Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)

And we're going to be starting in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 1.

1 Corinthians 12:1

So please go ahead and turn there.

And just as a heads up, you know, this is the passage about spiritual gifts.

And because of that, I want to be able to provide a lot of examples and a lot of cross-references of where we see examples of these spiritual gifts being used.

So I'm going to be doing a lot more cross-referencing than we normally do this morning.

So feel free to turn there, but it's going to be pretty quick.

So if you'd rather just write down those verses and go and read them later, if you'd rather just listen, that's completely fine as well.

But I just want to give you a heads up before we jump in here this morning that there's going to be a lot of examples used, especially once we hit verse 8, going through that list of spiritual gifts.

With that, would you please stand with me for the reading of God's Word?

We're going to be reading 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 1 through 11.

1 Corinthians 12:1–11

It says, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware.

You know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led astray by mute idols.

Therefore, I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus is cursed.

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

Now there are different gifts but the same Spirit.

There are different ministries but the same Lord.

There are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person.

A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good.

To one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit.

To another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit.

To another, faith by the same Spirit.

To another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit.

To another, the performing of miracles.

To another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues.

One and the same spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for these verses here this morning.

But I pray that you would do wonderful and mighty things as we open up your Bible, your word.

Lord, as we go through these verses, that we would approach these verses with open minds and open ears and open hearts to the things that you have for us.

But I pray that each one of us would have something that we can take to heart, that we can glean from your word by the Holy Spirit and apply to our lives here today for the sole purpose of becoming more like Jesus, abiding closer with Jesus.

So I pray that your will would be done and that you would be the one doing the speaking here this morning, that I'd be able to step out of the way.

But we pray these things in Jesus' precious and holy name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So we're picking up today as Paul continues down, as we've been talking about.

He continues down this checklist of things that need to be addressed to the Corinthian church.

Chapter 11 was about prayer and authority.

And then the second half of that chapter was all about communion.

You know, when we gather together as a body of Christ and how to do that correctly.

And then today is going to be about spiritual gifts.

And he's going to continue on this theme of what it looks like to live together as a body of Christ, as the church.

And as I said last week, this theme that we've been talking about, you know, body life, basically, is going to continue on all the way through chapter 14.

So let's start off with verse 1 here this morning.

He says, Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware.

He's saying, I want to give you some insight here.

You seem to be a bit confused with how this is supposed to go within a public setting.

So let me bring you some clarity.

Let me explain how these spiritual gifts should be exercised within the body of Christ.

And we know from what Paul said in chapter 1, verse 7, which we went through a while back, that the Corinthian church has every spiritual gift.

He outright says, You do not lack any spiritual gift.

So they have them.

They're already aware of what they are, they're just not using them correctly.

But as we'll see, there's a difference in having spiritual gifts and then using those spiritual gifts properly.

Because it is possible to have a spiritual gift and to use it for selfish gain or to use it to elevate or promote yourself.

You know, the key that we'll see is using the gifts in faith at the Holy Spirit's leading for the edification of the body.

That's really what Paul's message is here today.

Using the gifts in faith at the Holy Spirit's leading for the edification of the body.

And I think what Paul is saying here to the Corinthian church is just as pertinent as it was back then to us here today.

You know, but I think in a lot of ways we've gone in the opposite direction of the Corinthian church.

You know, a lot of times, I think the majority of churches in the U.S.

at least avoid the exercising of spiritual gifts because we're afraid that things might get out of hand or things might get a little too weird, right?

Or maybe we were raised or have been exposed to the abuse of spiritual gifts within a church context.

And we're just fine, you know, not wanting to be exposed to the exercising of those gifts anymore.

We're just kind of would rather stand back a little bit.

You know, just give me some songs, give me some teaching of the word, you know, I don't want any of that other junk.

You know, I'm just good to go.

Just give me those two things.

But I think the reality is for some of us is that we just don't want to be exposed to certain spiritual gifts.

