What do we have to offer to God? only that which He has already given to us... health, talents, time, money, possessions, etc.

What they are: Gifts that God supplies the church with to cause it to grow.

Purpose: to perform the Great Commission... preaching the Gospel and making disciples

What they are: Gifts that God supplies the church with to stay healthy.

Purpose: to minister to the Body of Christ by meeting the spiritual, emotional, and physical/material needs of the local church.

What they are: Gifts that demonstrate the supernatural power of God.

Purpose: to authenticate the claims of those performing the signs.

I. Evangelistic Gifts

What it is not: the office of apostle in the early church

What it is: having a genuine talent and desire for being a messenger of the Gospel

Purpose: leading people to Christ and founding new churches in areas that have not been exposed to the Gospel before

What it is not: telling the future

What it is: being able to boldly and convictingly expound scripture

Purpose: to exhort the church unto righteousness and holiness

What it is: preaching the Gospel

Purpose: to sow seed for others to water later or to water seed already sown

What it is: ability to shepherd and oversee the flock, a leadership talent to really see the needs and know how to respond to them

Purpose: to protect local Christians from wolves... false teaching, false prophecy, error of any kind, and to harness and direct the gifts in the local body for nurturing believers

What it is: ability to clearly and accurately explain the Word of God, especially to new Christians

Purpose: to fulfill the command to make disciples by increasing a Christian's knowledge of what the Word of God says a Christian is supposed to be.

What it is: knowing and explaining the mind and the purposes of God for our lives

Purpose: Knowing God's plan and purpose for His Church so that Christians know which path to follow and which to avoid, how to follow the right path and how to avoid the wrong.

What it is: ability to grasp the truth about a present situation: seeing, knowing, understanding as the Holy Spirit sees, knows and understands.

Purpose: giving the church leadership the proper direction to lead the church when action needs to be taken or when decisions need to be made

What it is: ability to sympathize with and to suffer alongside those who grieve

Purpose: to provide comfort and healing in the hearts and lives of fellow Christians and the lost

What it is: ability to encourage and build up Christians

Purpose: to bring out the best in each other and to properly recognize godly accomplishments and to give us special opportunities to thank God for their occurrence and for those who perform them. To teach others that it God's will for His children to build each other up, not tear each other down.

What it is: ability to see people's needs and to recognize ways that you personally can meet those needs, materially, monetarily, or using your talents

Purpose: to display the love of Christ by meetings people's everyday, practical, earthly needs

What it is: ability to perceive the needs of the church and to guide others in the fulfilling of those needs

Purpose: to provide for the welfare of the local church by recognizing the needs and matching those needs to those that have the appropriate gifts such that optimal use is made of the gifts of the body of Christ

What it is: ability to trust in God's promises in the Bible for results beyond our own ability to accomplish

Purpose: to remind Christians that it is God who is in control and who has the power to do things that we cannot and should not attempt to do in our own strength, for the growth of the church and for the inspiration of those who are experiencing hardship of some sort.

1. gift of miracles (turning water into wine, walking on water, feeding 5000 with a few loaves and fishes)

The gifts are primarily to the Church, to bless the Church (a father desires to give good gifts to his children) and to let the lost know that we are God's children (to provoke the lost to envy). All the gifts can and should benefit the lost who live with us and around us. Some gifts are specifically for church leaders or for leaders in training (i.e. such as preaching and administration).

Much of this material was taken directly from the Book ''The Baptism, Filling & Gifts of the Holy Spirit", by W.A. Criswell.

1. What gifts will a true, God-ordained pastor have?
2. What gifts would a person have who ministers to people at a nursing home?
3. How important is it that we use the gifts God gave us? (Matthew 25:14-30)
4. Is it enough just to use the gifts God gave us? (2 Corinthians 9:7)