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Monday, September 16, 2019

"Spiritual Gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:4-13, 27-30)


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Sunday, September 15, 2019

            I know a Christian couple that has spent much of their life together hosting people in their home.  Sometimes their guests stay overnight.  Sometimes they come for dinner.  This couple has a pool in their backyard.  They have had numerous groups from the church and from the neighborhood over for pool parties.  Sometimes their guests are very close friends or family.  Sometimes, they host people they do not know well.  Once, most of the cast of a play that was running in their town came to their home for Thanksgiving dinner.  They did not know these actors but they gladly opened their home on that special day that is often for family time. 
            This couple loves music.  With a piano instead of a TV in their living room, often they will host times of singing with their guests, be it show tunes or worship music.  Having all these people into their space is a lot of work, but it is a labor of love.  They keep photos of all the guests who have stayed with them on the guest room wall.  After almost 4 decades in that house, they’ve run out of space.  In this work of hosting and singing and playing, they serve God by serving and loving others.  In doing so they exercise two spiritual gifts God has given – music and hospitality.
            Would you enjoy hosting people the way this Christian couple does?  Maybe, maybe not; but, like them, you too have spiritual gifts.  As a part of your unique make-up and your relationship with Jesus, you have special gifting God has given in order to build up the church and help others grow in their relationship with Him.  God wants to work through you. 
            The key word in the phrase “spiritual gifts” is spiritual.  The gift is a manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.  What do we mean by the idea of spiritual or spirituality?  If a worship service is full of loud, lively, excellent music; if it is spontaneous; if it includes speaking in tongues; it is “spirit-filled.”  Some people think that only if it is loud, spontaneous, and charismatic can it be called Spirit-filled.  Does the Holy Spirit only work in Sunday morning spontaneity? 
First Corinthians 12:1 reads, “Now concerning spiritual gifts.”  But the word ‘gifts’ is not in the Greek text.  The Greek word in verse 1 is ‘pneumatikwn,’ a plural adjective that could mean ‘spiritual things,’ ‘spiritual matters,’ ‘spiritual persons,’ or based on context it could mean ‘spiritual gifts.’ 
One mistake people make is focusing on the gift instead of the giver.  The most important idea in 1 Corinthians 12 is that in Christ we have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.  As that relationship grows strong through prayer, worship, and the practice of spiritual discipline, we come to learn our gifts. 
The Christian couple from the opening story expresses the gifts of hospitality and music.  Neither gift is found in any of the classic spiritual gift lists in the New Testament.  These passages are 1st Corinthians 12:7-11 and 27-30; Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:11-12; and 1st Peter 4:9-12.  Some readers insist that these are exclusive lists.  I met a retreat leader years ago who had done a PhD on Romans 12.  He believes every Christian must possess one of those gifts cited in that passage.  I think those are ‘for instance’ lists and the Holy Spirit can use supernaturally empower countless other personality traits or abilities as gifts. 
I also don’t think gifts are fixed.  If, 15 years ago, you took an assessment that said your gift is ‘working miracles,’ 1 Corinthians 12:10, does that mean you’ll be a miracle workers all your life?  Maybe.  But maybe in this season of life, the Holy Spirit works through you in a different way.  The Holy Spirit of God is dynamic.  We live in deep relationship with the Spirit, and our lives are dynamic too.  That means we see new things all the time, including new discoveries inside ourselves.  We more and more become who God is calling us to be.  Newness is the story whether you follow Jesus at 15 years old or 85 years old. 

