JohnYouell.com

A Vision To Get You There - Part 4

Continued from part 3

Today I want to give you two simple things that you can do that will help you to discover what your internal idea of 'there" or success looks like.

1.  UNCOVER YOUR VALUES.  What are your values?  Well what do you love deeply?  Family, friends, money, technology, traveling, cars?  What do you deeply love?  Your answer could be a core value that you have for your life.  But also think about what makes you righteously angry?  For it might be when you see a poor person being abused.  For others it may be when you realize someone has cheated to get to the top.

This is not about just being angry but being angry because a standard of God has been broken or overlooked or missed.  So I ask again, what makes you righteously angry?  For me, when I see preachers who stretch the meaning of a scripture just to make it fit their slanted view or to manipulate something from someone.  It just makes me mad.

(2 Corinthians 13:8 NLT) "Our responsibility is never to oppose the truth, but to stand for the truth at all times."

This scripture is why I get so upset at preachers sometimes.  Because I have a VALUE for ministering the truth.

What do you value?  Take some time and write out 4 to 6 key values that you have.  Prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts as you do.

Of course "claimed values" and "practiced values" are not the same.  We have a lot of Christians that claim certain values that they never practice.  Likewise, we have a culture that claims to believe in God but they practice their lives as if he doesn't exist.

(Ezekiel 33:31)  "My people...listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice."

The difference between the truth you claim and the truth you live equals the pain of your experience.

I know several people in my life who all say they need to get in shape, lose some weight, etc.  But if they never get on a program and go through the pain of the workouts or the shifting of their eating habits, they will never experience the the value that they claim.

What in your life do you claim as a value but you never really practice that value?  Family?  Dates with you wife or husband?

2. DISCOVER YOUR MISSION.  The bible is full of great people with great accomplishments.  But it's easy to forget that these people were driven by a deep personal mission.  Do you have one?

In Genesis, there is a story of a man who was sent on an important mission - to find a wife for his master's son.  Upon arriving at the home of Laban, he would not celebrate or rest because he was on a mission.

(Genesis 24:33 NLT) "But Abraham's servant said, 'I don't want to eat until I have told you why I have come.'  'All right,' Laban said, 'tell us your mission.'"

What would cause someone to be that focused?  Mission.  What gives someone the ability to cut through the clutter and stay on task?  Mission.  What do you need if you are going to not only discover what "there" is but also get "there"? Mission.  Do you have one?

Paul did.  He was a Jew of Jew and at one time or another in his life he had been both rich and poor. But his economic situation was not the mission of his life.  Something else was.

(Acts 20:24) I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may...complete the task...of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."

Paul's mission...drove him to cross oceans, face opposition, serve jail time and eventually give his life.  What would you give your life for?  What ever that might be is part of your mission.

Even Jesus the Son of God was driven by mission.

(Luke 19:10)  "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

What drives you?  You can determine it.

Take a moment and write a one sentence mission statement.  You would never invest in a company without knowing it's vision and mission.  But we live our lives without them?  I encourage you to work on a one sentence mission statement.  Clarity is what it all about.

Finally, I want to leave you with a prayer by Francis Drake from 1577.  It is a prayer that we should all pray.  I encourage you to print it out. Stick it somewhere in your office or home and pray it daily.  May you find the strength and ability to get from here to there.

"Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves.

When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little.

When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

A Vision To Get You There - Part 3

Continued from Part 2

3. In Sight.  All of us are made up of DNA - that invisible strand hidden deep within us that determines everything from our hair color, eye color, shoe size and height.  Isn't it amazing that something we can't see can have such a huge impact on us?  Have you ever instinctively known something but you could not figure out how you new it?

Not only are we impacted by DNA physically but you have a spiritual DNA as well - something that ties you to your Creator who has known you before you were in the womb of your mother and who has both a plan and a destiny for your life (Psalm 139:16; Jeremiah 29:11).  By looking into our hearts we can discover, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, keys that can help to lock in what "there" really is for us.

Tomorrow we will look at 2 practical things that you can do to began discovering these "keys."  But first I want to show you what the Bible has to say about this spiritual approach that I am encouraging you to take.

