Believe: spiritual gifts February 26, 2017

Believe: spiritual gifts

February 26, 2017

 Surprise!

Welcome to the biggest surprise party ever!

Most of you had no idea when you came in this morning that you are the guest of honor at the biggest surprise party the world has ever seen. It is being thrown for each of us, and all of us together by our loving heavenly gift-giver.

Yes! I said gifts. Didn’t I tell you there are gifts for everyone? You didn’t know you were getting gifts did you? There’s one for each of us. Some are humongous, so big you can’t miss them. Others are tiny. But you know what they say, sometimes the best things come in small packages.

These gifts are not some mass-produced, store-bought, no-thought, plastic trinkets. Each one is a hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind, specialized gift designed, built, and given to a specific person by our loving God. And there is one for you. For you! How awesome is that?! There are no exchanging gifts, because no one else’s gifts will fit you.

There is one catch. The tag on each gift says that the gift must be used with others. These gifts are no fun to play with alone.

What you do next is up to you.. You have to decide if you are going to open your gift. Well, that seems like a no-brainer. Of course you’ll open it right? You would be surprised how many people leave them wrapped up and sitting on the shelves.

 Of course, I am talking about spiritual gifts. And everything I have said is true. There is one for each of us, they are all different sizes, and they are all custom made… and many people never even remove the wrapping paper.

Perhaps we need to understand spiritual gifts a little better. That’s what we are going to try to do today.

 First, I want to explain what spiritual gifts are. Spiritual gifts are not talents that you are born with. They are not skills you can practice. Yes, our talents and skills are also gifts from God, but they are not spiritual gifts.

A spiritual gift is given to each and every Christian by the Holy Spirit after they accept Jesus as Lord. It is truly a gift. It is not something you learn in school or just do naturally. In fact, it might even seem unnatural at first, but remember it is made just for you, so no worries about it being the wrong size or color.

Fundamentally, a talent or skill is something YOU do. Your spiritual gift is the way GOD WORKS THROUGH YOU. But they are often complimentary.

•              A person teaching LIGHT, for instance, might not have the gift of teaching (don’t worry they can learn those skills) but they might do a great job in that ministry because they have the gift of encouragement.

•              Not every pastor has the gift of preaching, but they may be a great pastor because they have the gift of pastoring (which is not a job but a gift for looking after the flock and caring for people’s spiritual needs.)

•              Someone might be great cook and people might enjoy eating their food. Cooking is not a spiritual gift, it is a skill they have learned, but couple that with a spiritual gift of hospitality (the art of making people of all kinds feel comfortable and accepted.) Then you really have a wonderful ministry using a skill and your gift together.

Spiritual gifts are not  abilities with which you are born. Spiritual gifts are not skills you can learn.

But sometimes our spiritual gifts and our natural skills and abilities, might complement one another.

The other way Spiritual gifts are different is that they are no fun by ourselves. As the tag on the gift says, “to be used with other people.” A skill or a talent, you can use however you want. Hopefully if you are a good cook, a carpenter, an accountant, a gardener, a facebook guru, whatever it is… hopefully you will share it with the church, because after all it is from God as well.

 But the spiritual gifts are given for the specific purpose of being used in the church.

Starting in verse 12 of Ephesians 4, they are given to EQUIP the saints for the work of ministry. That is, get the people of the church ready to do the work of the kingdom. This is for persons inside the church. Not that we can’t use our gift of compassion or healing outside the congregation, but that is an extension of the church’s ministry through your spiritual gift. The spiritual gift is given to prepare the body of Christ to be his hands and feet in the world.

 Later in that verse, Paul writes they are to EDIFY the body of Christ, or BUILD UP the body of Christ. I know people who seem to think they have the gift of criticism. They don’t, because a spiritual gift is not for the puffing up of the ego. Anything that tears down, or divides God’s people is not a spiritual gift. Spiritual gifts are for the building up, strengthening, and preparing of God’s people to reach out to the world.

 One of the next phrases in Ephesians goes along with the building up. That is unity of the faith. If a gift causes dissention in the church, it is not a spiritual gift or it is not being used right. You might know that the gift of speaking in tongues is listed in 1 Cor. 12 as spiritual gift. It has been, unfortunately, badly misunderstood and abused over the years, to divide the church into have’s and have not’s, spiritual and unspiritual, true Christian and unchristian. That is not the purpose of any of the spiritual gifts. They are to bring the church into the UNITY OF THE FAITH.

 In verse 13 Paul writes the spiritual gifts are intended to bring us to MATURITY TO THE MEASURE OF CHRIST. In other words to be more like Jesus. Discipleship is not an overnight event. Poof and you are a disciple. That is the point of this whole series on spiritual practices. There are exercises we must do if we want to grow closer to Jesus. We don’t expect our children and grandchildren to act like adults at 4 years old, or even 10 or 16. We know they have to mature. The same is true for discipleship and knowing and practicing our spiritual gifts is part of maturing in Christ. We need to grow and mature in our discipleship before we can take on the world.