You know, I've never seen anybody get weirded out by the gift of wisdom that we're gonna be talking about, you know, that word of wisdom.

But when we talk about tongues, it's like, whoo, wait, hold on.

I don't want anything to do with that.

So I think we need to make sure that our past hurts and that our past exposures don't cause us to over-correct when it comes to spiritual gifts.

Overcorrect, think about like when you're driving down the highway.

You know, you lose focus a little bit, you start to drift this way, you look up and realize that you're heading off the shoulder road, you overcorrect the steering wheel and you end up in the ditch on the other side, right?

That's what overcorrect means.

We need to make sure that the abuse of spiritual gifts doesn't make us overcorrect to absolutely neglecting all spiritual gifts together.

The Corinthian church is abusing spiritual gifts.

That's what Paul's addressing here.

But Paul doesn't say, you know, it's just better if you just stop.

Just don't use the spiritual gifts anymore altogether.

It's too out of hand.

No, what he does is he directs them to health, he directs them to the proper use of spiritual gifts.

You know, as followers of Christ, we should expect to see the supernatural.

We just sang about it.

And the supernatural should be a part of our daily life.

You know, the fact that Jesus saved us and has invited us to be an active part of this body is supernatural.

The book that we're holding in our hands and how the Spirit, Holy Spirit wrote it through so many hands of different authors is supernatural.

Our ability to interact with God through prayer and the fact that He answers those prayers is supernatural.

So today we're gonna have an honest discussion about the supernatural and see what we can glean from what Paul is telling the Corinthian church here.

Look at verse 2 with me.

You know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led astray by mute idols.

Your translation may say Gentiles in place of pagans, because this is a term that was used to both refer to a nation that was not Israel, so Gentiles as a whole, but it was also used for people groups that did not worship the one true God.

They were referred to as pagans.

So Paul says, you know that when you were pagans, before you came to Jesus, you used to be enticed and led astray by mute idols.

And as you can probably tell, this is not a compliment that he's giving to them.

He's saying, So, you know those idols that you made with your hands out of wood and stone and metal?

You know the ones that can't talk or hear, that aren't actually alive because you made them?

He says, those things led you astray.

So your track record really isn't great in this area, Corinth.

So Paul's gonna give them some guidance here.

Look at verse 3.

He says, Therefore, therefore, referring back to their track record before, he says, Therefore, I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is cursed.

He's telling us that if someone is speaking, and it's truly by the power of the Holy Spirit, the message will not contradict Scripture.

And it will not contradict any words of Jesus.

Jesus said in John 15, verse 26, he says, When the counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

John 15:26

Not against Jesus, but of Jesus.

You know, all of these spiritual gifts that we're going to talk about come from the Holy Spirit.

And those spiritual gifts will testify, will bear witness, and will point to Jesus.

Because that is the role of the Holy Spirit, to speak of Jesus, to direct to Jesus.

That's why it says in verse 3, no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is cursed.

Now, it sure seems like Paul's addressing something here that has already happened within the church, doesn't it?

Remember, we're hearing the equivalent of one side of a phone conversation when we're reading this letter that Paul's writing to this church.

We're hearing Paul's response, but don't exactly know what the report or the question was that he's responding to.

You know, maybe he's saying, you know, or maybe somebody came in into the church and was trying to say to the Corinthian church, you know, if Jesus was crucified, then surely he must be cursed.

You know, maybe something along those lines is what's going on, and Paul's responding that nobody that's of the Spirit of God can say such a thing.

But I think what we can take to heart, and what Paul is saying here, just as much as the Corinthians, is if somebody is saying something and it doesn't line up with Scripture, it's not true.

And if it doesn't testify of Jesus, it's not from the Holy Spirit.

You know, we'll see when we get to chapter 14 of this book that Paul will tell them to evaluate everything that is said, and this is one way to do that evaluating.

Look at the second half of verse 3 with me.

It says, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Now, remember, what's the role of the Holy Spirit?

It's to testify of Jesus.

And nobody can truly do that outside of the Holy Spirit.

