Sermon: “A Year of Growth: Gifts 4 Growth”
January 20th, 2019 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, Psalm 36:5-10
The gift-giving season is over (unless you happen to have a birthday at the start of the year – just a few in our church family). Or is it? Our Psalm for today, used in the Call to Worship, speaks about God’s amazing generosity and care, the abundance of God’s provision, the delights of everything that flows from God. The psalmist pictures it like a river and a fountain – both things that continuously flow out, continuously give. Even in a dry season, when the water in a river may not be visibly flowing, if you dig down the water will be there flowing beneath the river bed. God’s gift-giving season is every season, every season of our lives!
Gifts 4 Growth
Today as we continue to think about what we need to make this year a year of growth – personal growth and growth as a church – we now consider the “Gifts 4 Growth” that God’s Holy Spirit gives us. To learn more about this we are turning to Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. The passage we read earlier is from chapter 12, but I’d like to go back to the beginning of this letter for a moment. Before Paul moves into writing to the church about the various areas they need to work on, the areas where they need growth in their understanding and in their practices, he begins by giving thanks for what they do have. That’s an important place to start, because if you are going to work on something you need to know what you have to work with.
Paul starts, 1:4, “I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace given you in Christ Jesus.” They have been given GRACE, when they entered into life in Jesus. Grace is about being given something which we don’t deserve or haven’t earned. He continues, 1:5, “For in Christ you all have been enriched in every way (every way!) – with all kinds of communication and with all knowledge – God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.” These are plural ‘you’s, Paul is talking to the church as a whole. By looking at this community of believers, everything Paul has taught them about Jesus is proving true. 1:7, “The result is that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.” They do not lack any resource needed for their growth! The church is as well-equipped as necessary for everything it needs to do! The fact is that the church in Corinth was so well-equipped that it was becoming a problem – there was some competitiveness and rivalry about all these gifts. We’ll look at that a bit more next week. For now, I’d like to stay focused on these gifts, what our English translations refer to as spiritual gifts.
Spiritual Gifts = Grace-Gifts
The Greek word Paul uses is charismata. You might recognize that word, for we have used it to make the words ‘charismatic’ and ‘charisma’. The word in Greek means ‘gift’, but it is a compound word (two words put together; like sunlight or newborn). The first part of the word charismata, is charis; charis means grace. Paul is talking about grace-gifts, gifts not earned or deserved but given by grace and for grace. Paul is reminding the church that these grace-gifts have been given to them in Jesus Christ. An abundance of grace-gifts, all the grace-gifts they need, enriching them in every way, acting as signs of God present in their midst. In ch.12, Paul calls these signs of God’s presence the manifestations of the Spirit.
So let’s return to chapter 12, where Paul begins to discuss these grace-gifts in more detail. He says, “Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I don’t want you to be uninformed…” These are folks who are new to the church, new to faith in Jesus and even to faith in God Almighty. While some of us are new to faith, too, others have been Christians for some time, yet none of us want to be uninformed! The first thing that must be known about these grace-gifts that come from God’s Spirit is that they create faith. They create the ability for us to know that Jesus is Lord and to proclaim it. That’s what verse 3 is about. Faith in Jesus Christ is the first sign of God’s Spirit at work within you. The desire and ability to share our faith is given as a grace-gift from God.
Then in verses 4, 5, and 6, Paul makes three parallel statements. Three times Paul begins with “There are different kinds of…” and three times he says, “but the same…” When he starts with “There are different kinds,” it’s not just a statement of fact that many kinds of spiritual gifts exist. Paul uses words in Greek that mean different distributions, allotments. He is emphasizing the variety, as well as the fact that they are given out. Grace-gifts, spiritual gifts are not just innate within us to be discovered or uncovered, grace-gifts are distributed. Three times Paul says that they all come from the same source. Yet he names that source, slightly differently in each verse – verse 4: “but the same Spirit distributes them”; verse 5, “but the same Lord” (‘Lord’ refers to Jesus, remember he has just said, “Jesus is Lord”); verse 6, “but the same God is at work.” Paul is emphasizing that the three, the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus, and God are the same, the one Single Source.
The other variation in the three verses is the progression of things there are different kinds of: different kinds of grace-gifts, different kinds of service/ministries, different kinds of working (different ways God works). This progression lifts up different aspects of spiritual gifts. The first is about the variety of spiritual gifts. Next, is about the variety of purposes God has for these gifts; they can be used for different kinds of ministries, to serve a variety of purposes. And finally, there is a variety of ways in which God makes them work, ways God activates the grace-gifts to accomplish God’s purpose for them.
