The Gifts of the Spirit

Okay, how you guys doing?

Really?

Hey, we are...

So if you're new here, my name is Tobin.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And we are glad that you're here with us as a family at Watermark.

You know, when we...

So in October, 10 will be five years old.

And when we started the church, or started praying about the church and what to do,

and what kind of church God would have us to be,

I remember the meeting as clear as day.

One time somebody just said, so what are we going to name the church?

And we never really thought about a name of a church or what that would look like or things like that.

And so about 20 of us just started praying, and we started listing out a whiteboard,

and we got all these types of names out there.

And we started thinking about what kind of church does God want us to be,

and what does He have us here for?

What is our purpose on this western side of Hong Kong Island?

And we came up with this idea of...

We wanted to call...

We felt like God was calling us a church Watermark.

And we picked the idea of Watermark because we realized that, you know,

like on paper and on different types of things, that Watermark is a symbol.

It's kind of a symbol of authenticity.

It's something that you can see, and you can look up, and you can say,

okay, is this genuine or not?

And we do it on money or other things.

But there's a Watermark there.

But we realized also that God's fingerprint, His Watermark is on everything in creation.

He's put His fingerprint on you, whether you know that or not, His Watermark on you.

And we realized as a church that as our responsibility is to bring God's light,

His Word, His Spirit, the community out there,

and as we did that, that things would become clearer.

We'd understand why we exist and why we're here as people, of His people,

and why we're on this journey.

We also realized that water is this big change agent.

And we really feel like God was calling us to be a church that made a difference.

One of the questions we ask our staff all the time is,

if the church wasn't here, would this part of Hong Kong be any different?

Would people miss the church not being here?

And our prayer and our hope is that the answer would be yes,

that something would be missing, there'd be something lacking.

You know, about six or seven years ago, when Christine and I were praying,

and we were talking about, okay, so what are we going to do with this church?

As God's calling us to plant this church, how are we going to do it?

What will we look like?

We just start asking people, what is a church supposed to look like?

I mean, literally, we've been in church all our lives, almost,

but we wanted to say, what do you want your church to look like?

What is a church supposed to look like?

And we asked people who were churched, we asked people who were unchurched,

we asked people who were de-churched, people who had just given up on church,

and they'd been in church for so long, and they just felt a burden or this heaviness,

and so they just gave up on church.

And so we asked everybody, what does a church look like?

What do you want a new church to look like?

And here's some of the responses that we got as we were praying through that.

Some people would say stuff like, I want a church that never asked me to do anything.

I'm already too busy in Hong Kong, and I'm just so busy with clubs and Bible studies

and other things I'm doing, I need a church that will just ask me to do nothing.

If you can do a church that asks me to do nothing, that's the type of church that I want to be about.

And Christina and I would just look at each other afterwards, and we were like, okay.

But, you know, inside, we hurt.

I mean, often I feel like Charlie Brown, you know, in the movies.

Charlie Brown goes around, and all he can say is, good grief, you know.

So I have a question.

Anybody want to be a pastor?

It's crazy as you look at these things.

But, you know, as we look at these things and what we struggle with in our lives,

we realize that Paul, in this passage, and his church, they struggled with the same things.

The church of Corinth, they struggled with this idea of self-centeredness.

They struggled with this idea of selfishness.

They struggled with this idea of serving.

They struggled with this idea of gifts.

I mean, they basically said they struggled with this idea of what does it really mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to be spiritual?

How do I know that I'm really the Christian that God has called me to be?

And so what I want to do is we look at this passage here.

I want to look at three things.

I want to look at what is Paul talking to us about?

What does it mean to be spiritual?

He gives us a test in what it looks like so that we can know if we're spiritual or not spiritual.

He's going to talk about these gifts that he's going to give us

and these gifts that he's giving us to serve each other.

And we want to look at those and talk about and lay down this foundation.

We're going to talk about this for like three or four weeks.

And so there's going to be a lot here.

And as you look at it, you're like, okay, I have all these questions.

And if your question doesn't get answered today, hopefully it will in the next three or four weeks.

And then I have some questions for us afterwards.

Does that make sense?

So where we're going is we want to look at what it means to be spiritual.

We want to look at this test that we can decide, are we really the people that God has called us to be?

We want to look at these gifts that God's given us to walk through this journey in life.

And then we want to ask some questions.

Okay?

Now, if you've been with us for any period of time, you realize that the church in Corinth, they have been struggling.

They've come out of this culture that is probably the most immoral and out-of-control culture that I've ever read about in the known world.

It was full of idols.

It was full of bad influences.

The church had these habits.

I know none of us have these habits, but the church had these habits.

And these habits were stuff like pride and self-centeredness and arrogance and selfishness.