Nobody can actually live that life.

Nobody can say that they are of the Holy, uh, of Jesus except by the Holy Spirit speaking that through them.

Look at verse 4.

Now, there are different gifts, but the same Spirit.

So when we look at the word gifts here, it encompasses everything that we're going to be talking about and all of the gifts that we see from verse 8 on.

And those are things given to the different members of the body of Christ.

Given being a key word there.

These are things given by the Holy Spirit to each member of the body of Christ.

Look at verse 5 with me.

There are different ministries, but the same Lord.

And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person.

Now, some think that when we look at that word ministries right there, that it most likely is referring to offices within the church, things like apostles, elders, teachers, deacons, you know, things like that.

Those that hold an office regardless of what day it is or what time of year it is.

And then they will argue that activities refer to gifts that are like one-offs, you know, where God will use a person from time to time to give a word of knowledge.

I don't know if we can completely glean that just from this verse alone, but it's it's interesting to think about.

But what I do know that we can glean from this is there is a diversity of gifts within the body of Christ.

There is a diversity in the recipients of those gifts, and there is diversity in how these gifts are used by the recipients.

But in all of that, it's the same God that works all of them in each person.

Verse 7.

A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good.

If you're a follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit is in you always.

But there are times where he will manifest himself or make his presence known in very evident ways.

And that is what Paul's talking about here.

And we need to know that verse 7 says that these gifts, these manifestations, are given to each person by the Holy Spirit.

If you're a follower of Christ, you have been given a gift.

Not for yourself, but for everybody that you see around you in this room.

And that gift will testify of Jesus.

And that gift will be used, as it says at the end of verse 7, for the common good.

You know, I want to make sure before we move on that that we really understand verse 7 here.

Each follower of Christ has a supernatural gift that testifies of Jesus and is for the common good.

Everybody good with that?

Because it's really going to help as we move on.

Everybody understand that?

Okay.

It's not for yourself.

It's not to promote yourself.

Not because you're so spiritual that you've earned some certain gift.

It's for the people around you.

So as we go through this list, we're going to be highlighting these gifts, what they look like, how they benefit others, you know, and also where we see some of these gifts in Scripture being used as well.

And I want us to note that Paul lists these off, not explaining any of them to the Corinthian church.

Have you ever thought about that?

He just lists off these nine spiritual gifts.

Because I think we can assume they have a basic understanding of these gifts because they have all of the spiritual gifts Paul told us in chapter 1, verse 7.

But Paul's emphasis here is on the gifts being of the same spirit.

That is what he's really trying to communicate through these verses.

It's not one spirit that gives wisdom and another that gives faith and another that gives tongues.

And you can see how maybe the Corinthian church would think that, you know, coming from a polytheistic society.

But he also wants them to know that if you have the gift of tongues, that you're not more important than somebody with another gift.

If you have the gift of prophecy, you're not more important.

You're not elevated above somebody that has a different gift.

That's really what his heart is in this.

And as we'll see, Paul will tell them that all parts of the body and all gifts are integral to a healthy body.

And one person is never more important than another person.

We all just have different roles in the functioning of the body of Christ.

Now, Paul's gonna list off these nine gifts we've been talking about.

And it's not a complete list.

You know, we find another list in Romans 12, we find another list in Ephesians 4.

But Paul's goal here is not to give a complete list to the Corinthians, they already have all the gifts.

It's to show the Corinthians that all of the gifts are of one spirit.

So let's start with verse 8.

To one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another a message of knowledge by the same spirit.

So he already starts off with that, just talking about, and he's gonna keep doing that throughout these verses.

One spirit, same spirit.

We're gonna see those words a lot.

But right off we see Paul emphasize that.

So let's start with wisdom.

We're gonna kind of pick each one of these apart just a little bit, just to kind of give a basic understanding of what Paul is talking about here.

So, have you ever met somebody with a gift of a word of wisdom or a message of wisdom?

They say something at a certain moment, and you're just like, that just makes so much sense.

