1. "Christians are not to think highly or lowly about the gift that God has given them but are to remember that it is God who has sovereignly and wisely given them. Each gift is needed, and each Christian is to be faithful to the gift that God has given them and most importantly seek to fulfill their gift in love for God and other Christians." [45:05]

2. "Just as every gospel was written with a personality and a perspective, every person is going to act out whatever gifts God has given them with a personality and a perspective, and you need to lean into that recognizing that it was a gift given in diversity given by the holy spirit of God in order to fit a particular need in the place that you're in." [47:52]

3. "All of the gifts are Supernatural, all of them are given supernaturally and each of them is as powerful or as special or as pertinent as the next when they are appropriately employed." [39:04]

4. "If you're a part of the house of God, you're part of the family of God, and you're not serving in some capacity, you are neglecting the gift that God has given you." [56:28]

5. "The gifts of the Spirit and the fruits of the spirit are two different things...the gift of the Holy Spirit is the indwelling, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the enablement given by the Holy Spirit, and the fruits of the spirit are notable or visible effects produced or witnessed in us while living a life according to the spirit." [37:19]

[Applause] Amen, amen.

Let's take our Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We have two weeks remaining in this current series, this study on the Holy Spirit. This week we're going to consider the gifts of the Spirit; next week we'll look at the fruits of the Spirit.

There have been times when those two things are confused or related one to another, or equated, I should say, equated one with another. But that's really just a confusion; it's a mistake. I think it's innocent most times. The gifts of the Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit are two different things.

There are probably three terminologies that we should always have clear in our minds when we think about that statement: the gift of, or the gifts of, or the fruits of. Because there are three statements there: the gift (singular) of the Holy Spirit is the indwelling—that's the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gifts (plural) of the Holy Spirit are the enablements given by the Holy Spirit to the born-again believer. The fruits of the Spirit are notable or visible effects produced or witnessed in us while living a life according to the Spirit, according to the will of God, in an attempt to have a life of holiness.

When we attempt to put those all together, they are diverse from one another. Next week we'll be a little more diligent concerning the fruits, but today we want to talk about the gifts.

Another common misconception concerning the gifts of the Spirit, and I think that you'll identify with this, is the perceived power of a particular gift, or more appropriately, the false superiority of one gift over another. It's not uncommon for someone to see a person gifted in an area and to think that that is a super spectacular special gift, when in reality, all of the gifts are supernatural. All of them are given supernaturally, and each of them is as powerful or as special or as pertinent as the next when they are appropriately employed.

I don't seek this morning to embrace a lot of sarcasm, but when we think about gifts, you would think about, if you replaced a bird's wings with a frog's legs, it wouldn't be very valuable to the bird, right? But to the frog, those legs are very invaluable, and to that guy that gets to eat them, they're even more valuable, right?

So when we think about gifts, we have to think about them like that. Just because someone can get up and play and/or sing or speak eloquently—if you ever meet a guy like that—just because they can do that and that's more of a public display of a gift, does it make that gift more special than the other gifts? Gifts of administration and those gifts that occur when everybody's not watching, right?

And so that's a pretty common misconception. What we need to understand is that there is no hierarchy of gifts. There is no, "Oh, you did well here, so I'm going to give you this gift, but you did super good, so I'm going to give you this great gift." It doesn't work like that. There's no hierarchy of gifts; they're all equal in God's eyes because they are all given to accomplish a common purpose for the common good of the body.

So is it agreeable or common that we might see someone else's gift and wish we had it? Well, certainly. I mean, I don't know anybody—and I don't want to put her on the spot; I try not to look at her because she'll get mad at me—but I don't know anybody that doesn't watch Robin play the piano and sing and wish they could do that. That's right. It is a very visible, very special, very precious gift.

But that is something that we're dealing with internally; it's not something that God has differentiated from on high. It is just a jealousy or an envy, right? And so we have to recognize that. It's not more important one than the other.

The Apostle Paul, later in chapter 12, which we won't get to cover today, makes that point by describing the various members of the body and the different purposes of those members. He talks about what if the whole thing was an eye? Well, it could see a lot, but it couldn't go anywhere, right? And if the whole thing was an ear, it could hear a lot, but it couldn't see anything.

So we recognize the diversity of those gifts.

Let's read, if you will, stand with me. We're going to read verses 4 through 11. You're standing in reverence of the reading of the Word, and then I'll open us in prayer. I've got an opening quote for you, and then we'll look at these truths concerning these gifts.

