Do you realize that the Holy Spirit has gifted you with a spiritual gift that is perfectly suited for god’s plan for your life?
His work for your life in the way he wants you to live.
And the tragedy is that many, many believers will go through their entire life many of them trying to serve god and wondering why things don’t turn out the way they think they ought to, or why they don’t seem to be very comfortable serving god in this position or that or the other.
Well, god’s got a better plan than just guessing. He has a plan that’s perfectly suited for your life.
He has a gift for you that’ll let make it possible for you to relate to other people better, understand how the people act and why they act and where they act.
In fact, it’ll make a lot of difference in your life, whether it’s in your vocation, your church life.
When you discover that primary motivational gift that god has given you, and then you begin to function out of that gift.
So that’s what we’re talking about, beginning in this particular message.
This is the 3rd part in Elsa Reeves living in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the first message had to do with who he is, who is the Holy Spirit.
He is the promise of the father.
He is the part of the Trinity, the person of the Trinity.
He’s the seal that god has given to every single believer.
Our guide, our teacher, that is many, many activities that the Holy Spirit works in our life, But each one specifically relating to us according to our needs.
And when it comes to message. Why did he come?
It was absolutely essential because he’s so involved in our salvation, in our sanctification, and in our service to him.
And the primary purpose of the gifts is that you and I would be able to serve god to the maximum of our potential in such a way that that, listen, the fruit will be abundant.
Secondly, we will be blessed. And thirdly, other people are gonna be blessed, and the kingdom of god will be stronger and the work of god will go on successfully.
Well, turnothy Wield of First Corinthians chapter 12.
And I want us to read just the 7 verses of his first chapter, though, in these next few weeks, we talk be talking about, uh, more than these 7 verses.
But for now, First Corinthians chapter 12, beginning in verse 1.
And we’re talking about the gifts of the spirit.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, Brandon, I do not want you to be unaware.
You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols.
However, you were led, Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking of the spirit of god says Jesus is a curse, and no one can say Jesus is lord except by the Holy Spirit.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit.
There are varieties of ministries and the same lord, their varieties of effects, but the same god, there’s a whole trinity right there, who works all things and all persons.
But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.
And one thing I want us to recognize right up front, that is When god gives spiritual gifts, which he does, he always gives it for the common good, not for some individual’s sake, or to make us feel good or to get prideful and puffy about what we have or don’t have, it’s always for the common good of the whole body of Christ.
Now one of the first things we need to do is to clarify terms because sometimes people get them a little confused.
So let’s look, first of all, at the idea of the gift of the spirit, g I f t.
And that is we’re talking about the person of the holy spirit who has given to every single belief upon our salvation.
This is what Peter was preaching in acts chapter 2 verse 38.
When you were saved, the Holy Spirit came into your life to indwell and to seal you as a child of god.
That was god’s gift. Secondly, the gifts of the spirit, g I f t s, those capabilities, those abilities that god gives to each individual that fit his purpose and plan for our life.
The third word is the fruit.
That is the fruit of the spirit, which you know in Galatians chapter 5, speaks of the character that the Holy Spirit intends to build in and through our life as a result of our being submissive to him and walking in his will and in his way.
And that is the fruit of the spirit, which we know well, of love, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, self control, and so forth, humility.
So we’re talking about primarily the gifts of the spirit.
That is those abilities and those capacities that god gives us when we trust him as our personal savior, and then we begin to walk out and live out the life.
Now let’s distinguish between something else. Between human talent and a spiritual gift.
Human talents are those capacities those abilities that god gives to each and every person at their birth.
That is you come into this world, and you have a certain personality.
Well, god gives you, that is those talents, those skills, shall we say, that are given to you at that moment, because he gives them to you on the purpose of what he wants to do in your life.
But these are natural talents, and sometimes a person can be very, very multitalented.
They just seem to be able to do many things very well.
Some of the rest of us think, well, if I can just do half what they can do, or maybe they can do well in 3 or 4 areas or whatever it might be.
Now they’re from god, he certainly wants some and desires that we use them for his glory, but it’s not a spiritual gift.
It’s a natural talent. So many people who are not Christians are very listen.
They are very gifted in some areas.
Many things that you and I use every day were probably invented by people who are not even Christian.
But all of us who are believers, we profit from that, and we’re grateful for it.
But a spiritual gift is a specific ability and skill that god gives you in order to enable you to serve him wisely and to the best of your god given ability, it is that special gift he gives you it becomes the motivation for all of your service for the lord.
So there is a difference. Now a spiritual gift, for example, will naturally use, utilize the talent.
For example, let’s say you have a talent to do one thing, you have a spiritual gift.
