August 10, 2008 Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Series: We are the Body

Sermon Title: “One for All and All for One”

Text: 1 Cor. 12:1-11

Dr. Steve Jackson

NewSong Community Church

Delivered on August 10, 2008

 

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

1 Corinthians 12:7

 

One for All and All for One

 

We are continuing our series “We are the Body” today. Last week I introduced the series by explaining how my recent mission trip to Africa made me want to come back home and simplify things. While in Africa God impressed upon my heart how simple the Christian faith and church really is. As I flew home I became more and more convicted about how we complicate things over here with all our deep theology and with all the “stuff” we think we have to have, or know, to be a Christian or a church.

 

This thought returned to me this week when I ran across an owner’s manual of a 1922 Ford Model T on the Internet. The entire manual for that car – cover and all – was only 63 pages long. Guess how many pages the 2008 Acura TL owner’s manual has? 414! Of course, the Model T didn’t have Satellite radio, or a navigation system, or all the other bells and whistles cars today have. But guess what. That old Model T would get you from here to there just like that brand new Acura will. Maybe a little slower, but it would get you there and it was a whole lot easier to fix! My point is; we’ve complicated things.

 

I’m not against progress – what I’m against is missing the whole point because we’ve complicated things so much. Our goal in this series is to get back to our roots by asking: “What does it really mean to be a Christian?” And, “What does it mean to be the church?” Our key verse for the series is 1 Corinthians 12:27 which says, “Now you are the body of Christ, [that’s us, the Church] and each one of you [that’s each of us individually] is a part of it.”

 

I’ve got a slide up here that may help you see visually where we’re going.  You’ll notice that everything starts with God’s SELECTION. That’s what we talked about last week. You were selected by God from before time began to be a child of God. I preached a message a few months ago where I said if I had to boil Christianity down to just one word that word would be “chosen.” What a sweet word. It means you and I are God’s beloved, He reached down from heaven and called us unto himself. I still remember to this day when I was a little kid out playing kickball on the playground. Two of the better athletes would be the “captains” and they’d take turns picking their team. I remember staring at the ground – I couldn’t even bear to look – as the teams were picked. I remember how sweet it sounded when one of them would say, “I’ll take Jackson.” Many times it was when they were down to the dregs – you know – right before the other captain would say, “You take the rest” because he knew the last few kids were more of a detriment to the team than an asset. Well long ago, before you even had ears to hear it, God said, “I’ll take Jackson….Adams…Smith…” etc…,. It all began with God’s general call to you, with being chosen, called into a relationship with God. First comes the call of Christ to salvation; and simultaneous to that is the call to community; and finally God’s call to transformation. This part – God’s selection of us, his general call, primarily has to do with being instead of doing. The call of God is a call to be someone – a Christian, and not a call to do something.

 

This week we’re going to move from the “being” aspect of Christianity to the “”doing” side. Starting today we’re going to talk about the ways God shapes us for ministry. This has to do with God’s particular call. For the next few weeks we’re going to talk about five ways God has uniquely shaped you for ministry.

 

Again – here’s how it flows. God calls us into relationship with him; we are selected by him to enter into a love relationship with him. Christianity starts with being in love with God and our fellow man. We’ve simply got to start there; that’s why our mission statement at NewSong starts with the clause, “Love God.” The way this love expresses itself – and thus the ways in which we find fulfillment in life – is by serving God and others.

 

Stated another way, God created (“formed and fashioned” Job 10:8) you and me to “be” someone: a lover of God. He also created us to “do” something, “good works” which are to be our “way of life” (lit. to “tread in”). Remember the verse we keyed on last week? Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

 

For the next few weeks we’re going to try to get a handle on five specific ways God has shaped you and me for ministry. My prayer is that as we go through the ways God has shaped you He will reveal places and ways where you can serve that align with your unique gifts, heart, aptitude, personality and experiences.

