Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

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Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm.

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Glad to study God's Word with you every day.

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This Bible teaching program on today's edition.

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Of Pathway to Victory. A spiritual gift is the desire and power God gives you to fulfill his purpose.

First of all, notice a spiritual gift is a desire. If something is really your gift, you enjoy doing it.

And notice what I said in that first truth. It is something that is given to each Christian. Every Christian has a gift.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, most churches today face a pretty serious problem. It's got nothing to do with finances or facilities. Rather, it's an unemployment problem.

You see, too many believers are simply sitting in the pews week after week rather than using their God-given abilities. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains how you can identify and use your spiritual gift.

Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Speaker 2

Dr. Jeffress thanks David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Anyone who loves the Bible understands the significance of geography. Now, why do I say that? Well, our Christian faith is embedded into the landscape of the Holy Land. And as we read our Bible, we can actually trace the very footsteps of Jesus as he carried his message to cities and villages of Israel and beyond.

Along those lines, Pathway to Victory has created an exclusive resource for you. The Jesus Map is a reference tool that you'll rely on for many years to come. In this multifolded brochure, we've identified 52 major events in the life of Jesus and where they occurred. I'm prepared to send the Jesus Map to your home when you request a copy, completely free of charge by going to ptv.org.

But that's not all, because for just a few more days, I'm also prepared to send you the book that complements our current study on the Holy Spirit. My book is titled *I Want More*. In my book, I provide biblical teaching on the Holy Spirit and practical instruction on how to deploy his power in your life. The result? Well, there'll be more joy in your worship, more answers to your prayers, and a greater sense of God's presence in your life. So while there's still time, be sure to get in touch and request my book, *I Want More*. I'm pleased to send a copy along with the Jesus Map when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory.

Now let's get started with our next study. Today I'd like to speak to you about identifying your God-given role in the body of Christ. I titled today's message "Discovering and Using."

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Your spiritual gift to give us an overview of this subject of spiritual gifts. I want to share with you four important truths about spiritual gifts. Take out your outline. Don't stare at me. I want you to write these down, okay? Because this is key for us to understand.

First of all, truth number one. Every Christian has a unique spiritual gift. Everybody who is truly a believer has a unique spiritual gift. Turn, if you would, to Romans, chapter 12, verses 4 through 6. Paul writes, "For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us," notice how that gift came. It came through God's grace. "Let each of us exercise our gifts accordingly. If prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, if service in his serving, if teaching in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives, do so with liberality. He who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness." You see, those are the gifts that are mentioned. And as we'll see in just a moment, every one of you here tonight, who is a Christian, has one of those seven spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12, 7 says, "But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good." While these gifts vary among believers, every Christian has one.

Now here's truth number two. True joy comes from using your spiritual gift. True joy comes from using your spiritual gift. All of us have a desire to be a part of something truly meaningful in life.

Here's principle number three about spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts help perfect the body of Christ. God has given spiritual gifts to help perfect the body of Christ. Have you ever wondered why it is that we don't have all of the gifts? We don't, by the way. You don't, I don't. We only have one gift. Why did God give us all the gifts? The only person who ever lived who had all the gifts was Jesus Christ. We don't have all the gifts. Why didn't God give us all the gifts? Because God's plan for the church is not that we operate as independent agents, but that we cooperate with one another. The reason God didn't give us all of the gifts is so that we could learn to depend upon and cooperate with one another.

Now, remember what I said. Even though we only have one gift, God wants us to practice all of the gifts. He wants us all to be merciful. He wants all of us to be giving. He wants all of us to confront sin. He wants all of us to meet the practical needs of other people through serving. So how does he get us to do all of those things? How can he make us more merciful? Well, he can do it by putting us in contact with somebody who has the gift of mercy. The fact is, the reason God puts us in contact with Christians with different gifts is so that we can learn how to exercise the gift that they have.

You know, years ago, when I was a youth minister here, I noticed that one of the problems we had in our youth area was we had a lot of people who had the spiritual gift of teaching. But what I noticed back then was there was very little practical application in the teaching. And so, as nicely as I could, I explained that, yes, we need good Bible teaching, but we also need practical application. Well, the people in there who had the gift of teaching, and the gift of teaching is very content-oriented. It wants to make sure that everything is doctrinally right. It's, you know, that kind of information. Well, when I started talking about the need for application, man, you could see those people bow up with the gift of teaching. Man, they straightened up. We knew Jeffress was a heretic all along. You know, you could just see them seething back there.

