Ephesians 4

Spiritual Gifts

Big Picture: A loving God gives gifts to his people for their benefit and the benefit of others.

Big Application: Use your gifts! Affirm gifts being for both inside and outside the Church

Intro

Good morning! (ONLINE) My name is Clint, happy Mothers Day! Today we are going to be continuing on with our “Empowered” series. In this series we are looking at different ways that the Holy Spirit empowers us, the way the spirit works in us and through us. This is a big deal. Being empowered by the Holy Spirit is one of the things that can really help our Faith come alive. I remember when I first met the Holy Spirit in a powerful way, oh man that moment changed my life. Faith was no longer dry and dusty, it was alive, and wild, it made a difference in my life and in the lives of those around me.

So today, we are going to be looking at one of the biggest ways we can experience this Empowering of the Holy Spirit, we are going to be talking about Spiritual Gifts.

We will look at what a spiritual gift is, why God gives spiritual gifts, and how we can use them.

There are several different places in the bible that give lists of Spiritual Gifts.

Romans 12 talks about the gifts of prophesy, serving, teaching, encouraging, generosity, leadership, mercy..

In addition 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of words of wisdom, words of knowledge, healing, miracles, discernment, tongeus and the ability to interpret them.

And on the lists go...

Today, we aren’t going to look at the lists in detail, I’m not going to try to explain the difference between a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge....mostly because I’m not 100 percent sure what the difference is. And, frankly, sometimes I think we get too bogged down in trying to name the gift, instead of using the gift we’ve been given.

This morning we are going to talk a little more big picture, but if you need some guidance on discovering your spiritual gift, we have resource and would love to help. We periodically offer a class called finding your fit, you could attend that, you could email me or any one of us on staff and we would love to help you find your gifts, and we have some other options I’ll talk about later, but, for today, we are focusing more on the big picture. So we are going to start in....

Ephesians 4:1-16 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 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.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his 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 people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of 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.

What are Spiritual Gifts?

What are they?

Alright, there is a lot there. Lets start with a definition, the one that I like is....

Definition

A Spiritual Gift is a gift given by God to his people, to meet needs for the purpose of building up and strengthening his church. (x2)

They are a gift, given by a victorious king to his people. Look at Verse 8

Gifts from the Victorious King

Ep 4:8 “This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.””

This imagery is important. In the ancient world, a King would get off of the throne to go to battle. If they won the battle, they would return home, ascend the throne, and then from the throne give gifts from the plunder to those who were dear to the king.

Spiritual Gifts are similar. In this passage we see that after Jesus has won, he has defeated sin and death by dying on the cross, he has set the captives free, bringing them to himself, he sits down and gives out gifts.

These gifts are given, they aren’t earned. He doesn’t pass them out based on our own merits or values. One gift isn’t better than another, they are just different.

A trap that we can fall into is gift comparison. Those of you with siblings, did you ever have it happen, when on Christmas morning you are opening presents and you are excited about what you got, and then you look over and see what your brother or sister opened and got jealous.

Where have you fallen into this trap. Where do you say, “I wish I had this gift” or “I wish I was like that person....

When we do that, we are saying we know better than the gift giver. God didn’t create you on accident, you are his masterpieces. He loves you, and wants to give you a special gift, a gift that he picked out specifically for you. .

You are loved, and God desires to do good in you and through you.

Rather than spending our time thinking about what we don’t have, what if we rounded that corner and began enjoying the gifts that we do have.

Because we all have them!

Gifts freely given

In

1 Cor 12:7 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

As a people we are marked by the free gifts of our God. This is the gospel message. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Whoever believes in him, there is no caveat, whoever believes in him, as long as they have a mustache. Whoever believes in him, as long as they look like us, as long as they agree on every single point of doctrine.

Salvation is a free gift, and God’s generosity doesn’t stop there. He keeps giving us free gifts, but you know what it takes to accept a free gift....

....humility. If we don’t have humility, we will, first off, never be able to accept the gift.

We will say things like, oh I don’t deserve it, or God would never give that to me. A gift is a gift, we don’t do anything to earn or deserve it. We have to recognize that it has nothing to do with how good we are, and everything to do with how good God is. It takes humility to accept it, and along those same lines, it takes humility to use it.

