What are Spiritual Gifts Part 2

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.

Transcript

Love: The Mark of Spirit-Filled Life

Speaker 1 0:27

Father, we thank you so much for your word that guides us through all the strangeness of life, all the difficulties of life, and, father, I thank you for the trials that we go through, that reveal where our hearts are at. And we don't like going through trials, father, but they are necessary. But they are necessary. And, father, I pray that you would help us to run to you in the midst of our trials and when we're hurting and when we're struggling and when we're confused and when we don't know how to respond. Help us to turn to you first and to sit at your feet and wait upon our God and Father, teach us today about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen, amen, the Holy Spirit. This sermon is called what Are the Gifts of the Spirit, part 2. So, if you'd like to go back and listen to last week, we introed it and talked about how the basic purpose of all the gifts of the Spirit is so that the Lord can speak to you and through you, and it's always going to be focused on Jesus, not on ourselves. Basically, that's what it was about. But what's it going to look like when you are filled with the Spirit and when you're walking in the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are flowing through you. What's it going to look like? What's it going to be like? It's going to look like love.

Speaker 1 2:00

In Africa, back in the early 1900s, a man named CT Studd went and he started a mission down in the Congo and it was in an unreached area. It was basically the last unreached area of the world among tribes that were cannibals. There's lots of great cannibal jokes but I'm not going to tell any today. But they are delicious. That was just for free. I didn't even think about that one, that was just natural. So he goes down there and he starts sharing the gospel and planting churches and a bunch of the guys get saved and it's a really neat thing.

Speaker 1 2:43

But CT Studd, after a few years of just doing church, he started to just grieve because, although they acknowledged that they were saved, they believed in Jesus, a lot of them kept acting the same way, not necessarily the big sins, like they stopped eating people, but they were still being unkind, they were still being unloving, they were still, you know, acting like everybody else, responding in selfish ways. Okay. And so CT Studd started praying and he started to have a real burden for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And what did he mean by that? Did he mean he wanted them all to speak in tongues or be able to do miracles? That's not what he meant at that time. What he meant was he wanted them to be filled with the character of Jesus. He wanted Jesus to be living through them. So we started praying for this, and this is the story he tells of when he knew that God had begun to answer his prayers.

Speaker 1 3:48

There was a man who had been a cannibal and he had later been going to church for years and then finally he got a heart that he wanted to start telling lots of people about Jesus. He wanted to start going. So he would go and journey out and start spreading the gospel, and he would go to different tribes and back then the chief ran his tribe. So he would go to the chief. And he went to this one chief that had never heard about Jesus and he told him the gospel. And the chief said I don't want to believe this. And so he took a club and beat him, beat him, beat him to a bloody pulp. And this Christian man. He got up and he shook the king's hand and he said thank you that I get to share in the sufferings of Jesus. You have just done something very honorable to me, that I get to share in the sufferings of Christ. And so he beat him again and again. He got up and thanked him again and said it doesn't change anything, you're still loved by God, I still love you. And so the chief just put him in prison, his little whatever prison they had there hut. He was tied up in the hut and then six more of the brothers from his church heard about what happened and they also came to the king, the chief, and they were beaten after telling him about the love of Christ and the gospel, that God saves sinners and that he could be saved if he believed in Jesus. And he beat them and they also rose up, thanked him and went into the prison.

Speaker 1 5:31

How do you think that story ends? You think you got tired of it? What do you think happened to the chief? What's your guess? Yeah, absolutely. Of course. He would right If someone loves you so much that they're going to, even though you make yourself their enemy, even though you talk unkindly to them, even though you treat them unkindly, but they treat you with love in response. That's what changes hearts, that's what saves people, that's what opens up our heart to be able to receive the love of God. And, yes, that chief and his entire village got saved because of love.

Speaker 1 6:21

And a very, very simple message. And the message is Jesus Christ can save sinners and he wants to save sinners. And if you're a sinner, that qualifies you for being loved by Jesus and saved by Jesus. He wants to save you. It's the only qualification. Just be a sinner, okay, then he will come and live through you. He will make you holy and righteous and the kind of person that honors God with their life.

