Ephesians 4:7, 16 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

I could preach tomorrow’s message from these two verses, just as well as from 1 Corinthians 12! The great truths of the Bible are not just recorded once, but again and again using different expressions. That’s why my sermons tend to use so many Scriptures, because there are always so many related passages. That ability, sort of like being a human concordance, is one that was given to me, but that doesn’t mean it’s the greatest gift, much less that it could do any good in isolation. As these two verses make clear, everyone has been gifted by the grace of God, and it is when those gifts are put to work that the Body of Christ is built up. Probably very few, if any, churches express all that God has provided in and for that congregation, because such a small percentage of believers really recognize and utilize the gifts God has placed in them to build the Church. As Paul stressed in 1 Corinthians 13, gifts must be used in love, just as it says here. If love is not there, the Body is not built up; it’s that simple. Love must be the motive for all we do: love for God, love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and love for the many lost people who surround us. It is remarkable how many people honestly don’t believe God has gifted them in any way. When they understand that they are indeed gifted, and why God has gifted them, they discover a joy in service that comes in no other way.

As a pastor, a major part of my job is helping people understand that they are gifted and how they are gifted, and then training them in using those gifts to build up the Body of Christ, just as it says in verse 12. I’ve barely scratched the surface of all of that! Tomorrow’s message may well be the springboard for getting going in that. I hope so! The thing is, there are not only different gifts, there are different types of gifts, and there is a great deal of misunderstanding about the whole thing. Don and Katie Fortune have done the Body of Christ a great service in their teaching on gifts, but that has not spread as widely as it might have. After a few sermons on the subject, this congregation might be ready to get serious in learning about gifts, but I must remember that the focus isn’t academic knowledge, it’s application. As I’ll be saying in tomorrow’s message, they need to grasp first of all that they are valuable just as they are, so that they may learn to trust God to use them for His glory.

Father, this topic is huge! I don’t have the wisdom to deal with it properly, so I ask for Your guidance. Guide as I create the Scripture list for October and following, so that the believers may have daily Scriptural input on the subject. Guide in how fast to move with this, so that the believers may be brought along and not left in the dust. I ask You to pour Your Spirit out on all of us so that we may have ears to hear and hearts to obey all that You are saying to us, causing Your Name to be hallowed, Your kingdom to come, and Your will to be done fully and perfectly in and through us, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!