So the truth is, over the years, much has been made out of the concept of spiritual gifts.
Spiritual gifts have been called superpowers, miracles, blessings of all kinds.
Basically when you follow God, God makes you able to do something that you otherwise could
not do.
In the Corinthian church, they had begun to think of a certain superpower, a certain
gift as more important and even as a sign of whether or not the Holy Spirit was in you.
And that gift still to this day has some of that, let me call it, stink to it.
And it is the gift of speaking tongues.
Now we're not going to dwell on that today, but we are going to look at the passage of
scripture today where Paul talks the Corinthians through what spiritual gifts actually are.
Now you could get lost along the way, get wrapped up in what the names of them are and
what they do and so on, and we will not dwell on each spiritual gift, what it does and so
on like that as we gloss over them in the text.
But we will look at them the way God actually intended them and the way Paul is teaching
they are actually intended, and they are indeed gifts, they are presents from the Lord.
But we will see even before we are through today that a greater present from the Lord
exists and that this present comes with instructions.
So grab your Bible if you would and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
This is God's word, this is the letter to the Corinthian church from the apostle Paul
as he was led along by the Holy Spirit to write it.
And that's what we're going to read.
We will read 1 Corinthians 12, 1 through 30 as I've already told you when we hit the names
of the gifts, I'm not going to dwell heavily on them because that's not really what this
passage of scripture is about for us today.
It's in there and it could be a whole other sermon and we will read the text so as not
to leave it out.
But we're not going to dwell too heavily on what the various gifts are, we're going to
look at what God meant by sending them if you will.
Alright, so this is 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 1.
It says in the New American Standard Version, now concerning spiritual gifts brethren, I
do not want you to be unaware.
Now why did I stress the version?
Not because one version is better than another but because your wording may be slightly different
there and I want to dwell down just for a second on what it actually says in the Greek.
So where we see our word spiritual gifts in the New American Standard Version, you'll
notice that the word gifts is in italics if you're following along in the same version.
If you have gifts in your version, it probably might be in italics or it might not even be
there in some versions.
The reason for that is because the word there is actually pneumaticos and you don't need
to remember that necessarily but it's kind of an easy one to remember.
Pneumatic having to do with air, right?
So a pneumatic pump, right?
Having to do with air.
So pneuma is the Greek word that means spirit or wind.
And so what we have here is an ending to the word spirit that indicates that it's a thing
of the spirit.
Something of the spirit.
Things of the spirit.
That's the ending.
Tikas or ikas means something to do like the spirit possesses, controls, doles them out,
whatever, these things.
And so the text translates them as gifts because then when you get into later talking about
it, like these are the things, the skills, the abilities, supernatural abilities that
God gives people but also you're talking about apostles, preachers, teachers and so on who
are gifts, right?
So there's a broad cross section of the meaning of the word gifts but these are things of
the spirit.
So now you could technically have interpreted this passage of scripture this way.
You could say now concerning spiritual things, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware
but it's not like that because spiritual things could be anything, right?
It could be going to church or worship or a feeling that God is present or it could
be anything.
So we're talking about things that were given to us by God and so they use the word gifts
even though gifts is not in the original text.
It's not in the Greek.
It's things of the spirit.
Now I think you'll see as we unwrap the chapter a little more that the word gifts fits really
nicely but I don't want you to get hung up on the word gifts because by the time we're
done I'm going to show you something about spiritual gifts that maybe nobody else would
show you, okay?
And I think maybe God would show you and I think he's going to do it through me today.
So this is what it says again, now concerning spiritual gifts, quote unquote, brethren,
I do not want you to be unaware.
In other words, don't be surprised about the things that I'm about to say about the things
of the spirit.
You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to dumb idols however you were
led.
So however they went about it they were led to worship things that were not God, false
gods, right?
A lot of times they would bow before a statue, they'd carry around a figurine in their pocket,
whatever.
We have in our day we have people working, worshiping sex, drugs, money, relationships,
family, hobbies, the list just goes on and on.
And he said I know that before you were saved, before you came to Christ you were led astray
to worship these things.
Notice the word dumb there, okay?
This word dumb has a lot more meaning than just like they don't have a high IQ, that's
not what we're talking about, you realize that, right?
Dumb means they don't speak, they don't actually do anything, right?
They're worthless or useless to actually carry out any communication with you or make any
difference in your life.
And so it's not that you were dumb to follow them and it's not that they're dumb as
we think of like having a low IQ, as they're dumb as in they really don't have anything
to offer.
There's really nothing to them, right?
And those of us who have invested our lives when we were younger in certain things, for
example I used to drink almost two liters of Mountain Dew a day.
And while I was drinking almost two liters of Mountain Dew a day it would make me feel
pretty pepped up and I felt pretty good, a lot of sugar, a lot of caffeine, whatever,
you know, and that was all good.
But guess what?
Mountain Dew actually doesn't do anything for you.
It doesn't answer your prayers, it doesn't carry you along.
If anything it consumes your resources and burns your body, okay?
So I'm not speaking against Mountain Dew specifically but if it were an idol to me and I submit
to you it was because I felt like if I didn't have my Mountain Dew I couldn't function for
that period of time when I was doing that, that's a dumb idol.
It doesn't actually do anything.
So you get the idea.
Verse 3 says, therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God
says Jesus is accursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
And so before we get into, he says before we go anywhere here is the key in the lock.
It's not a spell, it's not a trick, right?
Basically he's asking you who owns you?
Who's in charge of you?
You get into the body of Christ and that's what we will be talking about.
You get into the body of Christ by who is in charge of you.
So when we talk about the person joining the church for example, the first qualifier of
somebody joining New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo is they must be a professing
Christian.
Now they are examined at the time of their joining the church to figure out as a professing
Christian do they talk the walk and walk the walk, right?
So in other words I say I'm always here, they might say I'm always here, I always worship,
I want to serve God, whatever, but the truth is they're only here half the time, okay?
That's not walking the walk they're talking.
So then we have questions of why is that so?
And if we get good answers or whatever that doesn't stop them from being a member.
But before we ever got to the discussion was the question who is Lord of you?
Now I'm fond of saying a Lord is a person who tells you what to do when you do it, but
let's break it down for one second.
A Lord is something more than that.
A Lord is a person who literally owns you.
He literally owns the servants on the land, the servants of the kingdom.
The king tells somebody to do something and they do it because he owns them.
And he says to you go and do it and you refuse to go and do it, then the very next breath
you might say well I'll take your head then, right?
So this is what he's saying.
