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Spiritual Gifts: What are They? Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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  preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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  learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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  You can find more information about our church at
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  fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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  Our scripture this morning comes from the book First Corinthians
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  starting in chapter 12, verse one.
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  Now about the gifts of the Spirit.
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  Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.
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  You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you
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  were influenced and LED astray to mute idols.
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  Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by
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  the Spirit of God says Jesus be cursed, and no one can say Jesus
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  is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
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  There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit
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  distributes them. There are different kinds of
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  service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of
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  working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God
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  at work. Now to each one of the
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  manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
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  To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom
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  to another, a message of knowledge by means of the same
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  spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another, gifts of
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  healing by that one spirit to another, miraculous powers to
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  another. Prophecy to another
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  distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different
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  kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of
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  tongues. All these are the work of 1 and
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  the same Spirit, and He distributes them to each one
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  just as He determines. Just as a body, though one has
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  many parts, but all its many parts form 1 body, so it is with
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  Christ. For we were all baptized by 1
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  spirit so as to form 1 body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave
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  or free, and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
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  Even so the body is not made-up of one part, but of many.
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  This is the Word of God for the people of God.
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  Thanks be to God, how many of you have ever had a surgical
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  procedure done that left you without the use of a part of
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  your body for a period of time? Anybody could be a knee
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  replacement, a rotator cuff repair, cataract surgery,
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  something that kept your body from performing the way it was
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  meant to that that period of time, regardless of what part of
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  the body it is. It's difficult, right?
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  Or or maybe you haven't had the procedure yourself, but you've
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  taken care of someone who had that kind of surgery.
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  How many of you? Yeah.
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  God bless you. It's no easy thing, right?
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  It's no easy thing. Or maybe, maybe it's not a
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  temporary inability to use a part of your body brought on by
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  injury or surgery, but you're living with a chronic or
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  permanent or progressive condition.
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  There's a part of your body that has never worked the way it was
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  supposed to or no longer does what you tell it to do or or
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  doesn't do it without great difficulty that that is more
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  difficult than most of us can imagine.
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  When I had my shoulder surgery a few years ago, which is a small
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  convenience right to to compared to what some of you all have
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  known, but I couldn't use my right arm for multiple weeks.
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  I I couldn't even support my arm myself, right?
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  I had to be in a sling. I couldn't dress myself.
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  I had to learn to feed myself and brush my teeth with my left
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  hand. Have you ever tried brushing
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  your teeth with your non dominant hand?
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  Try it sometime. Just try the the reality is our
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  bodies are designed to operate in certain ways, right?
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  And when any part of our body is injured or incapacitated, the
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  whole of our being is impacted. And the same is true in Christ
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  body. That's, that's the church,
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  right? Paul tells us that the church is
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  like a human body and, and each person who's part of the church
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  is like a different part of the body.
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  And as a different part of the body, each person has a
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  different role to play within the body of Christ.
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  A hand is not an ear, an ear is not a knee, a knee is not a
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  mouth. And on and on and on it goes,
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  right? To fulfil those roles we've been
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  given in the body effectively, God has given each person, each
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  believer, spiritual gifts. These gifts are our key to our
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  being able to effectively play our role in the body of Christ.
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  You may have heard about spiritual gifts at some point in
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  the past. Maybe you have a pretty good
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  sense of what your spiritual gifts are.
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  Maybe you've taken one of those spiritual gift tests at some
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  point. Anybody take one of those?
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  You answer 100 or 200 questions and tally up the answers and see
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  where your scores are the highest.
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  And with the assumption being that if you score high in an
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  area, that's your spiritual gift.
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  We'll, we'll get to that later. But maybe that was the end of
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  the conversation, right? You felt like someone said here,
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  let's find out what your spiritual gifts are, but you
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  weren't really told what it means, how to use those gifts,
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  how you grow in those gifts, where you learn more about them.
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  I mentioned last week that it's through spiritual gifts that we
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  are empowered by the Spirit to build up the church, to serve
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  and to witness to the world. We talked about how Jesus
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  ministered from his spiritual gifts, right?
