Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This month is our mission’s month.

Our theme throughout the entire month is “Missions Means ME!”

It will also be our theme for this next year.

The only change will be this “Missions Means ME in 2023!”

Last year, during our Mission’s Emphasis Month, our theme was “Souls To Rescue,” and we used it as our theme for this year’s “Souls To Rescue in 2022.”

One of the great things about this month is our focus on missions helps to remind us of our duty to Christ and the Great Commission.

If you are not familiar with the Great Commission, it is found in several verses.

For the sake of time, I will only give two.

The first is this.

Note that Christ gave His disciples (which includes us today) the responsibility of going and teaching all nations, aka everyone we meet.

He spelled out three particular objectives as we go and witness for Him.

We are to teach all nations.

In other words, we are to share the gospel’s good news with everyone.

As we share and people respond in faith, we are to baptize them.

Last but not least, we are to disciple (teach) them to be obedient followers of Christ (observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you).

Christ then promised that He would go with us.

Even though He is not physically here, believers receive His Spirit when they believe the gospel message.

In that way, He is with us.

Let me give you the second verse containing the Great Commission.

It is Acts 1:8.

This verse is important because it is the last word spoken by Christ before He ascended into Heaven.

Again, please note that Christ told His disciples (which includes us today) that they were to be witnesses for Him.

What is unique about this verse is Christ gave specific places to which we are to go.

We are to go to Jerusalem (our hometown), Judea (neighboring areas), Samaria (neighboring nations), and, finally, every single part of the earth, even the uttermost parts.

Thus, we can see Christ’s Great Commission to us as believers and corporately as a local church is quite specific.

We must preach the gospel, baptize converts, and disciple them to follow Him.

We are to do this right here in Bedford.

Then, we are to spread out to places across our state, into the neighboring states and nations, and, finally, into the entire world.

It is pretty clear what God expects of us.

Now, here is the great thing about God.

He not only tells us what to do but also equips us with everything we need to do it.

For example, when we accept Him as our Savior, He gives us His Spirit that indwells us.

That is part of what we read in Acts 1:8 and all that we learned in the message two weeks ago.

However, let me share a few verses that confirm what I am saying.

As believers, we have the ultimate source of power within the entire universe available to us.

It is the power of God through His Spirit.

God equips us with His own Spirit, but that is not all, for He has also provided us His preserved Word in the English language.

God’s Word, the Bible, is readily available for all to read and study.

This morning, many of you own at least one or more copies of God’s Word.

You can pick it up and read it for yourself.

Additionally, God has provided all of us with local churches such as ours by which we can work with others.

And, then, to top it all off, God gives each believer a spiritual gift to be used in service for Him.

Spiritual gifts are a topic many often do not talk about today.

If they do, they do so with little or no understanding of their true purpose.For this reason, God gave us 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Two weeks ago, we began our journey into these chapters.

I started that journey by laying some essential groundwork about the Holy Spirit, His arrival, and how He has equipped us with spiritual gifts.

At the end of that message, I noted that the Holy Spirit uses 1 Corinthians 12-14 to give us much detail about spiritual gifts and their use.

That is where we are going to pick up.

However, before we dive into 1 Corinthians 12, I want to share this one thought that ties in with our Missions Emphasis Month.

Stewardship is a big part of missions.

Christ commissioned us to take the gospel to the entire world and instructed us to be good stewards of all He has given us.

We are to use this life wisely, and the time we have remaining as His servants.

He also instructed us to be good stewards of our money.

We are to use it to further the gospel, not for personal gain.

There are two things every believer should be doing when it comes to money.

First, you should be tithing.

Tithing is a simple act of obedience.

To do anything short of giving 10% of all you earn is disobedience.

God put it this way in Malachi.

A good steward is one who faithfully pays tithes to God.

I said there were two things concerning money we must be doing.

The first is the tithe.

The second is sacrificial giving.

Sacrificial giving is when we give above and beyond our tithe so the gospel might be given worldwide.

We find this instruction given to us in 2 Corinthians 9:6-10

Tithing is duty.

Sacrificial giving comes from a heart of love and grace towards others.

When we give sacrificially, we demonstrate the same heart of grace that God does to us daily.

I will encourage you to give to our Mission’s Program this month.

In your bulletins, you have a “Faith Promise Giving” card.

Why the name?

Sacrificial giving is often an act of faith.

Tithing is duty.

Sacrificial giving says, “Lord, I have paid my tithe, but I want to do more.

So, by faith, I am committing to giving, trusting that you will provide for my needs as I do so.”

It is also a promise.

You promise before God that you will faithfully and sacrificially give so the gospel may be preached in places you and I cannot go.

It is a promise shared with others in our church who make the same commitment.

And, finally, it is giving financially.

Thus, we have the name “Faith Promise Giving.”

Here at our church, we have two different budgets.

We have our General Budget through which we operate.

That budget is governed by the tithes that each believer should be obediently and faithfully giving.

The General Budget pays staff salaries, maintains our buildings, keeps the lights on, and helps with the cost of ministries like local evangelism efforts, discipleship programs, and the many other service areas within our church.

The other budget is our Mission’s Budget.

All the money given to that budget comes from your Faith Promise Giving commitment.

The money from that budget goes to various missionary families we support.

Those families, such as the Germano family in the Dominican Republic and the Helton family in Spain, have surrendered their lives to live in those countries, learn the cultures and language so they might win people to Christ, and start local churches in their perspective countries.

We give so they might stay doing what we cannot do in countries we cannot live.

Yet, by giving, we have a part in every soul saved, baptized, and discipled (the Great Commission abroad).

I know that for some of you, this is new.

That is okay.

Just understand that by making a financial commitment to our Mission Program, you are helping these missionary families do God’s work on our behalf.

It is a tremendous spiritual investment that lays up treasure in Heaven, not here on earth.

Now, let’s consider our text this morning and dive into the topic of spiritual gifts.

Take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 12.

Our text this morning is 1 Corinthians 12:1-3

As we can see, the Holy Spirit turns our attention to spiritual gifts.

He does indeed use the term “spiritual gifts” in verse 1.