Gifted for the Common Good

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We’re in the series on the Holy Spirit. And like I said each time, I don’t want this to be purely an academic exercise. We’re not just trying to know about God.

One of the beautiful things about God is that God desires to be known and to know us, not just in an intellectual way, in terms of facts, but to actually know us and for us to know God—to know intimately, to know relationally, to communicate back and forth. It’s beautiful.

And so I pray that each of these messages is an invitation to be, as we said, present to the God who is present, available even in you. As we talked about last week, the Spirit of God hovers over the deep. He hovers over all that is dead and dying in us, and He brings to life all that is dead and dying. And that is the gift of God.

As I was singing, I felt like God wanted me to add this as we begin: I hope each and every person here hears today that they are so incredibly needed in the Kingdom of God; that you are seen by God, and you are gifted by God uniquely to play a necessary part of what God is doing in the world, in the church.

There’s no one who is not needed. There is no one who is left on the sideline. There’s no one left unseen or unresourced by God. So I hope if you come away with nothing else, that you hear that today.

And this is what verse 7 says in 1 Corinthians 12, which was read:

“Now to each one”—raise your hand if you’re in “each one.” Each one, right? Each person.

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

That right there—you could spend your life just standing in that.

We’re talking about the living God having gifted each of you for the common good. That means God is intimately aware of you, your existence, and your part in His revolution to heal, restore, and bring all creation back into wholeness.

So here’s the good news I want to declare over us:

The Spirit of the living God is gifting each one of us for the strengthening of the church and the healing of the world.

I remember sitting in the passenger seat of Lauren Cushman’s car. Lauren Cushman is old-school Foothills—old, old school. I was probably 14 or 15 years old. This is 30 years ago. I don’t know why we were driving. I don’t know where we were going. But I do remember that he said this to me:

“The fruit of the Spirit—lots of people say ‘fruits’ of the Spirit—but Jesse, that’s not right. It’s fruit, singular. One crop. And every believer will have all of these gifts growing and cultivating in their life.”

Fast forward two years later. I was in high school, painting my room. Paint fumes rolling, dark blue paint on my first real teenager bedroom. And who’s with me? J.B. Butler, youth pastor at Foothills in the ’90s.

He’s helping me paint my room, and as we paint, we talk about Jesus. He taught me about evangelism—not just sharing your faith. J.B., if you know him, if you remember him, he loves people with a deep love. Part of that, to me, was this idea of relational connection, deep knowing of another person, knowing who they are, getting to know them, connecting, relating.

So he taught me about connecting with people and the beauty of God’s relational love for us.

I still call J.B. 30 years later. I talked to him on the phone recently. He lives in South Carolina now.

Then fast forward a few years later. I’m sitting in a coffee shop. John Bolton and his father are sitting across from me because I had sent them an email a few hours before saying, “You know what? I think we’re supposed to move to the International District. My wife isn’t ready, and I’m thinking I’m going to make her move. I have two little kids, and we’re going to move to this neighborhood.”

John and his father said, “Come. Let’s go get coffee.”

And we did.

They said, “Do not do that.”

They exhorted me. They imparted wisdom to me. They said, “Jesse, trust the pace of the Spirit. Trust the voice of the Holy Spirit in your wife’s life. Don’t cut it short.”

So each of these people—and many others, some of whom are sitting in this room—were gifts to me. Gifted by God. Gifted to me. Helping me grow.

Lauren: the gift of teaching.

J.B.: the gift of evangelism.

John: the gift of wisdom and exhortation.

And because of their gifts, because they showed up with what God had given them, I was formed. I was shaped. I was encouraged. Clarity was brought to me. I was saved from harm and from harming other people.

So the Spirit of the living God is gifting each of us to play a part in the strengthening of the church—which included me as a teenager and as a young man, and continues—and the healing of the world.

Last week we talked about the Spirit hovering over all that is dead and dying, over the chaos, and bringing life—and how the Spirit still brings life. The Spirit still hovers. The Spirit is still present in, with, and for us.

