Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #89： Spiritual Gifts： A Biblical Breakdown

00:00:00.000 welcome to real christianity today we are talking about spiritual gifts spiritual gifts i know that's

00:00:06.780 probably not super exciting in comparison to the mayhem of the coronavirus that is happening right

00:00:14.520 now we are kind of behind in our podcast so we're recording this episode on monday monday night it's

00:00:22.020 almost 10 o'clock yeah and it's coming out on wednesday we're trying to get back ahead

00:00:25.440 But yeah, the coronavirus pandemic has been a pretty wild journey.

00:00:33.620 And we released an episode on the coronavirus, if you haven't listened to it.

00:00:36.340 It's about, I think, two episodes ago on God's sovereignty over the coronavirus.

00:00:40.960 And I think it's still applicable and will help you that are maybe having some fear about those matters.

00:00:48.020 Another thing I want to talk about is there's lots of churches that haven't been able to gather

00:00:52.560 because of the coronavirus and because of government limitations on size of gatherings.

00:00:57.520 We are creating a resource for those who are interested in gathering in small groups

00:01:04.820 and are in territories that is able and allowed.

00:01:10.640 I know some cities are limiting that down to groups of 10.

00:01:15.740 But what I'm saying is that if you want to learn how to do a biblical house church gathering

00:01:20.860 with a few families from your local church we are creating those resources they're available for you

00:01:25.900 at relearnchurch.org forward slash house and you can get that there um i think that's it all right

00:01:35.280 jumping in yeah we'll jump in yeah okay so um this week we received a question from a listener

00:01:40.680 and they write down veronica i go to a larger church of about 700 people i often hear people

00:01:46.460 talking about spiritual gifts and I feel a little ignorant. What are spiritual gifts and how do I

00:01:51.520 know if I have any? So this is a good question. I'd say unless you're a gifted communicator or

00:01:58.060 passionate evangelist, it can be difficult to identify your spiritual gift. And if you don't

00:02:05.040 know what your spiritual gift is, it can be just as difficult determining how to use it to serve

00:02:11.560 the church the body of christ um so let's start the conversation dale um can you tell us what are

00:02:18.220 spiritual gifts and what is their purpose in the church have you ever taken one of those spiritual

00:02:23.200 gift tests not a spiritual gift test i've taken the strengths finder test like eight years ago

00:02:29.580 many years ago but i know there's like that was a thing for a bit right i didn't even know there

00:02:34.100 was a spiritual gift test again i just go i don't know how reliable they are but hopefully today

00:02:41.040 you'll be able to generally the lord reveals it to you um either directly or through his people

00:02:47.280 yeah yeah so i'm going to break this down and then i'm going to add four short additional

00:02:52.420 points that we can use for application this episode i think is actually really important

00:02:57.580 because it actually puts uh in perspective your role like you specifically your role in the church

00:03:05.600 and so my hope is that this is edifying for you because it actually is talking about you and your

00:03:12.040 role in the church and um when you don't understand your role in the church it can be a little bit

00:03:18.480 you know discouraging or just kind of feel like you don't really know how to fit in they don't

00:03:25.300 know your place yeah you want to contribute but don't know how things like that yeah so um so the

00:03:33.160 word uh gift in spiritual gifts when it's talked about in the bible the greek word is charisma

00:03:38.780 and we now have charisma you know that that's the how we get the charismatic church right the

00:03:45.920 charismatic church is the church that's focusing on the spiritual gifts and uh i think that it's

00:03:53.260 generally a hyper-spiritualized expression of the church when you think about the charismatic church

00:03:58.440 People are obsessed in this generation.

00:04:01.860 I think we have a disposition towards the charismatic church in this generation.

00:04:06.080 We like the idea of healing and miracles and prophecies and wonders and spiritual powers.

00:04:13.700 Like it's almost like a Harry Potter type thing where you're kind of like, we like that idea that we have this spiritual power.

