Summary:
The greatest gifts in life are people you love and people who love you. You can have a big, beautiful house, but if you live there alone, there's an ache in your soul. The best trips are with friends. The best pictures from those trips aren't selfies. As we study 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, we see that God not only saves us, but gives us gifts to enrich the people in our life: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, words. The greatest people use their gifts to point us to the greatest Person.

Transcript:
This media has been available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check you more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and her neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church, my name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new, or you're visiting, we're so glad you're here and we'd love to connect.

First of all, congratulations on being here, congratulations. And by the power vested in me, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I give you permission to sweat as profusely as led. I will lead by example, here's my sweat rag, it shall make it's way into the sermon multiple times.

We are glad that you're here. If you're visiting, I know it takes a lot to come to a brand new church, so we're thankful. And we'd love to connect with you, we do that either personally after the service, or we'd love to connect through the connection card via the worship guide, or in the app that you can download at the app store. You can fill out the physical connection card, you can toss it into the offering basket, or redeem it at the welcome center for a gift. That said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word?

Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that you have revealed yourself to us through your son Jesus Christ. In Christ, we see who God is. We thank you Christ, that you are fully God, and you also show us what it means to be fully human. You lived a life of complete love, complete selflessness, and complete sacrifice. And you died on a cross, for our sins. You rose on the third day and you send us the holy spirit to apply the gospel to our lives, to save us from ourselves, from our selfishness, from our pride. From all the things that get in the way of living life as it's truly meant to be lived, of experiencing true humanity.

I pray today Lord, show us that you build the church and you bring people together, and you equip is with gifts. And that you want to make us gifts that keep on giving, gifts that serve others like Jesus Christ, the ultimate gift that keeps on giving. Holy Spirit, we welcome you into this space. We pray that you minister, as we talk about you. I pray, do powerful work in each one of our hearts and speak to us the words that you have. And I pray all this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So my wife Tanya and I just got back from Ukraine. She's originally from Ukraine, and ... Originally it was supposed to be a vacation and I stopped using that word, because it was a trip. It was really ... It was active, we met so many ... Hundreds of people we met, and it was incredible. One of the things that the Lord taught me was, there's no vacation from being a Christian, or Christians every day, when empowered by the Holy Spirit.

If you're not familiar, my wife, she is the godliest person I know, she is a saint. And, I wanted to go back to her home town to see where saints are made. So we flew into Kiev, spent a couple nights there, and then drove down in a bus, in a marshrutka, down to her home town. I grumbled ... The first hour was fine, and then I just grumbled for the next three hours, about how terrible the roads were. Then I had to repent of that ... a change of perspective.

But, one of the things that we saw ... One of the things that the Spirit taught us is, though the Ukraine is not as prosperous as the United States they are so rich in every single way that matters. Some of the most joyful people I've met, some of the most open people I've ever met. We meet people and they welcome us into their homes, they're hospitable.

I met this guy on Tanya's street, who recognized Tanya, invited me over into his house, his little courtyard. He's showing me his chickens and these ducks. He's like, "Ducks are good. You want some duck?" Grilled up a duck for me, just incredible people.

And they enriched us, I came back enriched. One of the lessons that the lord taught me is, the greatest thing that we have in this life is relationships, relationships with God primarily. And then, he releases us to have true relationships with other people. You can have the biggest most beautiful house at the end of a cul-de-sac, and if you live there alone there's an ache in your soul.

You can have the fastest, shiniest, brand new, most beautiful car, and if you have no one to ride with, and you have nowhere to go, your passenger is sadness. You can go to the finest restaurant, eat the finest meal, in the finest location. And if you have no one to eat it with ...

The greatest pictures from our trip, as we're looking through the pictures, and we took so many. The greatest pictures aren't the selfies, and they're not just of buildings. The greatest picture ... these are people that we met. The greatest gifts in life are people. We know this, so what's keeping us from pursuing this? What's keeping us from truly experiencing the gifts that people are? It's our own sin. It's pride, it's selfishness, it's ego. We're so focused on ourselves.

