“A Gifted Church” – 1 Cor. 12:1-11

How many of you would change something about yourself if you could?  How many would change something physical or mental or in some way change yourself if it were possible?  Everybody would, of course.  Now, I have a dog, Sara, who is perfect in every way.  I tell her that all the time and she just knows it but all the rest of us would change something, some minor, some major, if we could.

 

Did you know that parents can now design their babies to have or not have certain traits?  It started by screening for certain diseases and has evolved into selection for non-medical traits such as sex, hair color and other cosmetic traits, athletic ability, or intelligence.  I understand that this is exactly what my parents did before I was born.  I’m pretty sure they want their money back by now.

 

That’s okay because we know that God has made each one of us just like He wants us.  Not one of us is a mistake.  Yes, we have free will and can, by our bad choices, mess up what he intended but He made each one of us just exactly like He wanted.  Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.”  He made us, inside and out, just like He wanted us to be.  Some things we can change and some we can’t but God makes no mistakes in His creation.

 

In fact, we are going to see today that God gives each of His children certain gifts.  He provides each one of us with certain attributes that make His bride, the church, look exactly like He wants her to look.  Some of you men married women that looked one way on your wedding day and now they look much different.  Please don’t nod your heads up and down too forcefully or she might misunderstand that you mean she has changed for the better.  Keep your eyes wide open before the wedding, half shut afterwards. (Benjamin Franklin)

 

Jesus wants His bride to look a certain way.  It sounds odd for us today but Jesus wants His bride to look just like Him.  He wants the church to have all of the gifts He had.  As a church, we are called the bride of Christ or the body of Christ and through the Holy Spirit He gives us the gifts He wants us to have so that we reflect Him.  He was the perfect embodiment of all of these gifts and when we, as individuals, are all together we make up a church that looks just like Him.

 

That’s what we want.  That’s why we are going through 1 Corinthians in this sermon series called, “Our Church.”  We want to know what we are supposed to look like as a church and Paul lays out a precise description in his letters to the church in Corinth.  That church was very gifted but just like with anything that God does, Satan tries to counterfeit it.  God gave us love.  Satan gives us lust.  God gives joy.  Satan gives temporary happiness.  God gives wisdom but Satan gives blissful ignorance.

 

So Paul is writing in this passage to let them know what true Spirit-given gifts will look like.  Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12.  Last week we were in chapter 11 and Paul starts in verse 17 by saying, “¹⁷ In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. ¹⁸ In the first place…” and then he goes on to tell them how they were abusing the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.  In chapter 12 it’s as if Paul is saying, “Now secondly…”  So let’s see what his point is in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.  It’s on page 813 of most of the Bibles in the pews.

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ² You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. ³ Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.  ⁴ There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.  ⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Now, to me, this is fairly typical of Paul’s writing.  The first few times you read it, it doesn’t make much sense and evidently he was chasing some rabbits in there because what does the first paragraph have to do with the second?  But once you study it, it makes good sense and you realize that Paul never chased rabbits.  You just need to know who he was writing to.

The Corinthians had been pagans or Gentiles, which is just basically saying they weren’t Jews.  They had come out of a lifestyle of worshipping many different gods (little g) and in this worship it was common for them to work themselves up into a frenzy, banging on gongs and cymbals and dancing around until they were out of control all in the name of the god they were trying to worship.  It sounds like some churches still today.

But in this frenzy some of them would start to blaspheme and even curse the name of Jesus so Paul starts off with this illustration of what Spirit-given gifts are not.  In verse 3 he says that nobody who is truly led by the Holy spirit is going to curse Jesus.  It’s not going to happen.  God is not going to give anybody a gift that involves going against what He teaches or what He wants and while I doubt that any of us have ever been in a situation where people who were supposed to be worshipping started blaspheming Jesus, our take-away from this is that God will never give us a gift or ability that should be used to go against His will.

