Main idea: Come ready to share the gifts God has given you whenever you gather with believers.
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Please stand with me for the reading of God's word we're in First Corinthians chapter 12 Korath. Struggled, they fell prey to pride and division based on class and ability. And the apostle is turning his attention to this topic of spiritual gifts are really important topic, and how the Holy Spirit distributes gifts that none of us should be proud of, and all of us should use to humbly serve others. So let's hear from God and His Word this morning. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. No one can say Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit there are a variety of service but the same Lord, there are varieties of activities. But it is the same God who empowers them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit, the utterance of wisdom and to another of the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, To another faith by the same spirit to another gifts of healing by the one spirit to another, the working of miracles to another prophecy to another, the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same spirit who are portions to each one individually, as He wills. This is the word of the Lord. Our great God Father in heaven, we praise You today and we want to hallow your name. We want to treat you with the honor and glory you deserve. And we start by giving you thanks for the gift of Christ, your Son, Jesus, thank you for what you have offered by your death and resurrection, but you have offered more and we often overlook it, you have sent your spirit to awaken us to give us sight when we were spiritually blind and give us life when we were dead. Holy Spirit, we thank you that you help us see the glory of Christ, you give us this word, and you help us understand it and we need to but even more, you distribute special abilities to each believer so that we can build up other believers in the local church. And I pray that these coming weeks as we study this topic that you would ignite, loving, humble spiritual service in us. And I pray around our city that you would use your word help. Preachers, teachers, congregations, be faithful hearers and doers of the word. I pray for Life Center, and I pray for you to bring life and unity through the gospel preached there and I pray that you would bring faithfulness, help them be faithful as we want to be faithful. And we could say that for any other church that would come to our mind. We ask that you would be glorified in this city. In Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. So if we had a potluck churches love potlucks, if we had a potluck, and each member of your family could bring their best dish, what would you have them bring? like kids? Your mom makes one thing. That's her amazing dish. What is it cost is no object. Dad makes one thing what would he bring kids who can cook and carry you can make one thing. Imagine the feast that would happen if everybody brought their best dish. Like there would be there'd be like 20 people who would bring their best gluten free dish. It would be great. I love potatoes. Draw every your very best to share. It's I want to put that picture in your mind for what Paul's doing here in Corinth and in this book, he's not doing it with physical food. He's doing it in service to the church to help bless the whole THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD distributes special abilities spiritual gifts To each believer at their salvation at their conversion to us to serve the others in the church to us to build them up, to serve them, to help them. And when we do that, in love with humility to build others up. First Corinthians 1425 is going to talk about a specific way. When that happens. unbelievers who attend can sense that God is here that he is worthy of worship, and they will bow in their hearts and surrender to Him. So the topic of spiritual gifts in our area era is really important and it should energize and unite a local church. It should prompt wholehearted worship, it should prompt Thanksgiving, it should prompt bold evangelism. And that's what's foremost on Paul's mind. In Paul's era, and then again, it's resurfaced in the last 300 years with the first Great Awakening in the early 1700s, the first Great Awakening, Americans and Brits fought over authentic movements of the Spirit. Because there were ecstatic experiences in the Great Awakening, many people thought, well, this can't really be true. And that's really gone on for the last 300 years, the modern Charismatic Movement has produced its own controversy, but it's just a continuation of what's been going on for the last 300 What's authentic and what's in authentic spiritual gifts, what's authentic and what's an authentic spiritual experience. Sadly, this, this conflict has tended to cloud very precious truth in this passage. Especially next week, when I think of one of my favorite passages about life in the local church next week is going to be it because it talks about everybody gifted to serve everybody else to the glory of God. We're going to deal with the controversy specifically when we get to chapter 12. Because what I want to do the next two weeks is make sure we focus on on Paul's intent, the spirit's intent for us to learn about gifts and how to employ gifts. If you're new to studying the Bible, or hearing the Bible, these are really important chapters. And here's what I want you to realize that God as our King, gives his people truth, a truth that they can count on. And he gives them special abilities in which they could truly serve His people. When you are called by Jesus, to follow Him you are following a king, leaving an old kingdom entering a new kingdom and you are endowed by His Holy Spirit with new special abilities to serve Him and the others in the kingdom.
