Pursuit :: Handing Out The Spoils // Chris Holm

We spent this week on the fourth core value of our church, knowing our greatness. We started in Ephesians, a letter written to a small group of believers living in the shadow of a massive pagan economy. Paul spends three chapters reminding them who they are before he ever tells them what to do. Then he pulls out an image every Roman would recognize, the victory parade thrown for a conquering general, where captured treasure was handed out to the people. Paul says Jesus did exactly that after the resurrection. He took the spoils of his own victory over sin and death and gave them straight to us, in the form of our gifts.From there we looked at Bezalel, a craftsman filled with God's Spirit to build the tabernacle, and at Jesus himself, who spent eighteen years as a carpenter before he preached a single sermon. We talked about how the church in Corinth ranked gifts by how flashy they looked, and how Paul corrected that by comparing the church to a body, where the hidden parts are often the most essential. We are not spectators. Every one of us carries something the world needs.Scripture references: Ephesians 4:7-11, Psalm 68, Exodus 31:1-6, Mark 6:3, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 12:14-21, 1 Peter 4:10