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Every believer has a gift (sometimes more than one) given to them by Christ to exercise inside the local church to edify and build up the saints. What are these gifts, and how can we find out which one He has given to us? Are all the "miracle" gifts finished for today? What does this mean for you? Find out in today's sermon! Click below. (Transcription available)
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07.21.2024 - Have You Used Your Gift Yet?
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.
Outline:
I. Introduction
II. Spiritual vs carnal
a) Spiritual people would not turn their back on Jesus
b) Spiritual people follow Christ as Lord
III. The Same Spirit Gives Different Gifts
a) Not just a private gift, but for the whole church
b) Covet the best gifts
i. Word of wisdom
ii. Gift of faith
iii. Gifts of healing
iv. Working of miracles
v. Prophecy
vi. Discerning of spirits
vii. Various tongues and interpretation
IV. The same Spirit works in all
V. Conclusion and Invitation
I. Introduction
First Corinthians chapter 12. First Corinthians chapter 12. You know certain times of the year, birthdays, Christmas and things, we give gifts.
Sometimes they're gifts that we look at and go, oh that's what I've been wanting. And other times we look at the gifts and go, what is this? Why in the world did you give me that? So what do you do with the gifts? Do you use it anyway? Do you just put it away and hope the person that gave it to you never asks you how you like it? Or like a lot of people, [do] you just re-gift it to some unsuspecting relative. Or do you compare it to somebody else's gift? Used to do that a lot as a kid.
“Why'd I only get a watch? He got a bicycle” and we wish we had what they got. It's the same thing with spiritual gifts. And here's the thing to understand.
Every believer has a gift. But are you using it? Are you just putting it off on the shelf and letting it gather dust? Or do you say to yourself, God why did I get this gift? I want that one. Let's look at this and see what the word of God tells us about spiritual gifts and hopefully we'll get this settled.
Because I know a lot of people that go, “I know I got a gift, but I don't know what it is”. Well, if you're born again, do you have the Holy Spirit? And as we're going to learn, who gives you the gifts? The Holy Spirit. So who do you think you should ask what the gift is? The Holy Spirit.
II. Spiritual vs carnal
This is starting verse one, now concerning spiritual. And notice the gifts, at least in the King James is italicized. That means it wasn't in the original.
Just really, it just means now concerning spiritual. He's going to be talking about gifts, but he's going to be talking about spirituals. As we mentioned, the first 11 chapters, he's handling worldly problems in the church, carnal problems.
Because he had told them way back in chapter three, verse one, brethren, I could not speak to you as concerning spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as babes in Christ. So he spends the first 11 chapters trying to handle all the carnal problems they had. That's the worldly problems, the fleshly problems.
And now he's going to move into the spirituals. And that's really where we need to be, putting the carnal behind us and dealing with the spirituals. He says, I would not have you ignorant.
That doesn't mean stupid. That just means I wouldn't have you so you don't know. So really what's worse, not using the spiritual gift because you don't know or not using the spiritual gifts because you know and just refuse to use it?
And so what he's telling them is, listen, I'm going to let you know why you have them. And then it's up to you. Now you won't have an excuse.
Tells the same thing to us. And so here he says, I don't want you ignorant. Notice in verse two, you know that you were Gentiles carried away unto dumb idols.
They were just ignorant of gifts. Wherefore, verse three, I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calling Jesus a curse, no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Basically what he's saying here is we can know we're saved because we should have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
a) Spiritual people would not turn their back on Jesus
He says, because what would happen here from what I understand in history, especially the Jews, they would catch someone who tried to convert and they'd want them back. And one of the things that they would make the people say to get back into the Jewish good graces is Jesus is cursed because everyone that hangs on a tree is cursed. But what Paul is saying, listen, if you're truly saved, you can't say that because you know better.
b) Spiritual people follow Christ as Lord
What you will say is Jesus is Lord. So many times we want to say, well, I know he's Lord, but I don't want Him to be Lord of my life. Now we're not talking about making him Lord of your life for salvation.
We're talking about making him Lord of your life because of salvation. When you turn over, when you turn your back on the world and let the devil decide what you're going to do, and you turn your face toward Jesus and say, I'm yours, Lord, you saved me. I've trusted you by faith.
Show me what to do. And so he just starts off with the only people that can be active in using spiritual gifts are those that are saved. Now, some people that are unsaved may be doing things that look like spiritual gifts, but all those are abilities.
And so Paul just wants to say, listen, first of all, you just have to understand, are you born again? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you believed that he died for your sins, buried, rose the third day? Do you know that? Because if you know that you have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within you, it's not like the old Testament, the Holy Spirit was still active there, but he would come on somebody, let them do something mighty. And then if they started messing up, he would leave. We see that with David.
We see that with Saul. We see that with so many others. But in the New Testament and the age of grace, you know what happens when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within you? You know when he's going to leave? Never.
