SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, I'm Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Steve Holtz.
SPEAKER_01: I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Each week we go into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
SPEAKER_01: We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to begin on this theme for the next eight weeks on the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit, maybe a little bit different because I know that you may have had teachings on spiritual gifts, you may not have, but that this is one part of a constellation of how God has wired each one of us in this room.
SPEAKER_01: And back in my days at Mountain Springs, I taught a lot on convergence.
SPEAKER_01: And I haven't taught that much on convergence here, but it was the Holy Spirit led me in my prayer time about this series to begin with kind of a Venn diagram of how I think our lives work in working toward convergence.
SPEAKER_01: So if you see that, look at the top.
SPEAKER_01: Walking in our destiny, spiritual convergence through the partnership with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So write that down.
SPEAKER_01: Walking in our destiny, spiritual convergence through partnership with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a definition of spiritual convergence.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual convergence is the unifying and the joining together of different aspects of one's life into wholeness.
SPEAKER_01: We talk a lot, especially in the men's ministry on Tuesday mornings, about being wholehearted.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we call it whole-hearted men.
SPEAKER_01: And when Liz started the women's ministry, she called it wholehearted women.
SPEAKER_01: Because we want you to be wholehearted.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength in your neighbors yourself.
SPEAKER_01: But wholeheartedness also includes how God designed you.
SPEAKER_01: The unique blend of many different aspects that we may not remember or it's never been taught before.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to look at the diagram now.
SPEAKER_01: Let's put up the Venn diagram.
SPEAKER_01: And this is my diagram of spiritual convergence.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to be talking about here on the right spiritual gifts, and I put God in parentheses because I really believe that spiritual gifts are sovereignly given by God when you're born again.
SPEAKER_01: So when you give your heart to Christ, God put spiritual gifts that are unique for you.
SPEAKER_01: You may not have discovered them yet.
SPEAKER_01: You may not be walking in them yet, but they're sovereignly given to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's a God thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's your job to discover it, but God already knows it.
SPEAKER_01: So that's a God thing.
SPEAKER_01: But look to the left, you'll see natural talents.
SPEAKER_01: When you were born physically, you are sovereignly given natural talents.
SPEAKER_01: And you can't do anything about that.
SPEAKER_01: That's just the way it is.
SPEAKER_01: You, some of you are, I don't care if you're, I've said this so many times, you can get saved, and if you are, if you are bad at math before you got saved, you're still bad at math after you get saved.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so there's natural talents that God's given us.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are engineers, you have that gifting, some of you are really good with people, some of you have kind of a counseling gift, some of you have mathematical gifts, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: So that's natural talents.
SPEAKER_01: Again, sovereignly given by God.
SPEAKER_01: But then, moving down to the to the left, acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what acquired skills are, that's up to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's your decision, what you're gonna do with your natural talents and your spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: You develop skills.
SPEAKER_01: So you may have a natural gift toward being a good athlete, but if you don't have a good coach, you're never gonna reach your potential.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a natural gift toward sort of engineering and mathematics and that kind of stuff, you go to school and you get an engineering degree or you get a computer science degree or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: So skills are really, really important.
SPEAKER_01: And I can't tell you, and you all would, everybody would say this, how many people we know who have incredible natural talents, who have phenomenal spiritual gifts, maybe, but they never develop it.
SPEAKER_01: They never develop the skills that go with it, which takes training, equipping, and empowerment.
SPEAKER_01: So that's even what Friday and Saturday is about this week.
SPEAKER_01: To grow in spiritual gifts, to be around an anointed person is gonna develop skills and thoughts and new ideas and new vision in you by being around skillful people.
SPEAKER_01: Then at the bottom you see character.
SPEAKER_01: That's up to you, too.
SPEAKER_01: That's the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
SPEAKER_01: As you are walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, you're developing character.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't I don't know how many people I've known through the years who are incredibly gifted in all these other areas.
SPEAKER_01: They're skilled, they have natural talent, they have spiritual gifts, but they're undermining is their character.
SPEAKER_01: They lie and cheat.
SPEAKER_01: They've got a secret life, they've got a closet full of skeletons that they can't deal with.
SPEAKER_01: And so, because of that, their life falls apart, usually later in life.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I think sometimes as one who's at my age, I can say this that the latter part of your life can be some of the biggest struggles of your life.
SPEAKER_01: That is dependent on character.
SPEAKER_01: And then relational skills.
