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[0:00] The letter of 1 Corinthians is a treasure. It contains more teaching on the resurrection, spiritual gifts, marriage, and the virtue of love than any other book in the Bible.

[0:12] But it is not cold theology. 1 Corinthians is an urgent call for us to remember the gospel. And as a result, it's a call for us to be a cross-centered, holy, and united people until he returns.

[0:26] Listen in to what God has to say to us through this inspired letter. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 1. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

[0:44] You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed.

[0:57] And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.

[1:08] And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

[1:23] For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom. To another, the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit. To another, faith by the same Spirit.

[1:34] To another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit. To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, the ability to distinguish between spirits.

[1:44] To another, various kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

[1:59] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Well, when nine people travel together, a lot can go wrong.

[2:15] Especially when the journey is long and very difficult. But when these nine people have a common vision, a common goal, and when they use their abilities to serve one another towards this common goal, a lot more can go right.

[2:31] They're together, not because they're alike, but because they've been selected for a task. And because they are different. Pretty soon, these nine realize that they have someone actively trying to oppose this task of theirs.

[2:48] In fact, their journey is so long, their enemy is so strong, and their objective is so far out of reach that it seems impossible. A suicide mission.

[2:59] But if they're to have any success at all, they must rely on the strengths of one another to make it through. And they all have diverse qualities. One's very tall, strong, bold, doesn't shy away from a fight.

[3:15] Another is short, from a different race, stubborn, fierce. Another is quiet, fair, seems younger, and watches how things play out.

[3:26] There's an old man who seems out of place, but keeps him on track. Don't forget the dark and mysterious guy who is clearly hiding something. And of course, the four hobbits with their own unique qualities.

[3:39] Of course, I'm talking about the Fellowship of the Ring, and how this ragtag group of nine has to get the ruling ring destroyed in the depths of Mordor. It is what great stories are made of, isn't it?

[3:52] External and internal conflict, the flawed hero, the foil, an alliance whose strength together is more than the sum of its parts. It's Narnia.

[4:05] It's Three Musketeers. It's The Wizard of Oz. It's virtually every Pixar movie. And it's, of course, the Avengers. Now, if you are wondering whether I'm comparing the church and God's spiritual gifts to the crew, the Fellowship of the Ring, or even the Avengers, let me just be clear and say that's exactly what I'm doing.

[4:30] Except, as one author put it, the illustration only breaks down because our churches are more glorious, our union is more epic, and our work is more important. Amen. It's certainly not because we're special, but because the Holy Spirit empowers God's people in this new covenant age to carry out His purposes.

[4:51] And as we talked about last week, after Pentecost, every Christian is now empowered. Now empowered, defined by Spirit-empowered living.

[5:04] He poured out His Spirit on all who believe. Sons, daughters, young men, old men, male servants, female servants, all who call on the name of the Lord. The Spirit helps us in everyday life.

[5:16] But He also gives us spiritual gifts to strengthen us, carry out the mission of the church until Christ returns. This is what Paul says at the very beginning of this letter. He says in 1 Corinthians 1-7, You are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[5:36] So the Corinthians, they were certainly this ragtag group of believers, but God in His kindness saw fit to give them all sorts of spiritual gifts to help them accomplish their purpose.

[5:49] Even though they abused some of the gifts, Paul encourages this church to use what was given to build up and to strengthen them. And the Lord, through Paul, is encouraging us and saying the same thing to us today.

[6:06] So I think our main point today is, use the gifts that God has given each of us in the power of the Spirit to build up the church. The gifts of the Spirit are vast and broad and encompassing more than we might expect.

[6:23] Sometimes we discredit the gifts and suppose it's just maybe part of our personality. Other times we exalt certain gifts as being more spiritual. But God's given the Holy Spirit to all believers.

[6:37] And spiritual gifts accompany His presence. So use the gifts that God has given each of us in the power of the Spirit to build up the church. So I have three points that are going to guide us this morning.

[6:51] Point one, the giving of the Spirit is miraculous. Giving the Spirit is miraculous. Well, chapter 12 begins another new section in Paul's letter to this church.

[7:09] Remember, Paul's responding to several questions that they had, including questions about marriage and sex, food offered to idols. Later he gets into financial giving. And so Paul says, now concerning, this is the break, now concerning spiritual gifts.

