September 22, 2025 • 46 mins
The mystery of spiritual gifts often leaves us wondering what they are, how they work, and whether we've been given any. This eye-opening exploration cuts through confusion to reveal that spiritual gifts fundamentally flow from one source: love.
Through a powerful story of African converts in the early 1900s who thanked their persecutors for the privilege of sharing in Christ's sufferings, we see that being filled with the Spirit isn't about supernatural abilities but supernatural character. When a former cannibal responds to brutal beatings with gratitude and forgiveness, we glimpse what true Spirit-filled living looks like—and how it transforms communities.
The teaching presents a comprehensive overview of spiritual gifts, categorizing them into miraculous gifts (tongues, healing), enabling gifts (wisdom, discernment), and team gifts (teaching, serving, administration). But more important than identifying your gift is understanding why God gives it. Every gift serves the same purpose: building up the body of Christ through love.
Using Paul's powerful body metaphor from 1 Corinthians 12, we discover how each member—whether seemingly significant or insignificant—plays an essential role. No gift is superior, and each person is designed with divine intention. The problem isn't usually that we lack gifts but that we operate from wrong motives or fail to surrender fully to Christ.
Most powerfully, we learn that discovering your spiritual gift doesn't come through striving but through surrender. "You'll discover your gift as you surrender all to Jesus." When we believe we died with Christ and rose with Him, ask Him to live through us, and step forward to love others as we're designed, His power flows naturally.
Ready to discover how God has uniquely gifted you? Take our spiritual gifts assessment and begin your journey toward serving others with the love of Christ flowing through you.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Father, we thank you so much for your word that
guides us through all thestrangeness of life, all the
difficulties of life, and,father, I thank you for the
trials that we go through, thatreveal where our hearts are at.
And we don't like going throughtrials, father, but they are
(00:49):
necessary.
But they are necessary.
And, father, I pray that youwould help us to run to you in
the midst of our trials and whenwe're hurting and when we're
struggling and when we'reconfused and when we don't know
how to respond.
Help us to turn to you firstand to sit at your feet and wait
(01:10):
upon our God and Father, teachus today about the gifts of the
Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen, amen, the Holy Spirit.
This sermon is called what Arethe Gifts of the Spirit, part 2.
So, if you'd like to go backand listen to last week, we
(01:33):
introed it and talked about howthe basic purpose of all the
gifts of the Spirit is so thatthe Lord can speak to you and
through you, and it's alwaysgoing to be focused on Jesus,
not on ourselves.
Basically, that's what it wasabout.
But what's it going to looklike when you are filled with
the Spirit and when you'rewalking in the Spirit and the
gifts of the Spirit are flowingthrough you.
(01:54):
What's it going to look like?
What's it going to be like?
It's going to look like love.
In Africa, back in the early1900s, a man named CT Studd went
and he started a mission downin the Congo and it was in an
unreached area.
It was basically the lastunreached area of the world
among tribes that were cannibals.
(02:16):
There's lots of great cannibaljokes but I'm not going to tell
any today.
But they are delicious.
That was just for free.
I didn't even think about thatone, that was just natural.
So he goes down there and hestarts sharing the gospel and
(02:37):
planting churches and a bunch ofthe guys get saved and it's a
really neat thing.
But CT Studd, after a few yearsof just doing church, he started
to just grieve because,although they acknowledged that
they were saved, they believedin Jesus, a lot of them kept
acting the same way, notnecessarily the big sins, like
they stopped eating people, butthey were still being unkind,
(03:01):
they were still being unloving,they were still, you know,
acting like everybody else,responding in selfish ways.
Okay.
And so CT Studd started prayingand he started to have a real
burden for them to be filledwith the Holy Spirit.
And what did he mean by that?
(03:21):
Did he mean he wanted them allto speak in tongues or be able
to do miracles?
That's not what he meant atthat time.
What he meant was he wantedthem to be filled with the
character of Jesus.
He wanted Jesus to be livingthrough them.
So we started praying for this,and this is the story he tells
(03:43):
of when he knew that God hadbegun to answer his prayers.
There was a man who had been acannibal and he had later been
going to church for years andthen finally he got a heart that
he wanted to start telling lotsof people about Jesus.
He wanted to start going.
So he would go and journey outand start spreading the gospel,
(04:04):
and he would go to differenttribes and back then the chief
ran his tribe.
So he would go to the chief.
And he went to this one chiefthat had never heard about Jesus
and he told him the gospel.
And the chief said I don't wantto believe this.
And so he took a club and beathim, beat him, beat him to a
bloody pulp.
And this Christian man.
(04:26):
He got up and he shook theking's hand and he said thank
you that I get to share in thesufferings of Jesus.
You have just done somethingvery honorable to me, that I get
to share in the sufferings ofChrist.
And so he beat him again andagain.
He got up and thanked him againand said it doesn't change
(04:48):
anything, you're still loved byGod, I still love you.
And so the chief just put himin prison, his little whatever
prison they had there hut.
He was tied up in the hut andthen six more of the brothers
from his church heard about whathappened and they also came to
(05:09):
the king, the chief, and theywere beaten after telling him
about the love of Christ and thegospel, that God saves sinners
and that he could be saved if hebelieved in Jesus.
And he beat them and they alsorose up, thanked him and went
into the prison.
(05:31):
How do you think that story ends?
You think you got tired of it?
What do you think happened tothe chief?
What's your guess?
Yeah, absolutely.
Of course.
He would right If someone lovesyou so much that they're going
(05:53):
to, even though you makeyourself their enemy, even
though you talk unkindly to them, even though you treat them
unkindly, but they treat youwith love in response.
That's what changes hearts,that's what saves people, that's
what opens up our heart to beable to receive the love of God.
(06:14):
And, yes, that chief and hisentire village got saved because
of love.
And a very, very simple message.
And the message is Jesus Christcan save sinners and he wants
to save sinners.
And if you're a sinner, thatqualifies you for being loved by
Jesus and saved by Jesus.
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He wants to save you.
It's the only qualification.
Just be a sinner, okay, then hewill come and live through you.
He will make you holy andrighteous and the kind of person
that honors God with their life.
I think that story is extremelyrelevant to our world today,
(06:56):
don't you?
Because there's been a lot ofunkind things being said, a lot
of things that just don't lineup with the heart of love in the
world today, and so I want youguys to apply this love message
to everything that you do andall the conversations that you
(07:18):
have.
I want our church to have areputation that, no matter what,
we will love our enemies, wewill pray for those who
persecute us, and that will bethe only thing we are known for.
Amen.
Thank you, john.
I love that.
Amen.
You can clap for that.
Amen, Jesus, right.
So that's what it looks like tobe filled with the Spirit.
(07:43):
Okay, now we're going to studyin 1 Corinthians, 12, verse 7
through 31.
Today we're going to study howthe Holy Spirit and the gifts of
the Spirit work in the church.
So let's begin by readingchapter 12, verse 7.
But the manifestation of theSpirit that means the way the
Holy Spirit is revealed is givento each one for the profit of
(08:08):
all, for to one is given theword of wisdom through the
Spirit, to another the word of.
So here's a list of spiritualgifts.
To another different kinds oftongues and to another
interpretation of tongues.
So here's a list of spiritualgifts, but this is not actually
(08:37):
a complete list, because thepoint of this chapter is not to
give you a complete list of allthe ways that the Holy Spirit
can gift us, but the point ofthe Spirit is to teach us how
the Holy Spirit and the gifts ofthe Spirit work.
So we're going to pause righthere as we're going through this
(08:58):
, but we are going to study amore complete list as you
combine all the texts fromaround the New Testament, just
so we have an understanding ofall these gifts, and then we can
come back together at the endand we're going to see how they
all work together for the goodof each person in God's family.
So there's basically threeclassifications of spiritual
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gifts that we can see in theBible.
The first one is miraculousgifts, and they're going to put
a list of these miraculous giftsup on the screen here, so, as
you can see, apostle and theseare the verses that talk about
it but I'll tell you, apostleswere.
It was a miraculous gift.
It was someone that wasspecifically chosen by God, and
(09:40):
there was 12 of them.
Right, there was the 11, thatwell, there's 12 that walked
with Jesus, but then Judas wasone, so he doesn't count, he
gets, you know, erased off it,and then Paul is made the 12th
apostle, and so the apostleswere.
They were able to remember allthat Jesus did and they were
able to teach it and establishthe church, and so it's kind of
(10:03):
like the church is built on thefoundation of these apostles, so
that we see that as amiraculous gift.
Also, the gift of tongues In theBible.
