Spirit of God Wk6: Justin Huibregtse | July 12, 2026 |

Good morning, Eastridge.

My name is Justin.

I'm the senior pastor here, and I am really excited to share this message with you today because uh it's it is the very middle of our Spirit of God Summer Sermon series.

And we've we've talked about a lot about the Holy Spirit so far.

We've talked everything from you know what the Holy Spirit is, that He is He is not a force or you know just like a feeling, but the the the Holy Spirit is a person of God.

He's a He's one of the of the in the Trinity of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And how the Holy Spirit actually can speak life into dry bones and and and dead things come to life, and how we get to be formed by the Spirit to feel the freedom that we have in the Holy Spirit to give people the fruit of the Spirit.

And so, you know, all these things are happening inside of us, and all these things are are all about what is going what the Holy Spirit is doing within us.

And now today we're gonna take a step back and kind of say, okay, we we know all these things are going on.

The Spirit is changing our hearts, the change the spirit is changing our character, uh, the spirit is changing how you walk with God.

And today we're gonna go into how the Spirit does something through you.

Also inside of you, but definitely through you.

And here's the big idea that I want you to understand today that the Spirit gifts every believer to build up the body.

Uh every believer, which means that if you belong to Jesus, if you are in his family, that includes you.

You get a gift.

You are not here by accident.

You are not an extra in someone else's story.

The Spirit of God has personally equipped you to strengthen this church.

So, um, you know, I before we get into the message, I wanted to tell you a little bit about me and something, you know, a lie that I've believed about myself for a very long time.

It's that for a long time, I truly believe that the only people who could, you know, be ministry professionals were, you know, only the pastors, only the missionaries, only the people that were on stage, you know, the the varsity team, if you will, those people, the people who were well equipped to do all those things.

And everybody else, including myself, we're we're we're just in the audience.

We're just watching.

We're we're the crowd.

We we showed up, we watched, we went home.

And that's that's kind of it.

But the the church, I thought was something for gifted people.

Um, and uh only a few people did all that work, and the rest of us just kind of consumed it.

Like it was just us saying, okay, you know, we're we in the audience are here to be consumers of what the church, what the church professionals are producing.

And there's a big problem with that is it's not only, you know, an unhealthy way to look at church, it's actually really unbiblical.

Because when you actually read the New Testament, when you when you read the scriptures, what it what we see there is that there is not a spectator Christian at all.

We never see one, not one.

You find a body where every single part has a function.

You find uh you find a temple where every single stone is load-bearing, you find a family where every single family member matters.

And I'll tell you when this really came home for me.

It was not in seminary, uh, it was watching ordinary people like you who are involving themselves with the church.

They're being there, they're they're giving others what God has given them.

The person, you know, when you when you think about it, it it that is the person who, you know, quietly notices the newcomer standing in the lobby and just wants to greet them and moves towards them.

The person who prays like it's the most natural thing in the world for them.

Where they are, they just have that conversational way about communicating with God.

And that's and that's who you know that that gift comes from.

The person who shows up with a meal before anyone has even asked for it.

The person who uh can take you know something confusing in a situation and just bring wisdom into the room.

None of them would call themselves gifted, and yet all of them, every single one of them, has a gift.

So that's that's what I that's what I've seen at work, and now I know that it's not just professionals who can do the work in the ministry of God.

It's all of us.

That is the Spirit of God at work through his people, through the body.

There are no spectator seats in the body of Christ.

And let me ask you a question that I want you to honestly answer in your heart.

Uh, it do you believe that the Spirit of God has gifted you?

Do you believe the Spirit of God has gifted you?

And I mean you personally, not the person who's next to you or in your aisle, but you know, you.

Because here's what I found is that most people in church believe that uh that they are there's two lies that are about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit works and these gifts.

There's two lies.

The first lie that most people believe is I don't have anything to offer.

I can't give the church anything.

I can't, I can't, I'm not talented enough.

