The Arrival of the Holy Spirit and His Gifts

(upbeat music)

- All right, I'm coming to preach from the floor

this morning because I wanna spit on some people.

And so that's why my table is down there.

And I think I've got all the things.

Look at somebody you don't like and say,

I'm glad you're here.

If you're joining us on live stream,

I wish you were here this morning.

I'm glad you're joining us.

We're continuing our series on his word, his life,

his church this morning.

And we're in the section of his church and guess what?

You are his church.

And it is such a privilege to be a part of God's church.

And you're a part of his church.

And so what we've been doing over the last couple of weeks,

and we're gonna continue today and next week,

is we've kind of laid a framework for the Holy Spirit.

We've been talking about the person of the Holy Spirit.

And what we're gonna be doing between now and Advent,

now and Christmas time,

is we're going to be talking about the Holy Spirit's move

through the book of Acts.

And so I wanna encourage you,

if you're not in a reading plan right now,

I wanna encourage you, you might wanna read Acts,

go through Acts and you'll keep up with this.

We're basically gonna step through chapter by chapter

and draw points from the book of Acts

as it relates to the Holy Spirit

and what the Holy Spirit did in the early church.

Okay, so that's coming down the pike.

But today we're gonna do,

today's the first of a two-part message, okay?

So next week will be part two.

But today we're gonna talk about the Holy Spirit

and the gifts that the Holy Spirit has available for us.

So this is what I'm hoping is gonna happen.

Now, Kevin, if I get in front of this and mess this up,

it's not gonna happen the way it's supposed to,

but hopefully it happens the way I'm intending

for it to happen.

So today what I wanna do is I wanna talk about

what is the purpose of these gifts mentioned in Scripture?

What are the purpose of the gifts that God gives us?

A, and B, what is the barometer and the litmus test

of a believer who's living their life by the Spirit?

Okay, so those are the two things I wanna address today.

And then next Sunday,

we're actually gonna look at the gifts.

We're gonna look at some of the gifts

and we're gonna unpackage what the gifts look like

and what they're about, okay?

So this is part one of a two-part message.

If I mess it up, go back and listen to last week's

Wayne's message.

He did a great job last week, didn't he?

Person of the Holy Spirit.

So I think that's everything I need to do to set this up.

So we're gonna stand and read from 1 Corinthians.

And I want you to read like you've had three espresso shots

this morning.

Here we go.

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters,

I do not want you to be uninformed.

You know that when you were pagans,

somehow or other you were influenced

and led astray to mute idols.

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.

There are different kinds of gifts,

but the same Spirit distributes them.

There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

There are different kinds of working,

but in all of them and in everyone,

it is the same God at work.

Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit

is given for the common good.

To one, there is given through the Spirit

a message of wisdom.

To another, a message of knowledge

by the means of the same Spirit.

To another, faith by the same Spirit.

To another, gifts of healing by that one Spirit.

To another, miraculous powers.

To another, prophecy.

To another, distinguishing between spirits.

To another, speaking in different kinds of tongues,

and still to the another, the interpretation of tongues.

All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,

and He distributes them to each one just as He determines.

Father, I thank you that your word is full, it is alive.

I thank you, Lord, that we have access to you, God,

and we wanna be a people that have everything

you have to offer us.

So Lord, would you impart it to us today in Jesus' name,

amen, you may be seated.

The Holy Spirit is the most important person on the planet.

And the glorious part of that truth

is that you and I have access to Him.

You and I have access to the God who created the universe,

who breathed stars, who knows you by name,

who created you, who set things in motion.

We have access to the same God

who's gonna split the sky one day and bring us all home.

We have access to Him right now.

There are many religions on the planet.

We are the only religion that can proclaim a God

who is alive and active today who we have access to.

That's incredible.

That's incredible.

And it's unique to the God we serve.

I would rather serve a God who is alive

than a God who is dead.

Our God is alive.

Our God is alive.

Now, I love, I love, I love getting gifts.

Anybody here like getting gifts?

I like giving gifts, but probably more than getting gifts,

I love to give gifts.

That's actually more, now, my daughter Nora

would not be in that same boat.

She, you know, yesterday was Sadassa's birthday

and Nora was talking all day

about when she's getting gifts on her birthday.