That is obviously not earthly wisdom.

That was something that was given by the Spirit of God.

You know, there was a couple in Oxnard, that's the church that uh we came from years ago where I served, and there was a couple there that had the gift of wisdom, and everybody knew it.

It was like everyone knew if you need spiritual guidance, you go to this couple.

You have them pray for you, you and then you have them, you know, speak into your life.

Michelle and I did it when we felt called to move to a Tascadero from Oxnard.

That was the first phone call we made to this couple, and they told us stuff that they couldn't have mustered up on themselves, of themselves, I should say.

The wisdom that they gave us was supernatural, and it was evident from the moment they started speaking that God had given them a specific word of wisdom for us.

They have the gift of wisdom that the Holy Spirit would use at specific times for specific events with specific people, and it was just incredible to see the wisdom of God being given to these people and how they used it to bless the body of God.

The next gift we see is the message of knowledge.

Your translation might say the word of knowledge.

You know, this would be like what we see in Acts 27.10, when Paul predicts what will happen before it happens.

He says, Men, I can see that this voyage is headed toward disaster and heavy loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.

So this crew doesn't listen to what Paul says.

They set sail against Paul's advice, and everything takes place that Paul predicted through the Spirit of God.

He had a word of knowledge, knowing something that he shouldn't have known, other than the Holy Spirit prompted him and gave him that knowledge ahead of time.

Look at verse 9.

To another faith by the same Spirit.

You know, I think of Peter stepping out of the boat to walk on water toward Jesus.

Yes, his faith eventually wavered, but for a moment he had the faith to step out of a boat and to stand up on water.

This is a gift to trust God even when it doesn't make sense.

Even when it defies, as in Peter's case, the laws of physics, you know, like walking on water.

Faith in God for something that is supernatural.

That's what we're talking about.

You know, and if you've ever known somebody with this gift, they're fun people to be around.

Because they remind you that all things are possible with God.

They think big, they pray big, they trust big.

Jesus said, you know, if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, that we can move mountains.

And these people with this gift, they have faith that God is as big as he says he is.

And what a blessing these people are to the body of Christ.

You know, these are not the people that are known for being warriors.

They're the ones walking around saying, God's got this.

You know, they have that confidence that God is as big as he says he is.

And not only that, they're willing to act in faith for things that don't make sense to anyone else.

Look at the second half of verse 9.

It says, To another, gifts of healing by the one spirit.

First, I want us to note that the word gift is plural.

It says gifts.

There's an S at the end there.

Sometimes you'll hear somebody say they have the gift of healing.

Like, you know, it's an office that they hold where they can heal at will.

But gifts here, if you're an underliner or a highlighter, just note that it's plural.

The Holy Spirit gives gifts of healing for certain times and places and events.

If someone ever tells you that they're a healer, just ask them how come they haven't put St.

Jude's Children's Hospital out of business.

They don't have the ability to just go and heal whoever they want at will.

It's for specific times for specific events.

God doesn't give this gift in a way that the recipient can use it at will whenever they want.

He will, however, choose to manifest or to reveal himself in that manner when he says so for the purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ, for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus Christ.

You know, we have a great example of this in Acts 3, 1 through 11.

And it's a long chunk, but it's so pertinent to what we're talking about here today that I want to read it to you.

Acts 3, 1 through 11.

It says, now Peter and John were going up to the temple for the time of prayer at 3 in the afternoon.

A man who was lame from birth was being carried there.

He was placed each day, that's important, at the temple gate called beautiful, so that he could beg from those entering the temple.

When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked for money.

Peter, along with John, looked straight at him and said, Look at us.

So he turned to them, expecting to get something from them.

But Peter said, I don't have silver or gold, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Get up and walk.

Then taking him by the right hand, he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong.

So he jumped up and started to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking, leaping and praising God.

All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized that he was the one who used to sit and beg at the beautiful gate of the temple.

So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened here.

So why do I pick this long example here?

