When I first saw that video, I was moved to tears. That story is both extraordinary and ordinary. It’s extraordinary to see how the Holy Spirit really does use us and empower us for ministry. It’s ordinary in the sense that these kinds of stories and experiences happen all the time for folks who follow and trust Jesus.
I will do my best to preach the best sermon I can. But nothing I say will be as powerful, inspiring, and eloquent as what Caroline shared. I feel like we should have another offering after that.
I hope that there are two things we don’t forget—that they become lodged in our minds and thump in our chests. First, her story didn’t start with her serving in pre-teen ministry. It began when she was a pre-teen when people invested in her. And now, she is doing the same thing. Second, there is an undeniable collision of the natural and supernatural. The Holy Spirit works, empowers, and produces good things through her, in her, and in those precious students.
Is there anyone in this room who wouldn’t want to experience the same kind of things in our own lives? Welcome to week 3 of our series, Ghosted. A big truth we’re doing our best to embrace is that we can all experience that. Just because Jesus isn’t here physically with us doesn’t mean he’s ghosted us.
Through the Holy Spirit, he is with us more intimately and personally than we are able to comprehend. If Jesus was here physically, he would only be in one place at a time. That means we’d all get squeezed out by the crowds. We could never get close. So, he gave us something better. Because of the Holy Spirit, God lives with and in everyone who has trusted in Jesus. This is our series thesis.
SERIES THESIS: The Holy Spirit in you is BETTER than Jesus with you.
How many of you grew up with a Bible that didn’t say Holy Spirit? Who had a Bible that said, Holy Ghost? If you go with Holy Ghost, it feels like you’ve got to say it with gusto. Put a little oomph into it. Holy Ghost.
Gast is the old English word that eventually became our modern word, ghost. Originally it meant spirit. Over time, gastevolved into ghost, and it ultimately came to be associated with something spooky and maybe even scary. Culturally, it came to mean a person who died but carries on in some sort of in-between state. That’s why Bible translations don’t use Holy Ghost anymore. Holy Spirit communicates what Holy Gast used to communicate in old English.
When we talk about the Holy Spirit, we’re talking about a person. He is God, and he is the third member of the Trinity.
God is one in being and three in persons. Being is what you are and person is who you are. Each person of the Trinity is God. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. They aren’t supernatural Legos; when combined, they somehow create God. That’s not it.
God is one in being and eternally three in persons. There is no illustration for this. Sometimes people think they have an analogy for it. There isn’t one. Every analogy or metaphor you use only communicates heresy—something that isn’t true.
The most popular one that people try is water. It can be in a gas state (steam), a solid state (ice), or a liquid state. It goes like this: Just like water can be one thing, but in three states, that’s the Trinity. WRONG! That’s a heresy called Modalism. God isn’t sometimes Father, sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Holy Spirit. God is eternally all three persons while also one in being. There’s no analogy or metaphor for that. Instead of being disappointed, be inspired to worship. There is nothing in the universe like our God.
I do have some visual aids that I’m hoping will help us think clearly about something Jesus talked about.
Before I start, will you grab a Bible and find our main passage for today, Ephesians 4? It’s in the second half of the Bible, the New Testament. It’s the tenth book: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians.
I need to confess to you that I’m a little nervous that some of you will think I’m using this to illustrate the Trinity. I’m not. Will you promise not to consider this an illustration of the Trinity? Do you promise not to tell people I used this to illustrate the Trinity? I don’t need to end up on someone’s YouTube channel about stupid pastors.
I’ve asked you to read John 14-17. Jesus talks a lot about the Holy Spirit and the unity the persons of the Trinity enjoy, which we are invited into.
Quick, quick: How many of you moms oppose mixing Play-Doh colors? My wife would not allow our kids to mix the colors. Jesus had to die for her too. I’m going to mix them. I don’t want to give anyone a panic attack.
The Father is in the Son. The Son is in the Father. The Holy Spirit is in both and vice versa. Again, we’re not explaining the Trinity. We’re zooming in on how they love each other and share unity.
Let’s remember that Jesus said that we are in him, and he is in us.
Not just you, but every single follower of Jesus.
Can you see how our unity is not based on agreeing with each other? Our unity is 100% and only based on being included in this. Not only is there no room for gender discrimination, ethnic discrimination, and socio-economic discrimination among Jesus’ followers—those things are all anti-Jesus, even in the most minor amounts.
For the next few minutes, we are going to talk about spiritual gifts. As we do, I want you to hold on tightly to this visual. Everything about spiritual gifts is supposed to push us deeper into this, strengthen our experiences of it, and result in a maturity among us that fully represents Jesus.
Are you ready for that? Let’s read from Ephesians 4.
EPHESIANS 4:1-16 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Get ready to write some stuff down. I want to highlight different sections of what we just read and make some observations. Let’s start here.
EPHESIANS 4:4-7 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
You may have noticed that this passaged doesn’t use the term, spiritual gifts. And yet, it’s long been viewed as talking about them. We’ve highlighted this because the grace that’s referenced is specifically about spiritual gift. Grace and gift are so interconnected that they’re almost indistinguishable from one another.
