Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
1 Corinthians 12:1 Now about
the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be
uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were
influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no
one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one
can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds
of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of
service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all
of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is
given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge
by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another
gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to
another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another
speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation
of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he
distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
-- in 1978,
Blue Oyster Cult released a song that would become its signature hit – when you
think of Blue Oyster Cult, you immediately think of the song, “Don’t Fear the
Reaper”
-- but what made this such a
memorable song? – for years, people would listen to it as a whole and enjoy it,
without thinking about what all went into it – that is, until the year 2000,
when Saturday Night Live aired a skit about the recording of the song with
Christopher Walken playing the record producer, which made the song legendary
-- this skit featured Will Ferrell
playing the cowbell – and every time the band recorded the song, Walken would
come back out and famously say, “I liked it, but it needs more cowbell” – and
they would start again, with Will Ferrell becoming more and more outlandish on
the cowbell as the skit continued
-- while there is some truth in
that skit – the cowbell was actually added in after the initial recording of
the song – it brings out a good question – who would ever have thought that a
person in the background playing a cowbell would turn out to be so important to
the success and longevity of this song?
– the cowbell musician is more
recognized than the lead singer, the drummer, or the guitarist – the cowbell is
what everyone remembers from the song
-- and I
bring this up – not just because this is one of my favorite SNL skits of all
time – but because it illustrates so beautifully the spiritual principle that
we are going to talk about today
-- this
morning, we are continuing in our sermon series on the spiritual disciplines
and the spiritual gifts – so far in this series, we have talked about the
necessity of having spiritual discipline in our lives to help grow in grace and
build on our relationship with God – either by reading or listening to the
Bible – through prayer – through fellowship and worship – or through acts such
as fasting and intentionally setting aside things that are distracting us and
hindering our walk with Christ
-- as we
mentioned, you may find just one of these spiritual disciplines meaningful in
your life, or you may be drawn to several of them – the important thing is that
you find some way to stay connected to God and grow in your knowledge and
relationship with Him by being consistent with that spiritual discipline
-- today,
we are shifting gears from what we do to reach God to talk about
what He has done for us – God has given us His very presence
through the person of the Holy Spirit to sanctify and empower us to serve Him
in His Kingdom on earth today – one of the ways the Holy Spirit does this is
through spiritual gifts
II. Spiritual
Gifts
-- look
back with me now at verse 1 and let’s get started in our discussion on
spiritual gifts
1 Corinthians 12:1 Now about
the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be
uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were
influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no
one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one
can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
-- up to
this point in the Epistle of 1 Corinthians, Paul has been addressing some
issues and concerns he had with the church at Corinth – as you probably know,
the church at Corinth was special – they were a very worldly church – they were
mostly Gentiles who had been raised and brought up in pagan religions – and
they had adopted the morals and the customs of the world around them
-- and now,
as they were trying to begin to live this new life with Christ, they didn’t
quite understand what that was supposed to look like – and they ended up
bringing with them a lot of baggage from their pagan upbringing and the culture
around them
-- at the
same time, you had several in the church who really were growing in their faith
and were very devout followers of Jesus – so, this led to conflict and division
among the Christians – and Paul addresses that early on in this epistle, along
with how the church members needed to submit and follow the leadership of the
men that God had placed over them and not the people who had come in and were
claiming to be apostles and leaders, but were not true believers
-- he went
on to write about the problems the church had with incest and sexual immorality
among their members, and what they should do about it – and he gave guidance on
marriage and how they should live and carry on now that they were Christians
-- he
talked about idol worship and eating food that had been sacrificed to idols – and
how the Lord’s supper should be conducted in the church so that it was done in
