Gifts of the Holy Spirit: God's Design for the Church | Part 2

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Good morning.

And uh hey, it was pretty fun to have the college kickback hang time.

And uh we got Santa Zay State, Santa Clara in the house.

Welcome, guys.

Yeah, good to be with you.

Love seeing the college community and colleges coming back.

Uh that's always super fun there.

We're in a series, we kicked it off last series last week called uh Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And here's how we began and what we said last week.

You have everything you need to be the person God created you to be.

You have everything.

You're not lacking anything.

You don't need to be older, wiser, you don't need to be younger, better looking, you don't need to be skinnier or have more muscle, you don't need to make more money, a better job, different circumstances.

Right now, in this moment, you have everything you need to be the person God created and designed you to be.

In fact, the apostle Peter would say it this way: His divine power has given you everything you need for a godly life through our true knowledge of Him who's called you by His own glory and goodness.

His power, accessible to you and to me, has given you everything you need right now for this moment and for the next, and for the next and for the next, to be who God made you to be.

And last week we talked about not just the gift of the Holy Spirit, uh the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but the gift, the singular, that we have been given the Holy Spirit.

That uh the apostle Paul would say in Romans that the same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead lives and dwells inside of you.

You have resurrection power accessible to you.

We're talking about how do we live in and out of the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

You know, um on Friday, my family, we went down to Bakersfield, and I know you're jealous.

Um the reason we went down to Bakersfield was because it was my wife's, it's her stepgrandmother.

Uh she's this incredible, amazing, elegant uh lady.

It was her 99th birthday.

Yeah.

You don't get invited to many of those.

And this was phenomenal.

So we drive down Friday, go celebrate her.

It was really cute.

They threw uh 99 bottles of beer on the wall uh theme party.

So there was real beer and beer and all the rest, and so everybody had their bottles, and we started singing the song.

That is an annoying song.

That song, wow, and long.

We only got to 86.

We all you know, like wow, good grief.

Uh, but I mean, she's this incredible lady.

She doesn't know Jesus.

In fact, she's Jewish, and yet she's so kind and generous and hospitable, and like what I mean, elegant is one of the words.

Like when she showed up, and this is the way she always shows up, like her earrings meshed her outfit, hair did, lipstick, everything.

99 people, this is unbelievable.

And she's always been that way.

Now, I was like, when do you ever get to just spend time with someone that's lived 10 decades?

And so I got a little bit of time with her, and I said, Grandma, um, would you just tell me a little bit about kind of each decade?

I'd love to have a memory about each decade.

She went back to four, by the way.

I was like, my earliest memory was four when my brother was born.

I'm like, at 99, you're remembering four.

Wow.

We had this cool conversation and hearing her life.

And at the end of it, she left me with this question.

And I was like, huh.

She said this.

She said, you know, Ryan, if you ever figure out or find out why we're still here, let me know.

At first I was not like, damn, you have all these amazing people, this is life well lived.

Obviously, we would have different answers because of our faith background.

And then she said it again.

If you ever really figure out why we're here, let me know.

99 years looking back on ten decades of life, still asking one of, if not the most important questions of life.

Why am I here?

And how do we make sure that we ask and answer that question well?

So that when we look back on life, we go, wow, I'm so glad I'm here.

I'm so glad that I invested my life in this way for this time, for the limited amount of time that I had on this planet.

Wow, I'm so glad.

You know why you're here and why you're still around as a follower of Jesus, the gospel says this says that you're actually uniquely gifted.

You're uniquely gifted by Christ to bring about a supernatural good.

Think about that for a second.

Not the person sitting, yeah.

Well, of course, the person sitting next to you is uniquely gifted too.

I've got to be careful how I say that.

But don't think about the person next to you.

Because when you read that, it's easy to dismiss that, isn't it?

When you read that, it's easy to go, no, that's somebody else.

That's for special people, that's for like that other person.

I I just heard my friend, uh not uh actually not my friend.

I don't even know why I said my friend.

A lawyer told me this joke, okay?

Literally, that's how, that's how that's he and he's like, yeah, I was listening to this, you know, comedian, and he shared this joke with us yesterday.

