Biblically speaking, the church consists of those whom God has called out of the world and drawn to Himself through Christ. The universal church, which consists of every person past, present, and future whom God calls to Himself, is expressed tangibly through local church bodies that extend around the world. Belonging to the body of Christ, the church, is more important and meaningful than belonging to any other group. It makes us part of a family.

Although there is no Bible verse that commands church membership, when we look at the evidence, it’s clear that being a member of a local church is understood and assumed. Ephesians 5:29-30 says, ” For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of His body.”

In Ephesians 4:1-8, Paul is calling the people back to Psalm 68. Verse 8 says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” The essence of the psalm is that a military victor has the right to give gifts to those who are identified with him. Ephesians 4:7 gives understanding of how the God gives gifted believers to the church. Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ. To equip means to mend, repair, to set bones, or to make something or someone completely adequate or sufficient for something.

Every gift is given to serve somebody else, and when you serve, you bless others. You are a saint, and you have gifts to offer the body of Christ in your church family. Don’t believe the lie that you are too old, too young, too inexperience, or that you’ve already done your part. God put you in this family of believers for a reason. As a church family, we are called to protect the Bride (the church), so church membership is essential to serve. Don’t be distracted by other “good” things. Make serving in your church a priority!

For more information on church membership at Carmel, go HERE.

For more information on serving at Carmel, go HERE.

Questions to discuss:

1. Where have you served in the past at a church? How did you impact that ministry?
2. Who has made a difference in your life as they have served in your church?
3. If you could serve anywhere at Carmel right now, where would it be?
4. Why is church membership important? Are you a member of Carmel? Why or why not?

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Dealing with supervisors, coworkers, and customers can definitely bring challenges and try our patience. For many, “work life” and our “church life” seem like a giant disconnect. Stephen Phelan, Chief Pastoral Officer of Movement Mortgage, challenged us to think about what it means to connect with the presence of God in our work. Whether your work is leading thousands in the corporate world, sitting in a cubicle crunching numbers, sitting in a school classroom learning math, washing dishes at home, coaching a little league team, or any host of other endeavors, our work is very important to the Kingdom of God.

We each have a primary calling, which can be found in Matthew 22:37-40. To boil it down, we are all called to love God and love people. We must make all of our lives about people.

1. Love God – The order in which the Bible orders this is intentional. Our relationship with God is primary. As Deuternonomy 6:4-6 says, “Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” We must love out of an overflow of our relationship with our Father.
2. Love your neighbor – We need to choose to see Jesus in everyone we meet. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says, “‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Mother Teresa said it this way, “Whenever I meet someone in need, it’s really Jesus in His most distressing disguise.”

We each have a secondary calling, which is from God, for God, and for others. He gifts us with talents and resources to make a difference for Him in the world around us.

1. It’s from God – 1 Corinthians 7:17 saya, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.” We should love our teammates so much that they feel the love of God.
2. It’s for God – Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” We must remember everything we have is His, and we have the privilege to steward it. He is our primary boss, and our job is to work for Him as we lead people, make money, and impact the community around us. When we have the perspective of working for the Lord first, it should challenge us to work to the best of our ability! (1 Corinthians 9:24)
3. It’s for others – The world doesn’t revolve around you or me. God is at the center, and we need to love Him by loving those around us.

3 Human Needs at work

1. Everyone needs a friend
2. Everyone needs help in a crisis
3. Everyone needs help living a life of purpose

It is so fruitful, rewarding, and fun when you make work about love. A wave and a smile can change an entire organization. Jesus modeled what it looked like to honor His Good Father with His work. He got a blue-collar job as a stone mason (carpenter) and used that to save the world! (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Questions to discuss:

1. Who in your “workplace” needs a friend?
2. In what ways can your love change the culture of your workplace?
3. What do you need to change to make your workplace all about love? (heart, attitude, perspective, habits, etc.)

