April 10, 2016
Morning Worship
Text: 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 31
Subject: the Holy Spirit
Title: The Greater Gifts – Holy Spirit part 1
I picked up one of our pamphlets on the 16 fundamental doctrines just to read over it and refresh myself with it. Do you know that sometimes we need to be refreshed? The very first of our tenants listed in our 16 Fundamental Doctrines is the doctrine that we believe the bible to be the inspired and unadulterated Word of God. When I say “inspired” of course I mean inspired by the Holy Spirit.
In the past month we have been experiencing an unprecedented moving of the Spirit. Unprecedented because it seems to be lingering longer than ever before and it seems that there is no end in sight. Hallelujah! But this move of the Spirit is only because there are people here who are so hungry they are willing to step out in faith to receive the power that the bible says that we are intended to have.
2 Chronicles 16:9 (NKJV)
9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…
I believe this is God’s word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
I will appropriate it to my life today…
1 Corinthians 12
4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
These three verses in chapter 12 tell us about three different types of spiritual gifts…
1. The gifts given by the Spirit… those that are mentioned in verses 8-10…
2. The gifts that are service gifts given by the Father that are given us in Romans 12:6-8, … these seem to be the gifts given for the day to day operation of the church…
3. The gifts given by Jesus in Ephesians 4:11, pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets, apostles…
31But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
And now I will show you the most excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:31 (KJV)
31 But covet earnestly the best gifts…
Since Paul seems to be writing to the church it must be that he is referring to those gifts that are available through the Holy Spirit.
Are you hungry for the power? That power only comes through the Holy Spirit and power can be manifested in the church through the gifts of the Spirit. So are you hungry? Do you long to see the Holy Spirit continue to move in the church? Do you covet the greater gifts?
If you are hungry for more of the things of God in your life, His power, His healing, His manifestations, His glory… then you must also be hungry for or covet the spiritual gifts… You see, how can you be hungry for the things of God without being hungry for the Spirit. And how can you be hungry for the working of the Spirit without coveting the spiritual gifts?
Is the Spirit active in the church today? Is He intended to be active? How many times does the scriptures encourage to walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh… to live by the Spirit… to be led by the Spirit and not by the carnal man? Paul warns believers
1 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV)
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
People who don’t know God can read the bible and try to tell you what it means… isn’t that crazy? That would be like someone with no construction background coming to me or to Greg or Reuben to try to tell us how to build a house when they could look at a blueprint and have no idea what it all means… they could see numbers and measurements but have no idea what it takes to make it all work. The bible is a spiritual book and it must be spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:16 (NKJV)
16 For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
We understand and believe the word because we have experienced the word.
In the same way people who have never hungered for spiritual things or have never understood spiritual gifts can come to you and try to teach you about tongues and interpretation and prophecy and healing and miracles, saying that those things ceased with the disciples. Even in Pentecostal circles people get extremely nervous when there are tongues present. And yet those very things that make people squirm are the very things that are manifestations of God’s power available to the church today.
In Hebrews 6 the bible talks about those who have tasted the heavenly gift, have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come…
And yet many Christians who have tasted the Holy Spirit through salvation reject any further development through that same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:12 (NKJV)
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. Those things given to us by God… are they natural or Spiritual? Are they from the world or from God? Do we earn them or are they given as your measure of grace will receive them? And yet many well intentioned believers will try to tell you what to believe about tongues, about interpretation, about healing, about prophecy, about miracles, discernment, exhortation, faith, a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom and say that they aren’t for today. Why do they say that? Because they haven’t experienced it.
Comedian Mark Lowery said one time, talking about the different denominations, how the Catholics talk to Mary, How the Baptists get people saved, and how the Pentecostals get healed… and he didn’t think it was fair. If people are not willing to believe in the things from the Spirit, how will they ever be able to be led by the Spirit?
Don’t come to me and try to teach me about the gifts of the Spirit and the baptism in the Spirit unless you have received it for yourself. Then we can talk. Don’t come and try to tell me how to build a house unless you done it.
What the writer of Hebrews was saying in chapter 6 was preparation for them to receive what he was going to talk about in chapters 10 and 11.
Hebrews 5:12-14 (NKJV)
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Does it sound like the Lord wants us to have more and more as we grow in Him? Getting past milk and going on to t-bone steak… 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 (NKJV)
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;
3 for you are still carnal…
But He doesn’t intend for us to stay there. Ephesians 4:11-15 (NKJV)
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--
So if that is the will of God for your life, and according to the word it is, then shouldn’t we covet the greater gifts. Shouldn’t we eagerly desire the greater gifts?
Is it God’s will that through the ministry gifts given that you become mature? As a pastor / teacher I cannot make you become mature. But I can teach you things that if you listen and apply them to your lives you can become mature…
Have you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit or been refilled over and over? Do you speak in tongues? Do you eagerly desire the greater gifts? Don’t be confused. Paul doesn’t put greater emphasis on one gift over another. Some would say that since tongues and interpretation are mentioned last that they are less important. No! The greater gift is the gift that is appropriate for any given situation. If someone needs healing you wouldn’t operate in the gift of discerning of spirits… or maybe you would if the sickness was caused by a spirit. If you needed a word of knowledge you wouldn’t seek the gift of faith… do you see where we are going with this? 1 Corinthians 12:1 (NKJV)
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: Why did the Holy Spirit say that? Because He knew that is exactly what would happen. The word ignorant is agnoeo (ag-no-eh'-o) v.
1. not to know (through lack of information or intelligence)
2. (by implication) to ignore (through dislike, disinterest, or unwillingness)
Why does the Lord warn us about it? Because He knows that the enemy of your soul will do everything that he can do to keep you from becoming spiritual. He wants you to remain carnal. He wants you to stay on milk and not get the meat. He wants you to be able to be swayed by the wind of every false doctrine that comes along… anything that can keep you from becoming mature… from walking in the Spirit… from earnestly desiring greater gifts…
Do you remember our series on grace a few months back? Well receiving greater gifts from the Lord is an act of grace. They are available for you but you must receive them by faith.
Acts 4:33 (NKJV)
33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.
Look at the connections here between being filled with the Holy Spirit (verse 31) and great power and great grace.
And the Lord is commanding us to eagerly desire the greater gifts…
Do you want to be a disciples of Christ?
Do you want to find grace to do what he has called you to do and be what he has called you to be?
Do you have the faith to step out and receive what God has promised?
Do you desire more of God’s power in your life?
Then, eagerly desire the greater gifts…
The baptism in the Holy Spirit for power…
The gifts of the Spirit for manifestations of that power…
The greater gift for the right manifestation at the right time…
And then take it out into the world with you.
Can you receive a word of knowledge, or wisdom, or a revelation or a word of prophecy why you are brushing your teeth in the morning?
But there must be desire…
