Gifted

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. A spiritual gift very simply is Jesus pursuing his mission through the members of his church. So real quick, you're like, what is the mission of Jesus? What was the mission of Jesus? It was to glorify God. It was to bless and heal the world. It was to save sinners. And it was to build up the church. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and apologist, J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. Okay, think back with me for a second to your childhood. What was the best gift you ever got? Maybe it was a Christmas present you were waiting for, or the puppy that dad said would never come, but then appeared.

Or maybe you were one of the lucky kids who got a car for their 16th birthday. Well, today pastor J.D. reminds us that as believers, we've all been given an even better gift, a spiritual gift. What does that mean exactly?

What does that look like? And what do we do with it? That's what we're going to find out today as we continue our Rushing Wind series with a message titled Gifted. So grab your Bible and let's join pastor J.D.

in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12. We are going to look at spiritual gifts. I've told you before that one of the many things that I love about the Summit Church is how diverse we all are in our backgrounds. We have people here listening to me right now who come from all manner of religious backgrounds. We have those of you who grew up Baptist like I did. There are those of you who grew up Presbyterian. There are those of you who grew up Catholic. There are those who grew up Pentecostals.

They're the ones who are always yelling during church and I love them. We have charismatics. We have non-charismatics. We've got, I'm not really sure what any of this means, addicts.

We've got just plain addicts, former addicts that are a part of our church. So you say, well, what does all that mean for our church? Well, first of all, it means we have some really interesting small group discussions.

If you've ever been in one of the Summit small groups, you know it's like, what? You did what in your church? There's all kinds of things I hear coming out of that. But a friend of mine says that because we have so many Baptists, so many Presbyterians, and so many Pentecostals all together, he feels like we are predestined to speak in tongues at a potluck dinner.

That's how he puts all that together. But I believe that the diversity in our church is a very healthy thing. It is one that I'm very grateful for because we bring different experiences to the table and we end up teaching one another because there are things that God has allowed some of you to experience that I haven't experienced. And by understanding these diverse backgrounds, I think we have a much richer experience of who Jesus is and what he's doing in his church. Now, specifically regarding the charismatic issue, I would say that our official stance on this is that we are what I would call charismatics with a seatbelt, okay? Charismatics with a seatbelt, which means we believe it's there, right? We know it's there, and so we honor it and we want to receive it.

But then we also understand that there is a place to have some caution as we go forward in this, okay? So here we go, 1 Corinthians 12. In the second week of the series, I explain to you that the power that Jesus drew upon to do all that he did in ministry did not come out of his own of his own godness, but the power that Jesus accessed in ministry was the power of the Spirit.

Luke, the writer of both Luke and Acts, goes out of his way to show you that. And the reason that he does that is because if Jesus did all that he did in ministry out of his own godness, then that leaves you and me at a significant disadvantage, right? I mean, because I'm not the son of God, born of God like Jesus was born of God. He could do what he did just because he's the son of God.

I'm like, well, I'm the son of Lynn and Carol Greer, and they're awesome parents, but they're not God. So I can never do what Jesus did. But if Jesus limited his access to his own godness and drew upon the power of the Spirit, that means, Luke says, that you and I have access to the same Spirit that he had access to. And so that's why Luke goes out of his way to show you parallels between what Luke is, what Jesus is doing, and what the apostles are doing in Acts. With that in mind, 1 Corinthians 12, 1.

Now concerning, pneumaticon is the word in Greek. It is translated in your Bible, spiritual gifts. That's an okay translation. It's really, you're really, the most literal translation would be spirituals. Just spiritual manifestations, the essence of the Spirit.

Now concerning spirituals, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. Verse 4, now there are varieties of gifts, charismata. Charis is where we get the word grace from. Mata is where you have the idea of gifts. So there are a variety of grace gifts, graces, you might say, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of diaconia, which is where we get our word deacon, it just means servanthood. So varieties of service, but the same Lord. There are varieties of energema, energema where we get our word energy from.

