Service with a Smile:
Finding Your Spiritual Gifts
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
[Show Fantasia video, segment one]
A vast orchestra,
composed of stringed instruments,
brass instruments,
percussion instruments,
and woodwinds . . .
All joining together,
the harp and the oboe,
the violin and timpani,
the trumpet and the triangle,
to produce strains of music that are capable of
lifting the soul to ecstatic heights,
or plunging it into depths of melancholy & despair.
None of those various instruments we saw
is capable--alone--of duplicating
what we just heard in that brief clip from
Disney’s Fantasia;
But together—together—
when you combine the crisp tones of a trumpet
with the thunder of a tuba
and the cascading notes of a harp,
together the instruments of that orchestra wield an amazing power,
a power FAR BEYOND the capabilities
of any one instrument
or any one musician.
That, ladies and gentlemen,
is a picture of the church.
The church is like an orchestra
made up of a wide range of instruments
played by a diverse array of musicians.
And God himself selects who will play what.
As the conductor, he determines the sections
and then decides which part each will play.
Because he is also the composer,
the music he writes is perfectly suited to each member of the orchestra,
and perfectly designed to accomplish his purpose.
Every Christian here this morning—
every person who has
experienced salvation by trusting Christ
and thus received new life by the power of God’s Holy Spirit—
is a member of that vast orchestra . . .
And God has placed in your hands,
whether you know it or not,
an instrument that is perfectly suited to you . . .
Now, I’m not necessarily talking about a trumpet, though Jeremy Michael does play one of those;
nor about a flute, like Sheena Johnson and Jasmine Isaacs play,
nor the drums, like Dave Wilkes plays,
nor even the spoons, which Henry Saas plays.
No, I’m talking about another kind of instrument,
the kind the Bible calls a “spiritual gift.”
Good morning. My name is Bob Hostetler, and
this morning at Cobblestone Community Church we’re in the second week of a four-week series of messages from the Bible, entitled “Serving with a Smile.”
You see, we here at Cobblestone Community Church have been meeting together for ten weeks now;
And it’s our plan, as we worship and fellowship and pray together, to prepare to launch a full fledged, new, different, dynamic,
community-oriented,
student-friendly,
seeker-aware,
outward-focused church
on Palm Sunday, April 8, 2001.
But we feel very strongly
that we don’t want the Cobblestone experience to be the kind of church that wears people out trying to keep the church machinery going and ends up being a drag on everyone’s energy and enthusiasm and enjoyment;
we want to be the kind of church
where people have FUN and find FULFILLMENT
in glorifying God and serving others.
And we believe that the way to do that involves:
• finding your passion, which we discussed last week,
• finding your spiritual gifts, which we’ll discuss in the next ten minutes or so, and also
• finding your style, and
• finding your place, which we’ll cover in the next two weeks.
So, let’s get started by turning in the Bible to the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians. . .
1 Corinthians chapter twelve.
Now, if you worship here regularly, I encourage you to get in the habit of bringing your Bible with you so you can read for yourself
with your own eyes
from your own Bible
what’s being taught up here at the front.
If you’re here without a Bible of your own this morning, please feel free to use on of the copies we provide for you in the center of each table.
And if you don’t have a Bible of your own, we would love for you to take one of ours home with you. . . Consider it your souvenir.
So, having said all that,
let’s look at 1 Corinthians, chapter twelve. . . .
It’s on page ___ if you’re reading from one of the
table Bibles today . . .
And our study of God’s Word this morning will begin at the first verse of that chapter, where the Apostle Paul writes,
Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant (1 Corinthians 12:1, NIV).
Now, let me pause for a moment to point out something interesting . . .
Paul used that particular phrase--“I do not want you to be ignorant”—six times in his letters. . .
twice in reference to the Jewish people, whose disobedience brought judgment,
once in reference to his plans to visit the church at Rome,
once regarding the sufferings he and his team had endured throughout Asia,
once in reference to the end times and the resurrection of the dead,
and here, where he says “I do not want you to be ignorant” about spiritual gifts.
He goes on, in verse 2:
You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men (1 Corinthians 12:2-6, NIV).
Now, verses two and three may sound a little odd to us today, but let me just explain so far as to say that Paul isn’t necessarily saying that no Christian can physically speak the words "Jesus be cursed" and no non-Christian can utter the phrase "Jesus is Lord."
—Notice, of course, that I just did both—
Rather, he is probably addressing the case of those who in the face of severe anti-Christian persecution either repudiated Christ
or proclaimed him.
But it’s the following verses, verses 7 to 11, that I want to concentrate on this morning. Look at those verses with me, would you?
I’m going to point out to you three things Paul has to say about spiritual gifts. And the first is:
1. The definition of spiritual gifts (v. 7)
Look at verse 7. Paul gives us a concise definition of spiritual gifts when he says:
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
Paul explains that a spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God. When you become a Christian and receive the indwelling Spirit of God, he will manifest himself, and one of the ways he manifests himself is in the giving and working of spiritual gifts. This differentiates a spiritual gift from a natural gift or talent or skill; those things may interact with a spiritual gift, and spiritual gifts are often exercised in areas where a talent or skill already exists, but a spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Spirit, and so it may look a lot like a talent or skill, but it is much more than that.
