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December6, 2009

Romans 12:4-8

1 Corinthians 12:4-13

Ephesians 4:11-12

The Gift of the Spirit

 

I have done a lot of packing over the past couple of weeks.

 It is a difficult time for me.

  To the person who doesn’t know me very well it looks like I am packing junk.

   That’s why people ask, for example, “Why are you taking that pencil?”

    “That pencil is broken, and it is short, and the eraser is worn.”

     “Why would you even think of packing that?”

      “Why didn’t you throw that away?”

       It might look like junk to a lot of people.

        If you know me at all, I’m not packing stuff.

         My only defense is, “Memories.”

          What I am really doing is packing memories.

           Everything I pack reminds me of something or someone.

            It seems even more ludicrous when it is a piece of paper.

             I have gone through thousands of sheets of paper.

              I have thrown way too many of them away.

              But I haven’t thrown out every piece of paper.

               I rediscovered this sheet of paper.

                It has two dates written on it.

                 One is March 29, 1985.

                  That happens to be my birthday.

                   The other date was December 25, 1994

                    Anyone know whose birthday that is?

                     And the scripture written on it – Philippians 1:8-11.

How many times did we hear that scripture last Sunday?

 And look at the cover of this Sunday’s bulletin.

  Pastor Elliott wrote the devotional thought for this week’s Scriptures.

   He wrote that on Wednesday morning.

    I found this sheet of paper Monday afternoon.

     He didn’t know what I had found.

      I didn’t know what he was planning to write.

       So I think it is time these words were shared again.

It is an illustration about love found in one of Lloyd John Ogilvie’s books.

 Just outside Hollywood and the LA area is the Lake Hollywood Reservoir.

  It is not a large body of water.

   Yet each day the water is portioned off for the needs of the cities below.

    It hardly seems adequate.

     Millions of people and thousands of businesses are dependent on it.

      But what most people don’t know is what replenishes the reservoir.

       The water comes from the rush of the Colorado River.

        This river flows through the bottom of the 200 mile long Grand Canyon.

         An area 244,000 square miles drains into the Colorado River.

          That is about 7% of the USA or 111 times the size of PEI.

           The Lake Hollywood Reservoir appears to be a calm oversized pond.

           It is really a widening in the passage of water from this mighty river.

            It eventually reaches the faucets of Hollywood and Los Angeles.

Loving is like that.

 We all want to be an endless resource of loving attitude and thought.

  We want people to think of us as never too busy for them.

   We want people to think we always have enough love for them.

    We want to be a reservoir of love.

     But Lake Hollywood really is not a reservoir.

      It is a channel through which the water flows.

       And we, like that lake, are not to be a reservoir but a channel.

        What flows through us is the unending and unstoppable flow of Christ’s love.

         His vast supply of love has flowed to us.

          How does this tie into Philippians 1:8?

“For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

           Paul could identify the Source, Spirit, and Substance of his love.

           He loved the Philippians more than life itself.

            And that love he experienced for them was from Christ Himself.

             Jesus is the Christ.

              Jesus is alive.

               He is the love we so desperately need for others.

                Do we see Christ’s limitless love for us?

                 Paul did!

                  He saw how Jesus used the raw material of his inadequate humanity.

                   He saw how the Christ enabled him to overflow in new love.

                    He had a powerful affection for his friends.

When we allow Christ to love us we will allow Him to love others through us.

 That starts a chain reaction.

  We find that chain reaction in Philippians 1:9.

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment”

   Jesus loving them through Paul enabled their love to abound more and more.

    It led to excellence in life.

     It led to purity and blameless living.

      It led to the fullness of fruits of righteousness.

       All of this comes through Christ.

        And it comes that God may be glorified and praised.”

I am glad I have held on to this piece of paper for almost 25 years.

 We have been looking at the Gifts of the Spirit.

  The Vocal gifts of the Spirit that inject Jesus into our gift of gab.

   The Service gifts of the Spirit that that inject Jesus into our gift of grab.

    The Leadership gifts of the Spirit that that inject Jesus into our gift of nab.

     But this transformation will not take place without another Gift God has given.

      He has poured out the Gift of His Spirit upon all flesh.