I'm uh I'm definitely not spiritual, I don't know my Bible well enough, I'm not, I'm too young, I'm too old, I'm too broken, I'm too new at this.

And that is the lie of the unqualified, where you are unqualifying yourself to the body of Christ.

And so you sit on the sidelines convinced the team is better off without you.

And it's just not true.

The second lie is a little bit sneakier and it sinks down into your heart because it should reveals something that's very true is that you say, okay, my gift that I have is all about me.

This is the lie of the platform, where it treats the gifts that you have been given as a way to be seen, to be impressive, to build a reputation.

The first lie buries your gift and says you don't have one.

The second one kind of hijacks it.

And 1 Corinthians 12 dismantles both because Paul is writing to a church that had problems with both of those lies.

They believed both of them.

People who felt worthless in their walk with God, and people who felt ultimately superior than everyone else in their walk with God.

Remember this, though, one lie is burying your gift, the other is hijacking it.

And the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit works is the Holy Spirit rescues that gift and uses it for the church.

So let's see what that looks like here in 1 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 7.

And I'm starting in verse 7, and I'm gonna be kind of going back and forth on this because Paul covers a lot of this, the this whole spiritual gifts idea, but it's not always the most logical way for us to understand it.

The way that it was written in the context it was written, it's hard for us to understand kind of some circular logic and some understanding of how this was formed.

So I'm gonna be going back and forth just a little bit here, starting in verse 7.

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

Now, if you are carrying a Bible with you today and you know, feel free to write in your own Bible or highlight anything.

Circle this, highlight this.

To each.

To each.

Not to some, not to the impressive ones, not to the seminarians, not to the people who've been Christians the longest.

To each.

If the Spirit of God lives in you, the Spirit of God has gifted you.

Period.

And notice what Paul's Paul calls it here.

He says, the manifestation of the Spirit.

That means your gift is a place where the invisible God becomes visible when you serve, when you encourage, when you teach, when you give mercy.

People are not just seeing you, they're seeing God.

They are seeing the Spirit of God showing up through you.

Think about that.

That the creator of the universe, the sustainer of all things, the author and the perfecter of our faith has chosen to make himself visible through you.

Which means when you withhold your gift, when you don't want to use your gift, when you when you say, I'm not, I'm not going to use it because I don't have it, or when you say, I'm not going to participate in that, what you're actually doing is saying, I don't want other people to see God.

It means that when you withhold your gift, the church doesn't just lose your talent.

It loses a glimpse of God and how He is supposed to come through you.

How God uses you, how God is using you as a spirit of manifestation through you.

Your gift is a window.

When you use it, people see God through you.

So we're going to back up into verse 4 now, though, knowing that we have those gifts.

We are promised those gifts.

Back up in verse 4, it says this.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.

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

Do you see that rhythm that's happening in there?

You see that there's varieties of gifts, same spirit.

Varieties of service, same Lord.

Varieties of activities, same God.

The gifts are different.

The giver is the same.

And the word Paul uses for gifts is a beautiful word.

It's one of the reasons why we really need to study these scriptures closely and study the original language that they're in, because this word is charismata, the Greek word charismata, which means gifts of grace.

And that changes the whole idea of gifts of grace.

It's not just a because a gift of grace is, by definition, not earned.

You didn't achieve your spiritual gift.

You didn't interview for it.

You didn't climb your way to it.

It was freely given to you by grace.

And so it keeps on going.

Into verse 11, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.

To another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of the healing by the one spirit, to another the working of the miracles, to another, prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another, various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

All of those things are spiritual gifts that God gives us.

All of those.

But here's where it really matters.

All these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Which means the Spirit has decided what to give you.

God has decided what he wants you to have for a gift.

Which means two things.

You can stop envying someone else's gift.

You can stop envying that.

The Spirit didn't make a mistake with you.

Okay?

He didn't run out of the good gifts by the time he got to your name.

It doesn't work that way.

He didn't just run out of gifts.

He gave you those gifts individually, deliberately, personally.

