Part 3 - The Spiritual Gifts (Lesson # 10 Fundamentals of the Faith)

So this will be part 3 of lesson 10 on the subject of the spiritual gifts.

So it looks like we'll probably finish this morning and then we'll move on to the next lesson next time.

That's the way it appears. So we ended with talking about the permanent gifts. I remember where we left off.

I just want to see if you do. I'm just testing you. Where do we leave off? Mercy.

Right. Yeah. Mercy was the last thing we talked about and then it moves on after that to exhortation.

So just a quick review because somebody brought this up last week. Afterwards to me how it is possible to have.

It is possible to have knowledge without wisdom. But you can't have the gift of wisdom without knowledge.

So I thought that was a good insight. I think that makes sense. Chapter or number six discernment discernment.

We talked about this. Maybe the most unpopular of the spiritual gifts. Mercy is the ability to show deep compassion to those who have spiritual, physical or emotional needs.

So that's where I ended off talking about visiting people who are maybe shut ins or in the nursing home or people that are just going through a really tough time.

Those who have the gift of mercy would be inclined to reach out to people or go visit them and just try to be a comfort.

I had said that, you know, this is something that I do as the pastor. If I know somebody is in the hospital or if a church members in the nursing home,

I I go. But that doesn't necessarily mean that I have the gift of mercy, but somebody in the congregation might.

So it's good to have everybody involved. And of course, talking about the spiritual gifts. We believe every

Christian has at least one, probably more than one. So we want to be exercising our gifts. So we'll move on to exhortation.

Unless somebody has something they want to add. Brad. I had a question. Sure. We were talking about that and somebody brought up an acronym or an acrostic.

I still don't know the difference. Yeah, neither do I. I was trying to note down everything.

It was truthful, helpful. I didn't get the I. Inspiring. Inspiring. Thank you.

Necessary and kind. Yep. OK, the acronym or the acrostic, whatever it is,

I think now that isn't is in regards to discernment. You're saying, Marcus, or is it just just a thing?

OK, you can you could apply Philippians four or eight. What sort of things are true?

What sort of things are honest? What sort of things are pure? All right. What sort of things would report if they're being virtue and praise?

Think on these things. Think on these things. What did I say? No, that's what you said.

Oh, thank you. OK. It's an inverse. OK. Yeah, well, that's that's where we were when we mentioned that.

All right. Good. So let's look at number eight. Exhortation. Exhortation is the ability to encounter or excuse me, to encourage and motivate a person with this gift of exhortation can come alongside another to comfort him with love, to encourage him to a deeper spiritual commitment and growth or to exhort him to action.

This is the gift that qualifies people to exercise a counseling ministry in the body.

And I had said that, you know, you will find some disagreement from church to church and how you define some of the spiritual gifts.

But exhortation, the word exhortation, most commonly I hear people defining it as encouragement.

If I've heard that once, I've heard it a thousand times. The exhortation is is encouragement.

Have you heard this? OK, but the word exhortation means to make urgent appeal.

And exhortation is also something that's done in preaching. So a preacher will exhort people, exhort the congregation to take what they have heard, take what they've learned and to and to do it and to apply it.

So exhortation is the ability to encourage and motivate. I think that's a pretty good, pretty good definition.

A person with this gift can come alongside another to comfort him with love, to encourage him to a deeper spiritual commitment and growth, to exhort him to action.

Have you ever listened to some people after listening to them? You just feel like getting up and doing something.

Yeah. But we need you know, we need motivation.

And that's something that if we're not taking part in the life of the church, we're probably not going to be motivated.

We need to stir each other up and we need sometimes we need someone to light a fire under us.

We need someone to give us a swift kick in the pants, maybe too. But, you know, we we really need people to to motivate us because it's like the illustration with the fire and the coals.

Right. If you take a coal out of the fire and set it off by itself, it's going to go out.

It doesn't stay burning unless it's with the other coal. So we we all need each other. So hopefully we encourage one another.

But there are those people who have the gift of exhortation. Any comments on that?

All right. Exhortation. The next gift is giving. OK, so this gift is a direct reference to the material ministry of giving food, clothes, money, houses in response to the needs of the church.

