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00:01 Let's start with a word of prayer. Lord, we ask that you be with us this day.
00:08 Just as every one of us has at least one gift and we know that that that gift is
00:15 given for a particular reason, some of us are using it. Some of us it's perhaps
00:21 hidden away needing to be fanned into flames. So I pray Lord when the word of
00:26 God comes forth this day that it will fan into flames the gifts that we have
00:32 so that together we may glorify your name. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen.
00:38 Right. So we are going into uh the book of Corinthians. We're coming to the exciting part. We start off in chapter 7
00:46 talk concerning matters about which you wrote. So Corinthians is a letter written um to the Corinthian church to
00:53 answer several questions and the questions were relationship between sexes, food given to idols, women
00:59 praying in prophesy public, Lord's supper abuse and we're now going to chapter 12 concerning spiritual gifts.
01:05 Brothers, I don't want you to be uninformed. So now he's starting a new section. We're talking about spiritual gifts and after that the resurrection.
01:13 Now about spiritual gifts, we are going to go the series of uh four five sermons
01:19 on the spiritual gifts and charismatic controversies. This is the number one controversy that basically uh tends to
01:27 trouble the church for the last 40 years in this country. Uh I'm going to be dealing with spiritual gifts in the
01:32 community. Uh pastor Leon members in the community. Uh Sam Q will be taking the
01:39 helm at love at the center of the community. Then I'll be speaking on tongues in worship. August 4th we have a
01:46 bit of a break where brother Arnold will be speaking on a uh a different topic on
01:51 its own. And lastly I'll end off with prophecy in worship chapter 14. So if
01:56 you've got people who are asking questions about this very controversial area, bring them along uh so that uh we
02:02 may together look at this. Now this is a word which I want us to to we've
02:08 mentioned this before but need you to uh recall overrealize esquetology.
02:13 Basically esquetology is the study of last things. Okay. And what happens is that we live in a finely balanced world.
02:21 We have the final consummation of the kingdom coming and then you've got our previous life which is marked by sin,
02:27 death and defeat. And we're living in the in between. We're not living in sin and death and and condemnation where
02:34 there's no hope. We're actually liberated by the cross of Jesus Christ. But you're not fully liberated in terms
02:40 of the final consumation of the kingdom. We live in the in between. So this in between is a very fine balance and
02:46 tension. You can under realize this by just refocusing on the fact that you're
02:52 powerless and there's a lot of sin in your life and you can't move ahead. Or you could overrealize it and thinking
02:58 that look you know the kingdom of god has finally come. Um so therefore there's a tension and what happens with
03:03 the corinthian church is that they were focusing on this part. It's as if we've had the final victory uh the the final
03:10 consummation of the kingdom has already come and that's why they say in chapter 4 verse 8 all already you have all you
03:16 want already you have become rich without us you become kings and and would that you did reign so that we
03:22 might share the rule with you. They were so confident. They have the believer's authority. Everything had already achieved. So this was their tendency.
03:30 Now if you look at the issue at hand now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I don't want you to be uninformed. The
03:37 word spiritual gift in Greek is actually called pneumoticon which doesn't necessarily mean spiritual gift. It
03:43 could be translated spiritual people or spiritual gifts interchangeably. So he's
03:49 talking about spirituality. Um so there are two groups of people not
03:54 unlike our modern day situation. One group speaks in tongues. They prophesy.
03:60 They have healing and miracles. They believe anything is possible. The other group doesn't speak in tongues. They
04:05 only speak in Mandarin. All right. No miracles. Uh no healing. And they are very suspicious of the guys who speaking
04:12 in tongues as if you know uh that's don't know whether that's from God. Uh
04:17 you know and so therefore two classes. It's as if these class was more spiritual. dear class is not quite so
04:23 spiritual and in fact modern days we call these baptized in the spirit and those are not baptized in the spirit this modern day controversy so this is
04:31 what's tearing the church apart and when Paul is writing to them he is writing to
04:36 them about the role of spiritual gifts in this whole question of spirituality
04:41 are we having more spiritual people because they can speak in tonesues and a non-spiritual person because they cannot speak in tonesues so u three things that
04:48 the passage will seek to answer one What is the purpose of spiritual gifts? Number two, what is the nature of the
04:55 spiritual gifts? Number three, how do we use these spiritual gifts? Firstly, the
05:00 purpose of the spiritual gifts. Look at this passage. Now, concerning spiritual gifts or spirituality, brothers, I don't
05:07 want you to be unformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were
05:13 led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is a curse. And no
05:18 one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts but the same spirit variety of
05:24 services but the same Lord. Now traditionally if you read this you sort of think well he's talking about
05:29 spiritual gifts right and then he picks up this idea of spiritual gifts again in
05:35 verse four variety of spiritual gifts and in between he's talking about something else. It's as if you are
05:41 pagans led astray by mute idols. And then I want you to understand no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says
05:46 Jesus is a curse. that no one can ever say Jesus is Lord except the Holy Spirit. So perhaps he's thinking about
05:51 some uh pagan ceremonies like the priestess of Delelfi Cassandra or Sibil of Kou where in in the middle of a
05:59 religious ceremony they'll break out in ecstatic speech uh and and they will be
06:05 saying stuff which you don't really understand. You need to have translated u and and and Paul is perhaps saying
06:10 well you know when some of these people say things if they say Jesus Lord they're Christian. If they say Jesus cursed they're not Christians. is how to
06:16 distinguish between the various spirits after all you're all speaking in tongues right that's possible uh but I think if
06:23 you look at the particular passage it doesn't line in with the context if you look at this is now concerning
06:29 spirituality and spiritual gifts the whole passage is about spiritual gifts he doesn't wander off and talk about
06:38 some aesthetic spirit speaking some foreign tongue which can be interpreted as Jesus is cursed or Jesus is Lord.
06:46 It's all about spirituality and spiritual gifts. And he's actually talking about three different groups of
06:52 people. The first was what the Corinthians were before. They were
06:57 pagans led astray by mute idols however you were led. So they will usually go in procession. There'll be an idol and
07:04 they'll follow that procession along the way. And this group were pagans worshiping lifeless useless idols. That
07:12 what that's what they were before. The second one is a group of people. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one's speaking the spirit of God ever
07:18 said Jesus is a cursed. Very funny. You don't get people in church. You tell me
07:24 who in this church will come and say in public Jesus is cursed. Be stupid, isn't it? It's absolutely stupid to have
07:30 people do that. That never happens. And the only people who actually say Jesus is a curse, guess who? Anybody know?
07:39 Jews. Why did the Jews say Jesus is cursed? regularly in the synagogues at
07:45 the time because what he hung on what?
07:51 The cross. If you hang on the cross, you are cursed. So regularly in the Jewish
07:57 synagogue, you'd have people who would say Jesus is cursed. And if they come into the church, they come from a
08:02 background in which they were regularly saying that Jesus was cursed. So there
08:08 are second group of people who considered the Jews who considered Jesus as cursed. And the third group of people are people who can say Jesus is Lord.
