Introduction: What are Spiritual Gifts? (1 Cor 12:1-11)

Announcements

Bible Study & Prayer every Wednesday at 7pm. We’ll be working through Psalm 24 this week, it’s a great time of reflection and study before spending an extended amount of time in prayer each week. Surprisingly, Wednesday evening’s have also been a popular time for visitors of the church as well. We’ve had a couple from Morrisdale join us almost every week for the past month and this past Wednesday, we actually had six visitors. So, we’d love to have more people join us as we pray together and study God’s Word—Wednesdays at 7pm.

This Saturday, May 28th at 10:30am, we’ll have a community outreach event in Chester Hill as we seek to essentially do two things (1) spread the word of the church to the local communities and (2) show that specific neighborhood that we care for them. We could definitely use some help. We’ll meet at the park in Chester Hill, it doesn’t have a name, but it’s next to the boro building across the street from Fuel On.

Next week, on June 4th at 10:30am, we’ll have a work day, here in the church building. A lot of the work is simply just spring cleaning related work—we want to scrub down everything in the building from floor-to-ceiling. We also want to clean up the outside of the building a bit both in the alley out back and the front. We do need to touch-up some paint and hopefully get a few other projects done as well. The more people that we have here to help, the better. So, if you’re free, please plan to serve in this capacity.

One last announcement concerning our new series. I normally don’t put a schedule for upcoming sermons in the worship guides, but since we aren’t going through one entire book during this series, I thought some of you might want the upcoming sermons and their texts so that you could read ahead a bit. If that’s the case, you can find them in the worship guides—if you just open them and look at the bottom right, you’ll see them.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving. To help you with your giving, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box at the front of the room—if you give cash and you’d like a receipt for your gift, please place it in an envelope with your name on it; if you give a check, please write it to Grace & Peace. If you’d prefer to give with a debit or credit card or through ACH transfers, you can do that either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.gapb.church and selecting giving in the menu bar. Everything that you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 51:1-6)

Our Call to Worship this morning is from Psalm 51, but because of the length of the psalm, we’re going to work through it over the next three weeks. Psalm 51 is a psalm of David written shortly after David sins against Uriah. What this psalm primarily is, is a psalm of repentance; and we can relate to this psalm because we’ve all sinned and have needed to seek forgiveness from the Lord in a similar manner. Please stand and read with me Psalm 51:1-6, I’ll read the odd-numbered verses, please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 51:title–6 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Congregational Singing

Brethren, We Have Met to Worship 334

All the Way My Savior Leads Me 172

Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God 318

Scripture Reading (1 Pet 4:1-11)

Our Scripture Reading this morning is 1 Peter 4:1-11, which is a call from Peter to put aside sin and to be self-controlled, sober-minded while loving one another earnestly. Peter calls us each to utilize our gifts to serve one another “as good stewards of God’s varied grace” for the glory of God. Of course, this fits with our new series because our first summer series is focused on spiritual gifts—their purpose, the need for them, and what we are to use them for. And just like Peter’s encouragement to the diaspora to use their spiritual gifts, the exhortation is the same for us—figure out your spiritual gifts and use it to serve one another. Stacey can you read 1 Peter 4:1-11 for us.

Sermon

Introduction

This morning, we’re starting a new series that will last about eight weeks. It isn’t like many of our other series in the sense that usually we work line-by-line through whole books at a time—this series is different because we’ll be working on multiple different passages over the next few months to develop what could be considered a systematic theology of spiritual gifts. Or in other words, while this series is still expositional, in that we’ll be working through specific texts, instead of going verse-by-verse through one whole book, we’ll be looking at different passages throughout multiple books with the purpose of understanding all that the New Testament says about spiritual gifts.

Now, I will give a brief head’s up that this is not going to be comprehensive, in the sense that spiritual gifts are referred to in the Old Testament but we won’t necessarily be looking at those texts over the next two months. Or in other words, we’ll get a solid understanding of what the New Testament teaches concerning spiritual gifts for the church, but we won’t be digging too far into what the Old Testament says about spiritual gifts.

The whole point in this series is for us to understand what the Bible says about spiritual gifts, to learn what the purpose of those gifts are, and for us to be compelled to serve the local church with our spiritual gifts.

To help us get started in this series, we’re going to look at a passage that while it isn’t the first time spiritual gifts are mentioned in the Bible, it is significant for our understanding of these gifts.