[7:26] And as Paul usually does in his letters, he corrects their misunderstanding, this time about spiritual gifts. And Paul has this way of argumentation. We see it really clearly in the next few chapters, where he states the issue generally.

[7:41] He talks kind of generally about it. And then he moves and kind of deviates from that topic, seemingly, to shed more light on the subject. And then he comes back at the end to really hone in and define what he's saying at the beginning more clearly.

[7:55] And that's what we see unfolding over the next few chapters and over the next several sermons. Chapters 12, 13, and 14, that's exactly what Paul does. So this first part is like a flyover.

[8:06] This is generally stating the purpose and the understanding generally. It's the 60,000-foot view. And the Corinthians, they were fluent in their exercise of spiritual gifts in many ways.

[8:19] There was a lot of gifts that they had. They weren't lacking in any gift. But there was some sort of abuse going on. Some were perhaps arrogant in their use of a gift.

[8:33] Others perhaps wanting Paul just to shut it all down. How fitting that today's church, there are some who overemphasize some gifts, drawing too much attention to them.

[8:48] We can elevate those who have more spiritual gifts, more spectacular gifts. But we also see some, maybe in the landscape, and say, no, the gifts are no longer needed.

[8:59] Exercising them just leads to abuses. But Paul commends the use of spiritual gifts. He broadens their definition, in fact. And yet he sets boundaries.

[9:09] Oh, how much we need these words for the church today to guide and direct us. And, of course, these chapters have sparked much debate.

[9:21] It's easy to want to cut to the chase as we get started in these first few verses. It's easy to skip over these first three verses. Verse 1, he's making it clear what he's going to talk about now concerning spiritual gifts.

[9:38] Okay. We're going to get down to it. The Lord doesn't want his people ignorant or uninformed. Great. Great. Let's talk about spiritual gifts. And here's what he says. Verse 2. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray by mute idols, however you were led.

[9:54] Like, okay, wait. What are you talking about, Paul? At first, these verses seem totally unrelated. Remember when you were unbelievers, he says.

[10:07] Remember when you were uninformed. What is he doing? What is Paul doing here? Well, he's reminding us who the truly spiritual people are.

[10:22] Christians. That's what he's doing. Before we knew the Lord, we were ignorant. The Corinthians, many of them, had in fact come out of paganism.

[10:32] They were led astray. But we too were led astray. However, we were led. The unbeliever is led by all manner of things that are ungodly. They bowed down to worship physical idols made of wood and stone that had no ears that could hear, no mouth that could speak, except they bowed down and talked to them and expected answers in return.

[10:54] But we've been led by things that are foolish too. Do you remember how foolish you were before you knew Christ? Some of this more than others. I certainly was foolish.

[11:05] I was led by every sort of emotion. Life was either a party or a dumpster fire. Just led by foolishness. Not just ignorant and uninformed.

[11:21] Without God and without hope. This is what we were apart from Christ. Do you know what he saved you out of? Do you remember? Or saved you from?

[11:35] None of us, not all of us, can remember a time when we didn't believe. And praise God for that. Do you know what he saved you from? Not just a life filled with misery, but from the wrath of God and from hell.

[11:53] And he says, look there at verse 3. Therefore, no one speaking in the Spirit ever says Jesus is accursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

[12:07] Again, like, what in the world? What is going on here, Paul? Is he establishing some sort of criteria or rubric that we could, like, say this word, say this phrase, and then we can tell if that's really a spiritual gift?

[12:22] Because he's talking about spiritual gifts, and then, like, use this, here's a secret phrase or something, and then you're good. That makes it a true spiritual gift. Well, that can't be.

[12:33] That's absurd, because when Jesus encountered demons in the Gospels, they would often proclaim his deity outwardly. They'd say, you are the Christ, you are the Lord.

[12:44] But that's not what he's doing. That's not what's going on here. Instead, Paul is doing something very fundamental. He's addressing something essential. Remember how he saved you.

[12:56] This is the power of the Holy Spirit in you. God, by the Spirit, opening your eyes, he's contrasting the former life of lostness without the Spirit to the Christian life with the Spirit.

[13:18] It's very fundamental. A true confession that Jesus is Lord can only be brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit. It's only brought about by the Spirit of God.

[13:33] It's as if the Corinthians were asking, is it really true that spiritual manifestations are clear evidence that people are really spiritual? Does the presence of gifts mean that there's deeper spirituality?

