SPIRITUAL GIFTS - V

Various passages
Bob Bonner
February 25, 1996

In Psychology in Living, Dr. Wendell White writes of a man who reached the next world suddenly and prematurely because of an unfortunate explosion. When a pleasant attendant asked for the third time in a few hours if he could do anything for the new arrival, the man answered:

"No, no" and then suddenly, "well--yes, I believe I would like to play some golf now. Will you show me the golf course?"

"We have no golf course here."

"Oh," the man replied, and added, "what are those men at the end of my cottage doing?"

"They are just completing work on it. We weren't expecting you yet."

"I'll go over and help them."

"No," said the attendant, "they will complete it for you."

"Well, then, I'll plant my vegetables now. I always grew some of the finest on earth."

"I know you did, but here your vegetables will be cultivated and gathered for you."

"All right," the man replied, "I'll grow flowers. I have always enjoyed doing so."

"We have a flower gardener for you."

"Why, of course. How silly of me. I should have realized that up here there is something else for me to do. What is it?"

The attendant replied, "Nothing."

The new arrival appeared a little confused and said, "I don't understand. No golf, and I'm not to do any work. If I'm not to do anything here, what's heaven for?"

"Oh, mister," said the attendant, "you're not in heaven."

Many people today are existing without a job to accomplish, without a purpose or cause that is bigger than themselves for which they can live or invest their lives. For them, their existence in this temporal world is nothing more than a living hell. On the other hand, the person with a purpose or a cause for which he or she might even be willing to die, that person will always be vibrant, alive and contributing to this world. 

However, having said that let me clarify it by adding, that just any job, any purpose will not do. Some people live to accomplish a particular task like graduating from college or getting married and raising a family or getting to the top of their profession only to find that once they have arrived, and done many good things along the way, so what? For them, they have reached their goals and finished their tasks only to be left with an empty feeling inside. In a state of disillusionment, they ask themselves, "Isn't there something more to life than this?"

Sometimes our goals and purposes are too small or short sighted, and when we have accomplished them, we reflect upon our life's pursuits and begin to echo the thoughts of the noted author, Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway, in looking back on his own life's pursuits said, "Life is just a dirty trick--a short journey from nothingness to nothingness. There is no remedy for anything in life. Man's destiny in the universe is like a colony of ants on a burning log." Such despair and emptiness, filled Hemingway's emotional being as a direct result of not seeing any purpose to his life---which is probably the reason why at age 62, Ernest Hemingway took his own life. But I would suggest to you, that Hemingway, maybe even like someone here this morning, was already dead inside long before he committed suicide.

This morning, I want to begin with this premise. And simply stated it is this. Without a purpose for which one is willing to die, we are dead even though we may still be physically alive

But as I mentioned earlier, that one's task or purpose in life can't just be any task. It must be a purpose or task that is bigger than one's self, and big enough that it allows you to contribute to it no matter what. This grand purpose should be able to give meaning to your life no matter what age you are, no matter what happens to you economically, or what condition of health you find yourself to be in. 

Furthermore, a life's purpose or task must be such that it relates in some way to eternity. If we know that whatever contribution we make, if it only lasts 200 years, so what. Sooner or later, we and that contribution will be forgotten. But if we know that our contribution will carry on forever, then we feel our lives have been worth something. Hence, a purpose for which one lives or is even willing to die must be a purpose that overshadows all possible present circumstances.

The type of purposes and tasks of which I speak will only be revealed to you, if you and I seek after the One who has always been eternal, God. It is only as one seeks after the eternal, life giving God and His purposes that we find tasks and purposes that will give everlasting meaning and excitement in living today. I think of the apostle Paul, as he was coming to the close of his life, and how he felt. Do you remember his words? He declared shortly before his death, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me..." In his own way, Paul was saying that despite all of his whippings and the rejection of family and friends, despite his persecution, his life was worth it.

As a Christian, you should be able to feel this way about your life purpose. But honestly, do you? If you don't, I would suggest that you possibly don't because you are not seeking to serve the Lord with your whole heart. Or, maybe you are seeking to serve the Lord with your whole heart, but you still haven't found that present day task that gives purpose and reason to all that you do. If that is true, then maybe you don't know where you fit in the body of Christ or what your spiritual gift is so that you can function as a member of the body of Christ, fulfilling the eternal goal of reaching this city, the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. 

When we as individuals and members of the same fellowship understand our gifts and seek to serve God's eternal purposes through using our spiritual gifts, then life takes on a whole different flavor, perspective and excitement. So as to help you or to help you help others discover their spiritual giftedness, that we might all use our gifts to fulfill the task or purpose for which we were created and saved, this morning we want to continue our study of supernatural gifts and how they are to function.

