Purpose #4 Serve Series

Purpose #4: Serve

I Corinthians 12:12-27

SHAPE

Introduction

A. Our military is often referred to as the Service

B. What are they doing? They are serving our Country

C. We have the largest military in the world

D. Because of our size we have to have different people doing different things

E. If all the military were generals, we would have no one to carry out the orders

F. If all the military were infantry, we would have no one to perform surgery on the injured, as a result more would die

G. If all our military were Navy, how would we attack on land?

H. WE have different people doing different jobs in order to have a fully functioning military

I. In our church, we have to have different people serving in different ways

J. If we didn¡¦t mass ciaos would arrive

K. Look at our scripture passage.

L. When we study this section of scripture we can see 5 primary insights concerning the body of Christ, or to say another way the Church

M. Those five are

a. We are all part of the same body, there is no other body

b. Choosing to divorce yourself from the body does not mean you are no longer a part of the body it simply means you are a no longer a functioning part

c. Diversity within the body is no negative, it is essential

d. No part of the body is unnecessary. All are essential

e. In the body it is one for all and all for one. We rejoice with those who rejoice and morn with those who morn

N. Ok those are nice insight but what does that have to do with our church

O. Each on of us who are a part of the church has a spiritual SHAPE

a. Everyone has a Spiritual gift

b. Everyone has a Heart

c. Everyone has Abilities

d. Everyone has a Personality

e. Everyone has a history of Experiences

P. These areas will determine how we serve.

Q. We are going to look at each one closer today:

I. Spiritual Gifts

A. Explanation

1. This tends to lead to sticky area and a touchy subject

2. The problem comes when we try and define spiritual gifts

3. Well lets start off eliminating some things right now

4. First of all we in Gal 5:22-23, we have what is referred to as the fruit of the spirit, these are not spiritual gifts

5. This fruit should be evident in all believers

6. Spiritual gifts we are born with, though they can be further developed they are there from the beginning

7. Not everyone will have the same gift and no one will have all the gifts

8. The question then becomes how many spiritual gifts are there and how many can a single person display?

9. How many. I don¡¦t know! That is the honest answer. I have seen list of 7 and list of 28 and many in-between.

10. As far as how many each believer has, again I do not know. I have heard that people can only have one; I have heard people can have many. One thing I do know is anyone person will not have all the gifts. It is impossible

B. Application

1. So what does that means for our Church?

2. We should work at finding our spiritual gifts

3. I have three or four different spiritual gifts test up in my office

4. Those are great tools to use

5. However, these tools are not and end to all end

6. You might take a test but that does not mean you should not try something because of what the test said

7. It will help

8. But ultimately you will find your gift out by serving

C. Illustration

1. When I first took a spiritual gift test one of them that came out high was prophecy, I¡¦m thinking, wow I am going to predict the future? That was weird to me. I read the description and it basically said delivering a message from the Bible in a relevant format. That is what I try to do preaching. AT the time I took it, I had not had much experience in the area of preaching; I did not think that I would like it. Guess what? I like it, it motivates me. I understand how it is at work in me.

II. Heart (Passion)

A. Explanation

1. Passion for this one is a better word then heart, however heart looks better on my outlineļ

2. Hear is something that will be hard for us to admit as Christians

3. There are areas in our lives were we are more pensioned about

4. There are different people we are more pensioned about then others