It says he was brought daily and would beg at the beautiful gate of the temple.

He was known for this.

He was recognized by others for this.

Which begs the question: how many times do you think Jesus walked by him and never healed him?

Why?

Why?

If Jesus obviously walked by this guy so many times, why did he never heal him?

It's because the Holy Spirit had a plan of when this guy would get healed.

And it was for the purpose of testifying of Jesus Christ.

After the Holy Spirit does this in Acts 3, through Peter and John, a crowd gathers, realizing what had happened, because they recognize this guy and that he was healed.

And it gives Peter the opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

He says, Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this?

Why do you stare at us as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus.

And while Peter's speaking, they get taken into custody, basically arrested at this point.

But it says in Acts 4, 4, but many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to about 5,000.

The Holy Spirit had a purpose in this healing, a purpose in the timing of this healing.

And at that moment, the Holy Spirit nudged Peter and John and said, Now, now's the time to heal this guy.

They were faithful to obey that prompting, and Jesus was glorified.

That's how the gift of healing works.

Look at verse 10 with me.

To another, the performing of miracles.

So think acts of supernatural power when we read this here.

Now oftentimes we see this played out in Acts of Healing, as we just talked about.

But also think of all the other examples in Scripture of miracles taking place, of supernatural acts of power by God.

Think of the ten plagues with Moses, the parting of the Red Sea, or water coming out of the rock in the wilderness.

But also think of when Jesus does this, when he turns water into wine, when he calmed the storm, when he cast out demons, when he fed the 5,000.

Or Peter in Acts 9, when the Holy Spirit raised Tabitha from the dead using Peter at that time.

Those are examples of performing miracles.

When the Holy Spirit acts outside of the laws of nature.

And he uses humans in the work to what?

To testify of Jesus.

Look at the second part of verse 10 there.

It says, to another prophecy.

You know, often when we hear the word prophecy, I think our mind automatically goes to the foretelling of future events, doesn't it?

I mean, I know mind does typically, but we often forget that this also means that it's simply declaring the purposes of God by divine inspiration.

It doesn't have to be future events.

It's just declaring the purposes of God by divine inspiration.

You know, this makes me think of King David, you know, after he had that affair with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 12, where he then kills her husband and takes her as his own wife.

And God sends the prophet Nathan to David to tell him this story of this dearly loved sheep that was stolen from this poor man.

David's infuriated by this story, and Nathan tells him, David, you're the one that stole the sheep from that poor man.

You know, it was a it wasn't a foretelling of future events that Nathan brought to David.

He was declaring this to David, God's purposes by the divine inspiration of God.

You know, Paul's going to tell us when we get to chapter 14 that the person who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation.

You know, notice that none of that has to do with future events.

Future events are definitely a part of prophecy, but not always.

You know, at Shoreline in Morrow Bay, that's the church that we came from, that we planted from, we would have this time of waiting on the Lord.

Nearly every service we would have this time.

There was a time where people would read scripture out loud, um, people would pray.

It was a time for people to exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit as well.

And there was a guy that would often stand and say something along the lines of God wants you to know.

And if you want to freak out a leadership team, just say those words because then we really gotta pay attention to what you know what happens next, or anybody in the church for that, for that matter.

But he would oftentimes say, you know, God wants you to know, or even thus saith the Lord.

And every time, you know, I could feel everybody tense up, like, oh, I sure hope what he says after this is accurate, because it better be accurate.

Fortunately, every time he would then quote scripture or reiterate a biblical concept to us, which makes it very easy for everybody to evaluate.

Because if somebody says God wants you to know and then quotes scripture, it's a no-brainer.

Of course, that's God's word.

He obviously wants us to know those things.

But this man's prophetic gift was declaring scripture and biblical concepts just at the right time.

When the Spirit would prod him to do so.

And it was amazing.

So often the scripture was just so appropriate or went right along with the message that was about to come.

And he was just reiterating those things, but the spirit used them at specific moments and specific times to encourage the body of Christ.

