Morning Church.  You made it. I'm proud of you. Way to go today. And for those that are home that didn't make it today we'll pray for them and pray for them; to enjoy their time at home and there's no judgment or guilt or anything, but just glad that those of you who made it are here.

And for those that aren't here, we'll see them next time. As we prepare to move into our new church home Lord willing in the next month or so we're doing a handful of topics that I'm just calling church essentials. And each topic in this series is in some way foundational to the life of our church body and important for our culture as a church.

And today we're talking about spiritual gifts.  And this is a good time for a refresher because it's something that is.  We, we use them all the time. The, and the way that I'll be describing for you today we're always, using our spiritual gifts to serve the body and so forth.

But it's not something that we talk about a whole lot. So, it'd be good to get a refresher on it and spend some time studying it today. So that's what we're going to do today.  Personally, for me, when it comes to spiritual gifts, I’ve lived in two different worlds with spiritual gifts. There was the Pentecostal world that I spent a good bit of time in.

And then there's the more evangelical world that we're in now.  And whenever it's back in my Pentecostal days, when I say Pentecostal, you might be familiar with, if you're not familiar with that word, you might know charismatic but it's this world of sign gifts, speaking in tongues prophecy, healing That's the big emphasis in that world.

And that is the, that was all the focus whenever I was in that church. And of course, the main one is speaking in tongues because speaking in tongues is the gateway gift that opens up all the other sign gifts to you.  And then whenever I've moved more into the evangelical world that I'm in Now, the focus that I see in our world oftentimes is on discovering your spiritual gift.

So, by discovering your spiritual gift, you can use your spiritual gifts so you can have a more fulfilling spiritual life. That is often the way we talk about it.  And so, you may have taken spiritual gift inventories either online or at church or something. And the focus is always on what is my spiritual gift.

In my opinion, both of these put too much emphasis on us. And not enough on what spiritual gifts are for. And what spiritual gifts are for is building up the body. It's about other people.  And so, these things obscure the Bible's plain teaching when we do it this way.  The most extensive teaching about spiritual gifts in the Bible is in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 especially.

But you may know what the middle chapter is about. And y'all know what 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is about.  Love. It's the love chapter.  Now, isn't that interesting? First Corinthians 12 extensive teaching on spiritual gifts. And that's where we'll be today. Spirit first Corinthians 14, an extended another extended portion of scripture that teaches about the operation of spiritual gifts, nested in between them is this chapter that is all about love.

Because love builds up and that is what spiritual gifts are for.  And that's what Paul is reminding us.  And so, my main point this morning is simply to use the gifts God has given you to build others up. That's my application point. So, you can, if you want to just make a note, that's all I'm trying to say this morning, use the gifts God has given you to build others up.

So, let's dig in, take your Bible and turn to first Corinthians chapter 12. First Corinthians chapter 12 for those of you who were at our family meeting last Sunday or if you watch it online, I made a comment that I want to put into practice now. And the comment is as we're, starting this new year and as we're about to move into a new building, it is an opportunity to just make some tweaks or changes in various aspects of our church ministry that I think may help us to do what we do better or express who we are more fully.

And so, what I want to do now is something is not really a habit here, but I would like to, just work with us and see if it would be something good for us. And that is to stand while we read the word of God. So, if you would stand with me and I'm going to read first Corinthians 12 verses 4 through 31.

And here's another thing. I'll, we'll layer this in later. But in some churches, when you get to the end of the reading of God's word, the person reading says, this is God's word. And then do you all know what you're, what people say after that?  Thanks be to God. Now, some of you always try to say it, but you don't want to do it by yourself.

So, whenever I get to the end, I want to say, this is God's word. And then you'll know, you can say, thanks be to God. If you're so inclined. First Corinthians 12, starting in verse four.  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.

And everyone to each is given the manifestation of the spirit of God. For  to one is given through the spirit, the utterance of wisdom, and to another, the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another, the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another, the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another, the interpretation of tongues.

All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.  For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many, If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body.  That would not make it any less the part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again, the head to the feet. I have no need of you.  On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.  And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty.

which are more presentable parts do not require.  But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together.  If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now, you are the body of Christ.  and individually members of it.  And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping administrating and various kinds of tongues are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers do all work miracles to all possess gifts of healing.

Do all speak with tongues to all interpret but earnestly desire the higher gifts.  And I will show you still a more excellent way.  The word of the Lord.  You may be seated.

Let's begin with the definition. What are spiritual gifts?  In Greek, the word gift is charisma. And according to my Bible dictionary, it says, something graciously or freely given on account of the favor and kindness of the giver.  So, we can just begin with the fact that the whole Christian life is a gift, right?

All of the Christian life is a gift that we receive from God, a gift of His grace, and all of it is a gift that we freely receive.  And Romans, chapter 6, Verse 23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift, there it is, charisma, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  A related word to charisma is just you just the first part of it, which is charis.

