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Who Are We? - #10 Spiritual Gifts
We are on this long journey called my sermon series. We are on sermon ten and it’s our Who we
are series which is basically our doctrine or, our understanding of our faith. Today we’re going
to talk about Spiritual Gifts. Before we begin I have a question for all of you. What is
something you are really good at? I want you to brag about yourself a little bit with your
neighbor here. I want you to look around to someone next to you and tell them something you
are really good at. Wow! I thought this would be more quiet than it is. Man, you guys are good
at something. Alright, let me tell you what I am good at or what I was good at. Growing up I
was really good at dodge ball. I had the body to be the perfect dodge ball player. You know
what that meant? I was a stick. No one could hit me. I also could catch so I could get you out
pretty good. My arm was ok. I was really good at dodge ball.
Did anybody think they were not good at anything? God has made you special. God has made
you in a way to where you have abilities. You have ways that you think that are unique to this
world. It’s nice to know you were put in this place and God didn’t just leave you alone without
any talents or abilities. It’s nice to know you were put here for a purpose and you are here and
God has given you gifts and talents to use. It is our goal to use them.
Today we are talking about spiritual gifts and spiritual gifts are not talents. Sometimes we kind
of confuse that. We think “My spiritual gift is music because I am super good at music.” That
may not be the case. Michael Jordan’s spiritual gift was not basketball. So what is a spiritual
gift? Talents and abilities these are because, as Annie shared, we are wonderfully made. I could
see my daughter trying to understand. One brain cell! How many brain cells are in our brain? A
bunch. Right? It takes a lot of brain cells to count how many brain cells are in our brain. Just
because one brain cell can hold enough information as 5 encyclopedias, times that to how many
brain cells we have! Man! We are made amazingly and we have muscles that allow us to use
our bodies in certain ways to show that we can do all kinds of things. Sometimes I drive through
downtown L.A. and I look at the towers and I am thinking, ”Wow!, Man can do that!” Or think
about what technology is coming out with and think, “Wow, man has invented that!” God has
given us these things but they are not our spiritual gifts.
Today we are going to talk about that. Let’s do a short prayer here. Father Lord I just want to
pray that you guide us as we learn more about you in a way that you have for us. What you have
called us to respond to as you have led us by your spirit. Help us to understand that you have
made us in a way you have directed our paths in a way to be a part of something great and help
us to use the spiritual gifts you have given us. We pray these things in Jesus name, amen.
The spiritual gifts chapter is found in 1 Corinthians 12 and we’re going to go through that right
now. But first of all in I Corinthians 12:1-3 it says, Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers
and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans,
somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I want you to
know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can
say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. One of the things it says is it is impossible to get
spiritual gifts from a mute idol because the idol can’t do anything. It can’t talk. It can’t hear. It
can’t do anything. The other important thing is this one part says and no one can say Jesus is
Lord except by the Holy Spirit. This is the start of the spiritual gifts. It is a very important point
here. It is that no one knows who Jesus is but by the Holy Spirit. We can come and say “Oh ya!
I know who Jesus is. He’s the guy who died 2,000 years ago and died on the cross.” You may
know the historical figure of Jesus Christ, but you don’t truly know he is the son of God, truly,
unless the Holy Spirit is working in your life. A couple of weeks ago, we had our Sabbath
School on the Holy Spirit, and how powerful, how important the Holy Spirit is and how the Holy
Spirit is often forgotten out of the trinity. We need to understand the workings of the Holy Spirit
more. Why is that so important? Where is Jesus right now? He is up in heaven, right? God
creator of the universe. The father. The Holy Spirit is left behind. He’s the one that is directing
our paths today. He is the one who is teaching us about who Jesus is. It is very important to
know that without the Holy Spirit we wouldn’t even know who Jesus is.
What does that have to do with spiritual gifts? Let’s move on. There are different kinds of gifts,
but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at
work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. I
Corinthians 12:4-7 Something important is God made all of us different. God has given us all
spiritual gifts and they are different gifts. Some people have a gift of teaching. Some people
have a gift of wisdom and we’ll talk about that more later. We’re all different but we’re all
worshipping the same God and God’s purpose for all of us to have these unique different gifts is
to bond together for one common goal. One common good. Why is that important? It’s because
a lot of times we act as our agents. Right? We’re secret agents. We kind of do our own thing.
We all are on separate little things, doing whatever we do, for our own purposes. But God has
called us to come together and act upon our self in unity and bond together. And as we do that
we are truly becoming the body of Christ. It is important. The purpose for it is for the common
good. One other thing that is interesting here is that in I Peter 4:10 it says Each of you should
use whatever gift you have received to serve others, that is it’s purpose. It’s not for you to be
good at something. Spiritual gifts function and purpose is to serve and care for others. Not so
you can make a million dollars off your gifts, right? Not so you can cash in your gifts. Its
purpose is to serve as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
I find this very interesting. When we think of spiritual gifts, you think you’re going to do
something. I have a spiritual gift of teaching. That is what I’m going to do. I’m going to teach.
