Spiritual Gifts Ep #2
by Dan Gibson
July 13, 2022 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 12:1, John 3, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12:14

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/dan-gibson--spiritual-gifts-ep-2
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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thank you pastor everybody say praise the lord say it again amen he is worthy to be praised didn't he amen amen god is good you may be seated it is good to see everybody here tonight in the you know camp meeting is here and it's going on but i'm just glad that when we're not able to go to camp meeting that we can have church right here amen uh but it is good to be in the house of the lord today um we'll dive right in and start just kind of pick up from where we left off last week and we'll recap a little bit um i do want to say something though and i think everybody in the room it's as uh you you understand where i'm at i i lost the car here back on the 4th of july and then last last saturday night late this past saturday night they found it and you know going through the roller coaster ride with the with the emotions and all of that how many you know that uh that the enemy does everything possible to take your joy huh have you ever seen that and one of the reasons i brought that up is when we understand that we understand the spiritual battle that is there and even though you know i am human and my emotions went crazy and uh you know just just really i i kept reminding myself you know why would he even think anything different you know what why should i think that something that it all supposed to be you know just just smooth everything good peachy lovely why should i think that because if he can keep us from heaven if he can keep us from just planting that seed inside of us he's done his job and and so in order for us to keep that victory as we talk about we we stand in front of god and say god i'm going to do this like i'm supposed to and i'm going to trust you i'm going to trust you and i'm going to trust your word and and everything that we have discussed last week versus what we're going to discuss this week is also going to be right along the lines of the fact that if we would follow the word of god be sensitive to the holy ghost move in and out of where we're supposed to be and we talked about that last week each and every one of you have abilities you have gifts you have things that god has planted inside of you and we we exercise those then we're going to walk in faith we're going to walk in truth and we're going to do what god's called us to do amen how many you believe that amen lift your hands with us right now let's just ask the lord for the next few next few moments that he would bless us in the name of jesus we ask for your blessings upon us god we ask for you to touch our hearts and minds speak to us today god open up our hearts and minds to hear your word let us exercise what we've been given in the name of jesus in the name of jesus and everyone say amen last week we we talked quite a bit about our natural gifts those things that god has blessed each and every one of us with we've talked about how that and and i did give you some homework how many of you did that homework yeah i saw some of you working on it before you left but uh but you make those lists of those talents how many you have talents you have abilities to do things whether it's just cooking or whether it's just you know those things that you know you can do you make that list out and we talked about set we're going to take and dedicate those things going to take those to god and say god i want you to bless what you've given me and then we we talked about exercising those things we talked about sharpening those tools those things that god i mean you know you can take that and put it in your pocket and never use it it does nobody any good and when you get get to the to the land wherever you said you're going then you can just sit there and look at your piece of paper you wrote on but each and every one of those things that we've been given the abilities that god has given us we exercise those things we we must folks there there is a world that is dying literally dying because they need somebody to be led of the spirit somebody that is that is moving in and out of of people that understand what's going on i i i we're not going to check spooks tonight but we're going to start digging just a little bit deeper into gifts and how that these are to be used that that god open up our understanding first corinthians the 12th chapter verse 1 paul is writing here to the church at corinth and he he makes this statement and we have used this in the past but he makes this statement he said i would not have you ignorant he said concerning the spiritual gifts i don't want you to be ignorant real quick somebody tell me what your definition of ignorant is not somebody but there you go lack of knowledge somebody that does not does not understand somebody that does not have an understanding of you know it's one thing to have to have knowledge but then there's another things to have to have the wisdom to use the knowledge there there is a lot of people that's that is book smart but when it comes to actually plugging it in and making it work in going to school going through this going through school and and in my time of college i i found out real quick that there were guys that were quote unquote smarter than me and we had we had times where sam you'd enjoy this we had times where we had storyboards and we had to put those together and they could come up with some stuff now they could put it on a board and make it look really good but as i had one of my old teachers used to say he says it makes a good chart but that's about it you can have all of the the tools that you want you can have all of the abilities that you want but if you do not know how to use them you don't have a true understanding and you don't