So when Jesus Christ comes, he didn't come just to make us Christians, he said, "I've come that you may have a life and have it to the full." Jesus is saying, "I want you to experience true humanity," because sin de-humanizes us. We de-humanize other people by sinning against them. Jesus came to truly make us who we were created to be. And through the work of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God the Father reshapes us. He begins to transform us into the image of Christ.

Jesus was God's greatest gift. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son. And that gift just keeps on giving. And God, when he recreates us, saves us, gives us the Holy Spirit, so that we are now gifted to be gifts.

This is one of the reasons why I really do push back when people say, "I have Jesus, I don't need the church." Well the church is Jesus' body, and Jesus' body is comprised of different members with different gifts. Only one person has all of God's gifts, that was Jesus Christ. Every single other person needs other Christians in their life. And yeah, you don't have to be part of a church. You don't have to go to church. Why wouldn't you? Why would you limit yourself? Why would you miss out on some of the greatest gifts that God has for you?

You know how God speaks to me? Through his word, by his spirit, and often when people take God's word and they speak into my life. "Jan, I see something that you're not seeing." They speak a word, perhaps a prophetic word, a word of knowledge, and it builds me up and encourages me. It fills me with faith.

So if you're a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit. This is what Saint Paul is going to talk about 1 Corinthians 12 ... And by the power of the Holy Spirit you can be useful, you can be productive, and you can be helpful.

Every single Christian is a pastor, is a minister, is a chaplain. You are manifesting God to the world around you. You are gifted with natural abilities. And pound for pound, pound for pound, Boston is the most influential city in the world, because of sheer natural talent. Then the Holy Spirit takes some of us with natural talent, and he fills us with the Holy Spirit and re-purposes those talents, and gives us brand new gifts. And lights a flame behind those talents, and now he uses that for his glory.

Mosaic is conglomeration of people, different people, different nations, different backgrounds, and we all need each other. Not just a conglomeration creating synergy, we're a constellation. Jesus said, "You are salt and you are light, and light shines." Just imagine in the sky, there's stars, constellations, light years away and we see ... We're still experience that. That's what Mosaic is, we're a constellation in the sky.

Another question is ... How far is that light going to go? So as we talk about spiritual gifts today ... What are your spiritual gifts if you're a Christian? How are you using them? Are you blessing others? Are you enriching them? And, are you a gift that keeps on giving? The greatest gifts in my life, in terms of people, are people that constantly point to Christ. Look to Christ. And that's what builds me up.

Do you hear thank you from other Christians, "Thank you so much. That was so helpful. You don't even know how meaningful those words were. How did you see that?"

That's what we're going to talk about today. Gifts that edify build-up, we're gifts that keep on giving. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 12, verses 1-11, either on this screen or on your screen, or a bible. 1 Corinthians 12, 1-11.

"Now concerning spiritual gifts brothers," brother and sister of adelphoi. "I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were lead. Therefore I want you to understand that no one is speaking in the spirit of God ever says, "Jesus is accursed!" And no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."

"For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge, according to the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit. To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy. To another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues. To another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills."

This is the reading of God's Holy inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Now if you're used to the Jan Vezicov formula for a sermon ... It goes introduction, read the text, three points. Quote C.S. Lewis, a story about babies. And we land the plane abruptly, that's the formula, that's the secret sauce.

Today it's going to be a little different, I'm going to set the context because it's really important. And then, I'm going to give you rapid fire five ways that the Holy Spirit empower us, as Christians, in order to be more like Jesus. To love like Jesus, to serve like Jesus.

So the big idea here is, that there is a sense of spirituality, that's part of the Christian faith. This is really important, in verse 1 he uses the Greek word pneumatika, or pneutikos, it's just a word spiritual. So in verse 1, in the English translation, they throw in the word gift. Why do they throw in the word gift? It's not in the verse, they take it from the context of verse 4, which has the word gift, charismata, which comes from grace charis. If you know someone named Charisa, that's where that comes from.

The context is gifts, but he starts with spirituality ... And this is important, because this church was in Corinth. Corinth was a very spiritual city, there were temples with thousands of people working in the temples. So, it was a city that was filled with pagan cults and all kinds of idolatry. People talked about spirituality all the time. The super natural, they know is real. It's kind of like our culture, people talk about spirituality all the time. People want to be one with the universe. People want to be connected with one another.

