Spiritual Gifts:  The Obedience of Faith   

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason --February 15, 2004

A man by the name of Ken Davis in his book How To Speak To Youth writes this: 

In college I was asked to prepare a lesson to teach my speech class. We were to be graded on our creativity and ability to drive home a point in a memorable way. The title of my talk was, "The Law of the Pendulum."

I spent 20 minutes carefully teaching the physical principle that governs a swinging pendulum. The law of the pendulum is this: A pendulum can never return to a point higher than the point from which it was released. Because of friction and gravity, when the pendulum returns, it will fall short of its original release point. Each time it swings it makes less and less of an arc, until finally it is at rest. This point of rest is called the state of equilibrium, where all forces acting on the pendulum are equal.

I attached a 3-foot string to a child's toy top and secured it to the top of the blackboard with a thumbtack. I pulled the top to one side and made a mark on the blackboard where I let it go. Each time it swung back I made a new mark. It took less than a minute for the top to complete its swinging and come to rest. When I finished the demonstration, the markings on the blackboard proved my thesis. I then asked how many people in the room BELIEVED the law of the pendulum was true.

All of my classmates raised their hands, so did the teacher. He started to walk to the front of the room thinking the class was over. In reality it had just begun. Hanging from the steel ceiling beams in the middle of the room was a large, crude but functional pendulum (250 pounds of metal weights tied to four strands of 500-pound test parachute cord.).

I invited the instructor to climb up on a table and sit in a chair with the back of his head against a cement wall. Then I brought the 250 pounds of metal up to his nose. Holding the huge pendulum just a fraction of an inch from his face, I once again explained the law of the pendulum he had applauded only moments before, "If the law of the pendulum is true, then when I release this mass of metal, it will swing across the room and return short of the release point. Your nose will be in no danger." After that final restatement of this law, I looked him in the eye and asked, "Sir, do you believe this law is true?" There was a long pause. Huge beads of sweat formed on his upper lip and then weakly he nodded and whispered, "Yes." I released the pendulum. It made a swishing sound as it arced across the room. At the far end of its swing, it paused momentarily and started back.

I never saw a man move so fast in my life. He literally dived from the table. Deftly stepping around the still-swinging pendulum, I asked the class, "Does he believe in the law of the pendulum?"
The students unanimously answered, "NO!"  

Our text for today is found in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

      1And now, dear brothers and sisters, I will write about the special abilities the Holy Spirit gives to each of us, for I must correct your misunderstandings about them. 2You know that when you were still pagans you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3So I want you to know how to discern what is truly from God: No one speaking by the Spirit of God can curse Jesus, and no one is able to say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
      4Now there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. 5There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving. 6There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us. 7A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church.
      8To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another he gives the gift of special knowledge. 9The Spirit gives special faith to another, and to someone else he gives the power to heal the sick. 10He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and to another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, and another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

There are times when our actions speak quite loudly about what we really believe. The Scriptures tell us that we “walk by faith, and not by sight.”  But how often do we really walk or live by sight instead of by faith?

The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that only fear allows to entrap us.

Our text for today makes it clear that there are three things that happen relative to Spiritual Gifts:

* The Holy Spirit gives gifts –
4Now there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all.

* Jesus Christ the Son of God gives us ministries -
5”There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving.”

* God our Heavenly Father takes both of these and guarantees that something fruitful will come about because of them-
6There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us.

* God’s plan for all of this is found in verse 7: 
7”A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church.”

Notice if you will the gifts that are given:
1. The word of wisdom – the ability to give wise advice.
2. The word of knowledge – the gift of special knowledge.
3. The gift of faith – the ability to act on God’s promises with confidence.
4. The gifts of healings – the power to heal the sick ( note that they are in the plural.)
5. The gift of miracles – the ability to facilitate supernatural intervention. (effecting of miracles)
6. The gift of prophecy – the ability to reveal and proclaim truth.
7. The discerning of spirits – the ability to distinguish between good and evil spirits.
8. The gift of speaking in tongues – the ability to speak in an unknown language.
9. The gift of interpretation of tongues – The ability to make known a message in tongues.

The overall impression on gets when he reads through this section of 1 Corinthians 12 is that we are all gifted with some special ability by the Holy Spirit or we might even say that we are gifted with special abilities (in the plural). There is no indication in this passage of any limitation on the number of gifts one may have to exercise for the good of the church (vs. 7).

When it comes to spiritual gifts – everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is involved, i.e., is gifted.
Every one has special abilities and a special purpose for the common good.
The idea here is that all the needs of the church, the body of believers, can and should be met by specially gifted people…just ordinary Christians like us.

Let’s look at this in another manner:  God says you and I are specially gifted with spiritual gifts, a ministry and a guarantee that God will make something good for the Kingdom of God result from our faithful exercising of those special abilities.

God essentially dares you to accept what the Apostle Paul is saying here and to believe it.

An illustration you have heard me use before might be helpful here:  The Plainfield New Jersey Baptist Church was in the process of building a new Church facility. The building was nearly done, the parking lot was stripped and they were waiting for their final occupancy permit. The building inspector came out and checked things out. When he was all done, he denied them the occupancy permit because they did not have enough parking spaces for the size of their new sanctuary. They could not move into their new building. The only additional property they had was behind the church facility and was literally a small mountain at the end of the parking lot.

Their Pastor called the congregation together for a Wednesday night prayer meeting to address this need. He challenged the congregation to believe that God had an answer for their need for the building permit. Prayer would move the mountain they faced in getting their occupancy permit. They believed and they prayed.

