Concerning Spiritual Gifts
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not
want you to be uninformed. 2You know that when you were
pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.
3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by
the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can
say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. 4Now
there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and
there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and
there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who
activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is
given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the
utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to
another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the
one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to
another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another
various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All
these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one
individually just as the Spirit chooses. 1 Cor 12:1-11
After nine of months of studying together, we met
for the 33rd of
the 34 lessons in Disciple Bible Study.
This was a very special moment for all of us, as we gathered
together to share with one another the Spiritual Gifts we had
identified in one another. We
took time to identify the gifts of each member of the class and after
nine months together we had something to share about each person. And I’ll never forget one
young woman’s response after we had affirmed the numerous gifts we
saw in her. She looked at
us with great surprise in her eyes and said, “I never knew I had a
spiritual gift!!”
We were all amazed.
Here we sat looking at a tremendously gifted woman in her early
30s who had never been taught about spiritual gifts. Furthermore, she
had no idea how tremendously gifted she was! For years after that day, she
would still talk about her surprise at discovering that God had gifted
her for ministry. And,
today, while I still believe she is surprised by it all, she serves as
the children’s director for her congregation.
The Apostle Paul would have been appalled that
someone could grow up in the church and not know about spiritual
gifts! “Now concerning
spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be
uninformed . . .”
But the sad fact is my friend is not alone! In fact, according to George
Barna, a Christian pollster, the majority of Christians are woefully
uninformed about Spiritual Gifts.
In a report released this past February, Barna’s most recent
poll on Spiritual Gifts revealed that
two-thirds of self-identified Christians have either (1) never
heard of spiritual gifts, (2) didn’t believe they have a spiritual
gift, or (3) did not understand Spiritual Gifts as described in
Scripture!
And last fall, when we asked members of this
congregation to take the Natural Church Development survey, they identified our weakest
area as that of gift-based ministry.
So we invited all of you to take part in focus groups to
determine why it was our weakest area and you indicated that either we
did not know our gifts, or we did not know how to use them, or as a
congregation we were doing a poor job of helping people use their
gifts in our ministries.
So let me join my voice with the Apostle Paul’s
as I declare, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters,
I do not want you to uninformed!”
Last week, we discussed our calling from
God—that place where the world’s greatest hunger or need
intersects with our greatest joy or happiness. For the next three weeks, we
are going to explore spiritual gifts—what they are and what they are
not, how we can identify them, and what we should do with them.
So today, let’s delve into what spiritual gifts
are and are not.
Here is a simple definition: “A spiritual gift is a
special attribute given by the Holy Spirit to every member of the Body
of Christ, according to God’s grace, for use within the context of
the Body.” (C. Peter Wagner, Discover Your Spiritual Gifts)
The Greek word for spiritual gift is charisma, which means gift.
And, yes, this is the same word from which we get our English
word, charisma, which means a person who has great charm and appeal. Unfortunately, that is far from
the original definition! Rather charisma is used to refer to those special gifts God
grants Christians to enable them to do the ministries to which God
calls them. Some say God
grants us these gifts at our baptism.
Others recognize that God grants, or at least reveals, the
gifts to us as they are needed. But, in either case, God is the giver
and Christians are the receivers.
In Corinthians, Ephesians and Romans, Paul lists
a large number of spiritual gifts (which we explore a bit more in the
coming weeks). Our
Scripture today gives a partial list of Spiritual gifts: speaking wisdom, speaking
knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment
of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpreting the speaking of
tongues. When we add the
lists from Romans and Ephesians and a few other references to charisma in the New Testament,
we end up with a list of at least 25 spiritual gifts (and there are
good arguments for more!) which Scripture makes clear are not
distributed uniformly. All
Christians do not get all gifts. Rather
God grants each Christians one or more gifts as God wills to do
something that we could not do apart from the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Which leads to three things spiritual gifts are
not!
