What Are Spiritual Gifts?

Introduction:

What the best gift you ever received?

Some of you may immediately blurt out the church answer, so I’m going to take that one off the table as a given.

Think about the next best gift you’ve ever received. For those of you who are married, I’m going to take your spouse as an answer off the table.

Now you have to think about another gift that you’ve received and how it was special to us.

The truth is, that God has given us gifts as well.

Whenever you see a groom propose, what is the one thing that he usually gives to his fiancé, assuming that she accepts his proposal? A ring right?

Well, we are the bride of Christ and when we turn to Christ in faith, God gives us the gift of Himself through the Holy Spirit, but He also gives us other gifts that show that we belong to Him.

Just like the engagement ring is a sing of an accepted proposal and a new relationship, these gifts are a sign that we belong to the Lord and are part of His family.

1 Corinthians 12:4–11 ESV

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Pray

1. There are Varieties of Gifts (v.4-6)

Paul lists a few of them here and in Romans 12 and in Ephesians 4.

I personally do not believe that Paul intended to give us an exhaustive list of the gifts here.

I think he is just naming off some of them that were most prevalent.

In Ephesians 4 Paul lists officers as gifts to the church.

Here Paul lists functions.

The fact that there are varieties also means that no one has them all. This was one of the problems the Corinthian Church was facing. They were jealous of one another’s gifts and wanted to have them all for themselves and be the best at everything.

If we feel that way, that comes from a place of pride and not service to the Lord.

No one can be good at everything.

Imagine a symphony orchestra. You don’t have all one instrument, but many different ones and they all blend their sounds together so that even if one instrument does not have a feature part, the parts all come together to make a beautiful sound.

We have to make room for each other and use all of the gifts God has given to the body.

If a church doesn’t have a ministry, it might be that God is calling someone to it. Rather than moving on to the big church that has everything, God might be calling us to serve in a role at a smaller church to start new ministries and opportunities.

2. There Is One Spirit that Empowers Them (vv. 4-6)

Just as there are varieties of gifts, there are not a variety of different spirits empowering them.

We have one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that is energizing and empowering these gifts for the church.

Notice the language. Same Spirit. Same Lord. Same God.

There is a trinitarian type of language used here to emphasize that these gifts all come from the Lord.

This is the distinction between spiritual gifts and natural gifts. Both are given by the Lord and both can be used in His service, but natural gifts may or may not be used for the Church. What makes a gift a spiritual gift is that it is used for building up the Church and the Kingdom of God.

3. The Gifts Are Given for the Whole Church (v.7)

Notice also that the gifts are for the whole church.

It is for the common good. It is not for self. It is not for our pride and reputation that God gives us gifts.

Illustration:

Potluck Dinner and you only show up with enough food for yourself, or not even enough for your family. You are dependent on others to feed you. You bring the napkins or the plates or the ice.

That’s how it can be when we don’t want to use our gifts in the church.

It is entirely to use for the benefit of the Church that God has given us these gifts.

This is in the same spirit as what the early church was doing in Acts 2:42-44

Acts 2:42–45 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

They operated as one body and that is what we are called to do. When we think this way, we will not attack one another, but will love one another and serve one another.

4. The Gifts Are Given to Be Used (v.7, 11)

The final thing might seem apparent, but God did not give us gifts to have us sit on the sidelines and not use them. We are called to serve and be active for the Kingdom.

Illustration:

Some of you are Home Depot “Get it done” folks. You love to go into these kind of stores and look at all of the tools. Now, just imagine for a moment that you went in there to one of these stores and you bought a bunch of tools and took them home. You put them in your tool box or shop and then they just sat there.

You never pulled them out and never used them.

The tools would be useless to you because they were made to be used. They were not made to look nice in a tool chest.

This is the way it is with our spiritual gifts as well. What good is it if we have a gift but we don’t use it?

This doesn’t mean that we have to sign up for every little thing that there is to get involved in, but we also should not sit back and let others do all of the work.

Jesus told the parable of the talents and one of the men hid the talent in the ground and didn’t even earn interest by putting it in a bank.

He literally had nothing to give in return to his master. The master condemned the servant.

You know, while our sins have been paid for on the cross if we are a believer, we need to remember that we will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to be rewarded for the things we did with the talents and gifts God has given to us.

Are we going to have anything to show on the day of judgment? Will the Lord be proud of what we’ve done with what He’s given to us?

Conclusion

The greatest gift that we’ve all been given is the gift of salvation through Christ.

Tonight, I hope you have come to receive that gift. If you haven’t, it’s as simple as trusting in what Jesus did on the cross for our sins by repenting of our sins and calling out to Him in faith.

But what about the rest of us. You see the gifts are for the church. They are for those who know Christ.

God expects us to serve Him and to serve one another with humility like Christ served us and gave His life up for us.

Have you been holding back?

Have you been too shy to use your gifts, or unaware of what they are?

Have you been jealous of another’s gifts and envied them?

We are all part of one body and are called to work together.

When we do, we physically represent Christ to the whole world.