And the word charis.  It means grace. So, John chapter one verse 16 says for from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. The word grace there is just Kara. So, it's related to the word charisma.  So, grace gift, all of these are things that we freely receive from God that we do not deserve. And Wade did a wonderful job just explaining this to us in our liturgy as we're reminded of the fact that we, what we deserve is hell and an eternity separated from God.

But what we receive and what we expect is grace upon grace.  And so that is the foundation of spiritual gifts. The whole of salvation is a gift of grace, which is then by the spirit individualized and applied by his spirit in the lives of his people.  So, every Christian then is indwelt by and empowered by the Holy Spirit because we all believe the same gospel.

We all worship the same God.  Now look at this verse again that we read already.  Verse, this is getting ahead of me here.

Verse four of first Corinthians 12. Now there are varieties of gifts, charisma, 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 and everyone.  So then back to the question, what are spiritual gifts?

When does an ordinary Christian duty become a spiritual gift?  Now, for now, I want to focus on ordinary gifts of the spirit. So, we want to set aside sign gifts. We'll talk about that in a moment, like tongues, miracles, healing, and that sort of thing. So right now, we're just focusing on ordinary gifts.  And so, to answer this question, I want to make a few distinctions and give you three categories.

As we approach the subject of spiritual gift, give you three categories.  The first category is disobedience. So disobeying God, that is not doing what God requires. Or doing something that God forbids. That's disobedience. Second category is obedience. That is doing what God requires or not doing what God forbids.

So, if you obey Jesus and you share the gospel with someone, that does not mean that you have a gift of evangelism.  It just means you're obeying God.  That's just ordinary obedience. What God requires of people to bear witness to the gospel.  Similarly, God requires us to grow in wisdom. So, as you grow and mature in Christ and you become more wise, that does not mean that you have a gift of wisdom.

That means you are obeying Christ in an ordinary way.  So, then what makes it a gift? When does something become a gift and not just an ordinary obedience?  So, the third category is gift. You have disobedience, you have obedience, and then you have gifting. And gifting is obedience at a high level that is enabled with some extraordinary ability that you possess.

So, a spiritual gift is a special empowering of the Holy Spirit to obey God in a special way.  So ordinary obedience that represents baseline expectations for every believer's life of faith, but a spiritual gift is some ability to obey God in a way that is unique to you and its beyond what others do.

So, in short, you could say spiritual gifts are like specialized tools given to us by the spirit that enable us to do particular services in the body of Christ.  So that's what a spiritual gift is. Now, all spiritual gifts are marked by three features. I want to give you three key features that set them apart from ordinary Christian obedience.

So whenever, I'm not talking about ordinary obedience, I'm talking about spiritual gifts, and there are three things that make them stand out from ordinary obedience.  And I'll tell you what the three are. Ability, variety, and purpose. That's where I'm going here. The first one is ability.  So, ability, that is a spiritual gift, is some human ability or skill that is surrendered to and under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

So, it's, you have the ability, but that ability is now directed by and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  So, you'll notice here in verse six, you say there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all and everybody. So, whenever there is a spiritual gift that is whenever you have a spiritual gift, it is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

God has given you some unusual ability to obey him with a particular talent that you might have.  So, whenever we receive Christ, we are born again.  And whenever we receive Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. And in so doing, we are given power by the Holy Spirit.  Now, in the charismatic Pentecostal world, they see the word power and their eyes light up because they think that means power to perform miracles, power to do, mighty incredible things.

And in some cases, yes. But it's not. But the sort of power that every Christian receives is power to do that which they could not have done before they knew Jesus. And that is power to obey God from the heart and a power to please God. So, it's like somebody who's not a Christian cannot please God. If you're not a Christian, it is impossible for you to please God because you're an enemy of God.

But you become a child of God through faith in Christ when you repent of your sin, and you are forgiven. And in that process, God fills you with his spirit. And now because you are filled with the presence of God himself in your life, you have power to do what you couldn't have done before. And that is to act, and to live, and to think, and to feel.

In ways that please the Lord, not perfectly, obviously, but there, there is a power to do that.  Acts chapter one, verse eight, Jesus said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.  So, every Christian receives the power of the spirit.  Now, this does not always mean, in fact, I would say it rarely means.

new abilities. Most often it means old abilities that are now transformed by the spirit and empowered by the spirit. But you already had the ability.  So most often spiritual gifts are natural abilities you already had, but that are now transformed and empowered. By the Holy Spirit.  For some examples, we’ve, we read some of them in our text.

There's wisdom, there's a gift of knowledge, gift of helping, gift of administrating, of serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, mercy.  These are all things that non-Christians have some version of these abilities, but they cannot use those abilities in ways that please God truly.  So there, there are natural abilities, but whenever they become a Christian, then those abilities can be spiritual gifts because the natural aptitude that God has already put within them just by fact of their creation and their life now surrendered by surrendered to the spirit and under the direction of the spirit can now be a spiritual gift where they can use what God has given them in some way that stands out to serve others.

