Thank you for joining pastor and author, Dr. Michael Youssef, for leading the way. I am absolutely convinced that when each member of the body of Christ unwraps a spiritual gift and uses a spiritual gift and develops that spiritual gift and pray about the use of that spiritual gift, the body of Christ and the kingdom of Jesus is blessed and great things begin to happen. You may have heard lessons about spiritual gifts over the years, but do you really know how spiritual gifts impact the way you live your daily life? The way you serve the local church? Well, today on Leading the Way, Dr. Youssef begins a series of messages designed to help you understand how you can recognize and exercise your gifts, and it's not as difficult or even as intimidating as you might think. Dr. Youssef calls this series, Who Me? Gifted? Listen with me.
I want you to imagine the following scenario. You are celebrating a big birthday, a milestone in your life, and then a dear precious friend who's closer to you than a brother thoughtfully brings you a beautiful gift for that birthday, and he hands it to you. He carefully and thoughtfully chose it just for you, not for anybody else, for that friend knows you better than even know yourself, and therefore his birthday gift to you is very specifically chosen. It's deliberately chosen. It's chosen to bless you. It's chosen to give you joy.
It's chosen to fulfill you. It's chosen so that you might be of a great blessing to other people, and so your friend wraps that beautiful gift, beautifully wrapped, and then he brings it on that very special day and presents it to you, and as you receive that gift, you say thank you very much. I really appreciate that, and then you kind of place it on the mantle in the living room. A few weeks later, the friend comes to visit you, and he notices that gift that he just gave you a while back, still sitting on the mantle, unopened, wrapped, just sitting there, and as he points to the gift very gently, you say oh yeah, yeah, yeah, one day I'm going to get a rant on wrapping it. One day I'm going to do that, and you make all sorts of excuses for why you have not unwrapped that gift. Months and perhaps in some cases years later, he visits you again, and he notices that gift still unopened, wrapped, sitting on the mantle just as the day he gave it to you on your birthday, and then he gently again points to that gift that he gave you on that very special day, and you say oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just so busy. I have been doing too many things. I've been living really a hectic life. Time is of the essence, and I just don't have a lot of time, but one day I'm going to get around to it, and you're making all these excuses as you're watching the Super Bowl on television.
I have nothing against Super Bowl. He just said I don't have time to unwrap it, let alone learn how to operate it. Now take a deep breath and think about the friend, not the gift necessarily or you. Just think of the friend.
Think of him. More importantly, think about the fact that perhaps during that time when the gift is sitting there on the mantle, you have been facing frustrating circumstances at work. You have been facing problems in the home or challenges in life.
You might be even facing some identity crisis at times, or you might be faced some very low self-image at times, and you may be feeling unfulfilled in life. Yet all along, part of the answer to all of your challenges of life, sitting on that mantle, wrapped, unopened. Now if you are truthful with yourself in that situation, you would say that that really makes me feel foolish in two ways. First of all, it makes me feel foolish that I let down this precious friend. I let him down by not unwrapping his gift. Secondly, you feel foolish because your effectiveness, your fulfillment, your joy is in that unopened gift.
I pray to God that today, anyone who's in that circumstance, is in that situation, gonna say goodbye to those double-edged foolishness. This is of course a parable. I made it up in order to drive the point home because that parable, that example, is repeated a thousand times in the lives of thousands of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ every day. For the Bible tells us that on the day of your spiritual birth, on the day in which you're born again of the Spirit of God, on the day in which you receive Jesus Christ as the Savior of your soul and the Lord of your life, on that very special day, the Holy Spirit of God has handed you a very special gift, most times more than one gift, but at least one. That is why no one, no one who knows the Lord Jesus Christ can claim that he or she has no gift, that the Holy Spirit has not handed you one.
In fact, he's handed you more than one, at least one. Now there are some of you who have never unwrapped your spiritual birthday gift. There are some of you who have unwrapped your spiritual birthday gift and then you put it back in the box and wrapped it again and you say one day I'm gonna learn how to use it. One day I'm gonna read the instruction manual. One day I'm gonna get around to it. One day I'm gonna unwrap it again and use it. One day I'm gonna learn how to use this gift, but now I'm too busy.
When I retire, possibly I'll do it. Again, think of the giver. Think of the heart of the giver. Forget about yourself and the gift for a moment, just think of his heart. Think of what it cost him.
Think of his love cost. Think of his thoughtfulness in giving you a gift that is designed for you, not re-gifting, not a gift of which he had too many, not just any old gift that he bought in a bargain sale. It is a gift that's designed for you to bless you, to encourage you and to use you to be a blessing to others. And yet you're living in spiritual poverty and deprivation while the gift is unwrapped.
Through the years, I have met many people in the churches who say, who me? Gifted? I am not gifted. I have no gift. I am a nobody. Now let me tell you something.