00:04:21.400 um and you know i think that the lord uses some of those some people to do those things

00:04:32.500 but you're going to find out that the vast majority of those folks that are pushing that

00:04:36.420 kind of theology charismatic theology of the spiritual gifts in my opinion actually go beyond

00:04:41.580 the bounds of scripture and are trying to manufacture something that's not actually

00:04:46.100 biblical um so we'll talk about that here in a minute but i want to give you just that heads up

00:04:50.920 this is what spiritual gifts is and we'll get more direct veronica's gonna yeah and if you want

00:04:56.560 to hear more about that specific uh issue dale and i actually did an episode um discussing this

00:05:02.220 in more detail during our and that's going to be in episode number 63 it's titled our modern day

00:05:07.720 prophecy and tongues biblical so you can go ahead and go yeah we talk about you know the bethel

00:05:12.560 movement the all these other churches that are very big on prophecy and tongues our name it and

00:05:19.280 claimant type. Yeah. What does that look like? I don't know how to talk about that in that episode, 0.95

00:05:24.140 but it was a while ago. 63. Um, um, okay. So if you're watching what's happening in the church

00:05:30.220 today, you'll probably notice two extremes. There are, uh, the people who ventured beyond

00:05:35.760 the biblical definitions and they're doing healing conferences and profit training camps.

00:05:41.200 Um, or they're, then there's the other side and that's the deeply conservative, um, and deny

00:05:48.860 the reality of gifts altogether yeah um so how can we be sober-minded about spiritual gifts and

00:05:55.180 find a balance that harmonizes with scripture yeah so i think this is good because we've seen

00:06:01.100 this like there's the out of the bethel movement you see lots of people that have healing rooms

00:06:08.040 they do the christian tarot cards i've heard of there's some other weird things proclamations and

00:06:16.200 stuff like that over things that it just gets a little we've seen those those videos of people

00:06:21.920 kind of screaming out of lack of self-control and losing their body and out-of-body experience

00:06:28.720 there's that side okay which is very extreme and again we got to remember that one of the fruits

00:06:33.780 of the spirit is self-control so any spiritual gift will be uh exercised under the fruit of the

00:06:40.700 Spirit, which is a self-controlled thing. It might be passionate, but it's not going to be

00:06:46.100 flipping and falling on the ground. The other side, again, is this conservative side where it's like,

00:06:53.640 don't raise your hands in the church while you're worshiping. Put them in your pockets. You know,

00:06:58.480 like that idea of just, it's really, there's no spiritual gifts. It's just conservative Bible

00:07:04.240 teaching, and really there's no expression of spirituality. I think A.W. Tozer does a really

00:07:09.680 good job of balancing the two, of having a really big view of God and biblical authority,

00:07:15.280 while also having a really strong perspective of the Spirit. Francis Chan, I think, does a pretty

00:07:22.780 good job of that as well. And so, yeah, let's talk about what that looks like. So I want to

00:07:28.780 define spiritual gifts for you. Tom Schreiner wrote a book titled Spiritual Gifts, and he gave

00:07:35.520 a definition. It says, they are gifts of grace granted by the Holy Spirit, which are designed

00:07:42.560 for the edification of the church. John MacArthur defined them as divine enablements for ministry.

00:07:50.800 Another definition I saw was gifts of God enabling the Christian to perform his or her

00:07:57.220 unique service. And I like that because it's your unique service. So again, this is

00:08:03.020 very applicable to you today, you need to determine, based off of a variety of metrics

00:08:10.520 that we'll look at through the scriptures, what your role is in the church, and that

00:08:14.680 should be revealed to you by understanding these passages. So, at the center of the discussion

00:08:19.160 about gifts, we've got to realize that gifts are not for our benefit. That's the first thing,

00:08:25.240 is that any type of gift that brings notoriety or fame upon the person that has the gift,

00:08:30.040 that's not generally a spiritual gift if anything someone should be you know whoever's the most

00:08:39.940 should become the least right it's this idea of being a servant and if you're a really great

00:08:44.480 teacher you might have people starting to come and follow you in that capacity but you need to

00:08:50.520 be very good at deflecting that glory to the lord yeah back to god and so they're not for our

00:08:56.600 popularity or profitability or any self-aggrandizing purpose so you're going to be very careful because

00:09:02.780 sometimes these spiritual gifts can easily become an idol yeah the purpose is for glorification of

