How is everyone doing? Right before I came in here my mother-in-law grabbed me and said, I am really excited you are preaching today but I can t wait until next week when Jake Barker is preaching! Hey, like Jim said, this is cool for me to preach here for the first time. I grew up in this church and some of you have known me since I was this tall. I know who you are because I can see the look of terror in your eyes when you see me up here. Thank you for your encouraging looks. I was talking to my wife this week and she said (bless her heart, she meant this in an encouraging way), Honey, you don t have to worry about Sunday. It is your first time so nobody will have high expectations. Awesome! But on a serious note, what really excites me about being up here is not getting to preach at Trader s Point, but who I get to do it with. I was talking to Jake a month or so ago and we were going over each other s sermons. We were both preaching that night but at different venues. It was really great to stop and think just for a second about preaching the gospel with him but at different places. It is great to be a part of a team that values Biblical preaching. Aaron, Jake, and I will sit in each others offices and talk shop about preaching. We pass books to each other. We ll even text each other at night about really good sermons that we have listened to. It really is a nerdy as it sounds, but it is awesome. It is such a great feeling to get to open God s Word and teach God s Word with two of your best friends as brothers. I hope you got a chance to give your tithes and offerings. If you didn t there are bins at each of the exits on the way out. Be sure to do that. In two weeks on January 29 th you need to be back here. Aaron is going to be back and he is going to be preaching a message on the vision for our church and what God is doing and will be doing in our church. Make sure you are here for that. It is called Don t Circle the Wagons and if you don t get here, be sure you catch that online. Let me go ahead and pray for us and we ll dive in. Father, your Word is sharp. God I just ask that you pierce all of us today with it, that you will open our hearts and our minds and that we will just listen to your Word. I ask that you are praised and that we will hear your Words and not mine. It is in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, go ahead and flip in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12. We are going to be hanging out there today. If you are new or you are visiting, we are in the middle of a series called Cow Tipping. What we are doing is that we are going chapter by chapter through the book of 1 Corinthians and unpacking what the apostle Paul is teaching. First let s give you just a little bit of a background. Paul took three missionary journeys in his lifetime around the Mediterranean world and he was planting churches and preaching the gospel everywhere he went. In a city called Corinth, which was a Greek city about 50 miles west of Athens, he plants a church. He stayed there about 18 months with the church, teaching them and helping them grow and then he left and went on the rest of his missionary journey. Now when he is in another city called Ephesus, which is in Turkey right now, he gets word that things are not going that well with the Corinthians that there is division in the church. He hears about all kinds of sexual immorality that would have made Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.
Vegas look like a monastery. People in the church are suing each other left and right. There is no church discipline and there is confusion about gender roles and communion. There is fighting and jealousy and selfishness. Basically, anything that can go wrong in a church was probably happening in Corinth. It was like MTV s Jersey Shore meets the People s Court - nothing but class, right? Now, the Corinthian church gets a really bad rap and rightfully so. Paul lays into them for good reason. But let s just take a step back for a moment and not look down our noses at them just yet. Traders Point, this is a healthy church but it certainly isn t perfect. If you are looking for a perfect church that is never going to mess up or make any mistakes, don t waste any more of your time here. In fact, let me help you with your search. You are not going to find it anywhere until Jesus returns and when that happens there is not going to be a need for the little c church anymore. I mean this is a healthy place and hopefully with God s grace and submission to Him it will continue to be that way but we are going to have issues along the way because this church is made up of sinful people. Every church is. We have been around for 178 years now and we have had plenty of time to get to the point we are at - a lot of time to grow and mature. The Corinthian church had been around for maybe three years. Another key piece to keep in mind is that Christianity has been around for nearly 2,000 year now. It has had an enormous influence on the world so much so that if you are sitting here today whether you follow Jesus or think this is all a joke you have been directly influenced by the work of Christ in this church. Nations have been formed based on Biblical principles. Most of the hospitals that are open today in the U.S. trace their roots back to the church seeing a need for the sick in the community and they just did something about it. Many universities originally opened as seminaries with the sole purpose of turning out pastors and missionaries, including almost the entire Ivy League. Our concept of quality regardless of gender or race or nationality; that