Spiritual Gifts
Foundations
To serve with what God provides is to participate with Him in the kind of world God desires and created.
First lets define Spiritual gifts. They are a supernatural expression of Gods kingdom through a particular person in a particular environment. They go from God through a person to a people
There are two primary passages that define the gifts that God gives. In them the writer of both 1 Cor 12 and Romans 12 details 16 different gifts. These are means of physical expressions that come from God and allow us to serve each other.
Here are the list of the 15 gifts as given in the two passages
• wisdom
• knowledge
• faith
• healing
• working of miracles
• prophecy
• distinguishing between spirits (discernment)
• various kinds of tongues (languages) and the interpretation of those tongues
• service
• teaching
• exhorting
• generous giving
• leading
• mercy
God has given the church everything she needs to function. God has given the church everything she needs to flourish. Everything that God wants to do in this church today is found in you and I. It’s not found in a bigger building, or better resources, or more money, or even more or better people.
1 Corinthians 12:4–6 ESV
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
When we serve with the gifts God provides we participate with God in the world.
Matthew 20:25–26 ESV
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
Matthew 20:27–28 ESV
and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
God is gracious with His gifts because He cares that people are reconciled to Him.
Do you know that for the last 30 years, there has been a decline in church attendance? Less and less people are attending churches. Year over year. This is not a surprise for NE. But, and I just heard this at a conference this week, in the last year, for the first time in 30 plus years, there has been a shift. There are more people attending church this year than last year. And do you know who is leading that shift?
Boomers? Gen X? Millenials? Get Z is leading that shift.
And we do not want to miss our kids and our grandkids and our friends and our neighbors answering the big questions they have about life and God. To reach them, to be there to answer the biggest questions they have. To lead them to find and follow Jesus in the world means that we can serve with the power that Christ provides.
The spiritual gifts remind us that the other in our lives is essential
Kevin Vanhoozer writes that
“Jesus foretold the Kingdom and it was the church that came.” We are the unfolding of God’s intent in the world.