Just listen to me, okay? Because this false humility is not only an affront to the Holy Spirit of God who gave you the gift, but it is depriving of yourself and everybody else of the blessing that comes from the use of that gift. Beloved, I'm aware of the fact there are some people who might not like their gift.
I understand that, but thank God there are a few of those. But they nonetheless do not use their gifts and they sit in the pews, sulk and sour. I've never met a person who is discovering and using their spiritual gift, who sits sulking and souring. Remember, a gift or the gifts are given to you to glorify God and bless others, not yourself.
Others, when they use their gift, they bless you. And that is why we're sort of in the dependency and that's what the Scripture talks about. In fact, that's what the Apostle Paul said. He said, the eye cannot say to the ear, I don't need you.
If are we all hands, how can we walk? Which actually reminded me of a very ancient fable I read many, many years ago. That ancient fable is about the members of the different parts of the body who decided to have a conference and going to debate which part is the most important. Well, the heart immediately jumped in and said, because I pump blood to all of the body, therefore I am the most important. The brain really got upset. And he said, I coordinate all the functions of the body.
What do you mean? I am the one who's most important. And upon that kind of discussion, the eyes got a little bit uppity. And he said, we tell the body where to go, therefore we are the most important. And then the mouth piped up.
You know, the mouth always pipes up. I speak for the body, therefore I'm the most important member. Then each one of them made their case as to why a particular part is most important. Finally, the neck spoke up and the neck said, I am the most important. I guess that's why I call it stiff neck. And with that claim, the brain became very mad and said, you don't do anything that's important. And the heart said, yeah, I agree with that.
In fact, if you don't exist, we wouldn't miss you. And on and on and on and hearing of that insult, the neck became mad and angry, and tensed up. And the muscles knotted up. And it began to send excruciating pain to the whole of the body. So intense was the pain that the brain couldn't think. And the eyes were blurry and couldn't see. And the heart had to work over time pumping blood.
In fact, it was skipping a beat every now and then. And so after a week of that, they all got together again and decided that the neck is the most important part. You say, well, what's the point of the story? What's the point of that fable? You see, you don't have to be the heart or the eyes or the mouth or the brain to be the most important.
All you need to be is a pain in the neck. Amen. In all seriousness, I want you to look at Ephesians 4, 8. In fact, Ephesians chapter 4, as well as Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, speak of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The scripture makes it very clear. And remember this, the Holy Spirit, He is the one that gives us His gifts. He is the one who authored the word of God. He is the one who jumped in the ink as the writers were writing the book, the Bible, the word of God. The Holy Spirit is the same Holy Spirit that has handed you that birthday gift is the one who wrote the word of God. And the Holy Spirit speaks through the apostle Paul. And he said, when Jesus was ascended into heaven, He gave each one of His children at least one gift. He did not say He gave some, He gave each one.
Not according to their preference, not according to their choices, not according to their liking, but according to His sovereign choice. You have nothing to do with it. You don't deserve it. You have nothing to do with the choice of it. You have nothing to do. You cannot boast about that gift is not yours, it's given to you.
And you have nothing to complain about it either. It wasn't your choice, it was His sovereign choice. And 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7 tells us, since you are a recipient of the gift, why do you glory as if you did not receive it?
Human nature the way it is. There are some who either take credit for the gift or deny it altogether. And both counts weaken the church of Jesus Christ.
It's sad. It's like the preacher at the end of the sermon, somebody walked up to him and said, preacher, this was absolutely a wonderful sermon. And the preacher said, oh that wasn't me, that wasn't me, that was the Lord.
And the guy said, no, no, no, I didn't mean it was that good. When you know that you are only exercising that which is given to you, when you know that you had nothing to do with the gift of the Holy Spirit that handed to you on the day of your spiritual birth, praise and criticism of the use of that gift are of equal value to you. The problem when we get either puffed up with praise or discouraged with criticism is when we forget that it's not us, it's the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Why? Because it's given to you, it's not yours. And that is why a gift or gifts in most cases, in most of our cases, they are given to you, not for your own use, not for your own edification. No, they are given to you so that others be edified. It's for the edification of others. Whether your gift is a gift of prayer or gift of faith or gift of giving or gift of evangelism or gift of teaching or gift of administration or gift of showing mercy or gift of healing or many of the other gifts that we'll be looking at, they are all for the building of the body of Christ.
Not for our own consumption, not for our own use, so no one may boast or take credit for them. I am absolutely convinced in my mind that when each member of the body of Christ unwraps a spiritual gift and uses a spiritual gift and develops that spiritual gift and pray about the use of that spiritual gift, the body of Christ and the kingdom of Jesus is blessed and great things begin to happen. The problem is that we have small percentage of believers are discovering and using their gifts. And you know what that would be like? Would be like a six cylinder car operating on two cylinders.
