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Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, spiritual gift abuse. You need to know what it is. You need to know how to spot it, and you need to know how to confront it. Today we'll cover the final five most common abuses of spiritual gifts. So grab a pen if you can and we'll get started in just a minute.

Dave Dravecky: Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram concludes our series called You Were Made for More. How to discover God's purpose for your life. He's unpacking the dangers of spiritual gift abuse and providing the warning signs every believer needs to know. From counterfeiting and demonic deception to treating your gift as optional. Chip closes with a sobering accountability reminder and a powerful, hopeful call to steward well what God has entrusted to you.

If you ever need to revisit this series or find more from Chip, just go to livingontheedge.org. But now here's Chip with his message titled, Warning, Beware of Spiritual Gift Abuse.

Chip Ingram: I want to go over what I think are the 10 most common abuses of spiritual gifts. Number one, beware when spiritual gifts are used as a means of manipulation, power, or control in personal and or church relationships. And notice they're all going to start with beware. That's a warning sign.

Beware when spiritual gifts are used as a means of manipulation, power, or control in personal and or church relationships. If you have your Bibles, open them if you will to First Corinthians chapter 12. And in First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4, it's a common thing we've talked about. In fact, keep your finger in First Corinthians 12. A lot of the abuses were happening in the Corinthian church and so a lot of the corrections are going to be there.

Pick it up at verse 4. There are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of workings but the same God who works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Did you notice the repetition of the word same, same, same? There's unity.

When God is working and the Lord Jesus is exalted and the Spirit of God is bestowing gifts and operating in the body of Christ, it's for the common good. The focus is on what God is doing in the group, not on people's particular passions or bents. Personal control, manipulation, and use by gifts are always a sign that abuse is occurring. Second, warning. Beware when anyone claims to have the ability to give or bestow any particular gift if you follow their formula.

Third, warning. Beware when any particular gift is made universal evidence of spirituality, salvation, or other spiritual blessing. Spiritual abuse number four. Beware when the focus of a church service, ministry, or religious event is on spiritual gifts and their manifestation rather than on the giver of the gifts and His agenda for the church. This is where you hear about the miracle service as advertised. When the focus gets on, "Come, see the show. Here's what you can get." Beware.

Warning number five. Beware of comparing your gifts with anyone else. It always leads to carnality. Don't, don't compare yourself with other people. Don't compare your gift with other people. God made you unique. Warning number six. Beware of any extreme position on spiritual gifts, I.E., they do not exist at all to a Spirit-filled Christian will have all the gifts.

Number seven, warning light. Beware of using spiritual gifts in the energy of the flesh to fulfill personal ego needs or impress other people. I think we all struggle with that. And so it's a warning light. Beware, number eight. Beware of confusing spiritual gifts with spiritual fruit as the evidence of spiritual growth and maturity. In some circles the development and impact and the use of your gifts becomes kind of the test for spiritual maturity.

But gifts, remember, are a means, not an end. Gifts are what? They're a paintbrush. They're a means. The goal is that you are becoming more and more like Christ. Spiritual fruit is about spiritual maturity, Christ-likeness. Spiritual gifts are about the means God uses in your life to help others become more like Christ. Let's look at a couple passages. Ephesians 4:13. Until we all reach to the unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

The goal is maturity. Or notice Galatians 5:22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, against such things there is no law. In fact, Jesus, John 15. You might just jot it. John 15:8. By this is my Father glorified that you have many gifts and are very impressive. Oh, I think I misquoted that.

By this is my Father glorified. What? That you bear much fruit. Well, what is fruit? Fruit is always twofold. Number one, it's the life of Christ reproduced in your life. The goal of gifts is not that you're great, you're used, it's developed, we're impressed. The goal of the gifts is that because of how you are living, you are becoming more and more like Jesus. And God is using you for the right reason in the right ways with the right motives to exercise a supernatural ability in the sphere He's called you to as an intricate interdependent part of the body.

And as you do that with an attitude of love and dependency, there are people whose lives little by little by little become more and more like Jesus. But see, it's fruit. Anytime there's an emphasis on the gifts as an end in themselves, a little red warning light should go off. Warning number nine, beware that apparent manifestations of the Spirit can be counterfeited by human schemes and demonic forces.

Beware. I mean, this is a big one. This happens not only overseas, but this happens here. Beware, anytime something is supernatural. That's amazing. I was at this meeting. I was at this meeting, you can't believe it. I checked, they didn't have an earphone. And and he didn't know this and he didn't know that. And this person they never met and and and then they said that and this lady said, "Well, that's really true. And I can't believe it. How could you know that?" Chip, you can't believe it. This was an amazing meeting and Okay.

