This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to day two of our look through
1 Corinthians chapter 12. Let's look at the gifts that God has given to His
body. Yesterday we looked at the fact that the gifts are given by the Spirit.

It's one of the keys that we looked at yesterday. Today one of the keys that
we're going to see in these verses is that gifts are given for others. They're
given by the Spirit, and they're given for others in the body of Christ.

One of the great verses in 1 Corinthians 12 is verse 7. It's one that's worth
taking a bit of time to look at. Verse 7 says, "Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

" Now to each one, the manifestation, the gifts of the Spirit are given for the
common good. Gifts are given for others, they're given for the common good. Now,
two gifts are not discovered by selfish people.

Because in my selfishness, I want to know what's given for my good. It's when I
begin to work for the good of others that I begin to discover those gifts. Now
here's the problem with that.

We all struggle with selfishness, and because we struggle with selfishness, we
have to find the solution to that in order to understand the gifts that God has
given us. And in this verse, there are two proven steps for solving selfishness
in a believer's life. Now you don't solve it once and for all.

You solve it day by day by applying these steps. Step number one is determining
to work for the good of others, work for the common good. When each one works
for the common good, gifts are given to each one for the common good.

Each one. You might think as you read through these verses, "Okay, he needs all
the gifted people in the church, but I'm not gifted. I'm just your common garden
variety Christian.

" That's not what the scripture says. But to each one, he has given a gift. The
moment that Jesus saved you, he gifted you.

You might think, "How come I don't feel gifted? " The feeling that you're gifted
begins actually with trust, not with emotion. Trusting in God's word that you
are gifted.

God has given you a gift, and he's given it for a purpose, for the common good.
You will never discover your gift until you decide to share it. There are
thousands, hundreds, millions of gifts that remain undiscovered because we've
never overcome our personal selfishness.

We've never sold out to the idea of giving our lives for others. If you have a
talent for music, knowing where to use it is the key to its effectiveness, to
its appreciation. Same with, if you have a talent for tennis, you've got to use
it on a tennis court.

If you have a talent for math, you've got to use it with numbers. The place
where gifts are designed to be used is the church. That's where gifts work,
that's where they come out.

Gasoline works in an engine, gifts work in the church. So to be useful with your
gifts, to understand them, discover them, and to be useful with them, you have
to know where to put them, and it's in the church. Ralph Nabors said, "Nothing
is more foreign to the New Testament than the idea that spiritual gifts are to
be exercised privately, or that the individual receives them for just personal
enrichment.

It might bring you joy to use the gift, but the reason it's given is for not
only the use, but also the enjoyment and the changed lives of others. So to each
one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. That means I
have to surrender.

We're going to see this when we get to verse 11. I have to surrender to the
determination of the Spirit. My determination to work is governed by the
Spirit's determination of how I'm going to work.

Let's say you go in and you take a job at a grocery store, and you came in the
first day on the job and you say to the manager, "I'll be working in the bakery
today. I know that my experience is in bagging and that you hired me to bag, but
I just love the smell of donuts. I feel like I am gifted with donuts, so I'll be
working in the bakery today.

" What if all the workers decided they wanted to work in the bakery that day?
Truth is, somebody has to be boss, and in the church, God is the boss. Jesus is
the head of the church, and so the Spirit determines the gifts.

He does the determining, and we do the following. They were having some problems
in Corinth because they were trying to determine who had what gift based on
their own pride or their need for recognition, and Paul is writing to tell them
here, "No, it's the Spirit's determination. " So with that in mind, it's the
Spirit who determines the gifts.

It's His leadership. We follow Him. What are these gifts that we're talking
about that God uses in the church?

Well, it's not a complete list, but Paul begins to give us part of a list
beginning in verse 8. Let me read for you verses 8 to 10. "To one, there is
given through the Spirit the message of wisdom.

To another, the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit. To another,
faith by the same Spirit. To another, gifts of healing by that one Spirit.

To another, miraculous powers. To another, prophecy. To another, distinguishing
between spirits.

To another, speaking in different kinds of tongues. And to still another, the
interpretation of tongues. " Notice a couple things about these verses.