08:15 And these are the people who were filled with the Holy Spirit. So basically the ultimate criteria of the spirit's
08:21 activity in spiritual gifts is the exaltation of
08:27 the Lord Jesus. That is the ultimate criteria of spirituality. Thomas Shriner
08:32 who is professor of New Testament interpretation at this at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary writes the
08:38 lordship of Christ is a criteria by which gifts are assessed. In other words, our gifts aren't a manifestation
08:45 of ourselves or our own abilities but are intended to communicate the truth that Jesus is Lord. So when we actually
08:51 have controversies swirling in the church about spiritual gifts, the important thing to distinguish that do
08:57 do these gifts exalt Jesus Christ as Lord. That is the number one criteria.
09:04 Take for example this famous preacher Jesse Duplantis uh in the United States and he he shared with his congregation
09:11 one day that he had a dream and it was one of the greatest moments the Lord ever told me. He said Jesse do you want
09:17 to come up to where I am? where I am up up there right so he asked the lord for
09:24 aeroplane I think this is a misinterpretation everybody got very upset at him everybody reads about even
09:29 Malaysia we get upset with him and he comes back and says the lord say I didn't ask you to pay for it I asked you to believe for it as if it would just
09:35 magically pop up but if Jesus is asking him to go up to where he is you know where Jesus is I was hungry and you gave
09:42 me food I was thirsty you gave me drink I was a stranger and you welcomed me I was naked you clothed me I was sick you
09:48 visited me I was in prison prison and you came to me. Jesus is at Sungai Bulo prison. Jesus is not up there. If you really
09:55 want to minister, you should be at Sugai Bulo prison or Chalk Road wherever the hungry, the sick, the destitute are. And
10:02 here is a situation where where he's not putting Jesus as Lord. So here is the tension of balance when he's on this
10:08 side. The greatest statement the Lord ever told me, he said, "Jesse, do you want me to come up here? The final
10:13 consumation of the kingdom is overbalanced. This is wrong theology." Uh Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone
10:20 would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." So Jesse's got to ask for a
10:26 bicycle. You just drive, you know, cycles to survive below prison. You find Jesus Christ. You don't have to have an
10:32 airplane. That was his third airplane. Actually, by the way, it's not the first airplane. That's his third one. Okay. Spiritual gifts serve the lordship of
10:38 Christ. If you look at these healing services uh advertisements, you look healing service miracles and all I can
10:46 see the timing Thursday and the pastor's name, Bill. That's Bill. Here's another one. Healing and deliverance conference
10:53 July 8th, Pastor Joyce, Apostle George Griffford. Nothing on Jesus Christ,
10:60 nothing on the gospel. Again, that is totally skewed. If you look at the um
11:05 acts, Philip was sent to Samaria and he was ministering there. How does Luke
11:10 look right? Those who were scattered among went about preaching the word. Philip went out to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. The
11:17 crowds in one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philillip. When they heard him and saw the signs that he
11:24 did, unclean spirits crying, a loud voice came out of many of them who had them. And many who were paralyzed or
11:30 lame were healed. There was much joy in that city. The primary focus is always what? What was said by him? The signs
11:37 were incidental and accompanying. All right. So I think we get it the
11:43 other way around. Not only that, powers and signs are not reliable signs of the spirit's activity. Thessalonians, the
11:50 coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power, false
11:55 signs and wonders, with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Matthew, many on that
12:02 day will call me Lord, Lord, we did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, do many mighty
12:07 works in your name, and I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness,
12:14 signs and wonders, and gifts are not reliable sign of the spirit's activity.
12:21 It is the life of the people who use their gifts to exalt the fact that Jesus is Lord. Back in the Old Testament,
12:28 Pharaoh encountering Moses. He summoned the wise men and sorcerers and they the
12:34 magicians of Egypt also did the same by secret arts. Bit of kung fu there, right? Many men, each man cast down his
12:41 staff. They became serpents. Well, what do you know? You grab a staff, you throw it down, become a snake. That's a pretty
12:47 pretty good trick, right? So, they could do it. The only difference is Aaron's staff swallowed out that their staff. Jesus is still king. Okay. Now spiritual
12:56 activity different magical activity can occur but it is the activity that builds up Jesus
13:04 Christ as Lord. Spiritual gifts also build up Christ's body for to each is given the manifestation of the spirit
13:11 for the common good. This should be the key verse that should basically undergard our entire servant. Gifts are
13:16 given in are basically manifestations of the spirit for the common good. You look
13:22 at Ephesians, he gave apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the
13:27 work of ministry. Notice what he says about the work of ministry. The saints do the ministry. Who does the equipping?
13:35 The teachers, the preachers, the evangelists, apostles, they don't do the ministry. It's the the saints who do the
13:41 ministry. And they equip them. They build up the body so that we attain the unity of faith to mature manhood to the
13:47 measure of the stature, the fullness of Christ. until we become like Christ. The spiritual gifts build up Christ's body.
13:54 Now, when you talk about spiritual gifts, we're thinking it's like receiving presents at Christmas. Oh, I
14:01 like to give receive a present that I could use. That's why whenever we have a spiritual gift seminar, we we give out a
14:07 nice inventory and everybody's very excited. They'll take, you know, I can sing, I can dance, I can do this, I can
14:13 do that and and they feel really proud. The reason why you feel very proud, very excited about spiritual gifts inventory
14:18 is that they're perceived like this. The more gifts that you have, the more spectacular you have, the rise in
14:25 stature, self-esteem, pride, confidence, personal fulfillment, popularity,
14:31 you're great. The more gifts that you have in it. Now, gifts aren't like that. You know what gifts are like? Gifts are
14:37 like this. discovering your spiritual gifts. Tools,
14:42 a carpenter's tools, a saw, a hammer. Imagine going to your wife, gentlemen.
14:48 All the wives here, next birthday present, you want to give her what? This. That's a spiritual gift for her.
14:55 What is that used for? For her to do more work, cook the kish for you, the cake for you. She'll take it and whack
15:01 you on the head with it. Right? Why would she whack you on the head? because you're giving a gift for you and not
15:08 her. So, so spiritual gifts are like that. They're not badges of honor. They're actually used for the benefit of
15:14 the kingdom. In fact, this is a a world famous uh evangelist and he he actually says Reinhardt Bonkey says they are not
15:20 badges of honor, but they're tools for the job. So, I don't know why the excitement for for the spiritual gifts
15:27 because we think those are Christmas presents. I haven't seen anybody come around and say, "Oh, Lord, give me the gift of washing up dishes."