00:09:07.880 god yes um and uh for building up the church and so you're glorifying god and you're building up

00:09:14.440 the church the purpose of a gift is to build up the church um and there's a variety of ways to do

00:09:22.000 that as we're going to see today. So in the Bible, there really are three passages that talk

00:09:26.140 specifically about spiritual gifts. You should know where these are because this is what you do

00:09:30.360 when you're a Christian. You kind of know the geography of the Bible. You know that, oh, we

00:09:33.380 want to talk about love. That's 1 Corinthians 13. Like, oh, we want to talk about government. Oh,

00:09:37.740 that's Romans 13. You want to talk about marriage. That's Ephesians 5. Well, you want to talk about

00:09:41.360 spiritual gifts. Well, there's a couple spots. It's Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 and 14,

00:09:47.220 But Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 are very like the kind of pillars of that.

00:09:52.440 So you can kind of remember that.

00:09:53.740 Some people include Ephesians 4, where they talk about the five-fold ministry.

00:09:57.860 But that's, in my understanding and study, that's more talking about the ministries in the church, not necessarily the gifts in those churches.

00:10:06.320 There are gifts that operate within those ministries, but it's not as specifically a focus on the actual spiritual gifts as we're going to find out here as we read.

00:10:15.720 Veronica will read the Romans passage first.

00:10:17.960 We'll break it down and have a discussion.

00:10:20.700 Cool.

00:10:21.300 Romans 12, verse 4 through 8.

00:10:23.060 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

00:10:28.300 So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

00:10:35.080 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

00:10:39.040 if prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in our serving the one who teaches

00:10:46.060 in his teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation the one who contributes in generosity

00:10:52.180 the one who leads with zeal the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness you made it sorry i

00:10:58.740 stumbled a couple times there it's not i'm like looking at it from an angle yeah i'm trying to

00:11:03.740 not lose my place i mean you probably even heard some of that definition of tom schreiner in that

00:11:09.300 right like he talks about this idea of um of grace right um having gifts that differ according to the

00:11:16.460 grace given to us yeah so the first thing we see is that diversity of gifts accomplishes unity in

00:11:25.980 the body which is kind of a cool idea think about that diversity of gifts actually accomplishes

00:11:31.900 unity in the body. The word university means unity within diversity, and that's actually a

00:11:39.860 biblical idea. Yeah, and as Christians, we are members of one body, and being a member, we are

00:11:49.360 actually charged with building up that body, edifying and strengthening that body. We have

00:11:54.580 different roles to strengthen that body, kind of like a stomach or a liver or the intestines have

00:12:01.320 certain roles in the physical body to strengthen and care for the physical body the spiritual body

00:12:08.160 has these different gifts teaching and generosity and service and you know the building all these

00:12:17.780 things contribute to the strengthening and caring and building up of the spiritual body and so think

00:12:22.520 of that and that kind of metaphor is what the apostle is talking about there we also see a

00:12:29.100 command to use them, to use these gifts. It's something that we, we shouldn't withhold our

00:12:35.580 gifts. And I've seen so many people withhold that gift, especially in the music gifting.

00:12:42.000 Which again, I'm not necessarily, the Bible doesn't specifically talk about a music gifting,

00:12:47.860 but God's people are singing people. And so I see that a lot is that sometimes people have a music

00:12:53.320 gift. They don't necessarily want to leverage it or use it. I've seen people that have a teaching

00:12:58.400 gift and don't necessarily want to exercise it or use it. And that could be from passivity. It

00:13:03.980 could be from laziness. But the reality is that God commands us to use them and to not withhold

00:13:09.260 them. Now, not to flaunt them and not to push them upon people either. Or to use them carelessly.