God’s listen, when you’re a believer, you to use your spiritual gift, understand what that is, and then your talent, you to exercise your spiritual gift through that talent.
Exercise your talent through that spiritual gift so that the 2 work beautifully together.
That is you don’t have one and say, well, what about this? God intends future work them just like that.
And so when a person understands what their spiritual gift is and certainly recognize what their talent is, and then you exercise your talent, listen, based on your spiritual gift.
That will determine what you do, where you do it, how you do it, whether you succeed or not, our for example, in your relationships with other people.
So god has worked all of this out for our good and his glory because the truth is he wants you to be able to reach the max some, um, view a potential, whatever he calls you to do.
And, certainly, he wants you to be able to do it in such a fashion as somebody else profits from it.
That is They’re built up by it. They’re edified by it.
And in the church, god has given gifts and talents and abilities among people throughout the body of Christ.
And when the Bible talks about the body, what is it speaking of?
Well, When Jesus was here, he was in a physical body, sinless son of god, living in a physical body.
The only difference between him and us, no sin.
When he left and ascended to the father, he says now we are the body of Christ, which means that god’s physical body is what the church, the holy spirit living on the inside of us, is working through us, speaking through us, loving through us, serving through us.
That is we are the body of Christ. It has nothing to do with denominations.
The nominations work for not created by god.
The nominations are the result of man’s differences in opinion and differences in ideas and interpretation of the scripture.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it.
I’m just saying when he speaks to the body, He’s not telling me the baptist or episcop pains or Roman Catholics or Lutheran of Pentecostals.
He’s talking about every single person who’s been saved with the grace of god makes up the body of Christ.
And we’re all individual. God has a perfect will for every single one of us, a plan, a purpose, whoever we are, wherever we came from, whatever our skills, our talents, our gifts, god wants us to use them to bring him honor and glory and to profit the body of Christ.
Now what I want you to realize is it’s all the work of the Holy Spirit.
It’s the spirit of god who gives us the gifts.
And he gives them for the common good of everybody, and he gives them for very specific reasons.
So listen, if you’ll notice in this passage, notice how he says this.
Back to the 12th chapter and now in verse 4. Their varieties of gifts are different.
Varieties of ministries. They’re different.
Varieties of effects or how your ministry, how it plays out in the lives of other people. They’re all different.
But if you’ll notice what he says, he says, to each one is given the manifestation of spirit for the common good.
Then look if you will in verse 11, but one in the self same spirit works.
All these things distributing to each one individually, just as he wills, not as I desire.
Because he’s something that knows better than we do exactly what he’s up to, uh, in our lives.
Now there are 3 list of categories of spiritual gifts. I want you to follow these with me.
And let’s go back. Well, let’s start. We’ve already read one here.
Well, let’s just stay in first screens and read the first one here.
Notice in beginning in, uh, verse 7 of 12th, uh, chapter.
He says, but to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.
Then he says, these are the ways the exercise of your gift will express itself.
And the the the, uh, prophet from it all, he thought to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, to another the word of knowledge, according to the same spirit, to another faith with the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the affecting of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues and to another interpretation of tongues.
But one and the same spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually, just as he will. Okay.
Now that’s one section. Go back if you will to Romans chapter 12. Very important section here.
Romans chapter 12, and this is what he says beginning in verse 4 of this 12th chapter of Romans.
He says, 4, just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function.
Now here’s what he’s getting to show us. And he makes give this in detail later.
For example, god gave you eyes for what reason to see, ears to hear, hands to handle, feet to take you where he wants to take you.
And that is so each member of your physical body has its own purpose.
For example, you do not see through your ears. You may have fantastic hearing.
You do not smell through your eyes.
In other words, every single aspect of the body has its own particular reason for being there.
So it is in the body of Christ that is the church needs all 7 of these gifts.
These are motivational gifts. Now I’ll explain that in a moment. So look if you will in verse 6.
Now verse 5, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.
We all relate to each other. Since we have gifts that differ. Now what makes them differ?
According to the grace given to us, that is God in his grace has chosen to give you these gifts.
Then he says, for example, since we have gifts, that different corner of the grace given to us, each of us, is to exercise them according, for example, if prophecy which does not necessarily mean and does not mean foretelling the future here, but proclaiming the truth.
According to the proportion of his faith, If service in his serving are he who teaches in his teaching, he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with the liberality, and he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.
Okay. That’s the second list.
Then I want you to turn over, if you will, to the third list in Ephesians chapter 4.
And look at this for a moment. This is a different kind of list.
Is what he says because his whole book of evasions has to deal with the church and what’s going on.
Listen to what he says now.
