13 - Built-up in Christ
May 14, 2023 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Ephesians 4:12–16
If The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 teaches us anything it’s that the Master of the household (God) expects His servants (believers) to invest wisely that which He has endowed to them. This includes our spiritual gifts that He graciously gives by way of the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t expect His servants to bury what they have received. Rather, He expects that an investment in His kingdom will be made. Thus, if we want to grow in Christ—that is, "attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ"—then we must begin with identifying and living out your spiritual gifts for the building of the Body of Christ (the Church).
31 - Interdependence vs. Independence
November 14, 2021 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • 1 Corinthians 12:21–31
God has not redeemed us just for Himself but for each other. He redeemed us so that we would be joyfully and mutually dependent on each other as a family of faith who “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2). Continuing with his metaphor of the human body, Paul explains that spiritual gifts should not be the basis for valuing a person or considering one believer as more honorable than another. Christians need each other. Neither the individualism of supposed inferiority nor the individualism of proud independence is biblical or pleasing to God.