A Living Sacrifice - Part 2 (Romans 12:1-21)

Announcements

Bible Study & Prayer at 7pm on Wednesday

We’re still looking for a new treasurer, if you’re interested, please reach out to me.

You have until Thursday to order your new t-shirts if you want them—let me explain one issue on their website. You’ll notice when you get to it, there’s three different t-shirt options. They’re all the same design (though one of them is slightly darker than the others). I recognize that’s a little confusing, but apparently Custom Ink has run out of stock on certain sizes in certain shirt materials; so they’ve essentially provided multiple shirt materials to give us all of the shirt size options that we need. So, you’ll essentially have to go through and look at each shirt option to find your size. I apologize for that inconvenience, but it was the only way that they could make it work.

Please be aware of the following dates:

Next week, Sunday, April 3rd, we have a Quarterly Business Meeting right after the morning worship service. Members, we’ll have one matter to vote on, so please plan on being there. As always, our business meetings are open to the public, so feel free to stick around even if you aren’t a member.

Because we’re getting closer to Resurrection Sunday, let me give you some special dates to be aware of:

On Wednesday, April 13th and 27th, there will be no Wednesday Evening Bible Study & Prayer.

On April 15th, which is Good Friday, we’ll have a service at 7pm to reflect on the death and burial of Jesus Christ.

On April 17th, which is Resurrection Sunday, we’ll have our normal worship time at 10:30am, but we’ll also have a fellowship opportunity over breakfast starting at 9am in the Activity Room. This would be a great opportunity for us to bring friends and family into the church—invite them for breakfast and then ask them to stick around for the service.

As always, let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you with your giving, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box in the front of the room; debit, credit, and ACH giving can be done either by (2) texting the number 84321 with your $[amount] or by (3) visiting us online at www.gapb.church and selecting giving in the menu bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Psalm 47)

Our Call to Worship this morning is Psalm 47, which is a Psalm of the Sons of Korah, which was written with the purpose of exhorting or encouraging the people of Israel to worship and praise God. It celebrates God’s enthronement, his universal reign; and it should be understood as portraying the coming kingdom of God. The psalmist is encouraging all the peoples of earth to pay homage to the King. Please stand and read Psalm 47 with me—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 47 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. 1 Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! 2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. 3 He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet. 4 He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah 5 God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. 6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! 8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. 9 The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!

Congregational Singing

Come, Behold the Wondrous Mystery

I Will Glory in my Redeemer

Jesus Paid it All

Scripture Reading (1 Corinthians 12:12-31)

Our Scripture Reading this morning is 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. I’ve asked Stacey to come and read it and as she comes up, let me just explain that in this passage, Paul is writing to the Corinthian church about the need of diversity within the church; and I don’t mean the term diversity how our politicians utilize it today. What Paul writes about is the need for people within the church to be gifted differently to serve the body in different ways as one body. It connects with this morning’s passage, because is expounds on what he writes to the Romans in Romans 12. Stacey can you read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 for us?

1 Corinthians 12:12–31 ESV

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Sermon (Romans 12:1-21)

Introduction

If you were with us last week, you know that we’re taking just a brief break from the Gospel according to John primarily due to my own miscalculations, but also so that I could utilize a few sermons that I had written for a course that I was taking through the book of Romans. There were a number of details that I gave you concerning the letter to the Romans—most of which I don’t need to repeat, but some of which I need to mention again just to be sure that we’re on the same page as we go into our text for this morning. I mentioned last week that Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome. That this was a church that wasn’t planted by Paul, but rather it probably started as a result of Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

Because Paul didn’t start the church in Rome and because he didn’t really know a lot of the people in Rome, he writes the letter a little differently than how he wrote many of his other letters—in his shorter epistles, Paul doesn’t take much time to give personal greetings (though he does greet the recipients) and he doesn’t give much in doctrinal teaching; he essentially jumps straight into confronting issues within the church and teaches them to fix those problems. In the Letter to the Romans, Paul takes a significant amount of time discussing doctrine, what Christians ought to believe before he digs into any application (though arguably, all doctrine is applicable, which makes chapters 1-11 applicable before necessarily digging into application).