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Children's Literature fans, CS Lewis his lion which in the wardrobe, Father Christmas brings gifts to the Pevensie children that will in the end help them overthrow the White Witch, which was a picture of Satan. Harry Potter fans definitely hollows, Dumbledore after his death. bequests Harry, Ron and Hermione special gifts that end up overthrowing Voldemort. In the true story of the Bible, those are just fictitious stories. God gives special abilities, not magical gifts, he gives special abilities and that King truly loves His church. That's how he manifests himself for the world to see. And what we're going to look at is what I believe is the most overlooked manifestation of God's love and grace in the Scriptures. And it's not just preacher speak, because everybody live as the most overlooked thing ever. This is the most underrated thing ever. Know because the Holy Spirit gives special abilities to every believer for the good of other believers. And I want you to think of this. We all rejoice at the gift of being forgiven by the blood of Christ, because Christ died and I believe in him that blood is shed for me, I'm forgiven. We're given the gift of salvation. But when Jesus died for our sins, He didn't only give us forgiveness because he rose from the dead guaranteed that he also promises new life. Yeah, new life, eternal life, new bodies heaven, great. But that's not all. It sounds like a commercial commit. You couldn't appreciate, understand or even believe, if Christ had not sent his spirit to take a dead heart and make it alive, to make a sleepy heart awake to truth, to make blind eyes see, the Holy Spirit is involved in our salvation that will be part of this passage. But Jesus also gives special abilities in the church, to manifest the fullness of his character and to serve the whole church. It's an extraordinary thing, these spiritual abilities these spiritual gifts are. So if your eyes have been open to the Gospel, and you profess Jesus as Lord, you've also been given special abilities to employ for the good of the church to build others up in their faith. So here's the big idea for the for the coming weeks, next three, three weeks. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to come ready to share the gifts God has given you. At every gathering, you're meeting with some guys for coffee in the morning some gals for tea in the afternoon and women's Bible study your growth group, you need to come ready to share what God has gifted you with to build the people up. I'll talk about practical ways to start doing that at the end. We'll do a little bit more next week. But over the next several weeks, we're going to seek to follow God's divine design for life in the local church, so that you can build up faith Bible Church, and today we're gonna look at the first three steps, the first three steps that prepare you to come ready to share and care with the gifts God has given you. Help you evaluate authentic gifts from false gifts. Alright, here we go. Number one, check for truth, the first step in the process is going to be checking for truth. True gifts of the Spirit are given to true believers. And they result in a faithful and maturing confession of Christ as Lord. They result in faithfulness to the truth, faithfulness to Christ. First one, starting a new topic now concerning spiritual gifts. So it's a new topic, but it's connected to worship and the gathering of worship. Chapter 10, there was talk about the gathering and comparison the idol gatherings, chapter 11 talking about the gathering in the Lord's Supper. Now we're about ready to move to the gathering and mutual gifts, chapter 14, we're going to talk about the gathering and this service, hearing God's word and ministering to each other. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. And whenever you see uninformed in First Corinthians there's a tiny bit of a because the Corinthians thought they were experts. They were proud of their knowledge. They thought they knew everything is like, you guys don't actually know what you need to know. I don't want you to be uninformed. That word spiritual gifts. Look at it there in verse one, literally, spiritual gifts. That's how it's translated there is literally the things of the Spirit or what comes from the Spirit. And he doesn't want them to be ignorant of it. And so he steps them back to their pre Christ days before they were Christians. He says, you know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Picture in their era, Corinth had major temples, multi, multiple major deities, and these pagan people literally ethnos, but it's referring to their religious practices. They worshipped multiple gods, a family might have a favorite God and a little temple in their backyard for it. But then they would still go to all the other festivals, because in Greek mythology, one gave you understanding another gave you prosperity, another gave you children, and yet another gave you grandchildren. Like the things that you want most, there were different gods, who in the Greek world in the Greek mythology were often at odds with each other. And all of these were saying nothing, do nothing idols and idol temples. You were you, you went to other gods, you were led astray to mute idols, they were doing nothing. Paul has been emphasizing this, carrying on the Old Testament, teaching, you know, in the Old Testament, New Testament, there's only two kinds of religion, only two kinds. There's idolatry, worshipping false gods, and there's worship of the true God. There's only two kinds of idolatry and the worship of true God. In our era. We have secular idols, meaning they don't have Religious attachment, but you go to them for everything you think is most important.
