Empowered to Serve

Well, brethren, as we've come through this Pentecost season, we've been examining the early church as we see it develop through the lenses of the early chapters of the book of Acts.

Following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see the kind of highs and lows of the men who discipled under Christ during his earthly ministry. You kind of put yourself in their shoes.

They went from losing their rabbi, being uncertain of exactly what that was going to mean for their ministry, what that meant for his ministry in that sense, what that meant for their understanding of what God desired of them. And we see that very much in their response to his death. What that meant for the believers that followed him as he went about his ministry. So they went from the lows of all of these things to the highs of his resurrection, being taught by him, being provided for spiritually in the days between the days of Unleavened Bread and the day of Pentecost.

Then finally, before Christ descends to heaven, he instructs the disciples to wait in Jerusalem.

He says to wait until they are endued with power from on high. Now we see this take place very powerfully on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. Spirit of God descends upon those disciples that are gathered. They begin to speak in other languages, languages that they didn't know before that point, languages that were known languages at the time, that were able to be understood. What we see as a result of this is all this noise and commotion that is taking place.

There were a multitude of devout men, Jews from regions outside of Jerusalem, rushed over to these men to see what was going on. Each man that arrived heard the language being spoken as though those people speaking them were native speakers. This is not me stumbling through Spanish. This is like someone was a native speaker. This visible representation of the Spirit of God that alighted upon them and the manifestation of the power of God got the attention of those men who rushed over. But get your attention, would it not? Think about this scenario.

If you put yourself again in these shoes. And I have to think, not only did it catch their attention, I've got to think it probably caught the attention of the disciples who received it in that moment as well. Could you imagine for a moment suddenly being able to speak in a known language that you didn't know before? That's pretty incredible. It's really incredible when you think about this miracle that took place. But through this miracle and through Peter's impassioned sermon, God convicted 3,000 of these men who came and gathered, who were cut to the heart, who were convicted of their own sin, and were baptized and who ultimately received the Holy Spirit. As the church grew, we've brought out, and we've kind of looked at this already, the early churches that grew in the book of Acts, we see hints throughout Paul's letter of kind of the existence of specific gifts that serve the church that were provided to the people of God through the receipt of his Spirit as this church grew. You know, we've talked about this as well. You know, it's an interesting concept to think about when you go from about 120 people one day to 3,000 the next. And thinking about what it would take to serve that sudden influx of people, you know, that sudden arrival of all of these individuals.

And it was through the Spirit of God that these brethren were able to be served in that way.

You know, I don't know that I've ever given a message on spiritual gifts. I can't think back to any of the sermons that I've given prior that have dealt with this particular topic. I've spoken very frequently on the shift in character that takes place as God's Spirit dwells in us, and as we yield to His Spirit. I've spoken on that quite frequently. But when it comes to specific spiritual gifts, we really haven't examined these things too closely. And I think, thinking back, I guess, over the history of the church to some degree, I think there's been almost a hesitancy to a degree to really dig into this topic because many of the Charismatic Churches of the world dig very deep into this and lean very heavily into these things. There's a very extreme focus that is placed on these topics in Charismatic Churches today. But, brethren, God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We recognize that God operates as He operated in that same time frame, even today. And so from what we can see in Scripture, spiritual gifts did exist in the early church. And these gifts exist in some capacity today. Though in some circumstances, they may be slightly different. They may be a different, slightly different application for our time, perhaps than what we saw them in the early church. The title of the message today is Empowered to Serve. Empowered to Serve. And during the time that we have available, I'd like to explore these concepts of spiritual gifts as they're outlined specifically in the Epistles of Paul. Paul is one of the places where we see these things, kind of referred to, in multiple locations. And I'd like to kind of draw out some general principles, and also some specific application, if possible, as to the application of these things.

The gifts that we see outlined in three of the Epistles of Paul are divine in origin. These things are divine in origin. They are given via the indwelling of the Spirit of God. Okay, and so, for example, someone who had skills that they developed on a job that were, you know, administrative or organizational or something to that effect, that's not the same thing necessarily as a gift that is received through the indwelling of God's Spirit. Now, God's Spirit will work with previous skills, and we'll look at that today as well. But ultimately, we don't want to equate these two things necessarily. We want to ensure that we have an understanding. These are divine in origin.

They come from God. They are provided by God. And ultimately, they are provided by God through the indwelling of His Spirit in a believer's life, which is then received at the laying on of hands at baptism, and they were poured out upon His people for service to the body. That is the purpose for their existence. These gifts that we see outlined in Paul's epistles were given for service to His church. They were given for service to His body. We're going to begin today by going to 1 Corinthians 12. If you would turn over there to start, we're going to see a reminder of these things. 1 Corinthians 12, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 4. And we're going to bounce around just a little bit today to some of these different epistles as we go through these, spend a little bit of time in the Old Testament, and then ultimately come back to the New. 1 Corinthians 12, we're going to pick it up in verse 4 just to kind of see how Paul outlines the general principle of these things and look at the points that he made. One thing we want to keep in mind as we look at this epistle, the epistle to the Corinthians was an epistle of correction. It was an epistle of correction.

It was written specifically for a corrective purpose to those who were dwelling in Corinth, which tells us if Paul's bringing this up, there was something being applied in an improper way in Corinth relating to these things. Okay, and so this was being brought up by Paul to correct or to draw attention to or to provide a better understanding of these things, so to speak.

And so he's taken the time in this particular letter to address these varied gifts, and not only that, he's ensuring them what they are. He's ensuring them how they are and how they're to be operated and to be utilized. 1 Corinthians 12, and we'll pick it up in verse 4, Paul writes the following. He says, there are diversities of gifts. There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. It says there are diversities of ministries, or service in this case, the way the Greek renders that word, but the same Lord. Differences of gifts but the same spirit. Differences of ministries but the same Lord. There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all and all.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all.

