David Diga Hernandez - The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Leadership Gifts

Here is the corrected version of your text, maintaining the same number of words:

So, the gifts of the Holy Spirit I broke down for you into separate categories in the last edition of Spirit Church, which served as the introduction to this series. I talked about the service gifts and also mentioned that all gifts are for service; however, for the sake of categorization, I used the term «service» for that first category. Then, there are the power gifts, and finally, the leadership gifts. In this edition of Spirit Church, I’ll be focusing on the leadership gifts. Next week, I’m going to talk to you about the power gifts, and in part four of this series, I’ll discuss how you can discover your spiritual gifts, while also going over what these service gifts are. I want you to go to Ephesians chapter 4, verse number 1, and pay close attention to what is being said here because you will notice that, just like the context we read last week, there is a great emphasis placed on unity within the body of Christ. Wherever you find the gifts being mentioned, you will typically find unity emphasized in the context. So Ephesians chapter 4, beginning at verse 1, says this: «Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle; be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father who is over all and in all, living through all. However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say, ‘When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.’ Notice that it says he ascended; this clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world, and the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church; these are the gifts that Jesus gave to the church. Remember, there are gifts that God has given to us that we use to personally minister one-on-one to an individual. All gifts are given so that we can serve one another, except for the gift of tongues, which can not only serve others but also serve self, but I’ll talk about that a little bit next week. Here, he’s discussing gifts given corporately to the body of Christ as a whole. We go on to read what these gifts are: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. Some will say, „Well, Brother David, I don’t believe that prophets exist anymore. I don’t believe that apostles exist anymore.“ For some reason, they believe in the teacher, the pastor, and the evangelist, but they don’t necessarily believe in the apostles and the prophets anymore. However, the Scripture says very clearly in verse 13, „This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.“ In other words, these gifts are going to be in operation until every believer measures up to his or her full potential in Christ. That has not happened yet; therefore, these gifts are still in operation. Now, I want to look at number one: the first gift, the pastor. The pastor is very key; the pastor is the one who counsels the individual, guides the individual, and acts as the spiritual shepherd, as the Scripture gives as an analogy for the people. The Scripture tells us in Acts 20:28, and this is Paul the Apostle talking to the Ephesian elders; this was actually his last time seeing these specific elders. The Scripture says in Acts 20:28, „So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock, his church, purchased with his own blood, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.“ Now again, Paul the Apostle is telling this to the Ephesian elders, and this was his last time talking to them. After this, he went knowing he would suffer many things. He knew he would go to prison, and this was the last time he would speak with them. This is what he emphasizes—or one of the things that he emphasizes. He tells them to guard themselves and God’s people; he tells them to act as shepherds. Some of you are called to pastor God’s people; you’re called to watch as a shepherd over God’s people. Hebrews 13:17 makes reference to this type of spiritual leadership when it says, „Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow; that would certainly not be for your benefit.“ Having grown up as a pastor’s kid, I’ve seen how people can treat pastors. People can be very mean, very cynical, very self-centered, and, to be honest with you, very weird. There are certain techniques that they have. In fact, I would say this to pastors: if someone…