You Asked: Answering Common Questions About Christianity - Q8: Spiritual Gifts | July 19, 2026

Ishmael LaBiosa: Well, good morning, church. We continue through our message series. You ask. By my count, we are on question number eight. So I don't know how many more of these questions I'm gonna take. You know, we'll just keep on seeing what at least the top ten, maybe top twelve. I do wanna let you know that ⁓ posted this week or rather last week, we updated the podcast. They're an L twenty. podcast of additional questions outside of these ten or twelve that we will cover in this series. Today's question is one that is so important for your life as a Christian, and yet, as with every one of these questions, will require a little further examination and to try to work through some legitimate areas of disagreement within The church. The question today is what are spiritual gifts and how are they properly used? Let me say this very plainly. Spiritual gifts are for every Christian. If you're a Christian, you have a spiritual gift. And God expects you to discern your gift, and God expects you to use your gift in the context of the church. The church is not to be a place where you just Set still and I instill. That's not the way this is supposed to be. I'll use my gift and for your edification to the glory of God, but you need to use your gift. You need to find your place. You need to serve in the ministry God has laid on your hearts. If there has been maybe one thing, if I had to name it, that ⁓ is the reason. Why Liberty Baptist has continued to offer ministry to this community and beyond. It's because very early, when ⁓ I was called to pastor here, God laid it on my heart that every member is a minister. That you have a responsibility. Let's get up and move. And my responsibility is to just try to keep you people organized, to try to keep you out of each other's way. ⁓ to try to help you find a platform to flourish. And I am not like a cork in the top of a bottle. I want you to fly. I want you to do what God wants you to do, but I also want you to see the giftedness of one another, to appreciate the manifold grace of God that has been demonstrated to his body, and to work together, not just as a bunch of individuals. But to work together as a unified whole, many members, one body. And so if you can hear this message today, you ought to walk out that door, or that door, or that door, since we got a new sidewalk, and and you can say, God, what gift have you given to me? And how am I using that gift to the edification of the church and to your glory? And if you say today, Rusty, I don't know that I even have a gift, I'm certainly not using the gift, that's your application today. These are big questions which require a synthesis of a bunch of biblical text. You have them in your bulletin, the proclaimer. You have them on at least the scripture references on the screen, due to lack of time, not because you don't give me enough time. I need to use the time I have. You should use the the bulletin, the proclaimer, to go back through the points with an open Bible and check me. That is also part of your responsibility as a church. To answer this question, I'm gonna give you six big ideas today on what are spiritual gifts and how are they properly used. The first big idea is this spiritual gifts are. God given abilities, manifestations, or empowerments of the Holy Spirit Spirit distributed to every believer for the building up of the church, the advancement of the gospel, and the glory of God. A few texts, first Corinthians twelve, seven, it says a manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good. First Peter four ten says, just as each one has received a gift. Use it to serve others as God's managers of the varied grace of God. If we're gonna answer the question, what are spiritual gifts? Then we ought to give some type of definition. If you want my definition of a spiritual gift, this is what it is. Spiritual gifts represent dynamic, divinely distributed expressions of the Holy Spirit's work in every believer's life. Spiritual gifts are not merely talents and that have been refined by experience, although God uses your talents and your experience, but a spiritual gift goes beyond that to a manifestation of divine grace given according to the spirit's own will. Sometimes the spiritual gift that you have, maybe the gift of administration, may look mundane and May look normal, but according to the Bible, it is not. God has given you that particular gift. It is an empowerment of the Holy Spirit for the edification of the church, the advancement of the gospel, and the glory of God. I think we ought to guard against two extremes when we try to figure out our spiritual gift. On one hand, spiritual gifts are not mere human abilities. This is not just a personality assessment. It's not that. Nor should we think that unless I have some spectacular manifestation, it's not spiritual. And there is balance on those two points. The second