It means energies, activities, right? But it is the same God who empowers them all for everyone. So you see what he's doing?

He's kind of stumbling through trying to describe what these are. He's like, well, they're like manifestations, they're spirituals, they're energies, they're serving, but it's the same God doing all of them to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To whom? To whom? To each. That's right, who's in each in here? Everybody's in each, right? Look at the person on your right, look at the person on your left, that's in each, there's in each, you're in each, everyone in each, each, we're just all each, okay? So to each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, okay?

That's our text. Now I've got, you know, pastors always seem to do things in threes. It's like, you know, the Trinity's threes, so therefore all of our sermons should have three points, right?

I got six for y'all this morning, so boom, all right? Number one, number one, a spiritual gift very simply is Jesus pursuing his mission through the members of his church. A spiritual gift very simply is Jesus pursuing his mission through the members of his church. This is what Jesus was talking about in John 14 12 when he said, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father.

Because I am going to the Father is a code reference for the sending of the Spirit because that's what Jesus said he would do when he went to the Father. Greater works than Jesus did would we do because the Holy Spirit would be upon us. A few weeks ago I told you about just kind of the, on the surface, the absurdity of that statement, greater works than Jesus. Who does greater works than Jesus? Anybody in here raise the dead?

Anybody walk on water? Anybody fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fish? Anybody have perfect insight into the mind of God, know exactly what to pray, know exactly what to say? Anybody speak on a level that people write down a scripture?

That ever happen? You're like, boom, I just said that, that's scripture right there, write that down for many of you. No, nobody can do a greater work than Jesus did. So what Jesus means there is not that any one of us individually would be greater than him, but when the Spirit of God was resting on the church, the individual members of the church as opposed to just one person, the collective impact of the Spirit would be greater than if Jesus himself had stayed. If the Summit Church had to choose between Jesus as its pastor or the Spirit upon every member, Jesus would say, no question, you choose the Spirit upon you because what we have this morning is 7,000 people who have the potential to carry the same power and the same spirit that Jesus accessed out into the community.

And he said, so that's why it's greater. This is how I'm going to pursue my mission is instead of located in one, I'm going to spread it out to everybody so that everywhere that you go, the power that Jesus used in ministry could go with you. So real quick, you're like, what is the mission of Jesus? What was the mission of Jesus? It was to glorify God. It was to bless and heal the world.

It was to save sinners and it was to build up the church. When God does that through you, when Jesus does that through you, that's what we call a spiritual gift. Number two, every believer has one.

Every believer has one. Verse seven, to each one of you that is a believer in Jesus, to each is given. Number three, the gifts are given for the common good of the church. The gifts are given for the common good of the church. One of the many problems that the Corinthians had is that they thought that their spiritual gifts made them like spiritual superheroes, manifestations of their own personal awesomeness.

And so they were proud about their spiritual gifts and they boasted in their spiritual gifts, they seemed to look at spiritual gifts almost like spiritual X-Men powers, where you kind of identify yourself by this awesome gift you have, or like you get zapped with spiritual Spider-Man powers and you're like, oh, what you got? I got tongues. I got prophecy. I got spidey stance. I can see right into your heart. What gift do you got?

Oh, you got administration? That is so lame. It's like a superhero.

Imagine one of the Marvel comic, it has the superhero strength of speed typing. You're like, that's kind of lame. That's how the Corinthians looked at this, is they thought that their spiritual gifts gave them an elevated status above everybody else. And Paul's going to tell them that not only does that show that they are unbelievably immature, it shows that they neither understand the gospel or the purpose of the gifts.

They don't understand the gospel or the purpose of the gifts. The gospel is that you have the absolute approval of God in Christ. Christ's righteousness has been given to you as a gift, and now God sees you in Christ. That is the highest recognition by the loftiest person.