a righteous manner
-- and when
you read through 1 Corinthians up to this point, you can sense that the
believers there didn’t really know how to live as Christians – even if they
wanted to, they didn’t seem capable of doing so
-- so, here
in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul gives them the answer of how to live for Christ as
believers – how to be obedient to God’s commands and to live righteous and holy
lives for Him, even in their corrupt and pagan society
-- Paul
recognized that the Corinthians had no real understanding of the Holy Spirit or
how the Holy Spirit worked within the lives of believers to sanctify them and
empower them to live holy lives
-- in verse
1, Paul says, “I don’t you to be uninformed” – some translations say,
“ignorant” – of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in your lives
-- Paul is
pointing out – he’s trying to get the Corinthians to see and understand -- that
the key to doing this Christian life doesn’t come from us – it comes from God –
from God’s very presence within us – the Holy Spirit
-- if we
try to live the Christian life on our own, we will fail – we can only do it
through the power of the Holy Spirit within us
-- so, Paul
reminds the Corinthians that when they were pagans, they were led and
influenced by idols and false teachers – but now, they had the Holy Spirit
living within them, who would lead them and influence them and help them to
live their lives for God and not the world any longer
-- we still
struggle with the same things the Corinthians did – the church today looks more
like the folks at Corinth than anything else – we are a very worldly church –
and part of the reason for that is that we have forgotten and neglected the
Holy Spirit in our lives – we’re just not relying on Him and letting Him
influence us and lead us in the way of Christ
-- we’ve
talked about the ministry of the Holy Spirit before, so I’m not going to go
through that this morning – if you have questions, I’ll be happy to meet with
you and talk about them with you
-- this
morning, I want on us to focus on one aspect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit
in our lives that has been given to us to help us become the church that God
wants us to be – and this is through the gifts of the Spirit that Paul talks
about in verse 1
-- so, what
are spiritual gifts?
-- look at verse 4
1 Corinthians 12:4 There are
different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are
different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of
working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
-- spiritual gifts come from God –
they are special, God-given abilities bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon
believers to strengthen the church, serve others, and advance God's Kingdom –
to work for the common good
-- as Paul says here, there are
different kinds of gifts, but they all come from the Spirit – there are
different kinds of service and workings – things God wants us to do – but they
all come from the same source – the Lord God Almighty
-- spiritual gifts are literally
the Holy Spirit working in you and through you to accomplish God’s will in the
world today – gifts that are given to build His church and to share God’s will
and God’s message of hope and salvation to those around us
-- one
thing I want you to understand about spiritual gifts is that these are not the
same thing as natural talents – talents are inherited -- those are things that
you are born with – things like the ability to sing – or to play musical
instruments – or to be really good at athletics or understanding mechanical
things – natural talents are part of you – you have these talents whether you
are a Christian or not
-- spiritual gifts are different –
we know this from their very name – they are a gift – they are something that
has been given to us by God – it is not something that we already had before we
were Christians
-- as we said, the gifts of the
Spirit are supernatural abilities that the Holy Spirit gives us after we
become Christians -- the only people that have these spiritual gifts are
Christians – since they come from the Holy Spirit who dwells within us,
spiritual gifts can only be given to those people who have received Jesus as
their Lord and Savior and put their faith in His atoning death on the cross for
the forgiveness of their sins
-- they are the working of the Holy
Spirit in our lives in specific ways – and, as Paul says here, within a church
there will be different gifts – different kinds of service – and different
kinds of working
-- remember that old commercial that
had the tag line, “Maybe she was born with it -- Maybe it’s Maybellene” – that’s
the difference between natural talents and spiritual gifts -- what we are born
with are talents – what we are given as Christians are the gifts of the Spirit
-- every Christian has a spiritual
gift – and if you are a Christian, that means you – you have a spiritual gift –
a supernatural ability -- to do something for God and His church as the Holy
Spirit works through you to build up the church and minister to this world in
God’s name
-- all Christians have at least one
spiritual gift – some may have more than one – it depends on how the Spirit
distributes the gift and the need of the church at that time
-- some
spiritual gifts are obvious because they are visible – it’s easy to see when
someone is exercising a visible gift of the Spirit – such as teaching or
