WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.520 While we're working our way through a series on the Holy Spirit, this is the penultimate 00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:06.600 week on that. 00:00:06.600 --> 00:00:08.240 Next week we'll finish. 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:12.839 And tonight we come to the gifts of the Spirit. 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:18.519 And the gifts of the Spirit is a topic that Paul treats really from 1 Corinthians 12 to 00:00:18.519 --> 00:00:19.519 14. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:21.440 That's the most significant section of it. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:26.519 We can only do a small bit on the gifts of the Spirit tonight right here at the end of 00:00:26.519 --> 00:00:30.960 the 1 Corinthians 12, the beginning of 13. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:35.719 You know that people like to debate about the gifts of the Spirit. 00:00:35.719 --> 00:00:39.600 The gifts of the Spirit is one of the big debates in the Christian church and has been 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:42.679 for a long time ever since the beginning. 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:47.439 And tonight we want to be practical as much as possible. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:51.159 And that's really to say, do you know about the gifts of the Spirit? 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:53.600 Do you believe in the gifts of the Spirit? 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:57.079 And do you use them in your life? 00:00:57.079 --> 00:01:03.359 Now there are two problems that if Christian friends tonight, there are two problems that 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:08.799 everybody, everybody's in one of these two places tonight. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:15.040 One of them that maybe a few of us, one of the problems that maybe a few of us have, 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:19.120 maybe only one, maybe zero, I don't know. 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:22.680 Is that you, maybe you overestimate the gifts? 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:26.720 And do you know what that, to overestimate the gifts of the Spirit is to say things like, 00:01:26.720 --> 00:01:31.520 you know, if you don't know the gift of the Spirit that God has given you and you don't 00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:37.920 have certain gifts of the Spirit that are more visible, more tangible, then you're not 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.240 really a growing Christian. 00:01:40.240 --> 00:01:42.800 That's to overestimate the gifts of the Spirit. 00:01:42.800 --> 00:01:46.360 Now for most of us tonight, that's not our problem. 00:01:46.360 --> 00:01:51.520 Our problem is that probably we underestimate the gifts of the Spirit. 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:57.399 And to underestimate the gifts of the Spirit is to say the gifts of the Spirit, that's 00:01:57.399 --> 00:01:58.759 charismatic stuff. 00:01:58.759 --> 00:02:02.959 Now that's not really our church tradition. 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:11.439 And instead, Paul here says that every single Christian has at least one gift of the Spirit. 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:19.000 And the gifts say to us that we're weak, that we're needy, that we lack strength as Christians, 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.319 and the gifts of the Spirit are ministry power. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:23.319 They're ministry power. 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:25.840 They're ministry power inside the church. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:30.400 So Paul says they're for all of us to equip and give gifts to one another, but also they're 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:33.039 ministry power outside of the church. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:37.759 And so let's think about three things here that Paul brings up. 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:39.920 First, the reality of the gifts. 00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:42.719 Second, the equality of the gifts. 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.719 And then finally, the gatekeeper of the gifts. 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:46.719 Okay? 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:50.719 So first, the reality, the fact of the gifts. 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:54.979 If you've got a Bible, you can look down at verse 27 into chapter 12 where we started 00:02:54.979 --> 00:02:56.219 our reading. 00:02:56.219 --> 00:03:00.159 And Paul says now, now. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:01.520 Little preposition there. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:03.680 It could be therefore so. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:10.360 This is Paul's summary line when he says now, he's saying, let me summarize everything I've 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:12.199 already said. 00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:19.079 And what he says is you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 00:03:19.079 --> 00:03:25.479 Now this is what Paul says that if the Holy Spirit has come into your life, Christianity 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:27.519 does something incredible. 00:03:27.519 --> 00:03:29.959 It doesn't take away your individuality. 00:03:29.959 --> 00:03:31.879 It establishes it. 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:37.759 You see, he says you are the body of Christ and individually your members of it. 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:44.639 That means that Christianity says that God has come into your life individually. 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:47.519 Christianity says that you're valued by God. 00:03:47.519 --> 00:03:52.439 You're valued so much by God that God by the Spirit came to you personally, that Christ 00:03:52.439 --> 00:03:56.280 died for you personally and at the same time. 00:03:56.280 --> 00:04:00.000 The Spirit doesn't take away your individuality, no. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.479 But the Spirit does take away your individualism. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:08.919 So you're individually a member of the body, but you're a member of the body. 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:13.560 And that means that you're an individual valued by God. 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:14.919 God says to you, I want you. 00:04:14.919 --> 00:04:18.159 I want you in my family. 