You get into the kingdom, you get into Christianity, you get into the church and that's what we're
going to be talking about today.
You get into the church by having Jesus as Lord.
And if somebody has Jesus as Lord then by very nature they will not use their mouth
to say that he is accursed.
If you belong to Jesus you will hold up at the moment you go to say Jesus is accursed.
Probably, in their day, there was a challenge in this because you know the Bible says in
the Old Testament, when a man hangs upon a tree he is accursed.
Paul will say elsewhere that Jesus became the curse for us, took our curse if you will.
That's a pretty good way of understanding it.
But there were people that were arguing and saying that Jesus was accursed because he
hung on a tree.
And he says a man will not say that if he is walking in the spirit, if he is owned by
the Lord.
He will rather say Jesus is Lord, Jesus owns me, not only is he not accursed but whatever
he says goes.
So I'm not going to go any further on that right at this second because we'll come back
to it to make sure we understand it in the context of talking about the church.
But what I am saying to you is Paul was saying that's the door and I want you to picture
it like this.
If this is a lock and this is a key and you put the key in the lock, if it fits or not
determines whether it's the key or the lock.
Now if it goes in and it fits, it might be a quick set lock and a quick set key and it'll
fit but whether or not it turns the lock will determine whether or not it is the key for
the lock.
It may fit in, it may look like it's good.
In other words there may be those who profess Jesus and they say yeah, I'm a follower of
Jesus.
Yes, I believe.
Yes, I receive salvation.
Yes, I'm living for the Lord.
But then when it comes time, if they were examined and we don't do that, it's not our
job but when God examines them, they do not fit.
The key does not fit the lock.
It's in there, it slides in but it won't turn, the tumblers don't move.
So either the lock has been reset or the key never belonged there in the first place.
This is the lock says Paul.
Jesus is Lord and you must say that then by the Holy Spirit.
And if you're following Satan for example, you will have a hard time saying Jesus is
Lord.
You certainly wouldn't be able to mean it.
Verse four.
Now there are varieties of the gifts but the same spirit.
This is where that list is going to start and I'm not going to dwell too heavily on
it as I said before.
There are varieties of the gifts but the same spirit and there are varieties of ministries
and the same Lord.
Notice that a ministry is different from a gift.
A ministry is different from a gift.
And there are varieties of effects but the same God who works all things and all person.
But to each one given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.
So now we'll begin the list but before we get there, look at verse seven.
To each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.
Ministries are manifestations.
Gifts are manifestations.
And works are manifestation or effects or manifestations.
That's what he just said.
Each of these things are manifestations.
They're manifestations of who?
I didn't say what.
They're manifestations of who?
The Holy Spirit.
So when a person exhibits a spiritual gift that is a manifestation of God's Holy Spirit
in them.
Now, can they mimic a Holy Spirit gift?
Yes, that can happen.
People can act like they have it.
Can they mimic a ministry?
Yes, they can act like they have it.
Can they seem to have an effect or works that honor God?
Yes, they can.
But the actual works, gifts, and ministries are given as a manifestation of the spirit
of God and the key, we got another lock and a key here, is for the common good.
So what you'll find is when somebody is mimicking a gift of the Holy Spirit, it will not work
for the common good.
So you have a speaker.
He's glorious.
He's a great speaker.
Much better than me.
Way better.
He's able to publicly show himself to a crowd.
He looks good.
He could be a movie star.
And the crowd begins to grow.
But the edification doesn't take place.
It's not for the common good.
It's for his good.
Pretty soon, he's got a thousand books out there.
He's making millions of dollars.
He's flying across the country in a jet, landing in Korea preaching to 50,000 people.
It's all over the world doing all kinds of things.
Because why?
Because the gift was not for the common good of the church.
We're talking about the church.
That would propose a problem because if people come into the church for Jesus as Lord and
then they use the gifts that come from Jesus for something other than the common good,
that would be a break in God's justice.
God says that's not the way it works.
You receive a spiritual gift.
You receive a ministry.
You receive activities, works, or effects.
And these things are manifestations of God's Holy Spirit to be used for the common good.
Verse 8.
For one is given the word of wisdom.
There's a gift.
Through the Spirit.
To another, the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit.
To another, faith by the same Spirit, and to another, gifts of healing by the same Spirit.
And to another, the effecting of miracles.
And to another, prophecy.
And to another, the distinguishing of spirits.
To another, various kinds of tongues.
And to another, the interpretation of tongues.
So there's your kind of list, if you will.
And we could go through and break them down.
We're not going to do that today because we're looking at kind of the rest of the chapter,
if you will.
But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually,
just as He wills.
In other words, God does this exactly the way He wants to do it.
So your spiritual gifts, your ministries, your works are given to you just exactly the
way the Holy Spirit of God laid them out to you, so they can be used in the church for
the common good.
Verse 12.
For even as the body, now that's what we're talking about now, this is going to make it
real clear by the time we're done here.
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, all the members of the body, though
they are many, are one body.
So also is Christ.
So it's like this.
If you take five colors of Play-Doh, you got red, green, blue, yellow, purple, pink.
And they're all laid out there right in front of you.
And then you put those together, and so you see different shapes of red and yellow and
green and you make a man, an effigy, a foot tall, Lee Majors or something, right, that
you made yourself.
Now you'll still be able to see the colors, right?
And if you take the color pink out, the man will have holes in him.
It's like that.
So we're taking God's manifestations in the people and we're putting them together to
make the body.
So all put together, one body.
So also is Christ.
Back to the top of verse 12.
For even as the body is one and yet has many members and all the members of the body, though
they are many, are one body.
So also is Christ.
For by the Spirit we are all baptized into the body.
Now this is talking about the spiritual baptism and people have done it where they've tried
to say that there is a baptism of the Spirit that takes place after salvation.
And we talked about this on Tuesday night and drilled down on it pretty hard.
And the bottom line is it's really not taught in scripture that people are baptized by the
Spirit at a different time than they get saved.
It's really not taught that way.
And so he's talking about God immersing you in the Holy Spirit, filling you with the Holy
Spirit, bringing you into the body at the point of salvation.
Verse 13 again.
For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether
slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Now so far this could be talking about what people like to call the universal church.
So every Christian everywhere.
Every believer in everybody everywhere.
So far it could just be like if you're saved, you're brought into the body, baptizing the
Spirit, given a spiritual gift, a fact, ministry, whatever, to manifest the Holy Spirit in you
for the common good of the universal church all over the world.
That's a little weird, right?
Because even though like our podcast might get out to as it did last month to 1,100 plus
households all over the world in 21 countries, that's great.
