DON'T WASTE THE GIFTS

Have you ever given someone a gift for Christmas or the Birthday just to find out they don’t use it! ARGH

Quite a while back we gave our married kids a Nespresso machine for Christmas. Than a couple of years later when we went to visit I asked where it was so I could make some coffee in the morning - they gave it away because they didn’t use it.

A couple of years later we gave them an espresso machine (mind you they expressed interest in these things) however, it sits on the counter completely unused as well.

They go out for their coffee and don’s seem to ever have even a brewed cup at home. Which I must express is a pain when I visit because I have to wait until everyone is dressed and ready to get my coffee for the day....

We can take gifts for granted - we can take the sacrifice and provision others made for us for granted....

This morning I want to ask you - are you taking God’s gifts for granted????

2 Timothy 1:6 NLT

6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.

Paul is writing to Timothy about not being afraid to OPERATE in the spiritual gifts that the Lord bestowed on His life that came into use when Paul had laid hands on him and prayed for him.

Obviously, Timothy had become TIMID of operating in the calling and gifting the Lord had given to him...

I think a large portion of Christians today are the same— the Lord has bestowed HIs gifts to all of us, but we are not operating in them...

That being said, a side note, is that a mature Christian is one who is serving the body of Christ in the gifts the Lord has bestowed on Him, so I want to take some time to encourage us today to stir up the gifts the Lord has given us and begin using them instead of wasting them in the closet!!!

There are three categories of gifts we see in the Scripture, and interestingly they are all lumped together as spiritual gifts -

In recent years “gifts” tests have been given to church folks, even here, to discover these gifts, but in reality, I think if we just self examine our lives and hearts we will actually know the gifts the Lord has given us.

In addition, it is important to understand that the different categories of spiritual gifts are imparted by different members of the TRIUNE GOD.

1. Gifts of the Father

Let look at

Romans 12:1–8 NLT

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. 3 Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. 6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Many have said that this list of gifts is only partial, and is demonstrated to help us discover that which the Heavenly Father IMPARTED TO US in our CREATION!

The Greek Word - dotheisan - (given by God) and the word THEI - denotes the one supreme supernatural being as creator and sustainer of the universe.... we know all three parts of the Trinity were present at Creation, but it was the Father who spoke the world into creation

When the Lord formed us in the womb, He established things in our personalities and abilities that are His GIFTS given to us for HIS PURPOSES.

Many use their gifts for their own gain or pleasure in this world - we refer to them as talents or abilities, but they are given to us by God, and if we are going to present ourselves as a LIVING SACRIFICE to the Lord, then we must OFFER UP THIS PART OF BEING - THESE ABILITIES, for HIS GLORY AND HONOR and USE!!!

Paul lists - Teaching, prophesying, encouraging, generous giving, having great faith, being a leader, demonstrating kindness or mercy...

Your gift might be hospitality, administration, networking, helps

Romans 12:9–13 NLT

9 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. 11 Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. 12 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 13 When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

The Lord calls us to serve one another and the body of Christ with the gifts He has given to us...

What has God placed in your life when HE made you, and what are you doing with those abilities???

Have you found a place to serve in the church, the body of Christ, using those gifts and talents for His glory???

2 Gifts of the Son

Paul writes in Ephesians regarding gifts that proceed from Christ the SON, for the strength and edification of the church...

Ephesians 4:7–16 NLT

7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. 8 That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.” 9 Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. 10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

In today’s church many often associate these as strictly the “leaders” and often the “voactional” ministers - apostles being overseers and missionaries, pastors/teachers as local shepherds, evangelists as itinerant ministers, many try to ignore the whole prophet part… mind you a prophet is more about correction and calling out sin and disobedience than foretelling futures...

I propose that every church is intended to have these five fold ministry gifts in its midst locally, and that they are veins of ministry in the body of Christ that each of us has a part of --- some in the body of Christ are meant to be part of the evangelism or declaration of the GOOD NEWS to others, others are meant to be a part of the administration, while some help to teach and provide care to other believers, and still others God has given the gift of prophesy -

Each may be under an actual leader in the body of Christ who helps them to grow up in this vein of the church so the church is complete in works...