The gift of tongues is whereyou can just speak another
language, a real language thatpeople understand, and why?
Well, it was so that the gospelcould be shared with people who
didn't share your language, andso it could either be a sign
(10:27):
that this was a miraculous powerthat the Holy Spirit was giving
his church, but mostly it wasprobably to communicate the
gospel in a way that it couldnot be just naturally understood
.
But God wanted people to beable to hear this good news, and
so he gave people the gift oftongues.
But there's another way thattongues could be used and we're
going to see this a little bitlater where people could pray in
(10:50):
tongues, and so it would bekind of like a prayer language.
Maybe it was a tongue like alanguage of angels in some way,
like that that God could givepeople.
But if that was the case, youknow some people who had that
gift would speak it in churchand they were kind of proud of
it, and we're going to see inchapter 14 that they would just
stand up in the middle of thesermon and start speaking in
tongues and it was creating allkinds of chaos and Paul was like
(11:12):
calm down, you shouldn't beproud of your gift.
It's cool, but don't do itunless there's someone who has a
gift of interpreting it so thateveryone could understand what
you're saying, because it's notsupposed to be a bunch of just
chaos in God's church, becausehe wants it to be full of order.
So there's tongues, which is amiracle, miraculous gift,
(11:33):
interpretation miracles, justflat-on miracles.
That was happening and itshould follow the church.
Wherever the church goes, youshould see miraculous things
happening and healing.
There should be definitelyhealing.
God does heal, he healsmiraculously and he gets the
glory when he does.
So those are all very specificthings.
(11:56):
Should we pray for those things?
Yes, not necessarily apostle,because there was 12 of them,
that's kind of done.
But all the rest of them, Ithink, are very, very valid for
today and can be usedappropriately today if we seek
God's guidance and just to beled by the Spirit.
But remember, all this comesoff of what we've already
(12:17):
learned about.
What is the purpose of thegifts?
That's not about us.
It's about glorifying Jesus andhelping people to believe in
Jesus and assisting them andcoming alongside people to help
them.
All right, then we have thisnext group, which is called
enabling gifts, and these aregifts that can come, that they
can be for maybe a short periodof time where you need some
(12:38):
extra help, you need some power,and so we have faith.
Sometimes you need a gift offaith when you're going through
something really difficult oryou know that God's called you
to do something and you justneed an extra measure of faith
on top of just what's expectedor normal.
God can give people a gift offaith.
(12:58):
Also, discernment Sometimes youneed to know what's right and
what's wrong, what direction togo, and God will just give you a
gift of discernment.
And it's really that simple andit's not something that people
have just like all the timenecessarily and sometimes people
have it a lot, but it's notlike everything they say is
right.
(13:18):
But God can specifically justhelp you in your understanding
and give you that gift ofdiscernment.
Wisdom, kind of the same thinghow to apply God's Word.
Or maybe you got a project thatyou're working on and you need
God's wisdom.
God can certainly give that toyou.
Knowledge A gift of knowledgeis knowing something that would
otherwise be impossible to know.
(13:40):
Like, I just know that you havesomething going on and there's
nothing in your life that wouldtell me that.
But the Holy Spirit is justtelling me go talk to that
person, love them, care for them, because you don't know what's
going on, but you just have thisinside you.
It's a knowledge, you knowwhat's going on, and that's
another enabling gift.
(14:01):
Okay, now we have, we get intothe big one, which is the team
gifts.
You can call these team gifts.
These are gifts that you cancall these team gifts.
These are gifts that they'retask-oriented.
That's how the ministry getsdone in the church.
Okay, so how many of you wereable to take your spiritual
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gifts test this week?
Or maybe you've taken it before?
Okay, so several people wereable to take your.
I got a bunch of emails, abunch of texts of people sharing
what they got with me, and sothese are the ones that would be
revealed through that test.
Okay, because you can't reallytake a test for the other
miraculous ones.
But these ones are like how Godhas made you and every person I
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believe we're going to see inthe Bible says every person has
one of these gifts at least, ifnot two or three.
So this directly applies to you.
This is something special abouthow God has made you.
So evangelism that means, likeit says, you're passionately
leading others to the savingknowledge of Christ.
(15:05):
So that's just a gift.
Some people are giftedevangelists.
I think of Pastor Matt, who washere before.
I think he was a very giftedevangelists.
I think of Pastor Matt, who washere before.
I think he was a very giftedevangelist.
He just always had a passion toshare Jesus with people and he
was great at it.
I've known many people withthat gift.
It doesn't mean you have tohave the gift of evangelism to
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be able to share the gospel withpeople.
It just means that God hasgifted some people with a very
special gift to do it, and theyjust do it all the time and they
love doing it.
The second one is prophecy.
This is boldly and fearlesslyproclaiming God's truth.
So when you just feel like youhave a burden and you know God's
(15:46):
truth and you have a scripturethat you feel like this is
important for today, that can bethe gift of prophecy and that
might happen to you all.
The time where you're just likeman, I feel like God wants me
to speak the truth into thisperson's life or this situation,
that can be the gift ofprophecy.
Teaching is making clear thetruth of God's word with
simplicity and accuracy, sothat's a spiritual gift.
(16:09):
Now you can learn skills ofbeing a teacher just by going to
college and getting a degree inteaching right, but there's a
spiritual gift of teacher thatcan take the truths of God and
communicate them in a way, andGod is actually using them as
his teacher.
Exhortation and I know some,several of you had this gift and
(16:32):
you were like what is that?
Okay, exhortation is motivatingothers to action.
Motivating others to action.
So if you think about it, it'slike coming alongside somebody
and saying, hey, let's walk thisdirection towards Jesus.
It's kind of like pictureyourself putting your arm around
him and saying this is the wayto go.
(16:53):
Come, follow me, let's do ittogether, let's go together or
this is the right path.
That's exhortation.
Shepherding is overseeing,training or like we would think
of, like coaching or leading isthe gift of shepherd.
So a lot of times shepherdteacher go together and we call
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that like a pastor, and soshepherding is kind of like you
have your eye on people andwhat's important in the.
You know what's maybe dangerousfor them.
You have your eye on protectingthem and leading them to what
is true and what is best forthem.
Serving Many people have thegift of serving and the gift of
serving is where you providepractical help.
(17:36):
That could be physical,practical help.
You know, helping old ladiesacross the street might be your
spiritual gift, but maybebringing in some snacks for
everybody might be just how youhonor the Lord with your life.
Or it could be servingspiritually also, which is just
caring for people, listening topeople when they need to share,
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when they need to vent.
That might be a way of servingas well.
So there can be a lot, a lot,both sides of like physical and
spiritual there.
Mercy, showing the gift of mercy.
This is when you can identifyand comfort people who are in
need.
And I like to think of this oneas when you feel the pain that
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other people are going throughand that can be a true spiritual
gift.
And this gift can be kind ofdangerous because you can feel
so much pain in the world aroundyou that you just think that
the world is so painful that youcan get burnt out and you can
get kind of raw if you have thisgift, if you're not going to
Jesus yourself for comfort andfor him to be living through you
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and comforting and lovingthrough you.
So if you have that gift, justmake sure, with all these gifts,
make sure that you'reconnecting with Jesus and
receiving his love before youare loving other people in this
way.
Okay, because it's vital thatwe connect with him first.
Other people can have the giftof giving, which is releasing
material resources to furtherthe work of the church.
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Other people can have the giftof administrating, which is like
organizing, can be leading, canbe taking care of the practical
responsibilities of the church.
So these all are like how thechurch can operate together.
So they're basically divided.
If you look at that group, itcould be divided between two
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categories there's the speakingtypes and there's the
ministering types, like thedoing parts, and that doesn't
mean that if you do one, youcan't do the other.
They all kind of all intermix.
But in 1 Peter 4, verse 10, hesays this.
He says, as each one hasreceived a gift Okay, so what's
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it say?
Each one of you has received agift, minister.
It the word minister meansserve, serve it to one another
as good stewards of the manifoldgrace of God, serve it.
So think of yourself like awaiter in God's restaurant.
Okay, and you have received agift, and he says each one of us
(20:17):
should serve it to one anotherand it will be a blessing to
other people.
So why should you go to church?
Well, not to just sit there,but to serve the gift that
you've been given, Toparticipate, to be part of a
body, with the blood and thebones and the muscles and all
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the ligaments and everythingthat works together to build it
up into one body.
That's what this is about.
It's not about for you, it'sfor other people and it says as
good stewards of the manifoldgrace of God.
So the manifold meansmany-sided or diverse.
God's grace can look a milliondifferent ways in a million
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different people, but he designseach one perfectly, like a
snowflake, for the benefit ofhis family.
