Spiritual Gifts + Love (by JR BAKER)

The buildup In chapters 12 and 14 of this same book, Paul is really doing a lot of clarification for the people of Corinth, in regards to spiritual gifts and what they’re all about. he’s very clear and firm on the issues they had struggled with and wants to be sure that they understand, as clearly as possible, what this is truly all about.

most excellent and greatest

Now, as Paul is flowing into the chapter 13, the one on love, he starts out by mentioning that the way of love is the most excellent way.  he wants you to know, right off the bat, that even though living out all these spiritual gifts is crucial to the body and an absolute part of life in Christ, that a life of love is the most excellent way to live. 

and just to make sure that we don’t miss it, he ends the chapter by coming back to the fact that love is the most excellent way and he says that after all the gifts have faded away, that faith, hope and love will remain, but the greatest of these is love.  Paul starts and ends the chapter on love, making sure we are fully aware of the fact that love is absolutely imperative to all of these other things we have been discussing.

in fact, living a life of love is so vital to the life of the church and of the believer that he goes on a little bit of a rant pointing out just how much you’d be lacking if you went out and did all these incredibly spiritual things but did them without love.  he talks about how you can be a spiritual giant, and do so much for so many, and yet be completely missing it if you don’t have love as the foundation.

i told the story about how in seminary, i was doing all these good little church things with all of my free time, i was preaching and leading bible studies, i was mentoring college guys and discipling folks, and yet my competitive nature led me to get so upset about a flipping volleyball game, that i actually made the referee cry…i, the pastor, made this sweet, little, girl referee cry⎯i am a horrible human being.

the reality is that the lost of the world couldn’t care less about all your great spiritual accolades and wonderful community service and awesome prayers if they don’t see and experience the love in your life.  i hope you’re getting the point that love is absolutely fundamental to our lives.

The focus
in our culture, love is often misconstrued and it gets mixed up with so many other things.  we confuse emotions and feelings and lust and movie-love and the list goes on, with what God is actually desiring for us to live out with each other, in the body of Christ.

because of this problem, Paul does something extremely helpful and gives us this nice little checklist of what exactly the love of Christ is to look like.  He tells us exactly what this love is and it’s a pretty thorough list of challenging things.  it is a list that i know for a fact that i have not mastered and chances are, will never come close.  we can definitely take out the word love and try putting our name in the blank and see just how well we measure up.  unfortunately, most of us would not stack up to well with Christ.

essentially this list is the perfect description of a beautiful, selfless, sacrificial love that puts others before ourselves.  it goes right back to the Greatest Commandment and the simple point that Jesus makes about us loving God first and then loving our neighbor.  we have got to improve on this because the world around us is dying and it desperately needs to see the beautiful love of Christ that we see so clearly in the cross.

and i hate to be the bearer of bad news and please don’t shoot the messenger, but the truth is…love is difficult.  it is hard to live this out, it is a challenge to live this out, it is something that each and everyone of us need to actively seek out and pray about on a regular basis, so that we can try and be more and more like Christ. 

we’ve got work to do, so lets quit making excuses and get on with it.

challenges and discussion

* pray for the group and one another and that the Spirit would show you where you need to improve in these areas and how you can practically be more loving

* which attribute of love do you struggle the most with? why do you think this is?

* if you were to remove love from that list and put your name in its place, how would you stack up to the ideal?

* do pray for the ability to be more loving as often as you pray for yourself, your friends, your spiritual gifts, etc.?

* if Jesus said that love was the greatest commandment and numerous other authors throughout scripture say this as well, why do you think we choose to focus on so many other things more than we do the aspect of love?

* the beatles have a famous song that says, “all you need is love”…how can this concept that love is “all you need” be dangerous to us in the church? or do you think it is great?

* what is one thing from the sermon that you really felt like God was speaking directly to you and whispering right in your ear?

* in Galatians 5:22, love is the first attribute listed in the fruits of the spirit…do you think that it is listed first for a reason? why or why not?

* this week, try your hardest to love those where it doesn’t come naturally.  it is easy to love my wife, my best friend, my family, etc., but what about those others? be intentional in stepping out in love in new and powerful ways.

Lamentations - A cry for God - Which Kingdom will you serve?

Israel are a nation that has been taken over by the Babylonians and as a result are living in an occupied city. Instead of staying true to the Godly heritage, they have forsaken (2:1) God and have followed the ways of the occupiers – resulting in God forsaking them! We live in a post Christian nation, a nation where we have seen revivals and the rapid growth of Gods church followed by its decline. We are a people that has put its comfort and personal splendour ahead of its devotion of God. We live in a Godless nation. God’s people lived in the same state – they were to all accounts a Godless nation.

Jeremiah speaks into this situation and writes in Lamentations of the process of Jerusalems destruction.

Around 150 years before Jeremiah and the Babylonian destruction of Gods people, comes another prophet, Isaiah speaking to the people of God about an imminent invasion by this time the Assyrians but also of a ruler of the nation unlike any other.  Read Isaiah 9:6-7

In Jeremiahs day, the people were looking for a perfect earthly kingdom and they never found it - as individuals and as a nation, we look to another earthly kingdom to satisfy and rule over us instead of a new true and better kingdom – and we always side with the occupiers – with the earthly kingdom.

Isaiah 61 paints this new heavenly kingdom in contrast to the earthly kingdom of Jerusalem and the UK.
Isaiah 61:1 and Lamentations 2:2,4,9,21:
Lamentations paints a picture of destruction and removing of the status, wealth and power of the earthly Kingdom.  Isaiah speaks of a new kingdom that brings freedom and release for all those in bondage to the earthly kingdoms.

