Spiritual Gifts Series
Part 1 – “What are Spiritual Gifts?
Rev. Bruce A. Shields – First Baptist Church Tawas City Michigan
www.TawasBaptist.org
I would like to welcome you to the First Baptist Church of Tawas City, we are very glad you are here today.
If you are visiting, please fill out a Visitor Card located in the back of the pew’s, and leave them on the pews as you leave, and someone will come by after the service and pick them up.
Scripture Reading
1 Corinthians 12:7
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal:”
PRAYER
I. What are Spiritual Gifts
I remember when I was in seminary about 4 or 5 years ago, and I had to take a course called “Pneumotology”, and I was thinking, “What in the world?”
Well I knew “Ology” is a Greek word for “the study of”. Such as;
Biology = the study of living things, bio meaning living things.
Archaeology = the study of primitive life, archaeo meaning ancient.
Come to find out, Pneumo is Greek for “breath, wind or Spirit”.
So, Pneumotology was “The study of Spirit”.
So we were going to be studying the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.
Until I attended Seminary, I really didn’t know or understand too much about the Holy Spirit.
But shortly after I started my classes I discovered something that I thought was the most awesome thing in the world, the Holy Spirit and the Spiritual Gifts.
God didn’t just leave us stranded down here, He has equipped us to serve, and we need to understand what it is He has given us. Just as we discovered the Spiritual Armor of God, we need to look at the other tools He has supplied.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that we should not be ignorant about the Spiritual Gifts. We need to know about them and try to discover them because it is God’s will for us to have and use them.
1 Corinthians 12:1
“1Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.”
To understand what Spiritual Gifts are, where they come from and what they are for, we must examine what the scriptures say.
An important scripture to remember is;
Psalm 127:1
“Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
Only God can build us and this church. If we try to do it ourselves, we are doing it in vain, or wasting our time. Although we do have responsibilities in our Christian walk, it is of nothing we DO that causes this church or ourselves to grow in the Lord. It is only by God’s hand that we grow.
Here in the Hebrew text the word Banah (baw-naw) is used, which was translated into build. The literal translation of banah would be Establish.
Establish means to make firm or stable, to ordain.
So a more accurate translation of Psalm 127:1 would be;
“Unless God ESTABLISHES the house, they labor in vain that establish it.”
We cannot truly establish ourselves or this church. It must be done by God.
So we know that God has to establish us as a body of believers. He does this by creating unity among us.
Unity among us is the key to pleasing God and showing God’s love to others.
Remember a few weeks ago when we talked about “They will know you are mine because of your love.”
Our love and unity displays God’s love to others.
Ephesians 4:2-8
2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to one hope when you were called– 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why it[a] says: “When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”
Paul instructs us on unity, how we are to treat each other so we keep unity among us. Then Paul tells us in verse 7 what happens next, to each one of us grace has been given to us as Christ apportioned it. He gave us gifts after His ascension.
We need to remember these important points listed in Ephesians if we are to understand what Spiritual Gifts are because we MUST have unity as a body of believers if we are to understand and use our Spiritual Gifts.
1. We are 1 body of believers (The Body of Christ)
2. We have 1 Spirit (The Holy Spirit)
3. We have 1 hope (Salvation)
4. We have 1 Lord (Jesus Christ)
5. We have 1 faith (Not Denomination) but Christianity
6. 1 Baptism (an outward expression which does not need to be repeated over and over again)
7. 1 God and Father of all (God in Heaven)
God is above all, through all and in us all!
All believers in Christ belong to 1 body. All are united under 1 head, Christ.
This body of believers IS the body of Christ.
This is God’s church, and Christ is the head of it.
Each believer has been given God-abilities or Gifts from the Holy Spirit to strengthen or edify the whole body of Christ.
Your Gift may seem small or large, but it is yours to use in God’s service edifying His body of believers!
