back to index2015-10-22 Study of 1 Corinthians Part 2 Week 12
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I choose Shane Levites. Can you read verses 1 through 11 for us? 00:01:26.880 |
So, in thinking about moving into this next big section, 00:01:31.360 |
there are a lot of questions pertaining to spiritual gifts, you know, and I wrote down some questions and it's really interesting to think about. 00:01:39.800 |
And as you guys know in the Christian community, there is a lively debate, people standing on two opposite ends of the camp 00:01:45.880 |
talking about our, you know, spiritual gifts, stuff that we practice today. 00:01:49.920 |
Do I have a spiritual gift? And there was a season of the Christian Church where everybody was into, let's do a spiritual gift diagnostic. 00:01:56.920 |
What's your spiritual gift? And you go down the list answering all these questions and you find out your spiritual gift and then you go 00:02:02.240 |
apply for the worship team or something, you know. So, 00:02:05.760 |
there's a lot of confusion I would say in our day and age and there's a lot of questions to be answered. 00:02:10.000 |
Today, obviously, we're only going to be tackling a portion of the text, meaning we're tackling 11 verses, 00:02:18.080 |
but remember this section goes all the way to the end of chapter 14, okay? 00:02:22.440 |
And one of the things that's really emphatic about the verses that, you know, our brother Shane read 00:02:27.440 |
is simply the fact that, if you want to summarize this study, God gives gifts. 00:02:36.480 |
God is giving gifts to his children, his church, and there's a sense to which all of us then 00:02:44.160 |
should have a sense of the fact that we are endowed, we are thoroughly blessed, and we also then have, 00:02:54.640 |
We have an expectation on our lives to practice those gifts, to exercise those gifts, to use it for the church and whatnot. 00:03:03.440 |
So, the fact of the matter is the passage is really talking about God is giving you gifts. 00:03:08.560 |
God has given the church gifts, and that's a good way to summarize it. 00:03:15.040 |
Apostle Paul starts to delineate the nature, the source, 00:03:19.040 |
the purpose, and the various aspects of the gifts that we have in the church. 00:03:23.520 |
So, this is the stuff that we're going to be studying today, okay? 00:03:26.760 |
And looking at verse 1 and 2, it says, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, 00:03:30.880 |
I don't want you to be unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, 00:03:37.560 |
however you were laid." Okay? And I sectioned that off because, 00:03:44.960 |
you notice that in verse 3 it begins with, "Therefore," so you know that there's a transition in thought. 00:03:50.840 |
So, I wanted to stop at verses 1 through 2 and just take a look at what he's saying. 00:03:58.640 |
the very first, I guess, part of it, he starts talking about, "Hey, I don't want you to be unaware about spiritual gifts, 00:04:05.160 |
so here I'm going to teach you." But in opening up, he says, "Remember when y'all were pagans?" 00:04:13.720 |
It's kind of like if I were to say, "Remember when you were flat-out simple? You know, remember before Christ, B.C., your life, B.C., 00:04:21.680 |
how wretched you were?" And he's having them think back, and it's kind of like, "Whoa, dude. 00:04:28.400 |
My question to you is, what do you think is the point of him doing this and asking them to recall their previous life?" 00:04:35.800 |
To the church that he has been calling brethren all this time, to the church that he's thankful, he's, you know, convinced that they're saved, 00:04:42.440 |
why have them think back to their pagan days? 00:05:02.760 |
You guys get what I'm asking, right? I know it's like, I'm asking you to dig into what Apostle Paul is trying to aim at. 00:05:12.920 |
You look at his statement in verse 2, and he's like, "You know, when you were pagans," and then he described them, right? 00:05:18.720 |
So why would he bring that up? What, I guess, a simple, easier question. Oh, go ahead. 00:05:23.960 |
[Audience member] If they were led astray by idols, then they were led astray by, essentially, the passions of their own lusts. So what was fueling them was, like, their own idolatry, their own desire for the end. 00:05:41.960 |
So he's gonna make a distinction between, like, a God-given gift, which fuels them, and the fuel that they would derive or have when they're pursuing their idol. 00:05:58.960 |
So he said it in a good way, like, there's two different spirits about doing something. One is you're fueled by your flesh and, like, selfish desires. 00:06:06.960 |
The other is more godly, and you're fueled by the motivation of, basically, God and His Spirit, right? 00:06:12.960 |
So Apostle Paul is definitely gonna attack that. And throughout the entire book of 1 Corinthians, he's been attacking that, you know? 00:06:21.960 |
It's like, you're acting fleshly when you compete with each other. You're acting fleshly when, you know, they were saying, like, "I'm of this leader and that leader," and they're acting fleshly in trying to sue each other and all that kind of stuff. 00:06:33.960 |
