How to Discover and Use Your Spiritual Gifts

Did you know that you have a spiritual gift? In this message, Pastor Phil unpacks what 1 Corinthians 12 teaches about wisdom and knowledge—two gifts that help us grow in faith and impact others. Discover how God has uniquely gifted you and why those gifts aren’t just for you, but for the common good.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- This past Christmas, I received a gift that is something you hope you never need, but something you are glad you have if you need it. And it's this thing right here, a portable charger for when your car battery dies. Maybe with this insane cold this past week you experienced just that. Now this thing is super small but super powerful and incredibly helpful. No longer do you need another vehicle to get your battery charged. And I was able to put this thing to use just days after Christmas when it was once again super cold and my daughter's car wouldn't start. And in fact, I was pretty excited to try it out and I connected it and the car started. Instantly it was, it was really sweet. Now, I'm not doing a plug for this, although if DeWalt wants to help fund our expansion, that would be awesome, . But there's something about receiving a gift and not having it sit on the shelf and almost immediately putting it into use. I'm starting a six week series entitled for the Common Good. It's driven from something that the apostle Paul wrote to Christians in the New New Testament church of Corinth. It's a book in the New Testament called First Corinthians. And this church was immersed in the city of Corinth and this, this city had massive corruption. And I rally and unfortunately some of that had slipped into the church. These people were struggling with how to live out faith in Jesus and rightly resist the ungodly practices of the culture. And Paul gives guidance on a whole bunch of concerns. In fact, I encourage you to read the book of First Corinthians. It's worth it. And in this book it, it also contains the famous, somewhat famous chapter on love. You know, love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy and so on many times it's commonly quoted at weddings. Now, in a moment, we're gonna look at the chapter before this chapter 12 of one Corinthians. And in this chapter, Paul addresses the topic of spiritual gifts. He talks about the importance, benefit and reality of the gifts for each individual following Jesus and the importance, benefit and reality of the gifts for the church as a whole. Did you know that upon following Jesus you have been given a spiritual gift? A spiritual gift can be defined as any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church for the building up of others. So you have a spiritual gift. It might just be sitting on the shelf waiting to be used. When we make the best decision of our life, which is to follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us and his role is to guide us into all truth. Scripture tells us he is our comforter, our helper, the one who convicts and the one who gives gifts to the church. Everyone is given a spiritual gift, however, not everyone uses the spiritual gift they've been given. And my heart is your pastor is for you to excel in your relationship with Jesus. I pray that you continually grow, that you would seek him more, and that your faith is both formation and active. In fact, the writer of Hebrews says it this way though, by this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you the elementary truce of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with a teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. The next verse says, therefore, let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ. It's saying, Hey, this series and those verses are talking about moving on, growing in your spiritual faith. And this series is moving into some solid food in your faith. It's maturing in your faith. And why does this matter? Because the more mature you become in following Jesus, the less the complexities of the world and life will shake you, meaning the more consistent and steadfast you become. And so let's go to one Corinthians chapter 12, and I want to read to you how Paul begins this chapter. He says this now about the gifts of the spirit, brothers and sisters, that's just Christians believers. I do not want you to be uninformed. Other versions say, I don't want you to be ignorant or unaware of these things. Now, Paul wrote nearly one third of the New Testament and there are only three times where he says, I do not want you to be uninformed or ignorant of this. The first time is in Romans 11 where he tells Christians not to be ignorant of God's plan for Israel and how God will use that nation. The second time is in this passage regarding spiritual gifts. And the third time is in one Thessalonians four where he stresses not to be ignorant of the second coming of Jesus. So three times he stresses it God's plan for Israel, spiritual gifts and the second coming of Jesus, three areas where the church can actually find division. It's almost as if Paul knew beforehand. Let's continue reading what he says here. He says Now about the gifts of the spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the spirit of God says Jesus, be cursed and no one can say Jesus' Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. In the Corinthian church there was division and Paul was attempting to bring alignment. He wanted to foster unity. And he did this by reminding them that they have a shared belief and a shared confession. And what is it Jesus