{"id":18497,"date":"2018-10-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-038-spiritual-gifts-17\/"},"modified":"2018-10-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-14T05:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-038-spiritual-gifts-17","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-038-spiritual-gifts-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 038: Spiritual Gifts 17"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[91],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18497","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-corinthians","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 038: Spiritual Gifts 17","sermon_date":"20181014","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":6124,"sermon_slides":6132,"sermon_mp3":6135,"sermon_id":"10141888284","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":91,"chapter_and_verse":"12:7","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 38, Spiritual Gifts 17\n\n10-14-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 38\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse 7.\u00a0 And as you\u2019re turning there I\u2019m going to open us in a word of prayer.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for today and grateful for the freedom that we have in this country to worship You in Spirit and truth.\u00a0 And I just ask that the illumination of Your Spirit today as\u00a0 your body gathers, particularly here at Sugar Land Bible Church as we look into\u00a0 Your Word in Sunday School and in the sermon that follows.\u00a0 I pray You\u2019ll bless the fellowship time. I\u00a0 pray, Father, that today we would leave here strengthened and edified and fortified\u00a0 with the battles that we\u2019re facing throughout this week and we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.\n\nJust to kind of remind you of where we\u2019ve been in Ecclesiology, which as\u00a0 you know is the doctrine of the church, a very important doctrine.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been looking at the purposes of the church and of course one of its great purposes is to equip you for your ministry based on whatever spiritual gift God has given you.\u00a0 So that requires us to do a little bit of study which I\u2019m hoping we can finish today, Lord willing, at least the spiritual gifts part of it, it requires a little bit of understanding of the whole doctrine of spiritual gifts. So we\u2019ve asked and answered basically a total of four questions in this study.\u00a0 The first two we\u2019ve done, the third one we\u2019re doing and the fourth one, if time permits we may be able to get into it today.\n\nWe looked at some general observations about spiritual gifts and then from there we got into the very difficult question are all the spiritual gifts for today?\u00a0 And our conclusion, at least here at Sugar Land Bible Church, is that about seven of those gifts, I have them there on the screen [Apostle, Prophet, Worker of Miracles, Tongues, Interpretation of tongues, Healing, Knowledge] have passed.\u00a0 Which leaves for about sixteen edificatory gifts remaining.\u00a0 And we spent several weeks giving you the explanation for that so we won\u2019t reteach all that.\n\nBut that took us into question number three, what are the spiritual gifts that remain in the church today.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve given you this pneumonic device, I think several times, Twelve, twelve, four, four.\u00a0 That stands for Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Peter 4 and Ephesians 4, and those are the four sections of the New Testament that basically enumerate the various gifts of the Holy Spirit.\n\nWe were taking a look at those gifts last time and just giving you a basic definition of them, where they\u2019re found in the Scripture and if I remember right we looked at ten of them and we\u2019re going to look at the remaining six today.\u00a0 And we\u2019re also going to get into (if time permits) how to discover\u00a0 your spiritual gift and\/or gifts.\n\nBut we saw that prophecy was the ability to proclaim truth without error.\u00a0 Number two, teaching was the ability to explain clearly what God has revealed.\u00a0 Number three, pastor-teacher is the ability to equip and mature the body of Christ.\u00a0 Number four, evangelism is the ability to share the good news of Jesus Christ with unbelievers.\u00a0 Number five, exhortation is the ability to encourage others in the body of Christ.\u00a0 Number six, discernment is the ability to detect moral and\/or doctrinal error.\u00a0 Number seven, administration is the ability to effectively run or manage a church program.\u00a0 Number eight, leadership is the ability to cast an organizational vision and motivate others towards the fulfillment of that vision.\u00a0 Number nine, knowledge is the ability to understand complex biblical truth.\u00a0 And number ten, wisdom is the ability to find knowledge from the Scriptures and apply it to daily life.\n\nSo that means there are at least six gifts, we haven\u2019t looked at yet so let\u2019s start taking a look at those this morning.\u00a0 If you felt I went through that fast I probably did but we did a whole lesson from last week covering those first ten gifts.\u00a0 So if you haven\u2019t had a chance to hear that I would encourage you to go back into the archives on our website and take a listen or take a look at that.\n\nThis takes us to number eleven and that\u2019s why I had you open up to 1 Corinthians 12:7 because that\u2019s where you find this eleventh gift, it\u2019s called the gift of service.\u00a0 And I would just define the gift of service as follows: it\u2019s the ability to minister to the practical needs of other people.\u00a0 Probably the best example of service that\u00a0 you can think of in the whole Bible would be Jesus, right?\u00a0 You might remember that scene in the Upper Room where He got down on His hands and knees and He really began, it\u2019s a stunning scene, He began to wash the hands and the feet of His own disciples.\u00a0 So here is their Creator and here is their Redeemer down on His hands and knees washing their feet\u2026 it\u2019s an amazing scene!\u00a0 That\u2019s service.\n\nAnd then Jesus says in John 3:15, \u201cFor I gave to you a\u201d what? \u201can example that you should do as I did to you.\u201d\u00a0 So that really is what Christianity is all about once a person is saved and it really is about what service is about.