And then even with spiritual gifts, Apostle Paul is definitely getting at them. It's like, what is fueling your exercise of gifts? Is it your flesh? Is it the Spirit? 00:06:46.960 |
So that's definitely there. The other thing I find that is very interesting is in thinking about their pagan life, yeah, they were really swayed by any and everything. 00:06:59.960 |
So he says, "You were led astray by mute idols." And some of your translations will say, "Dumb idols," okay? 00:07:07.960 |
And then he'll say, "However you were led." So you were just really like what the Bible talks about as, you know, that shifting shaft or whatever, all the stuff that just blows in the air. 00:07:18.960 |
Wherever the wind blows, you just go. So he's sitting here first addressing this issue, and you think about the current circumstance a little bit, and you wonder what was happening in their church related to spiritual gifts that Apostle Paul would now embark on this discourse or embark on this teaching segment of, "Hey, I want you to be aware of what's going on with spiritual gifts," you know, concerning spiritual gifts. 00:07:47.960 |
Well, I think there was a lot of that. I think there was a lot of this like fleshly, a lot of this like self-ambition. 00:07:56.960 |
They were always trying to—I feel like there were a lot of people who were always trying to use the church experience to elevate themselves, right? 00:08:05.960 |
But there's another thing I feel like was happening is he emphasized the fact in thinking about their pagan life that just as the idol is mute—literally in the Greek it means it has no voice—like it's dumb, as in there's no direction to it. 00:08:24.960 |
There's no content to it. There's no reality to it. And you were led astray by that. 00:08:30.960 |
So you had no idea where you were going. Put it in another way, to you anything was God, even the mute, right? 00:08:40.960 |
And very often when you have that kind of swaying heart and that kind of swaying mind, you yourself can very well become the most ring kind of idolatry, which is the idolatry of self, right? 00:08:53.960 |
And the reason why I talk about that is because I think in that day and age, it's helpful to think about the culture and the time. 00:09:04.960 |
You know, there was a culture where, remember, the practice of religion was commonplace. 00:09:10.960 |
The practice of pagan religion was all over. It was just rampant. Everybody practiced some kind of religion, you know? 00:09:16.960 |
And when you think about the stuff that they did, it actually mimicked or had resemblance to a lot of the Christian stuff. 00:09:26.960 |
What do I mean by that? You know, when you think about today's like worship experience and all that kind of stuff, there's a sense in which you can sometimes just simply remove Christ's name from the picture and other religions will practice the same thing. 00:09:43.960 |
You know, if you have passionate singing, do you think other religions don't have passionate singing? 00:09:48.960 |
You know, if you have like kind of a spiritual ecstasy, like an experience of the transcendent, you know that pagan religions have that too. 00:09:58.960 |
They would like, obviously they would like induce it. They would put stimulus or they would have something where they're trying to induce that kind of experience. 00:10:05.960 |
I mean, think of Buddhism and trying to get to that state of nirvana or even related to that. 00:10:11.960 |
You know, for us as Christians, we want to sacrifice and we want to let go of the world. 00:10:15.960 |
And, you know, other religions practice the, I forget how to pronounce this, A-C-S-E-T. There you go. Thank you. 00:10:29.960 |
They practice that too, depriving yourself, you know. 00:10:33.960 |
And the reason why I bring this up is because I think you had a mixture of a lot of stuff in the Corinthian church. 00:10:42.960 |
You had those people who were fleshly motivated, making the church experience really driven by whatever they wanted in their heart. 00:10:51.960 |
And then you had a lot of people who continued to like not separate themselves from the worldliness that was around them. 00:11:00.960 |
You know, and the practice of very pagan worship. 00:11:04.960 |
And the Apostle Paul says, "Remember when you were pagan and you guys made like anything of God? 00:11:10.960 |
And you guys were led astray by the thing that could not talk? 00:11:17.960 |
You know, there was confusion in the worship experience. 00:11:21.960 |
There was lots of confusion in the worship experience. 00:11:24.960 |
Question, is there confusion today in the worship experience? 00:11:30.960 |
I think about my overly fanatical and very superstitious like Korean heritage. 00:11:35.960 |
And I remember when I went to Chicago to meet up with one of my relatives. 00:11:41.960 |
And she was in Chicago and she was a wife of a pastor. 00:11:45.960 |
I came from a very charismatic background and she was a very lovely lady. 00:11:49.960 |
And I'm not mean to like put her down or anything, but she would always connect everything to God. 00:11:55.960 |
You know, it's like, "You know, before you came I had a dream and God was telling me." 00:12:00.960 |