00:04:18.159 --> 00:04:22.680 And you exist not for yourself, but for the body, for the corporate. 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:26.639 So you're both an individual, but no to individualism. 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:28.399 That's what the Spirit does right here out of the gate. 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:29.560 That's what Paul says. 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:33.639 Now, so what, what does that have to do with the spiritual gifts? 00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:39.079 Here's the so what verse 28, right after that, another preposition. 00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:41.240 It's all about the prepositions. 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:45.199 Verse 28, the preposition is and, and. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:48.399 And he's still summarizing all that he's already taught. 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:49.399 And you see what he does. 00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:54.519 He says, and God has appointed in the church first Apostle, second prophets and so on. 00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:58.079 He's saying, all of you individually matter. 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:03.319 God has worked in your life and stamped that into your heart and you exist now for the 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:12.240 body and that means that God has given us individually spiritual gifts for the sake 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:15.039 of the whole, for the sake of the body. 00:05:15.039 --> 00:05:19.959 So it's individuality, not individualism and spiritual gifts are your individual gifts 00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:23.959 that exist for the corporate, not for yourself. 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:27.719 And then he gets in to say, well, he's saying, what is he saying? 00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:30.880 That means the reality of the gifts. 00:05:30.880 --> 00:05:36.720 Every single Christian has a gift of the spirit. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:39.080 It's a fact. 00:05:39.080 --> 00:05:43.520 And then he tells us what they are and he gives us these famous lists. 00:05:43.520 --> 00:05:49.200 Now the lists of the gifts of the spirit show up in chapter 12 here and Ephesians four, 00:05:49.200 --> 00:05:53.000 first Peter four, Romans 12, we've got different lists. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:58.720 And when you add them all together, all the different gifts, it adds up to 21 different 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:00.920 gifts that are mentioned in the New Testament. 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:03.199 Now let me list them for you really quickly. 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:05.000 Okay, here they are. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:12.120 Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healing, helping, administrating, tongues, service, 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:18.920 exhortation, generosity, leadership, evangelist, shepherd, interpretation, administration, 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:23.280 hospitality, discernment, faith, wisdom, and the gift of knowledge. 00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:27.520 So those are the 21 gifts that are listed across the New Testament, about eight or nine, 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:31.560 seven or eight of them right here in verse 28 to 30. 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:38.920 And it's probably the case that many of these are synonyms, but it's also probably the case 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:44.080 most scholars and theologians have thought for a long time now that there are more gifts 00:06:44.080 --> 00:06:48.120 of the spirit in that than that, that some just aren't listed. 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:54.720 So for example, sometimes God takes our natural gifts and then the spirit comes down in your 00:06:54.720 --> 00:07:00.000 life and baptizes that natural gift and makes it a gift of the spirit. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.319 So one of those that's not listed in the New Testament is music, but one of the great gifts 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:09.879 of the spirit is music, ability to lead God's people in worship and music. 00:07:09.879 --> 00:07:14.079 Now here's the definition then of the gifts. 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:15.160 Here's the definition. 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:21.360 The gifts of the spirit are inclinations and capabilities. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:27.560 Inclinations desires actually in you, that the spirit gives you inclination, desire, 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:35.120 and capability to help you do ministry inside of the church and outside of the church. 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:37.320 They're from God. 00:07:37.320 --> 00:07:38.720 They're not earned. 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:41.040 They're given. 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:47.200 And if nothing else tonight, I think for us here, the application is this, the gifts are 00:07:47.200 --> 00:07:49.040 real. 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:54.840 The gifts of the spirit are real and you've got one. 00:07:54.840 --> 00:07:56.040 Are you a Christian tonight? 00:07:56.040 --> 00:08:01.160 Then you've got a gift of the spirit, at least one, and they are a sign that the Holy Spirit 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:05.080 is acting and active in your life. 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:12.719 Now very practical, you say, I don't know my gift of the spirit. 00:08:12.719 --> 00:08:14.479 How do you know? 00:08:14.479 --> 00:08:19.680 And here's how you look down at verse 31, there's this line in 31 where he says, but 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.079 earnestly desire the higher gifts. 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:26.799 We'll come back around to the higher gifts, but he's saying there that it's good to desire 00:08:26.799 --> 00:08:34.399 the gifts and to want the gifts to want to know and to want to work in, walk into the 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:38.240 gifts and get better at them, to know it and to get better at it. 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:40.159 That's what verse 31 says. 