I don't think that means, hey, you can have my house here. Let me sign over the deed to you.

But, you know, opening up your house or this maybe could also be have some overlap with the gift of hospitality.

But you're a giving person and you're just looking to help people out with their needs.

But typically when you think of giving, what do you think of? Yeah, you think of giving money. So there are there are people who have the gift of giving and there are some people who don't have the gift of giving.

So if somebody doesn't have the gift, I mean, that doesn't mean that, well,

OK, you don't have the gift. That means you'd never have to give anything. It's like with mercy. We should all be merciful.

Even if that's not your gift, you should still show mercy. Right. If you have the gift of knowledge, then great.

Amen. But if you don't have the gift, that's no excuse to just remain in ignorance and never learn anything.

Right. So just because this isn't your gift doesn't mean that we don't take part in it.

What might the gift of giving look like? So just maybe a practical example of something you've seen or done.

Seen from someone else or experienced any transparent plastic box.

OK. Yeah. But we've all known people that are not even just with money, but we've all known people that are giving, giving people.

OK, so this is a gift. And number 10, if there's no other comments on that,

Larry. Well, there's a type of giving not listed here, but it is for giving.

Yeah. And we have been forgiven much. Therefore, Scripture says we must be forgiven, forgiving, you know, so other towards other people.

And it says that if you are unwilling to forgive. God will be unwilling to forgive you.

Yeah. So forgiveness is something that you you give. Right. You offer and give forgiveness.

But that's kind of true with everything. Everything comes from God. God is love.

And because he loved us, we are able to, well, certainly to love him back, but to love others too.

He has even he has shown his grace to us so we can be gracious to others, mercy, all these things.

We've received them. So don't keep them. Keep them to somebody else.

Right. And that's the whole idea with the spiritual gifts. Let's let's turn to Ephesians chapter four.

So I want to show you something here. Who is it that gives the spiritual gifts?

Well, they're the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but they're given by given by the

Lord. So I just want to read. Let's see. What verse is it? Yeah.

Look at verse seven, Ephesians chapter four, verse seven, seven and eight.

But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore, he says when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

So the Lord gives us our spiritual gifts. They're given through the

Holy Spirit and he gives them to us, not for us to just hold on to them and edify ourselves.

Right. And this came up with the gift of tongues. We talked about, well, the spiritual gifts are given for the service of the church, the service of others.

So you wouldn't you if you had the gift of tongues, you wouldn't use it to build yourself up. You would use it for the edification of of others.

Imagine if you had the gift of giving, well, I'm going to give to myself like that. No, that doesn't work.

God gives us the gifts and we then give and minister the gifts to others.

Right. That's pretty, pretty basic. So one last thing on giving, you know, with with money as kind of the thing that people would think of when we talk about giving in the church.

Some churches have the viewpoint that the tithe is is the standard.

And I think the tithe is is a standard you see in scriptures and scripture.

But there are some churches historically that have said the tithe is is like a commandment.

Right. There are some churches. You have to give your

W -2 and they make sure that you pay to the last dime.

I've heard stories of people being called to account and having to pay up because, you know, they're giving record and their

W -2 were not lining up. See that the tithe is an Old Testament concept.

There might be people who have the gift of giving who give over and above a tithe.

But I don't see this as a commandment in scripture that you have to give

X amount. You have to give this much or this much. The more you give, the more you will receive, not necessarily like the

TV preachers. If you give one thousand, God will give you back ten thousand. But the principle is

God loves the cheerful giver. So for someone who has the gift of giving, they may give over and above a tithe.

And then there's some people that are struggling financially. And, you know, the church would never even really expect them to do much because they're not in a position to do that.

You know, there's been widows who are struggling to get by. And this is one thing the

Pharisees did that they would remember. Jesus accused them of devouring widows houses like they're just finding ways to get their money.

So there's some people that, you know, they're just not in a position to do that. So anyway,

I don't I don't view that as a commandment necessarily. But this is the gift of giving.

Whatever the Lord lays on your heart is typically how this church has approached it.

