This week Pastor Matthew continued on with our 1 Corinthians series with Chapter 14.
Within Chapter 14 Paul expands on the problem of church disorder within the Corinthian church by outlining it in the context of two specific gifts; tongues and prophecy. At its core, his message is about using the gifts within the context of love for the building up of the body. He helps to ask and answer the question, are you exercising the gifts God has given you in the spirit of love?
In our lives we need both private spirituality and public service and worship. This public worship setting needs to build up the body as our gifts are for laying our lives down and serving other people.
Pastor Matthew shared three main points:
1. Clarity is important.
The church needs a fresh, intelligible vision of God. In order to properly prepare people for the work of the Kingdom our services need to be clear and understandable.
As well as we love our neighbor is as well as we love God and our aim in coming to church should be to come to church to serve others and build them up.
2. Balance is important.
We are full humans; mind, body, soul and spirit. We all become what we worship, and in doing so we need to bring mind, spirit and body together.
3. Maturity is important.
Maturity is what matters, and this comes with knowing what behavior is appropriate in which context. We need to be mature so we can fully use the gifts.
