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108 North
College podcast for FBC Statesboro.
108 North
Churchy Words: Spiritual Gifts
Welcome to 108 North!
Have you ever heard a word at church or from a Christian and had no idea what it meant? Maybe you've been in church for a while but still come across words that leave you confused, or perhaps you're new to church and the jargon just doesn't make sense.
No worries! This season, we're here to help you understand these words and phrases, and to explore how you can live out what Jesus is calling us to be as His disciples.
This week we are talking about Spiritual Gifts
108 North is the College Ministry of First Baptist Statesboro. Come be cared for and counted on as we seek to follow Jesus and make disciples.
108 North is the College Ministry of First Baptist Statesboro. Come be cared for and counted on as we seek to follow Jesus and make disciples.
Join Us at 108 North | First Baptist Church Statesboro College Ministry
We'd love to have you join us in person! Whether you're looking for a place to worship or connect with other college students, come and be cared for and counted on.
Sunday Mornings:
- Worship with us at 8:15 am, 9:30 am, or 11:00 am.
- College Bible Study happens at 9:30 am—it's a great way to dive deeper into your faith and meet others.
Wednesday Evenings:
- Enjoy a Midweek Meal from 5:00 to 6:30 pm, followed by our College Group at 6:30 pm. It's the perfect midweek pick-me-up!
Stay connected with us on social media and check out our website at fbcboro.church for more details.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to 108 North. This is our college podcast for FBC Borough. My name is Drew Feltz. I'm the college pastor here, and my guest is the man, the myth, the legend himself, our lead pastor,
SPEAKER_00:Dr. Waters. How are you? Wonderful, Drew. Good to be back on this next episode of Churchy Words and appreciate you hosting this podcast. Good stuff. Yeah, thank you so
SPEAKER_01:much. And we are talking about Churchy Words. If you're just joining us, what we mean by that term is that if you are around the church and Christendom over time, even certain groups, words have different meanings. And we all have jargon and inside language, whether that's for football or sports or jobs we have. And so that happens in church as
SPEAKER_00:well. Sure. Sometimes we call it But insider language, every profession, every organization, you know, we got those terms and those, sometimes they're technical terms, sometimes they're slang terms. So even church life, there's churchy words. But Drew, my friend, have you ever considered that the term churchy words is a churchy word?
SPEAKER_01:It is. I mean, very much so. I was actually thinking about that while we were doing this, because we may want to talk about what the word church means at some point, because I think that has a
SPEAKER_00:moving target for a lot of people. That's right. You know, where did it come from? What does the word church mean? And boy, the images people have when you talk about such and such church, or they think about the building, they're thinking about a set of beliefs, they think about historical Christianity. So that might be like a man on the street question. What do you think about when you hear the word church?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, that is a good thought. Anyways, well, another video another day. To Today we are continuing on and we've got a phrase and we've been talking specific words like more academic-y big words like sanctification or justification. We've talked about gospel and some other single words like that, but we've also talked about phrases like washed by the blood or today we're talking about something that probably falls in between those two. We're talking about spiritual gifts, which is a biblical thing. We find it in the Well, sure. It is
SPEAKER_00:a churchy word when you talk about spiritual gifts, that phrase, we call it a word, because you rarely hear it used in other contexts. You know, there's some words like gospel. Yeah. You'll hear out in the world, people say, you know, this is the gospel truth. But I don't think you'll hear the phrase spiritual gifts in other contexts. in many other places other than a church or religious context. So this really is, although it doesn't sound very academic like glorification or eschatological, it's very church-focused. Now remember, as we've talked... We call these things churchy words. That does not mean they're bad words at all. They're powerful, meaningful, biblically sound words. Many of them come straight from the pages of Scripture. So we don't mean that as a derogatory term, like these are churchy words, you need to get rid of them. We just need to understand what they mean and how to use them properly and to explain them accurately. So spiritual gifts certainly is used in the context of... of church settings, but do people really know what it means when we throw that phrase out there?