Several days later a representative from their local phone company stopped by the church to speak with the Pastor. He told the Pastor that the phone company had purchased some property to build a new switching station but would have to fill in the land before they could build. It had been determined by their engineers that the “mountain” behind the church contained just the right material for their need. The question he asked the Pastor was this: Would it be possible for us to buy the material in the mountain behind the church? The phone company would purchase it, haul it away and then level the property when they were done.

They believed God had an answer. My guess is that we see the gift of faith operating here. They believed and God met them right at the point of their need with his special provision for them.

Last week I suggested that we have to let go of the branch.
That is:  we have to take that step of faith that God expects of us. That step of faith could involve many different things for many different people. The point is that God has solutions for our needs and he challenges us to believe in Him and His Word. All we have to do is to submit to him, to his word and his will for our lives.
Now, back to our focus for today: 

God says we are gifted.

God says we are gifted in such a way that all of the people in the church will benefit from those gifts if we will simply use them, exercise them.
We all will benefit from these gifts only when we submit to him and step out in faith and begin to exercise those gifts.
You have to believe that you are gifted.
You have to believe that if you take that step of faith with your gifts that God will meet you there in the person of the Holy Spirit to do something with your step of faith.

You have to let go of the branch. We have to allow each other the freedom to let go of the branch. I may not have the same gifts as you have or may not be led to exercise those gifts that you do, but I must allow you the freedom to exercise the gifts the Holy Spirit has given you. We must allow each other the freedom to grow in exercising our gifts, even when it means that we might fail to exercise them properly. We must stay within the Biblical guidelines for how these gifts function in the body, but we must give each other freedom to take the steps of faith involved in the gifts we have been given.

In any church there are those who are ready and quite free to function as they are gifted. There are also those who are not. What is required of all of us is understanding, tolerance and the freedom to grow in this area of our walk of faith.

When we consider the varied backgrounds represented in our congregation it becomes clear that there are those who are quite free even in the gifts that are often views as spectacular and with some suspicion by others. Some of us are have a different comfort level with some of those gifts.

When we established this church we did so on the premise that God was in the process of some thing new in the body of Christ in bridging the gap between Pentecostal /Charismatic Christians and Evangelical believers. We saw a blending of  these two differing traditions with the emphasis on the necessity of  being people committed to the Word of God as our guide and the authority in our life. We also believed that there was a necessity to find the right balance in walking in the Spirit. Both of these groupings of believers have serious deficiencies in their practice related to the Word of God and living in the Spirit. We believed that God was showing us how we could have the proper balance respecting both of these very important aspects of our life in Christ.

We chose at that time to establish the church on the principle of agreement in the essentials of our faith and charity in allowing one another the freedom to grow in our walk with the Lord. The exercising of spiritual gifts is one of the areas in which we chose to give each other freedom to grow as the Lord leads.

Freedom in Christ always involves two things that are essential if we are to have harmony in the church:

We must not knowingly offend one another even in those areas in which we are free ourselves. The principle of eating meat offered to idols is an excellent example of this. If eating meat offered to idols troubles our Christian brother then we should not knowingly offer it to him. We might be free to eat it. After all, idols are nothing and therefore it should have no bearing on anything related to our lives as believers in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, it may trouble you. And as your brother in Christ, I should not serve it to you and thereby create a situation in which you are offended.

At the same time, if you are invited to my house and I serve you meat that might very well have been offered to idols…most of the meat available in the market places of that day were…your responsibility is not to be offended. Eat what is placed in front of you with out a word.
If I am sensitive enough not to offend you and you are willing not to be offended then we will have the opportunity to grow together in our walk with the Lord.

How would we respond if we really began exercising these spiritual gifts in the church? Why do I ask that question?  Well, if we were really to exercise these gifts as they are listed in 1 Corinthians 12 we would find our faith and our spiritual comfort zones stretched.

Let’s be really honest about this. If we were to see these gifts actually become part of our experience together as a church some of us would have a difficult time adjusting to it. Others would feel that now we are getting on track. Some people might stay away or some visitors might not come back.
I think the solution to the proper functioning of gifts in the church involves two things:  Freedom and Responsibility.

Freedom:  If we really believe what the Bible says about these spiritual gifts and the fact that the Bible clearly states that the Holy Spirit gives them as he chooses, then there must be freedom for us to function as we are gifted. I have to allow you freedom to function as you are gifted.

Responsibility:  If we really believe what the Bible says about these spiritual gifts and the fact that the Bible clearly states that the Holy Spirit gives them as he chooses, then I must be responsible in how I use my spiritual gifts. I might be in the position at times where the loving thing for me to do is limit my freedom so that you might be free to grow in this area of our walk of faith. I may be asked to limit my freedom to function in my gift or gifts so as not to offend you.

We also have the responsibility of not being offended when someone functions in his or her gift.

When we successfully attain the balance between our freedom in the Spirit and our responsibility to each other in love, the functioning of spiritually gifted people will just be normal for us as a body of believers. It will just be the natural thing we do and the result will be greater love and power to accomplish the ministries Christ gives us.
And our Heavenly Father will be able to accomplish his desire to cause our efforts to result in our world knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

One last word here about what is taking place here. We are in a power confrontation with the devil and all his demonic cohorts. He is powerful. People throughout the world are looking for a powerful expression of who God is from us – the church. They will look to the occult and witchcraft because of the power they believe is there. We know however, that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

Let’s let go of the branch and let the world know that God is a God of love, mercy, grace and power and that there are powerful solutions that God has provided for our needs…in spiritually gifted people. Take that step of faith and let go of the branch and begin exercising the gifts the Holy Spirit has given us.

-- Dennis Gleason