And what happened is as the church was going on this journey, these things just kept coming up and coming up and coming up.

And when these self-centeredness and selfishness comes up in chapters, we've been reading them in 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 today.

What you see is a self-centeredness and this pride just starts to fracture the church.

Instead of being a family, instead of being a community, they're just this group of individuals.

And it's interesting because in this passage, in chapter 1, verses 5 through 7, Paul begins the book and he praises us.

He praises them.

He says, man, you guys have your act together.

You're full of knowledge.

You know how to use your gifts.

You're doing really well.

But here in this passage, Paul says, no.

You don't know what you're doing.

You don't know how to use your gifts.

There's this lack of knowledge.

There's this misunderstanding.

And so if you look at verses 1 through 3, Paul begins to set out his argument for us, for the church.

And what he says to them and what he says to us is this.

He says there are two types of spirituality in all the world.

There's two types.

There's either true spirituality or there's false spirituality.

And if you're in here right now, you're either being led by one of those two types of spirituality.

He says that the true spirituality is being led by God's spirit.

It's from God's word.

It's from his character.

And that a false spirituality is from the world and from demons and from scary things.

And you've got to remember, I feel like I'm getting feedback up here, but you've got to remember as this church was going through life,

they had come out of this crazy culture that was out of control.

I mean, it wasn't too long before ago, it wasn't too long ago that all the people in the church were worshiping in pagan temples.

It wasn't too long ago that all the people were involved in immoral acts as they came into their life.

It wasn't too long ago that people entered into their temple and they asked questions like this.

Does this make me feel good?

Does this make me happy?

Do I feel like I deserve this?

Am I experiencing good things?

It wasn't too long ago that the people in Paul's church in Corinth,

everything they asked about and everything they talked about centered on themselves.

They were the center of their focus.

And listen to me here, guys, because this is, in Paul's day, in an ancient world,

people would go to temples and they would experience miracles.

I mean, they would enter into a temple and they would see incredible things.

They would enter into temples and they would see visions.

And people would talk about the future and people would talk about prophecy.

They would enter into the temples where the sacrifices were happening, where the orgies were happening,

and people would be healed.

They would enter into the temple and people would see other people speaking in tongues.

In many different strange languages.

And they felt like power came upon them.

And when they came into these temples, this power came upon them and it captivated everybody.

And they felt great.

I mean, there's a passage in Acts 8.

As the disciples are going around and they're sharing the gospel, there's this guy named Simon.

He's a magician.

And it says that he actually had power and he was doing all of these miracles.

And this power was coming from these demonic sources that were invading his life.

And we're told that all of Samaria was captivated by this guy.

I mean, this guy was doing all these miracles and it was amazing.

And he was claiming to be great and everybody was following him.

And then in Acts 16, we're told again, there's this slave girl.

And she's possessed by a demon.

And she's telling everybody his fortune.

And she's telling everybody what's going to happen.

And everybody is following her.

And everybody knows where this power is coming from.

And what Paul is saying to you and I, and he's saying to the church of Corinthian,

is that everybody is spiritual.

Everyone is spiritual.

The question is, where is your spiritual power coming from?

Where are you receiving that spirituality from?

And so in verse 3, Paul just gives us a test.

And it's a really simple test.

I don't know why we haven't talked about it before, but we need to be talking about it all the time in the church.

And this is what Paul says.

Guys, if you want to test where your life is, if you want to test where your spirituality is coming from,

you want to test where the power in you is coming from, all you need to do is take an oath.

And this oath was something that everybody did every day in Corinth.

And this is what you would do.

You'd get out of your house, you'd go to work, and as you walk into the marketplace to do your work,

to do your business, to buy your goods, you would see a statue of Caesar there.

And you'd take a little incense, and you would burn it in front of Caesar, and you would say,

Caesar is Lord.

And if you didn't do that, you couldn't enter into the marketplace.

If you didn't do that, you couldn't do work.

If you couldn't do that, you couldn't buy your goods.

And so everybody did this.

And Paul says in his passage, you can tell what kind of spirit controls us by what we say about Jesus.

He says that in the Gospels, that when people came to Christ, and even when the demons came to Christ,

often the demons would say things like, well, Jesus, he is the Son of God.

And sometimes the demons would come before the Lord, and they would talk about him to other people,

and they would say, Jesus, he is the Holy One of God.

But what you never see in the Gospels is a demon saying, Jesus is Lord.

It never happens.

Because they had another Lord.

They received their power from someplace else.

And so Paul says to the church of Corinth, and he says to us,

that if you're struggling with this idea of how you're living your life,

if you're struggling with this idea of are you really spiritual,

if you're struggling with where your spirituality comes from,

he just says, look at your life.

And look at the oath that you take.