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  And how this is key to who God is calling us to be in this
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  season of our life together as the body of Christ.
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  But what are spiritual gifts? That's a fair question and when
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  I hope to begin answering today. OK, so here's my definition of
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  spiritual gifts based on everything I've read and I've
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  studied. Spiritual gifts are distinct
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  abilities empowered by the Holy Spirit and distributed by God's
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  grace to every believer that they might faithfully and
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  effectively strengthen the church, serve others, and
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  advance God's purposes. Got that memorized?
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  Good. No, let me read it again.
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  For us, spiritual gifts are distinct abilities empowered by
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  the Holy Spirit and distributed by God's grace to every believer
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  that they might faithfully and effectively strengthen the
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  church, serve others, and advance God's purposes.
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  There's a lot in there, right? So we're going to walk through
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  that definition and talk about what it means, but but also so
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  we can see how this definition relates to what Paul was
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  teaching the Corinthian church. That passage which guides our
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  conversation about spiritual gifts today.
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  Because one of the things we have to be careful of in our
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  conversation about gifts of the Spirit today is that there's
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  only a few places in Scripture where they're discussed, where
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  they're talked about. There's There's no fully fleshed
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  out dissertation on spiritual gifts in the Bible, what they
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  are, how they should be defined, how they should be used.
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  But there are a few passages that kind of build some guard
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  rails for us that we want to make sure we stay within in our
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  conversation about being empowered by the Spirit.
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  So First Corinthians 12, the passage we read from verses 1 to
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  14 this morning, it's one of those places.
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  It's one of those places, I'd say probably actually the
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  primary place where our discussion of spiritual gifts
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  happen. So we're going to begin our
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  discussion there. OK, so, so spiritual gifts, our
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  distinct abilities empowered by the Holy Spirit.
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  And so first Corinthians puts it this way in verses 4 to 6,
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  right? There are different kinds of
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  gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
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  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
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  There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and
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  in everyone, it is the same God at work.
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  Even though all the gifts have their source in the same Spirit,
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  they're still distinct different gifts.
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  I have different gifts than Meg has.
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  I have different gifts than Jeremy has.
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  It doesn't mean all of my gifts are spiritual gifts, right?
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  But there are different gifts that God gives to different
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  people. It's it's the Spirit who
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  empowers those people. It's not that He gives the gifts
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  and then we step into our own power to operate out of them.
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  It's the Spirit working in US. And those spirits are
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  distributed by God's grace to every believer.
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  Again in First Corinthians in verse 11, this time it says all
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  of these are the work of the one and the same Spirit, and He
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  distributes to each one just as He determines.
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  We don't choose what gifts were given.
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  While I I do believe we can ask God for a gift, it's not like we
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  go to God with a wish list of which gifts we want and wait for
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  Him to give them to us. God decides what our gifts are
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  and He decides based on how He wants to use us within His body.
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  No one's exempt. We all.
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  If we follow Jesus, we all get at least one gift and He, He
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  distributes them to each of us. Again, that doesn't mean we all
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  get the same gift, or that we get the same gift, or that the
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  same gift we get will look identical in different people's
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  lives. But part of the difference is
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  even for people with the same gift, God may not give the same
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  level of anointing of that gift in each person, right?
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  That's part of what it means that they're distributed by God
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  according to his grace. Finally, in in our walkthrough
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  of this definition, the gifts are given so that we might
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  faithfully and effectively strengthen the church, serve
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  others, and advance God's purposes.
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  First Corinthians 12 verse 7 says now to each one the
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  manifestation of the Spirit is given.
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  Why? So I feel better about myself?
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  So I can do some cool things? No, for the common good.
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  Or, as Ephesians 4 puts it, so the body of Christ might be
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  built up. That means strengthening the
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  church. It happens as we serve others,
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  and it happens so that we can advance God's work and God's
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  plan in the world. It happens through us, through
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  God's people. But it all happens by the
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  Spirit's power. You with me, half of you are not
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  all right now. So to help us here, right?
