Inside Out Series

1. Clark Kent's Deathbed

Imagine Clark Kent living his whole life without knowing he was Superman. Can we picture Clark Kent on his deathbed, looking down and muttering, "What's that big "S" on my T-shirt? Superman? What's that?" How sad! Even sadder is the fact that figuratively many Christians on their deathbed will look down and say, "What's that big "HS" on my T-shirt? The Holy Spirit? What's that?"

2. AW Tozer:

A.W. Tozer: "If the HS was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference."

3. Spirit Power

The Bible says:

* "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5.19).

* "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).

* "Be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18).

* We are to be "led by the Spirit of God" (Romans 8.14).

When Jesus ascended to heaven, He asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to indwell His people and to empower us in our work for Christ. It's the Holy Spirit who lives the life of Christ through us and who achieves the work of Christ through us.

The Spirit of God has been given to us to empower us in our walk.

Guard against anything that hinders the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. The missionary statesman Dr. J. Oswald Sanders wrote, "Reduced to its simplest terms, to be filled with the Spirit means that, through voluntary surrender and in response to appropriating faith, the human personality is filled, mastered, controlled by the Holy Spirit."

Ask God daily to fill you with Himself through His Spirit, to have mastery over your actions and reactions, and to control and empower you in your life of service.

4. Ephesians 4.11-16; 1 Corinthians 12.4-11; Romans 12.3-8; 1 Peter 4.1-11

5. The HS impacts us through the giving of "spiritual gifts." Consider some insights into these gifts and why we need to unwrap the gifts God has given us.

I. Spiritual Gifts Are Specific in Nature

A. Each Specific Believer has at Least ONE Specific Gift

1 Corinthians 7.7 But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

1 Corinthians 12.7 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Ephesians 4.7 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1. We are uniquely made in God's creation -- Psalm 139.13-16

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

2. We are uniquely re-made in God's creation -- new creature in Christ -- 2 Corinthians 5.17

B. Our Gifts Fit Specific Situations -- Philip

1. A Deacon for Widows in Acts 6

a. Gift of Mercy

b. Gift of Wisdom

c. Gift of Service

2. An Evangelist -- Acts 8 (Samaria; Ethiopian)

a. Add -- Evangelism

b. Add -- "Apostle" -- "Sent One" = "Missionary"

II. Spiritual Gifts Are for Serving Others

A. A Working Definition

Leslie Flynn, in his book, "19 Gifts of the Spirit," gives a working definition: A spiritual gift is a qualification granted by the Holy Spirit to every believer to empower him or her to serve within the framework of the body of Christ (p. 25). More simply, It is a Spirit-given ability for Christian service.

B. People for People -- Ephesians 4.11-16

1. Build up the body

2. Build on the kingdom

3. Common good and functioning of the body

Blind Man and Armless Man/Gifts, Interdependence of

In illustrating the interdependence of one another's spiritual gifts in a local church, Gary Inrig, in Life in His Body shared the following story: Several years ago, two students graduated from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. The highest ranking student in the class was a blind man named Overton and, when he received his honor, he insisted that half the credit should go to his friend, Kaspryzak.

They had met one another in school when the armless Mr. Kaspryzak had guided the blind Mr. Overton down a flight of stairs. This acquaintance ripened into friendship and a beautiful example of interdependence. The blind man carried the books which the armless man read aloud in their common study, and thus the individual deficiency of each was compensated for by the other.