If you have your Bible please turn it to 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

We’re actually going to be in 1 Corinthians 12 the next few weeks because chs. 12-14 is all about spiritual gifts, so let me give you a bit of background information. 1 Corinthians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. Corinth was a city located on the isthmus between the Peloponnesian peninsula and the mainland of Greece. Because of its location, it was an extraordinarily wealthy city of approximately 90,000 residents. That wealth was built because anything that needed to be sent to Peloponnese and Greece had to pass through Corinth and because the Roman empire would utilize the Isthmus of Corinth for trade to Asia Minor. They would send their goods by ship through the Ionian Sea, it would dock on one side of the Isthmus of Corinth; and during biblical times, they would utilize carts and animals to pull the goods to the other side of the isthmus where it would be loaded on another ship to cross the Aegean Sea to Asia and vice versa. From there it would go to Asia Minor, Israel, and various other places on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea.

It doesn’t take a business expert to know that the merchants that were in charge of getting the goods from one side of the isthmus to the next made a significant amount of money doing it. It also doesn’t take a business expert to know that in a time when wage disparity was a significant issue in society, that those who physically did the work, weren’t nearly as wealthy. That divide between the overtly wealth and the poor workers wasn’t just an issue in society for Corinth, it was an issue within the church. In addition, because Corinth was a large metropolitan city with thousands of people from all sorts of different places, Corinth was a city proliferated with false religious beliefs—there was pagan worship throughout the city—worship of the Roman gods and their Greek iterations, worship of the emperor, and spiritualistic worship were common issues. And these issues found their way into the church.

Not to mention that the very culture of Corinth was that of sin. Think of the mindset that people have of going to Las Vegas today—to party, to indulge, and to sin; and apply that to the first-century Corinth and you’ll have an idea of the licentiousness that proliferated the city, even into the church.

I say all this, not to give you a history lesson, but to show you what caused tremendous issues within the church of Corinth. There was disparity amongst the rich and poor in the church, there were pagan beliefs infiltrating the church, and there were very real sin problems happening within the church. Paul is confronting all these issues in his first letter to Corinth and by the time he gets to 1 Corinthians 12, he’s actually confronted quite a few of those issues before getting to the business of spiritual gifts in the church, but even as he speaks of spiritual gifts, he spends a bit of time still confronting those issues.

Let’s start this morning by reading 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

1 Corinthians 12:1–11 ESV

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 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.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) Proper Worship and Spiritual Gifts (1-3) and (2) The Variety of Gifts are for the Common Good (4-11). Both sections answer two very important questions for us as Paul confronts an issue within the Corinthian church. We see these two questions being answered: (1) what are spiritual gifts and (2) what is their purpose? It gives us a foundation for the concept of spiritual gifts that should answer several questions before we get into the bulk of our study of spiritual gifts through the next two months. It should cause us to consider our own spiritual gifts and it should cause us to ask if we’re utilizing our spiritual gifts for the proper reason or not.

Prayer for Illumination

Proper Worship and Spiritual Gifts (1-3)

Our passage starts off by starting the letter to the Corinthians with a new topic. Just prior to this point, Paul was talking about properly partaking in the Lord’s Supper, so I think it’s fairly clear that this is a new topic, but I would suggest that there’s a common theme throughout both sections.

Throughout the whole text of 1 Corinthians, there’s a reoccurring theme concerning the need for unity within the church.

As you read through 1 Corinthians, you see Paul confronting a lack of unity concerning who they claim to follow as teachers. In 1 Corinthians 1, we see Paul confronting these divisions by simply asking whether these human teachers were who they were to follow. 1 Corinthians 1:13 “13 Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” The obvious answer is no, so why would they divide themselves between teachers who taught the biblical truth?

He speaks again of divisions within the church in 1 Corinthians 3 and he brings up that issue again in which the people were dividing themselves amongst people who were properly teaching Scripture—and let me be clear, the divisions at hand were because they were dividing themselves amongst people who were genuinely teaching the truth—this isn’t an issue of whether some of those teachers were false or not. Again, Paul calls them back to unity despite who their preferred preachers or teachers are.

Now, even though there is a reoccurring theme concerning unity, Paul is blunt about when unity shouldn’t exist. He confronts them about them not dealing with sin within the body of Christ multiple times and he makes it abundantly clear that they need to reject unity with someone who claims to believe and lives in unrepentant sin (1 Corinthians 5-6).

In 1 Corinthians 7-8 Paul focuses a little more intently at some specific issues within the church in Corinth and he doesn’t focus too much on the issue of unity again until 1 Corinthians 11, in which he confronts the disunity and sin occurring when they’re supposed to be focused on the Lord’s Supper.