He's like, you know, you're not supposed to have favorite kids, you know, but I have one.

And he's like, you know, it's the neighbor's kid.

He's great, you know.

And we think about like it's somebody else, right?

I couldn't be uniquely gifted.

It's somebody else.

No, no, no.

Right now, I'm looking at uniquely, uniquely, uniquely, uniquely gifted by Christ Himself.

Why are you here?

Because you're uniquely gifted.

You're needed here to bring about supernatural good.

To bring about supernatural good.

In fact, the apostle Paul would say it this way in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8.

Ephesians 2:8

He says, For it's by grace you've been saved.

You've been rescued.

God's unmerited favor, he saw you, he reached out to you, he saved you.

And it's not by works or through faith, and it's not this from yourself.

It's not good grief.

Let's try that over again.

Through faith, and this not from yourself, it is a gift of God.

It's his gift, his freely disposed, deposited gift, not by works, so that no one can boast.

You did nothing to earn it, you can't do anything for it.

And what's amazing is right now, I love saying this, and I'll continue saying this as long as I'm a pastor.

Right now, in this moment, you're the object of his affection.

You're deeply loved.

And there's nothing you can do that will cause him to love you any less, and nothing you can do that will cause him to love you anymore.

You can't earn it, you're just loved.

He rescued you, and then we forget the next sentence.

Saved, rescued, grace, no work that you can do to earn it.

And then notice what it says for we are God's hand.

Say that with me.

Handi work.

Some of your translations say workmanship, it's the Greek word poema.

It's where obviously our English word poem comes from.

It's this whole idea that you are God's masterpiece, you're his prized creation.

Like he's taken time and thought.

And you're created in Christ Jesus, meaning that anything that's created has a design, has a purpose, has an intent, has meaning.

And so there's purpose and design intent behind your life and your design, and your life matters.

You're created in Christ Jesus what?

To do good works.

So listen, hang with me here.

We are not saved by good works.

We are saved for good works.

The order matters.

Because as long as you're trying to earn your way, get your way to God, that will never work.

The minute you step in and realize, wow, I have a new identity, I'm completely made new in Christ, and because of that new reality, I get to do these things.

I've been saved and redeemed, and I have a good work to put my life to.

And it's even better than that.

God said, I know you, I know your design, I know how you're made, and I've actually prepared in advance things for you to do.

Think about the intents of the God of the universe over you.

And here's what happens, here's what I we all get caught up into this.

We get caught up into the hustle, getting through, moving up the, you know, the corporate ladder, whatever your version of the successful life is.

And we just kind of eke it out, don't we?

Why am I here?

Well, you are uniquely gifted by Christ to bring about a supernatural good.

Well, let's look at how do we go about doing that?

How do we go about discovering it?

And to do that, I actually want to look at God's design for the church.

And the church is us, the church is a people, not a place.

The church is the spirit-filled people of God, and the supernatural good has to do with the community of the believers and how we function and go about life.

That you've been called out, the way the Apostle Paul, out of darkness into the kingdom of the Son, He loves, into the kingdom of light, and there's a new way of living and being for all of us that brings about good and flourishing around us.

And so if you got your Bibles, would you open up to Ephesians chapter 4?

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 4, as we look at the good that God has for us, the unique gifting.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

What is it that He has for you?

Now, the very first thing the Apostle Paul's gonna say is that every follower of Jesus has a calling to fulfill.

You have a calling to fulfill.

Like you have a calling.

God has placed a call on your life.

He has a calling for you to step in, to live out, and fulfill.

Notice what the apostle Paul says, Ephesians 4, 1.

As a prisoner of the Lord, and that's not just like uh, you know, hey, uh metaphor, he was literally a prisoner of the Lord, then I urge you to walk or to live in a manner worthy of the calling.

It's literally to live in a manner that corresponds with your identity.

Now here's what's happening, okay?

So Ephesians is broken up into two parts.

Chapters one, two, and three is what theologians call the indicative.

Can you say indicative?

Very good.

Indicative just simply it was a force.

Very good.

I get that.

You'll get imperative, we'll get it there.

Indicative simply means this: indicating what's true of you.

