Jeff Schreve - What Is Your Gift?
Building on the parable of the talents, this message from Romans 12 urges believers to think soberly about their spiritual gifts, recognizing every Christian’s vital role in the body of Christ, and explores twelve gifts—categorized as speaking, serving, and sign gifts—encouraging all to discover and employ them faithfully for building up the church.
Not a Spectator Sport
Listen, Christianity is not a spectator sport, and every Christian has a gift from the Lord. And God says, «Listen, I have entrusted this to you. What are you going to do with it?» As we talked last week, you do not want to be the guy who takes his talent and buries it in the ground, because there is coming a day when we have to stand before the Lord and give an account of our lives.
And He is going to ask us, I believe, the question at the judgment seat of Christ: «What did you do with what I gave you? What did you do with the opportunities I gave you? What did you do with the gifts and abilities that I gave you?» And we want to be able to say in that parable in Matthew chapter 25: «Look, Lord, You entrusted me with this much and I have produced that much.»
So the five-talent guy had ten talents; the two-talent guy had four talents. And he was excited—both those guys excited—to meet the Master and say, «This is what You entrusted me with, and this is what I did with it.» So, what is your gift? Do you know how God has spiritually gifted you?
Insights from Romans 12
So let us look at Romans chapter 12, beginning in verse 3. Paul says this: «For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
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 one of another.»
I want to share with you two insights today from Romans 12 concerning spiritual gifts.
Insight One: Think Soberly About Your Place in the Body
Insight number one: God wants you to think—and me to think—soberly about our place in His body, about our place and our giftedness in the body of Christ. Now, the apostle Paul was making the case: «Listen, do not think too highly of yourself. Do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.
It is okay to think highly of yourself—we need to think highly of ourselves because we are children of the King—but do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, and especially as it relates to your giftedness.» That was one of the problems in Corinth. There was selfishness; there was jealousy going on; there was this attitude that «Well, I am gifted this way, and my gift is better than your gift.»
And they were really into the sign gifts and the spectacular gifts, and they thought those were the be-all, end-all. And Paul said, «You are acting like unbelievers. You are acting like little babies. You are carnal Christians—you are fleshly—and you are not seeing the big picture here.»
So he says to the Romans, «Hey, make sure to think not more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly about how God has gifted you and placed you in His body.» So, some things for us to remember—very important. The ground is all level at the foot of the cross. It is all level, and spiritual gifts are grace gifts.
And as Leslie Flynn says, they are sovereignly and undeservedly bestowed by the Spirit. It is just His choice, and God puts you in His body. That is the illustration that Paul likes to use: He puts you in His body as He sees fit. And so, wherever you are is where the Lord wants you, and that is where you are to bloom and grow and thrive.
So the ground is all level at the foot of the cross. The apostle Paul—who is, arguably, one of the greatest Christians who ever lived—he said, «I am what I am by the grace of God.» And so, it is all the Lord’s grace. You know, God is opposed to the proud, James 4:6, but He gives grace to the humble.
And secondly, every Christian matters greatly to the function of the body—and that is the illustration that is used. Just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function—well, all of us understand that. You look at your whole body. It is like, well, I am one body—not ten bodies—I am one body.
As I keep growing, I sometimes think, you know, you get on the scale—it says one at a time. And so you think, okay, that is a problem—but we are one body. And so, you have fingers and toes; you have hands and feet; you have eyes and ears and a nose and a mouth—different members, many members that make up one body.
So, we who are many are one body in Christ. And every Christian matters greatly to the function of the body—just like, you know, you say, «Well, I do not really like my toes.» You know, some people do not like their toes. They do not think they look very good—but they do not want that «I do not like my toes» to mean «chop my toes off.» Nobody wants that because you need your toes—they are really important.
And if you hurt your toe in the middle of the night—you get up to go to the bathroom and you stub your little toe—that little toe lets you know, «Hey, I am down here, and I am really important.» And the whole body hurts when the little toe hurts.
You have a toothache. It is amazing how much pain you can have from a tooth. I mean, it is brutal. I mean, when you have a toothache—whatever I need to do to get this tooth out. If I need to get a skate and a rock and go full Tom Hanks and just beat it out—which would not work, by the way—but I have got to get this out because it is something small—relatively small—but it lets you know that it is there and it is important.