 Finally, and maybe most importantly, Paul teaches that our spiritual gifts will speak the truth in love. He makes the same point in 1 Cor 12, where he has that famous passage about the different parts of the body not being able to say I don’t need you. He ends that with “Let me tell you about an even more excellent way”… and of course he goes into the beautiful 13th chapter which ends saying everything else will pass away… even our gifts will pass away, but three things remain… “faith hope and love, these three, but the greatest is love.” If our gifts don’t come from love. There is something wrong. If our gifts don’t bring love … there is something wrong. All things …our teaching and preaching and exhorting, and prophesying, and healing must come out of the Great love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and help others to see that love.

 So, how do you know what you gift is. You can take an inventory, and I have placed a stack on the back table. But the truth is, those are mostly good to affirm us and reassure us that we are on the right track. Fundamentally, you will not be surprised at what the inventory says, because you already know what you spiritual gifts are. Even if you don’t think of them that way.

Let me illustrate. Suppose someone here spilled his or her coffee this morning. This is how people with different gifts would respond.

•              Service: “Let me help you clean it up.” (click)

•              Mercy: “I’m so sorry that happened. Let me get you another cup.” (click)

•              Giving: “Here, you can have my cup. I’ haven’t drunk out of it yet.”

•              Administration: “_____, would you get the mop? ____, please help pick this up. _____, could you get him another cup of coffee?” (click)

•              Faith: “Where God empties one cup, He always fills another.” (click)

•              Teaching: “What did we learn? We learned that it would be best to give people trays for their coffee.”

•              Exhortation: “Maybe we should let someone else carry your coffee for you next time.” (click)

•              Wisdom: “It’s OK, ‘there’s no use crying over spilled coffee.’ ” (click)

•              Miracles: “Let’s ask God to put the coffee back in the cup, shall we?”

•              Healing: “Don’t be embarrassed. In fact I did something a lot worse than that my first Sunday here. ” (click)

•              Prophecy: “If you keep doing that, someone going to get burned.” 

I know they are a little contrived, but you get the idea.

 What is your natural response to that situation… that probably points you toward your spiritual gift.

What if everyone had the gift of administration, who is going to help clean up.

What if everyone had the gift of giving, the man would have 10 cups of coffee to drink. You see, we need all the gifts in the right balance that God provides. I am persuaded that God gives the church all the gifts we need. The problem is some people leave them unwrapped on the shelf.

Let me tell you about a little boy named Tony. Tony’s singing voice was high and squeaky, he did not make the tryouts for the choir. When he took violin lessons, the neighbors persuaded his parents to make him stop. But Tony had music in his soul. He wanted to make music.

 His friends gave him a hard time because his only talent was whittling. When he was older, he served as an apprentice to a violinmaker. His knack for whittling grew into a skill of carving and his hobby became his craft. He worked patiently and faithfully. By the time he died, he left over 1,500 violins, each one bearing a label that read, “Antonio Stradivarius.”

 They are the most sought-after violins in the world and sell for more than $100,000 each.

•              Tony could have said, “If I can’t sing I won’t make music.” His gift would still be sitting on the shelf and the world would never have heard the sweet tones of a Stradivarius violin. Some of you still have a gift sitting on the shelf because you haven’t opened to it yet.

•              Tony could have decided since he couldn’t sing, he would let the professionals make all the music. Some of you store your gift on the shelf figuring that’s what we hire a pastor for. (If all the body were a mouth, where would the hearing be.”)

•              Tony could have said, “I’m afraid that making violins may not be right for me, so I’ll just whittle Kazoos.” Some of you have wonderful gifts for teaching for instance, but you seem to settle for so much less.

•              Tony could have said. “Someone else will make violins.” Some of you have left your spiritual gifts to gather dust and let others do the work.

•              Tony could have said, “I’m good that this, but what I really want to do is write a book about making violins.” Some of you know what you gift is, but you decide you chose not to make a commitment, or prefer to do something else.

•              Tony could have said, “Who me? I can’t do that I’ll just work at Burger King.” Some of you sell yourself short, not believing that EVERYONE has a gift to offer: EVEN YOU

•              But Tony didn’t do any of those things, and look at what he did.  Thanks be to God that some of you have opened you gift, you have put it on, polished it up and are exercising it for the edification and unity of the body and the glory of God.

Even a Stradivarius violin, if it is locked it up and never played, will eventually dry up and loose its resonance. Now ask yourself if you are guilty of locking up the most wonderful gift of God, rather than using it to change the church and the world for Jesus Christ.

No one can do it for you. I could pick up Stradivarius’ tools and there would be no music because that is not my gift.

 It is up to you. We keep talking about every person in ministry… this is where the rubber meets the road. The party horns have been blown. The confetti has fallen, The balloons are starting to lose their buoyancy. The punch is going flat. And everyone waits for you. Only you can decide what you will do with the spiritual gift God has given you.

What will you do?