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So remember, when you were pagans, you were led astray. Now note that word led astray because there's two words that both mean led astray. One focuses on being deceived. The other focuses on being enslaved or unchained and drug along. Picture, the Rose Parade. Some of you who watch the Rose Parade last week, we slept. It was great. Yes, thank you Rose Parade, people. I used to watch the Rose Parade when imagine Rose Parade, big festival, but it's going to be not just to American football, which is an idol. For some at the end, picture, a whole bunch of animals being part of the procession, and it reaches the end, and they're sacrificed. That was that was an ancient festival practice, they would be celebrating to this God or that God, and it would be really exciting. And then they would go into the sacrifice, they'd make the sacrifice to the gods, and then everybody would prepare the meat and they would eat a feast. You were deceived. And you were led astray, like an animal to slaughter to do nothing, God. And you had to go to this god for prosperity and this god for fertility and this god for safety and this god for war, and they were all do nothing.
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Then verse three, tells them what happened. So I want you to know, you're all led astray. Paul's focused on speaking here in these chapters, because that was the major controversy in their day was the issue of speaking. says therefore I want you to understand that no one's SPEAKING in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. You and I won't read that and go to court, like who would ever think that that was legit. But here's the thing in Corinth, and it's not really untrue here, that Corinthians were enamored with people who had amazing speaking abilities, or could do tricks of magic. They were enamored with people who seemed to have special powers LMSW, the magician, or they were enamored with great orators. And there was a confusion about what was genuinely from God. Here's the first test. If the speaker's confession of faith, denied Christ, cursed Christ condemned Christ. If the person's lifestyle looked like it condemned Christ, that was not an authentically gifted person. Doesn't matter how, how exciting or able their speaking ability was, if their doctrine if their life didn't conform to what was taught in the Scripture, then it's not authentic. He's given the opposite. So no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Jesus is Lord is the shortest version of the gospel in the Bible shorthand for the gospel. Jesus, who is that promised son King from Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand while I make enemies of your footstool are Psalm to Kiss the Son lest he be angry, or Joel 232, which is all who call in the name of the Lord will be saved. This is this Lord who has come in fulfillment of the Scripture who God the Father has sent, who, God the Father crushed, so that our sins could be given to God the Father could raise him from the dead, so that he would be exalted to the right hand of God as king, and Philippians 211 Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, anybody who has this confession, Jesus is Lord didn't get that from their own good sense. They didn't just come upon it. They didn't dream it up. God the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus had to take their blindness and heal them. Help them see had to take their heart heart out. I want to put a soft heart in all these pictures of the deadness in our sin. And the life that we have is because of the spirit. Not only that he gives gifts, and authentically gifted people will affirm this truth. This sets for for the best, all of the debate there are about spiritual gifts in our era. And I'll talk about those in a couple of weeks. The first litmus test, the first test for authentic use of gifts, authentically gifted people is their confession of faith. Do they affirm the truths in the Bible in the Scripture about Christ? First, John four one calls believers to test the spirits, as in to test any speaker claiming to have a message from God? Does it conform with the truth of Scripture already revealed? That's the test. Just because somebody says, I have a word from God doesn't mean they have a word from God.
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So the first thing is to keep the right doctrine and to check it against the right doctrine. And just as as an aside, you need to thank God over and over again for the gift of His Spirit. If you would know Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been saved and have a hope of heaven. That's a gift of the Spirit, do you thank you. For the gift of the Spirit. I always think the Holy Spirit Jesus had to live with sinful men. When he lived on earth, the Holy Spirit has to live in sinful men and sinful women. I think the Holy Spirit he gets the short end of the whole stick, he deserves a lot of glory for enduring us. But praise God for the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