Okay, so Paul is explaining to those in Corinth that the Spirit of God, the same singular Spirit, provides members of the body with varied gifts. It's the same Spirit, and so because of that, one gift that is received isn't better than the other. It's not like a situation where this gift or that gift is, you know, this elevates a person in this way or that.

One gift is not more powerful or more useful, necessarily, than the other. Instead, the Spirit of God, working in these believers, provided these members with gifts as the body needed.

Okay, as the body needed. And the body, especially at that time and in that context, needed all of the gifts provided by the Spirit of God to be able to function effectively. For that body to do what it needed to do at that time in the New Testament, to grow, to develop, these things were necessary for that body to operate in the way that it did then. We see Paul reference these things as manifestations of the Spirit of God, and he uses a very specific term, manifestation. We get a little bit of a hang-up in the English language because the word manifestation, it kind of, trying to think of what movement that is, where it goes back and just think of something and you can manifest it.

I can't remember the name of the movement now off the top of my head, but this idea that you can just think something into existence, so to speak. So we have a, there's a little bit of hang-up there, but that's a specific word that Paul uses, at least has been translated into English. The Greek word itself is fanarosis. So it's fanarosis, which is the word that they're using here for manifestation.

And it comes from a root word in Greek, fanaru, or fanruo. And it's a word that's used in other places in Scripture to essentially just indicate an appearance of something. So we see this word being used, it's indicating an appearance of something. Mark 16 and verse 12, you can jot it in your notes. We won't turn there if you can pop it on the screen, that would be wonderful. But Mark 16 and verse 12 describes Christ appearing, describes Him manifesting Himself to two men on the road to Emmaus. Okay, this being appeared, He manifested Himself in that sense, and that's the way that that term is used in Greek. John uses the word in John 2 and verse 11 to describe Christ's glory being revealed by the signs that He performed in Cana. So when Christ, you know, does these wonderful, incredible miracles in Cana at the wedding, His glory was manifested. It appeared in that sense. And people that were there and witness these things understood those things as a result of that. So the word frequently means a revealing or an appearance, so to speak, in the way that these things are being provided. And so what we're talking about here when we think about these as manifestations, so to speak, of the gift of God, it is an outward appearance or a revealing of the Spirit of God's presence in a believer. And that is what we see in this sense. I want you to leave a bookmark here in 1 Corinthians 12. We're going backwards. So we're going to go back to Exodus 31. Exodus 31. We're going to see God—this isn't the first time God did this. You know, God has multiple ways of going about these things and doing these things throughout. Exodus 31—and we'll see another example of this. God brought His people out of Egypt in a miraculous fashion.

Every year during the Days of Unleavened Bread, we go through this process of the recognition of how God brought His people out. And in Exodus 31, while we understand the Israelites to be slaves in Egypt, while they were present, while they were there, they served in that capacity. They were slaves. They were in bondage. And we know from Scripture—at least when we look at it scripturally—we know from Scripture that what that meant was baking of bricks for sure, right? Manufacturing of materials, we might say. Manufacturing of materials. But it wasn't limited to that. They would have served in a number of other capacities. They would have been household servants or slaves. They would have been worked as laborers. They would have worked as artisans in some capacity. So they would have learned things along the path of being a servant or being a slave in this culture of Egypt.

As we do archaeology and as we look through Egypt, it's a civilization that was known for very grandiose architecture. You go back and you see some of these places that they excavate out of these desert sands, and they're elaborate. I mean, it's beautiful. Some of the architecture is beautiful. The inlays and the way that they kind of carve away these reliefs and other things.

It's beautiful. Some of this architecture is very beautiful in the way that it was outlined.

And you got to think, during the time period that Israel was slaves in Egypt, it's likely they had some hand in the process of those things during that time frame. So they would have learned a number of these skills as they did the work on these particular things. And then God delivered them from Pharaoh. God delivered them from Pharaoh. Out they go from Egypt. You know, they plundered the Egyptians on the way out, so they had gold, they had silver, they had all sorts of other things. Precious materials that they took with them that God had them leave with this high hand. In Exodus 31, the Israelites had just received God's law. Moses began instructing them in all of the items of service in the tabernacle. So God said they were going to build a place for him, essentially. They were going to build this tabernacle, and that he would reside then in that, and Moses would be able to come to that tabernacle. But they would need to build it in a very specific way, that God was going to instruct them in a very specific way, and that they were going to be inspired for God to be able to do or for them to be able to do these things. Exodus 31, and we'll pick it up in verse one. Exodus 31 in verse one. And then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Her, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and in silver and in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting and carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. And indeed I have appointed with him a holy ab, the son of a hishemach, of the tribe of Dan, and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all of the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you. The tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, all the furniture of the tabernacle, the table, its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all of its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all of its utensils, the laver, the base, the garments of the ministry, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons to minister as priests, the anointing oil, the sweet incense for the holy place, according to all that I have commanded you they shall do.

So in this sense, what we see in this circumstance is we see God provide bezelel and a holy ab, and from what we can tell, other gifted artisans with his spirit. God gives them his spirit. They receive the spirit of God. In receiving that spirit, they receive wisdom. They receive understanding. They receive knowledge. And they receive ability in all manner of workmanship.

They were given the ability to be able to design artistic works, to work in gold, to work in silver, in bronze, to cut jewels for setting, to carve wood. They were given the ability to do all of these things. Now, it's very possible they had this ability prior. It says gifted artisans, right? It says gifted artisans. These were individuals who had a certain skill set already, and then God's spirit added to that skill set, strengthened that skill set. You may have been an artisan, though, that all of a sudden was like, hey, I can kind of do this stuff. I understand this. It's like the old, the old, I know kung fu sort of thing, right? Suddenly, you now have this, this understanding that you didn't necessarily have to that degree before. Through this wisdom, through this skill, these men crafted everything that was necessary for the tabernacle and for its service. It's important to keep in mind as we look at this, this gift wasn't provided so that these men could make a living. This gift was not provided so they could become fabulously wealthy, creating these beautiful things of gold and of silver. God gave them this gift so that they could serve him and serve his people. God's spirit gave them the ability to create physical things that could be brought into the very presence of God, these things that were in the interior of this tabernacle. And that's a pattern that we see throughout. That's a pattern that we see God utilize throughout. We see these circumstances. The gift wasn't earned. It wasn't chosen. They didn't reach out and say, oh, by the way, God, I'd like to have some of that worksmanship.