That's why he made you sospecial.
That's why he's given you agift and he gives you grace so
you can serve it to other people.
But grace, how do you get grace?
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Well, we study it all the time,we talk about it all the time.
God gives grace to the humbleone, and then we have access to
his grace by faith faith inJesus too.
It's as easy as one, two.
I like that.
We should call our church thatHumility and faith.
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That's how grace works, that'show this whole relationship with
God works.
That's called the new covenantand that is how our side of this
.
We get grace and then God pourshis grace on us as we have the
humility and faith.
He pours it on us so that wecan pour it out back on other
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people, these specific gifts.
And then he says 1 Peter inverse 11, he says If anyone
speaks, let him speak as theoracles of God.
In other words, believe, haveconfidence that God is going to
speak through you.
If you have the gift ofteaching, step forward and teach
.
Do it, step forward in faithand humility.
He's not saying do it in prideand say I have the gift of God,
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so everything I say is the wordof God.
All of you, bow down andworship me.
That's not what he's saying.
He's saying if you havehumility and faith, you can have
all the confidence in the worldthat what you say is going to
be the truth, that God wants youto teach.
If anyone ministers, that meansthose gifts that are more like
behind the scenes he says lethim do it with the ability with
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which God supplies that in allthings, god may be glorified
through Jesus Christ, to whombelong.
So it's pretty amazing.
He says if you serve, do itwith confidence, do it with
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boldness and do it with theability that God supplies,
you're not doing it with yourown strength.
Some people say, well, I'veserved in church before and I
got burnt out, I got tired andso I don't want to do it again.
I totally understand, and noone's asking you to do it until
(23:35):
you get burnt out.
But God calls us to serve himand he says if you're getting
burnt out, you're doing it thewrong way.
If you're getting burnt out,it's because you were walking in
your own strength, not in thegrace of God.
So there's this entiregeneration of people that have
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been told serve God, serve God,serve God.
And you know what, if you wantto grow, come to church and
serve and do more, do more, domore.
And then we feel guilty when wedon't feel like doing it
anymore.
But that's the system thatGod's made.
God says I didn't design you toserve me out of your own
strength.
I want you to get tired ifyou're serving that way, because
(24:18):
there's a different way,there's a new way, and the new
way is total surrender to God'sgrace, god's will.
We give him our whole heart, wetrust him with humility and
faith, and then he fills us withhis spirit, with his strength,
with his life.
And now, when I'm servingpeople, I'm not doing it through
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my own strength, but it's justan overflowing of the constant
overflowing water that's beenpoured into me is bubbling out
of me, and that's what'sdifferent and that's what we
wanna create.
We wanna create a culture.
We wanna see this culture inthis church, where everyone is a
part of what's going on.
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Everyone has a role to play.
We can depend on each other.
We see each person doing whatthey're called to do and they're
not doing it in their ownstrength, but they're receiving
it from Jesus for saying Jesus,I give you my whole life, I give
you my whole heart, do with mewhatever you want, and then they
step forward to serve the Lordwith humility and faith and he
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can take that and he can doanything.
He can give any spiritual giftto someone that will trust him
and humble themselves and givetheir bodies and their lives to
Jesus for him to live throughthem.
So hopefully, you all were ableto take your test.
(25:45):
If you weren't and you want todo, we have the QR code
available.
We'll work on that.
They'll throw the QR code uphere at the end of church and
you can take your spiritualgifts test.
Oh, there we go.
Look man, you're killing it upthere today.
Well done, guys.
So you can feel free to takethat, go ahead and leave that up
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there for a minute, while I goon to the back in our text in 1
Corinthians, chapter 12.
So it says, moving on, it saysbut one and the same Spirit
works all these things,distributing to each one as he
wills.
As he wills, so, through Hiswisdom and His love, jesus
(26:29):
uniquely gifts each person aspiritual gift.
There's no competition, no oneis better than anyone else and
no gifts are better than anyoneelse, because it's the same
spirit and it's the same powerthat's flowing through you.
It's the life of Christ.
So there's only one purpose,which is building up the body of
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Christ through love.
That's the only purpose.
Okay, now some people are likebut I want to be on stage, I
want to have attention, I wantto be the mouth, I want to be
the hands, I want to be the feet, I want to be the face, I want
to be the lips.
We can desire to be somethingother than what God's made us,
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but Paul's going to address thatand he's gonna say it's never
about that.
God knows you and he made youvery, very special and you have
all the.
You're perfect and you have allthe honor that God wants to
give you.
So he says here for as the bodyis one and has many members,
but all the members of that onebody being many are one body,
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being many are one body, so alsois Christ.
So what he's saying here isthis is really all about the
body of Christ.
That's why we call the churchthe body of Christ.
Every believer in the world,whether in a church building
this morning or not, they're apart of the body of Christ and
it says we are all members ofeach other.
That's why you can never hateanother member of Jesus.
(28:00):
You can have disagreements, andwhen there are disagreements,
it's generally because one orboth of those people are walking
in their flesh, trusting inthemselves, living by their own
resources instead of by theSpirit of God.
They're mindful of the thingsof earth, not the things of
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heaven, and that's what createsthe conflict, because when the
body of Christ is working rightand everyone's filled with the
Spirit, the result is perfectharmony, unity, love caring for
one another it's awesome.
Love caring for one anotherit's awesome.
It's really beautiful to see.
Our gifts are expressions ofGod's love for one another.
(28:44):
So God wants you to know howmuch he loves you and he's put
people around you so that youcan know it, feel it, experience
it.
I know more how God loves mebecause of my wife and how she
loves me, and that relationshipis also a picture of this love.
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These expressions of the HolySpirit, these manifestations of
the Spirit.
They are never about ourselves.
They're never for ourselves.
See, the devil doesn't mind ifyou get a gift.
He just wants you to see youfocus on yourself.
He just wants you to focus onyourself, because that means
you're walking in the flesh andyour gift is going to be useless
(29:28):
.
God can't use your gift whenyou're focused on self.
When you're living the selflife, your gift becomes
pointless, worthless, becauseit's a spiritual gift.
It's not a fleshly gift.
It's a spiritual gift.
I can't teach in the spirit ifI'm focused on myself and what I
(29:50):
need to get out of it or what Ineed to feel from you or what I
want to communicate.
Well, this has been on my mindthis week, so I'm going to just
spend the entire sermon talkingabout what I've been thinking
about.
That is not spiritual teaching.
Spiritual teaching is.
This is what the Word of Godsays.
This is what it means.
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Let's lift our eyes to Jesus,even though that might not be
what I feel like doing.
Let's lift our eyes to Jesus,even though that might not be
what I feel like doing.
If I got the gift of serving,but I need recognition, that
means I'm doing it in the flesh.
If I have the gift ofadministration, but I put my own
(30:34):
interests first and I want tomake things just the way I want
them to be, then that's notgoing to work out as well.
I'm not walking in the humilityor faith in that way, and I
can't speak God's word if I'mlooking to the like in prophecy
or discernment.
I can't speak God's word if I'mlooking to the wisdom of men or
expressing my own mind or myown emotions.
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This is how vital it is to keepus focused on Jesus, because
when we're focused on Jesus, wecan operate in our spiritual
gifts, we can serve the Lord,because it's not about me, it's
about Jesus living through me,and I love that he lives through
me and I believe that he livesthrough me, and I believe that
(31:16):
he lives through me and I'mtotally fine surrendering my
entire life to him so that hecan live through me.
Are we sure that we're all partof one body?
What about people I don't like?
What about the weird Christians?
What about the ugly Christians?
What about the people I don'tlike?
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Well, let's see what Paul says,for by one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body, whetherJews or Greeks.
That means people who werereligious or people who had no
religion at all, whether slavesor free, and we have all been
made to drink into one spirit.
For, in fact, the body is notone member, but many.
(32:02):
If the foot should say becauseI'm not a hand, I'm not of the
body, is it therefore not of thebody?
And if the ear should saybecause I'm not an eye, I am not
of the body, is it thereforenot of the body?
If the whole body were an eye,I am not of the body.
Is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye,where would be the hearing If
the whole body were hearing?
Where would be the smelling?
But now, god has set the members, each one of them, in the body,
(32:27):
just as he pleased.
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now, indeed, there are manymembers, yet one body, and I
cannot say to the hand I have noneed of you, nor again the hand
to the feet, I have no need ofyou.
No, much rather, those membersof the body which seem to be
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weaker are necessary, and thosemembers of the body which we
think to be less honorable.
On these we bestow greaterhonor and our unpresentable
parts with greater modesty.
