The Enemy of Service

Introduction

This morning we are going to focus on one single verse in Romans 12. Let’s begin with Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

What we read in these verses are authoritative. Paul is not making a suggestion and even though verse one began with a plea, Paul escalates that plea when he says through the grace given unto me. Paul is challenging his audience based on his spiritual gifting. In particular, Paul is claiming authority to say these things based on the fact that he is an apostle. Sometimes when we come to the word of God, we treat it like it is optional. If I like it, I will do something about what I have read. If its convenient, I may consider this in my life. Paul’s statement here strikes at the heart of this entire verse.

If I were to use one word to describe the attitude Paul is correcting, it would be pride. You see Pride is at the heart of our apathy towards God’s word. Pride does not like that someone else has authority over us. It wants to do what is comfortable for itself. It wants to do what it wants to do. Pride wants to be served not to serve. Verse one began with a plea that we would put ourselves in God’s hands to be used however he sees fit. Well, that is going to involve acknowledging the Lordship of God, His right to do with us as He pleases. Paul speaks to them as an apostle with the authority of God behind what he says.

I am grateful that so many here at HHBC do have a heart to serve the Lord. I once did the math on how many are involved in some ministry around the church. Here the number was around 60%. Many churches are blessed if they have 10-20% involved in serving the Lord.

But Paul’s exhortation is not addressed to the 20% or even the 60% here at HHBC. Paul is appealing to to every man that is among you. This is something all of us need to hear. You might think well there are only so many ministry positions open at the church. First I can always create more, I have a vision for more things that could be done here. Secondly, as we will see in the following verses, not all ministry is formal ministry. There is something for everyone to do in the church even if it isn’t a recognized formal position in the church.

But why is it that so many Christians are satisfied with being served and not serving? Why is it that so many Christians come to church to soak up the preaching and the word, but they themselves never get involved in what God has for them? What is it that causes us not to be surrendered to the service of God? What is the enemy of service?

Paul’s answer is that it can be pride. Pride shows up in our thinking and our responses when asked to serve. It can be found in the following thoughts:

That’s beneath me

If I can’t be in charge then I won’t be involved

No one appreciates me

I could do it better

I don’t need to be involved in the community of a church

I’ll serve when these certain conditions are met- I have time, I’m more spiritually mature, when those other people fix that thing that annoys me

Thesis: So if we are going to live a life yielded to the will of God in our lives and doing His service, we must resist the influence of pride in our lives.

Don’t Think too Highly of Yourself

Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

So what does Paul have to say to us this morning? First of all, we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Not to think- The root of pride is in the mind. Pride can be seen in your actions; if you walk around with a chip on your shoulder or you strut around. Pride can also show up in your words if you are constantly bragging or talking about yourself. But where pride lives is in your mind. You act proudly because you think proudly. The word think is used in the Greek, some form of the word is used four times in just one verse. This is clearly the focus of the verse.

Many people believe that sin is only the actions I do. As long as it stays in my head, I haven’t hurt anyone than it is not a sin. But Jesus spent so much time addressing the heart problems in his ministry that sin cannot be limited merely to actions. I believe a better overall definition of sin is anything I think, say, or do (feel) that displeases God. So our thoughts can either please God or not. They can align with God’s thoughts of not. This verse ties back to vs 2 where it told us that we would be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Our thoughts need to change before our feelings and our actions will ever change. The battle is in the mind.

So what thoughts are improper thoughts? We are not to think more highly than he ought. This verse doesn’t say you need to think self-defeating thoughts where you beat yourself up all the time. We need to think God’s thoughts. In order to do that, we must have a proper biblical understanding of ourselves. But pride shows up as we think better of ourselves than we ought to. When I resist what God wants me to do, when I fail to place myself at His disposal; I am thinking higher of myself than I ought to. I have elevated myself to God in my life. Pride is at its core spiritual idolatry.

Ezekiel makes this connection explicit in Ezekiel 28:2 “Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:”

I am not going to go into the details of this text because it is one of those controversial passages. I know Luke would love for me to go into who the prince of Tyrus is, but it is beside the point here. This prophecy against the Prince of Tyrus connects thine heart is lifted up with the statement I am a God. When we allow pride to rule our hearts, we take ourselves out of the hands of God and take control of our lives. When we allow pride to rule our hearts, we take God off the throne in our hearts and then we sit down on that throne.

If we would live lives surrendered to God’s use, we must reject thinking of ourselves to highly.

Think Sound, Reasonable Thoughts about Yourself

Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

If thinking too highly about ourselves is what we are to put off in our lives, what are we to put on in its place. The opposite of pride is thinking soberly. This is the transformation God desires to see in us: that we would not think proud thoughts but sober ones.