That's hardly for the common good, right?
Because there's a lot more than 21 countries that have churches.
There's a lot more than 51 cities in the United States that have churches, right?
So it's not the common good of the full universal church per se.
That's a little bit of a stretch, but he's going to make it a little more clear by the
time we're done.
Verse 14 says, for the body is not one member, a member being a part, but many.
If the foot shall say, because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, it is not
for this reason any less a part of the body.
So in other words, they start to feel bad about themselves and say, well, I really wish
I was the preacher.
I really wish I was the servant.
I wish I was the giver.
I wish I had more money to put in the pot.
I wish I was the one doing the cleaning, or I wish I was the one doing that over there.
And I'm not.
I'm not good at those things, or I can't do those things for whatever reason.
And so I'm not even a part of the body.
And he's saying, that's not how that works.
So basically he's saying, once you're brought in to be part of the body, you're part of
the body, whether you like it or not, whether you feel like it or not.
Verse 16, and if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,
it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
So in other words, he's saying, we need all the various parts of the body.
But now God has placed members, each one of them, in the body just as he desired.
So far still, we kind of could be talking about the universal church, so far still.
But it's going to get real specific.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, or again, the head to the
feet, I have no need of you.
So in other words, we need all those other people in the body.
On the contrary, it's much truer that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker,
are necessary, and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on those we
bestow more abundant honor.
And our unseemly members come to have more abundant seamliness.
So you can kind of picture this if you think of your private parts.
So if you go out in public with your private parts disclosed to the general populace, they're
going to be a little upset about that.
In fact, depending, you probably get arrested is probably what would happen.
Certainly get a ticket for sure.
And people are going to be upset because you're exposing parts of your body that are not supposed
to be exposed.
So that's what he's talking about.
We have parts of our body that need to be cared for, covered up.
But we realize that those parts of our body are just as valuable and important for everything.
It all works together.
So we walk around with our hands and our arms uncovered all the time.
Why?
Because you've got to reach for stuff.
You've got to do stuff.
People see you doing stuff.
People are helped by that.
But I'm here to tell you right now that if somebody would take a shotgun and blow out
your midsection from your right leg to your left leg and from your crotch to your navel,
your hands are going to stop working because that's how that works.
So the bottom line is all parts of our body are uniquely important.
Yes, some parts need to be covered up, but that doesn't make them less important.
Some parts we can put out there and everybody can see it like our faces.
Most people are comfortable with their faces.
Some people are not.
But most people are comfortable.
They see your face.
That's fine.
But your face is not a more important part of your body than your feet.
So the pastor might be on TV talking and everybody's like, I wish I was on TV talking, for example,
but that person who's not on TV talking is not less important.
In fact, based on this, they're actually more important.
Okay.
So it said, but now God has placed members, each one of us, verse 18, in the body just
as He desired.
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now there are many members, but one body.
And the eye cannot say, I have no need of you.
Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
So now He's saying, you might think you're all that in a bag of chips, but you can't
dismiss anybody who's actually a part of the body.
Just because you're good, you're strong or neat or intelligent or capable in some area
does not mean you can say to somebody else who's not like that, that you don't need
them because that's just not true.
On the contrary, it is much true that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker,
are necessary.
Someone said, and I agree with this sentiment completely, if no one in the body is disabled,
the body is disabled.
If the no one in the body is non-functional, there's no healing to be done, there's no
overcoming to be done, there's no struggling to get through, the body is dysfunctional.
If there's nobody struggling in the body, the body is struggling.
You follow?
But if there's somebody struggling in the body, then the body is struggling and it's
a positive thing.
Does that make sense?
Okay, almost done.
And those members of the body, which we deem less honorable on those we bestow more abundant
honor, and our unseemly members come, that means the part that's not, maybe don't want
to be seen, they come to have more abundant seamliness, meaning we can lift them up amongst
ourselves to see them more clearly.
24, whereas our seemly members have no need of it, but God has so composed the body, giving
more abundant honor to that member which lacked.
Okay, so now I think we've moved away from, if you hear it in the conversation, we've
moved away from talking about the universal church to talking about very clearly the local
church because we're talking about lifting up individual people who are having problems.
Okay, that's not really a thing that happens in the universal church.
I don't know about the people that are having problems in the church of Malaysia or First
Baptist Church of Dallas.
I wouldn't even have known about that except I saw their building burnt and I don't know
if anybody was hurt and I don't know how they're going to rebuild it.
I don't know anything.
That's the universal church.
It's 4,000 miles away or something and I'm not going to have anything to do with that.
But when somebody in our body is struggling, I'm supposed to know about that and desire
to do something about it.
That makes a lot of sense to me.
Verse 26, nope, got to go 24, whereas our seemly members having no need of it, but God
has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked.
Now 25, that there should be no division in the body, but that the member should have
the same care for one another.
We'll talk about this a little bit later.
Bottom line, it means you should care the same about everybody in the body.
That is the goal.
Simply put, 26, and if one member suffers, all members suffer with it.
Now we're definitely talking about the local body because we don't even know about the
suffering across the world.
We're talking about our church.
When somebody suffers, we all suffer.
If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
So it should be popular known and everybody can be excited about what God has done because
everybody sees that that person is being honored.
Verse 27, now you are Christ's body and individually members of it.
So he was telling the church at Corinth, you are Christ's body and individually members
of that body.
This same thing could be written up.
New heights, you are Christ's body and individually members of it.
God has appointed in the church, now he's going to give a list of titles that are gifts,
first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps
administrations, various kinds of tongues.
Two things I want you to see here.
One, he does not give this list in order of what's good, like this is better than this
is better than this is better than this.
It's not like that.
He's just making a list.
Two, these are gifts.
They're given to the church.
So notice on the list is teachers.
The church is given teachers.
When you're given a gift, you're supposed to do something with that gift.
Verse 29, on this list he says, all are not apostles, are they?
All are not prophets, are they?
All are not teachers, are they?
All are not workers of miracles, are they?
All do not have gifts of healing, do they?
All do not speak with tongues, do they?
All do not interpret, do they?
And that's where we stop.
Those are what are called rhetorical questions.
He was kind of asking them out loud, but the truth is they're all answerable, aren't they?
So from that list we know that a person who has a gift of healing is not necessarily a
prophet while a prophet is not necessarily an apostle, and the apostle is not necessarily
a teacher and a worker of miracles, right?
So none of those don't, people don't have all the same things.
And so he was arguing against one gift that marks people to make them better than another.