You went to an amazing meeting. God may be choosing to do miraculous things. There may be manifestations of the Spirit of God in doing things that are very unusual when we go, "Wow, wow, wow!" or it could be that something supernatural or perceived supernatural is happening and there's a group of people that are being deceived. Don't necessarily assume because there are quote, manifestations of the Spirit or apparent miracles or even real miracles as far as you can tell that it is always necessarily a work of God.

I mean, I mean, listen to the very words of Jesus. If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. I mean, this is, this is toward the end of His greatest sermon. And and He gives this warning. Verse 22. Many of you will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord." Now notice the gifts. "Did we not prophesy in your name?" There's a spiritual gift. "And in your name drive out demons?" That probably have some gifts going there. "And perform many miracles?" He goes, "Yeah."

"Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers.'" Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house upon the rock. And I just would say, just because something is supernatural or perceived as supernatural. We're told to what? Test the spirits. Examine the fruit.

What's First John say? Test the spirits, examine them. Is it true? Is it not? The final warning here is beware of viewing the discovery, development, and deployment of your spiritual gift as either an optional exercise or interesting but not serious responsibility. I've given you two passages. Ephesians 4:7 and 2 Corinthians 5:9 and 10.

See, here's, here's, here's my observation of the body of Christ by and large. And my confession is for many years, even as a pastor. Oh, spiritual gifts. That's really cool. I guess there's this long, long salad bar of maybe 25 or 30 some spiritual gifts. And you know something? I'm eating a good meal, meat and potatoes. You know, I want to be a disciple, I want to grow, you know, I want to love my wife, I want to be a good dad and I'll find my place in the church.

And there's a salad bar, it's mostly desserts, you know, a little bit of salad, you know, you can live without salad. And you can live without desserts. You know, they got the the salad and the dessert bar. And if I have a little extra time, someday, some way, I think I'll go to the spiritual, you know, dessert bar or the salad bar and say, you know, maybe I have this, oh, that's kind of interesting, I don't know. Bob's got that one, I think he's a cool guy, you know.

And maybe, maybe it's this one, and I don't know and, you know, maybe I get on my plate and I, I say, well, that's probably one of these five or six or seven or eight or nine or 10 or 11, depending on who I'm talking to and how I feel on that day. And then you just set them on the table. And that's, that's the attitude toward spiritual gifts. And Ephesians 4:7-10 is a very interesting passage about the work of Christ.

And it talks about Him dying, going to the lower parts of the earth and proclaiming victory over sin, victory over Satan, and victory over death. And the evidence of that victory proclaimed is, and He gave gifts to men. The spoils, the evidence. It's, it's that picture of a general who wins a great army and there's all this plunder. And he brings, you know, the, the enemy often in, in ancient days, they would become in chains, often either stripped to the waist or naked.

And they would parade them back through the hometown and the general, the Victor general, usually on a white horse, would come and behind them would be all the spoils, you know, the camels and the donkeys and the jewelry and the gold and the silver. And he would take that and give it to his officers, take that and give it to the people. And then he would take and give gifts to all the people of the city. And it was the evidence that they were the bad guys and we are the good guys.

They were stronger than us or they thought they were, and we won the battle. And this gift that you have is a reminder that we are winners.

Dave Dravecky: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And part two of our message is coming up next. Remember the place to go for all of these daily messages is over on our website, livingontheedge.org. There you'll find Chip's full teaching library, along with even more content like Chip's free daily discipleship tool to help you grow all week long. You can also download the Chip Ingram app absolutely free through any app store on your smart device.

Now let's get back to today's message from Chip Ingram.

Chip Ingram: And every time you say to yourself, I'm going to discover my spiritual gift, you're saying, I'm going to value the sacrifice and the victory of Christ and remind myself that I am a victor today, present tense, over sin and its power, over death, and over the enemy's power. And when I, when I develop my gift, I'm saying, God, thank you for this gift that You gave me. It is a stewardship. And I'm going to develop it, I'm going to deploy it and it's not optional and it's not semi-serious and not to do someday, some way. It's not a salad bar. It belongs on the plate with the meat and the potatoes and the diet of my life.

I'm going to seriously discover who You made me to be because You died and rose from the dead. And your victory. You decided the way to earmark that for me was my spiritual gift. It is not an optional little interesting thing to do. It's important. That's the positive reason. The negative reason is in 2 Corinthians 5 verses 9 and 10. And the Apostle Paul says, so we make it our goal to please Him, Christ, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

For we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, the bema seat, that each one may receive what is due him for things done in the body, whether good or bad. And the bema seat or the judgment seat of Christ is not about a person judgment of heaven or hell. That that's accomplished at the cross. The moment I received Jesus as my Savior, my sins are forgiven, my sins are judged. I now get the imputed righteousness of Christ. I have a brand new relationship with Him.