is Lord. That's what united them. It's what unites Jesus. Followers everywhere. Christians don't live in a way that rejects the lordship of Jesus, or in Paul's words says Jesus be cursed. Rather they hold up the name of Jesus and declare that he is Lord. And the reason we can do this as verse three says, is because we have the Holy Spirit. And so here's what it means. When we declare that Jesus is Lord, it means there's a desire to submit our life all things and every way under his authority. It means there's an anticipation of the day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. It means there's a longing for life to be aligned with Jesus now. And there's a longing for life to be fulfilled with him in eternity in the Christian life, Jesus is our litmus test. He is our measuring stick. He's the one we should want to be like. And as we strive to live that way, it can only be accomplished through the Holy Spirit's influence. And the one thing to note is that the spirit will never contradict anything about Jesus. He always underscores what Jesus said and what Jesus did. So if you were to look at your life, does it look like Jesus? Take for example, if disunity exists between you and someone else who is a Christian, just like in the church in Corinth, there's a high chance friend that the Holy Spirit needs to do some work in you. Just like Jesus, the spirit drives unity. And in chapter 12, the thing that was causing division was spiritual gifts. Some thought their gift was more important than others and and really elevated themselves to a greater spiritual persona. Ultimately what we got here is a case of spiritual pride. And let's be honest, none of us respond well to prideful people, let alone someone who believes they got a one up on everyone else because of their spiritual standing or gifting. God himself says that he hates pride. Paul goes on, this is what he writes. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, there are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work. And by the way, I love how Paul ties in the doctrine of the Trinity. Here. He says, the same spirit, the same Lord. That word Lord is meaning Jesus there. And the same God in Christianity, we believe in a true line God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And what he is saying is a church, no one is better than anyone else. Just because someone has this gift and someone else has that one, it doesn't matter. It's the same God who works in them all. No gift is superior. All are God-given and intended for his glory. And notice the distinguishing words, different kinds of gifts, different kinds of service and different kinds of working. He's using language to show us outcomes might look different, but there's no tiered system here. There's no better than. It's the same God who provides there's diversity and God designed and intended it to be this way. And that's really what makes the church unique. Each of us were created by God and uniquely gifted by him through the Holy Spirit. And there is to be the celebration of diversity in the body of Christ. Look around you for a moment. No one is exactly like you, but thank God, right? Like that's the point. The church is unique because even though we're all different and from diverse backgrounds, we have the same spirit and the same Jesus and the same God working in our lives. It's not about who is better, greater or more spiritual. It's about how we can together grow to be better, greater and more spiritual. Paul gave a really good illustration of this a little further on in chapter 12. He compares the church to a body. This is what he says. Just as a body though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body whether Jews are gentiles, slave or free. And we were all given the one spirit to drink. And so the body is made up of one P is not made up of one part, but of many. And then he goes on to say, the foot can't say to the hand you do not belong. Or the ear can't say to the eye you're no good. And then he poses some questions. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? God has orchestrated all the parts just as he wanted them. And that's an illustration of the church. We are all different, yet we all have a part to play. Diversity is both needed and important in the body of Christ and and the spiritual gifts, they illustrate that. Now, I do wanna say this in Christianity there are two camps when it comes to the belief in spiritual gifts. Some believe that the gifts have ceased. They were only needed for the start of the church and within the ministry of the disciples. And they no longer exist for believers today, they would be called cessationists. Others believe that the gifts are still for today and they are available for all those who believe in Jesus. They are called continuation is. And for the record, our church falls into this category. We believe scripture leans more towards this than not. I'm gonna show you some of that today. We believe that the gifts of the spirit are for today. And so if you've made the decision to follow Jesus friend, you have a spiritual gift. And so why is this important? Why should we be informed about this? Why do gifts matter? Verse seven gives us a clue. This is what Paul writes. He says, now to each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good. The word manifestation means a display of the spirit's power in you. The gifts are an example of the Holy Spirit moving and working in your life. And the gifts are for the common good for the benefit of all. They're not meant to elevate oneself or make someone look or feel important. The purpose is for the church for building up others. Peter, a disciple of Jesus underscored this when he wrote this. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others or to build others up as faithful stewards of God's grace in his various forms. The gifts are not about status. Sam Storm says The gifts were given for the encouraging, instructing, consoling, sanctifying and edification of the church. And the Christians in court needed to fix their thinking. They focused more on ownership and self-importance rather than service and humility. You know when someone starts to think of some skill, ability or ministry as their possession, that's when division comes. When someone starts to think that a church or ministry needs them to survive or grow, that's when fractures happen. Rather when the church, and by the way, when I say church, I mean all of us. When the church embraces the primary reason we are followers of Jesus is that God has graciously given us his Holy Spirit. And when everyone knows that God is building and growing his church according to his plans and his purposes, and when everyone understands that any good we may have, so our skills, abilities, interests and experiences, all those things are a gift from God, then that is a church that is only not only united but healthy and set to grow for God's glory. And here's why this matters. If you think about Christianity mostly in terms of what you are getting out of it, if you think of church mainly in terms of what it does for you, then my friend, you're probably gonna remain as Hebrew says, in the milk stage of your faith in the infant stage. Yes, I get it. Okay. That mindset drives the beginning steps of following Jesus. Some of you are here checking church out. I love it. You're like, what? What does church have to offer? Plus there's gonna be times in our life when we're more receivers because of things that are going on. But you can't stay here. Friends, listen, I pray over our services, across our campuses every single week. Our whole pastoral staff does that. I pray that when we gather, no matter what is going on, no matter what circumstance or situation is happening in your life, when you engage with our church, I pray that you encounter not just good music in a slick talk. I pray that you encounter a living God who loves you, who cares for you, that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can trust and rely upon Jesus, that he's all you need, and that you leave here consistently with this renewed sense of purpose, vision and calling over your life and in your faith. I continually pray that over you. But listen, it doesn't stop there. Solid food maturity in Christ goes beyond this being about you. We need to be givers and not just receivers. We need to be contributors and not just consumers. And this counters the self-centered, individualized, self dominating perspectives of our culture. Hope city, you know I love you, so hear my heart. And I'm gonna be a little bit bold here. If you've never come early or stayed late to engage someone with conversation, if you've never initiated a hello with someone you didn't know, just to encourage them, if you never gave of your time, talent, or treasure, if you never thought of yourself as one who bears the responsibility to help with what God is doing at your church, then you may need to rethink your understanding of Christian growth. We have thousands of people here who serve and give week in and week out. Man, I was thinking about our parking lot attendance last week in minus 30. I'm like, dude, you deserve a medal for that. And all these people, they do it because yes, they love our church and they wanna see others experience the goodness of God in their lives. But they also do it because they know that they have been gifted. And by exercising the very gift that they have been given, they're pouring back into God's church and into others. For God's glory, it's for the common good. They do it because it matures them spiritually. And I could give a shout out to so many of you across our campuses for doing this, friend, listen to me. You wanna grow spiritually this year. Step up. What is keeping you from taking that next to pour into God's church and into others? Make 20, 25 a year where you spiritually mature. Growing in your faith means going beyond asking what the church does for me, to asking what can I do to help it be what God intended it to be. It isn't just about how the church serves me. Growth says, how can I serve others? And for the rest of the series, we're gonna unpack the list of spiritual gifts that Paul gives in one Corinthians 12, which are for the common good, which are for building the church, which are for and two God's glory. Now before I read the list, Paul actually gives us three lists of gifts in the New Testament. These are entitled the manifestation gifts. There's also the motivational gifts in Romans 12 verses six to eight, and the ministry gifts in Ephesians four 11, my prayer is that you may discover areas where you are gifted and that you grow friend, that you lean into building up others and not just focus on yourself because there's so much joy and fullness and maturity in this. By the way, remember my charger? Well it was awesome that I got to use it on my daughter's car. But literally two days later I get a text from my neighbor 'cause he knew I got this. I was pretty jacked about it. I told him about it and he's like, can I use that thing on my daughter's car? His teenage daughter's car would also not start something about