So every Christian—and in our congregation today, and those watching online—if you are a believer in Jesus, you have put your faith and trust in Him, you have been born again—you have a place in His body. «And as each one has received a special gift, employ it—use it—in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.»
Now, remember this: God loves unity working through variety and diversity. God does not make us all the same. God loves variety—as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. That word means «very colored.» And you think of God as an artist—He has lots of colors on His palette, and God likes to paint pictures with lots of colors.
And so, He wants unity—just like your body is unified. Jesus is the head; we are the body of Christ. And He puts us in the body as it pleases Him, and we obey the head—just like when your body is operating properly, your head is controlling everything, and your body is working together.
And remember about spiritual gifts: what did we say about spiritual gifts? They are tools—not toys, and not weapons. They are not toys to play with. They are not weapons to fight with—they are tools to build with. As each one has received a special gift, we build up one another—we use those gifts to build up one another in the Lord. And that is the purpose of them.
Each one is given a special gift for the common good—to edify the body, to build up the body.
Insight Two: Categories of Spiritual Gifts
Second insight: spiritual gifts can be classified into three main categories. There are speaking gifts and serving gifts and signifying gifts—sign gifts. And this is what Peter says about it: «As each one has received a special gift, ” a charismata—grace gift—“employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Whoever speaks”—this is speaking gifts—“whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves”—the service gifts—“let him do so by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever.»
So we want to focus in on the speaking gifts and the serving gifts. And you ask yourself, «Okay, Lord, which one do I have—or which ones do I have?”—because many people have more than one gift.
Now, there is going to be one that is really primary, and then your secondary gift will work in accordance with that. But this is what the Scripture says in Romans chapter 12, verse 6: „Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each of us exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy—abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.“
Well, he mentioned seven gifts. Well, I am going to broaden that, and we are going to talk about 12 gifts—12 spiritual gifts—that no doubt every Christian in this room is going to be able to relate to one or more of those—every Christian watching online.
Now, if you are not a believer—news flash—you do not have the Holy Spirit; you do not have any gifts from the Spirit. You need to come to Christ in repentance and faith in order to receive the Holy Spirit and in order to be gifted by the Holy Spirit. But we are going to talk about 12 because this covers a broad swath of the spiritual gifts.
The Twelve Spiritual Gifts
So the first gift he mentions here is the gift of prophecy. „Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith.“ And I believe that prophecy is a gift that God gives to the church today—not to foretell, but to forthtell—forthtell the Word of God, to preach the Word of God.
So another way to think of prophecy is preaching. And the job of the preacher—the guy with the gift of prophecy—is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And that is really true. And so, hey—if you are afflicted, we want to provide comfort. If you are comfortable, we want to afflict you, and we want to turn up the heat and we want to get you to see that, hey, you need to do something here—if you are riding the fence of compromise, that is not good.
Now, a prophet—if you have that gift—you have a very strong sense of right and wrong. You have a strong desire to speak the truth. You have a strong desire to make the Bible very, very clear.
And then he goes on to say service. Service—what is that? „If service, in his serving.“ Maybe you have the gift of service—also called the gift of helps. Service is helping in a supportive role.
Service is one of those things that people say—people that have this gift—they say, „Well, I never could get up and do what you do, Pastor Jeff, and I could not teach a Sunday school class.“ But, man—if there is a place that I can go and help, if there is something I can do behind the scenes—I kind of see that maybe you need some help here, help there—they just jump in; they are ready to do that. That is a great gift.
That is why it is listed right after prophecy. Prophecy—you say, „Well, that is a key gift.“ Yes, it is a key gift—but so is service, and it is listed right after prophecy. „If service, in his serving.“ So service is very important.
Thirdly, teaching. And he says, „If teaching”—if you have the gift of teaching—“then teach.“ And teaching is connected to preaching. Teaching and preaching often go together—although sometimes you may have a teacher that is not a preacher, and sometimes you may have a preacher who is not a teacher.
And I scored high on both of those—preaching and teaching. What is teaching? Teaching is explaining the Bible clearly and effectively. That is the gift of teaching. It is the ability to communicate to people’s minds. And teachers are so very important.