Years ago I was driving this little blue Toyota. One day I’m driving to work and she explodes. I manage to get it the side of the road, call a toe truck, and my friend Justin drives by. He picks me up, and he gets really invested in this car situation. Later in the day he asks me about my car and I tell him it blew a head gasket and was done for.

A day or so later, Justin comes to me and says, “Clint, my wife and I have been praying, and we want to give you my old college truck.”

Man, I was blown away but that gift. I was shocked, I was grateful, I was a little embarrassed that I had to relay on someone else....

I could have thanked him, taken the truck and let it sit in my drive way. “This is such a nice gift, but I don’t really deserve it, so i’m not going to use it

It takes humility to accept the gift, and then humility and gratitude to use the gift. Just about every time I got in that truck, I smiled and was thankful for Justin, his family, and this amazing gift. And when Justin saw me driving the truck, it gave him joy knowing that it wasn’t sitting in his dad’s garage or rusting in my driveway. He gave it to be used. God gives us gifts so that we use them.

There are some of us here today, who have gifts that we aren’t using.

Some of us are tired of using our gifts, some of us are scared to use our gifts, and we are leaving that truck in the driveway. I get it. I have a little bit of an evangelism gifting, and sometimes i’m out and I get the urge to strike up a conversation with someone, and I’m like “Really, here, in the gym.......I just want to get my workout in”, you ever do that? You ever leave that truck in the driveway. You see someone in need, and your gift of compassion jumps to the top and your heart breaks for them, but man your tired. You’ve been burned in the past, you’ve been taken advantage of........it’s easier to leave the truck in the driveway, to not use that gift.

Friends, if thats you, lets remember, and I’m speaking to me as much as you, that these gifts aren’t used alone. The Holy Spirit empowers them. Maybe the reason it seems so difficult to use some of these gifts, is because WE are trying to use them, instead of let the Holy Spirit work through us, empower us, ministering through us.

If thats you, at the end of the service, would you please come let someone pray for you. Come, get filled up, come get empowered, so that the Holy Spirit will work through this church for the common good of the twin ports, so that, through our spiritual gifts, this city will experience that gospel hope.

Maybe you aren’t sure what your gifts are, and this whole concept of Spiritual Gifts is new to you. If that’s you, I’d encourage you to do a couple of things.

First, consider what gives you joy. Maybe you love inviting people into your home. It could be you have a hospitality gifting. Maybe you love developing people and seeing them grow. You might have the gift of pastoring. This week, take some time, consider what brings you joy and spend some time in prayer asking God if maybe he has blessed you with a spiritual gift in that area.

Spend some time in prayer, and then if you aren’t, get involved in a small group. Small groups are a great way to discover what your gifts are and how to use them for the common good. We have a bunch of really good small groups starting in June, check them out. No matter what the group is, there will be a chance to use your gifts. Me and my friend Peter are leading a group that is all about growing in the gift of prophecy, so if you are curious about that, we would love to have you come to that one.

John Wimber

Everyone has a gift, and those gifts are to be used. That’s a big thing for us here in the Vineyard. John Wimber who helped found the Vineyard used to say “Everyone get’s to play”. Thats 1 Cor 12:7 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

Each of us has a gift. Each one of us can contribute to the common good.

Gift to meet needs

Because God gives us gifts to meet needs. This is one of the biggest reasons why God gives us spiritual gifts.

Why Spiritual Gifts?

For Building up

Look at:

Ep 4:12-13 “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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.”

We use our spiritual gifts so that So the body may be built up, so that more people get to meet Jesus. Spiritual Gifts are some of the tools that God uses to bring people to faith.

I got first invited to the Vineyard by someone with an Evangelism gift. It was a strange invite, but the guy seemed normal enough, and what a risk to invite someone to church. The Spirit worked through him to draw me to a worship service. When I showed up, I was greeted by folks with a Hospitality gift. Wow! Everyone here is so welcoming, this is different than other places I’ve been. Spirit worked a little bit more. I sat here and listened to people worship, the band, the community, and that collective gift of worship, moved me. All these people united in praise, wow, holy spirit power. Someone with a gift of teaching explained the bible, made it come alive for me like it hadn’t before, then I got prayer from someone who spoke things that they heard from God that were true to my soul......you see how all of those gifts worked together to build up the body?