I submit to you that in our day, in the world today, and I don't say this to have anything
to do with me, the gift that most prominently takes that role is actually the gift of preaching.
That in the preacher, in the church, is the guy who winds up on TV, winds up in the books,
winds up in the newspaper, right?
When they come to talk to the church, the preacher is the one who typically talks to
them.
That's wrong.
No single gift is any better than any gift.
In fact, if I was going to favor a gift, I would choose the gift of service, because
Jesus said, the greatest amongst you shall be your servant.
But that being said, in the Pentecostal church, for example, it's quite often the gift of
tongues.
If you can't pray in tongues, you can't speak out in tongues, you're just not saved.
That's what they say.
Also, a falsehood, right?
That's not true.
And it's very clear here that that's not true.
All right.
So there's three things essentially I want you to see in this text and then a conclusion.
The first one is this.
The first test.
The first test was very simple.
If a person does not say, cannot say that Jesus is Lord, they are not the church.
I'm sorry, that's a reality.
Jesus is Lord of the church.
And if you will not accept that he is Lord, that means he owns you.
That means he leads you.
That means he is the sovereign God of the universe, Jesus in the flesh and our God,
the heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.
If you will not recognize them as Lord, you got no place in the church.
How does one do that?
Well, first of all, you have to realize you needed a savior.
You needed a Lord.
You need somebody to be in charge because you screwed it all up.
You were going to hell.
That's the reality of it.
And because of what Jesus did, there is a free gift of salvation available.
We believe and trust in God and God through his grace delivers it.
You don't receive that gift because you bought it.
You don't receive that gift because you asked for it.
You don't receive that gift because you prayed for it.
You don't receive that gift because you memorized certain verses or conducted certain experiments
in the kingdom of God to figure out how to get saved.
There is absolutely no way to get saved except by the grace of God.
At the moment that you receive the grace of God, you become saved and he becomes your
Lord.
You become a child of the living God.
He is your Father.
You're part of the kingdom of God.
From that moment on, even as we can clearly see laid out in this text, you are part of
a local church.
Now, which local church?
Well, that's up to God as the spirit wills so the spirit gives.
Now you get in the local church and you begin to act in your gifts, your ministries, and
your works or effects.
But they're not your gifts and they're not your ministries and they're not your works
or effects.
They are rather manifestations of the Holy Spirit of God which belong in the church.
And God wanted to put them there and because he wanted to put them there, he chose for
himself a people.
The believer becomes the church.
The believer receives not the gifts, not the ministries or the effects of the works, but
the manifestations of the Holy Spirit of God.
Now the church that isn't the church will just as much want the manifestations of the
Holy Spirit of God, but they can't have them.
So they'll think on the floor and they'll blabber like idiots pretending to be overwhelmed
by the Holy Spirit or maybe even feeling like they are or being overwhelmed by an evil spirit
that is taking the place of the Holy Spirit or a human spirit which is dominating their
physical being or however you want to get there, they'll fake it so it looks like the
church has the gifts when in reality what has happened is a chaos fostered by the Lord
as is seen by those who would say that the Lord is accursed.
So a church that mimics the gifts will look at every other church that faithfully follows
and gives and serves and has manifestations of God's Holy Spirit inside of it and say
they're all illegitimate.
They're all illegitimate.
If you're not like us, if you don't have this gift, if you don't have this thing, you can't
go to heaven when you die.
You can't be saved.
We're the only Christians who've got it.
But the manifestations of the Holy Spirit do exist in the other churches.
Whether or not you're saved is not determined by your denomination.
Whether or not you're saved is not determined by the name of your church.
Whether or not you're saved is determined by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His ability to save you and your willingness to receive that salvation directly from Him.
However, having received that salvation, the Holy Spirit comes upon you at which point
in time there are certain things, at the very least of which is saying Jesus is accursed,
that you cannot do.
You can't.
You won't.
You would never allow.
There's an old question of like, can God make a rock that's too big for God to move?
The answer is yes, He could, but then He could move it.
The character of God is such that there is nothing that God cannot do.
There is nothing that He cannot do.
And that's the same way in you.
There's nothing that He cannot do.
And if you are called His child and if He is called your Lord, then you are a believer
and you belong in the church, Paul says.
Second test.
The manifestations for the Spirit for the common good of the local church arising out
of a Holy Spirit assignment.
The Holy Spirit says that person needs this gift.
That person needs this ministry.
That person needs this work or effect.
He decides what it is and He implants it in that person.
It germinates and it blossoms and it becomes an incredible thing.
The best gift of the Holy Spirit, wait for it, I'm about to tell you which one it is.
The best gift of the Holy Spirit is the one that the Holy Spirit gives.
That's the one.
Now obviously one of the greatest gifts is just His presence, just His being in you.
That is awesome.
That's the thing you want more than anything else.
But in His presence and in His being in you will come the manifestation of His presence.
Something will be known.
Something will be seen.
And when you see that, you go, oh there's something.
And you look for what caused the something.
And the cause is not a what, it's a who.
It's the presence.
It's Him.
It's Him being in you.
That gift that He has given you, He gives you so that you can exhibit it so that people
can know that He's present and so that you can know that He's present.
The job is to apply or to live His presence.
To apply or to live and manifest His presence.
This gift is not given to the world.
This gift is not given to the false church.
But as we saw in our study on signs and wonders, we know that even the Antichrist, even in
Revelation it says that the Antichrist will perform amazing signs and wonders and attribute
them to God.
I submit to you, you had better know when that time comes whether those manifestations
are manifestations of God's Holy Spirit or evil spirit power.
I submit to you that the ability to know that is found in the church.
It is the restraining power of the community of the church because these Holy Spirit assignments
as they are displayed, as the manifestations take place, they help the common good.
They promote the common care.
The world does not do that.
Be very aware that occasionally we worship the gift.
We worship the preaching or the teaching or the serving or the giving.
We worship our gift and we think, man every time I do this thing I start to feel good
and we start to think that the worship of the gift is the way to go and that is not
the case.
It is given to the body to recognize the manifestation of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is Lord,
not a curse and that these things were given to us for the common good of one another.
Test number three, the common good of one another.
The same care for one another, not some worldly value.
The truth is in our church we talk about care this way, courtesy.
In other words we show everybody a measure of respect and it ought to be the same measure
of respect.
We should show, this will step on your toes a little bit if you are not careful, we should
show the same measure of respect to a disobeying child, a child that is breaking the rules
and doing something they are not supposed to be doing, as we should through a 60 year
old man who has been faithful in the faith for his entire life.
That does not make any sense to me.