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:43.159 In other words, they're both given. 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:48.559 They're not earned, they're given, but also you seek them at the same time. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:52.519 And here's, let me just say three things before we move on about very practical about how 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:54.399 to do this. 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:59.159 One is to say, actively discern your gift of the spirit. 00:08:59.159 --> 00:09:04.199 In other words, don't be passive about the gifts. 00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:06.640 Think about them, act into them. 00:09:06.640 --> 00:09:10.120 Say I want to search this out, I want to figure this out. 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:16.280 I want to know, and the way to do that is not by a spiritual gift inventory. 00:09:16.280 --> 00:09:21.720 So if you have to work it out on paper through a quiz, then you're not finding out your spiritual 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:22.720 gift. 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:24.200 That's not how you do it, not at all. 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:25.200 Instead, how do we do it? 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:27.759 Well, this is what Paul says. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:34.399 Paul says that the gifts are for the building up of the whole body and for ministry power 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:36.399 outside of the church. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:38.439 So how do you find out your gift of the spirit? 00:09:38.439 --> 00:09:44.960 You get stuck in to the things that build up the whole body and the ministries outside 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:45.960 the church. 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:49.720 You do ministry in the church, and you do ministry out of the church, and then you see 00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:51.559 what emerges from that. 00:09:51.559 --> 00:09:57.600 You get stuck into hospitality, service, generosity, mercy, encouragement, evangelism. 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:00.320 And then you say, where are my desires? 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:02.200 Where are my abilities? 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:04.480 And where's the opportunity? 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:10.920 And oftentimes the gifts of the spirit emerge when you see desire in your heart, ability, 00:10:10.920 --> 00:10:14.960 and what you've been able to do, and then opportunity, need out in front of you. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:19.680 And all those three things come together, and there you find, I'm gifted. 00:10:19.680 --> 00:10:20.960 I'm gifted towards this. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:23.600 This is the ministry I really want to be a part of. 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:25.040 This is the thing I really want to do. 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:28.360 Secondly, find your gift. 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:32.360 Lean into all sorts of type of ministry to find your gift, and when you find it, lean 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:34.759 into it even more. 00:10:34.759 --> 00:10:37.599 And here's a way to do that. 00:10:37.599 --> 00:10:42.240 Be a ministry entrepreneur. 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:48.120 Be a gifted, you are gifted, be the gifted ministry craftsman. 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:53.480 Don't just be gifted, but be a craftsman at the gift of the spirit that you've been given. 00:10:53.480 --> 00:10:59.639 Verse 31, one commentator says this, although the gifts are supernaturally bestowed, they 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:01.920 must be pursued and developed. 00:11:01.920 --> 00:11:03.680 They must be sought. 00:11:03.680 --> 00:11:05.159 Seek the gifts. 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:10.560 Now here's an even more practical way to do it. 00:11:10.560 --> 00:11:12.120 We all say this in churches. 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:16.039 I've said this in every church I've ever been a part of, and I know you say it in our church. 00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:22.240 We look out and we say, why aren't we doing this ministry? 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:23.240 Why aren't we doing this ministry? 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:24.240 Here's a need. 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:25.240 Here's a gap. 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:27.480 Here's a place that we could fill into. 00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:31.200 Here's a ministry on the royal mile we could get involved in. 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:32.560 Why aren't we talking more about this? 00:11:32.560 --> 00:11:34.680 Why aren't we doing more about this? 00:11:34.680 --> 00:11:36.680 And that's the right instinct. 00:11:36.680 --> 00:11:37.680 That's the right question. 00:11:37.680 --> 00:11:39.360 That's the right attitude. 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:44.639 And maybe the reason that that question about that particular need is coming up in your 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:48.240 heart is because that's where you're gifted. 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:49.240 That's your gift of the spirit. 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:55.600 If you're gifted in mercy, you probably are regularly saying, man, we could be doing this. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:57.240 We could be doing that with mercy. 00:11:57.240 --> 00:11:59.320 We could be reaching out to the poor in these ways. 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:03.960 If you're gifted in evangelism, you've probably got your eyes open to saying, we need to be 00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:05.600 evangelizing this way. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:08.680 We need to be creating a bigger evangelism culture. 00:12:08.680 --> 00:12:13.240 If you're gifted in generosity, you may be thinking, we've got to be planning about the 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:14.240 next church plan. 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:15.519 We've got to be putting money away for it. 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:17.680 We've got to be doing this and that. 