Gifted

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. This is our second week, and we're going to be talking about the different aspects of shape. I'll explain that in a minute, but let's pray first. Lord God, may you be glorified here right now in this message, that for all the different people who are here this morning and have different needs, that you would be meeting them all. And through this fellowship, Lord, in some way that we are able to serve one another, pray for one another, be there for one another, and that you have uniquely shaped each one of us, Lord God. And we just pray that now you'd be teaching us a little more about that, encouraging us to explore, building us, Lord, to trust you even more, to live out the purposes for which you intend our lives to be. All this we pray now, and we pray not only for here, Lord, but for all the different campus ministries at FGCU and for all the different churches in our area that are sharing your gospel. We pray that you'd be blessing them this morning, that you would have them grow and flourish, that you would have them be used by you in amazing ways. All this, Lord, for the sake of your kingdom, for the sake of your glory, that there would be a movement in southwest Florida that many, many people come to know your love, your mercy, your grace, your truth, and be transformed as a result. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You can tell my voice is not quite here. Actually, I feel a lot better, I know. I do feel a lot better. I finally went to the doctor. You know, doctors are good, and I got my antibiotics. But be praying that I can get through this message and that my voice does not become a distraction to you. So as I mentioned, we are in this series called SHAPE, and it's called SHAPE kind of as an anacronym as well for the different aspects that we're going to look at how God has shaped you, S is for spiritual gifts, H is for heart, A is for abilities, P is for personality, and E is for experience. So today, in our second week, we're going to be on spiritual gifts, and our passage comes from 1 Corinthians 12. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are a variety of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are a variety of service but the same Lord, and there are a variety of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, for to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between Spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. So last week we said that you are a piece of work. Do you remember that? You're a piece of work. You are. You are God's piece of work. You are His workmanship. And what's interesting, it's not just any piece of work. The passage here, Ephesians 2.10, when it uses the word workmanship, that is a specific Greek word that's fascinating to me. It's the word poiema, which is where we get the word poem from. You are a piece of God's poetry, displaying His glory, sharing an artistic piece of work, not just a manufactured factory, mass media, mass produced thing. But you are poetry in motion, as people have said. You are God's poetry. There is so much to you and so much that you are being shaped. It's amazing. You are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand. So we're in the second week, and we're looking at what's called spiritual gifts and how you are gifted by no less than the Holy Spirit. Everyone. Now, most of the letters of the New Testament, I don't know if you realize this or not, they were occasional letters. That is, they were written to an occasion. So Paul founded many of these churches like Corinth. He went to Corinth, and he heard about what was going on at Corinth, some of the problems they were having and some of the situations and questions they had. And so he wrote this letter, 1 Corinthians, to that church. And in it, he deals with all of these situations. Let me tell you, the Corinthian church had a lot of problems. They were a lot of problems. Why did they have a lot of problems? Because they were full of a lot of problems because they were full of themselves. And I'll tell you this. When you're full...