I
am Gifted!!
Ephesians
4:1-16
Have you ever
wondered where Jesus is and what is he doing?? Have you ever just pondered
that?
Today we are
going to se that and also see that we are gifted, and God gives us all gifts to
serve in ministry along side one another to further the kingdom of God!
If we find our
identity in Christ, and allow that to direct our actions we can be a powerful
force in our community, our job, our family, and the church. Gifts are a wonderful thing, when we find our
identity in Jesus.
Yesterday, some
folks from this church used their talents to serve God, by doing what they love
to do! God was glorified, we benefited the community, and we found joy and had
some fun!
So lets read in
Ephesians and see what Paul has to say about Gifts!
Read
Ephesians 4:1–16 (ESV)
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to
walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 eager to maintain the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one
Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
5 one Lord, one faith, one
baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who
is over all and through all and in all.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of
Christ’s gift.
8 Therefore it says, “When he
ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what
does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
10 He who descended is the one who
also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11 And he gave the apostles, the
prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
14 so that we may no longer be
children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
1 5 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him
who is the head, into Christ,
16 from whom the whole body,
joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each
part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in
love.
So where
is Jesus today??
He ascended!
·
Jesus
is in heaven
·
With
who?? Believers!
o He took the captives with him
To ascended he had to descend first!
·
He was buried in the ground, literally, physically dead, and
then three days later he rose,
·
So he ascended from his grave back to life, conquering death and
sin,
·
And then we witnessed his resurrection by demonstrating he was
alive for forty days.
·
Crowds large and small, individual people, small groups, numbers
upwards of five hundred people—1 Corinthians 15 tells us—he appeared to his
mom, he appeared to his brothers, he appeared to his friends and his disciples
·
And then he ascended back
into his heavenly kingdom.
So what’s he
doing now??
What’s he doing? What’s he focused on? What’s he care
about? What’s he paying attention to? What’s a priority for him? Where is he
investing himself?
·
He keeps talking over and over and over and over about the
church.
·
So his next point is that Jesus is serving the church, and he’ll
use this language of, “The church is like a body
·
And just like a body has
many parts, and they all work together for health and life and progress, so you
and I, and we—we’re like a body; we’re all a part of this great family of God,
and everybody has their bit to contribute, which then leads, of course, into
his discussion about spiritual gifts, and what part of the body you are, and
what gift you have and what contribution that you make.
·
He says this is all possible by the work and power of the Holy
Spirit!
So
the question is, when Jesus left, did he leave us alone? He didn’t. He said,
“It’s actually better for you if I go, so that I can send the Holy Spirit.” And
he says this to the early disciples gathered around him after his resurrection,
just prior to his ascension: “I’m going to leave, and I’m going to send the
Holy Spirit, and he will come with power.”
So what is Jesus doing right now? Well, he’s serving the
church, he’s loving the church, he’s paying attention to the church, he’s
devoted to the church, he’s concerned for the church, and he’s working in the
church through the person, and the presence, and the power of the God the Holy
Spirit.
Is the church a priority for you? If your priorities are
in line with Jesus’ priorities, then the church will be a great priority for
you. You may be in school, but your school will not be here in two thousand
years. You may have a job, but in two thousand years, your company will no
longer exist. You may love your nation, but in two thousand years, your nation
will be a footnote in history. But in two thousand years, there will still be
the church of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is
giving Gifts!
Then he goes on
to say Jesus is giving gifts!
·
Heave
you heard the term Spiritual Gifts??
·
So for
the rest of the service we are going to talk about Gifts and your gifts that’s
Jesus has given you through the Holy Spirit!
·
Do you like to
give gifts?
·
Do you like to give gifts? You should.
·
If you’re a Christian and the Holy Spirit’s in
you, you should like to give.
·
You realize God’s a giver, and to be a giver is
a good thing.
·
See, the more you give, the more joy you have.
·
That’s why no one is more joyful than God. No
one’s more joyful than God.
God loves to give.
·
We don’t have to beg God to give.
·
“God so loved the world he gave us his only
Son.”
·
God loves to give. Our God loves, loves, loves
to give, and the more you get to know the God who gives, the more you become
like the God who gives, the more you give—the more you give.
·
The older I get, I think one of the easiest
tests for Christian maturity is whether you’re a giver or a taker.
So what’s the
first Gift God gives us?
·
Verse
7 says, “he gives us Jesus!!”
·
You
need to know Jesus is a gift
·
You
may not get everything you want, But you have the greatest gift of all in Jesus
·
What’s
the greatest gift anyone could give you “ themselves”
·
Jesus
shows up to give. First of all, our God is not a taker. He’s a joyful giver,
and he gives us himself. So in verse 7, when he talks about Christ’s gift,
Christ is our gift. We’ve been given Jesus. What a gift!