And that’s just in the context of one weekend service. Spiritual gifts work really well on Sundays, but they work really well all the other days of the week too. We are a community that is being called to use our gifts, both as individuals and corporately. When I say corporately, that can mean more than a weekend worship service, it could mean serving on our youth ministry team, it could be using your gifts in fruit of the Vine, or in a small group, it could mean a group of you in the same neighborhood using your gifts to love and serve your neighbors

How is God asking you to use your gifts to bless others, to build up the church.

For some of us, it’s using them outside the walls of this church. It’s loving and serving your coworkers, praying for them, having them over dinner. It’s helping a stranger, it’s speaking truth to power and standing with the least and the last.

For others of us, it is getting more involved on the weekend. It’s serving on the worship team, or running slides so that the community can get filled up. It’s showing up early to make coffee and scones.

For some of us, we are already doing these, its not about doing more, it’s about being more in touch with the Holy Spirt, it’s about letting him Empower those areas where we are using our gifts

I’m not sure what it is for you, but God knows, and when we pray in just a few minutes, I bet he will speak to you.

We use our gifts to build up, and to become mature....

For Maturity

Ep 4:12-13 “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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.”

Spiritual gifts aren’t only for inviting new people into our community, they are for helping all of us grow in our faith, to become mature. And yes, using our gifts can help others grow mature for sure. If you have a gift of serving for example, you can for sure help people grow in maturity through acts of service.

I’ve got a couple of middle schoolers who every time I ask people to grab bibles, they love to run and grab bibles for everyone. That’s an act of service that the Holy Spirit can empower to help others reach maturity.

But, what about your own maturity? When you serve other people, you will come face to face with the broken stuff in your life. You will go out of your way to help someone, and when they don’t acknowledged your service, your gift to them, its easy for us to say “How dare they be so ungrateful, look at their entitlement” rather than saying “oh boy, look at the pride in me, that I am serving to be acknowledged.

Where is God inviting you into maturity, is it where is he inviting you to experience more fruits of the holy spirit in our lives through the use of our spiritual gifts.

For bearing fruit

Because at the end of the day, the gift really should be measured by the fruit it produces. Remember, the Loving God gives us these gifts, for the common good, the good of ourselves and others. And if our gifts aren’t bearing fruit, in ourselves AND others, we need to pause and ask why. And it’s not an either or, its a both and. If your gift is bearing fruit in others, but not in yourself, that should be a warning light.

Because, sometimes we can abuse our gifts. The fruit is the test.

Fruit of the Spirit Slide

For example, the gift of leadership. Leadership is a gift from God. Like all the gifts, its meant to serve other people, to bear fruit in the lives of others, as well as the leader. However, sometimes what we see, and we see this with all the gifts, this is just an easy example, we see someone who has the gift of leadership, and they are leading effectivly, things are getting done, they may even see fruit in the lives of the people around them, but inside there is no fruit. Maybe when they look in the mirror, instead of saying, oh my goodness, Lord thank you for this gift, I am so humbled that you would use me in such a way, they instead say, I am an exceptional leader, and give themselves over to pride. The gift is a gift, and might keep operating for a little while, but eventually it will catch up to us.

How easy is it for us to slip into stuff like this.

We need to look for the Fruit, in ourselves and others to tell if we are using our gifts effectively.

How do we use Spiritual Gifts?

So how do we do this, how do we use our spiritual gifts effectively. How do we stay humble, how do we stay empowered to live a life where we freely share our gifts a life where we are building up the body, where we are mature, where , as it says in verse 14, where we aren’t tossed back and forth by the wave....to use our gifts effectively, they have to be used in love.

We use gifts to Love ourselves

Ep 4:14 “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 people in their deceitful scheming.”

Love is the thing that anchors our gifts, that makes us secure, so that we aren’t blown back and forth, love needs to be the thing that guides us.

