GBC Women’s Ministry Night 11/28
Review & Colossians 3:12-17
Over the last few months, we’ve learned a lot about the spiritual gifts that God has given us. We learned that all believers have been created by God to serve a unique and essential function in God’s Kingdom, beginning with the local church. This is, first and foremost, to bring glory to God. It also serves to unify and strengthen the church and spread the Gospel to unbelievers. The Gifts of the Spirit are all equally valuable because they all meet the various needs of the Church and because they all find their source in God through the Holy Spirit. Though our roles within the Church are different, we are united in our goal: glorifying God and making Christ known in the world. The fact that we are gifted differently is by God’s design. In His infinite wisdom, God saw fit to uniquely equip each and every woman here to serve him in the specific ways he has called her to do so. Each of us will glorify God the most when we fulfill the particular role he has given us in the Body of Christ as we serve Him in our homes, our workplaces, our local church, and in the community. We should rejoice when we see another believer’s gifts serving the Body well, without jealousy or a spirit of competition.
We also learned that the lists of spiritual gifts found in Romans and I Corinthians aren’t really exhaustive. The lists of spiritual gifts found in the Bible are all slightly different, with a little overlap. This seems to suggest that the lists are meant to representative many of the ways the indwelling of the Holy Spirit may play out in the life of every believer as they serve Christ. The labels are less important that the work of the Holy Spirit in and through you as you serve God by serving His people.
Last month, we saw in 1 Corinthians 13 how spiritual gifts are worthless if they are not applied in love. Without love, our words are just noise, and our generosity is worthless. Love must be a part of every expression of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God is most glorified when believers teach with patience and kindness, lead without envy or boastfulness, and share wisdom without arrogance or rudeness. They will give generously without insisting on their own way, show mercy without being irritable or resentful, and share knowledge truthfully, without deception. In faith, they will bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. It’s a high standard that we may feel hopeless to attain, but Christ’s example of perfect, holy love gives us life and teaches us how to truly love one another. 1 John says this:
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
19 We love because he first loved us.
Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love for us. We were once hopelessly caught up in sin, but now have eternal life through Christ. This is not because we loved God, but because He loved us first. The Holy Spirit dwells inside us, and our sanctification and spiritual gifts are a sign of our present and future redemption. We glorify God when we use our spiritual gifts to love and serve other people. When we do that, we reveal God’s love to a hurting world by showing them Jesus. This love is not of ourselves, but is an overflow of the love God first poured on us through Christ.
So, what do we do now? How do we take the knowledge we’ve gained about spiritual gifts and apply it as we serve the church? I think we begin by letting go of discontentment and unrealistic expectations and surrender our gifts to God:
About two years ago, I was feeling confused and discouraged about where and how God wanted me to serve Him with my gifts. I had a passionate desire to serve God in my home by having and raising children, but God had consistently answered that prayer with “not yet.” Even now, though we’re hopefully just a few weeks away from the end of that waiting, the “not yet” continues! So, I’ve been left to wrestle with how to serve God when the season of life I’m in feels a lot like limbo, where I’m tempted to just wait for the next phase of life to begin so I can “really” serve God the way I think I’m “supposed to.” God really had to work on my heart and teach me to surrender my hopes and expectations so that I could see the work He wanted to do through me here and now, not just in an idealized future.
Don’t wait for the “stars to align” or for all obstacles to disappear before you surrender your spiritual gifts to God and allow Him to use them. There are lots of ministries at GBC faithful sisters with all kinds of spiritual gifts are need to serve the body. If you feel like there isn’t a ministry that quite fits with your gifts, or you see an unmet need, or if you just have a great idea for a service opportunity, God might just be prompting you to step up and lead! Grab a like-minded sister in Christ whose spiritual gifts complement yours and ask God for wisdom in how to proceed.
Tonight, as we consider how God is calling us to use the unique gifts he’s given us, let’s listen to Paul’s exhortation for godly living in the body of christ, found in Colossians 3:12-17:
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
As we break up into groups, let’s ask God to show us how to use our gifts to serve Him. Let’s seriously consider how we can individually and collective use our gifts so that Gresham Bible will be a church filled with women who are characterized by compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Who bear with their fellow believers, even when it’s hard, and forgive them readily, because of God’s example of forgiveness. Women who are are united in love and ruled by the peace of Christ. Whose hearts and minds are filled to the brim with God’s word so that the overflow of it teaches and encourages others in wisdom. Women who joyfully sing praises to God, thanking Him for his goodness as they surrender every word and action to Christ.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the gifts you have given us. We ask you to create this kind of Colossians 3 culture among the women of Gresham Bible Church. Teach us to use our gifts to serve others in love and humility, and thereby honor and glorify You. Please bless our conversations this evening. Make them edifying and uplifting to those who hear them, and glorifying to your name. Amen.