Starting in chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4:

"And now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh in all and all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another diverse kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."

So what we want to see here is that there is one Spirit giving diverse gifts. I want you to pray with me, ask the Lord to illuminate for you this passage today, that you, upon seeing, would believe and would obey.

Let's pray.

Father, we love you this morning. We are grateful again to come to you in prayer, bathing the service, Lord, in prayer. Father, I'm thankful for this opportunity to stand and teach today, to preach the truths of God's Word. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be open to receive this message, that our minds would be clear to understand, our eyes would be able to see, our ears to hear, and our will, God, would be to obey.

Lord, I pray that you'd work in our lives. Help us, Father, to walk differently as we leave today than we did when we arrived. Father, it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

You can be seated.

I'm going to come at you very simply this morning, which is always my goal. We're seeking for understanding and comprehension. I want to share this quote with you, and I think I included this in your handout. You should spend some time with it this week.

This is from Thomas Shriner. Thomas Shriner is a theologian; he's an author currently on staff at Southern Seminary, so he is of good education and good understanding. This is what he says concerning the gifts:

"The gifts of the Spirit are gifts of grace granted by the Holy Spirit that are designed for the edification of the church and which can be divided up as gifts of speaking and gifts of serving. These gifts are to be exercised under the lordship of Christ for the edification of his body, the church. Christians are not to think highly or lowly about the gift that God has given them, but are to remember that it is God who has sovereignly and wisely given them. Each gift is needed; each Christian is to be faithful to the gift that God has given them and, most importantly, seek to fulfill their gift in love for God and other Christians."

That is from Thomas Shriner. That is the direction we'll go today.

I realized last week, this is a seven-week series, I realized last week as we began discussing the filling of the Holy Spirit that there was probably six or seven weeks' worth of preaching there. I realized again this week as I was preparing this sermon that there's probably five or six weeks' worth of preaching when we talk about the various different gifts.

I'm confident that many would like for someone to stand up and define each of these gifts and lay it out for you in clear and present terms so that you can determine what gift you have and what gift you don't have, so that you would no longer be responsible. I'm speaking to human nature here.

I'm not going to do that today. I'm not going to lay out for you what is the gift of prophecy, what is the gift of wisdom, what is the gift of knowledge. We're going to talk more appropriately about what the gifts are in general and how you can determine what your gifting is. So I hope that you will bear with me there.

I want you to notice first in verse 4, a very simplistic approach here. He says there in verse 4, "Now there are a diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit."

I want you to notice that first. I want you to comprehend this concept that the gifts are given in diversity by the Holy Spirit. They are different. We are not automatons created by God. We are not seeking to be pressed into some particular mold that looks some particular way, that talks some certain way, that dresses some certain way, wherein everybody that comes out looks the same, acts the same, walks the same, talks the same, has the same personality.

We are all predestined—if you are born again, you are predestined, predetermined to be formed to the image of Christ. But what that image looks like in the here and now will differ between you and me based upon our level of growth and sanctification.

So everybody is not going to be the same. Everybody is not gifted the same. Every preacher is not going to preach the same. Every guitarist is not going to play the same. Every teacher is not going to teach the same. Just as every gospel was written with a personality and a perspective, every person is going to act out whatever gifts God has given them with a personality and a perspective.

You need to lean into that, recognizing that it was a gift given in diversity by the Holy Spirit of God in order to fit a particular need in the place that you're in. Somebody say Amen.

We're not all going to be the same. Preferences quench and drive out the Holy Spirit of God when we allow them to be legislated. Everyone is not going to be the same. There is a diversity of gifts.

As we've already stated, those gifts are divine enablements. They are things that are who you are, that God has gifted you to do a particular thing in the body and accomplish that thing for the good of the body.

There is a list. I've given you a list. Now, depending on where you read and what you read, if you lean into Catholicism and some of their writings, they define them as seven—that's it. There are seven gifts, and all your gifts fall under the category of one of those seven gifts. I don't particularly agree with that. I think that there is a plethora of gifts and minutia among that plethora that you can't even always define.

I think this is a pretty good list. It is not meant to be conclusive, but gifts of administration—and these are taken out of the Bible, by the way; they're not written by somebody.

Gifts of administration, the gift of the apostle. Now, I want you to understand something: apostle means "one sent." There is the office of apostle that was filled by those men that Christ personally chose. Paul was the last of those; John was the last of those alive. They're dead; that office is closed.

