Spiritual Gifts to Edify the Body

We're at the general conference of elders, and then the theme of the conference of elders was edifying the body through spiritual gifts. Usually one has a little bit of a wrong connotation of spiritual gifts, particularly when I go to Brazil and I see some people, and they come to me and says, what spiritual gifts are there in your church? Do you speak in tongues? So I said to them, would you like me to speak in a tongue? Yes, and I start to talk to them in a free cause, but they don't understand. So I said, well, have you been uplifted and edified with that? They say, no. So, well, you see, so speaking tongues, it's not such a great thing unless there's an interpret and there's edification of it. They say, oh, but do you have miracles and healings? People do get healed. They are healings, but it's not a big show, an exhibition, and things like that. It's quietly and privately, but there are healings when God so wishes to heal people.

But people quite often ask, therefore, about spiritual gifts, and the world has the wrong connotation on spiritual gifts. In fact, the world's got the walls of the wrong connotation, just about everything you think about. So why not about spiritual gifts as well, you know? So, so it is important for us to put spiritual gifts into a context. We in the church have what we call a mission statement. You all have heard our mission statement, and it's in our logo.

Okay, normally we have a logo, yeah? And it says, basically preach the gospel and prepare a people who care for the disciples.

And basically, our mission is preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God to the world and make the disciples in all nations and care for those disciples. And you all know that. And basically, a mission is what do we do, who are we doing it for, and how we're doing it. And basically, that's what the mission is. But there is something else besides a mission that usually entities, organizations, etc., have, which is what they call a vision statement.

And I'm going to ask Jim to please pass out a handout. And while he does that, a vision statement usually identifies what one wants to achieve over a period of time and provides some sort of guidance and aspiration to all the members of that organization so that it all focuses, they're all guided in the same direction. And over the last year or two, the Council of Elders has been involved in structuring or shaping the United Church of God's vision statement. And the vision statement reads, as you can see in the middle of the handout you've just received, it says, it's a church led by God's Holy Spirit, joined and knit together by what every member supplies, doing all, with all doing their share and growing in love to fulfill God's great purpose for humanity, to bring many children to glory.

And if you care to look at Ephesians 4 and Hebrews 2, you don't have to turn them now, but I'm just saying that's from where that vision statement came out. And so what it says there, put it in simple terms, is that we are guided by God's Spirit and working together as members of one body as we are, which is the body of Christ.

We are all together to grow in love so that ultimately we and others, the rest of humanity, will have the glory for being children of God. That really is very scriptural and very basic. And how come it's taken us so many years to get to that? That's really what we're going to be doing. But that's what we're going to be doing. And if you look at it in another way, and you can see in the handout I have more or less the flow of my thinking, is if you look at it in another way, that is actually preparing the bride.

Think about it. If we are focused in a church which is led by God's only Spirit, and we're all growing with one another in genuine caring and love and concern, and if we are really growing that love for fully our great purpose, which is to be children of God, if we are preparing ourselves to do that and to achieve that, we are indeed preparing the bride. That's what it is, preparing the bride.

And so are we doing this without tools? I mean, it's like a gardener needs tools. A motor mechanic needs tools. Do we have tools to do this? Yes. God's given us tools. Those are his spiritual gifts. Those are the tools that he gives us. Those are basically the talents, the tools that he gives us to do that. I mean, you think about a young child, a young child is born, and then the child starts to learn how to clap and starts a little bit of walking and crawling, and as you watch your children or grandchildren, you enjoy seeing these stages, and it's such a joy.

And then later on, you keep looking for it, what sort of talents has he or she got? You know, oh, he's going to tell it for drawing, or he's going to be a painter, or whatever, you know? You start seeing certain things. Sometimes you say, wow, he or she is gifted, you know, or whatever, because all these things are gifts. After all, you know, they are gifts from God that they've got from birth, and that they have to develop and enhance as they grow. And spiritually speaking, it's the same thing. When you and I are baptized, and after that we receive God's Holy Spirit, basically it's a little seed of certain, a little package that God's given us with certain gifts and certain talents that we need to enhance and develop and grow.

