Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The Holy Spirit bestows gifts of service on God's people.
Some teach, some proclaim from the pulpit. Others serve in quiet ways that few will notice. But every Christian has a gift. Today, how to find out what your gift is and how to put it to use for God's glory. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr.
Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, is the gift of service in the same category as the sign gifts, such as tongues?
Well, Dave, the gift of tongues and miracles, that of course is a separate category. And many of us believe that there are indications that those kinds of miraculous gifts ended with the apostles. But be that as it may, you're absolutely right. The Holy Spirit of God does give different gifts, and one of those gifts is the gift of service, a very important gift. You know, I'm so glad for the many of you who support the ministry of running to win.
As a matter of fact, at the end of this message, I'm going to be sharing a very encouraging letter from someone who lives in Russia. because they hear this ministry in their own language. And this is the last week. of our matching gift challenge. My friend, I want you to pray about it.
Any gift that you give during this period of time is doubled. This is a great opportunity for you to make an investment as we continue this ministry. around the world. But for now, I want you to listen to the message, and then following that, I'll have some contact info. and a very encouraging word.
So what has the Holy Spirit of God done in your life this past week that can't be explained simply because of your natural ability? Or luck. But rather, you have seen in your life and your experience the Holy Spirit of God at work. Being able to live beyond what you normally live because you see the Holy Spirit of God. is there.
We've been learning in this series of messages that every Christian is indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and we can be very grateful for that. The person of the Holy Spirit, by the way, he is a person. And he can work within us according to his will, but he seeks our cooperation.
So, I hope that you recognize that that person is with you and you are experiencing the blessing of the Spirit personally. But also, I'm interested in the Holy Spirit working at Moody Church, working among us as a body. And that's the focus of today's message. This idea that Jesus and I can have something going on between us, and I don't have to be a part of the church. is not taught anywhere in the New Testament.
To say that you love Jesus, but you don't love his people despite all their faults. If you don't love the people whom he has redeemed, you really don't love Jesus. Jesus. How can you love Jesus and not love his body? The body of Jesus Christ, part of which is gathered here today.
as we have the privilege of ministering. God's word.
Now imagine Christmas comes and somebody gives you a gift and you leave it under the tree. There may be many reasons why you want to leave it there. It's from somebody that you don't like very much anyway, and if you open the gift, you sort of have an obligation to do something nice for them. Maybe it's that. Maybe another reason might be because you in your spirit think you already know what's in it.
And so you leave it there. Month after month, the gift stays under the tree.
Now imagine for a moment receiving a gift from God with your name on it. And God says, This is my gift to you, and you leave that gift. Under the tree. I believe very deeply that this message could be transforming for people who don't even know that God gave them a gift. And maybe also we can give you some hints as to how you can find out what your gift is to get it unwrapped.
And used. After all, God put you together in a certain way. that you might have a very special gift. And God is so creative. He's so creative, when he sends a snowstorm, every single flake is different.
And look at how creative he is. Just look around this sanctuary this morning. And look at the person next to you. Don't turn around and look at the person behind you, they're looking at you. and see how uniquely God made us all.
so different.
So unique. The passage is 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and I do hope that you have your Bibles with you. If not, there are some Bibles in the seat ahead of you. And this is page 959. 959, if you have a Bible like mine, and you need to see it in the text.
You need to see it. for yourself. what the gifting is. And also to try to find out what yours is.
Now, the key to this passage is actually chapter 12 here, verse 13. For by one Spirit we've all been baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Greeks, is that what it says? Jews are Greeks, slaves are free. all were made to drink of one spirit.
In an earlier message, I spoke about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and used this text. Remember the world in which people were converted out of in Corinth. Keep in mind that it was an exceedingly immoral culture. Every kind of sexuality was available, every kind of perversion, whatever you wanted, it was there and it was encouraged. It was not discouraged.
the real quote free society. But people discovered something. In the end, it was dissatisfying. In the end, it caused problems. In the end, there was no fulfillment.
There was hollowness and there was emptiness. And so The gospel came to them. And as Paul says elsewhere, what it did is it translated people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Could I pause there and say that you who are listening, Have you experienced that transformation? Has God transferred you from a kingdom of darkness with all of its false promises?
and brought you into the kingdom. of His Blessed Son. If he's done that through your faith in Jesus Christ, If he's done that, then you are a member of the body of Christ. Notice the little word all there in the text. For by one Spirit are we all baptized.
By one Spirit do we all drink. Everyone. is part of the body.
Now, that background, let's look at how the body functions and the gifting that God gives to us.
so that we might function properly. Chapter 12.
Now, we're in verse 1. We begin at the beginning. Concerning spiritual gifts, I don't want you to be uninformed. The Greek word actually is agnostic. I don't want you to be an agnostic about spiritual gifts.
I don't want you to not know that God has given you one. And furthermore, I don't want you to know that God has given you one, and yet you don't know what your gift is. You were created to function. within the body. And everyone, as we shall see, has a spiritual gift.