He's there with you. Now he goes on in verse four, five, and six. He says, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of administration, but the same Lord. There are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. Here, we're shown what we call the Trinity.
How that the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus and God the Father all work together in our lives. And what's the goal? Every believer should be serving the Lord in some capacity. And notice he says, first of all, there's differences of gifts, but the same spirit.
III. The Same Spirit Gives Different Gifts
And we'll get more into that in a minute, but basically that means the gift that he gives me, and the gift that he gives you, and the gift that he gives you, and you, and you, and you, and everybody here, they're given by the same Spirit. So if they're given by the same Spirit, doesn't it make sense that the Spirit knows how they're all going to work together? Because we're going to learn next week, we're the body of Christ, and we're expected to work together for his glory. And so there's a lot of gifts, but it's the same spirit.
He says there's a lot of ministrations, but the same Lord. So the spirit was going to give the gifts, but it's the Lord that directs them to be used in his church. And it's the same God or the Father, diversity of operations, he's the one that's going to show you how to use your gift.
There's one gift it talks about in Romans, the gift of exhortation. That means to try to lift people up. Now let's say you and you have the gift of exhortation.
I don't know if you do or not, I'm just illustrating. You may use it with the people you work with, just by the words you say and the experiences you've had. Now Jean, she has the same gift, she may be able to exhort people with singing.
Because I know people that can lift you up just from the words that they sing. Same gift used different ways. And God the Father directs how you're going to use that gift.
I remember when I was in Bible college, we had a somebody visiting from one of the other Bible colleges. And he asked me, he says, what are you going to do? I says, well, I'm not sure if God wants me to pastor in the states or be a missionary or what? He said, well, has he called you to preach? Do you know that your gift is to proclaim the word of God? I said, yes, absolutely. He says, hold on to that because that's the gift.
Where you use it, he'll decide when it's time. And he did. And that's what he does.
He decides when you're going to use your gift and where and how. Some people use their gift of preaching, pastoring. Some people go overseas.
Some people do it in rescue shelters and things like that. You can use your gift, but you have to let God decide where it's going to be. I know there's, over the years, there's been a lot of Christian singers who've been able to exhort or uplift people with their songs.
But then literally they got too big for their britches and the money started flashing in front of them. And suddenly these good Christian singers decided to go with the world because that's where the money is. That's not where God would put them.
And that's what happens with our gifts sometimes. We're not careful. We want to use them for our own good, not for the glory of God.
He says, verse seven, tells us the reason we have spiritual gifts, but the manifestation or the showing of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all. When it says every man, it doesn't mean males. When it says every man, it says part of mankind.
It could be men or women. All right. It's given to everyone for a purpose, to profit with all.
a) Not Just a Private Gift, but for the whole church
That means there's a purpose for the gift God's given you, the Spirit's given you. And that purpose is to profit, but with all means everybody. It's not a gift that is just for you or you.
It's a gift that's going to work within the church to profit everybody, uplift everybody. And so he says every believer that has the Holy Spirit is given a gift. To profit means to contribute for the advantage of all.
Now, just understand that the gift is a capacity for service. It's the Holy Spirit working through the believer. All right.
Now he's going to go through a list of the gifts here, and we're going to just hit them briefly. You have to understand that some of these gifts you may have, some you may not. Let's skip ahead just a few verses.
b) Covet the Best Gifts
Go all the way to the end of the chapter. Verse 31 says, but covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. We have to understand that if God gives you a gift, it may not be what you want, but it's what you're going to use.
You're allowed to ask for a different gift. Doesn't mean he has to give it to you, but I can guarantee you this. If you're not using what he’s given you, he's not going to give you what you want.
All right. That make sense? If you're not using what he give you, no matter how small it may mean, he's not going to give you what you want, which may be a bigger gift. Now look at these gifts.
First one, for one is given by the Spirit, and notice as he goes through, he's saying each gift is given by the Spirit. That means there so there can be a unity, and as we know, gifts are sometimes given based on either sometimes your experiences, sometimes gifts are given based on your abilities, sometimes gifts are just something you never considered you'd be able to do, but regardless of why the Spirit gives you that gift, our role in the whole process is what? Use it for his glory and for his honor. Sometimes God will force you to learn to use your gift.
I think that's what happened to me. A little personal testimony here. I kind of knew in high school and a little after that God may have wanted me to preach and to teach, but I didn't like standing in front of crowds, and so I avoided what God wanted me to do.
So I joined the Navy, and after a few years, once I'd advanced in rank a little bit, guess what? Senior people had to teach junior people.
I was forced to teach and forced to stand in front of people and do it, and in my mind I'm like, God's saying, see, I told you you could do it. So sometimes God will give us a gift, and if we refuse to use it because we have excuses, he'll take all of those excuses away. The first gift.
i. Word of Wisdom
Honestly, I haven't seen a lot of people with this. The word of wisdom. All right.
It's really just being able to have insight into the word of God. You ever met somebody who'd read a few verses, and you'd go, man, what's that mean? And they go, well, what God is saying is this. You're like, wow.
