Paul
Sing A New Song (I Waited Patiently For The Lord)
It's A Love Song
My Hope Is In You (To You Lord I Lift My Soul)
Everlasting
Jesus You're More Than A Friend
Jon
Starting a series on spiritual gifts
Sat 10:30am
Ephesians 4:1-16; 1 Corinthians 12; John 14:12
Ephesians 4
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call- 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
9( In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Some of you may not know your spiritual gift
Looked at Jesus
The disciples kept trying to live by Jesus’ precepts
In one of the gospels Jesus follows up His statement about leaving with the fact that He will give us a counselor
Acts talks about the Holy Spirit filling the apostles with power
Each one received a gift as God saw fit
Without the gift we would be unable to spread the ministry of Jesus
Think of gifts as a mosaic – each piece is beautiful but put together it shows an image of Jesus in the world
You can’t make sense of any one piece individually
Without that one piece the mosaic remains a mystery
Scripture tells us we will be enabled to continue
John 14
12″Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
When you come together you will do even more than I
We have a tendency to raise one gift above the other
No
Luke was a physician who wrote a gospel account and the book of Acts
In my previous book Theophilus I told you about Jesus
Ephesians 2:17
Ephesus is in Asia Minor where Jesus never went – but 8 of His apostles did
How can Paul say Christ preached to Asia Minor?
Paul understood that our spiritual gifts made us a representative of the king
Outline of the purpose of spiritual gifts
1. Enabled to meet the needs of others
2. Gifts are free
3. To help others come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ
Edifying others and build them up to support us
1 Corinthians 12:7
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Manifest doesn’t mean magical
Simple means to make something visible
If I were angry with you, you wouldn’t know it unless I manifested my anger
Spiritual gift is not what you are but what you do
I’m one of God’s kids
An ability that’s been given so that you may meet the needs of others around you
Edify means building someone up into the house of God
Every one of us is a living stone in the Lord’s temple
A spiritual gift is the ability to edify others into the Lord’s temple
Living stones being mortared into the house of God
Everything works together – people look at us corporately
Gifts are when God uses us beyond our talents
Both are from God and both are used to edify
Talents, abilities, passions
2 chapters into Genesis the beauty is hijacked and the enemy starts defacing the beauty
God wants us to use our talents to bring beauty back into the world
Gifts are the ability to edify others
Gift of Teaching – ability to communicate
What you said affected me – the Holy Spirit can use something I say to help edify you into the holy temple of Jesus’ body
Edify, not entertain
Gift of exhortation
There’s a healing that takes place
Gifts are life-long
Hand will always be a hand
Gifts are given in clusters
Gift of encouragement, exhortation, counseling
Great at encouraging others
Good at one on ones or small groups or large groups or single women, etc.
One gift -> many different ministries
Your unique gifts line you up with a very specific ministry
There are only certain people in this world that you can reach – they will only ever respond to you
I have prepared in advance certain good works for you – not going to just tell you, you need to go out and edify others
Gifts are not natural talents or spiritual fruits
As a follower of Jesus Christ the fruit of the Spirit has been planted deep within your spirit
The fruit without gifts is like tires without air
I know a lot of gifted people in ministry who let their fruits dry up…
I’ve watched men and women in ministry run off with the secretary because they didn’t nourish their fruits
Know them by their fruit, not their gifts
As we prepare for communion, think about the body broken into pieces for you that we may be shattered and edified into the temple of God
Paul
Communion
Come In Close (Beautiful Are The Words Spoken To Me)
Jesus Paid It All