have the knowledge of what it's about this is where as a church we have to be very careful that we use the gifts and we operate in the gifts but that we are not careless and reckless with those gifts as individuals you have you have abilities but how are you using them you know i shared this with pastor and i'm trying to stay away from the current events in my life but after homework and doing background and listening to people give me their wise intelligent advice about what took place found out that there was a lot of things about that that that was really technical uh it's smart they were doing some really smart stuff when they stole that car but they were using their knowledge reckless literally reckless and what i'm getting at is is there there are things that god has put in your hands there is abilities that god has given each and every one of you you have them and you ask the question and i ask you again what i asked you last week what what are you doing with them what what are you engaged in what as a child of god you've got the ability to do something are we using them or are we just sitting on a bench with those in in our hands we're sitting in a chair that saying i can do that but are we really doing what he's called us to do paul says in the chapter 12 he says i concerning those spiritual gifts i i would have you to not be ignorant don't don't be ignorant about these don't be um don't be reckless with what you have and what what god has given you he said brethren i don't want you to be ignorant concerning these gifts and he goes on and he begins to strike at each one of those gifts and ex and go through some detail there of those gifts just calling them out and we're we will touch some on of those but i don't want to go into detail with those right now but he would say some he gives this particular he gives wisdom he gives he gives a spiritual a spirit of wisdom to that individual then another spirit of knowledge and he gets gives to another faith and he goes down the list and he just gives healing to one and and to another he may give he may give miracles and all of these things that he's going through he is saying all of these are gifts that i have given we have people that have abilities but i don't know that we actually have people that take possession of those abilities they they don't really take to heart what god has has actually handed them it's easy for someone that is a school teacher i've got a couple of those around here teachers they can get up and lecture you right because they have there there is some study done there is some skill there there there are people that that know how to crunch numbers praise god hallelujah thank you jesus fine three million dollars amen pastor's saying we preaching that but you're able to push those numbers together because it's something that god has i mean you're you've got that ability to do that but if you don't exercise it you can't put two and two together right some things though when it comes to the things of god we're not really we're not really using wisely john the third chapter in the early church when the church was starting to come together there were people that were starting to get a revelation and they were starting to understand things and you'll see where i'm headed with this just a few moments but they were they were starting to get some understanding but yet they didn't quite get it those gifts that god gives us we have to dig for them right we have to try our best to find them we have to sometimes we have to research and we have to find somebody if you know if you know that god has given you a gift of faith we we must find that t.w barnes that can help us understand that because he's he's gone to be with the lord been gone for a while but again those are people i remember when you're talking about faith you would have to find somebody like that and take just take them from for a little just a few moments and to the side and just just pick their brain because you want to know more about it you want to you you have the gift of of of healing you want to find somebody that that has that ability and has has treated it successfully and did it right and asked those questions how can i how can i do this better how is it that i can do this there was a man in john the third chapter his name was nicodemus nicodemus was a ruler very smart guy he's a ruler of the jews that same man came to jesus by night he called him rabbi and said said teacher he calls him by name i i want to know more about what you're saying when you talk about this being born again how many do you remember nicodemus again we're paraphrasing here but i want you to get what we're talking about nicodemus came to jesus why did he come by night she didn't want anybody to see him but yet he knew there was something to this there maybe there could have been a reason that he was like you know i don't want people thinking i'm crazy how many of you have ever had something laid upon your heart that you felt impressed of the lord and you thought you know if people knew what i just thought they would think that i was crazy yeah can can i can i drop a little hint here and say you know do it anyway you find that individual in walmart i'm gonna tell one on my wife she's out there so she i can run before she gets through the door i run faster than her but she come out of the store one day and she she just she had there's an individual and i i just caught bits and pieces of this katie could probably confirm but she just felt like she wanted to tell this lady how how beautiful she looked and this lady thought it was just it was just the most awesome thing that ever happened it you know and again that that that's very simple but you don't ever know what a individual is going through you don't ever know exactly what's happening again i you know i've been standing in crowds in this in the entryway out here and i've watched how the spirit begins to move and everybody's just standing around just chatting no i'm not sitting there reading everybody y'all quit that but but everybody standing around just chatting talking and how that a word would come through somebody and then you could watch expressions on faces change and then you know what they move right back out and are talking about something totally different but it's the spirit of god that flows it moves it it it goes through channels that that when you're just talking just an average conversation you and i could be talking about a wrecked car y'all better pray for me but you're talking about something just just something off the wall and then all of a sudden there is a word that comes through and that person it grabs hold of it they engage in another conversation but you never know exactly what that word just did and sometimes we have to we have to take each and every one of those and put it together like a puzzle because god sometimes he does not talk to us directly and say abcd he'll give you a word and then there's another one that comes somewhere else and excuse me for saying this but sometimes it comes through channels that i was like how in the world i had a a man that i had the opportunity of pastoring he was a very peculiar person interesting person there there that's the word one of those that if i was really having a a tough time getting things caught up and ready and see him coming it's like oh but i would find myself just carried away with just life and then all of a sudden this guy steps in and knowing that he he wasn't he wasn't the top of the line what we would call ideal trophy christian you know we've got that idea and forgive us for being that way but he would walk in and just in a split moment i would realize uh oh stop what i'm doing right now listen because there would be something that was being said in all of his jibber-jabber and everything that was going through his mind and it would be coming out and it would be soul food that i needed to hear never pass up that opportunity because you never know what it's going to lead to i know he was talking about nicodemus but sometimes i wonder about the story of nicodemus exactly what was going through his head i know he wanted to know more about jesus he wanted to know more about this new birth and he had a lot of questions about how to be born again and how this is supposed to happen and and and he was he was complexed about a lot of that didn't understand it and jesus would weave this this story in and out and he would you could tell nicodemus is trying to grab hold of it i have found in my own life that there has been nicodemus times in my life when god would be trying to tell me something he would be trying to let me in on what he was wanting to do and i was trying to make a practical application out of it i'm trying to say how how do you do that nowadays it's just it doesn't make sense and the whole time god is saying you're still not getting the picture you're still not getting what i'm talking about nicodemus was trying to figure out how to be born again jesus explained to him how he was to be born again just as our lives are how is it that i can claim these gifts that god has for me and those that i already possess but i just haven't really grabbed hold of them i have them but i don't know what to do with them i have things that god you have led me to do or you've led me to believe in but i i what do i do with them can you be honest with me today that there are things that that you've you know that god's led me to this point but i really don't know what to do next yeah we all could say that that there are things that god's leading me can i can i say this don't try too hard sometimes we try too hard and we just gotta we've got to let go and allow god to lead us allowed him to steer us allow him to guide us there's been times that i i know this from personal experience that we try to do things god's way and we try so hard that i've messed it up i mess it up because i i'm trying too hard and god knows we want to do his will right you want the will of god you want to do god's will that's why you're trying but our minds in our minds sometimes we lose that spiritual compass in what we're trying to do god help us to regain what you have given us and hold on to them but allow the spirit to lead allow the holy ghost to lead you the holy ghost had to lead nicodemus through this understanding it was the spirit of god that led him to an understanding of who god really was and how to receive that john i mean paul writes to the church at ephesus in ephesians 4 and he says we're given apostles we're given prophets we're giving evangelists we're given preachers we've given teachers all of these things is given for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the of the ministry for edifying the body of christ everybody would you say with me the body of christ god's given you individual jobs now let's put this skeleton together he's given you abilities some he's given you the ability to be able to reach out into the community right you've got that ability you've got the ability to go to the communities and talk to different communities he's given you that ability how to approach certain people i've got a group of guys that i that i use a lot of times and to be honest with you these guys there's not a lot of jobs out there for this type of person but i've made a connection and i realized over the last few years how that i was able to get that contact and i started using that contact and i started realizing that i had an ability to be able to talk to those particular type of people just recently i i had some things laid on my heart and and so the i had one of them come to me and i and again we're not i'm not talking about i'm not talking about whoo filling in the holy ghost and we're at work we're doing what we're supposed to be doing we're making a moon pie well hallelujah but i realized what god was doing and so i started inquiring and this this guy started explaining some things to me and i started you know hey i think