Where do you fit in?

Spiritual gifts are abilities given to individual believers by the Holy Spirit in order to equip God’s people for ministry, both for the edification of the church and for God’s salvific mission in the world. Lexham Bible Dictionary

If you want to build muscle at the gym, you have to go work out. But you need a plan. Maybe you just want to maintain whats there. You know you just want to build stamina and define whats there, not necessarily going for Mr. Olympia. But if you do want to build muscle and go on a bulk then you need a plan. Typically less weight and more reps will help tone, and more weight with less reps will build muscle.

You as an individual have a responsibility a part in growing the church.

Empower individuals for the growth of the body.

The culture works against us in this way. Tells us we are individuals that we don't really need others. You came to faith by yourself go live your christian life how you want. And all the while we and the church are underdeveloped, ,malnourished and robbed of the graces God intends for us.

4 main passages Romans 12:6-8; 1 Cor 12:8-11; 28; Ephesians 4:8-16; 1 Peter 4:10-11

This is not meant to be a sermon to list or even define the spiritual gifts. There are at least 12 listed. Depending on how you categorize them. I don’t think that this is even mean to be an exhaustive list.

Spiritual growth of the body. (Edification)

Not given to affirm individual power, ability, or superiority.

Romans 12:3–8 ESV

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Romans 12:9–10 ESV

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

[Spiritual gifts] are given through the Spirit of Christ to equip believers to serve one another in the body of Christ and thus to set on display the unity of the church in the context of its diversity, and vice versa. For this, love is essential. Sinclair B. Ferguson

We often look to spiritual gift assessments, and think that they are going to settle the issue and give us conclusive answers. Not that those cant be helpful but they often times tend to be based on secular personality assessments. Theses gifts are uniquely given by the Spirit to believers in order to serve the church. if an unbeliever took the test could he figure out his gift? The other thing is that these tests seem to identify and confirm things independently from the rest of the body.

College assessment

Do you want to know the best way to to figure out your spiritual gift? Here they are I am going to let you in on the secret, I know its complicated but here it is, pay attention, try to take notes 1. Start serving. You can’t steer a ship unless its moving. As we serve we learn what gifts we have been given. Our problem is less of a knowledge problem and more of a doing problem. I know that I should exercise more but I don’t. I know that I should eat healthier but I don’t. The early church as far as we know didn't pass around a spiritual gift assessment test. 2. Ask a fellow believer. If I want to know what my strengths and weaknesses are who am I going to ask. The closest person to me, my wife. Now don’t everyone are go running to my wife after the service to learn my weaknesses.

Have you ever considered your big toe? It seems like such an insignificant part yet it is incredibly difficult to walk or keep your balance without it. Did you know that current military standards would disqualify “anyone with an absence of a foot or any portion of it”, from serving in the military? During the Vietnam era, this led people seeking to avoid the draft to take drastic measures.

Here is what I have learned from this study. That we are really good at using our spiritual gifts in other ways that how they were intended. Let me give you an example that might help you to see how to apply this to your own gifts. God has given me the gift of evangelism I learned it from taking a gift assessment test. But the purpose of this gift is to build the church, literally through the preaching of the gospel it is helping the church grow numerically. But is that all. Are we not all called to be evangelists, are we not all called to preach the gospel. So my job is not just to go out by myself and to preach week after week at the market, but to bring others along and to encourage them and help them to have the same boldness and confidence. To help them by giving them tools and training them in methods to preach it.

Don’t be like that kid on christmas who get his present and dissapears for the rest of the day.

The Spirit of God, therefore, distributes [gifts] among us, in order that we may make all contribute to the common advantage. To no one does he give all, lest any one, satisfied with his particular portion, should separate himself from others, and live solely for himself. John Calvin

Unearned and received with gratitude.

1 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

1 Peter 4:10 ESV

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

Physical growth of the body. (Mission)

Many of the gifts that are given to the church are given for the addition of the church. Mean to gather through addition. We must not be complacent to think that we are fine with the number that we have. Do we think that the Lord is content with the number of the elect at this moment or do we not labor to bring the elect into the fold of God through the Gospel, so neither should we settle for less. We should always be striving and always be desiring to grow the church.

1 Corinthians 14:22–25 ESV

Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

In the early church tongues were given as a gift to validate the message of the apostles a sign to unbelievers that theses were God’s messengers and and servants.

“God give me the grace to serve the church in this area of my weakness.”

The body is not the sum total of all of its members, and more than a car I the sum total of all of its parts. If I took all of the individual parts of a car, all the bolts, all the nuts, the wheels, the fenders, the doors, and everything, do I have a car? No, I just have a pile of stuff that has the potential to be a car, but I don’t have a car. I can’t sit on the pile of metal and plastic and drive it anywhere.

So it is with the body. The body is more than just the sum total of all of the members present. The body is the body because the Spirit of God unites us and causes us to work together for the mutual building up of the body.

That is why it is so important that there be order and unity. There are no such things as rogue Christians. Can the door of that car get ripped off its hinges and land in the ditch somewhere and still be considered apart of the car? So believer… do not think that you can do what God has called you all on your lonesome, don’t become like the guys who takes something apart and put it back together again only to find that he has too many spare parts left over and says o well I guess I don’t need those..

Where do you fit in?

Seems to me that in Ephesians 4 there are alot more things that unite us than those that divide us. Seems to me to be alot more about the people who are collectively a body rather than the individual. Don’ envy one another outserve one another. We one day will stand before the Lord having receieve the perfect unity of the faith, every grace that is in Christ shall be bestowed upon the church. But until that day God is calling you to add to the grace of the church. When you serve the church you build her up, you cause her to walk in grace in a far greater way than if by yourself.