15:33 I can see that one has gift of prophecy, gift of this and that. But nobody comes to say Peter I want to pray for the gift
15:38 of washing up dishes. In fact the one who has got a great gift and that is clement is outside is always washing up
15:43 dishes is fantastic isn't it? But what if whatever the church needs that is where you fill not the fact that you've
15:50 got that particular gift that will raise your profile. Now second of all let's talk about the nature of spiritual
15:56 gifts. What are they like? Now there are varieties of gifts. The word gifts is
16:02 charismata plural. Now let's look at the word. The word charisma comes from the
16:08 Greek charismi which is basically a verb to give. Okay to give graciously. The
16:15 focus is graciously. Uh and uh it's a it's a thing that is given generously
16:22 without any merit. For example, if you were to enter Ja supermarket at the
16:28 Empire and you're the hundth customer of the day, ding, the bell will ring and suddenly you get a proton car. Now, did
16:36 you deserve it? No. You were just there shopping looking for your bag of beans
16:42 and and you just got it. The guy who runs giant supermarket must be very stupid. He's giving away proton cars,
16:48 but you were the one there graciously. So the focus of the word charisobai is
16:53 basically given undeserved graciously given that's the emphasis and if you
16:58 look at the words for gift in Greek charisma doma doron dora all of them are
17:05 interchangeable but charisma has a nuance of the unreserved nature and the givers goodwill and favor now if you
17:12 look at this particular word charisma does not mean spiritual gifts I don't know why the church is divided into
17:19 charisma atic and non-carismatic is the worst abuse of the Greek word I've ever seen. The word charisma look the free
17:28 gift charisma is not like the trespass. What free gift is this? eternal life.
17:36 Right? Now you look for if many died through one man's trespass much more
17:42 have the grace of God and the free gift again doria by the grace of that one man Jesus
17:49 Christ abounded for many and the free gift dorma is not like the result of
17:54 that one man's sin for the judgment followed one trespass brought condemnation but the free gift charisma
18:01 following many trespasses brought justification so you've got daria dma and charisma They all mean the same
18:08 thing, eternal life, but they got different nuances. And the nuance that that Paul wants to bring up
18:14 about Charisma, that free gift is basically undeserved. All right. So if you look at uh how he uses it, I long to
18:21 see you in Romans that I may impart to you some spiritual gift again charisma
18:27 spiritual gift basically undeserved. If you look at this gift of celibacy, verse
18:33 seven of chapter one, chapter 7 verse 7, I wish that all were as I I myself am,
18:41 but each one has his own gift from God. One of one kind and a one to another.
18:47 You know what this gift charisma is? The gift of what? Anybody know? Don't know.
18:55 No, what is this gift is talking about? It's particularly relevant to the H2O people. Singleness,
19:02 celibacy. Can you imagine coming to Lord? Oh Lord, I want spiritual gift. I want to be single. I want to be single.
19:08 Most of you don't qualify your marriage. Too late. Uh charismata. Okay. Charisma.
19:15 The gift of celibacy is also a spiritual gift. Can you imagine that? Some of you here have the spiritual gift. So don't
19:22 complain. Now there are varieties of gifts. Okay
19:29 look same spirit varieties of service same lord v activity. So he describes
19:35 the gifts in different words charisma diaonia which is service and and a gamata which is basically power in
19:42 action. So all these different words. So charisma cannot just mean supernatural manifestation of the holy spirit.
19:49 Charisma is just gift emphasis is freely given. And who are charismatic in this
19:54 church? Put your hands up. Who is charismatic? Only two of us are saved.
19:59 The rest of you are not saved. The charisma God gives you is a free gift. That's what the Greek means. You got a
20:05 free gift of eternal life. You should all be putting your hands up. All right? It's not limited to a particular church.
20:12 Second issue here is that the spiritual gifts are designed to bring interdependence and unity. If you look
20:20 at a whole bunch of people, they all wear one mask. It's like going to a particular church and they think one gift is the most important gift.
20:27 Everybody in the church must like wear that one mask because sin is always inwardlooking. Got gift projection. Just
20:33 because I can speak in tones, all of you must speak in tonesues. Just because I can prophesy, all of you must prophesy. It is a matter of pride and sin as you
20:40 look inward. Spiritual gifts are designed to bring interdependence and unity. Look at the what it says here.
20:46 There are varieties of gifts. Variety of service, varieties of activity. Why are
20:52 there varieties? Because it promotes interdependence. You know, I operate every week on
20:58 Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings. And Friday morning is the worst time. I like to get up early, go
21:04 to the O, and they actually get people ready. Everybody's all ready, the surgeons all suited up, the NIC is all
21:12 suited up, patients all there, everything's ready, but cannot start. You know why? The radio lot the
21:17 radiographer comes late 8:30. So all of us are sitting all gowned out waiting
21:22 for whom to come the radiographer. The most important person in the room is the
21:28 radiographer. It's not the surgeon. It's not the not the patient. It's the radiographer. We cannot work without the
21:34 radio. So he come strolls in at 8:30 8:45 while the rest of us are waiting.
21:40 And we can't do without the gradior. I've tried to do it once and twice when you miss the stone. If you don't get the radiorapher, you can't see where the
21:46 stone is. So, so the fact that we work together, we have different gifts compels us to be interdependent.
21:54 That's purposely put there. On the other hand, we've got the same spirit, the same Lord, and the same God. And this
22:01 basically the spirit, the Lord which is Jesus, and the same God which is the father basically uh points to unity, the
22:07 triune God. So although we're different, we're still the same. The fact that we have got the same God points to the fact
22:13 that we actually have unity with God. Interdependence and unity recently the
22:18 United States uh women's team won the World Cup for the first time. Uh
22:24 beautiful team work very well unism. Each one the goalkeeper is great the the striker is great, the captain's great
22:30 all got different personalities, different roles to play. And then the co- captain called Megan Rapino said,
22:36 "I'm not going to visit the fellow in the White House. I I can't do that. And
22:42 you know what? Everybody else in the team also decided simultaneously not to go. Why? Because they were united. Even
22:49 though they had different roles, they were united together. Because being different doesn't mean that they're independent. When one gift is
22:56 overemphasized, you've got independence and disunityity.
23:01 That is the problem with the Corinthian church. and and it's manifested when the the charismatic movement came outund
23:08 over years ago. Initially this is the problem when you got this idea of the baptism holy spirit which is supposed to
23:14 be at the conversion experience but they say it has a it has to be a postcon conversion experience that everybody
23:20 who's baptized in the holy spirit must have the gift of tongues. I want to address this problem today. When you
23:27 overemphasize one gift over every other gift, then you've got independence and
23:33 disunityity. But if you look at scriptures very clear the variety of gifts, same spirit, variety of services,
23:39 same lord, variety activities, same God. K. What's happening? Cannot read English.
23:44 There are different gifts. All right. Verse 29. Are all apostles? Are all
23:51 prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongue? to all interpret but earnestly desire higher
23:57 gifts and I'll show you a more excellent way. Pray for celibacy. I mean can't you read English? Not
24:05 everybody speaks in tongues. So you cannot see bring tongues as the
24:10 sign of being baptized in the holy spirit. But we are all baptized in the spirit. Look for just as the body is one
24:17 and as many members and all the members of the body through though are many are one body so it is with Christ. For in
24:23 one spirit we are all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves are free. All were made to make to drink of one
24:30 spirit. So the the picture which Paul paints is that we're baptized. It's in the passive. We're pushed under by
24:36 Jesus. Jesus does it as initiating event. We're all when you're under there, you're drinking water and that
24:41 water is basically what? The spirit. Every person in fact Paul
24:47 says you however are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If any in fact any of the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone
24:54 who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. The sign the number one important thing is that if
24:60 you are a Christian, you have the spirit of God. The the word baptism of the Holy
25:05 Spirit is only mentioned five times in the New Testament. Five specific
25:10 instances, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each of them describe basically John the
25:15 Baptist announcing the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 15, it's about Jesus announcing the bapt Holy Spirit.