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The most important factor in determining true spiritual gifts and true spiritual experience is submission to the truth of the Lordship of Christ several years ago, when Kanye West went on a quest for the gospel and wrote a number of gospel songs, many people were ecstatic. I had a classmate, probably not a classmate of a guy who went to Master's just a couple of years after me. Kanye West went to him for discipleship. So a lot of us were super excited. Maybe he's really been saved. But everybody kind of knew this thing about pop stars, pop stars, like to make a surge with a gospel album. So maybe it was his creative bent, we don't know. But some of the songs are amazing there. But here's the real test. The test would come over time, with their life with their teaching, adhere to the Bible, with their life with their teaching, adhere to the Bible. Just wait and see what kind of fruit is produced? will it produce wholehearted faith and worship of Christ? Or Won't it? So first check for truth. Second, consider the Trinity consider the Trinity. Here, verse 545, and six, you start seeing this this dynamic work of the Trinity. Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit there are varieties of service, but the same Lord, there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God. So notice varieties is repeated, different things distributed. And you have three members, the three members of the Trinity Spirit, Lord, which is Son, and God who is the father. And they're all involved. Everything that Jesus does, the Father and the Spirit are involved in everything the Spirit does the Father and the Son are involved in, they are all involved. Some things are very clear. One, notice how that there's these variety of gifts, not just one gift. There's a diversity of gifts built in the fabric of a of a local church. The church is not just a sermon box with a pulpit. That's that's most Protestant views of the church. It was true of the of the post temple Jews like the synagogue, like they view the worship as as, as the pulpit. That's not just that there's a variety. The most prominent Catholic theme would would make the church a communion table because it's the Eucharist. That's the most important thing. For the temple Jews. It was sacrifices and there are longing temple Jews today and it's all about future sacrifice. SS so it's not an altar it to them it's author but it's not in the modern era at the the average church is a concert venue. Most that's the most prominent theme and evangelicals but he's saying there's not just one set of gifts. There's a variety of gifts. Second, each member of the Trinity lives in diversity yet is completely united. Notice same, same, same, same spirit, same Lord, same God notices we go down one and the same one in the same there's this unity. So God the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, exist in diversity, and yet complete unity. So therefore, any gathering of the local church, any constituted local church should seek diversity and unity. To reflect the glories of our Triune God, God's people gather and all use their diverse gifts
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were idolatry has many gods many sources. Greek mythology, they're all in conflict. The true God lives in diversity and unity, complete unity. And that should be reflected in the life of his people. I think of it in a different way. That is just very, very profound. Whatever you need, you remember the pagans like Okay, I can't get pregnant. My kids can't get pregnant. Somebody sick. Somebody's poor, somebody's got something bad happened to them, and they lost their job. One God, another god, another god, another god, and they would try to get wisdom from the God. But if you are in Christ, and you're in a local church, it's all here. One God has everything you need in one people. It's a profound thing in the local church. Third thing you should notice is that gifts are gifts, not rewards. They're not achieved talents. He uses the word gifts. He uses the word empowered, verse seven, to each is given, which is emphatic, because it's passive. So that means you if you have trusted Christ, as Lord and Savior have been given an endowment, a gift, a special ability, it's a gift to you. But it's not a gift, like Christmas gifts, and a special toy that you get to go use by yourself. Some gaming device, some Lego thing to assemble, get to get away and I get to have my Meantime, it's not that kind of gift. Throughout most of history, people have lived in a patronage system. wealthy and powerful people gave money or land or responsibility to a person, that person was required to use it for the patrons purposes, like Leonardo da Vinci would go from patron to patron and try to get money from them. And the return was he would produce works of art for them for their renown. But Leonardo had to work for a patron. There's only one real patronage system, God gives resources and abilities to his people. We use them for him and for the good of others. Why this was revolutionary in Corinth, because Corinth was an average patron culture where the wealthy people commissioned, that's the word we use, they commissioned the poor people or the craftsmen to produce things. And there was always something owed by the person who was given something. You step into the church, suddenly you have a slave who is gifted with understanding and teaching maybe even prophecy and direct revelation from God speaking to master the whole patronage system class system is obliterated in these verses. Because every single person is given an an endowment a special ability From the Holy Spirit, no one is better for what he has in no one is worse. All are given these gifts by God. Gods the great patron. And what's different is that none of us were worthy. We were dead. What do we have to offer God when you're spiritually dead and rebellious, you're gonna offer more rebellion. God not only grant salvation and amnesty, but gift to us for His glory in the good of the rest of his people, and God gives solely by his sovereign grace. Look at the end of this section, verse 11, all these are empowered by the one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills. No one can claim spirit superiority. No one can claim better no one can claim worse. This produces as we look at the Trinity, and we see his unity. It should inspire our unity. Now with the gifts that he gives, we serve humbly we serve lovingly, that's going to be the point of chapter 13. For the building up of others, so we should give thanks for the grace and the multiple gifts God gives all different people in a local church. So if we're looking at God's divine design, first, we're checking for truth, what's authentic experience, what's authentic gifting, you're going to be able to tell over time, by a confession of faith, by the fruit that conforms with the confession of faith. We look at number two, we consider the Trinity, his unity, and diversity and his gifts to us. Third, we need to care for the totality of care for the whole, I take this from this idea of the common good, the benefit of everybody, the end of her seven. All of this has been given for the common good. He isn't saying that every person uses his or her gifts every time for every person that would make you exhausted. He's saying that every Christian has a gift, and it is good. Somewhere in the hole