The Three Types of Spiritual Gifts

Speaker 1 6:53

I think that story is extremely relevant to our world today, don't you? Because there's been a lot of unkind things being said, a lot of things that just don't line up with the heart of love in the world today, and so I want you guys to apply this love message to everything that you do and all the conversations that you have. I want our church to have a reputation that, no matter what, we will love our enemies, we will pray for those who persecute us, and that will be the 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 to be filled with the Spirit.

Speaker 1 7:43

Okay, now we're going to study in 1 Corinthians, 12, verse 7 through 31. Today we're going to study how the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit work in the church. So let's begin by reading chapter 12, verse 7. But the manifestation of the Spirit that means the way the Holy Spirit is revealed is given to each one for the profit of all, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of. So here's a list of spiritual gifts. To another different kinds of tongues and to another interpretation of tongues. So here's a list of spiritual gifts, but this is not actually a complete list, because the point of this chapter is not to give you a complete list of all the ways that the Holy Spirit can gift us, but the point of the Spirit is to teach us how the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit work. So we're going to pause right here as we're going through this, but we are going to study a more complete list as you combine all the texts from around the New Testament, just so we have an understanding of all these gifts, and then we can come back together at the end and we're going to see how they all work together for the good of each person in God's family.

Speaker 1 9:17

So there's basically three classifications of spiritual gifts that we can see in the Bible. The first one is miraculous gifts, and they're going to put a list of these miraculous gifts up on the screen here, so, as you can see, apostle and these are the verses that talk about it but I'll tell you, apostles were. It was a miraculous gift. It was someone that was specifically chosen by God, and there was 12 of them. Right, there was the 11, that well, there's 12 that walked with Jesus, but then Judas was one, so he doesn't count, he gets, you know, erased off it, and then Paul is made the 12th apostle, and so the apostles were. They were able to remember all that Jesus did and they were able to teach it and establish the church, and so it's kind of like the church is built on the foundation of these apostles, so that we see that as a miraculous gift.

Speaker 1 10:09

Also, the gift of tongues In the Bible. The gift of tongues is where you can just speak another language, a real language that people understand, and why? Well, it was so that the gospel could be shared with people who didn't share your language, and so it could either be a sign that this was a miraculous power that the Holy Spirit was giving his church, but mostly it was probably to communicate the gospel in a way that it could not be just naturally understood. But God wanted people to be able to hear this good news, and so he gave people the gift of tongues. But there's another way that tongues could be used and we're going to see this a little bit later where people could pray in tongues, and so it would be kind of like a prayer language. Maybe it was a tongue like a language of angels in some way, like that that God could give people. But if that was the case, you know some people who had that gift would speak it in church and they were kind of proud of it, and we're going to see in chapter 14 that they would just stand up in the middle of the sermon and start speaking in tongues and it was creating all kinds of chaos and Paul was like calm down, you shouldn't be proud of your gift. It's cool, but don't do it unless there's someone who has a gift of interpreting it so that everyone could understand what you're saying, because it's not supposed to be a bunch of just chaos in God's church, because he wants it to be full of order.

Speaker 1 11:30

So there's tongues, which is a miracle, miraculous gift, interpretation miracles, just flat-on miracles. That was happening and it should follow the church. Wherever the church goes, you should see miraculous things happening and healing. There should be definitely healing. God does heal, he heals miraculously and he gets the glory when he does. So those are all very specific things. 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, I think, are very, very valid for today and can be used appropriately today if we seek God's guidance and just to be led by the Spirit. But remember, all this comes off of what we've already learned about. What is the purpose of the gifts? That's not about us. It's about glorifying Jesus and helping people to believe in Jesus and assisting them and coming alongside people to help them. All right, then we have this next group, which is called enabling gifts, and these are gifts that can come, that they can be for maybe a short period of time where you need some extra help, you need some power, and so we have faith.

