Activating Our Spiritual Gifts

I didn't understand what we're going to do tonight. As you probably know, ever since the beginning of the conceptualization of North Way as a church, we knew that God was calling us to build into relationships. I had discovered in my walk in Christ that the things that had changed me the most had been people. How about you? Have you found that? I mean, God using people, but the spirit of God using people to change me. I'd wandered around as a young Christian for almost two years until a fellow student in college looked me up one day and said, how would you like to be part of a Bible study? And I ran the other way. I didn't like this. I thought this guy was weird. And it turns out I was the weird one. He was the normal one. And we built a relationship. And that relationship changed the course of my life, no question about it. When I first came to Pittsburgh in 1973, one of the first people I met was Kathy Bain, who's here tonight. And she was a sophomore in high school. And don't do any math now. You're going to mess up my whole analogy. And we started a relationship with some young people that summer. And then that led to me coming back and taking a job as a youth pastor. And God knit our hearts together in relationship. And those relationships really were the kernel, really, at heart of what North Way has become over the years. And many of those people that were in that first youth group have gravitated into the ministry here with us. And so all along, we've seen relationships as central to who we are. That's why we call our church North Way Christian Community, much to the frustration of everyone else who doesn't understand why we don't say church. Is that a church? My favorite question, is that a church? I said, no, it's a used car lot. And we just have a big office. But we've also discovered that you just don't have relationships. I mean, they have to have a direction. They have to have a focus. They have to have a purposefulness about them, or else they just tend to stagnate. Have you found that? Even marriages, which can sound so wonderful as you think about them, because if you don't have purpose and direction, marriages stagnate. Because we're made, God's created us with this need for mission. So years ago, we sought the Lord about our mission. And we came up with, where's my, you have all my things. Thanks, Nancy. This is our vision. And this may be news to some of you who are newer. But we just put out that whole vision statement. Here's what it says. We need the screen down about 14 feet, please. Why don't you read it with me, so we can all sort of say it together. To raise up a local body of disciples of Jesus Christ, who will be loved, nurtured, and equipped to minister to God, to one another, and to the lost of the world, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, I'm not going to dissect this tonight. In fact, if I follow the leading on to right now, a week from Sunday, this is going to become the focal point of the message that I'm going to bring. Because I think there are a lot of folks who attend Northwest on Sunday morning who don't really know what the church is trying to do. They just kind of like to come. And they like the people. And they like the worship, and a few other things. But we need to talk about what it is that we are called to do. Because this says it, I think, quite well. We're here to make disciples. Now, whose idea was that? Who said, go and make disciples of all nations? Paul, right? No, it was Jesus and the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19. Who will be loved, and nurtured, and equipped. In other words, that's what's going to happen to you, so that you can do something with it. What can you do? You can minister to God, to one another, in the loss of the world, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, this is the purposefulness of our relationships. This is what it is that we're trying to do as we gather as God's people. I want to go on record as saying there's no one right way to do church. There's lots of different ways to do church that some people have found effective. Some of you grew up in churches that had great Sunday schools. Let me see your hand. Most of you didn't grow up in a church with a great Sunday school. But that's a great way to train people, at least it has in times past. Not so many now, but it was a great way. How many of you grew up in churches that had services every Sunday night and every Wednesday night, along with Sunday morning? Yeah, boy, it was torture, wasn't it? Going back out again. No, actually, there was a period of time when that was a, I mean, everyone who had a great church seemed to do that. There is no right way. I believe there's a lot of different methods that can work. But at North Way, we believe it's relationships. And it's primarily relationships, and this is important, in the context of small groups. And why is that so? Well, because my primary conviction is that in the Bible, Jesus did it that way. He spoke to the masses. He brought large groups of people together, sometimes so many they couldn't fit into houses and so on. But he did his deepest work with a group of 12. That's how he made disciples. And my best hunch is, why not follow his method as well as his message? And so that's what we've set out to do. And for the past 18 months, we've been working diligently to improve the framework. And again, those