INTRODUCTION
When Rosemary was a teen her best friend’s father Mr Luftglas, got in trouble with his wife when he decided to change the oil in his car while wearing one of his best business suit. Now ladies don’t be so quick to snicker. How many of you have used a shoe to pound in a nail or a butter knife to turn a screw? Do you remember being taught by your mother to dress correctly for the occation, or your father’s advice to be sure to use the right tool for the job. Important advice. When we chose to listen to it. And even more important when the work at hand requires clothing of divine origin and tools that only God can provide. God given clothing and tools like those discribed by Paul in 1 Cor 12, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed.“ Paul is writing here to people new to the Christian faith. Their religious backgrounds are varied and their previous beliefs are a combination of the occult, astrology, superstition, and magic. When Paul comes to the topic of spiritual gifts he doesn’t want the Corinthians to be ignorant from a Christian perspective. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe in spiritual gifts, they most certainly did. It was that what they believed had little to do with Jesus or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
And I have to ask, is our society really any different than Paul’s day? Our daily papers provide us with astrological horiscopes. On TV we are inundated with psychic hotlines, and tarot card readers. All those things that in the Old Testament God commands us to stay away from. Instead we are told to place our faith in the creator of all heaven and earth. Paul even speaks to us today when he says, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say "Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”
THE SPIRIT EMPOWERS ALL
Before we can even discuss spiritual gifts Paul wants to make one thing perfectly clear. It is the Holy Spirit and only the Spirit of God which empowers all Christian confession. No one confesses the Lordship of Christ apart from the Spirit’s leading. So when ever the church discusses spiritual gifts we must always remember. The focus of the discussion IS NOT on the individuals that possess spiritual gifts. The focus of the discussion must always be THE SPIRIT OF GOD that gives all spiritual gifts. There are false spirits out there. Counterfit advisors wearing the sheepskin of spirituality. Now this doesn’s mean that tarot card readers on TV can’t give you advise - they can. it just won’t be from God. We must be sure to be clothed properly for the work at hand. Clothed with the robes of the Holy Spirit, divinely spun. The only cloth bearing the authentic stamp of God. And supplied with the proper tools for Spiritual work that only the Holy Spirit can provide. For divinely inspired gifts of the Spirit are available for those who know where to look.
“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 working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. “
A varieties of gifts, of service and of workings. Now there is good chance that in mentioning gifts, service, workings. Paul is in fact speaking of the one and same thing. He is speaking of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. He is speaking of how the Spirit of God makes itself known among God’s people through it’s spiritual activity. These gifts, service, works have a unity in their source, the Holy Spirit. They also have a unity in their purpose. They were given, not for personal enrichment but for the common good of the body of Christ. For the building up of the faithful, whom God calls the church. But in addressing these manifestations of the Holy Spirit I would like to take some liberty. I would like to discuss gifts, service and works from three different vantage points through which we can observe the one and same Spirit at work through God’s people. Our first vantage point is that of a variety of gifts. Now gifts are something we receive something that is given to us by someone else. The gifts Paul is speaking of here are Spiritual gifts. Gifts given to us by God to be used as God determines.
“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 healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.”
Now, Paul is not giving us an encyclopedia of spiritual gifts. As I have said before Paul’s focus here is not on the gifts given, nor on the recipients of those gifts. His focus is on he Spirit who is the giver of these gifts. But what we do know is that the Spirit has given these gifts to us that we might use them to strengthen one another in the faith. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” To each is given. No one is left out. Each and everyone of us has at least one gift. Do you know what your gifts are? Are you using your gifts to build up those around you in the faith? I know a woman who didn’t know she had any spiritual gifts until the day we had a healing service. As an elder in the church she was invited to lay her hands upon a man who had cancer. As we prayed for divine healing she began to feel her hands grow hot. That man went through surgery with flying colors and has been cancer free now for five years. And that woman who’s hands grew hot now knows that she has the gift of healing and continues to this day to experience her hands growing hot whenever she lays on her hands and prays over those who are sick. Would you like to know what your spiritual gifts are? Then come and talk to me and I will show you how to discern what they are and how they are to be used.
From our second vantage point Paul says that there are varieties of service. From my experience I believe that there are four general services through which all ministry is carried out in the church. First there is pastoral service. Ministry for those who’s love is people. This is the ministry of compassion, mercy, fellowship. Secondly, there is what I call prophetic service. Ministry for those who love to reach out to those outside the church. This is the ministry wherein we share with others our faith, our resources, our willingness to stand with them against injustice. Then we have proclamational service. Through this ministry we seek the establish believers in the faith. To assist Christians to grow in that faith Finally there is priestly service, the ministy of worship. Through this ministry of service we seek to help one another to praise and worship our creator through song, liturgy, sacrament and prayer.
Then from our third and final vantage point we see what Paul calls a variety of working. Now we all know that in the church there is work to be done. Just read the bulletin or newsletter and you will learn that there are dishes to be washed, decorations to be put up or taken down, fundraisers to be manned and carried out. You don’t have to look very far to find work. But what most of us don’t understand is what Paul considers the main point of his discussion. We talk of spiritual gifts and we all say “Yeah, spiritual gifts those are clearly from God. Anyone who demonstrates a spiritual gift clearly has the Holy Spirit working through them.” Or when we discuss spiritual service each and any one of us can point our finger at someone in this church and say, “they should be doing pastoral or prophetic service. They definitely have the gifts for that ministry.” But when we come to the work we do in this church. Those common, every day tasks that most people don’t even know we do. We are proned to say, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do this. I doubt even God knows that I’m doing this?” But that, says Paul, is where we are so wrong. For whenever we do anything in service to the Christ the Holy Spirit is with us. Have you heard? Do you understand this wonderful truth? No matter what the gift. No matter what the service. No matter what the work. There is one Spirit, one Lord, one God who inspires them all in every one. Our source for ministry - Yours and mine - is always the same. No matter who we are. No matter what we do. In this we are all the same, we are servants of God. Empowered by His Spirit to minister to one another in His name
CONCLUSION
All of us are ministers. Not just me, all of us gathered here this morning. We are not all called to be pastors. But we are all called to the work of service, to minister according to God’s gifts. Too often we refuse to acknowledge we have gifts. We "put down" what we can do and refuse or fail to use the gifts that God has given us. But the Body cannot be built up on the basis of what the ministers or deacons, seem able to do. The exercise of your gifts is important for building up the Body of Christ. A chaplain who was ministering to a seriously wounded soldier was requested by the dying man to write a letter to his former Sunday school teacher. "Tell her I died a Christian because of what she taught me in that class in church. The memory of her earnest pleas and the warmth of her love as she asked us to accept Jesus has stayed with me. Tell her I’ll meet her in Heaven." The message was sent, and some time later the chaplain received this reply: "May God forgive me. Just last month I resigned my position and abandoned my Sunday school pupils because I felt my work had been fruitless. How I regret my impatience and lack of faith! I shall ask my pastor to let me go back to teaching. I have learned that when one sows for God, the reaping is both sure and blessed!"
Never despise your gifts! Come to Christ with your life and be available for his Spirit to work in and through you. The Lord calls you! His Church needs you! All of us have been given gifts of the Spirit by the grace of Christ. And all of us are expected to use our gifts for God’s purposes.