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Paul wrote to the church in Corinth regarding spiritual gifts because the people were unspiritual and extreme in their application of the gifts. They knew that they had been given spiritual gifts, but they did not know how to properly utilize them, so to correct the Corinthian’s charismatic confusion, Paul goes back to the fundamentals.

Where do the gifts come from? I Corinthians 12:4-6

The corinthian believers overemphasized the gift of tongues in worship, so Paul reminds them that there are various kinds of spiritual gifts – ALL of which come from the Holy Spirit. Verse 6 says it is God who empowers them all in everyone. The unity amid diversity within God’s nature shold also find reflection in the variety of God-given gifts among believers.

What are the gifts for? I Corinthians 12:7

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” The gifts are given to bring unity to the body of Christ.

What are the gifts? 1 Corinthians 12:8-11

Wisdom – The Spirit of God will give you insight into His will in an area not spelled out directly in Scripture.

Knowledge – This is a special knowledge from the Holy Spirit about someone’s life, directing you to pray or speak into their lives. It may reveal something to someone that he or she would not know or could not know about a paritcular situation unless it was revealed supernaturally. It is a special message of insight into a particualr situation that may reveal a hidden motive or even a future action.

Faith – People with a faith gift have the ability to perceive what God wants to do and the urge to ask Him for it.

Healing – This is a supernatural enablement given to a believer to minister various kinds of kealing and restoration to individuals through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Miracles – People that have a miracle gift are the agents that God uses to release His power into a situation, often without any explanation.

Prophecy – Prophecy is the ability to speak God’s will into a situation at just the right time; or how to apply Scripture to someone in just the right way. It can also be defined as the spiritual ability to proclaim God’s truth in such an authoritative and powerful fashion that lives are changed, the lost are saved, and believers are motivated for greater service and maturity.

Distinguishing Spirits – The ability to see through false teaching, false prophets, and false doctrine. In other words, this is the ability to know whether what someone is saying is really from God. This gift also allows an individual to recognize whether an utterance comes from God or an evil spirit.

Tongues – Paul discusses two types of tongues: those of people and those of angels (13:1). When someone speaks in the tongues of angels, they are speaking to God – no one else understands them and thus they need an interpreter (14:28). When someone speaks in the tongues of people, they are miraculously speaking to someone in their own language, without training (Acts 2:3-4, 11).

Interpretation of Tongues – The person with this gift translates the utterance spoken in a tongue into the native language of the believers that are gathered.

1 Peter 4:10 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” We must remember that this is ALL from God gifted to us through the Holy Spirit through our relationship with Jesus. We don’t “do” any of it, but we must be faithful to be obedient to how God wants to use us to edify the church and bring glory to God through it.

Pray that God would use you to generously offer your gift, and be careful not to be jealous of the gifts of others around you. It takes ALL of us together.

Another definition of spiritual gifts: Spiritual gifts are abilities by which we receive the grace of God and give that grace to others.

Question:

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A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability given to Christians by the Holy Spirit for the edification of the body of Christ. In Christ, we all have them, and they are all equally important! Spiritual gifts are different from the fruit of the Spirit, which is given to everyone and we all can grow in it. Spiritual gifts are also different from talents in that anyone (believer or non-believer) can have a talent, and they are based on genetics and training. In Romans 12 speaks of renewing one’s mind. An individual with a renewed mind comprehends that he or she is a member of a body, that every member of that body does not perform every function but that God gives each believer a specific spiritual gift. Paul also discusses what our faith looks like with “one another”. Our faith is personal, but it is not individualistic. We have been called to love one another and we have been called to use our gifts for the good of the body (1 Cor 12:7). We don’t all have the same role, but we all do have a role! The gifts of the Spirit are listed in Romans 12, 1 Cor 12 and 14, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. We believe that all of the gifts listed are in use today, and these mentioned gifts are the list that the Spirit uses to edify the church today.

