Well, I hope you want to be a contributor, that you don't come to church as a consumer, just with your hand out, waiting to be blessed, waiting to be noticed, waiting to be fed. But we come with our hand up, looking to be involved, and saying, use me, plug me in. Lord, how would you have me to serve God and others? How would you use me to reach the lost? and to edify believers. And so as we come with that heart, the Lord equips us, and he does that through the topic we'll be talking about this morning and over the next couple of weeks, and that is serving with spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts, that's an important part of of serving. It's there on the banner you see behind me. It is the equipping that God gives to us to be effective and fruitful and powerful in service for Him. And so we'll be looking into this topic. Last month, if I understand correctly, was the driest September on record for Indianapolis. Very little rainfall. What does your yard look like right now? Maybe you've been watering. We hadn't been watering in September. And we do have someone that comes and sprays the lawn for weeds and things. They've left a note on our door handle that says, you need to water this grass. Because if you don't water and the grass gets dried out, it's more susceptible to insects and other pests and diseases that can set in when the grass, the lawn, actually goes into a state of dormancy. your grass can grow dormant. And it's still alive, but it's not active and all these other bad things that can happen. And so we started to be more conscious of that and, you know, think about watering. And now that I'm noticing, I can drive down my street and see, oh, this person waters. They don't water. They don't water. This person waters. They don't water. And the lawn technician would probably say, dormant, dormant, healthy, dormant, Well, what about your spiritual life this morning? You know, I could go from pew to pew and make my best guess, you know, healthy, dormant, but the reality is you all look great, and man looks on the outside appearance, and your other spiritual siblings and I can see something of the fruit that's in your life, but it's only God that looks on the heart. And what would He say if He were to walk from pew to pew and evaluate where we are this morning? If you're saved, you're spiritually alive. But is there a vibrancy? Is there a thriving? Is there a health? As you've had the living water from the Lord Jesus to produce that life in you, or is there dormancy? Where you'd have to say, I'm not doing that much for God. I'm trying to keep up spiritually. Yeah, there's sin struggles. I'd like to do better, There's not really like a lush, beautiful vibrance that I would say I'm thriving spiritually, and particularly when it comes to spiritual gifts. Have you identified your gift? Are you using that? Is God using that through you to reach the lost and to edify believers in a way He could look at you and say, this one isn't dormant. Here's one who's thriving for the Lord. That's His desire for each one of us. And if you're saved, the Holy Spirit has gifted you and God empowers you for that kind of thriving service. But sometimes we have to stir that up. You'll see a verse, this won't be our text for this morning, but 2 Timothy 1.6, Paul writes to Timothy and says, that thou stir up the gift of God that is within you. And that's that idea of something that has gone dormant, it's still alive, but needs to be stirred up, to be roused to action, to be springing to new life. And so that's our prayer this morning and over these next few weeks, that God would just use the scriptural texts that we'll look at in the next few Sunday mornings just to stir up the gifts that are in us so that we can be alive and vibrant for Him. Our text this morning is actually 1 Corinthians 12, if you'd like to go ahead and turn there. We'll start with looking at those first 11 verses there. 1 Corinthians 12, one of four New Testament passages that instruct us regarding spiritual gifts. And maybe you're familiar with those four texts. I hope over these next few weeks you'll be reminded of those to put that in remembrance, to stir up those gifts. that God has given you if you're a believer. And just a survey of what we'll be looking at these next few weeks. One, just that we would understand spiritual gifts. This morning we'll probably raise more questions than we answer, perhaps. But just to start to understand, to introduce or reintroduce us to this topic. Next week, Lord willing, we'll talk about identifying your spiritual gift. Some of you are already confident in that regard. Others very curious, I hope. And then third, using your gift or gifts in service to the Lord. Something we can always be put in remembrance of, just as Timothy, a faithful believer and spiritual leader, needed to be reminded of. Well, many questions around spiritual gifts today, and if you go to a dozen different churches, you might get a dozen different answers, or if you read a dozen different authors, and the questions are those. One commentator just opened his discussion of spiritual gifts with these questions. What are spiritual gifts? How many are there? Does every believer have them? Can a person know? How can a person know which one or ones he or she has? How important are they to individual Christian living and to the life of the church? What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? How does that relate to spiritual gifts? Are all of the gifts given for every age of the church, or were some given only for a special