Speaker 1 12:43

Sometimes you need a gift of faith when you're going through something really difficult or you know that God's called you to do something and you just need an extra measure of faith on top of just what's expected or normal. God can give people a gift of faith. Also, discernment Sometimes you need to know what's right and what's wrong, what direction to go, and God will just give you a gift of discernment. And it's really that simple and it's not something that people have just like all the time necessarily and sometimes people have it a lot, but it's not like everything they say is right. But God can specifically just help you in your understanding and give you that gift of discernment.

Understanding Team Gifts

Speaker 1 13:25

Wisdom, kind of the same thing how to apply God's Word. Or maybe you got a project that you're working on and you need God's wisdom. God can certainly give that to you. Knowledge A gift of knowledge is knowing something that would otherwise be impossible to know. Like, I just know that you have something going on and there's nothing in your life that would tell me that. But the Holy Spirit is just telling me go talk to that person, love them, care for them, because you don't know what's going on, but you just have this inside you. It's a knowledge, you know what's going on, and that's another enabling gift. Okay, now we have, we get into the big one, which is the team gifts. You can call these team gifts. These are gifts that you can call these team gifts. These are gifts that they're task-oriented. That's how the ministry gets done in the church.

Speaker 1 14:19

Okay, so how many of you were able to take your spiritual gifts test this week? Or maybe you've taken it before? Okay, so several people were able to take your. I got a bunch of emails, a bunch of texts of people sharing what they got with me, and so these are the ones that would be revealed through that test. Okay, because you can't really take a test for the other miraculous ones. But these ones are like how God has made you and every person I believe we're going to see in the Bible says every person has one of these gifts at least, if not two or three. So this directly applies to you. This is something special about how God has made you.

Speaker 1 14:58

So evangelism that means, like it says, you're passionately leading others to the saving knowledge of Christ. So that's just a gift. Some people are gifted evangelists. I think of Pastor Matt, who was here before. I think he was a very gifted evangelists. I think of Pastor Matt, who was here before. I think he was a very gifted evangelist. He just always had a passion to share Jesus with people and he was great at it. I've known many people with that gift. It doesn't mean you have to have the gift of evangelism to be able to share the gospel with people. It just means that God has gifted some people with a very special gift to do it, and they just do it all the time and they love doing it.

Speaker 1 15:36

The second one is prophecy. This is boldly and fearlessly proclaiming God's truth. So when you just feel like you have a burden and you know God's truth and you have a scripture that you feel like this is important for today, that can be the gift of prophecy and that might happen to you all. The time where you're just like man, I feel like God wants me to speak the truth into this person's life or this situation, that can be the gift of prophecy. Teaching is making clear the truth of God's word with simplicity and accuracy, so that's a spiritual gift. Now you can learn skills of being a teacher just by going to college and getting a degree in teaching right, but there's a spiritual gift of teacher that can take the truths of God and communicate them in a way, and God is actually using them as his teacher.

Speaker 1 16:28

Exhortation and I know some, several of you had this gift and you were like what is that? Okay, exhortation is motivating others to action. Motivating others to action. So if you think about it, it's like coming alongside somebody and saying, hey, let's walk this direction towards Jesus. It's kind of like picture yourself putting your arm around him and saying this is the way to go. Come, follow me, let's do it together, 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 is the gift of shepherd. So a lot of times shepherd teacher go together and we call that like a pastor, and so shepherding is kind of like you have your eye on people and what's important in the. You know what's maybe dangerous for them. You have your eye on protecting them and leading them to what is true and what is best for them.

Speaker 1 17:30

Serving Many people have the gift of serving and the gift of serving is where you provide practical help. That could be physical, practical help. You know, helping old ladies across the street might be your spiritual gift, but maybe bringing in some snacks for everybody might be just how you honor the Lord with your life. Or it could be serving spiritually also, which is just caring for people, listening to people when they need to share, when they need to vent. That might be a way of serving as well. So there can be a lot, a lot, both sides of like physical and spiritual there.

