Discovering and Developing Your Divine Design

1 Corinthians 12

In the past fifteen years there has been a remarkable emphasis on spiritual gifts in the evangelical church. In my opinion, the resurgence in interest was fueled by the Network curriculum. I have taught this course several times and have seen people benefit from it. I am not saying that people were not using their spiritual gifts prior to this, but most of them probably did not understand spiritual gifts like they do now. Saddleback came out with their own curriculum called SHAPE, which seems to be almost as popular as Network. I even wrote my own study guide on spiritual gifts, complete with a spiritual gifts analysis. But despite all of this emphasis on spiritual gifts, I am not sure we have a complete understanding of the subject. In one of his surveys, Christian pollster George Barna found some encouraging results. The number one and number two spiritual gifts for Senior Pastors is teaching and shepherding. This is the way it should be, but the discouraging finding from this survey was that 21% of born again adults don’t think they have any spiritual gifts and 20% simply don’t know. Therefore, almost half have not even discovered their spiritual gifts, let alone how to use and develop their gifts.

I am going to start with the assumption that this statistic is not true for our church. I am going to assume that the vast majority of you know your spiritual gifts and are using them. Let me give you a little test. When I say “go,” I want everyone to say their phone number out loud. Are you ready? Go. Now this time when I say “go,” I want everyone to say their spiritual gifts out loud. Ready? Go. My point is that we should know our spiritual gifts as well as we know our own phone number. I would be foolish to think that this would be true for 100% of our church, but I am starting with the assumption that it is true for most. But if you are one who is not confident of your spiritual gifts and, more importantly, are not using your spiritual gifts, then your goal by the end of these two messages is to get a good start on this process. And if you are using your gifts, your goal is to look afresh at the reasons and motives for using your gifts.

In verse one, we can immediately see that Paul is beginning a new topic. “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” The ignorance of the Corinthian believers was not an ignorance of an absence of knowledge of spiritual gifts, but an ignorance of an incorrect knowledge of spiritual gifts. They didn’t need instruction in spiritual gifts, rather they needed correction. The Corinthians had been abusing their gifts, especially the gift of tongues. Isn’t it interesting that 2000 years later we are still having concerns and debates about the gift of tongues? But long before Paul mentioned this divisive gift, he wanted to ground the people in this church in Jesus Christ.

You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. ^3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. This verse helps us understand that the Corinthian believers were predominantly made up of formerly pagan people. They used to worship idols made out of wood and stone, idols that were mute; idols that just sat there immobile. These idols may have been mute, but were they powerless? Let me ask the question another way. When these pagans were actively worshipping Satan, did Satan give them any spiritual gifts? We know that Paul encountered demonic powers everywhere he went. Even before Paul’s conversion, Simon the sorcerer was filled with spiritual gifts—demonic spiritual gifts. The slave girl in Acts 16 could tell the future by using her spiritual gifts—that is, her demonic spiritual gifts. Paul wanted to make a clean break from this pagan idolatry and demonic power, so he wrote, Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. Long before Paul mentioned a single gift, he wanted to ground everything that followed upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. This applies to us today. Before you can discover, use and develop your spiritual gifts, you must make sure you are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We need to be able to continually confess, “Jesus is Lord,” and I don’t mean just saying it with our mouths. Is the attitude of your heart that Jesus is your Lord and Master?  Is Jesus the one and only King in your life? Are all other gods and idols diminishing in power as compared to the Lord Jesus? As one commentator put it, “The ultimate criterion of the Spirit’s activity is the exaltation of Jesus as Lord.” (Fee, p. 582) Apart from the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you are in danger of misusing your spiritual gifts.

As I already mentioned, the chief problem with the Corinthians was that they were emphasizing the gift of tongues. This over-emphasis created two problems. One, the gift of tongues edifies the speaker but often does not edify the church. In 14:12 Paul said, Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church. This gives us one of the primary goals of spiritual gifts—to build up the church. If your gift is not building up the faith of others, it is not a gift empowered by the Holy Spirit. We will get back to this principle later. But the second reason the gift of tongues was causing problems was because the Corinthians were enamored with the gift and not the giver. They loved the spiritual gift of tongues more than they loved the Spirit who gave the gift. This is still one of our greatest temptations—to love the gift and not the giver.

Bill Gates is in the philanthropic season of his life and through his foundation, gives away nearly three million dollars every day. Let’s suppose that somehow you became the recipient of just one day of his gift-giving. Bill Gates knocks on your door and presents one of those oversized, cardboard checks to you in the amount of three million dollars. At that moment, are you more enamored with Bill Gates or with the three million dollars? Certainly you would be thankful to Mr. Gates for his generosity to you, but do you really care who gave you the gift? You don’t care if it was Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Oprah Winfrey—you have three million dollars and you are pretty excited about that! In other words, you would be much more enamored with the gift than you are with the giver.

Unfortunately, this is the way we live much of our lives. We walk through our daily lives constantly enjoying all of God’s gifts every moment of every day, yet as we relish in these gifts, we have little awareness of the gift giver. Atheists enjoy all of God’s gifts but don’t acknowledge the gift giver. What is the difference between us and an atheist? We pray at meals, is that good enough? We show up at church on Sunday morning. Is that good enough? We forget about the gift-giver, and this can be especially true when it comes to spiritual gifts.