What else could you possibly hope to lift yourself up with than the righteousness of Christ, and who else's opinion are you actually obsessed with if the God of the universe sees you that way? In God, you have the God, the Creator of the universe, who esteems you and cherishes you, and he sees you according to the righteousness of Christ. There is no greater treasure. There is no greater identity. There is no loftier privilege, and there is no higher person. And so when you are trying to elevate yourself above others by anything, including spiritual gifts, he's like, as soon as you don't understand the gospel, for your spiritual gift to produce pride in you means that you can't understand that when God saved you, he saved you from wrath.

That's what you deserve. If God gave you what you deserve, you were spiritually dead, you deserved hell, and God plucked you out of the burning. It was the grace that God gave to you. And so when your gift leads to pride, when it causes division, when it sets you apart, it just shows that you have no concept of the gospel because you either don't understand your wickedness that God saved you from or the value of the gift that God gave you in Christ in giving you his righteousness.

You see, fallen human nature, and this is very important, listen to this, fallen human nature searches for something about itself that is unique, something about itself that makes you special, something you can boast in, something that sets you apart from everybody else. I'm prettier. I'm more athletic. I'm smarter. I got a better body. I make more money. I did better in school. I've got a higher IQ. I live in a better neighborhood. I'm more moral. I'm a better parent, right? And they set you apart, and they make you worthy because these things make you special. Spiritual gifts can even be used to that end. I got this.

I can do this. Therefore, I am special. Christ's righteousness, Paul says, is to be our boast. You are listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. We'll return to 1 Corinthians in just a moment, but let me ask you, are you ready for the Christmas season? Have you started decorating? Is the Christmas music on around the house yet? Maybe it's more like this.

If you had your way, would those things be happening? Well, here at Summit Life, we are thinking a lot about the upcoming holiday season and are very excited to offer a special collection of 20 Christmas cards as this month's featured resource for our gospel partners and financial supporters. These cards are more than just a way to send holiday greetings. They're tools you can use to speak into someone's life, to remind them that they are known, loved, and remembered this season. Whether it's a neighbor, a friend, or a family member, a simple handwritten card can be a way to share the life-changing love of Christ. We are sending these to all of our partners who donate $35 or more to this ministry, so don't wait. You can give over the phone right now at 866-335-5220 or by visiting us online at jdgreer.com. Make this Christmas season special by personally sharing the good news with the people God has placed around you.

And start today, give yourself time to get these in the mail. Now let's jump back into today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD.

Hey, give you an example. Luke chapter 10, the disciples had gone out on a preaching tour, one of the first ones, preaching the miracles. They come back together and man, they are jazzed up because it was a great, they had a lot of converts and they had a lot of, you know, they were like, man, you believe this? And then I said this to this demon and the demon like took off and, oh yeah, well, there was a blind guy and I healed him of his blindness. And Jesus is listening and he's listening with them to your level of approval as he's excited about what they've experienced. But evidently he starts to perceive that they are now boasting in how much power they have. And knowing a group of guys that get together like this, I've been in enough group of guys that can take exactly what was happening.

People were listening and then trying to one up the other one. So you can just hear Peter be like, oh, you cast out three demons? I cast out like a whole army. I think Satan himself was in that group that I cast out.

I'm just saying, I can't prove that, but you know, I'm sure it was, you know, and they're boasting. And then Jesus, he just says this, he says, don't rejoice. Don't rejoice that the demons are subject to you. Rejoice that your name is written down in the Lamb's book of life.

You know what he meant by that? What he meant by that is your boast should not be the powers that you have spiritually. Your boast should not be your talents. Your boast ought to be the righteousness of Christ that's given to you as a gift. That's the greatest boast you could ever have. So why don't you boast there? Your gifts, your abilities, spiritual or natural, are not to be where you base your identity.

That leads to pride and division. Your identity is to come from the gift righteousness of Christ given to you as grace. That is to be your identity, which is why, just off the cuff, I will tell you I'm not a big fan of children's curriculum. That's all built around this, like, you know, you're special. You're unique. You're a snowflake.

There's nobody like you. Be a narcissist is kind of what they're, what they're teaching kids. Yeah, I know my kids are special.

