INTRODUCTION TO GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT
DR. JIM DIXON
ROMANS 12:1-8
JULY 21, 1985
There was a local high school football team that was on a terrible losing streak. They had 21 losses in a row. Well, this was pretty upsetting to their fans, particularly one man who was a millionaire. He’d made a lot of money in oil. He lived just outside the town. After the 21st loss in a row, after the game he went down into the loser’s locker room, and he gave those players a speech—a speech that Knute Rockne would have been proud of. He rebuked them but he also encouraged them. He exhorted them, he challenged them, he told them everything was going to be different. He promised them, he said that if next Friday night you win your football game against one of our biggest rivals, I’ll give each and every one of you on the football team a brand-new car. And he also promised to give the coach a brand-new car.
Now I want to say that that football team and coaching staff had a whole new attitude that week. For seven days, they ate, they drank, they breathed football. They dreamed about scoring touchdowns and making crushing tackles. At practices that week, they were all yelling and shouting and slapping each other on the rear. The enthusiasm spread like a fever over the campus. It was everywhere—pep rallies—nobody could wait until Friday night. They were going to win. That Friday night in the locker room before the game, the coach stood up, gave the best speech he’d ever given in his coaching career. When he was done, those players were wired. They were ready to play. They could just see themselves in a brand new car, surrounded by beautiful girls. They went out of that locker room, and they went out onto the field, and there in the sidelines all the players held hands and they shouted their school’s name. They spelled out VICTORY and than they went out onto the field to meet the enemy. An incredible thing happened. They lost the game. They lost 38 to nothing. That story was told by James Dobson in his book called “Emotion – Can You Trust It?” It is allegedly a true story and Dobson wants us to understand that all the emotion in the world didn’t put one point on that scoreboard. Emotion has a place in our society and in our life but it is no substitute for ability, no substitute for talent, no substitute for giftedness.
Now as Christians, the Bible tells us we’re all on a team. We’re all on the same team. All of us who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ is our coach, but he does a lot more than give us a pep talk and a promise of future rewards. He sends us onto the field with gifts, with talents, with abilities, and these abilities are called the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the “charismata.” This morning I want to share simply one teaching with you, by way of introduction, and this teaching is this these gifts are meant for you. The Bible says, “to each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” The gifts are meant for you.
Now I’m sure some of you have heard of W. C. Fields—all of you. When some people think of W. C. Fields they think of an actor, some people think of a comedian, some people think of an entertainer, some people think of a person with a top hat, a funny walk, had a way of speaking out of the side of his mouth. Most people don’t know that W. C. Fields had a paralyzing fear of poverty. When he was young, as a vaudeville performer, barely able to put food on the table, barely able to clothe himself, and out of his poverty he began to have a nightmare and this nightmare became a recurring nightmare in his life and it was always the same. It was a dream where W.C. Fields would find himself in some foreign town. He didn’t know where he was but he was broke and he was penniless. He couldn’t buy any food. He began to starve, he began to be desperate, and somehow in the course of his dream he would get in trouble with the law and as he was just about to be thrown in jail he’d wake up in bed in a cold. sweat. Somehow this dream led W.C. Fields to a strange relationship with banks all over the world. He began to deposit money in banks all over the world—700 banks! In some of the banks he put just a few hundred dollars, in other banks he put $50,000 as he became a success, but he put money in banks all over the world. He used fictitious names when he opened his bank accounts. Sometimes he would identify himself as Ludwig Fishpond, sometimes he would identify himself as Figley Whitesides, Aristotle Hoop. He had a different name with every bank account, but somehow those bank accounts took away his nightmares because he would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and suddenly, he’d begin to think about his bank accounts and he’d think, what’s the problem—I’ve probably got money in that little town anyway in some bank and so the nightmares began to go away. But there’s one problem. When W.C. Fields died, most of the bank accounts were lost. He didn’t keep very good records. He had told many friends that the bank accounts were meant to provide gifts to his heirs, but it didn’t happen. Only 23 of the 700 bank accounts were found and identified. It was estimated that $1,300,000 remains, with interest, in those more than 600 bank accounts unclaimed by the heirs of W.C. Fields—lost, wasted. Unfortunately, the Gifts of the Spirit are just like those bank accounts.
Jesus Christ has left this earth. We are his heirs. He’s given a great inheritance to us. Some of this inheritance we’ve not yet entered into and it is promised for the life to come—resurrection bodies, eternal life in the new Heavens and the new Earth, but some of this inheritance is available now, and part of the inheritance that is available to the heirs now are called the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, but for most Christians, they are lost—they are not claimed, they’re undiscovered, they’re wasted. In fact, studies show that 90% of Christians in this world are not able to identify their spiritual gifts. In a congregation like this this morning that means that on the average, if the statistics remain true for you, 650 of you gathered here this morning in this service, probably do not know what your spiritual gift or gifts are. You cannot identify them. It doesn’t need to be that way.
I want to share briefly four things you can do—real briefly—four things you can do to help you identify your spiritual gifts. First, you must have a knowledge of the gifts. You must know what they are. Most of you probably can’t list more than three or four Gifts of the Spirit, but there are at least nineteen, and probably more, listed in the Bible. In the next 15 weeks, we’re going to examine the Gifts of the Spirit in order that you might have knowledge. We can take care of that. Now the second thing you must have is desire. It says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 1, “earnestly desire ALL the Gifts.” It doesn’t say SOME of the gifts. It says earnestly desire ALL the Gifts. God doesn’t have any bad gifts.