Marcus and then Joyce. I have I have a joke that reminds me of a joke. And I have a

Bible verse. OK, can I share both of them or just. Yes. Which you want first, the joke or the verse?

We'll go with the joke. Let's get it over with. OK. This pastor says we're trying to increase attendance here at our church.

So we've decided to change the tithe to eight percent. That's the joke.

OK. Yeah, but the idea is make up your mind and stick to it.

Right. Right. Yeah. Just my personal opinion.

It's always sort of been a turnoff hearing. You know, there's those preachers that they're just always talking about money and giving and just high pressure and guilt trips and just so preachers that are always talking about money.

I don't know. I'll preach on it when I come across it. But I guess that's just me.

Joyce, you had a comment. Yes. Right.

I think so. Yeah. Whatever you give your time, your energy, your money, possessions, opening your home.

I think anything, whatever you are giving to God. I mean, I guess in another sense, a lot of these things are your giving.

So, however someone defines it. But sure, I think that could be included.

Lenny. Right. Right.

Yeah. So without, you know, this could dominate. This is like tongues. It's one of those subjects, you know, that could just kind of typically that that was the understanding that a tithe is yet to the local church.

And then because there's tithes and offerings. Right. A tithe is 10 percent.

So the 8 percent is not a tithe. Right. So. But yeah, there's the other offerings that maybe are above and beyond or just something that's not 10 percent.

Larry. I have heard testimonials in the past. I used to listen to a program called

Money Wise. And they would always ask the person who would call in with a question, you know, how much are you giving to, you know, your local church?

And many people would say, well, I can't afford to give. And they would say, well, you really can't afford not to give.

You know, everything comes from God. And then people would then in turn begin to give to the church.

And every time it would be easier because there would always be enough money.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we'll move on from this subject unless there's anything else.

But it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Give it number 10 administration and leadership.

This gift is the ability to oversee the flock. This gift should be exhibited by pastors and elders as well as leaders of missionary societies, youth ministries, and evangelistic associations.

So some people are just gifted in administration or leadership.

So they have the ability to kind of organize and keep things running smoothly.

Someone who maybe doesn't have the gift. As soon as they take over an organization, you know, things start just crumbling and falling apart and nothing's getting done.

And they just, I mean, some people have the gift. Some people, some people don't. What might be some qualities of leadership or administration?

You know, what do you need to have? If you, if you have this brains.

Okay. That's true. What else? Others. Because you can have, you know,

Hey, we need this done. Would you do that? You know, would you do this to administrate, to oversee all the projects and to be able to put people in the proper positions to get the work done?

Right. Yeah. A good leader knows how to delegate. Right.

But you also need competent people to be able to delegate.

So this has been something I admit, I will admit I've struggled with delegating things to others.

I'll do it. I'll just take care of this. And then at some point you realize I, I'm overloaded.

I can't do all of this. And, and you're sort of robbing other people of opportunities at the same time.

But there could be the other situation where you just don't have anyone and, but you really got to give people a chance because if you don't give them a chance, they're never going to grow into that position.

You know, let them make some mistakes. You've made mistakes. I've made mistakes. Let them make mistakes. So we need to delegate.

What else? Organized. Yeah. You need to be an organized person.

Yep. That's why, and I tell all of you when, you know, when you're maybe after Sunday school, if somebody comes up to me or on the way out of church afterwards and say,

Oh, can you do this? Or what about write it down? Send me an email. I, I, I'm not going to remember, you know?

So I, I have people telling me things and unless it's written down, you know,

I'm, I won't necessarily forget, but I, I'm likely to forget if I have five different people asking me to do things on the way out.

So, yeah, it, it definitely helps to be organized. I guess worse. Yeah.

Ray. Whatever the opposite of a procrastinator is. Right.

Yeah. What's it? What is the opposite of a procrastinator? I mean, you need to be a motivated person.

Industrious proactive. Yeah. Visionary.

Yep. Yep. Okay. So this is something that any local church and any organization needs.

Uh, they need someone with the gift of administration. Uh, some churches do have an elder, a system of rule where the elders, they have teaching elders and ruling elders.