But our presentable parts haveno need.
But God has composed the body,having given greater honor to
(33:10):
that part which lacks it, andthat there should be no schism
in the body, no division, butthat the members should have the
same care one for another.
So this means each person inthe church, which is the body of
Christ, is equal, equal butdifferent.
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Okay, some parts of the bodyare always covered, but they're
still necessary.
And this is an illustrationabout how pride is disruptive to
the purpose of the body.
Pride can be disruptive too tothe purpose of the body.
So keep that thing covered.
Okay, pride, like humility,keep it covered.
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But the whole purpose of thesegifts is each person should be
cared for.
Each person should be cared for.
I can't, some people don't needto hear me teach.
That's fine.
But they need a hug from you,or they need you to come
alongside and help them gettheir finances in order, or they
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need you to exhort them orencourage them or maybe even
bring some correction into theirlife.
You know what?
You probably shouldn't havesaid that you probably shouldn't
have done that, because thatdoesn't line with the love of
Christ.
That might be your gift.
What is your gift?
We should care for each otherwith our gift.
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I do.
I know I have the gift of Godto teach and to shepherd and I
do it for the body and I dodevote my life to this purpose
and calling.
And it's not always easy andit's not always enjoyable it
really isn't.
But knowing that the people inthe church are being cared for
by learning God's word is mywhole passion here at church.
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But in our home I don't teachthat much.
I'm just me, and my wife and Iare just one and our love for
each other.
I'm not teaching her all thetime because this is my gift to
the church.
Yes, we're parts of the churchand we do church at home
sometimes, but it's not like I'mjust teaching all the time
(35:21):
wherever I go.
Thus says the Lord, although Itry sometimes and it doesn't go.
So again, I ask you what isyour gift?
You've got to think about this.
You should know.
How did God make you?
It's exciting.
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It's a clue to your purpose andwhat you've been created for.
You'll discover it as yousurrender all to Jesus.
I'm going to say that one moretime for the people in the back
You'll discover your gift as yousurrender all to Jesus.
When we hold back parts of ourlife, parts of our heart, we
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will find that our gift mayelude us, our purpose might
elude us, because we're mixinglife sources.
We're partly Jesus and partlyourselves.
Jesus says listen, this is anall or nothing deal.
I am your Lord and Savior oryou're living your own life.
(36:27):
Good luck with that right.
He invites us to surrendereverything.
Then you will discover yourpurpose and then you step
forward to care for others.
So when do we need to use ourspiritual gifts?
Well, paul says this if onemember suffers, all members
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suffer with it.
If one member is honored, allmembers rejoice with it.
So when things are bad, connectwith people and serve them your
gift.
And when circumstances seemgood and are good, connect with
people and serve them your gift.
So, in good times and bad,that's when we're supposed to be
(37:11):
using our spiritual gift.
What's the key here?
The key is to engage withpeople.
That takes courage, becausepeople are scary.
People bite, people hurt us andmost of us shut off our lives
(37:31):
from people and we're just finebeing alone.
The problem is we weren'tcreated to do that.
We were created to beinterdependent with people.
And that takes courage, andcourage flows from love.
You will never be able toconnect with people if you don't
know how much God loves you andhow much you might be missing
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out on different experiences ofhis love by not connecting with
people and receiving their giftsin your life.
Why should you go to church?
Because God loves you and hewants to speak through the
pastor to you with the gift ofteaching.
But also there's other peoplewith other gifts and those can
be just as important, if notmuch more important, to your
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life.
But sometimes you need toconnect with them over a coffee
or just in the greeting time orafter church or before church.
Spend time connecting withpeople.
Love people, because love justgives a darn about people.
You will love people whenyou're filled with his spirit,
(38:36):
not just people who look likeyou or who you're comfortable
with, but all people, especiallythose who you might not
understand and again, this isnot for you because Jesus
understands them.
He wants to use you spiritually, to give them what they need
spiritually so that they canknow that he loves them.
That's what the purpose of thisis.
Maybe people are suffering andwe withhold our love from them
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because we don't understand them.
We don't understand whatthey're going through.
That's why the church isstruggling.
That's why the church issuffering.
Maybe people offend me so Idon't want to love with them.
Maybe people voted wrong, so Idon't want to love them.
I don't want to spend time withthem.
I don't want to love with them.
Maybe people voted wrong so Idon't want to love them.
I don't want to spend time withthem.
I don't want to give them thetime of day.
Maybe they said something Idisagree with.
Maybe they look like someonewho hurt me or hurt my family.
(39:23):
Maybe I just don't trust them.
But in the Spirit I can lovethem through my gift, and it
takes courage, and again it's.
Are we all surrendered or arewe going to still try to control
who I love, who I care for?
You know what.
I'm not going to go to thatchief because he's going to beat
(39:46):
me.
If that's our heart, there's adifferent life we can have,
which is the life that says mylife is not my own, but Jesus
lives through me and I will lovemy enemies and I will pray for
those who persecute me and I'mnot going to do anything else.
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The Spirit will flow throughthat heart.
Paul goes on.
He says now you are the body ofChrist and members individually
, and God has appointed these inthe church First apostles,
second prophets, third, teachers.
After that, miracles, gifts ofhealing, helps, administrations,
varieties of tongues.
(40:27):
Are all apostles, are allprophets, are all teachers, are
all workers of miracles.
Do all have gifts of healings,are all workers of miracles, do
all have gifts of healings.
Do all speak with tongues, doall interpret, but earnestly
desire the best gifts.
And yet I will show you a moreexcellent way.
So here, it's clearly taught inthe Bible that there's no single
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gift that shows that you're aChristian.
There are some churches thatfalsely teach that you have to
speak in tongues to be aChristian, and that's not true.
He says do all speak withtongues?
No, okay, but it's no singlegift shows you're a Christian
and it's very clear we are toseek Jesus first for who he is,
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not what he gives.
Okay, the greatest gift is thatJesus loves you, and we're
going to find out about thatnext week, because next week we
get into the whole love chapter,so we're going to study love,
we're going to learn about love.
But here's a sneak peek thegreatest gift is that Jesus
loves you and when we seek God,he says don't seek him for his
gifts, seek him for him.
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He is love.
He is the greatest gift and hegives himself unreserved to you.
He doesn't count anythingagainst you.
He says I'm giving you myself,all of me, and then there'll be
gifts on top of that as well.
When we're seeking him for who,he is spending time with him
(41:53):
daily, really connecting withJesus.
That is the greatest gift,because the greatest gift is
Jesus gives you his heartbeatand when you're spending time
with him, his heartbeat producesin you love, love, love.
(42:15):
Love for your friends, love foryour family, love for your kids
, love for your enemies and lovefor crazy people in the street.
Love, that is the greatest giftand that is the entire point of
spiritual gifts and that is theentire point of spiritual gifts
.
So how do I live in the Spiritand use this gift?
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It's simple.
You just believe that you diedwith Jesus on the cross and you
rose again with him.
You believe step one.
Step two you ask Jesus to livethrough you.
Say, jesus, I give you my wholelife, live through me.
(42:58):
Step three step forward to lovepeople, how you've specifically
been designed.
Just live your life focused onothers, letting that heartbeat
of love flow through you.
And so, as the guys come backup to lead worship for us and to
lead us into just a time ofresponding to Jesus, we're going
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to pray that God would fill uswith his spirit.
Now.
Jesus already lives in you, ifyou believe.
But there's a moment in timesometimes where we surrender all
, and sometimes we do thisregularly.
We come back to Jesus and wesay I need to renew my heart
(43:52):
with you, I need to renew mygiving my whole life to you and
I feel like maybe this is themoment for that.
Father, we are so focused onourselves sometimes and we're
(44:13):
protective and we've been hurtand we need healing and Jesus,
we need your love and I pray,jesus, that there would be, just
like CT Studd prayed for hischurch that they would be filled
with your spirit, they'd befilled with your character and
(44:34):
they'd be filled with yourspirit.
They'd be filled with yourcharacter and they'd be filled
with your love.
And it was manifested as theygave their lives for their
enemies and for the people ofthis world.
Jesus, I pray that this churchand all your churches would be
filled with a heart ofself-sacrifice, that we would be
willing to be less, that wewould be willing to be less,
(44:56):
that we would be willing to walkwith humility and walk with
faith in Jesus, that we wouldnot have any worry or fear about
surrendering our lives for you,because we've already
surrendered our lives to you.
Our lives are not our own andwe've been bought with a price.
And, jesus, fill us with theheartbeat of love.
(45:17):
Fill us with your heart for thepeople of this island, jesus,
fill us with you.
