. For Paul, being bold landed him in chains, in a home, in Rome. Nowadays, we don’t have to worry too much about going to jail for talking about our Christianity…yet.
Paul then goes into a discourse on unity. Paul is saying that when we are baptized into the faith, we are joined by the ‘gift of the Holy Spirit’, unifying us in our salvation. Each of us is responsible for our own actions and salvation, but once we are, we must live up to the expectation of living as ‘one body’ in the Lord.
Paul then talks about how God has given us grace individually, which is where Paul begins to take this into a discourse on the Spiritual Gifts. Once again, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 12, we see a list of gifts, this time however, Paul states God’s purpose for giving these gifts. As he stated earlier, we are responsible for living as one in the Lord after we join the family. Here Paul tells us that the reason for this is because we need to help one another with the gifts we have been given. We must help others in the body gain maturity in the faith.
To each person, gifts have been given so that we do not suffer incompleteness. We are human and we all lack certain areas in our lives. Remember earlier when I was talking about being too wrapped up in the details? That’s exactly what I was doing by individually looking at each gift, one gift per week. I was concerned with each gift, how it works, what it is, and who has it rather than what Paul was really trying to get at. It is not about what gift you have, it is about how you use it. Everyone has at least 2 gifts. The purpose is to help others…serving others. It’s what Christianity is all about. Sitting idly by on the sidelines isn’t what Jesus wanted us to do. John 13:1-17 is a perfect example of that. It is the story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. That was an act of service and he tells us to do the same. By serving others, we are building each other up, so we can become mature in our faith so that we won’t be “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
In order to avoid the false teachings of Harold Camping, Jim Jones (Jonestown Massacre), Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles (Heaven’s Gate Cult of Hale Bopp Comet) we have to build each other up in the faith. It’s the only way to avoid false teachings.
Last week we talked about wisdom and how when you have the gift of wisdom, you have discernment and knowledge too.
Knowledge is being able to understand the scriptures and what they are really trying to say. If you have this gift, you’re probably going to teach somewhere in the church.
Discernment, as I said last week, is the gift of being able to perceive what it is that God is saying. If you have this gift, you’re probably going to be in leadership somewhere helping the church follow God’s will.
If you have the gift of faith, you have the ability to believe in God in times when most people fall away. You’ll probably be serving as a prayer warrior, encourager and aide to those who are down in the church.
If you have the gift of healing, you might be a doctor, nurse, counselor, therapist, dentist, or mentor.
If you have the gift of prophecy, you might be a preacher, give communion devotions or serve in leadership as well. Prophecy isn’t just proclaiming the future, it is proclaiming God’s word. It’s what preachers do every week.
Now obviously, these are only a few of the gifts God gives. You might have an ability to help others, play music, work with wood, art, crafts or farm. The point is, you have a gift; determining which gift you have is between you and God. How are you using the gifts God has given you? Are you just coming on Sunday and being satisfied with it? Or are you allowing yourself to be challenged to use your gifts throughout the week here at church, in your work every day, and outside in the world.
I want to tell you the story of a young man. He was a good hearted guy, went to church on Sunday and that was it. After church one Sunday, the preacher talked to him about coming to the dinner and Bible Study they had during the week. The guy replied with, “Well, I work long hours and am not sure if I can get free. I’ve never really been to a Bible Study at all.” A month passed and the preacher once again invited this guy to the dinner and Bible Study. “Well, you know I’m a busy man…” he started. The preacher interrupted him and said, “I just want to challenge you to come one time.” “Ok,” the man agreed, “one time.” Well he went that one time and found out that it was so much more than he had expected. He felt renewed and recharged for God through that study. After that, he never missed one, except on a very rare occasion. Pretty soon, he was serving as a deacon, elder, and trying to get involved in every aspect of ministry because he loved learning and helping others. A few years later, he was talking with the preacher and said, “You know, I thought it was good enough to just go to church on Sunday…but then you prodded me to come to Bible Study, and then I figured out what I had been missing out on the whole time.” You know who that man was? A guy, you might know him by the name of Ryan Bordner.