In dealing with this subject of Spiritual Gifts, we have thus far looked at the four gifted men, the Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers. In addition, we have looked at the five speaking gifts. This morning we want to look at what I consider to be the backbone of all the gifts, the serving gifts.

Of the three different categories of spiritual gifts, this category by far has the largest group of gifts in it. According to my calculation, there are seven serving gifts. I'm convinced that the list in this category is longer than any other category of gifts because serving is the basic ministry of the body of Christ. Hence, there are probably more people with these gifts, than with any other spiritual gifts. 

The first two gifts we want to examine today are the spiritual gifts of "administration" and "leading." These two gifts are very similar. So similar, that some people believe that they are one and the same gift. But since the two words for "administration" and "leading" have very specific differences, I see them as two separate gifts.

The gift of administration is found in 1 Corinthians 12:28. The term translated "administration" is derived from the language used by sailors to refer to the piloting of a ship. This person would know where he is supposed to travel, he would chart a course or an objective and would figure all the tacks that would be necessary to keep the ship on course and to arrive safely at the prescribed destination. He would keep things functioning orderly or smoothly. He more often is a task oriented person by nature, but not always.

Hence, the gift of administration might be defined as the supernatural ability to set the course for a local fellowship’s ministries, making sure that the needed steps are taken to reach a predetermined goal. The person with this gift focuses primarily on the task

The gift of leading, on the other hand, is a little different. The term translated "leading" literally means "to stand before or over someone.” Today, we would call this person a manager. Rather than being task oriented, like the administrator, the one with the gift of leading is a people person. He would take the directions given to him by the administrator, and he would guide the people to the end goal.

Hence, the gift of leading might be defined as the supernatural ability to manage and lead people to a predetermined goal. The person with this gift focuses primarily on the people

In Romans 12:8, it says that the one with the gift of leading is to lead with "with zeal". In other words, if you have the gift of leadership and you see a need to govern, lead or care for a specific person, don't wait. Deal with it now.

For instance: Let's say that you are working with some people on a project and observe two people who have not dealt with forgiveness properly, or who are gossips or their spirits have been poisoned with a bitter attitude. The one with the gift of management deals with that problem as soon as he sees it. As soon as he has all the facts, he then confronts the individual in the organization, or Bible Study, or Sunday School class, etc.. His purpose is not to boss people around, but to direct and encourage people to do what is right so that they will arrive at a goal, healthy and unified.

Apparently, some of the believers in Corinth had the gift of administration and leadership in their church, but they were not exercising it. They were taken up so much with the miraculous sign gifts that chaos and blatant disobedience was running rampant in the fellowship and even in their church services. Sometime read 1 Corinthians 14:31-33, 40, and you will see what I mean. By the end of that chapter, Paul is exhorting the believers at Corinth to "Get that thing organized! You with the gift of administration, start making some decisions about the future direction of the church. You with the gift of leading, start managing the people. Make sure they are following Biblical guidelines."

The next gift is the gift of helps or serving. Some people feel that they are one in the same gift, others think they are two different gifts. I happen to hold to the former idea, that they are one in the same, because after studying the different words and passages, I can't find any noticeable differences between the two terms.

The word for serving is a word from which we get our word "deacon." It originally referred to one who waited on tables.

The word for "helps" means "to take or to take away." Literally it means to take away a burden from somebody else and take it upon yourself so as to help them along. This can be done by either exchanging workloads or by taking on the load all by yourself.

For instance: When I used to go back-packing with high school students, sometimes we would carry heavy loads for days up and down very mountainous terrain that ranged from a gradual climb to scaling rocks. Sometimes a student either was just too tired or didn't have good enough balance to climb almost straight up with a pack, so I would take his pack or put some of his heavier articles in my pack in exchange for my lighter articles to be in his pack, helping him to make the climb. That's "antilambano"---you take on or share someone else's burden.

Generally speaking, those who have the spiritual gift of helps have an unusual capacity for helping others, leaving those helped encouraged and strengthened in their walk with the Lord. Sometimes a person with this gift won't know what to do, but if the one with the gift of leading gives them some direction, they will usually jump at the chance to serve. 

They often times do work that enables others to mature in their faith. Whether it takes the form of hosting an evangelistic party, or showing hospitality, or ironing shirts for a friend who is sick, or washing bed sheets for the church nursery once a week, or recording funds received through the church, or duplicating tapes or organizing rooms, those with this gift enjoy working happily behind the scenes. 

Without these people taking on areas of ministry, the overall fellowship will never fulfill its function to reach those people around them for Christ. I like to call those with the gifts of service or helps "gap fillers." It is these individuals that ultimately keep the church moving smoothly and prevent much from slipping through the cracks.