We used the illustration of a hawk, remember? How the hawk rides the wind, not with striving, but by opening its wings to the movement of the wind. It goes with the flow of the Spirit.

There is effort there. There is discernment. It is looking and paying attention to how the Spirit is moving. But there is not striving. The hawk is not flapping its wings trying to get somewhere. It’s riding what God is already doing. It’s a cooperation.

I think Lauren, J.B., John, and so many others in my life have ridden this wave of the Spirit. As it moved in my life and as it moved in theirs, they used and cultivated the gifts that God had uniquely given them to build me up.

And here’s the beautiful thing: I have been gifted by God as well for the strengthening of the church and the healing of the world. And you have been gifted by God for the strengthening of the church and the healing of the world.

Ultimately, we all get to play a part in the restoration of all things, right? Every tear wiped away. Every wrong made right. The reversal of the curse of sin and death.

We all get to play a part.

We’re not just passive observers of what God is doing. We’re active participants, empowered and strengthened by God Himself—the Spirit of the living God at work in us.

If that doesn’t give us chills, I don’t know what would.

And this is what life is about: finding out how God has uniquely gifted us to be a part of what God is doing in the church and in the world.

So I want to look at a couple of things about these gifts.

There are four primary passages that talk about the gifts. Here’s the list. There are different lists, and not all of them are all-inclusive. Different parts are emphasized for different purposes in each letter.

Here is where they’re found in Scripture:

• Romans 12
• 1 Corinthians 12
• Ephesians 4
• 1 Peter 4

There are descriptions there.

The first thing I want to stress—and the first thing each of these passages stresses—is that they begin by emphasizing that the gifts have a Giver.

The gifts have a Giver.

Their source is a generous, reliably good, relentlessly loving God who is dedicated to seeing all things made new, all dead things come to life, and all that has been broken repaired.

So before we get into the specific spiritual gifts or how we find ours, let’s just be reminded that God is a generous God.

Everyone who gives their life to Jesus, who confesses Jesus as Lord, automatically is given at least four beautiful, powerful, life-changing, world-changing gifts.

First, we get forgiveness.

God gives us forgiveness—forgiveness of the sins we have committed, the ways that we have distorted love, the ways that we have missed the mark.

That guilt, that burden that weighs us down, that shame, is removed.

That’s a beautiful gift, immediately given upon entering relationship with God.

Also, along with forgiveness for the sins we’ve committed, we get healing for the sins committed against us.

This is part of what forgiveness means. The Greek word is luō. It comes from the idea of being loosed, being freed.

Not only freed from what you’ve done to other people and the guilt associated with it, but also freed from the wounds that have been inflicted upon you.

So many of us are living out of the woundedness of having been sinned against. God is restoring that.

Forgiveness is a gift.

Then there is eternal life with God.

This isn’t just about living forever. This is about being returned to what you were created for: communion with your Creator.

Walking in the garden, right?

Living a life of intimate connection in the life of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—walking in the loving communion of God.

And then we are given the Holy Spirit: God’s presence in us, with us, and for us.

As a guide.

As an advocate.

As a comforter.

As a companion.

He’ll never leave us. He’ll never forsake us. He reminds us of all things that God has said.

And then, with that, we get spiritual gifts.

With the Spirit come the gifts of the Spirit.

These are special abilities that are uniquely yours.

Now, there’s a list, right? Two people might have the same gift—let’s say administration—but it will play out completely uniquely in their lives because every person has a unique personality, a unique set of passions, and a unique set of experiences and history that make the exercising and cultivating of that gift absolutely unique.

Like a fingerprint in the Kingdom of God.

There is no repetition of it.

So your gift to the church—the gift God has given to you—is absolutely unique to you, and it can only be employed by you in the way that God needs it employed by you.

I think that’s awesome.

So as we look at what Paul says in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4, let’s notice three things. I encourage you to look at those passages on your own. Those passages are also in the service guide online.

