“God’s Gift to You”

September 30, 2007

by John Partridge

1 Corinthians 12:1-31

Everybody always wants the glamour jobs. Everybody wants to be the rock star, the star of the
team, the CEO, or whatever it takes to make the big bucks or be in the public eye. Have
you ever heard of Paul Allen, Steve Wozniak, or June Martino?

Paul Allen is the sixth richest man in the world, he co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Steve
Wozniak co founded Apple computer and it was he who built the first Apple computer and
wrote almost all of the software that ran it. He did the same for the Apple II, which was a
breakout success and made Wozniak and Steve Jobs very rich men. June Martino was the
secretary to a little known milkshake mixer salesman and stood by him for little or no
money in the years that he founded and struggled in a new business, his name was Ray
Kroc, you might have heard of his new business, it was named McDonalds. During those
difficult years when Kroc couldn’t afford to pay his secretary because the business was
nearly in default, he paid Martino and another faithful key employee by giving them each a
thirty percent ownership in McDonalds. You may not have heard of June Martino, she was
only a secretary, but without her there wouldn’t be a McDonalds. As you might have
guessed, June Martino’s thirty percent stake in McDonalds made her a very, very wealthy
secretary.

Why do I tell you these stories? Because they illustrate for us a message that we hear in today’s
scripture lesson. Wozniak was an engineer who helped Steve Jobs build a machine that no
one thought was possible, but it was Jobs’ idea. Paul Allen never stood in the limelight or
ran the company in the public eye like Bill Gates, but he did those things that he was good
at. June Martino didn’t do anything glamorous at all, but she faithfully did that thing that
she was good at even when times were tough and it paid off for everyone in the end. Read
with me from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians… (1 Corinthians 12)
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Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2You know that when you
were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3Therefore I tell
you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say,
"Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
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There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the
same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
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Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is
given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of
the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to
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.
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All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he
determines.

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12
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they
form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For one Spirit into one body baptized us all—whether Jews or
Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
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Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a
hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if
the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that
reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of
hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God
has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were
all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
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The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't
need you!” 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
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and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are
unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special
treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts
that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal
concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every
part rejoices with it.
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Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has
appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those
having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those
speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do
all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But
eagerly desire the greater gifts.
And now I will show you the most excellent way.

I want you to hear that first line again…

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Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. Paul’s own words say that he
did not want his fellow believers to be ignorant of the gifts that are given to each end every
Christian. It is important for Christians to be familiar with this topic and to understand how
God has made them. Please do not confuse this subject of spiritual gifts with something
like the gift of talent. There are those who are extraordinarily talented in fields like art, and
music and even architecture and engineering, and among those folk we can be identify a
few individuals who we might even say are gifted in those fields. Even that is not what we
are talking about today. Paul is specifically talking about those gifts which are unique to
Christians and which have been given to them by the specific action and participation of the
Holy Spirit acting through them. The Holy Spirit enters us when we accept Christ and
therefore we need to understand that while non-Christians might possess great gifts, they
most certainly do not have spiritual gifts of any kind.

If we look at the scripture lesson closely we will see several things about spiritual gifts that we might
not have noticed the first time through. First, as I noted, all spiritual gifts are specifically
God given. Second, every gift must be used for the common good. Those gifts that tear
others down or damage the reputation of the church are certainly not spiritual gifts. Gossip
is not a gift, negativity is not a gift, self-centeredness is not a gift… I hope you get the idea.

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 The church is described as the body of Christ. After Christ’s resurrection and ascension
into heaven, his mission on earth, to seek and to save the lost, was passed on to his
followers, the church. It is up to us to do the work that Jesus was doing on earth until that
time that he returns and tells us to do something else. Jesus would never jam his finger in
his eye or cut off his own hand, and in the same way we are expected to operate as one
body. We must love each other, care for each other, support each other and work together
in order to accomplish the task that has been set before us. Not every job is glamorous,
certain body parts perform functions that are so foul that we cannot discuss them in polite
company, but if one of those body parts ceases to function, we are in serious trouble and
quickly wind up in the hospital. There is not a single one of us who can say that we are not
important to the operation of the church or who are vital to accomplishing the mission of
Jesus Christ.

Do you watch sports on television? Sports are another classic example of what we are talking about.
We all like to watch the quarterback, the running backs and the wide receivers because they
have all the glory and the glamour. We love to watch the big plays but it still takes eleven
guys on the field to make it happen. If an offensive tackle or defensive end fail to do what
they were assigned to do, it’s really hard for the rest of the team to win. NASCAR drivers
are the ones who get their pictures taken and who sign all the autographs, but how far
would they get without the guys who change spark plugs and buff out the turtle wax?
Racing cars is a team sport and every member of the team is important. The guys who
rebuild engines might not be good at driving 200 miles per hour but they contribute to the
overall effort by doing that thing that they are especially good at doing.