\u00a0 And some people actually really excel at this, we\u2019re all supposed to do it but some people have a gifting in it and that\u2019s called the spiritual gift of service, the ability to meet the needs of other people in a practical way.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a generic gift, service.\u00a0 And then you have a twelfth gift mentioned in the body of Christ and you\u2019ll find it in Romans 12:8 and this one is called the gift of giving.\u00a0 [Romans 12:8, \u201che who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.\u201d]\u00a0 What is that?\u00a0 It\u2019s the ability to give material goods and financial resources with what?\u00a0 With joy, because God loves what kind of giver?\u00a0 A cheerful giver, with joy so that the needs of the Lord\u2019s work are met.\n\nSo the church is just like any other institution, whether it be a business or a family or whatever, any organization needs finances to survive.\u00a0 All of us that have been touched by a ministry in some way are obligated to financially support that ministry. \u00a0I don\u2019t know where we got this idea that church is free.\u00a0 The gospel is free but the basic expectation of the Lord when He sent the disciples out to minister there in the land of Israel is they\u2019re going to be supported financially by those that are blessed by their ministry.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see that in Luke 10 and other places.\n\nWe\u2019re all called to financially give; we\u2019re not big on giving you a specific amount to give, that\u2019s really between you and the Lord. We don\u2019t really believe in tithing as a requirement for all Christians, if you want to tithe that\u2019s probably a pretty good place to start if you\u2019re interested in doing that.\u00a0 Some people can\u2019t and some people should be doing a lot more than tithing.\u00a0 But what you\u2019ll discover in the New Testament is there is no monetary amount.\u00a0 You\u2019ll discover in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 in the principles of the church age are the principles of grace giving.\n\nSo it\u2019ll use a lot of adverbs in that section of the Bible, a lot of give secretly, give joyfully, give proportionately, give sacrificially, etc.\u00a0 But there is a special gift in the body of Christ where there are some that excel far beyond the norm; it\u2019s a particular spiritual gift called the gift of giving.\u00a0 And it\u2019s necessary because the church, like any other group, needs finances to survive.\u00a0 Even Christ\u2019s work on the earth was supported by people.\u00a0 When you study the life of Christ\u00a0 you\u2019ll see in the Gospel of Luke that He was actually financially supported by women.\u00a0 How about that in Luke\u2019s Gospel?\n\nAnd those that have the gift of giving, I\u2019ve noticed that they all have something in common because I\u2019ve run across many people in my life had this spiritual gift, they don\u2019t view money as something that\u2019s theirs, almost to a person when I\u2019ve met people that have this gift they view it as the Lord\u2019s money and they view it as the Lord has entrusted them with certain material things.\u00a0 And they see themselves as sort of a channel from the Lord to a particular ministry, so God doesn\u2019t give to them, God gives through them.\u00a0 That\u2019s sort of their mindset; it\u2019s not their money.\u00a0 And so obviously this would be a very important gift in the body of Christ.\u00a0 So you may find yourself in that position where the Lord has given you finances way above and beyond what\u2019s needed in your daily life and if\u00a0 you\u2019re in that position you need to look at it as well God put me in this position and He wants to use me sort of as a channel or a vehicle to help His work.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the financial gift of giving.\n\nAnd then you have another gift in the body of Christ which is very important, particularly to someone like myself that travels a little bit.\u00a0 You know, you\u2019re often staying in the homes of people and things like this and so you see this gift really coming into fruition, it\u2019s the gift of hospitality.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find it in Romans 12:13 and 1 Peter 4:9, and hospitality is the ability to make guests feel comfortable and at home.\u00a0 [Romans 12:13, \u201ccontributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.\u201d\u00a0 1 Peter 4:9, \u201cBe hospitable to one another without complaint.\u201d]\n\nAnd\u00a0 you can see why the Holy Spirit gave this gift, particularly in the first century because there was so much traveling going on, there weren\u2019t hotels like Hiltons and things like that, like we have today, so ministries were subsidized in the early church, by the way, they met in homes, so ministries were largely subsidized by traveling ministers and ambassadors from the apostles coming and staying in the homes of Christians.\u00a0 In fact, if you read the book of Third John there\u2019s a guy there named Diotrephes who is in deep trouble with the Lord because he was not exercising basic hospitality and he was usurping authority in a church and he was not receiving the traveling ministers that the Apostle John had sent and anybody that received John\u2019s traveling ministers, Diotrephes would retaliate against him. It\u2019s kind of a story there in 3 John as an ecclesiastical tyrant.\u00a0 And the whole point of the book is there\u2019s a denial here of basic hospitality that should have been shown.\n\nNow of course, the counter balance to Third John is Second John where heretics are wanting to come into homes, people without sound doctrine.\u00a0 And Second John says don\u2019t even let such a person into your home.\u00a0 The early church, as we said before, met in homes so hospitality doesn\u2019t mean you open up your home or your church to everybody and every doctrine but\u00a0 you can see if someone\u2019s doctrine is correct then there is a spiritual gift in the body of Christ called the gift of hospitality.\n\nAnd then you have a fourteenth gift and you find this in Romans 12:8, and you can see why this gift would be needed, it\u2019s called the gift of mercy.\u00a0 [Romans 12:8, \u201cor he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.