SPEAKER_01:And that's kind of the goal. We're trying to make it where people can be equipped and understand, and if this comes up in a conversation, you can have a conversation and feel like you know what you're talking about and are not intimidated by it, per se. So in your own words, John, what are spiritual gifts?
SPEAKER_00:Well, a lot of times when people say, what are spiritual gifts, they give you a list.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly,
SPEAKER_00:that's what I associate. Teaching, knowledge, faith. And the Bible doesn't say here's a definition of spiritual gifts. So you've got to kind of read the list and understand, like when particularly the Apostle Paul talks predominantly about spiritual gifts. A working definition I would give is that spiritual gifts are God-given abilities invested in the life of every believer used to strengthen faith. the local church, the body of Christ. Now, even in that definition, there's some churchy words. Yeah, exactly. But these come from God, and they are traits, abilities that are used not just to make you a better person, but God gives every believer a set of characteristics, traits, or abilities that help that person be a vital, contributing, integral part of of a local church being stronger and healthier as a result. So God gives you these abilities, gives you these characteristics, gives you these traits called spiritual gifts for you to use, not to make your life happy and healthy and wise, but to use to make the local congregation better, to make other people's lives better. So they're inwardly given but outwardly expressed, so I put it that way. That's a great way of
SPEAKER_01:putting it, because I think sometimes when we hear the word gift, we associate it just being... something. Someone's given to me, so it's mine. I own it. That goes into a bigger idea across the board about following Jesus ultimately means that we're not our own, our life is not our own, and gifts that the Lord gives us ultimately are not our own. They're made and given to us so that we can use them for a bigger
SPEAKER_00:purpose, for kingdom work. There are two big markers I try to explain to people. When we talk about spiritual gifts, these come from God. You don't have to... You don't find them yourself, you know, God gives them to you. And then we are then to develop them, kind of recognize what God has given me and how can I use them. Now, the Bible has several lists of gifts. Now, there's no one complete exhaustive list, but some of the things on the list are the gift of mercy. God gives some people the gift or ability of knowledge or teaching. There's a word called exhortation, which means really encouraging, stirring up, really come alongside other people. Like
SPEAKER_01:building people up,
SPEAKER_00:kind of. Building people up. And there's several places the list are, but it's explaining the things that God has put inside of people that then they can develop and grow. and learn how to use to do the Lord's work, which always impacts other people's abilities. And every believer has at least one, probably more than one spiritual gift. So if you're listening to this podcast and you are a follower of Jesus and you've surrendered to him as Lord and Savior, then in your moment of salvation, God, as if somebody putting a deposit in a bank, God deposited at least one or two of these spiritual gifts for you to use and develop and hone and so that you can be the part of the local body of Christ that God would have you to
SPEAKER_01:be. Yeah, exactly. I love how Paul uses that illustration of body of Christ, talking about how the church is like a body. You need all your different organs to function, and that's one of these... I feel like these gifts are so integrally tied into that idea as well, that God has gifted us, and we're all different. in different ways. He's gifted and given people things, and within churches, everything should be there, and we need to lean in and do that. You said there are a few lists, and I think that's great. The three places I think people often see is Romans 12, 6-8, 1 Corinthians 12, 4-11, and Ephesians 4, 11-13. Paul's writing all of these, and How do these gifts, like you said, there's all sorts of lists, and each of these have some kind of overlapping areas. There's not a definitive list. Right. But how would you say these gifts differ from just being good at singing? That's one
SPEAKER_00:that comes
SPEAKER_01:up, I think,
SPEAKER_00:a lot. Yeah, that's a great point to understand. How do these so-called spiritual gifts, these God-given abilities and traits and characteristics, how do these spiritual gifts differ? How are they different, say, from natural abilities? Illustration I like to use is one of the items on the list of spiritual gifts is that of service. You know, serving other people, somehow helping them. That's a spiritual gift, just that heart and that desire and kind of the know-how to know when a need is there, the gift of service. Hospitality is another spiritual gift. So, for example, let's say I have a neighbor who is just a great handyman. I mean, he came out of an engineering background. Whenever I've had a broken washing machine or broken doorknob, he's come over and he's figured out this is what's wrong, that needs to be fixed. But his natural ability to fix things is not a spiritual gift. Yeah, that's good. But he uses his natural ability as a fixer-upper to exercise his spiritual gift of service.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah,
SPEAKER_00:that's really good. By fixing things up for people, he uses his natural ability— to enact a point of service, which is the spiritual gift. Another illustration, let's say playing the guitar. That's a natural ability. Playing the guitar, playing the piano, playing the trumpet is not a spiritual gift. It's a natural ability. Even a lost person can play the piano well or play the guitar well. I know this one guy played the piano, had natural ability, But he would go into the nursing homes and he'd play his guitar once or twice a week and just minister to those residents of the assisted living. So he used his natural gift of guitar playing to go exercise his gift of mercy to those in the assisted living. So your natural gifts can help you live out your spiritual gifts, but they are different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's great. And I think that's where maybe some people get confused because, again, as believers and followers of Jesus, we should be using all that God's given us, including our natural gifts, to serve the Lord. But maybe how that applies and in what way really does come in, those are great examples.