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:24.359 And Paul says in Ephesians 4, something that he mentions just in the list in verse 28, 00:12:24.359 --> 00:12:29.759 he says, the third gift is the teacher, which I think is a synonym for the minister, the 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:31.279 pastor, or the shepherd. 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:39.599 In Ephesians 4, he says that the teacher's job is to equip all the saints for their ministry, 00:12:39.599 --> 00:12:43.519 for the ministry of the body and individual ministry at the same time. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:48.039 And that means that in some ways, the job of the institutional church is when you say, 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:49.039 what about this? 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:55.039 The institution, the teacher, the gift of the teacher is to say, let's do it. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:56.039 Do it. 00:12:56.039 --> 00:12:57.240 Let us help you get it started. 00:12:57.240 --> 00:12:58.240 Let's get it off the ground. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:00.639 That sounds like that might be your gift. 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:01.639 Let's go for it. 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:03.319 Let's chase after it. 00:13:03.319 --> 00:13:08.879 And so I think Paul is saying here tonight to you, be a ministry entrepreneur. 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:14.799 Look for needs and maybe the needs that you keep seeing are actually exactly the gift 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:18.720 that the Spirit's given you, the ministry gift that you've been empowered to. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:25.480 Now lastly, thirdly, verse 30, you can see Paul says, Paul says, does every verse 29 00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:28.439 and 30, does everybody, is everybody an apostle? 00:13:28.439 --> 00:13:29.439 Is everybody a prophet? 00:13:29.439 --> 00:13:30.799 Is everybody a teacher? 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:32.399 Does everybody work miracles? 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:33.399 No. 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:35.120 And there's an implication there. 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:43.799 He's saying we don't all have the same gifts and that really does mean that we've got to 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:50.399 have a philosophy of ministry, a vision for ministry that's not from the top down, but 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:51.399 from the bottom up. 00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:52.639 You see what he's saying? 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:55.480 He's saying every single person has a gift. 00:13:55.480 --> 00:13:56.480 We're all here in this. 00:13:56.480 --> 00:13:58.560 We all have a ministry gift. 00:13:58.560 --> 00:14:04.279 And so ministry really does work from the bottom up, not the top down, that it's actually 00:14:04.279 --> 00:14:09.519 about the grassroots movement of all of us seeing needs and chasing after them, of using 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:11.799 our gifts in all sorts of different ways. 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:19.079 In other words, the very fact of the gifts means that it's not the case that employees 00:14:19.079 --> 00:14:25.919 or staff or anything like that do the primary ministry even, but that everyone does it. 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:28.039 Everyone does the primary ministry. 00:14:28.039 --> 00:14:29.240 Every Christian has a gift. 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:33.399 Every Christian does the ministry, all of us together and at the same time. 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:43.840 All right, so all of us, all of us are gifted ministering saints, gifted ministering saints. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:46.079 What's your ministry? 00:14:46.079 --> 00:14:48.159 Where's the needs around you? 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:49.159 What are you stepping into? 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:50.480 What's your ministry? 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:55.720 Secondly, briefly, to answer that a little bit more, let's think about the equality of 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:57.639 the gifts. 00:14:57.639 --> 00:14:58.639 Back to the same issue. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:02.799 Paul says, verse 29 and 30, is everybody an apostle? 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:04.079 And of course, we all know the answer. 00:15:04.079 --> 00:15:06.839 He's saying is no. 00:15:06.839 --> 00:15:13.319 We know that there were only about 13 or so of those guys, probably a few more. 00:15:13.319 --> 00:15:18.620 But to be an apostle, you had to have seen the risen Jesus in the flesh and been appointed 00:15:18.620 --> 00:15:22.000 by Jesus to be an apostle. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.279 Not everybody's an apostle. 00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:29.279 And one of the things we see here is that he's saying that there is first a healthy 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:34.439 inequality to the gifts, that not everybody's an apostle, not everybody's a prophet, not 00:15:34.439 --> 00:15:37.319 everybody's a teacher, that different people have different gifts. 00:15:37.319 --> 00:15:42.639 There's a healthy inequality that we can't all do the same thing and be the same thing. 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:48.079 But secondly, at the same time, there's a fundamental equality to the gifts. 00:15:48.079 --> 00:15:52.480 And if you were just to cast your eyes backwards just a little bit in the passage, you can 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:57.319 see back up at the top of the previous paragraph, verse 21, he made that argument. 00:15:57.320 --> 00:16:01.879 He said, the eye cannot say to the hand, I've got no need of you. 00:16:01.879 --> 00:16:06.600 The eye can't say to the hand, this gifted person can't say to that gifted person, I 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:08.240 don't need you. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:12.040 The eye, the hand, the toes, all of it, the ears. 00:16:12.040 --> 00:16:16.160 In other words, Paul's saying that there's a healthy inequality. 00:16:16.160 --> 00:16:18.000 We don't all have the same gifts. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:19.260 We're not the same. 00:16:19.260 --> 00:16:22.440 We can all do the same ministries all the time. 