╨╧рб▒с;■  1■                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ¤       ■   ■     !"#$%&'()*+,-./0■   2■                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Root Entry            ■               ■               ■               ■   ■   ■    ■   !"#$■   &■                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       ■       └FMicrosoft Word-Dokument MSWordDocWord.Document.8Ї9▓q [nё nDefault$a$1$A$*$дд╚3B*OJQJCJmH sH KHPJnH ^JaJ_HtHBA@Є бBAbsatz-Standardschriftart<■Є ё<Default Paragraph FontF■FHeading дЁдx$OJQJCJPJ^JaJ.B. Text body ддx /" List^J@■2@Caption дxдx $CJ6^JaJ]&■B&Index $^Jl"P    ╪H%X+╪H&'l"l"P GРTimes New Roman5РSymbol3&РArial7РCambriaOРLucida Sans Unicode)Р;РMS Mincho5РTahoma5РTahomaBН┼hї▄f,с░?"ГР░?"'0А■ рЕЯЄ∙OhлС+'│┘0╪ PXpД Ь и ┤ └ ╠щ¤Jakeb Chambers Normal.dotmJakeb Chambers5@NrS@@·Ж╤╧Й╩@шLИ°М╩■ ╒═╒Ь.УЧ+,∙оD╒═╒Ь.УЧ+,∙о\щ¤щ¤ье┬M ┐0╪HCaolan80 2Pl"  %  &  l$$$84l xнМ╜XШМ ┘Unceasing Worship: Glorifying God with our talent 1Corinthians 12 & 13 Happy New Year Kaleo SDSU. As we begin 2010 we are wrapping up a one-month series on unceasing worship. We have examined how we are all worshipers who worship something or someone all of the time. We worship with our time, thoughts and with our treasure. We learned that God desires all of our worship all of the time and that our time, thoughts and treasure are all gifts from God to use to glorify him. Today we are going to read all of chapter 12 and 13 in 1 Corinthians. There is a lot in these two chapters and we will not get to the vast majority of it as it would take us another month to really break down these chapters. I do want us to read and listen to what the word is teaching us about the worship of God with our talents in these chapters and we will try and look deeper into a few verses along the way. 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 God gives his family many gifts and we are to use them to glorify him.  The same God who empowers them all in everyone. Again we see the issue of stewardship coming up with our gifts and talents. It is God who empowers us with skills, abilities, gifts and talents and he empowers us with these gifts to be used for his glory. Do you view your gifts and talents as empowered by God to be used to glorify God? Or do you see everything as empowered by yourself and to the glory of your self? This is a fundamental issue, and if we are to glorify God with our talent, we have to see that even our abilities are to be stewarded for our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 God dies for a people. We are to be one body. Every part of the body is useful to the glory of God and is to be used in unity for the glory of God. Paul wants to drive home the point here that the community of Christians is to be like a body with many parts. Our gifts are no less or more valuable than other parts of the body but are a necessary unit for making a strong and healthy body. Do not belittle or withhold your gifts from the body or else you may be keeping the body from having a hand or an eye or a foot. Imagine the disadvantage a professional baseball player would have without an eye or a sprinter without a foot. The body of Christ needs your gifts, skills and talents to make it a whole body. When we withhold our gifts from the body we have to use  a prosthetic or go without that body part. Imagine a UFC fighter with only one arm. They would be at a tremendous disadvantage. When the body of Christ withholds its time, talent and treasure from Christ we put the body at a disadvantage in reaching our community.  A prosthetic is when someone in the church is forced to work in an area outside their gifting because others gifted there have not stepped up or been brought to the body. So do not undermine or withhold the skills and gifts the Lord has given to you to help the body. Our talents again reflect what we worship and they often go alongside our treasure and our time. What are your gifts and are you using them to strengthen the body? 25-26 There is another giant fundamental truth in theses verses. If we are to use our talent to glorify God and build up the body we have to see ourselves as one whole body. Not as selfish individuals caring only for ourselves but as one unified body. If this is our belief our first reaction is not  what is in it for me but  what is in it for the body. Not  what happened to you but  what happened to us. This frees us with all of our gifts. This frees us to steward our time in knowing it is time to be stewarded to the body of Christ. This frees us with our treasure in knowing our money and wealth is to be stewarded amongst the body of Christ. It frees us with our gifts knowing they are to be stewarded amongst the body of Christ. Our difficulty is that we still see ourselves as individuals with individual gifts