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08. 09. 2019

Marks of a Healthy Church
1 Corinthians 4:1-13

1. We need Faithful Stewards
- 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 (NIV) - So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

 

 

2. We need Humble Disciples

1 Corinthians 4:10-13 - We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

 

 

Discussion:

1. One of the things that distract us from being a faithful steward of God is comparison and judging. In what way we can do better to help and encourage one another to be faithful steward of God?

2. Humility is a difficult lesson to learn. In what areas that we need to learn to be more humble in following Christ’s example?

3. Share some of the lessons you have learnt recently about strengthening our unity from 1 Corinthians 1-4. Pray for one another.


 

 


 

 

 

 

Devotional Message

Taken from The Daily Office by Peter Scazzero ©2008

 

Week 7 / Day 3 - Morning/Midday Office

Scripture Reading: Matthew 25:34–36, 40
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

 

Devotional
In 1952 Mother Teresa began picking up the dying in the streets of Calcutta, India. By 1980 she and over three thousand members of her order, the Missionaries of Charity, were working in fifty-two countries. Her teachings and life give us profound insight into what it means to follow Jesus as emotional and spiritual adults in our world. She wrote:

I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look only at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one. You get closer to Christ by coming closer to each other. As Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.” So you begin…I begin. I picked up one person…. The whole work is only a drop in the ocean. But if we don’t put the drop in, the ocean would be one drop less. Same thing for you. Same thing in your family. Same thing in the church where you go. Just begin…one, one, one! At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.” God has identified himself with the hungry, the sick, the naked, the homeless; hunger not only for bread, but for love…nakedness not of clothing only, but nakedness of that compassion that very few people give to the unknown; homelessness, not only just for a shelter made of stone, but that homelessness that comes from having no one to call your own.

 


Question to Consider
How can you begin to see Jesus Christ in the people you meet this week?

 

Prayer
Lord, I am often overwhelmed by the needs of the world around me. Thank you that you are responsible for the world, and I am not. Help me to see the individual today—the “one, one, one”––so that the words and actions that flow from my life might reflect your life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.