big idea today is this. These gifts include a rich diversity mentioned in the New Testament, all unified under one spirit and meant to be exercised in love. First Corinthians. Chapter twelve, verse four says, Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit. It also says in Romans chapter twelve, verse six, according to the grace given to us, we have different gifts. And so when we try to understand, firstly, a spiritual gift is not a mere talent, but it is something that is spirit empowered for the edification of the church, we have to ask the second question, well, what are the gifts? And there are four lists in the New Testament that give us well, we'll talk about what it gives us. We ought to look at the four lists. These are the only places in the New Testament that name what I would propose, and I'll talk about this more in a moment, some of the spiritual gifts. All right, here are here are the list. The first list is found in Romans twelve, six, seven, and eight. And the spiritual gifts listed there are prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and mercy. That's the first list. If you keep reading through the New Testament, you have the second list. actually, it's actually Romans then first Corinthians. But nevertheless, I've got them a bit out of order. as far as they come in the New Testament. But the second list, Ephesians 4 11, it says apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. That's the second list. The third list found in First Corinthians 12, 8, 9, and 10, here are the gifts listed word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, various kinds of tongues, Interpretation of tongues, and then the final list: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helping, administration, various kinds of tongues. Now, when you read these four lists, you ought to notice a few things. First of all, some of the gifts are mentioned in more than one list, they are repeated. Also, you can begin to somewhat categorize the kinds of gifts. Based on these lists. I would say in the Ephesians 4 passage, it's hard to tell are these gifts or are they offices? Because it talks about apostles, it talks about evangelists, it talks about pastor, teacher. So that sounds like that's not a gift. That's an office. Here's the deal: if you're in the office, you better have the gift. And if you don't, Everybody will know it. Okay? It will be obvious. They'll be like, I don't think he should be a pastor. He clearly doesn't have what it takes. So there you have it. So nevertheless, you have these that are offices. Then you have some that seem to merely highlight practical ministry, helping, mercy, administration, giving. Yes, giving money is a gift. ⁓ You know, spread it around. ⁓ generosity. There are some people more naturally inclined to be generous. It clearly is the case. It's a spirit empowered thing. And then there's a third l ⁓ a third categorization of the gifts, which seem to be more manifestational and revelatory. I'm just gonna put a pen in it. I will you say, is he gonna talk about tongues today? Well sure I am. You ask me hard questions, I give you hard I give you straight answers. But there's another clustering of gifts over here that are seen by many as more spectacular, more on the stage, more up front and center, but the New Testament says they're all empowerments of the Spirit, and they all are for the edification of the church. Now, this is the other thing I would like to say about the spiritual gift list. I do not think these lists are exhaustive. I think they are representational. They give you a sampling. These are the types of things that the Spirit does when the church needs to be edified. Sometimes people look at the gift list and go, Well, I'm not on it. And and the answer is, yes, you are, because these are not just like here are the Gifts and there are no more. The idea is God gives different gifts at different times for different purposes for the ultimate aim of building up the church. So don't get stuck on the fact there's a list and I'm not on it. I don't think the purpose of the list is to merely be a checklist, but a sampling. Here are the types of things that the Spirit of God does to build up his church. Okay, well let's go to the third big idea. You say, okay, Rusty, I understand what a spiritual gift is. I understand that the Bible describes a sampling of them. How do I find mine? Good question. The third big idea is to discover your g to discover your gifts, pray and depend on the Holy Spirit, study the biblical list, examine your passions and areas of fruitfulness where you see joy and effectiveness and Seek confirmation from the believing community. Again, this idea that the gifts have been given by the church, it's seen. It says there in 1 ⁓ Ephesians 4 11, he personally gave some to be. And so the reality is you have a gift. How do you discern it? Well, I do think sometimes you have not because you ask not. Just to set alone with the Lord and say, God, how