And then I live out as a steward out of gratitude all that He's done for me. As a believer, then I will stand before the judgment seat of Christ for my works done as a believer, and I will either have rewards or loss, either gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, stubble. First Corinthians 3. And I'm going to stand, he's going to say, Ingram, what did you do with the time, the money, the spiritual gifts, and the opportunity I gave you? You were my workmanship.

I created you in Christ Jesus for good works that I preordained before the foundations of the earth. And to do those good works, I put you in this family. I gave you these spiritual gifts, I gave you this opportunity, this much time, this much money, and I want to know what did you do with the investment in you? And I don't know about you, that's sobering. I mean, on a good day, it scares me to death.

I want to do what? I want to be a good steward. No, I want to be a great steward. I want to discover my gift. I want to develop my gift. Remember, gifts are like muscles. You know, you know, you may have it, but what, what are you doing? Exercise is how you develop it. Learning, training, education, exercise, rubbing up against people that have your gift, getting around people that have the opposite set of gifts so they help mature you and and round you out in good areas.

Those are 10 warnings that for me, I want to keep on the spiritual dashboard of the spiritual car that I'm driving so that when one of those lights go off, I'm going to at least stop the car, look under the hood and say, hey, you know, I'm not sure what's going on here, but maybe spiritual gift abuse. Because one of the reasons people don't teach on spiritual gifts is I mean, it, it can cause a lot of division. And there's so many extremes.

As a pastor, you think, I don't want to teach on this, because you know in the group, you know the minute you start teaching on it, there's people over here, there's people over here, and and people back there that have had a bad experience. But I think because of that, we've neglected one of the greatest teachings in the church. And we're going to be stewards called to account. Now, what's your action plan?

Okay? I mean, I mean, we spent some great time together. I mean, I mean, and if it's sober, what's your action plan? Is this going to be where, okay, we've gone through this session. Wow. I now understand a little bit more about spiritual gifts. I've thought about it and What's going to take you from where you are right here to if not, if you haven't discovered it, you discovered it. If you've pretty well discovered it, you start developing. If you're starting to develop it, you really deploy it.

If you've already discovered it, developed it, how are you going to deploy it to the max in the body of Christ? Can I give you a very quick action plan that I think summarizes sort of this is how to go about it. Number one, get your pen out, you'll need it because I want you to fill these in. Your spiritual gift action plan. One, write the word commit to discover, develop, and deploy your spiritual gift in the local body.

I mean, and when I say commit, what I mean is God before you. This is Lordship. I want you to bow your head and just like, remember the day, some of you that got married or some of you that signed on and made a commitment, tell God, Lord, I'm afraid, I don't know, I'm not sure, but I'm telling you, if you'll show me my gifts, so help me, I'll do whatever it takes to learn it. Make a commitment. And then I'll talk to you about what that commitment's going to look like.

Second, pray seriously seeking divine guidance. Don't you think God wants to show you? Didn't Jesus say, "Ask, seek, knock"? What, what, what, doesn't He want to open and this isn't like, you know, okay, you know, let's, let's try to make it as hard as possible, let's move this gift around, you know. You know, the Lord loves you, He died, He gave you a gift. Pray. But, but, you know, if you pray one day and then you pray next month, you must not really want it.

I mean, put it on your list, write it on a card. Lord, I'm asking today. You said, "Seek," I'm seeking. You said, "Ask," I'm asking. You said, "Knock," I'm knocking. Will You show me? Make it real. And you can, you can just do it like this gradually. You can have it just bang. I don't care, but I am going to seek your face. I made a commitment. So, I'm going to pray every day that you help me discover, deploy, and develop my gift.

Third is study the gift passages in God's word. And the corresponding handouts, I think will help you. You know, this isn't just some mystical thing. Get your nose in the word. You know, I wonder, you know, I'm not sure that Ingram guy on this one gift, you know. Get out a commentary. You know, dig in and say, what are these gifts? How do they really work? It's not what I think. It's not what your pastor thinks. I hope we can help you.

But you get your nose in the Scripture and say, I want to discover what your word says about gifts. I've narrowed it down to here. And as you get into the Scriptures, God's going to reveal it to you. Number four, get quality counsel. Quality counsel. Find people who really know you, people that are spiritually mature, and people that will tell you the truth. By the way, that's a rare combination. Really, find people that really know you, love you enough to hurt your feelings. Look, no, you do not have the gift of mercy, okay?

What do you mean I don't have the gift of mercy? Trust me on this, you don't have the gift of mercy. They know you, they're mature and they'll tell you the truth. Number five, test the waters. And I just put for six or eight weeks, you know, maybe it's better for three or four months. Man, you got to jump. And just, just go to some ministry in your local church that you think you might be gifted for and just say, I'd like to sign up for three months. And by and write it out, at the end of three months, I'm done.