And all of a sudden already it's like, "Oh man, she got to bring in God's name to her dream." 00:12:05.960 |
Or she would say like, "Oh my friend at church, she was telling me all this stuff and then that was God telling me." 00:12:10.960 |
Or like everything, like anything and everything. 00:12:14.960 |
And it was just like, "And that was God and this was God." 00:12:22.960 |
You can't just make everything, every experience like this. 00:12:25.960 |
So more practically what we do more so maybe in the non-charismatic. 00:12:30.960 |
Charismatic as in like, you know, God, supernatural miracles and the worship church experience and all that kind of stuff. 00:12:37.960 |
But you know, when people so easily interpret, they had a scenario where things went sour and things went really bad. 00:12:54.960 |
And God is just attached spiritually to everything and anything that happens. 00:12:58.960 |
Now, I believe absolutely every good and perfect gift comes from the God above who has no shifting shadows. 00:13:05.960 |
Everything we have comes from His gracious hand. 00:13:08.960 |
So accrediting God with all that is good is okay, you know. 00:13:12.960 |
But there is, there is, again perhaps maybe it's more so my personal experience. 00:13:18.960 |
But there is this like bent on connecting everything and anything to God. 00:13:23.960 |
But I don't think we can so easily do that because that creates what? 00:13:31.960 |
And so for me, as I think about, hmm, what could have been the scenario, I really do feel like, yes, there was a lot of confusion. 00:13:40.960 |
There was confusion by the false motive of man. 00:13:43.960 |
There was also confusion by this kind of pagan influence of religious experience. 00:13:52.960 |
The kind of mystical experience that happened for them in their pagan lives, they were wanting to see it in the church. 00:13:59.960 |
And the fact of the matter is, do some churches in our current day try to offer mystical experiences as their church worship? 00:14:13.960 |
And Apostle Paul says, "I don't want you to be like that, unaware." 00:14:18.960 |
So I guess immature minded, you can't discern what is from God and what is not from God. 00:14:25.960 |
So to me, that is how he's introducing the topic here. 00:14:29.960 |
That is how he's introducing the topic, okay? 00:14:32.960 |
So I left a blank there for you guys to summarize all that. 00:14:39.960 |
So moving on then, I mean, if he's -- if Apostle Paul is saying, "I want you to be discerning, like carefully discerning and maturing your thinking to be able to say and evaluate, this is from God and this is not from God, how do you test the spirit?" 00:15:13.960 |
So this is a pretty simple one, but what does Apostle Paul say is a good test to see if something is of the spirit? 00:15:46.960 |
>> If there is a tally silly, he says, "You can't say Jesus is a curse." 00:15:58.960 |
Sometimes the easy answer is the right answer, okay, guys? 00:16:07.960 |
On this one side, he says, "If anybody says that Jesus Christ is a curse, then that is obviously not of the spirit of God." 00:16:18.960 |
So what you have is, on the negative side, you can't say things that are degrading, right? 00:16:25.960 |
You can't say things that are degrading and diminishing of Christ's glory and say that this is the spirit of God. 00:16:31.960 |
So one thing that's kind of interesting, if you think about that, is the test to see if something is of the spirit is theological, is doctrinal. 00:16:44.960 |
The test to see if something is of the spirit is to think, "Does this magnify or degrade my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?" 00:16:55.960 |
So you think about that, and again, he's offering a way for the people to ask, "Is this of the spirit? 00:17:07.960 |
Because, yes, if you did read from chapters 12 to 14, you guys got the sense that, like, oh man, sometimes the worship service in Corinth, it's disorderly. 00:17:18.960 |
There's a sense of people chiming in when they're not supposed to, or people trying so hard to manifest their gift. 00:17:30.960 |
So that's a really good question, because as there is a negative side, there is a positive, which is, in verse 3, Jesus is Lord. 00:17:44.960 |
In one sense, it's one thing to deny him as Lord, but there are those who would not be willing to flat out say, "No, he's not!" 00:17:54.960 |
But they're not willing to say, "Yes, he is!" 00:17:59.960 |
There are those who can, again, who can exist in the circles of Christian faith, who will never flat out deny Christ, you know? 00:18:10.960 |
Who will never flat out say, "Cursed is Christ!" 00:18:13.960 |
That word for "cursed," you guys have probably heard it a lot in different contexts, is anathema. 00:18:21.960 |
I don't think there are people who might be like, "Yeah, you know, cursed is he!" 00:18:31.960 |
And to say that is to say Jesus is divine, that Jesus is God's anointed, Jesus is authority, you know what I mean? 00:18:45.960 |
I think this is really important when you think about church worship. 00:18:48.960 |
I think this is really important when you think about spiritual gifts. 00:18:52.960 |
If some of you guys are not decided about it, meaning like the miraculous sign gifts of healing, the miracles of being able to speak in tongues, and all that kind of stuff. 00:19:05.960 |