Just think how hard that is. And that is why Ephesians 4-12 says, the Spirit's gifts are for the perfection of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for edifying of the body of Christ. The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4-10 said, as everyone has received the gift, even so administer that gift to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. In this series of messages, I'll be answering so many questions that you might have about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to clarify a whole lot of misunderstandings about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
But just to prepare you for this challenge, always remind yourself again and again and again that a gift or charismatic in the Greek word from which we get the word charismatic is what the Lord Jesus gave everyone of the children of grace when he went to heaven. He kept saying to his disciples, when I go to the Father, I send you the comforter. When I go to the Father, when I send him, he's going to tell you all truth. He's going to speak to you. He's going to speak on your behalf.
He will tell you what to say. And one of the things he has done is to give each one of us a gift. Listen to me, beloved, you cannot claim to be a Christian without being charismatic.
Did you get that? Say Amen. I'm going to explain to you the misunderstanding of that word in two counts. In society at large, they use the wrong word when they refer to somebody with charm and with personality as charismatic. You know, you say that person is charismatic. Charm and charisma or whatever it is, it's not what the Bible means by charismatic.
And the second misuse is in the church of Jesus Christ among a lot of believers. Some Christians when they refer to themselves as charismatics, they identifying the word with those who speak in tongues. Oh, he's charismatic.
He speaks. No, that is not biblical. That is not what the Bible said. In the Bible, charisma is a gift of grace that is given to every believer in order that they may glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven and edify one another. Therefore, every Christian is what? As a matter of fact, the word charismatic, its root is the word caress and the word caress means grace.
It is. It's the root word. The root word of grace is a gift. Caress, charismatic.
The root word. Why? Because a gift is divinely ordained just like the grace of salvation is divinely ordained. You cannot do anything to earn grace. You cannot work in order to earn grace. You cannot because you do not deserve grace. It's given to you and in the same way, a gift is given to you. These gifts of grace are not the same as natural talents.
Listen carefully. A lot of people confuse those two. Natural talents by which we are born is what theologians call common graces. But the gifts of the Holy Spirit are different from the natural talents by which we are born. Now having said that, let me rush very quickly before you process this in your head and tell you that on occasions, the Holy Spirit of God, when you become born again, breathe his breath on that natural talent with which you are born and he turned it into a spiritual gift. That happens again and again, whether it will be singing or teaching or public speaking or administration.
Sometimes that happens. But here's the difference between the natural talent and the spiritual gifts. Talents inspire. Talents entertain. But spiritual gifts build up the believers, build up the body of Christ.
Something supernatural happens when a gift is exercised which does not happen when the talent is used. When the Holy Spirit is at work in you and in me and the use of that gift that is given to us, our spirits are edified. We are blessed and encouraged. Churches grow and multiply. Minds are transformed into the likeness of Christ. Victory over sin. Power and dominion. I was reflecting in all of this and I thought of the condition of the Church of Jesus Christ as a whole. And why the Church of Jesus Christ is so weak spiritually? Why we're not making an impact on society? Why?
What is happening with the millions that claim to know Christ and the millions who attend churches and all of that? And I thought of a story of an interview that I read many years ago. It was an interview with a very prominent, well-known football coach. And the question was presented to him by the reporter. It was how much football contributed to the national physical fitness. And here's what he said. Absolutely nothing.
And the startled reporter asked him again, he said, why not? He said, the way I see it is that you have 22 men on the football field who are desperately in need of some rest. And then you have 40,000 people in the stand who desperately need of some physical exercise. Beloved, this is a picture of the Church of Jesus Christ. The churches are filled with spectators. When the vast majority of people in the church become or are spectators, the church becomes weak, becomes ineffective in the world.
It loses its impact on society as we're seeing happening right now. Challenging words from Dr. Michael Youssef to open and use your gift for the glory of God. Hey, maybe today's message sparked some questions about your spiritual journey. If so, we would like to invite you to begin a conversation with a Leading the Way pastor or counselor. And the place to start is ltw.org slash Jesus.
That's ltw.org slash Jesus. Well if you're a regular listener to Leading the Way, you've probably heard us say that Leading the Way is listener supported. And what that means is that Leading the Way is not wholly funded by a large church. Though many in Dr. Youssef's church do stand with him in support of the outreaches of Leading the Way, this ministry, though, is supported by listeners all around the world.
So you should note the ministry does not operate with a goal of increasing income and to please stockholders. This ministry is supported by men and women and families who've been impacted by the teaching and the impact of Dr. Youssef. They desire to please God and to see more lives touched by the Gospel. And most importantly, every dollar under the guidance and direction of Leading the Way's board goes toward spreading the good news at home and around the world. So please consider standing with Leading the Way.
Now is a great time during the season of the Open Door Campaign. It's a great way for you to participate in new and current ministry outreaches by Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way. Learn more and give securely when you call us at 866-626-4356 or online at ltw.org. Or you can write to us. We love getting your mail. You can send us your prayer request. You can send a check. You can just let us know how this ministry has impacted your spiritual walk. We're at Leading the Way, post office, Box 2100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world.
