Lesson Notes

Gifts of the Spirit -1-

In Sunday Lessons on May 20, 2013 at 9:50 am

Series: Discovering Your Identity
Lesson: Gifts of the Spirit

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:10 NASB

Romans 12:3-8 NASB
³For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. ⁴For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, ⁵so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; ⁷if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

There are many spiritual gifts spoken about in the Bible and both Paul and Peter tell us that everyone has one. As Christians a part of our transformation process will be to identify and actively use the individual gifts we possess. Peter encourages us to “employ” our gift. I think most understand employment as it relates to jobs, but just to apply a Webster to it, to employ means to engage the services of, make use of or to devote. Obviously we cannot actively employ our gift if we do not know what it is or that it is. This part of our series is designed to help us learn to identify with Christ through the use of the gift(s) He has provided us. While this is not a lesson on public demonstrations, we must heed Peter’s instruction to employ our gift in serving one another.

In his letter to the Christians at Rome, Paul lists the following gifts: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy. Compared to 1^st Corinthians 12, these are rarely considered gifts of the Spirit, but they very much are. You should never assume all people should possess one gift over all others (i.e., it’s simply not true that everyone who has received the Holy Spirit must speak in other languages).

Living A Sin-Less Life

In Faith, Grace, Sunday Lessons on May 7, 2013 at 12:43 pm

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

–Romans 8:31

[audio] This is a very well-known verse among Christians, applied to many difficult situations, but what did Paul mean by it in his letter to the Christians at Rome?

Before I get too far in, I want to reference Peter’s description of Paul’s grace teachings: and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. -2 Peter 3:15-16

This seems to hold true today as well. Nearly 2,000 years later and it seems there are some who struggle with such a transcending grace. I won’t go as far as Peter in describing these people. I’m sure he was referring to those whose desire was to control people (keep them in bondage) by using guilt and condemnation using the law. There are well-meaning preachers who don’t know any better, but there are a number of Christians who have not been taught better. Even those who understand that we live by faith rather than works of the law will have difficulty in explaining how the renewal process takes place. To be transformed from the inside out, that’s a difficult teaching. You can’t will it to happen. You can’t force it through behavior modification. True change comes from the inside.

What shall we say to what things?

We’ve obviously interrupted a train of thought Paul was on, so backing up just a little, Romans 8 verse 26 says “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;” But again we’ve interrupted a thought. What “same way” is Paul referring to? What weakness? Backing up to verse 24 we read, “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?” That the verse begins with the word “for” clues us in that there’s another thought leading up to this, but we now begin to see a context emerging. “In hope we have been saved”.

Against The Darkness

In Sunday Lessons on April 19, 2013 at 1:43 pm

It’s going to come. It always does.
Things can be going so right, then suddenly go so very wrong. We seem to spend our lives waiting for the next period of darkness to descend upon us, enshrouding us with gloom and grief. Not that we look for things to go wrong. It just seems inevitably to find us. As Christians we believe Christ will work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28) and that these ‘tribulations’ are momentary trials sent to build character in us (James 1:2-4). But is that all life really is about – how we go through one trial after another? Not according to Paul. He wasn’t one for waiting for the next trial. For him life was about steadily moving forward to achieve his goal, his focus on the prize and not the climate (Philippians 3:14, 1 Timothy 4:15-16)

Ephesus

Ephesus was the capital city of the province of Asia, the third largest city in the Roman world. It had approximately 100,000 inhabitants with a large Jewish community. Ephesus was an important communication center due to its strategic position. The city was linked to the harbor by a 10 yard wide marble-paved road, “The Arcadian Way”, flanked by huge columns.

The New Testament links Ephesus with much demonic activity. It was the cult center of the worship of the Ephesian goddess Artemis (not to be confused with the Greek Artemis), known as “the greatest” and “the supreme power”. Artemis was considered to be on a supreme level with gods like Zeus, Sarapis and Helios, each being identified in Greek as kosmokrator which is defined as “lord of the world, prince of this age” The city held the title of “Temple Warden” of the goddess, who was said to have authority over all the demons of the dead as well as the harmful spirits of nature. Artemis was known as a mother goddess, a fertility goddess and a nature goddess. Her followers believed that she had powers superior to those who controlled the fate of people. The Temple of Diana (the Roman name for Artemis) at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Eli Gospel Tabernacle