Notice also that Paul says that manifestation of the Spirit is given “to each one” . . . that means that every Christian receives a spiritual gift. Some may receive more than one, but each one receives at least one.
And notice also the purpose of spiritual gifts: “for the common good.”
Spiritual gifts are not given to glorify you,
to make you feel important,
to make you better than someone else;
they’re given for the benefit of others,
for the common good of the whole church.
Charles Swindoll defines a spiritual gift as “an ability or skill that enables the recipient to perform a function (spiritual in kind) in the Body of Christ with ease and effectiveness.”
There is not a Christian here who can say,
“I don’t have a spiritual gift.”
There is not a Christian here with any reason to feel cheated.
There is not a Christian here who has not been
supernaturally enabled by God to do something important and valuable to help this fledgling body of believers.
And, I would add, it is that enablement that makes FUN and FULFILLMENT possible. I believe that when you’re exercising your spiritual gift or gifts, you’re more likely to be having a blast--especially if it’s also in an area you’re passionate about, as we discussed last week.
But that’s not all. I want to point out to you something else Paul says about spiritual gifts. And that is:
2. The diversity of spiritual gifts (vv. 8-10)
Having just finished saying that “to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good,” Paul goes on in verse 8 to say,
8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
Paul says, “there are all kinds of spiritual gifts,” and he lists a few of them here. We know that he doesn’t try to list them all, because elsewhere in his writings, he mentions spiritual gifts that are not among the nine he lists here:
encouragement,
leadership,
pastoring,
teaching,
serving,
evangelism,
giving,
showing mercy,
and so on, as you can see in the notes that were included in your programs this morning.
And, since none of the gifts appear in every list, it’s reasonable to believe that these are sample lists, and fairly resonable to believe that the Spirit may give even more gifts . . .
Maybe music composition,
artistic expression,
hospitality,
or even Bob Holzworth’s dominant gift, which is Powerpoint, baby!
But allow me to point out just one more thing Paul says about spiritual gifts. And that is:
3. The distribution of spiritual gifts (v. 11)
Notice what Paul says in verse 11 about how spiritual gifts are distributed:
11 All these [that is, all these spiritual gifts] are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
Paul makes it clear here that the Spirit of God determines who gets what gift.
Now, at the end of this 12th chapter, Paul says to “earnestly desire the greater gifts,”
but whether or not we have the gift of teaching
or serving,
or leadership,
or showing mercy,
is not determined by us, but by the Spirit of God.
You see, you can learn a skill,
you can acquire a talent,
but you’re given a gift;
skills and talents may help you exercise your gift,
and you can certainly learn to use your gift
more and more effectively,
but it’s not something you can earn,
it’s not something you can learn,
it’s something that’s given to you by the Spirit.
So you, if you are a Christian,
you have a spiritual gift . . . right now . . .
and it’s a gift or gifts that the Spirit of God,
in his sovereign, infinite wisdom
has chosen for you.
So you don’t have to wonder if you have a gift,
you don’t even have to work hard in order to get it.
You just have to identify it.
You may already know what your spiritual gift is.
You may have no idea.
You may have suffered disappointment as a Christian because you’ve been trying to exercise some gift or gifts you don’t possess,
or you may already be exercising it without even knowing what it’s called.
But I’ll tell you this:
If you can know your spiritual gift or gifts
and find a way to use them—
especially in the area of your passion,
which we talked about last week,
and according to your personal style,
which we’ll discuss next week—
you will experience
a level of FUN and FULFILLMENT
that may just blow your mind
and lift your spiritual life to heights
you didn’t know were possible.
So how do you do that?
How do you find your spiritual gift?
Well, there’s four primary ways:
1) prayer is one way to learn your spiritual gift; ask God to help you discern your spiritual gift.
2) trial-and-error; some people figure it out by trying this, trying that, until finally they hit on something that enables them to function “with ease and effectiveness” they never experienced before.
3) observation and counsel; ask mature Christians who know you what they think your spiritual gift is, and finally,
4) assessment tools.
Last week, we worked through a Passion Assessment together in the final moments of our celebration, and this morning, I’ve purposely made the message shorter than usual so we can use the final ten minutes or so of our celebration to explore—individually—what your spiritual gift might be by means of an assessment tool, which was included in your programs.
So I want to ask each of you to please grab the “Spiritual Gift Assessment” that was included in your programs this morning. And, our dedicated— and fragrant—sound man is going to play some music while we take the time to give this “Spiritual Gift Assessment” our prayerful and careful consideration. I know it’s rather lengthy, but I’m going to give you time to go through it, and then I’ll explain how to score yourself and figure it out. Then we’ll conclude with a time of prayer and meditation, and, as always here at Cobblestone,
there will be counselors available
throughout this room
wearing brightly colored name tags
in case there’s anyone here who would like private prayer this morning.
You need only to tap one of them on the shoulder or grab ‘em by the arm
and they’ll be happy to talk with you
and pray with you.
But right now, let’s take a few moments to prayerfully assess your spiritual gift . . .