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:28.720 And there's a fundamental equality, and that's that every single one of us and our gifts 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:32.320 are totally necessary. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:40.320 And however small you think your gift may be, every single Christian is essential to 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.160 the body of Christ. 00:16:43.160 --> 00:16:47.280 Let me say it even stronger than that. 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:53.399 Every believer has a place in the body of Christ that no other Christian can fill. 00:16:53.399 --> 00:17:00.159 Every single one of us has a place in the body of Christ that nobody else can fill. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:05.559 And the reason you know that is because of verse 27, Paul says, you are the body of Christ, 00:17:05.559 --> 00:17:09.680 you individual person, you're part of it. 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:15.399 And that means that Christianity says to you what nothing else can say, that there's a 00:17:15.400 --> 00:17:21.280 supernatural eternal reason why you matter. 00:17:21.280 --> 00:17:28.080 A supernatural eternal reason that God from before, the very creation of the world, said 00:17:28.080 --> 00:17:33.480 your name and knew you and said that you take a place in the body of Christ that nobody 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:36.400 else can fill. 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:40.000 And so God, God believed that so much. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:41.000 God knew that so much. 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:49.039 God loved you so much that Jesus Christ died for you personally on the very cross of Christ. 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:50.839 And that means you're totally necessary. 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:55.680 And that means if you're a Christian tonight and you say, you know, I'm not sure I have 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:59.839 a use, I feel like I just come, but I'm not sure that I've got a gift. 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:02.519 I'm not sure I've got something that could contribute. 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:04.079 You're wrong. 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:05.079 You do. 00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:06.079 You're necessary. 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:08.599 We can't do it without you. 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:13.879 You are an essential part of the body of Christ because you are part of the body of Christ. 00:18:13.879 --> 00:18:16.599 Jesus Christ has named you and you have a gift. 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:19.639 You have a place that no other Christian can fill. 00:18:19.639 --> 00:18:24.519 Now the third and final thing and we'll move on is there's not only a healthy inequality 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:30.839 and a fundamental equality, but there's also another type of equality and that's the equality 00:18:30.839 --> 00:18:33.039 of calling. 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.919 Now you can't get this directly from the section we just read here, but when you read 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:43.320 this little paragraph in light of everything Paul writes, we know when you look through 00:18:43.320 --> 00:18:47.320 Paul's writings that Paul says to every Christian, you're a Christian. 00:18:47.320 --> 00:18:48.640 You need to give to the church. 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:49.640 You're a Christian. 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:53.320 You need to share your testimony with somebody in your life about what Jesus has done in 00:18:53.320 --> 00:18:54.320 your life. 00:18:54.320 --> 00:18:55.320 You're a Christian. 00:18:55.320 --> 00:18:56.320 You need to encourage people. 00:18:56.320 --> 00:18:57.680 You're a Christian. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:01.440 You need to open your home and be hospitable to the fellow Christians. 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:02.440 You need to do all of it. 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:09.519 You see what he's, there's an equality of calling, in other words, we're gifted individually 00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:15.840 for certain things and every single one of us is called to every ministry at the same 00:19:15.840 --> 00:19:17.480 time. 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:22.519 So giftedness does not mean you don't say I've got the gift of generosity so I don't 00:19:22.519 --> 00:19:24.279 do evangelism. 00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:29.680 No, actually every single one of us is called to every ministry. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:32.759 If you're a teacher, you're called to every ministry. 00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:34.080 If you're a helper, you're called to every ministry. 00:19:34.080 --> 00:19:36.240 If you're a servant, you're called to every ministry. 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:39.840 If you're a mercy person, you're called to every ministry. 00:19:39.840 --> 00:19:41.640 All of us are called to all the ministries. 00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:44.799 Everyone's job is to do all the jobs, actually. 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:50.759 And the reason that the gifts exists, the reason that they exist is so that those gifted 00:19:50.759 --> 00:19:57.840 in particular areas can be leaders and examples, leaders and examples in those particular areas 00:19:57.840 --> 00:19:58.960 of ministry. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:02.720 And there are all areas that we're all called to at the same time. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:10.600 So look, find your gift, lean into it, know that you're necessary, and know that that's 00:20:10.600 --> 00:20:12.720 what the Spirit of God says. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:20.180 All right, thirdly and finally, no, not thirdly and finally, excursus. 00:20:20.180 --> 00:20:25.640 Let me take two minutes before the final point to answer the question that I'm not going 00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:27.319 to answer. 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:34.079 And that's what you expect to sermon here on the gifts of the Spirit to be about, which 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:42.759 is what do we say about most of the things that Paul lists here, which are miracles, 00:20:42.759 --> 00:20:48.639 healings, tongues, prophecy, desire, the higher gifts. 