Several times I have heard people say, “I really believe that God is telling me to divorce my spouse.  Even though there are no biblical grounds for divorce, I know that God wants me to be happy.”  Wrong!  God is not in something that displeases Him.  Quit trying to justify your sin by saying what you think or what you want God to say.

Or I have heard people say that God brought this person into their life as a gift and they are going to get married.  No, they’re not a Christian but I’m sure God brought us together.  Wrong!  God says don’t be unequally yoked.  If you come to me to ask what I think, that’s pretty easy.  God did not bring you two together.  That person is not a gift from God and if he or she is not from God then who do you think is trying to counterfeit that gift?

Here’s one you aren’t going to like and you’ll probably get mad and leave the church and egg my house and slit my tires but I have to mention it because it is one of the greatest problems this church has.  Are you listening?  God is not going to give you a job that requires you to work on Sunday.  Period.  That’s not my idea.  It’s not me talking.  I’m not saying it so we can have big numbers at church.  What good are numbers to me?

This whole passage is talking about gifts that God gives to the church to glorify God and edify the church and if you are not in church then how can you edify the church?  I could go on and on about this and the spiritual importance of being in church and how it is sin not to be but we have to move on.  That’s just the first paragraph.

Now, looking at verses 4-6, Paul tells us three things about these Spirit-given gifts.  First, there are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit.  Hold your spot in 1 Corinthians and turn left one book to the book of Romans.  Find chapter 12, verses 6-8.  Paul lists several of these gifts. 

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Now leave there and turn to Ephesians 4:11-12.  This is the last place you’ll need to turn today.  That says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”  I told you that wasn’t my idea!  That’s what Paul is saying in verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 12.  There are different gifts.

Next, in verse 5, he says there are different kinds of service or ministry.  The King James says “administrations.”  Let’s use the word ministry.  We all kind of know what that means.  Our ministry is different than our gift.  You may have the gift of teaching or of mercy but your ministry might be anything.  If you have the gift of mercy you may be called to minister to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated like our church is.

You may have the gift of encouragement but your ministry may be at work or to your neighbor.  That’s what Paul is saying here.  There are different gifts and different ministries.  Now, don’t mistake talents for gifts.  Paul is not talking about our natural-born talents.  You may have a talented singing voice but that’s not what Paul is talking about.  I found this definition of the word “gift” and I think it is spot on.  A Spirit-given gift is the desire and power God gives you to accomplish His purpose.  (Repeat)

I have to tell you, I was going to sing a solo last Sunday morning.  I had been singing a song in the car and I was rocking it.  I got to church and found the music and words and I even had it queued up in the songs on the computer but I thought I better record myself to see if I needed to change anything and boy, was I glad I did.  I quickly realized when I heard that recording that not only am I not gifted to sing, but it’s not my ministry or my talent nor should I have anything to do with it.  It’s not going to keep me from worshipping but that’s not where God has blessed me at all.  I had the desire but not the power.

Now look at verse 6.  In this paragraph, Paul tells us there are different gifts, different ministries and here he says there are different effects.  My version says there are different kinds of working.  Your gift of leadership, let’s say, is used in a different ministry than anybody else uses their gift of leadership and the effects of you using your gift are different than anybody else’s effects.  Your results are different than others.

It doesn’t mean either one of you are doing it wrong.  It’s just different.  That’s how God made you.  Just like he made all of our fingerprints different, He gave us different gifts to use in different ministries that will have different results.  Let me illustrate. The next time we eat together in the Fellowship Hall, suppose someone dropped a plate full of dessert on the newly-cleaned by Troy Pittman floor. This is how people with different gifts would respond.

· Gift of prophecy or preaching – “I told you to be careful.”

· Gift of service – “Oh, let me help you clean it up.”

· Gift of teaching – “The reason that it fell was because it was too heavy on one side.”

· Gift of exhortation – “Next time, maybe you should let someone else carry it.”