SPEAKER_01: So EQ, we talk about IQ and EQ.
SPEAKER_01: That's up to you too.
SPEAKER_01: How do you develop relationships and the importance of having friends in your life and bloodstained allies?
SPEAKER_01: We need that in our lives, and so that's also a part of spiritual convergence.
SPEAKER_01: So it's the coming together, men and women, that makes you, I believe, who you are truly meant to be in partnership with the Holy Spirit to reach your full potential.
SPEAKER_01: Say this to me: I want to reach my full potential.
unknown: I want to reach my full potential.
SPEAKER_01: You come to the right church.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what we're here for.
SPEAKER_01: We're here for you to experience Christ to the full extent that you can so that you can reach the full potential you were created for.
SPEAKER_01: That's really exciting, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I dig that.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I like being a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And it's why I never wanted to be a pastor like the ones that I saw when I was growing up, because it felt like it was too ritualistic.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted the relationship of seeing people's lives changed.
SPEAKER_01: Not the same people coming by, aging year after year.
SPEAKER_01: We take communion together, we sing some hymns together, we all go home and we think we're happy.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I want movement.
SPEAKER_01: I want movement in people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: The next eight weeks, we're gonna get serious about one of the areas, but I wanted you to see how all of it plays a part in convergence in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So this spiritual gifts is just one part of that.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: So I just want to make sure you understand that.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit from 1 Corinthians 12.
SPEAKER_01: Would you turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12?
SPEAKER_01: And I had plenty of passages to pick from, but I felt like that the most important was 1 Corinthians 12, because some believe that there's like nine spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: I believe there's spiritual gifts ad nauseum.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I don't think it's, I think nine that are that are mentioned in certain passages.
SPEAKER_01: In this particular one, there's more than nine, but but nine is where a lot of authors camp on these ones that you'll see coming up.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at, we're just gonna pick a few, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We're just gonna pick a few because we only have eight weeks.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna pair them up.
SPEAKER_01: You'll notice in the weeks ahead how we pair them up.
SPEAKER_01: So next week, Mark is gonna speak on faith and healing.
SPEAKER_01: Faith and healing.
SPEAKER_01: I think those go together, faith and healing.
SPEAKER_01: So you'll see these combinations of complementing of each other, like word of knowledge and word of wisdom go together.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, um, teaching and and speech gifts go together.
SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna see that.
SPEAKER_01: But we're not gonna cover it all.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to let you know we're not gonna cover all of the gifts that are found in Scripture because Romans 12 has a list also.
SPEAKER_01: Um, Ephesians 4 has a list also.
SPEAKER_01: But 1 Corinthians 12 is where I want to begin.
SPEAKER_01: And here's my question for today for all of us is why teach and cultivate spiritual gifts?
SPEAKER_01: So if you're taking notes and I encourage you to do that, that would be the title today is why do we cultivate spiritual gifts?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it important?
SPEAKER_01: So, 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is dealing with a very gifted church.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Corinthians is a very gifted church, but they've gotten kind of wild and crazy with the gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And you guys have heard me say many times, all word dry up, all spirit blow up, word and spirit grow up.
SPEAKER_01: So we're a word and spirit church.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we blow up, and sometimes we dry up.
SPEAKER_01: We do.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we we don't get it perfect, man.
SPEAKER_01: And if and if you're one of those people that likes to leave churches quickly and run to the next one, I'll give you plenty of excuses to do that this year.
SPEAKER_01: Because we because we're walking kind of like this middle aisle where we're it's on, it's the uncomfortable middle.
SPEAKER_01: Most pastors do not want to be in the uncomfortable middle.
SPEAKER_01: They want to be wildly crazy about spiritual stuff, or they wanna be dry as a, you know, dry as a as a field in Kansas in the winter because they're just gonna teach the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna teach the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to teach the Bible and do the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't like that, then you're in the wrong place.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we're gonna teach it and we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that fun?
SPEAKER_01: I dig it.
SPEAKER_01: So I it's a word I want to I want to pastor the church I would attend if I wasn't the pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's this church, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So we're a word-based church.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the first thing.
SPEAKER_01: First thing that he says in verse one.
SPEAKER_01: Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the first point.
SPEAKER_01: Why teach, why cultivate spiritual gifts is we're not supposed to be ignorant about it.
SPEAKER_01: We're not supposed to be ill-founded in our understanding of how the Holy Spirit works in our lives, not only in you individually, but us as a body.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be a spiritually alive church.