By the time we get to our text, which is again Romans 12, Paul has already defined what genuine Christian belief is and he’s now switching to application. And last week’s text, Romans 12:1-2, gave us the transition between doctrine and application. This morning and this Wednesday, we’re going to look at the first two repercussions or the first two applications for the doctrine that he has already told us through chapters 1-11.

So, last week, we started looking at Romans 12, which is where we’ll be again this week for part two of our three part mini-series. Last week’s message focused on the first two verses, which were a transition from doctrine to the application portion of the text. We’ll read those two verses again and continue into our text for this morning:

Romans 12:1–8 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

As we study this text this morning, we’re going to break it into two parts, (1) vss. 3-5, Many Members; Different Functions, which will discuss the beautiful nature of how the church is to work together. (2) Vss. 6-8, Serving According to our Gifts, will then explore at a slightly deeper level what Paul means concerning how a church functions with different people doing different things in a way that brings glory and honor to God through Jesus Christ. This morning’s sermon will encourage us all to seek to serve the church (both locally and universally) as part of our spiritual worship of the Lord.

Prayer for Illumination

Many Members; Different Functions (3-5)

Before we actually dig into our text, we do need to remind ourselves of the first two verses that open this chapter. The reason for this is that those first two verses lay the foundation for what we’re learning this morning—or in other words, because of vss. 1-2, we are to do vss. 3-8 and even beyond vs. 8 to the end of the book.

Let me remind you of what vss. 1-2 taught before we dig into our passage this morning: Romans 12:1-2 “1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

We worked through this text last week and we spent quite a bit of time discussing what exactly it meant to be a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God. To gain a complete idea of what this meant, I spent some time talking about the purpose of a sacrifice from the Old Testament and then compared that the what it meant to be a living sacrifice.

I explained that this is such a vital concept for our belief in Jesus because Paul makes it very clear that this is the only way that we can actually worship God. Being a living sacrifice is our spiritual worship of God and without being a spiritual sacrifice, we don’d actually worship God.

Thankfully because of how vital this concept is for our spiritual worship, Paul helps us understand the idea by giving us a direct purpose statement of what all this includes in vs. 2. That we be transformed by the [renewing] of [our minds] and not be conformed to the world.

This transforming of our minds completely changes the way that we think and the way that we act and the way that we view the world.

And while this is a process that takes time, the key is that we should be progressively sanctified in such a way as our mind is progressively changed from thinking, acting, and viewing the world like unbelievers to thinking, acting, and viewing the world as Jesus does.

In doing so, we spiritually worship God.

That idea of our mind being transformed is vital for us to understand the very next statement that Paul makes concerning the church itself. Vs. 3 gives us the first transformation that Paul chooses to focus on, “for by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.”

The very first thing that Paul focuses on after telling us that we are to be living sacrifices by transforming our minds rather than being conformed to the world is to not think of ourselves more highly or too highly.

Which let’s be honest, is the exact opposite of what the world teaches.

The world teaches that we are to have a very puffed up view of ourselves (I like to call it the Disney Channel mentality). From very little, children are taught that they are special, unique, and wonderful, which is true to the extent that they have been stamped with the very image of God, but through this steady diet of being told to only focus on themselves, it’s very easy to become self-centered.

Even into adulthood, the world teaches people that they need to find themselves and even utilizes it as an excuse for bad and sinful behavior. College students go drinking and partying to “find themselves,” young adults get interested in the occult and New Age mysticism to “find themselves,” middle-aged parents leave their families during mid-life crisis to “find themselves” and the pattern continues in different ways throughout the life-cycle.

It’s no wonder than that Paul’s very first statement after telling us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds is to tell us to not think too highly of ourselves.