00:20:48.639 --> 00:20:53.919 The highest gift Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14-1 is prophecy, the ability to speak the 00:20:53.919 --> 00:20:57.279 very revelation of God. 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:01.599 What do we say about, are we saying to seek these things tonight? 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:05.480 These are called the extraordinary supernatural gifts. 00:21:05.480 --> 00:21:07.839 Do they happen today? 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:14.399 Now let me just try to do this in 90 seconds and say, God does what He wants. 00:21:14.399 --> 00:21:17.839 Of course, God does miracles. 00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:21.039 Of course He does. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:31.480 Does the Spirit give individuals today the capacity to heal, to give new prophecy, to 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:36.920 speak unknown languages, which is tongues, at their own discretion, at their own will, 00:21:36.920 --> 00:21:40.319 which is what these gifts mean in the New Testament? 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:45.159 If you say yes to that tonight, you're known, you would be in a group called a continuationist 00:21:45.159 --> 00:21:46.319 Christian. 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:51.599 If you say no, I don't think so, then you would normally be called a cessationist, a 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:53.359 Christian who's a cessationist. 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:55.720 Now that's a spectrum, not one thing. 00:21:55.720 --> 00:22:00.519 There's all sorts of ways to be a continuationist or a cessationist. 00:22:00.519 --> 00:22:04.079 And the truth is that we are all both. 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:09.119 Everybody who's a continuationist is also a cessationist and vice versa. 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:15.679 Because all the continuationists agree with the cessationists that the apostles have ended, 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:19.000 that there's no longer an apostolic gift, an apostolic office. 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:21.279 We all believe that that has ended. 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:26.440 And all of us cessationists believe that most of the gifts still continue. 00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:28.920 And so we're all actually both at the same time. 00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:34.560 But just let me say what I think personally in the way I read the Bible and this, I think 00:22:34.560 --> 00:22:40.680 that tongues, miracles, and prophecy, the three extraordinary gifts in particular, have largely 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:45.240 ceased, stopped after the era of the apostles. 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:46.960 And I'll give you two reasons and we'll move on. 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:53.440 One is this, that God gave tongues the ability to speak languages that a person does not 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:57.880 know, to preach the gospel suddenly in a language that a person does not know. 00:22:57.880 --> 00:23:05.400 He did it, I believe, in a particular era so that one, the Gentiles would know right 00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:11.359 after the ascension of Christ that the gospel was not just for Jews, but for everybody. 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:17.359 And secondly also so that in the first era to establish the gospel, the gospel could 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:21.759 be preached immediately to anybody without learning a new language. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:26.799 Now the second reason is just a couple of verses and here they are Ephesians 2.20. 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:32.019 The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Paul says. 00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:38.000 The church was built on a foundation and that foundation is apostles and prophets. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:42.640 And we all agree that there's no longer any apostles and I think Paul is saying there, 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:48.440 the apostle, office of apostle and the ability to prophesy new revelation ceased after the 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:50.559 foundation was laid. 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:53.079 Ephesians 2.20 or here's another one, Hebrews 2.4. 00:23:53.079 --> 00:23:59.720 The gospel went forth being affirmed, confirmed in the early days by signs and wonders, the 00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:05.240 signs and the wonders, the ability of many to perform a miracle at their own will gifted 00:24:05.240 --> 00:24:06.640 by God in that way. 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:07.640 That happened. 00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:11.960 It was a deal that happened in a season and it was to establish the foundation of the 00:24:11.960 --> 00:24:16.400 church as it goes forward in the world and I'll move on. 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:19.960 God can do what He wants to do. 00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:25.840 And so here's what I know, I do know about this issue and that's that we don't know. 00:24:25.840 --> 00:24:26.840 We don't know much. 00:24:26.840 --> 00:24:28.800 That's what I know about it. 00:24:28.800 --> 00:24:31.040 And if you want to talk more about it, please come and talk to me. 00:24:31.040 --> 00:24:34.520 Thirdly and finally, thirdly and finally the gatekeeper of the gifts. 00:24:34.520 --> 00:24:37.000 We'll close with this. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:44.200 We're going to take four minutes to talk about 1 Corinthians 13, the passage on love. 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:49.359 We can only say a few things about this, but this is of course the great wedding text. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:54.759 But when you read it in the light of chapter 12 and 14, you realize 1 Corinthians 13, it's 00:24:54.759 --> 00:24:56.319 not really a wedding text though. 00:24:56.319 --> 00:24:58.440 If you used it at your wedding, that's fantastic. 00:24:58.440 --> 00:25:01.119 I love that. 00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:03.599 It's a great wedding text. 