There is a story about a prophet who was being chased by an entire army.  He was pursued to a city and eventually the city was surrounded by the pursuing army.  The prophet was unmoved in his concern for his situation.  He remained...calm.  Have you ever met someone who seemed to not let anything ruffle their feathers?  Someone who no matter what transpired, just never seemed to get upset?  My father-in-law is that way.  In 17 years of knowing him I don't think I have ever seen him "loose it."  Now let's be honest, don't people like that just make you mad?  You know when that project deadline is approaching and the copier suddenly breaks and you are overflowing with emotions because of the severity of the situation but your friend just continues on his merry way....doesn't that just get at you?

Well, it got at the young man who was with Elisha.  He became very afraid and worried.  He asked Elisha why he was so calm and what they were going to do and do you know what Elisha did?  He prayed! But hit was not just "any" prayer.

(2 Kings 6:17 NLT) "Then Elisha prayed, 'O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!' The Lord opened the young man's eyes and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire."

Elisha was calm because he had insight into the situation that the other young man did not have.  But once he saw it, his attitude changed.  In fact, the story ends with Elisha asking God to blind the army. He did and Elisha led the army right into an Isrealite city where they were captured.

Let me assure you, you do not have to be a prophet to discover insight into your future or your dreams. You simply need to believe in the power of God's spirit to show you the secret things you do not yet know (Jeremiah 33:3).

Here is a simple exercise to get you started....

Thinking of last week, rate it on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being, "This was the worst week ever!" and 10, "This was magical.  I want to repeat this week again and again."  Go on.  Think about it right now. What number would you choose?

Next, what was your rating based on?  What caused last week to be a 3 or an 8?  Was it a 3 because you had a fight with your kids and it just ruined your week?  Was it an 8 because a big client finally came through for you?  What would it be?  Your answer can show you what it is you believe success really is.

Finally, answer this question.  If money was no object what would you spend it on?  Don't laugh, this one is serious.  Recently I asked several people this question and their responses shocked me.  They ranged from traveling the world to buying a yacht to mansions for their families.  My heart sank.  These that I asked were people that have told me in the past that God has used my life to make an impact on them yet with asked this question all they could think about was personal pleasure?  What about the poor?  What about the needy? What about ministry dreams that need to be funded?  What this proved to me was that I needed to be more consistent with pouring the values of God into people's lives. What was your honest answer?

Tomorrow I will show you two practical things you can do to begin developing insight into idea of what "there" looks like.

God I pray today for those who are reading this that they would honestly evaluate their heart motives and desires against your goals and desires for them.  Expose to all of us the areas of our lives or values that are not consistent with Your's, in Christ's name, Amen.

Continued tomorrow.

A Vision To Get You There - Part 2

Continued from part 1

2.  Hind Sight - The past experiences of life are a great teacher of the goodness of God.  But most of the time all we can focus on are our past failures.  Only remembering our failures contributes to Satan's mental assalt on our minds and hearts.  We are more than the sum total of our failures.  If we have surrendered our lives to God, he takes the failures and makes something good come from them.

BUT what we really need is to allow the Holy Spirit to show us the times in our past where God stood with us. Where His Spirit protected us and where He proved Himself faithful.  When those memories come into view they stir up hope and faith for the future challenges we are destined to face.

The Bible tells us of David and his bravery in facing Goliath.  It is one of my favorite stories.  But before he got out on the battle field he faced the degrading remarks of a fearful king.  Saul tried to discourage him from representing Israel on the battlefield because of his age and stature.  But David relied on Hind Sight.

(1 Samuel 17:34-37 NLT) "...I have been taking care of my father's sheep and goats...When a lion or bear comes to steal a lamb..I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from it's mouth.  If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death...The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and bear will rescue me from this Philistine!

His ability to remember the times where God had protected him in challenging situations, prepared him for faith to believe in God against Goliath.

Some of you today need to get over your past by not dwelling on your failures anymore.  They can't be changed.  Turn to the Holy Spirit and ask him to show you the times where He was always with you...and you will discover a new wellspring of faith to believe God for the challenges you are facing today and in your future.

Continued Tomorrow.

A Vision To Get You There - Part 1

This past weekend I shared the opening message to a mini-series at Fellowship Church called, Vision To Get You There.  The idea came to me while playing golf at a great PGA course.  The yardage book gave insight into each hole and how to properly attack the challenge so you have the best chance to post a good score.  The gave advice and information on each hole.  Specifically they posted various yardage marks for each hole.  While playing the 11th hole it hit me what they did and it was the spawn of this series.

