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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