And so there are people who are receivers

and they enjoy the receiving end of things

and there are people who are givers.

Hopefully most of us are at least somewhere in the middle

and not just the one side of receiving,

but you know, some of us maybe live there.

But I enjoy giving gifts,

but I used to be a really bad gift giver.

I used to be a really, really bad gift giver

because what I would do is I would look

at somebody like Cornelius and say,

"I wanna get you a gift."

And I would go to the store

and I picked the first thing I see and I would wrap it up.

Didn't matter what it was.

It's just the first thing I saw.

Maybe it was something that just struck my eye or whatever,

but it had no significant value to Cornelius

or any rhyme or reason.

I just picked it up and wrapped it up.

And the thing that I would do that's so interesting

is I would get a gift and I would wrap it

in the most expensive wrapping paper I could find,

the most expensive bow, the most expensive bag.

And so when you got this gift, you thought,

whoa, this is something pretty awesome probably in here

because of the way it looks

on the, with the wrapping paper or whatever.

And then the person would open it and I go,

and they would, okay, great.

And then it'd be regifted next Christmas.

So, but I was really a bad gift giver,

but I would always wrap the gifts really nice.

Some of us are so concerned about what things look like

on the outside that we don't pay attention

to what we're putting on in the inside.

And I want you to know that what's happening on the inside

is much more significant

than what's happening on the outside.

In fact, I would say what's happening on the inside

should overflow onto what's happening on the outside.

But we are good at creating facades.

We are good at masking what's really going on on the inside.

And the Holy Spirit wants to get in

and make true what's happening on the inside,

what you're trying to project on the outside.

And he can do that.

And he wants to do that.

But I used to give gifts, bad gift giver,

but now I've evolved into,

I've evolved into I think a pretty good gift giver.

And that's because I know I put some thought

into what I give,

but I don't really like to give too many times

tangible gifts.

The gifts I enjoy giving are gifts of experience.

Gifts of experience.

If I could take you somewhere to experience something

that you can connect a memory to,

there's longevity in that gift.

And I really enjoy giving those types of gifts.

Paul's writing here to the Corinthians

and he's going to list these gifts

that we're actually gonna talk about next week.

But he's listing these gifts.

And in this portion of scripture, he says this.

He says, "I don't want you to be uninformed."

And the reason that he's saying this is he's saying,

"Hey, look, there's an aspect to God here

that you have access to.

There's an aspect to the Holy Spirit

that you have access to.

There are these gifts that you have access to.

And I want you to be well-informed about these gifts

and what they're about and how they are to be used."

And he doesn't want, and church, I'm telling you today,

I don't want us to be uninformed about these gifts

and what they are for and who they're for

and all of those things.

And so that's why we're taking time to do this.

Now here's the dangerous thing.

Here's the dangerous thing.

We get sometimes attached to the gifts of the Holy Spirit

and the glitz and the woo-hoo and the wow

of some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit

that sometimes we will take a left flank

and we will start chasing after the gifts

instead of the gift giver.

That's a problem.

That's a problem.

We never wanna be a people who are after the things of God

more so than we are after God himself, God himself.

And so I believe that this portion of scripture

is designed to tell the Corinthians,

to explain to us that there are some powerful gifts

available to us if we will lean into them.

And guess what?

Every one of you, I believe have some type of gift

opportunity available to you.

Some of you multiple gifts, but every one of you have gifts.

He told them in Acts, he said, "Listen, I want you

to stay here and wait on the Holy Spirit.

Do not leave Jerusalem without my power to go forth

and spread my gospel to all the ends of the earth."

Well, guess what?

The Lord doesn't want you leaving your house

without his power.

He doesn't want you leaving your sphere of,

going into your sphere of influence without his power.

And he's got some real incredible, unique things

available for us to tap into if we'll lean into them.

So we don't wanna be uninformed.

We don't wanna just grab a gift.

Have you ever been given something and you decided to use it

but you didn't read the instructions?

(congregation laughing)

Everybody, anybody try to build something

and you had some extra screws left over?

Well, it doesn't matter, it's held together, right?

No, we're being given some instructions

so that we're not misusing the gifts that we've been given.

There's some real instructions on how the gifts

are to be used.

And again, next week we're gonna unpackage

that a little bit more, but this is important.

This is important.