How can that be?
He has always been faithful in the faith for his entire life.
I know God is in him.
I have to show him respect.
Courtesy and respect are due to all human beings because all human beings were created
in the image of God to represent God.
That child in his disobedience is actually showing us something very valuable and important
about who God is.
Part of that is the need of a savior.
Whereas that 60 year old man, what is he showing us about a savior?
Well, he is also showing us the need of a savior.
The bottom line is courtesy and respect is due to everyone in the church, even to visitors
just the same.
But then there is another aspect of accountability.
So we hold one another accountable.
When you lie, there ought to be a Christian in the church who is willing to step up and
say, hey, you lied.
You got that wrong.
When you don't serve, there ought to be a Christian in the church who is willing to
step up and say, hey, you didn't serve.
You got that wrong.
And accountability is a thing.
Now, do we hold visitors or the world accountable the same way we do Christians in the church?
No.
That is definitely not the case because Christians in the church are empowered by God.
And I submit to you that a Christian who is outside the church is not empowered the same
as a Christian who is inside the church because the gifts are not working for their common
good.
They don't have that constantly being poured into them.
Why do we show up?
We show up because we are working together as a body, practicing courtesy and accountability
and responsibility.
Now I'm responsible for the other members of the body, even to the point that I'm willing,
if necessary, to die for them.
I know there's a lot of people in the world that would like me to die for them.
You say, no, that doesn't make any sense.
But it's actually true.
People call me up.
People ask me for money.
People ask me for food.
At times I have to divorce myself of what I think is important.
I have to give up my allowance or my entertainment money or my whatever.
And I've got a spending plan where God comes first in every area.
And I give those things up so that I can help that person.
Does that make sense inside the church?
Yes, because I'm responsible for that person.
Does it make sense outside the church?
No, because I am not responsible for that person.
How am I responsible for them?
I'm responsible that they hear the gospel, that they see Jesus represented, and that
they know where to go to church and where to get it plugged into the body if they want
to.
That's how I'm responsible.
Now, are people able to partake of the overflow that falls off the master's table?
Do the dogs eat from the crumbs under the table?
Why, yes, they do.
And isn't that a wonderful thing?
Anybody can take it.
People all over the world who don't know Jesus listening to our podcast, people all over
the world who don't know Jesus could tune into our Facebook and see it live.
People all over the world who don't know Jesus could buy my book Think Again Online, which
is real cheap.
And they could buy that.
And they could read it and learn how to get saved.
Right?
So all of those things are out there.
It all can happen.
But all of the gifts of God were given so that we would provide the same care for one
another in the body, courtesy, accountability, and responsibility.
Now notice, that 60-year-old man who's walked with Jesus his whole life has the same responsibility
in the body as that nine-year-old child who just got saved, or maybe hasn't even got saved
if they're a member just because their parents are members.
You understand?
The responsibility is the same.
When there's a piece of garbage in the hallway, whose job is it to pick it up?
Whoever sees it.
When there's a bill to be paid for the church, whose job is it to pay it?
Everybody's job.
Not just one person steps up and says, I'll take care of that, and they take care of it.
It ought to be everybody.
We all work together because we are the body.
Submitted to the Lord, filled with manifestations of the Holy Spirit for the common good.
Subject to care, courtesy, accountability, responsibility, and finally encouragement.
That we encourage each other, exhort each other all the time, loving one another, to
lift each other up to do the things that God would have us to do.
If you don't encourage that person, they may fail to exhibit their Holy Spirit gift, which
was given for your common good.
The manifestation of the Holy Spirit may wane.
People may not join.
People may not step up.
People may not show up because no one's encouraging them.
But it also happens that people worship the care.
I need this.
I need that from the body.
I want the body won't do for me.
People tell me, well, nobody ever came to visit me.
I don't come to church anymore because nobody ever comes to visit me.
And the very person that told me that thing had never come to visit anyone ever.
We get wrapped up in we want it to go the way we want it to go.
So we start to accuse the other members of the body, saying, you're not doing, you're
not manifesting the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It's not their job to manifest the gifts of the Holy Spirit for you.
The manifestation of the gifts is for the common good.
We all do it so we can all be blessed by it.
That means that there was only two people there.
Both people manifested the Holy Spirit gifts.
They would be hugely blessed if they were the local church.
So the bottom line is this.
We practice courtesy, accountability, responsibility, and encouragement for one another.
But we don't use those things as an excuse.
We once had a member of ours say, I so desperately need, I need somebody to encourage me seven
days a week, every single day.
I need somebody to reach out and encourage me.
And the truth is that's not fair.
That's not right.
And now I understand that.
Because you raised your hand if somebody from the church encouraged you seven days a week.
OK.
Nobody's getting that.
So it's the same care for everybody.
So when somebody says, I need to be encouraged seven days a week, that's not a fair request
because nobody's getting that.
Now should we all be encouraging each other every Sunday, every Tuesday, and in between?
Absolutely.
That's fair.
Should we be responsible for each other's needs?
Absolutely.
Should we be praying to each other, giving, practicing spiritual gifts so that everybody's
lifted up?
Yes.
Absolutely we should be doing that.
But when somebody comes out and they say, I need something that nobody else is getting,
we have to ask ourselves, is that something that everybody should be getting when they
need it?
And if it's something that everybody should be getting when we need it, then we give it.
And if it isn't, then we say no, because we're practicing the manifestation of the
Holy Spirit.
It's not ours.
Right?
Somebody could call me up and they say, I need you to come 9 o'clock and preach a sermon
in my living room.
Because I'm really strong in spirit, shall we?
Which I ought to say, I'm sorry.
I'm not sure that's going to happen.
Especially if they ain't coming to church.
But I can say, hey, you know what?
We got 300 podcasts online.
There's 300 sermons you can listen to right there.
We got the Facebook feed for the last 50 weeks up online.
There's live, you can watch video with worship.
You know, you can do that anytime you want.
But you're not willing to do it then.
But you're willing to call on me to do it at 9 o'clock tonight in your living room when
you want it, when you need it, and you think you've got a problem.
But I'm not talking about me specifically.
I get it.
We all have it.
We have a Holy Spirit gift.
We have a Holy Spirit work, a Holy Spirit ministry, a Holy Spirit effect that is supposed
to be manifested.
And we need to manifest those things in the body.
We need to do it for the common good.
We need to do it to have the same care for one another.
Am I talking about socialism?
No.
You're still responsible for all of the resources that God has made you responsible for.
Will your gift sometimes be the one that's needed and no one else's gift is needed?
Yes.
You can't go, oh, somebody else will take care of it.
The church will take care of it because you might be the only person in the body that
has the gift, the ministry, the effect, or the work that needs to be done.
Right?
So that does happen.
But it occurs that some ask for something more and this too is a sign of trouble.
If you need more than the manifestation of God's Holy Spirit in your church, then either
A, your church is defective, or B, you ain't in it.
And that's just the reality.
The church has the manifestations of God's Holy Spirit.
That's what Paul said.
When Paul started off by saying, I do not want you to be ignorant, concerning, and the translation
comes up with the word spiritual gift, but it's pneumatikos.
When brethren, I do not want you to be unaware, he was saying, you have a responsibility and
you have a responsibility and you have a responsibility and you are supposed to deliver courtesy and
you are supposed to deliver accountability and you're supposed to act in that responsibility
and you're supposed to encourage one another and the church ought to step up and be the
body of Christ.
And I used the analogy of Plato coming together and you can see the pink still and you can
see the red still and you can see the yellow still, but when we get this right, it's going
to be all brown.
It's going to be so mixed up and so confused that the whole man is brown.
Because there is no more red, there is no more pink, there is no more green, there is
no more yellow, there is no more blue.
We are no longer divided, we are unified.
And when a person has a problem and they raise their hand and I need something that the body
doesn't normally give, but maybe the body can give it, then everybody goes, yeah, I
can take care of that, that's no problem, that's nothing.
I'm happy to die to make sure that that happens.
But the problem is in the body, we've got our spiritual gift and God gave me the gift
of service and then I want to serve the way I serve.
I want to do it my way.
But that's not it.
It's a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
The next time you think about whether or not you're going to act on your spiritual gift,
this is what I want you to think.
I want you to think, do I want the world to know that the Holy Spirit exists?
Do I want people in my church to know that the Holy Spirit is working in me?
Now it ought to be yes.
I want God's Holy Spirit to be obvious and the manifestation of the Spirit, which includes
the gifts, the works, the effects, and the ministries as we talked about, and these people
who were named, these roles, those are gifts, those gifts exist for that purpose, to show
God's Holy Spirit at work in the church.
Why is God's Holy Spirit at work in the church?
Because Jesus prayed the Father and the Holy Spirit was sent into the church.
Jesus said, you should be glad that I go because I go, I'll ask God and he'll send his Holy
Spirit and the Holy Spirit will exist in the church.
Where the Holy Spirit is not in the church, the church ain't in the church.
Yes we want the Holy Spirit.
So you go out to dinner and you don't pray before you eat and you eat your food and you
enjoy it and you thank your waitress and you leave.
Is the Holy Spirit in you?
Yeah, because you're saved, it's in you.
But does your waitress know it?
No, because you're just like anybody else.
Is she supposed to guess that you're a Christian because you tip 16% instead of 15?
Should there not be praying at your table?
Should there not be worshiping at your table?
Should there not be witnessing at your table?
Should there not be serving at your table?
Should in that 40 minutes if she visits your table four times, should she not be able
to figure out that there's something a little bit different about you?
Something a little bit different from the other 30 clients that she's had that day?
Whether it's your doctor, your nurse, your lawyer, your waitress, you're at the gas station
when you buy your slurpee.
Should there not be something?
The question you have to ask yourself is do you want the world to know that God's Holy
Spirit exists and more importantly exists in you?
And the answer is yes, you do.
And the gift of God is that it can be so.
And the instructions are that He is Lord of your life, that He will manifest through you
gifts, effects, works, and ministries may make you even into something specific for
His Holy Name and through those manifestations the same care will be exhibited across the
body for all of our people.
That brings us to our conclusion.
We should be put together.
So look around this room, mostly what we have are very intelligent people.
So where's our not so intelligent people?
Mostly what we have are handsome men and pretty women.
So where are the rest?
Most of what we have are capable individuals.
We can do whatever is inside our mind-stream.
We can figure something out.
We're like, okay, if I've got instructions I can pretty much put it together.
Or if I've got, you know, that's mostly what we have.
And so where are the rest?
Most of us can make it up the stairs.
Nobody, to my knowledge, nobody that's here today had to take the ramp.
Where's the disabled people?
Now great grandma tunes in sometimes, but where are the 90-year-olds?
Now I'm not saying we have to have some of everything.
It's entirely up to God who's in what church.
But the bottom line is if what we have, we should be put together.
And as people come in, we should seek to put them together with us.
That's the whole point.
We share the gospel.
They get saved.
He begins to manifest through them for our common good.
That's why Jesus said the resources are in the harvest.
He wasn't talking about money, although that's true too.
He was talking about the manifestations of His Holy Spirit.
The manifestations of God's Holy Spirit are in the harvest because when you see somebody
get saved, have you ever noticed how Christians are super excited to be around when they first
get saved?
Or when somebody repents of their sin and there's tears in their eyes and they're praying
fervently?
They never pray like that time, right?
You ever notice that?
That's a manifestation of God's Holy Spirit.
That's Him at work in a young believer and He draws us in and we get excited and we join
and you join together with that person, embrace that person.
We should be put together.
We should be one as the body representing Jesus as He manifests through us to the world.
We should not overly value or devalue one part of the body.
There's that person over there, kind of annoying in the way they talk and the way they act.
I don't quite get them.
I'm going to just go in this room while they go by and then I'll go back.
No, every part of the body is valuable.
In fact, based on that, you should do the most to be around the people who annoy you
the most.
That's what you should actually do because that's going to grow you.
That's going to manifest the Holy Spirit through you for the common good and through them for
your good and you may just find that they have a word or a thing or that they do or
a service or a factor, a ministry or a gift.
That's exactly what you need.
After a while, you may go, whoa, I've been fed.
I've been cared for.
Now I get it.
I was dodging my responsibility or dodging my encouragement that I was supposed to be
delivering and I stopped doing that.
Now all of a sudden, it happens.
I had a friend of mine who's a youth pastor at a church down south and their church had
11 or 12 beacons and it got to be that the sanctuary was pretty full and so they were
gracious and they just stayed out in the hallway.
Then they started walking the church building and after about six months, eight of the 11
beacons hadn't heard a sermon in six months.
It was before they put everything on Facebook and they weren't doing that then.
You can imagine what that started to do in their lives.
They thought they were serving by being out of the way.
That was their excuse but the truth is they were dodging the sermon.
We have had that in our church at different periods of time over the last 20 years where
people volunteered to work in the children's department because then they don't have to
be in the sermon every single week.
I'm not saying anybody's doing that now but we've had that.
