Sermon Tone Analysis

Spiritual Gifts

Introduction

Last week we spoke about the Holy Spirit and baptism.

One item that may have caused some confusion is when I mentioned the Holy Spirit coming upon you, this is not meant to be a salvation thing but rather a moment when the Holy Spirit becomes very real in you.

In some places it may be called baptized in the Spirit but I think this will cause confusion.

In short, there is a point in your life where the Holy Spirit becomes very real and you know and are assured in your heart and mind in the Spirit of God dwelling in you.

This is important to understand so when we start today’s topic of Spiritual Gifts, it will make more sense the Holy Spirit’s work of giving spiritual gifts to each believer.

Trouble

On our own, are we skilled and gifted enough to refuse the devil and effectively share the gospel news?

The answer of course is no.

So what are we to do?

As I mentioned last week, it is all grounded in prayer.

The church today is trying to find a future for new generations.

We are working to build disciples of all ages who are becoming involved and vested in the future of this church.

We struggle now because of being in a transition period where the generations who have taken care of this church and all the work involved.

There is a passing of the mantle happening and it is uneasy and uncertain territory for all.

When we recall the story of Elijah and when he was grown tired and weary, he cried out to God for help and God answered his prayer with Elisha taking over the mission.

Asbury is in this same stage where we have some who are tired and weary and asking God for help in the mission work.

God is answering this prayer by moving in people to become more involved in the church’s life.

This brings us to this stage of what happens next.

Personally, I believe this year is when we will leaders and gifts emerge.

Grace - Diversity of gifts

When we look at this passage from 1 Corinthians, it mentions many gifts and many people.

More specifically, verses 4-6 says

All these different translations point to one thing.

There is a great diversity or variety of gifts, services, and ministries.

One area we can sometimes misunderstand is this area.

How many of us think there is a specific number of gifts and that if we study this passage and a couple others that talk about this topic and that we can come up with a specific list?

I used to believe this and would become hesitant in calling something a spiritual gift if it didn’t fall into this list.

However, this passage makes plain that there is not a small finite list of gifts but a great variety.

We sometimes think what we can do does not fit into this category of spiritual gifts, or service, or ministry because it does not look like these listed.

However, this is a mistake when you are gifted by the Holy Spirit to be capable of something, don’t discount or think differently of it when it serves the purpose of kingdom building.

Grace - All gifts serve the common good

So if there is not a finite list to which we can refer to, how do we tell this is a spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit?

Paul answers this question in verse 5

So the question instead of whether this is a spiritual gift, service or ministry should move to, how does this help others, benefit others, serve for the common good of others.

Where do you feel God moving you or creating a passion in you towards something?

Keep asking and praying to God for the Holy Spirit to guide you in seeing and understanding.

If you think about it, gifts enable you to perform a type of service which in turn is a ministry of the church.

Again, it is not about getting caught up in classifying this as a gift or a service and that as a ministry but what am I able to do which is benefiting the church or God’s people.

Grace - Examples of Gifts

Verses 8-10 contain examples of what these gifts and services and ministries look like.

The first example given is wisdom.

I like how the NLT translation puts it into an easy to understand example of how the wisdom God puts into your head enables you to provide good advice to others which benefits others.

The second example is knowledge.

How does knowledge benefit the body?

How is that different from wisdom?

You need to go back to the original language on this one as we tend to use interchangeably wisdom and knowledge but they are not the same here.

Wisdom in this verse 8 is the Greek word “sophia” which means wise.

A wise person gives great advice.

Knowledge in verse 8 is the Greek word “gnosis” which means to know and understand.

A person who knows and understands has knowledge and is able to share what they know and understand but that does not translate necessarily into advice but rather sharing the facts where someone once given the facts can give good advice.

You see how these two different examples work together for the common good?

The third example is faith.

Faith simply means to believe.

Do you have the ability to believe in something or someone?

Having someone believe in your or believe in a mission of the church moves mountains.

People’s faith encourages others to keep pushing forward.

A person’s faith takes the weary and defeated person and lifts them up.

A person’s faith may be the light shining in an otherwise dark world.