\u201d]\nMercy is the ability to devote energy to those in pitiable conditions.\u00a0\u00a0 I was under a pastor once in the Dallas area that clearly had the gift of mercy and he was the type of person that would gravitate towards anybody virtually within his sphere of influence that was sort of in a helpless condition.\u00a0 In fact, if you were in a conversation with him and somebody walked into the church that he knew was having a difficult time it was interesting to watch him operate, he would just cut off the conversation you were having with them and he would\u00a0 immediately be attracted to this person and he wanted to minister to them in a practical way.\n\nAnd you know we live in a fallen world where a lot of bad things happen to people, even in the body of Christ as we know, you can go through trials and so how comforting it is that the Holy Spirit has given a particular gift in the body of Christ called the gift of mercy to devote energy towards those in pitiable conditions.\u00a0 And these gifts, as hopefully we\u2019re learning, is not just the paid staff doing these things but all of us are gifted in ways and we\u2019re all called to continue to exercise these gifts in the body of Christ.\n\nWhen I think of the gift of mercy, of course my mind goes back to Jesus, and there\u2019s a tremendous statement about the mercy of Christ in Matthew 9:36.\u00a0 Jesus says this, \u201cSeeing the people, He felt compassion for them,\u201d why is that?\u00a0 \u201cbecause they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a tremendous statement there of the mercy of Christ.\u00a0 And so Christ is drawn to these people because of their helpless condition, they\u2019re stressed, they\u2019re dispirited, they\u2019re like sheep without a shepherd.\u00a0 And everything within Christ wanted to reach them and help them and minister to them.\u00a0 And you find those kind of concepts or thoughts dwelling up in your mind about people that may be a sign that the Holy Spirit has given you the gift of mercy.\n\nAnd then you have a fifteenth gift mentioned in the body of Christ and you\u2019ll see this in 1 Corinthians 12:28.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 12:28, \u201cAnd God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.\u201d]\u00a0 And this is a very important gift, it\u2019s called the gift of helps.\u00a0 It\u2019s the ability to\u00a0 free up others from certain responsibilities so that they can exercise their gifts (the people they\u2019re freeing up in other words) so they can exercise their gifts more effectively.\n\nAnd I remember in my last trip to Israel, I was with Dr. Randall Price and we were going up to Armageddon, we weren\u2019t in Armageddon but we were going to the Megiddo<\/em> where you can overlook the valley where the final war was going to take place.\u00a0 And on the way up there Dr. Price turns to me and says, \u201coh, by the way, did I tell you you\u2019re going to be speaking when we get up there.\u201d\u00a0 So I\u2019m thinking no, I don\u2019t recall you telling me that so I\u2019m trying to kind of think through what I\u2019m going to talk about in just a couple of minutes.\n\nBut I was like fumbling around with my Bible and my phone and my backpack\u00a0 and I remember there was this lady there that almost, every time I tried to put something down or fumble around she immediately was trying to help me, so I had all these papers I was shuffling around.\u00a0 She was\u2026 it was like clockwork, she\u2019d just gravitated towards me and was helping me arrange things and grab things and put things in their proper place, and I was thinking to myself boy, I\u2019m sure glad she\u2019s here.\u00a0 And what she was basically doing is she was kind of easing my mind with all these other issues so I could focus on what I was supposed to be doing which was giving a talk in front of some people once we got to Mount Megiddo.\u00a0 And so I told her, well\u00a0 \u201cyou obviously have the gift of helps\u201d and she\u2019d never had any teaching on spiritual gifts.\u00a0 She said \u201cwhat?\u201d\u00a0 I said \u201cthe gift of helps.\u201d\u00a0 She says \u201cwhat\u2019s that? \u201c And I started to explain it to her and she goes \u201cwhy do you think I have that?\u201d\u00a0 I said \u201cbecause you just instinctively, it\u2019s like clockwork, no one has to ask you to do it, you just want to help people so that they\u2019re sort of freed up from other responsibilities, so the people you are freeing up can focus on what they\u2019re supposed to be doing.\u201d \u00a0So that\u2019s the gift of helps.\n\nAnd I think you have a tremendous description of the gift of helps in the Book of Acts so take a look just for a brief moment at Acts 6:1-7.\u00a0 This is where the Lord raised up deacons in the church.\u00a0 Deacons have the gift of service, generally speaking, and they\u2019re generally people that have the gift of helps.\u00a0 These are people that will take care of some of the transitory and temporal things that have to be taken care of to free up other people so they can devote their energies into areas where God has them.\n\nSo take a look here at these first six verses in Acts 6, it says:\u00a0 \u201cNow at this time while the disciples were increasing in number,<\/em>\u201d so the church is growing at this point, \u201ca complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews<\/em> against the native<\/em> Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving\u201d or distribution \u201cof food.<\/em> [2] So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, \u2018It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. [3] Therefore, brethren,\u201d and here\u2019s your qualifications for deacons because we select deacons at this church and you might wonder who should be put down and nominated as a deacon, here\u2019s the qualification, verse 3.\n\n\u201cTherefore, brethren,\u201d so they obviously have to be believers, \u201cselect from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom,\u201d now remember wisdom is the application of divine knowledge, so it\u2019s not just people who can give you all this explanation in terms of knowledge, it\u2019s people that know how to actually apply it to daily life, \u201cselect from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.\u201d What task?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The whole issue of widows being overlooked in the distribution of food.