It's being able to understand deeper things of the word of God. Word of wisdom. But then you have the word of knowledge.
That's knowing the word of God. All right. And I believe that knowledge and wisdom sometimes go together.
In Proverbs, it talks a lot about knowledge and wisdom. They're different. Knowledge is knowing.
Wisdom is putting that knowing to wise use, God's use. You know, my favorite illustration. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is really a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in your fruit salad. Okay. And so there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom.
Knowledge is just knowing. Wisdom is putting that knowing to godly use. And some people, God has blessed them with that gift to be able to do that.
ii. Gift of faith
What else do we have? Another faith. Now, there's some people that say, see, gift of faith. You can't get saved unless God gives you the gift of faith.
That's not what this is talking about. This is faith, not saving faith. This is living faith.
Do you know somebody that no matter what happens, the first thing out of their mouth is, God will take care of it. And you're like, what? Your house just burned down. Your car just got washed away in a flood.
Like we used to say on the submarines, don't worry about the fires, the flooding will put it out. And you're going, and all you can say is God will work it out? Well, yeah. Why? Because I believe he will.
It's what his word says. Some people have that deep of faith, and that's a gift of faith. And when we find somebody with that gift of faith, there's two things we can do.
We can be jealous, or we can use them as an example to strengthen our own faith. We need people with that kind of faith, that no matter what happens, they're going to go, it's in God's hands. He'll take care of it.
He'll show me what I need to do. He'll direct my path. The gift of faith.
iii. Gifts of Healing
Then we have the gift, it says, to another gifts of healing by the same spirit. What's interesting on that is that gift's actually a plural. Now, in the early times, in Jesus' time and with the apostles, they needed the gifts of healing, miraculous healing, to show the authenticity of Jesus Christ.
And they were able to do that. Gifts of healing today, not so much, I don't believe, in the church. Because God has blessed people with medical knowledge and things like that.
Did it totally go away? I don't think any of the gifts totally went away. We just don't see them as often because of the world we live in. I've known people, you know, that sometimes their gifts of healing is basically in themselves.
The doctor said, I had brain cancer. I went a week later and he says, it's all gone. Why? Because I prayed.
God can do it. But is there one person with that gift? I don't, I don't believe so. Not anymore.
We don't need it. We have doctors, we have prayer, but it could show up, especially in some areas where there are no doctors. God could do that.
I'm not going to limit God. I just know as a general rule in the civilization we live in now, we don't really need it as much. Gifts of healing.
iv. Working of Miracles
Next. To another, the working of miracles. We don't see that as much today either.
The working of miracles. Um, not a whole lot of people splitting the Red Sea or making the blind to see or anything like that. But there is something you can do that would be a miracle.
When you lead a soul to Jesus Christ and they are born again, they become a new creature in Jesus Christ. That's a miracle. So if you want to have the gifts of miracles, that to me, that's the same as leading somebody to the Lord.
Because you've caused a miracle to happen. Something that won't change. Prophecy.
v. Prophecy
To another, prophecy. Now, it doesn't always mean a foreshadowing prediction. Like revelation is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
Yet, it also means not just a foretelling, but a forth-telling. Prophecy can mean sharing the revealed will of God. Mostly today we call it preaching.
Preaching and teaching. That's prophecy. That's sharing what God has to somebody who hasn't heard what God wants from them.
And so we can have, you can have the gift of prophecy. It's speaking God's message under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And that's what we need.
If you're going to preach or you're going to teach, make sure the Holy Spirit teaches you and guides you to say what He wants and not what you want. Because why? Because the Holy Spirit, and I pray about this all the time, I'll be honest when I'm, before I preach. Because the Holy Spirit that I want guiding me is the same Holy Spirit that's in you to receive what's been said.
vi. Discerning of spirits
There's a discerning of spirits.
Being able to tell which gifts are supernatural, who's speaking, whether they're from the Lord or from the devil. I've known people. I have trouble with this.
I tend to trust everybody. And sometimes it's gotten me in trouble. But there are people that they can talk to somebody who says that they're a Christian and says this and says that.
And instantly the Lord lets them discern their spirits and say, they're lying to you. They understand. And we need people like that in the church to keep everybody else straight.
There could somebody come in these doors and be from the devil, but say everything that sounds like they're a great Christian, sounds like, and start driving people away or pulling people away. Unless there's somebody in the church that's a discerner of spirits to say, we need to be careful about that person. It can be harmful to the local church.
So discerner of spirits, being able to tell who can be trusted, who can't. Tongues. Oh, that's a biggie.
vii. Various tongues and interpretation
To another diverse kind of tongue, to another interpretation of tongues. And later on in First Corinthians, Paul's going to get into this real deep because they were doing it wrong. Tongues first was instituted when? During Pentecost.