The gifts generally break into 3 categories:

1. Speaking gifts

2. Leading gifts

3. Serving gifts

Prophecy – These individuals are gifted by the Holy Spirit with the supernatural ability to proclaim God’s prophetic Word in penetrating and convicting ways. They, too, speak as God’s “mouthpieces” insofar as they remain faithful to the prophetic message of Scripture. Evangelists, preachers, and writers are good modern-day examples of people who, though not prophets, extend the prophetic message to others. Serving – Those with this gift rarely have to be told what is needed; they simply discern needs, know how to help, and then do so without any need for notice or expectation of applause. Teaching – These people have the unique ability to help others understand the Truth of God’s Word in unique contexts. Exhortation – Exhorters have the ability to drive truth home passionately, confront wrong constructively, turn Scripture reading into an action plan, unite believers behind a common endeavor – and they can usually do this without offense. Generosity – While all believers are instructed to be generous, these people look for opportunities to give, offering what they have beyond normal measure. Sometimes they are wealthy; more often, they are people of average means who generally give their time, energy and expertise. Leadership – Leaders possess an unusual ability to provide guidance and administration to a group. Mercy – These people have a supernatural ability to see the unique needs of individuals and whole groups and know how to care for those unique needs. They have a compassionate heart for people in need, and they are able to come to their aid. We will look at more gifts next week. You don’t learn your gifts before you do ministry. You learn your gifts as you minister. These gifts are best discovered not by a test or inventory, but rather by the affirmation of the church family you belong to. The reason for this is that we can skew what we “want” our gifts to be as we take an inventory.

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All of our past, both the joyful parts and the challenging parts, make us who we are. The valleys are where we “taste and see that the Lord is good”. That’s where we feel His presence and are reminded that “He never leaves us or forsakes us.” If you are a follower of Jesus, you have a vital place in the body of Christ.

We see a very vivid example of this truth in the life of Joseph (Genesis 37-50). Joseph is the 11th son of Jacob, the firstborn of Rachel, and his father’s favorite son. We enter Joseph’s story when he is 17 and has a beautiful coat from his father. His brothers hated him, and ultimately wanted to kill him.

In Chapter 37:23, the brothers stripped Joseph of his robe, which was a symbol of their hatred. They threw him in a pit and ultimately sold him to Egypt. They tore up his robe, put blood on it, and told Israel that he had been killed. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph to Potipher in Egypt. This is the beginning of the suffering of Joseph.

We see that the LORD was with Joseph (mentioned 4 times (Ch 39:2,3,21,23). Joseph found favor at every turn. He was falsely accused by Potipher’s wife and thrown into prison. While in prison, he found favor with the guard. In Chapter 41, we see that Joseph found favor with Pharoah. Although still a slave to Pharoah, Joseph was the second most powerful person in all of Egypt. Joseph is now 30 years old, and over the last 13 years, he was:

• thrown in a pit
• sold as a slave to the Midianites (1st example of human trafficking)
• sold to Potipher in Egypt
• accused of rape
• thrown in prison as an innocent man

It would have been easy, and almost expected, for Joseph to hate his brothers for the circumstances of his life, but that is not how Joseph responded. We see in Gen 45:3 that the very first question Joseph asks is, “Is dad alive”? All the pain and brokenness brought a better heart and circumstances. Joseph said to his brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve life”, and verse 8, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Joseph had the classic opportunity to get even with his brothers and ruin them forever, but he refused. Instead, he blessed, protected, and forgave them. God gave favor to Joseph through all these circumstances, and because of his faithfulness, Joseph was able to ensure protection for the people of Israel and set the stage for Moses!

God WILL use the hard places of your past for His glory. God’s favor does not always mean prosperity; in fact, the people who are most effective have the biggest “limp”.

Questions to process:

1. What are some of the hard pieces of your life story?
2. When have you felt useless, abandoned, or overlooked by God?
3. How has God used your past hurt to shape who you are today?

Remember, for many people, their greatest hurt becomes their biggest passion for others. Ask God to show you how your past has positioned you to be uniquely effective for the Kingdom moving forward.

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