have you gifted me to serve the church? And sometimes it's rather uncanny how simply the answer comes. So I'm not sure that we need to overly complicate this. Sometimes it doesn't come easy. Okay, that's fine too. Here's some other options for you. one thing that we could help you with is From various people have developed what they call spiritual gift assessments, which they basically take the material from the Bible and they basically write questions for you and you answer the questions and it kind of puts you in a particular category by the way you answer the questions. So if you've never taken a spiritual gift assessment, you can just contact the main office. We'll be more than happy to give you one. It's self-scoring, and we'll talk with you if you want me to talk with you about it. Will that answer all your questions? Probably not. What will it do? It'll kind of point you in a direction and say, it looks like God has gifted you in this particular area. The other thing that I think is very helpful if you're trying to figure out your spiritual gift is just ask another believer. What do you think God gifted me to do? And it's often surprising how simply people go, Well, clearly He's given you this gift. And sometimes it's so clear when they said it, but you had never thought it. God has uniquely gifted you at this particular moment. Let me just say that I don't think this is the case here at Liberty Baptist, but I never wanted to be the case. Okay? That this idea that you are seeking guidance of where you should be serving in conversation with other Christians is. Is so important for the ministry of the church. One of the ways you can tell that a church is dying, that the Spirit of God is not active. Sometimes there's this I forget who taught me this, but to succeed in life, sometimes you don't have to just figure out the right thing to do, you have to avoid against the wrong thing. Just don't do that. Okay. And this is one way you can tell a church is dying when it comes time. For positions to be filled. And people are in the hallways like, don't pick me, don't pick me, don't pick me. ⁓ here they're coming, don't pick me. I don't. That is so bad. Okay? Because that's not spirit prompted service. That's what we call a guilt trip. Okay? And that is not a vital place of service unto the Lord. And what am I trying to say? I'm trying to say. That pretty soon we have a group of people, they're called the Member Ministry Committee, and they do. We do have to be organized here. We do have to put people in places. I mean, when you have a children's ministry that has 200 coming and you have other ministries, I mean you got a back to school event coming right around the corner that services. You can't just say, Well, come one, come all, we'll figure it out when everybody gets here. I mean, that's what you call chaos. So there has to be some organization. There has to be some putting people in places But it is so wonderful when the church is dynamically seeing the things that need to happen and recognizing their own giftedness to serve in particular areas. This is the body life of the church and the New Testament commends that. Once you have a sense, however, this is my area of giftedness. It's not enough to figure it out on an assessment, the way in which you Really began to discover your gift and to maybe mature in your giftedness is found in my fourth big idea to to use your gifts, experiment and serve faithfully in various ministries, stepping out in opportunities and observing what God blesses over time. Sometimes finding out your place of service and giftedness is trial. And error. And that is not a deficiency. That's just the way it goes. You just have to give it a try. Sometimes you get into a place of service and you say, I have never felt more alive. I have never felt more used. And other times you get in a place and you say, When is this going to be over? Okay, well, when you have the sense of when is this going to be over? Probably not your place of giftedness. I mean, if I told you I will cram you in an office. You must spend 40 hours a week in that office and you must read deeply on the aspects of theology. Most of you would run screaming out of the room. I run screaming into the room. Okay? So that just shows different strokes for different folks, right? And so this is you don't know that you love it until you're there. You don't know that ⁓ it's what God has called you to do. Until you really feel like God has called you to do it. But here's the wonderful thing. And this is where I want you to hear this. Once you discover your gift and a place of service to use your gift that is spirit given, you cannot almost envision your life without that ministry being a part of it. It's like this is so much a part of who I am. This makes me feel that I am walking with the Lord in the fullness. And honestly, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you got some work to do. Because this is ⁓ the victorious Christian life, to