Speaker 1 18:06

Mercy, showing the gift of mercy. This is when you can identify and comfort people who are in need. And I like to think of this one as when you feel the pain that other people are going through and that can be a true spiritual gift. And this gift can be kind of dangerous because you can feel so much pain in the world around you that you just think that the world is so painful that you can get burnt out and you can get kind of raw if you have this gift, if you're not going to Jesus yourself for comfort and for him to be living through you and comforting and loving through you. So if you have that gift, just make sure, with all these gifts, make sure that you're connecting with Jesus and receiving his love before you are loving other people in this way. Okay, because it's vital that we connect with him first.

Speaker 1 19:02

Other people can have the gift of giving, which is releasing material resources to further the work of the church. Other people can have the gift of administrating, which is like organizing, can be leading, can be taking care of the practical responsibilities of the church. So these all are like how the church can operate together. So they're basically divided. If you look at that group, it could be divided between two categories there's the speaking types and there's the ministering types, like the doing parts, and that doesn't mean that if you do one, you can't do the other. They all kind of all intermix.

Speaker 1 19:45

But in 1 Peter 4, verse 10, he says this. He says, as each one has received a gift Okay, so what's it say? Each one of you has received a gift, minister. It the word minister means serve, serve it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve it. So think of yourself like a waiter in God's restaurant. Okay, and you have received a gift, and he says each one of us should serve it to one another and 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, To participate, to be part of a body, with the blood and the bones and the muscles and all the ligaments and everything that works together to build it up into one body. That's what this is about. It's not about for you, it's for other people and it says as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So the manifold means many-sided or diverse. God's grace can look a million different ways in a million different people, but he designs each one perfectly, like a snowflake, for the benefit of his family. That's why he made you so special. That's why he's given you a gift and he gives you grace so you can serve it to other people.

Speaker 1 21:23

But grace, how do you get grace? Well, we study it all the time, we talk about it all the time. God gives grace to the humble one, and then we have access to his grace by faith faith in Jesus too. It's as easy as one, two. I like that. We should call our church that Humility and faith. That's how grace works, that's how this whole relationship with God works. That's called the new covenant and that is how our side of this. We get grace and then God pours his grace on us as we have the humility and faith. He pours it on us so that we can pour it out back on other people, these specific gifts.

Speaker 1 22:11

And then he says 1 Peter in verse 11, he says If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. In other words, believe, have confidence that God is going to speak through you. If you have the gift of teaching, step forward and teach. Do it, step forward in faith and humility. He's not saying do it in pride and say I have the gift of God, so everything I say is the word of God. All of you, bow down and worship me. That's not what he's saying. He's saying if you have humility and faith, you can have all the confidence in the world that what you say is going to be the truth, that God wants you to teach. If anyone ministers, that means those gifts that are more like behind the scenes he says let him do it with the ability with which God supplies that in all things, god may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong. So it's pretty amazing. He says if you serve, do it with confidence, do it with boldness and do it with the ability that God supplies, you're not doing it with your own strength.

Speaker 1 23:20

Some people say, well, I've served in church before and I got burnt out, I got tired and so I don't want to do it again. I totally understand, and no one's asking you to do it until you get burnt out. But God calls us to serve him and he says if you're getting burnt out, you're doing it the wrong way. If you're getting burnt out, it's because you were walking in your own strength, not in the grace of God. So there's this entire generation of people that have been told serve God, serve God, serve God. And you know what, if you want to grow, come to church and serve and do more, do more, do more. And then we feel guilty when we don't feel like doing it anymore. But that's the system that God's made.

Speaker 1 24:10

God says I didn't design you to serve me out of your own strength. I want you to get tired if you're serving that way, because there's a different way, there's a new way, and the new way is total surrender to God's grace, god's will. We give him our whole heart, we trust him with humility and faith, and then he fills us with his spirit, with his strength, with his life. And now, when I'm serving people, I'm not doing it through my own strength, but it's just an overflowing of the constant overflowing water that's been poured into me is bubbling out of me, and that's what's different and that's what we wanna create. We wanna create a culture. We wanna see this culture in this church, where everyone is a part of what's going on. Everyone has a role to play. We can depend on each other.