\u00a0 And see what was going on \u00a0is the church was growing and widows were being overlooked and what people do is they run to the leadership and they fix this and fix that, fix this and fix that.\u00a0 And the problem is if leadership gets involved in all of these service projects they can\u2019t deal with what God has called them to do because there\u2019s only so many hours in the day.\u00a0 Right!\u00a0 The purpose of the elders, in this case the apostles, was to give themselves to the Word of God and to prayer.\u00a0 And so if they get involved in distributing food their energy is dissipated away from their primary calling which is prayer and the Word of God.\u00a0 And consequently the church, I think would have been derailed right out of the gate; that\u2019s why this story is given to us in the Book of Acts.\n\nSo if you get like myself involved in every single service project, and people want to do that to you as a pastor, and then people from outside the church will want you to be involved, can you show up here and pray at this event and do this and do that and if you\u2019re not careful what you\u2019re going to find is your study time starts to get decreased and you start to get messages that really aren\u2019t message that you\u2019ve studied out, you\u2019re just kind of going off the top of your head. \u00a0And the body of Christ is really not being nourished correctly because Jesus did say to the spiritual leaders, \u201cFeed My sheep.\u201d\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 And that doesn\u2019t happen by osmosis, I can\u2019t get up and teach off of my head as if God is giving me some kind of direct revelation. It requires study time to do that.\n\nThat\u2019s why 2 Timothy 2:15 to young Timothy, a pastor, \u201cStudy to show yourself approved unto \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God, as a workman that need not be ashamed but accurately handles the word of truth.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s not necessarily an easy thing to do unless you have study time to do it.\u00a0 So I\u2019m teaching here at the church three times a week, that requires a certain amount of preparation.\u00a0 And the more projects you get involved in in the church there\u2019s less time to study and the quality of the teaching starts to disintegrate and so that\u2019s what was happening here in early Christianity.\n\nBu the way, there\u2019s a parallel in the Book of Exodus, chapter 18.\u00a0 Moses is there at Mount Sinai, at the foot of Mount Sinai, actually I think he\u2019s in the Midian area there, there\u2019s sort of a debate as to where he was but that\u2019s really not the issue that I want to bring up, it\u2019s the fact that he\u2019s out there with probably about two and a half million people.\u00a0 And according to Exodus 18 he\u2019s out there judging every dispute the people have.\u00a0 And his father-in-law, Jethro, (you get some good advice by the way\u00a0 from your father-in-law) come to him and says to him, you can read it all in Exodus 18, what you are doing is not good,\u00a0 you\u2019re going to wear yourself out.\u00a0 So what you need to do is\u00a0 you need to select men of character and capability to create a lower court system.\u00a0 This is the beginning of Israel\u2019s judicial system, and let them handle these disputes and the ones that are the most difficult you can be the Supreme Court and you can handle those on your own.\u00a0 And so Moses did that and Israel was saved from judicial chaos.\n\nThe same kind of thing is happening here at the beginning of the church age related to service projects.\u00a0 So the name of the game is this is an internal attack on the church to get the apostles away from what they\u2019re supposed to be doing.\u00a0 The need was very legitimate (the distribution of food), the issue is how involved are the apostles going to get in this.\n\nSo what it says is we\u2019re going to create deacons, people with the gift of service, with the gift of helps, we\u2019re going to turn this ministry over to them.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Verse 4, \u201cBut we,\u201d that\u2019s the apostles, \u201cwill devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the gift of helps.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Deacons took on the project, it liberated the apostles to what they were supposed to be doing, and the church continued to prosper as a result, which it wouldn\u2019t have done had this decision not been made.\n\nVerse 5, \u201cThe statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen,\u201d now people think oh, deacons, you know, they\u2019re not that important.\u00a0 Well Stephen is a big deal, he\u2019s the first one chosen.\u00a0 In fact, he\u2019s going to be martyred in Acts 7, and Stephen, to my knowledge is the only one who dies that we have record of whose soul goes into heaven and Jesus, there at the end of Acts 7, is standing up.\u00a0 Usually Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father but here the Lord is standing up to honor Stephen.\u00a0 So you shouldn\u2019t look at deacons as some kind of dishonorable position.\u00a0 It\u2019s very honorable because Stephen was the first one selected.\n\nIt says, \u201c\u2026and they chose Stephen, \u00a0a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and,\u201d now the second one they chose is \u201cPhilip,\u201d Philip is a big deal because Philip is actually the one that\u2019s going to take the gospel to Samaria in Acts 8, and correct the Jewish-Samaritan conflict.\u00a0 And there\u2019s several others mentioned here, some of these names are hard to pronounce, \u201c Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.\u201d\u00a0 And it says in verse 6, \u201cAnd these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.\u201d\n\nAnd then look at the result, see, if\u00a0 you don\u2019t have this decision, verses 1-6 you don\u2019t have the result, verse 7, \u201cThe word of God kept on spreading;\u201d now why would the Word of God keep on spreading?\u00a0 Because the apostles could now devote themselves to the teaching of the Word of God.