We ask this Lord, we ask it, weneed it and we don't want to
leave here without it.
We don't want to leave herewith the same self-focused life.
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We want to live fully,completely surrendered to you.
Where else could we go to findlife but to Jesus Christ, the
risen Savior, the Messiah of theworld, the Savior of the world.
God, the great God over allthings.
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Jesus, you are everything.
We love you, we worship you andwe give ourselves freshly to
you, every part of our hearts.
Jesus, we surrender.
In your name, we pray amen.
Father, we thank you so much for your word that
guides us through all thestrangeness of life, all the
difficulties of life, and,father, I thank you for the
trials that we go through, thatreveal where our hearts are at.
And we don't like going throughtrials, father, but they are
(00:49):
necessary.
But they are necessary.
And, father, I pray that youwould help us to run to you in
the midst of our trials and whenwe're hurting and when we're
struggling and when we'reconfused and when we don't know
how to respond.
Help us to turn to you firstand to sit at your feet and wait
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upon our God and Father, teachus today about the gifts of the
Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen, amen, the Holy Spirit.
This sermon is called what Arethe Gifts of the Spirit, part 2.
So, if you'd like to go backand listen to last week, we
(01:33):
introed it and talked about howthe basic purpose of all the
gifts of the Spirit is so thatthe Lord can speak to you and
through you, and it's alwaysgoing to be focused on Jesus,
not on ourselves.
Basically, that's what it wasabout.
But what's it going to looklike when you are filled with
the Spirit and when you'rewalking in the Spirit and the
gifts of the Spirit are flowingthrough you.
(01:54):
What's it going to look like?
What's it going to be like?
It's going to look like love.
In Africa, back in the early1900s, a man named CT Studd went
and he started a mission downin the Congo and it was in an
unreached area.
It was basically the lastunreached area of the world
among tribes that were cannibals.
(02:16):
There's lots of great cannibaljokes but I'm not going to tell
any today.
But they are delicious.
That was just for free.
I didn't even think about thatone, that was just natural.
So he goes down there and hestarts sharing the gospel and
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planting churches and a bunch ofthe guys get saved and it's a
really neat thing.
But CT Studd, after a few yearsof just doing church, he started
to just grieve because,although they acknowledged that
they were saved, they believedin Jesus, a lot of them kept
acting the same way, notnecessarily the big sins, like
they stopped eating people, butthey were still being unkind,
(03:01):
they were still being unloving,they were still, you know,
acting like everybody else,responding in selfish ways.
Okay.
And so CT Studd started prayingand he started to have a real
burden for them to be filledwith the Holy Spirit.
And what did he mean by that?
(03:21):
Did he mean he wanted them allto speak in tongues or be able
to do miracles?
That's not what he meant atthat time.
What he meant was he wantedthem to be filled with the
character of Jesus.
He wanted Jesus to be livingthrough them.
So we started praying for this,and this is the story he tells
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of when he knew that God hadbegun to answer his prayers.
There was a man who had been acannibal and he had later been
going to church for years andthen finally he got a heart that
he wanted to start telling lotsof people about Jesus.
He wanted to start going.
So he would go and journey outand start spreading the gospel,
(04:04):
and he would go to differenttribes and back then the chief
ran his tribe.
So he would go to the chief.
And he went to this one chiefthat had never heard about Jesus
and he told him the gospel.
And the chief said I don't wantto believe this.
And so he took a club and beathim, beat him, beat him to a
bloody pulp.
And this Christian man.
(04:26):
He got up and he shook theking's hand and he said thank
you that I get to share in thesufferings of Jesus.
You have just done somethingvery honorable to me, that I get
to share in the sufferings ofChrist.
And so he beat him again andagain.
He got up and thanked him againand said it doesn't change
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anything, you're still loved byGod, I still love you.
And so the chief just put himin prison, his little whatever
prison they had there hut.
He was tied up in the hut andthen six more of the brothers
from his church heard about whathappened and they also came to
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the king, the chief, and theywere beaten after telling him
about the love of Christ and thegospel, that God saves sinners
and that he could be saved if hebelieved in Jesus.
And he beat them and they alsorose up, thanked him and went
into the prison.
(05:31):
How do you think that story ends?
You think you got tired of it?
What do you think happened tothe chief?
What's your guess?
Yeah, absolutely.
Of course.
He would right If someone lovesyou so much that they're going
(05:53):
to, even though you makeyourself their enemy, even
though you talk unkindly to them, even though you treat them
unkindly, but they treat youwith love in response.
That's what changes hearts,that's what saves people, that's
what opens up our heart to beable to receive the love of God.
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And, yes, that chief and hisentire village got saved because
of love.
And a very, very simple message.
And the message is Jesus Christcan save sinners and he wants
to save sinners.
And if you're a sinner, thatqualifies you for being loved by
Jesus and saved by Jesus.
(06:35):
He wants to save you.
It's the only qualification.
Just be a sinner, okay, then hewill come and live through you.
He will make you holy andrighteous and the kind of person
that honors God with their life.
I think that story is extremelyrelevant to our world today,
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don't you?
Because there's been a lot ofunkind things being said, a lot
of things that just don't lineup with the heart of love in the
world today, and so I want youguys to apply this love message
to everything that you do andall the conversations that you
(07:18):
have.
I want our church to have areputation that, no matter what,
we will love our enemies, wewill pray for those who
persecute us, and that will bethe only thing we are known for.
Amen.
Thank you, john.
I love that.
Amen.
You can clap for that.
Amen, Jesus, right.
So that's what it looks like tobe filled with the Spirit.
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Okay, now we're going to studyin 1 Corinthians, 12, verse 7
through 31.
Today we're going to study howthe Holy Spirit and the gifts of
the Spirit work in the church.
So let's begin by readingchapter 12, verse 7.
But the manifestation of theSpirit that means the way the
Holy Spirit is revealed is givento each one for the profit of
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all, for to one is given theword of wisdom through the
Spirit, to another the word of.
So here's a list of spiritualgifts.
To another different kinds oftongues and to another
interpretation of tongues.
So here's a list of spiritualgifts, but this is not actually
(08:37):
a complete list, because thepoint of this chapter is not to
give you a complete list of allthe ways that the Holy Spirit
can gift us, but the point ofthe Spirit is to teach us how
the Holy Spirit and the gifts ofthe Spirit work.
So we're going to pause righthere as we're going through this
(08:58):
, but we are going to study amore complete list as you
combine all the texts fromaround the New Testament, just
so we have an understanding ofall these gifts, and then we can
come back together at the endand we're going to see how they
all work together for the goodof each person in God's family.
So there's basically threeclassifications of spiritual
(09:20):
gifts that we can see in theBible.
The first one is miraculousgifts, and they're going to put
a list of these miraculous giftsup on the screen here, so, as
you can see, apostle and theseare the verses that talk about
it but I'll tell you, apostleswere.
It was a miraculous gift.
It was someone that wasspecifically chosen by God, and
(09:40):
there was 12 of them.
Right, there was the 11, thatwell, there's 12 that walked
with Jesus, but then Judas wasone, so he doesn't count, he
gets, you know, erased off it,and then Paul is made the 12th
apostle, and so the apostleswere.
They were able to remember allthat Jesus did and they were
able to teach it and establishthe church, and so it's kind of
(10:03):
like the church is built on thefoundation of these apostles, so
that we see that as amiraculous gift.
Also, the gift of tongues In theBible.
The gift of tongues is whereyou can just speak another
language, a real language thatpeople understand, and why?
Well, it was so that the gospelcould be shared with people who
didn't share your language, andso it could either be a sign
(10:27):
that this was a miraculous powerthat the Holy Spirit was giving
his church, but mostly it wasprobably to communicate the
gospel in a way that it couldnot be just naturally understood
.
But God wanted people to beable to hear this good news, and
so he gave people the gift oftongues.
But there's another way thattongues could be used and we're
going to see this a little bitlater where people could pray in
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tongues, and so it would bekind of like a prayer language.
Maybe it was a tongue like alanguage of angels in some way,
like that that God could givepeople.
But if that was the case, youknow some people who had that
gift would speak it in churchand they were kind of proud of
it, and we're going to see inchapter 14 that they would just
stand up in the middle of thesermon and start speaking in
tongues and it was creating allkinds of chaos and Paul was like
(11:12):
calm down, you shouldn't beproud of your gift.
It's cool, but don't do itunless there's someone who has a
gift of interpreting it so thateveryone could understand what
you're saying, because it's notsupposed to be a bunch of just
chaos in God's church, becausehe wants it to be full of order.