And that's why in the vision statement says, knit together by what every member supplies with all doing they share. It's every member. We all have some talents, some gifts that God has given us physically and spiritually. So what are spiritual gifts? They're gifts first from God, so it's not something that we've got ourselves, that we've made ourselves, no? We got them from God. Now, yes, we've got to put effort to develop them. It's like you may have a talent to do things with your hands, but whatever it is, you've got to use that talent and you've got to exercise it and develop it to improve it and to grow.

So, yes, we've got to do our part, but it is a gift from God that which we can develop and grow. Also, they are spiritual. In other words, if somebody gives me a book, that's a physical thing.

It's a physical thing. A spiritual gift, it's a spiritual thing. In other words, it can't be felt or touched. For instance, a spirit or an attitude or a gift of giving.

I can't touch the gift of giving, but a person has that gift of giving, a gift of serving. Some people have that gift of serving. I can't touch that gift, you know. It's spiritual, but it is something that God gives us. And they are built into the body of Christ. They are built into the body of Christ to edify the church. God gives us gifts to build and edify the church, not for self-aggrandizement. And so, when I give the example of going to Brazil or going to other places, and I see people that I have of a background which are, let's call it Pentecostal, and they ask me about what sort of gifts and things like that, and they come out, a lot of those things are for self-aggrandizement. They say, oh well, that person has the spirit, because that person can speak in tongues, not to edify the body, but it's self-aggrandizement.

But in God's church, God gives us the spirit, his spirit, and with his spirit, he gives us talents and gifts that we can develop and grow for the edifying of the church, for building the church. And so, this is what the conference was about. And so, today, I'm going to share with you some scripture areas where those are, so that you can use them as part of your own Bible studies. And then, during the Bible study, I want to go through a foresis approach of doing one of those sections of scripture as a Bible study and giving you a part of a format of how to do it, and maybe ultimately take it. And therefore, we will benefit, but you could then further benefit by further working with it around. Now, gifts are given to us to be used.

Now, you know the parable of the talents. I'm drawing the handout that you have right at the bottom. I mentioned Matthew 25, 14 through 25. That's basically the parable of the talents. And if you look at the parable of the talents, we're not going to go into it now. We've got a lot of other scriptures to go into, but it's just the parable of the talents. You go, one was given two talents, the other one was given five. One had two, doubled them, got into four, and one had five, doubled ten, and then came to the master representing Christ. So basically, it's really an analogy to spiritual gifts. Think about it. And he said, what have you done with your talents? And, well, I worked with them, and I, in fact, doubled! I've got more talents! And he said, well done, good and faithful servant! While the other one had one talent, what he should have done is doubled it and get two talents out of it. And what he did, he just buried it. Now, what do you mean by buried it? He did not use it to edify the church. He did not use it to edify the church.

That's what we've got to use the talents for. That's why God gives them to us. That's the purpose! And so he did not use it effectively. Now, Mr. Kubik, when he was going through some of these things, he gave the example of a chainsaw, and I thought that was a very good example. Some of you may have heard it before, but if you have, my apologies, but I thought it really illustrates the point quite well. There was this man that was given a chainsaw to go and cut a whole bunch of trees out in a forested area. And so, at the end of the day, the master came to him and says, well, how many trees have you cut? And he said, I cut one. One? Yeah, I cut one. So he said, look, let me show you how I do. So he, the master, picked up the chainsaw, pulled the chain, and then he went, and the man said, what is that noise? So he used the chainsaw to cut a tree quite hard and faithfully, however, he did not use it effectively. And I think sometimes we need to pull the chain on the spiritual gifts that God gives us, so that we are using them more effectively in the church to edify the church. And I think that's the stage we are, I think, in the stage of preparing the bride that we need to be looking at, and to start using the gifts that God has given us more effectively to edify the church. And as we define the church, we are preparing the bride until the bride is ready. I think that's encouraging. I think that's positive. But now let's ask a few other questions. And I've got two basic questions, yeah? The first one is, to whom does God give spiritual gifts?