Can you say that Jesus is Lord of your life?

Can you say that Jesus is your master?

Can you say that Jesus is your patron that we talked about last week?

Can you say that Jesus owns you?

Can you say that Christ owns all of you?

That Jesus owns all of your stuff?

That he has the right to direct and control your life.

Now, these aren't just words that Paul's talking about here.

But what he's actually talking about is not just our words,

but it's our actions and our thoughts and our life

and the things we do when no one else is looking.

And he's saying all of these things point to the power in our life.

It talks about the thing that controls us.

And the question is, where is this power coming from?

And can you and I say that Christ is our Lord?

That he controls everything about us?

When you read the passage, you realize that the church in Corinth,

they struggled with this.

Because the church in Corinth, they wanted to play both ends.

They wanted to live double lives.

They wanted to live with one life in the marketplace

and have their work or their law firm or their school

or something like that be their Lord

and control their life and be all of what they're about to be.

But then when they went to church on Sunday,

they wanted to be about Christ and Jesus and what he did

and how he controlled all their life.

And he was all about that.

And so Paul just asked a simple question to the church

so that we can just kind of lay this line down

and say, where are we in this whole process?

And the process he asked us is,

is Christ Lord of your life?

Now, when I say that,

I know that sometimes we get kind of tense, right?

Because we read these passages and we go,

okay, this is where I'm supposed to be.

I'm not there.

I'm not.

And you realize as we talk about these things,

it's a journey we're on.

At the end of the sermon, we're not saying,

okay, we all should be like that

because if we were all like that,

none of us would be like that

and the pastor wouldn't be like that

and the staff wouldn't be like that

and we'd all be lost.

But the question we have to ask ourselves is,

if Jesus is Lord and I'm not living like it,

what's the next step I need to move in that direction

to start living like that?

How do I start to live like Christ is my king?

How do I start to live like he is in control

of all of my life?

What is that next step?

So we're not asking you to get there today

or next week because you're never going to get there

because we're broken, we're fallen, we struggle.

But what we're talking about as a church

is we're going on a journey,

we're being filled with God's spirit

or some kind of spirit

and the question is,

can we discern the truth in our life?

And that truth is going to be determined

by what kind of spirit leads us.

And Paul gives us an easy example

and he says, the way you figure this out is,

can you look at your life,

can you look at how you live,

can you look at how you use your money,

can you look at how you treat your people,

can you look at how you do all these gifts

that God's given you,

and can you say in the midst of all that

that Christ is Lord of your life

and you're trusting him

to take control over you?

Everybody's really serious.

But the question is, can we do that?

Can we say that Christ is Lord of our life?

You know, I struggle with that.

I mean, there's times we preach

and we teach and we talk through things

and then all of a sudden I get out into the world

and I get busy and I start doing things

and all of a sudden I'm just focusing

and I'm going down this path

and all of a sudden I kind of stop

and I go, wait a second.

Who's trying to control my life?

Is it me?

Is it the circumstances around me?

Or is it God?

Is Christ's control of my life?

So how do you answer that question?

What do you say to that?

Because he says the church at Corinth and us,

we need to really figure about this answer out

before we move forward.

He gives an example.

You know, for me, I guess the biggest example

I ever saw of this in my life

was my time in China.

In the late 80s and early 90s,

I was teaching in China.

And we would see just amazing things happen.

I just found out that one of the guys

who was in our study became a pastor

and he's serving and that's neat.

I think it's neat that they just keep walking

with the Lord.

One night we were able to baptize 16 people

in our bathtub.

Our bathtub was literally this big.

Now, we didn't get all 16 in at one time,

but we did it, you know,

one after another after another.

And I'll never forget,

as we shared the gospel with these students,

it usually happened their junior or senior year.

And in their junior or senior year,

because of the universities that we were teaching at,

they all had to make a decision.

And the decision was this.

Are they going to join a communist party or not?

Because their senior year,

they had to make this decision

and they had to take this oath.

And in this oath,

they had to choose between God and the party.

And for them, it was really clear

that they couldn't do both sides

because once they made a decision,

they were just full in.

They just had to do all of that.

And so as we talked about these,

and sometimes as Westerners,

we struggle with that.

Well, why can't you just do both?

And they go, no, you can't do that.

You have to either be all in or all out.

And I realized as I watched them

that we all struggle with that.

Are we all in?

Are we all out?

Because he says there's not an in-between.

There's not an in-between.

Either we follow him and he's our Lord

or we don't follow him

and something else is our Lord.

So the question is,

where is he in your life?

And what he's saying here,

and Paul is saying to the church,

is that Jesus is Lord of everything

and if he's Lord of everything,

it changes everything

and either we accept his control

and we follow him or we don't.

And so he lays down his dividing line.