Well, you know, the people with the gift of exhortation, which is the gift of helping people gain practical insight from Scripture into how to solve a problem, man, they were cheering me on. That's right, Robert. We need more of that. More of that. People in the room who had the gift of mercy empathizing with the hurts of other people, they were just afraid that I was hurting people's feelings by talking about that. And then the people who had the gift of serving, they were busy in the kitchen preparing the refreshments. They didn't hear any of it at all. You know, they wanted to meet the practical needs of people there.

Well, who's right? What's really important? Is teaching important? Is practical application important? Is mercy important? Is serving refreshments important? The truth is, it's all important. The fact is, we needed all of those gifts operating in order to produce mature high school and junior high students for Christ. And it's the same way in the church. All the gifts are important. And that's why it's important that we all understand our gifts, we use our gifts, and see that God has given people different gifts that help make us more like Christ. We're all to be merciful. We're all to be serving, we're all to be giving, we're all to be prophetic, and so on. Spiritual gifts are designed to perfect the body of Christ.

Now here's the fourth and final truth we're going to look at tonight. Spiritual gifts can be divided into three categories. Spiritual gifts can be divided into three categories. Now, I've heard a number of different presentations of spiritual gifts. Some people do what's called a spiritual gifts inventory. And what they do is they take the three lists in the Bible of gifts, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and they list all of those gifts on a single sheet of paper. And then they cross out the duplicates, and then they cross out the gifts they don't think are operational anymore. And they say, okay, out of this world list, you pick one or two or three that you think are your gift. There are about 20 of them when you put them all together.

Now, here's what a thinking person would ask. Why are there three lists? I mean, why is it that some of the gifts that Paul mentioned to the Roman Christians in Romans chapter 12, he didn't mention when he wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12 or the Ephesians when he wrote in Ephesians 4? Why didn't he talk about when he wrote in Romans 12? Why didn't he mention the gift of the apostle or the prophet or the pastor or teacher? Was Paul getting senile? Did he just forget? Why are there three different lists of gifts? And I think the answer is because there are three categories of spiritual gifts that are outlined here in First Corinthians 12. I talked about this a few months ago.

Look at this, verses four through six that tell us the three categories of gifts. Paul says, "Now there are a variety of gifts." There's that word charismata. "There are a variety of gifts, but the same spirit." Verse 5, "There are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord." And verse 6, "There are varieties of effects, but there's the same God who works all things in all people." I think these are three separate categories of gifts. And on the back of your outline here, I have listed those three categories of gifts.

First of all, notice he says in verse four, there are a variety of gifts. Now, that's the list in Romans 12, 6-8; there are seven of them. And when Peter says in 1 Peter 4, 10, "As each one has received the gift, let him use it in serving God," he's talking about this list in Romans 12. The next time we're going to look at each of these, I'm going to talk about the description of each gift, what it is, characteristics of each gift, and the dangers of each gift. But some people have the gift of prophecy, that is, convicting people of sin. Some people have the gift of serving, meeting the practical needs of other people. Some people have the gift of teaching, clarifying truth. Some people have the gift of exhortation, the organization's giving and mercy. And we all have this unique desire or enablement, power to connect to the purpose of God.

Now, let me illustrate that for you. You've heard us talk about this trip that our choir is getting ready to take to Argentina, and we're looking forward to that trip. Now, we've got 150 choir members and orchestra that are going to go with us to Argentina. Why would somebody take vacation time and pay the expense that is necessary to go on this trip? What is the motivation of the choir to do this? Well, say, "Well, that's easy, Pastor. To sing and praise God." Well, but let's go a little bit further. What is their motivation in singing and ministering? The fact is, there are all kinds of different reasons this choir is going to Argentina. Some people sing up here every Sunday or play in the orchestra because they have the gift of prophecy. They hope in some way their music will convict people of sin and a need for a right relationship with God. Some people are going on this trip in order to serve, to meet the practical needs of the people they're going to minister to there, or even to serve the needs of other choir members here. Some people are going to teach. They're really interested in making sure every song is doctrinally sound, you know, and so forth and so forth. They've got the gift of teaching, and that's important. Some people have the gift of exhortation. That's why they sing. They hope that somehow their song will help people solve the problems that they're facing. Some people who go on this trip have the gift of leadership and organization. Some of you who can't go have exercised your gift of giving to help people who are going. Some people sing in the choir, and you know what they think? They think, "I know there's somebody hurting out there, somebody who's in distress. And I hope somehow the words of this song or this music comforts them, soothes the problem that they're encountering."

