We’ve been doing a series on the church that plays off the idea of “5G” technology. Not long ago, 4G was the standard. Did you know the goal of 4G was greater bandwidth? They wanted everyone to be able to stream any content from anywhere, anytime, without lag. 5G was designed with the goal of massive, continuous connectivity in mind. Whereas 4G was the Internet for Everyone—5G is Internet for Everything. Smart cars, Medical devices, Watches, Glasses, Traffic grids, Ring Cameras, Life 360. 6G will be the Internet for running Everyone and Everything through AI!
I was thinking what’s the equivalent of a 4G church experience? For some, the Christian life is all about gaining spiritual bandwidth—gaining more. Our first “G” was Grace. The Bible says God’s grace is “exceedingly abundant” (i.e. 1 Timothy 1:14). Our second “G” was Generosity. The Bible says God’s kindness is “immeasurable.” (i.e. Eph 2:7). A third “G” is Gifts—they greatest gift of all is Jesus Christ, and also the Holy Spirit! So, in 2 Corinthians Paul says, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.” Why all the superlatives? All-surpassing, overflowing, exceedingly abundant, immeasurable, inexpressible?
The reason is that YES, God wants us to rain down his blessings. (4G) But more than, he wants to spill out from, so as to bless “everyone, everywhere” (5G). Your goal might be just to “receive” or “download” but God’s goal is for the church to be a blessing to the nations! And if you are curious, God’s 6G vision is everyone and everything filled, led by, empowered, under the control by the Holy Spirit. AI can’t touch that.
But let’s talk through GIFTS. James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." There is a general sense (as with God’s kindness), that God has given “gifts” to everyone, everywhere. But there is also a specific sense in which God has given “gifts” exclusively to believers. First things first…
What gifts has God given every living human being? God’s first gift to us is the breath of life in our lungs. Many ancient traditions and biblical scholars point out that the letters of the holy Hebrew name for God—Yahweh—are entirely aspirate, breathing sounds. When pronounced without vowels, it mimics the very sound of your lungs inhaling and exhaling. Inhale: "Yah". Exhale: "Weh". This means your very first cry at birth, your quietest sighs, and your final gasp on earth all whisper His name. Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord. Hallelujah!” Your breath is a gift.
Even more, God declares, Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. . .” Even atheist would say, “congrats! You’ve defied all incalculable odds of cosmic chance. You are more than stardust, animal—you are a human being!”
But friend, the Bible says you are a human being made and divinely endowed with gifts that make you more comparative to GOD than to any other THING in all the universe. God gifted (mirrored) his own nature in you. You are fearfully and wonderfully and uniquely made!
You are one of a kind—gifted with self-conscious, self-aware, a degree of transcendence. You can stand outside yourself—thinking in perspective, conceptualizing things eternally greater and far beyond your own existence. God gifted our bodies with sensory capacities with which to enjoy every good thing—eyes to see beauty, ears to enjoy music, taste, touch. God has given you two hands, ten fingers, two feet, profound strengths and abilities to accomplish whatever you set your will toward. You’ve been gifted a brilliant mind and memory--through which to know him, and retain knowledge of him, and even pass knowledge on! God has infused you with the gift of rationality, creativity, and intuition. He has given you the gifts needed to communicate, connect, collaborate, dream, design, build. God has infused our soul with a sense of his glory; our conscience with a sense of his holiness, goodness, righteousness, what’s moral, ethical, right, good. Greatest of all, God’s given us the capacity to feel a profound sense of love, meaning, purpose, and significance.
God’s breath is a gift, are you thankful? God’s image is a gift, are you thankful? And also tucked into Genesis 1:28-30 God says, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you, for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” Friends, God gifted all heaven-earth to us. We are stewards, managers of the great planet earth! Are you glad God didn’t stick you on Venus or Mars? Be fruitful and multiply. God has given us to one another in marriage, to have families. God’s great and divine power, his good and divine nature, is evidenced all around us. The superlative for God’s gifts is “inexpressible.” We’re you to begin giving thanks today for all the gifts God’s given you, you could never name them all, not even in a lifetime. Adam was told to name all the animals… we’re still finding and naming new species every day. Abraham was told to count the stars… we haven’t begun to count the stars in our own universe must less the infinite galaxies span all around us.
You don’t have to be a Christian to recognize that your breath, the image of God within, or creation is a gift. Yet “being” a Christian does give you direction and a profound sense of joy and gratitude for this gift of life. Christian or not…what are you doing with your gift? Why would you or I waste such a profoundly amazing gift? Or why would you disparage your own existence, or that of another?
But friends… this is just the tip of the iceberg. For there is a specific way in which God has given “spiritual gifts” to his Church. Not just the gift of his Son Jesus, not just the gift of the Holy Spirit… but much more! Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.” In Christ we’re chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, infused with spiritual wisdom, understanding, knowledge of God’s will, a sense of spiritual purpose, an eternal inheritance, a hope of glory… But here it is… Ephesians 4:7-8 says, “Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. For it says: When he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people.” Romans 12:6, "According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts..." 1 Corinthians 12:4, "Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit."
This is all over Scripture. 1 Peter 4:10-11: “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”
Do you see the phrase that we’re to be “good stewards of the varied grace of God?” Varied is a very pedestrian translation (Greek: poikilos). How about we’re to be steward the “multitudinous… indescribable, inexhaustible, kaleidoscopic array” of God’s grace? Do you know they say we can only see a very small spectrum of light? But there is a near infinite spectrum of actual light, and God himself is eternal light. Our purpose in life is to put full spectrum of God’s glory on display in everything we say, and do. And even more cool—God supernaturally endows believers (the Church) with a capacity to reflect his image more fully and perfectly than any other people on earth.
We could easily spend a lifetime trying to exhaust the natural gifts we have as living, breathing human beings, created in the image of God, living on this great earth. Who among us has exhausted even these gifts? An Elon Musk? But if you are a believer, you get all of these natural gifts… but also spiritual gifts. Think about it. Why do we need eternity? Because it will take all this life plus all of eternity, to even begin to exhaust every spiritual gift (eternal treasures) God has given us in Christ, by his Spirit.
Do you know all this time I’ve only been talking about 4G spiritual realities? Remember, the 4G was all about maximizing our bandwidth to receive? There is eternal joy to be found receiving every spiritual blessing in Christ. But friends… the 5G experience is what happens when we use our gifts to maximize connectivity to the Kingdom of God! What happens when we give, serve, and use our gifts to serve others? I think one of the great disillusionments in modern church is that we think the height of experience is being the “consumer”. But it’s not. It’s being the “contributor, co-sharer, partner…” Ephesians 4:10 tells us God’s end game isn’t just to fill us up with his glory… it’s to fill the whole universe (all things) with his glory. He gave us his divine image not just for our worship and enjoyment… but so that we could reflect or mirror the kaleidoscopic array of his full glory to all heaven and earth! What are you doing with gifts God’s given?