The second gift that god
gives us is the Holy Spirit!
·
In verse 3, he talks about the “unity of the
Spirit”
·
in verse
4 “one Spirit.”
·
So God has given us his Spirit, so we’re not
orphans, we’re not abandoned, we’re not alone.
·
We don’t have to live by our own power; we can
live by the power of God. We’re not left to our own thinking; he can direct our
understanding. The Holy Spirit is present in the church.
To some degree, the Holy Spirit is present and at work in
the world, but he is particularly and powerfully at work in the people of God,
particularly when we assemble together. The Holy Spirit loves it when we get
together.
The third Gift God gives us is people!
·
Number three, God gives us people as gifts.
·
You need to know that you are a gift.
·
You’re a gift to others; you’re a gift to our church.
·
And here, he’s talking about: these people have these abilities,
and these people have these abilities, and these people make these
contributions, and these people make these contributions.
·
Let me just say that people don’t just have gifts; people are
gifts
·
And if we only think that
people have gifts, then we use them for their gifts.
·
But if we believe that people are gifts, we love and appreciate
the person, not just their function.
·
People are gifts. People are gifts. And some of you, let me just
say, are great gifts. Others of you are painful gifts, but you’re all gifts.
And fourth he gives Spiritual
Gifts
·
So God gives us Jesus, the Holy Spirit, one another, and then he
gives to each Christian spiritual gifts.
·
We see this in verse 8, “He gave gifts to men.”
·
Who determines what gift you get? He does. He does.
·
God determines what you do, God determines what they do, God
looks at the church, and he says, “Okay, we’re going to need this, we’re going
to need this, we’re going to need this, we’re going to need this, so I’m going
to give them this ability, and them this capacity, and them this experience,
and then they’re all going to come together, and it’s going to be far better.”
·
Paul uses the language in
1 Corinthians, like, you know, we don’t need seventeen feet; we need a body
that has all the right parts, orchestrated, organized together, so there’s a
lot of diversity, but we’re all unified in this together. “He gave gifts to
men.”
Some info on Gifts!
Let
me say some things about spiritual gifts, I have listed individual gifts in a
blog on Facebook, so you can go check them out. But I need you to understand
some things first so you can better understand what they are and what there
not!
·
It
doesn’t really matter whether it’s a natural talent or a supernatural gift.
o A
natural talent is something you just innately have from birth;
o a
supernatural gift is something you have from your new birth.
o A
natural talent is something you can do before you’re a Christian;
o a
supernatural gift is something that accompanies the presence and the power of
the Holy Spirit when you become a Christian.
o Don’t
go looking for a “spiritual Gift”
o The
bible never talks about singing and a gift, or working on cars, or any other
natural talent
o If
you have a natural talent and the church can use them then do it!
o It
may be what God has gifted you to do, we don’t know so serve how you can!
·
The way
you find your spiritual gift is trial and error.
o You
try something, you’re no good at it, or you don’t like it, or everybody else
says stop.
o That
can be an indication that maybe that’s not your thing.
o You
do something else, and you’re like, “Hey, I’m pretty good at that, and people
seem to appreciate that, and God seems to bless that, and I kind of like that.”
Maybe that’s your thing. So, trial and error.
·
You can
have multiple gifts.
o So,
it’s not like they’re exclusive.
o Some
of you have one gift, some of you have multiple gifts, and the gift mix is
combined to give you a particular ministry capacity.
o People
have differing amounts of a gift.
·
We need
to learn to serve outside of our area of gifting.
o Lets
say, somebody walks in, and they say, “I’m really hurting. Can you pray for
me?” “Sorry, that’s not my gift.”
o You
don’t have the gift of mercy? To some degree, we need to be humble enough to
say, there are times when we have to serve outside of our area of gifting
because there’s a need.
o It’s
not about our gifts; it’s about their need. So you can’t say, “Well, that’s not
my gift.” They’d say, “But that is my need.”
o So
maybe you need to serve in an area that’s outside of your gifting, at least for
a season until God brings somebody else.
If you come to our church, and you are annoyed by
something, it just bothers you; it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. I don’t
know why they don’t fix that. Why is that like that?” That might actually be
your gift—not to be annoyed, but to help fix the thing that annoys you. If you
walk in and you say, “Why don’t they fix that?” That may be that you have the
gift that no one else has, and you’re seeing the need that no one else is
seeing. And you shouldn’t get frustrated; you should assume it’s a call from
Jesus to go to work. You’re welcome. Got you.
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