we ought to start something like this and he's been talking and we've been talking and i i really am there's something about it that god's pushing on me to say hey there is something in the spiritual world going on here wanting to mature this no is it off the ground yet no because i i know that i could grab hold of this thing and i can make a wreck out of it but god gives me bits and pieces about this situation and about about this dream and goal that i see coming alive he's given me little bits and pieces about that so i am possessing that basing on the name of jesus i'm possessing that and saying okay god i'm going to be led of you but it's a part of the body it's a part of the body of christ it's one of those arms if you please taking the legs and doing the leg work that i feel like in future it would be something that would be beneficial to the church and i use that personal thing because i want you to understand there are things that you have the ability to do you have got some things that god's wanting you to do here in this this city here in this church but it's the body of christ all of these things must be moving for the body of christ he it's all one body everybody say one body for the body is not one member this is paul talking to the church in corinth 15th or 12th chapter 12 verse 14. it's not all one one member because if everything was listening if everything was the ear i know there's a lot of ears sometimes and you know that's that's not of god hallelujah thank you jesus amen it's not all of not all the somebody got that not not all of the it's not all one body it's i mean it's all not all one member if the whole body was hearing who's going to be there to do the smelling that's basically what it's saying somebody's got to be the nose so and i got a pretty good size one so y'all just leave that to me his taste topped up a lot but every part of the body just take it through just just what the body does if they're your eyes not everybody is supposed to be the eye not everybody's supposed to be just everybody reaching and grabbing i i look at this body and thank god for leadership that is that is able to vision this and and give us a vision but you've got people that that are out in the front in the parking lot things like that there's people there not everybody can be in the parking lot right we don't want everybody in the parking lot not everybody can be on the platform on the drums on the piano praise god hallelujah you think thank you brother durant not everybody's got the voice to sing but you do have something to do for the kingdom of god everybody has their part and sometimes it could just be that passing by and shaking a hand or putting a hand on the shoulder that changes everything i've had my day turn around because somebody came by and just stuck a hand out i was having one of those frustrated days here not long ago on the job and and i'm running 90 miles an hour it's one of those days where you realize that the next thing that you're supposed to be doing is what's supposed to be done two hours ago you ever been there and so i'm doing this trying to catch up trying to do this and running to the computer and and back and forth and i go out back and i'm waiting for a truck that's coming in and the guy gets out of his rig and he's whistling and he's just casually walking to the back and i need to be going that way how many feel what i'm talking about and you know i just i do what i do i do it sir i am blessed to the lord and i was like why again one of those times where we get so involved in what we're doing that we fail to miss the marks along the road that says look at that blessing look at that blessing look at what we're missing i was supposed to be the guy that said that but i wasn't why because i'm too busy god has given us gifts he's given us the gift of life itself he's given us all of these things that we could be thanking him for and using for his glory and here we are so busy one of my elders he has passed on now he said we get so busy doing the work of the lord that we forget about the lord of the word we get so caught up in doing what we think we need to be doing and rightfully so it needs to be done but we don't stop and look at what god has given us those abilities those blessings that he's given us he's given these to us to use and yes we're using them but is he getting glory he gives you a gift and what do we do with it last week we talked about those talents and how that one he gave five and one two and then one one sometimes we get so caught up in the fact that we have a god-given talent that it's so precious to us that we've done nothing but set there and stroke that one talent and see what god's given me and am i doing anything about it not using it not increasing it not sharpening it it's god-given but are you giving back huh you see the spirit of god it can't do what the body can the spirit needs a body to flow through it needs the arms the body without the spirit is nothing the body can lay down and when it's given up the spirit it's good for nothing but it needs the body in order to do yes we talk about prophesying but the body needs to it needs to operate in that yes the body needs to serve those ministries that god has given us but it has to have a channel to flow through there should be teaching but how can we hear the teaching if we don't have the ear how can we do these things that god has asked of us when we're not using the body properly this makes me understand more and more i'll be the first to admit in years of pastoring tried to do it all myself pastor small churches it's just what you did brother what just what you do but i understand more and more about how the spirit flows and how it operates when you can see here's the hand here's the feet here's the head this is the body of christ and this is how it functions saw an ad not many months ago a friend of mine had put a little ad out there he was looking for a music director and he was he was looking for somebody uh to help