Why? Well, the reason that they had to have that is because there were Jews and people from all over the country, all over the known world that come to Jerusalem that all didn't speak the same language. And so what had to happen was God had given this gift of tongues, and it always means a known language. Okay.
A known language. So there would be somebody that would be able to speak the gospel message. Peter didn't preach in half a dozen different languages, but if there was a group over here from say Italy that didn't speak like Peter did, there'd be somebody there to say, to interpret, to speak in tongues, a language he didn't even know before.
Suddenly he did. It also says in interpreter tongues, that means that if somebody else is speaking in a foreign language, they're able to hear it and convert it to a language everybody else understands. Years ago, I went to a presentation by a guy who'd been a Catholic and got saved and was doing some miraculous things overseas.
And there were people there from all kinds of groups of people. A lot of people there were Pentecostal, charismatic. As I'm leaving, I'm talking to a gentleman who was a pastor of a charismatic church.
And I started asking about tongues. And he said, oh yeah, we have it all the time. And so I asked him this question.
I said .. and this is a message we're going to have in about three weeks, but a little preview here. I said, before somebody speaks in tongues, is there somebody there that can interpret? No, sometimes nobody knows what is being said. I said, are there any women that ever speak in tongues? Oh yeah, all the time.
I said, well, you guys aren't following the rules. And I showed him in first Corinthians where it says women be silent in the church. And that's during the tongue section.
I showed him where it says before someone can speak in tongues, you have to have an interpreter. And here's this guy who was a pastor of this church saying, I never noticed that before. Now, do we have tongues today? Not so much, but I believe that it hasn't gone away totally.
God can in his sovereignty. You know, if you suddenly found yourself in a group of somebody, some other language or Portuguese or Italians or French or Southern or something, I don't know. And God impressed upon you to speak the gospel, if that's the only chance they're going to get to hear, God could give you the ability to speak in their language or at least speak so they understand you.
Okay. Does it happen on a regular basis? Does it happen as much as charismatic churches do? No. And usually charismatic churches usually speak in, they call them heavenly languages, gibberish.
Because in scripture, tongues always relates to a known language, interpret it with a known language. So at least in our churches, you probably don't have the gift of tongues. So those are some of them.
There's also, if you turn to Rome, you don't have to turn there, but in Romans chapter 12, a couple of other gifts they give is exhortation, giving, and mercy are in Romans chapter 12. But what's next? Look at verse 11. We got to be finishing up here.
IV. The same Spirit works in all
This would be the last one. But all these work at that one and self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. It doesn't matter what gift you have, it has to work in conjunction with the other gifts for the edification of believers and for the glory of God, because they're all given by the same spirit.
You're saying, well, I don't know how to use my gift. I don't even know what my gift is. Well, first of all, ask yourself, am I saved? If you're saved, then you have the Holy Spirit.
If you have the Holy Spirit, He's given you a gift. You have to figure out what it is. And once you figure out what it is, use it.
It's as simple as that. Use it. And if you're not using it for the glory of God, for the edification of other believers, for the building up of His church, then you have to ask yourself, is this the right gift? Am I using it for myself? Are you using it for them? So the gifts are from the spirit.
No gift you have, spiritual gift, came except by the spirit. When it says dividing to every man severally as he wills, that just means distributing. Severally as he wills just means he has distributed to everyone their own gift.
They're not the same gift, but it's the same spirit. It's not the same gift, but it's for the same purpose. How old do you have to be not to use your gift? Dead.
I like what Bill said, dead. That's when you get to stop using it. I believe sometimes that's why churches don't grow, because people aren't using their gifts.
They're like the gift you get at your birthday. I don't know what this is. I'm not going to use it.
Instead of saying, Holy Spirit, fill me. Use me. Let me use this gift for your glory and your honor.
V. Conclusion & Invitation
Let’s bow our heads for just a moment. This afternoon at two o'clock, we're going to be looking at some more of this chapter where it actually tells us some ways that we can use our gifts. For right now, just think about what was said.
Ask yourself, am I a believer? If the answer is yes. Then say, I have a spiritual gift. Then ask yourself, am I using what God has given to me? Maybe you don't like what God has given to you, but use it anyway.
You can ask him for something greater, but you need to be using what he's given you right now. I guess the important thing is do something to serve the Lord. If you're not sure what your gift is, do something.
Start off on a path. You may be like Paul. He headed in one direction, and the Holy Spirit stopped him and said, you're heading the wrong direction.
Go to Macedonia. But do something for the glory of God, for the edification of his church to build up, to evangelize, to show the world there is a God and he loves them. I don't know how the Lord touched your heart, but I do know as we go to him in prayer, you can pray.
If you don't know what your gift is, ask him to help you. If you do know what it is you haven't been using, ask him to forgive you for that, whatever it is on your heart. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this section, and Lord, sometimes it becomes very confusing. There's so many gifts, so many things to do. It is hard, Lord, sometimes to figure out what it is, but we do know, Lord, you've given us some.