know what God has called you to do and to be doing it. And you and if you say, Well, I don't know how that feels, well, you can discern your area of giftedness and by trial and error with the with the word of God and the church you will be able to discern a place and to be able to live in the fullness of the Spirit of God in service to him. And so I I commend that to you because if that's not in your Christian life, you're missing out. Now those are the things you need to hear full throatedly. Now let's talk a little bit about disagreements. And I'm gonna try to have a fair hand. I was ⁓ I did I didn't know how to I did know how to take it. ⁓ at the end of the last service a guy came up to me. He said, I'm I'm a former assemblies of God. He said I assumed I w I was gonna disagree with everything you said. He said I agreed with everything you said. I didn't know if that made me a bad Baptist or him a bad assemblies of God. But nevertheless, you'll have to figure that out here in just a moment. ⁓ maybe I just danced to the beat of my own drum. ⁓ I just read the Bible and go where it leads as far as I can discern it. Here's the fifth big idea. While there is evangelical disagreement about whether miraculous signed ⁓ gifts such as prophecy tongues, healing and miracles continue today in the same way as the apostolic era, believers should understand the biblical purposes of these gifts and what role they may still serve. Today. Now, in just a moment, I'll talk to you. You say, What's the disagreement? Well, there's one camp that says the miraculous gifts don't function like they did in the New Testament, and there's another group that says they do. Okay. So that's the big area of disagreement. And this has wide practical ramifications. This is not like some little fine point of theology that nobody cares about. It really affects the way in which People worship. Let's talk about the one that usually gets the most ⁓ discussion. Let's talk about tongues for a moment because this is the area where most people have the most questions. Let's do a little biblical review. Because the first time tongues appears in the New Testament is Acts chapter 2. And it appears in a certain context. Jesus has completed his earthly ministry. He ascends into heaven. He sends the Holy Spirit. And then Simon Peter is given the responsibility to preach the Pentecost sermon. And when he preaches the Pentecost sermon, it says that those who are listening, who are from various places with various languages. Obviously, we're here in America and English. Dominates not just America but the world. It's like the world's language in some ways. But nevertheless, in many contexts, it was multilingual. And people, it was a failure to communicate on a lot of different levels. When Simon Peter preaches the Pentecost message, the Bible says that each person heard in their own language. And so ⁓ what God did in Acts 2 as a manifestation of the Spirit is He enabled people to hear in their own language so they could understand and believe the gospel. And that's the Acts 2 model. And some people point out, by the way, another interpretation for tongues is languages. And clearly that's what it was in Acts 2. However, you have more than just Acts 2 in the Bible. You have First Corinthians twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, which has a three chapter extended ⁓ discussion on the gifts, primarily tongues and another gift called prophecy. In those particular texts, I would not say that tongues is a language. It is what many scholars have called ecstatic speech. It means it's unintelligible speech until someone interprets it so that it can be intelligible and then that which is said intellib I can't get the word out intelligible intelligibly there it is it came out okay is to be evaluated whether it's from God. That's the way it was to function in the church. Now this is one of the big problems that I have is in many church contexts where tongues happen There's no interpretation and there's no evaluation and I can say full stop that's wrong. Because the Apostle Paul could not have been more plain spoken about that in First Corinthians twelve, thirteen and fourteen. If tongues are spoken, they are to be interpreted and then evaluated as to ⁓ are they is it with li in line with scripture or no? Now the more interesting thing is ⁓ And by the way, tongues have to be interpreted when they're spoken in the context of a church, in the context of other people. Paul actually said that what he would have preferred, I'm just giving you a quick summary now of 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, is that people did not do tongues, they did prophecy. You say, well, what's that mean? Well, this is my two cents on what I think prophecy is found in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. Is that prophecy, prophecy can be best understood as it is distinguished from teaching. Okay? ⁓ teaching, I take a text, namely the Bible, I read the text