Parkland First Baptist Church
Sunday, June 21, 2020

      • Romans 5.8ESV

      • Song of Solomon 7–8ESV

      • Psalm 127ESV

      • 2 Thessalonians 2ESV

      • 1 Kings 5ESV

      • 2 Chronicles 2ESV

      • 2 Thessalonians 3ESV

      • 1 Kings 6ESV

      • 2 Chronicles 3ESV

      • 1 Timothy 1ESV

      • 1 Kings 7ESV

      • 2 Chronicles 4ESV

      • Psalm 44ESV

      • 1 Timothy 2ESV

      • 1 Kings 8ESV

      • Psalm 30ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3ESV

  • For I'm Building A People Of Power
  • Soul On Fire
  • This Is Amazing Grace
  • Awesome In This Place

  • Introduction

    We are still in the series on the Holy Spirit.
    It’s important to us that we not forget the Holy Spirit that He is God Himself who dwells in us since we are followers of Christ.
    We have access to His power, His guidance, His illumination of the Word, and His empowerment to do ministry.
    It’s easy to forget Him when we talk about God.
    We’ve looked at who the Holy Spirit is, how the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus and the early church, how we are filled with the Spirit and that it all hinges on prayer.
    Today and next week we are going to look at spiritual gifts.
    Sometimes we are afraid to talk about spiritual gifts because they will either cause us to act in strange ways, or do strange things.
    But each gift is to be used to build up the church to carry out Jesus’ mission that He began on Earth.
    I don’t everyone’s background and what you’ve been taught about spiritual gifts but I hope to take a biblical look at what they are and how we get them.
    Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12
    Read down through verse 7

    What is a Spiritual Gift?

    A spiritual gift is (very simply) Jesus pursuing His mission through the members of His church
    John 14:12, (Jesus said) ““Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”
    “because I am going to the Father” is a code-reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit, because that’s what Jesus had promised to do when He went to the Father
    “greater works” means greater in extent, because now that the Spirit is in everyone, the collective effect of the Spirit is greater than if it was all bound up in Jesus.
    It would be great if Jesus were here, but with those here this morning and those watching on Facebook, we’ve close to 50 potentially tapping into the same power Jesus had access to.
    What was the mission of Jesus?
    To glorify God in the world;
    to bless it and to heal it;
    to save sinners;
    and to build up His church.
    When God does those things through you, it is a spiritual gift.

    Every Believer Has One

    In verse 7 it says to “each person” is given …
    Each meaning each one of us
    If you are a believer in Christ, you have a spiritual gift.
    You may need to still discover what it is and if you’d like help let me know.
    But all of us have at least one gift that the Spirit has given to us.
    You were not left out and part of your journey is discovering what the gift is and using it.

    For the Common Good

    The gifts are given ‘for the common good’ of the church
    One of the many problems the Corinthians had is that they thought their spiritual gifts made them look super spiritual; manifestations of their awesomeness.
    They were proud and boasted in them.
    They wanted to Christian super heroes with special powers;
    They were proud and boasted of their gift.
    “Ooh, watch this, I got tongues; prophecy; I got Jesus-spidey-sense about your needs …
    What do you got? Oh, you just got the gift of administration, that’s lame.
    I’ll pray for you because luckily I have that gift, too.
    Paul is going to tell them that not only does that show they are immature, it shows that they don’t understand either the nature of the gospel or the nature of the gifts.
    The gospel is that you have the absolute approval of God in Christ.
    Christ’s righteousness has been given to you as a gift, and God sees you now in Christ.
    That is the highest recognition by the loftiest person.
    To think that a spiritual gift sets you apart shows that you don’t understand that what you deserve is nothing but God’s wrath but what you’ve been given is Christ’s righteousness.
    Fallen human nature searches for something about itself that is unique, that it can boast in, that sets it apart: I’m prettier; I’m more athletic; I’m smarter; I’ve got a better body; I’m more moral;
    Spiritual gifts can even be used to that end.
    I’ve got this; I can do this. I’m special.
    Christ’s righteousness is our boast.
    Your identity should not come from your abilities, spiritual or otherwise; they should come from who Christ is and how he feels about you.
    In Luke 10, the disciples came back after being sent in twos to preach and heal sharing the gospel.
    They were all bragging, like all guys do.
    Trying to one up each other.
    Jesus said, “Don’t rejoice that the demons are subject to you, but that your names are written down …”
    In other words, your spiritual abilities should not be your identity; being in Christ should be your identity.
    Now, possessing that mentality is more easily said than done, I will admit!
    I’m always wanting to stand out among others
    To be the one everyone looks as says, “He got it together.”
    Things that give me a sense of importance.
    But no matter how much I think of myself and get all puffed up, God has a way of bring me back down to earth.
    Our boast is in the righteousness of Christ given to us as a gift.
    When we learn that, we’ll have a whole different attitude toward our gifts: we’ll see that they are given to us to serve others like he served us.