concept started with Jesus. It wasn t heard of in the Corinthian days. Jesus comes on the scene and He takes a world and a culture and He flips it upside down. We have seen the effects and have benefited from the 2,000 years of influence. The Corinthians were around for maybe 20 years after this guy named Jesus came on the scene and the movement call Christianity started. They knew something we don t know. They knew what life was like, what culture was like, before Jesus and in some ways that was still affecting them. We have 178 years as a church and they had maybe three. We ve had 2,000 years of world history impacted by Christ. They had maybe 20. Now Paul lays into them but here is my fear. We can look down on the Corinthians and see what they did wrong and how they screwed up, but if we don t learn from their mistakes, if we don t learn from what Paul is teaching, what future generation Christians are going to look back and see? What huge flaws are they going to look back and see just like we are seeing in the Corinthians? Was there division among us? Or, are we united? Do we fight amongst ourselves or do we represent ourselves well to the world by the way we treat each other? Did we really look like Christians - Christ followers - or did we just claim we were? That is the reason Paul is writing to the Corinthians; to teach them what it means to follow Jesus and what it means to be united as Christians. Now I have a passion for singing. Not being in a choir but more; give me a mike, get out of the way and let me flex my pipe. I have a passion for singing. Are you following me? My person genre of choice would have to be 80 s rock. Give me some Eddie Money, some Bon Jovi (I have just lost everyone under the age of 30). The pinnacle of it all has got to be Journey. Yes. I will bust out in Don t Stop Believing and bring tears to a grown man s eyes. I will do that anywhere - in a car, in the shower, in the aisles at WalMart. Ask my wife. She thinks the crazy looks we get from other shoppers is a bad thing but I know they are admiring my awesomeness. But deep down, as awesome as I am in my own mind, deep Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2
down I know I am flat out awful. I am the guy they have on the first couple episodes of American Idol who is not really good, if you are catching my drift. Now my son is two and we were in the car earlier this week. Some Goo Goo Dolls came on the radio. I really like the Goo Goo Dolls and I start singing along and I look in the rearview mirror and he is going like this (hands covering ears). No kidding. The kid is two and he is already selling me out. I have a passion for singing and I want to use my passion mostly for my own good. But God certainly didn t get me there. That has been affirmed many times by the voice of the Holy Spirit, which sounds remarkably like my wife s voice. So Paul switches gears here in chapter 12 and he starts talking about spiritual gifts. This is another topic that has created division in the Corinthian church. They are confused about spiritual gifts. They are using them to make much of themselves. They even see spiritual gifts as this litmus test of spiritual maturity or even spiritual power and it has created these rivalries that are just tearing the church apart. Let s dive into verse 1 and see what Paul has to say. Now concerning spiritual gifts Now remember that whenever Paul says Now concerning.. it was in answer to questions the Corinthians were asking him. Now we don t have the questions that they asked, but we do have Paul s answers. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed! and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Why does Paul start off like this? Ok, you have some questions and you have some issues with spiritual gifts let s talk about that. But, remember when you were a pagan? That is a great way to start off a conversation, right? Next time you meet with someone for coffee that is a new believer who wants to talk about their faith or scripture, start off by saying, Remember when you were a pagan? See how far that conversation goes. Paul says I don t know how it happened but you started worshipping idols that were made of metal and wood. Because of that, I want you to understand this. Then he gives them this basic test - a test to discern gifts that are from the Holy Spirit and gifts that are evil. To discern between people that claim to be teaching God s truth and false teachers. Paul simply says, Who do they say Jesus is? Is Jesus Lord? If that is the case no one can say that unless they are in the Holy Spirit. Or is Jesus something else or nothing at all? We see that today, right? There are plenty of people who say they believe in God, plenty of people who say they serve God. But, what do they say about Jesus. Is He the Son of God, Lord and Savior? Is He just some nice guy with highlighted hair telling people to love each other and that is about it? To denounce Jesus and make Him anything else other that fully God and fully man is the exact same thing as denouncing God the Father. That is not me saying that, that is the Bible. Paul says because of this I want you to be clear. I want you to understand this. The gifts I am about to talk about these gifts are from the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that allows you to say Jesus is Lord. They are not coming from anywhere else. Actually the first question they might have been asking is ok, what are the gifts really for? Then Paul goes into verse 4 and he says this. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and 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 in everyone. Now underline verse 7, this is the key. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. OK, when you received a Christmas present three weeks ago the tag on it said for you from your spouse, right? Now our culture sees gifts as this is for me, it has been given to me for my use and my enjoyment. If you are gifted musically, use your gift. Make a name for yourself. If you are gifted athletically, cash that gift in. If you are gifted intellectually, which is Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 3