Don’t misunderstand me, that isn’t to say that you ought not think of yourself positively whatsoever, but we tend to think higher than we ought to about ourselves.

But don’t swing the pendulum so far that you start to only think of yourself in a negative light. Don’t think too highly about yourself, but don’t leave this place thinking that you’re garbage or you’re utterly worthless. That’s not what Paul is teaching and that’s not what I’m preaching.

In fact, I would argue that most people who do think negatively about themselves are still be self-centered, just in a different light—especially if they make it a point when they talk to other people to bring up how terrible they are. Why do I say that? Because typically when people bring up how terrible they are, they’re looking for you to contradict them and tell them how great they really are, which is just as self-centered.

Rather, what does Paul say? He says, don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, “but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

Be realistic with who you are—don’t think too highly of yourself and don’t think too lowly of yourself, but be sober or realistic in your judgment of who you are.

It’s interesting to me that self-awareness, being aware of who you are, where you are spiritually, and how your maturity is going is such a significant part of the Christian walk.

Paul tells the Corinthians to check their spiritual walk prior to partaking in the Lord’s Supper

Peter tells us to be sure that we actually do believe in Jesus Christ; and the way that we can be sure of this is by exhibiting what are essentially the fruits of the Spirit.

In other words, in both cases, Paul and Peter are telling us to use sober judgment as we determine where we’re at spiritually.

In Paul’s statement in Romans 12, it focuses more on thinking about our role or our position within the church, we see this in the context. Paul tells them not to think too highly about themselves and then immediately, he moves into how the church itself functions.

But before he gets to that in vs. 4, he states at the end of vs. 3, “each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

This phrase that occurs just after he tells them to think with sober judgment and it’s what actually connects the concept that Paul just gave us about thinking soberly about ourselves, with the point that he’s driving at.

There is a general sense in which we are to reflect on who we are, where we’re at spiritually, and whether we’re growing how Jesus wants us to grow, but in this particular instance, Paul is being more specific.

He’s telling us to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think when it comes to something in particular and he explains it as something that God has given and something that God has assigned, which gives us yet another reason not to think more highly than we ought to think because whatever Paul is talking about here concerns something that God alone controls—because God gives it and God assigns it.

This passage doesn’t actually call this by name, but I think it’s fairly clear that what Paul is talking about concerns what is elsewhere called spiritual gifts.

And I think Paul’s placement of spiritual gifts just after talking about how we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds is completely intentional. I believe he did this on purpose:

Consider how the world thinks—those who are worldly tend to be self-centered and neglect those around them. Quite frankly, it’s another form of idolatry. They tend to elevate themselves to the level of god in their life and they think everything revolves around them.

When it comes to unbelievers, you have to expect that mentality, because their hearts and minds haven’t been transformed, they’re still living according to their flesh.

But when you do believe in Jesus and you repent of your former lifestyle, your thinking is to change—one of the primary ways that your thinking changes is that you ought to stop thinking so highly of yourself and your focus then transitions to Jesus and other people.

And one of the main ways you are to focus on other people involve something that God gives and God assigns called spiritual gifts.

Paul continues his explanation of these gifts through vss. 4-5, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another”

Paul, much like he does in 1 Corinthians 12, utilizes the illustration of a human body to describe how the church is to function. That idea is expounded on in Colossians and Ephesians, but the foundation for that idea really starts in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.

The community of genuine believers of Jesus Christ are to work together as one body with many different members or more literally parts.

And just like the human body, a hand is a hand and a foot is a foot; members of the body aren’t meant to swap places; they’re all meant to be different when it comes to how they function within the body.

In fact, if every person within the same spiritual body did the same exact thing, the body itself would die; just like the human body would die if it were even possible for different body parts to take the place of other body parts.

No, what Paul states in vss. 4-5 is that we were intentionally given different gifts to be utilized in the body in order for us to function as the body.

