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Sunday 05/11/25

Title: Ministry, Love & Renewing the Mind Pt. 2

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Ministry, Love & Renewing the Mind Pt. 2

Last week we began with Peter’s injunction to ARM ourselves with the same mind or thinking as Jesus had and before the end of our teaching we were talking about spiritual gifts and being used in them.

These do not seem to be immediately connected and such a transition might have lost you since our real focus has been on renewing the mind.

What does renewing the mind have to do with spiritual gifts?

Well there is the initial part of renewing the mind which requires us to fill our hearts with God’s words. To allow the thoughts of Christ to fill our minds and be the focus of our meditations. This reorients our minds to spiritual things and away from natural, temporal, earthbound things.

But there is always a yin/yang to life.

We cannot just think God’s thoughts alongside earthly thoughts. To do that makes us the thorny heart where the world chokes out the word.

As Jesus said you cannot serve two masters – one will always win out in the end.

So the proverbial yang to the yin of filling our minds with the thoughts and teachings of Christ is to turn our thoughts away from the world and selfishness.

The kingdom of God will not share heart real estate with the kingdoms of this world.

In many ways the best way to ARM the mind is to set it on something OTHER THAN yourself and THAT was the segway that connected the renewing of the Mind to the gifts of the Spirit.

You may remember that the Corinthian church was very carnal and yet manifested spiritual gifts on the regular. The reason for this was because they wanted to be used. No doubt their reasons were a mix of genuine love for the Lord and their siblings in Christ but there was definitely a strong undercurrent of pride, in wanting to draw attention to themselves.

This is why Paul warned them to PURSUE love and desire spiritual gifts.

Reorient your mind to love FIRST as the true pursuit and a proper desire for spiritual gifts will follow.

We know that the PURPOSE of the gifts is the maturing of the saints in love and the image of Christ. So there we circle back at the beginning again.

Methodology

We are, as we have read many times in recent weeks, to set our minds on things above where Christ is, at the right hand of the Father.

Wording like this can sometimes promote the wrong idea. We are not being encouraged to set our minds on heaven where God is, but on His kingdom which is why that passage in Colossians focuses on WHERE Jesus is sitting. It is on a throne, to the right of the Father as they rule and reign over the Kingdom.

As such, part of arming the mind is about focusing upon the rule and reign of Christ. On kingdom matters, rather than self-serving ones.

The passage in 1 Peter we read last week about ARMING the mind was in chapter 4 verses 1&2 which say…

“(1) Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh,arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, (2) that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. “(3) For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles…”– 1 Peter 4:1-3a, [Weymouth]

So we set our minds on the kingdom, on loving God and serving our brother which requires us to turn our minds away from temporal things and selfish things.

When we get our mind on track, a lot of this begins to fall into place all on its own.

John tells us that you cannot claim to love God, if you do not love your fellow Christian. TO love them IS to love God.

Circling back around to arming ourselves with the mind of Christ. Jesus’ mindset, if you will, was one of honoring the Father. Personal cost and preferences were not a point which factored in.

Now I pointed out that this war you are arming yourself for is largely waged in the mind. The temptations which confront us are from the flesh and are grounded in the affairs of THIS temporal life.

The PLACE suggestions are made, where influence has its impact and accumulates into decisions is IN THE MIND.

Peter used this as a springboard into mentioning that the end of all things is near and that this should have a profound impact on the seriousness of our prayer life and on how we live this temporal life.

The prayer life of many in Christ is bereft of both qualities unless something is having a negative impact on their flesh. Of course there is a way in which this is true of all Christians, but spiritual maturity is found in how we live out love.

Jesus once corrected His disciples when their thoughts were entirely focused upon themselves.

He said,“I’ve told you that I am going away. If you LOVED Me you’d rejoice for Me, because I am going to My Father. But instead sorrow has filled your heart.” – John 14:28 & 16:6

Love is central to the Christian life. By it we faithfully and acceptably serve both God and man. In Peter’s instructions about this he lays before us to ‘top shelf’ expressions of love in the life of the believer…

Two things came out of this –

Be hospitable to your brethren
Be good stewards over the spiritual gift(-s) God has given you.