So there's tongues, which is amiracle, miraculous gift,
(11:33):
interpretation miracles, justflat-on miracles.
That was happening and itshould follow the church.
Wherever the church goes, youshould see miraculous things
happening and healing.
There should be definitelyhealing.
God does heal, he healsmiraculously and he gets the
glory when he does.
So those are all very specificthings.
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Should we pray for those things?
Yes, not necessarily apostle,because there was 12 of them,
that's kind of done.
But all the rest of them, Ithink, are very, very valid for
today and can be usedappropriately today if we seek
God's guidance and just to beled by the Spirit.
But remember, all this comesoff of what we've already
(12:17):
learned about.
What is the purpose of thegifts?
That's not about us.
It's about glorifying Jesus andhelping people to believe in
Jesus and assisting them andcoming alongside people to help
them.
All right, then we have thisnext group, which is called
enabling gifts, and these aregifts that can come, that they
can be for maybe a short periodof time where you need some
(12:38):
extra help, you need some power,and so we have faith.
Sometimes you need a gift offaith when you're going through
something really difficult oryou know that God's called you
to do something and you justneed an extra measure of faith
on top of just what's expectedor normal.
God can give people a gift offaith.
(12:58):
Also, discernment Sometimes youneed to know what's right and
what's wrong, what direction togo, and God will just give you a
gift of discernment.
And it's really that simple andit's not something that people
have just like all the timenecessarily and sometimes people
have it a lot, but it's notlike everything they say is
right.
(13:18):
But God can specifically justhelp you in your understanding
and give you that gift ofdiscernment.
Wisdom, kind of the same thinghow to apply God's Word.
Or maybe you got a project thatyou're working on and you need
God's wisdom.
God can certainly give that toyou.
Knowledge A gift of knowledgeis knowing something that would
otherwise be impossible to know.
(13:40):
Like, I just know that you havesomething going on and there's
nothing in your life that wouldtell me that.
But the Holy Spirit is justtelling me go talk to that
person, love them, care for them, because you don't know what's
going on, but you just have thisinside you.
It's a knowledge, you knowwhat's going on, and that's
another enabling gift.
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Okay, now we have, we get intothe big one, which is the team
gifts.
You can call these team gifts.
These are gifts that you cancall these team gifts.
These are gifts that they'retask-oriented.
That's how the ministry getsdone in the church.
Okay, so how many of you wereable to take your spiritual
(14:21):
gifts test this week?
Or maybe you've taken it before?
Okay, so several people wereable to take your.
I got a bunch of emails, abunch of texts of people sharing
what they got with me, and sothese are the ones that would be
revealed through that test.
Okay, because you can't reallytake a test for the other
miraculous ones.
But these ones are like how Godhas made you and every person I
(14:43):
believe we're going to see inthe Bible says every person has
one of these gifts at least, ifnot two or three.
So this directly applies to you.
This is something special abouthow God has made you.
So evangelism that means, likeit says, you're passionately
leading others to the savingknowledge of Christ.
(15:05):
So that's just a gift.
Some people are giftedevangelists.
I think of Pastor Matt, who washere before.
I think he was a very giftedevangelists.
I think of Pastor Matt, who washere before.
I think he was a very giftedevangelist.
He just always had a passion toshare Jesus with people and he
was great at it.
I've known many people withthat gift.
It doesn't mean you have tohave the gift of evangelism to
(15:26):
be able to share the gospel withpeople.
It just means that God hasgifted some people with a very
special gift to do it, and theyjust do it all the time and they
love doing it.
The second one is prophecy.
This is boldly and fearlesslyproclaiming God's truth.
So when you just feel like youhave a burden and you know God's
(15:46):
truth and you have a scripturethat you feel like this is
important for today, that can bethe gift of prophecy and that
might happen to you all.
The time where you're just likeman, I feel like God wants me
to speak the truth into thisperson's life or this situation,
that can be the gift ofprophecy.
Teaching is making clear thetruth of God's word with
simplicity and accuracy, sothat's a spiritual gift.
(16:09):
Now you can learn skills ofbeing a teacher just by going to
college and getting a degree inteaching right, but there's a
spiritual gift of teacher thatcan take the truths of God and
communicate them in a way, andGod is actually using them as
his teacher.
Exhortation and I know some,several of you had this gift and
(16:32):
you were like what is that?
Okay, exhortation is motivatingothers to action.
Motivating others to action.
So if you think about it, it'slike coming alongside somebody
and saying, hey, let's walk thisdirection towards Jesus.
It's kind of like pictureyourself putting your arm around
him and saying this is the wayto go.
(16:53):
Come, follow me, let's do ittogether, let's go together or
this is the right path.
That's exhortation.
Shepherding is overseeing,training or like we would think
of, like coaching or leading isthe gift of shepherd.
So a lot of times shepherdteacher go together and we call
(17:13):
that like a pastor, and soshepherding is kind of like you
have your eye on people andwhat's important in the.
You know what's maybe dangerousfor them.
You have your eye on protectingthem and leading them to what
is true and what is best forthem.
Serving Many people have thegift of serving and the gift of
serving is where you providepractical help.
(17:36):
That could be physical,practical help.
You know, helping old ladiesacross the street might be your
spiritual gift, but maybebringing in some snacks for
everybody might be just how youhonor the Lord with your life.
Or it could be servingspiritually also, which is just
caring for people, listening topeople when they need to share,
(17:57):
when they need to vent.
That might be a way of servingas well.
So there can be a lot, a lot,both sides of like physical and
spiritual there.
Mercy, showing the gift of mercy.
This is when you can identifyand comfort people who are in
need.
And I like to think of this oneas when you feel the pain that
(18:21):
other people are going throughand that can be a true spiritual
gift.
And this gift can be kind ofdangerous because you can feel
so much pain in the world aroundyou that you just think that
the world is so painful that youcan get burnt out and you can
get kind of raw if you have thisgift, if you're not going to
Jesus yourself for comfort andfor him to be living through you
(18:46):
and comforting and lovingthrough you.
So if you have that gift, justmake sure, with all these gifts,
make sure that you'reconnecting with Jesus and
receiving his love before youare loving other people in this
way.
Okay, because it's vital thatwe connect with him first.
Other people can have the giftof giving, which is releasing
material resources to furtherthe work of the church.
(19:10):
Other people can have the giftof administrating, which is like
organizing, can be leading, canbe taking care of the practical
responsibilities of the church.
So these all are like how thechurch can operate together.
So they're basically divided.
If you look at that group, itcould be divided between two
(19:31):
categories there's the speakingtypes and there's the
ministering types, like thedoing parts, and that doesn't
mean that if you do one, youcan't do the other.
They all kind of all intermix.
But in 1 Peter 4, verse 10, hesays this.
He says, as each one hasreceived a gift Okay, so what's
(19:53):
it say?
Each one of you has received agift, minister.
It the word minister meansserve, serve it to one another
as good stewards of the manifoldgrace of God, serve it.
So think of yourself like awaiter in God's restaurant.
Okay, and you have received agift, and he says each one of us
(20:17):
should serve it to one anotherand it will be a blessing to
other people.
So why should you go to church?
Well, not to just sit there,but to serve the gift that
you've been given, Toparticipate, to be part of a
body, with the blood and thebones and the muscles and all
(20:41):
the ligaments and everythingthat works together to build it
up into one body.
That's what this is about.
It's not about for you, it'sfor other people and it says as
good stewards of the manifoldgrace of God.
So the manifold meansmany-sided or diverse.
God's grace can look a milliondifferent ways in a million
(21:04):
different people, but he designseach one perfectly, like a
snowflake, for the benefit ofhis family.
That's why he made you sospecial.
That's why he's given you agift and he gives you grace so
you can serve it to other people.
But grace, how do you get grace?
(21:25):
Well, we study it all the time,we talk about it all the time.
God gives grace to the humbleone, and then we have access to
his grace by faith faith inJesus too.
It's as easy as one, two.
I like that.
We should call our church thatHumility and faith.
(21:48):
That's how grace works, that'show this whole relationship with
God works.
That's called the new covenantand that is how our side of this
.
We get grace and then God pourshis grace on us as we have the
humility and faith.
He pours it on us so that wecan pour it out back on other
(22:09):
people, these specific gifts.
And then he says 1 Peter inverse 11, he says If anyone
speaks, let him speak as theoracles of God.
In other words, believe, haveconfidence that God is going to
speak through you.
If you have the gift ofteaching, step forward and teach
.
Do it, step forward in faithand humility.
He's not saying do it in prideand say I have the gift of God,
(22:31):
so everything I say is the wordof God.