And he hints at that unity all the way up until ch. 12, when he starts this discourse concerning spiritual gifts, which goes all the way through ch. 14.

That idea of unity is woven throughout the text concerning spiritual gifts and the overarching idea is the regardless of what your spiritual gifts are, there still ought to be unity within the church.

I want us to keep that in mind as we work through 1 Corinthians 12 this morning.

The Bible starts by confronting the way that the believers in Corinth used to think. In v. 1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.”

Prior to salvation, Paul makes it clear that they thought like pagan unbelievers, which makes sense, given the context of Corinth—that most people in Corinth were pagans—they worshiped false gods and idols.

This means that they had a tendency to pull in pagan ideas and practices into the church thinking that this was an acceptable idea, when it really wasn’t acceptable to do so whatsoever.

And despite the fact that there are plenty of so-called churches that do this today—like the large church in South Carolina who opened an Easter Sunday service by performing AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” or like the many churches that have started utilizing practices of New Agism and Eastern mythicism into their programs, the reality is, as it’s clear in Paul’s statements here, that it’s completely unacceptable to wed Christianity with pagan or unbiblical ideas and practices.

Paul writes concerning their previous beliefs and ideas and states that he wants them to understand that there’s a difference between the worship of pagan deities and in the one true God.

Since the Corinthians have a tendency to bring in pagan ideology into their worship of Yahweh, Paul starts at the most basic concept in v. 3, “Understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”

To declare Jesus is cursed would be a complete rejection of the truth and veracity of who Jesus is, but you might hear Paul making that statement and think, “what could that be about?” Who in their right mind would say that Jesus is cursed and yet, still claim to be a brother in Jesus Christ?

In the early church, there was a heresy called Docetism that denied Jesus’ humanity. Or in other words, these false teachers had no issue claiming that Jesus was divine, but they had an issue with saying that Jesus was also man. They would deny that Jesus, as the holy One, could have been man while he lived on earth; rather, he only had the appearance of man.

And yet, because they still believed in Jesus, they still claimed to be part of the church and still taught their false teachings within the church. The reason that Paul would say that their understanding of Jesus is accursed is because what they’re proclaiming is untrue. If Jesus couldn’t have been in the flesh, then what Jesus himself said about being in the flesh for the purpose of redeeming His people would have been untrue.

If the false teachers who claim that Jesus wasn’t man are correct, the fact that Jesus would claim to be man would bring condemnation on Him—He would be cursed.

“The false teachers obviously claimed that their visions, revelations, and messages were from God, but they apparently denied the humanity of Christ, as expressed by the words Jesus be cursed.” (David K. Lowery “1 Corinthians.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985, 532.)

So, Paul’s standard of truth is simply that anyone who claims to follow Jesus but still denies the truth that Jesus himself proclaimed, isn’t speaking in the Spirit of God.

In fact, only those who are in the Holy Spirit can acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and live according to that principle. Unbelievers, including those who are falsely teaching—like those who deny who Jesus is, the hypostatic union—his ability to be fully God and fully man deny His lordship, and are thus not in the Spirit.

Now, you might hear all this and think, what exactly does this have to do with Spiritual Gifts? It all has to do with the principle that Paul gives in v. 3. Only those who are in the Spirit can say “Jesus is Lord.” Those who are not in the Spirit are unable to do so.

Or in other words, what we could say is this, while certain people can appear to be gifted in many different ways and while many people can even mimic the gifts of the Spirit, true, genuine spiritual gifts come only from the Holy Spirit.

By virtue of the name alone, it’s clear that spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit. And what Paul is stating in the first few verses is that regardless of what people claim to be able to do—regardless of if they have visions, revelations, and messages that they claim are from God; if they’re able to replicate what appears to be spiritual gifts but they don’t teach, preach, and believe the truth according to God’s Word—those aren’t gifts from the Holy Spirit and they aren’t following Jesus.

The perfect example of this is in Exodus 7. We see Moses perform a miracle in front of Pharaoh, but Pharaoh pays no mind to their miracle because his own wise men and sorcerers were able to replicate those miracles with “their secret arts.”

The first plague happens and the water turns to blood, but Pharaoh didn’t “take even this to heart” because his magicians did the same “by their secret arts.”

In Exodus 8, you see the plagues of frogs, but again “the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.”

Eventually it gets to the point where the magicians cannot replicate the miracles of God, but do you see what I’m getting at?