Let’s notice three things.

First, all gifts are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

We don’t want to lose sight of that.

Jesus is the Giver of the gifts. He’s also the purpose of the gifts.

That makes sense. He’s the means and the end of all these gifts.

When we live in our gifting, serve the church, and participate in the healing of the world, Jesus gets the glory.

When we use the gifts God has given us, we don’t get bigger.

We shouldn’t.

God gets brighter.

When there’s healing, when there’s restoration, when there’s redemption, God’s goodness shines, and people will thank God and worship God—not necessarily us. Hopefully not, right?

Because when God is on the move, God gets the credit.

The gifts are designed to exalt Jesus for the glory of God and for what God is doing in the world.

Second, these gifts are for the common good.

As it says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, the gifts are given for the common good.

They’re not given as something you just keep and hold onto and put in a drawer. Some gifts are meant just for you, right? This is not one of those gifts.

This is a gift given to you for an external expression of the common good—to serve others, to bless others.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

You receive it, and you give it.

You receive it, and you give it.

It’s not self-serving. It’s not for me. It’s for others—for the building up, the encouragement, the equipping, the restoration, and the strengthening of the church.

And this is beautiful.

One metaphor people use is that the church is a hospital for sinners. Have you ever heard that? The church is a hospital for sinners—a place where healing happens, where shame melts away, where guilt is unloaded, where people receive their identity as loved children of God.

Every gift is needed to bring about that healing.

If you think about a hospital and all that’s needed, there are nurses, doctors, specialists, technicians, and people who make sure everything is sanitized. There is a multiplicity of gifts needed in a hospital to make the healing of one person possible.

So every gift is needed as we employ them in love.

So: for the common good.

And then I’m going to camp out here a little bit.

These gifts—the gifts of the Spirit—must be exercised with love, marked by the fruit of the Spirit.

I want to stay here for a moment because I think, unfortunately, the church has a long history of very gifted people weaponizing their gifting.

They turn their gifting not toward the Lordship of Christ, but into a self-serving power grab.

They weaponize their gifting for self-gain, for control, in the name of growing a church, in the name of winning souls, in the name of maintaining righteousness and the status quo.

They exercise their gifts in ways that are not loving, that aren’t marked by the fruit of the Spirit.

I remember visiting a church in college. I heard really good things about it because, at the time, I was in a particular theological stream, and these folks had it right. They were accurate in their theology. They had it right down to every jot and tittle.

They had right doctrine.

They had right behavior.

You’d go into this place, and every child was like one of these kids right here—you know, the Friend Cassidy kids. They were just great, well-behaved kids sitting there. Not a peep. Everything was orderly. Everyone behaved. The children sat still.

The church looked the part.

But love was absent.

Gentleness, kindness, joy, peace—the fruit of the Spirit was not there.

Do you know you can have right behaviors—and this is where the Friend Cassidy illustration ends, okay?—you can have right behaviors, really well-behaved kids, and not have the Spirit.

Because you use fear.

You use control.

You use manipulation.

You use power to force behavior.

And this happens in our families.

It happens in our churches.

It happens in our politics.

It happens in our businesses.

We get external behavior by means other than love.

And so I just want you to hear this.

It’s very important.

It’s very important for us to hear.

I think we’ve lost our way here a bit.

In the Kingdom of God, the ends never justify the means.

Do you hear that?

The ends never justify the means.

The means is always love, marked by the fruit of the Spirit.

Whatever end you get by means that are not love, marked by the fruit of the Spirit, will ultimately not be an end that leads to fruitfulness, that leads to flourishing.

Jesus calls us to the means of love, no matter how efficient or inefficient it is, how effective or ineffective it is, or how difficult it is.

Love is the path marked by the fruit of the Spirit.

So you all are looking for a pastor, right?

A pastor who will be among you as one who is gifted, just as you are gifted, to strengthen this particular church in this particular place for the healing of the world—for the healing of all of us.

And so it’s very important.