00:13:15.040 Or to use them carelessly. Yes. Yeah. So this is kind of one of my main frustrations with the

00:13:19.800 institutional expression of church is, you know, the structure actually prevents the use of spiritual

00:13:26.220 gifts in the body. It prevents the exercising of those spiritual gifts in the body. For example,

00:13:31.040 if we have a church, and let's just say that there's 400 men in this church, so there's 800

00:13:35.360 people, 400 men in this church, and 35 of them are gifted teachers, like 35 really gifted teachers

00:13:44.980 that know the Word of God, and they're just gifted teachers. Instead of diversifying into small

00:13:48.900 churches where that gift can be exercised, used under the supervision of elders in practice and

00:13:53.360 edified the body. Instead, we pile up all in one building and we listen to one person preach over

00:13:59.760 and over again, while all these other people don't get a chance to use those gifts. That's the one

00:14:04.540 thing that about a bigger church that you limit the use of spiritual gifts, they call us to just

00:14:09.900 use them in other ways. But I think that we're called to use these in the church gathering,

00:14:15.760 in the meeting, in the building up of the local church. And again, we're hoping that we actually

00:14:21.700 see some of this i feel like the lord's doing a unique work here uh that with this coronavirus

00:14:28.480 thing is we're getting into homes homeschooling is becoming forced home churching is becoming

00:14:33.520 forced and so it's a great opportunity for you to get with your your two or three or four or five

00:14:39.180 couples or families and get a chance to exercise those spiritual gifts that you wouldn't have been

00:14:45.900 able to do if you're sitting in a pew yeah i'm gonna read the next passage okay um and then we

00:14:52.660 can dive into that first corinthians 12 4 through 11 now there are varieties of gifts but the same

00:14:59.020 spirit and there are varieties of service but the same lord and there are varieties of activities

00:15:03.960 but it is the same god who empowers them all and everyone to each is given the manifestation of

00:15:10.400 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

00:15:37.660 all these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he

00:15:44.760 wills yeah so this is again a really powerful passage of scripture you can go back and read

00:15:49.780 that again if you want to it's first corinthians 12 4 through 11 and again we see that diversity

00:15:56.900 builds up unity if your gift doesn't bring unity to the church you got something going wrong there

00:16:04.880 your gift is to bring unity to the church and to build up and unify the body it shouldn't be used

00:16:11.300 to divide the body that's for sure now another thing i will say is that it's never division

00:16:16.040 when you're bringing people back to the truth so sometimes people will say that you're being

00:16:19.440 divisive when in reality you're calling people back to scripture that's not divisive um again

00:16:24.820 um so yeah the next thing i want to point out is that it's god who empowers each single person

00:16:33.700 Individually is what it says.

00:16:35.560 He appoints these gifts as he wills.

00:16:38.480 So he actually appointed every born-again believer their specific unique gift for their specific unique ministry in building up the church.

00:16:51.040 And so we have so many people that are dormant spiritual gifters, right?

00:16:56.060 They're just dormant.

00:16:56.840 They don't have hardly any opportunity to exercise their spiritual gifts because we are in, again, a church that piles up in crowds and doesn't actually give us opportunities to exercise them.

00:17:10.440 Knowing the context of 1 Corinthians 12 and knowing the context of 1 Corinthians as a book, the next chapter is 1 Corinthians 13, which is the love chapter.

00:17:21.620 and when you realize that the purpose of chapter 12 in terms of understanding it he's talking

00:17:31.040 about spiritual gifts and how how great these things are and they're building it up and he

00:17:35.700 closes up this passage at the very end and he says but let me show you a better way at the end

00:17:41.460 of this chapter what i think he's hedging against is the overvaluation of certain gifts by certain

00:17:49.340 people over other people in the church. He's saying, basically, I don't care how gifted you

00:17:53.900 are. If you don't love people, it doesn't matter. And so he's, he got chapter 12, that's talking

00:18:00.180 about gifts. And then chapter 13 is like, none of this matters in chapter 12, if you don't love

00:18:06.540 people. And so there's a beautiful contrast there. And they're all important gifts. They're all

00:18:14.220 needed for the body. And most of all, they're appointed by Jesus Christ. So whatever gift you

00:18:19.060 have, don't let someone, just because you're not on the stage preaching, doesn't necessarily mean

00:18:24.920 that you're less important. The Lord has appointed a gift for each and every one of us, and they are

00:18:31.360 all valuable. What a beautiful truth that is. 1 Corinthians 12, 27 through 30, we get a similar

00:18:38.680 message, but we also get a few more gifts that are mentioned. So I'm going to mention them just

00:18:42.160 real quick so we can compile a list. I want to share it with you. We see, oh, actually, you know,

00:18:48.740 I'll just wait and I'll share the whole list for you guys here in a second. Ephesians 4, as I

00:18:53.740 mentioned before, talks about those five-fold ministries. It says apostles, prophets, evangelists,

00:19:00.460 pastors, and teachers, that basically in the church we have those five offices, if you will,

00:19:05.140 those five ministries, the five-fold ministries. The idea is that the apostles and the prophets

00:19:11.020 are the foundation of the church.