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  There's a lot going on here. But to help us parse out what
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  the spiritual gifts are, I want to take a few minutes to talk
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  about what the spiritual gifts are not because I think it can
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  be easy sometimes to confuse them with other things.
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  We might have heard teaching about it in a, in a different
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  church, different framework, different theology, all that
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  kind of stuff. So it can be easy to confuse
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  them with different things, not intentionally, but because there
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  is some overlap between these things.
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  So we want to be clear. So I'm going to give you 6
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  things that spiritual gifts are not, right?
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  And if you're taking notes, here's where your little lines
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  go #1 spiritual gifts are not the same as our natural talents,
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  right? Natural talents are the things
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  that we're born with, the gifts we have from the time we're
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  born. Maybe things we pass down from
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  parent to child, things like athleticism, musical ability,
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  artistic creativity. These are still given by God who
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  created us, but it's different from a spiritual gift.
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  They're given from birth, while spiritual gifts are given at or
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  after conversion. God still uses our natural
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  talents and abilities, but but they're not the guaranteed place
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  of power from the Holy Spirit the the empowerment that
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  spiritual gifts have behind them.
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  OK, so we've got natural talents.
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  They're not spiritual gifts. Similarly #2 spiritual gifts are
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  not our acquired skills, right? You may have learned how to
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  share your faith with people at some point, right?
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  Maybe work through a tract or something like that.
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  The Romans row, the four spiritual laws, those kind of
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  things. But just because you've learned
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  to share your faith with someone doesn't mean you have the gift
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  of evangelism, right? Or you may have gone to school
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  and and learned how to be a teacher.
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  That doesn't mean you have the gift of teaching, right?
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  It's something you've learned. So while we will grow in our
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  ability to exercise our spiritual gifts there, there's
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  there's a supernatural empowerment behind them that has
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  nothing to do with our acquired skills and the things we've
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  learned how to do in life. OK, number three, third thing,
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  spiritual gifts are not our personality, right?
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  And in fact, I, I think it's very important that we divorce
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  our personality from our giftings, right?
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  We can't assume that our spiritual gifts are just the
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  outgrowth of the personalities that we have.
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  For instance, you might assume that your pastor, who is
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  constantly up in front of people, constantly talking to
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  people on Sunday morning, stands up here on the platform with
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  every eye on him. Well, most eyes on him.
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  You'd probably assume that naturally I'm an extrovert,
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  right? Someone who draws energy from
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  being with people and gets excited about being with other
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  people. And that couldn't be further
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  from the truth. Friends, God has given me a gift
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  of teaching. He never made me an extrovert.
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  I have to go home most Sundays and take a long hard nap after
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  being with you all. It's nothing personal.
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  That's just how God made it's me, not you.
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  Right. Spiritual gifts aren't our
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  personalities, and they're not tied to our personality.
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  The Holy Spirit isn't limited by our personality and the gifts
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  that He gives to us just might look different depending on who
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  He gives which gifts to. Spiritual gifts are not our
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  personality #4 spiritual gifts are also not spiritual fruit.
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  You might say, OK, Pastor Scott, tell, tell me what you mean by
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  that. Well, what I mean is our
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  spiritual gifts are not the fruit of our formation or our
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  intimacy with God, OK? Spiritual gifts are sovereignly
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  given by God. Spiritual fruit or the fruit of
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  the Spirit, we might be more familiar saying, is the
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  character that God forms in US right primarily as we engage
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  him, encounter him through the spiritual practices where we
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  encounter God. But but those that character
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  that grows in US is not the same as the gifts God gives us.
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  And we we hurt people when because we're seeing things
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  through our own lens and our own giftings.
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  We promise them maybe, for instance, that that their faith
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  will grow like ours if they just spend more time reading the
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  Bible. Well, maybe, but maybe you've
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  got the gift of faith and they don't, right.