Well, let's look first in, and now I'm going to turn to the script, 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Read first verse 1. It says, pursue love. Now love is a spiritual gift. It is a spiritual gift, because it talks about different gifts. Truly, godly love. There are different types of love, but godly love, true godly love, is a spiritual gift. So that's one we've got to pursue. And desire spiritual gifts. And then it says, but especially that you may prophesy, and we'll talk more about that later. And then continue in verse 4. At the end of verse 4, it says, but he who prophesies edifies the church. He's using these gifts to edify the church.

And then look again for, he says in verse 12, it says, even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts. In other words, you are keen, you are zealous, you really want to want to have these gifts, and you want to use them. Use zealous about it. Let it be for the edification of the church. Use the gifts, not for self-aggrandizement, but to build the church. That you seek to excel. In other words, the gifts that you are zealous, seek to excel in them, but seek to excel in them in edifying the church. So, first place, we should desire spiritual gifts. There's nothing wrong with desiring to have some spiritual talents put it another way. They are given to us by God. But let's look at one another scripture in Romans chapter 1 verse 11. Romans chapter 1 verse 11. So, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established. And the eyes of Paul telling them that I may impart to you some spiritual gift that you may be established. In other words, you can actually, by your example, by doing things, you can actually impart to other people through the power of God's Spirit, you can pass that talent and show other people and teach other people to have the same talent. So, others, instead of just having two talents, will have four. That's how it works, and that's how you can multiply them, that you may be established. Established, obviously, in building the church. And then, in the same book, in chapter 12 verse 6, Romans 12 verse 6, it says, having them gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.

Who is he talking to? Well, if you just read the verse before, verse 5. So, we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. He's talking to the members of the church. We, as members, are individual different members with our own different responsibilities and duties in the body, and we're going to use those gifts in the body for the effective working of the body. Now, think about the human analogy. Imagine that you were an organ, a member of the human body, that you were a kidney. Well, he had an important function. It is an important function! I mean, if you don't have a kidney, you're in trouble. You know, if you don't have both kidneys, it'd be in trouble. It's, well, imagine that you're a heart. You're one organ. You're the heart.

It's an important organ. Well, maybe your organ is a liver. Well, if you don't have a liver, you can't live. You need a liver. You need a stomach. You need intestines, and so on, and you go on through each organ, each one as their function. Now, opposite of the heart is not going to start acting like a liver, or the liver is not going to start acting like a foot.

Each has their responsibility for the edifying of the body, for the effectiveness of the body. And so, he's talking about each member, and we as members individually are part of the body, and therefore each one of us, we are having gifts differing according to the Christ that is given to us. And God puts each one in the body as it pleases him as you read elsewhere, and so as it pleases him, he puts people in a body with different functions, different talents, different gifts.

And let's use them. Now, this section of Romans 12, starting from 6 to verse 8, is one that I am going to use in the Bible study as an example, so we won't read anymore in that section. But let's look at another example about to whom does God give spiritual gifts, because we've seen that God gives them to all members. The next one is 1 Corinthians 12. It should read 12. 1 Corinthians 12, not 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 12, sorry, I made that mistake there. So 1 Corinthians 12, verse 31, but earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I'll show her more excellent way.

And so, and it goes on, if I have this gift to this and that and that, but I desire, but it says desire gifts, desire gifts, we should desire gifts, earnestly desire the best gifts. And then at the end of that chapter, verse 13, verse 13, it says, and now by these faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. Now, faith is a gift. Now, faith is also an attribute that we need to have, but it's also a gift. It is something that we need to develop. We need to grow in faith, but it's also a gift, but it's also something that is repentance and faith. We have to have repentance, but it goes from faith to faith. So it's multi-dimensional in a sense, but it is a gift, and so is love. So we need to earnestly desire the best gifts and look in concluding to this little section I have here about to whom does God give spiritual gifts. Look at 1st Peter, chapter 4, 1st Peter, chapter 4, verse 10. 1st Peter, chapter 4, verse 10. It says, but it's, each one has received a gift.

