03 Apr 4/6/25 1 Peter 4:7-11 “Don’t Leave Your Gift Under the Tree!”
4/6/25 1 Peter 4:7-11 “Don’t Leave Your Gift Under the Tree!”
I remember very clearly when I took the psychological test for being a pastor. They told me that I really didn’t have what it takes. For one thing, I would try to let someone else take charge of things. They said pastors were leaders. I agree. However, pastors try to let others take charge of many things in the church. It’s called empowerment. To this day, I will stand back and let someone else take control so that I can empower the next person. That was my first strike. My second one was that I didn’t have the skills of administration. Well, they had me on that one. I’m still not very good at that one. Anyway, they hired me on a trial basis. I think that is how all new pastors are hired. So I had two strikes when I started or it was very close that they never hired me in the first place. I think the psychologist was in error with her misinterpretation of her test. This is just a suggestion, but maybe they should have some sort of spiritual gifts test. That would be a much better indicator of readiness for ministry. Today, we are going to finish our brief look at spiritual gifts and maybe, just maybe we can open someone up to their spiritual calling.
Fanny Crosby, who wrote many of the hymns we sing today, told her story that started with a minor eye inflammation when she was 6 weeks old. Even in 1820 when she was born, this was a simple thing to treat as they would apply a medicated poultice to the eyes. However, her doctor was careless and applied too much medicine. The result was total and permanent blindness. It goes to show that sometimes doctors make mistakes, even 200 years ago. Anyway, later on in life she told a different doctor, “If I could meet the doctor who made the mistake now, I would say ‘thank you’ over and over again for making me blind.” She saw her blindness as a gift from God. It’s what helped her to see Jesus in ways that no one else has ever seen. Her blindness gave her spiritual insight that few people have ever possessed. I think this is a great story because many of us suffer from some sort of spiritual blindness. This is a blindness that keeps us from being effective workers for Jesus Christ.
Today, I’m going to dive right into the gifts that Brian Bill calls service gifts and sign gifts. I have talked before about the speaking gifts and how they related to spiritual armor. All the spiritual gifts have a direct relationship with the armor of God. You have to have the armor in order for the gifts to work.
Let’s begin with the gifts of service which include, and there may be more, the gifts of administration, apostleship, faith, giving, helps, serving and mercy. Some of these definitions come from Bruce Bugbee’s book, ‘Network.’ We have already mentioned the gift that I lack, administration. This is basically the divine ability to see how an organization works and being able to put plans and goals into action for that organization. This covers a wide range of things from the top to the bottom of the organization. As for me, I can see what the church should be doing. I have many plans and ideas to help us better ourselves. What I lack is the divine ability to sit down and put all this on paper. There are many people who love to do this but I’m not one of them. I would like to say that if you have ideas and you don’t have this gift, tell the idea to someone else. They may have a way to get it going. One of the problems of small churches is that we are almost forced to rely on people doing things in areas where we aren’t gifted. However, many times God equips these people with what is necessary to get the job done. Spiritual gifts change all the time so be aware of this also.
Another gift of service is the gift of apostleship. This is the divine gift of taking this wonderful message out to the people and helping them to start things like churches, groups and studies. We all know people like this. These folks seem to be naturals in starting Bible studies. They are the church planters, which by the way, is a special skill. They are the movers and shakers. They make things happen. They see a larger part of the big picture of God and they go after it. These people are a treasure.
Then there is the gift of faith. I would say that most of us have faith but this gift goes a little farther. This faith is absolutely unshakable. It is a faith that never wavers and this person acts on the promises of God. When I think of these people, I think of our prayer warriors. I love to be around these gifted people because it seems that their faith just rubs off on me. When you are down or when you have a problem, these should be among the first people you go to for help.
I’m going to move rather quickly through these. I’m only trying to introduce them to you so you may be able to see where you might be gifted. The next gift is giving. These are the people for whom a tithe just is not enough. I talk about giving once in a while and I usually get some people feeling guilty. If you don’t have enough to give at this time, then just wait until you can tithe, which is 10% by the way. I also know many people who just give and give. John Wesley, who founded the Methodist Church almost 3 centuries ago, died with only the money he had in his pocket. He always gave his money away. There was a person who used to give a $1,000 a month to our churches who in turned gave it to the poor and needy. He gave this money anonymously. These types of gifts might bring some of the biggest rewards of satisfaction. I dare you to try it.
Notice how these are a bit related as we move to the gift of helps. This is rather self-explanatory. This is the divine gift of doing the practical and necessary tasks that will free up, support or meet the needs of others. These are the people who just help others without being asked. There are several people with this gift in just about any congregation. This isn’t just shoveling the sidewalks or mowing the grass. These people keep an eye on the place when the owner is sick or away. They bring treats or drinks to an event because they thought it might be needed. They just don’t have to be asked.