SPEAKER_01: And a spiritually alive church is a church that knows its gifts.
SPEAKER_01: It allows spiritual gifts to move in different settings and in different ways in a powerful way.
SPEAKER_01: So, why do we not know more about spiritual gifts?
SPEAKER_01: Why is most of the church ignorant of spiritual gifts?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you four thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you four reasons why the church is ignorant of spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it's theological.
SPEAKER_01: There's a theological problem in much of the body of Christ with the power, supernatural, miraculous gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody has a problem with the gift of helps.
SPEAKER_01: Every pastor wishes his whole church was just full of the gift of helps to help him not have to do the stuff he doesn't want to do.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, nobody has a problem with the gift of teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody has a problem with the gift of exhortation, nobody has a problem with the gift of encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: But in Romans 12 are the most controversial gifts, those are the ones I'm gonna cover.
SPEAKER_01: Too bad.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go after the most controversial.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we can come to an understanding of the supernatural power gifts, it can set us free in understanding how to be empowered in new ways such that, listen to this, it brings unity.
SPEAKER_01: You think, well, that's gonna bring disunity.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not gonna bring disunity.
SPEAKER_01: It brings unity to deal with the most controversial subjects and bring it into a biblical focus.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: So there is a dispensational perspective called dispensational theology, which believes that the gifts of the spirit, the power gifts, the supernatural gifts of the spirit, that we read about in the New Testament, are not for today.
SPEAKER_01: That they that they ended, they ended with the completion of the canon of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't see it anywhere in Scripture, and believe me, I know the argument.
SPEAKER_01: I know John MacArthur's argument on that, and I disagree with it.
SPEAKER_01: I love John MacArthur.
SPEAKER_01: God bless him.
SPEAKER_01: He's in heaven right now, rejoicing before the Lord, and now he knows that I was right.
SPEAKER_01: But um, but it's called the cessationist worldview.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the cessationist, it's the idea that it ceased.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a continuist.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a cessationist.
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe it ceased, I believe it continues, and I think I can support it through all of church history, but I'm not gonna go into that.
SPEAKER_01: Number two is fear.
SPEAKER_01: We have a fear of spiritual gifts, and the reason we have a fear of spiritual gifts is because it seems like it's like too radical for us.
SPEAKER_01: Too radical to get into spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Number three is unworthiness.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room feel unworthy.
SPEAKER_01: You feel like you're not worthy to minister to others.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you've never been on the ministry team, because you look at your life and you go, man, I'm messed up in this and we struggle with that in my life and with my family.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not worthy to go up and pray for people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, listen, all of you that have the Holy Spirit are prophets, priests, and kings in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the sooner you start to figure that out, the more you can begin to get set free from all the unworthiness that's over you and the self-condemnation that guards your heart in such a way you can't open up to anybody.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to challenge you that that's the enemy at work.
SPEAKER_01: And then number four is ignorance.
SPEAKER_01: We just don't know anything about spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And so, theologically, fear-based, unworthiness, and ignorance.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I say these four?
SPEAKER_01: Because those have all been true in my life.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the deal that I believe is so true for us is that God has given us his book, his constitution.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to do what's in the Bible and get really good at it.
SPEAKER_01: And the only way I know how to do that is to take what God's given freely, by his grace, given me, and then learn how to articulate it, learn how to use it, learn how to love better through the spiritual gifts that have been uniquely given to me and to each one of you.
SPEAKER_01: So that's number one.
SPEAKER_01: First thing he says is don't be ignorant of spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: You know that you Gentiles, you were Gentiles, carried away to these, in the New King James says dumb idols.
SPEAKER_01: That almost seems like that shouldn't be in the Bible, the word dumb.
SPEAKER_01: But it is, okay, because they are.
SPEAKER_01: However, you were led.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Circle Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Circle that in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Underlined except by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is Lord is only, is only a part of the vernacular of our heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So see what he's saying here is that you used to say that Jesus was accursed.
SPEAKER_01: That's demonic.
SPEAKER_01: But now you can say Jesus is Lord because of the unction of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
SPEAKER_01: So number two, spiritual gifts are evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual gifts are evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the reason I wanted you to circle Jesus is Lord is because that's what spiritual gifts should do.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual gifts should make Jesus Lord.
