Imagine if a young millionaire who earned much success at work and in life passed away early at the age of 32. All the wealth he’s earned, the plans he’s made, the goals he’s set would all be left behind. His tombstone might read, “To live is success, to die is loss.”From this man’s perspective, what good could possibly come from dying? But from today’s passage, we see an entirely different perspective where even death is seen as gain.

What makes a church grow, thrive and healthy?

Is it excellent preaching? Is it an awesome children’s ministry, or an amazing praise team? Is it warm, friendly fellowship amongst the believers?

All of these things are wonderful to see and experience in a local church. But what is essential for a growing, thriving, and healthy church is to keep something that was given as a gift to each true believer of Christ.

And this gift we are to keep, to guard, and to eagerly maintain, is the unity of the Spirit. It sounds so simple yet it’s so hard to do.

So the question is: How are we to keep the unity of the Spirit? We'll see in the passage from 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 that Paul uses the analogy of the human body to help the church see what keeping the unity of the Spirit practically looks like, and what it’ll take to achieve it.

As believers who want to follow Jesus, we might ask God for the answers to some of the life questions we might have.

In particular, we might ask what is God’s will for our life, in our work, in our singleness, in our marriage? 

So how do we discern and obey God’s will?

In life, we get bumped all the time. 

We’re interrupted, misunderstood, pressured, overlooked. And when those situations come, what spills out of us?

Is it irritation, insecurity, harsh words? Or is it gentleness, patience, grace?

We all have reactions that spill out when we are bumped. And those reactions aren’t neutral. They’re either shaped by the flesh or they’re being shaped by the gospel.

Imagine if you invited a co-worker to come visit our church next Sunday and your boss found about this. Then your boss calls you into the office and says this is against company policy, noting that you’re not allowed to impose your religious beliefs on your co-workers.Then your boss says you’ll have to meet with the HR director. Now what would be going on in your mind at that moment? What would be going on in your heart?What would you specifically be praying for?In Philippians 1, we’ll see that whatever situation you’re facing right now - whether it’s good or bad - we have a divine opportunity to honour Christ. In that, you too can rejoice. But we can’t do that alone. We have to rely on each other’s prayers and we have to rely on the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

In Nehemiah 7, we get a window into the heart of Nehemiah. But more than that, we get a glimpse into God’s heart. What Nehemiah cares about in this chapter is what God cares about.So what matters to the heart of God?

Lying is Satan’s primary weapon against God’s people. And what he wants is for us to believe his lies and behave ungodly.

In Nehemiah 6, we see the enemy using lies against Nehemiah with the goal of trying to stop the work of God. But by God’s grace, we see Nehemiah trusted God and he resisted the lies.

Now you may not be facing what Nehemiah had to, but you will continuously hear lies from the evil one such as being defined by your past mistakes or that you’re all alone in your struggles or God’s love for you is conditional upon your performance.  

Let’s pray that we stand firm when the enemy’s lies come and that we will be about the Father’s business and tell the world there is hope because of Jesus Christ. 

Gospel City Church (GCC) welcomed Michele Dyer from Brentwood Baptist Church who hosted a Spiritual Gifts seminar called "Discover You" on July 12, 2025.

At GCC, we believe every member is uniquely gifted by God. The seminar was designed to help discover participants their spiritual gifts, personality, and ministry passions — and how they connect to your walk with Christ and your role in serving others. 

If you're interested in getting to know more about your potential spiritual gifts and/or plug into ministry opportunities at GCC, don't hesitate to contact the leadership team after service on Sundays or email us at [email protected]

Is your ambition in life self-centred or is it Christ-centred?Are you able to rejoice even in suffering as long as Christ is proclaimed and exalted?Is the greatest desire in your life to know Christ and for Christ to be made known?May God purify us of all envy and selfish-ambition in our hearts so that Christ will be magnified in our speech and in our actions, in our flourishing and even in our suffering, in our life and in our death.

Meeting celebrities in person, you see how they're larger than life and just how immensely popular they are with swarms of fans surrounding them just to be as close to them as possible. Why? Because in our celebrity culture, they are put up on this pedestal and praised for who they are and what they’ve done. Their loyal fans always demonstrate this sense of awe and wonder whenever they’re in the presence of their idol. Plus they’ll often show their devotion to them by buying their merch, or buying anything they endorse. They like and share their social media posts all the time. And they love telling anyone who would listen every little detail about what makes them great.Now how much more as Christians should we demonstrate awe and wonder for the one who is truly great? In today’s passage, in Psalm 145, we’re reminded of just how great our God is and how he is truly worthy of our highest praise. As his number one fans, we should also want to tell the world about the incomparable greatness of God.