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  And promises like that just build them up to, for
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  disappointment because they never quite get to that place
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  where where they think they should have the faith that
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  they've seen in you. So we have to be careful to, to,
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  to recognize that the spiritual gifts God gives aren't
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  necessarily the outflow of his formation in us.
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  We can talk about that more later.
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  But #5 I said that spiritual gifts aren't the, the spiritual
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  growth, spiritual fruit that grows out of our spiritual
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  practices, but they're also not those spiritual practices
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  themselves, right? Sometimes there's overlap.
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  For instance, all of us are called to pray for others,
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  right? All of us are called to pray for
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  others, right? Right.
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  Amen, Pastor. Yes.
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  But some people are given a special spiritual gift of
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  intercession for them. Praying for people just seems to
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  come naturally, right? Someone with the gift of
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  intercession might might love to take the bulletin home each
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  week. And that list of people on the
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  back, they just love to pray week by week.
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  For those people on the back of the bulletin, that gift might
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  look a little different, right? They might just feel like God's
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  given them a burden to pray for a people or a person or a
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  ministry, and they just can't let go of that burden to pray
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  for that group. That's that's a gift of
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  intercession. I don't have that.
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  I pray for the list on the back here.
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  But for me, it's a discipline, right?
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  It's a spiritual practice. It's something I commit myself
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  to, but it doesn't come easy. Similarly, all of us are called
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  to give to the work of God, right?
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  Right. We're all called to give to the
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  work of God. Some are gifted with generosity,
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  a spiritual gift of generosity, not just a natural gift, but
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  spiritual gift of generosity. And they give not because it's
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  the expectation that they'll give, but actually it brings
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  them great joy. They get excited about what
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  God's doing and how they can partner with what God's doing in
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  different places, different ministries, different things.
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  If that's you with the gift of generosity today, I'll introduce
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  you to my friend Kenny after the service, right?
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  Spiritual gifts are not the same as our spiritual practices.
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  I got to keep moving. Number six, last one, even
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  though we're only halfway down the first page of notes.
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  Number six, spiritual gifts are not synonymous with ministry
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  offices, right? Some people take the five gifts
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  that are given in a place like Ephesians 4.
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  There it says God gave or Jesus gave the apostles, prophets,
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  evangelist, teachers and shepherds, and they want to say
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  that those are offices within the church that God gives
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  positions of ministry. But I lean towards them being
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  gifts that God gives. Paul says they're given to the
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  church to build up the church to equip the believers for the work
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  of ministry. And I think that sounds a lot
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  like how he talks about the spiritual gifts here in First
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  Corinthians chapter 12 and in Romans and in other places.
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  So while there are and have been offices within the church like
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  pastor or apostle, you can have the gift of shepherding or
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  pastoring and not be a pastor, right?
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  Or you can even be in the role of pastor and not have the gift
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  of shepherding. All right.
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  Are you with me? Yes.
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  OK. That's what spiritual gifts are.
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  That's what they're not. You might still be asking
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  though. But Pastor, you've all this talk
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  about spiritual, what are the gifts, right?
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  We understand the definition of a spiritual gift, but what are
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  the gifts, the distinct abilities that God gives to
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  different people? And I'm going to move quickly
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  here because of time, but it's important enough that we're
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  going to take the time. OK, so here we go because I
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  think it'll help our following conversations to list them.
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  We're not going to get into all the details of them today.
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  That's for later this summer, but I want to introduce them to
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  you this morning. And I believe that there are at
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  least 22 spiritual gifts that are talked about in the New
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  Testament. I like how Robert Clinton kind
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  of groups them into three different categories.
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  The first group of spiritual gifts are the love gifts.
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  These are the gifts that God gives to people to manifest the
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  love of God in practical ways, hands and feet of Jesus kind of
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  ways. These are these gifts are are
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  the key to healthy ministry within any local church.
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  The love gifts are are administration, celibacy,
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  giving, helps and hospitality, martyrdom and mercy.
