4th June 2017 – Thanking God for the gifts of the Spirit

June 1, 2017 Pastor Matt Bishop

St Paul makes it pretty clear in 1 Corinthians 12-14 that we all have different ‘grace- gifts’ (‘charismata‘).  It’s counter to God’s purpose in giving them to us that we would want to make them something about how ‘good’ a Christian that we are compared to other Christians.  Yet that in part is a not insignificant part of what divided the Corinthian Christians on these matters.  In our hearts we know it still continues to divide us more than we would want to admit.  God has helped us here though.  Jesus is Lord!  (1 Cor 12:3).  Hence, led by the Spirit, we confess our sins of pride and ego to the Lord.  Then unburdened and free, we thank him for the greatest grace-gift: Jesus Christ the Son of God and redeemer of humankind!  And in response we serve God in the ‘varieties of grace-gifts’ we have been given for ‘service’ and ‘all kinds of workings’ (1 Cor 12:4-6) – themselves a reflection of the Trinity’s selfless service of each other, their life they draw us into, and the world they created for us to serve them in.