Does that make sense?

Is that clear?

I struggle with that

because I'm gonna leave here

and there's gonna be a lot of things

that are gonna happen in my life

and I'm gonna wanna control,

grab control of those things.

And I'm gonna struggle with,

am I trusting God or not trusting God?

And Paul is saying to the church,

you know God is good

and you can trust him.

He goes on in verses four through 11

and he says some things about

why and how God is good to us as his people.

And he talks about this idea of spiritual gifts.

And he says that Jesus,

the Holy Spirit,

God the Father,

they give us these spiritual gifts.

And these spiritual gifts

are things that we use on our journey.

He actually says in verses four, five, and six,

there's a variety of gifts,

there's a variety of ministries,

and there's a variety of effects,

a power that goes through these gifts.

Now there's a lot of debate out there

when we read these passages

and people have been writing

and talking about these things

for thousands of years.

And so I'm just gonna say

this is what I think.

I'm gonna define a spiritual gift

as any supernatural ability

that God has given every Christian

by the Holy Spirit.

This spiritual gift allows us to serve

within the body of Christ.

This spiritual gift is often manifested outwardly

as we come into people's lives

and we help people,

we give them things,

we meet visible needs

that are in people's lives.

The Greek words actually say

that these gifts are tools

that we build a house with.

That these gifts are tools

that we build a community of God with.

Now maybe some of us

are gonna get disappointed today again

because we're not gonna talk about

every gift and how it fits into our lives,

but what we're gonna do

is we're gonna lay down this foundation

of what the gifts are.

My prayer is that you're in a community group

because we're gonna talk a lot about these

in community groups

and how we can live these out

in our daily life.

So the first thing that Paul says

in verses four

is that these gifts are gifts.

They're favors.

They're acts of God's grace in our life.

He's saying that every Christian,

when you come into the family of God,

that the Holy Spirit enters in your life

and there's a couple things that happen.

Before you are walking with the Lord,

before you know the Lord,

the Bible says that you and I

walked in darkness.

That our eyes and our hearts

and our ears were shut to God.

We didn't wanna be friends with God.

We were actually enemies of God.

And for some reason,

I do not understand why

God sends his spirit into our life.

And his spirit came into your life

and if you're a child of God in here,

he started to open your eyes,

in your ears,

in your heart,

to the thoughts and the ideas of God.

And sometime in that journey,

as the spirit was working in your life,

you had your eyes open,

you saw Christ,

you saw your sin,

you saw your need for the gospel,

and you said,

I need that.

That's what I need.

That's the gospel.

That's the message we're talking about.

And at that moment,

we're told that God's Holy Spirit

comes into your life.

He indwells you.

It's the assurance of the people.

It's the assurance of God's people.

What the Bible would say

is that spirit never leaves you.

That you never have to worry about

not being a child of God

if you've entered into God's family.

But the next thing we're told in this passage

is that when that spirit comes into you,

that he gives you gifts.

He gives you manifestations of God's power

in working in your life.

Now, this is a new concept for many people.

For some people,

you're struggling with this

and you're trying to figure out,

okay, what does this look like?

What's my gift?

How do I know?

Am I doing it well?

I want that gift.

I don't want this gift.

Why does somebody give me that gift?

And so we're always thinking through these things.

So this is a huge topic

that we're trying to just kind of jump into

and try to build this foundation on.

But what needless to say,

everyone is given a gift.

And I personally think

that we're all given many different gifts.

So when you come into God's family,

God empowers you through his Holy Spirit

and he gives you these gifts.

There are glimpses of what God looks like in his world.

We're told in verse 11

that these gifts never indicate how mature you are.

So if you're sitting here today

and you have awesome gifts,

it has nothing to do with you.

And if you hear me right here,

I think all the gifts are awesome gifts.

But if you're out here

and you have these spectacular gifts,

what the Bible says is that none of these gifts

have anything to do with you.

They weren't given to you because you were great.

They weren't given to you

because you were ultra super obedient.

They weren't given to you

because you asked for them.

The gifts were given to you

because God loves you.

He wants to pour out his grace on you.

He has a purpose for you in his life.

He has a purpose for you in his church.

And he wants you to serve other people.

That's why the gifts are given to you.

So there's no gifts that are better than other gifts.

They're all there.

And the interesting thing is

sometimes when we struggle with this

and we say, oh, I have this gift.

And it's a really special gift.

And I can do these things.

And when I do these things,

people come to me

and they're attracted to everything I do

or I say or I heal.

And what happens is

it takes the focus off of God

and his spirit

and what God is doing in our life.

And you look at the Church of Corinth

and what we see in the Church of Corinth

is that the Church of Corinth

had all of these gifts.

They had all the gifts.