Contrary to popular thought, this is not limited to the times we meet together as believers in our local assemblies. It IS however singled out as the one predominantly addressed in scripture.

We established long ago and reaffirmed last week that the gifts are FOR the body and exist for Christian edification, exhortation, comfort, correction, restoration and growth.

Also that they are manifestations of both God’s love for His children as well as our love for each other.

God’s love in that He gives the gifts.
Our love, in that, we desire God to use us in the gifts FOR the edification of our brethren.

Remember Paul first introduced the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. Then he explains that without love as the motivating factor behind the gifts they become meaningless in Chapter 13. Then in Chapter 14 he starts off with, “Therefore PURSUE LOVE, and desire spiritual gifts”.

Pursue is diṓkō – to follow or press hard after, to pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to obtain.
Desire is zēlóō – to be zealous, filled with zeal, zealously affected towards the benefit of your brother and sister in Christ.

So the gifts are a MAJOR – NOT A MINOR – but a MAJOR expression of the love of God between the brethren and by extension to God. Because to love your brother and do good to them is to love God!

Now there is a mildly confusing passage in 1 Corinthains 14 which could suggest to some that gifts (most notably that of tongues with interpretation) is for the lost.

I clarified the actual meaning of that most recently back on July 14th 2024.

In brief, this says that tongues w/ interpretation is a SIGN for unbelievers. It does not say it is a GIFT for unbelievers and there is a profound difference.

[See – Spiritual Gifts & Callings are NOT signs of maturity…]

So these gifts are so important that they are addressed several times in scripture and their use and misuse in the assemblies have an entire chapter dedicated to them in 1st Corinthians.

Their purpose alone, at very least greatly implies, that the gifts should flow freely between the brethren at all times, but especially in our corporate times together.

Before we dive into the gifts, their purpose, our stewardship regarding them and how to identify yours, we need to lay some groundwork.

Are the gifts for today? Yes

Why waste so much space in the New Testament over a subject that will be dead before the end of the 1st century? That makes no sense!

Now as I have taught you for probably 20+ years there are three categories of what are generally seen as gifts. Paul mentioned them in 1 Corinthians 12 and because I refreshed your minds on them last week I will not reteach them but simply mention them in passing.

There are Spiritual Gifts

The word gifts is charisma. The Greek word for grace is charis. So this word for gifts is grace with the suffix ‘-ma’ at the end which turns grace into an action. It is the result of grace.

At least one of these results of grace is given by the Holy Spirit to every child of God.

The issue is NOT how much (what measure of Christ’s gift) do I have stewardship over, but what am I doing with it.

The only WRONG answer in Jesus’ two parables of the talents and minas was – I did nothing due to fear. – WRONG ANSWER!

These are called “manifestations of the Spirit”. Now this is easily read past but is of imperative importance. These gifts literally give manifestation to the Holy Spirit of God among the saints!

This is HUGE!

Furthermore, their stated purpose in verse 7 is for the benefit of all in the body.

So this is KEY – hold on to this! Spiritual Gifts or these results of grace are manifestations of the person of the Holy Spirit.

As such WE KNOW what these gifts do! They reveal and glorify JESUS!

We have become stewards over our personal portion (division) of Christ’s gift!

Ephesians 4:7, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

This is a BIG DEAL!

These include, but are not limited to…

Word of wisdom
Word of knowledge
Special faith
Gifts of healings
Miracles
Prophecy
Discernment of spirits
Tongues
Interpretation of tongues

Just to see that other gifts do exist, let’s close out today by turning to Romans 12:3-13,

“(3) For I SAY, through the GRACE GIVEN TO ME, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

(4) For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, (5) so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

(6) Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:

if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;

(7) or ministry [diakonía], let us use it in our ministering;

he who teaches, in teaching;

(8) he who exhorts[paráklēsis], in exhortation;

This means an exhortation, admonition or encouragement for the purpose of strengthening and establishing the believer in the faith.

he who gives, with liberality;

he who leads (stands before and be set over), with diligence;

he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

(9) Let love be without hypocrisy.

Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

(10) Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; (11) not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; (12) rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; (13) distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.”

Blessings!

Tri

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!