[13:47] That's kind of like what they're asking. And Paul says, do you want to know who the really spiritual people are? It's not the gifted. It's not the gifted people. It's the person who's been born again. Paul wants to make it clear who has the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

[14:03] It's the believer. Christians, you have the Holy Spirit. That's what he's saying. So no believer can truly say, I'm just not really a spiritual person.

[14:22] That's factually untrue. If you're a Christian, you are a spiritual person. The most spiritual thing that could ever happen to you is for you to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. It's the single most miraculous thing that can ever happen to you.

[14:36] Do you see this? You're going from death to life, darkness to light, ignorance to understanding. Coming to Christ isn't merely making a good decision.

[14:48] It's new life. And it's radical. It's miraculous. And now the Holy Spirit is always with us.

[15:04] We're always face to face with God through the Spirit, as it were. And the temptation is to forget that we live in a spiritual world. Our physical world demands our attention.

[15:16] So much so that we can lull ourselves to sleep in forgetting that we are spiritual people. Jesus says in John chapter 3, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

[15:29] That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The natural person must be born again. And so I offer to you today Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

[15:40] The one through whom we come into spiritual life. He died to take away our sin. which is a spiritual problem.

[15:52] Our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is a spiritual problem. The wrath of God against your sins and against my sins. Oh, the greatest work that the Spirit ever does is when a person is born of the Spirit.

[16:04] Everything after that is just changing from one degree of glory to another. Right? One degree of glory to another. We can become fascinated by all the expressions of the Holy Spirit.

[16:17] But Paul would have us remained Christ-centered. The ultimate evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit is the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

[16:28] The outworking of the Spirit is not superior to the gospel. So the work of Christ is absolutely essential, absolutely primary. Point number two.

[16:41] The gifts of the Spirit have the same source. The gifts of the Spirit have the same source. So because of the Corinthians misunderstanding their hierarchy that they're establishing, we might expect Paul to say, shut it down.

[17:07] You guys aren't mature enough to handle this. Y'all gotta get it together. But that's not what he does. No, instead he broadens the understanding of spiritual gifts.

[17:18] He's building a framework to help all believers understand the Spirit's work in all his ways, which includes all dimensions of church life. Paul is commending spiritual gifts to a church that would continue on after he's gone.

[17:36] Commending gifts to this church that's gonna exist far after he's gone. So there's no indication that Paul gives that they should stop at any point. Spiritual gifts then continue to this day and are to build up the body of Christ until he returns.

[17:53] And they're also given as a foretaste of the age to come. Spiritual gifts are like a small beam of light from heaven that shines in our dark world, bringing attention to the generous character and the grace of God.

[18:10] So we look at verses 4 through 6. It has this three-fold form to it. Paul makes these three statements to emphasize a point. He uses the word varieties.

[18:21] It's important. Look down there again. Varieties of gifts. Varieties of service. Varieties of activities. Varieties, varieties, varieties. I think he's trying to say that there's a variety of gifts.

[18:32] Three times he uses. And the gifts, services, activities. Some versions say workings. They're all synonymous with the same thing. Using different words to describe what the Spirit does.

[18:45] And that's to say that it covers a lot of territory. Serving, activity, working, gifts. These are all manifestations of how God works. Evidence that the Lord is with us to bless us.

[18:57] I have the privilege of, at times, leading worship at our church. And it's a privilege to do so. And the term worship leader is not one that I necessarily prefer.

[19:12] Not because it's not listed in the Bible. That's not the point. Because not every gift is listed in the Bible. It's because that term, I think, limits our understanding of what we think worship really is.

[19:25] Worship isn't just what we do for 30 minutes on a Sunday. It's not just singing. Let's do the worship part of the section and the rest of it's not worship. No, that's not it.

[19:38] Our giving is worship. Paul says that we should, whatever we do, do for the glory of God. Even eating and drinking. So giving, praying, even listening, preaching. It's worship.

[19:48] It should be worship. So in a similar way, Paul's trying to help us see that the various ways that spiritual gifts operate. It's not just isolated gifts.

[20:00] It's vast. It's broad. It's not limited to nice, neat categories. It involves all kinds of aspects of our spiritual life. Varieties.