Speaker 1 25:02

We see each person doing what they're called to do and they're not doing it in their own strength, but they're receiving it from Jesus for saying Jesus, I give you my whole life, I give you my whole heart, do with me whatever you want, and then they step forward to serve the Lord with humility and faith and he can take that and he can do anything. He can give any spiritual gift to someone that will trust him and humble themselves and give their bodies and their lives to Jesus for him to live through them. So hopefully, you all were able to take your test. If you weren't and you want to do, we have the QR code available. We'll work on that. They'll throw the QR code up here at the end of church and you can take your spiritual gifts test. Oh, there we go. Look man, you're killing it up there today. Well done, guys. So you can feel free to take that, go ahead and leave that up there for a minute, while I go on to the back in our text in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12.

The Church as One Body

Speaker 1 26:13

So it says, moving on, it says but one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one as he wills. As he wills, so, through His wisdom and His love, jesus uniquely gifts each person a spiritual gift. There's no competition, no one is better than anyone else and no gifts are better than anyone else, because it's the same spirit and it's the same power that's flowing through you. It's the life of Christ. So there's only one purpose, which is building up the body of Christ through love. That's the only purpose.

Speaker 1 26:56

Okay, now some people are like but I want to be on stage, I want to have attention, I want to 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 something other than what God's made us, but Paul's going to address that and he's gonna say it's never about that. God knows you and he made you very, very special and you have all the. You're perfect and you have all the honor that God wants to give you. So he says here for as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ. So what he's saying here is this is really all about the body of Christ. That's why we call the church the body of Christ.

Speaker 1 27:47

Every believer in the world, whether in a church building this morning or not, they're a part of the body of Christ and it says we are all members of each other. That's why you can never hate another member of Jesus. You can have disagreements, and when there are disagreements, it's generally because one or both of those people are walking in their flesh, trusting in themselves, living by their own resources instead of by the Spirit of God. They're mindful of the things of earth, not the things of heaven, and that's what creates the conflict, because when the body of Christ is working right and everyone's filled with the Spirit, the result is perfect harmony, unity, love caring for one another it's awesome. Love caring for one another it's awesome. It's really beautiful to see.

Speaker 1 28:40

Our gifts are expressions of God's love for one another. So God wants you to know how much he loves you and he's put people around you so that you can know it, feel it, experience it. I know more how God loves me because of my wife and how she loves me, and that relationship is also a picture of this love. These expressions of the Holy Spirit, these manifestations of the Spirit. They are never about ourselves. They're never for ourselves. See, the devil doesn't mind if you get a gift. He just wants you to see you focus on yourself. He just wants you to focus on yourself, because that means you're walking in the flesh and your gift is going to be useless. God can't use your gift when you're focused on self. When you're living the self life, your gift becomes pointless, worthless, because it's a spiritual gift. It's not a fleshly gift. It's a spiritual gift.

Speaker 1 29:46

I can't teach in the spirit if I'm focused on myself and what I need to get out of it or what I need to feel from you or what I want to communicate. Well, this has been on my mind this week, so I'm going to just spend the entire sermon talking about what I've been thinking about. That is not spiritual teaching. Spiritual teaching is. This is what the Word of God says. This is what it means. 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.

Speaker 1 30:28

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 of administration, but I put my own interests first and I want to make things just the way I want them to be, then that's not going to work out as well. I'm not walking in the humility or faith in that way, and I can't speak God's word if I'm looking to the like in prophecy or discernment. I can't speak God's word if I'm looking to the wisdom of men or expressing my own mind or my own emotions. This is how vital it is to keep us focused on Jesus, because when we're focused on Jesus, we can 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 lives through me, and I believe that he lives through me and I'm totally fine surrendering my entire life to him so that he can live through me.

Speaker 1 31:24

Are we sure that we're all part of 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't like? Well, let's see what Paul says, for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks. That means people who were religious or people who had no religion at all, whether slaves or free, and we have all been made to drink into one spirit. For, in fact, the body is not one member, but many.