We understand that there is something wrong. We understand that we're not just physical matter. And Saint Paul was writing this letter to a church that he planted. He goes to Corinth, shares the gospel, plants the gospel, and in a sense ... Now these Corinthians are no longer just Corinthians. In a sense, he takes them out of Corinth. They're still there, but they're different.

And then he writes to them another letter, because though he's taken them out of Corinth, there's still too much Corinth in them. He's got to take Corinth out of them. Corinth has influenced them more than the gospel has. They've been interpreting the gospel scripture through the lens of Corinth instead of vice versa, interpreting Corinth through the lens of scripture. In the same way Boston, we're in Boston. Is Boston influencing you more than you're influencing Boston?

So this is why he needs to make clear, a lot of people come, a lot of people talk about spirituality. A lot of people talk about God. A lot of people talk about all kinds of ecstasies and all kinds of transcendent experiences. But, are they leading people in greater submission to Jesus Christ? That's what he wants to talk about.

Verse 2, "You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led." They were pagans before they became Christians, like many of us were pagans before we became Christians. And when they worshiped in these pagan services, one of the ways that people gained influences in these cults is, by saying, "I heard a word. I received a message." And then they would make all kinds of ecstatic utterances to prove their spirituality, their godliness. All kinds of strange phenomena, displays of power.

And Saint Paul says, "Don't thing that makes you a better Christian." And he's going to expound on this in Chapter 14, when he talks about speaking in tongues. So he starts there and then he says, "Now connect your spirituality to Jesus Christ." Because that's the ultimate test of how spiritual we are. "Therefore I want you to understand," verse 3, "That no one is speaking in the spirit of God ever says, "Jesus is accursed!" And no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except in the Holy Spirit."

Obviously he's not saying, "No one can say Jesus is accursed," I just said that and he also just wrote that. He's not saying mouthing the words, he's saying in your heart is this what you believe? That when you find out just how far reaching the lordship of Jesus Christ is, that Jesus has lordship over every single part of our lives, over every single square inch of our bodies, everything. Jesus is Lord over our dreams, our visions, our inspirations, our desires. He's Lord over everything.

And when people begin to learn what that means, he's Lord over my sexuality, he's Lord over my time, he's Lord over my money, he's Lord over my relationships. All the most important things in my life, he is Lord. Do I push back, bristle, and say, "That's anathema, and that's what it means to be accursed." And, that's what the world does. That's why a lot of the world, including a lot of churches, get rid of the name of Jesus.

Let's talk about God in general. Let's talk about the Spirit in general. Anyone can fill in the blanks as they feel comfortable. Let's not talk about Jesus Christ. So Saint Paul says, "The true spirituality begins with Jesus and joyful submission to Jesus." And if you joyfully submit in your heart to Jesus, that is proof that you're a Christian regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Because for you to say, with your heart, Jesus is Lord, is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Why am I a Christian? The Holy Spirit made made me a Christian. Why can I say Jesus is my Lord? And I say it with all of my heart, with complete affection. Because that's a work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, you are my Lord. I want to be with Christ, I want to commune with him, I want to be one with him. I want to abide in him, and the more I'm with him, the deeper the connection with him, the more I become like him.

And what did Jesus do? He loved, he just loved a lot of people. And when you're led by the Spirit, you want to be like Jesus, and you want to be Jesus through people. You want to be Christ-like to people. You know, Tanya and I have been married for 13 years. When people have been married for a long time, they live together, they begin to resemble one another, they begin to act like one another. They finish each other's sentences. She knows all of my dad jokes. And when we were in Ukraine, she was cracking my dad jokes. I was like, "That's mine. You stole that material from me."

There's something that happens when you're with the one you love, you begin to resemble the one that you love. And the more we love Christ, the more we become Christ-like, the more we conform to him. And that's all done by the Holy Spirit, and we need supernatural empowerment to be like Christ, so God gives us gifts.

This is verse 4, now there are a variety of gifts, that's in the Greek charismata. But the same spirit, and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord. So God has given you gifts if you're a Christian, you have gifts. One of the reasons that you are not wielding the gifts, you are not gifting people those gifts, is because you're not happy about the gifts that you got. Perhaps you want another gift, but that's the reason it's called a gift, it's not a paycheck. We didn't deserve it, God gives it to us.