25:22 In Acts 11:6, it talks about the reception of the Holy Spirit by the
25:28 Gentiles when they were initially converted. It wasn't a postcon conversion experience. It was an initial
25:33 converting experience. If you read down here, I Peter, as I began to speak, the
25:39 Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us in the beginning. I remember the word of
25:44 the Lord how he said John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit that's the phrase baptized
25:50 with the Holy Spirit and if then God gave them the same gift as he gave to us when we believe in the Lord Jesus who
25:55 was I that I could stand in God's way so he's now testifying as he was preaching before he had finished even preaching
26:01 the Holy Spirit fell and they believed and it was a conversion experience it wasn't a postcon conversion experience
26:06 but then Acts describes various ways there are postcon conversion uh endowment of the spirit not using the
26:13 same term but reception of the Holy Spirit. Samaritans uh and you look in the Samaritans says now now when the
26:20 apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent to them Peter and John who came down and
26:26 prayed with for them that they may receive the Holy Spirit receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not yet fallen on any
26:31 of them but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord and they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. It isn't described as
26:38 the Holy Spirit but it's about the same thing. They received the Holy Spirit. The other one is Acts 12 uh Acts 19
26:44 describing the 12 Ephesian disciples. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of Lord Jesus. When Paul laid his
26:50 hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and began speaking in tongues and prophesying. Now let's look very clearly
26:56 who are the Samaritans. Samaritans were remnants of the northern kingdom who
27:01 were overtaken by the Syrians. So they were like in Chinese say tapong. They were mixed and they had their own
27:07 religion. In fact, they only used the pentetude, the five books of the Old Testament. All the rest, they threw it
27:14 out because they didn't like the Jews. And when when Jesus confronted was confronted by the Samaritan lady, the
27:20 first question she asked him, you know, where's the true worship? Is it in Jerusalem or here? Because they used to
27:25 worship at Mount Jurism, which is a small dinky little mountain, which is like a hill like Gassing Hill and they
27:31 call it the highest mountain in the world. Obviously, they haven't traveled. All right? But to them they were proud.
27:38 This was their religion. Now imagine if the Holy Spirit came upon them and and
27:44 they believed in Jesus. This was and and they would basically continue in this
27:50 separatist vein as if Christianity of a different branch was in the Samaritan
27:55 church versus the Judean church. And so what happened was that the Lord arranged so that Peter and John comes down and
28:02 they didn't receive the Holy Spirit until the apostles had come down from Jerusalem and laid hands on them. Then
28:08 the Holy Spirit fell on them so that they would both churches would be united by the one unifying experience. It only
28:14 happened among the Samaritans. The other group was the Ephesian 12. These were disciples of John. They were baptized
28:23 uh in the baptism of John which is not into Jesus Christ. They were baptized for the repentance of sin and and when
28:29 Jesus had repentance uh uh baptism that the John uh John's disciples had baptism of repentance only but not in the name
28:35 of Jesus. They were told that I will baptize you in water for repentance but someone's going to come and baptize you
28:40 in the Holy Spirit. They didn't realize that they only had this baptism of repentance. So their faith was
28:47 incomplete and when Paul came they received the Holy Spirit and they begin speaking in tongues. These are the only
28:53 two instances where you actually have a postcon conversion endowment of the spirit. Okay? And that's for historical
29:00 reasons. Now, so therefore, if you look at the baptism of the holy spirit, we believe that the holy spirit occurs at
29:07 conversion. And what happens is that the filling of holy spiritual occurs second time, third time, whatever is actually
29:13 what the pentecostals described as a battle of the holy spirit as a postcon conversion experience which is an endowment of power. Now if you look at
29:21 the gifts of the Corinthian church all out so many gifts and you can find these
29:27 are the ones which are miraculous all right but there are also non
29:32 miraculous gifts teachers helping administration faith etc different kinds
29:38 of gift and if you look further on the whole new testament you'll find a whole bunch of other gifts you know like
29:43 evangelists leader teaching exhortation giving mercy service celibacy marriage
29:50 marriage which means these gifts are in each case are not exhaustive which means
29:56 there could be other gifts out there not necessarily bound by this list which God
30:02 which which Paul has given. So therefore it tells you that uh these are all the non uh uh non-miraculous gifts. The list
30:09 is not exhaustive. There are miraculous ones and non-miraculous ones and spiritual gifts may not be extraordinary
30:15 and each one the tongues are always placed last. Not all have this gift.
30:20 The gift of tongues is not the only evidence of the baptis holy spirit. If you look in ancient times the the uh
30:26 oracle adelfi goddess of juno they speak in tonesues. Shamans of the African tribes in Haiti as well also speak in
30:33 tonesues. Shinto brutish priests also speak in tonesues. It's question what what they speak in tonesues about if
30:39 they actually profess Jesus Christ as Lord. Now let's look here the different gifts. Charismata
30:46 emphasizing grace, service, diia which means serving, it's mundane. You're
30:52 talking about waiters uh anagamata which is energizing the power in action. And
30:58 so basically you got three areas which gifts minister to. One grace gifts capabilities are given service areas in
31:05 which abilities exercise and lastly the effects of the exercise of all these
31:11 gifts and all these things come under the same God who empowers everyone. So
31:16 what Paul is going again and again saying there's differences you're interdependent but there's unity in one.
31:24 So what he's trying to do is bringing the charismatic gifts patients uh people and the ones with non-carismatic gifts
31:30 and they're putting them together flattening the difference and telling them the only thing that's important is who gave you this gift? Are you serving
31:37 God and is there effect? That's the only three things he's interested in. All right. So now the third thing is that
31:44 the spirituality of a person is not distinguished by the type of spiritual gift. It's as if tongues and miracles
31:50 put you on a higher plane. You look in verse 7 to 10. Each gift to one is given
31:57 the gift of the through the spirit of the utterance of wisdom to another the utterance of knowledge to another faith
32:02 to another another. So each one is given by God. You don't actually don't earn it. There are no super gifts and always
32:10 in the list of gifts tongues are always listed last. Okay. Now there are people
32:17 who then play this up. I read this from Charisma News Larry Sparks. He writes, "If you have the gift of tongues, uh,
32:23 you know, get supernatural understanding of God's mysteries and you've got access to other revelatory gifts of the Holy
32:30 Spirit. Opens up the Bible in new and living ways as you read it. And third
32:36 one, empowers you to engage in spiritual warfare from the position of victory." I mean, I mean, it's a gift of all gifts.