Have you ever heard this? Maybe it's not something we're familiar with because we don't have that system here at Morris corner, but churches that have elder rule, they will often have ruling elders who are focused on administration and organization.

And then there's teaching elders who do, you know, pretty much nothing but teaching, but it's, it's, they're both elders, but there are two different roles really.

Um, and, and if that works, right. Okay. So that's the spiritual gift of administration and leadership.

All right. The gift of helps number 11, this is the ability to aid in a time of need or bear one another's burdens as the situation arises.

I, this is just an observation. Usually when somebody doesn't know what their spirit,

I should probably shouldn't say this, but this, let me revise. Let me start over.

This is probably the most common spiritual gift that I've noticed. Like when you ask somebody, what's your spiritual gift?

And they'll say, well, I have the gift of helps most people's. When I asked the question of what's your spiritual gift, this is usually what

I get. So the gift, the gift is the ability to aid in time of need or bear one another's burdens.

These are people that just help out. Yeah. I just help out whatever the, the need is.

So I think anyone can do this. Anyone can help out and we should all be willing to lend a hand.

But some people are more inclined to do this and, and they're better at it.

And they're always paying attention. They're just looking for any opportunity to help out. And then others are maybe sort of oblivious to that kind of thing.

And they're, they're doing whatever they're doing. They have their gift, but there's just those people that are always willing to lend a helping hand.

Any comments on the gift of helps? I almost see this as sort of like a catch all for a whole bunch of stuff, but.

Larry. In my case, I'm not sure, not always, but much of the time it's out of selfishness.

You know, it goes back to the leadership type of thing. You know,

I was brought up that if you want something done right, do it yourself. And so there's a lot of times where I see things that need to be done.

But instead of asking someone to do it, I'll do it myself. Like what you said too, that I get so many things going.

Right. And then I'm overwhelmed with what all needs to be done. But there's a lot of times where I do things out of selfishness.

Just because I don't think or I believe that they're not going to do it right.

Or the way I want it done right. Right, yeah. Yeah, Stacy. I just want to add to this,

Larry. And you said you do it too. You have to be very, I think, self -mindful that if you choose to do things yourself, and you overwhelm yourself, a couple things are going to happen.

You're going to get burned out. You're going to rob somebody else of the ability to use one of their gifts for the church.

And possibly you're not going to do it as well as you could have had you not been overwhelmed.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, that's very important. So good.

We, me and Larry needed to hear that, I guess. Right. But we recognize like this is,

I mean, there's something to be said about, hey, I'm going to get this done. I mean, that's good.

But yeah, we, we want everybody involved. And that's really the whole point with the spiritual gifts is just to get everybody in the church, every believer involved, serving in some way.

And I've said this before, but if you don't know what your spiritual gift is, think about, you know, what do you like doing?

What do you want to do? What do other people tell you that, you know, have they noticed that, hey, you're good at this, right?

Notice you are gifted in this area. What are other people saying? And just, just try, try a whole bunch of things out.

And then you'll figure it out eventually if you don't know. But you got to try. Don't be afraid to try.

Mark. These spiritual gifts, are they only for the body of Christ, Christ's church?

Or are they for the entire unbelieving world as well? Yeah, they would be for the body of Christ.

I mean, there's people in the world that are good at certain things. But these are, it's the work of God, the

Holy Spirit. So before you came to faith, you know, this is off.

This is usually a misunderstanding where people think that, you know, we're all born with certain talents.

Like some people are just born. They seems with a gifting in a certain area.

That's not necessarily the same as the spiritual gifts. It's not something you're born with.

It's something that God has done a work in your heart. He empowers you to do it.

So it's really only for believers. Dad. Right?

Yeah. And that's what I was trying to say. That, yeah, you have talents, but spiritual gifts are, are different.

Okay. Number 12 is the gift of service. The gift of service is working for the body of Christ in areas of physical ministry, such as serving food or performing maintenance.

I think a lot of people would consider that the gift of helps. So, I mean, that's how

I sort of always heard it defined. But again, that's, that's not how it's defined in the book.