[20:12] Types of services. And then just to encourage us in them, we see each member of the Trinity present to empower us in these verses.

[20:22] same spirit, verse 4, same Lord, referring to Jesus Christ, verse 5, same God, which is God the Father, verse 6. We can't forget that spiritual manifestations happen again because God is present to bless us.

[20:38] The fullness of God is with us. So we don't need to approach the gifts with some sort of trepidation. God wants to fill us with faith. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit wants to bless us.

[20:52] And when we use our gifts in various ways, it directly reflects the diversity of the Godhead. And the point is to say that even though there is a great deal of variety, all the gifts have the same source.

[21:10] They have the same source. Is God divided? Father, Son, Spirit, same nature. There is one God. There is diversity in the Trinity.

[21:21] Same nature, different persons. All the gifts have the same source. So it eliminates all boasting on our part. So point number three, the work of the Spirit is diverse.

[21:37] The work of the Spirit is diverse. I'm going to spend a little more time on this point. I think there's more here. Even though gifts are given to individuals, the benefit of the gift is not the individual believer, but the entire community.

[22:02] Look what it says in verse 7. Look down there. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. We might say that that verse is the main point of that whole chapter.

[22:15] to each for the common good. Those are important phrases. Why in the world, then, are spiritual gifts given?

[22:27] Couldn't the Lord have just given us what we need individually? Like, you need something here. There you go. Oh, you need something for that? Okay, here you go. He could have done that.

[22:39] God's our great provider. So why the gifts? And so, instead of promoting independence, God meets our needs in the exercise of somebody else's gift.

[22:52] Do you see that? We need the body. We need the church. And I don't think it's idealistic to say that it works this way. It's a call to depend on one another, to give ourselves to each other, to rely on the strength that someone else supplies through their gifting.

[23:08] And we need you. We need each other and we need you. It's this common good mentality that the Lord is concerned about. And we might say that any gift, any grace given to us, anything that's been added to us, at least in part, is for the common good of the body.

[23:23] Do you have that view of your spiritual life? Are we committed to the common good in our walk with God? Personal devotions are valuable for your life, but it's also meant to encourage others.

[23:44] Thinking about the common good will free us from self-reliance and from thinking that the gifts are mainly for our benefit. Years ago, when our kids were young, our family moved to a new church and one of the things I loved about this new church was the music, of course, and the singing.

[24:04] And I immediately wanted to be a part of it. But I made the mistake of thinking that somehow they needed me. In my heart, I began to critique all the little things that they did on this team.

[24:22] The pastor knew that I played music, but he didn't ask me to participate right away, and I was offended. And the Lord convicted me that I was proud.

[24:39] I really didn't have the common good in mind. And even if there was some desire to serve, it was really ultimately for my own glory.

[24:51] I wanted to be thought much of. I was the hero that was going to come save the day of this fledgling band. And the Lord revealed my arrogance, and I had to ask for repentance.

[25:03] The Lord would forgive me and change my heart. They didn't need me in one sense. I needed to humble myself. And by the grace of God, the Lord helped me, and it was a rich season of not being part of that team.

[25:20] Oh, how tempting it is for us to exalt ourselves in the gifts and become self-focused. Are there ways, sometimes there's ways where we can feel inferior or superior to other people because of gifting.

[25:39] Because we have a gift and they don't, or they do and we don't. Oh, I could... We don't see the God behind the gifts. Instead, we measure them up.

[25:49] Man, look at them, look what they're doing. I could never really do that. We associate giftedness with value. We think that God gives one person, what God gives one person is better than what He gives to me.

[26:02] Perhaps I desire a different gift that they've been given. So it's hard to see the good that God's actually given you. We can be myopic and just think that...

[26:12] I just don't see. I just don't see what the Lord's done. And a lot of it is because of self-focus, comparison, destroying things. We're prone to it, comparing.

[26:24] We tend to be like Alice in Wonderland, who when she consumes the potion, she's much too small. Or when she eats the cake, she grows to be a giant, either too big or too small.

[26:34] And just like Alice, we're disoriented when we're too big or too small in our own esteem. But thankfully, the Lord would have us see it differently. any grace, any ability, any gift that the Lord has given you serves another purpose for the common good.

[26:56] Pastor and author Jeff Perswell said, there are no spiritual elite among God's people. But each person is gifted by the Spirit.