It is the him taking three chapters to say, this is your new identity in Christ.

Chapter one talks all about that um you have been chosen, you have been adopted.

Every spiritual blessing is yours in Christ.

You have been forgiven, redeemed, beloved.

It's the indicative, it's your identity in Christ.

And out of that reality then comes what theologians call the imperative.

How do we then live out our new identity?

It says, live a life worthy of the calling.

This is who you are, this is your standing, this is your reality, and this is how then you live this life out.

I remember years ago, um a pastor told this story of they had um they had adopted this kid from uh it was somewhere overseas, I'm not exactly sure.

And they were saying the first few months they would find that this child would hide food in their uh bedroom.

And they're like, Oh, you don't have to do that.

You don't have to do that, but they kept doing it.

Well, they find out that this child, as a little young kid, the way the parents would punish him was to lock the fridge.

They'd literally chained the fridge, and for a like a weekend or so, they wouldn't have any access to food.

So this child had this reality that to in order to survive, I have to get food and I have to stockpile it to keep mine.

And now this child is brought into a new reality with adopted family and parents who love them, and they're like, hey, by the way, the fridge will never have a door on it or a lock on it.

A door, it needs a door, it needs a door.

See, what happens in the Christian life, by the way, friends, is we take our old reality into our new identity.

And we're living out of here.

And he says, No, your new identity, adopted, loved, uh, forgiven, redeemed.

This is who you are.

And so walk in a manner worthy or corresponding to that reality.

The fridge never has a lock on it in the kingdom of God.

He says, Well, you have a calling that you have received.

Well, how do we do this?

And what I love is he doesn't give us a list of uh to-dos.

Well, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this, need to read your Bible, need to go to church, need to give.

I don't know why I got that voice.

But what he does is he gives us of to-bees.

Who you're becoming is principally what you offer to God.

Be completely humble.

How do you live out your calling?

Here's how humble.

You want to live that out?

Because you can, by the way, you can live that out anywhere doing anything with anyone.

Humble.

Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's actually thinking accurately of yourself in light of who God is.

Pride isn't just thinking like boastfully of yourself, it's also when you just kind of go, I'm no good at this, I'm no this.

Like, that's not humility.

Stop it.

Humility is this is how God has made me, and I'm gonna lean into this and I'm gonna glorify him with what he's given me.

And God didn't give me this, and I'm not gonna do that because there's a reason I don't oversee the finances at awakening because I'm not gifted at it.

God did not give me that, but he's given me the gift of teaching, that's the reason I'm here.

Be completely humble, thinking accurately of yourself, and then he says, and gentle.

Gentle.

In fact, the word is meek.

Jesus would call himself meek.

We don't think of meekness uh a lot uh or identify with it.

It's this incredible uh attribute.

It's actually the attribute of the strong.

Because when we think of meekness, it's meek equals weak.

In fact, the picture is is um it's a physical picture of like a bit in a horse's mouth.

And so that uh it's all that strength, all that power, it's under control and it's directed.

Um, it is this strength under control.

It's one whose emotions are under control.

They never let loose or get out of control.

In fact, in Hellenistic Greek, uh meek had this connotation it was the merciful execution of justice on behalf of those who have no voice by those in a position of authority.

That's meekness.

It's leveraging your strength for those who have no strength.

It says, How do you live out your calling?

Humble.

How do you live out your calling?

Gentle, how do you live out your calling to be patient?

Another, maybe older way to say it is long suffering.

Because that's what patience is, it suffers long.

The spirit that bears insult and injury without bitterness and without complaint.

I just preached to myself, that hurt.

It's the spirit that can suffer unpleasant people with graciousness and fools without complaint.

Yes, even online.

Bearing with one another in love.

Why did the apostle Paul have to say bearing with one another?

Because some people are just a bear to live with.

Isn't that compelling?

Like, wouldn't you want to be around people that are like that?

Don't you want friends that are like that, that don't easily take offense, that think the best, that keep every effort to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace?

Guess what?

We may differ politically.

Guess what?

We may differ in some theological areas.

Guess what?

We may differ just in so many things, but we have this in common the unity of the presence of the Spirit of God in us.