You see, you can be involved in a ministry, but have all kinds of different motivations for doing that. First of all, there are the gifts, the motivation, and every one of us has one of those gifts. And by the way, we only have one. And it doesn't change throughout our lifetime. When the Holy Spirit came, he brought you one of those gifts.

Now, the next category of gifts is ministries. 1 Corinthians 12:5 says, "There are a variety of ministries, but the same Lord." These are doors of opportunity within the church God opens up in which you can use your spiritual gift. Now, while you only have one gift, you may have a variety of ministries throughout your lifetime. In fact, you can have more than one ministry at the same time. It's a door of opportunity in the church to exercise your gift. For example, an apostle. And technically, there are only 12 of them. But an apostle is somebody who takes the message of Christ to someplace that has never heard the message of Christ. Certainly, missionaries are in the role of the apostle. When you go to Argentina, we may be in places where the gospel has not yet reached. And if so, we're in the role of the apostle. A prophet, that is, somebody who speaks to God's own people. Primarily, the evangelist is somebody who speaks to non-Christians. It's a ministry; it's not a spiritual gift per se. Evangelism is an opportunity for ministry, speaking to non-Christians. There's the role of the pastor, teacher, and so forth.

Now, your ministries can change throughout your lifetime. You can have more than one. For example, keep going back to the choir here on this trip; they'll have all kinds of different ministries. Sometimes they'll be singing to Christians. That's the role of the prophet. Sometimes you'll be singing or speaking to non-Christians. You'll be acting as an evangelist. Your ministries are varied and they change, but your gift remains the same.

Now, let me show you something here. Sometimes there's not a relationship between your ministry and your gift. For example, let's say, how many Sunday school teachers do we have here tonight? How many of you work teaching Sunday school? Okay. It's probably why we don't have a more spiritual Sunday school. Okay. But anyway, for those of you who are Sunday school teachers, you're in the role of a prophet, that is, somebody who speaks to God's own people. Now, what do you think your spiritual gift is? If you have the ministry of a Sunday school teacher, what do you think your spiritual gift on the left-hand side should be? A lot of people say, "Well, I was a Sunday school teacher and I had the gift of teaching." Not necessarily. There are all kinds of motivations for why somebody might teach a Sunday school class.

For example, some people are motivated; they have the gift of prophecy, and their hope is through this class, "I hope people will be broken of their sin, but they will repent and come back into a right relationship with God." Some people, and I bet you've had a teacher like this, their motivation for teaching is to get their Sunday school class involved in service projects. I mean, to them, they don't care that much about teaching the Bible. Oh yeah, they'll stumble through a lesson here and there. But what they really think is important is getting people out there, you know, delivering food to those who need food or building a house for somebody who needs a house. They really see their class as a vehicle for getting people involved in service. That's their motivation.

Now, some people teach because they're interested in doctrinal truth, and that's their motivation. Some people teach because they want to help people solve their problems. They are motivated; they're inspired by people, for example, who want to know, "How do you know God's will for your life?" Or they want to help people who are going through relationship problems. And they see their class as a way to give people the insights they need to solve those problems. Some people are motivated to teach a class because they have the gift of leadership. They want to train people to be leaders. And most every class they teach, it doesn't matter if they're in Zephaniah or Malachi, they'll find some leadership principle in there to instill in people. That's their motivation.

Some people have the gift of giving. And by the way, as we'll see next week, if you have the gift of giving, you love to motivate other people to give. And so people have the gift of giving. You know, every lesson they teach is a variation of the same theme: "Give, give, give, give." Some people have the gift of mercy. Again, they're not interested in delivering content. What they do is they want to come up alongside people in their class who are going through difficult times. They want to show mercy to them. They want to comfort them. And so you may be in the ministry of a teacher, but you have all kinds of different motivations for teaching that class.

There are gifts, there are ministries. Now look at this. The third column is effects. Verse 6 says, "And there are a variety of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons." What are effects? These are supernatural results that the Holy Spirit produces in other people's lives when we exercise our gifts. This is what the Holy Spirit does in other people's lives when we exercise our gifts. Nowhere are we told to produce these effects in other people. This is what the Holy Spirit does when we exercise our gift. The left-hand column is whatever ministry God has opened up for us. The middle column is what the Holy Spirit does. The third column is in the lives of other people.