A couple of examples. Suppose you have a non-Christian man, and he may be good at showing mercy in the natural way. He's a man that is naturally compassionate. He's my dad is like this. My dad is a naturally compassionate man. But before my dad was a Christian, or before this man I'm talking about is a Christian, his natural compassion and mercy was not directed by the Holy Spirit.

It was just some general human compassion that is common among men.  But when that person becomes a Christian, he receives the grace, the gift, the charis of Christ, and he is filled with the spirit. And now that natural gift of mercy can become a spiritual gift for that natural ability under the direction of the spirit can now be supercharged and directed towards a God honoring purpose.

Or suppose you have a non-Christian woman, and she is really good at hospitality. It's not a spiritual gift. She doesn't know Jesus. She cannot please God. It's not a spiritual gift.  But if she becomes a Christian, then her natural God given ability of hospitality is transformed by the spirit of God within her.

And now, because of the spirit of God that's at work within her, it is, it can become a spiritual gift that can benefit the body of Christ. That's ability. That's number one.  Number two is variety.  A spiritual gift is a distinct ability that stands out from other people's abilities.  Again, verses four through six, you see this word variety three times.

There are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit, there are varieties of service, but the same Lord, there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God. So, there's one God and many manifestations of that one God's creativity in the lives of his people.  So, there's, this is where the ordinary obedience comes into play.

There's no spiritual gift of going to church.  There's no spiritual gift of reading the Bible or mortifying sin or being honest with someone.  Those aren't spiritual gifts. Those are ordinary things that don't stand out. Those are just regular duties to obey God and their expectations of every Christian.

Amen.  A spiritual gift is something different that you bring to the table that is different than somebody else. What somebody else brings to the table.  So, all human ability is a gift of God's grace, common grace. Everybody is good at something, but we are not all good at the same things. Everybody's going to be good at different things because God is endlessly creative.

And so, whenever you have a diverse, a various group of people within a body of Christ that are filled with his spirit, then their natural human abilities can then be supercharged and empowered by the spirit and then deployed to build one another up. in the church.  Number three, purpose.  Spiritual gifts are not given to build up the individual.

They are given to build up other people.  And this is a really important thing that I think often is, this is probably the thing that is most often overlooked in the discussion of spiritual gifts.  Usually whenever the topic of spiritual gifts comes up, we become very self-focused. What is my gift? I have this gift.

What is your gift? Oh, we have this list in the Bible. There's 38 different gifts that we can find. And which ones do you have? I have number eight and number 12 and it just, it's all about me. And then it becomes, it's like I have these gifts, four or five of these different gifts that I can find.

Therefore, my service to the church must align with the results of this test.  Now, let's say there's a huge need over here that somebody could do, but nobody feels particularly good at or inclined to do, but anybody could do it.  Then it becomes that's not my gift. I don't have the gift of changing diapers.

Somebody else has that gift. And so, I'm not going to serve that way. I have the gift of singing and I'm going to only serve the church by using my gift of singing.  Obviously, that's, that is not the way it's meant to be used because it's self-focused whenever we think of it that way.  And as I mentioned earlier, during my Pentecostal days, I was focused on the gift of tongues because that was all the rage.

Everybody was pushing. It's that's the initial evidence that you're filled with the spirit is if you speak in tongues. And I'd say, where's that in the Bible? It doesn't matter. It's not in the Bible but just trust me it's what it is. And of course, it's not the initial evidence of being filled with the spirit.

That is totally just a made-up thing.  And then later, whenever I went into, I ended up leaving Pentecostal world and, but then it was just the same problem, a different version.  And it was like, help me discover my gifts so I can have a fulfilling church experience. But still, it's all about me and what I do, what I want, my needs, my talents, my gifts, and how can my experience of church be most meaningful and fulfilling because I am doing what I feel good at.

And what the church needs and what other people need. When I say what the church needs, what people around us need are not always things that we're good at. Nobody has a spiritual gift of helping people move whenever they are new in town, but there's always a need for that. You don't have to have a gift of helps or administrating or lifting heavy boxes to help serve in that.

That is just something that is a need that you can respond to without having a particular gift to point to.  Now, I don't hate gift inventories. They can be helpful.  But we want to be careful to not use them as some kind of religious personality test.  In Corinth, that was the problem there. They had a big problem with people using their gifts for self-promotion because they were selfish people.

And so, Paul's message in 1st Corinthians is spiritual gifts should always build up the body of Christ. That is its purpose, to promote unity, to promote interdependence within the body, to help people grow.  And so that means spiritual gifts are not about you.  to make sure you get to do the thing you're good at.