If we do not step into our flow in how Christ wants us to be used, are we holding back our gifts ---

When there should be a shot of espresso on the counter in the morning, have we hid the gift in the closet or given it away so we have to go elsewhere to find it…?

Each one of us will flow in one of these areas using the GIFTS OF THE FATHER as we help minister as the body of Christ in the gifts Christ gives to the Church.

3. Gifts of the Spirit

I love it when we look at the gifts that proceed from the HOLY SPIRIT to the church!!!

Jesus is the Spirit Baptizer that gives the Holy Spirit to the believer ----

THE HOLY SPIRIT gives these supernatural gifts to the church...

Are you aware, that Jesus performed no miracle or supernatural acts until He had been baptized in the Spirit at the Jordan River!!!

When he was water baptized setting an example for each of us, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a wild dove - anointing Him for ministry...

From here Jesus went out and was tempted and overcame temptation through the sanctifying work of the Spirt ---

This was necessary because Christ had emptied Himself of His divinity - something we call KENOSIS - when He came to earth - still fully God, but also fully man, and He needed the baptism (anointing) of the Spirit for ministry...

JEsus said in

John 14:12 NLT

12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.

How can we do greater works - THROUGH THE BAPTISM of the HOLY SPIRIT !!!!

In that Baptism is the release of spiritual gifts upon our lives for the SPIRIT to DISTRIBUTE as HE WILLS

that means to whomever he wishes whenever he wishes...

These Gifts of the Spirit are meant to empower the church to do what we cannot do in our own ability!!!

1 Corinthians 12:4–11 NLT

4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

Notice Paul draws a distinction between service (gifts of the Father and gifts of CHrist) from the spiritual gifts that flow from the Spirit!

He lists these 9 gifts, WISE ADVICE or word of Wisdom, Word of special knowledge

please note knowledge is revelation of a fact or truth where wisdom is how to make application of that

To have great faith in believing for the impossible, Healing, ability to perform miracles,

Ability to prophesy, give a WORD in an unknown language or tongues, which requires someone to interpret

(Please note this gift of the Spirit though manifested in a similar manner of an unknown tongue is not the same as the evidence of tongues we see in Spirit Baptism - which is something that Jesus bestows on any believer who surrenders to His overflowing power.)

THese supernatural gifts are given to edify the body of Christ and receive the ministry and flow of the Spirit in our midst. They are the tools of the church to be effective and a witness to those outside the body of Christ of God’s power flowing in His people forgiven by the the grace and sacfifice of Jesus Christ.

No one person solely owns these gifts or possesses than as an attribute — they are distributed as the Spirit chooses and when He chooses --- some will be more comfortable with various Gifts of the Spirit than others… but the Spirit is willing to use all who are surrendered.

Likewise they are different from the spiritual gifts (spiritual because they flow from the TRIUNE LORD) but are given by the Father or Son. Those gifts are ones that remain with us in life.

CONCLUSION

Notice in

1 Corinthians 12:28 NLT

28 Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages.

That Paul makes a summary of various spiritual gifts that come from the Father, the Son, and the Spirit --

Spiritual gifts are a NECESSITY in the CHURCH ---

The church was NEVER INTENDED for them to not operate ---

YOU HAVE A GIFTS!!!!

We all have gifts of the Father

We all are intended in minister in one of the five fold veins of ministry in the church, even if we are not the one called to vocationally lead

We all are able to be used by the Holy Spirit

Here is the question....

Are we allowing FEAR to keep us from using the gifts we are given???

Sometimes I have receive Christmas and birthday gifts that seem to complex, I put them away until I am ready to pull them out and spend time with them to figure them out so I can use them. I have gifts I have never endeavored to use because they intimidated me.

I think many people do this in the church.

(SITTING IN THE CHAIR ON SUNDAY MORNING IS NOT A SPIRITUAL GIFT)

The Lord is calling each of us to discover and operate in those gifts He has given us....

Will you put aside the fear

2 Timothy 1:7 NLT

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

will you engage in Rom 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 NLT

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Learn HIS WILL FOR YOU!!!

NOW IS THE TIME!!!