Just because someone claims they can perform miracles, that they have visions, revelations, and messages from God; and just because they seem to be spiritually gifted well, doesn’t mean that they actually are.

Proof of this is seen in the many high-profile pastors who have fallen over the past few years. They were all seen as gifted speakers and great performers.

But clearly, they weren’t spiritual gifts because their fruit revealed unbelief.

What does 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 have to do with spiritual gifts? Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 tells us the origin of these gifts—they’re from the Holy Spirit, and regardless of what a person can do or appears to do, unless those gifts are coupled with genuine belief, true teaching, and right thinking, they aren’t actually from the Spirit of God. Unbelievers can be exceptionally talented people, but only believers can be given spiritual gifts. And Paul teaches the Corinthians how to discern between someone who is spiritually gifted and someone who is exceptionally talented; and it all lies in whether or not they genuinely believe and that they teach and preach doctrine that accords with Scripture. This is what opens Paul’s statements concerning spiritual gifts and then he continues in vv. 4-11. Let’s re-read these verses.

The Variety of Gifts and the Common Good (4-11)

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.

Paul continues in his discourse concerning spiritual gifts by speaking of the vast variety of gifts that are available.

Which brings us back to v. 4. “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”

Do you catch what Paul is trying to get across in these three verses? He’s looking at the different people within the local church context and he recognizes that there are many different gifts and there are many different ways to serve and there are many different activities within the local church for genuine believers to utilize their spiritual gifts.

And notice that as he points out all these differences, he never, at any time, makes the argument that any gift is greater than another or that any service is greater than another or that any activity is greater than another—they’re all necessary and are needed for the growth of God’s people—he reiterates that in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, which is our passage for next week.

Notice also, that regardless of the differences in gifts, services, and activities, they are all from the same Spirit and same Lord and they’re all empowered by the same God who empowers the gifts in all believers.

No one gift is greater than any other, every gift has a role to play within the local church and without all of the people of God working together while utilizing their God given, spiritually empowered gifts, the church will not grow nearly as effectively as it ought.

Every gift given by the Spirit is necessary for the growth of the local church and the individuals within the church.

Why are these gifts given? V. 7, “To each is given through the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” All these spiritual gifts are given for the common good; the common good of what?

Each spiritual gift is given for the common good of the church, which if you just think logically through the idea of spiritual gifts, you’ll understand the purpose much better.

If the spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit, which they are, and if the spiritual gifts are empowered by God, which they are, and if the spiritual gifts are given in conjunction with different activities and different services:

Then it makes sense that the spiritual gifts are given by God through the Holy Spirit for the good of His people—His church.

This defeats any concept of individualism that could occur in the local church.

We live in a very individualistic society and you’ve heard me speak against this mindset before. We live in a society that argues for each person to be utterly selfish—do what you want to do, care for only you, keep living just for you.

It is a mindset that is selfish and anti-community, which is the exact opposite of how a Christian is to live in community with their church.

To help facilitate the community aspect of the church, God has given spiritual gifts to his people. And He expects each person to utilize their spiritual gifts to serve and to use within the church.

Gifts are to be utilized for the common good of the body of Jesus Christ within the church.

Which brings up a simple, but potent question: are you utilizing your spiritual gifts for the common good of the church? Start thinking on that question as we work through the remaining four verses:

In vv. 8-10, Paul then reiterates the point that there are a variety of gifts by speaking of some of these gifts—he gives a handful of examples of how exactly every gift is proportioned.

Just as a side-note, one thing that you’ll notice as we work through this series, is that at no point will I ever say that we have a comprehensive list of spiritual gifts.

The reason for this is simple, many conservative scholars don’t think that the Bible lists all the spiritual gifts.

If you look at all the gifts and you compare, contrast, and line them all side-by-side and the various passages that speak of them, you’ll notice that none of the passages gives precisely the same gifts, that none of them ever claim to be the full list, and that some gifts are only mentioned in one list whereas, some of them are mentioned in many lists.

Which leaves the possibility that, as the biblical authors wrote about the spiritual gifts, they never meant to give a comprehensive list. Or in other words, what we see is a selection of gifts that were chosen not because they were all the gifts, but because they’re what came to mind as the biblical authors wrote their letters.

So, the point isn’t the gifts themselves, but in this case, the point is where the gift comes from and what their purposes are.

Paul isn’t trying to give a full list, he’s using these as examples while writing his point.

