You Are Gifted Series

Title: You Are Gifted

Series: Discovering God’s Special Gifts

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Romans 12:6-8

Theme: Every child of God is gifted for service.

Introduction: Our Gifted Son

When our son, Steven, first enrolled in K3, Kay and I weren’t really sure what his day consisted of. His communication about how his day had gone was usually, “I eat. I play.” So we were a little worried when we got a note from his teacher one day requesting our presence at a parent/teacher meeting. Notes home often have bad connotations, and we were perplexed at what he could have done. After all, he was only three years old.

We were somewhat apprehensive, to say the least, when the meeting began. But our apprehension was short-lived.

“Does Steven tell you what he does at school,” the teacher asked us.

“No,” we replied. “We always ask him about his day at school, but he doesn’t say too much about it.”

“Well,” she said, “Steven is an unusual child. We have found that he gets bored very easy in class, so we have had to make some adjustments. Are you aware of the fact that Steven knows more than 70 Bible verses from memory? He has also learned more than 90 different songs, and he knows 120 catechisms by heart.”

We were stunned. Here was our little three-year-old son who never had much to say, and they were telling us about mental abilities that many adults would long to possess.

She went on to explain that the adjustments she had made were quite phenomenal. When they were learning the alphabet, for example, she would explain the letter A, by saying, “A stands for apple.” That was sufficient for most of the class. But with Steven, she would say, “A stands for astronaut. An astronaut is someone who works in outer space. He blasts off from earth in a rocket, and rides through space in a space capsule.”

“That,” she explained, “is how we keep Steven interested in learning. Of course it’s much too early to make any kind of decision, but we feel that Steven may be gifted.”

Needless to say, we were very proud parents. From that point on we set out to find whether or not Steven really was a gifted child, and what we would have to do to prepare for his future. If he were truly gifted, we wanted to make sure that he would find the right places to use his God-given abilities.

With Steven, there was a question about his abilities, and whether or not he was truly gifted. But every believer can say with confidence, “I am a gifted child.” You see, God gives us all special gifts by His Holy Spirit that we can use to build His kingdom. So it’s not a question of “if” we are gifted, but rather what gifts has God given us. In this series we will study the spiritual gifts, find the areas in which we are gifted, and find ways we can use those gifts in His service.

Recently, God has given me an interpretation to a recurring dream that I have had for many years. In this dream, I find that I am living in a huge house. Then one day, I discover a room, or sometimes many rooms, that I didn’t realize existed. On some occasions, I will discover an entire second or third story to this house that I never new about.

While preparing for this series, God has revealed to me that the unused rooms represent those spiritual gifts that we don’t even realize He has given us. While we are thoroughly satisfied with what we have, there is so much more that we could experience if only we would search out and enter the hidden rooms of our lives. It’s not enough just to find them, but we have to open the door before we can experience what’s inside.

I. GOD HAS GIVEN EVERY BELIEVER VARIOUS GIFTS, TALENTS, AND ABILITIES (1-6)

Isn’t it strange that princes and kings

And clowns that caper in sawdust rings

And common people like you and me

Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools

A shapeless mass, a book of rules;

And each must make ‘ere life is flown

A stumbling block or a stepping stone. (source unknown)

A. Spiritual Gifts Are Not To Be Ignored. (1 Corinthians 12:1)

Note: Spiritual gifts are divine enablements for ministry that the Holy Spirit gives in some measure to all believers and that are to be completely under His control and used for the building of the church to Christ’s glory. These had to be distinguished from the mystical experiences called “ecstasy” (supernatural, sensuous communion with a deity) and “enthusiasm” (divination, dreams, revelations, visions) that were found in the pagan religions of Corinth. (John F. MacArthur, Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible, (Dallas: Word Publishing) 1997.)