God provided these men with this. It was given by God according to his wisdom and according to his purpose through the giving of his spirit. And again, that pattern we see throughout Scripture, Moses seemed to gain prophecy and leadership. Moses is known as a prophet. He became an incredible leader of Israel on the other side. He went from not being able to speak out loud to commanding Israel's armies, to leading them through the dead. It wasn't perfect. I mean, let's let's just be clear. It wasn't perfect. But he was a gifted leader. God saw that in him, provided him with the things to be able to do that. The 70 elders received the gifts as well.

Samson talks about in the book of Judges, received strength as a result of the Spirit of God. Now, it came through his commitment to God in his Nazarite vow, but the strength came from the Spirit of God. Other Judges received gifts as well. Prophets were given understanding. They were given prophecy. There's numerous examples of these things throughout the Old Testament. But in every one of these examples, this very generous gift that God gave was used in service to God and to his people.

It was used to serve the people. It wasn't used to serve the self. And, quite frankly, in the times when it was, when you go back in Scripture, when you go back and you read the Old Testament, the times that it was is when things went sideways in the lives of God's people. When suddenly now it was being done to elevate the self, or suddenly when it was being done to make, you know, all these other things take place, or to become wealthy, or to become these things, that's when things didn't go so well.

You know, it's not a coincidence. If you want to turn back to 1st Corinthians 12, it's not a coincidence that immediately following 1st Corinthians 12, Paul acknowledges the existence of these gifts in 1st Corinthians 12, it's not a coincidence that immediately following that, Paul writes what we've come to know as the love chapter.

You know, 1st Corinthians 13. Keeping in mind, again, we've said this before, you know, these page breaks, these chapter breaks, these verse breaks, they didn't exist in the original manuscript. So you think about train of thought as you write letters to people yourself. You think about train of thought, right? You have a certain idea, and then the next idea builds on the idea which comes prior. And it's the same thing here. In fact, most of 1st Corinthians 13, the front half of it in particular, is talking very specifically about specific gifts that he addresses in 1st Corinthians 12.

And so as he addresses those things, now he's coming back and he's talking about what is the importance of the application of these things? How do they need to be applied? 1st Corinthians 13, if you want to pick it up in verse 1, 1st Corinthians 13 and verse 1, again, right on the heels of 1st Corinthians 12, when he acknowledges the existence of these gifts. 1st Corinthians 13 and verse 1 says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift, note the gift in italics, though I have the gift of prophecy, gift is added to the manuscript, the word gift of, but though I have prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. So Paul says, right here in 1st Corinthians 13, these gifts that he outlines in 1st Corinthians 12, prophecy, tongues, faith, generosity, says they are all meaningless if they are not otherwise tempered in love, tempered in service to one another. What Paul's really getting at as we think about 1st Corinthians 13 here is that if these were used as just one more thing to divide people, one more thing to divide, one more thing to cause factions to develop or to otherwise be used to cause division to Paul's point, what's the point?

What's the point? Because the goal of all of these gifts that Paul outlines in his epistles, these were provided to the brethren for edification of the body. They were provided to the brethren for the building up of the body. They exist to strengthen the church, not to elevate the individual. Not to elevate the individual. They don't exist so the individual can shine. They exist so that Christ can shine through that person. In fact, as Paul kind of builds this analogy and he makes connections to the analogy that he builds in 1st Corinthians 12, the point that he makes is that the parts that seem to be the least important in the body have an equivalence importance to the things that appear to be the most important.

You know, as you look at the gifts that God pours out upon people and you kind of consider those things, so it is with spiritual gifts. You look at the equivalence. They're all necessary.

They're all important. It's not one more than the other. They're all important because that's what makes the body function, right? You can't function without your appendix. You can't function without some of these other smaller, you know, well you can. I guess I don't have mine. I'm doing just fine, come to think of it. Let me find a better example. But the idea here is these equivalent parts, you know, there's not one that's less important necessarily than the other. They're all necessary.

They're all needed for things to operate in the way that they operate. There's a primary list of spiritual gifts that are provided, and they're found in four different passages. If I could have, I have a handout for you. It's coming around now. If I can have my handout, people take care of that.

There's four specific places that enumerate these things. There are a bunch of other places that reference them. So there's a lot of other places that reference back to them. I didn't list all of those. What I did was I looked at the four specific passages within the Epistles of Paul that like line them out, comma, comma, comma, comma, comma, and put a list of them together so that you can kind of see generally where these are at. In this example, what you're going to see is two-fold.

The front page, which is the page that has the chart on it, so the front page, which is the page that has the chart, illustrates the location and it illustrates the various gifts that are mentioned in that location. Now each time a new gift is mentioned, it's going to be bolded. If it's referencing a gift that's already been mentioned, the gift that's already been mentioned will be in italics. Okay, and so anytime you see a bolded one, that's a new one from the one before it.

So as you look from left to right, each time there's one that's been bolded, it's a new mention of a gift that or a new a new mention of a gift that has not yet been mentioned in any of those other passages before. On the back of that page, and we'll come back to that much later, is a list of the various ways of service in the congregation that we look at, and some skill sets, and some strengths, and some gifts that could be helpful in those things. Okay, could be somewhere where a person with that particular gift or strength could shine. And so the hope is that if you're wondering, I don't know what to do, I seem to be kind of administrative in my nature, I don't know where I could help, this hopefully will help you find there's need for administration in certain capacities of things. Okay, so that is is kind of hopefully going to help you with some of where could I potentially serve, but I'm not really sure. Okay, and so the goal, again, these things that God provides, they're for the building up of the body, for the edifying ultimately of the body.