He chose your gift for you on purpose with this church in mind.

Second, you can stop boasting about your gift.

You didn't earn it.

You received it.

I don't know about you, but I, you know, uh I don't brag about the birthday gifts I just got because I earned them.

It doesn't work that way.

Okay?

I don't get gifts on my birthday and say, I got this, I got this one because I earned it.

I aged, so therefore I received this thing.

Okay?

It doesn't work that way.

A gift says more about the giver, not the receiver.

So you can't take credit for a gift and you can't complain about it either.

You can only unwrap that gift and use it.

So I'm gonna go back to verse 7 here because I'm gonna wrap this around here.

It says to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what?

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what?

The common good.

The common good.

Not, you know, a personal resume, not for the platform, not for the brand, for the common good.

This was the Corinthians problem.

They had turned spiritual gifts into a competition.

Who had the best gift?

Who has the best gift?

Who is using their gift the most?

What gift is flashier?

What gift is more spiritual?

Gifts had become a lot like trophies.

And Paul says, you've got it backwards.

A spiritual gift is not a trophy to display, it's a tool to serve with.

So today I have a few of my old trophies in the form of medals, because I don't actually have trophies.

And these are um these are from different marathons that I've run and half marathons I've run.

And I also borrowed a couple of Jude's uh from swimming that he has, and you know, they're flashy, some are heavy, uh, they're really pretty looking, and you know, they're they're ornate, but really, you know, they're they're just like trophies.

Now, these have been in my closet because I don't want to be reminded that I don't run anymore.

Um in fact, if anyone else wants to help me out with that, that'd be great too.

But anyway, um you know, these are these are our trophies and they they they are on display.

And so the the Corinthian church treated spiritual gifts like trophies.

You polish it, you display it, you compare it to everybody else's, you point it at it and say, Look what I have.

Look what I have done.

Look at this thing that I have earned because I did it.

A trophy exists to be admired.

But then we have this thing too.

The toolbox.

And I think it's pink, and that's okay.

Uh it also might be very faded red, I don't know.

But we have we have this toolbox, and uh, you know, this is what uh a spiritual gift is actually like this is scratched, it's dented, it's dusty, it has old tools in it.

And you do you know why it it it's it's dusty and dented and broken like this?

Because it gets used.

It gets used.

Nobody polishes a toolbox, amen.

Or remind the only one.

I don't polish a toolbox.

Uh a toolbox exists to fix things, to build things, to show up at somebody's mess and get to work.

And here's how you can tell the difference in a life.

A trophy stays, you know, like a trophy gift, a trophy spiritual gift stays on the shelf and stays shiny.

A toolbox, a toolbox gift gets worn out in other people's problems.

Here's another picture for you.

Imagine a fire station where the firefighters polish the truck every day.

You know, they they uh they shine up the chrome, they wax the paint, they you know, make it ready to take pictures with it and everything else.

But it never once drives to a fire.

That's a spiritual gift used for personal glory.

All shine, no rescue.

Your gift was given to run toward the need.

The question is never, how impressive is my gift?

The question is always, who is being built up by my gift?

A spiritual gift is not a trophy to polish, it's a tool to serve with.

And now Paul reaches uh you know, for a very famous picture here.

Starting in 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, so it is with Christ.

Here's here this is this is uh this is where we understand who the church is.

The church is the body.

Not an audience, not a crowd, the church is a body.

And then Paul gets really playful with some of these words here.

He goes on to say, For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, 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 am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body.

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

That's the first lie of the unqualified.

I'm not a hand, so I don't belong.

I I I can't, you know, uh I can't teach like her, so I should probably just sit back and do nothing.

Uh I I can't lead like him, so I'll just, you know, I'll I'll just, you know, kind of show up and not be a part of anything.

And Paul says, a foot that feels inferior to a hand is still a foot.

And a body without feet is going nowhere.

And then he flips it.

He says, the I cannot say to the hand.

Down in uh verse 21, he says, 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.