And remember what we said about church, I’m not talking about bad news, lutherans, piscopamines, Catholics, and divide as we’re talking about the body of Christ, those who make up the body.
So he says, for example, verse 11. Listen to this list.
Verse 11 of chapter 4, and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets Some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers, for what reason, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.
So These are offices in the church.
The second list I gave you in Roman chapter 12, these are the functions of the members of the fellowship of the church.
And then, of course, in that first list, these listed as the gifts, the manifestations, and the expressions of that, a way these things work out in people’s lives.
So we have 3 lists. Now somebody says, well, now what am I to do with 3 lists?
You don’t have to worry about that. I’m gonna explain that to you.
What I want you to say is this.
There is a difference in the way, for example, For example, you you have a spiritual gift.
You exercise that gift in some ministry, at least you’re supposed to, And as a result of you’re working that out, it’ll have its effect in your life and other people’s lives and the whole body of Christ.
And each one of us has one of those motivational gifts, primarily.
Now Before we get into that, I wanna talk about some some some cautions, some cautions we have to deal with for the simple reason, people exercise their spiritual gifts can get out of fellowship.
And not only that, uh, they can go to extremes And, uh, especially when somebody, uh, particularly, for example, let’s say they want a particular spiritual gift and, they will say, for example, well, here’s the gift I want.
And if they don’t have it, some watch this. Sometimes they counterfeit it.
Or sometimes they will manipulate, say, well, I have this gift. Well, you know, you can manipulate.
You can’t fool everybody all the time. They just can’t fool real disarming spirit very long at all.
Because they’ll know that. Here’s the here’s the cautions we need to check on.
So I want you I wanna give you a list of them so you can remember this, and the first one is this.
And that is the Holy Spirit gives a gift to every believer.
Now watch this, gives a gift to every believer.
Not talking about not talking about how you serve in the ministry, you’re talking about a gift.
One of these service prophecy, giving, uh, teaching administration, so forth. You’re gonna have one of those. Now watch this.
No one person has them all. No one person has them all.
And because god’s not gonna give all the gifts to one person.
And he’s not gonna give any one gift to everybody.
You have a gift that god has chosen to give you because he has something specific in mind for your life.
So we have to be careful that, um, we think, well, I have I have several of these gifts.
Now watch this. I’ll I’ll clarify this more later.
You may have a particular gift and be very good at something else, but what you’re doing is you’re exercising that you’re exercising your gift in that area.
And you remember we mentioned about teaching and serving and so forth.
For example, let’s say that your gift is mercy. But you’re a school teacher.
You say, well, how may well, I’d have the gift to teach him, not necessarily.
At the gift of mercy, here’s what you would here’s how you’d act as a teacher.
You’d be very, very sensitive to students who do not do very well.
You’d be very sensitive to students who come out of a broken home because you could discern that.
You’d be very loving when you see somebody, you know, who’s trying to do their best, and they just failed.
They just they’re just a bad gray. They have a bad day. You’re not gonna jump all of them.
You and a person with a gift of mercy, for example, who is a school teacher is not gonna be one who walks in and says, no, about half of you’re gonna fill this class.
You know, I’ve had a couple of those.
And so, you know, it’s whatever your ministry is, You’re gonna operate out of that gift.
You’re gonna do it well. And the problem is we see people who have a particular gift who Christians, who’ll operate in an area where they don’t have any business operating.
For the simple reason, it’s not their gift. Their ministry demands something. They just don’t have it.
And so what I want you to say is it doesn’t mean that you get locked into one area.
And I just have this one spiritual gift over here, and I can’t function if it’s teaching, I must teach.
If it’s giving, I must be rich if it’s no. It’s not gonna be that way.
So let’s think about these cautions.
Remember, you you will have a spiritual gift And it’s interesting how Peter says this because he mentions it in a little different way.
He says, for example, the 4th chapter of first pet in verse 10, and watch this.
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards in the manifold grace of god.
That is whatever your gift He says employed in listen, in serving one another. We’re talking about serving god.
Whether what no matter what your vocation is or where you go to church or what your church is, You have a spiritual gift at your obligation before god to utilize.
Listen, this is a grace gift.
This is something that god chose to give you out of his love for you.
And therefore, he wants you to exercise that for the benefit of all concern.
And, um, when I when I think about how that works in some people’s lives and and how it doesn’t work in some of the people’s lives, it’s simply because somewhere along the way, they have missed the whole point.
And that is they want something for themselves. Likewise, put it this way.
That is, um, you can’t require another caution. You can’t tell somebody else that you need this gift.
Now I’m gonna get around the tongues and healing in just a moment.