When we think of sober today, we think of not being drunk. There is a connection between the two. Sober means self-controlled. When a person is drunk, they do not have control over their thoughts. All inhibitions are down and their mind just runs with it. So if sober thinking is the opposite of prideful thinking, then I believe the implication is that it takes dedicated control to accomplish sober thinking. Pride is the natural tendency of our fallen minds. When you just let your mind go, it drifts naturally to selfishness and pride. Think about it for a second, when you have some down time where you can just check out from life for awhile what do you think about. Maybe your thoughts drift towards one of these directions:

I am doing pretty good, maybe even better than most- for some reason when I wrote this I couldn’t help but say it in the voice of Donald Trump. I leave that where it lies.

We run through other people’s actions and assume motives like: “They don’t respect me or they are trying to subvert me”

I wish someone would notice how hard I have been working

We replay things that others did or said to us

In those arguments we replay what we could say or how we would justify ourselves

We imagine future pleasures we want to enjoy

We think thoughts complaining and grumbling about what we have to go through

We think overly independent thoughts like I don’t need their help

Have you ever found your mind naturally drifting towards any of these types of thoughts? At the center of them all is some element of selfishness and pride. When the mind is allowed to free-range, it will find pastures here.

So the solution is self-control. A controlled mind. You should not just let your mind run. So many of people’s problems is that they have disordered minds. Rather than correct improper thinking they indulge it. They say I can’t help it thats how I feel or how I think; but they can help it. The Christian is told in

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

You might feel like that battle is too hard. Your thoughts come too suddenly and too strongly to overcome. I understand that the battle is hard, but for the Christian we have something the world does not have: the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” One of the fruits of the Spirit is temperance. Its not exactly the same word but it carries the same concept. We have the ability to control our minds through the Holy Spirit.

The Basis for our View of Ourselves is the Measure of Faith

Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

So if pride was what we put off, and sober thinking is what we put on; the final piece is the truth we must renew our minds around.

God hath dealt- The word dealt means to distribute. Key to a proper understanding of ourselves is knowing what God has given us. The fact that whatever we are and whatever we have done is all a result of God’s grace should humble us. I did not do these things on my own. So God gives grace but to whom does He give it? to every man- Every Christian has experienced this. We have all received a gift from God. There is no one here today who can say well God doesn’t want to use me because he hasn’t given me the ability to do anything for him.

But what is the gift God has given? The text calls it the measure of faith- This phrase is highly debated. Almost every commentary I looked at disagreed about what this phrase meant. One said that there are actually over 90 possibilities of what this phrase could mean because measure has (don’t quote me on the exact numbers here) seven meanings, faith has five and of has two. These are the common interpretations of the phrase:

Varying degrees of saving faith given by God

the standard of the gospel

Varying degrees of spiritual maturity

Varying degrees of sanctifying faith

The boundary of what you should think

Varying degrees of the faith necessary to serve given by God- the faith necessary to fulfill one's specific function in the body- 2 Corinthians 10:13 “But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.”

The last interpretation is in my opinion the one that makes the most sense for the following reasons:

The entire context is about presentation for service

The following verses list out the spiritual gifts by which we serve one another

The word measure most naturally fits with the idea of divvying out or distributing various role

How does this promote sober thinking?

I understand my proper role in the body

I understand that my role has been given and been enabled by God not myself

I focus on what I am placed in this body to do

Conclusion

There are a myriad of reasons that we all give for why we aren’t serving in the body of Christ. Some are overt pride- We think we deserve better, or we must be in charge or our conditions must be met. But others refuse to serve because of covert pride. Pride masquerades as humility sometimes. It pretends that I won’t serve because I don’t have any abilities to serve or I am not good enough to be involved in serving. At the root of both of these reasons is still a focus on self.

What matters is not do I think I have the skills, do I want to, will I get credit for it. It isn’t even does Pastor Shirk want me to do it. I have a vision for all kinds of things we could do here at the church that I just don’t have the willing people to do them. But just because I want you to do something does not mean it is God’s will. This all stems back to the message last week. Have you placed yourself in God’s hands to do with whatever He pleases? What is His will? As Paul will show us in the next section, God has a plan for every single one of us to serve Him in the body.

So what is keeping you from serving God? Is it pride in its various forms? Pride keeps us from serving when we value recognition, status, comfort, control, or self-importance more than Christ and His body. Do some soul searching this morning and ask God to shine a light on the true motives of your heart? If we are going to be used in the master’s hands, we must resist the influence of pride in our hearts.