Peter is saying, each one, each one of the members of the church, upon baptism, upon after baptism, after the laying on of hands, we have the seed of the spirit, and in that seed there are certain gifts that God has uniquely given to you, uniquely given to you. Yes, you can develop more, but you need to grow and develop them. But it says, continue reading in verse 10, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, in other words, serve it to one another, to minister it to serve, use it to serve one another, serve others with that gift, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So we all have a gift. So who does God give gifts to, spiritual gifts to? To everyone! Once you've baptized, you've received one or more spiritual gifts. Think of the parable of the talents. Be given gifts. But it says, use them as a good steward, as a good servant. Back to the parable of talents, as a good servant, use it, and multiply it. So we all have gifts. And so the Bible has, in the New Testament, mainly four sections where the gifts are listed. They are listed not always necessarily in always the same sequence. They listed in different sequence, sometimes listed some gifts, sometimes listed other gifts, which basically means they're just an example of some gifts. They are more gifts. The example of gifts, they are other gifts. And in those four sections, it gives the, that I've listed to you, that Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, at the beginning as well as at the end of 1 Corinthians 12, and in Ephesians 4, it lists spiritual gifts. So we, during the Bible study, we're going to tackle one of those, which is Romans 12, the first one, and we'll go into more detail. As a for instance, as an example of how you and I, and we all could do some Bible study, and further meditating on these gifts so that you and I can grow in whatever gifts God has given you, whatever talents He has given you to develop and to apply to serve God's people.

So these gifts, once you think about them and as you go through them, they can be divided basically into three sort of categories of groups or purpose of the gifts. One is basically gifts that leverage the preaching of the gospel. Say for instance, if we all start doing a lot of miracles suddenly, it will really leverage the preaching of the gospel and it will draw a lot of attention, and the time will come when God will want to do that. But at the time, He's preparing the bride.

Later, when the time is right, you will do other things. But at the time, this is not the time to create the whole world to suddenly start looking out for multitudes of healings and miracles and things like that, because the bride's not ready. You've got to have the bride ready first, so God does things in time. But in the right time, you will use these gifts as signs to leverage the preaching of the gospel. That does not mean we stop preaching the gospel, but it means that we've got to do all our efforts whatever we can, but God will leverage that and multiply that in His right time. The other group of gifts are related to serving the church, serving the brethren, and those are so-called ministering type gifts. And then there are gifts related to teaching and to preaching and to perfecting the church, improving the brethren. And as far as teaching, there are many ways of teaching. And I have there a quote from Mr. Lucas, a comment that he made to the ministers in a strategic plan document that was approved at the general conference. And in that document, one of the sentences he uses there, I've got the sentence there, but one of the phrases he uses is, teach the brethren so they can teach others the truth. This is telling the ministers, teach the brethren so they can teach others the truth. In other words, teach so that they are able to teach to pass on to others. And that is kind of the highest or the deepest level of teaching, because you and I can teach people to just get to know the style, just knowledge, just head knowledge. People have head knowledge. You have a lot of preachers out there on radio, just full of head knowledge, saying things, but it's just knowledge. Some write, some are wrong. Sometimes a lot of write can be a lot of write, but it's just knowledge. Then there's the second deeper level of teaching is not just knowledge, but teach so that people know and do. So that's teaching for them to know and then to apply it, to put it to practice. And then there's the third level is that they know and they practice it, but they also internalize it. It becomes part of them.

It becomes part of they believe in it, and therefore they internalize it and becomes them. That's the belief level of teaching so that people believe. So they internalize, they become that. And then last but not least is the teaching that people know, they do, they internalize it, in other words, they become that way, they believe in it, and last minute they are able not to pass on to others. And that is what we need to be developing as a bride. As a bride, we need to get to that level that we can teach others because that's what we're going to do in the world tomorrow. So we're going to be reading ourselves to get to that level. And so God gives us the spirit because he says, out of you will come out rivers of living water. And that means God gives us spirit. It's going to flow through us, through the gifts, and we're going to put it to practice. So what are we going to do today, as I mentioned? We're going to look through one of these sections, which is Romans 12, 6 through 8, and we're going to do a Bible study on that section a little later.