Spiritual gifts are about other people that you know in this room, that in your life that there is something distinct about you that you're good at, that you're strong at, that you might be able to serve somebody with that thing that you're good at. I feel a little at a bit of a, I feel puts the word spoiled because.

I get to see this. I have a bird's eye view of the church, and I have a pretty good idea of what everybody's good at for the most part, and I get to see how people use their gifts, but I also see the humility with which people use them, and that is the most delightful thing.  I'm able to see when people use their gifts, and then they're also able to do things that they're not particularly good at, but there's a need because the humble heart of wanting to build others up in love, that's what really drives them.

And that is a delight to see as a pastor. And I see that all the time in our church.  But spiritual gifts are about building up the church, about loving other people. Love is at the center as the animating principle, which is demonstrated by the fact that the love chapter first Corinthians 13 is nestled in between these two chapters about spiritual gifts.

Let me give you some biblical examples of this point.

This just wants to advance on its own for some reason today.  First Corinthians 12 verse seven, this is in the middle of our text for today. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for, here's the purpose. Why does God give you a manifestation of the spirit?  So, you can feel better about yourself.

So, you can be able to serve in the ministry of your preference. No, the manifestation of the spirit is for the common good. It is to build up so that everyone can benefit in some way from your service. Here's another. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that locked it, that there may be no division in the body.

The word that, that indicates a purpose. That there may be no division in the body, but that the members individually may have the same care for one another. Do you see that?  The manifestation of the spirit is for the benefit of other people. Another example.

This just wants to keep scrolling.  I think I know why. I can fix it next time.  All right. Now I want to just jump over to chapter 14 and give you a couple of verses here. Chapter 14 verse 12. So, with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the spirit. Strive to excel in building up the church.

Then verse 26, What then brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

Now, there are three more features of spiritual gifts that I want to go over, and I want to designate these as special cases.  So, we've variety, ability and purpose is that's something that every spiritual gift would have. There's going to be some ability that's going to be different than somebody else's ability that is used for the benefit of other people.

Christian does that. That's a good chance. That's a spiritual gift. Now I have some special cases that need a little bit extra finesse to, to understand these.  So, three more features. I will call these special case spiritual gifts. By the way, I've got to say this cause it's bugging me. This here, that was a copy and paste error from the previous verse.

It's I'm pretty sure that shouldn't be there.  Okay. Three more features.  These are calling, authorization, and supernatural. So, calling, the first one.  Spiritual gifts will sometimes correspond to a calling within the church. A particular calling, not always, but sometimes.  So, you may have noticed that some of the gifts that we discussed in first Corinthians 12 are not actually gifts, but people, did you notice that he's talking about spiritual gifts, but he says, are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers.

Those are people. He's not those are people that have a particular gift, but he switches from talking about a gift to talking about a person or even an office, a particular calling. And so, some gifts are attended with a particular calling because that gift needs to be exercised with some, an unusual way within the body of Christ.

So, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, that's an example from Ephesians First Timothy or excuse me, Second Timothy one verse six. And this is another example, and that is Paul was talking to Timothy says, for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, Charis, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

So, for in Timothy's case, the gift is a particular calling that he is supposed to fulfill, and the calling is a gift, and the gift was imparted to him by laying on of hands. So, he was appointed officially and formally into an office of the church.  So, some spiritual gifts will be special vocations.

There'll be offices, they will be there, there'll be titles with defined responsibilities and authorities. And so elder is one, the most obvious one that we have. And there are in the gift of eldering, which will be like teaching, shepherding all of these things. Those are, they're within an office that, that they're done and that, that is connected to the next point.

So, if calling the next one is authorization.  Authorization. Some gifts, before they may be used in the church, they require authorization by the church. Because the gift itself carries authority and influence amongst God's people, and that is something that requires extra care.  To give you an example, some of you in this room may be gifted as teachers and you may have a gift of teaching, but that doesn't automatically make you a teacher in the church, does it?

Why is that?  It is because teaching, gift in the church, there are character qualifications that must be attended to them. And there are other considerations. So just because somebody is good at talking and good at explaining things and they have good insight into the Bible, lots of people can have that, but then, but the teaching function of the church needs to receive the blessing of the church and it cannot just be I'm a good teacher, so I want to teach something.

That's why we have, have to be, there has to be some authorization from the church. In fact, the text of James chapter three gives this explicit command about it. James three verse one, not many of you should become teachers. my brothers. For you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

So teaching is mentioned as a spiritual gift in 1 Corinthians 12, but not many of you should become teachers. So there has to be some authorization by the church before that gift can be utilized within the church.  So, the teaching gift of the church is housed within an office of the church, meaning the elders, and there are qualifications required for that gift.