And I want us to understand, and I'm gonna read

quite a bit of scripture today, but I want us to understand

that even before these gifts of the Holy Spirit

are talked about by Paul, I want us to understand

that Jesus too also conferred gifts.

He also conferred gifts.

Let's look over at, we're gonna go to Ephesians chapter four.

If you have your Bibles, a Bible is a good thing

to bring to church.

(congregation laughing)

Kinda like when you bring an umbrella when it rains.

A Bible goes with church, yeah.

Chapter four of Ephesians.

There is one body and one spirit.

Can you say that?

There is one body and one spirit.

Just as you were called to one hope when called

one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father

of us all who is over all and through all and in all.

Yet grace, say grace.

Yet grace was given to each one of us

in proportion to the measure of Christ's gifts.

Skipping to verse 11.

And he himself, he being Jesus himself,

appointed such as apostles, some as prophets,

some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers

to fully equip and perfect the saints

for works of service to build up the body of Christ

until we all reach oneness in faith

and in the knowledge of the Son of God

to become a mature believer reaching to the measure

of the fullness of Christ.

So here we see that Jesus Christ himself

gave very special grace gifts,

but his gifts were in the form of offices

or forms of people.

And these are what they are.

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

These are gifts, these are grace positions,

graced people, graced gifts that are bestowed

from Jesus Christ to people.

So Jesus gives gifts in the form of people.

The Holy Spirit gives gifts in the form of function.

Okay, are you with me?

Jesus gifts in the form of people,

Holy Spirit in the form of function.

For instance, the prophets,

the prophet would be the gift from Jesus.

This is the office of the prophet, okay?

The prophet would render or bestow the gift of prophecy,

the function of prophecy.

Are you with me, okay?

Now, when Jesus was saying this,

when Jesus created these offices

that we refer to the fivefold ministry,

when we look at this, it says that,

how long do we need to keep these going?

Well, it says until we all look like Christ.

So I want you to look at your neighbor and say,

you don't look like Christ yet.

So until we look like Christ,

these are still in operation, yes?

These are still in operation, okay?

So these are special grace gifts

given from Jesus, created by Jesus,

so that the Holy Spirit can through them

use the function of the gifts

that the Holy Spirit has to offer.

So now let's go to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 12 says this.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

"Therefore," Paul's speaking to the Romans,

"I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,

"to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

"holy and well pleasing to God,

"which is your rational act of worship.

"Do not be conformed to this world,

"but be transformed and progressively changed

"by the renewing of your mind,

"so that you may prove what the will of God is,

"that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

"For by grace," say grace.

- Grace.

- "For by grace given to me, I say to every one of you,

"not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think,

"but to think so as to have sound judgment

"as God apportioned to each a degree of faith.

"For just as in one body we have many parts,

"and these parts do not all have the same function

"or special use, so we who are many

"are one body in Christ and individually parts

"of one another and dependent on one another."

Listen to this.

"Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace,"

say grace.

- Grace.

- "Grace given to us,

"each of us is to use them accordingly.

"If prophecy, let it be used in proportion

"to the faith possessed.

"If service in the act of serving,

"if he teaches in the act of teaching,

"he who encourages in the act of encouragement,

"he who gives with generosity,

"he who leads with diligence,

"he who shows mercy with cheerfulness."

Okay, so what I want us to understand here,

what I want us to understand here

is that Jesus Christ appointed these positions

as special grace gifts, okay, special grace gifts.

So he's equipped these people with grace

to give grace gifts to those that they are leading.

And what kind of gifts is he giving?

He's giving the gifts of prophecy,

he's giving the gifts, a gift of wisdom.

But there are more grace gifts than just the ones

that we are used to in 1 Corinthians 12.

This is what I wanna get at.

There are so many people

that have walked with the Holy Spirit,

that have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit,

and you feel like you have been left out

because you are not up here laying hands on people

and manifesting some type of out-of-body experience

for somebody to be healed,

but you have been given the supernatural gift of mercy.

You have been given the supernatural gift of service.

You've been given the supernatural.

Hal Laughlin is one of the best administrators

on the planet Earth.

It's not because Hal's awesome.

Hal is awesome, but it's not because he's awesome.

It's because he's got a supernatural gift inside him

that the Lord has given,

and he's using it to serve the body.

Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

Wade Hutchinson has a gift of hospitality.

There's, it pales in comparison,

the way that, I mean, Wade serves

in the area of hospitality.

There is a supernatural gift

that he has in the area of hospitality.

What I want you to understand, saints,

is that whether you are a doctor, a nurse, a teacher,

a mechanic, whatever you are,

when you have asked Jesus Christ in your heart

and you have the Holy Spirit,

he has given you every tool that you need,

and he has given you a special gift

and a special assignment to use

for the glory of his kingdom,

for the advancement of his kingdom.

Nobody is left out.

In other words, I believe everyone in here has a superpower.

Everyone in here has something that they can lean into,

that you can gravitate to.

Now, you might not know what that is.

And part of being a part of a community of believers

is somebody to call out and say,

I see this gift inside you.

I see the Lord operating in this way inside you.

So what I want us to understand,

and the reason I'm starting here,

is I want us to understand that everyone's gift

is not going to be the same, A.

And B, just because you're not down here

performing what seems to be fireworks in the altar space

doesn't mean that your gift is any less of value

than the person who's doing those things.

Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

You have a gift.

God wants to use you in your gift.

He's given you, some of you have multiple gifts,

multiple things, and the word of God says

that God's gifts in his call are irrevocable.

You know what that means?

That means if you decide to go slide into the mud pit,

you decide to get in your flesh,

you decide to get away from the Lord, and you come back,

God doesn't just snatch his gift and say,

well, you messed that up.

His gift is waiting right there for you

whenever you return.

He is such a gracious God.

He is such a gracious God.

God never intended for the apostles, prophets,

evangelists, pastors, and teachers to do all of the work.

He intended for this group to equip the body

for acts of service so that you as the body

are edifying the body.

You are, your job is to edify the body.

You have a gift inside you that is supposed to encourage,

it's supposed to edify, it's supposed to build up

so that whenever you're doing life on a Tuesday afternoon

or a Wednesday night or a Thursday,

and somebody comes along your path,

guess what, I have the gift of prophecy.

The Lord's given me a word,

or the Lord has given me some gift of discernment

or wisdom or knowledge.

And you use that gift to edify the body of Christ

so that Jesus Christ can be exalted.

So that Jesus Christ can be exalted.

The grace gifts in your lives are there to equip you

to build each other up.

And the gift of the Spirit,

the gifts of the Spirit edify,

edify is just a fancy word for build up.

They edify the body of Christ, the body of Christ.

Okay, I said I like giving gifts.

Who likes receiving gifts?

Anybody like receiving gifts?

I bought some gifts today.

I would like to hand some of these gifts out

to a few chosen individuals.

(congregation laughing)

- Oh, okay.

- Few chosen individuals, okay?

So I think I'm going to give Daniel one.

(audience applauding)

Let's see here.

I'm gonna give, look at people smiling at me real big.

Like, "Choose me, choose me."

See, show me the view one.

Let's see, live stream people hate this,

the camera people, because I'm like,

they have no idea where I'm going

and they have to follow me with the camera.

Let's see back here.

I don't even know if you can turn the camera.

Carrie, man, I've been wanting to give you a gift

all morning, there you go, buddy, okay?

Here you go, who else?

Who else do I want to give a gift to?

Here, right here.

- Zach's birthday.

- Is it Zach's birthday?

Is it your birthday?

Happy birthday, I'm not giving you a gift.

(congregation laughing)

Let's see, it's because it's not even,

I gotta get over here.

Let's see, I'm gonna give you a gift.

All right, let's see here.

Ted, it's a gift, buddy, come get this gift.

Can you pass that down there?

Don't steal it, okay.

Here, I'm gonna put a gift right over here, okay.

If you received a gift from me, would you please stand?

- Uh-oh.

- Okay, can you see the people around the room?

Now, if you received a gift from me,

I have chosen you and you and you and you and you and you

to give gifts to.

Would you open your gift, please,

and hold your gift in the air?

Chocolate, we're about to have church, people.

Okay, hold it up, hold up your gift.

Okay, I want you to notice something.

I handed out seven gifts to seven individuals.

They're all chocolate, but they're all different gifts.

You with me?

They're all chocolate,

but they're all different brands of chocolate.

Are you with me, okay?