Now, you say, „Well, I do not have a Sunday school class.“ Well, you do not necessarily need a Sunday school class. You have the gift of teaching—you could teach at your office, and people—they will notice that. They are not going to say, „Hey, you must be gifted to teach”—but they will know that you are gifted to teach because it goes well, and you seem to be in your element.
You know, a fish does not have to really stress and strain when you throw him in water because that is his element. You take him out of the water; you stick him up in the tree and you say, „Fly”—he has trouble with that, right? Because that is not his element.
With teaching—when you have that gift—that is your element. And hey—teach your kids. We are commanded to do that in Scripture. Teaching is explaining the Bible clearly and effectively.
Number four: exhorting. He says in verse 7: „If service, in his serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation.“ And so you say, „Well, there is not a lot in there.“ „He who exhorts, in his exhortation.“ He is just basically saying, if you have the gift of exhortation, then use it—exhort people.
What does it mean to exhort people? Exhorting is encouraging people in the Lord. That is what it is. The word for „exhortation“ is related to the Holy Spirit. You are one that comes alongside and you encourage people.
You encourage people to keep going—you infuse into their hearts courage. They are discouraged, and you come alongside and you say, „Hey, you can do this. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. I believe in you. I know that as you trust the Lord, He will do great and mighty things in you and through you.“ That is an encourager.
Number five: giving. What is that? Well, we mostly know what that is. Giving is providing generous, cheerful, selfless support to another person—primarily in the way of financial. So it says, „He who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality.“
What is liberality? Liberality means with sincerity—not self-seeking. Hey, giving is so important—generous, cheerful, selfless support.
Number six: leading. He says, „He who leads, with diligence.“ Leading—or the gift of administration—is providing guidance and administration to an organization—to a parachurch organization, to the church. You have the gift of leading.
A person who has the gift of leading is able to see things in terms of organization, and their minds just snap with „okay, this person needs to do that; that person needs to do that; that person needs to do that. We will set this all up”—and they are very organized.
Number seven: mercy. Maybe you have the gift of mercy. It says, „He who leads with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.“ What is the gift of mercy? Mercy is ministering God’s heart to hurting people. That is what mercy is.
You have a heart of compassion for people. Now, we are all supposed to have a heart of compassion for people—just like we are all supposed to be givers. And, you know, just because you do not have the gift of giving—say, „Man, I am so glad I do not have that gift. I do not have to give.“ Yes, you do—and I do—and we grow in those areas even if we are not gifted in them.
Hebrews 3:13 says, „Encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today, ’ lest any of you should be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.“ We are all called to encourage—but some people have the gift of encouragement. It is just their thing. They are just really, really good at it.
And mercy—some people have that ability to commiserate with people in such a way that you are just ministering God’s heart to people who are hurting. Mercy is a great gift.
And now, let us talk about some ones that are not here in Romans chapter 12.
Additional Gifts
Hospitality. Hospitality is one that really is not in any of the lists—but most people agree that is a spiritual gift. It is talked about in Romans 12:13: „Contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.“ That is love of strangers.
And somebody with the gift of hospitality is giving loving provision to guests. They love to put on a luncheon or a dinner at their house. They are the first to say, „Hey, somebody is coming in from out of town; somebody is coming in to help at the church—or this person needs a place to stay. I have a place for them.“
And they love to be hospitable, and they are very good at it. You know, Jesus would eat with Mary and Martha, and Mary and Martha were very hospitable to Him. They wanted Him—and His disciples, you know—if you had Jesus over, it is like, well, you got the whole gang.
And so Jesus is coming to spend the night along with His 12 friends. It is like, „Well, I can handle Jesus—the 12 others are going to have to sleep outside. I mean, who has that much room?“ They would bring them in: „Yes, we will provide for all of you.“
And so, maybe you have the gift of hospitality. And see—sometimes we can over-spiritualize things, and we say, „Well, hospitality—that is really not a spiritual gift.“ It is a spiritual gift, and God wants you to use that—employ it—in serving one another as good stewards of the grace of God.
How about number nine: evangelism—the gift of evangelism? That is mentioned in Ephesians chapter 4 in that list. And the gift of evangelism is sharing Jesus with passion and urgency.
