Christains Worship; Spiritual Gifts & Worship [Sinners & Saints]

Hello and welcome to the Sermon Podcast of Mission Hills Church, located in San Marcos, California.

Thank you so much for listening.

We pray that this message blesses you and your walk with Jesus.

1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 1 through 31.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.

Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus is a curse.

And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.

And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member, but of many.

If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

And if the ear should say, Because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?

If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose.

If all were a single member, where would the body be?

As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor.

And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

Are all apostles?

Are all prophets?

Are all teachers?

Do all work miracles?

Do all possess gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues?

Do all interpret?

But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you still a more excellent way.

This is the word of the Lord.

My name is Dennison, I'm a friend of Mission Hills Church.

And I'm I'm I'm really, really glad to be here and honored to be a part of it.

And uh I also want to say as a beginner, I want to give condolences to uh Chad for Argentine's uh loss last weekend, since he kind of was out there in front of everybody, kind of showing his colors.

But I'm absolutely amazed at the individual skills.

I don't know if you got to watch the final game at all, but I just love the game of soccer and especially the individual skills that uh some of these uh men and women uh demonstrate in it, whether it be the Yamal kid from Spain, he's something else, uh, or Messi, maybe the best of all time, or Mbappe, who just uh unbelievable score.

But the thing that strikes me most about soccer is that though the individual skills are really, really great, it's the teams that work together that end up winning the championships.

And the greater the teamwork, the greater the chances for victory.

And that principle has led to a saying among athletes, pretty popular, you may have heard it, that there's no I in the word team.

And so there may be great individual achievements, but it doesn't really mean that much unless the whole team succeeds.

There's no I in the word team.

And that principle uh can be applied in any team, be it a business team, a drama team, a band, uh uh music folks, whatever.

No I.

Only when the whole group wins do the individual succeed.

And only when the individual succeeds, when everybody succeeds.

Now, I begin with that principle because uh, as we're gonna see in our text of study, there uh it's equally true for the church.

Especially true for the church.

So let's dig into it together.

Uh, let's open our Bibles or a phone or an app or whatever you have.

1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

And what we're gonna look at this morning is that there's no I in the word church.

Okay?

That's our topic.

No eye in the word church.

Now, just a quick uh review.

Uh Sam did a great job of reviewing last weekend about the problems in Corinth.

If you ever wondered why churches today have struggles, just go back and read the ancient church.

They were filled with problems.

And uh all for the same reasons as we're gonna see.

And the church in Corinth was a mess.

And they had all kinds of, they were dividing over who was the best preacher.

They were dividing over their whole understanding of marriage, of sexuality, they were suing each other, uh, they were treating each other horribly in terms of the use of their freedoms, and we saw that that their chaos came right on into the worship service uh during the celebration of the Lord's table.

They were getting drunk.

I mean, this church was a mess.

And somebody thought, you know what might be a great idea?

Let's write to the Apostle Paul and see if he can help us with our problems.

Well, Paul was more than willing to help.

And so he wrote this letter that we have in our Bibles called 1 Corinthians, in order to help them address some of the difficulties that they were going through here.

Well, as we come to chapter 12, we're gonna see him deal with another problem in the church.

And it all has to do with this whole topic of spiritual gifts.

And it's introduced to us chapter 12, verse 1.

Are you there with me?

Chapter 12, verse 1.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers.

Um the the word spiritual gifts, as it's used here, it's uh an interesting original word, um, pneumaticos, it really translates as the spirituals.

Now concerning the spirituals.

And in the context, it's referring to the gifts themselves, but also in a broader sense to the spirituality behind the gifts.

Because it takes a certain spirituality to use the spiritual gifts in the proper way.

And the Corinthians are living proof you can use a spiritual gift, but use it wrongly.

And so that's what Paul is gonna be talking about in these next two chapters here about spiritual gifts and how to use them properly.

And so he jumps right in, verse one.

I don't want you to be uninformed.

I don't want you to be unaware.

I know we would say, but I don't want you to be stupid about this.