So we're going to begin in Romans 12. I think most everybody has their hand out at this point. Romans 12, if you would go ahead and turn over there. We're going to look at the specific gifts that are outlined in this passage. Romans 12, we're going to pick it up in verses 6 through 8 of Romans 12.

Romans 12 verses 6 through 8. Paul enumerates a series here of these gifts. Romans 12 verses 6 through 8, and we're going to go through each of these just briefly, kind of as we go through this, and then we're going to look at the next set. But Romans 6 or Romans 12, sorry, verses 6 through 8.

Paul writes, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, Paul encourages them, let us use them. Let us use them. If prophecy, he says, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith, or ministry or service. Again, the way that we see this term, ministry or service, let us use it in our service or in our ministry. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Okay, so Paul describes these various gifts, and he talks about them ultimately being brought to us through the grace of God. They refer to these as motivational gifts. That's the term that they tend to be used as, because they're inspiring or motivating otherwise to believers toward God and Christ in that sense. So as individuals, you know, have the gift of prophecy or ministry or teaching or whatever, it ends up leading towards people being turned to God and Christ in that way. But Paul does explain here that these gifts do come as a result of the grace of God. They come through his unmerited pardon. We did not earn them. Again, we do not choose them. God gives them to us. He provides them to us. In fact, that word that Paul uses for gift is charisma. The word is charisma, which means, which comes from the Greek word karis in Greek for grace. And the context means that it's a bestowed favor or it's a gracious gift. And they are. They absolutely are. God provides these strengths. He provides these things to be able to utilize in service of his people. Paul outlines here a number of gifts.

He says there is prophecy. There is ministry or service. There is teaching. There is exhortation.

There is encouragement. There is generosity or giving, leadership, and then ultimately, and finally, mercy or showing of compassion. Okay, kind of a mercy that's present. Prophecy, you know, means very simply just speaking the word of God very clearly and very faithfully.

You know, prophets, as you go back into the Old Testament, even in the New Testament, we see examples of prophecy within the New Testament. Agabus, for example, in the New Testament was a New Testament prophet that worked with Paul. But Old Testament prophets in particular were tools to bring God's word to his people. They spoke on behalf of God as the Spirit inspired them, and they revealed God's truth very boldly, even when it was unpopular. In fact, many of the prophets that were sent to ancient Israel met very untimely and unfortunate ends because the people of Israel did not want to hear the message that they had brought. Ministry or service, in this case, involves taking care of the spiritual and material needs of others, maintaining a focus on the needs of others over our own. People with this sort of gift or strengths, in this case, they put their faith into action. They extend Christian love outward to those that they interact with. Teaching involves the ability to bring spiritual truths to others. This involves more than just head knowledge. Teachers shine in the light of God into the darkness, so to speak, and they help others to understand God more fully. And then you think back to people that you, you know, have worked with over the years that have a kind of an ability or an uncanny ability to kind of be able to bring something that you couldn't fully understand necessarily to make it more understandable to you. And you think about the way that that kind of has interacted over time.

Exportation or encouragement involves the encouragement of other people, you know, making helping them to feel encouraged or strengthened to be able to go after a really long week to be able to come to Sabbath services to feel invigorated and strengthened as they go back out to do another week. But these individuals provide incredible hope to the people that they fellowship with, the people that they talk with. They can take some of the most difficult circumstances of a person's life and help that person see God's hand in their life, help them see what God is doing, and to be able to give glory to God in that process. Those who are give, give strengths or givers, it involves a generous heart, very generous heart, people that just would give you the shirt off their back, so to speak. These individuals do have a greater level of discernment at times and understanding of how certain gifts can be provided to glorify God through service to others. They also have a discernment, they have a wisdom to be able to manage their own finances. These are individuals who have the ability to give because there's a discernment and a wisdom that is present there when it comes to even the management of their own finances. Leadership is about service to others. Leadership is about service to others. It's kind of helping provide a vision or a guiding of a group of people towards God's goal in their lives.

Leaders help to create synergy among individuals. They bring people together towards a common goal and ultimately encourage people to live their life to the full spiritual potential that God has provided to them. The last one here that Paul outlines in this section is compassion, and that really involves more the showing of compassion. It involves more the outward expression, so to speak, of compassion or mercy. So it's more than just outgoing concern. I think sometimes we can have sympathy at times. That doesn't always directly translate into compassion, if that makes sense.

We can have a certain feeling for someone, but then, you know, we don't necessarily follow through or do anything about it. Compassion is really showing mercy. It's really that outward extension of those things, and it moves us beyond our comfort zone. It moves us out of our comfort zone, helping us to kind of provide a practical aid to the people of God. So we see seven kind of distinct spiritual gifts that are provided in the context of Romans 12 verses 6 through 8. Let's go back to Romans, sorry, 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12, where we were before. Paul expounds on a number of other gifts in this location as well, and again, as you look at the handout, you'll notice that one of those is italicized. One of those actually might be more than a couple of them that are italicized. I don't have my sheet in front of me, unfortunately. But 1 Corinthians 12, we'll pick it up in verse 4, kind of looking at those passages that we read earlier—thank you, sir—to kind of set up the specifics. So 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 4, Paul describes to the church in Corinth the various gifts that God gives, again, as a result of that grace to His people. And so we see a set of new gifts that are discussed, and then one in particular prophecy that he mentioned before that is italicized. So that is the duplicate so far as we see this list built. He says again in verse 4, going back to what we read before, there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, differences of service, but the same Lord. There are diversities of activities, but it's the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet 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. And to another, the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all of these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. And so, we do see a duplicate here, but a few others that He lists that are not listed in the earlier part of Romans. So He adds to the earlier list. He adds wisdom. He adds knowledge. He adds faith.