By the way, I never wanted to be a pastor. I knew nine years old ... I was nine years old when the Lord said, "You're going to be a pastor." And I just kept confirming. I had, prior to me saying, "Lord, yes," at 22, "Yes, Lord." I had a job, I had a career path, "Lord, yes." Prior to that, I was ... I had a physical condition where I couldn't speak publicly. I've actually never even shared this, it's not even in my notes. I would get up and I would turn beet red, uncomfortably, like Harvard Crimson, beet red. It was the first two years of me getting up and doing public speaking. I just knew, I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew.

You say yes to the Lord, "Yes, Lord, yes."
"Okay, now you're ready for some more. Now you're ready for some more."
Okay, let's keep going. Church is a spiritual phenomenon, that's what he's saying. And what happened in Corinth was, they started divvying up, they created a hierarchy, depending on who gets which gifts. They put people on top who could speak in tongues. Then below that was healing and miracles. At the very bottom, which is the practical stuff, you know stuff, and wisdom. And Saint Paul flips the whole dynamic right here. He starts with wisdom and he ends with tongues.

What he's saying is, there is no hierarchy in church. There is no varsity and JV and freshman team. Everybody needs everybody, we all need each other. That's at the very beginning he was talking about gentiles need Jews. And men need women, and women need men. We need each other, we need to learn from each other. Internationals need US citizens, and vice versa. The rich need the poor, and the poor need the rich. We need to learn from each other.

If you watch Netflix, or if you watch Hulu, we need each other. If you're a Pats fan or a Giants fan, we can still get along. If you're Apple or Android, you can still get along, we can still get along. We can still be in that group chat, it makes things a little more complicated but it's okay. I see that you loved something, I'm not sure what you loved, because we're five memes deep, but you know what I'm saying. We need each other. This is what he's getting at.

In the body ... That's next week's sermon. The foot feels like, "Everybody is just walking all over me my whole life. I'm out of here, I'm out of this church."

God's like, "That's your job."

And the foot ... Okay, you get it. So we need each other, and exercise of particular gifts doesn't measure how important we are. It doesn't prove higher spirituality. The most important thing is sincere embrace of Jesus Christ as Lord. And when we do that, the more that we do that, the more that we submit to Jesus Christ as Lord, the more the Spirit uses us.

Verse 6, "And there are a variety of activities, and it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for," and I want you to look at those words. "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit," for what? For your good? No. And this is where true Christian spirituality is so counter-cultural to the spirituality that is promulgated and peddled in the world. The spirituality that is peddled is you-focused. You can get connected to the universe. You can have the secret cheat codes of the universe. You, you, you, you, you. It's very individualistic, it's very narcissistic.

And then we don't get what we're really looking for, what I started with, people are gifts. It's for the common good, it's not just for your good, it's for the good of the people who are closest to you. It's good for the people in your church. God gave you the gifts to be gifts to the people in your church, and it doesn't stop there. I think our vision as Christians is too limited. The vision of the church, the mission of the church, isn't just to make other people Christians, it's not just to proselytize.

We want everyone to become a Christian, we do. And then what happens after people become Christians, they get the Holy Spirit and then what? And then they're living in the world as a manifestation of God. Now you're going to your job, you're going into your office, and you're bringing the Holy Spirit into your office. You're bringing the Holy Spirit into your job. Now, you begin to change the culture of your company, you begin to change the culture of your office, of your team. Because you're bringing the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self control. It changes everything, it's not just for the common good of you of our family, of your church. It's for the common good of your neighbor. It's for the common good of Boston. It's for the common good of the world.

So how do we do that? He gives us five categories. He gives us multiple gifts, but many of them are in the same category to balance each other out. So first he says, "Be wise like Jesus. Believe like Jesus. Help like Jesus. Discern like Jesus. Connect like Jesus," to God and to people.

