We continued our emphasis on Life Stewardship at CLBC on Sunday by focusing on the Stewardship of Talents as it relates specifically to spiritual gifts. As the Word of God so clearly directs in Romans 12:1-8, there is a clear connection between surrendering to God and serving in His kingdom. We are to surrender, in presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. We are to serve Him with our spiritual gifts as outlined in vv3-8.
A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability, sovereignly given by God through the Holy Spirit, to every believer individually at salvation, enabling the believer to perform a vital function in the body of Christ, for the glory of God.
Every believer has at least one primary spiritual gift and I believe we also have secondary gifts that we are to use and be good stewards of. To use our gifts we need to: 1)Have a proper view of ourselves- in terms of viewing ourselves with humble attitudes, and we are to utilize those gifts because of the grace of God and according to the measure of faith given to us by God. 2) We need to understand the body of Christ and see how God's church operates in the local place with a group of people called out by Christ to advance God's kingdom agenda. Just as every part of the human body has a purpose, so does every part of the local church body. The church is more than an organization, it is a living organism.We are called out by God, to be consecrated to God, committed to one another, and called to reach the world for Christ! 3) We need to use what God has given to us. There are lists of spiritual gifts in Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and I Peter 4.
Every member cannot perform every function, but every member can perform the function God has given to them. Use what God has given to you! Be careful not to focus on the gifts, focus instead on the glory of God and He will help you apply the gifts appropriately!