Now, the elders obviously will delegate the role of teaching to people that we deem to be sufficiently qualified to teach in other venues. So, all of our city group leaders have their, there we, we know these men to be qualified. They don't have to be elders, but they do have the authorization and blessing of the church to, to teach in their city group context.

Whenever, Lord willing, if move into the new place and we have classes like Sunday school classes, there will be teachers and the teachers of those classes will do their teaching because the church has authorized them to do so as a general rule then, gifts that have a greater authority and responsibility in the church, should be authorized by the church.

Another example would be gifts like shepherding or leading just because many of you are, outstanding leaders and just because you're an outstanding leader at work or in some other field that does not automatically translate into the church where you should therefore be a leader in the church and churches make this mistake all the time.

Where they'll notice, Oh, Frank Jones over here he's an incredibly gifted leader. Look what he does. He's like an entrepreneur and he's a business leader, CEO. What great leadership ability, man, wouldn't it be great to have those leadership abilities in the church?  Not necessarily.

And it could be his great leadership ability will be to the church's detriment if he's not a man of character and qualification, or even if his priorities are right, because he will lead people, but will he lead people in ways that are authorized by scripture and ways that church should be led? Maybe not.

So, there are the gift of leading must be surrendered to the spirit, directed by the spirit and the church needs to say, yes, we recognize. That this person is good to lead. Deacons are a good example of that. They're leaders in the church, but we know that the leading that they will do, and they're very capable, strong leaders, and they've been authorized by the church by your vote to, to lead in ways that we know are God honoring.

So that is a spiritual gift.  And because these sorts of spiritual gifts carry that sort of responsibility, the church needs to give its blessing. I'll give you another example from our church, Dan, if I can pick on you for a moment, you picked on me last week. So, I'll pick on you today.  You all know Dan Monahan who preached last Sunday.

Dan is a wonderful teacher a preacher. He is a shepherd. He's a pastor's heart. He is experienced. He's, years of pastoral ministry himself before coming to Christ the King.  Dan had an idea. He said, I want to. I want to gather some men in the church and do some meditative prayer with them and we'll do walks.

And here's how I'm going to do it.  And Dan was, I appreciated so much the fact that Dan didn't just I'm just going to grab some guys. We're going to do it because if he didn't, if there was no, no heads up or authorization first, then he would be using his gifts in a way that would be like, we'd have to look in on it.

But Dan was very humble. And he came to the elders, men that are much his junior and much less probably godly and mature than Dan is but coming to these men and myself and the other elders and saying Hey, I want to do this. I want to lead men through this. And we're like, praise the Lord. That sounds wonderful.

And with our blessing, it has been something that I know has been a massive blessing to many of you. And Dan has shepherded and led and helped pastor people in an informal, organic way using his gift, but he does so with the blessing of the church. I'm very thankful for that, Dan. And for you preaching last week.

Thank you, brother, for doing that.  All right, here's the third special case.  Supernatural or signed gifts.  Now, I believe these are special case gifts.  And that God distributes them according to his purposes. Now, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because it's not really an issue in our church, but I do want to just tell you, my view.

I've had some people ask me, oh, every once in a while, somebody said, what do you think about sign gifts? And I'll have to explain it. Here you go. Here's my understanding. I don't believe that sign gifts are normative for us today.  And I do believe that they ceased in their normative operation in the days of the early church.

What do I mean by sign gifts? I'm talking about speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, gifts of healing, other miracles, things of that nature.  Now, I do believe in miracles, and I believe God performs miracles as an answer to prayer. And we should all believe that because the defining act of Christianity is the miracle of Christ's resurrection from the dead.

So, we certainly believe that God heals, and God performs miracles at his pleasure. God is God. God can do as he pleases.  But I do think it pleases God for miracles to be extremely rare.  Thus, God can may, can and may perform miracles and he may even do them through other people. We see that in the Bible.

God has, if God chooses to do that, I see no reason from the Bible why we could not, we shouldn't be surprised if God does that.  However, I don't think we should expect this to be normative because miracles by definition are rare.  If they happened all the time, they would cease to be miracles.

They would just be normal, but miracles are rare because God reserves the miracles, the miraculous acts that he performs for times whenever he has some unusual thing that he wants to accomplish that needs or would be best done in a miraculous way to demonstrate his power.  So  you may wonder why do I think that  I'm not going to go into great detail of a biblical argument, but I'll just give you a couple of points on this  while the New Testament was being written and the church was being formed,  the preaching of the gospel by the apostles who were the first person eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus  was attended with signs.

There wasn't a Bible that they could say, here, read this Bible. The Bible that they had, it was the Old Testament and all that they had other than the Old Testament was their verbal testimony of what happened, that they were eyewitnesses to.  So, the apostles were, we saw Jesus. That guy, that man in the flesh, I saw him after he rose from the dead.