But they were a mess.

They weren't any more spiritual.

They weren't any more better.

They had all these gifts

but it wasn't any good.

Paul says in verse 7

that all these gifts come into us

because of God's grace.

And these gifts that God gives you

is for the common good of all the people.

So if you're here today

and you've come into the family of God

and God has given you these gifts

and you've seen these things

worked out in your life,

these gifts were not given to you

for your own good.

The passage says

that these gifts were given to you

for the good of all God's people.

Now listen to my heart here

because it's going to...

So if you have a special ability

that God has given you

and this ability has made you really famous

or this ability has given you

a lot of money,

the gift was never given to you

for that purpose.

The gift was given to you

so that you can make God's name great

and bless God's people.

So just like he says

you can test what kind of spirit

is leading your life

in verses 1 through 3,

if you have gifts in your life right now,

you can test whether those gifts

are from the Lord or not.

Or if you're using them

the way that God wants you to

and the test is

are you using these gifts

for God's glory?

Are you using these gifts

to build up God's people?

Paul goes on and he says

every one of us was given these gifts

and you have to realize

that when you're given these gifts

that not every one of us

were given the same gifts.

Not every one of us

were given the same passions.

Not every one of us

were given the same ministries.

That was the problem

in the church of Corinth

and that's the problem

in the church in America

and around the world.

That we see people

with different gifts

and we want those gifts

or we want everybody

to have the same gifts

that we have

or sometimes we want people

to have the same passions

that we have.

And so we walk into a church

and we say

well I really have a passion

for this

and this is what my ministry is

and you start sharing with people

and people kind of go

yeah, that's a need

but that's not really my passion.

My passion is this.

And they start sharing

what they're doing

and why God's called them

to do things

and what Paul is saying here

is that God has given

every one of us

different passions

and God has given

every one of us

different ministries

and God has given

every one of us

different hearts

and the question is

are we going to embrace

that difference?

Are we going to rejoice

in the difference?

Now the church of Corinth

they couldn't do that.

So just like their sexuality

just like their worshipping of idols

just like their eating of meat

just like their communion

that we talked about

two weeks ago

just like their gifts.

They allow these gifts

to come into their life

and to separate themselves.

And so the problem was

in the church of Corinth

instead of having

all these gifts

that brought the church together

and caused unity

through diversity

what was happening is

everybody was angry

with each other.

Everybody didn't like each other

because they didn't have

the same gifts that they had

and basically what people

were saying is

you don't

I don't need you

you don't need me

my gift is the most important.

Does that make sense?

So there's this big struggle

going on in the church

and Paul is talking to them

and he's giving us

this warning

he's saying hey

don't go down that route

because if you go down

that route

you're doing exactly

what the gifts

were not meant to be.

You're dividing the church.

And so Paul says

that there are many gifts

and there's many ministries

in verses 4, 5, and 6.

He says

there are many ministries

there's many gifts

there's many effects

they're all from the same God

and in your church

you're going to have

dramatic gifts

you're going to have

non-dramatic gifts

you're going to have

teaching gifts

you're going to have

speaking gifts

you're going to have

sign gifts

you're going to have

many variety of gifts

and all these gifts

are needed

and all these gifts

are valued.

If you got a bulletin today

I put a list in there

and so we want you

to start building on this.

So on this page right here

is the four main passages

that talk about

spiritual gifts

and you can divide them

in any way you want

to divide them.

We put them into

three different categories

we put them into

speaking gifts

service gifts

and sign gifts

and we gave the four passages

that talk mostly

about these gifts.

Now there are only 19 gifts

on this list

but there are over 30

or 40

or I don't know

there's millions

of different ministries

and there's probably

hundreds of different gifts

but what Paul says

is in this passage

is no matter what

the gift that you're given

the purpose of this gift

is to bring unity

in closeness

to God's people.

Does that make sense?

So the question

we have to ask ourselves

is as we walk

through this journey

with God

as we walk through

this journey

with God's people

are we taking the gifts

that God's given us

the resources

the people

the supernatural powers

are we taking these things

and are we building up

God's people

and are we building up

God's kingdom

or are we building up Tobin

or are we building up

somebody else?

Because he says

in the end

the only way to know

if you're using the gifts

properly

is where the focus is

is the focus on yourself

or is the focus

on other people?

Is this too heavy?

We need to go here.

In verses 8 through 11

Paul lists out nine gifts

and you can read them.

He says

there's a gift of wisdom

word of wisdom

there's a word of knowledge

there's a gift of faith

there's a gift of healing

there's a gift of miracles

there's a gift of prophecy

there's a gift

of distinguishing spirits

there's a gift

of various tongues

and there's a gift

of interpreting tongues

and he says

all these gifts are valid

all these things are needed

all these things

express God's character

all these things

bring unity

to the body of Christ

if you take any

of these things away

it's not good

and all these things

are played out every day.