[27:07] And as we approach verses 8 through 10, we can look at these gifts, these list of gifts in a very isolated way.

[27:21] Paul is continuing his idea in verses 4 through 6 that there are a variety of gifts. And here, in these last verses, he's expanding on that same idea.

[27:34] He's giving examples of spiritual gifts, not limiting the gifts that exist, but expanding our idea and thinking of what all it includes. The list of spiritual gifts in the Bible are not exhaustive, but rather representative.

[27:52] That's important. Paul could have made the list much longer. In fact, the fact that there is some overlap helps us see that there are as many expressions of the Holy Spirit as there are people in the world.

[28:06] As if we could exhaust all the ways that the Holy Spirit's at work, his activity in the life of the believer. And so when we come to this list, it can be tempting to look through them and think, okay, do I have this one?

[28:17] Or that one? You know, my words don't really feel like knowledge or wisdom. I've never really laid my hands on somebody and healed them, brought them back from the dead. I don't speak in tongues.

[28:28] I certainly don't interpret them. So you move on from list to list. You look at Romans 12 or later in 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4, and we think too narrowly. Nope, don't have that one.

[28:40] You might look at yourself and you think, well, God must have made a mistake. To each has a manifestation of the Spirit, but not me. Every believer has a gift, baloney.

[28:54] We think too narrowly. And I think we think too inwardly. We don't just want to say, how can I benefit from someone else's gift?

[29:12] We want to say, how can someone else benefit from what the Lord's given me? The gift of encouragement or kindness, acts of mercy, or prayer, intercession, aren't mainly meant for our benefit.

[29:22] Outward thinking, we have to think outwardly in order to exercise. All are gifted, and so diversity is emphasized. Diversity.

[29:36] Spiritual unity doesn't come from everyone doing the same thing, similar abilities or personalities, skills, gifts. That would be dull and useless. These things are meant to be different from one another.

[29:48] Don Carson observed that when God creates a snowstorm, He creates each snowflake different. We, on the other hand, manufacture ice cubes. Uniformity is what we do.

[29:58] God emphasizes diversity. So the church, then, is not meant to be a Bible study where everyone in your group is the same age or in the same stage of life. No, that's not how it's supposed to be in the church.

[30:10] The people a row over from you are very different and have very different gifts than you. People with whom you would never speak to on the street and have absolutely nothing in common with. Race, background, upbringings, financial status, but they're a row over because you belong to the same body.

[30:26] You have been joined together in one another and meant to benefit from the gifts that God has given you and they from you. It's a beautiful picture. Spiritual gifts are tools for the building up of the body of Christ.

[30:47] In Acts chapter 6, Acts 6, we see a great example of this kind of distribution and roles to the church. Acts 6 describes seven men who were gifted to serve the church.

[31:04] These seven men were gifted differently than the rest of the twelve. The twelve apostles. Different, not less valuable, different, but so important.

[31:14] And these men were full of the spirit and of wisdom. And it's not as though they had more of the spirit than others. It just means that they were under the spirit's influence, they were aware of his presence, and they were effective in his service.

[31:30] And we'll talk later about what it means to be filled with the spirit as Buddy alluded to. We'll talk about that in more chapters. But I think it's worth noting that while not every Christian act of service, not everyone can be considered a spiritual gift, many things do in fact fall into that category that we might not think.

[31:48] Ben, helping on construction projects. Sarah, leading Bible study. Tony, coming alongside couples to form a budget and guide their finances. Mandy, serving in children's ministry and working to organize teams.

[32:01] Michael, behind the soundboard. Jenny, Mel, or Jonathan, or others, teaching students at school. Or Scott, going through a book with young men. I also think of Ron, who has spent so much time in his backyard praying for people over the years.

[32:17] Interceding. It may feel in some ways like I'm lowering the bar. It's like, well, is everything a spiritual gift? Well, then maybe nothing is. But that's not what we're doing. I think it's just the opposite.

[32:29] Instead, I think we need to lift our eyes and see that people serving that actually help, acts of service that get things done, carrying other people's burdens in prayer, these are the things that are far more significant than you realize.

[32:42] They're spiritual gifts given by the Spirit of God. We think, nah, it's not really that big a deal. It's just, you know, that's what you do. No, the Lord is with you, working in your life.

[32:55] They're spiritual gifts because God is the one empowering them. Do you think that you would do that on your own? Would we do these things on our own?