He adds miracles, discernment, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. So wisdom involves being able to apply truth, truth of God, truth of Scripture, the understanding that God gives us, to our life experiences, to be able to live in a way that is in accordance with God, but also to be able to understand, kind of provide understanding to others based on those experiences.

All of you have met people who are incredibly wise individuals. People that you want to just sit down and just absorb as much as you can possibly absorb from this particular person. And oftentimes, those individuals are aging. Not always. I will say, not always. Sometimes you will meet younger people that have a wisdom far beyond their years. And sometimes you will meet older people that, for the number of years, don't have a lot of wisdom. It just happens. It does happen. But when you look at these things, it's a God-given spiritual common sense, so to speak. It's a God-given spiritual common sense, so to speak, which helps individuals who are newer in their faith to be able to navigate their journey, be able to understand. When you have a chance to sit down with somebody who's been there and done that and kind of has gone through the process, it can be incredibly helpful as you're going through your own spiritual life. Knowledge is the gift of knowing the truth of God through revealed truth from Scripture. And that comes as a result of God's Spirit dwelling in His people. What's interesting with knowledge is knowledge is one of the gifts which 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 10 seems to imply is provided to all believers who receive His Spirit to a degree, right? Because we are able to understand the mysteries of God through the receipt of God's Holy Spirit. However, with all of that said, there are some individuals that you will come across that have a significantly greater level of knowledge than others. And that's through either, you know, additional study. It's through the Spirit of God revealing deeper things to them that ultimately be able to understand the way of God and to be able to provide inspiration to others through that process. But again, the gift of knowledge is not given so that one can puff one's self up. It is for edification of the body, not edification of the self. And that's where we sometimes get in trouble with knowledge. That's where we sometimes get into trouble with knowledge is we want to go through and we want to be the smartest person in the room. And what that does is creates division. It creates factions. It creates people who have challenges sometimes dealing with you. Okay, so this is something that has to be tempered, once again, in love. Or it comes across horribly wrong and can create pride and create a whole bunch of other things that end very, very poorly. Faith. Faith is demonstrated in believers when they are able to hold fast to the truth, to be able to maintain their path along the way in the midst of fierce trials. These are individuals who it doesn't seem to matter what's going on in their lives. They are always pointed to God. They're always looking to God. They're always focused on that. They've risen above the pressures. They've risen above the issues that could otherwise cause someone else to just completely and totally crumble. And their example, when you meet somebody with that kind of faith, their example is an inspiration. Their example is an absolute inspiration to anyone who comes into contact with them, as they are just constantly pointing people back to God. Constantly focused on those things. Healing involves, in a lot of ways, bringing the healing power of God into the lives of people physically, spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically. Now, contextually, in the time of Christ, we see this particular power used powerfully, this gift used powerfully. In fact, to the point that Simon Magus wanted to buy, you know, this gift. He wanted to purchase it.

He was like, that's pretty cool. I kind of want this. I want access to this Spirit of God thing you've got, which got him into some trouble. But often people that have this gift are good at reminding people who are suffering that God is in control. And what's challenging sometimes, I think, is you see this gift utilized in Scripture is we see it used very, very powerfully in the time of the Old Testament. You know, the disciples walk around and they're like, you, get up and walk.

You know this, boom, boom, boom, and all these people are just suddenly healed.

And we look at it today and we look at individuals that sometimes the answer is no.

Sometimes the answer is no. But what's interesting is you don't always see those examples written in the New Testament. The answer was no then too. They just didn't record it. It's like Instagram. You don't put the scrubbing toilet pics on Instagram. You know, you talk about the incredible things that take place. There are people that have gone through the process of anointing who have had visible tumors in their x-rays, have been anointed, and they're gone. That gift is still here today.

It is still here today. But unfortunately sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is no. Even today. Right? But this healing is reminding people who are going through these things that God is in control. Even if that healing doesn't come. Even if it, you know, providing that necessary comfort and that peace as they go about their lives in this way.

Miracles. Man, miracles involve the completion of seemingly impossible or impractical things by worldly standards. And, you know, individuals that do these types of things, individuals that do these types of things or that have, you know, this gift, so to speak, in that sense today as you consider it and think about it, there are some that you talk with and you're, you know, you find out that they've been praying about something and then something happens and ultimately at the end of the—and they're not surprised at all. They're not shocked in the least bit. Like, of course it happened. I prayed about it. Done deal. Right? In that sense.

And so you have that kind of thing. I've joked at times that there's someone in this congregation with a little red phone to God. I don't know who it is exactly, but someone in here has got a little red phone directly to God in that sense because there have been some incredible things that have taken place in the lives of people. Discernment. You know, the ability to be able to recognize falsehood from truth, to recognize spiritually what God desires of us, to be able to have the ability to determine not just the message but the messenger, the person bringing the message, and to be able to discern the spirit with which that message is being brought, to be able to discern the spirit that is bringing that particular message. John talks about how we test the spirits to bring out whether or not a message is from God or not, and we look at whether or not that message is coming with the spirit of God present in the sense of the fruit of that message. You know, there are some that have a great deal of knowledge that bring a message, and it sounds wonderful, and then you start to hear the spirit with which that message is being brought.

You start to hear the anger and the bitterness and the vitriol that is in that message. What is the spirit of the message? The sermon helps us tell the spirit. What is that message being brought with?

Tongues, at least at the time of Christ, involve the ability to speak in known languages. Now, in the Charismatic world today, there is a, they call it an unknown prayer language to God, and it's at the worst, or at the best rather gibberish, at the worst demonically inspired, you know, in that sense. It's not the gift of tongues that we see in the New Testament. The miracle of tongues that we see in Scripture and throughout the New Testament are known languages.