\u00a0 You get them involved in a service project, which is a legitimate need, you shut down the teaching of the Word of God and \u201cfaith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 10:17]\n\nSo the Word of God kept on spreading, \u201cand the number of disciples,\u201d that would be converts, \u201ccontinued to increase, not just a little bit but greatly in Jerusalem,\u201d and the church was so effective in this ministry that the last clause there in verse 7 says, \u201cand a great many of the priests\u201d that would be folks from unbelieving Israel, people in authority in unbelieving Israel, maybe some of the very people that were involved in the decision to turn Christ over to the Romans for execution, even people like that \u201ca great many\u201d not a few, \u201ca great many priests were becoming obedient to the faith.\u201d\u00a0 [Acts 6:7]\n\nSo Luke, in the Book of Acts, is trying to document the birth and growth of the church and that\u2019s why this little story is included here in Acts 6:1-7, because it\u2019s how the church almost got derailed by getting its leaders involved in the waiting of tables and the need for deacons to come alongside the apostles and liberate them from the responsibility of waiting on tables so they could devote themselves to the Word and prayer so the church could continue to expand.\n\n[Acts 6:1-7, \u201cNow at this time while the disciples were increasing in number,<\/em> a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews<\/em> against the native<\/em> Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.<\/em> [2] So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, \u201cIt is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. [3] \u201cTherefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. [4] But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.\u201d [5] The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. [6] And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them. [7] The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.\u201d]\n\nSo when you see a historical account like this you start to see the need for (A) the gift of service, and (B) the gift of helps and how critical that gift is.\n\nAnd then we come to a sixteenth and final gift, you\u2019ll find it in 1 Corinthians 12:9, it\u2019s called the gift of faith.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 12:9, \u201cto another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,\u201d]\u00a0 Now \u201cwithout faith it\u2019s\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0 [Hebrews 11:6, \u201cAnd without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.\u201d]\u00a0 So obvious all of us like all of these gifts, do these things to some extent.\u00a0 It\u2019s just some people excel in certain areas and those are people that we call gifted in that area.\u00a0 And there are just some people\u00a0 you run into and I get jealous a little bit because I wish I were more like this but it\u2019s almost like no matter what happens to them they just have this very deep and abiding trust in God. So it\u2019s the ability to trust God in the midst of very extraordinary difficult circumstances.\u00a0 And that kind of faith is given, I think, for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons it might be given is as a role model to the rest of us as to what we ought to be doing when we hit difficult circumstances.\n\nI don\u2019t know if we need visitations, there are some people you go visit them in the hospital and they\u2019re more optimistic than the people that are doing the visitation.\u00a0 And you actually went in there to try to encourage them and you leave there and the opposite\u00a0 has happened.\u00a0 Maybe God sent you in there so you\u2019d get encouraged by the person suffering that is walking through life\u2019s difficulties with the gift of faith, and they just have this calmness and tranquility about things.\u00a0 Yeah, God\u2019s in control, and you want to get kind of mad at them, you know, aren\u2019t you worried, upset a little bit?\u00a0 Oh, not really, I\u2019m trusting the Lord through this.\u00a0 And so that would be the gift of faith.\n\nSo there are at least sixteen gifts that I can think of that are mentioned that are alive and well in the body of Christ.\n\nThis takes us to the final part of our study on spiritual gifts, which is this fourth and final question, and that question is this: How do we discover our own unique area of gifting?\u00a0\u00a0 And I have at least eight observations for you to think about as you\u2019re on this very exciting journey discovering your spiritual gift and\/or gifting.\n\nOne of the observations we made is each believer, 1 Corinthians 12:7, Ephesians 4:7, has a spiritual gift.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 12:7, \u201cBut to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.\u201d\u00a0 Ephesians 4:7, \u201cBut to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0So if that\u2019s true how do you discover which gift is yours?\u00a0 Or better yet, which gifts are yours because there are gift mixes, certain gifts seem to run in tandems, like knowledge and teaching for example run in tandems.\u00a0 There are certain gifts that seem to go together naturally, like maybe service and helps.\n\nSo how do you discover what your gifts are?\u00a0 The first observation I have for you is this: number one, know what the spiritual gifts are and what their purposes are.\u00a0 And you\u2019ve already satisfied that requirement, right, because we\u2019ve gone through all of them and you know what they are in general.\u00a0 And you know why God gave them.\u00a0 God gave them, not to put gift wielders on a pedestal but He gave them so you could be a blessing to other people. That\u2019s why they\u2019re given.\u00a0 So basically know what they are and know what their purposes are.\u00a0 I mean, how do you gravitate in your area of gifting unless\u00a0 you know what some possibilities might be and you discover those possibilities because they\u2019re enumerated in the New Testament.\n\nSecond sort of insight that I have for you is obey the revealed will of God to all believers.\u00a0 Obey what God has already said.\u00a0 There are so many people that they\u2019re looking for a special insight from God or a special path from God or some kind of unique design for their lives and I believe God has all of that for us.\u00a0 But they\u2019re disobedient in the basic principles of Christianity.\u00a0 And the Bible says in Luke 16 and verse 10, \u201cHe who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.\u201d\u00a0 How can God trust you with greater insight, greater specificity for your life if you haven\u2019t been obedient to Him in the clear areas in the Bible where we\u2019re told to obey God?