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every Christian should have a view to the hole as any in the church might have a need. Paul gives the first spiritual gift list in First Corinthians here he's going to talk about at the end of chapter 12, it's going to be picked back up in verse in chapter 14. There's other places I've listed them in your notes. Romans 12, four through eight has another list of gifts Ephesians, 410, and 11 has another list of gifts. First, Peter 410 and 11 have another set of gifts. They're not intended, we're not intended to take all of them and compile them into a master gift list every time they are set as a representative list for the people there for the situation that they needed. Paul's focusing on wisdom and knowledge coming from God because the Corinthians were taking so much of their wisdom and knowledge from the world and his philosophies. So these are going to be shaped in a certain way. Go to Romans and the issue in Romans was this division between Jew and Greek and so the gift plus there have much more to do with compassion and leadership and service and mercy instruction there's no exhaustive list this is this represents you might have a spiritual gift that's not listed. It's a divine enablement by God to serve in the local church. It's for the common good. They're all for building for building each other up. That said, here's a couple things that might help us there are overlapping categories here. And I like to think of it this way if your note taker, you have the spiritual gift of taking notes, which I don't buy now I've been tapped out I just be listening. Yeah, true confession. I can take notes for about 20 minutes. So listen. For categories helped me think about spiritual gifts. There are revelatory gifts, God reveals Himself and prophets apostles had revelatory gifts. They are directly given a message through the Holy Spirit to give to people that describe God's glory and God's Will who revelatory gifts. There were some that were put in Scripture. There were some not put in Scripture, you see it in the Old Testament. See, in the New Testament, there have been prophets, from the time of the judges to the last book of the Bible, last book of the Old Testament Malikai. There are many prophets who never had anything written in Scripture. But they were giving authoritative words from God. Those are relat, revelatory gifts, God's revealing himself. Second category are sign gifts. You see it in the Old Testament, because a prophet to be confirmed as a prophet had to do some kind of miracle so that people would say, well, we better listen to this guy. Look at look at that miracle that he just did. The Old Testament, Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 18, there were tests even for that, because not even a miracle was good enough. It had to also conform with the law, it had to pass the truth test that we already looked at. But there were sign gifts, Jesus does an enormous amount of sign gifts. No one's ever done more sign gifts than Jesus, healings, miracles. Sometimes somebody was sick with a disease, somebody, sometimes somebody had leprosy. Sometimes somebody was dead, and you raised them to life. And these miracles, testified to God's grace and that his message is valid, should listen to me, I'm the Messiah, look what I can do. Yes, we should look, nobody can do that. The apostles had those same abilities to do to perform signs and wonders. It's quite possible. This is very early in the life of the church. First Thessalonians. So I think it's James First Thessalonians and First Corinthians are the first three books of the New Testament. So this is very early in the church age, in which scriptures weren't widely available. So God endowed different congregations with different people with revelatory gifts. They were testable because it conformed to truth. They were given revelatory gifts. And then to prove it, there were sign gifts. God showed His grace by healing people but God also pointed to a sign gifts signifies or points to something. There are teaching gifts, teaching gifts, you'll find it in Romans, there's people are gifted to teach and to preach. And these are people who the Holy Spirit and vows to understand and communicate what's already been revealed. And then finally, there are service gifts, gift of helps hospitality, and so on. Peter summarizes all of them really succinctly. First, Peter, 410 and 11. He says, there's two categories. Those who speak, speak as it were, the oracles of God. And when you hear the word Oracle, you go, hoo, hoo, hoo, because an oracle was a person who has spoken, awesome message. You're speaking a message from the Holy God, who speak as it were with reverence and humility. And he who serves their speaking gifts they're serving whoever serves serve with the strength that God supplies. So the God might be glorified and all things. Those helped me as I get my mind around these. I'm convinced that the ones that remain today, the supernatural miracles that he gifts today are in the spirits, the teaching and service gifts. I'll get into it in two weeks when you come back, but there's just generally four categories of how people view how gifts continue. There is the total Cessationist that