They are languages that could be spoken and then understood by those who were gathered, at least in the examples that we see. Interpretation of tongues gets at this idea of the ability to understand known languages to be able to help distribute the gospel into the world. Okay, so we see these two kind of available as well here in 1 Corinthians 12. So, as we've examined with both sets of these gifts, now, you know, 15 different gifts of God based on the Spirit of God, we recognize there are some of these that we don't necessarily see in the same fashion as we would have seen them during the first century. With the gift of prophecy, for example, and this is a little bit of speculation on my part, I'll acknowledge that up front, it's unclear whether at that point in time in the New Testament were those that were bringing prophetic things to bear in service. This could be in 1 Corinthians 14, and we'll get to there later. It talks about those of you who have a gift of prophecy, you know, have two or three of you give your your prophecy, and then, you know, those who can judge it then can listen, right? That's what we kind of see outlined, at least in 1 Corinthians 14. What's hard to discern for certain is whether or not those individuals were stepping up were suddenly providing a new prophecy in that sense. Whether these were new things that God had revealed to them to reveal to the congregation, or whether very similarly to what Christ did in Nazareth, would be like getting up and reading a section of the scroll of Isaiah, for example, and reminding the people of God of the prophecies of God. That's what we don't know for sure. That's what we don't know for sure. We know there were New Testament prophets. Agabus was a New Testament prophet. We know that was the case. But what did that look like in the service of the congregation when it came to gifts like that? We don't know. Okay, that's speculation.

Just throwing that out there. Is it possible that, you know, it was a reminder of previous prophecies?

There do seem to be some, even in the church today, would argue have a very good voice when it comes to prophecy, a very good understanding when it comes to prophecy. And so when they say things relating to prophecy, people listen. They perk up. You know, they're very encouraged by it.

Other people could say the exact same words, and it doesn't land the same way. So I don't know. Is that a manifestation of that particular gift today? Not sure. Sorry, I wish I had an answer for you, but I don't know. We see miracles, again, not necessarily worked in the same exact way that they were worked in the first century, but we do still see miracles today. We do still see healing taking place today. You know, tongues and the interpretation of tongues aren't really happening in the way that they were happening at that time, though, you know, there are some individuals that have a propensity for languages. You know, if God's Spirit somehow connects with that propensity for languages, does that person suddenly have the ability to learn a language faster than somebody else? Maybe. Again, speculation. I don't know for certain at that time. I wouldn't necessarily say without a shadow of doubt, rather, that that's the way. But, you know, these sorts of things we do generally see. I'm unaware of anyone at this point who, in the moments after their baptism, could suddenly speak a different language. So I'm unaware of that in the modern era today, or to be able to interpret other known languages. But I want to be very clear, just because some of these things are not being done today in the manner that they were being done in the first century, does not mean that that is going to be the case forever. Joel 2 talks about how your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.

So it seems to refer, as we get a little bit closer, to the return of Jesus Christ up to the day of the Lord, that gift of prophecy would be poured out in many ways the same as we see it outlined in the Old Testament and potentially in the New Testament. A little bit further down in 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12, again, Paul continues by describing some outlined things which some have referred to as gifts of office or roles. Some have actually argued that these are more of an office or a responsibility as opposed to a gift, but Paul in Ephesians seems to indicate that these were gifts that God gave as well. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 27 is another location where he references these. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 27, and we'll go ahead and read through 31. 1 Corinthians 12, 27 through 31 says, Now you are the body of Christ and members individually, and God has appointed these in the church. First, apostles. Second, prophets. Third, teachers. After that, miracles. Then gifts of healings. Helps. Administrations. Varieties of tongues.

Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?

Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

He says, But earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way.

You know, kind of contextually as he's looking through this, he's trying to bring about this idea that these gifts were needed in the church. He outlines apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healings, helps, administrations, and tongues. And of these, apostleship, we might say, kind of trying to make that into a gift of some variety, helps and administration were ones that were not discussed prior. Now, in the church, apostleship is a little bit of a tricky one to define. In 31 A.D., there were apostles. There were apostles who were in that office. These were individuals who walked directly with Christ. They had the mandate to go and to preach the gospel unto the world. Today, in the modern era today, there are no designated apostles at this time, in that office, so to speak. In the years that followed the church beginning, what did the apostles do? That's the question we need to ask. What do the apostles do? Now, as no one designated in the office in that sense today, what did they do? What was their job? Apostles tended, at least from what we can see, to go throughout the world establishing congregations and caring for those congregations. We see Paul take on the responsibility, so to speak, and ultimately the office of an apostle as he went out into Asia Minor and these congregations sprung up and he served these congregations. In some ways, we see this particular gift kind of set today through the roles of senior pastors. People like Mr. Moody, for example, who goes over and works in West Africa, goes over and works in Nigeria and Ghana, and congregations, they spring up, they're cared for, they're taken care of, and then ultimately that process is taken care of. Those men do not serve in the office of an apostle. Let me be very clear. They do not serve in the office of an apostle.

However, they are doing some of the responsibilities that apostles served in that 31 A.D. time frame.

Now, you go to Africa, and I bring up Mr. Moody's service in Africa, you go to Africa and you see billboards all over the highways of apostles so-and-so, and he's standing in front of his Bugatti and he's got his three-piece suit on, and he's saying, come to apostles so-and-so's church.

That's a dangerous claim, in that sense. Like, that's a scary claim. Yeah, anyway, moral of the story. Apostleship is a little bit tricky to define at this point in time, but helps. What does it mean to be helps? What does it mean for somebody to be a helps? This is a person who's throwing their hands in at every opportunity they have when something needs to get done. They're just that person who is just constantly doing something. They're helping share the burden of the work of God so that the work of God can take place. Sometimes these are the people that work behind the scenes to make sure things are being taken care of, that the work's getting done, they just, they chip in, they make it happen no matter what. And in a lot of ways, people that are the helps type of people, they're building the scaffold on which the rest of the work can be done, you know, because without them, nothing gets taken care of, right? I mean, it's an important, very important thing. Administration involves organization of resources for the work of God.