Speaker 1 32:02

If the foot should say because I'm not a hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say because I'm not an eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not 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?

Speaker 1 32:22

But now, god has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now, indeed, there are many members, yet one body, and I cannot say to the hand I have no need of you, nor again the hand to the feet, I have no need of you. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable. On these we bestow greater honor and our unpresentable parts with greater modesty. But our presentable parts have no need. But God has composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, and that there should be no schism in the body, no division, but that the members should have the same care one for another. So this means each person in the church, which is the body of Christ, is equal, equal but different. Okay, some parts of the body are always covered, but they're still necessary.

Speaker 1 33:36

And this is an illustration about how pride is disruptive to the purpose of the body. Pride can be disruptive too to the purpose of the body. So keep that thing covered. Okay, pride, like humility, keep it covered. But the whole purpose of these gifts is each person should be cared for. Each person should be cared for. I can't, some people don't need to hear me teach. That's fine. But they need a hug from you, or they need you to come alongside and help them get their finances in order, or they need you to exhort them or encourage them or maybe even bring some correction into their life. You know what? You probably shouldn't have said that you probably shouldn't have done that, because that doesn't line with the love of Christ. That might be your gift.

Speaker 1 34:33

What is your gift? We should care for each other with our gift. I do. I know I have the gift of God to teach and to shepherd and I do it for the body and I do devote my life to this purpose and calling. And it's not always easy and it's not always enjoyable it really isn't. But knowing that the people in the church are being cared for by learning God's word is my whole passion here at church. But in our home I don't teach that much. I'm just me, and my wife and I are just one and our love for each other. I'm not teaching her all the time because this is my gift to the church. Yes, we're parts of the church and we do church at home sometimes, but it's not like I'm just teaching all the time wherever I go.

Speaker 1 35:22

Thus says the Lord, although I try sometimes and it doesn't go. So again, I ask you what is your gift? You've got to think about this. You should know. How did God make you? It's exciting. It's a clue to your purpose and what you've been created for. You'll discover it as you surrender all to Jesus. I'm going to say that one more time for the people in the back You'll discover your gift as you surrender all to Jesus. When we hold back parts of our life, parts of our heart, we will find that our gift may elude us, our purpose might elude us, because we're mixing life sources. We're partly Jesus and partly ourselves. Jesus says listen, this is an all or nothing deal. I am your Lord and Savior or you're living your own life. Good luck with that right. He invites us to surrender everything. Then you will discover your purpose and then you step forward to care for others.

Speaker 1 36:42

So when do we need to use our spiritual gifts? Well, paul says this if one member suffers, all members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all members rejoice with it. So when things are bad, connect with people and serve them your gift. And when circumstances seem good 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 using our spiritual gift.

Speaker 1 37:14

What's the key here? The key is to engage with people. That takes courage, because people are scary. People bite, people hurt us and most of us shut off our lives from people and we're just fine being alone. The problem is we weren't created to do that. We were created to be interdependent with people. And that takes courage, and courage flows from love. You will never be able to connect with people if you don't know how much God loves you and how much you might be missing out on different experiences of his love by not connecting with people and receiving their gifts in your life.

Speaker 1 38:01

Why should you go to church? Because God loves you and he wants to speak through the pastor to you with the gift of teaching. But also there's other people with other gifts and those can be just as important, if not much more important, to your life. But sometimes you need to connect with them over a coffee or just in the greeting time or after church or before church. Spend time connecting with people. Love people, because love just gives a darn about people. You will love people when you're filled with his spirit, not just people who look like you or who you're comfortable with, but all people, especially those who you might not understand and again, this is not for you because Jesus understands them. He wants to use you spiritually, to give them what they need spiritually so that they can know that he loves them. That's what the purpose of this is.

Surrendering to Find Your Purpose

Speaker 1 38:56

Maybe people are suffering and we withhold our love from them because we don't understand them. We don't understand what they're going through. That's why the church is struggling. That's why the church is suffering. Maybe people offend me so I don't want to love with them. Maybe people voted wrong, so I don't want to love them. I don't want to spend time with them. I don't want to love with them. Maybe people voted wrong so I don't want to love them. I don't want to spend time with them. I don't want to give them the time of day. Maybe they said something I disagree with. Maybe they look like someone who hurt me or hurt my family. Maybe I just don't trust them.