00:19:13.100 I'm going to read you the passage that talks about that,

00:19:15.260 meaning that there are no more capital A apostles

00:19:19.080 and capital P prophets.

00:19:21.820 I would be even very careful to call yourself

00:19:25.740 a prophet in the New Testament sense,

00:19:27.980 because I really do believe that a prophet

00:19:29.880 in the New Testament sense is a foreteller

00:19:31.700 of the truth according to the word of God

00:19:34.500 that has already been revealed,

00:19:35.940 compared to an Old Testament prophet,

00:19:38.500 which is a foreteller of the future according to God's perfect will.

00:19:44.920 And so there's some difference there.

00:19:46.960 But Ephesians 2, 19 through 20 says,

00:19:50.440 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,

00:19:52.300 but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

00:19:55.820 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

00:19:59.460 Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

00:20:01.980 And so when this passage in Ephesians 4 comes up a few chapters later,

00:20:06.600 when it says the ministries, the apostles and prophets,

00:20:10.220 I think of those two offices as closed.

00:20:13.240 They are no longer, there are no more apostles.

00:20:17.220 There are no more prophets.

00:20:18.960 They're built on that foundation.

00:20:20.880 And what you have left are evangelists,

00:20:24.560 which are those who are called to proclaim the gospel

00:20:27.320 and to do so intelligibly and persuasively and with conviction.

00:20:33.320 and so that you've met those people that are really passionate evangelists they can't stop

00:20:38.600 talking about jesus and it's awesome um and then the the other group is pastors and teachers

00:20:45.360 which are these are the people that are called to instruct the church in righteousness and train

00:20:51.680 them and lead them according to the word of god there's no new revelation coming think about this

00:20:59.100 even the apostles aren't giving new revelation when they're writing.

00:21:02.220 They're just explaining the revelation that's already been revealed in the

00:21:05.760 gospel.

00:21:06.840 Paul's not bringing in anything new that isn't revealed by Christ.

00:21:12.280 He's bringing explanation to what has already been revealed.

00:21:16.900 And so out of these three passages,

00:21:18.800 we roughly have 15 spiritual gifts.

00:21:21.640 Veronica has all 15.

00:21:23.340 I'm kidding.

00:21:23.940 Right.

00:21:26.100 So there's 15 of them.

00:21:28.360 I'm going to mention them real quick again.

00:21:29.640 I talked about prophecy, my interpretation of that.

00:21:32.820 I think a prophecy is more of a spontaneous message from God delivered through a human being that is meant to instruct, encourage, and warn God's people.

00:21:44.020 I think it comes as a random, unpredictable, led by the Holy Spirit moment.

00:21:52.420 There's definitely been times where at church where you say something.

00:21:55.080 we have an every member functioning body so people can speak and exercise those gifts

00:21:58.900 i've seen moments where i go man that was a prophetic word that aligns with the word of god

00:22:03.680 so we have prophecy service and helps okay are you are you a servant we have a gentleman who

00:22:13.600 edits our podcast his name is jackson he is a servant he has a gift of service he loves helping

00:22:18.660 um teaching exhortation and encouragement do you encourage people um daniel sprando he's a

00:22:27.400 in our church he's an encourager uh generosity we have friends who are very generous and they just

00:22:35.260 give money away like it's just crazy and uh that could be your gift leadership is one of them

00:22:42.540 that's listed in these.

00:22:44.660 Mercy, just the ability to forgive and overlook sin

00:22:50.020 and overlook offense.

00:22:52.960 That's a really great gift.

