Second Sunday After The Epiphany

The church is a gifted community.  Paul affirms this in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.  First Corinthians is addressed to the troubled church in Corinth partly because those believers have a few questions for the Apostle.  One concerns “spiritual gifts” (v. 1).  A better translation would be “spiritual things” or “matters,” which includes spiritual gifts.  Three chapters are devoted to spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14 so their question is important.  Spiritual gifts are to be used to build up the church.  But before Paul launches into his answer he reminds them what it means to be “spiritual.”  He doesn’t want them to be “uninformed” (v. 1) or ignorant about “spiritual things.”

Given we live in a pagan culture and sometimes live like pagans it is good for us to receive a reminder, too.  Sometimes we are, to borrow the language of verse two, “enticed and led astray to idols…”  We sometimes rely upon the world, which includes our own craftiness, to accomplish what we want.  We tend to talk about the Holy Spirit, but not rely upon that Spirit.  As we do, we may be cursing Jesus.  Now I’ve never known anybody who has cursed Jesus.  But when I think about, I probably know a few who have come close, if they have not actually done it, including myself.  To curse Him is to, essentially, live a lie.

The culture, in many respects, is built on a lie.  Some in the church talk about accommodating the culture and I’m not sure why.  I don’t want to accommodate it!  I want to challenge it to be more and better than it is.  Much of the culture is not of the Spirit of God.  I don’t want to accommodate it; I want it transformed by Christ!

To lie or live a lie is not of the Spirit and it is a cursing of Jesus.   But we are not a people of a lie.  Neither do we live a lie.  We live as people who say “Jesus is Lord” (v. 3) and we do so only “by the Holy Spirit” (v. 3).  “Jesus is Lord” is not built on a lie.

The giftedness of the church allows her to challenge the culture because it comes by way of the Spirit, who bestows gifts to be used for the “common good” (v. 7).  The world outside the Kingdom of God teaches it’s about “your individual good.”  God’s Kingdom teaches the opposite.  It is about the good of all within the community.  But because we tend to want to “accommodate” the culture, we give in and tell ourselves a lie and even, in some measure, live the lie that it’s about “my good.”  And that’s not living the confession “Jesus is Lord” (v. 3).  Instead it is cursing Jesus because it is not of the Spirit.

There is a variety of gifts, services, and activities, but it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God who activates them.  Every believer has been given a manifestation of the Spirit.  You have a gift from God to be used in the community for the common good.  You are gifted.  Paul lists several gifts for the Corinthians to consider as examples of the “varieties” – knowledge, wisdom, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.  Some have those and some don’t.  There can be many gifts.  The point is each has a manifestation of the Spirit.

Because the church is a gifted community we can confess the words of Delores Dufner.

The Spirit sends us forth to serve; we go in Jesus’ name
to bring glad tidings to the poor, God’s favor to proclaim.

We go to comfort those who mourn and set the burdened free;
Where hope is dim, to share a dream and help the blind to see.

We go to be the hands of Christ, to scatter joy like seed
And, all our days, to cherish life, to do the loving deed.

Then let us go to serve in peace, the gospel to proclaim.
God’s Spirit has empowered us; we go in Jesus’ name.

May we allow the Spirit to continually gift us and send us forth.

Listen to “The Spirit Sends Us Forth to Serve” by Delores Dufner.  It is one minute thirty seconds.

The song, “Holy Spirit,” by Keith and Kristyn Getty is five minutes seventeen seconds.

Join us for worship this morning at 8:45 a.m. and/or 11:00 a.m. at Garden Lakes Baptist Church in Rome, GA where I am the Senior Pastor.  Bible Study is at 9:45 a.m. and there is a class for every age.