Sermon Title: Use what you’ve been given
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

Recap from previous messages:

- Everyone in the church has been gifted. 
- Our gifting is not for our personal benefit but the common good and growth of others.
- Our faithfulness is more important than our giftedness. 
- The most obvious way to discern your giftedness is if those around you are blessed and built up when you are using your gift.  
- We want to be a church that teaches the scripture AND follows the Spirit.
- Practice doesn’t make perfect; it makes progress. 
- Messiness is to be expected but chaos is to be avoided. 

The gifts in 1 Corinthians 12

1. Wisdom
2. Knowledge
3. Faith
4. Healing
5. Miraculous Powers
6. Prophecy
7. Distinguishing between spirits
8. Tongues
9. Interpretation of tongues. 

The Corinthians boasted of their speaking in tongues, which is why Paul put it last in his list. St. John Chrysostom

Evil spirits desire to inhabit bodies because they crave expression. That’s the whole point of possession. They seek to take over bodies so that they can express themselves through it, employing their wicked purposes on the earth. Jesus Christ is now in the spirit and he also craves expression. He seeks to make his life visible through a many-membered being. The body of Christ, the church, exists to express God on earth.” “Rethinking Spiritual Warfare” - Frank Viola

Additional Notes:

1 Corinthians 12:4-11

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a 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 distributes them to each one, just as he determines.