\u00a0\u00a0 So \u201cHe who is very faithful in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much, and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.\u201d\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t expect anybody to get very far in their journey concerning spiritual gifts until they\u2019ve learned to obey God, not a sinless life but hopefully a life that sins less in the areas where God has clearly revealed His will, which would be these sixty-six books.\n\nThere are certain statements in the Bible where it says \u201cthe will of God is,\u201d and I always find that interesting, I write those down.\u00a0 One of them is in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 because everybody is trying to discover the will of God for their life.\u00a0 Well here it is in black and white.\u00a0 \u201cFor this is the will of God,\u201d there are certain statements like that in the New Testament, \u201cthis is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;\u201d\u00a0 Wow, look at that?\u00a0 So if I\u2019m not obeying God in the area of sexuality, if I\u2019m looking at things on the internet I shouldn\u2019t be looking at and entertaining thoughts that I shouldn\u2019t be entertaining, then I\u2019m really not progressing in progressive sanctification, the middle tense of my salvation.\n\nAnd since the Bible says if you\u2019re faithful in the little things you can be trusted with greater things.\u00a0 If you find yourself in that predicament then I wouldn\u2019t really expect a lot of insight from God concerning what His special design is for your life. \u00a0But once we start to take every thought captive to Christ and we ask the Lord to give us the power to overcome certain temptations so that we can obey Him in daily life God says well there\u2019s a person I can trust with greater insight and so I\u2019ll start to gradually sort of roll back my script, if you will, for them individually.\n\nSo number one, know what the spiritual gifts are and their purpose; number two, obey the revealed will of God.\u00a0 Number three, ask yourself this question: what do you naturally gravitate towards?\u00a0 And I remember when I was in Jr. high school and high school I used to watch people that were good in mathematics, and they would gravitate towards those classes involving mathematics.\u00a0 Or people that were good at the high jump would sort of\u2026 it was like a magnet, they would just get pulled in the direction of track and field. And you naturally gravitate towards the things that God has gifted you in.\u00a0 So if you find yourself really attracted to a certain ministry you might say to yourself well maybe this is a gift that God\u2019s given me.\u00a0 I remember when I was a Sunday School teacher at a Baptist church when I first started there in the ministry and the pastor got sick and one time he asked me to teach a sermon, which I was scared to death to do, but I got up and taught the sermon and said wow, I kind of like doing this.\u00a0 And I sais maybe he\u2019ll get sick more often.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 So I started to kind of gravitate toward teaching publicly, and so it was just kind of like a magnet that was pulling me in that direction.\u00a0 So that\u2019s something to pay attention to.\n\nSort of the fourth observation that I would have for you is what ministries do you enjoy?\u00a0 Psalm 37:4 says, \u201cDelight yourself in the Lord and He will\u201d what? \u201cgive you the desires of your heart.\u201d\u00a0 God\u2019s pretty practical; He knows that if\u00a0 you\u2019re serving Him as a sad-faced saint totally miserable in what you\u2019re doing then you\u2019re probably not going to be the best advertisement for Him.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So what you\u2019ll discover with God is He\u2019s so good that the things He wants you to do you will actually find a certain joy in them.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find a certain satisfaction in doing them.\n\nIn fact, using your spiritual gift I\u2019ve discovered is an intrinsic satisfaction that you really can\u2019t find doing any other single thing.\u00a0 Even going on a cruise or going skiing, all of that is wonderful but what really motivates you in life is your area of service is internal satisfaction and so it\u2019s no shame to ask\u00a0 yourself what ministry you enjoy doing.\u00a0 What pulls you and what do you enjoy?\u00a0 Now there\u2019s a lot of people that enjoy doing things and they\u2019re obviously not gifted at it and there it\u2019s sort of hard to talk them out of what they think they\u2019re supposed to do.\u00a0 If I enjoy singing but I couldn\u2019t carry a handle with a note on it but I love doing it hmmm, maybe that\u2019s not an area of gifting.\n\nSo that gives me a fifth observation, not only what ministries you enjoy doing but another question ask and answer is this: does anybody get a especially blessed when you serve God in a particular way.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not just a drawing to something, it\u2019s not just an enjoyment doing something, you have to ask yourself am I starting to receive unsolicited remarks?\u00a0\u00a0 Unsolicited means people coming to you spontaneously, quietly, anonymously, without you trying to trigger something in a conversation artificially.\u00a0 Or people come to you and say you know, when you do such and such it really helps me, it really blesses me.\u00a0 And that should be something to look for because remember when we went through the observations about spiritual gifts?\u00a0 What is the purpose of spiritual gifts?\u00a0 They\u2019re given to edify who?\u00a0 The church.\n\nWe went through a bunch of Scriptures that reveal that.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 12:7, 1 Corinthians 14:26, Ephesians 4:11-12, 1 Peter 4:10.\u00a0 In fact let me just read one of those to remind us of this principle. That\u2019s why it\u2019s necessary to understand what the gifts are and what their purpose is.\u00a0 Their purpose is not to give you a bunch of internal satisfaction although God in His goodness oftentimes provides that.\u00a0 The purpose of gifts is to allow you to be a channel of blessing to somebody else.\n\n[1 Corinthians 12:7, \u201cBut to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.