You want to use us to help you to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You want to build up your church. You do it with the giving of gifts.
So help us, Lord, to take this to heart. Help us, Lord, to want to serve you in the best capacity we can by using the gift you've given to us. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.
Outline:
I. Introduction
II. Spiritual vs carnal
a) Spiritual people would not turn their back on Jesus
b) Spiritual people follow Christ as Lord
III. The Same Spirit Gives Different Gifts
a) Not just a private gift, but for the whole church
b) Covet the best gifts
i. Word of wisdom
ii. Gift of faith
iii. Gifts of healing
iv. Working of miracles
v. Prophecy
vi. Discerning of spirits
vii. Various tongues and interpretation
IV. The same Spirit works in all
V. Conclusion and Invitation
I. Introduction
First Corinthians chapter 12. First Corinthians chapter 12. You know certain times of the year, birthdays, Christmas and things, we give gifts.
Sometimes they're gifts that we look at and go, oh that's what I've been wanting. And other times we look at the gifts and go, what is this? Why in the world did you give me that? So what do you do with the gifts? Do you use it anyway? Do you just put it away and hope the person that gave it to you never asks you how you like it? Or like a lot of people, [do] you just re-gift it to some unsuspecting relative. Or do you compare it to somebody else's gift? Used to do that a lot as a kid.
“Why'd I only get a watch? He got a bicycle” and we wish we had what they got. It's the same thing with spiritual gifts. And here's the thing to understand.
Every believer has a gift. But are you using it? Are you just putting it off on the shelf and letting it gather dust? Or do you say to yourself, God why did I get this gift? I want that one. Let's look at this and see what the word of God tells us about spiritual gifts and hopefully we'll get this settled.
Because I know a lot of people that go, “I know I got a gift, but I don't know what it is”. Well, if you're born again, do you have the Holy Spirit? And as we're going to learn, who gives you the gifts? The Holy Spirit. So who do you think you should ask what the gift is? The Holy Spirit.
II. Spiritual vs carnal
This is starting verse one, now concerning spiritual. And notice the gifts, at least in the King James is italicized. That means it wasn't in the original.
Just really, it just means now concerning spiritual. He's going to be talking about gifts, but he's going to be talking about spirituals. As we mentioned, the first 11 chapters, he's handling worldly problems in the church, carnal problems.
Because he had told them way back in chapter three, verse one, brethren, I could not speak to you as concerning spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as babes in Christ. So he spends the first 11 chapters trying to handle all the carnal problems they had. That's the worldly problems, the fleshly problems.
And now he's going to move into the spirituals. And that's really where we need to be, putting the carnal behind us and dealing with the spirituals. He says, I would not have you ignorant.
That doesn't mean stupid. That just means I wouldn't have you so you don't know. So really what's worse, not using the spiritual gift because you don't know or not using the spiritual gifts because you know and just refuse to use it?
And so what he's telling them is, listen, I'm going to let you know why you have them. And then it's up to you. Now you won't have an excuse.
Tells the same thing to us. And so here he says, I don't want you ignorant. Notice in verse two, you know that you were Gentiles carried away unto dumb idols.
They were just ignorant of gifts. Wherefore, verse three, I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calling Jesus a curse, no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Basically what he's saying here is we can know we're saved because we should have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
a) Spiritual people would not turn their back on Jesus
He says, because what would happen here from what I understand in history, especially the Jews, they would catch someone who tried to convert and they'd want them back. And one of the things that they would make the people say to get back into the Jewish good graces is Jesus is cursed because everyone that hangs on a tree is cursed. But what Paul is saying, listen, if you're truly saved, you can't say that because you know better.
b) Spiritual people follow Christ as Lord
What you will say is Jesus is Lord. So many times we want to say, well, I know he's Lord, but I don't want Him to be Lord of my life. Now we're not talking about making him Lord of your life for salvation.
We're talking about making him Lord of your life because of salvation. When you turn over, when you turn your back on the world and let the devil decide what you're going to do, and you turn your face toward Jesus and say, I'm yours, Lord, you saved me. I've trusted you by faith.
Show me what to do. And so he just starts off with the only people that can be active in using spiritual gifts are those that are saved. Now, some people that are unsaved may be doing things that look like spiritual gifts, but all those are abilities.
And so Paul just wants to say, listen, first of all, you just have to understand, are you born again? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you believed that he died for your sins, buried, rose the third day? Do you know that? Because if you know that you have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within you, it's not like the old Testament, the Holy Spirit was still active there, but he would come on somebody, let them do something mighty. And then if they started messing up, he would leave. We see that with David.
We see that with Saul. We see that with so many others. But in the New Testament and the age of grace, you know what happens when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within you? You know when he's going to leave? Never.
He's there with you. Now he goes on in verse four, five, and six. He says, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of administration, but the same Lord. There are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. Here, we're shown what we call the Trinity.
How that the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus and God the Father all work together in our lives. And what's the goal? Every believer should be serving the Lord in some capacity. And notice he says, first of all, there's differences of gifts, but the same spirit.
