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But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love is Patient

But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Discussion questions:

Read 1 Corinthians 12:4 -13:3

From your reading of 1 Corinthians 12:4-31 what conclusions can you draw about the issues the Corinthian
church was struggling with?

Have you ever witnessed those kinds of issues in a church before? If so how did the leaders of the church address the situation?

In 1 Corinthians 12:31 Paul says "earnestly desire the higher gifts". What would you consider to be the 'higher gifts' and why? If spiritual gifts are given by God it means that they can't be earned nor can they be taught, so what do you think Paul means when he says 'earnestly desire the higher gifts'?

Different denominations seem to 'pedestal' or put greater value on different gifts. Some may prefer the more 'charismatic' gifts (tongues, prophecy, gifts of healings, gifts of miracles) others prefer the more 'academic' gifts (preaching, teaching, wisdom, knowledge). Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being on either side of the gift pendulum. 

In chapter 13 verses 1-3 Paul says "but have not love" 3 times. Who is the focus of the love, God or man or both? Why do you say that?

What makes the gift of tongues, expressed without love, like a clanging gong or a crashing symbol? How could the gift of tongues be 'used' with love? If you feel like entering into a well debated topic, do you think the gift of tongues still exists today? (remember we are Christians so be nice :D )

How can prophecy, knowledge, wisdom, the understanding of mysteries, and great faith be expressed without love? How can someone who has all these great qualities be 'nothing'? 

Paul says that even if he gives all he has to the poor or gives his body to be burned, without love he gains nothing. Is it ok to have a reward or the thought of gain as a reason to do things out of love? Why?

Are there any areas in our church or in your own life where you think love is lacking? How might you be able to use your gifts in a more loving way within the church?

Please note.
The beginning of this sermon was not recorded.
Posted below is the manuscript of the beginning of the sermon. Many thanks to Tom for preaching and for supplying the manuscript.


The question I have for today is this.
How can sinners serve a Holy God? 

That’s a very heavy question isn’t it? 

For those of us who follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, God has called us as Christians to be Holy. To be set apart from the world, to live for Jesus and to serve God in all that we say, think, and do. 

1 Peter chapter 1 verses 15 to 16 says: But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

We are called to be a holy people, for God is holy.

We are called to be Holy because we are a chosen people. We are a royal priesthood of believers. We are God’s special possession. 

And as God’s people, we are meant to be reflecting the nation that we belong to: the Kingdom of God.

The Apostle Peter later says in 2 Peter 1 verses 5-8 to: 

make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Goodness, Knowledge, Self-Control, Perseverance, Godliness, Mutual affection, Love.

All good things. All Holy things. But does doing all these things make us Holy? Is that how sinners serve a Holy God? Well, let’s go back to Haggai, let’s see what he says in today’s text....

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

One Body with Many Members

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

In this final talk in this series we get to see the glory of God - that is, the weight, value or substance of the beauty of God. What is the 'glory' of God? True, everything about God is amazing: His power, His holiness, His wisdom, His eternality - all of these things are His glory.
However, there is a special glory of God that we see so clearly in Jesus Christ. The glory of God's grace and truth. 
The Bible is the accurately recorded history of God displaying the glory of His grace and truth. We focus on Exodus 33 to see God's glory just as Moses did. But, unlike Moses, we get to see God's glory even more clearly as we see the glory of God 'in the face of Jesus Christ.'
Our only response can be to stare at the glory of the Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, and be filled with wonder and awe. We humbly receive it and live a life that expresses gratitude to Him for being so exquisitely delightful.

And 'dwelt' amongst us. This is astonishing - God not only become flesh, but chose to live amongst us! Who would choose to leave the eternal bliss of a perfect relationship of love and come and live in this loveless world? Answer: God. Because that's what love does.

In this third talk in this series we trace the story of the Bible and see how it was always on God's heart and in His plan to save a people in order to live with them.

The Word became flesh and did exactly that - lived amongst us. But that was 2000 years ago. So we also see how Jesus promised that God lives within His people through the Word and the Spirit until that day when we will see Him face to face and we shall be 'forever with the Lord'.

Christianity, like all relationships of love, is an engagement before the wedding day. It is a foretaste and not the full thing, and therefore we await the consumation of all God's dealings with us - when we will live on perpetual honeymoon with our Beloved Bridegroom!

This is our second talk exploring what are probably the most profound words ever written: "the Word became flesh". In this talk we look at the next two words 'became flesh' and we see how God can't change, but that the Second Person of God, was conceived as a human being by the power of the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary, and was born. Jesus was fully God, fully man, two natures, in One Person.
Humanity didn't reach up towards divinity, Divinity reached down and became human.
Then we saw why this truth is the best news ever. Once again, the soul can't be satsified with truth alone. Truth and love must coalesce into one for the human soul to be content. The fact that the Word became flesh is the best news ever. It can be summed up in the word: Mediator.
We saw how God and humanity are re-united in Jesus and how this leads to freedom from the Law's judgement, and solid hope as we look forward to being raised from the dead just as Jesus was.
In short, 'the Word became flesh' means everything.

"The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us and we have seen His glory, glory  as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

This talk begins a four part series looking at the most profound and unique sentence in history: "The Word became flesh." 
- what does it mean?
- is it true?
- does it really matter?
- is it good news?

In this talk we explore just two words, 'the Word'.
1. The Word is eternal, God Himself, and yet distinct from God
2. The Word entered the world
3. The Word achieves everything God decides

Sermon by Alex Thompson.

A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.

1 I cry aloud to the Lord;
    I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.
 2 I pour out before him my complaint;
    before him I tell my trouble.

3 When my spirit grows faint within me,
    it is you who watch over my way.
 In the path where I walk
    people have hidden a snare for me.
 4 Look and see, there is no one at my right hand;
    no one is concerned for me.
 I have no refuge;
    no one cares for my life.

5 I cry to you, Lord;
    I say, “You are my refuge,
    my portion in the land of the living.”

6 Listen to my cry,
    for I am in desperate need;
 rescue me from those who pursue me,
    for they are too strong for me.
 7 Set me free from my prison,
    that I may praise your name.
 Then the righteous will gather about me
    because of your goodness to me.