When I was growing up at Christmastime, my parents always had a lot of gifts for my brothers and I under the tree—they’re very generous—we didn’t usually get one big gift because we didn’t want that. We wanted a whole bunch of junk, so we had lots of gifts under the tree. I can promise you that there was never a single gift that I left unopened—simply because I desired them all. And that’s the attitude God wants us to have toward the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. He wants us to desire them all. Now we’re not going to get them all. No individual has all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and no one gift is given to every individual, but we are supposed to desire all the gifts and be open to all the gifts, and that’s the second thing I want to share with you regarding discovery of your gift.
Now thirdly, we must be willing to participate in petition. We must ask. We must pray for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “If you as earthly fathers, being sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Have you ever gone home, one into your bedroom, closed the door, knelt by the bed and asked for any of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit? God wants us to seek Him, to ask, then to receive whatever he gives. Some of you may want to ask in such a way as you would like to have other people pray for you. Perhaps you would like to have the Elders of the Church lay hands upon you. In days to come, we may give you that opportunity here at the church.
The fourth thing I think that is helpful is discovering your gift is simply to begin to employ the gifts, test the gifts. Peter says, “As each has received a gift, employ it for one another as good stewards of God’s varied Grace.” Many times I’ve found that people really don’t know what their gifts are until they begin to try to employ them. Have you ever tested your gifts to see what your gifts are? We want, in the future of this church, to give you the opportunity to employ your gifts—all the gifts—in some proper context, but if you’re willing to seek, to test your gifts, you will discover with certainty just what your gifts are.
God would have us develop knowledge of the Gifts, He would have us desire all the Gifts., realizing that we don’t receive them all, He would have us pray for the Gifts, and He would have us test the Gifts, seek to employ them.
Now I want to say one thing, and this is kind of a sidelight, but I guess it’s kind of a warning. The Gifts of the Spirit are for ministry. The Apostle Paul said, “He who descended is He who also ascended far above the Heavens that he might feel all things. As Gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers, for the work of the ministry, for the equipping of the saints and for the building up of the Body of Jesus Christ.” The Gifts are for ministry. The Greek word for ministry is the word diakonia, it means service. The Gifts are for the service of God and for the service of people. The Gifts are for people with a servant’s heart. It you don’t have a servant’s heart, you’d be better off not having the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, because if you don’t have a servant’s heart, you’ll abuse those Gifts. That’s what happened in Corinth. And that’s why Paul wrote to the people there. A servant’s heart. It’s hard to have a servant’s heart—living in this world. It’s hard to be focused on other people. It’s easy to be turned inward, focused on ourselves. We live in a selfish world. This is a selfish generation. From the very earliest days of our lives, we are taught subtly to exalt ourselves, we are taught to serve ourselves. As we grow older, we’re taught to get in touch with ourselves, our inward selves, and we’re taught to take care of our outward selves, we’re taught to love ourselves, and the Bible does tell us that we are indeed to love ourselves. But this has become a world that is preoccupied with self, enamored with self, a world that has been called a narcissistic society.
You know Jesus, when He left Heaven and came to earth, exhibited the kind of attitude and heart that we’re called to have. Paul says, “Have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be clutched, but He emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. Being found in human form, He humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even unto death on a cross.” Paul says, “Have that mind, have that heart—a servant’s heart.”
If you’re ready—if you’re at that point in your life when you’re ready to quit focusing inwardly—and you’re willing to focus on Christ and on his Kingdom and on the needs of others, you’re ready for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that it’s only when you have that focus that you’ll begin to find joy and happiness and purpose and fulfillment anyway when you’re ready to begin to think about the needs of others and the service of others.
In conclusion, I would like to share a story told by Elmer Bendeneer. Elmer Bendeneer wrote the book called “The Fall Of Fortresses” and in that book he describes how he, during World War II, he was flying his 8-17 over the German city of Kogl. Suddenly his aircraft was struck by a 22mm shell in the fuel tank. There should have been a great explosion and Elmer Bendeneer should have been history, but it didn’t happen. He was stunned that his plane was still flying. He knew he had been hit by at least one shell during all the exchange.
Stunned, he returned to his base. He got out of his plane, and he went inside one of the buildings to kind of calm down, collect his thoughts. Then he ran back out and told the crew that he wanted that shell saved, that 20mm shell, he said he wanted to save it as a kind of remembrance of the incredible luck that he’d had. The crew told him, “well, you’re not going to believe this but they not only found one 20mm shell in your fuel tank, but 11, and none of the 11 exploded. Intelligence has come and taken the 11 shells and they’re examining them.” Well Elmer Bendeneer then went to Intelligence. He tried to find out what was going on and they told him that all 11 shells were empty. No explosives charge in any of the shells. They were totally, empty, clean as a whistle and just as harmless except for one shell, and in that shell they found a note. The note was written in Czechoslovakian. When they translated the note, they found that it simply said, “This is all we can do for you now.”
Apparently, some Czech people working in a Nazi munitions factory were sympathetic to Britain and the United States, and they were doing their little part to help the cause of freedom. In World War II, Nazi Germany was defeated and Adolph Hitler fell—a hideous power—but it never would have happened if everyone wasn’t doing their part, no matter how small. The Bible says we are engaged in a world war far greater than World War II. There is a battle for this planet, it’s a battle between light and darkness, between the powers of Christ and the powers of Antichrist. As a Christian you have been called to enter into that battle. If you would enter that battle and serve the cause and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, then you must discover your gifts. You must begin to use them as weapons against the enemy, for healing of the saints, for the encouragement and building up of one another. Shall we pray?