Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hey, everybody. Pastor Chuck Allen here with a Monday weekday podcast. And thanks so much for joining me, as always.
This week we're going to be talking a little bit about spiritual gifts and what they mean.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Yesterday, we had family worship at Sugar Hill Church, and I started with this concept of a gift meant for someone else. And part of what I was trying to convey was some of us receive a gift and we've never opened it. Now, that wouldn't be me. I open everything. I get excited about everything. But I can remember my granddad, he wasn't really big on gifts. And so one year, me and my sisters, we all got together and we provided him with this, what we thought was this super cool gift.
And the next Christmas, he sent one
[00:00:56] Speaker A: of them in there to get wrapping paper to wrap something for him, and it was under his bed. There's something that old people and stuff they collect under the bed, but that's where he kept his wrapping paper. And they went.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: And underneath that bed was the Christmas gift that we had given him that we'd put in so much thought into, never unwrapped. I guess the hectic pace of the former Christmas morning just didn't cross our minds or his. But somehow or another, that gift was under the bed for a year, never unwrapped, not even sure it would have ever been something significant.
Have you ever received a gift and never opened it? Well, the person who gives it is
[00:01:38] Speaker A: going to feel pretty bad that you didn't open the gift, friend. God has given you a gift, and today we're going to talk about that. First Corinthians 12, beginning of those four. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts,
[00:01:52] Speaker B: but the same spirit is the source of all of them.
There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but the same God does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
We each, as followers of Christ, have been given this gift. But notice this one small word, each A spiritual gift is given to each of us. He didn't say some of us or
[00:02:21] Speaker A: just pastors or to just people who are especially gifted at being gifted. He said each of us, each follower of Jesus, if you're 8 or you're 80, each still means you.
There are a lot of folks listening to this podcast and sitting in churches
[00:02:38] Speaker B: believing there are two kinds of Christians. Those who have something to give and those who are always supposed to receive. And almost always we put ourselves in the second group. Oh, I'm Not a teacher, we say, or, I'm. I'm just a regular person friend. Listen. The Bible disagrees. God says the spirit is at work in all of us. Check this out. These gifts come from the same spirit. We don't earn them or manufacture them by getting, you know, more, More. More education.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: We don't. We don't manufacture them by trying harder or being better.
A gift is something you receive.
Somebody who loves you simply hands it over to you.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: God is not a boss handing out assignments to the most qualified applicants, y'. All. He's a heavenly father who knows his children and gives each one of them something that fits.
Every single one of us has a gift. Now, here's where it gets fun, because God is wonderfully creative.
Listen to how the Bible describes it again. Different kinds of spiritual gifts, different kinds of service, and God who works in different ways.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Three times in three verses, he says different.
God didn't make a church full of copies.
He made a family full of people who observe the on purpose.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Now, I find this wildly refreshing because when I stop and think about what is the greatest level of diversity in the church.
Well, some of us would say, well, it's. It's. It's socioeconomic. Some of us would say it's educational. Some of us would say, well, you know, maybe it's ethnicity.
I would say its degrees of spiritual maturity. On any given Sunday in my church,
[00:04:42] Speaker A: you've got everybody from people don't know Jesus, from apple butter, to seasoned followers of Jesus who have been walking with God for decades. And everything in between
[00:04:56] Speaker B: spiritual giftedness and how that is to be reflected in the kingdom of God is as unique as DNA.
God has this unique way of putting the right people in the right seat, on the right bus, at the right time, and often not forever.
Because those spiritual gifts that we've been given, they have been given to us for the betterment of the kingdom of God, for his church, not for ourself.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: So, friend, wherever you're at and whatever you're doing today, I want to remind you, you, my friend, you are here.
And you're accomplishing exactly what God has in store for you if you're willing
[00:05:40] Speaker B: to open the gift and then put it to use.
I remember thinking, why would anybody give a rip about what I have to say or write?
And now I look back and I think I preach 50 weeks a year.
I have a podcast where thousands of people listen.
I've written multiple books, and I'm not sure any of them are really that good, but I do know is this.
God's using me, and he's using you.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: And the good news is, it's not about us.
It's all about him.
So let yourself become ears. Be cared for and loved and valued and
[00:06:27] Speaker B: about the kingdom. God bless you, friend. Thanks for joining me on today's weekday podcast.