I understand that, but you know what? The greatest possession they have is not some unique abilities they have. It's that God loves them, and God has a plan for them, and God has given them Christ. So don't rejoice, he tells them, in this gift because that's not like I gave it to you. That's like I gave you Christ. Your spiritual gifts are not given for personal exaltation.

It's given to you to be able to serve the body. Don't let yourself get lifted up in pride by what you can do. Now I'm gonna go ahead and tell you, possessing that mentality, that's a lot more easily said than done. Say amen.

Isn't it? Now I will admit that for you, my fallen heart, mine, is constantly gravitating to ways to distinguish myself in your eyes. You know, just ways that I think, you know, things that give me a sense of importance. For example, somebody after church will come up to me and be like, Pastor, that was a great sermon.

I mean, seriously. I mean, I mean like another great sermon. Every week you do this, it was phenomenal.

I don't know how you do it. Every week you read my mail. You are truly a great preacher. That's a sincere compliment.

I'm encouraged by it. I go home. Then another conversation takes place. And I say like to Veronica, I'm like, hey babe, how many truly great preachers are there, do you think, in the world? And her response is usually like, one less than you think right now.

This is what I do. It's just I gravitate. I tell you, I debated telling you this. I put it in, took it out, put it in, took it out, put it in, took it out.

I think it's out right now, but I'm gonna go ahead and put it in. Okay, so about three weeks ago, I was coming home. I'd spoken at this conference.

Oh, I shouldn't tell you this. I'd spoken at this conference, and it was a, you know, it was a big conference. And I got up, and I preached to all these pastors or whatever. Then I got on a plane and was flying back here to Raleigh-Durham. And it was late.

I was tired, kind of in a bad mood. But the person sitting next to me on the plane, I just faithfully shared Christ with that person and talked with him for a few minutes. And after I was finished, I kind of sat back, and this thought went through my head.

I wonder how many people there are that, you know, had the ability to preach to the big conference, but then would have the faithfulness to turn and talk to just the one person. I bet God sure is glad that he has a guy like me on his team. I kid you not, that went through my head. What's wrong with my heart, right? I mean, what's wrong with my heart that I would think that?

And then it was like, you know, a couple of minutes later, I was like, you idiot. Do you know what it cost God to have you on his team? It cost the death of his son. I don't think he's sitting there in heaven going, oh, I'm so lucky. Thank you for JD. I think he's saying that caused the death of my son to pull you out of hell.

I'm not looking at you as a great investment, right? When you understand the gospel, then that puts your spiritual gift in perspective, because no longer is it something given to you to elevate yourself above others. The gospel is that you are perpetually low, but he has made you high in Christ. That leads you to humility and then to take your gifts to serve others.

That's the whole mentality there in 1 Corinthians 12. Let's keep moving here. Number four, was that too honest? Was that uncomfortable?

Did that make you feel weird? You want me to just go ahead and talk like I don't have any of these problems? Would that make you respect me more as your pastor?

Okay, good, because I'm not doing it. Number four. Number four, no believer has them all. No believer has them all. You see in verse seven, to each was given something that everybody else needed. God didn't give all the gifts to anybody. Jesus had all the gifts. Jesus had them all.

He did, but nobody else after him got them all. Down in verse 12, Paul's going to use an analogy, a metaphor to press this home. Every member of the body, he says.

You can look down your Bible and see it. Every member is unique. Every member performs a different function. If the eye suddenly decides that it's more important than the foot, and you could see how the eye would think that, right? I mean, the eyes are a pretty delicate piece of equipment. I mean, it does some things that no other part of the body can do. The foot, not so much. It's kind of a clumsy instrument, you think. It doesn't have the sophistication of an eye. The foot produces odor. The eye kind of takes care of itself.