III. The Same Spirit Gives Different Gifts
And we'll get more into that in a minute, but basically that means the gift that he gives me, and the gift that he gives you, and the gift that he gives you, and you, and you, and you, and everybody here, they're given by the same Spirit. So if they're given by the same Spirit, doesn't it make sense that the Spirit knows how they're all going to work together? Because we're going to learn next week, we're the body of Christ, and we're expected to work together for his glory. And so there's a lot of gifts, but it's the same spirit.
He says there's a lot of ministrations, but the same Lord. So the spirit was going to give the gifts, but it's the Lord that directs them to be used in his church. And it's the same God or the Father, diversity of operations, he's the one that's going to show you how to use your gift.
There's one gift it talks about in Romans, the gift of exhortation. That means to try to lift people up. Now let's say you and you have the gift of exhortation.
I don't know if you do or not, I'm just illustrating. You may use it with the people you work with, just by the words you say and the experiences you've had. Now Jean, she has the same gift, she may be able to exhort people with singing.
Because I know people that can lift you up just from the words that they sing. Same gift used different ways. And God the Father directs how you're going to use that gift.
I remember when I was in Bible college, we had a somebody visiting from one of the other Bible colleges. And he asked me, he says, what are you going to do? I says, well, I'm not sure if God wants me to pastor in the states or be a missionary or what? He said, well, has he called you to preach? Do you know that your gift is to proclaim the word of God? I said, yes, absolutely. He says, hold on to that because that's the gift.
Where you use it, he'll decide when it's time. And he did. And that's what he does.
He decides when you're going to use your gift and where and how. Some people use their gift of preaching, pastoring. Some people go overseas.
Some people do it in rescue shelters and things like that. You can use your gift, but you have to let God decide where it's going to be. I know there's, over the years, there's been a lot of Christian singers who've been able to exhort or uplift people with their songs.
But then literally they got too big for their britches and the money started flashing in front of them. And suddenly these good Christian singers decided to go with the world because that's where the money is. That's not where God would put them.
And that's what happens with our gifts sometimes. We're not careful. We want to use them for our own good, not for the glory of God.
He says, verse seven, tells us the reason we have spiritual gifts, but the manifestation or the showing of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all. When it says every man, it doesn't mean males. When it says every man, it says part of mankind.
It could be men or women. All right. It's given to everyone for a purpose, to profit with all.
a) Not Just a Private Gift, but for the whole church
That means there's a purpose for the gift God's given you, the Spirit's given you. And that purpose is to profit, but with all means everybody. It's not a gift that is just for you or you.
It's a gift that's going to work within the church to profit everybody, uplift everybody. And so he says every believer that has the Holy Spirit is given a gift. To profit means to contribute for the advantage of all.
Now, just understand that the gift is a capacity for service. It's the Holy Spirit working through the believer. All right.
Now he's going to go through a list of the gifts here, and we're going to just hit them briefly. You have to understand that some of these gifts you may have, some you may not. Let's skip ahead just a few verses.
b) Covet the Best Gifts
Go all the way to the end of the chapter. Verse 31 says, but covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. We have to understand that if God gives you a gift, it may not be what you want, but it's what you're going to use.
You're allowed to ask for a different gift. Doesn't mean he has to give it to you, but I can guarantee you this. If you're not using what he’s given you, he's not going to give you what you want.
All right. That make sense? If you're not using what he give you, no matter how small it may mean, he's not going to give you what you want, which may be a bigger gift. Now look at these gifts.
First one, for one is given by the Spirit, and notice as he goes through, he's saying each gift is given by the Spirit. That means there so there can be a unity, and as we know, gifts are sometimes given based on either sometimes your experiences, sometimes gifts are given based on your abilities, sometimes gifts are just something you never considered you'd be able to do, but regardless of why the Spirit gives you that gift, our role in the whole process is what? Use it for his glory and for his honor. Sometimes God will force you to learn to use your gift.
I think that's what happened to me. A little personal testimony here. I kind of knew in high school and a little after that God may have wanted me to preach and to teach, but I didn't like standing in front of crowds, and so I avoided what God wanted me to do.
So I joined the Navy, and after a few years, once I'd advanced in rank a little bit, guess what? Senior people had to teach junior people.
I was forced to teach and forced to stand in front of people and do it, and in my mind I'm like, God's saying, see, I told you you could do it. So sometimes God will give us a gift, and if we refuse to use it because we have excuses, he'll take all of those excuses away. The first gift.
i. Word of Wisdom
Honestly, I haven't seen a lot of people with this. The word of wisdom. All right.
It's really just being able to have insight into the word of God. You ever met somebody who'd read a few verses, and you'd go, man, what's that mean? And they go, well, what God is saying is this. You're like, wow.
It's being able to understand deeper things of the word of God. Word of wisdom. But then you have the word of knowledge.