I shook his hand. I gave him a hug. He fed me a fish, whatever. I saw Jesus himself. And I am eyewitnesses. I will swear my life that I saw this man raised and he was, he walked this earth for 40 days before he was taken up before the father.  And come on, man, it's just a story. It's a lot of times these men would perform miraculous signs to authenticate the message.

And we saw this with, in the book of Acts. Now, the Pentecostals, the book of Acts, that's their jam. They love the book of acts because they want to assume what God did in the lives of the apostles are normative for all the church. So, they're looking to the book of acts as their marching orders.

And there, there's always this sense of disappointment that the kind of miracles that we see in the book of acts aren't happening all the time. In fact, some people may never see a miracle. There's always a rumor of some miracle, but the miracle never happens in a situation where it can be observed.

But that's the miracles attended the testimony and the preaching of the apostles.  And there were three reasons for that. The miracles were a revelation of truth and authentication of truth and the edification of the church. It was a way to build up the church by saying, this is real, this is true.

And as part of their witness. Now, after the New Testament was written and the church was formed and established.  The signs started to give way to scripture, which is the written testimony of Jesus.  And now the written testimony of Jesus, the scriptures, the New Testament, the Bible, that alone is sufficient to reveal God's truth and to authenticate its message.

The Bible is self-authenticating and to edify the church.

The charismatic movement really didn't begin until a little over a hundred years ago. Did you know that? There's, and there are the phenomena of tongues is not exclusive to Christian charismatics. It is also practice in some pagan religions. And so it is, there, there are some strange associations with the gift of tongues that I think should give us pause about just trying to.seek the gift of tongues.  But the charismatic movement is a little over a hundred years old. It started with the Azusa Street revival in 1906. And whenever I was in a Pentecostal church, Azusa, that, you say that's chills down your spine. You hear Azusa. Cause that means some crazy stuff's about to go down.

Whenever you've got Azusa, the Holy Spirit's going to come, and things are going to get lit in here. That was the way that was the attitude about it, but it's about 120 years old or so.  And I won't, I wouldn't say the Azusa Street is all bad, all the charismatic Pentecostal. I wouldn't say it's all bad.

I would say it's a mixed bag. Because one of the hardest things about leaving the Pentecostal Church when I was there was just how much, how wonderful and godly the people were. There was a great sense of holiness, a love for Christ, a boldness of their faith. I really miss that, honestly, and I've not seen it elsewhere.

However, there were errors that I thought were too great to ignore that in my case, I was like, I cannot remain here anymore. So, they're true churches. They love the Lord. They're good people. But this the charismatic wing of the movement that began about 120 years ago, that stream, that's the fuel behind the whole movement.

It has produced some rotten fruit. And so, some of the most damnable utterly reprehensible heresies in the world today that are destroying the church came out of this movement. So, the health and wealth gospel, I hate it. It is horrible. And it is a lie from hell because it turns the gospel upside down and turns God into a genie in a bottle where we just, we speak in tongues, and we rubbed the bottle and then the genie comes out and gives us whatever we name and claim.

The, almost all of these, like these really bizarre preachers and ministries that are just fleecing people for millions and millions of dollars flying all around the world. They're taking money in third world countries, preying on people's hope of prosperity that will never come.  It's almost all from these people

And so, some of the, just the worst. The worst things that have done the most damage in the modern church came out of this movement.  So even though there are pockets of wonderful godly people within the Pentecostal world and the Pentecostal and charismatic are a little bit different. I love the Pentecostal world charismatic.

I have less positive feelings about, but Pentecostals basically, with tongues. There are people that we would probably be like, hey, I like these people. And they're great people. I love a lot of them.  However, there are some dangers in the overall movement, and it flavors and they, since they all interact and engage with one another.

the bad stuff coming out of Hillsong and Elevation and Bethel, these traditions are some really ugly things, and it spills over, and it poisons the parts of the movement that are still relatively good and healthy. It's hard to divorce them, that influence from it. And also, it tends to be really emotionalistic and it's you turn your brain off.

Because the Holy Spirit just takes care of everything. I actually would hear people say, it's I don't prepare my sermons, I just walk up here and let the Spirit talk.  But you would think the Spirit would be more coherent when you talked. But that's another story. Alright, I'm getting myself in trouble now.

I'll accept a label, mild cessationist.  And Wayne and I talked about this a lot, and I've asked a few friends about this. If you take the word cessationism, and you define it the way most people would define it. It means I don't believe the gifts are normative, but God is still God, right? That's, that is that's why I say I'm a mild cessationist.

Now, there are probably some out there that are hard cessationists that are like, Nope, there is no way that God will ever do any miraculous signs through a human being. That's a hard cessationist. I'm not there. But I'm, my, my Spidey sense is really starts tingling whenever I see a lot of the charismatic stuff, the Pentecostal stuff, because it does do a lot of damage.