purpose and a limited time? Can the gifts be counterfeited? And if so, how can believers tell the true ones from the false? These are just some of the questions. Maybe you come with others of your own. And admittedly, as we look at the Scriptures, there's not really a structured, formal, bullet-pointed answer to each question in a single text. But the Lord has given us what we need to know. And it's a little bit more organic than that simple, didactic, structured form of answers. But as we search the Scriptures, the Lord has given us these answers, and He wants us to seek His will in this regard, and He wants us to come to accurate conclusions. Because again, these questions are answered differently by different groups, and so we can't all be following the Bible if the Bible gives specific answers, which I believe it does. And so just humbly, we want to approach the text and say, Lord, instruct me to approach this topic in a submissive way to whatever your Holy Spirit has actually provided in my life and how he wants to use it here in the church. So we'll start with that first one, number one, understanding spiritual gifts. Our Bibles are open to 1 Corinthians 12, and the first line of that chapter reads this way, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. So God's desire for us, just as Paul's desire for those first century Corinthian believers, is that we wouldn't be ignorant when it comes to spiritual gifts. He says brethren, he's writing to believers, people who are spiritually gifted, who have the indwelling Holy Spirit, but there's an ignorance there in Corinth. There's some disputing going on there in Corinth. There's an unhealthy elevation of certain gifts, particularly apparently the gift of tongues that was really something that they focused on and people were trying to have it or get it when they didn't and looking down at others who did not have that gift. And unhealthy churches are a symptom of spiritual gifted dormancy or misuse of spiritual gifts. And so Paul writes and says, I would not have you ignorant. We ought to understand spiritual gifts. And we ought to know how to verify genuine spiritual gifts and refute counterfeit spiritual gifts. And that's how we'll start in verse two when he says, you know, that you were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led." He knows that in Corinth, he's writing to believers, but to believers who came from a pagan background. Some of them. Some of them a Jewish background, but had been surrounded by idols, or had themselves not worshipped God, the true God, alone. People who lived in a very secular, a very fleshly, a very worldly culture. And he says, you've been saved out of that. You used to be Gentiles, carried away to idols, who are mute, who cannot speak, even as they were led. Wherefore I give you to understand. Here's a formula for identifying true spiritual gifts. No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." So if you're trying to tell whether or not someone's speaking by the Spirit of the Lord, which was particularly important in the first century when the New Testament writing had not been completed and distributed, It's actually a fairly simple formula. If someone says, Jesus Christ is anathema. He is cursed. Don't follow Jesus Christ. He hung on a tree. Cursed is anyone who hung on a tree. Don't follow him. You can be very certain that that person is not speaking by the Spirit of the Lord. Because the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the basis for our salvation. He is the blessed one. And no man who says Jesus is the Lord can say so but by the Spirit. That doesn't mean that you can't utter those words, Jesus is Lord, unless the Holy Spirit is within you. But just as we saw last week in Romans 10, that a genuine confession of the mouth is a reflection of a true belief in the heart. And when someone comes to that point in their life, which by the way would separate them in stark contrast from a very worldly culture there in Corinth, to come forth in a culture where many pagan false gods were worshipped, and to come forth and say, I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that's a genuine confession as a reflection of a true belief of the heart. Paul says, no one gets there without the work of the Holy Spirit. To have that genuine confession of the Lordship of Jesus, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. And so that should be very basic, but something the Corinthians needed to hear. Now, verse 4, he says, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." And here's our memory verse for the month of October, verse 7, but the manifestation, the expression, the demonstration of the Holy Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. So the first thing we recognize here as we seek to understand spiritual gifts is that a spiritual gift is a divine enablement for service. As we talk about serving, and each one of us ought to be involved in serving, as we come to church as a contributor and say, yes, Lord, I want to always abound in the work of the Lord, we have to first find our, or an important part of that is going to be to discover our divine enablement for service. Here's how we see that it's divinely enabled. Verse 4 says that your spiritual gift comes from the Holy Spirit. Verse 5 says that the way that that gift is used is of the Lord. And that name there, used by itself, typically we're going to understand that to be a reference to God the Son, the Lord Jesus. In verse 6, there are diversities of operations. There's going to be different fruits, different