First, you probably heard, there's a list of gifts here. There's nine specific
gifts that are mentioned. Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy,
discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues.

More on this list of gifts comes at the end of this chapter. So we're going to
take a deeper look into this list and what these gifts mean when we come to the
end of this chapter. But I don't want you to miss in these first verses what we
often miss.

We read these verses and we see, oh, here's a list of gifts. But did you notice,
especially at the beginning, after every gift, Paul is clear to say, "By the
Spirit. " Through the Spirit comes the message of wisdom.

Knowledge comes by the means of the same Spirit. Faith by the Spirit. Paul is
not so much emphasizing the list of gifts here, although it is good to learn
from that.

His emphasis is where they're coming from. They don't come from me. They don't
come from you.

They're not determined by me, not determined by you. They're determined by God's
Spirit. How do spiritual gifts come into my life?

Well, they're not spiritual paychecks earned by my work somehow. You can't earn
certain gifts by giving certain commitments to God. They're not spiritual
interest benefits accruing somehow over a period of time.

It's not how long you've been a Christian that determines what gifts you have.
It's your openness to the Spirit. It's not even spiritual knowledge that by some
mental decision or if I study some gift enough, I can get skilled at that and
then I'll have that spiritual gift.

You cannot think or even train yourself into certain spiritual gifts. These are
spiritual gifts. That means they're given.

And that means I appreciate what the Spirit has done. And when you recognize
that they're given, it's extremely important to realize they're not given just
to you. They're actually given to the body.

They're given to the church. Now, through you, they're given to the church, but
these are gifts for his church. There is a lot of talk today about which of
these gifts in this list that I just read are active or not active, when they're
at work, why they're at work, what parts of the world or parts of history.

I find that that's really the wrong emphasis. I find that when people see that
they're given to lift up the church and not just you and that these gifts, when
they're given to be used under the leadership of the church, there's no problem.
There's no argument about the gifts.

When the gifts are used to lift you up, like, wait, wait, I want you to see I
have this gift, whether it's teaching or tongues or anything else, and everybody
has to notice me because I have this gift, that always causes division in the
church. Paul says that throughout this chapter. And when the gifts are used,
regardless of the leadership of the church, you go and you say, Pastor, I have
the gift of preaching.

That means you have to let me preach the sermon this next weekend, even though
you're one week old as a Christian. When that kind of thing happens, it always
causes divisions. So the answer to any questions about which gifts and how
they're used in which church is make sure they're not lifting you up.

Make sure they're used under the leadership of that church or the pastor of that
church. That solves the problems. The gifts that are given are given by the
Spirit, and they're given by the Spirit for His church.

And so in verse 11, Paul sums up this section by saying this, "All these are the
work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one just as He
determines. " These are gifts. They're given by God freely.

They're given according to God's will, just as He determines. It's up to Him to
do the distribution of the gifts. It's up to us to open up that gift that He's
distributed into my life and then to use it for His glory.

Let's pray right now that that's exactly what would happen. Even as we pray
right now, just say, "Jesus, I want to open my heart to the work of Your Spirit.
I want to open my heart to Your Lordship, Your leadership in my life.

" Instead of me determining which gift I have or which gift I want to use
because maybe of some pride issue in my life or because of some fear issue in my
life, some need for me to have that gift because my friend might have that gift,
or that's not what I want. You've made me a certain way. You created me to do
something in this world, and You created me to do something in Your Church, and
that's what I want to do.

Whether it gets noticed or not, whether it gets applause or not, whether at the
beginning it makes me feel like I'm going to get what I need or not, it's not
about what I need, Jesus. You've met all the needs in my life, now and to all
eternity. And so in that confidence, I pray, You'd help me to see how You've
gifted me to meet the needs of Your body, to meet the needs of this world.

Lord, help me to choose the body of Christ that I'm in, the church that I'm in
as a place of service. Show me how to serve You there. In Your name I pray,
amen.

We've been talking about gifts for the body. Tomorrow we're going to begin to
talk about a body for the gifts, the power of working together under Christ's
Lordship.