First, spiritual gifts are not talents. While talents are gifts from
God, talents are those attributes that we are born with. Talents are
natural to each individual and are available to the person regardless
of their relationship with God. Since
we often acknowledge our talents as gifts from God, we sometimes
confuse talents with spiritual gifts.
Talents are attributes such as the ability to play a musical
instrument, to draw, and to sew. All
human beings have talents and they can be used for good and for ill,
for entertainment and for edification.
But talents are not spiritual gifts.
That being said, some talents are closely related
to spiritual gifts. For
instance, some people are talented public speakers. They have the gift of using
words to motivate and encourage people to do what they want. People as diverse as Ronald
Regan, Winston Churchill, FDR, and Hitler were talented public
speakers. The talent of
public speaking is closely related to the spiritual gift of
teaching/preaching to teach the things of God. Needless to say, Hitler may
have been a gifted public speaker but no one would claim he had the
spiritual gift of teaching and preaching! And while some people
that God grants the gifts of preaching and teaching will have the
talent of public speaking, some will not.
Most of the humiliating moments of my life
involved standing in front of groups of people and attempting to
speak! In my
“previous” life, briefings were events that caused me great
terror. In fact, when I went to work for McDonnell Douglas, I told my
future boss that I would write as many briefings as he asked, but I
asked him to PLEASE let someone else present them! Folks would invite me to
Toastmasters (God knows it would have helped) but I would find excuse
after excuse not to go! I
have no natural talent for speaking nor did I ever desire to stand in
front of a group of people and talk.
Just imagine how I responded to a call to preach!
I remember the first time my pastor asked me to
preach for him. I had
already been approved by my home congregation to go into the ministry,
but I still had managed to avoid preaching! So one evening, John called and
said, “Sherill, would you like to preach while I’m out of town?”
And I responded, “No, I would not like to preach, but I will . .
.”
That was a long 10 years ago and I’ve learned a
lot since then. That first
sermon was a 30 minute sermon that I managed to preach in 10 or 15
minutes. My knees were
shaking and I was afraid I might get sick. In fact, I had to hold on
to the pulpit to remain standing.
But God enabled me to do what I never dreamed I could do! I am still amazed when
people say I look like I’m comfortable when I preach because part of
me is still a bit afraid. And
while I can now acknowledge that preaching/teaching is one of my
spiritual gifts, I am well aware that it is a gift from God and not a
natural talent! What
God calls us to do, God enables us to do!
And in claiming a spiritual gift, we must also
remember that God allots the gifts in the measure necessary to do what
God calls us to do. When I
say I have the spiritual gift of preaching/teaching, I am not saying I
am the best preacher. I
can name a large number of folks who are better preachers than me
(I’d share their names, but then you might be there next week
instead of here!) Our job
in naming our spiritual gifts is to be faithful in using the measure
of the gift that God grants us.
Second, spiritual gifts are not the same thing as
the fruit of the Spirit. In
Galatians 5:22-23, Paul lists the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Jesus said, “You did not
choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit,
fruit that will last.”
No individual Christian is supposed to have all
spiritual gifts. Paul
consistently uses the image of the body to explain how spiritual gifts
operate. An arm has a
particular function that the eye does not. Both are necessary, but
both are different. Thus
some Christians will have the gift of healing and others the gift of
service. Both are necessary , but both are different. We are not meant to have all
the gifts. Nor are we suppose to measure our gifts against one
another. However, all
Christians are called to be fruitful and to exhibit the fruits of the
Spirit. The fruits of the
Spirit are the results of God’s Spirit at work in our lives. Fruits are the evidence to the
world that we are truly striving, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to
love the Lord with all our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength
and our neighbor as ourselves.