32:42 I remember having a dinner at a restaurant somewhere in the PJ and there was a Filipino waiter who was really
32:48 earnest Christian and he and basically he was telling us about a ministry where he drove a van to bring people who are
32:56 undocumented or migrants in this country to Bible study as doing that the police stopped him as his police stop he didn't
33:02 know what to do you know what he did he prayed in tongues and as you pray in tong oh the fellow's blind couldn't see
33:07 and they let him go you know there's a story of a man called brother Andrew you
33:13 You know what brother Andrew did for years? He took Bibles into East Germany
33:18 into Russia. He prayed the same prayer. Make seeing eyes blind. He prayed it in what?
33:24 English. Doesn't matter what you pray in what language it is. There is no super gift.
33:30 In fact, if you look at uh uh 1 Corinthians 14, it says, "Therefore, when one speaks in a tongue, should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in
33:37 a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful." which means if you're praying in tongue, you don't know what
33:42 you're speaking about. Okay? It's not a super gift. There's no evidence that it's a super gift. And in fact, each
33:49 gift has a unique function. It's a uniqueness of the gift that must be emphasized. In fact, uh Paul writes, "By
33:56 the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to
34:02 think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For in one body we have many members and the members do not
34:09 all have the same function. So you can't take one gift and play it against the other as if one is more important. We
34:15 must a sober humble estimation of each gift on its own. What about natural
34:21 gifts? What about are these spiritual gifts?
34:26 Believer and non-believer will have talents. You and I have talents. Some of you can bake. Some of you can dance.
34:32 Some of you can sing, right? Some of you are very clever accountants. And then you've got spiritual gifts, right? And
34:38 the spiritual gifts are there special abilities that are added to and beyond
34:45 the natural ability. Now, uh there's an overlap.
34:51 God has appointed teachers, helping helpers, administrators. How
34:57 many teachers here? Put your hands up. One, two, three, four. So spiritual gift
35:05 or natural gift sus
35:12 how many administrators here one or two spiritual gift or natural
35:18 gift so you go home and you're worrying and praying the Lord Lord is this spiritual is this natural by God I'm so
35:25 upset so maybe there are two classes of teachers in this church the spiritual
35:30 teachers and the non-spiritual teachersh I mean there's It's an overlap, isn't it? And and if you look at scripture, uh
35:37 you you look at Paul, he's got rhetorical skills. Where did he learn to write like that in the book of Romans
35:45 with a great flourish of a lawyer? What about the theological background he has in Judaism to use the Old Testament to
35:51 argue the case for Jesus Christ? Where did he get that? Was that a spiritual gift or a natural gift or a natural gift that basically hijacked for spiritual
35:57 purposes? You can't tell the difference. Each one is a manifestation of the
36:03 spirit for the common good. That's what spiritual gifts are. They're manifestation of the spirit for the
36:08 common good. So therefore, what about this person
36:14 like analy architect? He likes to build things, make things beautiful. Is it a spiritual gift? Well, if you look at it,
36:20 huh? Manifestation of the spirit for spiritual gifts.
36:26 Exodus Lord said to Moses, "See, I've called by name Bezale, son of Wuri, son
36:31 of her, one of the tribes of Judah. I filled him with the spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge
36:37 and all craftsman to deise artistic designs to work in gold, silver, and bronze, cutting stones and setting and
36:44 in carving wood for wood, for work in every craft. And behold, I've appointed with him, oh Holy, the son of Aihamach,
36:51 and the tribe of Dan. I have given to all able men ability that they may make
36:56 all that I've commanded you. Manifestation of the spirit for the common good. So you could be an
37:04 architect and that gift could be a spiritual gift as it were. So it's in
37:09 the old testament the spirit empowered people who are craftsmen, judges, prophets, even civil administrators.
37:17 Look at Moses. God found that Moses was too overwhelmed. And so he said, "And I
37:23 will come down and talk with you there. I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them and they shall
37:29 bear the burden of people with you so that you may not bear alone." See, you can have clers, civil
37:36 administrators, all filled with the manifestation spirit for the common good. All right? All having the same
37:44 spirit whether it's New Testament or Old Testament. So therefore my conclusion is that you got miraculous spiritual gifts,
37:50 non-miraculous spiritual gifts, natural talents and the natural talents all come from the triune God and the natural
37:57 talents actually non-miracular spiritual gifts used by the holy spirit for the common purpose of serving the lordship
38:03 of Jesus Christ. Charles webb writes from the person and ministry of holy spirit in a wesian perspective. He
38:09 writes the gift of the spirit of the spirit may illumine quicken and nurture
38:15 these potential potentialities in any individ in an individual to the development of greater usefulness.
38:21 Whereas without the presence of spirit in the life of an individual such potentialities may remain dormant
38:27 throughout life. So if there's a talent which you have which could be used that
38:33 mean for example you're a rocket scientist and you make intercontinental ballistic missiles to destroy people right that's that's not a very useful
38:39 talent in the kingdom of god but if you got other talents god can bring them up
38:45 and use them for the kingdom of god which is the same way it says that jip peeker right sometimes a very mediocre
38:51 talent or ability can somehow be adapted by god into a spiritual gift while at other times a great talent in a
38:57 Christian is never seen to be used as a spiritual gift or a ministry. So depending what God will use. All right.
39:04 So natural gifts are also used by God. Now the second thing Oh, the lights have
39:10 gone off. All right. I want to thank the Lord for the people who are gifted back there. If
39:17 it weren't for them, I would be paralyzed. Uh now we're going to look at some of
39:23 the gifts here before we end. um art spirit utterance of wisdom and
39:29 utterance of knowledge. And here we seem to think that uh uh can I go forward please?
39:37 We are jammed.
39:45 Have we can we restart?
39:54 All right. Doesn't matter. So we seem to think that the uh utterance of knowledge and utterance of wisdom could be uh
40:02 worldly wisdom. It is not worldly wisdom. Uh in fact uh if you look at Acts chapter five, Peter says to Ananas
40:10 and Sophia, Ananas, why is Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the
40:16 proceeds of the land. So here we have Ananas sold all their investment property and
40:22 their own property and then they told the church we give all to you. We give you know all to Maria's home actually
40:27 half of them they kept beside for themselves and it was a lie and actually the the Holy Spirit revealed it to
40:33 Peter. That's an evidence of the utterance of wisdom and knowledge at a particular time. Uh in fact, but there
40:39 are times when this is false. Uh if you read the book called showing the spirit by DA Carson, he describes a time in the
40:46 Chicago seminary where there was a lecture who claimed to the gift of
40:51 healing and and utterance of knowledge. Suddenly in the middle of the lecture he will stand up and says uh anyone here
40:56 with a back pain by the name of Bill stand up. Anybody here, Bill with back
41:02 pain? Stand up. He said again and again and again
41:09 and until after many times, you know, this fellow shippestly stood up and he
41:14 says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I I got back pain, but my name is not Bill, it's Mike." And the guy said, "It's okay.
41:20 That's close enough." So they suddenly heal him. I mean, that's a lot of rubbish. And you're either right or
41:26 you're not right. And the trouble a lot of people have hijacked these gifts with the authentic one is mixed with all the
41:33 fake ones. So that's the problem. Now the spiritual wisdom is about Christ crucified. When I came to you brothers I
41:40 did not come in proclaiming you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing about among you except Christ Jesus and him
41:47 crucified. Is how the crucifixion of Christ affects how you look at realities
41:53 in your life. You could be suffering from depression or something else. And then God says he comes into your life and the person gives you an utterance of
41:59 wisdom to tell you what God is doing in your life. So that's how it's done. Now
42:05 then you've got other gifts. Gift of faith. Now feeling of faith is uh not normal faith. Everybody has faith.
