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Elevate - God's Church, My Church Pt 3 - The Gifts of the Church
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The main ideas from this information are: - The gifts of the Spirit are given for the common good, to edify and grow the church. - The Holy Spirit is often misunderstood and divisive, but its purpose is unity. - The early church fathers provide historical confirmation of the gifts of the Spirit. - The Holy Spirit was first manifested in the New Testament church in Acts 2. - 1 Corinthians 12 discusses the different gifts of the Spirit given to believers for the common good. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what? The common good. That's the goal behind it. To edify one another and to grow up in the Lord together. The gifts are for comfort. They're for encouragement. They're there to meet needs. They're there for maturity of God's church. They're there for progress. To move forward as a church. That's why they exist. Welcome to Elevate, the radio ministry of Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama. We pray that it builds your faith, helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live, and that it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Here's today's message from Neil DiQuatro. We're going to continue in our series called God's Church, My Church. God's Church, My Church. Why? Because we want to understand what God's church is so we know how to function within my church. So that's the whole reason for it. So we started out with the identity of God's church. Where do we find our identity? Last week we talked about one of the most important things, according to Scripture, regarding the church, and that's the unity, the unity of God's church. This week we're going to talk about the gifts of the church. And more specifically, so you know what I mean, we're going to talk about the gifts of the Spirit, which is beautiful gifts that God gives His body to strengthen and unify and to accomplish His will. But I want to sort of give a preface on this. So here's what we know about the Bible. The Bible says a whole lot about God the Father. And it says a whole lot about Christ the Son. In fact, there are many didactic teaching passages particularly targeted to teaching us about the Father and the Son, the work of the Father and the Son. For example, I gave you Colossians last week where it said, you know, he who didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped would empty himself out and came to the earth in likeness of man. So Paul is teaching us on Christ's humility and His role as divinity, but also coming in the likeness of man to save the world. So we know that. But you may not know, and this is just facts, that we know the least about the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. I don't know why that is. There are zero teaching passages. Teaching passages mean the author was intending to teach someone something. Now that doesn't mean we don't know everything we need to know, that God knows we need to know. Because it's in God's inspired perfect Word of God. But we get a lot of the information about the Holy Spirit from narrative, from stories, things that happen in the book of Acts, or Paul's correction to the church in Corinth. And based on that, we stitch together a picture of, here's the working of the Holy Spirit. Here's what it looks like. Why am I saying that? Because I can't think of a more divisive topic in God's church than exactly how the Holy Spirit works and functions. Do we all know that's true? But isn't the Holy Spirit given for the purpose of unity? So, that's kind of a conundrum, right? So we want to stay unified about the work of the Spirit. So this morning, I'm going to go right down the center aisle with what the Word clearly says and clearly teaches. I won't be able to get to everything of the whole story. But if there are things that are more on the peripheral, right, and a particular doctrine that's near and dear to your heart or something that's important in your understanding of the Holy Spirit, that's okay. But can we agree together to be unified on the topic of the working of the Holy Spirit rather than there being any dissension or disunity? Can we agree on that together? Amen? So I'm going to do my best, with God's help, to be as faithful to the main things we're sure about. But there's more than that. And I want you to know that I understand that. But there's only 35 minutes here to teach. So, I want to read something for you to get us kicked off this morning. And listen to this, and then we'll talk about it. In like manner do we also hear of many brethren in the church who possess prophetic gifts and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men and declare the mysteries of God, who also the apostles termed spiritual. Anyone know where that came from by chance? Didn't come from the Bible. Sounds kind of like Scripture. Didn't come from the Bible. It was written by a man who was born in A.D. 115. So we're talking like 30 years after the last book of the Bible was written. Early. And if you've ever wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall in the early church, to see how they functioned, and what it actually looked like, what all this Holy Spirit stuff looked like in practice, wouldn't that be amazing to be a fly on the wall? Right? To look into that? Well this is one of the closest witnesses we get. It was written by a guy born in A.D. 115 by the name of Arrhenius. And he was a pupil of Polycarp. Now why is Polycarp a cool guy? Because Polycarp was a disciple of John the Apostle. So can you imagine this guy Arrhenius was sitting being discipled by a guy who sat at the feet of the disciple whom Christ loved, as he refers to himself in his own gospel. Right? So it gives you a pretty good