SPEAKER_00:I've never thought about that. If you can find out both about them, what are your natural gifts, skills, and abilities, and then lay those alongside your spiritual gifts. Do you have the gift of mercy, the gift of hospitality? Maybe you're a great cook. I mean, you can grill stuff like nobody else, or you can cook desserts like nobody else. That's not a spiritual gift to be able to cook well or grill well. But you can then use your gift of cooking to exercise the spiritual gift of hospitality.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a great way
SPEAKER_00:of putting it. And so once you know your natural gifts... then how do they fit into your spiritual opportunities? And that's the beauty of it. Because as I just mentioned, even lost people, non-believing people have natural abilities. But the difference for Christians is we use our natural abilities to flesh out our spiritual abilities. gifts. You know, sometimes the Bible groups them in different ways. You know, there's 10 or 15 on the list, everything from faith, knowledge, service, hospitality. Some people say administration, leadership. And so getting your mind around all those, but sometimes an easy way is to group them into categories. You know, one common way to group them is to put them in three clusters. And this is not definitive. This is just a teaching model. that some gifts are miraculous gifts, like the gift of healing, the gift of tongues and so forth. So the first cluster is miraculous gifts. A second cluster are enabling gifts. more inward qualities like faith and wisdom.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, wisdom is one that comes to my mind a lot, that all believers, whether you are going to have some degree of that, and it'll grow as you follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and then the third category cluster, those that are kind of like outward gifts, where you're using it in visible ways like teaching or service or administration, hospitality. And those three categories are just the way many people have kind of help try to explain the different types of gifts, but I wouldn't stress over that. But the thing is to understand what we mean by spiritual gifts, these are God-given abilities, right? that you don't teach yourself these things. God gives them to you, but you do have to develop them and strengthen them.
SPEAKER_01:It reminds me of what you said Sunday. You were talking about grace and faith, and I can't remember the exact quote, but basically it's not against effort. Do you remember that quote by chance?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I do. It was a quote from Dallas Willard. That's right, Dallas Willard. And it was an interview he did, not one of his books. He said grace is not a grace is opposed to earning, but not opposed to effort.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I think that's really cool. And I think it speaks in some ways into what we're talking about here is like, this is from the Lord, but the Lord wants us to take what he's giving us and work with. It reminds me of the parable of the talents, where the master gives each of them some stuff and it's from him. And then the question is, where are you going to take it? What are you going to do
SPEAKER_00:with it? Well, I think if I remember, I think John Calvin is attributed with having said, that we're saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a great way of putting it.
SPEAKER_00:You know, tension between faith and works. But we have faith, but then God gives you these spiritual gifts to live out your faith. And so believers need to discern what are those spiritual attributes, skills, or abilities that God has put in them like a bank deposit, and how can they grow them, develop them, and then deploy them.