Committed To Doing Something

The apostle Paul lists 7 basic spiritual gifts in this text and they are to be used to minister to other. These gifts are:

1- prophesying or preaching

2- serving, which could cover many different areas

3- teaching

4- encouraging

5- contributing or giving

6- leadership or leading

7- demonstrating mercy

1- PREACHING

II Tim. 4:1-2 “1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

Paul charged Timothy to preach the Word. That can mean both the written Word, the Bible, the gospel message and the fleshly Word, meaning Jesus. Both need to be preached by someone, but not everyone can preach or is gifted to preach.

ILL.- On their way home from church a married couple was discussing the preacher’s sermon. The wife said, “It seems to me he didn’t put enough fire into his sermon.” The husband replied, “In my opinion, he didn’t put enough of his sermon into the fire.”

I’ve heard some of those sermons and I’ve preached some of those sermons.

Can you preach? Do you want to preach? Obviously, not everybody has the talent for preaching or the desire to do it. In fact, from what I’ve seen and heard I think some who are doing it should quit. They have neither fire nor content. They have no passion, no personality and no perception.

In my opinion, there are not many preachers on TV who are doing a good job. They do what they do, but not what I think they should do. You can tell by the content of their message that they are not well prepared. They are performers, not preachers of the Word.

ILL.- A Baptist preacher friend in southern IL and I keep in contact via e-mail. He has his doctorate degree but unlike some who have their doctorate, he can preach. He is 69 years old and knows how to preach and can prepare a very good sermon in a short period of time. For me, it takes days to prepare because I do a lot of reading and research.

Years ago (before I had a computer, word processing, internet, etc.) I told my friend that I wrote out every word of my sermon, then I typed out every word and finally, I preached or practiced my sermon twice out loud before I ever preached in the pulpit. He said, “Why do you do that? That’s a lot of work.” I said, “Because my people deserve it and because I’m not as gifted as you.”

Some are not gifted or able to preach, but those who are, must do it to the best of their God-given ability.

2- SERVING

Gal. 5:13 “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” Instead of sinning, we should be serving. Instead of indulging ourselves, we should be serving others.

I Pet. 4:9-11 “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.”