picture of what's going on. So you hear Arrhenius talking about, wow, there are people who possess all these amazing gifts for the edification of the church. Right? And we're seeing this outside of the Bible, just someone's experience. And you go, wow, something powerful is going on in this church. Then we've got Hippolytus. A rough name. Hippolytus in A.D. 170, so a little bit further on. And he writes this, just on his observation. It's not necessary that every one of the faithful should cast out demons, raise the dead, or speak with tongues, but only such a one who has graciously been given that gift for the purpose that it may be advantageous to the salvation of unbelievers. And so you see this guy Hippolytus saying, hey listen, not everyone's got the same gift. Right? People have different gifts, and so they don't have to feel the pressure to do one thing if God's gifted them in another area, but guess what? It's happening. Isn't that really cool to see a historical confirmation of what we see in the book of Acts, but outside of the Bible? It's as close as we can get as putting a video camera in one of the early churches. But more important than these guys, and we call these guys the early church fathers because they were so instrumental to the development of the church right after the apostolic time, right? But we don't worship these guys, and they don't write scripture, they just give us some history. So we put them in their proper place, but what's most important is what God's Word has to say about it. Amen? God's inspired Word. So let's go there, and I want to say this morning is going to be half education and half application. Why heavier on the education today? The best way I can describe it is this. How many of you know that if you walked into a nuclear facility to be an employee, there would be a lot of protocols? A lot, a lot of protocols. There's just some things you have to know before they even let you in the door, right? Like more protocols than, say, Little Caesar's Pizza. Can we all agree there'd be less protocols of Little Caesar's Pizza? I would argue they could use a few more protocols. But why does the nuclear facility have more than Little Caesar's? Because great power can either be a great help or utterly destructive. So there's just some things we've got to know, right? So that we can then walk and be faithful. So we'll do our best to set that up this morning. So how do we get to the place where we have a Holy Spirit on the earth that's working in His beautiful bride, the church? Well, it all starts in one of our favorite passages in Acts 2. And I'll read it for you, starting in verse 1. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. That means they were upstairs in a room outside of Jerusalem, praying. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire. Fire, that looked like tongues. And one sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And right here you have the beginning, the inauguration of the New Testament church, infused with the Spirit of God to do the will of God. This is a big event. It means everything. How many of you know that the Holy Spirit, indwelling the church, was one of the great secrets that the ancients longed to look into? The prophets of old, and here we are, living that reality. But it all started in Acts chapter 2. Then we arrive at, now what does this look like in the church? So we get in Acts, the Spirit coming for the first time. And it seems like it was, I mean, wind blowing, and fire, and wow, when God does something, at least for the first time, it's wild, right? But what does it look like in the life of the believer? So we're going to look at our text this morning. It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're going to look at about 15 or 20 verses, so a long passage, so hang in there with me, because we want to get the whole witness of Scripture on this. So 1 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning with verse 4, and I'll just read it. Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of service but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all and everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, and to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit. To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills. Then Paul starts talking for a moment here about the body of Christ and gives us an example of comparing the spiritual body to a physical body, and I've skipped over some of that for time, but we're going to pick it up here at verse 21, where Paul then says, after talking about the similarity between a person's physical body and the body of Christ, he says, The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. That there is worth the price of admission. And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? I earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you still a more excellent way. There's a lot of meat on that bone, right? It's a long passage of Scripture, but we've got to see the whole thing to understand what the Holy Spirit is doing in the church. So we're going to ask three questions of this passage to really understand what it's saying, and we're going to start with this. What are spiritual gifts? Now you might feel like that's too elementary of a lesson for Sunday morning, but I will tell you, if we asked everyone in here, I bet we wouldn't get an identical answer. Right? So let's go back to the basics and just take a second to clarify what the gifts are. So we'll look at our passage. We'll go to verse 4. And here we see there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all and everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit. To another, faith by the same Spirit. To another, gifts of healing by one Spirit. To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, the ability to distinguish