42:12 They're all here otherwise you won't be here as a Christian. The best example of
42:17 this is is George Müller in the 1900s. He uh was a pastor at that time and he
42:24 and he started off in his journey of faith. You learn from his life if you read about him. He first started saying
42:30 that you know I don't want to take any salary. So he's worked for free because
42:35 he didn't want to burden God's people. So basically started working for I will just live by faith. Second of all you
42:41 know what happens in those days they used to rent out pews. So that means you
42:47 can come to church and the church pew would have your name right there would be uh Peter Davidson
42:55 this one you know or Caroline Coup this one you know and if you were to rent out pews in this church with regular income
43:01 you know which ones we will rent out the back ones where Moby Noah is sitting all
43:07 right there will be the most money and what he did was said no we won't rent out pews anymore because we're
43:12 discriminating between rich people and poor people and so therefore we'll go by faith and then there was a collera
43:18 epidemic and then all the young children were out the streets and that started him to think about providing for them.
43:25 He started the first home in his house and another one in Wilson Street later on. And you know why he started homes?
43:32 He started homes because he wanted to demonstrate the the faithfulness of God in response to prayer. He never had
43:39 church news to tell you about Maria's home. He just got on his knees and he prayed. And each time he prayed, God
43:46 poured money in. The first 1,000 pounds were given and he started in his house
43:51 uh and in this particular place called Wilson Street. In fact, throughout his life, he actually looked after 10,000
43:58 orphans, started 117 schools, educating Christian education
44:06 20,000 Christian students. That's what he did just on based on faith. There was a very interesting story told of of him
44:13 one day in a steam liner. They were going on a steam liner to from crossing the Atlantic to go to Quebec and and he
44:20 was the the steam liner was running late and he went up to the steam the captain and said, "Look, you know, you're not
44:26 doing going fast enough. I need to be in Quebec on Saturday and this is Wednesday, you know." And the captain
44:33 say, "Hey, brother, look got cloud. Look at the fog. Fog's everywhere. We will never get there on time." And then uh uh
44:39 Müller said to him, "Look, uh I don't believe you. So come, let's let's pray." So he took the captain down to the chart
44:45 room and say, you know, let's pray together. So he got down on his knees and it's a very simple prayer which the
44:51 captain described later on was like a Sunday school prayer. And they first started off, Lord, if your will please
44:58 lift the flock. I believe it's in your will because I got to be there in Quebec by Saturday. And that was it. The prayer
45:04 ended, you know. Okay. And then the other guy, the captain said, "Okay, my turn now." Then as he got down to pray,
45:10 he he put his hand on his arm and said, "Look, you don't need to pray. You know why? You don't believe. Number two, the
45:16 fog already lifted." And they went out and the fork had already had already lifted. And he said to him, "In 57 years
45:23 of prayer, I've never been denied an audience with the king." Now, very
45:28 careful. I never been denied an audience with the king. Which means the king has always listened. But it doesn't mean the
45:35 king will answer exactly the way you want. Right? For most of us, what we pray, we pray with a bit of faith at
45:40 first. But that faith has got to be encouraged by an answer which we like. And when it comes to an answer we like,
45:46 then we continue to pray. If we come to an answer which we don't like, then we lessen the prayer. Our order is less,
45:53 our conviction is less, and we we kind of feel embarrassed for God or disappointed in him. But you'll never tell. The gift of faith is one that
46:02 keeps on coming and believing. I have an audience with the king no matter what
46:07 and he keeps on believing and that's what George Buller had uh and he
46:13 actually built up all these uh orphans orphanages to show us one thing that God is always faithful and when he died the
46:19 whole town of Bristol was jammed up and so example of someone with a gift of faith uh that we can the other one is
46:25 gift of healings uh uh charismata Imaton which is basically the other one is also
46:31 the workings of miracles they come together. And you notice this is the only list of group two of these gifts
46:37 which are actually in plural. It's called gifts plural healings plural
46:43 workings plural miracles plural while the rest all singular which tells you
46:48 that is not one person who has this automatic switch on gift. All right?
46:53 It's healing healing healing each as an individual element working on. Give you
46:60 some examples here. If you have Peter, he must have crossed the temple many many times. In Acts three, the man lame
47:06 from birth was being carried. They laid him daily at the gate of the temple that's called beautiful gate to ask for
47:12 arms of those entering the gate. Peter said to him, I have no silver and gold, but what do I have? I give to you in the
47:18 name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. Peter must across this guy
47:23 hundreds of times. You know, why is it on that particular day he decides to heal him? Isn't it? It's because on that
47:30 particular day when the spirit's prompting that is a healing that had to occur and that was the healing that he
47:36 gave. What about Acts 16? There's this demon-possessed woman followed Paul
47:42 crying out these are men are the servants of the most high God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation.
47:49 And she kept doing this for many days which is every day she catch out Paul. In the end, Paul having become greatly
47:55 annoyed turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus to come out." Why didn't he do in the first day or the
48:02 second day or third day? He waited on the two weeks later on when he's really upset. Why? Because it is a time when the
48:08 spirit prompts him that he should do it. So, it's not something like a like an ability which you can't turn on. It's
48:14 like some singer like pastor Leon can sing very well. He come up here anytime I ask him, he can sing. But with the
48:20 gift of healing, you can't just turn it on. But miracles and healing are true.
48:26 If you look at the the the the the best work that's been written is basically by Craig Keen looking at a huge two volumes
48:33 on all the miracles uh which is documented as much as he could all over the world and he actually quotes the Pew
48:39 Forum in October 2006 which actually looked at 10 different countries across
48:45 the world and they found documented experiences of miracles in 200 million
48:51 people who experienced miraculous healings and 39% % of them in
48:56 non-Pentecostal or charispatic Christians. God works through miracles,
49:03 but it's not on tap. If you look at Acts chapter 19 and God was doing
49:09 extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul and so that even handkerchiefs, aprons and touch his skin were carried
49:15 away to the sick and the diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them. Fantastic that everything he touches is
49:21 healed. In fact, he should go to Sububang Medical Center and empty up every ward, imagine every ward, then I
49:27 will have no job to do, right? Why don't people do that? And yet, if
49:32 you look on the other hand, you look at the other part of the verse when ifitis my brother and fellow worker, fellow
49:39 soldier and your messenger and minister of need, he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you
49:44 heard that he has ill next to Paul and his ill. What about and I left Trophy
49:50 who was ill at Bitus. Why would you leave your friend ill? Why would give him your handkerchief if not yours? Your
49:56 underwear as well can probably right. Why would you leave him ill? Because it's not turned on like a tap.