there are no longer spiritual gifts given God just endowed people with special gifts, talents, abilities, and time and experience and they use those strengthened by the Holy Spirit. It's not a heretical view, but that's one view. Then there are those who say some signs stopped and some, some gifts stopped and some gifts continued. That's, that's where I'm at with it. I think all of the service gifts and teaching gifts continue on, but the revelatory and sign gifts go some who are in our church think that God could still resurrect any of these gifts anytime they're open. John Piper's view is open but cautious, because the Bible doesn't say they're done now. That's not in the Bible. All this all these gifts are done now. That would be really easy. We'd have no more fight if there was just a spot. I know somebody's gonna come up to me with Revelation 22. If anyone adds to the words of this prophecy, it's it's talking about Revelation most likely revelation is written before John Doe. I'll explain my position for that. There's some there and then there are some who think that the gifts continue all of these could continue in gifted people in a local church for its good Bob Coughlin, for instance, we sing a lot of sovereign grace songs. They're good continuation lists in that everything has to conform to Scripture. Everything has to conform to Scripture. That said, let's dive in. You can see where I fit where you fit. Verse 8421, is given through the Spirit, the utterance of wisdom, and to another, the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, two different gifts, one giver, an utterance of wisdom, utterance of knowledge there overlapping kinds of gifts. One of the problems you have with any list of gifts and any list of virtues is that he doesn't then give a definition beside it. Wouldn't that be nice? What was that? An utterance of wisdom, which means the original audience knew what it meant. I think it's revelatory, because it's a word. It's revelatory, that helps somebody understand a challenging situation or puts truth in practice, whereas knowledge might explain who God is, or his will. But they all come from the same spirit. I think just the fact that these are an utterance of each a word. They're revelatory. However, today, people are gifted with wisdom, and people are getting gifted with knowledge and understanding scripture and understanding how to apply it I think that knowledge is something you can easily get from the Bible. I think our biblical counselors give wisdom how to apply the knowledge of the Bible to your life. says To another faith by the same spirit, in chapter 13, he's going to talk about faith that moves mountains, which quotes from Jesus who talks about if you have faith that moves a mountain, you could say to this mountain be picked up and thrown. It's talking about a person who has such trust such confidence in God, that they are willing to step forward into the scary in the heart, and trust God for the results. Attempt great things for God. That person is so needed.
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Whether that was a supernatural gift, like a revelatory gift or a sign gift. We're not sure but you know you. You have something scary or hard that God's called you to do. And you need somebody to come alongside you and say, be courageous sister, God is going to be with you. You can trust him. We all need a person with a gift of faith, you often call them an optimist. I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist. I'm even worse than that. I'm a pessimist. I have the spiritual gift of pouring cold water on every good idea. That's not a spiritual gift, this discernment, maybe we're gonna get there. There's another person who has faith to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, not apostolic era in order to authenticate. I think one of the best places to take this and we're going to do this when we get to the end, apostles. The credentials were established, in part by their ability to do miracles, healings, or natural miracles, healings remember, Peter? At one point, people were lining up the sick in the streets and when his shadow passed, everybody was healed. Some are given powers over nature. Jesus did had powers over nature he calm the sea, he turned five loaves and two fish into enough for five hours those are miracle nature's sometimes they were negative. Jesus cursed the fig tree. Peter called Death onto an ice and Sapphira sometimes they were serious. Mostly they preview the coming of the kingdom when God's going to restore all things. So another gifts of healing by the one spirit to another the working of miracles. Because I don't believe the gift gifted person still exists doesn't mean I don't believe God doesn't do healings. God still heals God can still do miracles. God still does those. You still see those? And if any of you have the gift of healing, I have some feet that are killing me. I'm not kidding. I have bowls of arthritis as big as my fist. I don't need my leg lengthened. That's a common charismatic thing. Lengthen your leg. I need something else. To another prophecy. That's giving an authority had a message or a prediction from God to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, some people have a discernment ability to identify false teaching and true teaching. Again, that's the first John for one discern the spirits are distinguished and spirits, test them to another various kinds of tongues to another interpretation of tongues. Starting an axe to we see this happen, actually, this your tongue starts back at Babel, when mankind wanted to hold together and prove that they could stand equal to God. And God sent them a judgment that scattered them and confused their languages. Acts chapter two is the overturn of Babylon, the overturn of Babel, in which Jews had come from all over the Roman Empire, even to the Parthian Empire, they were there for that special