But sometimes a person, uh, who feels like they have that particular gift when that one you ought to have it.
If you’re spiritual, you’d have it.
Of somebody says, for example, but if you had enough faith, you’d you’d be healed.
So you can’t put a manifestation or a gift, for example, on somebody else and say, well, you ought to have thus and so not your business or my business.
It’s god’s business and his business alone to do what, to decide which gift we have.
Some people have more faith than other people have. Some people can just believe god.
I mean, it’s but you see, that is a manifestation of something god is doing in their life, something he wants them to do.
And so it is with with all the gifts.
And if somebody says, well, some gifts just ended back down into the 1st century. That’s not in the Bible.
That’s what some people think, but it’s not descriptive. Does is god still in America working business? Yes.
He is. What we wanna be sure is that we understand what the cautions are.
Then we are not to seek a a particular manifestation of a gift, for example, because we think that we can serve better that way.
And I’m repeating something I said. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to choose which ones we have.
It’s my job to figure out what it is for me.
And then, however, the ministry or however, function I have I’m to operate on that basis.
Likewise, um, having a spiritual gift or any particular spiritual gift doesn’t make you a spiritual amount.
It doesn’t make you a spiritual minded person because you have a particular gift. You can listen.
You get out of fellowship with God.
You can be honored as the devil doing whatever you’re doing because you’re you’re out of fellowship with god.
And so doesn’t doesn’t mean that you’re spiritual because you have a particular gift, and sometimes people, uh, sort of feel that way.
Now let’s talk about healing, for example. Because he says he speaks about the gifts of healing.
Now watch this carefully if you listen and say a man.
There’s no such thing as a faith healer. Now watch this.
A healing is a gift that god gives. For example, you’ve been sick god healed you.
And one of the one of my doctor friends who’s in heaven, they used to have this sign in his office.
He said, uh, uh, he said, god does the healing, the doctor gets the money, and that’s absolutely true.
That’s exactly that’s exactly what happens. God does the healing doctors get the money. Now alright.
Listen. Every healing is a gift from god. Listen. Now watch this carefully.
I don’t question the fact that somebody can preach the gospel and, uh, somebody maybe has tremendous faith Preach the word of god and challenge people to believe god for healing.
Absolutely. Challenge people to believe god for healing, and as a result, of their listening to his challenge or it could be her, listening to their challenge to trust god that god indeed will do what will heal that person But what what’s he doing?
He’s healing them as a gift as a result of what they believe, not because he laid his hand on him and knocked him down.
Has nothing to do with that. There’s no such thing as anybody being someone who can heal you of anything.
They may stimulate your faith they may motivate you to believe god they may encourage you in such a way that you trust god.
Now let me give you an example. Now that was an evangelist.
Came along many, many years ago, And, uh, he would preach the gospel, and I went to hear him and used to live watch him on TV a long, long time ago, and, uh, he’d tell you to put your hand on the on the TV and trust god as or after he finished preaching.
Trust god. Put you on the TV. I want you to trust god to heal you.
Well, I thought that was pretty funny until my aunt listened to him, and my mother had been stretched out, could not get out of out of the bed because of her back for about 3 weeks.
And one Sunday afternoon, my mother just got up. And I said, well, what’s happened?
She said, I’m I’m fine. About 2 hours later, ma’am, Dura called her and said, Becca is what she called, Rebecca.
Becca? How are you doing? She says, well, Dura, I’m I she said, I’m feeling fine.
She says, you know what? I was lying she said, I was lying there listening to him and praying for you.
And she said, I just said, god, I want Becca to be healed, and I’m trusting you.
I’m I’m gonna do this. What he said, I’m trusting you to heal my sister. Was healed? Absolutely.
Did he heal her? Absolutely not. What did he he stimulated my aunt’s faith?
To trust god to do what he said to heal her. I’m sure many other people probably did that.
Nothing happened. I mean, everybody puts something on the on the TV.
If if in other words, if if that was a sure deal, every time I preach, I’d say get your hand on there, right now, because you’re gonna be set free today.
But you know what? That’s not of god.
I’m not saying what he did was not of god.
I’m just saying, I think had god used him to stimulate people’s faith. He was not a healer.
And because every single time it’s used, and he says that again, this in in the same chapter, look at you on the verse 28.
God is appointed the church, apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers.
Miracles, not miracle workers, miracles, then gifts of healing, listen, g I f t s, gifts of healing.
So, certainly, god manifests his power through that. Now let’s set an issue right now.
Why did god give miracles? Here’s why he gave miracles, uh, throughout the scripture. Watch this carefully.
He gave the miracles in order to authenticate his messengers In other words, that this is the way god, for example, Jesus, what motivated Jesus to heal people raised him for dead?
He said, well, he was just so compassionate loving. Well, he was, but that wasn’t the motivation.
That is he performed miracles, not simply out of love, but to authenticate who he was.
He’s the son of god. And what we have to do is risk.
We have to remember when we’re interpreting scripture and looking at things happening in the past, they did not have this book.
They had nothing written. None of it was written. All they had was word-of-mouth, personal testimony.
God used these miraculous things, whether it was tongues, uh, the healings, the miracles, he used these to authenticate the truth of the gospel, the gospel message, and he authenticated the messenger.
That is this is not just another preacher going through.
This isn’t just another itinerant preacher because all kind of folks were coming through who taught idolatry and all the rest.
These miracles were god’s expression, this is my servant. This is true.
And so that’s the reason for them, not because just because Jesus loved everybody, though he did.
And was he compact? Did he heal everybody? No. He did not. You remember what he said?
He said, some places he went, no miracles, and they didn’t believe him.
So when it comes to this whole issue of tongues, I realize it’s a very controversial Not gonna give you a full explanation of speaking in tongues in 5 minutes, but I do wanna say some things very carefully.
Number 1, It’s a manifestation, I call it in the scripture of the spirit, the manifestation of the spirit.
Now the question is And people say, well, what do you believe about tongues?
I’m gonna tell you exactly what I believe.
But I wanna give you an illustration first so, you know, this is not some prejudice baptist talking about it.
Number 1, I grew up in a pentecostal church where people spoke in tongues. Now it’s interesting.
I never heard anybody interpret And, uh, when I first got saved at 12 and people speaking tongues scared me to death, I didn’t have any idea what was happening, but I finally realized up to the explanation So I said, okay.
So not prejudice against people. Then I think about, uh, what I did to find out for myself.
I used to go out in my travel trailer, uh, years ago, and I would get out there by myself.
And and, uh, I think, okay, god, I don’t wanna miss anything.
If you’ve got something for me and I’m gonna serve you, I’m gonna serve you with all my heart.
I want everything you’ve got from. I’m not gonna miss anything.
No matter what it costs me, the issues god Whatever you say, the answer is yes.
So I’d pray, god, if tongues is for me, if that’s a gift today and you want me to have the gift of tongues, I’m available.
Even being a baptist. Now that would have been the end of my Baptist relationships, probably, if I had spoken in tongues.
Because if you remember, some of you will, in the late fifties, but it’s primarily the sixties and the seventies.
There was just big wave of of of a charismatic movement, uh, moving through and and tongues was the of of all the things, it was tongues, tongues, tongues.
Tongs is only one manifestation, but because, listen, the devil knows how to confuse people, frustrate them, and get them divided.
And so it was tongues this and tongues that this lady would come to church every once in a while on Wednesday nights, primarily.
And she’d say, pastor, do you have to get to tongues? She said, no, ma’am.
And so I told her that about several times. I’ve forgotten how many.
She can only ask me that on Wednesday.
And then on Wednesday, she came out and said, now I’m gonna tell you what you do.
Why don’t you tell god to give me what he wants me to have in the way I need it?
Never saw again. Now so let me give you an example.
I I I was not being prejudiced.
So to show you that I’m well, I’m open to truth, but I wanna be discerning.
This lady, uh, came to me and she said, you’ve got to go here so and so.
And he’s down at the Pan American hangers.
You know, Pan American planes, they just roll off and on the water and sail out.
And so it seemed about 5000. So she kept on for a couple of weeks. I said, okay.
I’m going just satisfy you. I didn’t know the lady very well, but I’m I got my curiosity up.
And so I went down and listened to this fellow.
He was in this congregation of almost 5000 people who was singing and praising god, and they, I mean, they know how to create the atmosphere and god’s here and all the other things and praise the lord and so forth.
And here comes this guy with this awesome sense of authority, and he can tell people sort of what they’re thinking.
And And all of a sudden, he walks up to you and says, you’re gonna speak in tongues.
You don’t think that’s the power of psychology, indeed, it is. Some of it is purely psychological.
Which I’m giving you a warning. And that is if somebody says, you must have that.
That’s god’s gift. And if you don’t have it, you’re missing.
Well, the truth is you can’t tell anybody that. Now here’s what I’m telling you.
I’m not being critical to those folks. I wanna be criticized in people who speak in tongues necessary.
You asked me what I believe, here’s what I believe. Some of it is satanic as it can be.
Some of it’s psychological. Then I wouldn’t put god in the box and say, Well, god, he wouldn’t do so and so.
Now I don’t know the reason for that today, If somebody has it, for example, somebody says they have a private prayer language.
Well, the scripture says that all these gifts and manifestations are to be given for the entire body, for the whole body.
Now my if I’m over here with a private prayer language and it’s just guiding me talking, I don’t think that’s gonna profit you at all or anybody else at all.
If somebody says, well, I know that god has given me this private prayer language, and our fellowship and worship with god.
And what they mean by that is it bypasses their mind and their tongue, uh, expresses these syllables of some sort God’s praised, and and, um, that’s it.
Well, personally, I’m just telling you personally, I don’t know how that helps me if god’s gonna do something through me, I don’t have an idea what’s going on.
In other words, if somebody says they have that, uh, you know what? I’m the lord bless you.
I’m not gonna say what you have and you don’t have.
I’m just as as saying, what does the word of god say?
I believe personally that god is much more much more blessed when I choose to get on my face before him.
I choose to talk to him. I choose to confess my sin. I choose to praise him.
I choose to glorify choose to honor him, and he sees it coming out of my heart of his sincerity and pure devotion and love and humility before him.
And a private prayer language. I don’t know how that fits into being a servant of god and all of us are.
And at the same time, that all the gifts are expressed to bring glory and honor to god because here’s what I’ve seen, not not being critical.
That a lot of people who have this particular gift think you ought to have it.
Now it’s why don’t you have it?
And and you see, uh, there was a time when the attitude of so many people was if you don’t have it, you ought to.
And if you were living right for god, you would have it.
And that’s why I gave the illustrations of me personally. I gave you one more.
I heard about all this stuff going on. I thought, well, lord, I’m available. Whatever you’ve got.
I did not necessarily consecutive order.
But so I went to this meeting as an in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the time, and, uh, it was all about, uh, spiritual gifts.
Well, you know, what? I didn’t realize they were gonna emphasize tongues of everything else.
And so they talked to him, for example, for and I went to the back to get to the 3rd session in that afternoon, And they said, now, uh, we want all of you who are really interested to to come forward and sit in these first couple rows.
So I thought, well, I’m interested. So I went and sat down.
The gentleman gets up, he says, now I wanna teach you how to speak in tongues.
He was as sincere as he could be. And he went through some syllables.
And so I’m just sitting there watching and listening and watching what’s happening and people saying, oh, all kind of things.
I didn’t say it while I sat through the whole thing.
Finally went up to him, and I said, sir, said, you know what? I I want I’m not being critical.
I promise you I’m not. I just don’t get it.
When I read the word of god, and it says, it’s the gift of the spirit, not somebody instructing me to fabricate, to manipulate, to come up with something that I can have enough syllables.
And I said, you know, I could probably sit here and say enough that sound pretty good to somebody who speaks in tongues, but it would it’d be absolutely meaningless.
I’ve learned I and I knew that that that’s not what god says.
And the only reason I’m saying that use this, you can believe what you choose to believe, but be sure you run it right through this book If it’s not in this book, don’t believe because I don’t there’s no doubt that Paul spoke in tongues, for example.
What was going on in those days? God authenticating the truth of the gospel through his servants.
Now we have the written word of god.
If somebody says, well, now for example, I read this article, this man had had given this awesome prophecy of things to come.
It’s pretty long. And so I thought I’m gonna read this because I knew him and knew something in his past.
So I sat down. I read the whole thing. I thought, oh, wait a minute, man.
These props of things are gonna come. I read the, uh, 24th chapter of Matthew went back in Revelation.
I thought, you know what? He at this prophecy he got is exactly what god says.
Why is god gonna tell one person something, and he can get in later and they’ll puff up about giving me a prophecy.
Everybody ought to read this when it’s written in the book of god, and that is it’s in Revelation and Matthew.
I don’t need some later revelation because it’s all here. What I’m saying to you is this.
You what’s your pride? There are a lot of people who want to be able to say, well, you know, I have this gift and that gift.
You know what? You’re gonna get on your knees thank god, first of all, that he saved you.
You have nothing to boast of.
And secondly, what Ever gift god gives you wasn’t given to you for you in the first place.
It’s given to you for the whole body. To serve listen, as he says, to to serve the living god.
And and that is to be what god wants us to be to the maximum of our potential, whatever that might be, And so, uh, he says, for example, god is not a god of confusion, but of peace as in all the churches of the saints.
Listen, given to us for the good of the whole body, not confusion.
So if somebody tells me they have that gift, okay.
But if you have that gift, be sure you read the scripture and that you practice that gift, whatever it is, whatever manifestation are caught in the word of god.
Now, uh, and teaching this years ago, here’s what I did. I I knew it it was so much confusion going on those days.