If you're undecided about it, there are ways to still test it. 00:19:13.960 |
So, you guys all know our vision number one at Berean, right? 00:19:17.960 |
We desire to glorify God by establishing a church that engages in God-centered worship and not man-centered. 00:19:26.960 |
And contained in that vision is this question. 00:19:33.960 |
When we have our worship and when we have our studies and when we have our programs, who gets the glory? 00:19:47.960 |
And to the camp that says, "We're all about charismatic gifts and we want to practice tongues." 00:19:58.960 |
And then to those guys who are like, "No, we don't like it. We don't ever practice that kind of stuff. We're all about Bible teaching." 00:20:17.960 |
Is it God Himself, the one who is ever enduring? 00:20:21.960 |
And so there is that question for anything that is happening in the context of spiritual life. 00:20:32.960 |
And I think that's definitely one good way to test everything that's happening. 00:20:39.960 |
So keep that in mind again, that Apostle Paul is giving this criteria, at least this test, to help the church understand how to evaluate things. 00:20:57.960 |
So just from the test that he points out and highlights, does it give you any hint as to what's the condition of the church? 00:21:18.960 |
(Audience member) That means that that was happening there. 00:21:21.960 |
That people were saying, people were cursing God. 00:21:25.960 |
(Audience member) Because he's pointing it out, it means it was happening. 00:21:33.960 |
At that church, were there people who were denouncing Christ, even while they were saying, "I am filled with the Holy Spirit, listen to me." 00:21:47.960 |
Well, just to give you a little bit of a background, a lot of stuff was happening back then. 00:21:52.960 |
We know that there were people who were agnostic. 00:21:57.960 |
There were the Gnostics, there were the Gnosticists. 00:22:00.960 |
There were people who would deny the resurrection of Christ. 00:22:03.960 |
And to deny the resurrection of Christ would essentially mean you believe Jesus to be dead. 00:22:14.960 |
There were people who would deny Jesus' bodily, like, incarnation into the world. 00:22:18.960 |
Those are the people that, remember in 1 John, John was battling that. 00:22:22.960 |
The people who were saying, like, the dualist, like, there's a spirit and there's a body and everything that's a body is wicked, evil. 00:22:31.960 |
And then John's like, "Okay, if you say that, you have the spirit of the Antichrist." 00:22:37.960 |
Because that diminishes the glory of what Christ has done. 00:22:41.960 |
Now, the reason why I bring that up is because, in my mind, I asked the question, 00:22:48.960 |
"What would be the spiritual condition of the church to allow that kind of teaching to happen?" 00:23:01.960 |
I said the test was theological, and the test was the content of faith. 00:23:09.960 |
And if the church ever starts to care more about simply the religious experience on Sundays, 00:23:15.960 |
rather than the personal faith that you exhibit, that you practice, 00:23:22.960 |
When the church no longer cares for the content of faith, but they care more for stuff like the flesh, 00:23:33.960 |
You can just X, Y, Z, whatever you want to fill in there. 00:23:37.960 |
If you are caring more for the personal experience than the actual content of my belief, 00:23:46.960 |
Got a guy coming in here, "I'm full of the spirit. 00:24:00.960 |
So, again, Apostle Paul saying this stuff really points to how severe the situation at the church was. 00:24:37.960 |
So, as you read that, he definitely changes gear because he said, "Okay, I'm going to have you think about your pagan days 00:24:45.960 |
and how led astray you were, how you had no direction when it came to worship. 00:24:53.960 |
And then I'm going to teach you a test of how to test if things are of the spirit." 00:25:00.960 |
So, as he says, "Now," I feel like, okay, he's introducing a thought, a premise. 00:25:07.960 |
And I had you guys do an exercise where you read various passages that did a list of spiritual gifts. 00:25:14.960 |
And later on in your discussion, I'm going to ask the question, "Define spiritual gifts." 00:25:19.960 |
Now, it could be hard or it can be easy, right? 00:25:23.960 |
Let's first try to think biblically what is categorized as spiritual gifts in the Bible. 00:25:29.960 |
So, just at this moment, can you guys just throw them out? 00:25:32.960 |
Whatever you guys saw, whatever you guys read, throw out a couple. 00:25:35.960 |
And I'm going to call on you guys just to highlight some of those. 00:25:51.960 |
And then from the table in front of me, Titus. 00:26:04.960 |
Miracles, prophecy, ability to distinguish between spirits and tongues. 00:26:13.960 |
And then from this table, Christine, did you find any others from the other passages? 00:26:23.960 |
So, if you guys read some of those, what's really interesting about that is I feel like, 00:26:30.960 |
oh dang, like a lot can be categorized into spiritual gifts. 00:26:36.960 |
Because some of it's as broad and big as like wisdom, you know? 00:26:45.960 |
