Ephesians 4:1-16 highlights the metaphor of a body growing up to describe the church. The church is a called people who have received a gift. The church is the saints who do the work of ministry. The church builds up one another. This message spells out the role of the equipping pastor (teaching shepherd) and how that relates to the roles of the other parts of the body of Christ in building one another up. Josiah was a visual aid for this message.

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Labels: church, grace, pastor, Spiritual gifts

Acts 6:1-7 is the beginning of a division of labor in the leadership of the church. Later there would be an even further division of labor among elders between the ruling elders and the teaching elders. Elders provide servant leadership with respect to word gifts and deacons provide servant leadership with respect to deed gifts. And most members major in one or the other: word or deed. What we must all realize is that serving with your hands (deed) can be Spirit-filled service just as prayer and the service of the Word. And we should all appreciate that just as serving with your hands can be hard work, so too is prayer and the service of the Word. And when everyone is contributing their gifts, we have the right conditions for growth.


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Labels: elders, leadership, ministry, prayer, serve, spirit, Spiritual gifts, Sunday worship

1 Cor 1:1-17 begins our series, inspired by the last message on Ezekiel, on Unity in Christ. The danger to the unity of the church in Corinth was the development of splinter groups following personalities like Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (Peter) and even a splinter group claiming that they followed Christ unlike the rest. Paul appeals to unity for their fellowship with one another with the theme of calling since they have been called to be saints together (1:2) and called into the fellowship of Jesus (1:9). Under this theme we see that not only are we not to be lone ranger Christians but also not lone ranger churches and that factions within a congregation deny the definition of saints and fellowship. Likewise, we looked at the ideas of Spiritual gifts and baptism to shed more light on these points about the fellowship of the people of God in union with Christ.

Click here or the title to listen.

Labels: 1 corinthians, baptism, calling, fellowship, Spiritual gifts, union with Christ, unity

1 Cor 1:1-17 begins our series, inspired by the last message on Ezekiel, on Unity in Christ. The danger to the unity of the church in Corinth was the development of splinter groups following personalities like Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (Peter) and even a splinter group claiming that they followed Christ unlike the rest. Paul appeals to unity for their fellowship with one another with the theme of calling since they have been called to be saints together (1:2) and called into the fellowship of Jesus (1:9). Under this theme we see that not only are we not to be lone ranger Christians but also not lone ranger churches and that factions within a congregation deny the definition of saints and fellowship. Likewise, we looked at the ideas of Spiritual gifts and baptism to shed more light on these points about the fellowship of the people of God in union with Christ.

Click here or the title to listen.

Labels: 1 corinthians, baptism, calling, fellowship, Spiritual gifts, union with Christ, unity