Spiritual Gifts

This morning we are going to look at the idea of Christian service through the lens of spiritual gifts. The foundation of how we interact with each other is through spiritual gifts that God has given to us.

To serve in the church and in the world is to cooperate with God in action through the resources and gifts He gives us. These are used to serve one another. They are gifts used to serve the world around us. They are gifts that help us to speak, help us to act with compassion, help us to support others, help us to catalyze the church into next steps and new movements.

The point of this passage and the point of the spiritual gifts is to communicate clearly that the church does not belong to any one person. The church does not belong to professionals. The church does not belong to those on the platform. The church does not belong to the pastor.

The church belongs to the giver of the gifts, God Himself. And He disperses His gifts to the entire church through only one determiner: the Spirit. That means if you know Christ this morning, He has established His work in you through a spiritual gift. And that gift is a means of participating with God and with supporting the church.

To serve with what God provides is to participate with Him in the kind of world God desires and created.

First lets define Spiritual gifts. They are a supernatural expression of Gods kingdom through a particular person in a particular environment. They go from God through a person to a people 

There are two primary passages that define the gifts that God gives. In them the writer of both 1 Cor 12 and Romans 12 details 16 different gifts. These are means of physical expressions that come from God and allow us to serve each other.

While we don’t have time to go through each and every gift, the thing I want to remind you of this morning is that God gives generously and with diversity. God gives of Himself through the gifts and He gives them to His church. God does not hold back in the gifts that He gives. And He gives with incredible creativity.

Here are the list of the 15 gifts as given in the two passages

wisdom

knowledge

faith

healing

working of miracles

prophecy

distinguishing between spirits (discernment)

various kinds of tongues (languages) and the interpretation of those tongues

service

teaching

exhorting

generous giving

leading

mercy

God has given the church everything she needs to function. God has given the church everything she needs to flourish. Everything that God wants to do in this church today is found in you and I. It’s not found in a bigger building, or better resources, or more money, or even more or better people.

The spiritual gifts tell me that God gives graciously and entirely. That we don’t need more when it comes to serving God, we just need to be able to say yes to what we are called to do.

And what we keep hearing from this church is that we are a people and want to be a people who say yes to God

So when you serve in the city or in the church. Whether you serve with kids or students, or you usher or you help serve food. Maybe you keep the church in good working order, maybe you work behind the scenes to make sure the church runs properly. Maybe everyone knows what you do or maybe no one knows what you do. Whatever it is you do, you participate with God when you serve with your gifts because it is God’s Spirit that gives us what we need to serve.

We are going to look at 4 areas we can be certain of when we serve with the Gifts God provides.

God is the giver of all good gifts

Let’s look again at the passage:

1 Corinthians 12:4–6 ESV

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

It is not just that God can give gifts for us to serve with, it is that He is both capable and desiring to. God is the author of gifts and gives them to us for service because He wants to. God invites us in because He wants to. It is in His nature to not only engage with us but to also equip us for His purposes.

So if God is the single author of each gift then the value placed on service through those gifts is of extremely high value. This is essential. We have to understand that God is not just the inspiration of the gifts but He is the originator of the gifts. He in fact owns them. They are His gifts.

Without that we have good attempts but no lasting fruit. No lasting work.

The focus in this passage is not on what the church does with the gifts, the focus is on the giver of the gifts.

We often look and want to figure out what to do with the gifts, how do we use them, but the focus in the Scriptures is not how we use them but who gives them.

This is important because we can easily take the gifts that God gives and use them to polish ourselves up. To make ourselves look better. We can use them to define who we are or what we can do. We sometimes use them to show off.

We focus on the giver of the gifts because He shows us what service is: He shows us what service is for.

When we serve with the gifts God provides we participate with God in the world.

God has given gifts to us, to His people, as He wills. To use God’s gift is to serve with the grace He provides and with the strength He provides.

Look at 1 Peter 4:10-11

1 Peter 4:10–11 ESV

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

When we serve God with God’s gifts we do so in His grace and His Strength.

We act in a way consistent with the God of the Universe. IT is not just foundational to serve, it is foundational to serve in the way that God has provided.

It is foundational because it is the way that followers of Christ agree with what God is doing in the world.

When we serve others through the means that God has given we agree with how God sees the world and participate with HIm in that in how we act.

When you serve kids here at FAC, you are saying that God wants to act in a certain way in the world and that you will be responsible with your time, talent and treasure to do so.