SPEAKER_01: When we're ministering in our spiritual gift to others, we're, I like what Sam Storms said in his book on spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: He said, spiritual gifts are when God goes public with who he is.
SPEAKER_01: I just love that.
SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of like God's IPO is spiritual gifts, that we begin to minister to each other, and there's something about a prophetic word, there's something about a word of knowledge, there's something about anointed teaching, that when you hear it and you know that's from God, that Jesus becomes more Lord in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So it accentuates Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm talking about the proper use of spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: The improper use through manipulation and the kind of things that can happen in a church and things that can happen in different circumstances, that's not what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about the pure use of spiritual gifts that makes Jesus Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's why it's such a beautiful passage in Revelation 19, 10.
SPEAKER_01: The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the gift of the prophetic should elevate Jesus in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So it is it is proof positive of the Holy Spirit alive in our midst.
SPEAKER_01: A charisma.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you a let me give you two words for spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Two Greek words.
SPEAKER_01: One is pneumatikos.
SPEAKER_01: Pneumatikos.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, it means spirituals.
SPEAKER_01: It means spirituals.
SPEAKER_01: And that's actually the word used in verse one concerning spirituals.
SPEAKER_01: The spirituals of God, meaning that they come from pneuma, which is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: But then later, the word charisma is used.
SPEAKER_01: Charismata, spiritual gifts, which is where we get the word caris, which comes from the word grace.
SPEAKER_01: So another way to think of spiritual gifts is gracelets.
SPEAKER_01: Gracelets like drops from the ocean of God's grace on you.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm taking notes on myself.
SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty good one.
SPEAKER_01: But there's an ocean of grace, and God gives gracelets to each one of us, the charismata.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's a charismatic who's a believer.
SPEAKER_01: Every Jesus follower is a charismatic.
SPEAKER_01: So if anyone says, if you go to you go to that the road church, it's a charismatic church.
SPEAKER_01: And if you go, well, where do you go?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I go to, you know, First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: That's charismatic church.
SPEAKER_01: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: We don't do that kind of hand-raising stuff.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's because do you believe in spiritual?
SPEAKER_01: You believe you're gifted?
SPEAKER_01: You God gives you gifts?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, yeah, I do.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, it's charisma.
SPEAKER_01: It's charismata.
SPEAKER_01: It means you're charismatic.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I don't believe in that speaking in tongue stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: You believe in teaching?
SPEAKER_01: You believe in encouragement?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody believes in helps.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: You're charismatic.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: So we're all charismatics.
SPEAKER_01: We the the gracelets of God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what's cool: it's like on Friday night, and then Saturday morning, and then on Sunday morning today and next week, every Sunday morning, we have people come forward, they need prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And you come forward and you just feel anybody ever come up to help people or to receive prayer and you feel all dry and like you have nothing to give?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody like that?
SPEAKER_01: Man, you guys are way more spiritual than me.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I can't tell you how many times I get up to speak and I feel dry.
SPEAKER_01: I don't feel like I have anything to give, but the Holy Spirit comes because what he does is he gives me a bracelet.
SPEAKER_01: He drops a little bit of grace into my heart, and I can do it, and I can make it.
SPEAKER_01: You ever been in an argument with your spouse?
SPEAKER_01: And you just want to?
SPEAKER_01: And yet then something in you says, Why don't you do this instead of this?
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a grace was from God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what spiritual gifts are.
SPEAKER_01: They're graceless from God.
SPEAKER_01: It's God dropping a little bit of grace into your life to use it to help others, to minister to others, and to bless others in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, look at this, he talks about diversities of gifts, differences of ministries, and diversities of activities.
SPEAKER_01: What's he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what he's saying about distinctions.
SPEAKER_01: Another way of diversity is distinctions of gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And I said that earlier, it's combinations of gifts that God brings.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to talk about that over the next seven weeks.
SPEAKER_01: This idea that there are combinations that work together.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a diversity of gifts.
SPEAKER_01: But then he says different kinds of ministries.
SPEAKER_01: So the teaching, let's just take the teaching gift.
SPEAKER_01: The teaching gift could be teaching children.
SPEAKER_01: The teaching gift can be teaching your children through homeschool or through devotional life in the evenings.
SPEAKER_01: It could be teaching in front of a school, in front of kids, and it's a spiritual gift and a natural talent that you have through acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: So you've developed that.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: And then diversities of activities.
SPEAKER_01: Now the reason it says that is because guess who you minister to?