That's knowing the word of God. All right. And I believe that knowledge and wisdom sometimes go together.
In Proverbs, it talks a lot about knowledge and wisdom. They're different. Knowledge is knowing.
Wisdom is putting that knowing to wise use, God's use. You know, my favorite illustration. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is really a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in your fruit salad. Okay. And so there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom.
Knowledge is just knowing. Wisdom is putting that knowing to godly use. And some people, God has blessed them with that gift to be able to do that.
ii. Gift of faith
What else do we have? Another faith. Now, there's some people that say, see, gift of faith. You can't get saved unless God gives you the gift of faith.
That's not what this is talking about. This is faith, not saving faith. This is living faith.
Do you know somebody that no matter what happens, the first thing out of their mouth is, God will take care of it. And you're like, what? Your house just burned down. Your car just got washed away in a flood.
Like we used to say on the submarines, don't worry about the fires, the flooding will put it out. And you're going, and all you can say is God will work it out? Well, yeah. Why? Because I believe he will.
It's what his word says. Some people have that deep of faith, and that's a gift of faith. And when we find somebody with that gift of faith, there's two things we can do.
We can be jealous, or we can use them as an example to strengthen our own faith. We need people with that kind of faith, that no matter what happens, they're going to go, it's in God's hands. He'll take care of it.
He'll show me what I need to do. He'll direct my path. The gift of faith.
iii. Gifts of Healing
Then we have the gift, it says, to another gifts of healing by the same spirit. What's interesting on that is that gift's actually a plural. Now, in the early times, in Jesus' time and with the apostles, they needed the gifts of healing, miraculous healing, to show the authenticity of Jesus Christ.
And they were able to do that. Gifts of healing today, not so much, I don't believe, in the church. Because God has blessed people with medical knowledge and things like that.
Did it totally go away? I don't think any of the gifts totally went away. We just don't see them as often because of the world we live in. I've known people, you know, that sometimes their gifts of healing is basically in themselves.
The doctor said, I had brain cancer. I went a week later and he says, it's all gone. Why? Because I prayed.
God can do it. But is there one person with that gift? I don't, I don't believe so. Not anymore.
We don't need it. We have doctors, we have prayer, but it could show up, especially in some areas where there are no doctors. God could do that.
I'm not going to limit God. I just know as a general rule in the civilization we live in now, we don't really need it as much. Gifts of healing.
iv. Working of Miracles
Next. To another, the working of miracles. We don't see that as much today either.
The working of miracles. Um, not a whole lot of people splitting the Red Sea or making the blind to see or anything like that. But there is something you can do that would be a miracle.
When you lead a soul to Jesus Christ and they are born again, they become a new creature in Jesus Christ. That's a miracle. So if you want to have the gifts of miracles, that to me, that's the same as leading somebody to the Lord.
Because you've caused a miracle to happen. Something that won't change. Prophecy.
v. Prophecy
To another, prophecy. Now, it doesn't always mean a foreshadowing prediction. Like revelation is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
Yet, it also means not just a foretelling, but a forth-telling. Prophecy can mean sharing the revealed will of God. Mostly today we call it preaching.
Preaching and teaching. That's prophecy. That's sharing what God has to somebody who hasn't heard what God wants from them.
And so we can have, you can have the gift of prophecy. It's speaking God's message under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And that's what we need.
If you're going to preach or you're going to teach, make sure the Holy Spirit teaches you and guides you to say what He wants and not what you want. Because why? Because the Holy Spirit, and I pray about this all the time, I'll be honest when I'm, before I preach. Because the Holy Spirit that I want guiding me is the same Holy Spirit that's in you to receive what's been said.
vi. Discerning of spirits
There's a discerning of spirits.
Being able to tell which gifts are supernatural, who's speaking, whether they're from the Lord or from the devil. I've known people. I have trouble with this.
I tend to trust everybody. And sometimes it's gotten me in trouble. But there are people that they can talk to somebody who says that they're a Christian and says this and says that.
And instantly the Lord lets them discern their spirits and say, they're lying to you. They understand. And we need people like that in the church to keep everybody else straight.
There could somebody come in these doors and be from the devil, but say everything that sounds like they're a great Christian, sounds like, and start driving people away or pulling people away. Unless there's somebody in the church that's a discerner of spirits to say, we need to be careful about that person. It can be harmful to the local church.
So discerner of spirits, being able to tell who can be trusted, who can't. Tongues. Oh, that's a biggie.
vii. Various tongues and interpretation
To another diverse kind of tongue, to another interpretation of tongues. And later on in First Corinthians, Paul's going to get into this real deep because they were doing it wrong. Tongues first was instituted when? During Pentecost.
Why? Well, the reason that they had to have that is because there were Jews and people from all over the country, all over the known world that come to Jerusalem that all didn't speak the same language. And so what had to happen was God had given this gift of tongues, and it always means a known language. Okay.