And so we often think of spiritual gifts is a work thing. We’re doing something. We’re doing
something. Here it says we are given the spiritual gifts by grace. God has given you the spiritual
gifts by grace. Not by works. He’s not saying “Now you go do something.” He says I am
giving this to you. This is a gift. A gift. I want to give you this gift of teaching. I want to give
you this gift of wisdom. I want to give you this gift of prophecy. Which is important because
Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Legalism. You’ve heard the word legalism. “This person is legalistic.” “This church is
legalistic.” Legalism isn’t works. The definition of legalism is works without the Holy Spirit. It
is God’s grace that gives us the understanding to follow God’s ways. It’s a gift that God gives
you, that calls you. That compels you to give this up out of your life or do this for God. Why is
it a gift? The perfect example is Mary. Mary in the Bible says she is blessed for having Jesus,
the son of God. She is blessed. A lot of people would say we need to worship Mary because she
is blessed. That is not what it means there. Blessed means she is happy. Happy because she is
fulfilling what God is telling her to do and what an incredible honor, if you are a woman,
imagine yourself being called to carry the Son of God. What an incredible honor that is. She is
blessed to do this. God has given us this gift of teaching or the gift of prophecy or the gift of
whatever for us to be connected to his will and to be blessed by that. That’s why it’s God’s
grace.
So whenever you are compelled to do something for God it comes from his grace that he tells us
to do these things. Have you ever heard someone who was part of some ministry and after a
while they’re burned out from their ministry? And they are like “aw, man, it is just works. All
I’m doing is works.” But you’re not doing it through the Holy Spirit. You’re doing it for
yourself. If you’re doing it for yourself, it’s going to be a burden. It will be a burden. If you’re
being led by the Holy Spirit to feed the homeless, if you’re being led by the Holy Spirit to do that
it will not be a burden. It will be a blessing. Teaching VBS will be a blessing, if you’re led by
the Holy Spirit. Coming here at 8:00 in the morning to open the church would be a blessing if
you are led by the Holy Spirit. So if you’re ever feeling burdened by whatever job that you’re
doing for God recognize why you’re experiencing that burden. Does it mean you need to
change? Maybe it does need to change. But remember it is yourself that is causing it to be a
burden. It’s a time to come back to Jesus and let him and the Holy Spirit lead in your life and
then direct in your path in the way you should go and be blessed and experience the grace of
doing something for God.
The next thing I Corinthians 12:8-9 we’re continuing on here it says To one there is given
through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the
same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit. Do
you know what you spiritual gift is? I think the Holy Spirit has to tell us. A lot of times we try
to figure out what is our spiritual gift. But you have to let the spirit lead you and you’ll be doing
it before you before you even know that you’re doing it.
Another is miraculous powers. Another is prophecy. Prophecy is an important one. The gift of
prophecy is a very important gift for us. We hear the word Ellen White, the person Ellen White,
who has what we believe the gift of prophecy and was one of the founders of our church. But
one thing to know is she had a gift of prophecy but you needs to be acting on all gifts for the
church to be a true body. Sometimes we put so much emphasis on one gift and neglect
everything else and guess what? You are not truly the body of Christ. While the gift of prophecy
is super important for us to understand especially as we look out in history and where we’re at
right now. We can truly see Jesus coming soon. It is the gift of prophecy that helps us
understand these things. So another is speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another
the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes
them to each one of us, just as he determines.
What have we learned from this? We have learned is that God has called each of us and is
working in our lives. He’s called us to act upon him. He’s called us and given us gifts: spiritual
gifts. And all of us are to be led by the Holy Spirit and act upon how the Holy Spirit wants us to
act. To live. To work. But we don’t do it individually. It’s done as we come together, bond
together as a church. As we bond together with Jesus as the head, not myself as the head, or
someone else as the head. With Jesus as the head we come together and we function as the body
of Christ.
And the last thing is 1 Corinthians 12 is the gift chapter. Right? 1 Corinthians 12 is the gift
chapter. Do you know what the next chapter is? It’s 1 Corinthians 13. Do you know what 1
Corinthians 13 is about? It’s the love chapter, right? And it says that basically if you could do
all these things. You could have the gift of prophecy, you could speak in tongues, you can do all
these gifts but without love they are nothing. So spiritual gifts are only given to us through the
Holy Spirit. We can’t manufacture them ourselves. We can do nothing without the Holy Spirit.
He gives us these gifts. He gives them in a way so we can bond together and become the body of
Christ and we are acting as a function. And then on that, if we are acting as the body of Christ,
doing all these wonderful things, but if we don’t love it is all for not. It means nothing. Which
means what do we do? We start by saying, Lord, help us. Help me to love. Help me to love my
brothers and sisters. Help me to love the children of God that are out here. Help me to love my
enemies. Help me to love the people in my home. Help me to love. And help me to guide
myself with the Holy Spirit, lead in my life. God is calling me, urging me to do something. Do
you ever have the urge to do something? I need to go do something for the Lord. Do you ever
have the urge to do that? Have you ever not followed that urge? Maybe all the time, we’re not
following that urge. But God is urging us to do something. When he is urging you to do
something, do it, and you will see what your spiritual gifts are. And as we do as God is calling
us to do, together as a church community, we’ll see great things being done. That’s what
spiritual gifts are.
Let us pray: Father Lord, we just praise you so much for who you are. We praise you, Lord,
that you have called us by your Grace. Without you we can do nothing but by your grace you
have saved us and brought us here. We are so grateful that, as your children of God, that you
love us so much that you care for us that you see the good in us. You see the things that we are
capable of doing being led by your spirit. Lord. Help us to be led. Help us to see what you see
in us. Help us to recognize, as your children of God, how powerful we are with you in our lives.
And that we act upon your way and your will. And that your gifts will be manifested in us
through you. Guard us now, Lord. We pray these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen