Jan 11
8:36 AM
Spiritual Gifts | Part 1 | What Are Spiritual Gifts?
Jan 11
8:36 AM
Jan 11
8:36 AM
Monday, January 11, 2021
1 Corinthians 12:1
Hey everybody, Pastor Vince here. Thanks for joining me for another week of Life Lifters. This week, I want to talk about a lighthearted, fun, interesting subject. I want to talk to you about spiritual gifts. Throughout the week I want to spend each day answering one of the five biggest questions that people ask about spiritual gifts. Whether it's in church or outside of church, people say, "I've heard about these things called spiritual gifts, and I don't really know what they are." So, I want to talk to you about these five different questions and answer them biblically to help you understand spiritual gifts. Today, I will start with the first question: What are they? What are spiritual gifts?
In 1 Corinthians 12:1 Paul says, "Now about spiritual gifts, I do not want you to be ignorant." And I have to tell you, most Christians are absolutely clueless about spiritual gifts. They don't know what they are. They don't know how they work. They don't know which ones they have. Here at Lakeshore Community Church, we have a whole class called Discover Your Purpose. You take this class after you take Discover Lakeshore, which is the first class to understand the vision and values of Lakeshore. In Discover Your Purpose, we will help you find your spiritual gifts. But when Paul says, "I don't want you to be ignorant," I wish Paul would say that again to a lot of Christians today, because many are very ignorant. People don't know about spiritual gifts.
I want to start right at the top. What is a spiritual gift? I would define a spiritual gift as a supernatural ability to accomplish specific tasks in the world. So let's break that down. First, let's talk about supernatural ability. Don't confuse spiritual gifts with natural gifts. A natural gift would be like if you're a natural extrovert, or are naturally organized. Those are things that you have from birth. But a supernatural gift is, if I could put it this way, it's when God puts his super on your natural. And what I mean by that is that God can sometimes take what you're already good at and put supernatural ability on top. And sometimes he gives you a supernatural gift that has nothing to do with what you're good at naturally. It's a mystery. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it doesn't. But here's the point. It's a supernatural ability. God gives you a unique supernatural ability to do specific tasks.
Now, unless you're the Apostle Paul, you don't have all the spiritual gifts, you only have some gifts. There are several different gifts throughout the Bible, and not everybody has all the gifts. There are teaching gifts, administration gifts, the gift of helps, the gift of the Spirit, gifts of wisdom and knowledge, etc. If you want to study the Bible on the spiritual gifts, you could find those gifts listed in four places. The way I remember how to find them is this: twelve, twelve, four, four. You can find the four spiritual gift lists in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. Twelve, twelve, four, four. If you look at those, you'll find all the different spiritual gifts, and some of them are yours. How many gifts do Christians have? The Bible never says. My sense in talking to people is that someone typically has two to three spiritual gifts. These are specific tasks that God will equip you with. But here's the question: Now that you know what a spiritual gift is, will you use it? It's important to know that God does not give you gifts just to fascinate you. He gives you gifts to use them. Those supernatural abilities help you do specific tasks that you are uniquely equipped to do. I hope you'll use your spiritual gifts. We're going to talk about how you can do that throughout the rest of the series, but I hope this helps whet your appetite for the week.
Father, thank you so much for the unique thing you do for us when we follow you, and that's you give us spiritual gifts. Thank you that you know us. You know the gifts you've given us, and we appreciate them. We thank you for the unique ones you've entrusted to us. Help us to use them wisely and effectively, and help us to not be ignorant about what spiritual gifts are any longer. Please use this week to accomplish that in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, if spiritual gifts are an intriguing topic to you, I hope to see you tomorrow.