So let me give you

an example.

I added in that list

the gift of hospitality.

Now the gift of hospitality

is kind of alluded to

in the Ephesians passage

but it's really talked about

in Romans and Hebrews

and one of the things

that's been amazing to me

at Watermark

is just to see this gift

of hospitality lived out

and the gift of hospitality

is basically

in Greek

the word means

a love for strangers

and so God gives this gift

of people

on people

who come into the family

and he gives them

this love for strangers

he gives them this ability

to make people feel at home

he gives us

this gift

to make people feel

at peace

he gives this gift

to people

with the gift

of hospitality

and encouragement

and he basically says

I want you

to treat people

like they're your own family

and create an environment

where they can come in

and the amazing thing

to me about this

is I've seen this lived out

in our church

over and over and over

so when we talk

to people who come

into Watermark

one of the first things

they say is

you guys are just a family

and it feels like

you care for each other

and it feels like

you want the best

for each other

and it feels like

you're authentic

and real for each other

and it's just awesome

and Paul would say

that's the gift

of hospitality

being lived out

I mean in my home

and I have to say this

because

and I'm not in trouble

with my wife

so I'm not trying

to build up equity

or anything like that

but my wife

has the gift

of hospitality

and if you've been

in her home

you can see that

played out

and I think

that she's probably

fed everybody

at Watermark

at least two or three times

and if you haven't

been fed yet

raise your hand

we'll invite you over

okay

but that's that gift

of hospitality

being lived out

is what happens

in our life

and it brings people

into our community

and into our home

and they see our life

being lived out

in authenticity

and that's one of the things

we prayed for

is a church at Watermark

now there's a lot

of other gifts

we can talk about

and I'm not going to go

into all of these today

we're going to come back

and talk about them later

but I want to answer

some questions

that people keep asking

the staff

okay

the first question is

do we believe

that the gifts

even the dramatic ones

are real

and we would say yes

God's word is real

all these gifts are real

and the next question

they'll ask us is

do we think they still

exist today

and we would say yes

we think they still

exist today

now there are some gifts

I don't know about

being a gift of an apostle

because the idea was

you had to see Jesus

and to get instructions

from him

but I do know

that one day

these gifts

are going to cease

you think about it

the only reason

we have spiritual gifts

today

is because of the

brokenness

and the sin

in our world

and so God

has imparted upon us

his character

in each one of us

and so that

when we do ministry

and we love people

and we encourage people

and we pray for people

and we heal people

and we speak in tongues

or whatever that looks like

in your world

that's part of a

manifestation of God's

kingdom

but one day when you die

or when Jesus comes back

and you see him face to face

you're not going to need

the gift of exhortation

and you're not going to need

the gift of prophecy

and you're not going to need

the gift of tongues

and you're not going to need

the gift of healing

because you're going to be

in the presence of the healer

and the speaker

and the prophet

and the king

so we believe that all

these gifts exist

but yes

one day they will cease to exist

does the church need

all these gifts

we're going to say yes

we're going to talk about that

in two weeks

because if the church

doesn't have all these gifts

then we're like a body

without a head

or we're like a body

without legs

or we're like legs

without feet

and so yes

we need all of these gifts

in our church

because we want to be

a complete body

the next question people ask me

all the time is this

how come we don't ever see you

or the other pastors

practicing these gifts

in front of the church

and I can only understand

or think it means

like speaking in tongues

or healing

or prophecy

or something like that

and I would say that

I think that you do see us

practicing some of these things

in gift

in front of church

but that we would also say this

as we look at God's word

and as we look at Paul's world

we realize that

if Paul were in a house church

of 20 or 30 people

who all are Christians

that the expression of those gifts

would look very different

than if you're in a church family

of 300 or 400 people

and there are Christians

and non-Christians

and de-church people

and so we would say

that God has asked us

to live out these gifts

in an orderly

in biblical fashion

in front of God's people

when I hear this all the time

I've heard this

in every church

I've ever been a member of

in every church

I've ever been a pastor of

we have people come to me

and they say this

they say

you know I have this gift here

but I don't ever really see it

lived out in this church

and so I think maybe

it's best for me to go

to another church

where that's lived out

because then I'll feel free

to express those things

and I can do it

when everybody else

is doing the same thing

and I've had it happen

in every church

that I've ever been a member of

in every church

that I've ever been a pastor of

and what I would say to you

is this

if you're in that position

and you're thinking about that

if you do that

you're going exactly against

what Paul says in his passage

he says the gifts

were given in diversity

he says if you leave

a church family