I fear that what has happened in the modern-day church is that we put such a high emphasis on our spiritual gifts matching the lists in the Bible, that we don’t leave room for the possibility that our spiritual gift isn’t listed in Scripture.

The most common position amongst conservative, biblical scholars today is that there are many other spiritual gifts that aren’t listed in Scripture, but these gifts are all given by the Holy Spirit for a specific role regardless of if they’re listed in Scripture.

So, Paul lists a series of nine gifts in 1 Corinthians 12; you can see them starting in v. 8. 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 “8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.”

In case you didn’t catch them, these are the gifts listed by Paul: (1) words of wisdom, (2) words of knowledge, (3) faith, (4) gifts of healing, (5) miracles, (6) prophecy, (7) distinguishing of spirits, (8) tongues, and (9) the interpretation of tongues.

Now I know that in this list, there are a number of gifts that you might have questions about, but for sake of time, we aren’t going to talk about them today—we’ll gradually talk about them throughout the series, but today isn’t the day to iron down the different gifts. However, if you cannot possibly wait a few weeks, feel free to talk with me about them after the service.

I’m not going to take time this morning to describe what these gifts are, we’ll talk about the different gifts gradually as we work throughout the series, but I do want to point out again, that the one common denominator in these gifts is that they’re gifts given by the Spirit.

V. 11 wraps up Paul’s introduction to spiritual gifts by again, emphasizing that these are gifts given by the Holy Spirit, “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”

The final piece of information that Paul gives us concerning spiritual gifts in our text for this morning is that the gifts are empowered by the Holy Spirit and it is the Spirit who gives these gifts “individually as he wills.”

What this final piece of information tells us is that the Spirit controls who gets what gift, how much of a gift that person gets, and how many gifts a person gets.

While no one has every gift, most people have multiple gifts—which is why you have people that are gifted with administration and music, or preaching and discipleship, or evangelism and discipleship.

The Holy Spirit gives gifts depending on what’s needed and who can utilize those gifts most effectively in the local church context.

The Spirit gives gifts, he takes gifts, he empowers gifts, and he nurtures gifts.

Which brings us to our application for this morning. If the Holy Spirit gives the gifts and if the Holy Spirit takes gifts, empowers gifts, and nurtures gifts, it really brings us to the point this morning of asking “what exactly is our responsibility when it comes to spiritual gifts?” And how can we apply what we’ve learned thus far concerning spiritual gifts in our lives today? We’re going to take our application by asking two questions: (1) what is proper worship? and (2) am I using my spiritual gifts?

Application

What is proper worship?—this question really stems from the first section of our text, Proper Worship and Spiritual Gifts (1-3). In the first section, we saw Paul contrast the way that the believers in Corinth used to worship their pagan gods and how they were to worship the one, true God. In his statement about their previous worship of pagan God, he hints at the idea that they might have been trying to integrate some of their pagan ideas of worship with their worship of Yahweh. And he ends this section by stating that anyone who claims to believe, but doesn’t accept proper doctrine, isn’t actually in the Spirit because only those who are in the Spirit can claim that Jesus is definitely the Lord and mean it. In this first section, we see very clearly that worship of God needs to be done God’s way, which includes the use of spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit to His people. What this means is really two-fold:

First, it means that our worship of God has to adhere to what God has commanded and it cannot be based on how we feel or what our preferences are.

Again, I mentioned that we live in a very individualistic world and society. We are essentially trained to think that everything is about us and that we ought to live according to that idea—this is why we get so obscenely upset when there’s any amount of inconvenience in our own lives.

Unfortunately, that mindset has crept it’s way into the American church and most churchgoers today see church in that light—that’s why, for most people today, their choice of church is based on: (1) the style of music, (2) whether the primary preacher is funny and entertaining, or (3) if they feel comfortable. It is a consumeristic mindset, which is completely unbiblical.

This is also why many people will stay in churches even while admitting that their churches are liberal, preaching false things, and even teaching not just unbiblical things, but anti-biblical teachings.

In America, most people treat church like they treat restaurants—they go where they feel comfortable, can get what they want, and have their ears tickled.

The reality is that God has already told us what our worship of him ought to be like—true, genuine worship of Him is done in spirit and in truth and isn’t bound by what local church we choose to be in.