 

Today we’re going to talk about the first way God has shaped us, by giving us spiritual gifts. A spiritual gift is a special ability, given by the Holy Spirit, to be used to minister to others and therefore build up the body of Christ. Spiritual Gifts are what our reading for today from First Corinthians is about. Notice how Paul begins the passage, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed” (1 Cor. 12:1). In this letter to the Corinthian Church Paul addresses a number of issues. There are several places where he begins teaching by referring back to questions or controversies that the people have obviously written him about (viz 1 Cor. 7:1). Obviously there was some confusion about spiritual gifts and Paul thought the topic important enough that he needed to sort things out for them. In fact, spiritual gifts are such an important matter He teaches on them in three places (Romans 12:1-13 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 Ephesians 4:1-15 (see also 1 Peter 4:7-14 not Paul, of course).

 

I believe spiritual gifts are important to us today too. Even though some are subject to misuse and abuse (healing, miracles, and speaking in tongues) and others seem specialized and out-dated (celibacy, voluntary poverty), and some require a greater openness to the supernatural than some Christians are willing to give, spiritual gifts are still alive and well in the twenty-first century. We could spend weeks pouring over the gifts and what they’re all about. Fortunately, today’s passage contains almost everything you need to know about spiritual gifts. I’m going to point out three of those things this morning.

 

1. The DIVERSITY of Spiritual Gifts: Variety

The first thing this passage teaches about spiritual gifts concerns the diversity of spiritual gifts. Paul makes this clear in verses 4-6, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates them in everyone.”

 

He actually lists nine of them in this passage (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues). Different lists elsewhere list even more varieties of gifts. There’s not just one kind of spiritual gift. Our God likes variety. In fact, there’s not a comprehensive list of spiritual gifts to be found anywhere in Scripture. There are twenty or so different spiritual gifts mentioned in various places in the New Testament, but even among those passages there are discrepancies.

 

But don’t fret about that. Diversity is good! In fact, thinking back to our series title, “We are the Body” reminds us that, as with the human body, we need all kinds of gifts: eyes, and ears, and noses, etc… Imagine how boring and difficult life would be if we all had the exact same spiritual gift!

 

I thought about this the other day when I got new contact lenses. I am farsighted in my right eye and nearsighted in my left. So when I want to read I close my right eye and read through my left. When I want to see a traffic sign I close my left and open my right. That can be pretty irritating (and dangerous), but at least I have everything I need. God has given me everything I need in terms of sight by allowing my eyes to be the way they are.

 

This has obvious relevance in the church, the local community of faith. God brings us people with a variety of gifts, and as people employ their gifts, God’s work gets done. But as people hold back their gifts, God’s work suffers. We need everyone, male and female, young and old.

 

On the way back from Ghana our plane arrived early at JFK but then we had to sit on the tarmac for almost two hours. We had a narrow window of time to make our connecting flight to Atlanta to begin with, and after the delay, we were late. Naturally our connecting flight was on the other side of the airport. I remember as soon as we got off the plane I called out to Amy, Leigh and Kim, “Run!” I knew their young legs would get to the gate faster than some of ours would. I’m not saying “young legs” are a spiritual gift, but what I am saying is that God knows in every situation what gifts are needed and so he brings a diverse group of gifts to every faith community so His work can get done.

 

There are a variety of spiritual gifts, and God wants to use each one.  Last week I gave you some truths about God’s calling. Let me share a truth with you about spiritual gifts: Truth #1 - Every community of faith has all the spiritual gifts they need to do what God is calling them to do at any particular moment of time. This precept is taught time and time again in the New Testament.

 

2. The DISTRIBUTION of Spiritual Gifts: From God to each of us

The second thing this passage teaches about spiritual gifts has to do with the distribution of spiritual gifts. I’m talking about where they come from, and where they go.