00:22:55.820 Wisdom, a word of knowledge,

00:22:59.460 meaning that the Lord might give you some information

00:23:02.120 about certain people that would be edifying to them

00:23:06.560 that you never knew any other way

00:23:09.720 except that the Holy Spirit delivered to you.

00:23:12.540 And again, you can't command that.

00:23:15.220 It's not like you're a mind reader, right?

00:23:17.160 It's just something that sometimes the Lord channels you.

00:23:21.400 Faith is another spiritual gift.

00:23:23.200 Supernatural, just extreme faith.

00:23:27.180 Healing.

00:23:29.520 Miracles.

00:23:32.360 Discernment.

00:23:33.500 We have a friend who is very discerning.

00:23:38.060 And I always call him when I go, hey, what do you think about this?

00:23:40.420 and he's just good at pulling the truth out of a mess.

00:23:45.940 Charles Spurgeon says,

00:23:47.380 Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong.

00:23:51.320 It's knowing the difference between almost right and almost wrong,

00:23:55.740 which I think is a really good way to say it.

00:23:58.760 There's tongues, interpreting tongues,

00:24:00.320 and there's actually this idea of, I forgot to put it on here,

00:24:03.800 so it might be 16 or I might have blended it with another one,

00:24:06.540 but it's administration.

00:24:08.400 It could be part of helps.

00:24:09.900 The idea of being an administrator, you're an organizer.

00:24:13.860 You really can put things together.

00:24:15.760 That's another great spiritual gift.

00:24:21.400 Here's my takeaway.

00:24:22.920 I think that we each receive one spiritual gift.

00:24:27.040 I think that that spiritual gift is evident to everybody around you.

00:24:36.320 I think my spiritual gift is that I'm a teacher.

00:24:38.440 uh it's evident but i do believe that the lord uses these spiritual gifts and channels

00:24:47.000 a variety of them in season in different ways um to manifest other gifts for his purposes and his

00:24:57.700 will for example i'm not necessarily the guy that's gifted with service and helps but i have

00:25:05.660 been used in my ministry to sacrifice and serve other people and felt called to that in that

00:25:12.480 moment and did it in a great way that seemed like the Lord was leading me through it. So I think

00:25:18.020 that I've been used in that way. I think that I've given a prophetic word that aligns with

00:25:24.080 scripture that is timely. I'm not necessarily going to say that my gift is prophecy. I think

00:25:30.580 i'm a teacher um i've seen veronica use a variety of these gifts over her ministry um and so i think

00:25:40.340 the lord channels them but i think there's one that comes to the top for you and you get to go

00:25:46.060 okay um what is that gift first peter 4 10 through 11 says as each one has received a gift

00:25:55.340 use it

00:25:57.560 not them

00:25:58.920 use it to serve one another

00:26:01.300 as good stewards of

00:26:03.400 God's varied grace

00:26:05.160 whoever speaks as one

00:26:07.380 who speaks oracles of God means like

00:26:09.360 the truth of the Lord whoever serves

00:26:11.700 as one who serves by the

00:26:13.340 strength that supplies

00:26:14.420 that God supplies and

00:26:17.260 why it says in order that in

00:26:19.040 everything God may be glorified

00:26:21.640 through Jesus Christ

00:26:22.840 to him belong glory and dominion

00:26:25.300 forever and ever amen that's first peter 4 10 through 11 so i'm going to close with four little

00:26:30.700 points and then we're going to wrap it up what are your thoughts what do you think about when

00:26:36.820 you think about spiritual gifts um and just be real because i think there's a lot of people that

00:26:42.840 align with uh the first thing i think about are just my experiences um of being around that i

00:26:51.940 when i first became a christian i'd say the church i came from was

00:26:54.820 kind of pretty charismatic um and so i've seen spiritual gifts used

00:27:01.660 properly according to scriptures and i've seen them be abused and not

00:27:06.400 be used properly yeah so that's generally that's like the first thing that i think of at least

00:27:11.840 the forcing of you need to speak in tongues so that you can be saved you know that stuff

00:27:17.060 happens to so many people yeah it happened to me yeah and talk about throw you in a corner and make