We are to worship God as He has taught us to worship God; Romans 12:1-2 “1 Therefore I urge you . . . by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

True worship happens every day regardless of if you are in a local expression of the body of Christ or not, but that doesn’t negate the fact that you are still required by Scripture to be a part of a local expression of the body of Christ. Hebrews 10:25 “25 [do not abandon] our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

So, when we look for a church, it isn’t the style of music, the preaching and teaching method, or the comfort level that really ought to matter—we can sing ancient hymns or modern contemporary music; I can preach like Charles Spurgeon or like myself, and we can be comfortable in padded seating in air conditioning or we can be on wooden benches under a thatch roof in 100º Africa. These things don’t matter.

What matters is that our worship of God needs to be completely God-centered with music that is doctrinally sound (and easy for the congregation to sing), with preaching that actually teaches what the text says and makes it applicable (this is what we call expositional preaching and it is more important than whether the pastor is funny and entertaining or not), and in a location in which we’re together as a body of Christ (not alone, individually focused).

Our worship of God is to adhere to what God has said, not our feelings, not our wants, and not our comfort. So, we need to find a local expression of the body of Christ in which the worship is God-centered, the preaching is expositional, where we can be together as a body of Christ.

And there’s one absolute necessity that Paul emphasizes in 1 Corinthians 12 concerning our worship of the Lord, that we haven’t talked about in application yet, which is the use of spiritual gifts.

Which brings us to the second question, am I using my spiritual gifts?—This question comes from vv. 4-11, The Variety of Gifts and the Common Good. In this section, we see Paul expressly make the point multiple times that these are spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit. There are various different gifts, different ways to serve, and different activities that are all given by the Spirit for the church to the individuals within the church for the common good.

Which means that every person who genuinely believes has spiritual gifts given to them by the Holy Spirit for the common good of the local church.

So, again, the question is, are you using your spiritual gifts? If everyone has at least one spiritual gift given by the Holy Spirit for the common good of the church, then it means that you need to use your spiritual gift for the good of the local church.

Your spiritual gift may be any of the gifts that Paul lists in 1 Corinthians, or it could be some of the gifts listed in Ephesians or Romans, or it could be something that’s not listed in Scripture. You probably have multiple spiritual gifts, the question isn’t whether you have spiritual gifts or not, it’s really whether you’re actively using your spiritual gifts or not.

Now, what I’ve found as I’ve pastored in five different churches is that often, many Christians have no idea what their spiritual gifts are. And the question I’ve often had, is “what are my spiritual gifts?”

While we’ll be working through the course of this series, I’m going to help answer that question, but until that question is answered for you, your application for now, will be to do this:

If you’re uncertain about your spiritual gifts, start praying to figure out what they are now.

Regardless of what your gifts are, you’ll never figure out what they are apart from the Spirit—the gifts are of the Spirit, from the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit. So, ask the Spirit to reveal what your spiritual gifts are.

Regardless of what your gifts are, you’ll never figure out what they are until you start serving—many people try to wait until they figure out their gifts before they start serving, but let me ask you a blunt question, why would the Spirit reveal your gifts to you if you aren’t already serving?

Thus, your application, for those that aren’t certain, is to start serving in whatever capacity that’s needed—serve wherever you’re needed and as you keep serving, the Spirit will reveal what your gifts are.

Now, if you know what your spiritual gifts are already, ask yourself if you’re serving with your spiritual gifts for the common good.

Your gifts might include serving or it might be counseling or it could be administration or teaching or any number of other gifts—my primary gifts are teaching and administration; I mention that because if I wasn’t serving in such a way that I was using my gifts, especially since I know what my gifts are and how to use them, I would argue that I would be in active sin because, as Paul says, gifts are given for the common good. It is a matter of obedience or disobedience.

And I would argue that if you know what your spiritual gifts are, but you aren’t utilizing them in the way that you should, then you also would be in active sin because, as Paul says, gifts are given for the common good. It is a matter of obedience or disobedience.

You have been given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit; and if you know what they are, you need to use them.

If you know what your gifts are already, but you aren’t serving with your gifts—repent and start serving for the common good of the local church.

Put simply, what we learn from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 is that every believer is given spiritual gifts for the common good of the local church. If you’re a believer this morning, you have spiritual gifts to use within the local church context: (1) if you know what your gifts are, but don’t serve—repent, (2) if you don’t know what your gifts are, but you want to—ask the Spirit to reveal your gifts to you, and (3) regardless of if you know what your gifts are, serve in whatever capacity you can—if you know your gifts, serve with your gifts; if you don’t know your gifts, serve wherever you’re needed.

Spiritual gifts exist for the common good of the church—seek to use them for the church and for the glory of God.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

O Church, Arise 353