Anybody that introduces himself as an apostle today has either redefined and wrongly defined the term, or they are scripturally wrong. However, what we do with missionaries is very similar to that position. So when we send a missionary from a church to a group of persons with the message of God and we fund them to go, that's a gift. Not everybody can do that; they're called to that.

So, administration, apostle, missionary is where I would put that. Discernment, the gift of discernment, the gift of understanding—judging not to condemnation but right from wrong. Evangelism—that is a gift. Some people are gifted at sharing the gospel, preaching the gospel, teaching the gospel, interacting with various groups of people at an evangelistic level.

All of us have the responsibility of evangelism; some of us are gifted in that area. Mercy—some people are more merciful than other people. We all ought to have mercy because God has had mercy on us; some people are more natural to have mercy than others. There is a gift in that.

Exhortation—that is the gift of encouragement. You've been around somebody that just makes you want to run through a brick wall for the right reasons; they're an encourager. That person that you want to run through a brick wall for the wrong reasons, they're the antithesis of an encourager.

Faith—that's the gift of faith. That is the gift of huge faith, of faith that can see more than anybody else's faith. Somebody that occurred to me this week—if you know much about George Mueller, I would say he was gifted with faith to be able to do the things that he did.

The gift of giving—everybody is called to give. We're all called to tithe and give gifts above and beyond that. Some people are especially gifted in that area. Some people can do that in a bigger way, in a better way. You read about these businessmen—I wish I could remember his name—there's one guy that owned a large corporation; his goal was to give more than he lived on. He eventually ended up living on 10% and giving away 90%. He inverted that figure, so he had a gift; he had a gift of giving.

The gift of healing—I think that is an apostolic gift. If we're talking about touching somebody and healing them, today Christ can do that, and sometimes He chooses to heal that way. Other times He chooses to heal through medicine.

Hospitality—some people are more hospitable than others. My wife, I say all the time, she's got the gift of sunshine and niceness; that's hospitality. She makes everybody feel welcome; everybody wants to be around her.

And so that's hospitality. And then moving on, knowledge, leadership. When you talk about prophecy, there is no longer the foretelling of something. All prophecy is recorded in the Scriptures. There is, however, the preaching or the prophesying, the foretelling, forthtelling of the Word of God, and where we take the Word and, through the blessing of the Holy Spirit, explain it—that is prophecy.

Serving, tongues—tongues is another apostolic gift that has been closed. And this is what tongues are, without getting into an argument with anybody; it's really silly. The arguments are really silly. The tongue was another language. That's right; it was a known language that was unspoken by the person who spoke it to someone who needed to hear it in that language so they could understand it.

So the first time somebody—the first time that God enables me to preach in Spanish to a Spanish crowd and they understand everything I say, I will tell you the gift of tongues is back. But until I see that occur, the gift of tongues does not exist; it was a sign gift, and it was meant for the foundation of the church. It was an apostolic gift.

And then teaching—that's also known as shepherding—and then the gift of wisdom. So there's a list of gifts. If you want to think about what are giftings, there is a list of gifts.

When we think about this topic, we're focused on the diversity of gifts. The statement there is that they are given in diversity by the Holy Spirit. They are given in a diverse manner, but they're all given in the same method. It's not a diversity in giving.

You're not hit by a lightning bolt, and you hit by a thunderclap and drown and come back to life. The Holy Spirit is giving them all; they're given one way, but there is a diverse form of those gifts given.

For example, we think about the gift of administration in the life of ministry. Can you imagine a ministry that had no administration, that did not have a secretary, did not have a treasurer, didn't have a group of people overseeing the business aspects and the management of the ministry? It would be chaotic, and it would be non-profitable.

So there is a gifting that comes with people that have that form of intelligence and knowledge and behavior to manage that. That is a gift. But even if you had a brilliant preacher-teacher, but nobody managing it, it would just not go anywhere.

And so there's a gift in that, and you could develop that scenario in a number of different ways. But this is the thing: the gifts complement one another to the betterment of the body of Christ. That's what they do.

It's also imperative that everyone is not given the same gift, but every born-again believer is gifted. So if you find yourself in a particular situation—I'm trying to do this without being accusative because I don't want to accuse anybody of anything. I grew up just like you did, and there were times in my life when I wasn't doing anything for the Lord.

But if you're a part of the house of God, you're part of the family of God, you are attending on a regular basis, and you're not serving in some capacity in that family of God, you are neglecting the gift that God has given you.

