Teaching Spiritual Gifts, Saving Faith

Three weeks ago I had the privilege to preach in the Youth Fellowship for the first time, and my topic was about "spiritual gifts," or better yet, "gifts of ministry." For years now, Kuya Lito and the Youth Workers have been exhorting those youth who profess to be Christian to serve in the church. It's borne some visible fruits, but there's still a lot more room for improvement, so I thought speaking on "gifts of ministry" was a good topic.

I tried to teach it in a God-centered, christological way as best I could. I think it was too tightly packed, though, and I hope to extend and deepen this message into a series in the Youth Fellowship or even just in my youth cell.

Just this Saturday (June 16), Kuya Lito was in Cebu, meeting with the heads of the CCM youth ministries, and so I got to teach again. I thought it would be better to step back from the gifts of ministry first and go back to basics, i.e., saving faith. New topic: the Hall of Faith, Heb.11:1-12:4. A week of reading the study resources Kuya Oscar recommended allowed me to give what I hope was a decent christological overview of the Book of Hebrews, and then to squeeze in a discussion on 3 characteristics of saving faith:

(1) it is spiritual ("things hoped for... things not seen"),
(2) it is personal (not experiential, "things not seen")
(3) it bears fruit ("for by it the men of old gained approval," etc.)

Before the message, my head hurt, I was really hungry, and heart felt like it was going to cave in. After the message... relief! I was just so glad to sit down and have cell time.

The Hall of Faith to be continued...

Praise the Lord!