Embracing Unity and Diversity Through Spiritual Gifts
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "We have some people that are good at science and some people are good at math. Some other people are good at reading and writing. Some people are good at music back here. And everybody has a different gift. And we put them all together into the church. And it does amazing, miraculous things. Because then we have everything that we need because God gave us all these special gifts. So I want you to remember that you have a special gift. And you have a special gift, Eli, no matter what. Even when we don't feel like we have gifts, we do. And we can use them to help and to serve and to love people." [45:23]
2. "So when our kids were at home, every once in a while, Tracy would call a family meeting. All right? And usually when Tracy called a family meeting, especially when it was years ago, maybe 10 or 12 years ago, the kids would always come and ask, what would you ask? Are you in trouble? Yes. Yeah. They would ask, are they in trouble? And they would also joke with their mother that, what was the joke? Do you remember? You're not helping me out here right now. The kids would joke, are you pregnant, mom? Because for several years there, it was one after another." [46:49]
3. "We have the Holy Spirit within us, not just in this tent meeting where God was seen. The temple of the Holy Spirit becomes us. We are filled with God's presence. And even though there's many pillars of fire, there's still only one God, one Spirit. Because there's many fires, one Spirit is given to every person for the common good, Paul tells us. And there were many voices, right? There's all these voices. There's voices from around the empire. But there's just one understanding. No matter what language they're speaking, there's one understanding. There's all these languages. There's communication going on. There's understanding going on. It's just amazing." [59:48]
4. "The Spirit overcame seemingly impossible barriers of language and culture, just as Jesus overcame the absolute impossible barrier of death. Because, friends, God will go to any length to share the good news and to make sure that it's told. So they're waiting there. And these tongues of fire come and the Holy Spirit comes. And all of a sudden, they can understand and speak these different languages. Can you imagine that? All of a sudden, if you could speak German or understand. German or Spanish or French or whatever language, what an amazing feeling that might be." [57:47]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Friends, the gifts of the spirit are only useful to us. They're only useful when they're employed to build up the body of Christ. And we all have them. Everybody has a gift to use and share. No matter how young or how old you are. No matter where you come from, what language you speak, what your education level is, what your economic level is. It doesn't matter. We all have gifts and talents that can be used for the Lord. The gifts of the spirit are only useful when they're employed to build the body of Christ." [01:15:46]
2. "All these different kinds of gifts. All these things were produced by the one and same spirit who gives what he wants to each person. Paul continued this idea with his metaphor later in the letter when he compared the church to a body. He compared a church to a body. He says, Just as the physical body could not all be ears. Think about that. Think about if you had an ear where your hand is supposed to be. Wouldn't be very good. Very useful, would it? Or if we were all hands and no ears or noses. Just as the physical body could not all be ears or hands or eyes. Each member of the body of Christ cannot all have the same gift. We need each other." [01:08:22]
3. "So God confused their languages, scattered them across the known world. And through the Pentecostal experience and in Paul's letter, God's spirit, pulls them all back together. Here, thousands of years later. He pulls them all back together with their unique languages to communicate with each other once again. And they could understand one another. And now they sought not to do things out of their own recognition. But they sought to do things for the recognition of God. To bring God glory and honor and praise. Many voices. And we have one understanding that's given to us. To every person. For the common good." [01:03:33]
4. "You might be sitting there wondering well what is a spiritual gift anybody have that question nobody okay all right we'll skip this part if you're wondering what a spiritual gift is or what yours might be beyond your normal talents and gifts and and skill sets if you go on the website clearviewumc.org and you go to next steps clearviewumc can take what's called a spiritual gift assessment and it has some questions you're going to have to log in and make a little account with a username and a password but it's worth it you'll answer some questions take about 15 20 minutes and it's going to tell you here are your tendencies of what you might be good at you might have the gift of hospitality and welcoming people and creating welcoming spaces you might be at the gift of teaching or the gift of prayer or generosity or you might have the gift of hospitality and welcoming people and creating you might have a gift in music or creative communication in some way so you might spend a few minutes doing that and and then if you want to talk about that and how then because the next step is not just knowing them it's putting it into practice how can i use this gift when i discovered that i had the gift of administration 20 some years ago 30 some years ago probably now i didn't know how i didn't know you could use that in the church i mean other than maybe like being the office manager or the bookkeeper right how do you use that well i didn't know how to use that in the church i learned there's other places to use that gift and for me that was the link to me finding my purpose in my spiritual life and i want you all to experience that gift as well and if i can be of help you can always call on me we share these gifts with one another to complete the body of christ so that we as clear view can be the body of christ for all the world we share those gifts just in the same way that we share in the giving of our tithes and offerings we give sacrificially of ourselves of our skills and talents and gifts to build up the body" [01:17:08]
5. "And Paul, like Jesus, Paul gathered his church in Corinthians for a little family meeting as well. Now he gathered them by a letter he had written. We call it First Corinthians. The first letter to the Corinthian church. And he sent this letter and the whole church gathered to hear somebody read the letter. You see the church at Corinth was unsure of who had gifts of the spirit and who did not. They were having some disagreement about this. And they were having a disagreement about whose gifts were better than others. But Paul insisted that everyone who was building up the body of Christ had a gift of the spirit. And there was no competition. No better or lesser gifts. All gifts, Paul said, come from God. All receive their gifts by the spirit. Not through their words. Not through their worthiness or their unworthiness. But entirely by the love and grace and hope of God. God values the contributions of all no matter how different we may be." [01:05:55]