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  The the love gifts are the gifts we often have in mind when we
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  want to say, you know, let's go be the hands and feet of Jesus
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  in our community. John Thompson says this about
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  the love gifts. He says they're all powerful
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  spiritual gifts that allow believers to express their love
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  for God and for others in practical and sometimes
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  overlooked ways. They may not be the big flashy
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  spiritual gifts, but these are indispensable spiritual gifts,
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  even if they don't seem quite as supernatural as the gifts like
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  healing and miracles. All right, let's keep going.
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  Next, the word gifts. The word gifts clarify the
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  nature, action, and purposes of God.
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  This is where churches that identify as more evangelical or
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  Bible based like ours, we tend to think of spiritual gifts as
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  happening, right? These gifts focus on using words
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  and communication to share God's messages.
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  The word gifts are apostleship, encouragement and exhortation,
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  evangelism, leadership, shepherding, and teaching.
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  I think we I think we have a grasp on those.
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  Finally, the the power gifts, the last group, they demonstrate
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  the power, the presence and reality of God.
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  These are the spiritual gifts that that may start to make us
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  feel a little uncomfortable, or you might even be sitting there
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  thinking, Oh no, are we going to become one of those kinds of
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  churches? I don't know about you, but when
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  I read the Bible, it's kind of weird, right?
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  I think if we're able to to bring some of the early
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  Christians to the American church today, they'd say, you
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  guys are really why aren't you doing any of the things right?
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  Because because all through Scripture we see God empowering
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  people through the Holy Spirit. So here are the power gifts,
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  discerning of spirits, faith, healing, intercession,
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  interpreting tongues, miracles, prophecy, speaking in tongues,
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  words of knowledge, words of wisdom.
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  These are gifts that demonstrate the power, the presence, the
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  reality of God in the world today, operating in ways we
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  might not imagine. And we may be more comfortable
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  with one or two of these categories or gifts, right?
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  Most churches are, but the spiritual gifts are like a three
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  legged stool and each category is like one of those legs of the
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  stool. You can't remove any category of
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  gifts or else what happens? The stool tips over, right?
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  The body's weaker when we try to balance all the weight of the
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  ministry of the church on one leg until we end up with social
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  justice churches and the crazy experience driven charismatic
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  churches and the dry, unloving Bible churches.
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  To be the church God needs us to be today, we've got to find the
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  balance of love gifts, word gifts, power gifts.
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  Each one given by the Holy Spirit, each one given for the
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  purpose of advancing God's Kingdom in the world.
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  We want to be a healthy body, all right.
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  We want to live in the fullness of the distinct ways that God
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  has gifted us to be and do ministry so the church can be
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  strengthened, so people can be served, so God's purposes can
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  advance in the world around us. So here's my question for you as
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  we wrap up. Are you willing to get a little
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  uncomfortable? Are you willing to open yourself
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  up to whatever God might want to say or do or give for the sake
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  of what He wants to do in the world?
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  Are you willing to give grace to the people around you as God
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  reveals to them the gifts He has for them?
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  Might take some practice. There might be some mistakes
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  along the way. Would you pray with me this
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  morning? Jesus?
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  We are so grateful that you not only reconciled us to God, but
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  you brought us into your very body, and you have purposes that
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  you want to accomplish in and through us that that you've
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  chosen to work in the world through your body, the church,
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  and Jesus. We don't necessarily understand
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  all of this. Some of this today might feel
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  new, might feel uncomfortable, but Jesus, we're trusting that
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  if you said it in your word, it's still true today.
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  And so we asked, would you help us?
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  Would you give us an openness to what you have done, what you are
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  doing, what you want to do? Would you give us an openness to
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  whatever gifts you want to give us or you already have given us?
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  So Jesus, we give you ourselves this morning.
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  We pray that you'd give us some clarity.
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  Reveal to us how you designed us, how you gifted us to be part
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  of your body, operating in a healthy way in the world.
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  We love you and we give you ourselves this morning.
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  We prayed in Jesus name, Amen.