with youth ministry and he's going through this list of jobs and given descriptions and i looked at it and i thought what a good idea why because all of those are important to the body of christ that's why sunday school teachers are important to us that's why that that those that are able to just go gucci gucci goo they're important to us it's why that we have people that can take the trash out hallelujah thank you jesus it's part of the body of christ you say well that's not real spiritual yes it is it's part of the body we move in the spirit we we are part of the body of christ amen for the one he gave spirit of wisdom another he gave a spirit of knowledge another he gave faith to another he gave healing by the same spirit to another he works of miracles prophecy discerning of spirits diverse kind of tongues another interpretation of tongues he goes through all of these for as the body is one and has many members we are the body of christ we are the people of god we are called by god last week we talked about god's masterpiece you are created by god he's made you in his image don't say you can't do it if you have a burden for something even if it's just boosting somebody else along let's let's make it happen if you've got a burden for something in our neighborhoods let us know we can help you make that happen i i get excited when people can can come up with ideas and i know you go to pastor with an idea guess what he's going to do hey get it but you feel something do not quench that don't quench it don't don't try to stop it because that is a body that's a part of the body and when we're hurting in that part of the body you know what it does to us everybody starts shutting down trying to make up for that per part it's hurting and whatever you're doing for the kingdom of god keep doing it because it's all part of one body you are made in the image of god you are created by him to do his work we've got several several gifts that we're going to be touching on in the next few weeks but i want to i want to get us and i know we're we're scraping just the surface right here but this is who we are we talked about some of really really basic things last week and this week digging a little deeper but i i want i want you to understand something we are going somewhere we're we're going to make things happen that we have been sitting on for a while there's things in each and every one of us that we could be doing for the body of christ and we're not doing them no god didn't put no revelation inside of me about any of you i'm looking at you but i heard but those are there are things that god wants to show us again before the before this session is is closed at the end of these weeks that we're going to be studying this keep writing down things that god keeps bringing to mind to you keep writing those down because i i want to at the end we're going to give you some information that i think that's going to help you develop this no we're not going to sit here like lauren and call you out but we're going to give you something that's going to help you and if you really would use the tools that we give you you're going to be able to to spread those wings and do some things that you need to do you're going to get there but it's going to take us working on this again we're kind of hard-headed i know it took me a while to get this and i'm still working on some things but god's got some things for this church he's got some things for individuals he's got some things he wants to take you into and show you that you can do for the kingdom of god and it's going to blow your mind i i mean if you will if you'll just do what god has asked of you it's going to it's going to be mind blowing and we get to talking about new church and things like that you know what there there are things that this new facility is going to need and it's time to get on board it's time to get some things started in your own outreach the things that god's already called you to do start moving in that direction lift your hands with us right now in the name of jesus god i know that you're working on us god i i know that you have got a plan for us i know that you're working some things out of us and getting us ready for some things ask lord jesus that you continue to work on us about the things that you have called us into god that these things that we've just been circling today you will help us to cultivate some of these things that you have asked of us give us a clear vision of what we're to do give us a clear understanding of where you're leading us asking god that you would do a work in our lives each and every one that is in in this room and those that will listen to this god that we do exactly what you've called us to do let us be the body of christ let us be what you have called us to do for your kingdom for your glory in the name of jesus in the name of jesus hallelujah we give you praise in jesus name in jesus name everyone say in jesus name amen i think it's really a good stopping point i've got some other things down here but we're going to go into it later on because i think it'll i i'll be taking off in a different direction with this god's doing some things for us and i want to be a part of whatever god's doing here in this this church and this body i mean you're ready to do something for god let's stand together i want you just to give god praise together would you do that right now just thank him thank you for his goodness and his mercy i thank you lord thank you for all you've done in this place god i thank you for the direction you're giving each and every one of us we do this for your kingdom and for your glory god it all goes to you in the name of jesus in the name of jesus amen amen god bless you appreciate each and every one of you just remember sunday bring somebody to church with you i want to see somebody feel with the holy ghost i i want to i want to make sure i hear pastor he'll say fill that baptistery up that's what we want amen god bless you in jesus name