Evangelism is not necessarily a church gift—as far as, you know, we have evangelists that go church to church—but that is a gift that is outside. And we have people in our church that have the gift of evangelism. They are—all the time—thinking about, how do I share with this person? They have passion for that and urgency.
How about faith? What is faith? Faith is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. The gift of faith—it is seeing what God wants done and believing Him for it. Now, all of us have faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. If you do not have faith, you are not a believer. We have to have faith to be in the Christian life.
But there are some people that just have this extra measure of the ability to see things and to believe God for things.
How about number 11: discernment? What is discernment? It is separating truth from error. That is mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 12—the gift of discernment. And we have people today—and this is such a key gift for the church—so that people that with this gift can come alongside and say, „Hey, watch out for this guy—or watch out for this movement”—because they see something in it that is not right; they sense something.
Now, my wife—spiritual gifts—it is Christmas time for her. I mean, she has so many spiritual gifts, and one of them is discernment. And so, she would tell me periodically, „Watch out for that person.“ I said, „What is wrong with that person?“ She goes, „I do not know—something.“ Nobody here—this was at our other church.
Just saying—it was—I said, „What is wrong with them?“ And she said, „I do not know—something.“ I was like, „You do not know.“ And so I said, „I am going to get to know him. I like them.“ And about a few weeks later, I said, „Debbie, we have got to watch out for those people. There is something not right about”—she said, „I told you that.“ I said, „Yeah, but you did not have any facts to back it up.“ She said, „I did not know what it was. I just knew there was something not right.“
So that is the gift of discernment—you just feel a check in your spirit about this. And we have lots of people who are very undiscerning. Now, even if you do not have the gift of discernment—as you spend time in the Word of God—you can develop the ability to discern—to judge between that which is good and evil.
Hebrews chapter 5, verse 14: „But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.“ „Kalos”—what is good; „kakos”—what is evil. And so, the gift of discernment—separating truth from error.
And then the last one we want to look at is pastoring—shepherding. That is in Ephesians 4, and that is the gift of being a shepherd. You do not have to be a pastor to have the gift of pastoring or shepherding.
What is that? Well, it is doing what a shepherd does: guiding, feeding, protecting the flock. Somebody with the gift of shepherding is really good about keeping tabs on everybody—calling all the time, checking on folks. They are like the shepherd over his sheep.
Listen—it is impossible for our staff to do that with the church as many members as we have. And so we—the way our church is structured—we have Sunday school classes. If you are not in a Sunday school class, then it is really easy to fall through the cracks.
Sunday school classes are designed to be smaller groups where that teacher and people in the class can keep tabs on you and know what is going on. Because I am one person—it is hard for me to keep tabs on 5000 people.
And so we have layers of people that can do that—to make sure that the needs of the church are being met and people are not falling through the cracks.
Discovering Your Gift
If you want to know what your spiritual gift is, you can go to Focus on the Family—just type on a search „Focus on the Family Spiritual Gifts, ” and you will have a gift assessment that will come up. And it is rooted in Romans chapter 12, and it goes through the seven main gifts that we talked about today. It does not do the other five that I mentioned—but it will help you.
And here is the thing too: as a young believer, you are not going to know until you get out there and start serving and start doing. And somebody says, „Hey, will you teach my class?”—and you are scared to death but you say, „Yes, I will do it. I will give it a shot. I will see.“
And you can find out pretty quickly if that is your gift or that is not your gift. If you hate every minute of it—and you look out at the people in the class and they hate every minute of it—not your gift, right?
So you have to be able to discern—you have to think soberly about yourself: what am I good at? What am I not good at? And then, what you are good at—you really work on those things.
You know, one of the things that we have done—this is such a disservice. We do this in business a lot. You know, we say, „Well, you have got to be good at all these different areas.“ And you have somebody that is really good at sales, let us say.
And so, man—you are knocking that out of the park; you are a great salesman. „We are going to promote you to sales manager.“ Well, that is a totally different skill set. So you might stink as a sales manager—but you are really good as a salesman.
Well, it is the same principle. In the church—you find out: how has God wired me? What am I passionate about? Serve in that capacity because you will do well there.