So cessationist Pentecostal people, most of them, they're like, they're friends, good people. And it's worth noting here because they tend to be, a lot of these folks tend to be allies in the areas that we care about. They're solid on sexuality very often, man and woman stuff. They're against the transgender stuff.

They want to see; they believe that Jesus reigns supreme. They have a view of victory of Christ. They're very bold in their evangelism. They've got bold, great faith. They love to pray. So many things we could learn from them.  And I think that, in a new church building, a new church environment, we may see more of these kinds of folks, and I want them to know who we are and that we love them, and we want to welcome them in knowing who we are too.

So that's part of the reason why I want to address this here.  So mild cessationist, it's not a hill I'll die on, but we respect people with different views.  Okay. Let me give you three application points then, as we wrap this up, one of them already said, spiritual gifts are not about you.  And that doesn't mean that they're not for you.

They are for you. Cause the Bible teaches they're for us, but they're not about you. So, the gifts that you have, God gave you gifts because he wants someone else to benefit from the gifts he's given you. And you may. As a secondary effect benefit from it certainly, we benefit from using our own gifts, but the gift is for other people to serve others.

Second point, this church body needs your spiritual gifts.  This church, Christ the King Church, this body needs your spiritual gifts.  I read this text earlier, but we'll read it again. First Corinthians 12, 14 through 18 for the body does not consist of one member, but of many, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body that would not make it.

Any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would they be? The sense of smell. But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose,

we need you.  And if you don't feel needed, it's not because you're not needed, it’s 'cause maybe you haven't read this text, or at least you need to believe this text, but. But this church needs all kinds of gifts, great and small.  We need gifts of people that, great at theology and teaching and doing music and doing upfront stuff.

And we need people doing behind the scenes stuff and serving in various ways and benefiting and encouraging, exhorting, discipling, building one another up. All of these gifts are needed.  And so, you are here because God put you here. Did you see that? As it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose.

You are here because God brought you here.  And God's sovereign, his providence, his plan, he brought you here. And that means there's something that you have to contribute, not just to receive as a consumer, but you're here to contribute something. And you might think I'm not a great Bible teacher and I don't have very good theology and I'm not very mature

That doesn't matter.  It's like you can benefit from the teaching of others, but there's something that you have to contribute to somebody. It doesn't mean that we're going to put you on a stage, and you get to contribute your gift up here. It could mean there is someone else in this church that can benefit from what you have to offer.

And it may not be something spectacular. Doesn't need to be spectacular. It needs to be real and needs to be done with a heart of faith because you love this church body, and you want to help build it up.

Number three, the last one.  A gift's visibility does not determine its value.  A gift's visibility does not determine its value.  So, standing up here on a stage, that does not make it more valuable. It's more visible, but that doesn't make it more valuable.  Let's read this text again from 21.  The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again, the head to the feet.

I have no need of you.  On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.  And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor.  And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

But God has so composed the body. Notice again, God is sovereign. God has brought this body together just as he knit your body together in the womb before you were born. God has knit this body together and brought the people here that are here now. God has so composed this body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

Now, some gifts appear weaker, and, in our worldliness, we might think that they are less valuable.  And if we trust God's word, we have to believe that the thing that we might be tempted to discard or say, yeah, this guy, it's like he got hardly anything to offer. This guy is, he's a, he's you gotta put up with him and ignore him.

Mike. That's not at all what God said. God said, God brought that guy into your church body, and he's got something to give. He's got something to offer. Now you might think he's weaker and God says, no, he's indispensable to this church body. And God composed the body such that individual, that member would be there, and God wants him there.

And so, the visibility the being upfront that does not determine value.  Whenever there's a famous band that goes on tour, there's usually you got a lead singer, maybe four or five guys that's in the band, but you also have a tour manager, a personal entourage, a technical crew, a stage crew, a transport crew.

The headliners are up on the stage.  And even in a medium sized tour, you could have 40 people go on the tour.  So, in the music business, the headliners are what matters. They sell the tickets; they drive the industry.  But that's not the way it is in the body of Christ. That doesn't mean that the people that do the upfront visible work don't matter, but it just means that in the church, God, he is the headliner.

He is the attraction. He is why we're here. And then the people we come together, and we do our little things, and we serve in various ways to watch the headliner be glorified and to marvel at who he is. That's the way the body is composed. He is the head. That's what the scripture tells us.

He is the head. And so, all of us, we're the road crew.  And so, none of us that we might not feel like we're as important or as valuable or have anything special to offer. And I would just say with the love of Jesus, I would rebuke that attitude. It is a sin to think I ain't got nothing to offer, so I'm not going to bother.

No, that's a sin. You've got something to offer. You should offer what God has given you to offer. Now, it may not be spectacular or big or, blow people's minds, but give what you have. Be sincere in what you have and find ways. It's like when we come on Sunday, whenever you meet with a city group, there's it

Think about the other people that God has brought you there to benefit.  God has brought us together and he has composed the body in such a way that nobody is insignificant. Nobody is expendable. Everybody matters to God.  And we know this because God paid for their place in the body of Christ with his own blood.