He talks about probably the Oracle of Delphi. People would go to Delphi to try to discern what the gods were saying.
Somebody like today that would go to a fortune teller, or perhaps to read the horoscopes, to try to find out what they should do or whether they have any luck. Paul calls these mute. Or dumb. idols. They will lead you astray.
They will deceive you. And so Paul says, thank God that's part of your past life. And that part is gone. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. If you find somebody saying that, you know it's coming from a demonic spirit.
And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
Now the devil may be able to mouth those words, but he cannot do it embracing it for himself. And so Paul indicates that one way to tell between the spurious, the wrong, and the evil, and the good. Is what a person says about Jesus.
Well, all that by way of background.
Now we're going to look at the gifts. Notice Paul says, Now there are varieties of gifts. The Greek word is charismata. Strictly speaking, all of us properly interpreted, are charismatics. Because we believe in spiritual gifts.
They are grace gifts. God has graced you. You know, maybe you've had a hard week. Maybe things have really gone wrong for you this week, but will you remember God has graced you? in giving you a gift.
And if you cannot serve, I'll say a word about that at the end also. For whatever reason, God understands that. But I'm speaking to you today and saying that God has uniquely gifted you. And then he says Now there are varieties of gifts, but notice that they have the same source. They have the same source.
He says They have the same spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God. who empowers them all, and everyone.
Now just think about this. Let's not hurry over the text. Did you see the whole Trinity? It says There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, the same Lord. Jesus Christ and the same God.
Now, all throughout here, Paul is going to attribute your special gift to the Holy Spirit, but. Have you ever thought of the fact that the Trinity put you together. And the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit determined what your gifting. Would be? What a beautiful statement.
Today, in the midst of our world that is so busy with all of the distractions and all of the cell phones. I think I'm going to preach about that in a couple of months. Cell phones. The average person looks at his cell phone 34 times a day. In the midst of this, would you just bask in the fact that the Trinity knows about you, the Trinity gifted you, and our gifts come from the same source?
But notice also that these gifts have the same purpose. the same purpose. You'll notice it says To each, verse 7, is given the manifestation of the Spirit. I went to bed last night meditating on that. I thought, how beautiful can you get?
the manifestation of the Spirit. You and I are to show forth the manifestation of the Spirit. And then it says, It is given for the common good. Common good. That's why you're gifted is for the common good.
The Greek word is sun phone, from which we get the word symphony.
Now you know that we had an orchestra here this morning, and before I came on the platform, I asked some of them: what are some of the instruments that are played? And of course we know about the violins and we know about the trombones and the cello and the bass and all those. and they gave me some others whose names escape me at the moment. But this morning I was here early enough, before many of you were. And I heard them warming up.
Sounded awful. I mean, I think it sounded something like cats in a barrel. That's the way we are. But once they are in tune, what a beautiful symphony. In fact, let's give them a hand for the way in which they blessed us this morning.
Now, what Paul says is this. That we as a church are to be a beautiful symphony. And I want to extend it a little bit and say that we are to make music that God enjoys and takes delight in. Despite the fact that the functions of the gift are very different. You know what this means.
The real issue when you come to church isn't, were you blessed? I hope that you are. The real issue isn't did I just enjoy every piece of music? Though I hope that you're like me, and you did. But that isn't really the issue.
The issue is how did I personally contribute? To the church and to the glory of God, because that's really what is at stake. You know, Vance Havner was a southern preacher who used to roll off one-liners, and all of us as preachers quote him from time to time. And he said, I haven't heard a sermon in which I didn't get anything. But he said I've had some mighty close calls.
We've all had our mighty close calls. That isn't really the issue. You're here for the common good. You're here to create the symphony. And could I just digress for a moment and talk about Moody Church?
At prayer meeting last Wednesday, I went around with a microphone and we heard some testimonies. The diversity. Just absolutely blessed us. We had a wonderful testimony from a woman. Who came to us from Nigeria, who had been raised Muslim and is a believer today.
We heard a testimony from somebody who was recently here from the Philippines. We heard a testimony from someone from Romania. And I listened to all these, and I told the people at prayer meeting that of all the churches in the world, But I would rather be, there is none quite like the Moody Church with its diversity and the fact that we together make a symphony. And I hope that the music that we make in our unity Is honoring to the Lord. 72 different countries of origin represented right here in this congregation.
All All coming together to bless God. Gifts have the same source. God. They have the very same purpose. The singular purpose is for the common good.
God created you in the way in which He did so that you could bless others and bless us. And we need every one of you. and they have, however, different functions.
Now, let's look at this, what the Apostle Paul says. And I'm going to read through this list of gifts. Letting you know in advance that there are three basic categories of gifts.
