Sermon Illustrations

BEGINNING AND ENDING

A Connecticut Baptist named A. Roger Williams (a modern pastor, not the one who founded Rhode Island) once preached, "It is true that if religion begins with the individual--it begins, but if it ends with the individual--it ends." [A. Roger Williams, "The Kingdom of God," in (ed.) Henry J. Young, Preaching the Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), p. 32.]

In both Pastor Nick’s sermon from Romans 12, last week, and today’s text, we see that God’s purpose in the believer’s life is for ministry (v. 12) and building up the Body of Christ (v. 12) until we reach the ultimate understanding of and fellowship with Christ (v. 13). Now, it’s interesting to me that both in last week’s text and this week’s text, we see that the Body of Christ is bound together by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit imparts grace gifts. I believe that spiritual gifts, undeserved gifts, are a key to being the church God wants us to be and we’re going to focus on those.

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