    No Believer Has Them All

    Verse 7 says To each was given something that everybody else needed.
    God didn’t give them all to anybody.
    Jesus had all the spiritual gifts, but nobody else does.
    Look in verse 12, he’s going to use the analogy of the body.
    Every member is unique and performs a different function.
    If the eye decides that it’s more important than the foot … and you could see how it could think that …
    God designed the church like that.
    You see, one of God’s agendas is to go to war against our self-sufficiency.
    So, He communicates part of Himself to one person and part of Himself to another so that without one another we can never experience God.
    He does that with His work in the world.
    For example, how does the brain take care of the elbow?
    He’s made the elbow dependent on the fingers and the eye dependent on the foot.
    So the only way to know all of Jesus; the only way to experience all the power of Jesus, is to be connected to other believers.
    Which is why it makes no sense to ask God to work in your life if you are not intimately connected to a local church.
    “God, give me guidance. Help my marriage. Help my kids. Help me to overcome temptation; to not be so lonely as a single.”
    He may want to use someone in the church to be the answer to your prayer.
    God has distributed the primary portion of His power in the world by means of gifts He’s given to the church.
    When you are asking God to work in your life without being intimately connected to a local church you are asking Him for His power and while you disconnect yourself from the source of that power.
    There is no “I am complete in Christ and therefore I don’t need the church.”
    You are complete in Christ, but the way God continues to work in your life is through intimate connection with His body, the local church.
    No believer has them all … One other angle on this point.
    Remember, you can’t do it all and are expected to do it all.
    That’s why God gave gifts to the church, plural.

    Real Church

    “Real church” only happens when all are contributing
    Let me jump ahead to next week in 1 Corinthians 14:26: “Whenever you come together, each one has a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Everything is to be done for building up.”
    Paul’s expectation is that everyone comes with something to give.
    Let me ask you something: Is that your expectation?
    “God has given me a word of exhortation; an insight; a word for someone …?”
    According to Paul, a New Testament worship service consists of 3 things being present in abundance: Word of God; Spirit of God; People of God
    This not a one man show, and my desire is to see more of you involved in our worship through prayer, encouragement to others, sharing what God is doing around , in and through you.
    What if you each came to church just bubbling up … “I’ve got this word of encouragement; I’ve got this insight; whom am I to share it with?”
    That’s what Paul says it should be like, but is it for us?
    Or do we just come in to sing (maybe), hear a sermon, then go home.
    What does that reveal about your attitude toward the church?
    The joy of the Christian life comes not from consuming spiritual nuggets like you’re at a MacDonald’s and going home; the real joy is when you are part of a body that is interdependent and gives and loves and serves one another!

    Gift List

    Read 1 Corinthians 12:8-11
    Gifts of Wisdom
    Sometimes the Spirit of God will give you insight into His will in an area that is not spelled out really clear …
    A lot of times the Scriptures are plenty clear. “Do not murder.”
    Other times, what job is the right one, whom should I marry?
    Should Christians vote Republican or Democrat, or not at all?
    Gifts of Knowledge: a special knowledge from the Holy Spirit
    Jesus in John 4 knew about the Samaritan’s life
    In 1 Cor 14:25, “The secrets of his heart will be revealed, and as a result he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is really among you.”
    This happens through teaching or discussing the Bible and sharing how to apply it
    Or as you are talking with someone and they share a problem and you have the right Scripture verse pop in your mind.
    I’ve had this happen
    Gifts of Faith
    I’m not talking about the “believe in Jesus” and trust God faith,
    It’s the ability to perceive what God wants to do.
    Think of the people in the Gospels who come up to Jesus with an awareness that He will heal.
    It’s a trust that God will answer
    George Mueller, orphanage, needed food prayed, knock on the door, enough food for it.
    HD with the land in Brazil he bought not knowing how to get the money, but God will give it. No problem.
    Gifts of prophecy
    This the ability to speak God’s will into a situation at just the right time.
    Sometimes it is knowing just how to apply Scripture to someone.
    Tongues: glossalia,
    This is giving praise to God in language that is unknown to you, which we’ll get into next week.
    Should be fun.
    This is 1 of 6 different lists of spiritual gifts found in the New Testament (there are 2 more in 1 Corinthians; 1 in Ephesians; one in Romans; and one in 1 Peter).
    Here’s the thing: none of them are the same.
    There are some overlaps, but there are at least 22 different gifts noted, and no list includes all of them.
    Don’t have time to go into them all today, that’s for another study.
    The bottom line a spiritual gift is whatever God wants to do in the world through his church.
    Remember they are just called ‘spirituals’ or ‘Spirit manifestations.’
    They are whatever the Spirit wants to do at the moment for and through the church in pursuit of the mission of Jesus.
    Peter would lump all spiritual gifts into basically two categories: those who speak for God; those who serve for God (1 Peter 4:11).

    Spiritual Gifts Give Diversity To The Church

    In verse 4, “Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit.”
    Verses 12–13, “For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink.”
    The Spirit gives unity to the church; His gifts give diversity.
    You are given various passions, interests, insights, burdens for ministry.
    And here’s the thing: that creates tension in the church. Limited resources. Everybody is saying, “Oh, why don’t they see the value of this!”
    You should just recognize that you have a particular gifting.
    The reason no one else sees it like you do is because you’ve been given that gift.
    The church is enable and empower you for ministry.
    Not us starting a bunch of ministries, but helping you start ministries.

    What Do I Do Now?

    Seek you gift
    If you are a believer - salvation
    You have a gift, let me help you find yours
    I have some test you can take
    Or we can discuss it one on one to find the best way for you to discover and use the gift.
    If you know what it is, then use it.
    Prayer
    ​
Parkland First Baptist Church
office@parklandfirst.com
253-531-0121
http://www.parklandfirst.com
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