Now not all the ones that he listed here, this is not a complete list. In fact, Romans chapter 12 actually has my gift. My gift, my primary gift, is not listed here in this chapter. And even here, where the Apostle Paul lists the various gifts. He adds some in verse 27 and following.
He talks about helps and administration.
So there are maybe 19 or 20. If you take all the lists of the New Testament, and combined them, about nineteen or twenty different gifts. And they fall into basically three categories. There are speaking gifts. Speaking gifts.
teachers and exhorters and so forth. And then there are what we call sign gifts. Those are the miracle gifts that we'll get to in a moment. And then there are also service gifts. Administration helps.
etcetera. And so those are three basic categories of gifting. Let's look at this brief list that he has here. He says, To one is given the utterance of wisdom. God knows that we need that.
and to another the utterance of knowledge. There are some people who know an awful lot. and they can contribute with their knowledge. It's according to the same spirit. To another, faith by the same Spirit.
We all have faith. But some people can believe God not only for themselves, but for others. They have implicit faith in God. and they benefit the congregation. And then it says gifts of healing.
Actually, it's plural, gifts of healings. Evidently in the church there were those who perhaps one person Was especially adept at being able to pray for people who had a certain disease and.
Someone else could pray for people who had a different kind of a disease or. Whatever it was that they were going through, and some were especially gifted to be able to do that. And then it says the working of miracles, a little broader category. Maybe it includes exorcism. It includes the gifts that would function within the body of Jesus Christ.
And now we continue. Gifts of healing, gifts of working miracles, to another prophecy which can refer, yes, to receive a revelation from God or to preach the Word of God. and to tell forth God's word like I'm doing right now. to the other the ability to distinguish between spirits. Oh, I think we need that today.
There's no doubt that what Paul has in mind is the ability. To be able to distinguish between the work of the devil and the work of the Holy Spirit. And you think that's easy? Uh-uh, that's not easy at all. There are people today, Jesus said, who will, in the name of Jesus, cast out demons, and do many wonderful works, and they'll be disqualified.
In the day of judgment, one of the most sobering passages of Scripture. in Matthew chapter 7.
Now sometimes you watch television and I can just tell this person is doing his quote miracles under the power of the devil, even though he uses the name of Jesus, by the way. And Paul talks about that in another passage, and years ago I preached on that other passage. The point is that sometimes they run concurrently. That is to say, it's difficult to distinguish because Satan's. Workers appear as angels of light.
Doing miracles, and they'll do it in the name of Jesus. We need people today. who have the gift of discernment, who can distinguish. the false from the true. big topic.
And then we go on to uh tongues and so forth.
Now I'm going to take a bit of a detour here. And talk about tongues. I remember seeing a sign saying, that Frenchman detour, he really made some bad roads. Um Do I have to repeat that for some of you? Let's take a bit of a detour regarding tongues because it is the most controversial gift.
The gift of tongues, some people say, and I'm only looking at it through a real sliver here, really fast. I mentioned it in previous messages that I believe it was God's special gift. To prove and to indicate that from now on the gospel was going to Gentiles in all the different languages of the world. He was reversing the Tower of Babel. which divided The world because of languages.
God says, now I'm bringing them together. And the gospel is going to go worldwide, not just in the beautiful Hebrew language, but the guttural sounds of Gentile languages. But there are friends who In the movement, who today tell us that when you speak in tongues, You don't have to speak an actual language as they did in the book of Acts, and furthermore, even more dangerously. You don't have to know what it is you're saying. I think that is very dangerous.
Now, there are two passages, two verses that are used to try to teach that.
some people who speak in tongues. have no clue what they're saying. and yet they're speaking by the Spirit. Very dangerous in my opinion.
Well, my friend, you're going to have to listen to Running Twin next time to hear the rest of the message that you've just been listening to. I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who listens to Running to Win. in the Russian language. This person says, I thank you so much for running to win. I can now stop and understand many things and try to look at God even more.
I'm actually summarizing this letter. Because it goes on to say that every day, every minute, They continued to look at God and listen to running to win. every day. How can they do that in the Russian language? My friend, it's because of people just like you.
and I want to remind you that this week is the last week of our Matching Gift Challenge. Would you help us end the year strong? What that means is every gift that you give is of course doubled. $10 becomes $20, $50 becomes $100. And of course, you can do the math.
I want to thank the many of you who are praying about helping us. I trust that by God's grace, as we end this month, we will be in a position not only to continue this ministry, but to expand it even in other languages. Here's what you can do to get some info. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-288.
218-9337. I want to share my heart with you. Thank you for the many of you who are joining hands with us. And if you have not done that, once again, here's the contact info. Go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Together, we're running the race of life. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard. Chicago, Illinois, 60614. The gift of speaking in tongues was prevalent at the church's birth.
Some believers are reluctant to focus on the Holy Spirit. because they think it means they have to speak in tongues.
Next time on Running to Win, we take a careful look into the Bible for clarity on what tongues are and what they're not. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