You say, "Well, what is the gift?" Well, I don't know what the gift is. He gave it to you; He didn't give it to me, neither did He define for me what it was. But He gave you a gift, and you ought to be working that gift.

So everyone is gifted in some way, but it's not likely that any one person would have all of the gifts. If they ever did, they would be a very special individual. I've never met one of them.

It is our responsibility to develop those gifts to the fulfilling of the necessity of those gifts in the body of Christ.

Second, the gifts are given as grace by the Holy Spirit of God. I want to call your attention very quickly to the word "gift" there in verse 4. There are diversities of gifts. The word "gifts" there in verse 4 is the word "charisma," and the root of that is "charis," which is grace.

"Charisma" means grace gift; "charis" means grace. I'm saying that like a Spanish person; I have no idea why. But anyway, that is what the word is and what it means. It is a grace gift.

If you think about Ephesians 2:8-9, we quote this all the time: "For by grace are you saved through faith." That word "grace" is the same word. Yes, it's a grace gift. It's given to you not because you deserve it, not because you earned it, not because there's something special about you. It's given to you by the unmerited favor of God.

It is a grace gift, and so you can imagine if it is a grace gift that God gave you in the unmerited favor of His wisdom, and you take it and you bury it and you never use it, you can imagine what that is to God. It is a grace gift, and it should be used moving forward.

The gifts are given as the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. You'll see that in verse 7: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all."

This is a picture of what that grace gift is. It is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. You ever heard anybody say, "Boy, I wish I could just experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. I wish I could just experience the presence of God. I just want to experience something spectacular. I want to be in His presence."

Well, those things are very possible because the gifting is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit to the believer. And when it is gifted and you realize the gift, there's the presence of the Holy Spirit. And when you employ the gift, there is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

It is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit to the believer. It is in that moment you realize—for me, and I don't want to be too terribly personal here, but for me, I've experienced this several times, and sometimes I didn't realize that I was experiencing it, but other times I did.

There have been moments in prayer, and I'm confident that you've had these as well, where I felt like the hand of God was on my shoulder like my father. And I know that that was the manifest presence of God in that moment.

But there's also been times where, as I said last week, that first commitment that we made as a family to God, I think that was the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit, and I don't think we even comprehended what it was.

There were times when I first began attending church, and I started attending thinking that I had wasted my whole life and that I could never be used by God. I can remember the first time I heard somebody preach on the prodigal son, and I realized that that boy was a son the whole time he was gone and that I wasn't cast away, that God would and could and was willing to restore me.

I think that was the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit of God giving me understanding and knowledge and wisdom there. When I was called to preach, I was studying Isaiah chapter 6 to share with a group of teenagers, and I was studying so as to not be foolish in front of them because they were church kids, and I didn't feel like I was.

When Isaiah said, "Here I am, send me," the Holy Spirit of God said to me, "That's an open call. If you're willing to go, that's an open call." And I was willing to go. Yes, those are the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit, and you experience those things, and they leave a mark on you, and you remember them.

There are things you can go back to, and that is what we see.

There is another important aspect of this manifesting of the Holy Spirit: it is never specifically for the benefit of the believer; it is to the benefit of the body.

So I have great comfort in remembering those moments. I have great comfort in remembering how the Lord moved in my life. But in each of those times that the Lord moved in my life and I responded to that responsibility, it benefited the body of Christ in that I was involved in at that time.

We could fast forward if we wanted to, without being too grandiose, and say that God began doing that so that in 2012 there would be a pastor to come along and lead this little assembly into where we are now because God was working in my life.

And praise God, by the grace of God, I was obedient to that working, and now we get to experience what we get to experience. That same thing can happen in the life of every single believer who recognizes that that gifting is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God.

So we also understand that we have to develop these gifts. When we think about these gifts, you think about the gifts that I just read off there—discernment and administration and evangelism and faith and healing—all those things, they all carry something very similar.

They're almost all operational; they lend to the operation of and they function with a long duration. Hardly any of them are temporary in purpose or, you might say, situational.

So we've got this mindset, and we can easily debunk it, but we still have this mindset sometimes that God's going to touch me one day. Let me tell you a funny story; Robin will enjoy this too; she's heard it before.

I came in here one day; there was nobody here; lights were out. I came in here, I prayed a little bit, I played guitar a little bit, I sang a little bit, and I went over there and I turned the piano on, and I was just pecking on it because I cannot play the piano.