First of all, "Be wise like Jesus." The first two gifts that he gives us wisdom and knowledge. So 12:8, "For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom." The utterance of wisdom, he starts with wisdom and then he brings in knowledge. They need each other. Knowledge as you know God's truth, you study God's truth, you absorb God's truth. And a lot of people who are phenomenal at the knowledge aspect, are not that great in thinking through the practical applications. And the people who are really good at the practical applications are like, "Oh, this is how it applies on a daily basis, in 2019, in Boston, Massachusetts." What he says is, you need each other.

The wisdom, the wisdom is you have insight that isn't obvious. It's not obvious to the person that you're speaking to. You take principles that you learn from scripture and because you have applied it to your life, you speak practically. It's utterance of wisdom, and you understand God's will for your life. You understand God's will for the other person you skillfully apply.

How does this begin? The wisest person begins by realizing just how foolish they are. Every single person has within them the potential to be a fool or a wise man, a wise woman, a sage, a fool or a sage. And the most sage people, they recognize the folly in their own heart and they say, "Lord, I need help. Lord, teach me." And that humility right there, that humility is what makes us teachable. And now we begin to see wisdom everywhere. We begin to see lessons everywhere, and now we can apply it to the people around us.

It begins with asking from God. James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him."

"Lord, help me. Lord, give this to me, please." And the Lord teach it. Jesus said, "Be like children." The first service didn't get this, you got some extra good stuff. Jesus said, "Be like children." You ever notice how children absorb everything. My kids are bilingual, I've never sat down and had a lesson in Russian or a lesson in English with them. We do reading, but they just absorb. Why? Because they know they're nothing, you're not even two feet tall. They're naturally humble, but that humility is what unlocks the potential to learn. It's the wisdom.

It pleases God to give wisdom to those that come to him like little children. Say, "Lord, give me wisdom." And wise people, it's never obvious that this is the wisest person in the room, it's never obvious.

We went to visit the Ukraine and I got to meet Tanya's great aunt, Titka Alla, Alla is her name. And as soon as I sat down in the car with her, I already knew there was something different about Titka Alla. Titka Alla, her husband died two years ago, because he worked in a Uranium mine, which is underneath the city. He died from cancer. And Titka Alla had to learn how to drive a car. She's driving this car, stick shift, on Ukrainian roads, two challenges. Titka Alla never needed to drive a car, because her husband was her Uber. She got a license, and the first year of driving you have to get this sticker on your car. It says y, y is for ученик, ученичка, just imagine it's an S for student.

And I said, "Titka Alla, when do you take that off?"

She said, "I'm never taking it off. I like the way that people treat me if they think I don't know how to drive."

I'm writing this down, she keeps talking, wisdom, wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. I realized she was the wisest person in that whole church. In a church of a few hundred people, she's the wisest person. And the wisest people go to her. The people who think they're wise, do not. This is the gift of wisdom.

If you have this gift, often you speak into someone's life and you hear the phrase, "That makes sense." That makes sense, you revealed something to me that makes sense. Who's the wisest person to have ever lived? Obviously Jesus Christ, because he was the most spirit-filled. 1 Corinthians 1:24, "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." Christ is the wisdom of God, the closer we are to Christ by the power of the Spirit, the more wisdom we have.

Corinthians 1:30, "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Do you have this gift? If you have this gift, we need you as a church. We're coming up on eight years, we're a baby church. We have an S sticker on our church, we're never taking it off. We need you here, this church needs you.

There's college students that come from all over the world and they need you in their life, to speak wisdom and change the trajectory of their life. Why, as people see folly in their life, they flee it? They see folly in other people's lives and they help them flee it.

Then he bring in, 1 Corinthians 12:8, knowledge. "And to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit." This is a person who is all about learning the facts, but needs the wise person to help apply the facts. We need each other. So, this is a person who loves the root of systematic theology, has it almost memorized, but what we need is someone who practically lives it out. We need each other, that's what he is doing.

Second is believe like Jesus. 2 Corinthians 12:9, "To another faith by the same Spirit." Faith is a gift from God, but then there's also another level of faith. That God gives to some people ... It's distinct from saving faith, it's distinct from persevering faith, it's a strong trust in God's spiritual ... It's a special endowment, you see that this is already a thing in the future. You trust so much, it's almost as if it's fact.