Isaiah 61:2 and Lamentations 2:3,7,11,17,21
God is a God who demands justice.  The new king of the new kingdom makes a way for those who come in to receive the full favour of God because he has satisfied the full vengeance of God toward them, toward us. For God to be a God of love means he has to be fair.  To be fair means he has to treat us, as our sins deserve – which means we all deserve to die.  The new king takes our death, conquers it and allows us to receive the favour of the Lord.

All of this is given in the new Kingdom – why?

Isaiah 61:3 and Lamentations 2:1
So they will be called Oaks of righteousness- a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendour – the reverse of what is happening in Lamentations!  Not living for God only ended in destruction for Gods people in 586BC as Jeremiah prophesied.  But Jesus stands as the new King so we will not be destroyed.  Jesus begins his ministry by defining himself as the new king prophesied in Isaiah and so desperately needed in Lamentations.  Read Luke 4:16-21

Lamentation teaches us that there is no answer to the immediacy of disaster – and our prayers should reflect that – for we are not immune to pain and suffering – But that life in the new Kingdom, according to Isaiah gives us hope and safety during those times.  Our strength in dark times comes from the new king and his kingdom - in Christ and the kingdom of God.

How are you finding the book of Lamentations (truthfully)?
What earthly Kingdom do you follow (money, sex, power etc)?
How do you follow the new Kingdom?
In what ways does your mission group display the splendour of the Lord?
Do you live in the reality that Christ received all the wrath of God destined for you?

Image Creative Commons Copyright: Jeremia.

MissION GROUP QUESTIONS JOHN: 7 WORDS & 7 SIGNS - 17/01/10

Picture the scene: Jesus has headed off after feeding at least 5000 people, and the disciples have collected the crumbs left behind by the crowd – a bit like a Glastonbury clear up operation - and are recovering from seeing what was truly an amazing miracle. But their minds are on the journey ahead of them, the journey to Capernaum over the sea of Galilee - a journey that requires taking a boat accross a very large lake at the end of a very busy, back breaking day! The day is drawing to a close as they row 3 miles out into the lake when the rain and winds pick up and they battle a storm in their slightly fatigued state - they must have been drenched and seriously tired.

At that point, everyone on the boat was trusting in something: a more experienced fisherman who understands boats, their previous experience of making it out alive, everyone had a life raft – something they were clinging to in order to help them get through the storm.

Just then, Jesus comes out of the darkness strolling on top of the water through the raging storm, cloak billowing and hair all over the place, heading towards the boat, it was such a bizarre thing to see that some of them think they are seeing a ghost.  But then Jesus walks up to the boat and steps in!  “It is I” he states and tells them not to be afraid, speaking not only to their fear of the storm, but the fear in their hearts of seeing the one who has just walked on water (echoing Moses’ walk through the red see) and that he just said he is the “I am” (the same words said by God to Moses before he led the people to freedom out of Egypt).

Immediately the boat is transported to safety and they step out of the boat completely dumbfounded by what they’ve just seen.

This was the story Matt shared with us today as he helped us to see that:

1. As part of being a disciple of Jesus, He often sends us into danger without his tangible presence.

2. When we embrace the storms of life we get to see the slime at the bottom of your hearts - that is the stuff that Jesus wants to heal!  Everyone trusts in something, something that is our life raft – will we trust in Jesus.  Jesus makes the same point when he says in Matthew 7:24-27 to build your house on a solid foundation so when a storm comes we’ll not be shaken.

3. If you hold onto the rudder: you’ll make it to your destination!  Holding onto Jesus will make sure we get to where he wants us to go.

4. Jesus doesn’t minimise the storm, he maximises himself - God may not take you out of your storm but he promises to bring you to safe harbour eventually.

5. When we see Jesus in all his power we are so drawn to him and yet can’t quite look at him because of the depth of our sin.  When the disciples saw Jesus they realised how sinful they were.  The story helps us to see that Christ takes our sinfullness and exchanges it for his holiness through the cross – Christ is our safety and help through the storms of life.

Mission Group Questions:
1. Read through the story above and the story as it appears in scripture.  Try telling the story back to each other in your own words.
2. Matt encouraged us to think about the part of the story that strikes a chord with us.  Which part makes you think?  Why?
3. Break into 2;s or 3’s and share the storms that are currently battering you.  Talk about how you can bring Jesus into the storm and focus on him, how you can build on his foundation.  Pray for each other
4. Pray for your friends and colleagues, that they would know Christ as their saviour in their storms.

Mosaic’s First Blog Entry

Welcome to our new blog site. This blog will hopefully provide a conversation that will help keep you in the loop, give you a place for questions and feedback and help me externally process all the thoughts about Mosaic that are crammed into my brain. However, I'm new to this so be gentle with me!

Given this term we have tackled some huge subjects together we thought it would be good to have a dedicated space to create conversations about our life together.  We’ve tackled issues such as eldership, women in leadership, the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment.  Just recently we announced our decision to multiply our services to 10.30 and 5pm from Feb 1st 2009.  We would love to know your thoughts, opinions and questions. 

So, why not suggest some topics to tackle or tell us what you really think? Simply click on the “add a comment” link at the bottom of this post.

I would really appreciate some thoughts about our carol service and our servant evangelism event in the city centre - ‘wrap it up’.  We had around 300 people come to the carol service and many guests seemed to genuinely enjoy themselves. At ‘Wrap it up’ we must have served hundreds of people by wrapping up their Christmas presents for free and maybe thousands got to hear about our carol service, chat to people, complete a survey about the true meaning of Christmas or have someone pray for them.  Personally I am always so proud when Mosaic hits the streets.  People served so hard and seemed to really enjoy themselves.  One observer came up to me and said “I’m not a Christian, but I think what you’re doing is superb!”.