If you are a follower of Christ, a member of His family... if you have put your faith in Jesus as your Savior and He is your Lord, meaning He has control over your decisions, your thoughts, your choices, your resources, your possessions, your income, your time, and your talents (otherwise He is not your Lord... He may be an acquaintance or someone you respect or even believe in, but He's not Lord until all of the aforementioned is true).
So, having said all of that, if Jesus is Lord of your life then that means YOU are a gift to the church. It means He has left a certain responsibility to you. When Jesus lived among people of this world he possessed a number of gifts and abilities that encouraged, matured, challenged and built up his followers. When he left, however, he passed each and every one of those gifts on to people who believed in Him and followed Him, and according to Ephesians 4 He continues this same “passing on of gifts” to every local body of believers in the Kingdom of God, thus multiplying his influence in the world… and multiplying the strength, comfort, and encouragement that He was for people when He was one man living among many.
Jesus consistently reminded His disciples throughout John’s Gospel that it would be better when He leaves this earth because He will send His Spirit and thus we will do even greater things than He. This does not mean that any one of us has the ability to do greater things than Jesus. Rather, Jesus knew that when He gave His Spirit to His followers that He would, in essence, be multiplying Himself throughout the world. And the same Spirit by which He was able to do the works He was accomplishing would be the very same Spirit who would lead and empower all of His followers. No longer would the work of the Kingdom be limited to one man, but to hundreds, thousands, and millions as the Word of God spreads and multiplies from generation to generation all over the world.
Follower of Jesus… YOU are now a participant in this great promise. You are gifted to do something (perhaps many things, but at the very least… something) that Jesus was doing in the Kingdom. He’s now passed His work on to you.
Below is the MP3 download of the teaching from yesterday’s Oasis gathering. There is also a copy of the notes which include a list of 17 or so possible gifts that Jesus gives people in the church. Prayerfully consider what He has given you… and then put it to use.
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