Gifted: Grace in Action
Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Romans 12:6-10
Romans 12:6-10
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.
If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.
If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously.
If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong.
Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
Christmas is the time for giving. We all love sharing gifts, especially around this season. The greatest gift God ever gave lost and broken humanity is Jesus Christ. The greatest gift God ever gave the church is the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the giver of gifts within the body of Christ.
The greatest day of your life is the moment you accepted the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. The second greatest day is the day you realize why He saved you and His purpose for your life. Far too many Christians live below their purpose because they never recognize what their purpose actually is. That is because we have so often placed all of our emphasis on the people with a platform or a microphone and are led to believe our only contribution to the Kingdom is just showing up on Sunday and sitting in a pew or chair.
I am here today to tell you that you have a purpose in the Kingdom of God and your purpose is just as important as anyone standing on a stage or holding a microphone. Most often, what makes a church weak is when only one or a small few operate in the gifts that God has given them. The gifts that God gives us are to build up His church in love and unity.
We all have gifts.
As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
God is no respecter of person, so if He is willing to gift one person, He will gift everyone. Not all gifts look the same, but they are all equally important.
In the first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul is teaching us doctrine. In chapter 12, he switches to discipleship, telling us how we are to live out what has been taught.
CONTEXT
He begins chapter 12 by telling us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Then he tells us to not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are transformed by changing the way we think. We have to get rid of our stinking thinking and align our thoughts to the Word of God. The more of the Word we get in our lives, the more our thinking changes, and the more we become transformed from the inside out.
It is funny how we expect other people to change overnight but for ourselves, we say we are still a work in progress.
That is why Paul, in verse 3, tells us to not think more highly of yourself than you ought because the faith you have was given to you by God and it is by grace that you can even have faith at all.
He moves from that point to tell us that we are all members of one body and that in any body, the members do not have the same function. That does not make them any more or less important. Are your ears less important than your eyes? Is your heart any less important than your lungs?
Paul uses these first verses to introduce us to verse 6 where he tells us how this should look in a Spirit-filled church.
Diverse gifts
Romans 12:6
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.
grace: “charis” - the unmerited love and favor of God
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
gift: “charisma”- Gifts come from grace, not your efforts, your talents, your merit. You can never walk in spiritual gifts without first receiving the grace given at salvation.
There is a difference between a talent and a gift. Gifts always give glory back to God who gave the gift.
“What do you do well?”
2. Dedicated Use
USE YOUR GIFTS
or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
This is not about you. You are not your gift. Your gift is from God and is for someone else. The beneficiary of any gift God gives us is the person he intends for us to demonstrate that gift to.
You do not prophecy for yourself. It is for someone else.
You do not serve for yourself, you do not show kindness to yourself, you are not generous for yourself
3. Disciplined Love
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
Love is an action Verb!!
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
4. Deliberate Honor
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;
Don’t disregard the gift because of the wrapping.
Honor may be the key to unlocking the gift in someone else. This is how the church is meant to operate. We are to honor one another, not tear one another down, not talk about one another. If you want to talk about someone, talk to God about them, not other people. Pray for them.