When you serve at the eggceptional egg hunt for kids and adults with special needs and their families you are saying that God wants to reach people in our community and you will participate with Him in your time, talent and treasure.

When you serve with youth, or usher, or say hi to someone. You are saying that God wants to speak to and connect and reconcile them to Himself and that you will participate with His goals in mind with your time and talent and treasure.

Serve on worship team you are using what God has given you to communicate to others His desire for them, His heart for them and you participate with Him using your time, talents, and treasure.

Serve through hospitality

If you set up and tear down

If you pray with or provide support to

If you take a meal to

You are serving with your gifts in a way that participates with God.

It’s kind of like the individual who walked onto a construction site and saw three masons working at their craft.

He asked one what is it you are doing?

He answered, I’m stacking these bricks one on top of the ther

He went to the second one and asked what is it you are doing?

He answered I’m using these bricks to build a wall

He went to the third mason and asked, what is it you are doing

He answered I’m building a cathedral

When you serve you are not just stacking bricks . You are building a cathedral. You are participating with God in how He sees the world

We participate with Him when we serve. We embody what God has for us. We meet up with what God is doing in our actions.

We are enacting God’s purposes in the world with the very power and means that He Himself provides.

God is gracious with His gifts because He cares that people are reconciled to Him.

Your gifts are intended to show the character of God in service. They show people what God is like. They show people who God is in the world. That is what it means to follow Jesus. You take your time, talents and treasure and offer them to Him because there is a world that is hungry for God. A world that is asking questions about who God is.

We serve because we have seen what God is like and who He is and we want to demonstrate that to others.

Do you know that for the last 30 years, there has been a decline in church attendance? Less and less people are attending churches. Year over year. This is not a surprise for NE. But, and I just heard this at a conference this week, in the last year, for the first time in 30 plus years, there has been a shift. There are more people attending church this year than last year. And do you know who is leading that shift?

Boomers? Gen X? Millenials? Get Z is leading that shift.

And we do not want to miss our kids and our grandkids and our friends and our neighbors answering the big questions they have about life and God. To reach them, to be there to answer the biggest questions they have. To lead them to find and follow Jesus in the world means that we can serve with the power that Christ provides.

When we serve we are providing people a picture of what God is like in the world.

The spiritual gifts remind us that the other in our lives is essential

God has given us everything we need to participate with Him and see others come to know Him in life transforming ways.

You have been invited to serve God with purpose, meaning and intention. To offer your time, talents and treasures to something invaluable. God has already given what you need in Christ. He has already offered you enough. And our role is to serve as the church in the world. To help others to see Christ by how we live in the world.

It will take every one of us to accomplish the work that God has given His church to do.

We are called to pass on a vibrant and robust faith to the next generation. God has given us the means. We are seeing the opportunity in this new generation.

And that means you play a necessary role. And I don’t mean that lightly. I mean that if you call FAC your home church then you are called to serve in this church.

Here’s the deal:

Kevin Vanhoozer writes that

“Jesus foretold the Kingdom and it was the church that came.” We are the unfolding of God’s intent in the world.

You are called to participate with Christ in the world through the resources He gives you.

And there are people who need to be reached that because of your gifts and because of how you are serving, can be reached.

Conclusion

If you are here this morning and you know Christ and you are serving with your time, talents and treasures then thank you for being a part of God’s kingdom. Don’t give up. This is our watch to see God’s kingdom come.

If you are here this morning and you know Christ and you aren’t serving. What a great opportunity to step into something. Maybe you want to serve but don’t know where or how. Maybe you are want to serve but don’t know what you would even be good at. Whatever it may be, don’t let what you don’t know keep you from doing what God may be calling you to do.

And maybe you are here this morning and you are still trying to figure out what to do with Christ. God has show Himself in Jesus in order to offer us life itself. We serve because we want to know God. We want others to know God. Some of you need to be held up and supported this morning as you figure out what to do with Christ. That’s what we want to be about. We want to use our gifts to hold up and support. We want you to get a sense of who God is and to know Christ and be held up by Him. To join us in serving.

To serve with the gifts God provides is to understand your created purpose in the world. We hear the ring of this in the move Chariots of Fire, about the Olympic runner and Christian Eric Liddell. In one scene he is talking about his love for running and why he runs and says this:

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

This is a popular quote but a good one. It is a reminder that when we live out Gods purposes in our lives in Gods way through God’s strength, that when we run, we feel God’s pleasure.

The invitation is to run in the way God is calling you and to know His joy and pleasure in your own life.

Let’s pray