You can’t believe it had to split churches everywhere. So I got 4 international students.
And I said, look, here’s what I want you to do.
I’m gonna get to this particular passage, Sunday night, and I had a big crowd of people real interested.
And, I said, uh, he told me one one of them came from Africa, when I’m from Indonesia, somewhere, I forgot where the other 2 are from.
I said, now, well, one of you deserve here, one here, one hand, one over here.
I said, now when I get to this certain point, I want you to stand up and quote John 316 in your native tongue.
Well, I was preaching along, and his boy stepped up over here, and he stood up.
He started saying it in some language, whatever it was, that one was, and 2 deacons went flying over there just to to find out what and where was going on.
But before they could settle, another guy stepped up over here, another one over here, another one over here, so we it was absolute total confusion.
But to me, it got my point across.
And that is if somebody steps up and start speaking out of turn and nobody that I interpret. I certainly couldn’t interpret.
They were saying I knew what they were saying.
I could have said, well, I know what this brother is saying.
For god so loved the world that he give, but I you know what? I fixed that to begin with.
I could have memorized 4 verse of scriptures I’m on Turpin for this fellow over here. You know what?
When somebody stands up in a church and speaks in tongues and somebody gets up and interprets, who can challenge it?
Who can challenge you?
In other words, you don’t know whether it’s true or not, I’m just simply saying you have to run everything through the word of god.
Now with those cautions, um, let me get to one thing here.
I want you to go back to Romans chapter 12 for a moment.
And I want you to look at these verses, and I wanna give you illustration, uh, that will help.
When he says, for example, in the 12th chapter, Now listen carefully.
Different people interpret these lists of gift in different ways.
And this is certainly not original with me to say that I came up with this because I didn’t But I’ve studied it long enough over a number of many many years, for example, watching how this works.
I’ve watched them the staff, I’ve watched it among my friends.
I’ve watched it in different aspects of the church, and I’ve seen it for years years years.
That’s why I believe this is true.
Because if you’ll notice in this 12th chapter of Romans, he speaks of these different, uh, gifts and I call them and other people call them motivational gifts.
That is and and if and when you watch this, you’re gonna you’re gonna understand what I’m saying.
There is one of these That’s the ultimate driving motivation in your life of what you do.
And once you are able to identify, you know, what you’re gonna do? You say, yeah.
That is the way I respond. That’s true. Well, it’s been true all along.
And so now whatever area of service god may put you in well, let’s say, for example, one of our musicians over here, let’s say that this young lady is very talented, and she is in playing the violin?
Well, you say, well, is is violin playing a gift from god?
It’s a talent, and she certainly must be exercising that out of her spiritual gift.
Do you know what your spiritual gift is? Mercy. Okay. This is a good example.
His mercy Now you’d say, well, mercy ought to be a nurse, not necessarily mercy.
She’s exercising her spiritual gift, but doing what? Playing these awesome, melodious sounds and these triumphant sounds.
What does she do? She’s expressing her gift through playing a violin.
Now so you can have a gift in the many different ways you can express it.
Now I wanna give you an example So it’ll better clarify what we mean by motivational gifts, and then we’ll deal with each one of these in the next message.
And let’s say, for example, that at your house, you’re having a birthday party. There are eight people there.
And, uh, it’s a surprise, surprise birthday party.
And so, And this surprise birthday party, you want to do something very special for this person.
So, uh, what you’ve done is you’ve done your best to to baked them this all this awesome cake.
I mean, it’s big. It’s got all the all the candles on it.
And, uh, you’ve sort of finished, uh, Dental now, and now this comes to the time of surprise.
So you start singing happy birthday to you. And then here comes the cake.
And so, um, I don’t know who necessarily is is is bringing this cake. That’s not important.
The important thing is that, um, uh, here comes the cake, and you’re all excited and what’s gonna happen.
And all of a sudden, bringing it out on this beautiful, uh, cake plate stumbles and falls right before they get to the table and smashes the plate cake everywhere.
Candles burning over here and just a big mess.
Now I wanna take these seven people who are left around that table and show you how each gift will respond.
And you’re gonna see yourself. Now you watch this. You’re gonna see yourself. So get ready.
Remember what we said now, that you’re gonna respond according to your underlying motivational gift.
Profice is gonna say it shouldn’t be it’s a little bit, uh, clumsy there, aren’t you?
In other words, they want to correct something.
Then the gift of mercy, for example, oh my goodness. I’m so sorry.
I just, oh, it just hurts me that that happened. And so they’re motivated to eliminate embarrassment.
The person who’s merciful wants to help in in in a way they can.