preaching or speaking in tongues
-- other gifts are not so obvious,
because they are hidden from the world, but still very much needed in the
church – gifts that are sometimes hard to see are those like wisdom or
discernment or faith – these gifts are behind-the-scenes gifts
-- the people who are given these
behind-the-scene gifts aren’t usually standing up before the congregation or
out in the world serving people -- but like we learned from the story of the
cowbell in “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” all spiritual gifts are needed in order for
the body of Christ to reach its potential and for God’s Kingdom to be advanced
on earth
-- there can be no hope of ever
getting a church to operate as it was intended to do until every member
recognizes and begins to exercise the spiritual gift they have received
-- every gift and every person is
needed
– and I want to make sure you
understand that – the church at Corinth struggled with this understanding of
spiritual gifts – they were putting more emphasis on the visible spiritual
gifts, especially speaking in tongues – and looking down on the people who
didn’t have those visible gifts
-- but Scripture makes it clear -- one
gift is no more valuable than another – just because some gifts are more
visible doesn’t make them more valuable or necessary than the gifts that are
hidden behind the scenes
-- if God has given you this gift –
no matter what it is – then there is a reason and purpose for it – and we need
to understand that and not look more favorably on those who have the more
visible gifts nor look down on those who don’t – for all these gifts are needed
– and God has distributed them as He willed
-- as Dave Black points out -- who
knows but that when you get to Heaven, your spiritual gift that was behind the
scenes on earth and not noticed here will stand out and be celebrated like we
recognize and celebrate the cowbell in “Don’t Fear the Reaper”
-- in his book, Forgotten God,
Francis Chan wrote, “The Spirit is intentional as He apportions these spiritual
gifts to each person, according to His will and purposes. The most obvious and
stated purpose of these manifestations is for the good and edification of the
church. The Spirit desires to use us when our hearts are aligned with this
vision, when we are filled with genuine love for the church, and when we desire
to see the church grow in love for God and others.”
-- so, each
believer in this church has been given at least one spiritual gift for the
express purpose of building up the church and accomplishing God’s will – some
visible – some behind-the-scenes – but all valuable and needed in the body of
Christ
– Paul says here in verse 7 that
these gifts are given for the common good – that means that these gifts – these
special abilities that the Spirit give us – aren’t to be hoarded – they aren’t
to be kept to ourselves – they are to be used to for the good of everyone – to build
up God’s church and work for Him in the world today
-- Paul speaks a lot here in 1
Corinthians 12 and over in Romans 12 about the body of Christ – about how every
part is needed for the body to be whole and complete – and that includes the
exercise of the individual spiritual gifts
-- based on Paul’s teachings and my
own experiences, I believe that God brings to a church the people that He wants
to be there and that He gives each particular church the spiritual gifts that
it needs to become the church He wants it to be so that it can accomplish the
work that He has set apart for it
-- when people leave a church, I
suspect that a lot of the time God is moving them out of the church to put them
in a new church where their spiritual gifts are needed or where they need to be
to grow in their relationship with Him
-- and when God brings visitors or
new people to a church, I believe He has called them to that congregation for a
specific purpose – that they have a spiritual gift that is needed in that
church
-- that’s why the very first thing
I do when new people come to a church is to try to see what their spiritual
gifts are because their presence and their gifts may be a sign that God is
getting ready to accomplish a specific ministry or growth in that church
-- I also am a believer in the
diversity of churches – although we are to be unified as one body under Christ,
God has made our local communities of faith diverse – congregations differ in
size, composition, location, etc. – God doesn’t want every church to be exactly
the same – and He doesn’t want every church to do the exact same thing or have
the exact same ministries -- God has a specific mission and a purpose for each
of His churches on earth – and that requires the exercise of the spiritual
gifts by the members present in that particular church
-- take a look around this room –
look at the people who are here – everybody you are looking at has been given a
specific spiritual gift to be used at this church for the common good
– you are not here by chance – you
are here for a reason -- and you have your specific gift for a reason – God has
a mission and a calling for Naylor Community Christian Church – and you and
every person in this room is a vital part of that calling
-- we need your presence – we need
your gift – and that’s why it is so important for us to not be ignorant or
uniformed of the gifts of the Spirit like the church at Corinth was
III. What are the Specific Spiritual Gifts?
-- so, what
are these spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us?