and explain to you what it is. So it's kind of through the means of a text you learn. Prophecy seems to be different than that. Prophecy is not through a text, but it is an immediate sense of something. And then when the Prophet spoke, the New Testament prophet, by the way, not the Old Testament prophet, which I think they're different ⁓ in function. When they spoke, they spoke in a way, honestly, I let's try to demystify this. ⁓ just a few moments ago, Cheryl just sang a song. And you and some of you say, ⁓ wouldn't that a nice special? And it was a nice special. But she said more than that, okay. ⁓ she said I was having a tough time with my family and the Spirit of God. Well I had I mean it was you know, you'd struggle with your family, you got consternation in your soul. And you need words to to calm your soul and to give and and and nothing could quite articulate what she felt until she remembered a song, and then she shared that song in a very intelligible, well sung way, and it ministered to you. To me. Okay, listen folks, whatever. You think about tongues and prophecy, that's it. That was all that it was happening in the New Testament church. Is that people were saying, the Spirit of God has spoken to me in a certain way, and that is clearly differentiated from teaching. But every one of you, I would say, will probably leave here today saying, Rusty's sermon was okay. But what Cheryl shared was so heartfelt. And honestly, What's wrong with that? I mean I think that is and also here's the other problem. Does that mean everything everybody says, this is what I think the Spirit of God said? When people say that, are they always hitting the target? No. That's why what is said has to be evaluated by Scripture and and and and cannot be elevated over Scripture. So Let me make a one other comment and then I'll give you a few other things and then I'll finish. ⁓ there is another function for tongues, by the way, in the New Testament. So if it's used in the church, it always has to be used intelligibly. My big issue is when it's used in most places, it's out of out of out of order. It doesn't people don't leave going, hmm, I understand that. I'll think about it. They usually go, What was that? ⁓ that was wild. ⁓ and that's exactly The wrong way to leave. There's another way in which a tongue seems to be used in the New Testament, and that's for individual edification. Now, I'm actually kind of glad that in an English translation they didn't translate it in tongues because it snuck up on some Baptists. Anytime you put tongues in the Bible, they go, ⁓ we don't want to stay away from that. There's a passage in Romans 8 that says the world is groaning. It says the world is groaning, we are groaning, and that guess who else is groaning in the midst of a broken world? The Spirit of God is groaning. And sometimes the world is such a broken place that we go to pray about it. And when we go to pray about the brokenness of our own life, the brokenness of the world, guess what comes to mind? Nothing. We're just like. I don't even know how God's gonna sort this out. And in that context, it says, and the Spirit of God intercedes for us with unutterable groanings. Now I do know enough about psychology. I'm not saying this is all psychology, by the way. But what is all this unutterable groanings? Listen carefully. Before you learn to speak, you exist in a pre-verbal state. And if you don't know this, go to the baby nursery. Goo goo gaga. That's preverbal. Okay? They got something to say, they just ain't got around to saying it yet. And sometimes in life, things can fall down on you so much that you don't even know how to process the whole thing. And and when you go to pray, you say, What benefit is that to have this type of prayer? ⁓ I think it's very beneficial, and I can say for my own self, it's been beneficial. Sometimes when you pray and you don't know what to pray, and all you've got is groans and utterings. What happens in that moment? You know that the Spirit of God is there. And what I've learned when things are really bad as a minister, I've learned to show up and shut up. And just be there. And just keep my mouth shut and say, and if anything, I'm very sorry this has happened. And sometimes you need the Spirit of God to do the same thing, but you need to know His presence. Now, sometimes, if you don't, if you're not open, in my opinion, to this level of vital spirituality, you're missing something. I I will also point out that I do think. ⁓ for the context of the church. This type of worship service is important. I know some people demean c corporate worship, but it is very important to your life to set a rhythm, to come, to hear the scriptures, to encourage one another to leave. It's very important. But I also think it would be important. Why do we have Sunday schools? Why do we have small groups? Because this is not very participatory, if you've noticed. There can be some other context that can be participatory. And I actually think