And so we're going to preserve that.

Don't you want to be a part of a community like that?

See, our calling, our calling begins with who we're becoming.

And who we're becoming will then inform what we're doing.

And we flip it.

And we want to get to the doing, and God's going, like, no, no, no, I want to shape a new community.

Every follower of Jesus has a calling to fulfill.

And here's why the importance of unity.

There's one body, one spirit, uh, just as you're called to one hope, uh, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father over all, who's over uh through all and in all.

Oh community's a big deal to God.

Every follower of Jesus has a calling to fulfill.

I like how Philip Yancey said it.

Our confused society badly needs a community of contrast.

A counterculture of ordinary pilgrims who insist on living a different way.

That's your calling.

Why are you here?

What is the good that God has prepared?

Well, this in part is the good that He's prepared for us.

Oh, that we would be that church.

That we would return to that view.

That we we wouldn't settle for like turf wars and my fighting and all the things that we just go down into, but that we'd be completely humble and gentle and patient.

Every follower has a calling to fulfill.

This is God's design for the church.

Every follower of Jesus then has been given a spiritual gift to steward.

You have been given a gift by Jesus to Steward.

Here's what he goes on to say.

But each one of us, grace has been given as Christ has apportioned it.

Grace has been poured out.

Now notice this isn't salvific grace.

This isn't the moment you received Jesus as your savior and you experienced his unmerited favor and you stepped into relationship with him.

Your old life was buried and died, and you were brought to new life by the power of the Spirit of God.

That is saving grace.

Here he's talking about just a specific grace that he's poured out in the gifting of God.

In fact, uh the word for grace is charis in the Bible, and spiritual gift, the word for spiritual gift is charismata or charismata.

It's grace gift.

You've been given a grace gift.

You've done nothing to earn it or deserve it.

He just poured it out lavishly on you as Christ has apportioned it.

And then he uses this word picture, and I just got to give you a heads up.

I'm gonna read it, but it won't make sense.

You ever do that with the Bible?

You're like, yeah, did not get that.

So I'll make it make sense after I read it.

Okay?

You with me?

All right, here we go.

This grace gift, as Christ has apportioned it to us, he says, that is why it says, when he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.

What does he ascended mean?

Except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions.

He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe.

Clear?

We good?

All right.

The Apostle Paul is quoting Psalm 68, verse 18, and he's actually referencing this picture that was common in their day.

Psalms 68:18

They didn't have the news cycle, they didn't have Twitter to know what was going on in their world that got them this instantaneous information.

In fact, you couldn't have, you didn't have the video capture to prove that it actually happened.

And so when a conquering king went off to battle and was victorious, as he would return back into a city, the whole city would come out to set up this kind of welcome and procession.

The king often would be on a white horse at the front, his army behind him, and then captives.

These were noble people and people that they would bring from the land.

And as they were coming into the city, what the king would do and the different soldiers is they would share the spoils of victor, declaring they have indeed won and proving it.

And giving gifts to the people as they cheer, uh as they cheer for their conquering king to come in.

And this is the picture that when Jesus came and he descended, meaning that he died, that he took on yours and mine greatest enemy, that is death itself.

He took on sin, he took on Satan, and he descended, but he also ascended.

He was not defeated by death, no, he defeated death itself, and as a result, a sign of his victory is like the conquering king.

I'm giving out gifts.

I indeed did win the war.

I indeed came back conquering death.

Where is your victory?

Where is your sting?

But thanks be to God, the sting of death is gone because of Jesus Christ.

And so, every spiritual, every believer has at least one spiritual gift.

We're going to talk more specifically about spiritual gifts next week.

They're not the same as your natural ability, it's not the same as the fruit of the spirit.

We talked about that last week.

It is a gift that God gives for effective service and edification of the body.

You did nothing to earn it.

It's a grace gift, it's charismata.

And so it's not a status symbol that makes you a somebody.

Oh, I have this gift or I have this gift.

Spiritual gifts are simply a sign of Christ's victory over sin, death, and Satan.

And how do we discover our spiritual gifts?

Well, in we discover them in uh they're discovered and developed in community.