Which leads us to the next gift, which is in verse 10.

Um middle of verse 10, it says, To another distinguishing between spirits.

So there's three spirits that need to be distinguished between.

There's the spirit of man, there's the spirit of the world, so Satan, and then there's the spirit of God.

Whether a message is from the spirit of God or from another spirit that's trying to twist things, you know, or say, like we just went over, Jesus is cursed, that needs to be distinguished.

Again, this is a time where the Holy Spirit intervenes and lets someone know whether something is of God or whether it's of man or of Satan.

In chapter 14, uh, Paul will say regarding prophecy and church meetings, two or three prophets should speak, and the others should evaluate, should distinguish if the words this person is saying are from the Spirit of God or are from some other spirit.

Now there's an example of this in Acts 13.

When Paul's on the island of Salamis, and they come across this guy named Elemus, who was a sorcerer and was trying to turn the people that Paul was witnessing to against the Lord.

And it says in Acts 13, uh, 9 through 10, but Paul also called, or but Saul also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, stared straight at Elimus and said, You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery, you son of the devil, an enemy of all that is right.

Won't you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord?

You know, that's pretty much what this gift is.

It discerns those that are truly speaking for the Lord, and it distinguishes them from those that are perverting the straight paths of the Lord.

Look at the next part of verse 10.

It says, To another different kinds of tongues.

Now we're going to be covering tongues extensively in chapter 14.

So we're just going to touch on a few things here today, because there's always a lot of questions about tongues, but a lot of it will be explained in chapter 14.

But what I want to cover today is the gift of tongues is the ability to pray in a way that is unintelligible to the person that's praying, but God understands.

There are also instances where we see people praying in tongues, and it's actually another earthly language that's understood by somebody that is present and actually speaks that language.

Paul will say in chapter 14, For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

So our spirit is expressing praise to God, but we don't know what is being said at the time of that prayer.

Paul goes on in chapter 14 and says, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

Yet in the church, so when you're in your public gatherings, I would rather speak five words with my understanding in order to teach others also than 10,000 words in tongues.

So Paul's saying there's a place for tongues in a public setting, but praying with understanding is much more profitable to teach others in those settings.

One more thing I want to note regarding tongues before we move on is that every example that we see in Scripture, every instruction in tongues that we see in Scripture, is for the purpose of praising God.

So if you ever hear somebody speaking in tongues in public and somebody says that they have the interpretation, and the interpretation is not praise, they're not interpreting the tongue.

You know, they may very well have something to say that is given by the Holy Spirit, but they need to wait until the tongue is interpreted to say what the Holy Spirit is telling to them.

That's the whole decently and in order.

It doesn't have to be chaos in order for the spiritual gifts to be taking place.

Like I said, much more in chapter 14 once we get there.

Look at the next part of verse 10.

It says, to another interpretation of tongues.

Now, when tongues are used in a public set setting, there must be an interpretation.

Again, reaching back to 14, again in verse 27, it says, if anyone speaks in a tongue, there are to be only two, or at the most three, each in turn, and let someone interpret.

And here's the reason why.

If someone speaks with the gift of tongues publicly and nobody interprets, the only one that is edified is the speaker.

No one can say amen or agree with something that they don't understand.

So Paul tells them, if there is a tongue, let somebody interpret so everyone can understand.

So the whole body of Christ can be edified and agree with the praise that's given directly to God.

You know, as I was saying earlier, we had this time of waiting on the Lord at Shoreline, and the leadership discussed at you know different times throughout this whole process.

You know, what happens if somebody comes and speaks in tongues and there's no interpretation?

Like, what do we do in that setting?

We want to be prepared, you know, and ready for that moment should it take place.

And we talked a lot about it and what we do and how we could use it as a teaching moment and you know, all those kinds of uh different things.

And we had gone years and years of having nobody speak in tongues as we went through this process of waiting on the Lord each service until one Sunday.

Things were going as usual, and then a woman spoke out in tongues.