So if you get some disagreement, I mean, it's not that big of a deal, but the gift of service is working for the body of Christ.

Okay. What's another word for service? The new Testament uses a, a word that we think of as being a sort of a

Christian word. What is it? Ministry, right? Ministry is service.

That's what the word means. So if you go into the ministry, you're, you're going into the service of God, or if you're involved in serving

God in the church, let's say you do help out with serving food or you perform an odd job, you mow the lawn or, or something like that.

You said, well, that's not ministry. Ministry is what's done here, right behind the pulpit. Ministry is what's done here up front.

No, ministry is what's done, you know, everywhere. So we're all involved in the work of service, the work of the ministry.

There's just different types of ministries, right? Joyce. Could this be why we use the term pastor nouns to minister?

You don't hear that much anymore. Yeah. Yeah. You're saying you don't hear the word minister.

You know, right. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know why. You know, all these different terms minister.

Yeah. You don't typically hear that. Maybe that's more of it. Is that an old fashioned term?

Someone want to back that up? Yes. Well, I think it's almost 13. I was going to look it up.

But I'm pretty sure it's almost 13. It says that police officers are ministers. Yeah.

Yeah. And they don't bear the rod. You may look that up again.

Yeah. Well, there's some nations that they have the, you know, the interior ministry or the ministry of defense, right?

There's different words for maybe the military or action roles in government.

And they're called ministry. I think in Israel, their government, they call it, you know, there's ministers.

We have secretaries, right? In our government, we have secretaries. But in other governments, they call them ministers.

But it's all service, right? You're serving your country. But here, we're serving God. It's almost like a shortened form of administer.

Yeah. Yeah. Administer. Yeah. That's good. Good. All right.

Any final comments before we move on from that? We're almost done. Less than 15 minutes.

So let's try to get through this. Number three, the exercise of spiritual gifts.

State the principles expressed in Romans 12, 6 through 8. And it says, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly.

If prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith. If service, in his serving. Or he who teaches, in his teaching.

Or he who exhorts, in his exhortation. He who gives, with liberality.

He who leads, with diligence. He who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Exercise your gift.

So however you exercise it, do it. Do it well. Read 1

Corinthians 13, 1 through 7. And answer the following questions. How can your gifts be abused and without benefit?

The apostle Paul says, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love,

I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. So can you exercise the spiritual gifts and do it without love?

Or do it with the wrong motivation? You say, well, it's not really exercising your gift.

You're abusing the gift. Okay, so there are people who preach sermons. And they are maybe prophesying.

But their motivation is, hey, I want to roast these people. And they're not really doing it from a position of love.

Some people do that. And it is from a good place. But the point is, you could exercise your spiritual gifts.

And maybe have bad motivation. Whenever we talk about the abuse of the gifts.

Yeah, you think of 1 Corinthians 14. I mean, there's the gift of prophecy. But then there's what? False prophecy.

There's the gift of tongues. But then there's the unknown tongue, the gibberish that nobody understands.

So there are ways to abuse the spiritual gifts. So Paul recognizes one way to do it is to not have love.

He says, if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge.

And if I have all faith so as to remove mountains. But do not have love. I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor.

If I surrender my body to be burned. But do not have love. It profits me nothing. So if your gift.

So it profits nothing. If your gift is not exercised in love. So motivation is key.

Of course, the thing is, you don't know my motivation, do you?

I don't know your motivation. There could be people that are busy and they're doing this.

They're serving in this way. It might be pastoral ministry. None of us really know each other's motivation, right?

I think we ought to based on each other's testimony and our manner of life. We give each other the benefit of the doubt.

I believe you all have good motivation. I hope you believe that of me. But we all recognize there are people out there that do not have the right motivation.

But who knows? Who knows? Yeah. See, only God knows the heart.

Sometimes it might slip out. But I don't think we should. We should judge people's motivation.

All right. Number two, since your spiritual giftedness is to be exercised in love. What are some guidelines that will ensure the profitability of your gifts?

So list 15 guidelines. This is verses four through seven.

Anyone want to share what you have written? Otherwise, I'll just read it.