between spirits. To another, various kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues. Wow. There is a lot there. And that is not even the fully exhaustive list in the Bible of all of the gifts that God in His goodness has given to the church. But if we want to understand what the gifts are, we can see in this passage that Paul describes the gifts as various abilities. Various abilities of people in the church that are characterized by two things. They are from the Holy Spirit, and they are empowered by the Holy Spirit. What do we mean by from? We mean that the Holy Spirit is the giver. He is the source. Anything with whom the Holy Spirit isn't the source, we would not want in the church. The Holy Spirit is the giver. What do we mean by empowered? Well, these are abilities that cannot be accomplished without the Holy Spirit. So we are talking about more than just talents. Right? We are talking about more than just something that you are good at doing, although it could be the same thing. We are talking about something specifically empowered by the Holy Spirit. Now, what types of gifts are given by the Spirit? In a Pentecostal church, we tend to focus a lot on the signed gifts. And the signed gifts are awesome. But I want you to know that it is broader than that according to Scripture. And so there are three categories we can see emerging in Scripture that describe what the gifts are. If you look in Scripture, you are not going to see three columns, you know, as I have done. But when you study it out, you see that everything sort of fits into a category. And here are the three categories. People, signs, and service. And I am putting in those categories just to help us understand it easier. So people, we see in verse 28 of our passage, First, apostles. Second, prophets. Third, teachers. And then Ephesians 4 adds to that list and adds pastors and evangelists to it. Now remember, as I said last week, this is a letter Paul wrote. It is not a manual where you can pull anything out. You have got to understand the flow of thoughts. And so when he talks about the pastor and prophet and evangelist, he is talking about it in the context of gifts to the church. And so God has gifted His church with certain people that have certain gifts. Pastors, evangelists. These folks are not more important or necessarily more spiritual, though I am sure they all certainly try. But they are people that are gifts to the church to help advance the church. To tend after the flock. To help the gospel spread like those with a gift of evangelism. Teachers who can just break apart the world and help people understand. And so there are gifts that God has given to the church in the form of people. There are also sign gifts. These we see in verse 9 and 10. Healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues, interpretation, word of knowledge, distinguishing of spirits. And these are sign gifts that do a number of things. Sometimes they are just a blessing to a believer. If someone prays for you and you are healed, that is amazing. But particularly in the New Testament, early in the New Testament, they were gifts that confirm the truthfulness of the gospel message that was being preached and the reality of Jesus Christ. And it does the same thing now. It doesn't mean that those gifts only operate exclusively when the gospel is going forth. But all you have to do is talk to a missionary across denominational lines. And they will tell you many times there is a lot more of these sign gifts happening in places where the gospel is being heard for the first time. Why? Because there is a purpose there. Not the only purpose. How many people here in our church can say someone prayed for them and they experienced healing before? So that happened outside of just the gospel proclamation. But this is what Scripture bears. That is one of the reasons we see sign gifts. Then there are serving gifts. Helping. Administrating. Mercy. Compassion. And even more. This is not an all-inclusive list here that Paul gives us. He adds some other gifts in different areas of Scripture. But it is the Spirit enabling these gifts. And I want you to see that all three of these types of gifts are all discussed in the same passage. Paul clearly has gifts of the Spirit in mind when he lists people, signs, and service. The problem is, we tend to stack-rank these. Am I telling the truth? We tend to stack-rank the gifts of the Spirit. Don't! That is the best thing I can say about it. If the enablement is from God, then each gift is equally supernatural. You catch that? That is why I said, listen, if someone has got an administrative gift, you know, or a serving gift, it is more than just a talent. It is something God has enabled them to do and given them such a heart to be a blessing to Christ. And if it is from God, it is equally supernatural as the person who can prophesy with accuracy that makes your hair stand on edge. Okay? So they are equally important. Let me give you this illustration. Imagine you carefully curated the Christmas gifts you wanted to give for your child on Christmas morning. You are all excited. Why are you excited? Because you know what they want. You know what they need. Right? You know what they like. You know what is best for them. And so you pick each one out. Say you have got three kids. Everyone gets a different group. Right? I was growing up with three boys in our family and we would all run down the steps in the morning and judge the pile, the size of the pile. And, you know, this is what kids do. But imagine you are the parent and you are so happy they open up their gifts and it is just beautiful. Somehow, halfway through the day, you realize that the three knuckleheads that you call children have lined up the gifts in order of perceived importance, the best to the worst, with some of your children feeling now like they were less important, that they were less loved or less special, that mom and dad would get this one, a better gift, than they got me. How would that make you feel? How would that make you feel? Yet when we stack rank the beautiful gifts of the Spirit given to the church and make them measurements of spirituality, how does it hurt God when we do that? That is not what Scripture teaches and it is not what He intended for us. But all of these gifts are the manifestation of God's plan to empower His Kingdom. Peter explains this well. When the Holy Spirit comes in Acts 2 and everyone is listening, these unsaved onlookers, they are listening to what is going on. They are like, what in the world is happening? They are speaking these other tongues. And Peter explains what is going on. Here is what he says in Acts 2 verse 16. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. He says all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My men servants and on My maid servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy. So Peter here is quoting from the Old Testament, prophet Joel. This is what is happening. The Holy Spirit, after thousands of years of anticipation, has finally released His gifts to the church. And every single one of them is beautiful and is perfect according to God's perfect plan and His good will to be a blessing to the church. And so knowing that all of the gifts are God's plan for us, can I encourage you to do this? Read the Bible and learn about the gifts. Read Acts. Read the book of Acts and notice how the gifts move the church forward. And notice the signed gifts. But notice the people gifts. Notice the serving gifts. And by the way, see he's actually getting the work done. Okay? Notice all of those gifts. Why should you notice it? Because it will give you great confidence about the working of God to accomplish His will on earth, but also in your life and in your church. When you read Acts through that lens, it will just give you great confidence. And it will give you a desire to be obedient to the Lord, to be used in the gifts that He would be willing to pour out to you. So Paul teaches on what the gifts are. So we're going to ask a second question, which is this. What are the spiritual gifts for? Well, sometimes it's easier to ask the question of what they aren't. And I promise, we'll get to the good stuff here eventually. But what they aren't. They aren't for appearing spiritual. They're not for drawing attention to yourself. In fact, that's why Paul instructs, hey, when you come together as a body, tongues primarily is for tongues of interpretation. It's primarily for when the body's together. Why? Because if there's an interpretation, it edifies the body. This is what Paul tells us in Corinthians. And then he goes on to talk about just praying in tongues, and he says, hey, listen, that works best at home. Why? It doesn't mean you're singing a worship song and you're speaking in tongues under your breath. But Paul is giving that instruction to say, there are gifts that are for the body, and then there are gifts that are for you. Because it's all about his body. And so it's not about drawing attention to yourself. We don't want to do that. In fact, Paul says in Corinthians, unbeliever comes in and everyone's speaking in tongues all at once. They're going to think they're nuts. That's like almost, he doesn't say nuts. I think he says crazy. But this is what Paul says, right? And so it's not about drawing attention to yourself. That said, we're not ashamed of the gifts either. That's not my point. But it's about making sure Christ always gets sufficient focus and glory and honor in His Scripture. Okay, and this last one, and I really want you to hear me on this because I think this could set some people free. The gifts are not a validation that you are spiritual. The gifts are not a validation that you are spiritual. Hold on to that one because more is coming on that topic. But the gifts, as Paul teaches in verse 7, and let's look at that. Chapter 12, verse 7. Here's the reason for the gifts. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what? The common good. That's the goal behind it. To edify one another and to grow up in the Lord together. The gifts are for comfort. They're for encouragement. They're to meet needs. They're for maturity of God's church. They're there for progress. To move forward as a church. That's why they exist. So your gift is for somebody else. According to Scripture, your gift is not for you. It's for somebody else. Ever wonder, for those of you who have a signed gift that is maybe prophetic in nature, a word of knowledge, prophecy, beautiful, mind-blowing gift for the church, that sometimes you'll hear God for somebody else, like clear, like you just know what God is saying in that situation and you'll step out and say it, but not always on the ready for yourself. It can be frustrating for people like that. Why? Because no one gets a shortcut on hearing God's will for their life. People with a prophetic gift still have to do it the long way for themselves. They've got to read the Word. They've got to trust God. They've got to test the Spirit. They've got to watch what's happening and do their best to discern. It was only Moses who talked to God face to face. Right? But it will come to them clearly when it's for somebody else. Why? Because it's not for you. It's for someone else and them growing up and be built up. So why else does God give spiritual gifts? Well, we can see this, and this is really fascinating. In verse 24, let's look at that together. The other reason we have spiritual gifts. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it. We're on verse 24 there. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. Wow! God gave the gifts for unity, and so that we would rely on one another. And sometimes we just limit the gifts to sort of flashy shows of God's power, and they appear that way, and they are powerful, and they're amazing. But we've got to understand the purpose. If we don't get the purpose right, then eventually the gifts, like the nuclear facility, become hurtful and not a blessing. The key purpose for the gifts of the Spirit and the church is for one another to be in unity, so that every need would be met, and so that we rely on one another. In other words, God purposely didn't give you something that He gave somebody else. And vice versa. So you need each other. Listen, if you ever look at someone with a pastoral gifting and assume that they've got the whole thing figured out, they've got all the gifts, they know what's going on, let me tell you just how wrong that is. Pastors need to listen to the people in the congregation and their exhortation or their perspective on a passage, or whatever gift it is they have to give. Because a pastor is just one of many people with a gift to do what? Serve the common good of God's family, the bride of Christ, so we can grow up into maturity and do His will. Amen? So that's a different perspective than maybe some of you have had. Thinking about it. But it's not my idea. You can tell. And I love the Word. And I'm going to always do my best, if I say something up here, to anchor it back into what Scripture says. And this is the witness Scripture gives us. Think about the United States government. It's a good picture of this, or at least how it should operate. We've got three branches. We've got the executive branch, the President's there. We've got legislative, Congress, making laws, judicial, applying those laws. Every branch relies on each other and holds each other accountable. What happens in our country when one branch tries to run and do it all themselves? It goes off the rails real fast. It's human nature. Even the world recognizes that not everyone can be doing the same thing. Not everyone can be entrusted with the whole bag. It needs to be spread out. It's the same way in the body of Christ. That's just an illustration to help you maybe put a thought picture around understanding why God has given a diversity of gifts. We're not intended to go, Man, I wish I had that one. Because we need each other equally. We need each other equally so we can be in unity. And then Paul goes on telling us we shouldn't be puffed up about one gift over the other. Because verse 21 says, The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again to the feet, I have no need of you. See, according to this verse, the whole system stops working when we minimize an individual gift and cut it off for the body because we prefer a different sort of gift of the Spirit instead. And what Paul is saying is for the body to be healthy, for the body to function, we need everybody. And the Word tells us to each is given a gift. Everybody has something, whether you haven't figured it out yet or not, or maybe God will add another gift later on in your life. It's not like a once and done thing. Marie was on Interfesions in a small group this Wednesday. They were doing like a survey thing to help give people an idea of, Wow, this might be the direction where I'm gifted and I don't even know it. So sometimes it's a process, but let me assure you that you are needed in the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit has given you a supernatural gift, whether it looks flashy or it doesn't. And without you, it's like chopping the leg off of a body. And let's see how far this church gets in missing a leg. So you are needed in the body of Christ. But then what does Paul mean in verse 31 when he says, But earnestly desire the higher gifts. What does he mean then? Am I contradicting myself here? Or in 1 Corinthians 14 when he says, Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. What in the world does Paul mean? Well, to know what he means, all you have to do is just back up and look at all of the verses together as a letter that was written with one singular flow of thought. And Paul makes this distinction. He makes this distinction. He defines greater gifts as those which edify others. When he's using the word greater, he's not saying more important, more spiritual. Haven't we interpreted it that way sometimes? The greater gifts, this one's more spiritual than this one. That's not what he's saying. He's saying the higher gifts are the ones that edify others. We see an example of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 where Paul says, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. So what is Paul doing here? He's elevating his view on speaking in tongues. It's clearly important for Paul. He's doing it a lot. But then he says, nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. What Paul is doing is making the edification of one another the highest, most important gift. So if you speak in tongues and you pray in tongues, praise God. Praise God. But in the body, that doesn't edify someone else. Because they don't know what you're saying. But if there's an interpretation, now they're edified and that gift sort of falls in line sort of like a prophetic gift and now it's elevated. Does that make sense? You all catching that? Okay. So, we know what the gifts are. We know the purpose of the gifts. And then this is the question on many of our minds. And so I'll do my best to answer it, which is this. How does God give spiritual gifts? How does God give spiritual gifts? So I'll talk quickly about two things. One, His method for giving them and how He chooses. Let's start with how He chooses. Verse 11. Let's look at verse 11 here. Chapter 12. All these gifts are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills. For verse 11 here, there's not a lot that I can say other than God in His infinite wisdom and