ways that those gifts express themselves, and different results of different outcomes of that. But it's the same God which worketh all in all. Did you notice that each member of the Trinity there is mentioned in connection with your giftedness and your use of your spiritual gift, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, and God the Father, and verse six tells us specifically that it's God that worketh. That's a word for the empowering, that it's God the Father that gives power to that gift that the Holy Spirit has presented to us to work, and we do that as the hands and feet of Jesus. He's gonna go later on in this passage and talk about how the giftedness has to do with our function as the body of Christ. And so really it's about just as Jesus in His earthly ministry expressed all of these areas of giftedness, well, none of us can do that, but each of us can be a member of that body and as a conglomerate, a corporate group, come together in unity and do the work of Jesus and continue what He did when He was on this earth. Not in the same expressions, of course, not with the miracles, not with the perfection of life, but with the ministry goals that Jesus had. It's a divine enablement for service. We recognize humbly that it's a gift from the Holy Spirit. You can't be proud of a gift. A gift is something you received from no merit of your own, nor can we be proud of using those gifts. It is God, verse 6, that works through us for the operation of those gifts. He empowers that. And it's what, verse 7, the manifestation of the Spirit. So it's not showing anything great about us. It's not showing how talented we are. No, it's a manifestation of the Holy Spirit's power and helps us point to Him, helps us point to God. So it's a divine enablement for service. And then verse 7 tells us it's to the benefit of the church. Verse 7, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man, not to profit himself, not to look good himself, not even to grow spiritually himself, but to profit with all. Or we could say that gift is given for the common good. So the gift that the Holy Spirit gives to you is to profit those you see around you in the pews today. As this location, this local assembly as a representative of the body of Christ, your spiritual gift is to profit me and all these other people here and those that are part of our church not with us today. So a divine enablement for service to the benefit of the church. And that giftedness might include, and you see that word including there, that we're going to now try to classify, to list the spiritual gifts mentioned in Scripture. But before we do that, We'll stay here in 1 Corinthians 12 for now, but behind me you'll see, or you can turn here if you wish, a couple of verses from 1 Peter. And 1 Peter 4 is one of those four texts that deals with spiritual gifts. Peter's going to be the most succinct, and he generalizes. And so it's going to be helpful when it comes to classifying that we kind of start with how Peter classifies. He says, 1 Peter 4.10, As every man hath received the gift, He's talking to believers. So now we know every believer receives a gift, just as we read in 1 Corinthians 12. That means if you're saved, you have at least one spiritual gift, a primary spiritual gift. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another. So that reinforces what Paul said again, that the purpose of that gift is to profit with all. It's primarily to serve my brothers and sisters in Christ for their edification. It's to minister, Peter says, and that is the word serve. It's our fourth focus of our core values here of our 2020 vision, to serve. We could very accurately see it. Even so, serve the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. It's God's grace. It all comes from Him. It's not from anything good about us. We're merely stewards of that. And then he's going to categorize the gifts with two categories here. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as the ability which God giveth. So instead of listing gifts, Peter just gives us two categories, and the first is to speak, and the second is to serve, to minister, speaking gifts. and serving gifts. If anyone has a speaking gift, he should speak as the oracle of God. Those who have a serving gift, and really a speaking gift is serving too, but he's going to make this category of serving gifts, ought to do so as the ability that God gives. Then he'll give us the ultimate purpose of all this in verse 11, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Okay, so are you kind of distilling this and helping to bolster your understanding of where we're going with an understanding of spiritual gifts, that it is something that God gives, the Holy Spirit gifts, God empowers, the purpose of that gift is to benefit the church, I'm serving my brothers and sisters in this local body, And the ultimate outcome of that, verse 11, is that God is glorified. God is glorified. God is glorified when the people He saved and gifted serve each other to make us more like Jesus Christ. Okay, now back in 1 Corinthians 12. This is the earliest account. Paul writes to the Corinthians in maybe 54 AD. He's going to give this first inspired list. It's not a complete list. It's not intended to be. Some will actually repeat a couple of them later in the chapter. Let's begin reading in verse 8. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom. All right, so let's look on our list. We've got two categories, speaking gifts and serving gifts. The first is the word of wisdom. We're going to go ahead and put that under speaking gifts because it has to do with a word, the word of wisdom. We're maybe talking about here someone who God has gifted Maybe to give good counsel, to give good advice to others. Someone who's gifted with taking the revealed truth of Scripture and applying it to life choices. The gift of the Word of Wisdom. I want to encourage you, as we go through these gifts, and we're going to identify 18 of them this morning. Other writers will recognize anywhere from 10 to 20 plus. But we're just going to try to, and you follow along and see where you might want to look at further study if you would recognize these slightly different. But the more important goal, especially if you are curious about what your spiritual gift might be, is that as we talk about each of these gifts, that you would start to search your heart, you would ask God, look at the way that He's used you or given you desires for service, and say, Lord, is this my area of giftedness? I could see you using me in this way. The word of wisdom, verse 8. To another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit. So we'll go ahead and categorize those separately. The word of knowledge. Knowledge is slightly different from wisdom. The knowledge of knowing the truth. Wisdom may be having more to do with applying that truth. And so people that God gives an ability to just absorb scriptural truth and to systematize that into fields of study and theology. Someone maybe who you could ask about a topic, and a verse comes to mind for that person, maybe a spiritual gift of knowledge. Verse 9, to another, faith. by the same Spirit, the same Spirit giving different gifts, a variety of gifts, and some people have the spiritual gift of faith. Now, we're all to have knowledge, we're all to have wisdom, we're all to have faith, and it's not talking specifically about saving faith here, but some have an extra spiritual gift of faith, where have you known believers like this where maybe your faith wavers all of us at times our faith wavers God never wavers but as frail humans ours does sometimes but you talk to some people and they're going through very hard things but they just have such a cheerful spirit and such a confidence that God's going to work things out and that everything's all right and Maybe that's the spiritual gift of faith. Maybe you can identify that in someone you think of in our church body or even in your own life. That's verse 9, the third gift, another by faith, by the same Spirit. To another, the gifts of healing. by the same spirit. So faith and healing, we'll put under the category of serving gifts. It doesn't mean that people don't speak if they have these gifts, or that they only speak if they have the other gifts. But the gift of healing, people who are sick, and you read about, especially in the book of Acts, the apostles laying their hands on someone, that person being healed. We'll talk more about that. I don't encourage you to look for that gift in your own life. We'll talk about why later. Verse 10, to another, the working of miracles. Same category, that's going to go under serving gifts that we'll come back to. To another, prophecy. Prophecy is a speaking gift. This is one of the more debatable ones. I'll just say that I'm referring here, when I put it under speaking gifts, to the office of a prophet. and prophecy that is revelatory. In other words, it's not someone telling others what's in the Bible, but fresh revelation from God. Others will identify prophecy as just saying what God said, forth-telling, telling the Word of God to others. More on that after a bit here. Okay, that's gift number six. Number seven, it says, to another, discerning of spirits. So the spiritual gift of discernment, we'll put that under the serving gifts, and it has to do with evaluating the speaking ministry of others. So when someone claims to be proclaiming the Word of God, there are people in each church that God has gifted through the Holy Spirit to be able to discern the accuracy of that message. So maybe sometime you've heard someone preach, maybe on the radio, or on TV, or at church, here or somewhere else you've been, or read something that someone wrote, and there's that alarm in your mind that says, this doesn't quite seem to square with scripture. Maybe that is the gift of discernment. Number eight, there in the middle of verse 10, to another, diverse kinds of tongues. Okay, the gift of tongues, we'll put under the speaking gift category. That's one, again, that we'll come back to later. To another, the interpretation of tongues. We're gonna go ahead and put that under the serving category. So even though interpretation certainly involves speaking, really it's supportive to that tongues gift. And so we'll call that a serving gift. Okay, not inspired. The list behind me is just if it's helpful for you in classifying these things. Verse 11, And all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. So we're starting to recognize there's a broad diversity here of gifts. It's not so that we can compare and make different strata of levels of hierarchy or anything like that. Paul's writing to combat that in the Corinthian church and let us know it all comes from God. Does one person have a better Holy Spirit than the other person has? Anyone serve a better God the Father than someone else's God the Father that they serve? No, God is the one who by His will, by His grace, by His master plan, gives the church in various areas, and that's healthy, that's appropriate, that is to help the church to thrive. Let's drop down to the end of the chapter now. And we'll see a few more gifts or perhaps offices listed beginning in verse 28. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles. We're going to go ahead and call apostleship the tenth spiritual gift, and that would be a speaking gift. Secondarily, Prophets. And here's where you could differ between the Office of Prophets and Prophecy. You won't see a new title come up on the screen now, because we already have Prophecy up there, just for our purposes this morning. I believe that we can combine those. Thirdly, teachers. So that's going to be gift number 11, the gift of teaching. Someone with the gift of teaching has the desire to explain biblical truth to others and is gifted to be able to communicate God's truth to others. It doesn't mean that you love public speaking, It doesn't mean that in the secular world you would necessarily make a good school teacher or work orientation instructor or anything else. It just means that when it comes to spiritual things, in the context of the church, that God has given you a desire and propensity to be able to explain spiritual truths, biblical content to others. After that, miracles. That's already on our list under the serving category. Then gifts of healings. Again, that's already on our list. But the twelfth is helps. We'll call that the gift of helping. This is a broader category, maybe one that's very common in the church, and that's just the supportive giftedness to be able to supplement, equip, succor, to lift up others to be able to perform their gifts better. Or someone who is hurting that you're able to come alongside and be a helper or a servant to. Maybe you can think of people in our church body that you say, that person has the gift of helping. Or maybe as I think about the way that God is working in my heart, that perhaps I have the gift of helping. Verse 28 continues, the last line. Governments. It's a spiritual gift, and up on the screen we'll call it administration. It's a leadership role. And to this type of believer in the church, God has given the capacity to be able to organize others or to organize programs in such a way to help facilitate a healthy function of the body. Maybe you can identify that in others or yourself. We'll spend a little more time on each gift individually next week. And then finally, at the end of verse 28, diversities of tongues. Tongues is already on our list. Alright, so that's what Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 12. Let's keep our fingers there because we will come back to this passage. But the four passages that deal with spiritual gifts are two 12s and two 4s. We've got 1st Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and we've already been to 1st Peter 4. That was on the screen earlier. So let's go next to the other 12, and that's going to be Romans 12. You want to go back just one book. Chronologically, it comes a little bit after Corinthians, but in your Bible, it's organized the book before. Romans chapter 12. And we're just building our list here, and we continue in verse six. Okay, you're still plugged in, you're kind of with this, we're looking for our spiritual gift, we're looking to stir that up, to fan that flame, to water that dormant grass so that we can thrive for Christ. All right, is this exciting? Yes, all right, verse six. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Everyone has a different gift. Not exactly the same. You might have the same primary gift as someone else. It's not going to be serving exactly the same way. Remember 1 Corinthians 12 says it's the same spirit but different manifestations, different operations, different ways that that is expressed. And now he's going to start listing, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. We've already got that one on the screen. Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. I'm going to consider that to be synonymous with that gift of helping. The word ministry, once again, is the word serving, has the same idea as that helping gift. So for our purposes, we'll categorize that, just lump that in with the helping gift. Or, he that teacheth on teaching, the end of verse 7. We already have that on our list. We see that Paul's lists are going to be overlapping. He's going to include some things for Romans that he didn't in Corinthians, and vice versa. So none of these lists is exhaustive. In fact, we might get through all four passages and still not have an exhaustive list. But the Holy Spirit is showing us the kinds of ways, at least, that He has gifted believers. And as we look at at least those that are listed in Scripture, it seems to be pretty comprehensive in the sense that, yeah, these are all the areas that we need for healthy church ministry. Verse 8, we'll look at the 14th gift, and that is, He that exhorteth. on exhortation. If you have the spiritual gift of exhorting, you have to focus on exhortation. We don't use that word very often, and so it might be helpful to use the word encouragement or the gift of encouraging. So we'll go ahead and put that on our list under the serving gifts. Someone has the gift of encouraging, specifically encouraging people to follow what the Bible says. So this gifted person might see someone who's hurting, their hands are hanging down, and come alongside and say, keep going. I'm praying for you. That's the gift of encouragement. Or I might see someone who hasn't been to church in a few weeks and comes alongside and says, you know the Bible says not to forsake the assembly and we need to gather and I miss you and I want to see you