All of a sudden, I made a chord, and it sounded good. I was like, "Wow!" So I brought my other hand up and I made another. Now, when I made a chord, I just spread my fingers out like Robin does and hit something, and it sounded good. It sounded good with the other one.

And so I just started doing this, and I was playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" full chord. I was like, "God has touched me!" It was on demo mode. If you turn it on demo mode and you peck around on it, it'll play something.

That's kind of how we go through life. We think that God's just going to zap us with something, and we're going to be able to do it. That's not how it works, right? That's not how it works.

We think, "Oh, God called me to preach; I'll just wear this around like a hat and I'll absorb it." It doesn't work that way. We have to develop the gift.

It would be unrealistic to believe that the Lord would supernaturally, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, suddenly and randomly infuse someone with some inordinate level of particular knowledge, discernment, or wisdom.

So that's unrealistic; it never happens. You say, "Well, it happened at Pentecost." Well, that was apostolic. "Well, it happened with Samson." Well, that's Old Testament, and the Lord moved then. Now He indwells; it's not given to us that way.

You've never witnessed it happen, but you live in some form of belief that it may happen to you, and if it doesn't, you probably aren't called to do anything. And the Bible teaches that there's a gift given to every believer.

It would be perfectly understandable if the Lord supernaturally, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, suddenly and intentionally allowed an obedient servant of God to have the ability to learn and to grow and to understand and to reap the benefit of study or practice in the preparation of using something for the body of Christ.

So somebody that has the gift of teaching, they have the gift of teaching because God has implanted in them the desire to learn and to share what they've learned. But if they don't learn first, there's nothing to share. They have to develop the gift.

The preacher who won't study is not a preacher; he's a pulpiteer, maybe he's an orator, maybe, but he's not a preacher. You've got to prepare to serve. You've got to let God work in you and through you to serve.

So we would not expect someone who has done no preparation to be suddenly granted the gift of evangelism. We wouldn't expect someone who is nominally faithful at church, less than nominally faithful in study and prayer, to be standing in a grocery store line somewhere and suddenly be charged with some electric ability to turn and share the gospel with the guy behind them and lead that person to the Lord.

It would be unrealistic to expect that. But if that person, who God had reached down and touched and redeemed them out of their sin, saw the value in sharing the gospel with others and began to dig into the Word of God and learn how to share the gospel with others and what exactly has happened to them, and praying that the Holy Spirit of God would give them opportunity, it would be perfectly understandable that God would take that person in a moment, in a blink of an eye, and open the gates of Heaven on somebody else with them.

The gifts are given as a manifestation of the Spirit, and when we employ them, it is a manifestation of the Spirit.

So you might say, "Okay, are you suggesting that God could not move someone suddenly and randomly to prophesy or teach or speak in an unknown tongue or heal in order to convince the lost?" Because that's what those were; those were sign gifts.

This is what I'm suggesting more appropriately, because I tend to speak the things that I know are true rather than the things that I suppose aren't true. This is what I'm suggesting: I'm actually declaring this.

We have a completed canon of Scripture; it's perfect. Yes, it is whole; it is lacking nothing. We have a resurrected Savior seated at the right hand of the throne of God, praying there daily, making intercession for us. We have an indwelling Holy Spirit of God that will lead us and guide us and teach us and intercede unto God on our behalf.

We have a timeline of events that we can expect to be fulfilled exactly as they are laid out in the Scriptures. There's no purpose for God to do more than that. He's done everything that He said He would do, and He's left us with all of the gifts.

I would recall you to the rich man in Abraham. The rich man cried out to Abraham and he said, "Well, send him to my brethren so that they won't come to this horrible place." And Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them."

That's the Bible; that's true. He said, "Nay, Father Abraham, but if one told them..." He said, "If they won't hear Moses and the Bible, they will not listen though one were raised from the dead."

Miracles don't get it done; the Word of God gets it done. It's miracle enough that God cared enough about us to save us.

The last thing I want to talk about is the gifts are given for the common good. Look at verse 12. I left off reading there, and I didn't mean to; I apologize.

"For the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ."

They're given for the common good. What is the purpose? Well, they're given for the body. The gifts are given to build the body of Christ. That is the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

That term "edifying" there is a construction term; it means to build, to lay foundation. It is given to build up the church. Exercise gifts should and will, if they are gifts of the Spirit, increase the stability, the strength, the size, and the spirit and the standing of the church locally and universally.

That's why they're given. They're not given for someone to be famous; they're not given for someone to be wealthy; they're not given for someone to reap the benefits of the gift at a personal level, though there may be some personal reaping.