that it would be very beneficial, it's very beneficial for Christians to have smaller groups where we get together and we do a First Corinthians fourteen style of worship service. Where you come, well you have a song, sing it. You have a word of encouragement, say it. You have something to teach, we'll teach it. Okay? And and then honestly, you know what You say, well, why don't we do more of that? Because if you tell somebody's, church folks, we're gonna have an unstructured worship service and it's gonna be in order, but but we're gonna be participatory. You know what most Baptists do? Run for the hells. That's what they do. And you know one of the reasons? If I I've learned this now. If I got if I had a hundred people And I put a hundred pe if I let's just say, if ⁓ out of a hundred people, if I set you down, or you set me down, I mean this is i either way. So what's the spirit of God saying to you? Where's your closest moment to Christ this week? Most folks out of I would say 90 out of a hundred, you would be a big mess in less than forty five minutes. You'd be like, I brought that up. Because you hadn't nurtured your soul. And when you offer those people go, ⁓ no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to get in a prayer meeting, you start asking me questions and we start praying about it, I'll likely start crying and ⁓ my goodness, so many things. Well maybe that's what you need. Maybe the Lord's got to do some healing there. Maybe there needs to be a person to speak to you and say, Hey, look, I know you've been struggling with some things, but this is what I actually think you need to hear. And then a person be actually willing to hear it. That's a very uncomfortable environment for a lot of people. I am so confident that happened in the first century church. And and if if I told people we'll stop this type of worship service to have the other, attendance would decline. I just want to hold this out to you though, that there should be context in your life that is more participatory, and that you do seek what the Spirit is saying in consultation and never contradicting the word of God. This is a a vital spiritual life. Let me make a few comments. I'll give you my two cents and then I'm gonna conclude. I know I said that twice, but I will not say it three times. Okay. ⁓ for those who say the gifts have ceased, let me give you their arguments. ⁓ I do think there's a few good arguments that need to be heard on this side. Number one, is there any evidence that any of the gifts listed in the gift list no longer function? And the answer is yes. Apostles were a one generational group and when they died, they died. They were replaced, you had a criterion to be an apostle and and and they were foundational. So at least apostles as a an office has ceased. So that's that's another argument the gifts have ceased is historical pattern. If you read the Bible It's not like miracles are everywhere. People say ⁓ one of the goofiest statements is expect a miracle. Well that that statement makes zero sense because a miracle by its very nature is unexpected. So how in the world can and an equally dumb statement is expect the unexpected. I mean you do damage to the English language here, ladies and gentlemen, okay? I mean you couldn't expect it if it's unexpected. ⁓ you know, I just for me. But ⁓ nevertheless, miracles aren't like everywhere in the Bible. They cluster. There were miracles, there were a lot of miracles around Moses, there were a lot of miracles around Elijah and Elisha, and there were a lot of miracles around Jesus and the apostles. But there were large swaths of time, even in the Old Testament, where it seems like not much happened, but the sun rose and the sun set, and people went to work and ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Okay, so there is that. The other big issue, and I do think this is important for those who say the gifts have ceased, is they don't want to diminish the sufficiency of Scripture, and I don't either. Okay, the Scripture is the the ultimate guide. Experience what God said to you, never trumps what God said in his word. And if what God said to you contradicts his word, you're wrong, not the scripture. So I think that's a that's that's important. To to notice. The continuationist, however, they say, well, those arguments are interesting, but here are my arguments. They say there are no ex no explicit cessation texts. Like there's nowhere it says the gifts have ceased, at least the miraculous ones. They're right. They also want to say, How can you put the Holy Spirit of God in a box? The Spirit can do what he wants to do. I don't disagree with that. The other thing that I just think we have to notice is while in the West. We have a certain opinion, and the West is fine, and I've I'm in the West and I love the West. There is South America and there is Africa and there is Asia and the global church seems to have far less problems with the gifts than the West. So we ought to