of you who have been here two years or less wouldn't know that North Way has always had small groups. I mean, we started as a small group before we ever met in a church building to worship or the restaurant building, as it were. We met in small groups. And we encountered the dynamic of God amongst us in groups in homes for the first three months. We started out as four home groups. And we've always had home groups. Always had cell groups in terms of form over the years. But in the last 18 months, and I'll be getting into this more on Sunday morning, God has really spoken to me that we've gotten away from that methodology and have allowed ourselves to become far too non-directed in our group life. And so this is very unusual for us. For the last 18 months, unbeknownst to most of the people who worship with us, we've been working behind the scenes to really invest in the small group life of North Way. And now we're ready to begin to bring all that hard work to the surface so you can begin to see it and benefit from it. And some of you are already in some of the active cell groups that are meeting. And you know what I'm talking about. Others of you don't know what it's about. And some of you are still kind of revisiting the whole idea of what's different. And we'll be talking about that in the coming weeks. But the primary thing that we're going to do in the months and years ahead, because I believe it's first of all, and this is critical, it's a word from the Lord. And we're going to talk about what's a word from God a little later. But the Lord gave me a powerful word about this direction three weeks, almost a month, I guess it was, after my surgery of a summer and a half ago, a year and a half ago in the summer. And since that time, I've been very focused on this, even though you haven't heard a lot about it or seen a lot about it unless you've been involved in a small group, particularly in the cells that we are developing. Now, what's that have to do with Wednesday night, you're wondering? Well, here's the key. You may have noticed, how many of you are astute North Way note readers? When you come in Sunday morning, the first thing you do is you grab your notes and devour it. Anybody? Really? I feel good about that. I thought no one read those things. I thought you just used them to light your fireplace. Well, if you're an astute North Way note reader, you may have noticed that we've been running a little thing since we stopped having Wednesday night services about, what, early December, mid-December, because of the holiday and all that. And so happened that Christmas and New Year's were on Wednesdays and so on. But normally, we get real specific about what we're going to be doing and where we're going to be going on Wednesday nights a few weeks in advance, and then we start up again. Well, if you were reading that carefully, you noticed I wasn't real specific, because I kept saying, what are we supposed to be doing? I know you have a purpose for Wednesday nights. What is it? Do you love it when you keep asking God and you don't get an answer? Now, it's one thing when you're doing that for your own life. It's another thing when you feel like there might be a couple thousand people that are going to be affected by that decision. That's the burden I was feeling. Why, Lord, what is it? And it just took some serious getting away and getting quiet for me to hear what the Lord wanted to do with these Wednesday nights. And here we go. What we're going to be doing in the coming weeks is this. I have a sense that only people who are really serious about wanting to get closer to God come out on Wednesday nights. I don't think that people who are indifferent would bother to wolf down your dinner, come out on a cold night, and subject yourself to physical deprivation, unless you really want to grow. Is that true? How many of you really are here because you want to grow? I mean, it's a given. You don't need motivated unless you just happen to be a visitor tonight for whatever reason. We're glad you're here if that's the case. So I believe that what God wants us to do with Wednesday night is to give you some tools to help you to really get closer to God in your walk, but listen, but also to equip you to be an extremely effective leader, I said leader, of a small group. Now, some of you just said, you know, this is my last Wednesday night ever because I have no desire to lead any small group. Well, sometimes you can lead by simply being a great participant. You can lead by model and by example, but I believe if you're really honest, some of you have tremendous latent potential that's just been untapped to help make disciples through the context of small groups. And so as I've been praying now, this thing really, it was just, how many people were reading glasses here? You know the frustration of trying to read something and you can't find that right place? Well, this for me was like that experience. I couldn't get this. And then all of a sudden it was like, God, the optometrist sat down and gave me perfect lenses and I see this now, what it's supposed to be. Wednesday nights are going to become a time of cell, C-E-L-L, abrasion. And each Wednesday night, we're going to have a little different focus of what it is that's going to be going on in terms of the dynamics in the cell group ministry. And so what's going to happen is you're going to be receiving some of the tools, some