SERVING THE KING 1Kings 7:13-14

SCENE 1: the King

• Hiram was from a foreign country.
• Hiram’s father had died.
• Bronze was a learned art form developed by adding tin to copper. This process increased the metal’s hardness, strength and melting point. This made bronze easier and advantageous in casting.

PRINCIPLE 1: All good things come from God including our natural gifts.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows — James 1:17 (CSB)

• If we are talented or have a gifting in a certain area; the glory for that belongs to God.

PRINCIPLE 2: God will redeem our naturally received gifts and talents that we possessed prior to salvation and redeem those gifts for Kingdom advancement.

PRINCIPLE 3: Every believer is given Spiritual gifts following salvation. These gifts are designed to work in concert with our natural gifts for Kingdom advancement.

SPRITUAL GIFTS:

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. — Acts 2:38 (CSB)

• The Holy Spirit is the Spiritual Gift.
• The Holy Spirit is given at .
• The Holy Spirit is a spiritual seal assuring salvation. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
• The Holy Spirit us. (John 15:26)
• The Holy Spirit guides and teaches us. (John 16:13, 1Corinthians 12:3)
• The Holy Spirit produces in our lives.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. — Galatians 5:22-25 (CSB)

While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said,“you have heard me speak about; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.” — Acts 1:4-5 (CSB)

• Ministry cannot be done without the Holy Spirit.
• Even Jesus himself models this when he starts his public ministry.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. — Matthew 4:1 (CSB)

“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him. — Matthew 7:7-11 (CSB)

• God is a good Father and wants to gift His children.

For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. — Romans 1:11-12 (CSB)

• Sometimes spiritual gifts can be given to us by the laying of hands.

Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness. — Romans 12:4-8 (CSB)

• Spiritual gifts are a of God.
• Not everyone received the same gift.
• Spiritual gifts were designed to be .

Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person. A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good: to one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues. One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills. — 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (CSB)

• Spiritual gifts are given for the common .
• The Holy Spirit distributes Spiritual gifts.

EMERALD CITY:

1. Albeit talented at his craft, Hiram was an ordinary man who ended up serving the LORD and even ended up in the pages of the Bible. There was another ordinary man, this man ended up in the pages of the Bible for his service.

Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? — Matthew 13:55 (CSB)

Matthew 10: 35-45 (THE GREAT CONTRAST)

1. God is glorified in the “ordinary”.

Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead ​— ​by him this man is standing here before you healthy. This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus. — Acts 4:8-13 (CSB)

• The question is never are you ordinary, but have you been with Jesus?

Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world ​— ​what is viewed as nothing ​— ​to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence. — 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (CSB)

1. Your passions and your can help direct you where to use your gifts.

He was a widow’s son — 1 Kings 7:14 (CSB)

He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort. — 2 Corinthians 1:4-7 (CSB)