And then some of it becomes more specific like tongues or healing or prophesying, et cetera. 00:26:53.960 |
So, you notice that the list kind of is inclusive of a variety of things. 00:26:57.960 |
So, just as the passage says, there's a variety of gifts. 00:27:02.960 |
Now, I want to ask you this question, which is this. 00:27:06.960 |
As you see that there are varieties of gifts, what is the implication of the truth that there are a variety of gifts? 00:27:28.960 |
God has given lots of different kinds of gifts. 00:27:42.960 |
- If there's lots of gifts, then holy, if you're just really needy people, there's lots of needs, right? 00:27:55.960 |
And actually, yeah, I mean, if you look for a moment at that passage again, he kind of talks about the fact that there are lots of gifts. 00:28:03.960 |
There are lots of, what are the other variety of things? 00:28:12.960 |
So, God is so orchestrated there that, yeah, there are lots of gifts because there are lots of needs. 00:28:18.960 |
And there are lots of ways in which ministry happens. 00:28:21.960 |
And then there are lots of effects, results, and fruits that God bears. 00:28:42.960 |
So, in that being the case, that God has created by design, that though yes, we are one, there is diversity. 00:28:50.960 |
And there being diversity, it doesn't make sense for one person to be like, "But I really, really, really, really want that one." 00:28:57.960 |
And I do wonder, again, in the church, because of selfishness, there are those gifts that people all kind of tend to go towards. 00:29:07.960 |
The ones that typically get more praise, the ones that typically are held in higher esteem. 00:29:12.960 |
But if we all did that, then there would be no diversity. 00:29:18.960 |
"Hey, if I'm going to play, you know, what's that game that you play in the winter at Christmas? 00:29:23.960 |
Everybody sits around, throw the gift in the middle, and you take turns taking it?" 00:29:31.960 |
So, you know, we sometimes just function like, "Okay, we're going to do the White Elephant gift. 00:29:38.960 |
Like, that's typically how I function, you know? 00:29:40.960 |
But we know that in the big box is just another box. 00:29:47.960 |
That in God's eyes, those gifts does not function the way we deem it to function. 00:29:56.960 |
You always find that bag in the middle that's like somebody just grabbed one of the church, 00:30:00.960 |
like, trash bags, and they wrapped it up with a piece of tape. 00:30:07.960 |
But internally, it could be a huge old gift card. 00:30:17.960 |
What Leah said is that the fact that God has designed that there are many gifts, and He 00:30:22.960 |
is the one who is giving it, it doesn't make sense we're sitting here, if we do, in our 00:30:44.960 |
I mean, we can sit and talk about that one for a little bit, too. 00:30:51.960 |
I think my struggle with pride is wanting to have all the gifts. 00:30:58.960 |
I do pride myself over being like a jack of all trades. 00:31:02.960 |
I'm the master of none, but I know how to do just about everything. 00:31:14.960 |
And there's a feeling of like, I can do just about everything. 00:31:20.960 |
And then if that thought, oh, I can do just about everything, is not, oh, I can do anything 00:31:26.960 |
the church needs, but it's, I can do anything, you know? 00:31:30.960 |
Then now that short little skip and a hop over here becomes very hurtful to the church. 00:31:43.960 |
And I'm like, okay, you just need to calm down. 00:31:46.960 |
God has blessed the church with various gifts and no man has every gift. 00:32:00.960 |
You know, another way that I think pride and that kind of flesh comes out is when, because 00:32:05.960 |
you have a gift, anybody else who has a weakness in that area to which you are gifted, you 00:32:16.960 |
Let's say I'm really good at discipline, but then you're not very good at it. 00:32:30.960 |
But then someone could look at me and be like, well, what about your purity? 00:32:37.960 |
So there are those people who, because they're gifted in one area, they just start pounding 00:32:42.960 |
They don't realize we are gifted in various things. 00:32:46.960 |
And just as that person has another gift and perhaps that person is not as strong as you, 00:32:54.960 |
But I've seen people, it's like they're gifted in evangelism. 00:32:59.960 |
Don't you know this is the call of God for your life? 00:33:11.960 |
But sometimes you get frustrated and you don't have patience with the people who have weakness 00:33:23.960 |
What I found interesting was, you know, listed underneath the spiritual gifts was the gift 00:33:34.960 |
And I try to look up every single commentary. 00:33:36.960 |
All the commentaries all concur that when it says the gift of faith, it probably doesn't 00:33:41.960 |
mean like gift of faith as in salvific faith. 00:33:45.960 |
Because the whole church, Apostle Paul assumes that you guys are Christian exercising your 00:33:50.960 |
spiritual gifts, gifts to, you know, serve God. 00:33:55.960 |
So he's not really talking about like the gift of faith as in I'm God saved, you know? 00:33:59.960 |
Because everybody has that if you're a Christian, genuine Christian. 00:34:06.960 |
And one commentator was like, it's weird, but yeah, when you even think about faith, 00:34:17.960 |
