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Keep to your Calling

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 | Preacher: Roy Bennett | Series: Each & Every

Only our call to union with Christ provides grounds for the believer’s contentment regardless of their social standing.
1 Corinthians 7:17–24 (ESV): 17 Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. 18 Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. 19 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. 20 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. 21 Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. 24 So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

The Greatest Gift of All

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3 | Preacher: Nick Whitaker | Series: Each & Every

Because God has said that love is our highest calling, we must use our gifts to love one another.
1 Corinthians 12:27–13:3 (ESV): 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

God’s Bespoke Gifts

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Each & Every

Because God has sovereignly given each one of us a unique gift, we must honor, celebrate, and appreciate how much others need our gifts and we need theirs.
1 Corinthians 12:12–26 (ESV): 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
21 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.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

 

Your Gifts are not your own!

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Each & Every

God gives us His gifts to glorify Christ and build up His church, so we must use them for His purposes, not our own.
1 Corinthians 12:1–11 (ESV): 12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

The Promised Victory

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 15:50–55 | Preacher: Ty Gregory

Genesis 3:1-7; 14-20 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘Youshall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

1 Corinthians 15:50–55 50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sine Qua Non

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 15 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Easter Sunday

1 Corinthians 15:17–26; 51–57

17 …if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. …

 

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55  “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Co-Laborers: A Liturgical and Typological Calling

Bible Text: Genesis 2:15–18, 21–22; 3:1–4, 6, 8–13; Romans 5:19; 1 Corinthians 15:22–23 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Co-Laborers in Christ

If you’re given a script, you must know the whole story to play your role well. You can’t simply memorize the lines and cues–you have to understand the origins, the motivations, the relationships, and the conclusion to really understand the part you play in the production. It’s the same with any of the most pressing issues of our day, whether it be justice, sexualty, or gender. How do our individual views fit into the larger story we are telling? How do women and men fit into the narrative of the Bible? Join us this Sunday as we continue our series on Co-laboring.

Hold on Loosely in Expectation

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 7:25–30 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Advent: Living with Expectation

A paradox is a statement that while seeming self-contradictory, actually describes reality.  The Christian life is full of paradoxes. God is one and three. God is absolutely sovereign and our choices actually matter. One paradox is that Christians are called to live in, attend to, and love the present form the world (Jer 29:4–4). Yet Chrsitians are also told not to love the world because the present form of the world is passing away (2 Cor 5:17). So which is it? Are we meant to settle down in the world or to remain detached from the world? This week we consider how to live in this tension in light of Jesus’ coming.

The Gifts of Holy Spirit

Bible Text: I Corinthians 12:4-13 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: The Holy Spirit

See full service liturgy at https://www.cpcsb.org/05-03-2020/

The Blessing of Singleness?

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 7:7-35 | Preacher: Matthew Trexler | Series: Guest Preacher

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The blessing of singleness. Really? How could that be in a culture that continually tells us that we not worth much unless we are loved by a “significant other?”