I was on stage with a guitar around my neck, Pastor Ed was right next to me at the podium, and I remember I kind of tensed up, like, oh, it's happening.

Like, this is what we've been preparing for.

And I find out Pastor Ed was doing the same thing, like, whoa, well, this is happening.

But as soon as the woman was done speaking in tongues, this man stands up that had been going to our church for a very long time, and he stands up and he gives the interpretation.

You know, until that moment, I had no clue this man had the gift of interpretation.

I didn't even know if he knew that he had the gift of interpretation at this moment until this moment.

But the interpretation was praise, directed right to the Lord, and then the whole thing was done, and he sat back down.

And I just remember standing there thinking, wow, that was really cool.

And it wasn't weird at all.

You know, it was decently and in order, and it was just like, wow, that's really cool how the Lord did that, and I got to see it done correctly because I had seen it in my childhood done incorrectly many, many times.

But now I understand this.

But like I said, we'll talk a lot more about tongues in chapter 14 and the interpretation of tongues.

We'll tie it up here with verse 11.

It says, one and the same spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills.

Like we spoke about in the beginning, all of those gifts are given by one and the same Spirit.

And he distributes as he sees fit, as he wills, to what?

To testify of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit, please hear me in this.

The Holy Spirit has gifted each one of us uniquely to bless the rest of the people in this room.

And if you don't know what your spiritual gift is, that's okay.

Just ask yourself, what area is it that you get excited about when you get to serve others?

What area do you get to serve in and you don't have to do it begrudgingly?

Rather, you do it and it's life-giving.

It's like, oh, that was so sweet.

I can't wait until the next time I get to serve in that capacity.

And for each of us, it's gonna be unique because diversity is so important within the body of Christ, just like it's so important within our own bodies that we're in right now.

And this is getting into next week a little bit, but if we're all hands, if we're all hearts, if we're all knees, we wouldn't be able to function as a body.

There has to be diversity within the body, and that's really what part two of this sermon is about as we finish this chapter next week.

But to close out this week, I want to ask you this question.

Is your gift in circulation?

Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to use the gifts he has given to you to edify the body of Christ and to testify of Jesus?

You know, this isn't a ploy for us to get more volunteers, I promise.

Not at all.

This is a call for our church to function as a healthy body.

Not where, you know, you they talk about churches, you know, 10% serve the other 90%.

A true church of God is 100% serving 100%.

And that doesn't mean you have to be on a schedule for Sunday morning.

You might have a word of wisdom for somebody right after service, you know, that where you can exercise that gift that the Holy Spirit has given you.

It can happen in home groups.

I've seen it happen so many times where somebody says something or something's done within the home groups that it might not be, you know, for uh a service on a Sunday morning, but the home group setting is perfect where there's a word of knowledge or there's a word of wisdom or whatever it might be.

But the thing is, this is a call to function as a healthy body, to use the gifts that God has given you to bless the people that are sitting around you, to function together to testify of Jesus Christ.

So that's the question.

Are we doing this sacrificially?

Are we using those gifts for ourselves?

Or are we using those gifts to bless the people that are sending around us?

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this text.

Lord, we thank you for the gifts of the Holy Spirit that you have distributed, as it says, to each one, each follower of Christ that is here this morning.

But you have gifted us uniquely for your body, to function in the context of your body.

So, Lord, I pray that you would help us to put those gifts sacrificially into circulation.

Lord, whether it's just one conversation that we have with somebody this week, um, or whether it is signing up to work at the door here, Lord, to serve at the door, to serve in children's ministry, in the coffee house, on the worship team, whatever it might be.

Lord, I just pray that we would be challenged to use the gifts freely that you have given us.

That it would be by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and not by anything else, Lord, not by selfish ambition or wanting to elevate ourselves to be known so that people know who we are, what our gifts are, and what our name is, or anything like that.

Lord, but it would be truly to glorify, to point people to Jesus Christ.

Lord, would you do that work?

Would you show each one of us the next steps that you want us to take in using those gifts for your glory?

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.