just at least notice that as from where we are. So you say, Well, Rusty, where are you on all of this? Well, I wish you wouldn't have asked me that question. I just came off vacation. I'm s you know, I'm I'm not ready to work this hard yet. But I'll answer you. My my two cents is this I am open to the gifts, but I'm cautious. That's where I'm at. So I I'm open. I I don't see that there's a hard and fast, nothing can happen. So I'm open. And I've given you the reason for that. I'm cautious. You say, Why are you cautious? Because of so many abuses and so many extremes. And and and I want to notice that and and notice that. And then that's where I'm at. So if you come up to me and you say, Well, I think the Holy Spirit has told me something, I won't say, Well, he doesn't speak like this. I'll say, Well, what do you got to say? And then I'll hear you out, and and if it's consistent with scripture, I'll receive it, and the way I'll know if it's from God or not, if it happens. And that's it. And that's the way I'm gonna deal with it. And if someone says I want to speak in tongues, I'll say, ⁓ wait, you better have an interpreter, if not keep it to yourself. And then if if or unless and keep it to yourself and be encouraged. But if it's interpreted, then it's gonna be evaluated. And that's where I'm at. I'm I'm as open as appropriately as I can be. But at the end of the conversation about especially the sign gifts, The apostle Paul says, I want all things to be done decently and in order. And I'm a decently and in order type of person, even with the gifts. And and yet I'm not a strangulate the spirit because sometimes the healing, the speaking that the spirit needs to do is quite frankly, it's it does produce emotion. It does produce ⁓ It does produce responses in people that are quite deep. And what in the world's wrong with that? I mean, listen, ⁓ God doesn't want even for me. He doesn't want me to love God with my brain alone. He wants me to love him with my heart, my soul, my mind, my strength, and that means all of me, and he's got to renovate all the areas, and there are different tools. In different places. And ⁓ even your pastor had to learn that. You can be educated here and not here. You can be serving and not loving God with your emotions. You can be so running over with emotions and couldn't think your way through a theological question of your life dependent upon it. The gu the goal is wholeness in all areas. And that leads me to my final sixth point. Which I give you in less than one minute, but you just need to hear this one. The gifts of the spirit. Well I'll read it as I wrote it. Believers should earnestly desire and cultivate gifts while pursuing maturity in Christ and the fruit of the Spirit. Here's the deal: the gifts of the Spirit work in collaboration. You ready with this? With the fruit of the Spirit. And one of the saddest things that I've noticed is that a person discovers their gift and then uses it without the fruit of the Spirit. And rather than it becoming a blessing, it becomes almost a burden. Because people are like, ⁓ my goodness, that person will shove his or her agenda on you, and he sees and she sees nothing but herself. And the gifts are always used in the context of love. And Paul says if you got a gift and you use it, but the driving motivation behind it isn't love and the fruit of the spirit, it gains you zero. And so the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit collaborate together to edify the church, to mature you up, and to glorify Christ. Here's where you should leave today. How is God using me in his church? What gifts has he given me? And how can I faithfully use those to the edification of the church and the glory of God? Not only should I be able to answer the question you gave me, you should be able to answer the question I just gave you. And that is very much part of your maturity. If you're here today, Spiritual gifts are given to Christians. You say, Rusty, what does it take to be a Christian? To become a Christian, you say, God, I admit I'm a sinner. God, by faith I trust in Jesus. If you do that, the Bible says you're saved. I'll be right here at the front. I'll take a Bible, show you how you can be a Christian. Christians who've already done that? Are you using your gift? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask you. That this would be a place where the Holy Spirit of God, who has gifted every Christian Would use, be allowed to be active in individuals' lives so they could use their gift to build up your church, to advance the gospel, and to give you glory. God, I pray for those on the sidelines, those who don't know their giftedness, those who've been hurt and said they just want to come and set, they don't want to come and serve. God, would the the Spirit of God speak? And and pull those folks from the sidelines onto the field so they can serve you with a great vitality. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Acts 2 · chapter mention