50:05 It is by the sovereign grace of God. Each healing is an instant work of the spirit. And people distort this. Uh for
50:12 example, Isaiah 53, he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our
50:17 iniquities. Upon him was the chastisements that brought us peace. and with his wounds we are healed. This is
50:23 true. The crucifixion of Christ is the atonement. His crush for our sin. We
50:28 actually have healing. The healing is not only spiritual is also physical. I believe that. But people take it to the
50:35 extreme. Here we have no scriptural warrant to end the healing prayer with a
50:40 faith destroying phrase if it is your will. God has made it perfectly clear in his word that it is his will to heal the
50:47 sick. Period. An example of overrealized esquetology. John Wimber. Today we see
50:54 hundreds of people healed every month in the vineyard Christian fellowship services. Many are more healed as we
51:00 pray for them in hospitals on the streets and in the home. The blind see the lame walk. The deaf here cancer is
51:05 disappearing. It's this belief that healing is a right. Healing has
51:11 occurred. And in fact if you're not healed means there's something wrong with you. can't be something wrong with
51:17 God because they will quote Jesus is saved yesterday today tomorrow right if you're not healed means something wrong
51:22 with you and the and the guilt falls on you and in fact if you there was a true story of Larry Parker and his family
51:28 very famous one made into a movie in the United States where he and his wife uh were members of Pentecostal Assemblies
51:36 of God church there and their son fell ill because of diabetes and when he
51:42 needed the vital insulin he took the in the parents took the insulin and threw it refused to give the insulin to the boy
51:47 because they believe he'd be healed in the name of Jesus. That all physical symptoms are actually counterfeit signs
51:53 of Satan. And they waited three days. The boy fell in a coma. They didn't do anything. After the coma led to death,
52:01 they had no funeral. You know what? They had resurrection service. Come and see
52:07 my son being resurrected. And all these symptoms, even death, it looks a bit dark and pale and cold. That's all
52:14 counterfeit. It's all Satan. For one year, you know, he couldn't believe until at last uh he saw the light. And
52:20 in fact, he writes later on, Wesley died needlessly, a victim of our imbalance
52:25 and misuse of the Bible. All healing comes from God, medicine, nature, prayers are methods by which he
52:31 accomplishes it. Ample evidence exists in the Bible for the cooperation by medicine and healing by faith.
52:38 And he realized that he was in the wrong. So the whole problem is overrealized esquetology. I I actually
52:45 don't have a problem when you're promising people to get healed. If you're healed, fantastic. My problem is that when you're not healed and you come
52:52 back and you either think God is useless or you are useless. That's the problem.
52:58 That's the problem. That's a theological problem that's worked out. And all that is because they believe that the uh the
53:04 the final consummation has already come. All right? That's the problem. But if you look in reality, if you look at
53:10 faith healing, Down syndrome, slight improvement, one out of 200,
53:16 you can't go to uh children's home, all the down, you can't heal them. Blindness
53:21 percentage healing is about 3 to 8%. And in John Wimber's own conference in 1986,
53:27 42% were not improved. Okay. Um 32% high measure healing and a
53:36 fair improvement made. heated you. It is not. We are not there yet. The final kingdom is not consumated. Healing is
53:44 given to us as little evidences of the age to come. But the age to come is not
53:51 finally here. We see little eruptions of that in our own backyard. If you look in the bario community in Sarawak 1973 to
53:60 84, four waves of revival that came in. And each wave of revival was characterized by what? Repentance of
54:06 sin. People getting excited about the gospel traveling miles and miles just to quote scripture to each other and in
54:13 that time massive wind rushing in people speaking in tongues and holy spirit. Yes, God can act but at particular time
54:21 according to his particular will or cal people. Now how do we use natural? How
54:27 do you use spiritual gifts? Each of us are given a manifestation of spirit for the common good. Spiritual gifts are
54:33 exercised as expression of spiritual fruit. Some of the most dangerous people in church are those who attempt to
54:39 operate in the gifts of spirit without first developing the fruit of the spirit. If you look at qualifications
54:45 for elders, actually the bar is very low. You know, you need one gift. What
54:50 is the gift? Teaching. But if you look at the fruit of the spirit, you need to be husband of one
54:56 wife at least. Soberminded, self-control, respectable,
55:02 hospitable, gentle. See, the fruits are emphasized
55:07 more so than the gift itself. Uh if you look at um uh one Corinthians chapter 13
55:13 where Samuel will speak to you, and I'm not going to steal his thunder. I'm going to read the first few verses. If I
55:19 speak in tongues of men and of angels but not have love, I am the noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I have
55:25 prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. So
55:34 second thing is that gifts are the unique expression of your calling. All these are empowered by one and same
55:39 spirit who aortions each according individually as he wills. See, if God
55:44 gives you a saw, what are you? Carpenter.
55:50 If God gives you a calculator, what are you? Accountant. Isn't that your gifts define your
55:58 calling? You can't get a calculator. And God, I want to be a surgeon. Hey, we don't use calculator. Only calculator a
56:04 billion. That's useful, too, huh? But each gift is a unique expression of
56:12 your calling. And many of you have gifts and the Lord gives you at least one gift because each of you are called and you
56:19 use what is in your hand. I I can never forget that beautiful sermon which David Adams preached many many years ago and
56:26 they told me uh when Moses said, "Behold, they will not listen to me or listen to my believe me or listen my
56:31 voice for they will say the Lord did not appear to you." And the Lord said to him, "What is in your hand?" And all he
56:38 had in his hand was what? A stick. You know why? because he was a shepherd and
56:44 I can't do this, I can't do that. And then Lord said to Moses, "Oh Lord, uh I'm not eloquent either in the past or
56:50 since you have spoken to your servant, but I'm slow of speech and our tongue. I'm not very good." And and he said, "He
56:56 shall speak for you to the people. He shall be your mouth. You shall be as God to him. Take in your hand the staff with
57:02 which you can do the signs. All you need is one stick and one chatty brother."
57:09 Right? That's why God gives us Peter with a stick and under a limb with a big mouth.
57:17 He talks 100 miles per hour. I need him. Right? You see the greatest miracles
57:23 come with the most ordinary gifts. Who cannot hold a stick? Every every shepherd's got a stick, right? Tell me
57:29 which shepherd with no stick. Maybe the modern shepherd got no stick, but in those days every shepherd had a stick.
57:34 You can't be a shepherd without a stick. And you can't have a brother who cannot talk a lot. I'm most of us are brothers who cannot talk who basically talk a
57:40 lot. So greatest miracles come with the most ordinary gifts. Rick Warren says this most eloquently and I always love
57:46 to quote him. God gave me a gift not for me but for you. God gave you a gift not
57:51 for you but for me. If you don't use your gift you're depriving me. If I don't use my gift I'm robbing you. So
57:57 each one is unique. In fact your gift profile is a signature of who you are.
58:03 Third of all gifts are crucififor in nature. Thomas Ryder writes, "Gifts are
58:09 crucifformed. For as we exercise the gifts, we give ourselves for the sake of others just as Christ did on the cross.
58:16 The exercise of the gift involves what? Sacrifice. Whatever gift you are, you
58:23 have you have to sacrifice your time, your expertise and your effort. It is
58:29 all gifts are crucififor in nature. They do not sit within your belt to make you feel good."
