21 Days of Prayer: Day 13

Community - Gifts for Ministry


“… the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good…” 

READ 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.
 

We were created to worship… God. Through our twenty-one days of prayer, we have seen the holiness of God put on display, our sinfulness, and our hopefulness in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, only through Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf can we be restored to worship God as we were made to do. And we are not alone in our pursuit to worship God…

And we have observed that God created a people – a community of people devoted to worshiping Him together. Yesterday, we saw how Christ’s sacrifice turns us from isolation in our sins to Christ-centered community. This is God’s grace to us. It is important for us to see that God gives us divine help (grace) to help us worship Him… And that grace manifests itself in a particular way – God graciously gives us SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

That brings us to our text today… The apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth to address several issues that were in the church. The Corinthian church was experiencing division, unethical lifestyles, unhealthy disagreement, among many other things. After addressing all those things, Paul turns to one issue within the church – spiritual gifts…

Toward the beginning of his address, Paul writes, “… No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” Before Paul addresses the more specific question of spiritual gifts, he addresses the bigger issue. The Corinthians had been elevating certain individuals as more important than others because of spiritual gifts. One person was respected more because they had the spiritual gift of wisdom versus someone who had the spiritual gift of administration, so on and so forth…

Paul utterly rejects this kind of one-upmanship by saying, “Listen, your fellow believer does not curse Jesus because he has the Holy Spirit! And your fellow believer says Christ is Lord because he has the Spirit of God!” Paul reminds the Corinthians that the only reason they (or any other believer) can declare that Jesus is God is because they have been saved by God! Not one of the Corinthians (or us today) had contributed anything to their salvation. Not one of the Corinthians (or us today) would have chosen God – we were lost in our sins until God gave us the faith to trust in Him (see Eph. 2:1-10)… Paul absolutely levels the playing ground by clarifying that it is God who has redeemed them from sin… But turning sinners out of bondage is not all God does.

Paul goes on to say that 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.

With these words, Paul is giving us insight into the working of the Godhead (the Trinity) in believers. The Spirit gives spiritual gifts, the Lord (Jesus) serves, and God (the Father) strengthens all believers… So here is Paul’s logic – believers in Christ have NO grounds to elevate one spiritual gift above another because: 1) They have been GIVEN faith by God to turn from sin to Christ; and 2) even the spiritual gifts they have are from and empowered by God. There is no room for throwing one’s nose up in superiority within the Church – each member has been redeemed and is being empowered by God… But why does God give us gifts? How do spiritual gifts play into the worship of God?

Paul says, “To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Spiritual gifts are given for the good of OTHER people – especially the people of the Church. The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts so that we might use them to serve, not ourselves, but others. In other words, we are supposed to be conduits of God’s grace to other people. The Corinthians (and us today) are to worship God by using our spiritual gifts to serve other people… There it is! The truth is out – we worship God by using His spiritual gifts to serve others!... Pretty straightforward… But does that sound like the American church today?

How many times today do we fall into the trap of the Corinthian church? How many times do we withhold our spiritual gifts from others? Or how often do we use our Holy Spirit-given gifts for selfish purposes rather than the good of others?... The answers to those questions are not pleasant to our taste.

But why do we not use our gifts to worship God by serving others? In our twenty-one days of prayer, we have already looked at the answers… One reason why we do not worship God through our spiritual gifts is because of IGNORANCE. The majority mindset in the American Church tends to be: “I will just stay out of the way because other people have better abilities than I do… The church does not need me to serve, so I will just sit back and watch others serve me.” This logic seems to make sense – let those who seem to have better abilities do the work… But Paul disagrees… 

Later Paul writes that the parts of the Body (the Church) that seem weaker are indispensable (see vv. 21-22). Think about this – What good would it be to have a body without a stomach to eat food? Or what good would it be to have a stomach if there was no hand to feed it? Better yet – what good is it to have both a hand and a stomach if there are no feet to carry you into a restaurant?... This is a silly and imperfect illustration, but it does demonstrate something – when the members of the Christ’s Body do not serve, we deprive other members of the Body. In other words, when we do not serve the Church, we are depriving other people of good – namely the greatest good, which is God… Our ignorant lack of service hinders others from experiencing God.

The other reason we do not serve others is because of PRIDE. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, we pridefully think we know what is best for our own lives – including how we use our spiritual gifts. Instead of using our spiritual gifts to serve others, we selfishly use them to build up our own self-esteem, our own material wealth, our own public image, etc.… This prideful use of spiritual gifts not only hinders others from God, but it also hurts others. When we use our spiritual gifts for selfish gain, it is often at the expense of another person for whom Christ died. 

These are heavy but necessary words to get us to see the absolute importance of serving others with our spiritual gifts. To really put this into perspective, we could say that the Son of God died so you would worship God by using your spiritual gifts to serve others… Your spiritual gifts and the service they equip you to do are costly. Your spiritual gifts were bought with blood.

Here at Redeemer, the (ONLY) way we can truly serve others is by making them disciples of Jesus. God has blessed us with a great ministry, which is THE ministry of our church – the Discipleship Pathway. This is our strategy for making disciples from our streets to the nations. Indeed, everything we do at Redeemer –  Redeemer Kids, Redeemer Students, Rock the Block, Blessings in a Backpack, Serve Day, Back-to-School Bash, etc. – is to funnel people into the Pathway so that they too can be sent out to disciple others. 

We have instructions, but more than that – we have the blood-bought, Spirit-given gifts to worship God through serving others… But how will we use these gifts?


(For more information about the Discipleship Pathway and how to serve in it, click here). 

Personal Questions:

  1. Why does God give spiritual gifts? 

  2. Why does most of the modern American church not properly use its spiritual gifts?

  3. What happens to others when you do not properly use your spiritual gifts?

  4. What was the cost of your spiritual gifts?

  5. Do you use your spiritual gifts to serve others? Where are you on the Discipleship Pathway?

Prayer Points:

  • Pray that you and our church would see the absolute importance of using our spiritual gifts to worship God by serving others.

  • Pray that you and our church would see the harm that comes from not properly using our spiritual gifts.

  • Pray that you and our church would serve each other, our streets, and the nations, with our spiritual gifts.

  • Pray that the gospel would be shared through: Redeemer Kids, Redeemer Students, Rock the Block, Blessings in a Backpack, Serve Day, Back-to-School Bash, etc.

  • Pray that you and our church would seek the next step on the Discipleship Pathway.