Golfers tend to pride themselves on how long of a drive they hit.  Hey, I admit...I do it too.  So when I stand on the tee box and saw a bunker on the right side of the fairway, I checked the yardage book to see how far away the bunker was.  But the numbers didn't add up at first.  See, I wanted to know how far it was from the tee box to the bunker.  My vantage point was from point A to B.  But the yardage book wasn't structured that way.  The number that it list to the bunker wasn't from the tee box...it was from the green. It doesn't really matter how hard or far you hit a drive if you are not working to get to the green in the fewest swings possible, you are just out for a drive.

But how many of us live our lives from the tee box instead of starting from the green?  How many of us live with a real vision of what is most important in life?  How many of us live wild lives without a vision?

The book of Proverbs says a people without a vision will cast off restraints - they will live wild lives.  Remember the guy, Wild Thing from the movie Major League?  Remember how he was wild? Great power but his vision was messed up and because of that he wasn't able to deliver.  Many of us live wild lives.  All kinds of dreams, passions, goals, desires, but no vision that compels our decisions.

3 PRIMARY SOURCES OF VISION

1.  Eye Sight - Our physical ability to see something that builds a goal in our lives.  Motivational leaders teach that you should get a picture of the house, car, trip, etc that you are going to reward yourself with when you reach your goal.  What are they doing?  Using your eye sight to build vision to help you accomplish a goal.  In other words, you can use eye sight to define what "there" looks like for you.

Jesus came and said about Himself that He was the "light of the world."  The term "light" in reference to Jesus means, "knowledge and understanding."  Those who are going through life without Jesus are "wondering in the dark" because they do not understand how God and life are meant to be together.  When Jesus comes into our lives, our eyes are opened and we understand life from a new perspective.  It is interesting to note that after Jesus taught about being the light of the world, a man came to him who was blind.  Look at what he did....

(Mark 10:52 NAS)  "And answering him, Jesus said, 'What do you want me do for you?  And the man said, to Him, 'Rabboni, I want to regain my sight.'"

Let me tell you, Jesus' healing of his sight was more than just simply giving sight back to a blind man. He was proving to have power of darkness.  He was demonstrating that He is the source of true knowledge and understanding.

Some of you today, you are wondering through life blind.  You are allowing others to determine what success looks like and God is not even in the picture.  Come to Jesus and ask Him to heal your eye sight and He will!

Continued tomorrow.

The Dead Zone

Man, it is HOT!  So hot, that it is hard to find places to stay cool right now.  It's days like this that make me so ready for the fall.  Ah, the fall.  Leaves turning and falling, temps in the low 80's, Sooner Football each Saturday...Can we just push the fast forward button on the dvd player of life and zoom right into September?!

This time of year is a kind of Dead Zone for a lot of churches and leaders.  The last three full weekends before school starts are some of the heaviest travel days of the entire summer.  Several pastor friends of mine actually take this time of the summer for their own vacations.  That, by the way is a great idea - take time when people do minimizes the down trends that come when pastors are gone from their churches.  But what if you can't take time off?  What if you have already taken your vacation and now are left with pushing through these tough three weeks while your key team members are missing? 

Well, one idea that we came up with is to turn the Dead Zone weeks into Grow Zones.  By this we don't mean so much as grow numerically in attendance but instead to use these weeks as an opportunity to grow leaders.  It's kind of the age old question about the chicken and the egg in regards to which one comes first. Does growing numerically give you more leaders or do you need to grow leaders so that your church will grow?

We are not sure but one thing is certain - chickens and eggs are tied together.  Without each other, there would be no more buffalo wings or strips.  So if you don't get strategic about growing leaders it is a safe bet that you will not see growth in your church or organization.

The Grow Zone began this past Sunday as we had a Dream Team meeting in which we invited several new people to join us since so many of our current leaders were out of town.  The response has been huge.  I have already heard from several in attendance who have said they are willing to serve anywhere and that they are more committed than ever to being a part of FC and making it go.

So I ask you.  What are you doing right now to be strategic about building leaders?  Perhaps if you put in the effort to build them, we will all find more people willing to help us build our churches.