It's like when Saint Paul says about Christians, "You have been justified, you have been sanctified, you have been glorified." That's coming in the future, but I'm so sure of it. And the gift of faith is the ability to envision. And you believe with every fiber of your being and the people around you get inspired by your faith. You begin to charge them, you're like a power bank charging the batter of their faith.
Sometimes it's at 20%, change the color, and now it's yellow, then 5% of faith. And, I need people around me who have more faith than me, in order to keep going.

Now if you have this gift, you need people to help you take the first step, second step, third step. If you see step 50, you need people who can help you in the beginning. You need people around you who have the gift of administration. I see this with my daughter, my daughter Elizabeth has the gift of faith. She's eight years old, and when she prays for something she keeps praying for that thing until it happens. So every night we get together and we have a little bible study, it's our community group. I say, "This is our Mosaic Community Group," every single night. And we sit in their bedroom and we do a little bible lesson. Then we pray, every single one of us.

When we get to Elizabeth, I already know her list. She's like a bullet, a machine gun going, "Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop." And then ... But I've seen over the course of five or six years. And I see things that she prays for, check, check, check, check. She has that gift. The gift that she doesn't have is administration. She can't clean her room. She owns a closet, she says, "This is my closet," and it is a mess.

Sophia on the other hand, has the gift of administration but she's too lazy, and so I'm working on the laziness. I see how they need each other, in the same way we need each other.

Help like Jesus, this is point three. 1 Corinthians 12:9, "To another gifts of healing by the one Spirit." He goes, "Gifts of healings," both are plural, and then he brings in, 1 Corinthians 12: 10, "To another the working of miracles." This seems like this is kind of crazy, kind of trippy. Have there been miracles in the bible? Yes, of course. And they come in clusters when the Holy Spirit is authenticating the work of the Spirit in a particular location, where the gospel has not been planted yet.

So we see this in the Old Testament, at particular points there's clusters of miracles, clusters of healings. We see this when Jesus Christ comes, he begins his ministry and he does so by healing. The ultimate goal is not just restoring people physically, but to restore them wholly, WH. Wholly, the whole person.

So, there is an explosion during ministries to authenticate. However, God heals. Sometimes he heals today, some people really do have this gift of healing, this gift of miracles. It's a supernatural gift. I know this is getting weird and you're like, "This is Mosaic, we don't do this." This is true, I've met people like this.

So if you have these gifts, we need you. I know some people I'd love to introduce you to. But more often than not, God uses our talents that he re-purposes to heal people. Some of you alleviate people's pain on a daily basis. Some of you help restore people to health, all kinds of physical and emotional and psychological, and you do that through your jobs. You do that through years of training and hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans. You're in the medical profession, what are you doing? That's healing.

When it comes to miracles, sometimes yeah, people have the gift of ... That was miraculous. But once you see that God gives these gifts to the church, you begin to see miracles everywhere. You begin to see that God sometimes works miracles through you. If something happens you're like, "I have no explanation for that." God, God.

I'll give you an example. We go to Ukraine $1 is 25 Hryvnia. So an espresso in the nicest café, not a Starbucks, they don't let Starbucks in. It's like 15 Hryvnia, it's like 70¢. Seventy cents for an Americano? Tastes better than Starbucks, I'm rich. I felt so rich. I'm walking around, I was like "I've got Hryvnia." I said, "Baby, where do you want to go out to eat?"

She's like, "I don't know."

I'm like, "We're going to the swankiest spot we can find in Kiev." Eight dollars, with tip, eight dollars. That was awesome. And then we get to her home town, prices are even cheaper. And I'm like, "Oh, wow. We can help a lot of people. We have money in our pockets now to help a lot of people." So we left Ukraine with $20. It felt so good. I've been praying for this for three months. How did you know I've been praying for this? Your Spirit just leads me. Where are you going to lead me?

This church is a miracle. The fact that this church exists, this is a miracle. Given where we are, this is a miracle. You guys are miracles, you guys are miracle workers, the potential for those gifts is in everyone.

1 Corinthians 12:10, "To another the working of miracles." By the way, it's not one gift per person, that's not how that works. Some people have multiple, multiple. And you've just got to use them, and you've got to exercise them. And God says, "You've been faithful a little, I'm going to give you a little more, I'm going to give you a little more."