 Here are a few characteristics that I have noticed of one with the gift of helps:

a. sensitive to the individual or group needs  

b. willing to sacrifice his or her own comfort for others  

c. willing to work without fanfare  

d. motivated by short range goals   

e. goes far beyond his duty in doing a good job.

And by that I mean if a person is asked to iron 1-2 shirts, they will iron every shirt you've got. 

There is only one danger concerning this gift. Sometimes the individual with the gift of helps works for wrong motives. He/She does not work out of love for the Lord or others, but for self affirmation. They do much so that others will stroke them. These individuals are usually addicted to pleasing others. If you may think that you have the gift of helps, you must remember that you have already been made totally pleasing to God. There is nothing that you can do to get Him to be any more pleased with you. Hence, if you know that, then you don't need others to tell you how good a job you are doing. You may want it, but you don't need it. We are to go on encouraging one another, but if someone doesn't encourage you, you should still be able to do your service for the Lord.

One last interesting observation concerning this gift: In the list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:28, helps is listed with the gifts ahead of tongues and next to leadership, which should tell you that this is a significantly important gift.

The fourth serving gift we encounter is that of the gift of "giving", found in Romans 12:8. Normally, in the original language, the term for giving is the word "didomi". But here, Paul uses a special compound word for the gift of giving, "metadidomi", or "super give".

Now all Christians are exhorted to give financially to the Lord on a regular basis, but the person with the gift of giving gives beyond normal with no thought of return or gain for self. He or she has the superlative quality of committing earthly possessions to the Lord for His use.

In Romans 12:8, it says that the person with this gift is to give with "liberality". The root to this word, "liberality", means "simplicity" or "singleness of mind" or direction. He has a pure motive for giving and that is that he loves God and wants nothing more than to serve Him. He does not give to be noticed by others or to control others.

An example of one who gives this way is Mary in John 12:3. You remember the story where she poured a pound of ointment on Jesus feet and Judas got upset because that pound of ointment was worth 300 denari. A denari = 1 days work, or the cost of that vile was a years wages! Imagine folks, because this girl loved Jesus she gave her whole years salary to minister to or to serve Him. And so many people think it is outrageous to give 10%.

Mary illustrates another characteristic of the gift of giving. She, like most who have the gift of giving, had no thought of loss in her gift after it was given. She had no regrets.

The next gift we want to examine is the gift of mercy. It too is listed amongst the serving gifts found in Romans 12:8. In order for us to understand the gift of mercy, we need to understand first to what the biblical term "mercy" refers.

One common mistake of people who try to define mercy is that they confuse God's mercy with God's grace. Let me see if I can show you the difference between the two. God's:

GRACE MERCY is extended to mankind in relation to guilt is extended to mankind in relation to misery deals with sin deals with a situation

Just as God's mercy is extended to a person's misery and a specific situation they may find themselves in. His mercy is directed at those who cannot help themselves. The spiritual gift of mercy is used in the same way. It is the supernatural ability to help those who are in need and cannot help themselves.  Hence, the person with this gift enjoys visiting hospitals, and has an unusual compassion and concern for the downtrodden, the unfortunate, those who revolt others like the deformed, the smelly, the unpleasant. Without pressure, this person reaches out to the rejected, the despised, the unwed mothers, orphans, widows and widowers, the single parents who are economically struggling. And as is so with all of these spiritual gifts, the exercising of the spiritual gift of mercy positively affects the other person's spirit in that person's walk with the Lord.

In Acts 9:39-40, we see an example of a woman who apparently was exercising her gift of mercy. Luke tells us, "Now in Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas): this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness [literally "mercy deeds"] and charity, which she continually did. And it came about at the time that she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room. And since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, entreating him, "Do not delay to come to us." And Peter arose and went with them. And when he had come they brought him into the upper room; and all the widows stood beside him weeping, and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them. But Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed and turning to the body, he said, "Tabitha, arise." And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up."

Apparently, Dorcas exercised her spiritual gift of mercy by making blankets and clothes for the needy so that they could make it through the harsh winters without freezing to death. Now just in case you may have forgotten, we are all called to be merciful toward others. But when some possesses the gift of mercy, they have an intense burden for those who need help.

One of the dangers that those with the gift of mercy face, is that they find it difficult to understand why others don't share the same degree of burden for the downtrodden to the same degree that they do. And once in awhile, those who have the gift of mercy can become so discouraged by the lack of help by others or the lack of concern that others feel toward those in need that they can unknowingly become critical or judging of others who don't possess this gift of mercy.