They are given intentionally for the edification of the body, for the church to do the work so the saints can be perfected, matured, and accomplish the Great Commission.

That means that any gift that I am provided by the Holy Spirit, which I refuse to exercise personally and employ publicly, is a wasted gift. Any gift which I determine is for my enrichment and my enjoyment is a wasted gift.

What if somebody—what if I gave you a million dollars? I have it written down as 100, but let's make it interesting. What if I gave you a million dollars and I said, "I want you to take this million dollars and go share it with as many people as you can," and you deposited it all in your account and you lived off of it for the rest of your life?

Have you anywhere near accomplished the goal that I gave you when I handed you the finances? Would you expect the person that handed you the finances to be satisfied with the work that you done with them?

And that's precisely what has happened. We have been given a gift, and we are to employ that gift.

So let's spend just a moment here, and we'll be done considering how will I know my gift. In a conversation with Carla the other night, she asked me, "What if somebody said, 'How will I know my gift?'"

I've been asked that question before, and I've never given a tremendous amount of thought to it because it's such a personal thing. But the Lord spoke to me the other day, and this occurred to me in the studying that I was doing.

I think if someone asked me, "How would I know my gift?" or if you are asking this morning, "How do I know what my gift is?" I think this is what I would do. I think I would ask you a couple of questions and let you answer those questions, and they'll answer it for you.

How did you choose your career? How did you choose your favorite hobby? Have you ever chosen a career or a hobby that didn't pan out? Well, it's very much the same. Did you stop after that?

If somebody said to you, "Hey, choose a career," and you chose something and then you didn't make it, you failed at it, it wasn't good for you, it didn't work, would you stop there? Or would you choose another career?

If you go out to have a hobby—I mean, I've gone golfing before; I probably won't ever go again. That's humiliating. It's not a hobby that I'm interested in. I have friends that say all the time, "Hey, would you go golfing with me?" No, I'd rather shoot you than go golfing with you. I have no desire to go golfing; it's not a hobby that I'm going to pursue.

But I do have hobbies because there are things that I desire. There are things that make my personality work. As odd as it is, it makes it work. My career was that way for me; it was something that I had insight into and something that I could understand and I felt like I could succeed at, and so I gave myself to it.

When I began my career as a 15-year-old sweeping the floor in a garage, I was not a technician or a mechanic, whatever term you prefer. But a few years later, I was a very skilled technician because I invested myself and my time and my energy in that thing that turned me on.

Well, the gifting of God, in my opinion, the gifting of the Holy Spirit is probably very similar. What interests you? Are you a numbers person? You're into organization? You're into those things that lend themselves to administration? Find a way to serve in that capacity in the church and watch God use that gift.

You're vocal; you like to sing; you love all kinds of music. It's very simple after that. You say, "Well, how will I know if I'm gifted at it?" Well, give yourself to it and see what happens.

Because if you're gifted at it, the Holy Spirit of God is going to take it in your life and grow it to something that matters, and it's going to be integral in the life of the body of Christ, and it's going to benefit the church.

You discover your gift that way. This statement: if you're interested in it, can be motivated to it, and are willing to be educated for it, is probably a gift.

Is it something I'm interested in? Is it something I'm motivated for? Am I willing to learn to do it well? It's probably a gift in my life.

The gifts of the Spirit are supernatural, but they are not mystical, and they don't have to be. They can be known; they can be understood; and they can be employed. And when they are, it will be a blessing to the body of Christ.

Would you stand with me this morning, your heads bowed and your eyes closed?

Maybe this morning you would say, "I'm not sure I have a gift at all." Well, I would ask you this question: have you been born again? Do you know that Christ died for you as you and in your place?

Have you repented of your unbelief? Have you taken yourself off the throne of your life, placed Christ on the throne of your life, believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and confessed with your mouth that He is Lord?

Have you called upon the name of the Lord for salvation? Because all who call will be saved. If that has happened in your life, you have been born again. If it has not, it's the greatest need you have in your life today. You must be born again.

If you've been born again, you've been gifted with something. Everybody has a gift; some people have multiples. But you have to develop it. Have you discovered your gifting? And if not, what are you waiting for?

What are you waiting for to ask the Lord, "Lord, how am I gifted?" and begin pursuing the comprehension of that gift? If He has indwelt you, He is seeking to gift you. Would you be obedient to Him today?

Father, I pray you'd bless this time of invitation. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.