Let me illustrate that for you. This morning I spoke on the subject of prayer. I talked about praying. Now, my gift, if you haven't figured this out, is the gift of prophecy. Prophecy isn't foretelling; it's forthtelling. It is delivering God's word in such a way that it will convict people of sin and their need for a right relationship with God. So my gift is prophecy. Now, I taught that message this morning on prayer. When I did so, I was really in any number of ministries. The message of our pulpit goes literally around the world. It goes to places the gospel has never gone before. It's able by television and radio to reach homes where no missionary has been able to reach yet. And so in that sense, I was operating as an apostle. I was speaking to mainly Christians, that is a prophet. There were certainly some non-Christians who were listening to my message on prayer today, so that qualifies me as an evangelist all at the same time.

Now when I exercise my gift and the ministries God opened up for me, what did the Holy Spirit do in the lives of other people? Well, let's say there's somebody listening to the message on prayer today who said, "You know what? I never realized how important prayer was before today's message. Today I understand for the first time why prayer is so vital to unleash the power of God." Well, the Holy Spirit gave that person a word of wisdom. Wisdom is seeing life from God's point of view. And so they got a word of wisdom. Maybe somebody else was out there. They said, "Well, you know, I knew I needed to pray more, but I really didn't understand how to pray. I had all these misconceptions about prayer, that you had to do it for three hours or that you had to have everything right in your life. And I never really knew that prayer was simply conversation with God." Well, that person, the Holy Spirit produced in him or her a word of knowledge.

Let's say somebody else was out there. And as they listened to this message, they were thinking about a particular problem they were facing. They said, "You know, when the pastor said prayer ought to be our first resort, not our last resort, when we face a problem like he did a few years ago, you know, I realize that I need to pray about this specific problem in my life and that God has the ability to remove that problem." To that person, they were given a gift of faith. Maybe somebody else out there is suffering physically. You know, there has been a proven relationship between prayer and physical healing. And the Bible says, "Don't worry about anything, pray about everything." Prayer has a way of alleviating stress that in turn can actually remove physical maladies we may be suffering. Maybe that person receives physical healing from my message. Maybe somebody else decides that they're going to pray about a specific problem this week, and lo and behold, just like happened to us a few years ago, they experience a miracle. God miraculously answers their prayer. God has produced in them miracles.

Do you get the point? When we exercise the gift God has given us in the ministry opportunity he has opened up to us, the Holy Spirit produces these miraculous effects in the lives of other people. Now, next time, we're going to look at each of these seven gifts. I'm going to give you a chart that is divided into three columns. It defines what the gift is, it gives some major characteristics of each of the gifts, and it also is going to describe some

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Be ready to take notes tomorrow, because I'll identify seven spiritual gifts that are illustrated in the Bible, and I'll help you discover the spiritual gift that may belong to you. If you're prepared to dig deeper on this topic, then I'd like to send you a copy of my book about the Holy Spirit. It's titled *I Want More*. In my book, I explain how to unleash the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

At some point in their spiritual journey, every Christian longs for more. More joy, more peace, more sense of God's presence in their life. But what most Christians don't realize is that what they're really longing for is to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. My book will help you identify four spirit quenchers and put a plan into action to overcome your spiritual battles. A copy of my book, *I Want More*, can be yours today when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. And when you respond right now, I'll be sure to include the Jesus map as well.

In closing, let me say thank you for your generous support of Pathway to Victory. Our ministry has enjoyed a trajectory of growth that defies human explanation, and it's all because of listeners like you who believe in our mission and give generously. Our work together is far from finished. In today's world, the culture is shrouded in darkness, but Pathway to Victory offers life and light to all who hear.

So thanks for joining us in this urgent ministry of extending God's love and God's grace. God is using you to pierce the darkness with the light of His word.

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David thanks Dr. Jeffress.

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Today, when you invest in the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, we'll say thanks by sending you the book called *I Want More*. Call 866-999-2965 or visit our website ptv.org. Now, when your investment is $75 or more, we'll also send you the complete, unedited CD and DVD teaching set for *Unleashed*. That's the series from Dr. Jeffress about experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. There are only a few days left, though, to request these resources, so call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Here's that mailing address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins inviting you back next time when Dr. Jeffress continues the message, "Discovering and Using Your Spiritual Gift." That's right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.