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Nov 05, 2023

True Spirituality

True Spirituality

Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:1-3

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

It’s been said that you are what you do when no one is looking. In other words the character of your life is revealed in the private moments of solitude. In Paul’s day the conventional mark of true spirituality was the public demonstrations of connection to the divine, regardless of the marks of character–the fruit of the Spirit–often unseen. Our day is not dissimilar in its confusion about what is a true spirituality. In this passage that will prepare us to hear more about the gifts of the Spirit later on, we will hear that true spirituality is first a private conviction before it is ever a public manifestation.

Readings & Scripture

PRE SERVICE TEXT: I Corinthians 12:3
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.

PREPARATION: Psalm 92:1-4
LEADER: It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;

ALL: to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,

LEADER: to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.

ALL: For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

OT READING: Jonah 2:6-10
LEADER: 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. 7 “When my life was ebbing away. I
remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8 “Those who cling to
worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will
sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the
Lord.’”

CENTRAL TEXT: 1 Corinthians 12:1-3
1 Cor. 12:1 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.

BENEDICTION: Hebrews 12:28
LEADER: Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

POST SERVICE: Jonah 2:8-10
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 9 But I, with shouts
of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say
‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. When modern people say they are “spiritual but not religious,” what do they tend to mean? Why do they make that distinction typically–what tends to be behind it? How might a Christian define what spirituality is? How does Jesus give us a definition and a picture of it?
  2. Why do you think a clear and healthy spirituality in the way Jesus guides us is essential to understanding the gifts of the Spirit? What errors or dangers are we more likely to avoid with that in mind?
  3. What might be some of the “mute idols” Paul had in mind when addressing his formerly “pagan” audience? Some contemporary cultures still bow before statues and figures. But more modern people than we might like to admit “bow” before what are not real divinities but which are treated with a kind of reverence like them. What are several versions of idols today?
  4. Here’s a thought exercise you can play as a group (or alone if you’re alone): name several things we mean or imply when we say (and believe) “Jesus is Lord”--e.g. I may have great pride in being a citizen of the nation I am from, but my deepest allegiance and citizenship rests in the kingdom I am now part of because of Jesus
  5. Why must the fruit of the Spirit be our greater focus than the use of the gifts of the Spirit (whatever we might know of them to be)?

QUOTES: 

 

  • We should, therefore, expect to find in the imagination of great Pagan teachers and myth makers some glimpse of that theme which we believe to be the very plot of the whole cosmic story—the theme of incarnation, death, and rebirth.. C.S. Lewis
  • Still your hands
    And still your heart
    For still your face comes shining through
    And all the morning glows anew
    Still your soul
    Still your mind
    Still, the fire of love is true
    And I am breathless without you,
    - “Breathless,” Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
  • If you don’t do something about your lack of spiritual fruit and instead build your identity on your spiritual gifts and ministry activity, there will be some kind of collapse. You will blow up at someone or lapse into some sin that destroys your credibility. And everyone, including you, will be surprised. But you should not be. Spiritual gifts without spiritual fruit is like a tire slowly losing air. . . .Christian ministry changes people. It can make us far better or far worse Christians than we would have been otherwise, but it will not leave us unchanged. Tim Keller

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