The Ghost - Part 3 - The Presents - Part 5

How do you discover your gifts? Le me just give you 5 quick thoughts.
 
1. Study what the Bible says about the gifts. Look at it, study it. 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4 (talks about the 5-fold gifts of the ministry), and 1 Peter 4; read those chapters and study them. 

2. Ask God to show you your gifts. "God, what gifts have you given me?" Watch as he does, and when he starts to do it, ask him; "Where do you want me to use these gifts? How do you want me to use these to make a difference?"

3. Examine what you enjoy and do well. If you're gifted, you are going to enjoy using your gifts; you are going to do them well. If you say, "I never want to help anybody; I hate being called upon to help!" You probably don't have the gift of serving. Okay? You don't enjoy it, you don't do it well. Ask yourself, what do you enjoy and what do you do well.

4. You can take a spiritual gifts test. This isn't going to be full-proof, but there are tests on-line; in fact, we have listed one in your Talk Notes. Also, if you are on YouVersion, there is one you can click on, and you can go on-line and take a test and that could be helpful.

5. Most importantly; do what the Holy Spirit leads you to do. Whenever you feel like God is calling to do something, have the faith to do it. Just like whenever I feel like God has given me a burden to speak on his behalf; the more I do that, and the more he proves himself faithful, the more confidence I have that this is a gift from God. I don't own it, it doesn't make me any better, but it is a gift he has given me, and as I acknowledge the gift, it gives me more confidence to step out in these gifts, and to use them to make a difference in this world.
 
Imagine this for a moment. I have 3 kids, okay? Imagine, I love my kids so much, and I am going to select very specific gifts to give each child. And I think, okay, Johnathan is my oldest and I believe if I give him this gift, it can make the most difference in our family and the world.

Shaelyn, here is my specially chosen gift just for her. Madison, this is what I want to give to her, because God is going to use this to make a difference.

Imagine as a father, if I give these gifts to my children, and they simply put them aside and ignore them. They don't think about it, they don't use them and they ignore the gift that either I, their father have given them to make a difference in this world.

That is exactly what Christians around the world are doing. God has given you gifts, and there are many of you, you haven't used your gifts in the church ever, ever! The church is incomplete without your gift. So many of you, you've got the gun on the shelf, and it continues to be unloaded.
 
Here's what Scripture says, we will close out with this. First Peter, Chapter 4:10-11; "God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies." I could go on to say, whatever your other gift, if it's serving, if it's prophecy, if it's giving, if it's encouraging, if it's mercy; whatever it is, do everything you do, whatever you do, use it passionately. The Bible says, "Then everything that you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ." Do not insult the giver of the gift, by leaving the gift undiscovered and unused. God has given all of you who are believers, spiritual gifts, to make a difference in his church, and throughout the world.
 
God, I ask and I pray that you would reveal to us the gifts you have given us. God, that you would give us the courage to use those gifts to make a difference, first in the church God, and then in the world.

The Ghost - Part 3 - The Presents - Part 4

Let's look at another list of spiritual gifts. These are found in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, starting in verse 7. Here is what the Bible says, "A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the Spirit gives a message of special knowledge."

Some of you, people come to you often, because you give great advice. It's like, you are tapped into this different level of knowledge or wisdom and this is a gift that God has given you and you should use it often. You should be leading Connect Groups, you should be mentoring, you should be using this at work to help people whose marriages are falling apart; this is a gift that God has given you.
 
The Bible goes on to say in verse 9: "The same Spirit gives great faith to another, not to everybody, but to some, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing; the gift of faith and the gift of healing. I don't have either one of these; I honestly don't have great faith. My wife, though, she does. Whenever we hit an obstacle, I'm like, "Well, there's an obstacle, we have got to figure something else out!" She's like, "No, we will pray and God will remove it! We will talk to that mountain, and cast it into the sea!" I'm like, "That's too much work, I will just figure out another way!" But, she has great faith and God will often do stuff.
 
Also, some of you have the gift of healing.  When you look around the world, especially outside of our country, you see the gift of healing working so much more. My guess, is because, in many parts of the world, they don't have doctors to go to and they have to depend on God. Also, because there is not so much unbelief, and I believe there is even more faith. You see supernatural healing going on all over the world today; it is a gift from God.
 