Now, you have a gift in your hand

and you're holding it in the air.

Be kind of silly just to walk around

holding your gift up in the air, right?

Just hold it around, all right?

But you know what, you have an option to do

with what you're gonna do with the gift.

You could put it back in the package

and put it under your chair.

You could throw it in the trash can on the way out.

You could put it in your car in the 100 degree weather

and let it melt.

You could say, man, forget this message.

I'm just gonna eat all this chocolate right now.

There's a lot you could do with this chocolate.

It's a gift that's been given to you,

and I'm not gonna take it back

because I've given you the gift.

It is your gift.

It's your gift.

I've given it to you, okay?

Now, I want you to open your gift,

and I would like you to distribute

as much as you're willing to distribute of your gift

to the people around you.

(audience chattering)

Just as much as you are willing to distribute.

(audience chattering)

Okay, my seven people who are handing out the gift.

Look at me, if you're one of the seven people

who are handing out the gift,

how does it feel to distribute gifts right now?

How's it feel?

Kerry, how's it feel?

Feel pretty good?

Feel pretty good?

Okay.

If you're one of the people who received a gift,

I want you to stand up.

(audience chattering)

Okay, now I want you to look around the church.

I want you to look around the church.

There are many more people standing.

There are many more people standing

than the original seven who were bestowed the gift.

Because the people with the original gift

understood something, that they were to take what they had

and to distribute it amongst the body.

And once they distribute it amongst the body,

look who's being built up, look who's being edified.

I'll tell you what, the minute I said,

let's give those out smiles all across the room.

People so excited, I might be the one who's chosen.

Now, if you're still sitting, it's because you are sinful

and you need to get your life together.

No, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding, listen.

So listen, listen, listen.

Listen, imagine, guys, go with me.

All of you have a package of candy

that have 10 bars in it and if everyone is handing out,

not only does everyone get edified,

but there's abundance in the house.

Do you understand that God wants to use his gifts

to edify his body to build us up?

That's your job.

We're supposed to be doing this with one another every day

all the time, all the time.

We should be building each other up.

We should be experiencing this type of joy.

Now, here's another question, ready?

Who gave you the gift?

If you were one of the original seven, raise your hand.

Okay, here's the danger.

The danger is when we say, Ted, thank you for this candy

and Ted says, you're so welcome.

I did such a great thing by giving you that candy.

I am the provider of this candy.

Look at me, I'm gonna go get some more candy

so that everybody can look at me

and I'm gonna get a business card that says I'm a prophet

and hand it to people and say, call me for 19.95.

Okay, I'm being just a little facetious.

Listen, listen.

It is so easy because we are flesh

to get in a posture of either A, putting the spotlight on us

when we're the one the Lord is using

or for everybody else to begin to look and praise

and elevate you because you're the one with the goods.

You're the one with the, and so it's so important.

There is a story in the book of Acts, you may be seated.

There's a story in the book of Acts chapter 14.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

Paul and Barnabas, they go to Lystra and they heal a man

and then they healed this man and all of the people

begin to worship Paul and Barnabas.

How easy would it be to stand up and be worshiped?

Isn't that one of the fatal sin of man to be lifted,

that we would be acknowledged, that we would be lifted up?

So as you are conferring these gifts,

it is super important that you are giving

the acknowledgement to God.

In this instance, when somebody says,

Daniel, thank you for this chocolate,

the appropriate response would be, you're welcome.

Kevin is the one who originated it.

He's the one that needs to get the praise

because none of you had chocolate before I came into the room.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Okay, so God's saying, none of you have

the gifts you think you have without me.

So I'm the one who needs to be acknowledged.

I'm the one who needs to have the gratitude bestowed.

And so when God does something, you get out of the way

and you make sure that it exemplifies Christ,

that it exemplifies Christ.

Now, what is the barometer of a person

who is living life by the Spirit?

What is the barometer?

It is not the gifts that you possess.

I said earlier that I like to give gifts of experience.

Do you know, there have been people that I have lavished,

I say such humility, truly, truly.

I have given above and beyond gift to individuals.

And when it gets just so far away

from whatever that gift is or that time, it's forgotten.

The gifts pass away.

The gifts pass away.

The litmus test of whether or not you're living

by the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self-control.

The gifts are not the indicator

that you are walking by the Spirit.

