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GIFTED TO SERVE
Part 2: One Primary Purpose
By Rev. Will Nelken
________________________________________
Presented at Trinity Community Church, San Rafael, CA, on Sunday, October 3, 2021
We are exploring the many gifts with which God equips His people—what they are, how they
come to us, what they’re used for, what you can do to develop them, and how to use them most
effectively.
My aim, over the next month, is to help you understand why God has given gifts and to whom,
and to instill confidence in the supernatural ways God works through people, as well as discernment of counterfeits and aberrations.
The Scripture that drives this theme is found in 1 Peter 4:10 – “As each has received a gift, use it to
serve one another.”
This underscores four vital points:
EACH ONE has a gift.
(no one is omitted)
Each one has RECEIVED A GIFT. (they are not environmentally formed)
USE it.
(don’t waste it)
Use it to SERVE ONE ANOTHER.
(spending it on yourself will not be fulfilling)
Gifts of God
Three New Testament passages explicitly mention gifts from God for those who follow Him—Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Corinthians 12.
I introduced the first two passages last Sunday.
Briefly, Romans 12:4-8 mentions prophecy, serving, teaching, exhorting, contributing, leading, and
showing mercy.
These are the Father’s Motivational Gifts, which form our personalities and motivate the way we
function most effectively among other believers.
They guide the functions of our interpersonal relations.
An insightful question was offered last week about these gifts:
How do these gifts differ from similarly defined personality traits found in people who don’t know
Jesus?
The answer is: essentially they don’t!
These gifts are universal; they are not unique to Christians.
Motivational gifts are not learned from your parents, nor chosen for yourself; they describe the
way God made you in your mother’s womb.
That’s why I said they “form your personality.”
Why are two children of the same parents, who were raised in the same household, fed the same
food, and educated in the same schools so DIFFERENT from each other?
The primary answer is:
motivational gifts.
One may be intellectual, the other creative.
One may be gregarious, the other more of a loner.
One may be a talker, the other a thinker.
One may be a writer, the other a handyman.
One may
be generous, the other thrifty.
It’s how God made you, and how He made everyone else, too.
They are all necessary.
Your motivational gift drives your passion, and colors how you tend to see all those around you.
You tend to think what the world needs now is… more of your gift!
The prophet thinks people need to hear the TRUTH.
The servant thinks people need HELP.
The teacher thinks they need UNDERSTANDING.
The exhorter thinks they need ENCOURAGEMENT.
The giver thinks they need RESOURCES.
The leader thinks they need ORGANIZATION.
The merciful think they need KINDNESS.
But, apart from a surrendered relationship with Jesus Christ, your motivational gift is just a relational inclination.
It’s the power of the Holy Spirit, fueling your gift, that will make you into the
best and most fulfilled you that you can be—THAT is your destiny!
The other group of gifts we considered were found in Ephesians 4: apostles, prophets, evangelists,
and teaching pastors.
These are the Son’s Leadership Gifts, which are designed to direct and enable God’s people to do THE WORK OF MINISTRY—your service in the church and the world.
They
describe ministry roles.
The leadership gifts provide stability, direction, leadership, and maturity for the church on earth in
the absence of Jesus.
Doubtless, your heart and mind have been formed and guided by these gifted individuals, and it
shows in the way you pray to God and converse with others.
As gifts of leadership, they generate particular burdens of ministry:
To see healthy churches formed.
To see Christians live faithfully.
To see those far from Christ brought close to Him.
To see believers rooted and grounded in the Scriptures.
The third prominent list of spiritual gifts, which I now mention for the first time in this series, is
found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.
12:4
Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit.
12:5 And there are different ministries, but the
same Lord.
12:6 And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.
12:7 To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all.
12:8 For one person is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom (wise advice), and another the message of
knowledge (special knowledge) according to the same Spirit, 12:9 to another (unusual) faith by the
same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 12:10 to another (power for) performance of miracles, to another prophecy, and to another discernment of spirits (source of spiritual
messages), to another different kinds of (unknown) tongues, and to another the interpretation of
(messages in) tongues.
12:11 It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person,
who produces all these things.
This is the passage most Pentecostal Christians think of when they speak about the gifts of God,
but this is only one of the categories of God’s gifts.
Some gifts come from the Father in the formation of our souls, some come from the Son of God
for the mobilization of His Church, and some come from the Holy Spirit for the demonstration of
the Kingdom of God.
These are the latter.
Here are the highlights of the Spirit’s Gifts:
The message of wisdom – an insightful application of divine wisdom
The message of knowledge – knowledge of facts that are hidden
Faith – unusual surge of confidence in God
Gifts of healing – power to heal sicknesses
Performance of miracles – power to work miracles
Prophecy – proclaiming what is in God’s heart
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