back there. That's the gift of exhortation or the gift of Encouragement. Can you think of someone in our church body, some people who have these gifts? As I go through these and meditate on these this week, I'm thinking of names that come up with several of these that I would... I can't know what spiritual gifts people have, but sometimes that fruit makes it very obvious. Maybe you're thinking of some people in connection with these gifts. Verse 8, he that exhorteth on exhortation, here's the next one, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. So our 15th gift is a serving gift and it's the gift of giving. Now, don't make the mistake of thinking that that gift is only for rich people. The gift of giving just sees needs and desires and decides to use my resources for the Lord in helping to meet that need within the context of the church, both for evangelism and for edification, the gift of giving. Now, again, we are all to give, but some God is specifically enabled to have that as a spiritual gift that in a primary way would go over and above what is maybe ordinary. to do that with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence, that gift of ruling, we'll consider synonymous with that gift of administration. Okay, that's already on the list under serving gifts, and certainly administrator is someone who speaks, that involves speaking, so you could put that under gifts of speaking, but the gift of ruling, or governments, or leadership, we'll call it administration. Final line of verse eight, he that showeth mercy to do so with cheerfulness. So here's a gift of showing mercy, a spiritual gift. And we'll put that under serving gifts as our 16th spiritual gift. And that's someone who's able to sense or observe when others are struggling. is probably gonna show that person hospitality, help to meet needs, often physical needs, food, shelter, clothing, transportation even, someone who is going to open their home. Others would call it the gift of hospitality. But Paul calls it here in Romans, a gift of showing mercy. Maybe you can see that in your life or in others here in our church body. Alright, so those are the two 12s. 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12. Now the two 4s. We've already been to 1 Peter 4, so just one more passage this morning, and that's Ephesians chapter 4. If you'd turn there, please. Ephesians chapter 4. just introducing these gifts this morning and helping us to understand, get a big picture of the framework, a little different type of message, a little more informative to really set us up for the next couple of weeks, getting ready to stir up that gift and start to thrive. The end of verse 8 in Ephesians chapter 4, says that the Holy Spirit, or the Lord Jesus Christ, gave gifts unto men. Okay, and so we're talking here about these gifts. Skip down to verse 11. He gave some apostles. We already have apostleship on our list. And some prophets. We do have prophecy on our list. And some, here's 17th gift, evangelists. I could be referring to an office here, but I think it's safe to categorize a spiritual gift of evangelism. Now remember, gifts in certain areas don't negate the responsibility of people with other gifts from serving in those areas. So we can never say, oh, I don't have the spiritual gift of evangelism, I don't have the responsibility to share the gospel. No, we all have the responsibility to be a light, to be salt, to share the gospel. But God has gifted some people with the Holy Spirit's gift of evangelism. And this is the person that just can't keep from sharing the gospel with those they meet. Sometimes from place to place as an evangelist or a missionary might do. Sometimes just within the context of a church body and its community or your co-workers and so forth. sharing the gospel and a zealous passion for doing so, even a giftedness for doing so, the gift of evangelism. And then finally, and some pastors and teachers. They're lumped together there in the original language, probably making reference to a pastor hyphen teacher. We'll put those together under the speaking gifts. Every pastor probably ought to have the gift of teaching. Not everyone with the gift of teaching is going to have the spiritual gift of shepherding or being a pastor, so we've got those separate on our list. All right. Hope that's helpful. Those are the four passages that delineate spiritual gifts, and we've kind of compiled them there on the screen behind me, but now what we're going to do is take one-third of those and talk about a third category of gifts, and that is the sign gift. So you see that sign category come up? And what's going to happen is a few from each of those speaking and serving categories is going to go over, so we're going this way, over into the sign category. And those are the gifts. And I'll just very briefly defend why, and we'll be done this morning. that we believe at Thompson Road have passed away, have ceased. The official name for our teaching is cessationalist. That means we believe that revelatory sign gifts have ceased. You can go to other churches here in town where some of these gifts will be at least attempted. Tongues especially, but those who claim to be apostles or claim to have the office of prophet with revelation from God. So how do we, from Scripture, put those into a separate category as revelatory sign gifts? Just very quickly, here's kind of the history of it. We remember that as Paul is writing to these churches, that the New Testament canon has not been completed. That they don't have a written, inspired instruction