goodness determines who gets what gift. That's a good place to be for us. Because God certainly is very good at doing what He does. And it doesn't mean He gives them arbitrarily. He does it in accordance with His perfect will. And doesn't this take the pressure off of you just a little bit? To not have to worry about, I'm gifted in this way, I'm not gifted in that way. What's wrong with me? Which sometimes we tend to feel like that in Pentecostal churches. But God gives in accordance with His perfect will that can be trusted because He's reliable. And remember, these are gifts, not rewards. Man, I want to say that again for those up on the balcony. Although I know Scott already knows this. Hey, Scott. Scott's waving at me. The spiritual gifts are gifts, not rewards. That puts it in its right context. Where Christ gets all the glory and nobody feels less than. Right? Right? Now the next verse gives us even a little more clarity about how God chooses. Verse 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, try to really dig into what Paul's actually saying here because it's wild. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. Gosh, what does he mean? And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. The best way I can describe what Paul is saying here is a sort of divine balancing act. We all come to church and join a church with a certain background, a certain level of ability that may not be spiritual gifts yet, but a certain level of talent. Just who you are. And God's looking at all that. And in His perfect will, He's balancing out the scales a little bit. He's making sure that you as an individual are needed and useful and have everything that you need. And then He's looking at the body one layer up and going, and I need to make sure that this one has this because this one doesn't have it. And this one over here, nobody thinks much of them. Man, they're going to prop us out of the house now. And this one over here, they've got this gift and everyone sees them and they seem very outgoing and talented. And so, you know what, maybe I don't need to add another signed gift to them. Maybe I'm going to give them a service gift. Do you guys catch what he's saying here? And that's the best answer I can give you. That's all that Paul gives us. That God is assessing you as an individual and the church as a whole, and He's balancing. And when He does it, He does it well. And He can be trusted. He can be trusted. So what's God's method for getting the gift to us? We've just got to know. How does God get gifts to His people? Well, there's two ways. This is all Scripture gives us on this. First, we're going to look at 1 Timothy 4, verse 14. This is Paul talking to a young pastor. He says, Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. So we see in Scripture at least one instance where a gift is bestowed by someone with some kind of authority in the church, right? There's some kind of office. You know, elders and pastors, that word is sometimes used interchangeably, has laid hands on someone. I don't believe that this is saying that they're the only ones who can lay hands on someone and God can use them to bestow a gift. I don't think it's saying that, but this is the example that we have. And so we see that sometimes someone else prays for you and God is faithful and a gift is given. We don't know what the gift was here. We don't know if he's talking about Timothy as the gift of him being a pastor, so it's a people gift that's given to this church, or if it's a particular gift like healing or something like that. We don't know. But we see it happening through the laying on of hands. But here's the second way. And this one's a lot more practical. Paul says in verse 31, but earnestly desire the higher gifts. Paul is giving us here an impression that your desire and yearning to be used by God at some level can factor in to how God uses you. It doesn't mean you're incomplete, right? If God doesn't add to that. But it does mean that He gives you that opportunity to say, Lord, I have a love for you, and I have a love for your church, and I just want to be a blessing to other people. And so God, I'm desiring this gift. Lord, I speak in tongues, but I desire to be able to do something that could edify somebody else. And so it seems to be here that Paul is saying, bring that to the Lord. The word desire that's used here just means to pursue it. Be zealous for it. In other words, talk to God about it. He's the gift giver. You know, I'm not saying that... How do I say this? So, many of you have memories, as I do as a kid, of people coming to the front and praying for hours on this topic. And God moving as a result. Anyone ever have memories of that? Praying for hours and hours. And we say to ourselves, we've lost that in the church. And you know what? We probably have. We've lost the praying. But I want you to know that God didn't distribute a gift or move because somebody was convincing God that they were willing to work hard enough for it and to strive hard enough for it. And so as a result, God's like, okay, fine. God moved because God's people came together and were communing with Him. For two hours. Right? God's communing and you're loving Him and He's loving you and you're giving Him the gift of yourself and He's giving you a gift maybe. Or answering a prayer or touching you in some way or the other. But then we get confused because someone goes, oh Lord, I want that gift. And next thing you know, they've found themselves in striving. And it's become a burden and they feel less than and they leave prayer times hanging their head Why am I not speaking in tongues like this one over here? And they feel less than. That is not God's intention for the church. Pray. Pray for hours. But do it because your desire is to commune with God. God will take care of what happens during all