“Gifted by the Spirit, Because of Jesus” Reinbeck UMC 11/22/15

“Gifted by the Spirit, Because of Jesus”

Reinbeck UMC 11/22/15

 How do you respond to the news that you have Spiritual Gifts?

Like this guy?   or more like this guy?   I’m afraid that most of us respond this way. 

•           But why? Is it because we don’t know about Spiritual Gifts? I don’t think so. I know we have talked about Spiritual Gifts before. And you have probably heard several sermons on them through the years.

•           Is that because we don’t have any? NO. I said last week that Paul is very clear that everyone gets Spiritual Gifts.

•           Is it because we don’t know any better? Probably not. Most of us are taught that even if grandma gives you a package of whitey tighty underwear… or if the neighbor gives you a fruitcake youi at least ACT excited and SAY, “ thank you.”

Why, then, does God gets this!

I think it is in part because we misunderstand Spiritual Gifts. 

o          First, we are brought up with the idea that gifts are special. They are for s special occasions like birthdays and Christmas. We don’t expect a gift if it isn’t a special day.

God, however, doesn’t need an excuse to give us a gift. That’s just the way God is. In God’s mind, there is no day more special than today. So today is as good a day as any to unwrap our Spiritual Gifts.

o          That leads to the second problem. Too often we leave our Spiritual Gifts neatly wrapped and on the shelf.

I have never known a kid to leave a gift under the Christmas tree. I have never known a kid to say, “Oh, the paper is so pretty, I think I’ll just set this on my dresser and look at it.” With our  Spiritual Gifts, however, we do it all the time. God’s Spiritual Gifts are here and ready for us. But it seems that we just never get around to unwrapping them.

o          Finally, I think we get hung up on the term Spiritual Gifts.

We seem to have the idea that Spiritual Gifts are for especially Spiritual people. You know, preachers, and deacons, and missionaries. Certainly those folks need a special set of Spiritual Gifts in order to do the work to which they have been called. They are not the only ones, however, who get Spiritual Gifts.

We talked about it last week. Paul writes in our passage today, “Now to EACH ONE the manifestation of the Spirit is given.” EACH ONE. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. There are no exceptions. No one too unimportant. No one too old. No one too young, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US has been given gifts.

So what makes a gift Spiritual. Is it because it is listed in the Bible? No. We need to understand that what makes a gift Spiritual is not where it comes from but how it is used.

Think of it this way.

A tree grows in the forest. It is a gift from God’s good creation, but it is not a Spiritual Gift.

One day a carpenter comes and cuts it down. He takes it home slabs it, dries it, soon it becomes lumber. That lumber is a gift from God, but it still is not a Spiritual Gift.

From there we can do a thousand things with it. We might build a house, or a mighty war ship, or a kitchen cupboard. No matter what the carpenter does with it, it is still a gift from God, but it isn’t a Spiritual Gift.

On the other hand, take that tree and build an altar. Build a church. Build a homeless shelter. Build a wagon so a child can pull his little sister around because her limbs were blown off by a land mine. Build a table around which leaders gather to negotiate peace. Lay it across a couple of sawhorses and use it as a makeshift operating table in a refugee village. Build a habitat for humanity home. Build a toy to be taken to a child in Haiti. Build a cross to be given to someone as a witness of your faith. And suddenly that ordinary gift of creation has become holy. It has become Spiritual. It has become a Spiritual Gift. All we have and all we are is a gift from God. It becomes a Spiritual Gift when it is used for God’s glory or God’s kingdom.

 Remember How I defined a Spiritual Gift last week? It is the Holy Spirit working in you, making you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do. Holy Spirit working in you, making you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do. The tree is not the gift, the gift is God working in us to use the tree for his glory and his kingdom.

•           The Spiritual Gift is not the ability to speak in public, it is the willingness to use my ability to speak in public to preach the word of God.

•           The Spiritual Gift is not teaching, it is the willingness teach the people about God.

•           The Spiritual Gift is not serving, but serving in God’s name.

•           The Spiritual Gift is not being poor, but knowing that true wealth is in the kingdom of God.

See how that works.

So how do we know what our Spiritual Gifts are? Let’s use an acronym I created.

  is for Biblical Spiritual Gifts. These are the ones listed in the Bible. We can take a Biblical Spiritual Gifts inventory like this one to help us identify our Biblical gifts. I have some if you want one, and we will use them in our Spiritual Gifts retreat in April. When I take in the inventory I pretty consistently see preaching, teaching, and administration are my predominant gifts. I feel certain that some of you have the Biblical gift of teaching, or the Biblical Gift of hospitality, or the Biblical gift of leadership. You will find these Biblical gifts listed on your handout. As I said last week am not willing to limit the infinitely wise and creative God to a list of 25 or50 or even 100 possible Spiritual Gifts. So we have to understand that these Biblical gifts are a good sampling, but they are certainly not exhaustive.

You can see that these are all gifts through which the Holy Spirit might work through to make you able and willing to do things you might not otherwise do. Celebrate them.

 We also have to consider our  nterests. In what are you interested? What gets your attention? What makes you curious? What is important to you? Where are your passions? What excites you?