Speaker 1 39:28

But in the Spirit I can love them through my gift, and it takes courage, and again it's. Are we all surrendered or are we going to still try to control who I love, who I care for? You know what. I'm not going to go to that chief because he's going to beat me. If that's our heart, there's a different life we can have, which is the life that says my life is not my own, but Jesus lives through me and I will love my enemies and I will pray for those who persecute me and I'm not going to do anything else. The Spirit will flow through that heart.

Speaker 1 40:12

Paul goes on. He says now you are the body of Christ and members individually, and God has appointed these in the church First apostles, second prophets, third, teachers. After that, miracles, gifts of healing, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles, are all prophets, 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, do all interpret, but earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I will show you a more excellent way.

Speaker 1 40:45

So here, it's clearly taught in the Bible that there's no single gift that shows that you're a Christian. There are some churches that falsely teach that you have to speak in tongues to be a Christian, and that's not true. He says do all speak with tongues? No, okay, but it's no single gift shows you're a Christian and it's very clear we are to seek Jesus first for who he is, not what he gives. Okay, the greatest gift is that Jesus loves you, and we're going to find out about that next 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.

Speaker 1 41:24

But here's a sneak peek the greatest gift is that Jesus loves you and when we seek God, he says don't seek him for his gifts, seek him for him. He is love. He is the greatest gift and he gives himself unreserved to you. He doesn't count anything against 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 daily, really connecting with Jesus. That is the greatest gift, because the greatest gift is Jesus gives you his heartbeat and when you're spending time with him, his heartbeat produces in you love, love, love. Love for your friends, love for your family, love for your kids, love for your enemies and love for crazy people in the street. Love, that is the greatest gift and that is the entire point of spiritual gifts and that is the entire point of spiritual gifts.

Speaker 1 42:33

So how do I live in the Spirit and use this gift? It's simple. You just believe that you died with Jesus on the cross and you rose again with him. You believe step one. Step two you ask Jesus to live through you. Say, jesus, I give you my whole life, live through me. Step three step forward to love people, how you've specifically been designed. Just live your life focused on others, letting that heartbeat of love flow through you. And so, as the guys come back up to lead worship for us and to lead us into just a time of responding to Jesus, we're going to pray that God would fill us with his spirit. Now. Jesus already lives in you, if you believe.

Speaker 1 43:39

But there's a moment in time sometimes where we surrender all, and sometimes we do this regularly. We come back to Jesus and we say I need to renew my heart with you, I need to renew my giving my whole life to you and I feel like maybe this is the moment for that. Father, we are so focused on ourselves sometimes and we're protective and we've been hurt and we need healing and Jesus, we need your love and I pray, jesus, that there would be, just like CT Studd prayed for his church that they would be filled with your spirit, they'd be filled with your character and they'd be filled with your spirit. They'd be filled with your character and they'd be filled with your love. And it was manifested as they gave their lives for their enemies and for the people of this world. Jesus, I pray that this church and all your churches would be filled with a heart of self-sacrifice, that we would be willing to be less, that we would be willing to be less, that we would be willing to walk with humility and walk with faith in Jesus, that we would not have any worry or fear about surrendering our lives for you, because we've already surrendered our lives to you.

Speaker 1 45:11

Our lives are not our own and we've been bought with a price. And, jesus, fill us with the heartbeat of love. Fill us with your heart for the people of this island, jesus, fill us with you. We ask this Lord, we ask it, we need it and we don't want to leave here without it. We don't want to leave here with the same self-focused life. We want to live fully, completely surrendered to you. Where else could we go to find life but to Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, the Messiah of the world, the Savior of the world. God, the great God over all things. Jesus, you are everything. We love you, we worship you and we give ourselves freshly to you, every part of our hearts. Jesus, we surrender. In your name, we pray amen.