because you don't feel like

you can express those things

or no one else

is expressing those things

in this big setting

what you're doing

is you're actually hurting

the body of Christ

and if you go to another church

where everybody is doing

whatever that gift is

that you don't feel comfortable

doing here

he says what you're doing

is you're hurting that body also

because in that body

they already have enough people

doing those gifts

that you don't feel comfortable

practicing here

and so if you have a gift

or you feel like

God has empowered me

to do things

or to serve things

we want you to practice

those things

in the setting

that brings honor

and glory

and order

to God

and his people

does that make sense

I hope I was really clear

because we get asked

those questions all the time

so let me flesh out

verses 4, 5, and 6

and then we're going to end

with some questions

4, 5, and 6

so let's say

you have the gift

of encouragement

exhortation

and so

what Paul says

in his passage

is that there are many gifts

there's many ministries

so ministry is how

you would live that out

and there's many effects

which means

the word actually means

power or strength

or intensity

so you have many gifts

you have many places

where you live that out

and you have different powers

or intensity

in which you would do it

and so let's say

you have the gift

of exhortation

or encouragement

now the exhortation

or encouragement

is just basically

the ability

to speak peace

into people's lives

I love people

who have the gift

of exhortation

or encouragement

it's the ability

to reassure people

the ability

to comfort people

the ability

to bring deep

spiritual healing

into other people's lives

it's the ability

just to affirm people

for who they are

in their journey

with God

now I didn't grow up

in that

my parents were German

100% German

right

so if I came to my dad

and I said

oh man my arm

really hurts

when I do this

my dad would say

don't do that

now that is not

the gift of encouragement

okay

and that's not

the gift of exhortation

right

that's not what

he's talking about here

he's talking about

something really different

and so let's just say

you have this gift

of exhortation

and you're a teacher

well your ministry

is a teacher

you're playing out

this gift

so maybe you're

ministering to your students

and you're exhorting them

and you're encouraging them

or maybe you're exhorting

and encouraging other teachers

or maybe you're exhorting

and encouraging

the parents of your students

and Paul says

in any of these ministries

in any of these settings

your gift is going to look different

you're going to have

a different passion

you're going to have

a different intensity

you're going to live out

these things differently

now maybe you have

the gift of encouragement

and exhortation

but God has called you

just to minister in your home

and so you're using

your gift

as a husband

or a wife

in your home

and you're encouraging

and you're exhorting

your people

and you're just bringing

God's truth

and love

into their life

or maybe God

has called you

with this gift

to live it out

in your dorms

or maybe you're

a student here

and you're trying

to figure out

okay where do I live out

my gifts

and how do I serve the Lord

and God says

hey you serve him

where I placed you

and I placed you

in these dorms

and so I want you

to use this gift out

to encourage

and exhort people

and to bring them

into the fellowship

of God

maybe you're a doctor

and you live out

this exhortation

in the hospital

or you live it out

in the restaurant today

as you're nice

to the waiters

or maybe you live it out

in the bank

the banks need a lot

of encouragement

nowadays right

so if you're

an exhortation

or you're an encourager

there you can have

an amazing ministry

in the bank

so last week

I wrote a check

to HSBC

and it came back

to me in the mail

and it said

insufficient funds

so I wrote

another check

and I said

your insufficient funds

or my insufficient funds

it's a joke

but what I'm trying

to say is

there's a lot

of places

that need

encouragement

and exhortation

for me

one of the best

places I've seen

and being able

to use my gifts

is the barber chair

there's just something

about getting your haircut

and you're sitting there

next to people

who are getting their haircut

and they cannot move

they're just stuck there

right

so you have 30 minutes

to an hour

just to encourage them

and exhort them

and talk to them

about the things

God is doing

in your life

and you're able

to do all these things

and so what Paul

is saying

is that no matter

where you are

we have all these gifts

I've given you

all these different assignments

and what God

is saying

is I just want you

to serve people

I want you

to love people

I want you

to give yourself

to others

I want you

to help others

and the problem

in the church

in Corinth

is that they forgot

the other part

and so when they

started thinking

about how God

has gifted them

and what they're

supposed to do

with their life

and how they're

supposed to live

all they started

thinking about

is themselves

and what they

needed

and Paul says

in his passage

that you and I

need each other

so wherever you are

on your journey

God has called you

to live out those

gifts

serving each other

does that make sense

so let me ask

us some questions

and we'll finish

first question

is this

if you're honest

right now

and you were

to examine

your life

this week

what spirit

would you say

controlled you

if you looked

at how you

lived your life

this week

what spirit

would you say

controlled you

maybe the question

would be

