Gift

Sermon notes below

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Announcements

FOREVER HOPE SALE PACK-UP

12/21 & 12/22  If you would like to help us pack up for the winter, you may sign-up to help. We are only scheduling family groups in each time slot. Email Trina at trina@r-church.org for more information.

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE 

12/24 @3:00 pm  Our Christmas Eve will look a little different this year since we will be meeting outside. Invite a friend for this simple yet profound celebration of the coming Messiah!

5th TUESDAYS

12/29 from 11 am-Noon. We help our friends in need in Isla Vista every 5th Tuesday in the park behind Embarcadero Hall.  Come help us serve or just hang out and get to know the “least of these”. 

Sermon Notes

• Intro
  • CS Lewis in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
  • Father Christmas, gives gifts. “These are tools, not toys. Bear them wisely”
    • We would do well to remember those words in regards to the gifts God has given us. 
• MAIN POINT- You are a gift, with a gift, to be a gift 
  • “I am a gift, with a gift, to be a gift”
• You are a Gift
  • Who you are is God’s gift of grace 
  • Read vs. 1-6, exposit
    • Context. Response to a letter, “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote…” 1 Cor. 7:1.
  • 1. Don’t forget who you were… BUT by the GRACE of GOD, through the HOLY SPIRIT, you are able to proclaim, “Jesus is LORD!” 
    • This is all by grace! 

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 1 Cor 15:10

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 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.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 1 Cor 12:18-22

• You are indispensable!! 

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38

• With a Gift vs. 7-11What you do is God’s gift of grace “Gifts are not worked up to, but are lived into” R. Kent Hughes
  • Two divisions, word focused and Spirit focus. Which should we be? Yes. 
  • If I can’t earn them, how do I get them? 
    • 1. You already have gifts.
    • 2. Desire them, vs. 31a & 14:1
• To be a Gift vs. 7b
  • Therefore, be a gift by God’s grace. 

So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. 1 Corinthians 14:12

• APPLICATION
• ADVENT- LOVE
  • Read 1 Cor. 13:1-7
  • Light the candle of Hope, Joy, Peace, AND LOVE
• Lead into communion.