Very closely linked to this is the gift of serving or sometimes it is called hospitality. This is just the divine gift of taking care of people with fellowship or food or shelter. This differs from helping in that it is mainly focused on people. These are the people who think that it is an honor to set up coffee after church or instigate a benefit for fire victims.
There is also the gift of mercy where a person is able to cheerfully and practically help others who are suffering or in need with God’s compassion. Missionaries and people who love mission projects are some examples of this. All these service gifts are wonderful to possess and will give many rewards, not only to others but to you also.
I want to touch briefly on the sign gifts. The first one is the gift of discernment. This is the divine gift of being able to tell right from wrong. We seem to be missing this in today’s world. It is the ability to discern spirits, differentiating between the good and evil. I think that we all have this from time to time. I know that I have been in places that felt truly evil. On the other hand, we have all been places where you can just feel the Spirit of God working. I think that it is very important that someone in the church has this gift for obvious reasons. You may have noticed that I begin our services by casting Satan out. I don’t mean to imply that he is here. I don’t think that he is usually here. However, I don’t want to take a chance. You people are too important to Jesus to leave you unprotected.
Another important gift is the gift of miracles. This is the divine ability to perform powerful deeds. These deeds or interventions are done for the glory of God. We have heard of instances where there is an accident and people have been praying and there is suddenly the ability perform a super human feats like lifting a car off of someone. I don’t think that this gift is one that we have all the time. I think this is one that is usually given in extreme situations. It is things like Moses parting the Red Sea or Moses casting the 10 plagues on Egypt. It might not be available all the time, but when it is, it is very, very powerful.
The gifts of signs are all like this. They show up in circumstances when they are needed the most and when they will glorify God. The gift of healing is another of these. After the resurrection the disciples healed many people of a number of things. We have to remember not to concentrate on the physical. Healings take the shape of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. I have seen people healed by others, especially spiritually. I think that I have been a part of healing people in this way. However, I don’t have the gift to be able to do this all the time. I don’t know if anyone has the gift of healing all the time. There are faith healers out there and I think they might have this gift more than most people but I’m also a little skeptical. However, I believe that some people have been healed like this.
Before I stick my foot in my mouth, I want to talk about the gift of tongues. I’m not sure how this works exactly but we saw it in action at Pentecost when all the people heard the message in their own language. This could only happen as a result of action by Jesus. I have heard of other cases where people have rescued others from fires or other disasters. The rescuers have not known the language of those they were rescuing but for the brief time of dire need, they spoke in this foreign language perfectly. Prior and after these incidents, they didn’t know a word of the language. Only Jesus could have made this happen.
I think that this is the real world of speaking in tongues, but we do live in a world where I’m a little more skeptical. This doesn’t mean that speaking in tongues doesn’t take place on command. There are churches where you cannot be a member unless you speak in tongues. Supposedly they have people who can interpret what you say. I’m not sure about all this but like healing and miracles, they can and do happen. I guess I have seen too many fakes in my lifetime and this makes me a little skeptical. I’m not skeptical at all of what Jesus can do as He works His gifts through us, but I’m skeptical because some broken humans have twisted these gifts.
There are several more gifts we could cover like creative communication, leadership, craftsmanship and encouragement but I hope you get the idea. Every person here, who has a personal relationship with Jesus, has at least one of these gifts. I would guess that there are several of you who have more than one. Jesus gives you these gifts with something in mind, a mission or a project. You have to use your gifts and don’t leave them all wrapped up and sitting under the Christmas tree all year long. Find out your gifts and use them for the glory of God. Also, remember that you may not have your gift forever. God changes these gifts as He wants you to help Him in different ways. So what you have today, you may not have tomorrow. From personal experience I would like to say that whenever you use your gift, it is very rewarding for you, the other people involved and Jesus. Therefore if you let you gift sit under the tree all year, you lose out on the blessings that come with using it.
Jesus wants you to celebrate with Him all year round and He has given you the tools to do this. I was just reading about a person who had ordered something from the internet. She was busy when she got it so she set it aside for later. Wouldn’t you know, she set it aside so good that it was over a year before she found it again! That sounds like me. Then there was just one catch. There was some assembly required. So she started out all excited about putting this together. She got close to being done and there was a major piece missing. She checked with the manufacturer and found that the item was discontinued and she couldn’t get the part. The moral that I would like us to get from this is that we are to use our spiritual gifts while we have them because if we wait until we get around to it, they may be gone.
This is not what Jesus wants you to do. He loves you so much that He has given you these spiritual gifts, spiritual fruits and ways to protect yourselves from the evil one when you use these things. He does all these things so that #1. You may have a better life, the life He has planned for you. And #2. He wants you to use these gifts so that others will come to know Jesus and have better lives too. He wants every person in the world to spend eternity with Him. So no matter how you cut it, Jesus wants the best for you. All you have to do is accept it. It is as easy as saying “Jesus, come and be Lord of my life.” The God who made the universe will answer and come to you. This is one who loves you without stop and without fail. Go to Him often with praises for who He is and being thankful that He first loved you. Let’s pray.
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