       There is a difference between the Holy Spirit being poured out on you and the

       Holy Spirit filling your life.

        The gifts of the Spirit do not transform our life.

         Only the gift of the Spirit transforms.

          We must be filled with the Gift of the Spirit before the gifts flow.

           That would be like using the Lake Hollywood Reservoir to quench the

           thirst of millions without the continuous and abundant flow of fresh

           water.

            It would soon run dry if it was shut off from the river that feeds it.

             We have little to offer our world without the fullness of the Spirit.

              We will not have an overflowing love for others.

              The Gifts of the Spirit always result in abundant love expressed.

               Self-sacrificing love is a sign of our gift’s authenticity.

                Authentic, genuine gifts of the Spirit always result in love.

Paul writes to the Corinthian Church about the gifts of the Spirit.

 He spends most of 1 Corinthians 12 elaborating on the spiritual gifts.

  What should they result in?

   Love – the more excellent way Paul speaks of in chapter 13.

    Tongues are nothing without love (1 Corinthians 13:1).

     Prophecy is nothing without love (1 Corinthians 13:2).

      Gifts are nothing without love (1 Corinthians 13:3).

       “Faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

In Ephesians 4 Paul again writes about the gifts of the Spirit.

 What should these gifts result in?

  “When each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.”  (Eph. 4:16)

   Then Paul writes, “Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  (Eph. 5:1,2)

    In Romans 12 Paul again writes about the spiritual gifts.

     We have looked at all these passages of scripture.

      What should the spiritual gifts result in for the Romans?

       “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection.”  (Rom 12:9-10)

        The Holy Spirit pours into our lives God’s love for us.

But the Holy Spirit bores where He pours.

 He creates an escape route in our lives.

  He wants the love to flow out to touch others.

   God has created us with the ability to love.

    But just like the gift of gab, grab and nab, the gift to love is ruined.

     Sin has distorted it all.

      The world is full of love.

       But it is not the love of the Spirit.

        It is sin’s perverted version.

         In its most raw and flawed state it is self-centered love.

          It is a love of pleasure.

           We are living in a society that lust after pleasure.

           Society wants to escape reality.

            We get caught in the undertow of that escapism.

             TV, movies, theater, sports, magazines are all escapes.

              They encourage love that satisfies the lusts of life.

               We will spend whatever they demand in order to have them.

                Price is no object.

                 But when asked to give to a ministry we are suddenly poor?

                  Self love, distorted love, Godless love, it’s a fake.

                   Paul says, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”  (Rom. 13:8)

What does your love look like today?

 Have you invited the purifying, refining, sanctifying Holy Spirit into your life?”

  I’m not talking to the non-Christian here.

   I’m talking to you who know Jesus’ forgiveness.

    Have you invited the Holy Spirit to pour in and bore through your life?

     Have you yielded to His in-filling and over-flowing perfect love?

I found something else while I was packing.

 Some notes I jotted down at a District Assembly 4 years ago.

  Our General Superintendent was Dr. Jessie Middendorf.

   He preached from 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13.

    These verses are “some-good-powerful” (just had to say that in this last sermon)

     Those verses will be our benediction in just a few moments.

      But from those verses Dr. Middendorf drew these truths.

       “The real agenda of God is for us to love and encourage each other.

        “To live out the love of Christ to all in the earth.

         “To bring betterment to others because of the love of Christ.

          To enter God’s agenda we must be sanctified through and through.

           God will do this because God is faithful.

            This allows the winsomeness of Christ to flow out.

            Picture this with me.

             Picture a person who is parched and dry and thirsty.

              In front of them stands a cool, dripping glass of water.

               What does that thirsty person want to do?

                The answer is obvious isn’t it?

                 The Spirit-filled Christian is that cool, dripping glass.

                  We offer the water of life drenched with God’s love.

                   We are God’s gift to a thirsty world.

                    This is no small calling.

                     God is faithful and He will do it.

God has given the wonderful gift of His Spirit to help you fulfill His calling.

 We have celebrated much this morning, Advent, Communion, new Members.

  Let’s also celebrate the sanctifying love of Christ through His Spirit’s filling.

   Let’s make the world want to reach out for Jesus.

 

Benediction:  “Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you; and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”  (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13)