I'll come I'll come back to back.

There's the second lie, though.

The lie of the platform.

I'm the I, I'm important, I don't need the rest of you.

And Paul says, No part of the body is optional.

In fact, he goes on further, and he says that it's indispensable.

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

The parts that seem weaker, the part nobody notices, the part that never gets applause, those are still indispensable parts of the body.

Think about your own body for a second, okay?

Nobody ever, well, correct me if I'm wrong, nobody ever compliments your liver.

Amen?

Nobody does that.

But no one ever says, wow, great liver.

You know, that's really great.

But let it stop working for a week and see how the rest of you does.

Some of the most indispensable people in this church will never stand on this stage.

The one who prays, the one who sets up chairs, the one who cleans uh the grounds, the one who waters the flowers in the garden, the one who holds babies in the nursery so young parents can hear the gospel.

The one who writes the notes, makes the call, drives the meal across town.

Heaven sees every single one of them.

And Paul closes the loop with this.

If one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, we all rejoice together.

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

You are the body of Christ.

You don't just attend the body of Christ.

Yes, you are here, you are technically in attendance, but you are all the body of Christ.

You are it.

In the body of Christ, there are no small parts, only unopened gifts.

And before we talk about what to do with this, we need to understand and talk about the greatest gift.

Because here's the question underneath everything this morning: how does anyone get into the body in the first place?

And it says in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

Notice you don't join this body the way you join a gym or the way you sign up for Netflix.

You are baptized into it by the Spirit.

It is something God does to you, not something you achieve.

And notice who's in it Jews and Greeks, slaves and free free, people who would never ever share a table together are now organs in the same body.

And how is that possible?

Only through Jesus.

Because the Bible is.

Honest about us.

We were not parts of the body.

We were cut off.

We were cut off and we were separated from God by our own sin.

Every one of us.

And no gift, no talent, no resume of good deeds could reconnect us back to God.

So God gave a gift.

He gave the gift.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

Jesus lived the life that we never could.

He died the death our sin deserved.

The only truly dispensable one was cut off from God the Father so that people like us could be grafted in.

So we could be back in the family.

And he rose from the grave.

And now to everyone who turns from sin and trusts in Jesus, God gives forgiveness.

God gives the Spirit.

God gives a place in his family.

And yes, gives grace and gifts of grace to serve that family.

The gifts of the Spirit flow from the gifts of the Son.

You don't serve your way into God's family.

You receive your way in, and then you serve because you belong.

You serve because you belong.

So if you're here today and you've never received that gift, don't leave without it.

Do not leave without that gift.

Come to Jesus.

Repent, believe, and receive.

Everything else this morning flows from that idea.

Before the Spirit gives you a gift to serve with, the Father gives you a Son to be saved by.

So how do we respond?

What do we need to do this week in order to respond to knowing that we have gifts and we are supposed to use those gifts?

First thing that you need to know, feel, and do.

Know that you are gifted.

And your gift is needed.

Settle that in your mind today.

Know that in your mind today.

If the Spirit lives in you, you are gifted.

Not might be or not, you know, someday when you're more mature, you are.

You are gifted.

And this church is genuinely weaker without your gift in play.

That's not a guilt trip.

That's just anatomy.

That's what the Bible says, that's what the truth says.

A body missing parts doesn't function the way it was designed to.

The question is not whether you are gifted, it's whether your gift is in the game.

So you need to know that.

Know that in your mind.

And feel this in your heart.

Let this penetrate into your heart.

Freedom from comparison.

I want you to feel that.

Let this lift a weight off of you that you are not called to someone else's gift.

The foot doesn't have to feel bad about not being a hand.

The quiet servant doesn't have to feel less spiritual than the upfront teacher.

Comparison is the thief of joyful service.

The Spirit appointed you as he willed.

And he was not having an off day when he got to you.

I promise you.

Because he loves you.

He gave his son for you because he loves you.

And he gave you grace from his death because he loves you.

