I’ve Got What It Takes 7-22-07
New Series: The New Me – Pt. 3 1 Cor. 12:7
Intro. How do you think you’d react if you found out this morning that you have super powers? Maybe you could fly, or one of you could become invisible or somebody else was super strong. That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it? But how would you feel if you found out that you’d had those powers your whole life long, but you weren’t told about them until today? If you’re like me, I bet you’d feel a little frustrated and cheated. You’d probably look at your super powers and then think back about all the situations in your past where you could have used those powers to make things right or to even change someone’s life. But because you didn’t know what you had, you lost those opportunities. There’s an old cliché that says, “Ignorance is bliss”. But we all know that’s not the truth. When it comes to spiritual truth, ignorance is the worse thing you can possess. That’s why the Apostle Paul begins one of the most famous chapters in the bible, 1 Cor. 12 with these words, “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.”(NIV)
The word Paul used here gives us our English word agnostic. It literally means “not knowing, living with uncertainty, struggling with doubt, being unaware and misunderstanding the truth”. Why do you suppose Paul says I don’t want you to be that way that is unaware and ignorant, when it comes to understanding your spiritual gifts? I’ll tell you why. It’s because the church cannot function properly w/o using the gifts God has provided for us. Now there’s a very practical application to that statement. If you and I as individuals don’t begin using our gifts then The Mount will never be able to fulfill the vision of loving God, connecting with people and serving the world. But the flip side is just as true – if we begin using our gifts then we could all say, “I’ve got what it takes”. Go ahead and turn to your neighbor and say – “I’ve got what it takes”. Now here’s the big question. I’ve got what it takes…to do what? You’ve got what it takes to help this church grow in physical size, deepen in spiritual maturity and broaden its community influence. In other words, you’ve got what it takes to help this church become GREAT in God’s eyes. Let me show you why every Christ follower can legitimately say, “I’ve got what it takes”.
On white board – 1 Cor. 12:7 Read it out loud, in unison. If you were new to the bible and you were looking for information about spiritual gifts, most people would probably send you to 1 Cor. 12. Although this chapter isn’t a comprehensive analysis of spiritual gifts it does cover a lot of territory…more territory that we could possibly cover in a single sermon. That’s why I’ve chosen to focus our attention on a single verse. In V.7 Paul gives us a panoramic view of what spiritual gifts are all about. So what we’re going to do this morning is dissect this verse; to take it apart phrase by phrase, so that we can figure out how our gifts can be used to further the vision of our church.
1st phrase
[A spiritual gift] – The Corinthian church didn’t have to be told about the existence of spiritual gifts…they were already using them in a variety of ways. Their problem was a misuse of the gifts. That’s why Paul begins this chapter with the assumption that spiritual gifts didn’t have to be defined, they only needed to be understood. But for many of us here today, the notion of a spiritual gift may sound strange and even a little bit scary. That’s why it’s so important for us to let God’s Word speak for itself instead of letting conjecture and speculation be our rule of faith.
It may surprise you to know that the bible never gives a specific definition for spiritual gifts. So what we must do is look at what the bible says about these abilities and then come up with a working definition. The best one I’ve found may also be the simplest to understand. Peter Wagner defines a spiritual gift as, “a special attribute given by the Holy Spirit to every member of the Body of Christ according to God’s grace for use with the context of the Body.” There are a couple of GK terms we need to look at in order to better understand the concept of spiritual gifts. The first word may sound very familiar to you, it’s charismata. Years ago the church talked about the charismatic movement, referring to those churches that allowed the operation of the more spectacular spiritual gifts such as tongues and healings. Charisma basically refers to a gift given by God’s grace; that means you don’t deserve the gift you’re given and neither can you lobby for a certain gift. The second GK term refers to a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It’s a word that carries the basic idea of making things known, of revealing and making things clear about the HS’s presence. This is the word we find in v.7. So a spiritual gift is a special ability we’ve been given to reveal the Spirit’s work in our life to those who surround us and who are constantly looking on.
You may be wondering what kinds of abilities we’re talking about? Are we talking about super powers like we find in the comic books? NO. Some of the gifts we’re talking about are listed starting in v.8 – ability to give wise advice, gift of faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues and interpretation of tongues. But that’s not all the gifts we find listed even in this one chapter. Look over at v. 28 and notice that Paul adds the gifts of apostle, teacher and the gift of helps to his list. Now the problem we have with these lists is the fact that none of them are exhaustive. For instance, you’ll find another list in Rom. 12, Eph. 4 and also in 1 Peter 4 and none of these lists are identical. So what does that tell us? I think it means that our spiritual gifts are much broader than we can imagine. Let me give you one quick example. In all the lists given in the bible the gift of musical ability is never mentioned. But I just have to believe that those who possess and use this gift for God’s glory and the maturity of his church –they’re exercising their spiritual gift.
There’s something else that every church needs to remember when we talk about spiritual gifts. The only way I can say it is this – there’s great diversity and yet supernatural unity in the proper exercise of these gifts. Look at how Paul weaves this truth together starting in.4. He uses 3 very distinct terms to describe our gifts – he calls them spiritual gifts, different kinds of service and different ways God works in our lives. Spiritual gifts emphasize God’s grace in our life, kinds of service is a word that reminds us that our gifts are for serving others and the ways God works in our lives is a phrase that speaks of God’s energy being the source behind all of our works. That’s diversity at its best. But did you notice that after every distinguishing phrase Paul writes these words – it is the same Spirit, same Lord and same God at work through us all. The operation of spiritual gifts then should never divide the church…they are given as a means of unifying God’s body so that we can accomplish his eternal work.