In other words, spiritual gifts are what
Christians do, whereas the fruit of the Spirit are what a Christian
is! And the fruit of the
Spirit should lay the foundation for how we use the gifts of the
Spirit. That is why Paul
interrupts his discussion of spiritual gifts in chapters 12 and 14
with some of the most familiar books of the Bible: But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still
more excellent way. If I
speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I
am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal . . . “
Finally,
spiritual gifts are not roles that all Christians are called to
fulfill. All Christians
are called to have faith, to pray, to be hospitable and to give, but
some Christians have the spiritual gifts of faith, prayer,
hospitality, and giving. That
means you can have faith without having the spiritual gift of faith. And just because you don’t
have the gift of prayer, hospitality and giving does not mean that you
an shirk on those duties! For
instance, we are all called to give.
In fact, the biblical command is a tithe—10% of what God has
given us, we are commanded to return to God. And while many of us struggle
with this command, others find it so natural that they find they give
more without even thinking about it.
All of us are called to greet and welcome people who visit, but
some of us are have a God given gift that makes visitors comfortable
and makes them feel welcome.
So
spiritual gifts are not talents, they are not fruits of the spirit,
nor are spiritual gifts those things all Christians are called to do
and be. Rather spiritual
gifts are those attributes given by God through the Holy Spirit for
the building up of the body of Christ.
Christians
often talk about the Spirit of God as if the Spirit’s purpose is to
make us individually feel good. People
say things like: “The Spirit was really moving in that service!”
when they mean, “I really enjoyed the music and the preaching and I
felt really good about being there.”
They define Spirit-filled as those things that make them feel
connected to God or which make them feel good. But Scripture is clear that the
purpose of the gifts of the Spirit is for the building up of the Body
of Christ. The purpose of
spiritual gifts is so the church can make a difference in the world
for the
Kingdom
of
God
. Spiritual gifts are
never for your sole benefit!
I’m
not saying you won’t feel good when your are exercising your
spiritual gifts. In fact, I believe you will experience great joy and
fulfillment when you obediently use the gifts God grants you to do
what God calls you to do! However,
the purpose of the gift is not so you will feel joyful or fulfilled,
the purpose is for the building up of the Church and the proclamation
of the gospel.
Spiritual
gifts are not about you-they are all about God and the world God
loves! And your spiritual
gifts are important—in fact necessary—for this congregation to
fulfill the mission God gives us.
That is why it is important that you identify and use your
Spiritual Gifts.
In his
first letter to Timothy, Paul urges Timothy not to neglect the gift
that God has given him. And in the second letter, Paul instructs
Timothy to rekindle the gift that God has given him. Sometimes we are
not aware of the gifts God has given us because we have neglected
them. In fact, I’m
pretty sure that some Christians avoid naming their spiritual gifts
because they believe it excuses them from putting those gifts to use! But let’s be honest here,
ignoring or neglecting the gift or gifts God has given you is
disobedience and that is sin!
If you
really want to explore what motivates people, you don’t have to
search long or hard. Advertising
firms spend millions of dollars to discover what drives people to buy
and to act. Generally,
they appeal to our baser instincts: our desire for control, for sex,
for longer lives, for money and such.
But lately, I’ve noticed a healthy trend in some advertising. For example, there is a
commercial for either the Army or the Army National Guard where a
mother is talking to her daughter about enlisting and the daughter
says, “I want to be a part of something bigger than myself.”
Perhaps
it is naïve of me, but I have always believed that within most of us
is a desire to be a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. And actually psychologist and
sociologist would agree with me. It
is the desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves that
causes men and women to enlist in the miltary as well as to become
doctors and missionaries. Sociologist
even say that the motivation to join a gang is driven by a desire to
be a part of something bigger than ourselves.
God is
the one who placed that desire within us and that is why we are most
joyful and fulfilled when we exercise our spiritual gifts for the sake
of the world God loves. When
we acknowledge and use our spiritual gifts we join with God in
bringing God’s kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven—and that
is something much, much bigger than ourselves.
And in
God’s wonderful gracious love when we work for something beyond
ourselves we become most fully ourselves! Thanks be to God!
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