manual for the church that we have today. So if someone comes to you today and says, why do you do this at that church? Why is this that way in your life? Why do you believe this? We can say because the inspired Word of God that's preserved for us tells us to. This is our platform of authority, the foundation we stand on, the authority we stand under. In the New Testament church, the first century, before they had that in their hands to be able to claim that authority, God gave apostles and prophets, and he gave fresh revelation through those apostles and prophets. Really, they were taking the things that Jesus taught And before the gospel writers wrote all those things that Jesus taught, and before the apostles codified the implications for the church of all those things that Jesus taught, they were going from city to city, they were planting churches, they were saying, this is what Jesus said. This is how we ought to structure the church. This is how we ought to pattern our lives. And if anyone said, well, how can we believe what you say? They couldn't say, because it's in the Bible that hadn't been written yet, it was in the process of being written. Instead, the Lord gave them sign gifts to authenticate that message. So they could say, like Peter and John in Acts chapter 3, as they're sharing the gospel and the news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, people's need to repent and to turn to Jesus in faith. And when the religious leaders would question, hey, what is your authority? Why are you saying this? It doesn't seem to square with what we believe. They could say, oh, look at this man who sat at the beautiful gate, who was lame for 40 years, and Peter touched him in the name of Jesus Christ, and that man didn't hobble up, that man leaped up. and praised God. Remember, the spiritual leaders were befuddled. They couldn't do anything to Peter and John because their message of the gospel had been authenticated by this miraculous sign gift. All right, and we have chapter 2. At the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit first comes and indwells believers, And he gives to some of them, to some of them, the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. And the way that gift was manifested is that they proclaimed the gospel and everyone of the multitude that was gathered there could hear that gospel presentation in their own mother tongue, languages that the apostles proclaiming these truths had not studied. It was a miraculous gift given by God so that people could say, wow, this must really be from God. You're hearing it in your language, I'm hearing it in mine. This is something that is set apart. Now, if you had a finger in 1 Corinthians 12, you notice at the very end of that chapter, that Paul, as he seeks to settle some of the squabbling that's going on among these people and a misunderstanding specifically of the gift of tongues, he says, verse 29, 1 Corinthians 12, 29, are all apostles? The obvious answer is no. Are all prophets? No. Some are apostles, some are prophets, but not all, certainly. Are all teachers? No. Are all workers of miracles? No. Have all the gifts of healing? No. Do all speak with tongues? The assumed and obvious answer there is no. And so there are churches today that suggest if you're saved and you truly have the Holy Spirit, that the manifestation of that will be that you will speak in tongues. And if you say that you're becoming a Christian, they'll try to encourage you to start speaking in tongues. But the Bible says not everyone has that gift. It strongly indicates that we should not expect each believer, even in that first century context, to have that gift. 1 Corinthians 12, 12, you can just listen, or sorry, this is 2 Corinthians 12, 12, I'm sorry. Truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in the second epistle and says, the message that the apostles gave you was confirmed by signs, miracles, these spiritual gifts. Mark 16 and verse 20, just as Jesus ascended, After he ascended, the apostles, those original 11, we'll add to that Matthias and Paul, went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs, following, confirming their message with these revelatory sign gifts. And then we've studied recently on Sunday night Hebrews chapter 2. Remember chapter 1 says, And then he expounds on that in chapter 2 and verses 3 and 4 when he says, and was confirmed by those that heard him. And verse four says, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will. So there's kind of some of the scriptural basis for saying some of the gifts were given specifically to reveal God's truth to that first century church and to confirm the message and the messengers of that revelation. You have the list with these gifts, specifically miracles, tongues, healings, in 1 Corinthians 12, written about 54 AD. By about 58 AD, when he writes to Romans, none of those gifts are in the list. Nor are they in Ephesians or Peter, written several years later. By the time you get to Peter, Peter just says they're speaking gifts and serving gifts and doesn't seem to have a category for signed gifts. Just maybe a subtle testimony there. But we don't see in church history a consistent record of people trying to practice tongues or healings from the 2nd century up to the 19th. It's here recently in the 20th century that there's been kind of a resurgence with people reading the Bible and seeing the gift of tongues in specific, and saying, oh, we ought to start exercising that gift. Maybe missing Mark 16, 20, not reading that, or maybe not studying Hebrews 