And our unity is based on that fact. So therefore, the next verse here, if one month, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.  This January 10th, you know what that day is?  Some of you might know, January 10th, that’s right.  It is the 15th anniversary of Christ the King Church.

Can you believe that?  I was just like; it feels two weeks ago in some ways. It's just flown by, but it'd be our 15-year anniversary of our church. We should do something big to celebrate.  In the 15 years. Yeah. I don't know. Let's spend 3, 000, 000, but in the 15 years of our church, there have been dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of times when I've seen this play out.

I've seen the church love people through their pain.  Whenever somebody's suffering, everybody feels the impact of the suffering of one person, even if we don't know the individual personally, we know that person matters because that person is connected to my body.  And because that person is connected to my body, I feel for them.

I suffer with them. And yet somebody else, they have some victories, some celebration, some good thing. It's happening because they are rejoicing in a way, we're all rejoicing. We all celebrate the good thing because.  our body is experiencing something good over here.  And I would say that that is, that really is a good test of how healthy a church is.

It's can, it's, people can be naturally empathetic and so they may suffer, they may feel the pain of others. But I'd say the other one is a little bit harder to do. It's harder to rejoice. with others who are rejoicing. Because envy can kick in whenever we're rejoicing, but I've seen both happen.

It's from my observation, I would say that it's something that is a, something that really delights my heart as a pastor.  And so, whenever we've seen people celebrate the birth of a new child, whenever they have suffered a miscarriage recently, Or I've seen whenever somebody rejoices in somebody else's new job, whenever their own job is miserable, and they hate it.

That's what love does. And that's what I see in our church. I see love here. That's what healthy church members do. They build one another up in love. They want to see the body built up together.  Healthy church members see themselves as the arms and legs and hands and feet of Christ. And he's knitted us all together as a family because he has sovereignly composed this body.

So, I'll just conclude with this exhortation. We've talked about how God has given us various gifts. Have you used your gifts? Have you, are you allowing God, are you trusting God and stepping up to take the initiative to use your gifts in ways that benefit the body?  Are you a sideline sitter?

I hope not.  Don't be a sideline sitter. Find ways to assert yourself, to serve others, and to be involved. So, jump in with both feet, take initiative, look for needs, look for opportunities,

find a way to use what God has given you to benefit other people.  And I can't wait to see How God does uses all this whenever we move into a new space because our body is about to get a lot bigger, and I know that God will use all of you as we grow into the new space because you guys are the nucleus.

You guys are you’ll set the culture, you'll set the core, the direction. And I sense that God will use you mightily. And that God's going to bring people to our church that have a lot of needs, and they'll come from different traditions and backgrounds. And these people need love and care and discipleship, instruction, discipline.

God will bring a lot of unbelievers, I think, to our church, possibly a lot of unbelievers unbelieving children that will have a chance to share the gospel with them.  Let's hope you're ready for it. Hope you're ready for your gifts to be used because your gifts will definitely be needed.  So, let's be praying for that.

Let's be preparing that God will prepare us to unleash the gifts of our church in the years ahead. All right. Let's pray.  Our Father, it is a delight to read in your word that you have composed the body in such a way that every member is able to care for one another. Nobody is insignificant.

Everybody has something to give, and every member has value.  Thank you.  I thank you for the gift of the church. It really is a tremendous blessing to be a part of a body of people that, that love you, that are growing in Christ, that want to know, love, and obey you, that are eager to serve you with all the different various ways, different spiritual gifts.

Thank you, Father.  Lord, I thank you for the gift of grace of Jesus Christ that we have the spirit alive within us because of the work you did on the cross to die in our place, that we might be reconciled to you. Our sin can be forgiven and that we can be counted righteous in Christ to be adopted into your family.

And now filled with your spirit, we can be gifted in various ways to serve.  Help us use the ways you've given us Lord.  Help us to use these gifts to serve the church. And as we move into a new space in a few weeks’ time, I ask you, Father, that you will help us, Lord, to just explode in all the ways of, all the kinds of service.

Help us to be very attentive to different people and to see, to show up on Sundays not thinking so much about what we will receive, but what we will give. How we might help others, how we might give a word of encouragement, how we might pray for somebody, how we might offer a hand of service for some need, how we might build somebody up in some way, how we might exhort somebody or rebuke somebody for sin, how we might point somebody to Christ or give them a kind word.

Help us just to be always thinking about how can we build up the body? And thank you, Jesus, that it is in your wisdom that you built the church this way, because we are your body. You are the head. You are the main attraction. You are why we are here, and we give you all the glory. We pray this in the name of the father and son and Holy spirit.

Amen