And so he's gonna launch off into this long chapter all about these spirituals, about the spiritual gifts, and he's gonna build it all on one key principle.

And it's simply this: that God designed his church to be a diversified unity.

I didn't know how else to say it.

He designed his church to be a diversified unity.

We know that we're a unity here.

The devil wants to divide us.

The enemy of our souls wants to split us apart at Mission Hills Church.

But those who are truly spiritual, they don't let that happen because they understand clearly God's priority and the value that God places upon unity.

And so uh Mission Hills Church, stay together.

That's the point of this test.

Stay together here.

And yet, having said that, that doesn't mean that we're gonna agree on everything.

Because we're different, night and day in many cases, here.

We come from different ethnicities.

Now it influences everything that we do.

And we come from different backgrounds, socioeconomic.

We have different political views, we have different cultural views, different religious backgrounds.

But we don't have to divide over those things.

We can hold our opinions.

Nobody's asking you that you have to agree with me on every circumstance and situation that you hold, convictions about.

But the point of being a spiritual woman or a spiritual man is that we can acknowledge those differences without dividing over them.

There are certain things, there are certain values that we hold to that that are above our own personal opinion.

We don't hold our opinions.

But we stay together.

We're a diversified unity.

So, as I've been known to ask, did you come to hear from the Lord this morning?

Did you?

Okay.

The word of the Lord to us this morning at Mission Hills Church is simply this: stay together while recognizing our differences.

And we can do that.

They were not doing it in Corinth, but we can do that here.

And so I studied this text and I found three ways that we see this principle of diversified unity being lived out here and expressed within the church.

First, we see it in our unity under Christ's Lordship, but we see diversity in our gifting.

Unity under Christ's Lordship, but diversity in our gifting.

Verse 2.

Let's just pull this text apart now here.

You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols however you were led.

So they came out of a background where they were, most of them were pagans, and uh they got saved, and as a result, they began to realize we were involved in pagan idolatry.

And so their lives were very, very different at that point in time.

Well, apparently some of the Corinthians believers were going back and re-engaging in some of that pagan thinking and pagan practices within the church service.

And especially as in terms of the use of their spiritual gifts.

That's the context here.

And their understanding got so confused they could no longer discern between what was spiritual and what wasn't.

They'd really lost it.

They were a mess.

Thus, Paul writes, verse 3, therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed.

Now you sit there and you would think, who in their right mind would get up and say that in the middle of a worship service?

Well, apparently it was happening.

Some think it Paul might be writing hypothetically here.

Others think that it was actually happening.

And I think that was probably the case.

The craziness, however it's understood, Paul wants us to know that no person who would make a blasphemous comment like that was being led by the Spirit.

More likely, the person was being led by the devil.

Because the Spirit of God is always, always, always going to honor Jesus.

That was in John chapter 16, verse 14.

John 16:14

He will honor me.

The Holy Spirit is always about lifting Jesus up.

Always about that here.

And that's why we say it here, verse 3.

Jesus is Lord.

That's what he's all about here.

And it's good to be reminded at Mission Hills Church, you know, we're not a social club.

We're not a service club.

We're not even a religious club where it's convenient to get married and buried.

We're a living organism here where Jesus' lordship is not only proclaimed, but actively and joyfully pursued.

So if you believe it and it's in your heart and you're striving to live under it, say it loudly with me.

Jesus is Lord.

That's what unites us together here.

That's what Mission Hills Church is all about.

But that doesn't mean we're all the same.

Verse 4.

Now there are varieties of gifts.

Charismata, we get the English word charismatic from this.

A spiritual gift.

It's a God-given ability to minister in the spiritual arena of life to others.

Not your natural gifts, those though, those are a gift from God.

This is a special ability that God gives to build other people up spiritually.

And I don't know, did you realize that you have a spiritual gift?

And Paul's point is that we have different kinds of gifts.

Verse 4.

But it all comes from the same spirit.

We're a diversified unity.

And the principle is seen in the way we use our gifts, verse 5.

There are varieties of service ministry settings.

Some people will minister in the inner city.

Some minister in rural areas.