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1. "We have some people that are good at science and some people are good at math. Some other people are good at reading and writing. Some people are good at music back here. And everybody has a different gift. And we put them all together into the church. And it does amazing, miraculous things. Because then we have everything that we need because God gave us all these special gifts. So I want you to remember that you have a special gift. And you have a special gift, Eli, no matter what. Even when we don't feel like we have gifts, we do. And we can use them to help and to serve and to love people." [45:23]
2. "So when our kids were at home, every once in a while, Tracy would call a family meeting. All right? And usually when Tracy called a family meeting, especially when it was years ago, maybe 10 or 12 years ago, the kids would always come and ask, what would you ask? Are you in trouble? Yes. Yeah. They would ask, are they in trouble? And they would also joke with their mother that, what was the joke? Do you remember? You're not helping me out here right now. The kids would joke, are you pregnant, mom? Because for several years there, it was one after another." [46:49]
3. "We have the Holy Spirit within us, not just in this tent meeting where God was seen. The temple of the Holy Spirit becomes us. We are filled with God's presence. And even though there's many pillars of fire, there's still only one God, one Spirit. Because there's many fires, one Spirit is given to every person for the common good, Paul tells us. And there were many voices, right? There's all these voices. There's voices from around the empire. But there's just one understanding. No matter what language they're speaking, there's one understanding. There's all these languages. There's communication going on. There's understanding going on. It's just amazing." [59:48]
4. "The Spirit overcame seemingly impossible barriers of language and culture, just as Jesus overcame the absolute impossible barrier of death. Because, friends, God will go to any length to share the good news and to make sure that it's told. So they're waiting there. And these tongues of fire come and the Holy Spirit comes. And all of a sudden, they can understand and speak these different languages. Can you imagine that? All of a sudden, if you could speak German or understand. German or Spanish or French or whatever language, what an amazing feeling that might be." [57:47]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Friends, the gifts of the spirit are only useful to us. They're only useful when they're employed to build up the body of Christ. And we all have them. Everybody has a gift to use and share. No matter how young or how old you are. No matter where you come from, what language you speak, what your education level is, what your economic level is. It doesn't matter. We all have gifts and talents that can be used for the Lord. The gifts of the spirit are only useful when they're employed to build the body of Christ." [01:15:46]
2. "All these different kinds of gifts. All these things were produced by the one and same spirit who gives what he wants to each person. Paul continued this idea with his metaphor later in the letter when he compared the church to a body. He compared a church to a body. He says, Just as the physical body could not all be ears. Think about that. Think about if you had an ear where your hand is supposed to be. Wouldn't be very good. Very useful, would it? Or if we were all hands and no ears or noses. Just as the physical body could not all be ears or hands or eyes. Each member of the body of Christ cannot all have the same gift. We need each other." [01:08:22]
3. "So God confused their languages, scattered them across the known world. And through the Pentecostal experience and in Paul's letter, God's spirit, pulls them all back together. Here, thousands of years later. He pulls them all back together with their unique languages to communicate with each other once again. And they could understand one another. And now they sought not to do things out of their own recognition. But they sought to do things for the recognition of God. To bring God glory and honor and praise. Many voices. And we have one understanding that's given to us. To every person. For the common good." [01:03:33]
4. "You might be sitting there wondering well what is a spiritual gift anybody have that question nobody okay all right we'll skip this part if you're wondering what a spiritual gift is or what yours might be beyond your normal talents and gifts and and skill sets if you go on the website clearviewumc.org and you go to next steps clearviewumc can take what's called a spiritual gift assessment and it has some questions you're going to have to log in and make a little account with a username and a password but it's worth it you'll answer some questions take about 15 20 minutes and it's going to tell you here are your tendencies of what you might be good at you might have the gift of hospitality and welcoming people and creating welcoming spaces you might be at the gift of teaching or the gift of prayer or generosity or you might have the gift of hospitality and welcoming people and creating you might have a gift in music or creative communication in some way so you might spend a few minutes doing that and and then if you want to talk about that and how then because the next step is not just knowing them it's putting it into practice how can i use this gift when i discovered that i had the gift of administration 20 some years ago 30 some years ago probably now i didn't know how i didn't know you could use that in the church i mean other than maybe like being the office manager or the bookkeeper right how do you use that well i didn't know how to use that in the church i learned there's other places to use that gift and for me that was the link to me finding my purpose in my spiritual life and i want you all to experience that gift as well and if i can be of help you can always call on me we share these gifts with one another to complete the body of christ so that we as clear view can be the body of christ for all the world we share those gifts just in the same way that we share in the giving of our tithes and offerings we give sacrificially of ourselves of our skills and talents and gifts to build up the body" [01:17:08]
5. "And Paul, like Jesus, Paul gathered his church in Corinthians for a little family meeting as well. Now he gathered them by a letter he had written. We call it First Corinthians. The first letter to the Corinthian church. And he sent this letter and the whole church gathered to hear somebody read the letter. You see the church at Corinth was unsure of who had gifts of the spirit and who did not. They were having some disagreement about this. And they were having a disagreement about whose gifts were better than others. But Paul insisted that everyone who was building up the body of Christ had a gift of the spirit. And there was no competition. No better or lesser gifts. All gifts, Paul said, come from God. All receive their gifts by the spirit. Not through their words. Not through their worthiness or their unworthiness. But entirely by the love and grace and hope of God. God values the contributions of all no matter how different we may be." [01:05:55]
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