00:27:22.780 you cry kind of moments exactly what happened to me yeah maybe not in a corner but yeah so um

00:27:29.020 if that's happened to you we apologize that's not a biblical idea so four things to close with

00:27:37.180 don't confuse spiritual giftedness with spiritual maturity there are some gifted

00:27:44.020 teachers i'm talking gifted but they don't know the bible much at all they're very baby christians

00:27:53.480 but they're just you take the guy that's got the top ted talk and you you know he comes to the lord

00:28:00.320 that guy's got a gift and a skill and um you know we see this often is just confusing those two

00:28:11.880 things the corinthian church it says was not refused any gift like they had all the gifts

00:28:22.020 the corinthian church was also a spiritual mess it was just filled with the grossest stuff

00:28:30.120 morally out there but it's a gifted church and so we gotta not confuse spiritual giftedness

00:28:38.200 with spiritual maturity.

00:28:39.560 Just because they got a great ability to teach

00:28:41.760 doesn't mean what they're saying is actually true.

00:28:44.840 Point number two is let other people

00:28:46.780 identify your spiritual gifts.

00:28:48.520 You might even want to ask them,

00:28:50.160 hey, over the next,

00:28:52.880 you might have known me for,

00:28:54.060 if you've known me for a year,

00:28:55.160 can you make an evaluation?

00:28:57.400 I'm trying to identify my spiritual gift.

00:29:00.280 Can you look through these passages of scriptures

00:29:01.900 and let me know what you see in me?

00:29:04.400 And if you start to get a theme,

00:29:06.020 i think that's a really great way to make a observation about what that if you're struggling

00:29:14.840 to determine what that is because so many people don't get a chance to exercise their gifts that

00:29:18.680 they don't know um and then number three is gifts are given not learned okay this is why

00:29:30.580 veronica's experience of you gotta learn how to speak in tongues becomes a really damaging 0.91

00:29:37.560 experience um they're not learned they're given they're gifts like i feel like it's stupid that

00:29:46.720 we have to explain this but they're gifts they're not learned if you could learn them all then why

00:29:51.420 they wouldn't be gifts uh but acts uh verse or acts chapter 8 says talk about simon the magician

00:29:57.520 I don't know if you remember that story. It's 18 through 22. I'll read it to you real quick.

00:30:01.120 It says,

00:30:27.520 Your heart is not right before God.

00:30:29.720 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

00:30:38.520 Okay, take that situation and now tell me why it's different

00:30:43.740 between Simon paying for the apostolic gifting

00:30:48.360 and laying on of hands and giving the Holy Spirit

00:30:51.600 and someone paying to come to a school to learn supernatural ministry.

00:30:59.360 Okay, tell me what the difference is between that.

00:31:02.180 Now, I'm not saying that everybody's heart is in the same posture as Simon's heart.

00:31:06.580 but we do need to be very very very careful that we're not trying to go learn how to prophesy or

00:31:16.040 learn how to um do miracles of healings like as if as if we could learn learn them

00:31:24.480 in a commentary in this passage i found a theologian that said it was wrong then this

00:31:30.560 is a commentary on Acts 8. It was wrong then and it still is to selfishly seek any spiritual gift

00:31:37.640 when we've been told that spiritual gifts are sovereignly chosen and distributed by the Holy

00:31:43.280 Spirit. It is especially wrong to crave a gift we don't have out of self-serving and prideful

00:31:50.380 motives now is there anything wrong with a genuine heart that you want to teach and and you you have

00:32:01.540 a desire because you want to edify the body and to sit before the Lord go Lord I would love to be

00:32:07.240 used as a servant to teach I have a desire for it would you bless me with this gift and praying

00:32:15.720 for that praying there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with that that's a different

00:32:21.140 heart posture than wanting to go gain a something so that you might be known there was that episode

00:32:29.360 uh in american gospel the gentleman that was he was saying he wanted to be like todd white

00:32:35.280 you know he basically he wanted to heal people he exposed himself in repentance saying hey i just

00:32:42.580 want to admit that that was my heart.

00:32:44.960 And there's lots of people that do that, and it's wrong.

