Gifted

Did you ever need to have a gift explained to you?

My mom was notorious for this. She saw a gadget or do-dad that she thought was neat so she gives it as a gift but your left confused.

1 Corinthians 12 (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.

— ‘now concerning’ = Paul is now addressing an issue raised by the Corinthians in their letter to him.

Paul’s Answers to Questions from the Corinthians:

7:1 - “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote” (marriage and sexuality)

7:25 - “Now concerning the betrothed”

8:1 - “Now concerning food offered to idols”

12:1 - “Now concerning spiritual gifts”

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16:1 - “ Now concerning the collection for the saints:

16:12 - “Now concerning our brother Apollos”

— ‘spiritual gifts’ = lit, “spiritual ones” (gifts)

What are the gifts of the Spirit?

The special ability given by God to believers for the purpose of helping other believers, furthering the mission of the church, and ultimately bringing glory to God.

special ability

given by God

to believers

helping believers

furthering the mission

bringing glory to God

from the word for grace - we don’t earn it. It is given to us.

However, I feel as though we should read (or at least understand) this ‘gift’ as a tool — for building the church.

A “useful gift”- I need to be careful here as well. Some of you ladies have received “useful gifts” from your husband and it has maybe meant he needed grace more than you were receiving it!

The Holy Spirit is present and at work in the church today.

The work we do as a church, the things we accomplish, believe God is calling for us to accomplish is all accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Actually, that last statement should have a giant “Should Be” before ‘accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I fear that the discussion and teaching on this passage and spiritual gifts generally lead toward two opposite but equal problems — some churches fear what some of the more phenomenal gifts might look like and the dangers to which they may lead so they downplay or ignore the Spirit’s gifts in the church — doing all they can in their own ability.

Others will

There are those in the church that need to recognize the Holy Spirit and USE His gifts

There are those in the church that need to recognize the Holy Spirit and stop abusing His gifts.

Paul wants the Corinthians to know that a true move of the Spirit will be evidenced by where the glory is aimed when the gift is used.

— They likely had experiences that may have been similar to the out-workings of the Spirit in pagan temples.

— Paul points out that a true move of the Spirit will point people to Jesus and not speak against Jesus.

That is a good reminder for us as we experience the gifts of the Spirit in different ways. It should not point the glory to the person but to God.

ILLUST - “Look at this extravagant gift I received, aren’t I wonderful!”

The Holy Spirit is alive and at work in the church today.

**We need to live, and worship, and serve as though our church will fail without the empowerment and gifting of the Holy Spirit — because it will.

(Caveat: When I discuss ‘the church’ — let’s remember that we are not only talking about Sunday AM worship — but whenever the church gathers — Life Groups, etc.)

The gifts of the Spirit do not show up on in church on Sunday.

Test: If we prayed for healing for someone who is sick and they are miraculously healed - how surprised would you be?

I am not claiming that all the phenomenal gifts that Paul lists should be considered normative in the church today, but I want to make the point that the Holy Spirit is still very much active in the church today — or should be.

(Which is harder to say, your sins are forgiven or get up and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins. . . )

Salvation is the greatest miracle!!

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.

These gifts are given by God and are not something we can manufacture ourselves.

— some say in order to confirm you are a believer it must be evidenced in the speaking in tongues.

You are gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Just sit with that for a moment.

YOU are gifted. “No, I’m not” Yes, you are.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Not everyone in the church has a gift — but every believer in the church has a gift.

Here’s what we know about your gift.

— It may vary from others

— you have one

— It’s supernatural (manifestation of the Spirit)

— it’s God’s choice.

— It’s to help believer’s in the church accomplish the mission of glorifying God by making disciples

Exodus 31:1–11 (ESV)

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. 6 And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7 the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, 8 the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, 9 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, 10 and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, 11 and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”

(They really need a Cricut machine!)

How many of you would rather give a gift than receive it? How many think, ‘Duh, a gift is to be received.’