As I look at these three verses, I see them leading us to ask three questions of ourselves and of God:
1. What are my grace-gifts?
#1, what are my grace-gifts? What are your grace-gifts? In verses 8-10, Paul names nine different gifts, the Message version on the back of the bulletin lists them: wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits (discernment), tongues (unknown languages), and interpretation of tongues (those languages). In other places in the Bible other grace-gifts are mentioned, such as hospitality, evangelism (introducing people to Jesus), generosity in giving, skills in music or artistry, teaching, prayer.
Some of these abilities may be related to an inborn ability that you have, like being a logical thinker, or being outgoing or extraverted, or being artistic. But grace-gifts, spiritual gifts, are not exactly the same as your talents. For instance, with musical abilities, a person may be musically talented but not use that talent for God’s purposes. The story I shared a few weeks ago about C. Austin Miles who wrote the hymn “In the Garden” is an example. Miles had musical talent, just as he had a talent for understanding chemistry to be a pharmacist and an artistic talent for photography, but in a time of prayer the Holy Spirit gave him a grace-gift of using his musical talent to hear and create words and tunes and write them down so they could be used by many people to worship God. He used that spiritual gift to publish hymns for 37 years.
You may already be aware of the spiritual gifts that God has given you. You may be using those gifts in this church to offer music, to lead prayers, to fix broken doors and lights, to cook food that will nourish us at the potluck, to take pictures, or type the bulletin, or clean the floors, or teach, or any number of things that need doing. You may be using those gifts in the community to give food to someone or encouragement, to speak up for someone or tell someone about how great it is to know Jesus.
There are assessment tools/quizzes that can help you identify what your spiritual gifts are. I took one this week when I discovered a link to an online assessment available on the United Methodist discipleship website. I posted a link to that assessment on our church facebook page and invited people to take the quiz and then share what their primary gifts are. Check it out! Or, if you don’t have access to a computer or smart phone to take the assessment, or an email address to receive the results, let me know and we will help you get it done in the church office this week. I’ll be here 8:30 to 12:30, Monday through Thursday – stop by, use our computers, I will help. It is important to identify your spiritual gifts so you can be alert for ways to exercise those gifts and develop/practice those abilities.
2. What ministry purpose is my grace-gift intended for?
Once you become aware of your spiritual gifts, the second question is what ministry purpose is my grace-gift intended for? Paul wrote there are different kinds of service, various ministries, but the same Lord. Spiritual gifts are not given to you by God just for your own enjoyment inside the privacy of your own home. Of course a gift like musical ability or the ability to knit or sew or fix things, might give you personal joy. But then you are to take that joy and that ability, and use it to bless others – to share a message with your song, to keep someone warm with your blanket, to keep someone safe with a repaired car.
Paul explains in verse 7, saying, “Now to each one (No one can say they have no spiritual gifts!) … to each one the manifestations of the Spirit are given for the common good.” These gifts are given for the good of all – for the good of your family, the good of your church family, the good of your community, the good of the world. I like how Eugene Peterson words it in the Message: “Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.” It is important, therefore, to ask ourselves, to ask God – for what purpose am I to be using this grace-gift?
3. What work is God doing that requires my grace-gift? How is God working to develop my gift?
The question that comes out of the third statement, “There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work”, can be asked in a couple different ways. You can ask, how is God working in me to develop my gifts? Or you can ask, what work is God doing that requires my grace-gift?
God works in various ways to bring out our gifts, to bring them to light, and to strengthen and grow that gift within us. So look around, pay attention to the signals God is giving you – perhaps it is an invitation to do something, a request to help with something. Perhaps you have become more aware of a particular need, something that needs to be done and maybe you are thinking “Somebody ought to do something about that!” Often when something that needs to be done comes to your attention, it is because God is inviting YOU to take it up. Perhaps God is allowing your heart to be broken by something that is breaking God’s heart. You are thinking, “This is terrible, this thing that is happening in the world or in this community, it makes me so sad, or so mad.” That is one of the ways God works to invite you (or invite us as a church) to join God in the work God is doing.
Partnership with Jesus
I hope that in this coming week, each of you will take some time to consider your spiritual gifts and the purpose, the work God wants to do with you and through you. If so, it might raise some questions that you would like to discuss with me or with others in the church. Therefore, next Sunday, 27th, I’ll plan to stay after church – there is no coffee hour or potluck, but I will gather in the Parlor for half an hour with those who would like to talk more about their spiritual gifts and how they might fit in to some kind of ministry.
Hear this: God has equipped this church in every way. We do not lack any spiritual gift necessary to make this a year of growth. God is pouring out gifts like a fountain, like a river of delights. Let us not miss out on any grace-gift left undiscovered or unused or unappreciated. God has a purpose for each gift and each one of us!
In 1:9, Paul says, “God is faithful, He will do this; for God has invited you into partnership with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Partnership with Jesus! What a grace-gift! Hallelujah!
Closing Song: “Spirit of the Living God” # 297
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