Grace is a GIFT, and every spiritual gift is GRACE.
Whatever spiritual gift you may have, that I may have, they don’t make one us more valuable and the other less. They don’t make one more important and the other less. And this is so important—they are not a reflection of whether or not you are a good enough Christian. They are indicators that God is good and generous, and spiritual gifts prove just how intimately invested he is in including you in what he’s doing.
Probably my favorite pastor of all time was John Chrysostom. He was brilliant, a skilled communicator, humble, and financially generous with the poor. I want you to hear what he said about what we just read.
Gifts are bestowed not for the honor of one above another, but for the work of the church...the work of ministering unto the building up of the body of Christ... not according to our merit, for then would no one have received what he has received: but of the free gift we have all received. –John Chrysostom
Did you know, that if you have placed your faith in Jesus, God has gifted you to be a gift to this church. What do you want to do with that gift? Let’s look again at those verses.
EPHESIANS 4:4-7 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; oneLord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
We can’t escape it. We can’t talk about it too much. We can’t wear it out. I’m talking about unity, which is not at uniformity. How spiritual gifts are dispersed and expressed stitches together both our unity and diversity.
We have UNITY in diversity and DIVERSITY in unity.
We are one, yet we are diverse in how we are made. We are one, yet we are diverse in what we’re called to do. After seeing Caroline’s video, I’m pretty sure that some of you are going to feel inspired and led by the Holy Spirit to get involved in Family Ministry. But it won’t be all of you. Some of you will be encouraged to keep investing where you’re already serving.
Some of you are gifted and led by the Holy Spirit toward global missions, or serving with a ministry partner in town like Next Chapter. Some of you are gifted and led by the Holy Spirit towards worship ministry, or leading a small group, serving on a hospitality team. We have unity in diversity and diversity in unity. Hold on to that as we look at this.
EPHESIANS 4:11-13 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
How would you fill in this blank?
______ are the ministry muscle of our church.
What is the answer? Who are the people the Holy Spirit is empowering to be the ministry muscle of our church?
YOU are the ministry muscle of our church.
Pastors and staff are not the ministry muscle of the church. It’s every one of us who is in Christ and a part of this church. You are the ministry muscle of our church.
When I go to the RAC, I notice that people are often working out with a personal trainer. But the trainer isn’t lifting weights. The RAC member is lifting weights. My job as your pastor, the job of the other pastors and staff, is to equip you and unleash you to do the work of ministry.
I need to pause here for a kind of public service announcement. As your pastor, I may not have done a good job of communicating certain things to you. Because of that, when I say this [You are the ministry muscle of our church] I may come off as a hypocrite or a liar. I recently learned that there is a perception that we are spending more on pastors and staff than we ever have, and we keep growing our staff. It might even be possible that that belief has led you to give less or even stop giving because it looks like we’re being financially reckless.
Let me apologize for not making the facts more explicit. Believe it or not, the number of staff members and pastors in our church is smaller than when I arrived in 2020. Since 2020, we’ve actually cut staffing costs by a quarter of a million dollars.
Now, I’m not walking around like a hatchet man. Just like where you work, there are natural attrition and transitions. Every time we have one of those, we look to see if it’s an opportunity to take the next step toward empowering you instead of hiring staff. This was Jesus’ plan all along and I think we’re doing in a way that honors Jesus and people.
We’ve done all of this, while also raising every staff person’s salary to a living wage. And, last year we were certified as a Best Christian Workplace by a company that evaluates staff and organizational health.
So, every year, we try to move forward in equipping and empowering you—the ministry muscle of our church. Every year we lower how much we spend on staff. Eventually, that decrease will flatten. And one day, maybe, wisdom will require spending more. Is that information helpful? I hope that’s encouraging for you to hear.
We want to align with God’s plan and his plan is that we are all gifted for ministry. There is a basic question we need to answer.
FAQS:
- What is a spiritual gift?
There are four chapters in the New Testament that address spiritual gifts.
ROMANS 12; 1 CORINTHIANS 12-13; EPHESIANS 4
- Administration
- Being an apostle
- Discernment
- Evangelism
- Exhortation
- Faith
- Giving
- Healing
- Helps
- Hospitality
- Knowledge
- Leadership
- Martyrdom
- Mercy
- Prophecy
- Serving
- Singleness/Celibacy
- Speaking in tongues
- Teaching
- Shepherding
- Wisdom
- Voluntary poverty
These passages also list out specific spiritual gifts. You should know there is a debate on how to best understand what a spiritual gift is. Some good-hearted, intelligent people say that the only spiritual gifts are the ones listed in these passages. Other good-hearted, intelligent people say that because the lists are all different, that demonstrates they were not intended to be exhaustive. These are examples of the kinds of gifts the Holy Spirit gives. Personally, I think that makes a lot of sense.
A spiritual gift is any ABILITY the Holy Spirit empowers to SERVE his PEOPLE and PURPOSE.