In fact, one of the ways that we often read the New Testament, especially, is we read all the U's as you singular, right?

Because we're a hyper-individualistic society.

And so then anytime you see a U, they're like, it must be just talking about me.

It's gotta be me.

All the Us in the book of Ephesians, many throughout the letters are you plural.

In Texas, you know how we'd say it?

I was born in Texas, y'all.

Can you say that?

Y'all.

Y'all.

That's you all for some who didn't understand.

I had to translate.

I get it.

But here's the reality.

We think we can do the Christian life on our own outside a community and have your own private relationship with God.

You can have your own personal relationship with God, but it will not work outside the context of the church.

The church is the community, the body, the family that you've been called out of into, and this is the place upon which he's building a new way of being a human, and the way we interact and grow, and the greatest refinement for you is another person.

Isn't that true?

Like for those who have been married, you realize uh like uh Jen and I said this when we were first married, we're like uh it just revealed how very selfish we were.

And then we had kids, and it just revealed how very selfish we are.

God uses the one another's to refine and to grow us, and he uses them to show us who we are in Christ.

Isn't it true too that man, somebody else sees in you that you don't see in yourself?

Right?

Because we dismiss the good, we dismiss what comes natural, we dismiss, oh, I'm just I love, you know, um making an environment and helping people just feel really welcome to love.

And like, yeah, I I whipped up all that stuff and baked it, it's amazing.

Like, no, you have the gift of hospitality.

No, no, no, it was nothing.

No, trust me, I've been to places that don't have the gift of hospitality.

It's something, and it brings you joy, because that's how the gifts work, and it produces supernatural good to those around you, because that's how the gifts work.

So, what is the good?

Well, every follower has a calling to fulfill.

You've been given a spiritual gift to steward.

We'll dive more into that next week.

Every follower Jesus has an integral role in the body of Christ.

You matter.

Remember, we started off you are uniquely gifted.

If you don't show up with what God's gifted and given you, we miss out.

You matter, you have an integral, important role to play in the body of Christ.

Here's how the apostle Paul would say it.

He says, So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastor teachers.

He's now talking about the structure of this new community, and he's saying, there's some leaders.

We're going to need some organizational leadership here.

And there's four gifts that I've given to be the organizational leaders for this new community.

Apostles, prophets, uh, evangelists, and pastor teachers.

Well, let me go over those real quick because we may not know what those are, and that's way okay.

Well, you're like apostles, aren't those the first 12 disciples?

Well, yes, there's the office of apostleship, then there's the gifting of apostleship.

Apostleship is the divine enablement to start churches and oversee their development.

It's the ability to minister cross-culturally.

It's those that are missionaries, those who are starting up parachurch organizations, church planters.

I think of Whitney Fayek and her family.

They started a ministry to reach collegiate athletes in this area.

They have the gift of apostleship.

Prophecy, and we often think about prophecy as forthelling and telling someone's future.

There are parts of that.

90% of it is proclaiming forth the word of God in a timely way.

It is the ability to proclaim God's truth with power and clarity in a timely and culturally sensitive fashion for correction, repentance, and edification.

In fact, many of the best worship leaders that I know have the gift of prophecy as well.

And it's fun.

Yes, Robbie does have the gift of prophecy.

And when they use that combined with their gifting of worship and music, it just creates this powerful moment where we're drawn into the presence of God.

Evangelism is the ability to be an unusually effective instrument of leading unbelievers to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Some of that's personal evangelism, some of that's group evangelism.

You might have that.

You might have the gift of evangelism.

You realize, man, I'm always hosting my neighbors, I'm always reaching out.

And God's just allowing, you know, all these God conversations popping up.

I don't even really know why.

And you didn't realize I have the gift of evangelism.

Or pastor-teacher, that's actually one singular gift.

Uh, the way it's constructed in the Greek.

It's a person with this spiritual gift that has the ability to lead, nourish, protect, and to personally care for the needs of the flock of believers.

Now, when we hear pastor-teacher, we just simply think about our role in our Western churches of pastor.

Some people who hold that role have the gifting of pastor as here.