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:08.839 And 1 Corinthians 13 in context is really about when you can use the gifts of the spirit 00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:10.000 and how. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.319 That's actually the context and here's what it says. 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:15.879 1 Corinthians 13 says this. 00:25:15.879 --> 00:25:20.759 It says that the gifts do not make you great. 00:25:20.759 --> 00:25:23.959 The gifts do not make great Christians. 00:25:23.959 --> 00:25:27.319 Love makes great Christians. 00:25:27.319 --> 00:25:31.719 And that is to say that the gatekeeper to the gifts is love. 00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:36.000 Love is the great gatekeeper and if you want to step into the world of ministry and use 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:39.319 your gifts rightly and well and not quench the spirit, you've got to walk through the 00:25:39.319 --> 00:25:40.960 gate of love. 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:44.200 Love is the gatekeeper that you've got to walk through. 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:49.480 And if you don't got love, you've got to do with your gift. 00:25:49.480 --> 00:25:54.279 You've got to do with the gifts what Gandalf did on the bridge of cause I'd doom. 00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:55.440 What did he do? 00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:57.440 He said, thou shall not pass. 00:25:57.440 --> 00:26:00.480 Without love, the gifts can't go any farther. 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:01.480 The gifts have to stop. 00:26:01.480 --> 00:26:03.200 The gifts can't be used properly. 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:05.120 You can't cross over. 00:26:05.120 --> 00:26:09.480 You got to stay in the minds of Moria unless you've got love. 00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:14.240 And you see Paul bears this out in 13, just the first few verses. 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:17.519 What he's doing here is exaggeration and hyperbole. 00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:21.319 He says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I don't have love, I'm 00:26:21.319 --> 00:26:23.200 noisy. 00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:28.079 If I speak, if I can speak every known human language and even the angel, the language of 00:26:28.079 --> 00:26:30.880 the angels, he's being hyperbolic. 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:34.840 But I don't have love, even if I'm the greatest gifted tongues person ever. 00:26:34.840 --> 00:26:37.000 But without love, it's just noise. 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:42.040 And he goes on, he said, even if I know every mystery, knowledge, if I'm the greatest of 00:26:42.040 --> 00:26:44.360 prophets without love, I'm nothing. 00:26:44.360 --> 00:26:49.600 Even if I give away all that I have, if I'm the greatest ascetic of world history, if 00:26:49.600 --> 00:26:54.560 I'm so generous that I give away all that I have, I'm materially poor, but I do it motivated 00:26:54.560 --> 00:26:55.960 by something other than love. 00:26:55.960 --> 00:26:56.960 It's noise. 00:26:56.960 --> 00:26:59.440 It's not music. 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:03.200 In other words, he says, you make great music in the church. 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:09.840 The church together makes melody whenever love and giftedness come together, whenever we 00:27:09.840 --> 00:27:15.360 exercise our gifts through the gatekeeper, through the gatekeeper of love. 00:27:15.360 --> 00:27:22.039 Now eternal love, verse eight, sorry, verse eight, you see it, he says it. 00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:23.039 Why? 00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:25.080 Because here's why. 00:27:25.080 --> 00:27:26.360 The gifts are going to pass away. 00:27:26.360 --> 00:27:27.600 The gifts are temporary. 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:33.359 The gifts only exist in a time where we need them to do ministry, but love never ends. 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:35.599 Verse eight, love continues forever. 00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:39.439 In other words, he's saying love is so much important, more important, because love is 00:27:39.439 --> 00:27:40.439 eternal. 00:27:40.439 --> 00:27:42.439 The gifts aren't. 00:27:42.439 --> 00:27:50.119 And that you can't really exercise your gift well unless you've experienced eternal love. 00:27:50.119 --> 00:27:56.839 And that means that the very fact that love could be eternal means that love is no mere 00:27:56.839 --> 00:28:00.720 everlasting emotion, not at all. 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.879 The reason love is eternal, it never ends is because love ultimately is a person. 00:28:04.879 --> 00:28:06.720 It's personal. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:09.599 Love is personal. 00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:13.240 And in fact, it is a person. 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:14.319 You know what John says? 00:28:14.319 --> 00:28:18.039 John says, verse John four, we're preaching through on Sunday mornings. 00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:21.359 He says, God is love and this is love. 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:22.359 What is love? 00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:29.799 It's love that God sent his son to be the sacrifice for your sins. 00:28:29.799 --> 00:28:32.919 The Bible says that love will never end because love is personal. 00:28:32.919 --> 00:28:33.919 Love is a person. 00:28:33.919 --> 00:28:35.959 God is love. 00:28:35.959 --> 00:28:42.719 And his love is most manifest in all of world history at the moment of the cross. 00:28:42.719 --> 00:28:49.639 This week, many of you will know last week, Chadwick Boseman doesn't appear in the new 00:28:49.640 --> 00:28:56.280 Black Panther II, went out and saw Black Panther II and Wakanda forever. 00:28:56.280 --> 00:29:02.480 And the star of Black Panther, the Black Panther himself is not in it. 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:07.000 And instead at the beginning, there's a funeral on the screen for him. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:11.920 As many of you will know, Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther, he died in August 00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:13.440 of 2020. 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:19.520 He had a four year battle with a very aggressive colon cancer and he was 43 when he died. 