of that time. But don't confuse your effort and your striving with what it is that you get from God. Because I can assure you we deserve nothing from Him. In fact, the Gospel of Jesus Christ sets us free in this area. The Gospel itself is demonstrated through the spiritual gifts. Let me explain. So, when we talk about spiritual gifts, the law of God becomes apparent. What do I mean by that? Because you get a sense of I should seek the gifts. There's a law, a command from God. I ought to seek these gifts. And when I have one, I ought to do a good job of it. The problem is that we cannot. We are fallen. The heart is desperately wicked. We can't ever be good enough to convince God to give us something. And we can't ever be holy enough to never mess it up this side of eternity. You see that? We cannot earn them. We don't deserve them. But like salvation, God has graciously given it to us. You see the connection between the Gospel and our relationship to the gifts? They're gifts, not rewards. And we can't ever be good enough. You don't have to try to convince God. Just be a believer. Let the Holy Spirit minister to you. Love Him. Be faithful. Tell Him what's in your heart, and then trust Him with the outcome. Because gifts are not rewards, and we don't stack rank gifts around here. Amen? I don't know if I'm stepping on toes or if I'm encouraging somebody, but I believe this is what God says. This is the balance of how we need to think about it. Because when we think about it this way, who gets all the glory? Christ does. The gift giver. And there's no confusion. And we're just sort of tickled pink that we get to do anything at all for Him. So let that Word set you free. You don't have to be good enough. You don't have to measure up. You don't have to do more to be worthy. I'm not saying don't try. I'm just saying on your best day it falls short. Many of you here have held on to that baggage for far too long. You are loved and recipients of God's gift based on His perfect wisdom, His unsurpassed goodness alone. That's it. Be free if you've ever felt less than. Wondering why God didn't do this for you like He did for someone else. That's why we had to do some teaching to explain how He gives the gifts, how He balances the gifts, what God's thought process is on the gifts. And so knowing the gifts are Christ's work, not ours, the best we can do is desire to humbly operate in the gifts that we have or the gifts that we're seeking. And humility is the key word. Humility is the key word. I know I need to wrap this up. I want to show you a verse here that you may have been wondering about. It's a verse that's hanging on to the very end of this passage. At the bottom. Verse 31. He says, and I will show you still a more excellent way. Just hang in there. He's talking about the gifts. Then He says, and I will show you still a more excellent way. Have you wondered what He's talking about there? What is this more excellent way? Well, remember, this is a letter, not a technical manual. Paul did not put the chapter divisions there. He did not. We did, and those are cool. Helps us get around, right? But Paul's flow of thought runs right into chapter 13, one of the most famous chapters in the Bible. The more excellent way. Here's the more excellent way. Let me read it for you. First Corinthians chapter 13. And don't forget, he's talking about gifts here. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned as a martyr, but have not love, I gain nothing. You know, we've sort of added our own commentary around how the gifts work, and what they're here for, and why they're important, but God seems to have a bit of a different value system when you really dig into what His Word says. Christ's love is the point of the gifts. It's both the why and the how. How's it the why? Boy, that was confusing. Why's it the how? The why. Because He gives them because He loves you. And He loves His church and His bride. And He desires to help you. And He desires to serve you. Do you know Jesus serves us? We come to glorify Him, but He just can't help Himself. Son of Man came to serve, not to be served. So He serves you with the gift. It's about love. And it's the how, because we love others through the gifts. It's about love. It's about God loving you, and then you loving someone else enough to pay it forward. To use whatever gift God has given you to be a blessing to someone else in their life. Without love, hear me on this, without love, God's good gifts can hurt people. You know, things get confused. You know, prophecies can get confused with personal rebukes. And administrative gifts can be used to control others. Thank God we have a fabulous administrative person. But sometimes it's not always like that. You've got someone, you know, like a Jezebel spirit trying to control what's happening. They've been given a gift, but there's no love, and so now it's hurting people. And it's destructive. That's why Paul says, you can have it all. You can prophesy, raise the dead, speak in tongues. If I have to choose, you can have it all and I'll take love. Because that was the point anyways of all the gifts. If you miss love, you miss the gifts in their entirety. So knowing that love is the foundation of God's gifts, don't limit them to the church buildings. Take God's love in the streets. People gifts, sign gifts, service gifts. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We pray that this message encouraged, inspired and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, AuthenticLife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church, to find out what we have going on, or to make a donation. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery and youth programs, so bring the family. Thanks again for listening to Elevate, and may God bless you.
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