And there are those of us who really excel in that just like absolute trust in God and 00:34:24.960 |
no matter what the circumstance, they're just like so keen in on God's sovereignty. 00:34:30.960 |
And so when they believe that, it inspires the church. 00:34:34.960 |
And I think, yeah, that's a gift to the church. 00:34:38.960 |
So if I think about people who are suffering, you know, and I bring up just right now, you 00:34:42.960 |
know, Pastor Aaron and Tina and everyone saying like, you guys are encouragement. 00:34:47.960 |
There's sinners thinking, you guys don't know, we struggle and we're not doing much. 00:34:53.960 |
And then other people though, they're getting inspired by their perseverance. 00:35:03.960 |
I'm not gonna be like, oh, Pastor Aaron, you have the gift from God, you know? 00:35:07.960 |
I don't know if I can say that, but I can honestly say that's a gift to the church to 00:35:11.960 |
see people trust God in the most dire circumstances, right? 00:35:17.960 |
So I don't know if categorically before I used to put those kind of things into the 00:35:22.960 |
bucket of what I believe to be spiritual gifts. 00:35:25.960 |
But according to the Bible, I think it's all there. 00:35:29.960 |
So again, those are the implications I think I see. 00:35:34.960 |
You notice how God says in that passage, so there are very specific or various gifts. 00:35:43.960 |
There are various ministries and there are various effects. 00:35:48.960 |
But then in summarizing that, what does he say? 00:36:07.960 |
So when I see a guy come into church and he's got the solution, it's like, oh, your 00:36:13.960 |
college students, they're so, you know, I don't know. 00:36:20.960 |
But yeah, college students struggle with the same stuff. 00:36:34.960 |
There are those individuals who in maturity think that they have the answer, they have 00:36:38.960 |
a program, they have the steps one, two, three to produce the work of God. 00:36:47.960 |
God has so designed the church in this amazing organic way where there's going to be an empowering 00:36:54.960 |
And as each person abides by the spirit, exercises their gifts, and practices their faith by 00:37:00.960 |
their own conviction, the fruit will be born according to God's spirit. 00:37:06.960 |
I mean, if it was easy as a guy, a consultant coming in here and being like, dude, step 00:37:10.960 |
one, two, three, four, five, and then your church is cool. 00:37:20.960 |
There's a lot of young people who come into the church saying stuff like that. 00:37:25.960 |
And what I think about that is they are pursuing uniformity above and beyond spiritual unity. 00:37:32.960 |
In spiritual unity, God has designed the diversity of our gifts to contribute to the building 00:37:40.960 |
In uniformity, all of you guys need to do this, this, and this, and we're there. 00:37:53.960 |
Are there thoughts of implications of this truth? 00:37:56.960 |
There are various gifts, various ministries, various effects. 00:38:02.960 |
But there is truly one God who is working all things to his end as he wills. 00:38:16.960 |
And he says, "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each 00:38:27.960 |
I love the fact that there is a sense in which, again, as a pastor of the church, am I tempted 00:38:39.960 |
And, you know, there are times when I just wish, like, okay, I do wish it would just 00:38:43.960 |
function effectively and efficiently, you know? 00:38:51.960 |
We are God's, we are Christ's body, you know? 00:38:54.960 |
And what I believe is amazing is that God is so orchestrating, designing, distributing, 00:39:00.960 |
equipping, and empowering this body to do what he wills. 00:39:05.960 |
And I think everybody has to just, this passage to me isn't one of these, like, and so what 00:39:23.960 |
Let's move to verse 7 through 10, our last section in our study today. 00:39:32.960 |
"For each one is given an explanation of the Spirit of the common good. 00:39:36.960 |
First, one is given a word of wisdom to the Spirit, and to another the word of power, 00:39:41.960 |
and to the Word of the Holy Spirit, and to another the faith of the same Spirit, and 00:39:44.960 |
to another the gifts of the human heart of the Spirit, and to another the finding of 00:39:48.960 |
miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, and 00:39:53.960 |
to another the various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 00:39:57.960 |
The one and the same Spirit works all these things, contributing equally to the good just 00:40:06.960 |
So here is a toss-up, easy question for you guys. 00:40:31.960 |
So, so far we've studied a lot about the spiritual gifts. 00:40:33.960 |
I think we could, if I were to ask you for a definition, you guys could probably give 00:40:38.960 |
You know about the purpose, what it should not be used for, where it's from, who gives 00:40:47.960 |
So we're learning about the spiritual gifts, and one of the main emphatic points about 00:40:50.960 |
this entire passage is the spiritual gifts is given for the manifestation of the Spirit 00:41:00.960 |
And I want you to capture both aspects of that. 00:41:04.960 |
That each one is given, the manifestation of the Spirit helps you to still define even 00:41:12.960 |