-- in the
Bible, there are two main passages where the gifts of the Spirit are listed for
us
– the first is right here in 1
Corinthians 12 – look at verse 8
1 Corinthians 12:8 To one
there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of
knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous
powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to
another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the
interpretation of tongues.
-- so, in these verses, we are given a
list of nine spiritual gifts, given in no specific order – wisdom – knowledge –
faith – healing – miracles – prophecy – discerning of Spirits – speaking in
tongues or languages – and interpretation of tongues or languages
-- some of
those are visible gifts – healing – miracles – prophecy – speaking in tongues
and interpretation of tongues
-- the rest
are not as visible – they’re internal – behind-the-scenes – gifts – wisdom –
knowledge – faith – discerning of Spirits – and sometimes prophecy can be a
hidden gift
-- hold
your place here, and turn with me over to Romans 12:6, where we see another
list of spiritual gifts – it includes prophesy, which we have already been
given in 1 Corinthians 12:10, but the rest are new
-- look at Romans 12:6
Romans 12:6 We have different
gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying,
then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if
it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement;
if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if
it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
-- the additional gifts that are
listed for us in these verses are serving – teaching – encouragement – giving –
leading – and showing mercy
-- that
gives us a total of 15 individual gifts of the Spirit from these two passages
-- and just
so you know, depending on the Bible translation you use, you may see a couple
more or less or you might see the spiritual gifts called something else
-- so, let
me caution you to not be dogmatic when it comes to spiritual gifts – I don’t
think God’s intent was to list each and every spiritual gift and to say, “This
is all I’m giving” – I think these are examples of ways that the Holy Spirit
works in us and through us – and there are variations and nuances, especially
when people are gifted in more than one area
-- but this
list of 15 gifts is a good starting point for us when we are trying to discern
what spiritual gift or gifts that we might have
-- so, how
do you know what gift you have?
-- there
are several ways to go about discerning the particular spiritual gift that you
have been given
– one way is to think about what
aspects of ministry and participation in the life of the church you are most
interested in – or that you know you are good at – that may be an indication
that you are gifted in that area
-- for
instance, think about evangelism – all of us are called be evangelists and to
share the good news of Christ with others – but evangelism is also considered a
spiritual gift – a form of prophecy or faith – and there are some people who
are gifted at it – it comes natural to them – and they see people responding to
the gospel after they share their testimony or witness to them more than the
rest of us
-- I
guarantee you that all of us can think of people like that – people who have
been gifted in sharing their faith – that is a spiritual gift that is evident –
and if you are one of those people, you should be able to tell that’s your
spiritual gift because of the results you see when you exercise it
-- other
gifts are a little harder to discern – we may not know we have these particular
gifts until it gets pointed out to us that we are showing signs of them or
until we are in a particular situation where it comes out
-- for
instance, discerning the spirits – I believe I have some gifting in this area,
but I had been a Christian for a long time before I became aware of this – it
only came out when I was in a room with a person who was possessed by a demon –
and I seemed to be the only one in that room that was aware of it
-- so,
sometimes your gifts are there, but they are hidden from you and the church
until they are needed
-- that’s
why we need to try to discover where we are gifted and why we need other people
to help us recognize God’s work in us and through us – it may take a special
event or the church to discern a person’s spiritual gift
-- another
way that you can try to discover your spiritual gift is through a spiritual
gift survey or inventory – it’s a questionnaire that you fill out and that will
give you an idea of what your gift may be
-- but know
this -- there are many different inventories and surveys and tests you can find
that have been created to help you discover your spiritual gift – and every one
of them are man-made products -- they are man's attempt to categorize spiritual
matters – and because of that, if you take a different test, you may see
different results
-- part of
the reason for that is that different people interpret the gifts in different
ways according to the ways they read the scriptures, so differences in the
results will come up.