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:25.119 Now, there were, before he died for years, there were all these pictures of him that 00:29:25.119 --> 00:29:31.599 arose on social media in children's cancer hospitals all throughout the U.S. 00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:36.799 And there were videos of him hanging out with all these kids and all these hospitals and 00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:38.799 these cancer wards. 00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:41.839 There's an interview with him actually a couple years ago, just before his death, not long 00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:46.559 before his death, where he was naming some of the children that he had known in these 00:29:46.559 --> 00:29:52.119 hospitals and talking about losing them too early. 00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:55.440 And he was in tears just talking about him. 00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:00.039 Now Chadwick had a secret, many of you know this already, but Chadwick had a secret and 00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:03.759 that was, Chadwick was visiting all these cancer wards with these children because he 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:05.319 had cancer. 00:30:05.319 --> 00:30:10.839 Because he was dying and he was there at the hospital as a patient. 00:30:10.839 --> 00:30:13.000 And nobody knew it. 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:15.440 Everybody was saying Chadwick Boseman, he loves to love on the children. 00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:19.440 But nobody knew what kind of love he was giving. 00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:24.720 And the love that Chadwick was giving, he loved all these kids so well and so often because 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:27.360 he was just like them. 00:30:27.360 --> 00:30:30.880 And he suffered as they suffered. 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:35.840 And he loved them in a way that they felt was unique, but they couldn't put their finger 00:30:35.840 --> 00:30:36.840 on it. 00:30:36.840 --> 00:30:40.960 Nobody could until we all found out Chadwick suddenly died and it was the first time we 00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:47.559 found out he was there with them suffering alongside them as one of them. 00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:56.880 Look, God loves, eternal love itself, who is God, loves you so much in your individuality 00:30:56.880 --> 00:31:04.079 and corporately, all of us together, that the Son of God became one of us. 00:31:04.079 --> 00:31:10.640 He loved us so much that he entered into our very suffering. 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:17.320 And there's a wonderful essay on the emotional life of Jesus, the human by Benjamin Warfield. 00:31:17.320 --> 00:31:19.240 And in it, we'll close with this. 00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:23.800 He says that above all, when you look at the emotional life of Jesus throughout the Gospels, 00:31:23.800 --> 00:31:25.640 there's one thing that dominates. 00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:33.240 And it's this line, Jesus, he had compassion on them, which in the Greek text is literally 00:31:33.240 --> 00:31:35.759 his heart went out to them. 00:31:35.759 --> 00:31:37.600 And we also, we've carried that over into English. 00:31:37.600 --> 00:31:38.680 We say that too. 00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:39.680 My heart goes out to you. 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:44.080 Well, that's very literally what it says when it says he had compassion for them. 00:31:44.080 --> 00:31:49.240 And my favorite way that the Gospel say it is in John 13 when it says he loved them to 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:51.160 the very end. 00:31:51.160 --> 00:31:54.120 And he got down on his knees and he washed his disciples feet. 00:31:54.120 --> 00:31:56.279 He washed his own servants feet. 00:31:56.279 --> 00:31:59.840 He became the servant of the servants that very night. 00:31:59.840 --> 00:32:02.240 This is love. 00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:05.560 He was forsaken by God. 00:32:05.560 --> 00:32:06.640 He became like us. 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:11.600 He suffered in ways that we can never even know he suffered with us and for us so that 00:32:11.600 --> 00:32:19.080 we together could make music so that we could be accepted and gifted so that we could not 00:32:19.080 --> 00:32:21.680 so that we could stop making noise, clanging symbols. 00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:25.680 We could together make music, melody. 00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:32.880 And the way we do that is by experiencing the power of his love and then seeking it. 00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:35.400 And so this is the, this is the last word. 00:32:35.400 --> 00:32:37.920 This is, this is what Paul's saying. 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:46.400 The gifts are only truly operative when our motivation is cruciform like Christ taking 00:32:46.400 --> 00:32:50.120 on the very love that Jesus had for us in the cross. 00:32:50.120 --> 00:32:55.000 When we, when we swallow that and take that into our own hearts and seek to act out of 00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:58.800 that, that's when the gifts are most powerful. 00:32:58.800 --> 00:33:05.080 That's when we make melodies in our ministry, not noise. 00:33:05.079 --> 00:33:14.519 Now when you see a need, step into it and pray, pray while you're, while you're doing 00:33:14.519 --> 00:33:23.679 ministry, pray while you serve and pray, pray this, Lord, give me Christ like love for this 00:33:23.679 --> 00:33:28.039 person, for these people. 00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:36.319 Give me as I serve the love that Jesus had for me on the cross when he named me. 00:33:36.319 --> 00:33:42.079 Give me this as I seek to serve through the gifts that you've given me. 00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:44.200 All of theology is comprehended in this. 00:33:44.200 --> 00:33:45.279 Jesus loves me. 00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:50.839 This I know for the Bible tells me so. 00:33:50.839 --> 00:33:57.519 So love others because you've been loved and use your gifts. 00:33:57.519 --> 00:33:58.519 Let's pray together. 00:33:58.519 --> 00:34:04.480 Father, we ask now that you would give us the love of Christ and that you would reveal 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:09.320 to us our giftedness and help us to walk and lean in. 00:34:09.320 --> 00:34:12.119 And we ask for that help in Jesus' name. 00:34:12.119 --> 00:34:28.199 Amen.