 

a) Spiritual Gifts Come From God (the Holy Spirit)

As far as where they come from, the answer to that is they come from God. Clearly that’s something Paul is trying to emphasize in this passage. He writes, “Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone…” Paul says, even though there are a variety of spiritual gifts, they all come from a common source: God. And that’s great news because since they come from God they are supernatural. In other words they go above and beyond what you and I might be trained for, or work ourselves into. They are special abilities God gives us.

 

Truth #2, Spiritual gifts are allocated by God; you don’t get to choose.

 

b) Every Believer Has at Least One Spiritual Gift

The other half of the distribution equation has to do with where the spiritual gifts go. Where they go is every believer has at least one. Look again at verse 7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Spiritual gifts aren’t something only the spiritually elite possess. Like God’s call, they’re not for a few but for all believers. Some of us may not realize yet what our gift is, but the Bible says we all have at least one. That makes it incumbent on us to discover what our spiritual gift is (gifts are) so we can be serving out of our giftedness; or like Paul said in last week’s key verse, so we can be walking in it as our “way of life.”

 

Truth #3 for the day, Every believer has at least one or more spiritual gift and every believer finds his or her fulfillment in discovering and using those gifts. The obvious corollary from this truth is that nothing is more draining or frustrating than operating outside your area of giftedness. I’ve tried it, and believe me, it is brutal.

 

3. The DESIGN of Spiritual Gifts: they are intended to build up the body of Christ

The third thing this passage teaches about spiritual gifts is the design of spiritual gifts; that is, their intended use. We find that by looking at verse 7 again, “To each (there again, we all got one) is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” This is the thing that many folks lose sight of: Spiritual gifts are to be used to minister to others to help build the kingdom of God. This doesn’t mean that you won’t derive joy from walking in your giftedness; you will. What it does mean that spiritual gifts are given by God to be shared and not hoarded. A spiritual gift is an expression of faith meant to strengthen faith; yours and others’, when you use it.

 

In order to “not be informed,” as Paul said, you and I need to understand what we’ve just heard about spiritual gifts: they are diverse, they are distributed from God to each believer, and they are designed to build up the church.

 

Truth #4 for today, Spiritual gifts are meant to be deployed for the common good, and not to promote the ego of the doer. The church is meant to be a gift-deployment center; a gift-evoking and gift-bearing community.

 

Let me close with a brief word on how to discover your spiritual gift(s). There are many ways. One way many people try to discern their spiritual gift(s) is by serving in a few ministries to see which one feels right. In my experience this is pretty “hit-or-miss;” you’re far more likely to discover what you are not gifted for by attempting this. A second way is to pray about it, asking God to reveal it to you. Since we just learned that it is the Holy Spirit who determines who gets what gifts, each of us needs to listen Him.  Still another way is by using a spiritual gifts inventory where you answer a few questions and your giftedness is revealed by your answers.

 

Today as we close the service we’re going to try the last two of these methods.

 

We’re going to begin with a time of prayer where I’m going to ask you to simply listen for God to speak. Listening is a personal and a private matter, but it often happens in a public place, or during an unexpected moment. How to hear the Lord is a great mystery; but one thing is clear, all who wish to hear will hear.

 

We’re also going to make a spiritual gift inventory available to you immediately after the service. Filling one out only takes about ten minutes and I’m hopeful you’ll fill one out before you leave today.

 

I realize you don’t fully grasp spiritual gifts after this message; I don’t either, after studying them intensely for a week. In many ways they are a mystery. But clearly God calls us to discover, develop and deploy our gifts. Let’s do this – let’s step toward God, offering ourselves to be used, and let’s listen to him, and see what happens. Shall we? Let’s pray.

 

Father, we stand before you desiring the spiritual gifts. We don't want to keep you from doing whatever you want to do in our lives. We want to be filled with your Spirit. We want to discover the gifts of the Spirit working in and through our lives for the purpose of serving others and building up your church. Lord, we pray that you will release the gifts of the Spirit in our congregation. Lord, we yield ourselves to you; make it clear what our gifts are and how and where we are to use them. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.