Does God always heal? No. Saint Paul had a thorn in the flesh, we don't even know what that was. Ask God three times God said, "I'm going to leave that there for your humility." Jesus Christ could have healed himself while he was crucified, he did not, because there was a purpose in that suffering. James tells us, "Rejoice in trials of various kinds." There's a choice to rejoice. Why? Because suffering is an opportunity for growth.

And also, miracles don't save people. Judas saw all of God's miracles, all of Christ's miracles, didn't help. Four, discern like Jesus. 1 Corinthians 12:10, "To another prophecy to another the ability to distinguish between spirits."

So, prophecy is speech based on something that God suddenly brings to mind. God suddenly prompts you to speak a word into someone's heart. It's speech that reports something that God spontaneously reveals. A little trippy. But, what these people need, the prophets, what they need is people who can discern, "Is this from God?" Because all kinds of spirits, Holy Spirits, speak but so do demons. And that's why 1 John talks about discerning the spirits.

1 Corinthians 14:3, "On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation." One of the ways that you see this is a prophecy from the Lord ... Did it upbuild? Did it encourage? Did it console? Did it comfort? And also, God uses the gift of prophecy when people evangelize.

1 Corinthians 14:24&25, "But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you."

I've had this experience. I'm having a conversation and I just ... This seems like something appropriate to say and then, "How'd you know that?" A revelation from the heart. But again, we need people in our lives to say, "Yes, that's from the Lord."

1 Thessalonians 5:20&21, "Do not despise prophecies but test everything, hold fast to what is good."

1 John 4: 1-3, "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already."

Does this, whatever this prophecy is, whatever this utterance is, does this draw me closer to Christ? Does this focus my attention on Jesus Christ?

And finally, connect like Jesus. Here he talks about tongues, languages? What's a tongue? It's a way to communicate. What's a language? It's a way to connect with another person.

1 Corinthians 12:10, "See to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues." Now there's two categories when it comes to the spiritual gift of languages. The very first time that we see this, as a whole, on the church, the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is poured out on the church and they begin to speak real languages. For the purpose of communicating the gospel to the people from other regions, who didn't speak their language.

But then also Saint Paul, and this 1 Corinthians 14, he begins the idea in 1 Corinthians 13. There's another category that when this gift comes it comes in an expression of prayer to God, in which the human's spirit is praying and the person doesn't understand the meaning, but the person is edified, and the person is blessed, and the person is comforted.

I have a lot of friends who speak it, I don't have this gift. I've asked for this gift, I have the gift of speaking in languages, a couple. My first language is Russian, my second is American, I'm working on English. But it's an opportunity to communicate to people, it's a gift. And God allows me to connect with Christ, with God, through prayer and the Holy Spirit, and I communicate through prayer. But, I haven't experienced ... I have friends and a pastor friend in the city who are always trying to give me this gift. And they're like, "Let's lay hands on you."

So I don't have it, some people do. We'll get into this about ... In public services we don't practice the speaking in tongues, because it's a very transient city, a lot of people coming and going and you need the interpreter. That's what he talks about, some people have the gift and another to interpret the gift. Again, this balance of we need one another.

He lists tongues last, and this is really important. He lists them last because the abuse of these gifts was already present in the church in Corinth. Just like the abuse of healings and miracles has been abused in the modern day church. He ends with this one, 1 Corinthians 13:1, he starts with this one to say, if you are doing any of this, if you are exercising any of the gifts that God gives you, and you are not motivated by love, you are not using it as it should be used.

My abrupt conclusion, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit," it's the Holy Spirit. "And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord," Kyrios, talking about Jesus Christ. Kyrios is the Greek translation of Yahweh, from the Old Testament. "And there are varieties of activities, but is the same God," Thaos, Elohim in the Old Testament. "God the Father who empowers them all in everyone."

Here he brings in the Trinity. Before he goes in to talk about the diversity of gifts in the unified body, he talks about the diversity in the godhead while God is one. It's so artless, so unconscious, but this is how they thought about God, the Holy Trinity. We only begin to understand the diversity of gifts if we understand the Holy Trinity. That because of the mutual in-dwelling in the Trinity, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Spirit, and the Son is in the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit is in the Father and the Son. And when we put on Christ, we are in the Father and in the Spirit.