 An example of an INTEREST as a Spiritual Gift might be Robyn’s interest in the persecuted church. No one in their right mind wants to read the stories of Christians being killed, imprisoned, and tortured, unless they are driven by the Spirit to lift up the plight of these people.

In what are you interested? Are you interested in children or the elderly? Are you interested in Haiti, or Africa? Are you interested in reaching others for Christ, or visiting, or comforting? Evelyn Wininger is interested in helping the hungry through the food pantry so she has been helping with that for several years.

Is it possible that your interest is more than mere curiosity? Sure! Does your interest drive you to do something for Jesus that you might not otherwise be willing or able to do? Then it is a Spiritual Gift. Celebrate it.

   is for favorites. What are your favorite things. While it is true that sometimes in the service of God, we do things that we just do not like, more often, I think, God works through our favorite things to ask us to do things that we might not otherwise be able or willing to do.

I think of the men we have heard speak at the Prairie Lakes Cabin Fever Dinner. They love to shoot, or hunt, or fish; and it is because of these favorite things that God gives them the opportunity to speak to thousands of people over the course of a year, not just to teach them about their favorite things, but also to share their love for God, and how God has worked in their lives. Would these guys get up to preach on Sunday morning? Maybe they would now, but I think they would deny that they have the gift of preaching. They do have the gift of being passionate enough about something that they are willing to stand up and share about, and in the process share what God means to them. It is almost as if the passion, the favorite thing is the excuse to get them to do something that they would otherwise find very difficult. So sometimes God uses our passions, or our favorite things, to get us to things that we would otherwise be unwilling or would think that we are unable to do.

Is your passion photography? Is your passion reading? Is one of your favorite things old movies? Is one of your favorite things flowers? Edie uses one of her favorite things, prayer, to be a prayer warrior for us. Pat uses one of her favorite things, baking, to take sweet love gifts to people who need a special lift. And God uses one of my favorite things eating sweets to make Pat feel wanted and useful! Paul Ehrig uses one of his favorite things, kids to make himself available as a reading tutor at the Elementary school. What is your favorite thing? How can God use that? How can God use your favorite things to lead you to do things that you otherwise would not or could not do? That is a Spiritual Gift. Celebrate it.

 The fourth kind of Spiritual Gift is our   alents. What talents has God given you that help you to do things you otherwise would not or could not do for him? Is it singing, then sing! If it is playing the piano or guitar, then play. If it is drama, then use it. Pat and Robert use their talent for flowers to decorate the flowerbox out front every year. Jan used her eye for classy beauty to decorate the tables at the GR Staff Thank You Dinner. Barb Wildman uses her natural talent for drama to bring richness to the spring concert each year.

A talent is a natural ability or aptitude. What are your natural talents? Use them! Find a way to offer it to God. That is a Spiritual Gift. Celebrate it.

 Finally, we come to  . S stands for skills. These are things that we are not natural talents, but we can learn. I learned to be a carpenter, and used it to rehab homes for low-income first time homebuyers, as well as mission trips, and around the church. Kim learned the skills of nursing so that she could care for the sick, and hopefully take those skills to Nigeria some day.

Those are skills that we learned. It might have started as an interest, or a talent, or a passion, but we learn the skills and we put them to work for God.

Use a skill you have or learn a new one and offer it to God. That is a Spiritual Gift. Celebrate it.

Our Gifts, Interests, Favorites, Talents, and Skills all rolled together make our Spiritual Gift cluster that I talked about last week. And you already know what those Gifts, Interests, Favorites, Talents, and Skills are. If you really think about it, you already know your gift cluster. You don’t need a test for that. You don’t need anyone to tell you what your favorite things are, you don’t need anyone to tell you what you talents are.

What you need is someone to give you the authority to use them for God. Let me go one further, let me lift up your responsibility to use your gifts for God. God has given you a great set of gifts… and all God asks is that you use it.

I want you to turn your handouts over now. To the page that looks like this.

  Find a pencil and next to the first gifts write, a biblical gift you think you might have.  Next to the second gift, an interest. (It is probably best not to think too long on these. Your first answers are probably the best.) Next to the third, your favorite things, or passions. Next to the 4th your talents. And finally, the skills that you have learned.

Now, look at that list and decide on one Gift, Interest, Passion, Talent, or Skill that you are not currently using for God, but could. You might not know how yet, but let the Holy Spirit guide your thoughts and write one of them in the box at the bottom. This is just for you. So stick it in your pocket, wallet, or purse so you will find it later, and be reminded of the responsibility you have to use that power for God.

You may remember the story about the man who was fishing with his friend the game warden. After not catching anything for a while he reached in his tackle box and pulled out stick of Dynamite. The game warden asked him what he was doing. The man replied, “Fishing.”

The game warden said, “You can’t do that.”

The man thought for a moment. Lit the fuse, and handed it to his game warden friend. He said, are you going to write me a ticket or are you going to fish?

Having Spiritual Gifts is like having a lit stick of dynamite in your hand. So I ask you… are you going to sit there, or are you going to fish?