I had been given gifts and wasn’t using them at all. Gifts from God are worthless unless we are doing something with them. It is not about what gifts we have…it’s about how we use them. I want to urge you, get involved. You never know what you’re missing until you’ve been and figure it out.
Back when I was a teen, someone had told me a story of man who was a good man. He was always helping people out, gave of his money when someone had need, and was the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. Well, one day the pastor of the church came to visit him. The pastor came to see if he had been saved, if not, what was keeping him from making the commitment to Christ and being in service every week. “Well pastor, I’m a busy man,” he said, “there’s always something to do around here and I figure my wife goes to church, so that ought to be enough for me to get in.” Well, the preacher fervently disagreed with him and that he needed to make the decision for himself. Years went by and he did not make the commitment to Christ. On his death bed, the doctors and nurses said he was going crazy the last few hours because he kept saying there were “monsters” all around him, yet he was not on any hallucinatory medicines. This isn’t the only story I’ve heard like this, even just last week I heard another story just like that one. My friends, Hell is a real place…I do not want to ‘scare’ anyone into believing, I want simply to present the information that by not making a decision for Christ, putting it off, is in fact, making a decision. Do not inadvertently ‘make a decision’ by not making one for Christ. Good works won’t save you…only a commitment and baptism can do that. Good works come as the ‘sign’ of the change made by God in you.
Have you ever gotten so wrapped up in a project that you lost sight of where you were intending to go? There is a story of a drunk who was walking and approached a police officer on the street corner and said, “Pardon me, officer, but where am I?” “Well,” the officer replied, “you’re at the corner of Main and Forsyth.” The drunk scoffed and replied, “Never mind the details! What town am I in?” As humans, we have a tendency to worry more over the details than we do about the idea of the big picture. Don’t get me wrong, details are important, no doubt. It’s when we fuss about them is when we get into trouble.
I want to read out of Ephesians this morning, starting in chapter 4:1-16. It is a different book, but the same author writing to a different church about Spiritual Gifts. Let’s take a look at what Paul is telling the church in Ephesus.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 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 to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”
9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
In order to understand what Paul is saying, we have to first know that the letter to the church in Ephesus is one of the Prison Epistles, a letter written to a church while Paul was in the prison in Rome. Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon are the other 3. So, when Paul opens up this chapter by saying he is a prisoner for the Lord, he means it. He is actually in prison because of his boldness in proclaiming the Lord’s message of salvation. For Paul, being bold landed him in chains, in a home, in Rome. Nowadays, we don’t have to worry too much about going to jail for talking about our Christianity…yet.
Paul then goes into a discourse on unity. Paul is saying that when we are baptized into the faith, we are joined by the ‘gift of the Holy Spirit’, unifying us in our salvation. Each of us is responsible for our own actions and salvation, but once we are, we must live up to the expectation of living as ‘one body’ in the Lord.
Paul then talks about how God has given us grace individually, which is where Paul begins to take this into a discourse on the Spiritual Gifts. Once again, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 12, we see a list of gifts, this time however, Paul states God’s purpose for giving these gifts. As he stated earlier, we are responsible for living as one in the Lord after we join the family. Here Paul tells us that the reason for this is because we need to help one another with the gifts we have been given. We must help others in the body gain maturity in the faith.
To each person, gifts have been given so that we do not suffer incompleteness. We are human and we all lack certain areas in our lives. Remember earlier when I was talking about being too wrapped up in the details? That’s exactly what I was doing by individually looking at each gift, one gift per week. I was concerned with each gift, how it works, what it is, and who has it rather than what Paul was really trying to get at. It is not about what gift you have, it is about how you use it. Everyone has at least 2 gifts. The purpose is to help others…serving others. It’s what Christianity is all about. Sitting idly by on the sidelines isn’t what Jesus wanted us to do. John 13:1-17 is a perfect example of that. It is the story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. That was an act of service and he tells us to do the same. By serving others, we are building each other up, so we can become mature in our faith so that we won’t be “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
In order to avoid the false teachings of Harold Camping, Jim Jones (Jonestown Massacre), Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles (Heaven’s Gate Cult of Hale Bopp Comet) we have to build each other up in the faith. It’s the only way to avoid false teachings.
