Spiritual Gifts 4 of 4
"Gift Mix"
February 10, 2002
Ephesians 4:12
5th Sunday After the Epiphany
Galena-Warwick United Methodist Charge
Warwick & Galena, Maryland
Rev. Dr. Lawrence D. Jameson
larry@larryjameson.com
back to our church home page
1) INTRODUCTION
Do you remember the TV commercial
where the peanut butter crashed into the chocolate
and Reese’s Peanut butter cups were born?
That’s a mix.
Chocolate and peanut butter.
The flavors complement
and taste great together!
The same kind of thing happens with Spiritual Gifts.
God, who knows everything,
puts his Spiritual Gifts together
in creative and unexpected ways.
This is true for individuals,
for congregations, and denominations.
My sermon is entitled “Gift Mix”.
By listening to this sermon,
I hope you can become more aware
of how God fits Spiritual Gifts together.
Now this is a big topic,
so I am going to narrow it down.
There are special mixes of gifts that
congregations and denominations have
that make them unique.
That is interesting and important.
But I am not going to talk about that.
Today, I want to talk about the gift mix
we find in individual Christians.
2) WE OFTEN HAVE A MIX
When you take a Spiritual Gifts inventory
this is what normally happens:
a few Spiritual Gifts get high numbers,
some receive slightly lower numbers,
and still others score very low.
Experience has shown that
many Christian people
have multiple gifts.
Why is that?
I don’t know.
We do know that God is generous.
And those who do research in the area of Spiritual Gifts
report that it is common
for individual Christians
to have a gift mix.
If you take a Spiritual Gifts inventory
you can expect to see
several gifts listed.
That should not worry you. That is normal.
And just because the test indicates gifts,
doesn’t mean that you definitely have those gifts.
The inventory is just a tool.
It points to areas you might want to look at.
God’s Holy Spirit is the giver of true wisdom.
And it is the Holy Spirit
that will reveal
your own unique mix of Spiritual Gifts.
3) EXAMPLE ONE
Let’s take a look at some Biblical examples.
Peter and Paul were called to
build up the body of Christ
and both these men had multiple Spiritual Gifts.
God performed miracles in their lives.
That was the gift of miracles.
Both men exercised general leadership over
large numbers of congregations.
That was the gift of apostleship.
Paul had the gift of being a missionary
but Peter did not.
One Bible Scholar put it this way:
“Paul was a cross-cultural apostle
and Peter was a mono-cultural apostle.”
(Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow
by Peter Wagner, Regal Books 1994, page 185)
They were different men.
They had different callings.
Paul was called by God
to cross ethnic and language barriers
in order to share Christ
Peter was called to lead Jewish Christians in Palestine.
You can point to the fact that Peter was sent by God
to lead Cornelius to Christ
and Cornelius wasn’t Jewish.
And that is correct.
We read about that in Acts chapter 10.
But Peter’s whole life was not characterized by a
ministry across cultural barriers.
Paul’s was.
Do you know what the missionary gift is?
The Spiritual Gift of being a missionary
is the ability to use
all the other Spiritual Gifts you have
in another culture.
By definition, the Missionary Gift
requires a gift mix.
Our churches have a relationship with a missionary couple:
Terry & Liz Tyrrell.
(Liz and Terry Tyrrell are missionaries with Campus Crusade for Christ. They are
the daughter and son-in-law of Faye and Ray Bann. Liz and Terry work with
foreign officials to help establish military chaplaincy programs in Eastern
Europe and Russia.)
Every missionary I have ever met
has always asked me for the same thing:
fervent prayer support.
Why?
They are only effective as they receive support
from the body of Christ.
Isn’t that interesting?
You would think missionaries would be
bold, independent people.
But their Spiritual Gift requires them to be
strongly tied with supporters
in their culture of origin.
Their gifts are for us
and our gifts are for them.
4) EXAMPLE TWO
Let’s take a look at another example in Scripture.
Mary the mother of Jesus had at least two
Spiritual Gifts that I can identify.
She gave us the Magnificat in Luke 2:46-55.
That was the gift of prophecy.
She was able to envision
what God was going to do for his people
in the future.
She had the gift of faith.
Faith combined with prophecy.
That’s a wonderful mix.
But that is true of every combination of gifts.
God is generous AND creative.
God knows just what the church needs
and that is why he has given us Spiritual Gifts.
5) SOME CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES
Let’s consider some modern Christian examples.
Billy Graham
He obviously has the gift of evangelism.
But it isn’t “one on one” evangelism,
it’s crusade evangelism.
He has been used by God to create a large
and effective ministry called the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association.
That’s the gift of leadership.
Did you know that more people have made a decision
for Jesus Christ through Billy’s film ministry
than all the crusades he has ever conducted?
He had also had an effective one on one ministry
with Presidents, world leaders, and leaders of industry.
That’s a specialized version of the pastoral gift.
Let’s take Mother Theresa
I’d guess that her primary gifts were hospitality,
mercy, and faith. But she also had the gifts of
leadership, voluntary poverty, and missionary.
Bill Bright
Bill Bright is one of the greatest Christian leaders
of our century.
Like Billy Graham, Bill Bright has the gift of evangelism
and leadership.
But Bill Bright’s gift of evangelism
is one on one evangelism.
Bill Bright obviously has the gift of leadership,
but he is also gifted in intercession and teaching.
Jimmy Carter
He obviously has the gift of leadership.
But did you know that Jimmy Carter has the teaching gift?
He began teaching Sunday School classes when
he was 18 years old,
and still teaches an open Sunday School class every week.
It is normal for the Spiritual Gift of teaching
to be combined with knowledge.
You hardly ever find teaching without knowledge.
Chonda Pierce
Chonda Pierce is a talented Christian singer and
comedian.
I would guess that her top Spiritual Gifts are
teaching (through the media of humor),
wisdom, and evangelism.
She is a devoted wife and mother who also
has a tremendous national reputation for public speaking.
6) CONCLUSION
It is good for a Christian to think about
Spiritual Gifts.
God wants us to know our calling.
Whatever it is that God calls you to do,
remember that
in every case, God uses Spiritual Gifts:
“to prepare God's people for works of service,
so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
(Ephesians 4:12)
Amen.