\u201d \u00a0\u00a01 Corinthians 14:26, \u201cWhat is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.\u201d\u00a0 Ephesians 4:11-12, \u201cAnd He gave some as<\/em> apostles, and some as<\/em> prophets, and some as<\/em> evangelists, and some as<\/em> pastors and teachers, [12] for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;\u201d\u00a0 1 Peter 4:10, \u201cAs each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.\u201d]\n\nSo 1 Corinthians 14:12 says, \u201cSo also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for \u00a0the\u201d what?\u00a0 glorification of the person wielding the gift\u2026 it doesn\u2019t say that, does it.\u00a0 It says \u201cseek to abound for\u201d what? \u201cthe edification of the church, [that you should cause it<\/em> to abound]\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Over in verse 26, same chapter, says \u201cWhat is it then, brethren?\u201d \u201cBrethren\u201d means he\u2019s talking to Christians because the concept of spiritual gifts is for the Christian.\u00a0 What would the unsaved person know about spiritual gifts, they\u2019ve got to get saved first.\u00a0 \u201cWhat then is the outcome Brethren, when ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done\u201d for what? \u201cedification.\u201d\n\nSo when you find yourself in ministry doing something that brings you internal satisfaction and other people start to serendipitously come up to you and say you know, I\u2019m really blessed when you do X, Y and Z.\u00a0 And you start receiving these comments on a regular basis then the Holy Spirit is confirming to you, through your life circumstances, what your area of gifting is. Why should that happen?\u00a0 Because the gifts exist for somebody else, not just for the person wielding the gift.\u00a0 So when\u00a0 you use your gift and your gifting someone else is blessed and you like doing it and you start to receive comments to that effect, serendipitously on a frequent basis that\u2019s what the Holy Spirit is showing you, what your area of gifting is.\n\nNow here\u2019s another observation.\u00a0 What are you most critical of?\u00a0 We generally think criticism is a bad thing, right?\u00a0 But criticism, and if you find yourself highly critical of something you might want to take that as aha, that might be a sign of an area where you\u2019re gifted in.\n\nFor example, I remember vividly when I was a high school student one of my best friends in high school, the two of us were in church together and the music group was playing and it was a choir or something like that, and all of a sudden she just starts complaining, I could hear her doing it, she starts complaining to me how bad the music is, this person is off key, that person is off key, this person ought to be standing here, that person ought to be standing there, the microphone should be over here, the microphone should be over there. And of course, you know, I\u2019m like just listening because I thought the whole thing sounded wonderful to be honest with you, because I don\u2019t have any aptitude in music, what would I know about it?\u00a0 Well, it turns out that as time has progressed and life has unfolded that she is the one now at church leading all of these worship and all of these kinds of things.\u00a0 And I\u00a0 just find it interesting that the very area that she\u2019s gifted in is the very area where she was highly critical of and she could criticize things intelligently because God had given her an aptitude in it.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo I remember very early on, I was just very critical of teachers, they didn\u2019t cover this, they didn\u2019t cover that, da da da dah, well, I think the reason I could do that, and I can\u2019t even watch Christian television any more, all I do is criticize everything from top to bottom, I remember when I was living in my mom\u2019s house she would watch me channel surf so-called Christian television, I would criticize this guy, criticize that guy, my mom would say well, you\u2019re just critical of everything aren\u2019t you.\u00a0 Well, I think the reason I was critical, not of music, I didn\u2019t know any better, but teachers, because that\u2019s what my way of gifting is, God had given me an aptitude in that.\n\nAnd so if\u00a0 you find yourself intelligently criticizing things rather than suppressing the thoughts coming into your mind, because we\u2019re all trained to say criticism is always bad, well criticism is not always bad!\u00a0 In fact, if you find\u00a0 yourself highly critical of something, even we\u2019ve had people come in here and complain about the d\u00e9cor of the building.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why they would do that, it looks nice to me.\u00a0 Well, it looks nice to me because I don\u2019t have an aptitude in architecture or basic cosmetic beauty.\u00a0 I mean, my apartment looked like a fraternity house living on box crates and my wife came in there one tome when we were dating and she says well, this all has got to change!\u00a0 And I said what do you mean, I think it\u2019s great.\u00a0 So I wasn\u2019t really criticizing architecture and beauty because I don\u2019t have any aptitude in that.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re highly critical of something take that as a sign that the Lord is using this as one of many factors determining what your area of gifting is. And then what are\u00a0 you most critical of?\n\nAnd then number seven, you have to at some point step out on faith.\u00a0 You have to try something.\u00a0 You have to be willing to fail at something.\u00a0 And so many times we\u2019re so afraid of failure that we don\u2019t do anything.\u00a0 And we saw in our observations about spiritual gifts that that\u2019s not an excuse in God.\u00a0 If God is tugging at your heart to do something at some point\u00a0 you\u2019ve got to step out and try it.\u00a0 For example, in Romans 12:6 it talks about faith in relation to spiritual gifts.\u00a0 It says, \u201cSince we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,\u201d and then it says, \u201ceach of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;\u201d\u00a0 you have to step out in faith and try something.\n\nGenerally, and I don\u2019t have this up here on my list, I probably should have included it, generally the things that you\u2019re most afraid to do, I hate to tell you this but those are probably the things God wants you to do.