Sermon Tone Analysis

Gifts

Joy of Generosity

Intro Hook

- We find Joy within our lives when we begin to find the purpose for what God created for us.

- Purpose is finding your part in the great symphony of music we call life.

You find where your puzzle piece fits.

How you function within the body of your community.

- How many of us feel purposeless though?

When people ask us “what do you do” we respond with a job title.

How many of us sit at a desk wondering if there is all there is to life.

Laying in bed desiring to have more.

- Paul in his classic letter to the church in Corinth tells the church “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

- One of movies top villains of all time (Mr Smith from the Matrix) says There's no escaping reason, no denying purpose, for as we both know, without purpose we would not exist.

It is purpose that created us, purpose that connects us, purpose that pulls us, that guides us, that drives us; it is purpose that defines, purpose that binds us.”

- Purpose connects us with the world around us…and when we don’t know what it is, we feel isolated, alone…

- Robert Mulholland describes the activities that try to fill are yearnings in his Invitation to Journey “ As long as we try to fill this yearning with things other than God and activities other than God’s purposes, we are unfulfilled and incomplete”

- We walk around feeling incomplete.

We go to work feeling unfulfilled.

- So we try to drown out the yearning.

The Incomplteness with being hurried and busy.

We try to drown it out with escaping into binge watching our favorite shows, or sports…or overeating, or alcohol, drugs…pornography…

- But no matter what we do we are still empty.

Unfilled.

Incomplete.

And we begin to fear that no one can love us, maybe because we don't even love ourselves.

- The bible names this fear of being unlovable as “Shame.”

- Shame is not a new feeling.

It is a problem that is rooted deeply within our human nature.

And through the world things like Social Media cause us to just watch the people around us looking happy, fulfilled… like they have purpose.

And we feel more and more isolated…more and more shame.

- We have advertising around us trying to sell you on your own emptiness.

Trying to get you to feel more hungry.

That you need their product to feel fulfilled.

Maybe the answer isn’t purpose…maybe you don't have the right stuff to live into your purpose.

The right job, the right education.

-And all this works.

We fall into a cycle of Comparing unpurposeful lives with others that we think are happy and we feel shame…

- And we are no closer to finding our purpose.

We hand ourselves over to the world.

Henri Nouwen describes it like this “ As long as I keep running about asking: "Do you love me?

Do you really love me?"

I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with "ifs."

The world says: "Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy.

I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections.

I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much."

There are endless "ifs" hidden in the world's love.

These "ifs" enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them.

The world's love is and always will be conditional.

As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain "hooked" to the world-trying, failing,and trying again.

It is a world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart.”

- Do we know what we are meant to do?

Does the Bible communicate with us how we are to use each of our abilities and skills to find purpose?

How am I supposed to use them?

Claim: Yes, The way of Jesus shows us that the way to find joyful purpose within our lives is to use our Gifting for the building of the church and sake of others.

Gifts

-Last week we started our teaching series on the “Joy of Generosity”.

Doctor Alan talked about being Generous with your time, and this week we are going to look at being Generous with your gifts.

- If you have your Bible, turn to 1 Corinthians 12 and Read along with me

1 cor 12:5-7 “There are different ministries, but the same Lord.

And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person.

A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good:”

Paul in this passage communicating 5 truths we need to know about our gifts

First, Our gifting, our abilities and skills…these are SPIRITUAL Gifts.

We can see different lists of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, Romans and Ephesians.

Teaching, Faith, Speaking in Tongues, administration… there is not an exhaustive list…but the main thing to grasp is that these are ways we are equipped by God, through the Holy Spirit.

Second, each of these is a gift.

Spiritual Gifts are just what they are called.

GIFTS.

We do not get them because we level up in christianity.

We dont achieve spiritual gifts.

They are given to us.

You may be thinking, wait Patrick!

I worked hard for my skill.

That can be true!

But when Scripture is talking about a Spiritual Gift, it is something that you are doing that is outside the realm of what you could usually do on your own.

Third.

There are Different Spiritual Gifts for different people.

God equips us all with different gifts!

My gifting is not your gifting.

Doctor Al is so good at alot of things I am not good at.

I am probably good at something he is not good at.

S Fourth, There is one God.

This is not a Theological statement worrying about you worshipping other Gods.

And that was common when this letter was written.

Instead, Paul is pointing to the unity that the Gifts should bring.

Our Spiritual Gifts should not lead to us being seperated from one another, they should lead us into further unity.

Fifth, they are for the Common Good.

The common good particularly of The Church…and by extension the people around you… your family, work, friends, enemies, neighborhood…

Your gifts are not for you.

As Rick Warren says in one of the best opening lines for a book “ It’s Not About You”.

The Different ways that God has gifted you, are meant for unity and the common good of the church.

It is not about you!

Segway: To see how this further works, lets continue in the passage.

But First, lets understand a little about the background of what we are reading.

- 1 Corinthians is a letter by the Church Planter Paul to one of the Churches that he helped Plant.

He spent a year and a half with this church, and then was called away.

And while Paul is away, he begins hearing reports that things are not going well at the Church.

- The Church has several different key problems going on, and the letter of 1 Corinthians reads as addressing those 5 different problems.