Some will minister in suburbia.

Some people can be in public ministry, others in private ministries.

Some people will be involved in local outreach, others in global outreach.

Some can teach adults, some can teach children.

Some can build with construction, other people can make meals for those workers.

Some people can sing, others can hum.

Just different ways.

Verse 5.

But it's the same Lord.

We're diversified unity here.

We're still just one team.

Verse 6, and there are varieties of activities or effects or workings, is the various translations, various outcomes.

People with the gift of evangelism, they'll share the gospel with people, and sometimes people will respond, and other people will say, no, thank you.

Some people with the gift of teaching, you know, some people would be really encouraged, and other people will fall asleep.

It's the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

We're different, and yet we're together.

We're diverse, but we're united.

And that's why there's no I in the word church here.

To bring us together.

The whole point, God gave gifts to us individually to be used for others corporately.

Individually gifted.

You have a gift, but it was meant for everybody else, for the common good here.

Lots of different passages of scripture.

Peter says it does.

Each has received a special gift.

Employ it in serving one another according to the manifold grace of God.

Use your gifts to bless everybody else.

So, no.

What are the gifts?

Paul just starts listing them, verse 8.

For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom.

That's the ability to give wise counsel.

And to another, the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.

Some can study and know the principles of Scriptures, help other people know.

Verse 9, to another faith by the same Spirit.

In order to be a Christian, you have to have faith, but some people are given a special dose of faith to believe God for great things and attempt great things.

And he just goes on to list all the different to another gifts of healing, to another, verse 10, the working of miracles, to another, prophecy.

That's the ability to receive and explain, declare the revelation of God.

Verse 10 to another, the ability to distinguish between spirits.

Some people have the special gift.

They can spot a spiritual phony.

That's what that gift is all about.

Verse 10 to another.

Various kinds of tongues.

And Sam will explain all of that next week, two weeks from now, verse 10.

And to another, the interpretation of tongues.

So there are these lists, and there are other Romans chapter 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter chapter 4.

Romans 12 · chapter mention 1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

They have all different lists.

Some have the gift of teaching, some have the gift of exhortation, some have the gift of leading, some have the gift of showing mercy, some have the gift of just helping or service, some have the gift of evangelism, the gift of giving.

We just have different gifts.

So let me give you an illustration.

What gift do you think you have?

You ever thought about it?

Because nobody can say I wasn't in that line when God was handing that stuff out.

Because everybody's got one.

So let me just give the illustration here.

I'm walking to church, okay?

And I come up here and I got my fruit salad here.

And all of a sudden.

Okay?

So somebody with the gift of leadership would say what?

You get that one, I'll get this one, you get that one, and off we go, and it'll all be cleaned up.

Someone with the gift of mercy would do what?

Come up here and put an arm around me and say, Oh man, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Someone with the gift of service would do what?

Yeah, start picking them up or go and make a new salad.

Someone with the gift of giving money.

What would that person do, that woman or man do?

Oh, don't worry about it.

I'll buy you a new one.

You see, we all respond.

The gift of teaching.

Did you notice how that lid didn't fit on there real well?

Things a little bit broken.

And what would the evangelists say?

Oh, the dropping of that fruit.

It's like the dropping of our responsibilities of sin, and we get away from God.

And see, so we would respond differently based upon different gifts that we have here.

What would the gift of criticism say?

Boy, Dennis is clumsy, you know.

He's what would the gift of complaining say?

What's he doing with food in the worship center?

Holy cow, you should know better than I don't say.

What's your gift?

You see, you're you're part of a.

And it's just the principle, we're diversified unity.

We all proclaim Jesus as Lord.

But we're gifted in different ways.

And thus, verse 11, all these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills.

He gave you the gift he wants you to have.

See?

And so everybody is to use their gift at Mission Hill's Church.

And that becomes the big question of the day.

How do we stay together at Mission Hill's Church?

It's when everybody gets involved.

And you can't walk out of here and go, oh, I don't have a gift.

Oh, I can't do that.

Oh, I never would.

Oh that's what divides us apart.

