Gifts

• Blue = promises or work of God

• Green = context information (such as a name, place, or holy day)

• Yellow = normal highlight (can be used for anything, just to make something stand out)

• Orange = memory verse

• Pink = act of faith or obedience

• Purple = sin

• Red = warning

Intro

I’m pastor Keenan and I hope you’re having a great Sunday

I’m glad that you’re here with us for the last youth night before the Christmas party

Tonight we are going to talk about the Spiritual gifts that God gives once we are saved and how we can use them

Pray

1. God Gives Christians Spiritual Gifts

Explain

1 Corinthians 12:4–11 CSB

4 Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person. 7 A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good: 8 to one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit, 9 to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues. 11 One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills.

In 1 Corinthians Paul is writing to basically a lot of Christians who are struggling to act like Christians

they also struggle with preffering and over emphasizing the gift of tongues

Here he is starting off by saying that if they are all saved then they should all be united because they all have the Holy Spirit

They used to believe in a lot of different Greek gods before hand

And each of the different gods would give them different things if they worshipped them.

So Paul is telling them that they’re not like that now where there’s different Holy Spirits giving different gifts that it’s just the One God giving each person spiritual gifts.

And that there are different kinds of ministry to do but all from the Same God

Then he starts to say how even though they have the Holy Spirit living in them, the Spirit has given each person different gifts

Then he starts to list off all of these gifts to them

He says that God gives Christians these spiritual gifts to serve God and serve others

God Gives Christians Spiritual Gifts to Serve Him and Others

Illustrate

When I lived with my parents and would have christmas with my family I would be really excited for the presents my parents would get me.

I lived in a famliy where the times I would get a new video game or toy would be either on my birthday or on Christmas

So those times were extra special to me

I remember one Christmas where I was really into rescue rangers

which were these big actions figures that had a show that had different jobs like a firefighter or things like that

but they were cool looking

I went into the garage because that is where my parents were hiding our presents and i saw that they got me the rescue cave HQ

or so i thought

and I accidentally let it out that i saw what they got me

but they were upset i was sneaking around trying to guess my present

Then the worst news came

it wasn’t for me it was for my brother

I was devastated

To make things worse I even peaked at another present and saw that it was a scooter

The bad part about that is that I lived in a pretty rough area in fairview heights and i wasn’t allowed to ride my bike or walk more than one house down the road so it wasn’t very fun.

SO Christmas morning i open up my presents with an attitude and save the smallest box for last.

because I thought i got my big present already because that’s the thought process i used as a kid

big present equals big box

and to my surprise my parents had bought me a gameboy advance sp

This was before the nintendo ds came out and all of my frustration went away about the presents becasue I realized that my parents actually cared and knew my interests better than i thought they had and got me a Christmas present I still remember to this day.

Apply

In a very similar way as Christians we see other people’s spiritual gifts that God has given them and may be upset that God has not given us those spiritual gifts that other people might have

Sometimes we get so upset by them we don’t even think about the gifts that God has given us

We think about how glorious it would be to have the gift of teaching or some other gift that seems great

So tonight we are going to take a Spiritual gifts test if you don’t know your spritual gifts and then I want you to pray that God would show you how He wants you to use them and to be satisfied with them and show you why He gave them to you.

Because just like my parents knew that the Gameboy would be a better present for me than a toy i was about to age out of

God knows us infinitely more and gives us Gifts as He wills for the good of us and Him

2. God’s gives diverse gifts

Explain

1 Corinthians 12:12–31 CSB

12 For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. 19 And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. 23 And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, 24 which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. 26 So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, leading, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way.

Basically Paul here is saying that there is a reason that God would give everyone different spiritual gifts

He says that the church is like a body

that the hands are not like the ears or the eyes

they all do different things

And that the hand wouldn’t say to your eyes I don’t need you

Otherwise how would your hand know what to grab if it didn’t have anything to see what it was supposed to grab

Paul says it’s like the spiritual gifts that he’s given Christians

Paul says that Christians are the body of Christ

That Christians are supposed to function like a body, all working together, all celebrating together, and all suffering together in hard times.

Each gift and each christian should be working together because not every christian and every gift is the same

God gives different spiritual gifts for a reason

Illustrate

I want everyone in here to put their shoes on their hands.

Now I want you to try and get your phone out of your pocket

try texting

try writing

Pretty difficult huh?

now think about if your arms and your legs and your eyes and noes and mouth were all ears

what do you think life would be like?

Apply

Life would look very different and would be difficult if our body was only made up of one body part

Our body is a collection of tools that God has designed to work together for the function of existing in our world.

The body of the church is a collection of different people with different gifts to work together for the function of serving others and doing God’s will in our world

God has given each of you different gifts for the purpose of lifting each other up and to serve Him.

I want you to imagine if all of us in here had the spiritual gift of teaching and we were all trying to teach each other at the same time

it would get hectic and there wouldn’t be anyone learning

God has designed the body of believers like the human body

And some of us might struggle to be okay with their spiritual gifts

We might covet what other people have and try and be that

But what ends up happening is we don’t end up using those gifts that God’s given us and everyone around us loses out on what we could have offered.

So tonight if you feel convicted about how you wish you had the spiritual gifts of someone else I want to call you to repent of it and give it to God and ask Him to help you live in the gift that he’s given to you and grow in using it.

If you’re in here tonight and you’re hearing about Spiritual gifts and you’re like I want that

and you’re saved, well guess what, then you have them but you may not be exercising them and need to

maybe though you’re in here tonight and you are hearing about God for one of the first times and you’re not saved and want to have a relationship with God and have the Holy Spirit

Tonight you can be saved and you can have the Holy Spirit

Five fingers