A spiritual gift to me then is the work of the Spirit in you. 00:41:17.960 |
The manifestation of the reality of His presence, the work in you, that He has caused to show 00:41:24.960 |
outwardly for the purpose of the common good. 00:41:27.960 |
For the purpose of the good of the church, edification of the body, for greater witness, 00:41:36.960 |
And so, as I think about that, the true spiritual gifts of God, earlier we said it magnifies 00:41:45.960 |
Christ, but it also has to have this benefit for the church, benefit for gospel ministry. 00:41:52.960 |
It empowers, it strengthens others, it unifies, it draws people together, it inspires other 00:42:00.960 |
people, it meets practical and spiritual needs. 00:42:07.960 |
So now I can see why this is so important to God. 00:42:13.960 |
And you can say then, how upset, okay I'm just gonna use the word upset for a lack of 00:42:19.960 |
There's Apostle Paul who is teaching this, who sees what Matthew mentioned earlier. 00:42:25.960 |
People using their spiritual gifts as a means to satisfy their desires. 00:42:32.960 |
People using their spiritual gifts to satisfy their pride and arrogance, their personal 00:42:39.960 |
People using their spiritual gifts to say, "Look at me!" 00:42:48.960 |
And so, as you think about that, I mean just think how despicable, you know? 00:42:56.960 |
What a disdain it would be in God's eyes, where he has designed the spiritual gifts 00:43:01.960 |
for that he has gifted every single one of us, that he has given us the spirit of God 00:43:06.960 |
for the purpose of this, but then to come around and use it for ourselves. 00:43:13.960 |
I think that's what he's getting at really as an emphatic point. 00:43:16.960 |
Before you guys, you guys were just led astray by everything, everything and anything! 00:43:23.960 |
But I want you to understand what is the purpose of the spiritual gifts? 00:43:29.960 |
And so, we have to remember, because this is such an important part, there are so many 00:43:35.960 |
counterfeit gifts, just like there are so many counterfeit spiritual experiences. 00:43:41.960 |
And never, ever should we see the gifts as a means, as a badge. 00:43:46.960 |
We should never see it as some kind of like prestige or a tool for ourselves. 00:43:51.960 |
But we need to think critically and we need to think deeply about the fact that this is 00:43:58.960 |
There is a passage that clearly states it in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 10 and on. 00:44:39.960 |
You know, if you look at the bunch of questions, I just put it down. 00:44:44.960 |
We started with a bunch of questions about spiritual gifts. 00:44:55.960 |
How important is it that individual, how important are the spiritual gifts to individual Christian 00:45:04.960 |
Well, that 1 Peter passage is pretty clear, right? 00:45:09.960 |
That as each one has received a special gift, he says, "Employ it in serving one another." 00:45:18.960 |
As good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 00:45:22.960 |
And so in my mind, I ask myself this question sometimes too. 00:45:29.960 |
Because I'm going to be honest with you, sometimes it's easier to find out what's not my gift 00:45:37.960 |
So, I tell Pastor Peter all the time, like, "Pastor Peter, you can't leave because I'm 00:45:47.960 |
I tell him, "You can't leave because, you know, X, Y, and Z. 00:45:50.960 |
Like, I'm not good with this kind of scenario. 00:45:54.960 |
So, I know all the things that I'm bad at, but sometimes it's hard to know what you're 00:46:19.960 |
Alright, so, sometimes you just feel that way. 00:46:21.960 |
It's harder to know what you're bad at than to know what you're good at. 00:46:25.960 |
Now, is it incredibly vital for your Christian living to know specifically what is your gift? 00:46:35.960 |
And I think about the passage here in 1 Peter. 00:46:46.960 |
I really do believe that we are very much in a spiritual journey. 00:46:53.960 |
That we are getting progressively sanctified. 00:46:56.960 |
And as we simply set our hearts to glorify God in everything, as we simply desire and 00:47:01.960 |
commit to proclaiming Christ as Lord, the various giftings are going to emerge really 00:47:12.960 |
And the thing about it is, not only is it going to emerge, but it's going to be encouraged 00:47:18.960 |
And people are going to see it probably first before you ever do on your own. 00:47:23.960 |
And I want to encourage you guys, just seek that. 00:47:28.960 |
If I'm speaking, if I get an opportunity to speak, let me do so by exalting the Lord as 00:47:36.960 |
If I'm serving, let me do so with a heart of servanthood like that of Christ, with all 00:47:50.960 |
And so, I just want to make it clear that, in conclusion, there are still a lot of questions 00:47:57.960 |
And notice how I didn't really even get into any debate about do I believe in like sign 00:48:02.960 |
If you guys have questions, we can talk about it later. 00:48:04.960 |
But that wasn't even his point necessarily in this moment. 00:48:09.960 |
What Apostle Paul made very clear is that every single gift that the church has and 00:48:14.960 |
that you have as a person, there by our God, who is the same spirit, same Lord, same God. 00:48:24.960 |