obviously the category I fall into, use your gift. It really wasn t a joke, but thanks, I will send you my therapy bills. Use your gifts for you. Paul is saying that your gift, your spiritual gift, is not about you at all. It is not for you. It is not for your glory. It is not for your pride. It is not for you to use however you want. Your gift is not about you at all. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. The tag attached to the Spiritual gift that has been given to you says from God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit for everyone else. All Christ followers are given Spiritual gifts and they are not given to you for your enjoyment or for your pride. They are given to you for the sole purpose of building up and uniting the body of Christ, which is the church and making much of Jesus. That is what the gifts are for. The next question that Paul addresses is, ok what are the Spiritual gifts Christians get? Now, verse 8 gives us a list. This is not an exhaustive list. There are more in Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4 but Paul starts to list some of the gifts in verse 8. He says this. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. We need to have two different conversations here. First, if you are skeptical of this or if you are new to the whole church thing, this confirms your suspicions, right? To you, reading those verses sounds like something from the X-men. Prophesy? Does that mean that some people get this special helmet and they can predict the future? Gifts of healing? Does that mean I can get hit by a truck and play golf later that same day. Working miracles? Ok, I need to see someone walk across Eagle Creek. Then I can buy into this. I understand where you are coming from. To the world s perspective, to our own logic, this doesn t really make a whole lot of sense. Just for a second, don t associate spiritual gifts with magical powers like we see in movies like Lord of the Rings. I ve never seen anybody get hit by a truck, stand up and brush themselves off and then head off to the golf course. But I have seen somebody on their death bed be prayed over and over time they recovered without a whole lot of explanation from the doctor. Most of the time spiritual gifts are not flashy. Maybe they don t attract the attention that we would assume that they do. I think that is by God s design. Maybe He designed it that way so not to draw attention to the gifts themselves, but the purpose of the gifts. That is what Paul is getting at. The next conversation we need to have is for anyone who is Christian. This is a family talk. Verses 8-10 can and have caused division in the church before. There have been church splits and denominations formed where spiritual gifts were a main influence on that decision all because we have kind of missed the point. There is this tendency to focus on the gifts themselves. Should everyone be speaking in tongues and how often? Should people with the gift of prophecy be speaking constantly in worship or not at all? Now one extreme says this if we are not using our spiritual gifts constantly we are dishonoring God and we are not spiritually mature. OK, that is great. The only problem with that is that it is not what the Bible says. The other extreme says this, the spiritual gifts, especially the sign gifts, ended with the apostles and they are not present today. OK, that is great. The only problem with that is that is not what the Bible says. Now, if that bothers you ok. Feel free to send me an email and we can discuss this. My email is abrockett@tpcc.org! But some of you are waiting for me to dive into tongues right now or talk about prophecy, what that means, and when we are going to use it. But I am not going to go there because that is not the point of the chapter. That is the reason Paul spends only five verses Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 4
out of 31 in a discussion of the gifts. He only lists them and then he moves on. He spends the rest of the chapter talking about the purpose of the gifts. We need to focus on the purpose of the gifts and not the gifts themselves. Now my guess is that is what happened with the Corinthians. They got caught up with the gifts and they lost focus on the giver of the gifts and the purpose of the gifts. Now let s move on. The last question that Paul probably was addressing (and he spends the rest of the chapter on this) is What gifts are most important? If that was the question they were asking, we are certainly guilty of asking that question ourselves. The question we missed the point again. Look at verse 12. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and all were made to drink of one Spirit. Now don t miss that last part Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. That basically covers every race, nationality, socioeconomic status with one statement. With one statement, Paul paints this beautiful picture of diversity within the body of Christ. Here we have many different people of different races and different nationalities. There are at least five continents I have counted here. We have people here with PhDs. We have people here who are retail workers, business owners, waiters and waitresses, teachers, students, people who are unemployed, doctors, professional athletes, nurses, engineers. There are people here with extremely different backgrounds extremely different family stories, different gifts and talents and abilities. There are people here with very different stories. There are a lot of people who get baptized here and you get to hear their testimonies. You get to see the videos and there are some cool, cool, pictures of diversity not just at Traders Point, but in the church as a whole. There are some very emotional stories of God redeeming someone from a past of abuse, addiction, or even just being completely lost. Then others of you have testimonies of not really remembering a time when you really didn t love Jesus. It is very diverse but no matter what the testimony is, sometimes there is shame attached to it. I am ashamed for where I have been, what I have done, what has happened to me. Or I am ashamed that my story is not so dramatic and that it can t be used in a powerful way. Now, either way, with either one of those thoughts you are taking God out of the equation. You are saying His grace isn t sufficient for me. Or, He can t redeem me or my story isn t powerful enough to be used because it is not a movie script. Some of you need to look right at me. I don t care where you have been, I don t care what you have done, I don t care who you are His grace is more than sufficient for you. He certainly can redeem you and He is more that capable and more that powerful enough to use you. If any of that is not true I have no business being up here. He is more than capable of using you if you let Him. Verse 14 says, For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. So Paul uses body parts as an analogy of who we are and where we are in the church. I am a guy and I want to be something cool. I want to be a bicep or an eye or how about a shoulder blade? What guy doesn t want the word blade used to describe him? Here is the trap I have fallen into in my mind. On the day God defines who is what body part in the church, I picture myself waiting in line and God gets to this Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 5
person and says, You are a forearm. Then He gets to this person you are a lung - very needed. Then He gets to this guy you are a brain I never really liked that guy anyway. Then God gets to me and I am standing there waiting in line and God looks at me and says, You are a spleen. Really a spleen? Is this a joke? Would you rather be a colon? No, I will take spleen. Either first we think we are not worthy of the gifts we are given and who we are or we are jealous of the gifts given to someone else. Here is the problem with either one of those thoughts. Either we let jealousy into the picture, which is the crack that creates the fission or we look at the gifts we are given as junior varsity and not worth anything. Now if we let either one of these attitudes in, we hurt the body. We take away what God designed these gifts to be and we suffer for it. Let me give you a couple of more examples of body parts. How about the epiglottis? By the rumbling I can tell you have no idea of what that is. I didn t either. That is the point. The epiglottis, let me tell you, is the part of the body that protects the trachea when we swallow so we don t swallow food into our lungs. This is pretty important, right? Or how about the reticular activating system? Simply explained, this is the part of the body that keeps us awake and filters information. So, when this is dysfunctional we don t wake up or if we do wake up we can t decide whether to get out of bed or to eat our bed. Not a good problem to have. Here is another one - the sinoatrial node. This is the pacemaker of the heart. It controls the hearts rate and rhythm. Now these are all parts of the body and chances are you had no idea these existed unless you are in the medical field. These hold a vital role in the body. The body could die or be majorly damaged without any one of them. It is easy to look at the heart or the lungs or the eyes and see the loss the body would have without them but where would the body be without the epiglottis, the retricular activating center, or the sinoatrial node? Maybe you see the worship team or preaching or elders as the really important parts of the body. But where would the church be without gifted children s ministry volunteers? Where would we be without genuine people welcoming everyone at the front door and at Connection Central? Where would we be without the prayer team who is behind the scenes praying for every single one of us in this church? Where would the church be without these parts? When you are gifted in a certain area and you don t use it or when you are jealous you aren t gifted in a certain attitude, you hurt the entire body and you distract yourself from mission. The flip side of that is verse 21. We can look down at other people for not having the same gifts we do. Paul answers this in verse 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. So Paul hits this issue of division again. He says there is no place for this in the church. There is no place for jealousy and pride when it comes to other gifts and abilities. We were all created and given certain gifts for a certain reason and that is what makes us the one body, the body of Christ. It is a picture of unity. Here are some examples. If someone here loses a child, we mourn with them. If someone here gets a really bad diagnosis from the doctor, our heart breaks with them and we pray with them. If someone here loses a job then we carry that burden of pain with them and we do everything to support them. The other side of it is, if someone gets a promotion or is asked to fill a new leadership role, we encourage them and support them. If someone here has a child who is honored for an achievement, we Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 6
