This Could Be the Start of Something Big:
Gifts of Grace
1 Peter 4:10
Romans 12:4-6
4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. (NIV)
What is Grace?
Unearned, undeserved favor.
Let me tell you the story of Stephanie. It took a lot of GRACE for Stephanie to come to know the Lord. Not because she was a horrible person, but because she needed Jesus.
She says: “It was my Sunday School kindergarten teacher who had the neatest felt cutouts of Jesus and other Bible characters and she would tell the story of that day and let us put the cutouts on the felt board.
It was jumping rope with my stepsister while I waited for the VBS bus to come get us for Vacation Bible School in the summer.
It was the young lady serving in Campus Crusade for Christ at Yellowstone Nat'l Park that came into my room and asked if I knew about Jesus.
It was the life of a young college friend who died much too soon and the testimony that was given at her funeral.
It was my friend in Seattle who kept telling me, "God is able."
It was the church in Tacoma that I went to one time and they invited me to a young adult spaghetti dinner and they were so nice and welcoming and fun.
It was my cousin Doug, who agreed with me that we needed to find a church when I moved back home and he went with me searching.
It was Barb, a beautiful woman I just met who asked me at work if I went to church and would I come visit her church.
It was the greeters at the door who gave me a warm handshake and others in the church who just came right out and gave me a hug then asked my name.
It was in the music that brought a spirit of worship.
It was the words of the pastor.
It was the friend who said, "Come with me, let's pray."
How much GRACE did Stephanie need? How many grace-givers did it take for her to come to meet Jesus?
A Grace-Giver is someone who owes you nothing,
yet steps in, and gives you everything!
1 Peter 4:10
10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.
(NIV)
When you serve the Lord with the Spiritual Grace Gifts
He has given you,
you become a CONDUIT of GRACE!
1 Corinthians 12:1
1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.
(NIV)
The word used in the Bible for “spiritual gifts” is CHARISMATA, taken from the word CHARIS, meaning GRACE. You didn’t do anything to receive this gift. You didn’t buy it, learn it, earn it! You cannot earn a gift!
Some of you may be thinking: Doesn’t the Scripture tell us to “stir up the gift”? Isn’t that done by preparation and education? The scripture you are referring to is 2 Timothy 1:6 and the word translated by 400 years ago as “stir up” really means to “keep at full flame”.
2 Timothy 1:6
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
(NIV)
Timothy had received a gift of grace. He did nothing to earn it and nothing to learn it. The godly influence of his mother and grandmother had influenced him but grace and a grace giver named the Apostle Paul had brought this flame of the Holy Spirit into young Timothy’s life. So that he would not see that GRACE GIFT fall into disuse or abuse, Paul reminded Him, “KEEP IT HOT! KEEP SERVING! KEEP GIVING GRACE!”
God’s plan for His Church is that we administer GRACE to others. In other words,
You are GOD’S GIFT TO THE CHURCH
as an instrument of Grace!
"No local congregation will be what it should be,
what Jesus prayed that it would be,
what the Holy Spirit gifted it and empowered it to be,
until it understands spiritual gifts."
John MacArthur
Christian A. Schwarz and his team from the Institute for Church Development in Germany analyzed responses from 4.2 million people, from more than 1,000 churches in 32 countries. In the book he writes:
“An interesting corollary result of our research was the discovery that probably no factor influences the contentedness of Christians more than whether they are utilizing their gifts or not.”
"Some would tend to think that they aren't important, but without them the church is going to fail in its ministry and mission. And without them, those who try to exercise gifts of leadership and teaching and the like are destined to frustration and futility.
We are in an orchestra playing a song of grace.
The Holy Spirit is the conductor:
1 Corinthians 12:4-6
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
(NIV)
Each one of us has an instrument that’s been given to us.
We don’t play our own piece,
separately from one another
for our own personal enjoyment.
We play together.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
(NIV)
We play for an audience or ONE!
As we play our instruments, playing together and following the lead, every expression, every movement of our conductor, then we make beautiful music that brings pleasure to our audience before us, an audience of one, the Lord Jesus Christ.