festival, called Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came on the small little church 120. And they started preaching in languages that they had never learned to the people who are now their tongues are always languages, known languages, you don't see tongues in the Bible. Without that the tongues of men and angels is hyperbolic, we'll get to that. There's not an angelic language that we speak, because in chapter 14, it's a sign to an unbeliever, an unbeliever, walks in, he's from another country speaks another language and this language, and somebody stands up and gives him a message from God. Everybody else is sitting there not understanding a word that said, but the unbeliever is going, Whoa. There's the interpretation of tongues. Somebody is empowered to stand up and said, This is what this person just said, for the benefit of the congregation. And everybody says, Amen. And then chapter 14, verse 25, that unbeliever is convicted in his heart and bows in his heart and trusts Christ as Lord. That's another of the revelatory gifts. When we get to chapter 14, and there's this claim that speak tongues to yourself, Paul's whole emphasis is it's not about yourself, it's about giving is going to clarify that for us. Now, notice this, all these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually, as He wills, there is no better or superior gift. There's no better or superior person, the spirit sovereignly gifts gifts as he wishes, someone poor has something to give to someone who's rich, someone well educated is blessed by someone who is not well educated, who has a better word of knowledge from God, someone who is wavering and doing what God is asking them to do. Someone who's doubtful someone who is terrified, is strengthened in their faith by someone who has gifted with great faith. People who needed to know God's will and didn't have scripture on the matter. Were given wisdom part of what I think is that bigger area of prophecy all benefit all. While I don't think we have all the same gifts today, God has given you a gift believer God has given you a gift. And you're to use it you're to use it to help others and this church grow and thrive.
49:05
Alright, so how do I put them in practice? I used to teach spiritual gifts class, we take all the spiritual gifts mentioned everywhere, we would put them in a list with the definitions, which was challenging because you'd read five commentators, and they, they'd come up with three different definitions for each. Okay, this is hard. And then we would try to identify when I was first saved. I was discipled really well. I was given a spiritual gifts inventory. I know how to take tests. So I thought I might like to teach. And I like to serve and so all these questions were asked and I kept ticking, the ones that were going to get me the outcome at the end that I wanted Was I cheating? Was I work in the test? Yes and no. Maybe that's how I was gifted, and I knew it. So can I can we just skip that stuff? It's helpful to know what they are at lunch today you could talk about, Mom, I think your gift is this. You know, Dad, I think your gift is this like this is when God really uses you. This is what happens. I think that'd be an encouragement. But But here's what it takes. Just get to know the Scriptures. Think about them often. Get to know the Scriptures. Think about them often. Learn them and what God has for you do God's will obey Him. That'll make you grow. Start conforming your life to God's character and what Jesus commands. And while you're doing that, pray, confess your sins, give thanks to God, pray for others and their needs. Think of ways that you can help. When you do those, you're walking in the Spirit. And then as you pray for what people need, suddenly, you're going to have this desire to do a thing, and you're built in a certain way. And pretty soon what comes out is the tip of the mountain in the Snow Peak, that's your gift, your gift mix. Then you get wisdom from more mature Christians to use your gifts better. You know, if you get acrylic paints and a paintbrush as a gift for Christmas, you're still going to need to practice to make beautiful art aren't you. Same with your spiritual gifts. Their sub subjected to you to grow in and mature in. And finally, prepare for any time you gather with fellow Christians. Wednesday night, or Thursday nights we hop in our car, we drive five minutes to our growth group. And on the way Linda and I both pray that God would help us serve and build up in the lives of the other growth group members. Do that when you come to this gathering do that when you meet for coffee do that when you go to growth group. God use me to bless them and out will come your spiritual gift. It will come
52:36
you know maybe a better analogy than the favorite dish is the ingredient analogy. Faith Bible Church. You have been charged to be the chicken tikka masala of Spokane. I love chicken tikka masala. If you're the tumeric, and you don't show up, we don't have it. We have something else. Whatever. You have an ingredient for this church, to make it what God wants it to be for the city. Let's pray that God would help us use it for His glory. God, we thank you for these helpful words. And I pray that you would use that you would use your word in our hearts and that you would help us see the glory of Christ. None of this is really going to be possible. Because we're people who are selfish, and we get tired. So you're going to have to overcome our selfishness and give us strength so that we can use these gifts for your glory. And I pray that what results over the next six or seven weeks and studying these things is an energy among us to serve and make you known. Pray this Christ's name, Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at TMS Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, gardening, brick oven cooking.
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