Assessing And Using The Gifts Of The Spirit Series

Assessing & Using Your Serving Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

(Note: If you would like the spiritual gifts assessment we used, email me and I will send it to you)

Recap

Slide

We started talking about Spiritual gifts last week.

We looked at sign gifts and talked about the debate within Christianity as to whether they are still needed and what their purpose in history was, but then we turned to the serving gifts recognizing that they were definitely still needed and that God has given each person who has received Christ as Savior a gift to be used for the common good and for the building up of the church.

We talked about 11 of those gifts (there may be some disagreement in regards to the number) but these are the ones that I believe are to be used for the building up of the church.

Introduction

This morning is going to be a bit different than normal. Normally people get to sit and listen as I have the privilege to expound on the word of God, and I am sure to the disappointment of many, you won’t hear me as much today as we will all be seeking to discern how it is the Lord has gifted each of us who have received Jesus as Savior, by taking a Spiritual Gifts Assessment.

Slide

Before we do that, however, I want to read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.

I want you to hear what Paul says about the unique aspects of the people who make up the body of Christ, the church, and how it is necessary for us all to be different with different gifts.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Pray

Each one of us here is a part of the body when we Receive Jesus as Savior.

I think that sometimes they can’t do anything in the church. They don’t have the gifts necessary to help.

That is simply not true.

Paul tells us each part is necessary to the functioning of the body, therefore everyone one of us is needed to accomplish the mission of the church.

So often, people will see someone else and wish they could do what they do and because they can’t do that they aren’t useful.

I want everyone to look at their hand for a moment.

The hand is an amazing thing. It allows us to do many things.

Type, sign our names, pick things up, hold things.

Those who have lost use of their hands, can understand and have a new appreciation for their hands.

But what if you were to break your ring finger and you had to have a splint on it and lost use of it for a while.