Sunrise Church

What we see in this chapter is essentially a rubric for assessing the maturity of a church and its members and a format for understanding the role of our gifts in serving the church. 

The church's health is not measured by the activities we undertake, nor the programs we falsely assume establish our legitimacy or the petty things we think define ourselves, but by our love for one another.

So let us remember that the Gifts of the Spirit are given BY the Holy Spirit TO individuals FOR the well-being of the Church.

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. (Baptist Faith and Message 2000)

In our churches, men and women are to clearly, both in presentation and behavior, present themselves as men and women. As God’s image bearers, there should be no ambiguity in our homes and our church regarding the roles of men and women. The order of our church and our homes is meant to demonstrate the the glory of God regardless of the oppositional nature of the culture. 

When was the last time you didn’t do something for the sake of someone else’s spiritual good or well-being? Even if it meant the deprivation of our own wants or even the limitations of our own freedoms.

There is a real spiritual world and our contest is spiritual and we choose a side every time we give our praise to something lesser, every time we grumble and test the Lord, every time we ignore prohibitions against sinful practices and we must be reminded that when we do this, we are provoking God’s jealousy.

We are called to willingly lay ourselves down for others in order that some may be saved while rejecting the temptation of sin as we seek to reach sinners.

Paul makes the case that it is his right to be supported because God has made provision for it, but that the greater reward of ministry is the spiritual fruit.

Paul contends that our priority concern in the church isn’t what we know informationally, but that we know the love of God and that that knowledge shapes how we walk with our fellow church members.