1 Corinthians 12:7
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal:”
To profit withal, does not mean to profit the individual believer, but the body of Christ. The whole of the body of believers.
All believers are given the Holy Spirit, this is the Gift Christ gave us after His ascension. It was first given at Pentecost to the disciples, and continues today to enable us to do God’s work.
This is how God works through us and in us.
This is how God establishes His body of believers.
So these Spiritual Gifts are not us, but God in us.
God set this up in a way to continue His theme of unity in the body of Christ.
He does this by giving us different gifts, so that we work together to make up a whole.
You will NEVER meet 1 person who has all the gifts, at least not here on earth. We will when we meet Christ.
God has equipped us in a way which causes unity among us, and dependence on each other to function as a whole.
We need each other to BE the body of Christ. We need each other to function and serve Christ the way in which God has called us.
We MUST have unity to serve and please God.
Romans 12:4 – 6a
4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts according to the grace given us.”
So we are to act as one body, this is the unity God expects of us. This is the unity that pleases God.
1 Corinthians 12:12-18
“12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”
If you are here today, and I am assuming you are,
You are here because God has arranged you to be here. He has placed you here for a reason.
It is by God’s arrangement that you be here, and by God’s will you have been given a portion of Spiritual Gifts through the Holy Spirit to function as part of this body of believers.
He has arranged the composition of this body of believers the way HE wants it to be.
So, our gifts are given to us by God “Just as HE wanted them to be”
He chooses which Gifts you have.
So what is a Spiritual Gift?
A Spiritual Gift is a special attribute given to us by God through the Holy Spirit, given to every member of the body of Christ, according to God’s grace for use WITHIN the context of the body.
This shouldn’t be confused with God given natural abilities. Although you may have natural abilities that were given to you by God, this is not the same as Spiritual Gifts.
God given natural abilities are abilities that you can do naturally.
You may be;
Very athletic
Adept at mechanics
Higher than average intelligence
Have an ear for music
But a Spiritual Gift is an ability that comes through you, not from you. A Spiritual Gift is an ability that comes from the Holy Spirit that is in you and is an ability from God, not you.
He may give you the Spiritual Gift for an ear for music if He deems it necessary for the body. But if He does, it will be His ability, not yours.
So we don’t want to confuse our natural abilities with our Spiritual Gifts; which are God’s abilities coming or manifesting from us through the Holy Spirit.
God gives us these attributes of His for us to USE for profiting or building the body!
Listen to what Jesus says in this parable, ironic how the term for currency used “Talent” also means gift or ability.
Matthew 25:14-30
14“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants (WE ARE CALLED) and entrusted his property to them.
15To one he gave five talents[a] of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability.
Then he went on his journey. (Ascended to Heaven)
16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more.
17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more.
18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. (Took his to the grave)
19“After a long time the master of those servants returned (THE SECOND COMING) and settled accounts with them (JUDGMENT).
20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! (HEAVEN)’
22“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! (HEAVEN)’
24“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?
27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28“‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.
29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (GEHENNA – Lake of Fire, final hell)’
He has given us these gifts for us to use and get a return from them. They must be used to profit withal, the whole body!
In doing this with our gifts, we are living as obedient believers in Christ. We are DOING what He has called us to do as Christians.
This is the DOING part of the scriptures.
We are to be DOERS of the word, not just hearers.
DOING is absolutely part of our obedience.
The servants had been given a measure according to their ability to obey.
Some may have more talents than others, but whatever you have you are expected to use.
To those who use all of their Spiritual Gifts to the best of their ability, receiving a profit from those gifts, God will reward them with more gifts.
Some of our gifts may still be undiscovered and buried.
This is why we are doing this series.
Together we are going to look at what the scriptures say about Spiritual Gifts.
We will examine scriptures showing different Spiritual Gifts being used in the Bible, what some of those gifts are, and finally, how we can discover what our gifts may be.
Because you can’t use your gifts if you do not know what those gifts are.
PRAYER