Last week we talked about wisdom and how when you have the gift of wisdom, you have discernment and knowledge too.
Knowledge is being able to understand the scriptures and what they are really trying to say. If you have this gift, you’re probably going to teach somewhere in the church.
Discernment, as I said last week, is the gift of being able to perceive what it is that God is saying. If you have this gift, you’re probably going to be in leadership somewhere helping the church follow God’s will.
If you have the gift of faith, you have the ability to believe in God in times when most people fall away. You’ll probably be serving as a prayer warrior, encourager and aide to those who are down in the church.
If you have the gift of healing, you might be a doctor, nurse, counselor, therapist, dentist, or mentor.
If you have the gift of prophecy, you might be a preacher, give communion devotions or serve in leadership as well. Prophecy isn’t just proclaiming the future, it is proclaiming God’s word. It’s what preachers do every week.
Now obviously, these are only a few of the gifts God gives. You might have an ability to help others, play music, work with wood, art, crafts or farm. The point is, you have a gift; determining which gift you have is between you and God. How are you using the gifts God has given you? Are you just coming on Sunday and being satisfied with it? Or are you allowing yourself to be challenged to use your gifts throughout the week here at church, in your work every day, and outside in the world.
I want to tell you the story of a young man. He was a good hearted guy, went to church on Sunday and that was it. After church one Sunday, the preacher talked to him about coming to the dinner and Bible Study they had during the week. The guy replied with, “Well, I work long hours and am not sure if I can get free. I’ve never really been to a Bible Study at all.” A month passed and the preacher once again invited this guy to the dinner and Bible Study. “Well, you know I’m a busy man…” he started. The preacher interrupted him and said, “I just want to challenge you to come one time.” “Ok,” the man agreed, “one time.” Well he went that one time and found out that it was so much more than he had expected. He felt renewed and recharged for God through that study. After that, he never missed one, except on a very rare occasion. Pretty soon, he was serving as a deacon, elder, and trying to get involved in every aspect of ministry because he loved learning and helping others. A few years later, he was talking with the preacher and said, “You know, I thought it was good enough to just go to church on Sunday…but then you prodded me to come to Bible Study, and then I figured out what I had been missing out on the whole time.” You know who that man was? A guy, you might know him by the name of Ryan Bordner.
I had been given gifts and wasn’t using them at all. Gifts from God are worthless unless we are doing something with them. It is not about what gifts we have…it’s about how we use them. I want to urge you, get involved. You never know what you’re missing until you’ve been and figure it out.
Back when I was a teen, someone had told me a story of man who was a good man. He was always helping people out, gave of his money when someone had need, and was the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. Well, one day the pastor of the church came to visit him. The pastor came to see if he had been saved, if not, what was keeping him from making the commitment to Christ and being in service every week. “Well pastor, I’m a busy man,” he said, “there’s always something to do around here and I figure my wife goes to church, so that ought to be enough for me to get in.” Well, the preacher fervently disagreed with him and that he needed to make the decision for himself. Years went by and he did not make the commitment to Christ. On his death bed, the doctors and nurses said he was going crazy the last few hours because he kept saying there were “monsters” all around him, yet he was not on any hallucinatory medicines. This isn’t the only story I’ve heard like this, even just last week I heard another story just like that one. My friends, Hell is a real place…I do not want to ‘scare’ anyone into believing, I want simply to present the information that by not making a decision for Christ, putting it off, is in fact, making a decision. Do not inadvertently ‘make a decision’ by not making one for Christ. Good works won’t save you…only a commitment and baptism can do that. Good works come as the ‘sign’ of the change made by God in you.
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