Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

ME: Growing up I sometimes wondered where do I fit in.

Take for instance high school, I had a lot of trouble finding the right crowd to fit in and belong to.

I had the same trouble when I was thinking about a career choice.

Usually you will have a student adviser who tries to help you figure that out.

They will look at what your skills are and compare that to different jobs and their needs.

When I became a Christian I naturally thought where do I fit in the grand scheme of things here at church.

Where do I belong?

I felt like someone trying to put together a puzzle and finding my place.

Have you ever tried to put a puzzle together?

It takes time, you have to find the right shape to connect where it should be or where it fits in.

I think we are a lot like puzzles pieces.

In school we try to find the right crowd, when choosing a career we try to find something that matches our skill set that we would be good at.

Have you ever tried to put together something with not enough pieces or parts?

When your done it doesn’t come out the way you imagine it, does it?

Try driving a car without a steering wheel or playing a basketball game with only two people on your team while the other guys have five.God has gifted every believer with gifts and talents to build up the body of Christ.

But, when we put our foundation on anything but Christ it will fall.

The church is called the bride of Christ and Jesus is the head of it.

God wants his bride to be radiant and beautiful.

God also refers to his church as the body of Christ.

Lets read what the Apostle Paul has to say about it

Background: In our text today Paul is speaking to the Corinthian church who is being very carnal that is spiritually immature and they are facing problems of divisions, moral issues, and Paul was writing them to answer questions they had.

The city of Corinth was filled with sexual immorality, false idols, pagan worship. .

It was a wealthy city of Greece.

It was a city that stood on a hill.

That once was a beacon of light to it’s community.

Then in chapter 12 the Apostle Paul talks to the Corinthian church about Spiritual Gifts and the function and importance of believers as the body of Christ.

They were misusing the gifts God had giving them.

The greatest tragedy was the fact that some were not using them at all

WE: I bet you have wondered the same thing at one time or another.

Where do I fit in?

Where do I belong?

You know God has gifted every Christian with at least one spiritual gift for the building up of the church!

Let’s find out what God has to say about that.

Turn with me to

12 Now about the gifts of the Spirit,z brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.a 2 You know that when you were pagans,b somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.c 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,”d and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,”e except by the Holy Spirit.f

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spiritg distributes them.

5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyoneh it is the same Godi at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.j

8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom,k to another a message of knowledgel by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faithm by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healingn by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers,o to another prophecy,p to another distinguishing between spirits,q to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,a r and to still another the interpretation of tongues.b

11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,s and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Now with spiritual gifts we tend to go to one extreme or another.

We tend to not pay enough attention to them or pay too much attention to them.

If we don’t pay enough attention to them then we neglect the grace and gifting God has given us.

But if we pay too much attention to them then we are in danger of worshiping the gift and not the giver.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spiritg distributes them.

5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyoneh it is the same Godi at work.

Now, I think this is what is happening in corinth.

This church had a lack of unity and purpose over many things.

The people in the church are arguing over who has the most and best spiritual gifts so the apostle Paul needs to correct them.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.j

8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom,k to another a message of knowledgel by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faithm by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healingn by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers,o to another prophecy,p to another distinguishing between spirits,q to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,a r and to still another the interpretation of tongues.b

11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,s and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Paul says...”I do not want you to be uninformed”.

God wants us to know about Spiritual gifts.

God wants us to know about Spiritual gifts

Some ways to know it isn’t a spiritual gift are...

-It doesn’t point to Christ v.3-4

Now Paul gives them a warning as he relates back to their past and how they were influenced to worship “mute idols”.

Now we remember how Paul also warned believers in Athens in the book of Acts about worshiping several idols and how he seen that “they are very religious in every way”.

Now the root word of “religious” in that context is “demonic”.

Now muteness means the inability to speak or make sounds.

We see in Jesus heals a mute person who was said to be “demon possessed” but the Pharisees responded by saying “it is the prince of demons that he drives out demons”

-It doesnt point to Christ v.3-4

kinds of gifts v.4

Now in the Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah 51:17 it says this...

“All men stand there mute, without understanding;

All the founders of idol images are put to shame,

For a lie is their molten work, no spirit is therein.”

So in order to really use our spiritual gifts we need to be actively “in Christ”.

We need to have a strong relationship with him that is growing day by day.

We can serve all we want and be a part of every council and committee but, if we are arent taking time out to really be with Christ then eventually we will try to operate our spiritual gifting in our own power and eventually it will just fall flat.

-It doesnt encourage the body of Christ v.7

kinds of service v5.

We can tell that it isn’t a spiritual gift if it doesnt lift up, encourage, and edify the body of Christ.

“Paul said “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good”.

They exist for the benefit of the church community and not the individual.

Manifestation means that is clearly seen.

Paul then lists what are the manifestation spiritual gifts.

word of wisdom

kinds of working v6.

word of knowledge

faith

healing

miracles

prophecy

discernment

interpretation of languages

God wants us to know the source of Spiritual Gifts

God himself is the source of the spiritual gifts.

Even though there are so many, they all come from the same Holy Spirit as He fills the believer and shows Himself through the personality, talents, and abilities of the believer.

God reveals himself collectively through the body of Christ, the church as it reflects the image of God to its community.

God wants us to be unified in the use of Spiritual Gifts

God has uniquely gifted us to serve him and when we dont use our gifts someone in the body of Christ suffers.

When one person suffers, we all suffer because we are the family of God.

When we all use our gifts and come together in unity we strengthen each others faith.

We bind our minds to Christ and become more and more like him as we follow his example of humility.

We are created for unity and fellowship in the faith.