Sermon 081797

1Co. 12:31a; Rom. 12:3-8    Earnest Desire in Exercising Spiritual Gifts                       8/17/97

Series 23.15                                                                                                                       ABCC

I.     Review                                                                                                                             586

q      “Earnest desire…” – to burn with zeal, strive after & exert yourself

q      Spiritual & rational service of worship requires yielding our bodies for God’s purposes-v. 1

q      Spiritual & rational service of worship requires serving God with your mind (v. 2-3)

II.   Principles for Exercising Your Spiritual Gift (s)

A.     For the body of Christ to function properly, each member must function properly (v. 4-5)

B.      Spiritual gifts are given ONLY to believers primarily for use in body of Christ (v. 1-8)

C.      Spiritual gifts differ in accordance with God’s grace (v. 6a) = Diversity & Sovereignty

D.     Exercising your gift(s) requires action by you – “earnestly desire”, “present”, “prophesy”, “teach”…

E.      You must give special attention to the gift(s) given to you individually (1Tim. 4:14)

II.    Exercising Your Spiritual Gift (s)

A.      Prophecy (v. 6b) = a member of the body of Christ is given immediate inspiration from the Holy Spirit to speak an utterance from God for the edification, exhortation & consolation of the Church; to be a mouth piece for God.

-         A believer can have the gift of prophecy & prophesy without being a prophet (Ac. 2:17).

-         Males & females may exercise this gift in the church (Ac. 21:9; 1Co. 11:4-5), but women are prohibited from preaching & teaching men in the church (1Tim. 2:12-13)

-         The faith within an individual (Rom. 14:23c) = conviction; No hypocrisy; Honest & Genuine

-         The faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3) = scripture

Earnest Desire in Exercising Spiritual Gifts, Pg. 2

B.      Service (v. 7a) = a supernatural concern & ability to meet the practical needs of others (1Tim. 4:11; Ac. 6:1-2)

[gleanings from life of Christ in Jn. 13:3-11] = sensitive to physical needs of people, uses available resources to meet needs (v. 4-5), will meet the needs personally, no service it too demeaning (v.5), saint of few words (v. 4-5).

C.     Teaching (v. 7b) = a supernatural ability to understand, explain & make application of the scriptures – MIND!!!

-teachable (2Tim. 2:2), studious (2Tim. 2:15), authority (Mk. 1:21-22), examples & analogies (Mk. 4:1ff), wisdom from the scriptures (Mk. 6:2), self-denial (Mk. 6:31-34), teaches plainly with many details (Mk. 8:31-32), teaches plainly on controversial matters (Mk. 10:1-12; 12:14), teaches systematically with great detail (Lk. 24:27)

D.     Exhortation (v. 8a) = a supernatural ability to motivate people to action –HEART & EMOTIONS

[gleanings from life of Christ in Jn. 4:7-24; 21:15-17] = takes the initiative (v. 7), listens for the content of the heart (v. 9), deals with people where they are spiritually (v. 10-14), desires to correct sin in people’s lives (v. 16-18), does not loose sight of objective (v. 19-24), seeks to comfort hurting people (21:15), appeals with people for Godly change & obedience (may be repetitious & persistent)  – “do you love Me”, “tend My sheep”, provides clear instruction for change  – “…living water”, “Go, call your husband”, “…worship the Father in spirit and truth”.

E.      Giving (v. 8b) =

F.      Leading (v. 8c) =

G.     Mercy (v. 8d) =

Every believer is commanded to serve Christ & the Church in all of these ways.  However, each believer is uniquely gifted by grace to be exceptionally effective in one of more of the ways.  Are you a passive Christian, just satisfied to know these facts?  Are you using the sovereignty of God as an excuse for your laziness?  EXHORT!!!!!