We’re also adding elders, or moving forward in that way.

As you look for leaders, as you look for pastors for this church, we’re not looking primarily for efficiency.

We’re not looking primarily for an excellent teaching gift, or someone who is awesome at getting things done, or growing churches, or whatever it is.

We’re not looking for people who get the job done by any means necessary.

We are looking for people who look like Jesus, who live like Jesus, who love like Jesus, and who bear the fruit of the Spirit:

Love.

Joy.

Peace.

Patience.

Kindness.

Goodness.

Gentleness.

Self-control.

We want this fruit of the Spirit to be evident in people’s lives.

So the Spirit of the living God is gifting each one of us to play a part in the world, in the strengthening of the church, and the healing of the world.

So here’s a question: How?

How do you discover your gift?

How do you discover your gifts?

The first step, surprisingly enough, is what do you think?

The answer is not squirrel.

Jesus.

Ask.

Ask God.

Start by relating to the Gift-Giver and asking, “What is my gift?”

Sit. Be still. Listen.

You might ask some of these questions:

“God, what have You put in me?”

“Play back my life and help me see where I jumped in, where I just stepped in. And when I did, where did I come alive?”

“What has mattered to me in a way I can’t explain as I’ve lived my life?”

“Where are my passions?”

Ask God.

I believe He’ll lead you in that.

Write some things down.

The next thing is: get your hands dirty.

Just get to work.

Try it out.

Get involved.

Do something.

In the church.

In the community.

Try it out.

Try teaching a class.

Try having a conversation.

Try encouraging someone.

You might find out you’re really bad at encouraging people. We all need to grow in that.

Or maybe when you say something, it really hits people’s hearts. Maybe you have the gift of encouragement.

Try it out.

Just do it.

As you serve, pay attention.

Where do I feel freedom?

Where is there joy?

Where does it feel like I’m actually moving with the wind of the Spirit instead of fighting it?

Then ask your people.

By “your people,” I mean one another.

People who know you.

People who know you really well.

People who know what makes you tick and have experienced your life.

They may know even better than you what your gifting is.

Sometimes we think, “Oh, I’m really good at this.”

Then we ask someone and they say, “No, I don’t think so.”

So it might be good to find that out.

Or they might say, “Man, your presence in my life has yielded this. When you do that, you’re really good at it.”

Pay attention to that.

It’s not the only thing, right?

We’re asking God.

We’re trying things.

We’re working it out.

But it’s a valuable piece because you’re not gifted in isolation, and your gifts are for others.

It makes sense that the receivers of that gift, even if you’re unaware, would know before you do what your gifting is.

So it makes sense that they might see it before you do.

All right.

This is really good news.

Like I said, the more I have dwelt on this this week and started with this truth—that each person, each of you, myself included, is gifted by the living God to play an absolutely unique part in the building of the church and the healing of the world—this is life-changing.

It gives me purpose.

It gives me meaning.

It gives me a sense of belovedness.

God sees me and knows me and wants to partner with me.

He even trusts me to a certain extent.

He’s gifted me.

He lives in me.

And so, as I thought about this this week and this good news that God is gifting us, I realized that I have lately been operating outside of my gifting in many ways for the last few years.

Sometimes this is by necessity.

It’s just my season.

I’m not sinning. I’m not rebelling or anything.

But I realized there’s been a drift from my core calling, my core gifting, which I think is a pastoral gifting.

Our church, New Creation, has, over the last few years, been able to be a part of building some beautiful things.

We’ve got apartments and affordable housing.

We have a safe outdoor space for people experiencing homelessness.

The mayor has come out a couple of times.

We’ve been on the news.

Churches have come and tried to learn from what we’re doing.

It’s been awesome.

God has been doing amazing things.

And that is not my gifting.

I am not a good administrator.

Please do not give me something administrative.

My files are on my desk, scattered in my car, and stuffed in my glove box.

The young person who does the bookkeeping here is always asking me for receipts, and I’m like, “I forgot to hold onto that one. Sorry.”