I'll renegotiate and re-sign up. So you don't get like on, yes, I'd like to discover the gift of teaching the third-grade class, and you're like 11 years later, someone comes back and says, So, you think you got it or not? Right? We all been there? And then we have a little meeting to say, is it a fit or not a fit? And if it's not, you step back and, you know what, no guilt, no manipulation. Well, who's going to teach the third-graders if you leave? And the answer is, someone with the gift of teaching. I don't have it. Okay?

Test the waters. Number six, examine the fulfillment factor. I mean, I don't, this is not the easy factor. When you're in your gifts, remember the old Chariots of Fire movie? Remember, you know, remember the guy who was real fast and he ended up being a missionary? And I love that line in the movie, bum bum bum bum bum, bum bum, bum bum bum. If you haven't seen that movie, go rent it. Bum bum bum. And he goes, "I feel God's pleasure when I run."

What do you do in the body of Christ where you feel God's pleasure? Not just it's fun, but you feel God's pleasure. As intimidated as I was at that conference at Moody, when I got to talk about the character of God in my gifts to a group of people and actually the fact that it went out on the airwaves and went around the world, made it more intimidating on the one hand, but it for me and my gifts, it was like, there's more skin in the game, man. I feel God's pleasure.

I mean, ask me, do I want to proclaim God's truth about walking with God and repenting and being God's church to 10 people, 10,000 or 10 million? 10 million. It's just who God made me to be. I want His word to get to so many people in relevant ways where their lives change. Doesn't mean it's easy, I was scared to death. But there's a fulfillment factor. And the final one here is recognize God's evident blessing.

When you are in your gifts, it doesn't mean that, you know, things are going to change overnight, but God will use your life. People will come up and say things to you like, wow, I can't believe what's happening to my son. I mean, it was kind of a so-so youth group and I don't know what it is about you, but just your interaction. He wants to come but not for the youth pastor, just to get to talk to you. You know, I, I can't figure out what's happening around here, but, you know, we didn't used to care about people but, you know, I, I was one of those people on the sidelines and your invitation and when you put your arm around me and when you believed in me when no one else would.

You're going to see God use your life. You are His workmanship. You are special. He's created you in Christ Jesus. He has wonderful works for you to walk in. And those works are going to be highly determined by the supernatural endowments given to you by Jesus, activated by the Holy Spirit in alignment with God's word so that the glory of God and the preeminence of Christ is exalted.

And when that happens, it's a beautiful thing. Not only for the church, but for a watching world that really wonders whether all that we're up to makes sense.

Dave Dravecky: This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. In a message titled, Warning, Beware of Spiritual Gift Abuse. It's the final part of a series called You Were Made for More, which you can always revisit online at livingontheedge.org. Or download the Chip Ingram app for easy access straight from your smart device. You can also find full-length sermons through the Chip Ingram Sermon podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

Well, throughout this series Chip has reminded us that discovering, developing, and deploying your spiritual gift isn't optional. One day you'll stand before Christ and give an account for what you did with what he gave you. And that's not meant to frighten you, it's meant to free you, because the God who created you for good works also gave you exactly what you need to do them. The biblical command is simple and clear. Don't waste your gift.

And perhaps the best next step you can take right now is to start figuring out exactly how God wired you. We've built a free tool to help you do just that. It's called the real you, a short, biblically grounded online tool that helps you understand how God has wired you from the inside out. Take the assessment, absolutely free by going to therealyou.org. If Living on the Edge has played any part in helping you understand how God has wired you, consider giving today, so someone else can have that same experience.

Every gift, monthly or just one time, keeps this teaching reaching people who need it. Give online at livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Well, now here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: As we close today's program, I went pretty quickly through that spiritual gift action plan. So let me go over it again with the goal of you actually discovering your spiritual gift and then deploying it. Number one, commit to discover, deploy and develop your gift. Number two, pray. Ask God, He wants to show you. Number three, study God's word and the handouts. Get clear on what each gift is and what they mean.

Number four, get quality counsel. Find people who'll tell you the truth about where and how they see God's gifts working in action in your life. Number five, test the waters. I mean, six to eight weeks, just jump in somehow, some way to put your potential gift into practice. Number six, examine the fulfillment factor. When you function in your gifts, you'll sense God's approval and you'll say, "Wow, I love to do this."

Number seven, recognize God's evident blessing. When your spiritual gift is at work, something happens in the lives of others. God's purpose will be fulfilled when you discover, "This is what He gave you to do what He made you and called you to do." Let's discover and deploy our spiritual gifts.

Dave Dravecky: I'm Dave Dree and that's all our time for today. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you here next time for more insightful, practical Bible teaching on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.