We have people who say, I want to be a member of this church but they don't show up on Sunday
when anybody in the family is sick or anybody in the family has a problem or there's any
distraction or any opportunity to work or make a quick buck or whatever.
That's just not how the body works.
This is us together.
If nothing else, this sermon is me exhibiting my Holy Spirit gift so that the body and the
common good can be benefited.
But it is an exhibition of the Holy Spirit.
You understand I could not be a public speaker if I were not saved.
So I know this is a Holy Spirit thing.
It's a ministry that's been given and I'm so blessed that you allowed me to do it.
But it cannot be overly valued nor can it be devalued.
There is no place for belittling yourself.
Oh gosh, I can't figure out what my Holy Spirit gift is.
I can't be a member of the church.
I can't be part of this or I'm a member because they put me on the roll.
But I can't really do anything.
I'm just the guy in the back or I'm just the one that's around and maybe I'll figure something
out.
It's all a bunch of crap.
You are gifted by the Holy Spirit not for you to figure out what it is or for you to
act a certain way so you can feel better about yourself, but so that the Holy Spirit of God
can be manifested through you.
And I submit to you that if you are a willing channel, that will never fail.
The gun is already loaded, the hammer is already back and the trigger has already been pulled.
The shot will go off.
All you have to do is show up and stop belittling yourself and stop thinking somebody else is
better than you and just go, what can I do?
What can I do?
When we joined our church in Michigan after the Lord moved us to Michigan miraculously,
I was an ordained deacon at East Little Baptist Church and Sherri and I were serving in a
bunch of ministries there and doing all kinds of stuff.
And so we went to church and we said we want to serve.
We want to do whatever we can.
Just give us something to do.
I would be a deacon if that's what it is.
And then it's a little kind of you know, no, can't do that.
Okay, well, what can we do anything?
Can we teach something?
Can we share?
Can we get something special?
What can we do anything?
We're always coming.
What can we do?
Finally, after we asked like three, four times, they said, well, you can come in between service
and serve the cookies.
Like that's not much.
Like we're talking about we want to serve the Lord like multiple days a week, but we'll
do it.
So we did.
We went and served the cookies.
We got to talking to the children's and Sherry found out that the children's pastor there
had been searching for workers in the children's department for years.
She said, well, I only got about three volunteers ever and half of them don't show up.
I don't know what half of three is.
So like half of them don't show up.
So then Sherry started showing up.
She started working in the children's department.
And then we found out only six kids were coming and my heart was broken.
They were teaching the Bible and only six kids coming on Wednesday night.
And I'm like, what?
That's crazy.
Now we were bringing like two because we had a leash on Amalia, which I don't think went
in that class as she was younger.
But the point is like, OK, so we got to bring one.
So Alicia went to school and she said, would you come to church with me?
Would you come to church with me?
So we took my big blue conversion van, rusted out at the bottom and sat eight.
And we started picking people up on Wednesday night.
We got to the point where I brought three and a half loads of kids.
And the children's department went from being six kids counting Alicia to being 30 kids.
And then they started bringing kids.
And then some of the people were bringing started coming on their own because they got
tired of waiting for me to come in the second and third load, pick them up or bringing them
home an hour and a half after it was over or whatever.
And so they started coming on their own.
And the day that we found out God was going to miraculously move us back to Toledo, the
church recognized us and gave us a certificate as the most like meaningful and honoring that
has stand up in a crowd of people.
We're like thinking the whole time we're moving back to probably going to be moving back to
Toledo.
We'll see what's going to happen.
And they're like, we want to honor you because you came on.
You really lit a fire under the children's department after they told us three or four
times there was nothing that we could do.
And finally said, you can serve the cookies.
You get it?
We are not that church.
You plug into this church.
You can work.
You can work seven days.
There is work to be done.
The life stations open five days.
We go there, the bag groceries every single day, deliver groceries all over the city, share
the gospel with people who say they need to hear about Jesus.
I need a new church home.
You can serve and serve and serve.
We've got cleaning that can be done right now.
You can walk up out of this room after I'll stay for an hour and clean and I'll give you
clean that clean that clean that we have people cleaning all the time.
But we got to what is this?
A 10,000 square foot building.
There's always work to be done.
We are not the church that will tell you can't work.
You want to come and work.
You can find your ministry.
You can find your effect.
You can act in your gift.
You will not be dispersed.
You cannot belittle yourself and say, I can't do what others are doing.
Nor can you dismiss somebody else because their gift seems insignificant.
There are people in this room that just come here and sit and they're attentive.
They're attentive to the preacher, attentive to the teaching.
And you don't know how much that blesses me.
There are people that are not here this morning and there's a part of my heart that is aching
because I don't know why they're not here.
And I knew they were going to be here and now they're not here.
And that hurts.
And it probably hurts you too because you probably know who some of them are.
And the point is this.
You cannot dismiss any part of the body now because you're somebody special.
Nor can you dismiss yourself because you're not somebody special.
These gifts, these manifestations, they are not given for advancing oneself.
They are given for growing as a part of a body.
Yes, they lead us to die to ourself as we see the Holy Spirit manifested through us
more and more.
The final conclusion is this.
There is a greater thing still.
That's what Paul says.
That's all what I'm talking about.
There is a greater thing still.
It's the last verse of the chapter.
I stopped just short of reading the entire chapter and it says this.
But earnestly desire the greater gifts and I show you a still more excellent way.
And beginning next week we'll go into 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and you already know then, right?
You already know what the greatest gift of God is, don't you?
It's not a Holy Spirit gift.
It's not a ministry.
It's not an effect.
It's not a work.
It's not a prophet or an apostle.
It is the love of God in you, in me.
That's what it is.
And that's what we're going to look at in 1 Corinthians 13.
But the bottom line is this.
If you're going to use your Holy Spirit gift even when you feel like a dirt bag, you messed
up, screwed up, whatever, in the body for the common good and care for each other equally,
then you're going to have to love beyond your own stupidity, beyond your own weakness, beyond
your own failing, beyond your own depression, anxiety, or health concerns.
You're going to have to love beyond that.
And if you have God in you, you can.
Now we'll talk about what that looks like as we look at 1 Corinthians 13.
But the bottom line is this.
The Holy Spirit Himself is the gift given by God.
It is not your Holy Spirit gift, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit gift, or your particular
effect, ministry, work, gifting, title in the church.
It's none of that.
It is the Holy Spirit Himself.
He is the gift.
And He comes with a set of instructions.
And that set of instructions is this, that you act out in the manifestations of His presence
in you.