All of you, bow down andworship me.
That's not what he's saying.
He's saying if you havehumility and faith, you can have
all the confidence in the worldthat what you say is going to
be the truth, that God wants youto teach.
If anyone ministers, that meansthose gifts that are more like
behind the scenes he says lethim do it with the ability with
(22:52):
which God supplies that in allthings, god may be glorified
through Jesus Christ, to whombelong.
So it's pretty amazing.
He says if you serve, do itwith confidence, do it with
(23:12):
boldness and do it with theability that God supplies,
you're not doing it with yourown strength.
Some people say, well, I'veserved in church before and I
got burnt out, I got tired andso I don't want to do it again.
I totally understand, and noone's asking you to do it until
(23:35):
you get burnt out.
But God calls us to serve himand he says if you're getting
burnt out, you're doing it thewrong way.
If you're getting burnt out,it's because you were walking in
your own strength, not in thegrace of God.
So there's this entiregeneration of people that have
(23:56):
been told serve God, serve God,serve God.
And you know what, if you wantto grow, come to church and
serve and do more, do more, domore.
And then we feel guilty when wedon't feel like doing it
anymore.
But that's the system thatGod's made.
God says I didn't design you toserve me out of your own
strength.
I want you to get tired ifyou're serving that way, because
(24:18):
there's a different way,there's a new way, and the new
way is total surrender to God'sgrace, god's will.
We give him our whole heart, wetrust him with humility and
faith, and then he fills us withhis spirit, with his strength,
with his life.
And now, when I'm servingpeople, I'm not doing it through
(24:39):
my own strength, but it's justan overflowing of the constant
overflowing water that's beenpoured into me is bubbling out
of me, and that's what'sdifferent and that's what we
wanna create.
We wanna create a culture.
We wanna see this culture inthis church, where everyone is a
part of what's going on.
(24:59):
Everyone has a role to play.
We can depend on each other.
We see each person doing whatthey're called to do and they're
not doing it in their ownstrength, but they're receiving
it from Jesus for saying Jesus,I give you my whole life, I give
you my whole heart, do with mewhatever you want, and then they
step forward to serve the Lordwith humility and faith and he
(25:24):
can take that and he can doanything.
He can give any spiritual giftto someone that will trust him
and humble themselves and givetheir bodies and their lives to
Jesus for him to live throughthem.
So hopefully, you all were ableto take your test.
(25:45):
If you weren't and you want todo, we have the QR code
available.
We'll work on that.
They'll throw the QR code uphere at the end of church and
you can take your spiritualgifts test.
Oh, there we go.
Look man, you're killing it upthere today.
Well done, guys.
So you can feel free to takethat, go ahead and leave that up
(26:06):
there for a minute, while I goon to the back in our text in 1
Corinthians, chapter 12.
So it says, moving on, it saysbut one and the same Spirit
works all these things,distributing to each one as he
wills.
As he wills, so, through Hiswisdom and His love, jesus
(26:29):
uniquely gifts each person aspiritual gift.
There's no competition, no oneis better than anyone else and
no gifts are better than anyoneelse, because it's the same
spirit and it's the same powerthat's flowing through you.
It's the life of Christ.
So there's only one purpose,which is building up the body of
(26:52):
Christ through love.
That's the only purpose.
Okay, now some people are likebut I want to be on stage, I
want to have attention, I wantto be the mouth, I want to be
the hands, I want to be the feet, I want to be the face, I want
to be the lips.
We can desire to be somethingother than what God's made us,
(27:15):
but Paul's going to address thatand he's gonna say it's never
about that.
God knows you and he made youvery, very special and you have
all the.
You're perfect and you have allthe honor that God wants to
give you.
So he says here for as the bodyis one and has many members,
but all the members of that onebody being many are one body,
(27:36):
being many are one body, so alsois Christ.
So what he's saying here isthis is really all about the
body of Christ.
That's why we call the churchthe body of Christ.
Every believer in the world,whether in a church building
this morning or not, they're apart of the body of Christ and
it says we are all members ofeach other.
That's why you can never hateanother member of Jesus.
(28:00):
You can have disagreements, andwhen there are disagreements,
it's generally because one orboth of those people are walking
in their flesh, trusting inthemselves, living by their own
resources instead of by theSpirit of God.
They're mindful of the thingsof earth, not the things of
(28:22):
heaven, and that's what createsthe conflict, because when the
body of Christ is working rightand everyone's filled with the
Spirit, the result is perfectharmony, unity, love caring for
one another it's awesome.
Love caring for one anotherit's awesome.
It's really beautiful to see.
Our gifts are expressions ofGod's love for one another.
(28:44):
So God wants you to know howmuch he loves you and he's put
people around you so that youcan know it, feel it, experience
it.
I know more how God loves mebecause of my wife and how she
loves me, and that relationshipis also a picture of this love.
(29:07):
These expressions of the HolySpirit, these manifestations of
the Spirit.
They are never about ourselves.
They're never for ourselves.
See, the devil doesn't mind ifyou get a gift.
He just wants you to see youfocus on yourself.
He just wants you to focus onyourself, because that means
you're walking in the flesh andyour gift is going to be useless
(29:28):
.
God can't use your gift whenyou're focused on self.
When you're living the selflife, your gift becomes
pointless, worthless, becauseit's a spiritual gift.
It's not a fleshly gift.
It's a spiritual gift.
I can't teach in the spirit ifI'm focused on myself and what I
(29:50):
need to get out of it or what Ineed to feel from you or what I
want to communicate.
Well, this has been on my mindthis week, so I'm going to just
spend the entire sermon talkingabout what I've been thinking
about.
That is not spiritual teaching.
Spiritual teaching is.
This is what the Word of Godsays.
This is what it means.
(30:12):
Let's lift our eyes to Jesus,even though that might not be
what I feel like doing.
Let's lift our eyes to Jesus,even though that might not be
what I feel like doing.
If I got the gift of serving,but I need recognition, that
means I'm doing it in the flesh.
If I have the gift ofadministration, but I put my own
(30:34):
interests first and I want tomake things just the way I want
them to be, then that's notgoing to work out as well.
I'm not walking in the humilityor faith in that way, and I
can't speak God's word if I'mlooking to the like in prophecy
or discernment.
I can't speak God's word if I'mlooking to the wisdom of men or
expressing my own mind or myown emotions.
(30:55):
This is how vital it is to keepus focused on Jesus, because
when we're focused on Jesus, wecan operate in our spiritual
gifts, we can serve the Lord,because it's not about me, it's
about Jesus living through me,and I love that he lives through
me and I believe that he livesthrough me, and I believe that
(31:16):
he lives through me and I'mtotally fine surrendering my
entire life to him so that hecan live through me.
Are we sure that we're all partof one body?
What about people I don't like?
What about the weird Christians?
What about the ugly Christians?
What about the people I don'tlike?
(31:39):
Well, let's see what Paul says,for by one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body, whetherJews or Greeks.
That means people who werereligious or people who had no
religion at all, whether slavesor free, and we have all been
made to drink into one spirit.
For, in fact, the body is notone member, but many.
(32:02):
If the foot should say becauseI'm not a hand, I'm not of the
body, is it therefore not of thebody?
And if the ear should saybecause I'm not an eye, I am not
of the body, is it thereforenot of the body?
If the whole body were an eye,I am not of the body.
Is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye,where would be the hearing If
the whole body were hearing?
Where would be the smelling?
But now, god has set the members, each one of them, in the body,
(32:27):
just as he pleased.
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now, indeed, there are manymembers, yet one body, and I
cannot say to the hand I have noneed of you, nor again the hand
to the feet, I have no need ofyou.
No, much rather, those membersof the body which seem to be
(32:48):
weaker are necessary, and thosemembers of the body which we
think to be less honorable.
On these we bestow greaterhonor and our unpresentable
parts with greater modesty.
But our presentable parts haveno need.
But God has composed the body,having given greater honor to
(33:10):
that part which lacks it, andthat there should be no schism
in the body, no division, butthat the members should have the
same care one for another.
So this means each person inthe church, which is the body of
Christ, is equal, equal butdifferent.
(33:31):
Okay, some parts of the bodyare always covered, but they're
still necessary.
And this is an illustrationabout how pride is disruptive to
the purpose of the body.
Pride can be disruptive too tothe purpose of the body.
So keep that thing covered.
Okay, pride, like humility,keep it covered.
(33:54):
But the whole purpose of thesegifts is each person should be
cared for.
Each person should be cared for.
I can't, some people don't needto hear me teach.
That's fine.