SPEAKER_01: You minister to people.
SPEAKER_01: So there's diverse people, there's diversities of activities, and so different gifts empowering you to minister to people is going to be as diverse as the races across the globe.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's so many diverse ways that God can use spiritual gifts with people.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: But the manifestation of the Spirit, so underline that.
SPEAKER_01: Manifestation of the Spirit 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 knowledge through the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to cover that one in a few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: To another, the interpretation of tongues, but one and the same spirit works all of these things, distributing to each one individually as he will.
SPEAKER_01: So number three, every believer, every believer in Christ has been given spiritual gifts to benefit the whole church.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's been given spiritual gifts to benefit the whole church.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to note what I what that says.
SPEAKER_01: That's plural.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't believe you're just given one gift.
SPEAKER_01: I believe you're given a constellation of gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at this.
SPEAKER_01: Go back to verse 7, and I want you to circle each one, and then I want you to go down to verse 11, and I want you to circle each one individually.
SPEAKER_01: Each one individually, and then I draw a line between the two.
SPEAKER_01: From verse 7 to verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: So each one, so everybody's been given spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter 4, 10.
SPEAKER_01: As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying that when you use your gift to minister to others, that's the manifold grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: So that when you share with someone the gospel, because you know you're in this situation where you can share the gospel, you're showing, whether they are open to it or not, you're expressing the manifold grace of God to that person through you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm not a very good, I'm not a very good example of that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, I mean that's actually it's oftentimes at our lowest point that God can use us for his greater purposes.
SPEAKER_01: It's oftentimes, well, I think I read somewhere that when you're weak, I bet you quoted it this way.
SPEAKER_01: I think I heard it out there.
SPEAKER_01: When you're weak, he is strong.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually not what it says.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, in the Greek it says, when you're weak, you are strong.
SPEAKER_01: So when you are weak, you are strong.
SPEAKER_01: And that's in the context of a thorn in the flesh that was given to Paul.
SPEAKER_01: So when you're your weakest, that's oftentimes when God can use you the most because it gets you out of the way for the manifestation of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what manifestation means right here?
SPEAKER_01: Guess what it means?
SPEAKER_01: It means to be seen.
SPEAKER_01: So when we're ministering in spiritual gifts, people see God better.
SPEAKER_01: They see the Spirit, they understand the works of the Spirit because you're ministering in the Spirit to them.
SPEAKER_01: So everybody's been given spiritual gifts, and these spiritual gifts, I pray, will come alive in each one of us in the days ahead.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: For as the body is one, circle one, and has many members, but all the members of that one body, circle one body, being many are one body, circle one body, so also is Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For by one spirit, circle one spirit, get it?
SPEAKER_01: Get what's happening here?
SPEAKER_01: We were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit.
SPEAKER_01: For in fact, the body is not one member, but many.
SPEAKER_01: If the foot should say, Because I'm not a hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
SPEAKER_01: And if the ear should say, Because I'm not an eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
SPEAKER_01: If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
SPEAKER_01: If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?
SPEAKER_01: But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased.
SPEAKER_01: And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: So what he's saying here is that the exercise of spiritual gifts unifies the church.
SPEAKER_01: It should unify the church.
SPEAKER_01: So here's my definition of a spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_01: My definition of spiritual gift is a God-given, gracious droplet of God's love, giving you a capacity to serve and unify the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So I was invited, Liz and I were invited several weeks ago to a charismatic Catholic gathering at the Black Forest Church, the Catholic Church there in Black Forest, because one of our friends, Luke Vercolone, was going to be speaking and giving his testimony.
SPEAKER_01: So we went, and here I was with about 50 or 60, everybody's a Catholic except me.
SPEAKER_01: And there wasn't there was not one thing in that meeting that wasn't biblical and right and in order and powerful.
SPEAKER_01: It was beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Do I agree with everything in the Catholic Church?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, do I agree with everything that's happening at the road?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So, but but I saw these spiritual gifts flowing in a beautiful way.
SPEAKER_01: It almost felt like I was in a 1980s vineyard meeting happening there with people who identify as Roman Catholics.
SPEAKER_01: So you could argue, you could argue that the most unifying factor that's happened among denominations over the last 50 years has been spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: That when the charismatic movement began to come out in the Episcopal Church in 1963, and then up into the early in the 68, 69, with the Jesus movement, with kind of a new kind of church being coming forth, and then it began to bleed into the Lutherans, and it began to bleed into the Roman Catholics, it began to bleed into the United Methodists.