And he gave you gifts of the Holy Spirit because he loves you.

So feel the freedom of being exactly the part he made you to be.

And the third thing that we need to do, we need to know that you are gifted and your gift is needed.

Know that there is freedom from comparison.

Last thing that you need to do is discover it, then deploy it.

The last part is two steps.

The first is discover.

You know, if you don't know your gift, here's the simplest way to find out.

Don't go rushing off to go taking a bunch of surveys or online quizzes to find out what your spiritual gift is, because you could get a lot of different answers, a lot of different times, and you need someone else to walk you through that.

First, what you need to do is pick up a towel.

Pick up a towel.

Start serving.

You know, when Jesus was about to be, uh was about to uh go to his death, he knelt down with his disciples and picked up a towel, wrapped it around his waist and washed their feet.

He served them first.

So I'm asking you to do the same thing.

Start serving anywhere and watch what happens.

Watch what happens.

Where do you see God work when you serve?

What kind of serving fills you up instead of draining you?

What do mature believers keep telling you that you are good at?

Gifts are usually discovered in motion, not in theory.

Spiritual gifts are discovered in action, not just in quizzes.

So the second thing you need to do is deploy it.

Pick one place.

One place this month to put your gift to work in this church.

Kids' ministry, the worship team, our host ministry, prayer, meals, anything that is practically helping build the body of Christ.

Talk to me or anyone else that's on our team, on our staff after the service, and we will gladly help you find a spot and pray the prayer that we've prayed all series.

Spirit of God, lead me today and use what you have given me.

You don't find your gift by taking a quiz, you find it by taking a towel.

Now imagine if we are that church, what that church would look like, where every single member is a contributor, not just spectators, no bench, no audience.

Everybody is doing their part to be part of the body.

The newcomer who walks in and feeling lonely is spotted in 30 seconds by someone who is gifted in hospitality.

The grieving family never cooks for two weeks because somebody is constantly bringing them a meal.

The young believer who grows fast because the encouragers and the teachers are there with them.

Imagine the burnout rate dropping.

When you are with the church and you're working with the church in ministry, burnout happens really quickly because so many, uh so few people are doing a lot of work.

But when the body builds itself up, many people come together and carry that exhaustion with everybody.

They see, you know, a church that has a lot of uh really great volunteers, a lot of gifts, a lot of uh serving.

They say, wow, that's incredible.

Wow, that's unexplainable.

That's that's that how do you do that?

How do you gather that many people together to serve so many different people?

They would be in awe of it.

That's what the world will think today.

Paul just calls that normal.

That's how we should see it as a normal way to live.

That's just what 1 Corinthians 12 lived out.

That is what the spiritual, the spirit is building here.

So let me bring this home real quickly to the Spirit of God has gifted every believer to build up the body.

And we are the body.

That means the gift that you carry is not really about you.

It's not really about you.

It came from grace and it points to Jesus.

And it was given for the people sitting around you right now.

So don't bury it, don't polish it for show.

Unwrap it, put it to work, and watch what God does.

Because the church does not grow when a few people do everything.

The church grows when every part does something.

The Holy Spirit is not a force, the Holy Spirit is not a feeling, the Holy Spirit is God, and He has gifted you on purpose for His people and for His glory.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you for the greatest gift, your Son.

Jesus, thank you that you were cut off so that we could be grafted in.

Thank you that we don't earn our place in your body, we receive it.

Holy Spirit, thank you for the gifts of grace that you have placed in every believer in this room.

Forgive us for burying them out of fear, forgive us for polishing them out of pride, forgive us for the seasons that we've watched from the stands.

Open our eyes to what you have given us.

Give us the humility to serve where no one sees and the courage to step up where you call us.

Knit this church together as one body, every joint supplying every part working, every member building up in the whole body.

And let this church be a place where the invisible God becomes visible through these gifts.

Through ordinary people using gifts of grace.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

So, Spirit of God, we surrender to you.

Use what you have given us for the good of your church and the glory of Jesus.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.