Okay. Some of the you want to share? No. Okay. Mike, go ahead.

So I have patience, kindness, not being envious or boastful or prideful or rude, self -seeking, easily angered, no record of wrongs, no delight in evil, rejoices in truth, protects, trusts, hopes, perseverance.

Good. See, I have the teacher's guide with all the answers prewritten and Mike hit a home run.

He got it exactly right. So these are the 15 guidelines.

Moving on to see. First Corinthians 12 reveals the importance of each spiritual gift within the body of Christ.

According to first Corinthians 1225. What should your attitude be in the use of your spiritual giftedness?

What should the attitude be that there be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

This is why this topic. It's always seems so interesting to me how the purpose of the spiritual gifts is to build up the body of Christ.

And yet this is one of the most divisive topics within, within the church.

It seems so. I tell you something's wrong. The way somebody is doing it, if it causes division, if the spiritual gifts cause division, somebody that it's, it's proof that somebody is abusing the spiritual gift or they have bad motivation.

Larry. Hello. I remember listening to this sermon from John MacArthur.

He was talking about if I have a gifted hand and he said, if I cut it off to give to somebody else so they could use my gifted hand now it's dead.

Yeah. And so if one of us within the body, the church body,

I mean we have our congregational body of believers and there's the universal body of believers of which all believers are part of it.

You know, if one of us is using our gift wrongly, it's like cancer or it's, you know, and it's not going to just like cancer is going to affect my body.

Cancer is going to affect all people around me within our little congregation here and eventually the whole body worldwide.

So what you're saying is if somebody is using a gift that they don't have, it can be a detriment. Is that what you're saying?

Oh, that's one. That's that or with the wrong motivation. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

So D read Ephesians for 11 through 16. What causes the growth of the body of Christ?

First 16 says the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body.

So this is true for any local church, any denomination. If you want the church to grow, every part of the body has to be operational.

Right? I mean, imagine if, if I'm up here, but my, my legs didn't work.

I can't stand. If my eyes didn't work, I couldn't read this. If I, if I, if my mouth didn't work,

I couldn't say anything. I wouldn't be any, I wouldn't be any use. So you are the legs.

You are the hands. You are whatever part of the body we need everyone together to cause the growth of the church.

So, you know, you come here on Sunday morning, hopefully you're instructed, you're motivated, and then you take it and you, you go out and you find ways to serve during the week.

That that's the whole point of this. Firing on all cylinders.

Exactly. Yes. All right. The final section application discovery of your giftedness.

Each member of the body is commanded to minister in many of the gifted areas, whether he possesses the particular gift or not.

For example, all Christians are to function in the following areas. Faith.

Second Corinthians five, seven wisdom, James one, five knowledge.

Second Timothy two, 15 exhortation. Hebrews 10, 25 giving second

Corinthians nine, seven and care for one another or helps first Corinthians 12, 25.

So do you agree with that? Okay. So just because you don't have the gift doesn't mean that you don't, that you don't express faith or exhort people or care.

The Bible does not explicitly explain how to determine one's spiritual giftedness.

However, you can begin by being obedient in the areas mentioned above. Look for open doors and pray for opportunities to serve.

Seek the counsel of other believers. They may be more aware of your gifts than you are in order to discover your giftedness in the body and in submission to the elders of your church.

In what areas would you be willing to serve? And this is what you're supposed to do right down.

Okay. I would, I would be willing to do this. I'd be willing to do that. So whatever you wrote, uh, if you're not currently doing it, come and talk to me.

Talk to somebody. Try to try to figure out sometime in the next few weeks, months, sometime this year that you're going to, you're going to start exercising this gift.

And again, it might not be something within this building. You don't have to serve within the four walls of this church.

A lot of your service can be in the community in Jesus name. So not necessarily here on the premises, but the point is you want to do something for the

Lord, or you could just go to another believer and just say, so what are you doing for the Lord? Oh man,

I don't, but we should all be doing, doing something. Each of us needs to exercise his or her giftedness and ministry for the common good of the church.

And it closes with first Peter four, 10, as each one has received a special gift, employ it and serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.