Outfitting For Ministry Series

July 16 Outfitting for Ministry

The way of Jesus is the way of humble service to Him, His church, and others.

God has given you gifts to build up the Body of Christ; to beautify the Bride of Christ.

Four important truths from this verse:

1. These gifts are from the Spirit “A demonstration of the Spirit”

2. These gifts are a demonstration of the Spirit’s activity in your life “A demonstration of the Spirit”

3. These gifts are given to each genuine believer “is given to each person”

4. These gifts are given for the benefit of the Body and Bride of Christ “to produce what is beneficial”

Opening illustration about being outfitted properly

Finish up our series, “Higher Path”. Our basic premise is that the Higher Path is exactly opposite to what our culture deems the higher path. Our culture says, “Be first; accumulate what you can; get your way.” But Jesus had a completely different message.

His message was: “The lower you bend, the higher you fly.”

If you call yourself a Christ-followers, then what do you do? You follow, you imitate, you model His life, His teaching and His attitude. He is the one who said, “The last shall be first.” He’s the one who said, “The least is the greatest.” He’s the one who divested Himself of all His rights and privileges as God and assumed the role of a lowly slave. He’s the one who donned a towel and washed the filthy feet of His disciples just hours before He of offered Himself as the Lamb of God, slain on a Roman Cross. And when Jesus established the church, He did so so that the church would be built up to be strong and healthy, to enhance His glory and honor, and He calls the church His bride so that what we do to beautify the church also brings honor and glory to Him.

Simply put: The way of Jesus is the way of humble service to Him, His church, and others. I love how Ephesians 2:10 says it. You know Eph 2:8-9, right? 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.

We’re saved by God’s grace, not saved by works, Hallelujah!! But look what v. 10 says: 10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.”

So what are those good works? And which ones are we equipped for and should be involved in?

Let’s talk a little bit about what happened when you surrendered your life and God saved you. At that moment, the Spirit of the living God came into you. Ephesians 1 says that you were sealed by the Spirit. A jar of pickles is sealed, right? When you open it, the seal is broken and there is a pop. As long as it is sealed, nothing can get in and nothing can get out.

You’re not a jar of pickles—but you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. Satan can’t get into you and the Spirit won’t get out of you. Amen?

Now, when the Spirit came into you, He came bearing gifts. There are two main passages that identify the gifts of the Spirit. One is in Romans 12:3-8 (on screen) Let’s read it.

The other main list is found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (on screen). Let’s read it.

Now we don’t have time this morning to drill down on the individual gifts we just read about. Some of them are controversial. But I do address these in week 6 of “The Higher Path” (pic) so I refer you to that.

What I want you to focus on this morning is this: God has given you gifts to build up the Body of Christ; to beautify the Bride of Christ. When you read those 2 passages, that’s the main teaching that you get from them.

Now let’s focus on v.7 of 1 Corinthians 12 “A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial.” 1 Corinthians 12:7

I want you to notice four important truths from this verse:

1. These gifts are from the Spirit “A demonstration of the Spirit”

We’ve already talked about that a bit this morning. When the Spirit came in you, He came bearing gifts. You didn’t go buy these. You didn’t do anything to get them. They came as gifts when the Spirit came in you and sealed you.

So think about how important and powerful and world-changing those gifts can be. The same God who created the universe with all it’s splendor and beauty, has created gifts in YOU!