rejoice with them. If someone here uses their gifts and abilities to glorify the name of Jesus and make the most of the body, we thank them for that. It is a picture of unity. I understand it is about unity and that God has given me a gift to glorify Jesus and build up the body. How do I know what my gifts are? It is a great question a couple of answers. First of all, ask God for wisdom and discernment. It seems like a good place to start. James 1:5-6 says If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. If you are not sure what your gifts are, ask God for wisdom and discernment to figure out what He has gifted you with. Here is another way. What are my interest, passions, and abilities? This is a great indicator but not necessarily a lock. I have a passion for singing not gifted there. But if you do have an interest, you do have a passion, you do have an ability, it very well may be one of your spiritual gifts. Here is another way. Be in community with others. Be in community with others this is a great one. We want everyone here to be connected and in community. That is what the body is for. If I am a finger, I can t live apart from the body and the body is at a disadvantage without me. But if you are connected and you are in community, others can see and identify gifts that you might have. On the other side of that, if you see a gift, call that out in someone. You want to affirm that in them, encourage that in them, even if they have heard it 100 times before. 1 Thessalonians 1:5 says Build each other up and encourage one another. I promise nobody gets sick of encouragement it just doesn t happen. Here is another way. Where have you experienced joy and blessing in ministry or service? Where have you experienced joy before? Maybe it is working with middle school students. Maybe it is encouraging. Maybe it is giving generously. Maybe it is teaching a class. If you have experienced joy there, you very well could be gifted. So ask yourself, where have I experienced joy before in ministry? Here is another one. Begin serving in different areas. Try serving in places where you have never served before. Maybe it is leading a small group or teaching a class or being on the worship team or being with the tech group. Try different areas to see if you very well could be gifted there maybe that will be affirmed in you. And the last way, ask where there is a need in the church? Let s close out the text and we ll come back to this one. Verse 27 says, Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it {the picture of unity}. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? Let me go into answer Paul s rhetorical question no. But earnestly desire the higher gifts. Doesn t that just contradict everything that Paul just said? I thought there weren t any higher gifts. I thought all the gifts were the same and the same honor for them. Yes, that is true. Here is what Paul is saying and what he is getting at with the higher gifts. The higher gifts are all the gifts there is a need for in the church do you follow me? So the gifts that there is a need for are in demand. If there is a need for a certain gift in the church, that has the highest order. So ask where you can serve in an area where there is a need. And that may be you. Especially if you are gifted in a certain area where there is a need, use your gift. Even if you don t know you are gifted in maybe that is a way God reveals to you that that is your gift. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 7
Just think about what that would look like. What would it look like if we all used our God-given gifts to make much of Jesus and build the body of Christ? What kind of impact could we have, not just in central Indiana, but internationally? What would people see? Would they see Christians? Would they see people using their gifts united without selfishness or jealousy or pride? They would say that must be the living God in them. That can t be them by themselves. Maybe there is something to this Jesus. Maybe being part of that picture of unity maybe it will give us a small, small glimpse of what heaven is going to be like. Verse 31 is a transitional verse. Paul closes it out. He says, And I will show you still a more excellent way. OK, I thought the higher gifts were the ones there is a need for. Now Paul says there is a more excellent way? Here is what Paul is getting at with a more excellent way. It is not a spiritual gift, but a fruit of the spirit. It is the fruit of the spirit are rooted in. It is the fruit of the spirit where all of the spiritual gifts power, motivation, and love come from. It is the motivation for everything the church is and hopes to be. That fruit is love. But we will get into that next week. Let s pray. Father you are great and mighty. I thank you for grace. Thank you for redeeming us. Thank you for using us even though we don t necessarily understand how you can. God, I just ask that you reveal all of our spiritual gifts to us so we know exactly what you have designed us to do and that we will do that with joy and selflessness with the sole purpose of making much of your Son, Jesus. God, I thank you so much for Him. It is in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 8