[is given] – We know that Christ followers are the ones who receive these spiritual gifts. But the bigger question is, who gives these gifts to us in the first place? Look at v. 1 – the HS gives to each of us these gifts, v.8 – the Spirit gives, v.9 the Spirit gives, v.11 – “It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts, He alone decides which gift each person should have.”
There are 2 or 3 things this phrase teaches us. First – it reminds us that these special abilities we’ve been given are the result of God’s grace, which is another way of saying it’s His unmerited favor being displayed in a tangible manner in your life and mine. Secondly, since these gifts are the result of grace it means we can’t do anything to merit a particular gift or work for another kind. So those people who tell you that you must have this kind or that kind of gift before you’re considered a mature or spiritual xian, well they don’t know what they’re talking about. Regardless of the gift you’ve been given, all God wants for you to do is exercise that gift for His glory. The third truth I think we find in this phrase is the necessity for proper evaluation. There are 2 extremes that can be disastrous to the church. The first one is an over-estimation of the value of your gift. That’s what was happening in Corinth, that’s why Paul had to write them and correct much of what they thought about spiritual gifts. Sometimes people get the idea that certain gifts make them special or put them in an elite class of believers. In some churches if you speak in tongues you’re up here and if you don’t…you’re down here. In other churches, if you teach or preach, then you’re in the elite class, while everybody else languishes in what’s considered the “laity”. Over estimation often results in what I can gift projection. That’s the idea that YOUR gift is the most important and everybody ought to do what YOU do. Sometimes people with the gift of evangelism think everybody ought to be sharing their faith with the mailman, the waitress at lunch, the clerk at Lowes and the stranger you meet while pumping your gas. Now there’s nothing wrong with doing those things, but I’ll tell you from personal experience, if you’re not gifted to do that, then it’s going to be a miserable experience.
The other extreme is what I call under-estimation. These are the people who look at their gifts and then look at somebody else’s gifts and they say, “I stink at ministry, I can’t do anything, I’m not as good as so and so.” Do you know what usually happens when you under-estimate your gifts? You stop using them, you just give up and let others carry the load. Can you guess what’s the most common attitude in the church – over or under estimation? It’s under estimation. Our churches are filled with gifted people who have decided that their gifts aren’t good enough to be used for God’s glory. No wonder we struggle when we need to fill new ministry opportunities like KidStuf, Upstreet and our Nursery coordinator? You’ve got the gifts, YOU’VE just got to be willing to use them.
[to each of us] – There are 2 huge implications that arise from this phrase. The first one is simple – since each of us has been given a gift that means there are no spectators in the church. Do you remember when you were in Elementary school and you went out for recess to play some sort of team sport? What was the hardest part about those years? For most people it was when the teams were picked. Team captains were appointed by the teacher and then those captains began the agonizing tradition of choosing their teams. Usually the first choices had something to do with who was who’s best friend that week. Then the next few picks rested on athletic ability. But as the pool for potential team members got smaller and smaller, the feelings of anxiety and frustration grew stronger and stronger. The last thing you wanted to happen to you was to be the final guy standing all-alone, while the 2 teams bickered over who had to choose you.
When it comes to God’s team – there’s no such thing as being left out, sitting on the sidelines or not being chosen. As a believer, you’re part of the body and according to God’s Word you’ve been given a gift that’s necessary for this body to work properly.
That leads us to the second implication. I’ll give it to you in a single word – inter-dependence. That word almost sounds foreign in our current culture. Some people would think – maybe the preacher miss spoke, surely he meant to talk about independence, didn’t he? The American culture has been built on the concept of independence. We exalt those people do things on their own – who sail across the ocean all by themselves, who live in the woods and make their own tools and never need another soul. However, that notion of independence is contrary to everything the bible says about our faith.
Paul emphasizes our inter-dependence with his illustration about the body starting in v.12. Let me call your attention to a few things. First, our spiritual body has any different parts, but we remain one body known as the church. Secondly, there’s no part of the body that’s superfluous, redundant or useless. Every member has a part to play in the proper use of the body. The eye can’t say to the ears I don’t need you, the feet can’t say to the hands, I don’t need you and the liver can’t say to the heart, I don’t need you. Paul makes his argument powerfully in v. 19 – “what a strange thing the body would be if it had only one part!” Do you know what we’d call that kind of body? A monstrosity. Being inter-dependent means, “I need you and you need me”. I need your gifts and you need mine. So whenever you choose to ignore or neglect the use of your gifts, you’ve chosen to hinder this body from being all she can be.
[as a means of helping the entire church] – Here’s the purpose statement for our spiritual gifts. You’ve not been given a gift for your own benefit or for your exaltation. The gift God has given you has a singular purpose – to help the church grow and mature. Listen to what Paul says about our gifts in Eph. 4:16, “Under Christ’s direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”(NLT)
You’ve got what it takes to help our church become healthy, growing and full of love. The question is, “will you use your gifts to help us or will you choose to hide your gifts and expect others to fulfill your ministry”? I believe God has given The Mount every gift we need to succeed in reaching our part of the Upstate. All that’s left is for you to step up and start using your gifts.