\u00a0 Jonah was called to preach to Nineveh, and that\u2019s the last place he wanted to go; he went the opposite direction, to the west, to Tarshish, what we call Spain, but God wanted him to preach to Nineveh in the east, not Spain in the west, or Tarshish in the west.\n\nSo one of my biggest fears, I think I\u2019ve shared this with you before, was public speaking.\u00a0 To me when I was in high school and really all the way through college the most terrifying thing you could ever ask me to do was to get up and talk publicly.\u00a0 In fact, and this is true, and it wasn\u2019t just little butterflies, it was what?\u00a0 Modern psychology would probably call it a phobia, I mean I would just lock up, I couldn\u2019t even complete my thoughts.\u00a0 So I would actually go into classes and I would look at the syllabus to see if there was any public presentation required and if there was I would drop the class and try to take it with someone else who didn\u2019t have that requirement.\n\nAnd really what pushed me out of the fear barrier is I forced myself to sign up for speech when I was in college, and I got up in front of a group of maybe seven or eight and I gave a talk and they timed it and they wrote down your grade and all this and that and they gave it back to you and it said on the sheet, seven minutes and twenty seconds.\u00a0 And I was startled that I had been up there for seven whole minutes\u2026 now you guys are praying for those days to come back.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And so I started to sort of crash through the fear barrier.\u00a0 But there was a time where I just did not want to do any public speaking at all and it\u2019s a spiritual conflict because generally speaking the things that you\u00a0 really don\u2019t want to do or are your most intimidated by (I should put it that way) are things that maybe God wants you to do.\u00a0 So what are you really afraid of?\u00a0 What is it that you feel pulled to do but you say I could never do that?\u00a0 That might be an indicator from the Holy Spirit.\n\nSo at some point you\u2019ve got to step out in faith.\u00a0 You know, everybody dogpiles on Peter because he walked on the water and he began to sink but at least he got out there and gave it a shot.\u00a0 Where were the rest of them?\u00a0 They were back in the place of security.\u00a0 So I like Peter, he\u2019s my kind of guy, he gave it a shot, he did well for a little while then he sunk but look at what Peter became in the Book of Acts.\u00a0 Look who\u2019s leading 3,000 people to Christ on the day of Pentecost, through an oral presentation\u2026 The Apostle Peter.\u00a0 So at some point you\u2019ve got to step out in faith.\n\nAnd then this last one is do not despise the day of small beginnings and that\u2019s a citation from the Book of Zechariah, who was one of those postexilic prophets and he was sort of called to re-stimulate the exiles into rebuilding the temple.\u00a0 And the temple that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed was the Solomonic temple and that was a temple of majesty and everybody\u2026 the older people could remember it and so when they began to build the new temple after they came back from the seventy years of Babylonian deportation the older men, when they saw the new temple and remembered the majesty of the Solomonic temple, all they could do was weep and cry because it was so small compared to what they remembered.\n\nNow the younger guys, they had never seen the Solomonic temple so they thought the new temple was great.\u00a0 So Zechariah whose called to motivate Israel to rebuild this temple gives the people a word from the Lord in Zechariah 4:10 and he says, \u201cFor who has despised the day of small beginnings?\u201d\u00a0 Don\u2019t say well if I do this no one is going to know, how will I ever get known doing this ministry, it\u2019s so small, it\u2019s so simple, no one cares, well, that\u2019s not really how God works. God says don\u2019t despise the day\u00a0 of small beginnings, just step out in what He\u2019s called you to do.\u00a0 And what you\u2019ll discover is as\u00a0 you\u2019re faithful to God in what He\u2019s called you to do I think what you\u2019ll discover is He will start to gradually increase your spirit influence based on a track record of faithfulness.\n\nBut the problem with people today, particularly in the west, in North America is everybody wants to start at the top.\u00a0 And that really is not how it works in God; you start exactly where He has you and you allow Him to increase your sphere of influence according to His providence.\u00a0 But a lot of people never even get out of the boat, like the other disciples, because the task just seems too small for them.\u00a0 So I would say don\u2019t despise the day of small beginnings.\n\nI have eight steps and I added a ninth.\u00a0 Number one, know what the spiritual gifts are and their purposes.\u00a0 Number two, obey the revealed Word of God to all believers.\u00a0 Number three, what do you naturally gravitate towards.\u00a0 Number four, what ministries do you enjoy.\u00a0 Number five, does anyone get especially blessed when you serve God in a particular way.\u00a0 Number six, what are you most critical of.\u00a0\u00a0 Number seven, step out in faith.\u00a0 And here\u2019s where I added an eighth one, what are you most intimidated by?\u00a0 And then number nine, don\u2019t despise the day of small beginnings.\n\nI have his picture up because this is the founder of Princeton College which originally was called the College of New Jersey, which was just a little tiny Bible\u2026 what we would call today a little tiny Bible study group and yet God over time took that little group and expanded it into one of the key institutions in American history.\u00a0 Obviously that institution is away from the faith now, it was a key mainline school for a long time in the United States, much like Harvard.\n\nSo hopefully this study on spiritual gifts has helped you; we\u2019ve looked at what are some general observations about spiritual gifts.\u00a0\u00a0 Are all the spiritual gifts for today?\u00a0 What are the spiritual gifts?\u00a0 And then we did number four, how do we discover our unique area of gifting.\n\nAnd so the next time we reconvene we\u2019re finally leaving the purposes of the church and we\u2019ll look at the activities of the church.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t