SPEAKER_01: There was this unity.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember my dad going to Kansas City in, I think it was 1976, somewhere in there.
SPEAKER_01: He went to Kansas City for this huge meeting in the chief stadium, which was all these denominations coming together because of the unity that he had in the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So it's the gifts of the Spirit, properly done, should bring unity in diversity.
SPEAKER_01: So the human perspective for us is that we have to be uniform.
SPEAKER_01: Uniformity.
SPEAKER_01: This is the problem in politics, is that everybody has to be uniform, and yet God's way is his beauty in diversity under the rubric of Jesus being Lord.
SPEAKER_01: There's diversity with Jesus being Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: But now indeed there are many members yet one body.
SPEAKER_01: And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
SPEAKER_01: No, much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
SPEAKER_01: And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor.
SPEAKER_01: Underlying, we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty.
SPEAKER_01: But our presentable parts have no need, but God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it.
SPEAKER_01: That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
SPEAKER_01: And if one member suffers, all members suffer with it.
SPEAKER_01: Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
SPEAKER_01: Now you are the body of Christ and members individually.
SPEAKER_01: So number five is that we we value each person's gifts, and it brings honor to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: So when we when we respect and when we value different gifts in the body, what we're doing is we're bringing honor to them.
SPEAKER_01: And God wants us to be a church of honor.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: And God has appointed these in the church, first apostles, second prophets, and third teachers.
SPEAKER_01: After that, miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
SPEAKER_01: Are all apostles?
SPEAKER_01: Are all prophets?
SPEAKER_01: Are all teachers?
SPEAKER_01: Are all workers of miracles?
SPEAKER_01: Do all have gifts of healings?
SPEAKER_01: Do all speak with tongues?
SPEAKER_01: Do all interpret?
SPEAKER_01: Number six, leadership in the church is appointed through spiritual gifting.
SPEAKER_01: So here he's talking about in Ephesians 4, 11, and 12, he speaks of the leadership of the church, that there's actually an order, there's an apostolic order to leadership within the church.
SPEAKER_01: And I think this is really important, men and women, that we have anointed, gifted leaders in leadership positions in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Not everyone is called to a prophetic anointing.
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody's called to be a worship leader.
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody's called to be the teacher, the lead teacher of a church.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this aspect of spiritual gifts that sets straight, sets in order, God's perspective to the local church.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we could say that that involves business.
SPEAKER_01: That involves politics too.
SPEAKER_01: Some people are anointed with an entrepreneurial gifting to start things.
SPEAKER_01: They just have that gifting.
SPEAKER_01: Others have an anointing for administrations to come alongside one who's the lead and to bolster that vision that that person has.
SPEAKER_01: And then look at verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: But earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way.
SPEAKER_01: So number seven, earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting word here.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word is zealo, zealu, zeu.
SPEAKER_01: Does that sound like anything?
SPEAKER_01: Zealous.
SPEAKER_01: Be zealous for spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: So when Mark is here on Friday night, when Mark is here on Saturday morning, when Mark is here on Sunday mornings, this weekend, be zealous for spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Come with an expectation over the next eight weeks.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want to walk in the unique calling for spiritual convergence in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize?
SPEAKER_01: You can be a teacher, you can be a mechanic, you can be a lawyer, you can be a doctor, you can be an entrepreneur, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: But when we start to discover our natural talents, our spiritual gifts, develop godly character, build acquired skills, and develop on our relational, our relational ability with people, that's convergence.
SPEAKER_01: That's spiritual convergence.
SPEAKER_01: So be zealous for that.
SPEAKER_01: Be bold, be assertive.
SPEAKER_01: To be all that God created you to be.
SPEAKER_01: To be the best version of the person God made each one of you to be.
SPEAKER_01: So God's desire for the Road Church is that we would be the most gifted and loving church in El Paso County.
SPEAKER_01: That's a kingdom revolution.
SPEAKER_01: That's a kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_01: And God, and God wants your company.
SPEAKER_01: If you're an owner of a company, God wants your company to be the most gifted and loving company in El Paso County.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a mom and dad, God wants your family to be the most gifted and loving family in El Paso County.
SPEAKER_01: That's a Kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_01: We go for the gifting, but we do it with love.
SPEAKER_01: Those go together.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: That's theroad.org.