where is your

focus been

has your focus

been on yourself

or has your focus

been on others

God's family

second question

I've been asking

myself

as I look around

watermark

and I look at my

brothers and sisters

next to me

do I see a need

for them in my life

do you really need

the person

next to you

now if it's your spouse

hopefully you're going

to say yes

I really do

I love you honey

but do you really

need the people

next to you

I mean some of us

come in here

and we sit down

we don't ever say hi

we don't ever talk

to people

and then we leave

right away

and this is exactly

the thing

that Paul

was warning

the Corinthians

about

because some of you

have gifts

and some of you

have talents

and some of you

have a ministry

sitting right next

to you

but you're so

focused on yourself

that you're missing

this amazing

opportunity

that God

wants to give you

to love

and encourage

the people

around you

so do you see

a need

for the brothers

and sisters

around you

in your life

maybe to ask

another way

would be this

how do

your brothers

and sisters

bless you

with the gifts

and talents

that they have

if I were

just to say

turn next

to the person

right next

to you

and say

man you know

I'm really

encouraged

by this

in your life

and I really

see God's

spirit

living out

in how you

do

this

what would you

tell them

see the church

of Corinth

couldn't tell

each other

anything

because they

were so

focused on

themselves

they were so

busy about

living out

their own

life

they were so

busy about

their own

world

they didn't

even think

about the

people next

to them

that they're

part of

the body

that they

need each

other

and Paul

is encouraging

them to say

be careful

of this

because if you

run down

this path

it's going

to be

destructive

to the life

of the church

one last

question

how are you

using

your gifts

right now

to build up

God's church

God

if you are

a Christian

in here

God has

given you

a gift

and my

question for

you

and the

question for

me

is

how are

you using

the gift

that God

has given

you right

now

to build

up

his church

what does

that look

like

in your

life

because the

passage says

that you

and I

have God's

fingerprint

on us

to each

one of you

as God's

child

has been

given a

gift

and each

one of

these gifts

is needed

in the

life

of this

church

and if

you're

sitting

in your

chair

and saying

my gift

means

nothing

I don't

have a

gift

that's

all

wrong

and many

of us

are going

to walk

through

our life

and we're

going to

waste

these amazing

gifts

and talents

that God

has given

us

for his

kingdom

and I

promise you

that the

greatest

joy

you're

ever

going to

experience

as God's

child

is living

out

his

gifts

in your

life

in the

service

of other

people

the church

of Corinth

could not

get that

because they

were so

focused

on

themselves

my prayer

for us

as a church

watermark

is that we

would get

it

that we

would realize

God has

a purpose

for you

God has

a gift

for you

God has

a ministry

for you

those

ministries

are spread

out throughout

your world

every day

and the

question is

are we

going to

trust him

are we

going to

allow him

to be

lord of

our life

or are we

going to

be our

own

lord

does that

make sense

father we

thank you

for this

day

we thank you

for these

words of the

church of

Corinth

lord I know

that there

are some

amazing gifts

in this

church

as I think

about the

people that

you've equipped

and brought

into this

church

and I think

of the

spiritual

gifts that

we see

that every

day

I realize

that we're

probably one

of the most

gifted churches

I've ever

seen in my

life

and yet

we

often

many of

us

sit back

and we do

nothing with

those gifts

we expect

other people

to give

those gifts

and put

their gifts

on us

and to

minister

to us

and we

are just

so busy

and so

self-focused

that we

miss the

blessings

that you

want for

your people

lord I

just confess

I beg

your forgiveness

in my own

selfishness

I beg your

forgiveness

just for my

own

pride

and arrogance

trying to

live life

often as a

lone wolf

Christian

and not

realizing that

you've put

this body

of Christ

around us

to serve

and to

minister

to us

lord I

pray for

all of

your children

here

that you

would open

their eyes

to your

grace

and your

mercy

and the

gift of

your spirit

that you've

given them

lord I

pray for

this church

that we

wouldn't be

a church

with a

hand chopped

off

or an

arm chopped

off

maybe even

our head

chopped

off

because we

refuse to

accept all

of your

blessings in

our life

lord I

pray for us

as individuals

as we live

out these

gifts and

these blessings

that we

would know

that the

focus is

on others

and on the

body

and that it's

not on us

lord most of

all I just

pray that we

would be

different

pray that we

would trust

you

that we

would walk

with you

that whenever

we have a

struggle we

would look to

your son and

realize that in

his life and in

his words and his

actions there is

truth in life and

there is the true

spirit help us to

call him lord

help us to call him

savior show us

what that next step

is as we surrender

our lives to you and

ask you to change us

and to make us

different

lord we pray for

this church

watermark

we talk a lot

about missions

we talk a lot

about the gospel

we talk a lot

about out there

and serving

and often we

just don't do

it

father we need

you

we lift up all

these things to

you and we pray

these things to

your son Jesus

holy name

amen

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

you