God is both a sent God and a sending God; Jesus was sent as a missionary, and he sends his followers out on the same mission, to bring the good news of his person and work to as many as possible. Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful. Do you believe that today? Pray for more laborers who are willing to follow God’s specific call for them, like the seventy-two did in Luke 10.
Jesus’ disciples saw his greatness, and it inspired in them a longing for greatness. Jesus did not rebuke them, but told them how they could be great. Rather than receiving worldly, godless greatness (that is, narcissism), or rejecting greatness altogether (in the false name of humility), Jesus shows them how to redeem greatness. True greatness means having a godly, redeemed ambition to live for the glory of God and the good of others by the grace of God. Then you can rejoice in others’ greatness wherever the kingdom of God is advancing.
Week 4 of a 6 week study of the spiritual gifts. This week we depart from the book of 1 Corinthians to examine the gifts of encouragement, giving, leadership, mercy, and hospitality.
Week 3 of a 6 week study of the spiritual gifts. This week we examine the gifts of apostles, teaching, helps/service, administration, and biblical counseling/pastoring.
Paul’s sadness is revealed as his people had little regard for his teaching and little respect for his authority. Like most problems, the root of all the trouble in Corinth was simply arrogant pride.
Jesus said that one day Christians would do even greater ministry than He did by the empowerment and gifting of the Holy Spirit. This gifting, however, is often misunderstood. Paul provides clear teaching on the purpose, nature, and goal of “spiritual gifts”.
The work done by churches and Christians will one day stand in judgment before Christ, who will condemn and torch all works not built upon the foundation of Christ.
Although the Corinthians are Christians they are slow to repent of their sin and obey God. Paul likens them to an immature baby, stubbornly keeping some ways of thinking and acting that are from their former way of life, which are unfitting for their new life in Jesus Christ.
Continuing in the Ecclesiastes series, Pastor Mark Driscoll is preaching out of Ecclesiastes 5:8-20 on the class conflict between the rich and the poor.
If you stop to think about your work, what it’s accomplishing, and why you should keep working, you will likely end up very discouraged, start wearing black, and listening to bands fronted by people whose dad did not hug them enough. But, this kind of reflection on “why we do what we do” is rare because we are so stressed out by our work that we lay awake at night, so overwhelmed by what we have to do that we don’t even have the time or energy to ask if we should be doing it.
There’s only so much you can put in a load before it becomes too heavy to carry. Life is like that. We can choose to carry our burdens and the burdens of others, but Jesus reminds us that if we take them to him, he’ll carry it for us.
There’s only so much you can put in a load before it becomes too heavy to carry. Life is like that. We can choose to carry our burdens and the burdens of others, but Jesus reminds us that if we take them to him, he’ll carry it for us.