Verse 10 says that the Holy Spirit, he gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God, or from another Spirit.

Some of you can just go, "I know there is something not right here, how will I know it's a gift?" It's a gift of discernment.

He goes on to say, "Still, another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, (this is speaking in tongues) while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said"; tongues and the interpretation of tongues.

Are these gifts for today? Are these real gifts, speaking in tongues? Is this what it means to be filled with the Spirit? Next week, we will tackle all of these subjects, and talk about what it means to live a Spirit-filled life.
 
Verse 11, the Bible says, "It is the one and only Spirit, (the Holy Spirit; the ruwach, the pneuma, the paraklete); the Holy Spirit, who distributes all of these gifts. He alone decides what gift each person should have."

The Ghost - Part 3 - The Presents - Part 3

So, what I want to do is look at the 2 dominant portions in Scripture that talk about spiritual gifts. There are 4 different lists. We will look at the 2 dominant ones, and I will tell you what the others are later for your own purpose.
 
What are some of the spiritual gifts? Romans, Chapter 12, verses 6-8, give us the first list of spiritual gifts. Here is what the Bible says, "In his grace, God has given us (believers) different gifts for doing certain things well." And then he lists these 7 different gifts. He says this first of all, "If God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you."

What is the gift of prophecy? This is the ability to speak on the behalf of God.

God has given me the spiritual gift of prophecy. In fact, some people would say that what I am doing right now is prophecy, it's declaring on behalf of God. Others would say it would be more direct. I can tell you in my 15 years of ministry, only about 10 examples that were that dramatic. But, I can also tell you that in all 10 cases, when I have spoken boldly, against the odds, every single time, God has proven himself to be true. 
 
Let's look at a second one. What I want you to understand is that this second gift is just as spiritual as the gift of prophecy. The Bible goes on to say in verse 7, "If your gift is serving others, serve them well." Some of you, you have the spiritual gift of serving. The idea of doing something for someone else, especially when they don't know about it, that is like the thrill of your life? Why is that? Because God has given you the gift of serving.

There is a man in our church who I know has the spiritual gift of serving.  How do I know?  Because he enjoys serving and doesn’t really need a lot of recognition.  Now how many of you like to work your tail off for no recognition?  Those who have the spiritual gift of serving are just like that.  They enjoy serving others.
 
The Bible goes on to say, "If you are a teacher, teach well." Some of you, you have the gift of teaching God's Word. You can't read anything, you know, you read something your like, "I've got to tell somebody!" Your like, "Oh my gosh, here's the Greek word!" You know, you are getting all into this stuff, and you are to use that gift to teach God's Word in the church.

If you read on, the Bible says, "If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging." God has given some of you the spiritual gift of encouraging. Unleash that thing, man, let it fly! Any time you see anything that someone is doing well, be a blessing to them. Write the email, text, send a note, compliment them, encourage. I am doing what I am doing today, because of 2 people who encouraged me to follow the gift and dream that God had put in my heart. This is an important spiritual gift, the gift of encouragement.
 
The next gift; says, "If your gift is giving, give generously." My wife, Shandra, loves to give.  She is one who would give our house away if I would let her.  She just believes in giving.  But she also has the gift of giving.  It’s a spiritual gift.  Naturally, we are selfish people.  Those who have the gift of giving are selfless.  What a gift.
 
The Bible goes on to say, "If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. Many of you, you have the gift to lead and you are not leading anything in the church. Your gun is hidden, and continues to go unused.
 
The Bible goes on to say, "If you have the gift to show kindness, do it gladly." This is the gift of mercy, or showing kindness. This is a gift that God has given you to minister to other people.
 
How do you know which gift you have? Well, there are a lot of ways; we will talk about more in a moment.  But, first I want to give you my favorite, kind of fun way of knowing which of these gifts you have. Some people call it the Apple Pie Demonstration.
 
Imagine you are at a table, with a bunch of people, and there is someone about to eat an apple pie, and their apple pie is on the edge of the table, about to fall off. You see they are vulnerable, and yet, they put their fork in their apple pie, and it flops into their lap! What do you do? What you do next helps to determine possibly what your gift is. How many of you would say, "I have almost told you that was about to happen, you idiot, you shouldn't of done that, I saw it coming!" How many of you do that? Point at those who do that, that's even better! You have the gift of prophecy.
 