of the nurturing, some of the equipping, so that you can sit down in the context of a small group and really feel comfortable, really know how to move forward, know how to avail yourself of the opportunities that are out there. And so in the coming weeks, we'll spend a week, just the whole night's going to be worship and praise. Why? Because that's one of the things you got to learn to do. Another week, we're going to spend purely on what it means to be a leader and how to develop your leadership skills. Some of you already have that. Some of you don't really have much of a clue. We're going to talk about that on a Wednesday night. Tonight, we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit's gifts and ministry. And not just talk about it, we're going to practice it some here in a little bit. Another night, we're going to talk about outreach and sharing because one of the components of our cell group is learning how to be comfortable in reaching out to another. Another night, we might talk about prayer and how to more effectively pray. So those are just five things that I see us on as kind of a rotating basis every Wednesday night, plugging into one of those five areas. Now, coincidentally, as you hear those five areas, does that describe something to you? Does that describe a person who is walking closely to God? Worship and praise, sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His gifts, effective prayer life, leading by example and model and serving heart and reaching out to others. To me, show me that person and you're looking at a mature believer. But it just happens to be the kind of person that will thrive in a small group as well. So tonight, let's just very briefly begin this and we're going to land on that area as I believe was announced on Sunday of the Holy Spirit's ministry and gifts. And you're going to get ready to participate with me. I have a conviction, I think you shared with me that God's purpose in the church was to give every single part of the body, His body, something to do. That they felt good about. And I don't know if it's true in your life, but lots of folks tell me they live or work in an environment where they never feel like they do anything very well. And we're going to talk tonight about what God has always had in mind in terms of equipping you to do well in His body so that you can get up from a small group situation or sometimes a large group situation and feel really good about what you've done to contribute to the body being built up. I have three convictions. Every member of the body of Christ is a minister, every member is gifted in ministry, and every member is called to minister. Now there are three categories, and Nancy's going to help me with these on the overhead, three categories of gifts of the Spirit. This is not on your outline and we may have to come back to this next time, but just as a broad stroke, because some of you know a lot more about this than I'll ever get to tonight and some of you don't know anything. First of all, we call them manifestation gifts. There are three M's here. The first one is manifestation gifts. Manifestation gifts. Nancy, before we look at those, let's jump over to 1 Corinthians 12, 7. That's the next overhead, I think. This is where that comes from. Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To whom is it given now? To each one. Turn to someone and say, that means you. It means you, okay? You have a gift. The first rule in understanding Holy Spirit gifted ministry is that every one, each one has, what? A manifestation of the Spirit so they can be a big shot in the church, right? Now what? For the common good so that we can build each other up. We'll look more carefully at some of the purposes. That's 1 Corinthians 12, 7. And the word manifestation, that's the next overhead, is from the Greek, phenorosis, which means an exhibition, expression, or manifestation. So in other words, when the giftedness of the Holy Spirit comes, other people will know about it because it's an exhibition, it's an expression or manifestation. What are these manifestation gifts? Now back to that original overhead. Let's look at them. There's just nine of them. We're gonna come back to this in a moment. Let's just throw them all up there. There's the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge. There's faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation. Now we're gonna come back to those, but before we do, let me show you what the other two categories are. There's a second category of ministry gifts. None of this is on your outline. This is to totally confuse you. We're not even gonna talk about these now, just to show you that they are there. The Holy Spirit also gives what we call ministry gifts. These are broad categories. Apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. Where does that appear in scripture? That's Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. And finally, there's what some have called, this isn't really a biblical term, but motivational gifts. The gifts of perceiving, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, associating, administration, and compassion. And that gift, the list of gifts appears where? Romans 12. So you have Romans 12, three through eight. There you have Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. And this list appears in 1 Corinthians 12, verses seven through 10. And these are the nine gifts that we're gonna look at tonight. And by the way, there's a total then, if you add them together, of nine, and five is 14, and seven is 21, at least 21. I've heard as many as 27 or 28 gifts of the Spirit. This is not all, but this is a good overview of them. And tonight we're gonna talk about the manifestation gifts. And I want you to take your handout. Now it's time for that green handout. You have it there? All right. Let's look at each of these for just a moment. The manifestation gifts are these. Each one, by the way, it could be a 15 or 20 minute summary. I'm just gonna touch on them. Maybe we'll add to it if we have time later. And I think it would be healthy before I go through those, because I did not read this text just to read it for you. Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. That's what we read, 1 Corinthians 12, seven, verse eight. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom. To another, the message of knowledge. By means of the same Spirit, to another faith. By the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing, by that one Spirit. To another, miraculous powers. To another, prophecy. To another, distinguishing between spirits. To another, speaking in different kinds of tongues. And to still another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one just as he determines. So what is the word of wisdom? Well, it's a revelation of wisdom beyond the natural human wisdom that enables a person to know what to do or say. Folks, the word of wisdom is not limited to people who are necessarily intellectual giants. In fact, I have been ministered to by people on numerous occasions who have gotten a word of wisdom who have not been highly educated. One of the great things about God is he doesn't look at your natural capabilities and go, ooh, there's someone with a PhD. Or, oh, I can't use that person, they didn't finish high school. How many know God? In fact, if anything, seems to prefer the people who are less caught up in their own kind of accomplishments and use them. Look at the disciples. How many of the disciples were really brilliant? Well, maybe Luke, and not too many other than that. I mean, from what I can tell. The word of knowledge. Well, that's a revelation of information for a person, group, or situation that could not have been known by any other means. The word of knowledge. What's that? Well, it's like when someone comes to you and says, maybe it happens in the context of your small group and you're praying and the Lord says, you know, right now, and I'll just pick a person, I'll say, right now, Jack, the Lord seems to be impressing me that you are, I see this picture of you standing underneath this huge barbell of weight, and you can barely move. The barbell weighs about 300 or 400 pounds, and your legs are buckling, and you're pushing up as, I'm making this up. Okay, you're pushing this up as with all your might, but your legs are buckling, and the Lord wants you to know that he wants to come and lift that burden from your shoulder. Well, what is it? Well, see, it turns out that I didn't know this, but that day, Jack just got word that the bottom had fallen out of his business, and he was just about to go under financially. That's the way. See, that's a word of knowledge. Now, how many think that would minister to Jack if that was the case, hmm? Now, folks, what's supposed to happen in our small groups is that from time to time, we should be able to gather around in a group and pray together and hear the voice of the Spirit to one another to do those very kinds of things. Not just sit there and hope that something will happen or maybe feel a little more comforted, but literally to hear from the Lord for each other. That's the purpose of these gifts. They're manifestations for the common good. How about the manifestation of faith? Well, this is the wonder-working kind of faith, not just the generic faith of, well, yes, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but faith that moves mountains and waits expectantly for results. In other words, faith that gets stuff done. It moves obstacles. It's faith that says, now, how many of you know the difference? Is that pretty clear? I mean, there's a gift of faith that comes in a situation where you just know it's gonna happen. Then the gift of healing. And we could talk about that one for the next 45 minutes, but let me just say here, I think that manifestation is that in the midst, again, of a ministry setting, the Spirit of God comes in. Let me use, by the way, something I'm gonna insert here. John Wimber says this, I think he's correct. These gifts, listen carefully, are not given to you to hold onto. In other words, if you have the gift of healing, it is not your gift. Do you understand? It's rather that God has allowed his giftedness to flow through you, and it's not an automatic thing that you'll always have. In fact, I think it's more often a sense where you may, in a situation, have one gift that's really necessary, and in another situation, a different gift may appear in your life. Wimber calls these bracelets, from the Greek word charisma, which is a word for gift. I like to think of a bracelet, or it's just like a little gift that God puts on you for that particular need. Think bracelet, bracelet, okay? I didn't wear my bracelet tonight, I don't think I have one, but you know what I'm talking about, okay? God gives you this manifestation for that