Okay? Administration is involved in organizing resources. Individuals who have this particular capacity tend to be more organized and detail-oriented. They tend to be good managers, so to speak, of human capital and assets. They tend to be effective communicators, and they frequently work behind the scenes, connecting things to ensure that everything that needs to get done gets done. Final location that we see additional gifts mentioned is Ephesians 4. We turn over to Ephesians 4. Apostle Paul, again, this time writing to the congregations in Ephesus, outlines this particular concept and addresses a number of gifts, many of which are duplicates. So I want to be clear in Ephesians 4 here, we have a number of duplicates, but there are a couple of new ones that we don't necessarily see in other capacities. Ephesians 4, verse 11 and 12. Ephesians 4, verse 11 and 12. Paul here, again, in Ephesians 4, talking about unity, talking about the bringing together of the body, the strengthening of the body, the utilization of these gifts. Ephesians 4, verse 11, he begins to outline them. He says, he himself, speaking of God here, he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Okay, so we see there's some specific things provided here, again. If you remove the gifts that we've already mentioned in other places, the following unique gifts are outlined. Evangelism and pastoring. Now, in evangelism, we kind of had a generalized misunderstanding of this in some ways.

We turned an office, or we turned a gift, so to speak, into an office. And we turned it into a very specific role that a person filled in that sense. But those individuals that were put into that place, again, it's not ranks. It's not ranks, it's responsibilities. Okay, it's not a hierarchy in that sense. It's not ranks, it's responsibilities. Individuals who serve in the capacity of an evangelist or serve in evangelism are individuals who can discuss the gospel message of Jesus Christ effectively with others who have never heard it or understood it before. Okay, so where some of these other gifts are focused inward in service of the congregation, evangelism is one that is focused outward. It is one that is focused into growing the body, so to speak, as opposed to just nurturing and caring and edifying and building up the congregation as a whole. But it is focused outward.

It's being able to discuss that message effectively with other people. That could be one-on-one. It could be to larger and small groups. But it's a relationship in which a personal faith experience is combined with a call for a response from those who hear it. Okay, we see Paul served in this capacity. He went out and he had conversations and evangelized in that sense. The word takes on a bit of a negative connotation based on evangelical Christianity today, but it's still present. It's still there. We see it in Scripture. Pastoring is another that is mentioned at its core. Pastoring is guidance. It's the gift of nurturing the faith of other people, mentoring other people who are growing in the faith. It uses experience. It uses learning to help try to facilitate spiritual growth in a wide variety of people, to try to bring everyone up at the same capacity. So again, four passages. We see these different gifts outlined, and within those four passages we see a total of 20 gifts outlined that are unique and not mentioned in other places. So 20 different things that Paul describes. 20 different, yet related, talents and skills that the Spirit of God develops in a person as they submit themselves to its lead. Now sometimes that Spirit is building upon a prior skill set. You may have a person who learned a certain skill set in a prior career or whatever else, and the Spirit of God innovates and enables that person to be able to do that in a greater capacity. At times, however, it could be providing something that wasn't there before.

It could be in a situation in which a person is actually being asked to step so far out of their comfort zone to do what God has called them to do that they wouldn't have even thought of approaching service to God in that way. But God had a plan in some capacity for them to serve in this way.

But in every circumstance, every single circumstance, these gifts are given for the edification and the building up of the body of Christ, the building up of His ecclesia. They are tempered by the tempered by love for one another and a desire to serve others with the gift in question. They are not so that that individual can shine. They are so that Christ can shine through that individual and build His church together with all of these gifts being utilized in unison, in synergy. And if these gifts are not paired with love and humility, if they're not paired with love and humility, they cease to be edifying. And at that point, then they become destructive. They become destructive instead. In a number of ways, and this is kind of a... it's hard to describe this. It's as though love and outward concern for others activates the gift, so to speak. It's almost like there's an activation there in a sense of the way that it's being used for people, bringing about the way God wanted it to be used in the first place. Those who are teachers are motivated to study deeply, not so that they can be the smartest person in the room, but so that they can help others in learning and understanding. Those who lead serve humbly out of love to those whom they serve.

Helpers labor patiently, so patiently. Those who are helps so patiently as they're going through these things. They do that patiently because they love the people that they're serving.

These gifts are given to us by God. These are divine in origin. We don't select them. We don't choose them. We don't look at this list of 20 and go, I want that one. That's not how it works.

That's not how it works. We don't select them. We don't choose them. In fact, to be quite frank, we can only get a true understanding of what our gift might be by submitting our strengths and our skill sets to God's purpose, by praying to Him, by going to Him in prayer, and potentially even through fasting, to allow Him to use us as He has intended to use us in that way. So for the remainder of the time that we have left today, and we've got just a little bit of time remaining, I'd like to take a very brief look at the practical side of this. Okay? What now? What now? We see these 20 things identified in Scripture. What do we do now? Which one do you have? How do you know? If I asked you to take out a piece of paper right now—I'm not going to, by the way, but if I did—ask you to take out a piece of paper right now and write your gifts down on that paper, could you? Or would it take something beyond that to be able to identify them? Would it take something more than that to be able to identify them? Frequently, your gifts can really only be determined fully through self-assessment in some way—prayer, counsel, and quite frankly, trial and error. You know, there are sometimes, you know, you may find out real quick—you're asked to organize something—you may find out really fast—you do not have the gift of administration. You go to put it together, and it's like, it's just fire happening over here, and fire happening over here, and you're just like, ah, what do I do?

Doesn't mean you don't. It might just mean there needs to be more practice and more opportunity potentially, but you may find that administration isn't your thing. It's just not, and that's okay.