[33:07] Disadvantage ourselves in order to serve others on your own? No, each of us tends to go our own way, following our own sinful desires, serving a kingdom of self.

[33:21] It's God's Spirit that He places in us to give us any desire to serve Him and others and to make us effective in ministry. To Him be the glory for such a privilege.

[33:32] So, the implication then is that there are no natural gifts. I think some of us want to categorize these gifts into different categories.

[33:46] Like natural, supernatural. Well, really, there's no natural gifts then. God, the supernatural one, is the one who's behind every bit of it.

[33:58] We fall into the same trap as the Corinthians and we can fail to see God's work behind seemingly normal services. And in turn, we may fail to give Him praise because of it.

[34:11] Does it seem like, do you feel like knowledge in verse 8 is a natural gift? Not with the Lord. Is the working of miracles in verse 10 more supernatural than administration?

[34:26] Mentioned later in verse 28. No. There are more helpful gifts characterized by the ones that edify the church, but again, Jeff Perswell helps us and he says, in short, there are no unspectacular gifts, only unappreciated gifts.

[34:46] That's a good word. No unspectacular gifts. They're all supernatural.

[34:56] So God manifests Himself in the gifts of His people. It's one of the ways we experience the power and the presence of the living God.

[35:07] I don't know how many times people have prayed for me or counseled me as if this individual was just reading my mail. I experience God through their ministry.

[35:21] applying God's word or encouragement, giving of hope. Have you sought those kinds of things?

[35:31] not to experience them, which is great, but to offer them. Will you? Will you seek them? Will you seek them? Well, how do we know what to ask for?

[35:47] Well, what are the needs of the church? Ask God to show you what's needed. Lord, fill me. Show me where I can serve effectively for Your glory. If you're a Christian, you have spiritual gifts and you could receive new ones.

[36:03] He may redeem what's already there, but He may give you new ones. not every person has all the gifts.

[36:16] That couldn't possibly be, but every one person has a gift. And it may be that God wants to empower you in ways that you don't naturally feel gifted. Do you feel like maybe you're not eloquent or slow of speech or worried about what people are going to think?

[36:35] We forget that this was the case for Moses. God called Moses to do something that he was not naturally gifted at. And Moses pushed back against God.

[36:46] He said in Exodus chapter 4 that we have for you, Moses said to the Lord, Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.

[36:59] Then the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

[37:10] Now therefore go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. Who's made your hands to serve? Who made your mouth with which to encourage others or to give a prophecy?

[37:30] Who gives you knowledge? Is it not the Lord who graciously gives us all things? Don't simply affirm that the gifts are still available to some.

[37:42] No, instead I encourage each of us to earnestly desire the full range of spiritual gifts. He gives each one as he wills, which is what it says in verse 11.

[37:53] Apportions as he wills. Jesus Christ has not left the bride to go alone. We know this.

[38:04] He gives many good graces and many good gifts. And we can neglect the means of grace that he gives us. Fellowship, reading the word, meditating, prayer, singing. These are vital and necessary to spiritual life and maturity.

[38:16] But we tend to be like Frodo and go it alone. I just think God builds us up as a body. He gives us people like Sam coming alongside us.

[38:29] He joins us together and he causes us to need, to rely on each other. And he powers spiritual gifts to build one another up. So, use the gifts that God has given each of us in the power of the Spirit to build up the church.

[38:46] Let's pray. O good and gracious Father, we know that you are the one to whom we bow down.

[39:01] You have shown your gracious nature in creating all things and giving us life and breath, but you also give us a hope and a future through Jesus Christ alone. Father, we want to be Christ-centered.

[39:15] We want to focus on the main things, Lord, but you also don't want us uninformed. You've given gifts to your people to build up the body of Christ until you return. O Lord, help us.

[39:26] Would you give us the gifts of your Spirit? Would you give us the gift of healing and miraculous things and administration, tongues, interpretations, prophecy?

[39:37] Lord, give us these things in the Spirit, we pray. And may they point to you. All glory be to you in these things. We thank you that you want to encourage your people.

[39:49] Would you do so, Father? Help us. We pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen. You've been listening to a message on 1 Corinthians during a Sunday service at Trinity Grace Church.

[40:02] For more information, please visit us at trinitygraceathens.com Thank you.