Tag: spiritual gifts
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Unspiritual Spiritual Gifts- Exodus 31:1-11
After God instructed Israel to craft all of the specialty, custom items for the tent of meeting, He reveals that He has gifted certain individuals by His Spirit for the purpose of crafting these pieces artistically. God takes the credit for gifting His people for craftsmanship according to His own plans for the production of…
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Daily Devotional: Ephesians 4:17-24
God provides His Spirit and gifts each believer. Each believer is trained for ministry in the context of a local church. So, we no longer walk like the Gentiles, or like unbelievers. Unbelievers walk in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding, and are excluded from the life of God because of…
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Daily Devotional: Ephesians 4:7-16
After describing who God is and, consequently, what we are—one body—he now turns to show us what makes us individually important in the body of Christ. Δε, the first word in verse 7, can be translated “but” or “now.” Now, to each one of us grace was given. Christ determines the measure of grace each…
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Tongues vs Prophecy
We return to Paul’s discourse on spiritual gifts, which have been used to cause division within the local church at Corinth. There were some who, apparently, exalted the gift of tongues such that others desired the mystical gift above all else. There are many in our own day who exalt mystical sign gifts like tongues,…
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Going to Church: Worthless?
Paul is admonishing the local church at Corinth toward unity through maturity in the faith. He is presently addressing the local church’s idolatry of the spiritual gifts. He does not discredit the spiritual gifts, but has instead stated that there is a better way than merely seeking after the spiritual gifts (12:31). As we work…
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The Truth About Spiritual Gifts
Paul is writing to the local church at Corinth in order to admonish the local church toward unity through maturity in the faith, not only knowledge of Christ but wisdom—which is knowledge in love. He has admonished the local church to edify one another and those outside her proverbial walls rather than be puffed up…
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Christian Unity
Paul has introduced his letter and revealed the faithfulness of God as the foundational doctrine behind his first letter to the church at Corinth. Today, we see the overall exhortation of his letter. The whole letter concerns Christian unity and agreement. Every verse that follows verse 10 is part of the exhortation that the church…
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On Signs, Wonders, and Spiritual Gifts
I would tell you a story, here, to get you interested in the topic presented to us this evening. I have plenty of experiences to share, but God has instructed us not to share primarily about our own experience. Instead, we are to share what His word tells us. So, we will simply explore the…
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Empowering of the Holy Spirit
Over the previous two weeks, we have been thinking together about the identity of God as Father and Son. We have seen, in Scripture, that the trinitarian existence of God is no new concept. Even the earliest of human religion recognized the single creator-God and the work of the Son. We saw that both the…