The typical way we teach and preach about spiritual gifts is to first of all, list all of the gifts. The second step is to define the gifts to make sure we understand each one. The third typical step is to take some kind of spiritual gifts analysis. At the end, you add up all of the numbers and viola—you have just discovered your spiritual gifts. On the surface, it seems quite simple. It would have been even easier if this cartoon had been a reality. In case you can’t read it, it says, “Dear Timothy, I’m sending under separate cover extra copies of the spiritual gifts inventory quiz for your church.” Oh, if only we had an inspired spiritual gift inventory form the pen of the apostle Paul! But we don’t have such a thing, but what we do have is chapters 12-14 of this book and out of 83 verses, Paul spent precious little time defining the gifts. What we have done is to turn the topic of spiritual gifts into a type of personality test. We have made the practice of spiritual gifts about us. What are my gifts? What are your gifts? In addition, we have used spiritual gifts as a quick and easy way to plug someone into ministry. Do you have administrative gifts? Let’s put you to work in the office. Do you have the gift of teaching? Well then, let’s put you with the sixth grade Sunday School class because they are in dire need of a teacher. Please don’t misunderstand. It usually does work best when you can serve according to your spiritual gifts. I do believe you should know your gifts as well as you know your phone number. But all of this emphasis on the gifts takes away the focus from the gift-giver. It’s as if we take our gifts and leave off the “spiritual” part. They are not just gifts—they are spiritual gifts.

It is such a subtle change in emphasis from the gift-giver to the gift that we don’t even realize it is happening. There is great joy when you serve according to your gifts, but there is even greater joy when you can see the gift-giver working through you. When the sound person is back there turning knobs, he is not just making sure everyone can hear the singers and speakers; he is enjoying the glory of God and manifesting the Holy Spirit. Look at verse seven. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” When Bradey is tweaking the sound board, he is manifesting the Holy Spirit. He is rejoicing in the Great Gift-giver. We want Bradey to see Jesus as he serves, and Bradey wants you to see Jesus through his service. When you were greeted this morning as you walked in the door, those greeters were manifesting the Holy Spirit through the gifts of helps. Greeters—we want you to see Jesus. The nursery workers and children’s church workers, who can’t hear me right now—we want them to see Jesus as they serve. I know the worship team wants you to see Jesus as they sing and play, but worship team members, we want you to see Jesus as you share your gifts. We want you to have this ever-present awareness that the Gift-giver is manifesting himself through you. The same goes for our Treasurer, our website developer, the elders, Bible quiz leaders, AWANA workers, power point servants, those who print the bulletin, Bible study leaders, set-up and take down workers, those who build things with their hands. And it’s not just what happens on Sunday morning between 10-11 am, but it is all of your preparation for your acts of service. There are dozens of hours of planning, preparation and various forms of ministry happening all week long. Each of those is a chance for you to experience joy in using your gifts, but above all, every one of them is a chance for you to see the Gift-giver.

One time I got a call from someone asking about our church. This man’s first question to me was this: “What kind of a preacher are you? Do you prepare your sermons in advance, or are you Spirit-filled?” What?! Can you see the assumption behind his question? He was assuming anyone who prepared a sermon in advance was not depending on the Holy Spirit to tell them what to say. In this man’s mind, I would be a much more spiritual person if I just stood up on a Sunday morning and began to say whatever came to mind. I did not catch on to his question fast enough, but what I should have said was “both.” I depend on the Spirit when I prepare my sermons and I depend on the Spirit when I stand up to speak. I get the privilege of depending on the Spirit coming and going. A few weeks ago as I was writing my message, I got to a certain point, pulled away from my desk and literally began to weep. Something about the character of Jesus hit me really hard. I was weeping over the truth of Jesus. I have never had quite that level of emotional reaction while writing a sermon, but every week I benefit from my own study. I get to see Jesus as I serve you through my preaching.

As you use your gift in the horizontal plane, one to another, I want you to be able to look up and say, “God, you gave me this gift, didn’t you? Thank you for allowing me to serve you in this way. Thank you for trusting me with your gift.” As a Christian, God first gives us his Son Jesus Christ and the immeasurable gift of salvation, but then he keeps on giving us these spiritual gifts. He didn’t do all of that just to keep you out of hell and find your little niche in the church. He did it, and does it, so we will see him. Every gift is given to exalt the gift-giver.

But gifts are meant to be shared with others. Paul said that they are given for the common good. Let’s say I gave you a small gift. You opened it up to find it was an electric shaver. Now who is going to use that electric shaver? You will use it, right? I can’t see you sharing your electric shaver with the rest of the family. I don’t think they would be too excited to share it anyway! Now, the next week I give you another gift and you open it to find a brand new Monopoly game. Now who will use that gift? I’ve never seen anyone play Monopoly by themselves. That would be pretty sad, wouldn’t it? “Aha, I’ve filled the board with hotels and won again!” No, the Monopoly game is a gift given for the common good of your family. It is a gift that only has meaning when you share it with others. In the same way, each of your spiritual gifts only have meaning when you share it with others. Yes, you must first see the gift-giver, but your gifts—each one of them—were given to you to be hared with others, to build them up in the faith of Christ. Therefore, any spiritual gift that is unknown or unused is nothing less than a tragedy.

It’s like the little boy I saw on America’s Funniest Videos last week. He opened up a birthday present, but when he saw it was a book, he yelled, “You call this a present!” and he threw it across the room. That’s not funny, is it? And it’s not funny when we do that with the Lord’s gifts. If you are here this morning and you are not sure of your spiritual gifts, do you know the best way to find to discover them? It’s not with a spiritual gift inventory, although they have their place. You won’t discover your gift by listening to me preach, though I hope this has been helpful. You can only discover your spiritual gift by serving. You have to serve and serve and serve, and once you have served for a while, a pattern will begin to emerge. The first ten years of my Christian life I primarily served the Lord by working with children at summer camp and teens in youth groups. Do you know what I discovered after ten years of working with youth? I discovered I was not called to work with youth! But I did often see Jesus. That’s what the Lord wants for you. He wants you to see his marvelous Son Jesus, and he wants you to exalt Jesus by using your spiritual gift.

Rich Maurer

April 15, 2007