For instance: In our church in Phoenix, AZ, there was a gal who exhibited signs that she had the gift of mercy. She was always concerned about those who were sick and couldn't make meals for themselves. In addition, she was concerned and actively involved in the Crisis Pregnancy Center. One day I came to the office and found her crying because her heart was broken for all the homeless and starving people in the world. And when we talked about it, she displayed her pain and hurt over the situation by becoming critical of others because they didn't care...at least that's what she thought. But that wasn't the case. They cared but they were so actively involved in other evangelistic or teaching ministries, exercising their gifts, that they didn't have any more time or money to be involved in another endeavor.

So if you have the gift of mercy, ask God to show you how and where you can use it; but be careful not to fall into that trap of criticizing others who don't have the gift you do.

The sixth spiritual serving gift we want to look at is that of the gift of faith. This gift does not refer to having "saving faith" because that kind of faith is something that every believer possesses. Instead, it is the supernatural capacity for believing God. Someone to whom obstacles are only challenges. Usually, I have noticed that those who possess the gift of faith are also prayer warriors.

For instance, there have been several men of faith in the history of the church. A few well-known men in recent history were Hudson Taylor and George Mueller. Taylor, without any money and without asking for money, founded the China Inland Mission. His organization was blessed by God and has had the greatest impact for Christ in China in the history of the church. On his own, Hudson Taylor moved to China, with few dollars and few supporters, and by faith trusted that God would meet his needs.

George Mueller had no money and began a Christian orphanage. These men were burdened for a city or an age group or a type of people and they quietly privately and prayerfully claimed their dreams for Christ. These are men with the gift of faith.

The last gift we want to look at this morning is the gift of discernment which is found in 1 Corinthians 12:10. The word for "discernment", found in 1 Corinthians 12:10 literally means to "judge through" or to see through something, to evaluate something as true. The kind of discernment is not necessarily worldly discernment, but spiritual discernment. In particular, this person discerns whether something is of the spirit of God or of the flesh or strictly human doings. This gift gives one the ability to determine whether or not someone was speaking by the spirit of God or by another spirit. The person with this gift can separate truth from error, deceit and phoniness from authenticity before the rest of us would have any idea we were being lied to, conned, or knew we were being taught heresy.

Take for instance, Acts 5 and the case of Ananias and Sapphira. Look with me at that passage, just in case you aren't familiar with the situation. Luke writes, "But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back {some} of the price for himself, with his wife's full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back {some} of the price of the land? "While it remained {unsold,} did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God." And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came upon all who heard of it. And the young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?" And she said, "Yes, that was the price." Then Peter {said} to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out {as well}." And she fell immediately at his feet, and breathed her last; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things."

Peter, exercising the supernatural gift of discerning was able to distinguish the truth from a lie.

In the early church, this gift of discernment was the "watch dog" or sentinel for the church, because they had no scripture to verify false prophets or doctrinal error.

In the first few years after the apostles, there was a movement called "Montanism". Its leader claimed to be the voice of the Holy Spirit. The movement was rejected by the early church fathers as a direct result of a few who had the gift of discernment exercising it. They recognized that the chief spokesman of the movement, one Maximillion was speaking by a foreign spirit and the whole movement was written off as heresy.

Today, men and women with the gift of discernment usually are found using their gift of discernment to write books to unmask the phonies, the cults and occult and doctrinal heresies; Men such as Walter Martin and Dave Hunt. 

But there should be some caution mentioned concerning this gift. Sometimes those who possess this gift can become ego-centric, harsh and critical of those whom they are discerning to not be of God. Those with this gift must be very careful to seek God in the exercising of this gift so that they do not easily fall into the trap of becoming proud and condemning of others. Furthermore, as one is testing out this gift, to see if you really do possess it, it is extremely important that those around you, godly men and women, verify that you do have that gift.

That completes the list of serving gifts.  Now let me summarize them for you:

Administration Sets the course for the local church Leadership Supervises the course for the local church Helps / Serving Supports the leaders of the church Giving Supplies the needs Faith Secures God’s power Discernment Saves the saints from the counterfeiters

We began this morning with a premise that I want to return to. It stated that without a purpose for which one is willing to die, we are dead even though we may still be physically alive. In addition, we said, that it is not enough to have a just any old purpose to be serving, but the purpose has to be something bigger than yourself, something eternal. With that in mind and in light of this subject of spiritual gifts, I want you to challenge you to write down on a piece of paper what your personal purpose in life is. For what reason are you living? And after that, if you think that one of these spiritual gifts we have looked at in these past weeks is something you possess, how does this gift tie into your personal purpose before God? Are you, in fact, fulfilling your ultimate purpose in this life or are you wasting precious time?

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