Your Spiritual Gift and its Exercise in this Church

Driving home: a spiritual gift is a supernatural endowment of an ability or function in no way necessarily related to natural endowments.

Used to illustrate that a spiritual gift like prophecy is a supernatural endowment that can be given by God irrespective of the recipient's natural disposition or character, as seen in the case of Balaam's donkey speaking God's word.

The gift of prophecy is an endowment from God in which the prophet becomes an organ of revelation. He receives revelation, he communicates it. Now God can give that gift even to a dumb donkey. And he did.

32:01 - 32:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon shifts to defining a spiritual gift, exploring the idea of supernatural endowments unrelated to natural endowments (e.g., prophecy, tongues, healings) and then a…

Used to illustrate that God can bestow supernatural gifts, such as a gift of utterance, even upon someone with natural limitations like a stutter, demonstrating that gifts are not necessarily tied to natural endowments.

Certain spiritual gifts recorded in the New Testament were supernatural endowments of ability or function in no way necessarily related to natural endowments. Now, they may have been related. A man may have had a native gift of gab and the Spirit of God came upon him, possessed it, sublimated it, and made him a prophet. But he may not have had a natural gift of gab.

33:33 - 33:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A spiritual gift is any ability or capacity, however acquired, by which the biblical warrant to serve the church and promote the fulfillment of its God-ordained functions is accomplished.

A personal anecdote about a very shy, socially awkward man who, upon receiving the gift of utterance from the Holy Spirit, became a bold and fluent preacher, illustrating a divine endowment unrelated to natural abilities.

A spiritual gift is any ability or capacity, however acquired. Some may be acquired primarily by a divine endowment. I can think right now, and the man's face comes before me, a man who by temperance was very retiring, very shy. In any social situation, he was the foot shuffler with his face down and mumbling almost into his shoes.

37:10 - 37:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to serve Christ and His people using the gifts and abilities God has given you.

An extended example of a converted mechanic who uses his natural skills and tools to serve the church by repairing vehicles for those in need, illustrating how a natural endowment can become a spiritual gift when used with biblical warrant for the body's good.

I'm satisfied that, though this may not satisfy the technical theologian, I hope it's a helpful working concept for you as God's people. Now, let's look at an example. Here's a man who, when he was scrambled in his mother's womb, was given, by predisposition of sovereignly arranged genetic composition, good eye-to-hand coordination and a temperament that, from the time his mama can remember, he had an inclination to love Lego sets and things mechanical. All right?

40:59 - 41:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Further illustrations explore the boundaries of the definition: a ballet dancer's desire to teach ballet classes and a bar-bouncer's desire to use his skills are examined…

An illustration exploring the limits of the definition of spiritual gifts, using a ballet dancer who wants to teach ballet classes, raising questions about 'biblical warrant' and potential negative cultural influences (immodesty, obsession with thinness).

And there is nothing in the scriptures that would say that such an avenue of service contradicts any biblical principles. Now, the problem is here's someone whose predisposition, the way they were put together in their mother's womb in their early days of development, they became obsessed with ballet. And all her life she dreamed of being a ballet dancer. Someday being able to perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera when one of the major ballet companies comes during the off-season from the operas that are performed there.

43:57 - 44:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that any ability used in service has biblical warrant.

An illustration used to highlight the necessity of 'biblical warrant' for an ability to be considered a spiritual gift, showing that a bar-bouncer cannot use his skills to punch people in the name of the Lord.

The obsession with the thinness makes bulimia and anorexia epidemic among ballet dancers. So then we have to ask, you see, is this a natural endowment with acquired abilities? Now this person, we've got to ask, does it have a biblical framework for its expression? You see, here you've got a guy that he's a bar-bouncer.

45:46 - 46:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate meaningful interpersonal relationships within the body to help recognize and encourage others' gifts.

Used to illustrate that humble individuals often resist or are unaware of their gifts, contrasting with proud individuals who push themselves forward, highlighting the need for a 'gracious, sanctified nudge' from the body.

Proud people are always running out ahead of the pack, wondering when in the world is the rest of the world going to recognize all my gifts. Humble people often are like Moses. When God came and said, look, you're going to deliver my people, he didn't say, Lord, I wondered when in the world you're going to wake up with reality. I've been on the backside of the desert here, convinced for years I'm the man.

48:12 - 48:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate meaningful interpersonal relationships within the body to help recognize and encourage others' gifts.

Contrasts those who are proud and self-promoting with those who are humble and reluctant, like Moses, to illustrate how gifts are often recognized and encouraged within the body.

Proud people are always running out ahead of the pack, wondering when in the world is the rest of the world going to recognize all my gifts. Humble people often are like Moses. When God came and said, look, you're going to deliver my people, he didn't say, Lord, I wondered when in the world you're going to wake up with reality. I've been on the backside of the desert here, convinced for years I'm the man.

48:12 - 48:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate meaningful interpersonal relationships within the body to help recognize and encourage others' gifts.

Used to further illustrate the point that God often calls individuals to service who are reluctant or feel inadequate, rather than those who eagerly promote themselves.

And God had to, he got cheeky with God until God finally said, okay, I'll use Aaron as your mouthpiece, but you're still going to be the one to deliver me. And generally speaking, when you find God calling people to peculiar service or to service of peculiar responsibility, they didn't run forward and say, God, I'm so glad you finally woke up to this marvelous gift waiting in the wings for his curtain call. They want to run. They want to run.

48:44 - 49:13 Read in full sermon