2, verses 3 and 4, or missing 2 Corinthians 12, 12, and just focusing maybe on 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, and seeing all this description about tongues and saying, hey, we ought to do that. But what you don't see, at least that I'm unaware of in our melu of churches and practices, specifically Pentecostal, Apostolic, Charismatic, is it practiced in a biblical way. One, starting with, remember if tongues first came, it was a real language understood by those who heard it. And there may be various kinds of tongues, but what we do see, as you continue reading in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14, is that Paul gives the instruction that when tongues were used, and they were to be used there in the first century church, that it should be two people speaking in tongues, one or two, or at the most, three. And this is 1 Corinthians 14, 27 and 28, that those speakers should take turns and that one should interpret between those turns. And if there was no interpreter present, then anyone with the gift of tongue should remain silent. So how it was practiced in the first century church is that if no one was there that understood that language, or if perhaps it was not a regular human language, there's some debate there, but regardless, that those who heard it can only be edified if they either understand the speech or if there's somewhere to interpret that for them. And in 1 Corinthians 14, it's emphasized over and over again, the purpose of these spiritual gifts is to edify. And if I'm speaking in tongues and no one translates or interprets, I'm not edified. And he makes that point clearly in chapter 14. So if someone's going to use that gift, they should take turns, one at a time. Not everyone, at the most three. There should always be an interpreter. And if that's not the case, they should remain silent. So you go places, you see people standing in circles, holding hands and taking turns praying in tongues, or the whole congregation's trying to do it all at once. It just, what people are trying to practice today certainly doesn't seem to square with what Paul had instructed to be practiced here in the first century church. And so those are some things you could read. We could spend weeks on talking about. Hopefully that's something helpful for you. And the purpose of that is so that when you look at this list, You can say, okay, as I seek to identify my spiritual gift, as I seek for the Lord to stir that up within me and help me thrive in serving Him, I can hone in on maybe where He's gifted me, and I can go ahead and probably just go ahead and assume that it's not any of these six. And again, these can be categorized a little bit differently. Maybe the word of knowledge or wisdom was a revelatory gift. Maybe the gift of discernment was for discerning revelation, and so it's a gift that's passed. Maybe the gift of prophecy, you could say, if it's just speaking what God has spoken, using scripture to encourage others, could be over on this side. But at least something that would be helpful for you, where you could say, okay, here's several that no one today has. Here's several that some people have that I don't really think I'm gifted in that area. I don't see God working that way in my life. Here's three or four or five or six where maybe, maybe God has gifted me in that area, and I don't know it because it's dormant, it hasn't been stirred up. But it could manifest itself as we start to explore how to identify that and how to use that. So I hope you're at least there this morning. I hope no one is just disinterested. Oh, this is kind of mystical. Let's move on. As you start to pray this week, it's not about striking a yoga pose or going off and meditating somewhere and your gift being revealed. Just study these passages of Scripture. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4. Pray and ask the Lord to start to show you where He wants you to serve and how He's gifted you for that. Talk to your spouse, your family, or people here at church about helping to identify your spiritual gift, and then just come ready these next couple weeks to let God show you and start to fill you and stir that up and use you in those ways. We want to glorify God. We want to thrive spiritually. We want to help others in the church to thrive. We want to bring more people to Him so that He can be glorified. Now, if you're not saved, you don't have a spiritual gift. The Lord gives a spiritual gift to one in whom the Holy Spirit indwells. When you get saved and trust Christ as Savior, the Bible teaches the Holy Spirit comes within you. You're baptized by the Holy Spirit, sealed, indwelt. and gifted for spiritual service. So if you're not saved, you don't look for a spiritual gift, you don't have one. But I believe that the Holy Spirit would like to give you one if you will decide, if you will, by faith, as you sense the convicting of that Holy Spirit, you don't have the giftedness of the Holy Spirit, you don't have Him indwelling you if you're not saved, but He can tug at your heart. He can convict you and tell you that this is a decision that you need to make. to trust Christ as Savior, to by faith believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins, the only payment that can be made apart from your eternal separation from Him. And by God's grace, the perfect blood of Christ can be applied to you to cleanse your sin and give you Christ's righteousness. And the Holy Spirit will gift you to serve this church, to glorify Him, to be part of His body, and to be part of something big.