Creekside Church, Sunday, September 19, 2021
A Key Strategy to Becoming More Like Jesus
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:30 AM
1 Corinthians 12
Follow Jesus
Love God
Love People
CROWD..... CURIOUS..... CHRISTIAN..... CHRISTLIKE
Every true believer, to one degree or another, wants to become more Christlike . . . wants to become more and more like Jesus.
Jesus is the perfect model of what it means to Love God and Love People and that’s why we want to Follow Jesus.
“. . . whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:44-45
The term, Son of man, is used by Jesus some 80 times as a way to refer to himself (32 times in Matthew; 14 times in Mark; 26 times in Luke; and 10 times in a qualitatively different way from the Synoptic Gospels in John). In all these texts Jesus is the speaker; no one ever addresses him as Son of man. The term means human being but it is a reference to Daniel 7 where Son of Man (and you will notice in the Mark passage that it is capitalized as a title) is seen as an exalted one, as divine. Daniel 7 describes the Son of Man this way . . .
He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Daniel 7:14
Jesus is telling us that if you want to be like me you need to serve like me.
The greatest resource we have at Creekside is not our land
or our buildings or our finances or our paid staff.
Our greatest resource is our volunteers.
God, the Spirit of Jesus, gives us special abilities to help us carry out this amazing mission.
.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
1 Corinthians 12:1 & 4-7
What we learn from this passage about Spiritual Gifts . . .
SPIRITUAL GIFTS:
* Are modelled by Jesus.
* Are given by the Holy Spirit to enable us to better fulfill our mission.
* Help us, as we exercise them, to become personally more and more like Jesus.
* Help others, as we exercise them, become more and more like Jesus.
RECOGNIZING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS:
1. Pray.
2. Study the gifts . . . observe how Jesus and others in the bible exercise them.
3. Ask your friends.
4. Observe others using gifts you think might be yours.
5. Experiment.
If everyone in my church were just like me what kind of church would my church be?
Follow Jesus
Love God
Love People
CROWD..... CURIOUS..... CHRISTIAN..... CHRISTLIKE
Every true believer, to one degree or another, wants to become more Christlike . . . wants to become more and more like Jesus.
Jesus is the perfect model of what it means to Love God and Love People and that’s why we want to Follow Jesus.
“. . . whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:44-45
The term, Son of man, is used by Jesus some 80 times as a way to refer to himself (32 times in Matthew; 14 times in Mark; 26 times in Luke; and 10 times in a qualitatively different way from the Synoptic Gospels in John). In all these texts Jesus is the speaker; no one ever addresses him as Son of man. The term means human being but it is a reference to Daniel 7 where Son of Man (and you will notice in the Mark passage that it is capitalized as a title) is seen as an exalted one, as divine. Daniel 7 describes the Son of Man this way . . .
He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Daniel 7:14
Jesus is telling us that if you want to be like me you need to serve like me.
The greatest resource we have at Creekside is not our land
or our buildings or our finances or our paid staff.
Our greatest resource is our volunteers.
God, the Spirit of Jesus, gives us special abilities to help us carry out this amazing mission.
.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
1 Corinthians 12:1 & 4-7
What we learn from this passage about Spiritual Gifts . . .
SPIRITUAL GIFTS:
* Are modelled by Jesus.
* Are given by the Holy Spirit to enable us to better fulfill our mission.
* Help us, as we exercise them, to become personally more and more like Jesus.
* Help others, as we exercise them, become more and more like Jesus.
RECOGNIZING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS:
1. Pray.
2. Study the gifts . . . observe how Jesus and others in the bible exercise them.
3. Ask your friends.
4. Observe others using gifts you think might be yours.
5. Experiment.
If everyone in my church were just like me what kind of church would my church be?