Fire & Wind: A Summer of Renewal // Gift Wrapped Love
Fire & Wind: A Summer of Renewal //
Gift Wrapped Love
Pastor Charlie Weir
Gift wrap doesn’t increase the value of the gift, but it does elevate the joy of the gift receiver. Gift wrapping is also an expression of love.
The Gifts of the Spirit are for the mutual edification of the Body. They are given for the functionality of ministry and mission.
Understanding the motivation of the giver guides us in the use of the gift.
When you think about the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives, I don’t want it to be primarily as a resource for work but as a relationship for living.
Jesus describes the Holy Spirit first and foremost as a relationship surety before a functional capability.
John 14:15-21, 25-27 (NIV) 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans [relationship]; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” 25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. [functional capability] 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
1 Corinthians 12:31b …And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”
1 Corinthians 13 (Amplified Version) If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction]. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. 3 If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all. 4 Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. 5 It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. 7 Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening]. 8 Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]. But as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for the gift of special knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part [for our knowledge is fragmentary and incomplete]. 10 But when that which is complete and perfect comes, that which is incomplete and partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.[as I have grown in my understanding of life, I do not do life like I used to, ill-informed] 12 For now [in this time of imperfection] we see in a mirror dimly [a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma], but then [when the time of perfection comes we will see reality] face to face. Now I know in part [just in fragments], but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known [by God]. 13 And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.
Love is the ultimate gift wrap: unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me. The gifts are up to God, operating in the love of Christ is up to us.
The love of Christ is…
• A patient and calming love.
• A kind, thoughtful, non-jealous love and non-envious love.
• A love that doesn’t brag, is not proud or arrogant.
• A love that isn’t rude, self-seeking, easily angered.
• A love that doesn’t keep score.
• A love that doesn’t say, “I told you so!”
• A love that can handle the largest of burdens
• A love that is full of trust
• A love that stands firm through the test of time
• A love that never fails or fades!
What comes out of you when you are squeezed? What comes out is what tells you what you are full of.
• Self-worth doesn’t equal Spiritual-worth. Spiritual-worth precedes and supersedes self-worth.
• Self-worth tends to be conditional and in the hands of others making self-worth unstable. Spiritual-worth is unconditional and in the hands of only one person, God, making Spiritual-worth rock solid.
• Self-worth is up and down based on feelings. Spiritual-worth is anchored in Truth.
Romans 5:1-11 (The Message) 1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. 3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! 6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. 9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!
God has a very personal experience with each of you.
• He knows your hair count (Luke 12:7).
• He has counted and collects every tear of sorrow (Psalm 56:8).
• He has written out all of your days before you ever had your first one and orders your steps (Psalm 27:23-24, 139:16).
Our capacity to feel/experience love is mysteriously connected to our capacity to love. Miraculously through Christ – how we are loved changes how we love.
• Cultural love is fleeting and flashy.
• God’s love is steadfast and strong in Christ.
• The love of God isn’t sentimental, it’s cement.