Why do I say that? Perhaps you've been sitting here almost as if you are on the outside looking in. You like, "Okay, I hear what you're saying, I've never experienced any of that. I know I'm a Christian, I have confessed to Jesus Christ as Lord with my mouth and my heart. Why am I not getting more of this?"

I would submit to you, perhaps there's something in the way of the Spirit flowing through you. And there's two things that holy scripture brings up. In Ephesians 4:30 it says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption."

You were sealed by the Holy Spirit, meaning you are a Christian, and you could potentially be grieving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in particular ... He is especially grieved, especially sensitive to sin in our life, because of his close relationship with ... He's in us, and then when we take him to sin, we take him with us. The Holy Spirit experiences grief, he can't stand the presence of sin and he hates it when we entertain transgression. So perhaps your gifts are locked up by sin, and shacked by sin.

Say the Lord wants to release those gifts, release you from that sin. How, how, how, how? I'm driven by the flesh, and I see the fruit of the flesh. It's always pride, it's always envy, it's always self-focus. Until I repent, that's still there. This is what repentance is, repentance is that key that releases me from the shackles of my sin and now I can be Spirit filled. I can be Spirit led.

Also there's another thing the scripture says in terms of the Spirit, we can grieve the Spirit and we can also quench the Spirit. This is 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Do not quench the Spirit."

This is a little different from grieving the Spirit. Quenching the Spirit ... You know what the Spirit is calling you to, you know what the Spirit is leading you to do, but something is pushing you down. Something is extinguishing that fire. Sometimes it's fear. "Lord, I'm afraid of entering this new season in life. Lord, I'm afraid that I have to give up too much, there's too many sacrifices to make. I'm afraid."

And we quench. And you know what the Lord does? The Lord is offering to replace that fear with his love, perfect love casts out fear. God has granted the Christians the ability to restrict or release what the Spirit does in our lives, in the lives of the local church. The Spirit comes to us as a fire, either to inflame us, or to be doused out and extinguished by our fear, our control perhaps flawed theology. So, don't grieve the Spirit, don't suppress the Spirit. Allow the Spirit to use you as he wills, and that's the greatest thrill in life.

Honestly, it's like your life becomes like a movie. Your standing in the aisle and you're like, "What is happening?" And you feel more alive than you've ever felt. 1 Corinthians 12:11, "All these are empowered by one in the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he will."

So, ask the Holy Spirit to give you insight. "Lord, why have I not been unleashed as you want me to?" Or, "Holy Spirit, what's my part in this body? Where are my gifts? Where should I start? What are my passions? What are my desires, dreams? Why did you bring me here? Not just for my program, not just for my job, not just for my degree, why am I here? What am I supposed to do?" And he will tell you.

Boston, Massachusetts is the human capital of the world. We go to Ukraine, and people are wearing the Tshirts. In church, half the people were in Tshirts. What language are the Tshirts in? Anywhere we go I listen to music, what music do we listen to? I see graffiti of bands 21 Pilots is apparently really popular in Ukraine, and so is gangster wrap.

The United States is the most influential cultural exporter in the world. It's everywhere, Ukraine is just a little sub-set, anyone from any other country will tell you. Who exports culture to the United States? Boston, Massachusetts. Pound for pound, the most influential city in the world. Mosaic Boston, I'm telling you, the amount of talent here if it would just be unleashed. You know Boston, you ever see a map of Logan? All the flights going out of Logan, just all around the world. That's what Mosaic Boston is, we are Logan, and we are exporting. We are exporting culture for the common good of the world. We're exporting love Jesus, simple. Now let's do it.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3, I'll close with this. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love. I am a noisy gon or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all ministries and all knowledge, and I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you are God of love and I pray Lord, release your love into our hearts to love you, as you deserve to be loved. To love the neighbor as they deserve to be loved. And I pray Lord, make us see, give us eyes to see that the greatest gift that keeps on giving is Jesus Christ. And that Lord, through the power of the Spirit, you long to make us gifts that keep on giving to transform the city, our neighborhoods, the city, this country and beyond. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.