teenage girls and not plug it in. I don't know. But it was fantastic to share this little device and see how helpful it became, not just for our family but for theirs. It was now a gift for the benefit of others. You see, there's something about receiving a gift and almost immediately putting it to use and seeing the impact of it. And so what are the manifestation gifts that Paul talks about? Let's read 'em now. To each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good to one, there is given through the spirit a message of wisdom to another, a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another gifts of healing. By that one spirit, you notice everything centers around the Holy Spirit to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between uh, spirits to another, speaking in different kinds of tongues and and to still another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same spirit and he distributes them to each one just as he determines. There's a total of nine gifts listed. And these gifts have caused division and rifts throughout church history. They have been grounds for people walking away from following Jesus because of their abuse or inappropriate usage. That's why it's so important to be informed about them. And I do wanna say the gifts can be and are available at different seasons and in different ways, meaning you're not locked into one gift for life. It's as the Lord through the Holy Spirit freely gives and he freely gives when we need them. Joseph, he's a Old Testament individual and he displayed this when he had the gift of interpretation of dreams and then later was given the gift of wisdom when leading Egypt through a famine. Do not be uninformed about the gifts, meaning understand them. And so let's look at the first two gifts that Paul gives us. Wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom refers to a wise course of action or a word in a situation. It's inspired insight into a problem or question you may have. I've experienced this many times while leading our church or maybe even just being in a counseling session. I pray, God, grant me your wisdom. God provide insight to the right next step. Give me the ability to hear and know what to do. And by the way, there's a great way to test what you hear because often we can ask, how do I know when it's God's speaking? And if it's his wisdom, three ways to test, first way alignment. Does it line up with God's word? If it does, awesome. If it doesn't, probably not God. Number two, practice. Step out. Make a decision and assess the results. God's wisdom doesn't fail. And number three, affirmation. Do others around you agree that it's the best way forward? I mean this happened in the Book of Acts when they were talking about some of the, some of the things the gentile believers should know when following Jesus. And they actually said this line it. It seems right to us. And the Holy Spirit wisdom is inspired insight into a certain problem or situation. James New Testament author says, if you lack wisdom, you should ask for it. And maybe, maybe you're in the throes of something big and you just need some wisdom today. Hope city, I wanna encourage you. Ask for it, ask for it. The second gift Paul mentions is knowledge. This is inspired information about a matter or a person. It's something revealed supernaturally or specifically. And this can have consequences if done wrongly and taken outta context. Knowledge involves a deep understanding of divine truth related to scripture, meaning whatever the word of knowledge is, it would never contradict God's word. And so Jesus, he exemplified this. Remember on earth he was fully human. And while talking to a woman at a well, he reveals her entire life to her without her saying a word about it to him. That's a word of knowledge In my own life, I had this moment in the church where I grew up in. It was one Sunday after a service and we had a guest speaker and he invited us to come to the front to pray. And I remember coming to the front and sitting on the left hand side of the pew. We had wooden church pews back then and no one knew what was going on in my heart. I was actually in school completing my business marketing degree, but I was wrestling with God about being a pastor. I hadn't shared this with anyone. And so I was just praying about it. And this guest speaker comes up to me and simply says this young man, you need to stop running from God's call on your life. That's a word of wisdom, that's a word of knowledge, rather something supernaturally inspired about someone that rings true with them. And that's the key. It's gotta ring true with them. Here's some caution. Use discernment in giving and receiving a word of knowledge. If you think God has said something to you about someone, approach them with a simple buffer line such as I, I think this might be from God. So if the word resonates with you, awesome. If not, don't worry about it saying, God told me can be both damaging and irresponsible. Now, if you are on the receiving end of a word, make sure it resonates with you. If it doesn't, chances are it's not from God. Why? Remember the purpose of the gifts. They're for the common good for building others up, not for the glorification of someone else or ourself or tearing others down. I like how Paul ends chapter 12. We're gonna come back to this verse a lot I think in this series. He just says this in verse 31. Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. You know what he's saying? Go after these gifts in your life. Want them, ask for them, pray for them. And to help you do this, we have a gifts survey online. You can head over to hope city.ca/gif or scan that QR code. And if you have an account with us, you log in, you take the test, you're gonna get the results. If you don't have an account with us, you need to um, create an account and then you can take the test and get the results. I promise you this will be super helpful for you. What does Paul say about the gifts of the spirit? I do not want you to be uninformed friend, upon following Jesus, you have a gift from God. You have a part to play in making his church function the way it should until he comes again. And maturing in faith means going beyond asking what the church does for me, to asking what can I do to help it be what God intended it to be. And so I want to encourage you to move from milk to solid food. I wanna encourage you to take a step today, discover your gift and see how God will use you to build his church. I'm gonna ask you to stand if you are able to. I wanna close in prayer, praying over you today. God, I thank you for the gifts of your spirit. I thank you that you tell us we need to know about this. We need to be informed about this. And I thank you that upon following you Holy Spirit, you come and you gift us in certain ways. With certain skills. With certain abilities. And so I pray for my friends today that they may desire these things in their life, that they may want to move in a greater way to know you more and operate in this for your glory. And for your honor, I pray Jesus that you help 'em discover where it is that they might be gifted and they just excel in that and see your grace and your glory and your provision using them through this. And so, God, I just ask this for and over them. I pray for those who are just facing a situation where they need some wisdom today. Maybe they just sin. I don't know what to do. Holy Spirit, I pray for godly inspired wisdom. May it come to their mind even now or even this week or this day where they know, yeah, that's from God. That's what I need to do. And so may they hear your direction there. May they know your direction there. And so I just pray that for them. You might be joining us today, one of our campuses online, in person here. And you don't know Jesus personally. Friend, I wanna tell you, Jesus went to the cross to die for your sins. He rose to off you life both now and forever. And I said it already, making the best decision of your life to follow Jesus is something that is incredible. When you see your need for him, you just say, I wanna follow you. And beginning that journey with him, um, a lot of times starts with a prayer. And so I'm gonna pray and just ask you to pray along with me to help you put some words into that initial decision for you. So let's pray. Jesus today I see my need for you. And I thank you for going to the cross for my life from my sins. I thank you for rising and offer me life and hope both now and forever. And so today I put my hope in you today. I put my trust in you. I believe in you, and I put my faith in you. Help me to follow you. All the days of my life. Help me to make you Lord and leader of my life. And so I'm grateful that I can do that for your glory and for your honor. And God, I too want to just pause and pray for our country right now. In the last couple weeks, we've seen a lot of turmoil. We've seen a lot of things that can make us a little shaky, feel a little anxious, feel a little worried. First and foremost, we pray for the leadership of our country. We pray for godly wisdom so they know how to lead us forward, God. And so we just ask Holy Spirit, do what you can do there and help us to remember that all leadership is put in place by you. And our job as your church is to pray and just ask for your kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. And so we ask for that today. We pray for that today in your powerful name. God, I pray in closing over every individual, every couple, and every family as they go into this week, I ask that you may surround them, that you may strengthen them, that you may direct and guide them. I pray for your Holy Spirit to be so near that you may speak to them when they need it and that you may encourage them and comfort them and God drive them deeper in you so they may understand that you have gifted 'em with something for your glory and for your honor. And so as Paul says, may we eagerly desire these gifts in our life, may we go after them as a way of living our life of growth in our faith with you. And so I ask for that over and for this church in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. If you prayed that prayer of surrendering your life to Christ, can I just ask you to scan the QR code on the screen or even on the seat back in front of you, we got a digital booklet we'd love to get in your hands that talks about knowing and following Jesus. And it's our way of connecting with you personally, getting to know you. If you're joining us in person at Millwood and you want prayer over anything in your life, we're gonna have a prayer team available down at your front, left after the service and they would love to pray alongside with you. Friends, know this. I love you lots. I'm praying for you. I'm cheering you on as you go into this week. You know, I'm really excited for this series because I think we're gonna grow in our faith. But as you go into this week, may you know that God is for you. He can be dependent upon and may you walk in grace and truth to His glory and his honor. Thanks for being in church today. God bless you guys. Have a great Sunday.