This diversified unity is meant to work together here, and we see it under our unity of lordship, diversity of gifts.

We see it in our unity, secondly, in Christ's body, but in our diversity in our church body.

Verse 12, for just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, and we'll stop there.

We got different shapes.

Okay?

That's Paul's point here.

Different shapes.

Yet those different shapes don't mean we have multiple bodies.

We just have one body here.

Were you wondering?

Remember Mr.

Potato Head?

These games were popular back when the Apostle Paul was around.

And you might know him from the Toy Story movies here.

Mr.

Potato Head.

Miss Potato, different ears, hands, eyes, nose, feet, all different sizes, everything else that goes on.

And yet there's only one Mr.

P.

Diverse, yet just one body here.

Verse 12, Paul adds, so it is with Christ.

See, we're united with Christ in his body, but also united with each other in this church body.

So we're connected to him, but we're also connected to multiple others here.

And all that happened, verse 13, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body.

There's deep theology here about the baptism of the Spirit.

It's the way we get identified with Christ.

To baptize is literally the to dip or to immerse.

And typically it takes on a metaphorical meaning to be identified with.

And this is the don't ever throw a red shirt in while you're washing the whites.

Or all of those whites will turn what color?

They'll turn red.

They'll be identified with the red.

Well, the minute that you believed on the Lord Jesus, Jesus, come into my heart, save me.

The minute that you confessed and professed and received and responded, whatever term you would like to use, you were completely washed with Jesus, and his red turned you red.

Or maybe better, his white turned us white.

Because we've all been baptized into Christ Jesus.

So we're all baptized, verse 13, into one body.

Jews are Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

So everybody's united.

You can go anywhere in this world and find one body.

Okay.

There's not a body of Christ for Mexicans.

There's not a body of Christ for black folks or white folks.

There's not a body of Christ for men.

Not a body of Christ for women.

Not a body of Christ for rich, for poor, for educated, for uneducated.

Just have one body of Christ.

It's all that we have here.

But that doesn't mean we're all the same.

Verse 14, for the body does not consist of one member, but many.

That's what the potato head is all about.

And now we get into the problem of Corinth.

What was going on there?

Verse 15, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

You see, the the foot, the foot doesn't want to be the hand.

That's not what this is about.

It just doesn't want to be the foot.

The ear doesn't want to be the eye.

It just doesn't want to be the ear.

And so there is this sense of inferiority happening in Corinth that some of the people who had kind of behind-the-scene gifts that nobody else would ever see, they just didn't like their gift and didn't think that they were needed.

I'm not that important.

What can I add?

I can't do anything, I'm just a foot.

And because I'm not a hand, I'm not needed.

Paul asked rhetorically, if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

And if the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell?

I mean, it would just be weird if the whole body was all eyes or all ears.

And I don't know if there's any battle with that sense of inferiority, like I'm not needed here.

Somehow you're unimportant.

I can't do that.

Because God put you right where you are.

Verse 18.

But as it is, God has arranged the members of the body, each one of them, as he chose.

You might think that the year isn't that important, but God made you the year.

You might not think hair is that important until you don't have much, so let's leave it at that.

And God made you a hand, and God made you an ear, and God made you an eye, and God made you a foot, and God made you mustache, and all the other things.

Okay.

Verse 19.

If all were a single member, where would the body be?

As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

And we go right back to 2 verse 12 again.

We're diversified unity.

We're united under Christ's Lordship, but we all kind of different gifts.

We're united in one body, no matter where we go.

And yet we're in this body, and there's lots of different kinds of folks here.

We're diversified unity, and it's seen in our unity of need for each other, but adversity in our service to each other.

Verse 21.

The I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, and again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

So if some of the folks in Corinth were struggling with the sense I'm not needed, a sense of inferiority, there were some folks in Corinth that were struggling with a sense of superiority.

And they said, I'm the eyes of this place.

I don't really need an ear.

You are not that important.

But I'm really important here.

That's what's going on.

I don't need them.

And Paul's going to address that here.

Verse 22.

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

Listen, eyes are really important.

