Ken Hemphill on Spiritual Gifts

I read this article by Ken Hemphill this morning and found the following to be very interesting. It's an excerpt from a longer article (see full Baptist Press article here)

"I believe that any ability that enables one to serve the King in and through the church should be used accordingly when it meets the following criteria:

1. It must be recognized and acknowledged as a gracious gift of the sovereign God.

When you receive Christ as Savior, you receive the Spirit of God, enabling you to understand spiritual truths (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). Rather than receiving new abilities not previously possessed, new believers will often see all of life as what has been freely given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:12).

You were created for the purposes of God and His Kingdom. Now that you have the Spirit, you can understand that everything possessed, including talents and abilities, is a gift from God. I do not mean to imply that God cannot and does not give new abilities. God does what He desires to enable the church to fulfill its purpose.

2. Our gifts must be surrendered to the Lordship of Christ.

It is at the point of surrender that our gifts are fully empowered by God's Spirit. Most of us have learned this principle in the broader Christian life but have seldom applied it to our understanding of giftedness. We should not be surprised to discover that the first admonition in Romans 12:1 is the exhortation to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

3. Our gifts must be used for the King in and through His body, the church.

The gifts are given by God to enable His church to accomplish its God-given task of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Many gifts serve within the body to edify the membership. Other gifted members serve through the church to reach the community and the world, and to enable the church to permeate the world and its culture. All gifts are given by the King and are thus indispensable to the mission of His church."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Car Talk's "As The Wrench Turns" Premieres this Weekend

Image
My family is a huge fan of the NPR program Car Talk . So, I am stoked to see that they have an animated program featuring Click & Clack, the Tappet brothers. Here's a summary from the website: Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the didactic duo whose voices grace the NPR airwaves on the ever-popular radio show Car Talk, have moved themselves into the world of animation with the all-new primetime series Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns . The program takes off from the hit NPR show and follows the on- and off-air escapades of Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers (alter-egos of Tom and Ray Magliozzi) as they try to fix cars, fend off disgruntled customers and seek out increasingly creative ways to goof off. Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns is set at Car Talk Plaza, a fictional building that houses their radio studio and their famed garage in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You'll have to check your local station for the schedule. Nashville's WNPT Cha...
Read more

Fireproof movie Garners Multiple Endorsements from Marriage Advocates

Image
ALBANY, Ga., March 27, 2008 - " Fireproof ," the new action/relationship film from the creators of "Facing the Giants" and "Flywheel," releases this September from Sherwood Pictures and Provident Films. Already the movie is uniting marriage advocates from across the U.S. National groups such as Focus on the Family, Outreach, FamilyLife, The Marriage CoMission, America's Family Coaches, AMFM, Marriage Alive Communications, and MarriageToday endorse the movie and are urging their constituencies to see it. Influencers such as marriage expert Gary Smalley and Bubba Cathy of Chick-fil-A are also working to spread the word. It's no secret that U.S. marriages are in crisis. The U.S. Census Bureau and marriage organizations vary on the stats but agree that nearly half of all weddings lead to divorce—with rates highest in the Bible belt. Some 25 percent of U.S. adults divorce at least once; and given the abundance of poor marriages, many couples skip it out...
Read more

Preaching through the Bible in a Year - 2 Plans!

Image
I'm reading through the Bible again this year using George Guthrie's Reading God's Story: A Chronological Daily Bible plan. In 2011, our entire church used the reading plan in response to the Radical sermon and small group series we did at the end of 2010. I'm was delighted to see Aaron Linne's Blog post about a new online resource with lists of sermons inspired by the Read the Bible for Life initiative. These lists from B&H Publishing are designed so that you can take a church through the Bible in a year. They currently have a plan prepared by David Platt (52 sermons) and Chuck Maxwell (50 sermons). Check the tabs at the top to switch between the two lists. Access the complimentary lists of sermons here ... Learn how to use this resource on your iPhone, Android, or tablet here ...
Read more