How many of you, on the other hand, would say, "Oh man, let me help you clean that up, here is a napkin, let me wipe you up! Here, let's get you taken care of!" How many of you are like that? You have the gift of serving and this is a spiritual gift.
 
Some of you might say, "Oh, I've researched this, and really, there is a better way to eat an apple pie! Step 1 is; you do this!" Point to those people who have the gift of teaching right now!
 
Some of you would go, "Oh that's so oh, I feel for you! You know that happened to me 1 time, don't worry about it; its okay! Watch this!" You throw it on yourself to make them feel better! If that's you, you have the gift of encouragement.
 
If you would say, "Oh here, take mine; in fact, bring apple pies for everybody and put whip cream on it!" How many of you would be doing that? You have the gift of giving.
 
Those of you who would say, "We can get this thing cleaned up in no time; you go get this, and you go get this, and I've got a vision to make this better!" You have the gift of leadership.
 
Those of you who would say, "My heart sinks, when it was falling in your lap, I was hurting for you and with you, and I am just so devastated you are going through this right now!" I can barely even do this, because I have no mercy at all! I'm like, "You idiot, I saw it coming!" If you are like that, you have the spiritual gift of mercy, or showing kindness.
 
These are gifts that God has given you to be used in the church to minister to other believers and to be used in the world. Quite honestly, many of you don't even know for sure what your gift is; or you do and your gift is hidden and going unused, spiritual gifts.

The Ghost - Part 3 - The Presents - Part 2

What I want to do today is I want to expose you to a couple of lists of gifts in Scripture. But first, let's talk about what Spiritual gifts are not, so we can better understand what they are. Now, 5 things that spiritual gifts are not, if you are taking notes:

 
1. Spiritual gifts are not natural talents. Natural talents are different from spiritual gifts. When you are born naturally, God gives you natural talents. You may be naturally gifted to sing, or to dance, or naturally good with numbers; these are natural talents.

When you are spiritually born, you are given spiritual gifts. These are different than your natural talents. You not only can receive spiritual gifts when you are spiritually born, but God can continue to give you more spiritual gifts throughout your Christian walk. Your spiritual gifts can compliment your natural gifts; God can use all of them. But, there is a difference between natural talents and spiritual gifts.
 
2. Spiritual gifts are not given to a few good people. God doesn't say; "Okay, I am going to take this group of Christians that I really like, and give them powerful gifts, and you are going to be the more powerful Christians, and the rest of you, I don't like you as much, so you go sit in the corner and you don't get any gifts at all!" They are not given to the elite few; they are given to all Christians.
 
3. Spiritual gifts are not signs of spiritual maturity. If you have a certain gift, it doesn't mean you are more mature than someone who has a different gift. 

Sadly, in a lot of Christian cultures today, some people elevate certain gifts to say; "If you have this gift, you are spiritually mature, and if you don't, you are kind of a lesser Christian." 

Oddly enough, the gift of speaking in tongues in many church cultures, and among many Christians, is elevated to be the most important. "Are you Spirit-filled, with the evidence of speaking in tongues?" 

People in some church cultures who don't speak in tongues, they feel like second-class Christians, when, in reality, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:1-5 that there is another gift that we should seek even more than the gift of speaking in tongues. Yet, interestingly enough, this can be the most divisive in so many places. The point is that spiritual gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity.
 
4. Spiritual gifts are also not the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are different from gifts of the Spirit. 

If you want to study fruits of the Spirit, go to Galatians 5, there are 9 of them; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. Or you can plan to be with us for our next series, Fruitopia where we will be discussing the fruit of the spirit.  Fruitopia begins 2 weeks from today! 

Sometimes, Christians will say, "Well, I just don't have the gift of love; I don't have the spiritual gift of patience." No, those are not gifts, those are fruits. All believers should exhibit all the fruits of the Spirit, but all believers do not have all of the gifts of the Spirit; those are two different things.
 
5.  Spiritual gifts are not something to fear. They are not something that is odd and creepy; although, admittedly, sometimes Christians who believe in the spiritual gifts can seem a little bit odd and creepy!