-- Some tests limit the number of
gifts to about 15 or so, while others will include other aspects of ministry in
addition to the spiritual gifts listed in Scripture
– and that’s okay, because God does
call us to minister outside of the area that we are specifically gifted in –
it’s just that we will be more effective in our ministry when we focus on the
areas that the Holy Spirit has gifted
-- but
overall, these tests are good in a general way to help us identify areas where we
are strong and weak in ministry – but when you get your test results, don’t
just take them as the gospel truth, but seek confirmation from the Holy Spirit and
the church
-- I have a
spiritual gifts survey for each of you that I want you to take home with you –
and here’s your homework -- I want you to fill out this survey and see what it
says your spiritual gift or gifts are
– and then, I want you to come back
and tell us what you found out – because not only do you need to know what your
gift is – the church needs to know, as well -- remember, these gifts are given
for the common good and not just for personal use or application
-- and remember
what I mentioned a moment ago – just because you have a particular spiritual
gift, this doesn't mean that you can't work in other areas -- God encourages us
to work for Him when and where we can – I am not gifted in evangelism, but God
still calls all of us to share the good news of Christ with this world
-- the important thing about
discovering what specific spiritual gift you have is that you can be sure that
when you minister using that specific gift, you will see greater results than
the average Christian will – so, you should be using your gift as much as
possible
IV. Closing: The Giving of the Gifts
-- I know I’m running out of time,
but let me close by sharing with you one more important point that Paul makes
here in 1 Corinthians 12 and then again in Romans 12
-- as we said, the Corinthians were
a carnal group of people – they all wanted what they considered the better
gifts – the visible gifts – the gifts that others could see and would respect
them for
-- so, Paul spends a lot of time
trying to get them to understand that every gift is important, no matter
whether it’s a visible one or not – and he tries to get them to understand that
the gifts are given through the will of God – not by human decision or by human
will or desire
-- look at 1 Corinthians 12:11
1 Corinthians 12:11 All these
are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one,
just as he determines.
--
it is the Spirit who gives out these gifts to Christians – He distributes them
to each person, as He determines
-- same thing that Paul passed on to
us in verse 4
1 Corinthians 12:4 There are
different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them
-- the Spirit knows what gifts the
church needs – He knows who we are – on the inside and the out – He knows our
character, our intellect, our makeup, our natural talents – and He decides what
gift would work best in our lives and in our church
-- Paul makes that same point in
Romans 12 – look back over there, and we’ll close there
-- Romans 12:3
Romans 12:3 For by the grace
given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than
you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with
the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one
body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5
so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the
others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.
If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if
it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to
encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if
it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
-- once again, Paul makes the point
that God is the one who distributes the gifts of the Spirit in accordance with
the faith the He has given us
-- verse 6 says we have different
gifts, according to the grace given to each of us
-- it is not up to us – the gift we
receive is determined and given by God
-- and so, we should not think more highly of ourselves than others just
because we got a gift that is considered more visible or more important in the
church – nor should we think that we are less in the church or that someone
else is less in the church because they got a gift that is not so visible
-- every member of the church has a
different function and a different gift – and we are called to use our gifts to
the best of our ability
-- whatever it is that God has given
us, we are to celebrate God’s grace in giving it to us and to exercise it for
the common good – whether that’s prophesying, serving, teaching, encouragement,
giving, or any of the other gifts that are mentioned in Scripture
-- for the next several weeks, we
will be discussing these spiritual gifts – I’m not sure how much detail we will
go into on each gift, but I will try to emphasize the gifts that God has put in
this church, because this will be an indication of where He is leading us
-- so, we’ll talk about what these
gifts mean and how they are used in the church – and then we’ll back out and
try to take a bigger picture and ask the questions, “What does God want us to
do with the specific spiritual gifts that He has given? – Is He calling us to a
specific ministry or is He just growing the church in maturity and knowledge?”
-- and where we go as a church will
be based on the answers that we receive from asking these questions of God
-- so, remember your homework – fill
out the spiritual gifts survey – see if you can discern what your spiritual
gift or gifts are – let the church know – and then let’s come together to see
where God is leading us
-- sound good?
--
then let’s pray – and make sure and pick up your spiritual gifts survey on the
way out
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