A known language. So there would be somebody that would be able to speak the gospel message. Peter didn't preach in half a dozen different languages, but if there was a group over here from say Italy that didn't speak like Peter did, there'd be somebody there to say, to interpret, to speak in tongues, a language he didn't even know before.
Suddenly he did. It also says in interpreter tongues, that means that if somebody else is speaking in a foreign language, they're able to hear it and convert it to a language everybody else understands. Years ago, I went to a presentation by a guy who'd been a Catholic and got saved and was doing some miraculous things overseas.
And there were people there from all kinds of groups of people. A lot of people there were Pentecostal, charismatic. As I'm leaving, I'm talking to a gentleman who was a pastor of a charismatic church.
And I started asking about tongues. And he said, oh yeah, we have it all the time. And so I asked him this question.
I said .. and this is a message we're going to have in about three weeks, but a little preview here. I said, before somebody speaks in tongues, is there somebody there that can interpret? No, sometimes nobody knows what is being said. I said, are there any women that ever speak in tongues? Oh yeah, all the time.
I said, well, you guys aren't following the rules. And I showed him in first Corinthians where it says women be silent in the church. And that's during the tongue section.
I showed him where it says before someone can speak in tongues, you have to have an interpreter. And here's this guy who was a pastor of this church saying, I never noticed that before. Now, do we have tongues today? Not so much, but I believe that it hasn't gone away totally.
God can in his sovereignty. You know, if you suddenly found yourself in a group of somebody, some other language or Portuguese or Italians or French or Southern or something, I don't know. And God impressed upon you to speak the gospel, if that's the only chance they're going to get to hear, God could give you the ability to speak in their language or at least speak so they understand you.
Okay. Does it happen on a regular basis? Does it happen as much as charismatic churches do? No. And usually charismatic churches usually speak in, they call them heavenly languages, gibberish.
Because in scripture, tongues always relates to a known language, interpret it with a known language. So at least in our churches, you probably don't have the gift of tongues. So those are some of them.
There's also, if you turn to Rome, you don't have to turn there, but in Romans chapter 12, a couple of other gifts they give is exhortation, giving, and mercy are in Romans chapter 12. But what's next? Look at verse 11. We got to be finishing up here.
IV. The same Spirit works in all
This would be the last one. But all these work at that one and self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. It doesn't matter what gift you have, it has to work in conjunction with the other gifts for the edification of believers and for the glory of God, because they're all given by the same spirit.
You're saying, well, I don't know how to use my gift. I don't even know what my gift is. Well, first of all, ask yourself, am I saved? If you're saved, then you have the Holy Spirit.
If you have the Holy Spirit, He's given you a gift. You have to figure out what it is. And once you figure out what it is, use it.
It's as simple as that. Use it. And if you're not using it for the glory of God, for the edification of other believers, for the building up of His church, then you have to ask yourself, is this the right gift? Am I using it for myself? Are you using it for them? So the gifts are from the spirit.
No gift you have, spiritual gift, came except by the spirit. When it says dividing to every man severally as he wills, that just means distributing. Severally as he wills just means he has distributed to everyone their own gift.
They're not the same gift, but it's the same spirit. It's not the same gift, but it's for the same purpose. How old do you have to be not to use your gift? Dead.
I like what Bill said, dead. That's when you get to stop using it. I believe sometimes that's why churches don't grow, because people aren't using their gifts.
They're like the gift you get at your birthday. I don't know what this is. I'm not going to use it.
Instead of saying, Holy Spirit, fill me. Use me. Let me use this gift for your glory and your honor.
V. Conclusion & Invitation
Let’s bow our heads for just a moment. This afternoon at two o'clock, we're going to be looking at some more of this chapter where it actually tells us some ways that we can use our gifts. For right now, just think about what was said.
Ask yourself, am I a believer? If the answer is yes. Then say, I have a spiritual gift. Then ask yourself, am I using what God has given to me? Maybe you don't like what God has given to you, but use it anyway.
You can ask him for something greater, but you need to be using what he's given you right now. I guess the important thing is do something to serve the Lord. If you're not sure what your gift is, do something.
Start off on a path. You may be like Paul. He headed in one direction, and the Holy Spirit stopped him and said, you're heading the wrong direction.
Go to Macedonia. But do something for the glory of God, for the edification of his church to build up, to evangelize, to show the world there is a God and he loves them. I don't know how the Lord touched your heart, but I do know as we go to him in prayer, you can pray.
If you don't know what your gift is, ask him to help you. If you do know what it is you haven't been using, ask him to forgive you for that, whatever it is on your heart. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this section, and Lord, sometimes it becomes very confusing. There's so many gifts, so many things to do. It is hard, Lord, sometimes to figure out what it is, but we do know, Lord, you've given us some.
You want to use us to help you to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You want to build up your church. You do it with the giving of gifts.
So help us, Lord, to take this to heart. Help us, Lord, to want to serve you in the best capacity we can by using the gift you've given to us. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.