But that's your trial and error, right? That's your trial and error in that sense, that you sometimes find those things out. You know, I shared an inventory last week, I suppose, by email that you can go through and take. It's about 80 questions, and it asks a whole bunch of questions relating to a number of things. And in the end, what it does is it spits out your top three and then a secondary three. And kind of the secondary three, from what I can gather, seems to be like, here's some things that might be strengths, but might need further development, versus these top three things tend to be strengths that you have. And I want to make a very clear caveat on this. This is a self-assessment tool. That's all this is. This is not at the very end God saying, this is your gift.

Okay, this is a self-assessment tool. All this does is identify based on your personality, based on your skill set, what some strengths are that you might have. After that, it's prayer, it's fasting, it's service, it's asking God to help you to put various things into play and to help you find ways to serve with these things. You know, the question you have to ask is, is it a spiritual gift or is it a developed skill that came about as a result of a lifetime of experience?

That's the question, right? Did God build on your prior talent and skills? Or is God asking you to do something completely new? Something you might have not been comfortable with in the least bit and is asking you to step out of your comfort zone and try? There's only one way to find out.

I mean, really, there's only one way to find out, and that's giving a shot. Pray about it. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to serve in a variety of ways, not just the way you want to serve.

But in a variety of ways. There's lots of opportunities. And this is kind of where it gets tough, because there's lots of opportunities in a congregation like this for helps.

There's tons of places that hands are needed. I mean, all over. And I've been mentioning that from the announcements, you know, all the time. We need help here. We need help here. There's lots of opportunities for administration, for planning, for organizing. You know, there's opportunities for exhortation and faith and compassion, showing mercy, chances for us to give or to teach or to mentor people with the wisdom that God has provided us. But it's important that we keep in mind, there's an important reminder that Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14, if you'll turn over there, 1 Corinthians 14. You know, the early church had a number of these gifts that were present in the body with a number of members. Paul encourages, through his epistles, in a number of places for the members to use these gifts. He says these gifts were given by God. He says use them, Paul says. You know, don't just sit on them. Use them. Use these gifts to be able to, as we've seen in the book of Ephesians and other places, that to kind of as every joint, so to speak, supplies. But in Corinth, there was a challenge that was taking place. And we see Paul kind of address this challenge a little bit here in 1 Corinthians 14, because the gifts that were being used were not necessarily being used to edify the congregation. They were being used to edify self. They were being used to prop up an individual, in a sense, as opposed to build up a body. These individuals in Corinth weren't patiently working with one another. And it seems that, at least from what we can see described from Paul, he obviously wasn't present at the time. That's why he wrote a letter. But it seems the situation was pretty chaotic. It seems like chaos was kind of reigning, while each individual used their gift individually instead of for the good of the whole body. So 1 Corinthians 14, we're not going to read the whole thing. I'm not going to get into a bunch of it either, because it says women are supposed to be quiet in church, and I'm not opening that can of worms today. That's like a whole sermon series in and of itself that we're not going into. So we're just going to happily skip over the top of that.

Talk to me later if you're really concerned, I suppose. There's context that's important in that.

All right, moving on. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 40, Paul writes, let all things be done decently and in order. Okay, let all things be done decently and in order.

And the point that he brings out, the reason he comes to that conclusion, is that God is not the author of confusion, but God is the author of peace. It says, let me see, where do I want to pick it up? 1 Corinthians 14. Let's do...

Oh, why am I not finding it?

Well, no, 40 is where I want to go eventually, but I should have wrote this part down. I was like, oh, I'll find it. It's fine. It's no problem at all.

Let's go 26. Let's go 26. It says, how is it then, brethren, whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation.

He says, let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there's no interpreter, let him keep silent in church and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge, but if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the saints. Okay, when you take a look at this section, I mean, if we are in this situation in a congregation and suddenly somebody stands up and starts speaking Armenian, is there anybody in this congregation that can understand Armenian? No. Maybe a couple are like, yeah, a couple words. What good does that gift do in that moment? Zilch. All it does is say, look at me. I speak Armenian. In that moment, it has no bearing on edification for the body at all. At all. Because there's no interpreter. There's no one to be able to interpret it. Okay, same thing in prophecy. Same thing in all these things. So Paul's getting at the point here, look, it has to be edifying to the body. It has to be something that actually is going to be able to be used for the body. He ultimately concludes, let all things be done decently and in order. God is not the author of confusion. He is the author of peace.

Our gifts must be used in a way that builds the body of Christ, brings it together, strengthens it.

And brethren, what a tremendous blessing it is to be part of that body. To be part of that body.

It's a body that's joined and it's knit together by what every member supplies.

You know, God not only has called us to this way of life. I think this is such an incredible concept.

He's not only called us to this way of life. Brethren, He's equipped us for it.

He's given us the ability to live it and to live it well. He's endued each of us with a portion of His Spirit. And from that Spirit, He's given gifts. Gifts which are not about any one of us, but about the body. Let's not treat these gifts as adornments to admire from a distance or as weapons to wield for attention or approval. Let's let all things be done for edification. Let's ensure that we're pursuing love, earnestly desiring these gifts for service. Let's pray to God to ask Him with sincerity and humility to reveal what He has given to us. Be willing to jump in, be willing to test, and ultimately then step forward in faith and do it. You know, when Paul writes to Timothy, he tells Timothy, stir up the gift of God within us. And quite frankly, I think we've looked at that and we've said, well, it's the Spirit of God in a whole sense. Is it possible?

He's talking about a specific gift that Timothy had. Obviously, as a result of the Spirit of God, obviously, as a result of those things. But is he referring to something very specific in that way?

We don't know. We don't know. But brethren, let's stir up the gift of God. Let's stir up the Spirit of God within us. Let's ask God to help us with these things. Let's use these things to strengthen His people, to build His body, and may Christ be glorified in all that we say, all that we do, as we are now empowered and as we are empowered to serve.