Administration is not my gift.

All this stuff requires administration and running programs.

Is that my gift?

I’m decent at starting things, but I don’t think I’m great at sustaining them.

So what I’ve noticed is that I’ve been operating outside of my gifting a little bit.

One way to tell if you’re operating outside your gifting is that you might start to feel exhausted.

You might start to become a little more agitated, angry, and impatient with people.

Why?

Because you’re not the eagle gracefully soaring.

You’re flapping your wings.

You’re like the albatross in The Rescuers Down Under.

Remember that old Disney movie?

You just can’t get off the ground.

You’re flapping and flapping.

That’s what we’re like.

And I noticed that yesterday.

To be honest with you, we were watching a family movie.

We watch movies on Saturdays with my kids.

We had to stop the movie because we had a complete blowup.

My daughter talked back to me, and I lost it.

I yelled at her.

There were tears.

It was horrible.

And I noticed that when I’m outside my gifting for too long, I’m tired, and I don’t respond with the fruit of the Spirit in people’s lives.

I notice that.

So I’m hearing the invitation of Jesus:

“Return to your gifting.”

“Return to your gifting.”

“Return to what I have gifted you to do in the church and in the healing of the world.”

And we can trust that God is going to take care of the rest.

So I’d ask: How about you?

As you hear this good news that God is gifting each of you, what is coming to your mind?

What’s stirring?

What’s the Holy Spirit stirring in you?

Maybe you need to discover your gifts.

Maybe you’ve never really thought about it.

Maybe you’ve never seen those lists before or paid much attention to finding out, “What’s my gift?”

Maybe that’s at the top of the list for you.

Maybe some of you feel like you’re operating outside of your gift, like me.

You find yourself exhausted, noticing agitation, anger, and an absence of joy.

So here’s a couple of suggestions. I don’t know if you can see them, but they’ll be sent in an email with the slide. Hopefully you can see them now.

I want you to pick one of these, depending on where you are.

Maybe ask God which one feels like the right next step.

But first, pray.

Let me encourage you to pray and ask God:

“What have You put in me?”

“Where have I come alive?”

“Where do I notice that there is effort, but not striving?”

“Where do I feel free?”

Maybe there’s a place where you can simply step into service.

Just get involved here.

Join the welcoming team.

Join a ministry.

Teach.

Offer to teach a class.

Whatever it may be, get involved in a small group so people know you and you can serve in that capacity.

And then ask someone.

Just ask someone close to you.

Someone in this room.

Someone who knows you and has experienced the fruit of your life.

Ask them:

“What do you think my gift is?”

“What do you think God has put in me?”

And again, just ending with this:

I think it’s absolutely crucial that we live into this.

That we discover it.

That we hear the beauty of this—that God has gifted us and that each person’s participation matters.

Your life, your unique blend of personality, passions, experiences, and history, combined with that gift, is a unique fingerprint—a unique puzzle piece in the beautiful picture that God is building.

You know when there’s a piece missing from a puzzle?

It’s just one piece from a beautiful 2,000-piece puzzle.

What do you notice?

The missing piece.

Each of you is a vital piece that contributes to the beauty of what God is doing in the world.

And just like J.B., John, and others who leveraged their gifts for me, I’m so grateful they did because I would not be who I am.

We would not have the church that we have.

The things happening in that neighborhood would not be happening without that gift of the church strengthening me—someone who was part of the church and now gets to participate in the healing of the world.

So I think there’s someone in this room right now who needs what God has put in you.

And so let’s figure that out.

Can we stand and say this prayer in response?

This is a prayer of gratitude, of thanksgiving, that a generous, reliably good, relentlessly loving God has gifted each one of us to partner with Him.

Let’s say this prayer together:

God, You are a generous and good God. Thank You for gifting me to be a partner with You in the strengthening of Your church and the restoration of the world. Thank You for giving me purpose in Your Kingdom, for Your glory. Amen.