· Gift of giving – “Here, you can have my dessert.”

· Gift of mercy - “Don’t feel too bad. It could have happened to anyone.”

· Gift of administration - “Jim, would you get the mop? Sue, please help pick this up. Mary, could you get him another dessert?”

This passage is not about trying to show you what your gift is nor is this message about finding your Spirit-given gift.  We have talked about and studied gifts before and we will again but today you just need to focus on why you have gifts and where they come from.

A Spirit-given gift will always be given to bring glory to God and to God only.  But remember, Satan will always try to counterfeit your gift so you can use it for your glory.  1 Peter 4:10: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” Paul’s concern for young Timothy was that he not only be able to identify his gift, but that he would implement it: “Do not neglect your gift…I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God” (1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6).  (Brian Bill)

Some time ago I read a survey about bad Christmas gifts.  It said that 30% of the people interviewed found that a fruitcake was the worst gift you could give; even worse than no gift at all.  It said that 70% of the people would throw that fruitcake in the trash if they got it. 

I wonder what the statistic is of Christian people in the church who do the same thing with their Spirit-given gift.  How many people don’t use or misuse their gift?  When you study the first church in the book of Acts, you see that there was a lot going on.  They didn’t have a lot of possessions but you see they obviously had preaching and teaching and giving and wisdom and encouragement and discernment and all of that energized the church.  They were able to do great things with very little when they all used the gifts God gave them.

What happens to your cell phone when you put it on the charger?  It gets charged up.  It gets energized, right?  Then what starts happening the instant you take it off the charger?  It starts to go down.  It loses life and energy.  It’s the same with the church.  When you are here, you may not even know it but you may be using your gift in such a way that is just what somebody else needed.  When you aren’t here there are certain things that other people may have to do and they may not be gifted in that area like you are.  Or maybe those things just don’t get done.

Verse 7 says that these gifts are given for the common good.  That Paul was such an incredible writer.  I noticed something as I was going through this and I looked at the previous sermons I had preached in this series.  We started this series called “Our Church” with chapters 1-2 seeing how we should be a unified church.  When you use your Spirit-given gifts for the common good as God designed, there is unity in the church.

In chapter 8 we looked at being a sacrificial church.  Using your gifts requires sacrifice but is rewarded.  Chapter 11 talks about being submissive to one another and you can’t do that unless somebody steps up and uses his Spirit-given gift.

Chapter 13 is next week and it is an all-time favorite passage.  1 Corinthians 13 talks about love but it is in the context of using your gifts.  Paul starts chapter 13 by saying, “Now, let me show you the most excellent way” and he is talking about the most excellent way to use your gifts and you use them in love.

God made you just like you are and He didn’t make a mistake.  Then when you became a Christian He gave you certain gifts that would edify, or build up, the church and, again, He didn’t make a mistake.  He has given every one of us special gifts that, when used correctly, will make the church look just like Him and that is what He wants and that is what He will bless.  That’s what we want as well.

In chapter 12, Paul is talking about certain specific, God-given gifts that are given to Christians when they come to have that life-changing relationship with Jesus.  In fact, that is part of the life-changing that goes on.  You are given gifts.  But when you think about it, everything we have and everything we are is a gift from God.  Every breath we take and every relationship we have is God showing His grace and mercy and we thank Him today for those gifts.

But the ultimate gift God gives us is His Son Jesus, through whom we can have eternity in Heaven if we only believe in Him.  That word “believe” means to fully rely on.  In other words, it is fully relying on the sacrifice of Jesus for forgiveness of our sins and our entry into Heaven.

John 14:6 says, “Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and nobody gets to the Father except through Me.’”  Have you truly believed in Jesus?  Have you truly put all your faith and trust in Him and Him alone?  There is no other way to eternal life.  There is no other way for forgiveness or peace or joy or the Spirit-given gifts we have talked about today.  Do that right now.