And you don't have to be a quote, pastor on a staff to have the gifting of pastor teacher.

In fact, Saye, who's in our church, he's a part of our leadership council.

Um, he's leads a small group.

Uh, he and Shadi, they have the gift of pastor teacher.

They're amazing.

If you're in, if you've been in their small group, you're like, absolutely they do.

And they just ooze it out of everything they do.

Every follower Jesus has an intricate role in the body of Christ.

He's got leaders.

Why?

So that you can go, whoa, you're awesome.

Yay.

Right?

I mean, that's kind of what we think.

Like leaders are supposed to be like, woo, you do it.

We'll watch.

Go for it.

I'm behind you.

Way behind you.

Whatever.

No, to equip his people for works of service.

Here's the paradigm for us.

Leaders, these leadership gifts are equippers.

Our role and our job, my role as a pastor here on staff is not to be the star player.

My role is how can I equip you to live out the good God made you for?

See, my role isn't to be like, hey, I look at me and all these things.

I know we platform the speaker and then we can make them into something that they're not.

I'm, you know, like as a pastor, what is it like?

I'm pretty ordinary.

I don't spend 15 hours a day praying every day.

It wouldn't be a bad thing, I just don't.

Leaders are equippers.

That word equip, it literally means to prepare, to mend, to restore people to their proper use.

If you're a leader, your role is to prepare, is to mend and to restore.

To see someone and how can I prepare you?

Do you need some mending?

Do you need some restoring?

Because to be at your proper use, to step into the good that you're made for.

You know, we put on this in a picture that, oh, pastors, you're the star players, and everybody is like supportive fans, and yet the reality is the way God designed the church is simply this.

Leaders are simply the bee coaches.

And every member, every person, a part of the body of Christ are the star players.

I drove in this morning and I saw a man by the name of Brad Nystrom.

And he was setting out a sign.

Brad Nystrom's been in our church for years and years and years.

He faithfully serves.

He's what we call a space captain.

I know that's a funny name.

Um, but he called a space captain because he's a captain on our space team that sets up the space and shows up with a group of people and he put the sign out.

So if you're new and you didn't know where to go, all those signs, there's a team that came in here and they set up every single chair on Saturday night, and all of these curtains and this sound system and our cafe team that that showed up early to make sure that you would be awake during this sermon, which praise God, you are all awake.

No, I'm just kidding.

Running sound and slides.

Everybody plays an intricate role.

Why?

To create a space for you and for us, me, to have a life-changing encounter with God.

And every role matters significantly.

And it's unbelievable.

Here's what's amazing about that Brad Nystrom.

You know what he's doing right now?

He's not in this room.

So I'm bragging on him behind his back.

We should do that a lot more, by the way.

He's meeting with our team for our birthday, and there's a team that is building stuff.

I I don't really know what it is, that's why I said stuff.

It's like set design, different things for our birthday.

Like there's a whole team working diligently and constructing things, and they're using their gifts and abilities to build.

What happens here, and when I hear people go, oh, I love the community here, oh, I love this, oh, I love that, it takes all of us.

And we need all of us.

And when one of us is missing, we miss out.

We miss out.

In fact, as Christina was talking about the leadership advance, I want to invite you personally to join us.

Would you join us?

I'm not a leader.

That's okay.

We'll change the name next time.

The church advance.

The people advance.

I don't know.

We're not gonna workshop it now, okay?

We'll get a better name.

And where you begin to discover and develop your gift in community, experiencing joy because you're operating out of your gift and and other people are experiencing the good.

You are uniquely gifted by Christ to bring about supernatural good.

God, thank you for this time.

Thank you for this moment.

Thank you for my friends here.

Who are designed and created in Christ Jesus, whom you've given spiritual gifts deposited in them.

God, would you make us a church that lives out the good?

That doesn't just hear a sermon, maybe moved or think, oh, that's interesting, but that we would take that step to live out the good that you've already placed in front of us.

Oh, that we would be a community that looks counterculture in all the best ways, humble and gentle and patient, bearing with one another in love.

That watching the world say, I don't necessarily believe what you believe, but wow, I want to be a part of you because that's amazing.

Make us that kind of church.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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