I'm gonna say something that's a bit

of a hasty generalization, but I'm gonna say it, okay?

Here's the deal.

I cannot stand, okay?

Believers who lay their hands on people to heal them,

speak in all sorts of tongues, swing from the chandeliers,

jump up and down in a praise worship concert,

but then go out those doors

and they are the unkindest, ugliest people

who don't, aren't considerate, selfish,

self-seeking, all of those things.

But boy, they can come in here and jump up high

and raise their hands and shout to the ceilings about Jesus,

but when they're out there modeling it,

they have none of this going on in their life.

The litmus test of your life

of whether you're living by the Spirit is this right here.

And this is what we are trying to achieve.

This is the baseline, this is the framework

that says that person's living by the Spirit.

Give me somebody like this,

I'll receive from them all day long.

I'll be happy to receive from them all day long.

Here's the thing.

The gifts of the Spirit are temporary.

The fruit of the Spirit is everlasting.

When it comes to prophecy,

prophets gonna come prophesy and it's gonna be,

it's gonna pass.

The wisdom that you asked for, it's going to pass.

All of these moments and these gifts, they're going to pass,

but the fruit of the Spirit is everlasting.

And that is what we wanna lean into.

I wanna read this.

I wanna read this to you.

This is a very familiar passage,

a very familiar passage of scripture,

but if you're anything like me,

sometimes the most familiar things I need to be reminded of

over and over and over again.

I want us to pay attention with our hearts this morning

as I read this scripture that follows this passage.

You know that you can't take scripture

and just pull a section out and say,

I'm gonna run with it over here.

The scripture is the whole piece.

It's the whole picture.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, all about these gifts.

And then he has something very important to say

in chapter 13.

So here we go.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,

but I do not have love,

I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy

and can fathom all the mysteries and all knowledge,

and if I have a faith that can move mountains,

but I do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor

and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,

but I do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

It does not envy.

It does not boast.

It is not proud.

It does not dishonor others.

It is not self-seeking.

It is not easily angered.

It keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,

always purse of ears.

Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease.

Where there are tongues, they'll be stilled.

Where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child.

I thought like a child.

I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

For now we see only reflection as in a mirror.

Then we will see face to face.

Now I know in part.

Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And then he ends with this.

And now these three things remain faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

Why is love the greatest?

Because faith and hope are gonna come to completion

when we meet him in his faith, in the fullness of his love.

Faith, hope, and love remain.

Not the gifts, not the woo-hoo, not the thing.

It's wonderful.

It's a great, wonderful thing.

When we had the birthday party yesterday,

two days ago for Hadassah, when people are giving her gifts,

what's the first thing a parent says to their child

when somebody gives them the gift?

Make sure you, make sure you say thank you.

Why?

Because I don't want the gift to supersede the gift giver.

Nor should it be with us in our lives.

He is a good God.

So church, I do not want us to be uninformed.

Not just about what the gifts are,

but the purpose of the gifts,

so that we may use them to edify each other

and build the body of Christ.

The gifts are important, but they are never as important

as the one who gives them.

I give gifts, they get forgotten, I get forgotten.

So what?

He's the gift giver.

He's the one that we remember.

All of this to say that the primary job of the Holy Spirit

is to point people to Jesus Christ.

And so the gifts that he gifts,

that we would be pointed to Christ Jesus.

Would you stand with me this morning

with those who are gonna pray with people, come forward?

We have been given a mighty, mighty gift in the Holy Spirit.

And some of you this morning, I'm sure came with all sorts

of things going on in your life that you need a touch

from this mighty God.

And guess what?

He wants to meet you.

This is so cool.

He wants to meet you.

And I hope that you do come and you agree with somebody

in prayer 'cause in a gathering like this,

the Holy Spirit does convict and he does speak

to your heart.

But can I just encourage you,

the same Holy Spirit that's here right now at 11 45,

this morning is the same Holy Spirit

that you have access to on Monday morning,

on Tuesday night, on Wednesday afternoon, on Thursday,

you do not have to wait to get into this setting

to get things right with the Lord.

That's a lie.

He loves you.

He wants to do life with you.

He wants to communicate with you.

So let us be people who lean in to this God

with every waking hour.

If you have a need, come and pray as we worship.

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