The triune God is gifting his church and they are given for the common good and they are 00:48:29.960 |
to be used for the building up and edification of his body. 00:48:35.960 |
Any questions at this time about what we covered today? 00:48:40.960 |
So, I just want to understand a little bit better in terms of spiritual gifts. 00:48:57.960 |
So, I know that it still happens, you know, you see, you hear about people who are overseas 00:49:05.960 |
and they are praying, they are filled by the Holy Spirit and they are filled with the Holy 00:49:15.960 |
But then, but once they stop praying, they can't speak in tongues. 00:49:20.960 |
People have that ability to just speak in tongues on their own. 00:49:25.960 |
So, I just want to understand a little bit better at the time, you know, when in first 00:49:31.960 |
coming hands, when they could exercise that gift, is it something that they could do on 00:49:37.960 |
their own or how does it feel when you are filled by the Holy Spirit? 00:49:42.960 |
Okay, I'm going to just try to specifically answer that question. 00:49:50.960 |
She was asking kind of like, in that time, in that time, sorry, in that time in the early 00:49:59.960 |
church, when people had the gift, could they exercise it literally as a gift that they 00:50:04.960 |
have, they can pull it out of their belt any time or do they have to be like filled with 00:50:08.960 |
the Spirit, have an experience and then they did that? 00:50:11.960 |
In my mind, it seemed to me that in those, in that early church time, that if they had 00:50:21.960 |
the gift, they were capable of exercising it. 00:50:25.960 |
Because if they had the gift of healing, they knew what they were doing when they laid hands 00:50:33.960 |
So, that again, then begs the question of like, then what are the people practicing 00:50:38.960 |
now and et cetera, and that I guess we can go into a deeper discussion about. 00:50:42.960 |
But to answer your more specific question about that, it definitely seemed to me that 00:50:47.960 |
the spiritual gifts that they practiced in the early church was quite different from 00:50:52.960 |
what a lot of the people practice now, where if they had the gift, that was something that 00:50:56.960 |
they knew they had and they were exercising as they were going. 00:51:04.960 |
And, and I do want to say, do I want to get into this? 00:51:13.960 |
You know, like, I'm just going to say this for the sake of just like really, because 00:51:24.960 |
You guys all kind of know like my position and you guys know church's position. 00:51:28.960 |
We're like open and like very, very, very, very cautious. 00:51:35.960 |
And I hope you guys realize that we are not anti-miracle, you know, the supernatural. 00:51:43.960 |
Like we pray that God would perform miracles on the lives of the people we love. 00:51:52.960 |
And God actually, I believe God does that in our day. 00:52:01.960 |
And so the spiritual gifts, again, like I just, as we're talking about it, I don't want 00:52:07.960 |
to have a parameter of thinking where we're trying to piece and place these spiritual 00:52:13.960 |
gifts in a place that it's not supposed to be, which is that was then, this is now, that 00:52:19.960 |
As I'm saying that, you know, I just wanted to clear that up and do realize too, first 00:52:23.960 |
for me, when I think of spiritual gifts, I am thinking about truly spiritual gifts that 00:52:32.960 |
I think of it, you know, if I want to use the word miracle, yeah, miraculous too. 00:52:37.960 |
What do I mean by that is, you know, like being able to play the guitar, to me, that's 00:52:43.960 |
But to be able to inspire people to worship God with passion, that's a spiritual gift. 00:52:48.960 |
The difference is, a pagan can play the guitar, but only one who is saved and has a spirit 00:52:54.960 |
of God is going to say, God is God, Jesus is Lord, let's worship. 00:53:07.960 |
Okay, let's take a moment to pray and you guys can do your discussion time. 00:53:12.960 |
Father God, I want to thank you because as we study this passage, we realize Lord, that 00:53:18.960 |
you are so intricately involved with your church. 00:53:23.960 |
You indwell us, you are ever present, you gift us, you provide for us, you create the 00:53:31.960 |
Lord, we just realize, God, you are completely involved and Lord, we want to just acknowledge 00:53:39.960 |
Through this time of study, we want to acknowledge God that, yes, all the results, all the fruit 00:53:44.960 |
on your hands and God, we just need to be more spirit filled. 00:53:49.960 |
There are those of us, myself highly included, that sometimes thinks I just need more education, 00:53:56.960 |
I just need to speak better, I just need more of this and that, know how, business skills, 00:54:01.960 |
But I pray, Father God, I would never buy into the worldly philosophy of success accomplished 00:54:10.960 |
I pray, Father God, that I would wholeheartedly surrender to the Spirit of God who works in 00:54:18.960 |
Father, I do pray that each one of us will be spirit filled through the week, God, just 00:54:22.960 |
acknowledging your presence, abiding by your word and God, desiring truly to magnify you