One & Many Week 4 “The Variety and Value of Gifts”

REVIEW> We are in week 4 of our vision series and looking at what the scriptures call “the body of Christ.” We have talked about Spiritual Gifts as well. Just to review for us, this is what we are calling spiritual gifts, “Spiritual Gifts are the supernatural abilities given by God to the people of God in order to accomplish the work of God for the glory of God.”

*ILL> Do you know the 4 major sports here in the states that make up, “The Big Four”. NFL, NBA, MLB and…. well, that’s the thing the fourth one ch anges alot. It rotates between, hockey, golf, soccer and….. NASCAR! (PIC) That’s right, NASCAR is a $6 Billion dollar industry, that’s with a B. The top 12 drivers in NASCAR last year made a combined $155 million! One of the coolest things about NASCAR is the pit crew, right? (PIC) These guys get after it! “During a scheduled pit stop, the team’s pit crew services the vehicle as quickly as possible, completing a number of different services. Other services performed in routine pit stops include removing debris from radiator air intakes; cleaning the windscreen; and making adjustments to tyre pressure, suspension settings, and aerodynamic devices to optimize the vehicle’s performance for the current conditions. In endurance racing, scheduled driver changes and brake pad replacements are also considered “routine” service when done as part of a scheduled pit stop.” And they do it on average in 13-15 seconds….”

APP> Now when you think of that… who is the most important person? The Driver? Well the driver can’t drive if there isn’t gas, or tires or all kinds of other things. A variety of jobs that are equally valuable… now I want you to think of Spiritual gifts that way…

Big Idea> The Church is a diversity of people that are a unity of people who have a variety of gifts that are equally valuable.

CONTEXT> One of the things that we have done each week is taken time to sort some things out. This week in the text we see some warning from Paul about the Gifts from 1 Corinthians:

• • • They were comparing the gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)
    • They were elevating certain gifts. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

APP> Today is going to be a little bit different, rather than walking through a single portion of scripture, I am going to be grouping things together. There are a few main lists of spiritual gifts that we see in the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, Romans 12:3-8, Ephesians 4:11-12 and 1 Peter 4:1-11. What we need to know about with this is:

1. No list is complete
2. No single gift occurs in all five lists and thirteen gifts occur only in one of the five gifts. All in all there are a total of about 20 spiritual gifts that we see in scripture.

APP> Here is what we are going to try and do today, I am going to group the gifts into 3 categories. 1) Gifts that BUILD UP the body 2) Gifts that LIFT UP the body 3) Gifts that POWER UP the body

APP> Here is what we are going to do as well. This is something that we don’t ever talk about and it’s this. The scriptures teach that the Spirit of God lives in believers but the believers aren’t perfect we still struggle with what the Bible calls “The Flesh”.

• • • • “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” – Romans 8:5 APP> We will look at the positive (Spirit) and the negative (flesh) of those gifts.

1. Gifts that BUILD UP the church.

“Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepard, Teacher”

1. 1. APOSTLE- Lets get something straight, none is an Apostle like Paul. *ILL> Remember the old Gatorade commercials “be like mike” yea.. your not Michale Jordan APP> That’s like this, this is a gift NOT the office.

• • • • • • • SPIRIT– multiple gifts, entepranor mindset, loves difficult tasks. Gravitates to policies and procedures.
            • FLESH – Struggles with contentment and pride. Sometimes sees people as projects. Even tends to leave people behind.

     B.   PROPHET

• • • • • • • • SPIRIT– Deep passion for Gods Word, heart breaks for biblical illiteracy and the state of Gods church.
              • FLESH– struggles with being very cynical, could be harsh at times and  tends to isolate themselves.

   C.   EVANGELIST

• • • • • SPIRIT- Introducing people to Jesus, a large variety of people are drawn to this person, encourages the church to get outside it’s “4 walls”. Evangelist love seeing people come to faith in Jesus.
        • FLELSH–  Often times neglects the “saints” in favor of the “lost”. Struggles with being content in one place for a long time.

D.    SHEPARD

• • • • • SPIRIT- A deep love and care for people. Often times a very committed and protective. Shepards love seeing people mature in their faith.
        • FLESH- Sometimes will struggle with compromising the truth in favor of not hurting the person. Often times neglects the “lost” in favor of the “saints”

E.     TEACHER

• • • • • SPIRIT- Loves learning, researching, studying and illustrating God’s word either in formal settings or small settings. People learn when they teach.
        • FLESH– Often times only teaches what they are passionate about. Struggles with the approval of people over God’s approval of them.

Big Idea> The Church is a diversity of people that are a unity of people who have a variety of gifts that are equally valuable.

CLOSE> I want you to see how these gifts are even really all about Jesus.  “in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ…” 1 Peter 4:11

• • • • Jesus is the greatest Apostle – “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 18:
      • Jesus is the greatest Prophet- “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our father by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son..” Hebrews 1:1-2
      • Jesus is the greatest Evangelist- “For the son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost.” Luke 19:10
      • Jesus is the greatest Shepard- “ I am the good Shepard. The good Shepard lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11
      • Jesus is the greatest Teacher- “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14