This brings us to the third lesson about spiritual gifts. There are different kinds of gifts, there are
different kinds of service, but it is the same Holy Spirit, the same Lord and the same God
that is working to bring about these gifts. Paul says “11All these are the work of one and the
same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” He says that the Spirit
gives to each one, just as he determines. God give to each individual person just what he
has decided that they will need to do their part of his mission. This is not some kind of a
bulk food granola purchase where God just makes a bunch of nuts, a bunch of oats and a
bunch of sugar and raisins, mixes them up and pronounces them good. We might have a
few nutty people floating around, but each of us has been uniquely, individually, hand-
designed and handmade by God, one at a time.

I mentioned this before but it bears mentioning again, the fourth thing is this, “there should be no
division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part
suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” When a football
team wins the Super Bowl, every member of the team gets a Super Bowl ring, from the owners, to
the coach, to the guys that pass out Ben Gay and wrap ankles. We are in this together, when we win,
we all win, when we are hurt or when we suffer, we all suffer together. There are no superstars in
the body, each and every person is indispensable and if each person doesn’t do their part, the whole
body suffers from missing that person’s contribution.

I know what many of you are thinking. “So what is it that I am supposed to be good at doing?” “If
God has uniquely gifted me to accomplish a part of his mission, why don’t I feel more special and
why don’t I feel like I have any idea what my gift might be?” Honestly, it isn’t always obvious to us
as it might be to those who know us well. Five or six years ago I had no idea that I could ever do
what I am doing right now. I had no idea that I had any ability to teach. It was through the process

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of studying spiritual gifts that some of my friends gathered together and told me I might consider
teaching among God’s gifts to me. A friend of ours, Cindi Baer, is a schoolteacher at Kent-
Roosevelt Junior High School (it might be at the High School, I’m not positive). Cindi loves
teaching her kids and when we began to study spiritual gifts she was sure that teaching was among
her gifts. It wasn’t. Cindi was more than a little surprised and she considered the possibility that the
tools we were using in our study had simply made a mistake on her, until she got closer to the end of
the study. At the end of the study we were using, we had not only identified the top spiritual gifts
that were operating in our lives, but we began to identify the passion that motivates us. Cindi’s
profile did not show that she had a spiritual gift in teaching, what it did show was that she was
absolutely passionate about helping kids who others had given up on. If you hadn’t guessed, Cindi
teaches the kids who already have two strikes and are about to get thrown out of school altogether.
These are her kids. This is the reason that she gets up and loves going to work every day.

This highlights another important piece for us. I told you that spiritual gifts are not the same as
talent. I have heard that it is not uncommon for schoolteacher not to have the gift of teaching. This
doesn’t mean that they aren’t any good but it reminds us that they are, after all, spiritual gifts.
Spiritual gifts are given to us so that we can accomplish a spiritual mission in the name of Jesus
Christ. For Cindi, teaching may not have brought glory to God, but her passion for those “almost
ready to drop out or be thrown out” kids certainly did bring God glory. The people who are gifted in
teaching should be teaching in our church, even though they might not normally teach in the secular
world at all. Our spiritual gifts have been given to us so that we might represent Christ and bring
him glory. I would very much like to begin steering the people in our church toward those positions
in the church for which God has uniquely gifted them. Do you know what your gifts are? Do you
understand how we might apply these gifts in the ministry of the church? If you are not sure, and
even if you think you are sure, I hope that you would do something for me, really that you would do
something for yourself. I have been working with our Sunday school teachers and we are bringing
you a tool that we think is very good. This is a tool that will teach you more about spiritual gifts and
will help you to identify your own gifts. In using this tool you will examine yourself and will hear
from several of your friends what gifts they see manifested in you. In the end it will guide you in
discerning what passion drives you to use these gifts most effectively to bring glory to God and to
accomplish the mission of Jesus Christ.

A NASCAR team wouldn’t win many races if everyone tried to drive or if everyone wanted to work
on the drive train. The Ohio State Buckeye football team wouldn’t score many touchdowns if
everyone played defense. It doesn’t mean you’ll be famous any more than June Martino was
famous, but like June Martino, when our leader grants us a percentage share of his wealth, we will
be rich beyond imagining.

Come with us on this adventure.

Find out what position God intended for you to play on his team!

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
You have been reading a message presented at Johnsville Grace and Steam Corners United Methodist Churches on the date
noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor of the Johnsville Parish. Duplication of this message is a
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contacting us at subscribe@johnsvillegrace.org. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless
otherwise noted.