58:36 And Jesus ultimate gift was a gift of life. And all he needed is 12 ordinary
58:42 men who are willing. I want to challenge us now and I get the worship team up here
58:51 with this last verse which I think you could take home and bury in your heart.
58:58 2 Timothy 1:6-8. This is Paul writing to his disciple whom at a situation where
59:07 he's in prison where he probably will not see him again. It's very sad. But
59:12 these are the words he says to him. For this reason I remind you to fan into
59:19 flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying of my hands. For God
59:24 gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore, don't be ashamed of the
59:30 testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel for the by the power of God. So,
59:37 the picture he gives us is this. I want you to go home with this picture. It's as if you've got a bunch of calls and
59:46 there is some smoldering embers. And each of us are like that. We have the Holy Spirit inside us. has given us a
59:53 gift but all we have to do is to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you.
60:00 We all have this gift. What do we need to do? Fan to flame which is put some effort inside. And three things
60:07 affinity, ability and opportunity. Affinity means something that you kind of feel close to being
60:15 something that you like to do as it were. Ability is your able your ability
60:20 to do it. And last one is opportunity. [Music]
60:26 And then God has given us not a spirit of fear but of power of love and self.
60:36 Many of us say I I don't have this gift or my gift is very small. Um you know I
60:41 I remember all you have to do is the most important thing about affinity ability is opportunity. Just take the
60:47 opportunity. I in my life I have done you ask me ask the friends around who
60:53 know me in this church I've done Sunday school teaching you know I used to play the guitar I used to sing I used to lead
60:59 singing right you laugh yeah
61:05 [Laughter] so so you know I suck at all those things it took me 20 years to find out I
61:13 can actually preach but if you don't do all those things you never going to find out, isn't it?
61:19 You're going to say, "Oh, I can't. I'll be so shy. If I if I serve the Lord, I'm putting myself out there. They're going to laugh at me. They're back laughing at
61:26 me, right?" But the Holy Spirit gives us a spirit of not of fear, but of power,
61:32 of love, and self-control, and and you're the man of the moment. Every of you are men. I remember when I was about
61:39 25 years of age, the the I I had an opportunity to go to California for a conference. I was in uh uh uh Los
61:47 Angeles and and after visiting the the farmers market there, I decided to go to one of the malls. I can't remember what
61:52 mall it was. I wish I remembered. Huge mall and they have escalators on the side that goes up five stories, very
61:59 steep. And in between there's escalator going up, escalator going down in between like five, six feet apart. And I
62:07 was going up and all of a sudden I saw this young Caucasian girl hurtling down,
62:13 you know, with parents screaming at the back and I was thinking, well, well,
62:18 well, maybe I can go across. If it's Malaysia, it's very narrow, you just,
62:24 you know, America is very wide right across and I'm never the athletic type. It's 6 feet across. How can I go and get
62:30 there and do it? The second thing I thought, I don't have the power, isn't it? I don't have the power. And I
62:36 thought, this is America. There must be some Americans behind me who are big and strong, right? I'm just a tiny
62:41 Malaysian. I look behind me, no body there. Very upset. And here she was
62:46 coming down. And a split second, I had to just jump across. I just barely made it. I'm not very tall. I just managed to
62:53 grab her arm and held her for about a split second. And then the mother caught
62:59 up and her life was saved. You see, you see that's what using your
63:05 gift is, isn't it? You're there at that particular moment and the Holy Spirit gives you the power to jump across
63:13 and the love because you can't let that girl slide by and lose her life or or be
63:18 terribly injured. and yet self-control because after that I didn't join the
63:24 circus as if I was so great with my skills of jumping right I I continue
63:29 became a surgeon instead right the gifts need to have the power love and
63:36 self-control these are the three things power love and self-control and the
63:41 fourth thing and the Holy Spirit gives you power gives you love gives you self-control the fourth thing is what
63:47 therefore don't be ashamed the testimony of our Lord nor me his prisoner but share in the suffering by the power of
63:53 God all gifts are crucififor you have to be willing to sacrifice no point saying
63:59 I got the power I got to love but I don't want to sacrifice because that doesn't work the holy spirit gives you
64:06 this is you see being able to share in the sacrifice is given by the power of god so from
64:13 beginning to the end the ability is all given by god these 12 men. God didn't
64:20 choose the best men. They were fishermen, ordinary people. Some were terrible
64:27 people, tax collectors, Matthew. All they did was say, "Yes, I have a
64:35 gift." And God used them. There was a story told. This is a
64:41 picture in England of Atwork refactory
64:47 and uh one of the lecturers in Wheaton College in 1940 went and took a group of
64:52 American seminary students to Edward Refactory which is the home of John
64:58 Wesley famous Christian clergymen who prayed and
65:03 brought about the Wesian Methodist revival that saved England from the French Revolution kind of uproar.
65:11 He prayed and the whole nation was changed with the revival under him. And as they were leaving the tour going back
65:17 to the bus, one of the students were missing and he went back to look for the
65:23 student and you know where he was? He was at the bedroom of John Wesley and next to the bed was a carpet and two
65:29 deep impressions in the carpet. You know what? the impressions of his knees
65:35 where John Wesley every morning got on his knees and he prayed for two solid hours that God would save England. God
65:42 would revive England and God did. And this young man put his
65:49 knees onto the impressions of John Wesley into the shoes of John
65:55 Wesley. You know what he's praying there? He's saying, "Lord, Lord, do it again. Do it again. Do it again.
66:04 So lecturer came up, put his hands on the boy's shoulder and said to him,
66:11 "Billy, we've got to go." Guess who he was?
66:17 Billy Graham. And God did it again, didn't he? God did
66:23 it again. What did God do? What did Billy want?
66:28 what was top of Billy's mind that Jesus is Lord. So we need to get on
66:37 our knees. We we step in the footsteps of people like George Bullah, Billy
66:44 Graham. They're probably footsteps much bigger than ours. But we could get there and
66:49 fit our knees and we could say to Lord, "Lord, I want you to be my Lord. Lord of
66:55 my life, Lord of my family, Lord of my nation. The world must know that Jesus
67:02 Christ is Lord. So do it again. Only thing this time use me.
67:08 Let's pray. Going to pros in prayer. I'm going to
67:14 ask that each of us. I want to speak to each of us here. We we we all have a gift. Your gift is a
67:23 unique DNA profile of who we are. There's not a man, woman, or child in
67:29 this room whom God has not called to go out into his family, this
67:36 community, and to this nation to tell them that Jesus Christ is Lord. It's only whether you want to do it, whether
67:41 we're going to be like Billy Graham on our knees and say, "Lord, do it again, but this time use me." I pray that this
67:48 will be a cry of our hearts that all of us will stand up. Whatever gift we have, it could be spectacular, miraculous, or
67:54 it could be ordinary, could be a teacher, helper, administrator, we could wash dishes, we could be single,
68:00 but we want you, oh Lord, to just do it again. Do it again. Help me share the
68:07 gospel so that your name is the Lord. We ask this for Jesus sake. Amen.