to be stewarded & but if this chapter is true then we are one body with gifts to be stewarded amongst one body. Even the gifts given individually were given to the body of Christ and not the individual! What? I will say this again because it is so counter cultural and shocking and hard to understand. Even the gifts given individually were given to the body of Christ and not to the individual. Remember the last few weeks we talked of us not being our own but being bought with a price, and every good gift belongs to the Lord and is from the Lord and today that all has been empowered by him. So not only is my time, treasure and talent the Lord s, but even what he has given to me to steward has really been given to the body to steward, the local church, God s community and family. This is why Jesus speaks of the church as being a family. Parents know that their money, skills and time are not just their own but are actually to be used to feed, provide, and care for the whole family. The same is true for the church. We get to be a part of this. I want to give a few examples. (listen to the audio to hear Jake's examples) 1 Corinthians 13 Our motivation for worshiping God unceasingly with our talents is love. God commands us to worship him and we obey him because we love him. We worship him because we love him and we love him because he first loved us. If you are struggling with giving up your time, treasure or talent to the Lord reflect on his great and unending love. Ask the Lord if you love him. Do you love Jesus? Do you know Jesus? Then respond to his love with love. Respond to him with worship. 13:4-5 We often do not look like this list. But it is important to see that the motivation for this list is love. If we are not to be arrogant or rude but are to be patient and kind, it is not a focus on these actions that brings about love, it is a focus on love. If we want to be loving, we need to fall in love. Patience, kindness, hope and endurance overflow out of love. God is love. God is so overflowing and abundant with love that by loving him we are able to love others. If you are not motivated to worship God with your talents ask your self,  Do I love Jesus? If the answer is yes your motivation to worship him will flow out of that love! 13:6 True love does not encourage you in your sin. True love does not rejoice in you worshiping anything or anyone besides Christ. If someone is encouraging you to love your money, spouse, job, hobby, kids, or anything or anyone over Jesus Christ, they are hating you. Period. If we have the gift of love we will share it in our community by rejoicing in truth. Love rejoices in the truth and Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life. He is the truth and he is love. 13:8  Love never ends. The Lord is patient and kind with us. The Lord is truth and speaks loving truth to us. And the Lord s love for us never ends and it never fails. Jesus loves us and his love is unending, eternal and perfect love. This is great and beautiful news. The greatest gift is love. And God is love (1 John 4:8). God is the greatest gift and he is the one whose love has captivated us. We obey him out of love. We use our skills, talents, treasure and our time to glorify him because of his great love. 1 Corinthians 13:11 Some of you are like children who hoard their gifts, talents, treasure and time for yourself. You are selfish, greedy and proud. I urge you to confess your childish ways and leave them behind and become a man or woman of God. We are all selfish but we don t need to stay children and be consumed with our selfishness. Christ has set us free. You are free to use your gifts, talents, treasure, thoughts and time to the unceasing worship of Jesus Christ. You are free to do this because he has purchased you with his blood. And he did this out of love. If chapter thirteen is true, and the greatest gift of all is love, and we know that God is love the,n we know that Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of all. Jesus Christ is overflowing with love to the point that he is love. I urge you to be captivated with his love. Rejoice and bathe yourself in the love of Jesus. He looks down on us with love. He pursues us with love. He has initiated us and loved us while we are unlovable. He loves us to make us lovely. Embrace the greatest gift ever given and love Jesus Christ. Respond to his love with unceasing worship of Jesus Christ as Lord. Nobody will love you like Jesus loves you. Nothing is worth the utter devotion and worship of all your time, treasure and talent like Jesus Christ is. I pray that we would all have the gift of love and that this love would be our motivation for worshiping Jesus Christ. Respond, embrace, and shower yourself in the endless perfect love of our Savior. 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