ILLUST - I love tools. I love getting tools as a gift. Brad opening a pocket knife. I wanted to make sure he understood the usefulness of his gift.

Do you ever wonder if God does the same thing for us? (Only without the cruel intentions I had for my brother). God places us in situations that seem impossible and require us to look to him only to enable us to accomplish his task?

That’s how you know its a gift of God and not simply a talent of your own ability.

— find yourself with friends in crisis and you are at a loss and suddenly God gives you the words your friend needs to hear and you’re not even sure where it came from.

— Someone in your Life Group just found out their newborn has a hole in his heart that the doctors say is inoperable. You feel led to pray for the child, and the next week the doctors state they can’t find the hole.

— You and your spouse walk into a new church needing God to guide you to a place where your faith can grow after a bad experience with church — you aren’t sure how to view church leaders. Not knowing who it is, your spouse spots the youth pastor from across the room and tells you to stay away because there is something evil. You later find out this youth pastor had been preying on female students.

— You move halfway across the country to take a position at a church where you will need to get up in front of people each week to preach but you have wrestled with anxiety your whole life and seriously struggle some weeks to walk up the steps — but God always comes through. He delivers His Word through you and you know you had nothing to do with the process except surrender. True story.

Don’t ever let Satan tell you aren’t good enough to have a gift and be used by God — of course you’re not! That’s why it’s called grace!!

Don’t ever let Satan tell you it won’t matter or make much of a difference — not by your power but empowered by the Holy Spirit it is supernatural!

There is a diversity in the variety of gifts. The problem with diversity is it can quickly lead to cliques and feelings of superiority.

— My gift is better than yours.

— My gift is more visible than yours.

How do you know what your spiritual gift is?

— Ask God to reveal it — He gave it to you (What is this gift?)

— Ask a mature believer you know — it’s for the common good - more than likely they have already experienced some of your gifting and and can tell you where they sense the Spirit at work.

Gifts are not always permanent.

Could it be that Paul is less concerned about quantifying the spiritual gifts a believer may receive and more concerned about qualifying them?

IOW, is Paul giving us an exhaustive list or a sampling most commonly seen in the early church of Corinth?

Does God give gifts NOT listed here? How would we know if they are spiritual gifts?

Lists given in 1 Cor 12, 13, 14, Rom 12, Eph 4 all vary with some overlap giving us specific gifts numbering 20-22. But Paul never said ‘here is your list of all the spiritual gifts’

(Joseph interprets dreams - ‘God will give you the answer’) was it a spiritual gift? Daniel? Oholiab? Samson?

Sometimes I wonder if more has been written about whether or not spiritual gifts are valid than on actually using them.

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18

My gift is no better than your gift.

— it may be more useful at times (and yours may be more useful at others)

— There is no boasting in the gifts when you remember they are GIFTS.

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

You have the gift we need.

We need each other’s gifts to go where God is calling (to accomplish His mission for us)

Why does God give gifts?

Does God need to delegate in order to accomplish His work? NO

The church is God’s chosen method to continue the work of Jesus of establishing God’s kingdom on earth through making disciples He gives a variety of gifts so the church has the power and ability to accomplish the task

The gifts God gives us creates neither a dependency nor an independency — rather, it creates an interdependency.

In our individualistic society we don’t need others - in fact, others may actually hinder our progress.

The interdependence of our gifts is similar to the interdependence of the Trinity:

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.

***God has placed you in this faith family (church) for a reason.

ILLUST - ever try to walk after your foot falls asleep? You expect to be able to go somewhere and then you realize you can’t — It’s weird — your body is whole but not functioning correctly.

Ever have a limb fall asleep so completely that you can’t even feel it? (like my arm when I sleep). It actually requires your body to redirect resources and energy to not only make up for it but to care for it when it should be helping.

It’s time for the sleeping arms of the church to wake up!

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

— ‘earnestly desire the higher gifts.’

Don’t waste your gift!

— on yourself

— on no one

1 Peter 4:10–11 ESV

10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.