The LORD God will save a people for himself through his chosen Messiah Son and so we put our faith in him alone to save us from all that we have broken.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Your life would be so much bigger if your self was smaller in it.” Here in I Corinthians 13 Paul beckons us to leave our own little worlds behind and embrace a life that desires and delights in the good of others. In this message we will consider the dangers of pride and all that our God has done to rescue us from it and set us free to enjoy a life of humble love.

Have you ever had someone tell you about something really good in their life, but for some reason you didn’t feel very happy about it? Envy is the distress that we feel over someone else’s success and it is something that all of us deal with. However, most of us are better at seeing envy in others than we are in ourselves. In this message we will look at the ways that envy often disguises itself as a desire for justice and we will consider some helpful ways to fight against it.

What is Love? In this message we will consider two attributes that Paul believes are absolutely vital to love. Love is patient and love is kind. While all of us are familiar with these words, we will be taking a closer look at what they really mean as well as considering why we sometimes find them so difficult to live out. We will also consider some of the ways that our God has been patient and kind to us.

How do love and sacrifice go together? Is it possible to love without sacrifice? What about sacrificing without love? If sacrifice is necessary to love, then how can we know for certain that it will be worth it? These are a few of the questions we will address in I Corinthians 13:3.

      As hard as you and I may try to use our unique giftedness in order to find our significance, the reality is that no one has ever truly found the significance they craved through the exercise of their gifts. No one, ever. In I Corinthians 13:1-2 Paul tells us why it is that we will never find the significance we crave through the exercise of our gifts but he also goes on to tell us the surprising place that it can be found. That is what this message is about. 

As we look deeper into this reality that we are all given individual gifts but function as one body, we must figure out how to avoid pride and envy, boasting and jealousy as we live together as the family of God. Listen and hear how the cost to Christ to give us these gifts actually unifies us in his own goal and purpose of giving his body these gifts.

      As a church how are we supposed to view those who are different from us? Do we conform in order to try and fit in? Do we divide in order to find people who are more like us? Do we compare and compete or do we simply try and ignore our differences in order to avoid conflict? In I Corinthians 12 Paul uses the analogy of the body to show us a better way to deal with our differences. 

How can you tell if the Holy Spirit is present at a gathering or even in your own life? Are there certain spiritual gifts that prove the presence of the Spirit? Are there things that should cause us to wonder if he is present? In I Corinthians 12:1-7 Paul lays out some criteria for discerning a true manifestation of the Holy Spirit. He also lays out a few basic truths about the Spiritual gifts that he doesn’t want the Corinthians to be confused about. While there are still a lot of things that Paul has yet to explain in this message we will try and lay out a few of the things that Paul wants to make very clear about the gifts of the Spirit. 

Every week we gather together as a church family and one of the things we do when we get together is we receive the Lord’s Supper or sometimes we call it communion. But why do we take the Lord’s Supper? What does it mean? What actually happens when we take it? And who exactly is it for? And of course there are lots of different ways that people take communion so why exactly do we do communion the way we do? Well these are some really good questions and tonight we will seek to answer them from I Corinthians 11.