We, as a church will take a spiritual gifts inventory in order to guide us, but I want to offer this.  Take the inventory and do so with hope and enthusiasm.  Just don’t be handcuffed by the results.  Maybe in your pursuit of the Holy Spirit, it will be revealed to you that you are gifted by God as a scientist or as political leader or in some way not specifically mentioned in scripture.  Maybe your gift is courage and you work in a profession that puts you in danger.  Scientist and courage are not things that will turn up when you take the gifts inventory and that’s ok. The inventory is simply a tool we’ll use to help people serve God in ways that bring joy and enable them to excel.  You are gifted; everyone is.  What you do with your gift and the results of your use of it, the fruit of it, will reveal whether or not the Holy Spirit is in it.
We will not let spiritual gifts be divisive in our church.  Some Christians who exercise the gift of speaking in Heavenly tongues insist that only those who speak in tongues are full of the Spirit.  Tongues is an example of one gift, and Paul devotes an entire chapter – 1st Corinthians 14 – to warnings about misuse of that gift.  The people I know who speak in heavenly tongues do so to grow close to God and they never use that gift to disrupt the work of the church.
Pentecostals, Christians who exercise the gift of tongues, and Christians in churches that do not express that gift must work side-by-side to build up the kingdom of God on earth.  In a church like ours, we must not be uncomfortable with our brothers that speak in tongues; and, they can’t see us spiritually inferior when we don’t. 
All true disciples are charismatic Christians.  Charisma means gift of grace.  God gives that one be a teacher, another have the gift of knowledge and use that gift in some type of research, and another the gift of tongues, an so on.  Living the spirit-filled life ought to lead to unity among passionately devoted followers of Jesus, not division.
Remember why we receive spiritual gifts.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  We are gifted to glorify God, advance His kingdom, and build up his church, the Body of Christ.  We know we are using the gifts properly when they produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  When what we do produces the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), then it is likely we have been exercising gifts of grace, Spiritual gifts.
Why do we put such an emphasis on the relationship with the Holy Spirit?  The Holy Spirit was sent by God to be God’s presence with us.  The purposes of the Spirit are (a) to show us the truth, (b) help us recall all Jesus said and did, (c) help live by His leadership, (d) help us know that all we’ve been taught about Jesus is accurate, (e) function as the point of connection in our relationship with God, and (f) glorify Jesus.
In Jesus’ conversation with the disciples at the last supper, recorded in John 16-17, he emphasized the importance of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot follow Him without the Spirit being active in our lives.  Union with Christ – that’s what the Spirit-filled life is; and, the church is the body of Christ, so union with Him includes union with each other. In leading people to Jesus, in establishing new ministry, in helping those in need, and in sewing love, we see that the Holy Spirit at work and we are a part of it.
            To live in the Spirit, we have to open ourselves to God and trust God.  God is the initiator.  We don’t attain the Spirit, we receive the Sprit.  A gifted preacher does not convert people to Christ; the Spirit does.  A gifted healer does not make the wounded whole; the Spirit does.  A gifted servant does not bless the church by leading us all to humility; the Spirit does.  The preacher, the healer, the servant, and all others who use their gifts are God’s instruments.  God gets it going and sustains everything.  Through the Spirit, God empowers us.  Living the Spirit-filled life is turning inward, meeting the Spirit, and then facing the world in the Spirit’s power and following the Spirit’s agenda. 
            I began by telling the story of a couple I know who express their spiritual gifts of music and hospitality.   Through their love, the Holy Spirit ministers to people.  How can you find out your gifts, express them, and become a conduit through which God’s spirit moves? 
            Our spiritual sensitivity is heightened as we live an active faith life.  Volunteer in the church and in local mission opportunities.  Be involved in several ministries, and reflect on your own how you experience God as you serve in the church.
            In addition to ministry, grow close to God by studying the word.  Make the Bible a huge part of your life.  Read it daily so that the content is at the ready in your mind.  Prayerfully meditate on passages that speak to you.  Be involved in Bible study with other Christians.  We learn from each other.  It sound basic to say we learn about the Spirit by coming to worship, serving in the church and in the community, and studying the Bible.  Basic as it may be, building life around these spiritual disciplines awakens us to God’s voice.  We grow in our sensitivity and are thus able to hear the Spirit, receive what the Spirit gives, and respond when the Spirit calls. 
            As a church, we will be taking a spiritual gifts inventory.  We’ll roll this out through the small groups, and make sure it also available to folks not currently in a small group.  We’ll let you know what gifts you might have.  As you participate in church life, we’ll try to help you find ways to maximize your expression of your gifting.  We want everyone to feel that incredible joy that comes in serving God together with the church family. 
            God invites us to live a Spirit-filled life.  We give control of our lives over to God, and in doing so, we get to see who God is.  The Christian couple I talked about to open the message; they see God when they open their home, have people in, and sing with them.  You might see God when you teach or serve or speak Spiritual knowledge of prophecy.  The gifts come from the Spirit, and when we live in our gifting, we are drawn closer to God.  That is a really good place to be.
AMEN

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