Just because you see someone who does something you don't understand, doesn't mean the spiritual gifts are weird. The Bible says that we should desire the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14:1. Just because you see someone, maybe with unusual preacher hair, or some church like where they are like, everybody is now going to be knocked out! Boom, boom, boom; they fall down! You say, "That seems weird!"

Well you know, honestly, I have grown up around those kinds of experiences and, from my perspective, it’s still a bit strange to me. I am not saying God couldn't knock you down.  How can I agree with his ability to bring us from the dirt of the earth and not believe that he could take us back to the same earth if he wants to.  I'm all into if God wants to knock you down, he can knock you down! But, just to say that everybody's got to fall down, because that is the way we do it at this church, could be emotionalism, could be the power of suggestion and expectations and such, and doesn't make it not real. But, sometimes you might go, "That seems a bit strange!" Yes, that is strange to me too! But, it doesn't mean that the spiritual gifts are strange. These are gifts given by God, for the believer, to make a difference in this world.

The Ghost - Part 3 - The Presents - Part 1

Welcome to Fellowship! I am so glad to have you with us for the series called, “The Ghost” as we are looking at building a Biblical foundation for our partnership with the Holy Spirit.   Among other things, the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to followers of Christ.

Spiritual gifts are first mentioned in Romans 1:11

(Romans 1:11 NIV)  “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong, that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”

Spiritual gifts are not something weird or freaky.  In fact, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:1

(1 Corinthians 14:1 NIV)  “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts...”

In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit came in power at Pentecost, enabling believers to do supernatural works.  Acts 19:11 says that God did extraordinary miracles, a spiritual gift, through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

When Paul arrived in Ephesus, he found some believers that were not filled with the Spirit.  Acts 19:6 says,

(Acts 19:6 NIV)  “When Paul placed his hands on them, they Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied,” both spiritual gifts. 

You may remember Peter, they guy who couldn’t get anything right, and even denied Jesus 3 times - well, the Holy Spirit gave him the gift of evangelism so that he could share the message of Christ boldly. 

(Acts 2:41 NIV)  “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”

When Peter encountered a dead woman one time, the Bible says, turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabatha get up!”  She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.  he took her by the hand and he helped her to her feet.  Then, he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive.  This became known all over Joppa, the Bible says, “And many people believed in the Lord.” 

If you are a believer - a Christ follower - If you have entered into a relationship with Christ through salvation - the Bible says that the Holy Spirit will equip you with spiritual gifts to minister to believers and to make a difference all over this world.

Turn in your Bibles with to 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. Today, we want talk about the Presents of the Holy Spirit - or the Gifts of the Spirit.
 
So, let's go ahead and start off with a working definition of spiritual gifts, and then we will look at what the Bible has to say on this topic.

What is a spiritual gift? If you are taking notes, a spiritual gift is simply a supernatural ability given to all Christians to do God's work on earth. It's an ability given by God, to all of God's people, to make a difference first, if you read Scripture, first in the church and then overflowing into the world.

1 Corinthians Chapter 12, we will start in verse 1 and then look at verses 4-6 to build a foundational understanding. Verse 1, the Bible says this; "Now about spiritual gifts," Paul says, "Brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant."

According to 1 study, 87% of Christians don't know anything about their spiritual gifts. He says, "First off, I don't want you to be ignorant." And yet, almost 9 in 10 Christians, don't know anything about their gifts. They are ignorant.
 
Give you an example; There is this man who has a problem with snakes around his house out where he lives.  His father knew his family hated the snakes so he gave him a shot gun to blow their copper heads off with.  This gentleman doesn’t really know alot about guns so he put the shotgun in a very safe place in his house, hid the bullets and has never touched this gun or used it. It was a gift from his father, with a purpose, to serve my family. Yet, this gift is hidden and unused.

That is exactly what many of you are doing with the gifts that God has given you.

Many of you, you don't even know what they are, where they are, how they are supposed to function. Your Father has given you a gift that continues to be hidden and unused.

"Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant..."

In verse 4, Paul continues and says; "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit." The same Holy Spirit gives these different kinds of gifts to believers.

Verse 5 says, "There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."

In verse 7, in the New Living Translation, it says this; "A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other."

Notice that all Christians receive spiritual gifts. All spiritual gifts are useful. All of hell wants you to keep your gift hidden and unused, so that the gift your Father has given you is not useful to build up the body of Christ and minister to people in the world.