But you can live without eyes.

A lot of people do.

Feet are really important.

But you can live without feet.

What can't you live without?

The inside stuff.

You can't live without a liver.

You can't live without a pancreas.

You can't live without a heart.

But nobody ever sees those parts.

They're all hidden.

Oops, sorry about that.

But nobody ever sees that part.

See?

And Paul's saying that the parts that you don't see, it's all the behind-the-scenes things that are absolutely indispensable.

So don't go around thinking that you're inferior because nobody sees what you're doing.

You could be the kidneys of this place.

You be the liver of this place.

You can be the heart of this place.

And nobody's ever going to see it.

But it doesn't mean you're not needed here.

You're critically important to the health of this place here.

And that's the whole point.

Each individual, especially the parts that you can't see, are vital to the health of the whole, especially the ones that you can't see.

We need each other, verse 23.

And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greatest honor.

And upon the unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which are more presentable parts do not require.

So the superior need the inferior, the greater the lesser.

The visible gifts need all the invisible gifts.

Verse 24, but God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for each other.

He mixed us all together with all of our differences.

And the way we look at things, and the way a woman looks at things, how much I need that to understand the way things are.

How much I need the behind-the-scene things.

God just composed it brilliantly.

He made us for unity, not division.

That's why he adds verse 26 if one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now, verse 27, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

What are you doing here at Mission Hills Church?

How are you using your gift?

If you haven't thought about it, there's a whole section of scripture here to have you think about it.

And it may not be so important that you focus in, oh, I have this, skip, and I that's what I would say would be important.

But there's an involvement here.

And Mission Hill's church won't function the way that God intends it to.

There is a role for upfront people.

Verse 28, God is appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers.

There is some visibility to some of the positions.

Then miracles, gifts of healing, helping, administrating of various kinds of tongues.

But those aren't the only ones needed.

Verse 29.

All are not apostles.

Are they?

No.

All are not prophets, are they?

No.

All are not teachers.

Do all work miracles?

Do all possess gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues?

Do all interpret?

The answer is an overwhelming no.

No one person has all the gifts, and God designed it that way so that the eyes would need the ears, the ears need the hand, the hand need the feet.

And everybody needs the heart.

Everybody needs the liver.

And some of you will be behind the scenes.

It does not mean that you are less than.

Audition for a play, and he couldn't do much of anything.

And his folks were a little bit worried as to what the little boy would say after going to the audition.

He came running home just beaming.

He said, Mom and Dad, I've been chosen to cheer and clap.

You kind of sit there and go, well, that's not much.

But have you ever been to a play where there wasn't cheering and clapping?

What is it?

And nobody's asking you to give 50 hours a week.

Nobody's asking you to do that.

Maybe some of you, I don't know.

But you got a young family and you moms are exhausted and need a three-week nap just to.

But you have a part to play here.

And you're working so hard.

Put food on the table.

You have a part to play here.

All the roles are needed.

Paul concludes, verse 31, but earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Now you say, what's that all about?

You come back next week and I'll explain it all to you, okay?

But let's just conclude with this.

There's no I in the word church.

But what letter is in there?

What letter's in there?

C H.

U and you and you and you and you and you.

There's no I in church, but there is a you.

And it may be completely invisible to everybody else, but I'll tell you this: you are not invisible to God.

And so you take this and you think and you ponder, Lord, what would you have me to do right now in my present-day circumstances, to help Mission Hills be the church that you created it to be?

I hope you will.

All right, let's pray and we'll conclude our time here.

All right, everybody take a real deep breath, will you?

Lord, what would you have me to do?

I pray that you would speak to my sisters and brothers in Christ here, and that your good hand of blessing would be on Mission Hills, and you would continue to lead and guide and use this, our Father, to lift up your son, because we proclaim that Jesus is Lord.

So to that end, hear our prayer and speak to your people.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to the Sermon Podcast for Mission Hills Church in San Marcos, California.

We pray that this message blesses you as you love God and love others.

If you would like more information about our church, please visit us at missionhillschurch.org.

God bless.