Then there, for example, is a gift of administration. Here’s what the gift administration would do. Okay. Alright.
So you go you go get the broom, you get them up, you you pick up the pieces, watch the glass, move move the chairs back, and let’s get it.
Let’s clean this mess up right now. They’re gonna be in charge.
Administration is gonna be in charge, ruling, administration, whichever word you wanna call it.
Then, for example, This is a gift of service. Gift of service. That’s okay. Listen.
You just let me do it. I’ll I’ll I’ll take care of this. Don’t worry about it.
I’m gonna get it all up. Because they wanna meet a need. There’s a need there.
And so the gift of service is gonna operate in that fashion. Then there’s a gift of giving.
The gift of giving says, oh, you know, what? I’ll I’ll buy another cake. Play. Don’t worry about that.
Just just let it go. Don’t don’t let that bite at all.
We can take care of that because they want to meet, uh, particular financial need.
And then, for example, there’s a gift of teaching, and here’s what teaching would say.
The reason you dropped the plate That’s exactly right.
The reason you dropped the plate.
And then exhortation would say, well, next time, maybe you shouldn’t bring it in here holding it by the stem, but you should bring it in holding like this.
So you’d have a good grip on it. Now what did each person do? They responded out of their motivation.
The gift of mercy would never have said, your little clumsy. Never say that.
The gift of service wouldn’t just sit there and watch somebody do something.
They’re gonna be up and you’re at it.
The gift administration would die if he had to just sit there and say nothing because that’s our motivation.
Now how many of you saw yourself around that table? Come on. Put them up. Put them up.
Wait a little bit. Let me see. Uh-huh. But we’re gonna have fun in the next two messages. Believe me.
Because that’s the way god made us. He gave us a gift. So what happens?
Can you imagine what would have happened if everybody around that table had to get the administration?
They’d be fighting each other.
Or if everybody had to give to mercy, nobody cleaned up and just be oh, I’m so sorry.
Oh, If everybody had the gift of the given, they basically, who could give the most and who could give it first to to buy.
And so what happens? We all respond according to our gift.
And the better you understand that, Here’s what’s gonna happen.
Several things because there’s some consequence. There’s some results.
Number 1, when you understand your spiritual gift, you are going listen.
You’re gonna be confident about what you do in serving god. Do you serving out of your gift?
You’re gonna be confident. Second thing is, listen, you’re gonna be more committed because now that you feel confident you’re doing what god wants you to do, here’s what’s gonna happen.
You’re gonna be more committed to doing it.
You’re gonna have a joy in your heart about serving god you have not had before.
You’re gonna begin to understand other people and there are ways that you had not understood before.
You gotta understand why people act the way they act. And I may I mean, think about this.
People getting married have 2 different gifts.
One of them has the gift of administration, other has the gift of it mercy.
Well, he’s always telling me what to do.
And no matter what, he’s just telling me what to do, Or if you have 2 mercers, they don’t ever get anything done.
Not necessarily. What I want you to see is this. We all respond accordingly.
And, uh, every believer has a gift.
And when we get it right, and the body of believers get it right, that’s what makes a church function, absolutely in a most awesome fashion.
I’ll give you one last example.
We had a staff member, uh, some years ago, he’s still with us, in fact, And, uh, I put him in this particular place because that’s what he wanted to do.
And I thought, okay. Well, after about 6 months, I thought this is not working.
And so I told him I said, you know, this is not working.
I know you wanna do that, but I I don’t believe that’s your spiritual gift because it it’s just not working.
I said, look, here’s what I want you to do. Well, he got upset. So I didn’t say anything.
I just watched what happened. In about 3 months, he handed me. He said, I just wanna thank you.
I am happy than I’ve ever been. I’m doing what god wants me to do.
I’m so excited about what I’m doing. He’s still here.
He moved from administration to exercising a gift that he had, which was mercy, and he’s fantastic at what he does.
When you’re doing what god wants you to do and you’re exercising your spiritual gift, not just working out of some talent you have.
You know what happens? Everything around you changes, and your service for god is the most effective.
And it’s my goal to help you understand what you get. This don’t dare miss the next message.
But as we talk about how you respond to others, how you act when you’re in the spirit, how you act when you’re in the flesh.
Why other people misunderstand you? It’ll be helpful in every area of your life.
And that’s my prayer to build you up, help you to understand according to god’s word, not what you see, but according to god’s word, How can you be the best servant of god you possibly can?
And, father, how grateful we are that you help us through these times and How I do pray that the spirit of the living god, who’s granted every believer a gift, that people will understand this grasp it, utilize it, put it to work, and watch it operate in every aspect of their life is my prayer in Jesus’ name.
Amen.