situation. It's not yours to keep, and by the way, if you try to possess it, if you try to work it up, it doesn't happen. You can't keep it that way. It kind of comes on you, and then it moves on. It's the spirit, it's the wind of that spirit. Next one is working in miracles. This is a demonstration of power and action that goes beyond natural laws. Not too many people seem to move in this gift, why? Because I don't think they've nurtured their faith level, and we'll be talking about that in future time. Prophecy. What is the gift of prophecy? Oh my goodness. In this day and age, we have so much teaching on the gift of prophecy. Prophecy is the enunciation of the word of God for the moment. It's the declaration of the word of God for the moment. Now, no prophetic word will contradict scripture, I want to be real clear about that. In other words, if someone says, thus saith the Lord, all of you here present in the meeting tonight are to empty your wallets and give them money to me. I have to say to you, that's probably not the Lord speaking because it would seem to contradict the whole idea that giving is to be something that's done freely and without compulsion. That's a word of compelling that I would say wouldn't be from the Lord. I could use a more ridiculous analogy, like thus saith the Lord, let's go stand up on the pinnacle here of the sanctuary and slide down the roof and fall. Well, no, it would never contradict scripture, which would, so it's important. Prophecy comes to build up. In 1 Corinthians 14, we could talk a lot about that. It edifies you. If it's truly a prophetic word from the Lord, it may at times get your attention because it could be a little bit difficult, but its end result will be to build you up or to rescue you from a situation. Most prophecy that I have received in my life has been very edifying. It has been very encouraging to me. 1 Corinthians 14 again says that clearly. Discerning of spirits, that's the person's ability to perceive what type of spirit is in operation in a given situation. What does that mean? Well, sometimes in your small group, you'll be, have you ever been in a group and it just seems to be going nowhere? I mean, you'll sit there for like four sessions and the group is like real cold and the people are kind of just putting up with each other. Well, a person with the gift of discerning of spirits might be able to discern that there is some sort of oppression that's hanging over that group and they'll be able to say with clarity, I sense from God right now that we're to pray against this spirit of oppression and the group unites around that. They pray and believe and wouldn't you know, the group opens up and there's a melting of hearts and people open up to each other. I've had that happen. Discerning of spirits may be the very thing that you need to get past a wall that just doesn't seem to move. And then the last two, of course, the famous gift of tongues and interpretation. Let me be clear here. This definition says the language is given to the believer by the Holy Spirit, but not learned or understood by the speaker. And then the supernatural ability to express the content of what has been spoken in tongues. Again, my purpose tonight is not to go in depth in each of these, but just to say, there's misunderstanding about tongues. Some people think, well, what is it? Does God just get a hold of it? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, it really is a very natural thing. I liken it to when you're free enough to just sort of rest, to lean back. You know, have you ever done that thing where someone gets right behind you and then says, and just says, fall back, and you have to trust them? And you're just scared that maybe they're playing a big game on you and you're gonna go back and what? When you're finally in love with the Spirit of God enough just to say, I fully trust you to lean back into your arms. It's like he puts this gushing river of love in your heart that wants to be expressed. And the gift of tongues really has two manifestations. And you might wanna just jot this on the side of that because this is important. There's a gift of tongues that's given for personal prayer and edification. That's what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 14. It's a gift of tongues that really is your communication. It's the Spirit in you speaking back to God. Romans 8, verse 26 and seven talks about the Spirit giving utterance and groanings too deep to knowledge. There's also the gift of tongues that can be declared in a public meeting. If the Spirit moved in this meeting right now on one of our lives, he may give us a message to this group in the gift of tongues. Now, that gift of tongues must have the gift of what? Interpretation. The former, the first one, your personal prayer language of tongues may not have interpretation. Sometimes it does, but normally it doesn't. Normally it's just the language of the Spirit of God. A lot of confusion happens when people come in. For example, I've had this mentioned to me at North Way a number of times. People come in and say, well, I came to your church once and I sat beside a person and I got real uncomfortable because during the worship, I could hear them very softly and they were doing something like, you know, and I know my Bible says that if there's a tongue, there needs to be an interpretation. And so your church is out of order, it's unbiblical and I'm leaving. I say, whoa, wait a minute. There are illustrations in scripture where people utter in their language, their glossolalia, their tongue unto God. It says in 1 Corinthians 14, a man who speaks in unto him tongue speaks to God. Mysteries in the Spirit. That's what it's talking about. 