Do I really mean any ability? Absolutely. Who am I to limit the Holy Spirit to the inadequacies of my imagination? How about animating videos? If you’ve ever used the Bible Project, it’d be hard to deny that the Holy Spirit is empowering their ability to make the Bible come alive.
What about writing code? If you’ve ever used the YouVersion Bible app you are one of the 725 million people around the planet who are reading the Bible with that app, because the Holy Spirit empowered someone’s ability to make it. Here’s what I know. The Holy Spirit loves using what we thought was unusable to accomplish what we couldn’t imagine.
I do want to caution you about something. This is two and half decades of pastoral experience talking.
CAUTION: Not being gifted with ______________ is not an excuse to be irresponsible or DISOBEDIENT with ______________.
Let me put our list back on the screen.
ROMANS 12; 1 CORINTHIANS 12-13; EPHESIANS 4
- Administration
- Being an apostle
- Discernment
- Evangelism
- Exhortation
- Faith
- Giving
- Healing
- Helps
- Hospitality
- Knowledge
- Leadership
- Martyrdom
- Mercy
- Prophecy
- Serving
- Singleness/Celibacy
- Speaking in tongues
- Teaching
- Shepherding
- Wisdom
- Voluntary poverty
Maybe you don’t have the spiritual gift of celibacy. But if you’re not married, that’s not an excuse to disobey the Lordship and the way of Jesus, and sleep with who you’re with. You may not have the spiritual gift hospitality. But that doesn’t make you any less responsible to be hospitable in your home and when we gather as a church. Does that make sense? Good.
There are probably more frequently asked questions about spiritual gifts than I can do justice to in one sermon.
FAQS:
There’s nothing wrong with trying to answer questions that the Bible doesn’t directly or even indirectly address. Whenever we attempt that, it should be approached with all the wisdom and humility we can muster. I’m just not confident that we should be rigid or certain about things that God chose not to address in his word.
I’m going to share my best understanding, but that doesn’t mean my understanding is best.
- How is a spiritual gift different from a talent or skill?
The difference is whether or not the Holy Spirit uses it to serve his people and his purpose. Sometimes, the most talented person is used the least, or that talent isn’t empowered by the Holy Spirit at all because of that person’s pride. Talents are about what we can do—gifts about what he wants to do through us for others.
- How and when do you get a spiritual gift?
From the moment you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit is in you and gifts you to be a gift to the church.
- Can you have more than one?
The Bible doesn’t say. I think the answer is probably yes.
- Do you have them for life?
Again, the Bible doesn’t say. Maybe. Maybe not. But there is never a time in your life, as a follower of Christ that you are not gifted to be a gift to the church.
- How do you know what your spiritual gift is?
How many of you have ever heard of taken a spiritual gifts test? I’ve taken them too. They aren’t identical to, but are often very similar to a personality profile. Being candid, someone could be a thoroughgoing atheist and score something on a spiritual gifts test. They are imperfect, but that doesn’t mean that they are not helpful. If you use one, take it with a grain of salt.
For my money, this is the approach that I believe is most helpful.
- Start serving on a team in an area that interests you or that you feel drawn to. I believe that we discover our spiritual gifts in the act of serving others.
- Take inventory of your experiences. Where are you having an impact that benefits others?
- Esteem and receive what others in your church say about how they’ve seen the Holy Spirit use you and impact others.
As we do that, this is the bullseye, the outcome at which we are aiming.
EPHESIANS 4:14-16 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
This is God’s plan: that we are united with him and each other, that we are aligned with truth, and that we grow so mature that in every respect, we reflect Jesus. Indispensable to that end is each of us coming to terms with the fact that we are gifted to be a gift. There is no maturity without it.
Did you know that the trajectory of maturity is the exact same for all of us? Whether we realize it or not, whether we believe it or not, we all start at the same place. The only question is, will we move forward?
MATURITY TRACK:
- Consumer: I find joy in what I RECEIVE.
Physically and spiritually, we start the same—infants. All infants are takers. And there is nothing wrong with that. In our relationship with Jesus and in our relationship with our church, we all start here. That’s not a problem. Never developing beyond that is a problem.
- Contributor: I find joy in what I GIVE.
If we are maturing, we will become contributors. It’s not that we stop receiving. But we’ve found a new joy in what we give. That’s a wonderful thing. But that’s not the summit of maturity.
- Covenant: I find joy in what you RECEIVE.
Though it may surprise some of us, there is a measure of inward focus in the contributor stage. The emphasis is on what I give. Someone who has matured to this stage still finds joy in what she receives. He still finds joy in what he gives. But there is even more joy discovered in what others are receiving.In a covenant, we are so bound in love to one another that we give to their best interest even when they can’treciprocate it to us. We are so bound in love to one another that we give to their best interest even when they won’treciprocate it to us. That’s the way Jesus loved us, and we are most like him when we love each other in that way, too.
Can we end with this?
BOTTOM LINE: You are given a GIFT to be a GIFT.
What do you want to do with that gift? You could hide it. You could throw it in trash. You could discover the joy of putting it into action. What do you think it would be like to be in a church where each person understands that they are gifted to be a gift and we esteem each other as gifts.
May we know that and live it together.