But they need a hug from you,or they need you to come
alongside and help them gettheir finances in order, or they
(34:16):
need you to exhort them orencourage them or maybe even
bring some correction into theirlife.
You know what?
You probably shouldn't havesaid that you probably shouldn't
have done that, because thatdoesn't line with the love of
Christ.
That might be your gift.
What is your gift?
We should care for each otherwith our gift.
(34:37):
I do.
I know I have the gift of Godto teach and to shepherd and I
do it for the body and I dodevote my life to this purpose
and calling.
And it's not always easy andit's not always enjoyable it
really isn't.
But knowing that the people inthe church are being cared for
by learning God's word is mywhole passion here at church.
(35:00):
But in our home I don't teachthat much.
I'm just me, and my wife and Iare just one and our love for
each other.
I'm not teaching her all thetime because this is my gift to
the church.
Yes, we're parts of the churchand we do church at home
sometimes, but it's not like I'mjust teaching all the time
(35:21):
wherever I go.
Thus says the Lord, although Itry sometimes and it doesn't go.
So again, I ask you what isyour gift?
You've got to think about this.
You should know.
How did God make you?
It's exciting.
(35:42):
It's a clue to your purpose andwhat you've been created for.
You'll discover it as yousurrender all to Jesus.
I'm going to say that one moretime for the people in the back
You'll discover your gift as yousurrender all to Jesus.
When we hold back parts of ourlife, parts of our heart, we
(36:06):
will find that our gift mayelude us, our purpose might
elude us, because we're mixinglife sources.
We're partly Jesus and partlyourselves.
Jesus says listen, this is anall or nothing deal.
I am your Lord and Savior oryou're living your own life.
(36:27):
Good luck with that right.
He invites us to surrendereverything.
Then you will discover yourpurpose and then you step
forward to care for others.
So when do we need to use ourspiritual gifts?
Well, paul says this if onemember suffers, all members
(36:49):
suffer with it.
If one member is honored, allmembers rejoice with it.
So when things are bad, connectwith people and serve them your
gift.
And when circumstances seemgood and are good, connect with
people and serve them your gift.
So, in good times and bad,that's when we're supposed to be
(37:11):
using our spiritual gift.
What's the key here?
The key is to engage withpeople.
That takes courage, becausepeople are scary.
People bite, people hurt us andmost of us shut off our lives
(37:31):
from people and we're just finebeing alone.
The problem is we weren'tcreated to do that.
We were created to beinterdependent with people.
And that takes courage, andcourage flows from love.
You will never be able toconnect with people if you don't
know how much God loves you andhow much you might be missing
(37:53):
out on different experiences ofhis love by not connecting with
people and receiving their giftsin your life.
Why should you go to church?
Because God loves you and hewants to speak through the
pastor to you with the gift ofteaching.
But also there's other peoplewith other gifts and those can
be just as important, if notmuch more important, to your
(38:14):
life.
But sometimes you need toconnect with them over a coffee
or just in the greeting time orafter church or before church.
Spend time connecting withpeople.
Love people, because love justgives a darn about people.
You will love people whenyou're filled with his spirit,
(38:36):
not just people who look likeyou or who you're comfortable
with, but all people, especiallythose who you might not
understand and again, this isnot for you because Jesus
understands them.
He wants to use you spiritually, to give them what they need
spiritually so that they canknow that he loves them.
That's what the purpose of thisis.
Maybe people are suffering andwe withhold our love from them
(39:03):
because we don't understand them.
We don't understand whatthey're going through.
That's why the church isstruggling.
That's why the church issuffering.
Maybe people offend me so Idon't want to love with them.
Maybe people voted wrong, so Idon't want to love them.
I don't want to spend time withthem.
I don't want to love with them.
Maybe people voted wrong so Idon't want to love them.
I don't want to spend time withthem.
I don't want to give them thetime of day.
Maybe they said something Idisagree with.
Maybe they look like someonewho hurt me or hurt my family.
(39:23):
Maybe I just don't trust them.
But in the Spirit I can lovethem through my gift, and it
takes courage, and again it's.
Are we all surrendered or arewe going to still try to control
who I love, who I care for?
You know what.
I'm not going to go to thatchief because he's going to beat
(39:46):
me.
If that's our heart, there's adifferent life we can have,
which is the life that says mylife is not my own, but Jesus
lives through me and I will lovemy enemies and I will pray for
those who persecute me and I'mnot going to do anything else.
(40:07):
The Spirit will flow throughthat heart.
Paul goes on.
He says now you are the body ofChrist and members individually
, and God has appointed these inthe church First apostles,
second prophets, third, teachers.
After that, miracles, gifts ofhealing, helps, administrations,
varieties of tongues.
(40:27):
Are all apostles, are allprophets, are all teachers, are
all workers of miracles.
Do all have gifts of healings,are all workers of miracles, do
all have gifts of healings.
Do all speak with tongues, doall interpret, but earnestly
desire the best gifts.
And yet I will show you a moreexcellent way.
So here, it's clearly taught inthe Bible that there's no single
(40:48):
gift that shows that you're aChristian.
There are some churches thatfalsely teach that you have to
speak in tongues to be aChristian, and that's not true.
He says do all speak withtongues?
No, okay, but it's no singlegift shows you're a Christian
and it's very clear we are toseek Jesus first for who he is,
(41:12):
not what he gives.
Okay, the greatest gift is thatJesus loves you, and we're
going to find out about thatnext week, because next week we
get into the whole love chapter,so we're going to study love,
we're going to learn about love.
But here's a sneak peek thegreatest gift is that Jesus
loves you and when we seek God,he says don't seek him for his
gifts, seek him for him.
(41:33):
He is love.
He is the greatest gift and hegives himself unreserved to you.
He doesn't count anythingagainst you.
He says I'm giving you myself,all of me, and then there'll be
gifts on top of that as well.
When we're seeking him for who,he is spending time with him
(41:53):
daily, really connecting withJesus.
That is the greatest gift,because the greatest gift is
Jesus gives you his heartbeatand when you're spending time
with him, his heartbeat producesin you love, love, love.
(42:15):
Love for your friends, love foryour family, love for your kids
, love for your enemies and lovefor crazy people in the street.
Love, that is the greatest giftand that is the entire point of
spiritual gifts and that is theentire point of spiritual gifts
.
So how do I live in the Spiritand use this gift?
(42:37):
It's simple.
You just believe that you diedwith Jesus on the cross and you
rose again with him.
You believe step one.
Step two you ask Jesus to livethrough you.
Say, jesus, I give you my wholelife, live through me.
(42:58):
Step three step forward to lovepeople, how you've specifically
been designed.
Just live your life focused onothers, letting that heartbeat
of love flow through you.
And so, as the guys come backup to lead worship for us and to
lead us into just a time ofresponding to Jesus, we're going
(43:29):
to pray that God would fill uswith his spirit.
Now.
Jesus already lives in you, ifyou believe.
But there's a moment in timesometimes where we surrender all
, and sometimes we do thisregularly.
We come back to Jesus and wesay I need to renew my heart
(43:52):
with you, I need to renew mygiving my whole life to you and
I feel like maybe this is themoment for that.
Father, we are so focused onourselves sometimes and we're
(44:13):
protective and we've been hurtand we need healing and Jesus,
we need your love and I pray,jesus, that there would be, just
like CT Studd prayed for hischurch that they would be filled
with your spirit, they'd befilled with your character and
(44:34):
they'd be filled with yourspirit.
They'd be filled with yourcharacter and they'd be filled
with your love.
And it was manifested as theygave their lives for their
enemies and for the people ofthis world.
Jesus, I pray that this churchand all your churches would be
filled with a heart ofself-sacrifice, that we would be
willing to be less, that wewould be willing to be less,
(44:56):
that we would be willing to walkwith humility and walk with
faith in Jesus, that we wouldnot have any worry or fear about
surrendering our lives for you,because we've already
surrendered our lives to you.
Our lives are not our own andwe've been bought with a price.
And, jesus, fill us with theheartbeat of love.
(45:17):
Fill us with your heart for thepeople of this island, jesus,
fill us with you.
We ask this Lord, we ask it, weneed it and we don't want to
leave here without it.
We don't want to leave herewith the same self-focused life.
(45:37):
We want to live fully,completely surrendered to you.
Where else could we go to findlife but to Jesus Christ, the
risen Savior, the Messiah of theworld, the Savior of the world.
God, the great God over allthings.
(46:01):
Jesus, you are everything.
We love you, we worship you andwe give ourselves freshly to
you, every part of our hearts.
Jesus, we surrender.
In your name, we pray amen.
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