00:32:47.460 And we need to make sure that people know

00:32:48.920 that. There's nothing wrong, though, with seeking

00:32:50.880 a gift

00:32:51.340 for genuine edification.

00:32:54.840 So we just got to balance those two truths

00:32:56.660 out.

00:32:58.960 So, I want to leave you with this. 0.98

00:33:00.760 If you're a Christian, you've

00:33:02.840 been given a spiritual gift. You have a

00:33:04.760 purpose in the church.

00:33:06.460 And that gift is one of those

00:33:08.060 15 to 16 gifts listed.

00:33:10.460 I think I remember literally doing this before that there are like 16.

00:33:14.980 It's not for your benefit, but for the benefit of the church, your gift is not special and it should not lead to overvaluing your gift over another person's gift.

00:33:24.100 And you're called to use your gift, not withhold it.

00:33:26.980 But again, you should be exercising that gift in love and with a proper reverent heart before the Lord.

00:33:35.760 So again, I want your perspective.

00:33:37.700 What are you thinking?

00:33:38.440 I just think back to when um earlier on in my faith journey and just trying to understand and

00:33:44.700 grasp the gift or you know spiritual gifts concept and I'm coming from a charismatic church and then

00:33:49.880 not going there and um not ever really understanding what my gift was and yeah that one

00:33:55.920 time where there I was told I wasn't saved unless I spoke in tongues and so I'm crying because like

00:34:01.000 I love God and I want to honor God and I want to speak in tongues but I can't and so I'm like am I

00:34:05.520 not saved am i not a christian and um just a lot of different experiences um and it just um

00:34:14.020 i just want to encourage you if you're kind of in that same boat just to be praying about it

00:34:18.440 ask the lord to reveal it to you um not to be anxious about it not to stress out about it too

00:34:23.820 much and it's okay to take time to figure it out yeah totally and um yeah i like what you said to

00:34:30.660 just you know ask maybe a few friends who are maybe a little bit more spiritually mature than

00:34:34.660 you um who know the word who have evaluated you in your life over time um in your christian walk

00:34:40.640 to be able to maybe call some of those things out in you that maybe you don't necessarily see

00:34:46.660 um because there have been times where someone has called certain things out in me saying that

00:34:52.900 i have they think they see certain things of these spiritual gifts within me and i was like

00:34:57.820 I don't see that yeah um and then over time later I'm like oh okay yeah like yeah I guess that makes

00:35:05.820 sense yeah and there was you know my thought on Veronica's gifts is she's administrative and

00:35:12.920 organized Veronica's like best life ever would be to sit and organize our house for the weekend 0.99

00:35:21.400 like she would love for me to take the kids and her organize the house for three days like every 1.00

00:35:27.900 drawer every element but she she that in in service to the church she would love to organize

00:35:34.520 those things we have three kids right now little kids it kind of prevents yeah if i if i wasn't in

00:35:39.200 the season of life that i am in um and i believe that i'm obviously there for a reason for this

00:35:44.340 season and I'm okay with that. Um, but had I had more time on my hands, I would love to go serve

00:35:51.000 other people in our church, um, more than I'm able to. Yeah. Um, yeah. So this wraps up another

00:35:58.700 episode of real Christianity guys. If you're a regular listener to the show, would you consider 0.80

00:36:02.820 leaving a review? Uh, just go to iTunes, just tap the stars. That's all you need to do. Um,

00:36:08.900 and if you write something, I will read it. Uh, Veronica and I are very encouraged by

00:36:13.240 what you write and so thank you guys for leaving those comments uh we do get a chance to look at

00:36:19.320 them uh last thing reminder is if you're interested in learning more about house church go to

00:36:24.880 relearnchurch.org forward slash house and we got some stuff going on there that is coming up real

00:36:32.480 quick about the coronavirus and how to gather in small groups safely uh and how to do it in a way

00:36:38.860 that is honoring and to the government and um and just a way that you can get together with a few

00:36:44.980 families and do it in a biblical manner so thanks for joining us and we will see you guys next week

00:36:51.060 see ya

Dale Partridge - March 18, 2020

Real Christianity #89： Spiritual Gifts： A Biblical Breakdown

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