The disciplines are supplied by that fuel.
The spiritual gifts, effects, ministries, works, manifestations of all kinds are supplied
by Him as He sees fit.
You don't get to say, I think I might have the spiritual gift of such and such and then
just do it.
That is a disobedience to God.
That is the same as saying that He is a curse.
Don't do it.
You sit your butt in the church and you serve the Lord with all the might that He has placed
in you.
Not your strength.
You've already screwed up your body.
You've been alive long enough to take a substance that you shouldn't have.
You've been alive long enough to eat things that you shouldn't have.
You've already screwed up your body.
It's not about your body.
It's about your spirit.
The Holy Spirit presence in you was given so that He might manifest Himself to the world
through the body of Christ, that being who we are.
Close the two illustrations and then we'll have an opportunity to respond.
The first is this.
I think about how close we can be.
How close we can be.
We can be saved professing the Lord Jesus Christ, going to heaven when we die, but never
actually get to the place of actually manifesting the Holy Spirit.
Am I talking about speaking in tongues?
No, I'm not.
Am I talking about acting out at a certain spiritual gift?
No, I'm not.
Talking about manifesting the Holy Spirit that's in you, which is done in the local
church for the building up and the edifying of the entire body for our common good.
We work together and we can be so close.
We can be learning, growing, receiving, but not putting it out, not showing it because
we feel inferior or because we feel superior.
It might be that you could worship like nobody else can, where you've got a broken, crappy
voice that nobody really wants to hear.
Then you start singing and the angels of heaven join in and the Holy Spirit is manifested
and people start to go, whoa, God is in that.
But you're going, I don't like the way I sound.
I'm a little too reserved.
I'm a little too shy.
It could be that you could pick out and detect things that need to be done, discerning the
works of God that need to be done better and more than anybody.
But you're too worried about being perceived as a busybody.
You're too worried about people saying, oh, she or he is stirring up trouble.
So you're not saying anything.
And your Holy Spirit gift is not being exhibited and the manifestation of the Spirit is being
left out.
I submit to you that is a sin against God and you and I need to repent how close people
can be.
One time when Arden was younger, he was about 12, yet it might have been his first ever
cell phone.
It was definitely an early on cell phone.
In fact, the first, I think it was the first two cell phones he had, he lost them, like
lost, gone, can't find them.
And one of them he lost while he was outside playing in the snow.
You know how hard it is to find a cell phone when it drops into the snow?
It ain't easy, right?
But I was determined.
I said, Lord, I'm going to try to find this for him.
And I went outside.
And out in the side yard was an area where he had played a lot, snow angels and snow
was all busted up and stuff.
And then there were steps that led to there and there were steps that led back and they
were not the same steps.
And I went and I searched all around in the snow where it was all jumbled up and messed
up and whatever, no cell phone.
I searched on the steps on the way there, no cell phone.
I searched on the steps on the way back, no cell phone.
I was about to give up and I thought, you know what I'm going to do?
I think there's enough metal in that cell phone.
It might be metal detector detectable.
So I went and got my metal detector and I had to fiddle to come up with the right batteries
because my metal detector worked off of C size batteries, which if you don't know this,
you can temporarily substitute AA batteries for C batteries if you put them in there.
They're the same length.
You can put them in there.
And so I put it in and I got it working.
And I went outside and I searched briefly the area that was all in turmoil.
I thought pretty much it wasn't there.
It was about six inches of snow.
But I've been through that whole area pretty good and it was all busted up and stuff.
And so I was pretty sure it wasn't there.
And I searched the steps on the way back to the house and I found the cell phone.
I found it in the snow under six inches of snow.
Under the completely undisturbed snow.
There was no hole in the snow where the cell phone had fallen through.
The cell phone battery had not melted a hole in the snow, which probably only would have
done if it had been used a lot because that's when they really generate heat.
But somehow or other the cell phone had fallen through one of the footprints, slipped its
way over and it was about a foot to the side of one of the footprints under the snow.
So I'm walking with it and I get beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,
beep, beep, beep, beep.
I'm like, oh, there's something there.
The snow is not, it can't possibly be there because the snow has not been penetrated at
all.
It's not been ruffled.
It's not been broken.
There's no hole in the snow.
I reached my hand down through unbroken snow and felt what found like, what felt like a
cell phone and it was the cell phone.
I took it inside, we dried it out and it worked for a while after that.
Now you tell me how that happens.
Well, I'll tell you.
Because sometimes along the path we don't realize we're missing the thing.
Listen to me church.
You've been given a ministry, you've been given an effect, you've been given a work,
you've been given a gifting, you've been given a title maybe, you've been given a job to
do and it is given for the edification of the building up of the church.
We are to care for one another and we are to build the church up and as we exhibit those
manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
You know what sometimes happens?
People get babbling in the church and spouting tongues and somebody goes, I don't know what
that is but it's kind of cool and they keep coming back for a while and they're interested
and the Pentecostal church grows.
Somebody gets up at the altar and they get slain in the spirit.
Down they go.
They catch them.
They lift them up.
I feel crazy.
It's awesome.
I passed out when the pastor touched me on the forehead.
I don't know what that's all about.
Maybe it is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
I don't see it in scripture but the bottom line is this.
People are interested.
Build manifestations of the Holy Spirit will interest people eternally.
They'll get saved.
Start manifesting the Holy Spirit that's in you and He'll see people saved.
Hold each other accountable.
Care about one another.
Practice courtesy, responsibility and encouragement in the church and if you're not in the church
you need to understand you can do all of those things but they will not function the way
they're supposed to.
You're not going to be edified in the common good if you're not in the church and you're
not going to be able to edify others in the church if you're not in the church because
Paul was clearly talking about the local church.
We are like the church in Corinth but we are the church in Toledo and we need to do it
because you can be right on the path and it can look real good but if you're not manifesting
the Holy Spirit your snow is unruffled.
Ain't nobody ever going to find him and they're not going to come with a Holy Spirit detector
and go hey Michael stand still.
Oh Holy Spirit is in there.
That's awesome.
That's not going to happen.
You've got to manifest.
You're going to manifest the Holy Spirit not in some freaky way but in the way that he
sees fit through you.
Your snow should look ruffled.
There's something in there.
It's God's Holy Spirit.
Now let's say you feel like I don't think he's there.
I never felt the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Then you need to admit that you need him.
You need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord.
That means he paid the price for your sins and he now owns you.
He leads you and he owns you and he's your savior.
And let yourself become a child of God and receive his Holy Spirit and begin to manifest
the gifts, the works.