I mean, it's just, you know. But if the eye decides that it's more important than the foot, and the eye decides to get rid of the foot, then the eye, yeah, it can do some pretty amazing things, but without the foot, it's going to be seeing the same thing all the time, because it can't go anywhere and see anything new. And Paul says it's all the members of the body that end up creating the body. God designed the church like that so that each member is dependent on the others. You see, one of God's agendas, listen, one of God's agendas is to go to war against your self-sufficiency. You spent all your life trying to become self-sufficient.

That's why you got insurances and why you got savings accounts, because you don't want to have to depend on anybody. But God goes to war against your self-sufficiency because it's the enemy of the gospel. So he communicates part of himself to one person and part of himself to another so that without one another, we can never experience the fullness of God. That's one of the ways God goes.

By the way, you know I'm not saying anything wrong with insurance and savings account. I'm just saying that when it comes to knowing him, God does not want a self-sufficient Christian. So he distributed knowledge of him, and he distributed how he works in the world into the church so that nobody has it all, and we depend on each other. He does that first with knowledge of him. Let's talk about that for a minute. There are different ones of you that have different experiences with God, and those different experiences have caused you to know a different angle on God than I know from my experience.

And it is only by listening to your story and hearing how God is working in your life that I can see that part of God. We're not talking about two different gods. We're not talking about new truth.

We're just talking about ways of knowing it. C.S. Lewis had a great analogy for this.

C.S. Lewis said that when he was older, he had two really good friends. One was named Charles, one was named George, and the three of them got together often in basically what you would think of as a small group. And the three guys, he says, George passed away. He says, now there's just two of us. He said, and you might think that without George, now I've got more of Charles, because Charles no longer has to divide his attention between George and me.

He can just give it all to me. He said that was profoundly mistaken, because now that George had died, I had less of Charles, not more of Charles, because there was some things about Charles that only George could bring out. There was some ways that he would relate, some humor they would have, some insight. There was a part of George that only Charles could bring out, and when George died, I got less of Charles, not more.

Does that make sense? Or I think about it with my wife. I heard people all the time say, oh, we want to have kids, because I want to just enjoy my wife. When my wife and I had kids, I knew I didn't get less of my wife. I got more of her, because suddenly I saw a part of my wife that only my children could bring out. It was so much more that when we had these children, it's like this is much more of the Veronica.

The other beings in our house brought out this part of her. The same way what God does is through these multiple experiences, He allows different people to understand and taste different parts of His grace, so that as you come together, your picture, your fellowship in God is so much richer and so much deeper. We can't do it all, or as we've heard before, not everything that comes from heaven has your name on it. You have a unique gift in the body of Christ for the mission of God, and you're supposed to use it.

You're listening to pastor, author, and apologist J.D. Greer on Summit Life. One of the things I love about the teaching this month on Summit Life, Pastor J.D., is how shareable it is. Every day is a message of hope or encouragement that I feel like passing on to someone else.

Yeah, thank you for that, Molly. I do hope that the messages we share here on this program inspire each of us to pass the gospel on to others. That's really what Summit Life is all about, is seeing the multiplication of the gospel happen through people. Yeah, the Summit Life program is a part of that. The best way the gospel spreads is from person to person, whether that's you sharing the gospel with somebody or simply pointing them to listen along with you, listen so that you can discuss things together after the program's over. And that's another reason that I'm excited about this resource that we've put together just for you, our Summit Life audience this season. It's a set of Christmas greeting cards that have inspirational verses and kind of the heart of the gospel at Christmas that you can accompany with a personal message just to tell somebody, a family member, a friend, somebody that doesn't know Jesus, that you're thinking about them. Christmas for us is not just a time of sentimentality or family.

We love family, obviously, but it's also a time where we can proclaim to the world that Jesus came and that none of us have ever been the same because he came. Reach out to us here. Reserve your set.

Just go to jdrear.com. We'd love to send you this brand new set of Christmas cards right now. Like Pastor JD said, these make a great tool to share the hope of the gospel message with the people in your life. We're sending these to all of you who support this ministry with a gift of $35 or more. To get your set, call us now at 866-335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220, or you can always visit jdrear.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow as we continue talking about spiritual gifts. That's Thursday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.