1 Corinthians 14, two and three. You want to look that up a little bit later. But there's also the gift of tongues, which is a public declaration. It may be in your small group. If a person in a small group says, I believe the Lord has a message in tongues and he or she speaks that out, then he or she or another person should follow that with the gift of interpretation. Now, what's the interpretation like? Well, sometimes it's almost seems like a word for word translation, but more often than not, it's sort of, well, it's just by faith, the person says, I sense this is what God was saying through that tongue. And it can be more of a kind of like looking at a picture and saying, this is what I see versus a transliteration of what that tongue was. So that's a quick recap of the nine gifts. Manifestations, all right? Now take your sheet of paper, flip it over. Well, here's what you need to do. Under the category of gift, write this down. Wisdom, in fact, Nancy, do me, do us all a favor. Put that overhead that says manifestation gifts, ministry gifts, that one. Put that up there and folks, write down those nine gifts in that column. I should have done that for you, okay? So wisdom, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, or just writing down that left-hand column underneath the word gifts. Writing down those nine gifts, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation. When you write down those nine, it should be down to the word other, right? Now I put the word other there only because you may think of another gift that I didn't put in there that's a manifestation gift, and I don't want to say you're wrong, so just put it down. Now, the next column says expressed. Have you at any time in your Christian walk expressed any of those gifts? Have you been given a bracelet? Has the spirit of God moved over your life so that you've given a word of knowledge? You've given a word of wisdom? You spoke a healing word. You spoke a word of faith and some situation was changed. You had a gift of tongues and or any of those, just put a little check mark, okay? You have been the expressor, all right? Once you've done that, then you go to the next column. Maybe you've never expressed any of those gifts because you just didn't understand or whatever, and we're gonna talk about those in a minute, but maybe you receive the benefit of that. Maybe someone came to you with a word of wisdom and said, I believe the Lord would want you to know this about your situation or whatever. Maybe someone ministered healing to you. Maybe someone came to you with a message from the Lord about a certain circumstance and it gave direction to your life, a word of knowledge. Maybe there was a prophecy given to you, okay? You received it. Put an X down there. The final column is, if you were able to say, God, I really want this gift to work in my life, I'm gonna be real generous tonight and say, pick your top three. If you could move in any of those nine gifts, which three would you most wanna move in on a regular basis? Oh boy, this is great. This is like, if I could have my wish, what would it be? It's tough to narrow it down to three, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, you think about all the situations you'd love to be able to give. Prophecy, hmm? How about great miracle faith? How about discernment? Pick three. Now, had enough time? Here's what I'd like you to do. Take the next 10 minutes or so, maybe 12 minutes, I'll see how it's going. And I want you to help each other right now, just become a little more comfortable with this whole issue of the spiritual gifts, manifestation gifts. And I want you to move around into a group of maybe four people, no more than five, no less than three. And I'd like you to share what you just put on that chart. I want you to share with them, not just the facts, but a little bit of background. Okay, well, I've expressed these two gifts and this is how it normally happens in my life. Or I've never expressed any of the gifts, but I have received several of them and here's how it happened in my life. Or I've never expressed or received anything and I'm not sure what in the heck he's talking about, but I wouldn't mind being able to heal some people. Okay, whatever you wanna do. All right, now here's the deal. When you turn around, if it's people that you already know their entire spiritual history and journey, say goodbye. You're gonna go find someone that you don't know because we do wanna move this together and create some new relationships here for a few moments. If this is real threatening to you, I'm not sure why you're here, but it won't hurt you, I promise you. All you have to say is, hey, well, I don't really understand, I'm new, and that's great because someone in your group will surely be able to make up the time. Okay, so the idea is to help encourage each other a little bit and I think you're gonna hear some real interesting stories from each other. All right, so let's stand up and once you reconfigure, you can sit down again if you want to. Move around a little bit. Move up in front and back around and you might have to move four or