1 Cor 13:1-2 “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

Spiritual Gifts are meant to be used in love, with love, and for love. Spiritual Gifts are a way that we experience the love of God in our lives. I love this Rich Nathan Quote:

Rich Nathan Quote

“Spiritual gifts are not given to make you weird, to make you talk funny. They are the means through which you get to experience God’s presence. They are signs of God’s love to you and signs of God’s love to others through you.”

If you are feeling a lack of the love of God in your life, maybe it’s because you are not doing what God built you to do, maybe that lack of love is an invitation to experience him through the gifts that he has given you.

Spiritual gifts are one thing God uses to share his love with individuals, but we also use our gifts as an expression of love for the church. Verse 15

We use gifts to Love the Church

Ep 4:15 “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”

The gifts are meant for the body, for our fellow believers. They are meant to raise us up, encourage us, give us strength, do all the things that love does.

This is us being a loving family day in and day out. On Friday, I had a member of the church text me out of the blue, they knew I was preaching this weekend, and they wanted to let me know that they were praying for me. I was so touched. I was in the middle of sermon prep, and also at home with my 2&4 year old, so it was an.....interesting day. That text brought me back to what was most important. Loving God, and loving people.

How is God inviting you to use your gifts to love the church? Maybe it’s by bringing snacks to small group, or leading worship. Maybe it’s by taking time each day to pray, and intercede for the needs of the community (we have several groups that meet to do just this). Maybe it’s by dropping by someones office with a latte just to let them know you care. What’s the invite to love well this week?

We use gifts to Love the Community

And as we get ready to bring this sermon in for a landing, as we’ve touched on before, our gifts are meant to be a blessing, to be a love letter to the wider community. The goal of the church, and when I say the church I mean you and me, our community not our building, is to live a life worthy of the gospel, a life where we die to ourselves so that others can fully live.

Our spiritual gifts are one way we do that.

We offer hospitality to those that the rest of society rejects. This could be the marginalized members of the twin ports, or this could be the jerk at work.

We show up to serve others when it’s not super convenient. When we are helping someone move, we stay until the end and we help move the piano, not just look for the light boxes.

We listen for the voice of God for people in our lives, we take a risk, and we try to connect them to the Giver of Gifts.

How are we using our gifts to bless the Twin Ports. If all of us went on a two week cruise together starting tomorrow, would people in our city notice, would they look forward to us getting back?

Conclusion

Friends, I think today is a day for us to take stock. Where are we at? How are we using our gifts? Are our gifts bringing ourselves and others closer to God? are we using them for his glory, or are we using them for personal advancement? Or maybe, we aren’t using them at all, or unsure what they are.

Friends, I fully believe that Jesus is working through the local church to bring hope to the world. The local church isn’t this stage, or this building, it’s not the great coffee, or the mostly comfy chairs.

The local church is you. It’s me. It’s all of us together. And yes, coming to a weekend worship service and seeing everyone using their gifts together to love and serve God and each other, that is powerful, and that’s part of bringing people the hope of the gospel.

It’s part of it, and there is so much more. How are you using your gifts to love and serve your family, you spouse, your kids, your parents. How are you using your gifts in the office, on the Lake Walk, at the gym.

How are we letting the Spirit of God empower us, flow through us, to be the church, to seeing the hope, healing, and power of the gospel transform the Twin Ports.

What I don’t want you to hear me say is try harder. This is the Empowered series. Spiritual Gifts aren’t a try harder, do better, type of thing. They are a Gift. This is a gift that we get to use, but these gifts are Empowered by the Holy Spirit. I think that this empowering needs to happen often. If we don’t take time to receive, we can’t possibly give.

So, lets take some time to have our gifts empowered.

Ministry Time!

Fresh Empowering

Burnout/tired

Activating gifts

Fear to press in

Unsure

Cared of Cost

Past hurts

SALVATION CALL

Opportunity to Use gifts

Small Groups

Work

Family

Neighborhood

Maturity

Deepening of Faith

Focus on God

Knowing what you are called to

Prophetic

Mid Back

House with a blue door when you were a child

Child dedications