Again, noting that these gifts were given by God, he assigned these gifts; and note that these gifts were given not for the individual themselves, but for the body itself.

Or in other words, the gift was given for the body not for the individual body part. To assume that a spiritual gift was just for one person is foolishness and antithetical towards what spiritual gifts’ purpose are.

No, each spiritual gift has been assigned by God and given by God to an individual for the purpose of utilizing them within the body of Christ—not for the individual, but for the whole.

This means that unless everyone within the body is actively utilizing their spiritual gifts, the body is deficient. Without everyone working together, the body struggles.

That idea is really emphasized in 1 Corinthians 12. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul emphasizes the need of every part of the body and in doing so, he presents a concept of suffering when the body isn’t working together or is missing a part.

It’s a little long of a passage, but bear with me as I read to you 1 Corinthians 12:14-26, “For the body is not one part, but many. If the foot says, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has arranged the parts, each one of them in the body, just as He desired. . . But now there are many parts, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; or again, the head to the feet . . . On the contrary, it is much truer that the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary . . . God has so composed the body . . . so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same care for one another. And if one part of the body suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if a part is honored, all the parts rejoice with it.” (NASB)

Or in other words, what Paul is stating here in Romans 12:3-8 is that as part of our transformation of the mind, we are to seriously and soberly think through our own spiritual gifts and then go and use them in the body.

That even though there are many different people with differing abilities and gifts, the whole purpose is so that as one unified body, we each serve one another in such a way that we, the body grows.

We as a group of believers fit together in such a way that we don’t all function in the same way, but that isn’t a reason to be puffed up or to think more highly of yourself—the person preaching is no better than the person sweeping and mopping the floors; the person serving in children’s ministry is no better than the person volunteering in mercy ministries; the person leading musical worship is no better than the person who serves behind the scenes. In worth and value, we’re all equal, but we all serve in different ways.

John Witmer, “The point is that each member functions to serve the body, not the body to serve the members. The diversity of the many accompanies the unity of the body. Therefore it is important to think soundly about oneself and to evaluate properly God’s gifts and their uses.” (John Witmer, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 488)

So, Paul is trying to get the Romans to understand one of the ways that they are to respond to vss. 1-2. And that way is by serving within the body of Christ however God has gifted them. He’s trying to get them to understand that that they have been given gifts by God for the purpose of serving one another and in our last few verses, he briefly explains how different these gifts are. Read with me vss. 6-8:

Serving According to our Gifts (6-8)

Romans 12:6–8 ESV

6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

In the last three verses, Paul reiterates that each person has different gifts. Vs. 6, states plainly that there are different gifts “according to the grace given to us.”

Let me first point out that again, Paul is pointing out to diversity amongst the church (and I’m not utilizing diversity in the same sense that liberal media and politicians use it today.

I’m using in the sense that God has intentionally created us all with different abilities and gifts.

Paul doesn’t hint at a possibility that our gifting might be different, he assumes that we already recognize that our gifts are different, which is why he starts vs. 6 the way he does.

He assumes you’ve received a spiritual gift as part of your conversion; and he assumes that you aren’t surrounded by other believers who have the exact same gifts.

Now, that isn’t to say that you won’t find people who have the same gifts as you, but that is to say that you shouldn’t expect everyone to be gifted the same way that you are.

Or in other words, not everyone is gifted to be a teacher and not everyone is gifted to do administrative work, and not everyone is gifted to be an evangelist.

What Paul is stating in vs. 6, is essentially that it’s intentional that we don’t all share in the same gifts. Why? Because our spiritual gifts are given to us through the Holy Spirit in order for us to serve the church (also known as the body). If we all did the same thing, then our body would be unhealthy.

Secondly, let me point out one idea that you might have had as we read that verse. Notice that Paul is not saying that some people have been given more grace than others and thus, some people have better gifts because they’ve been given more grace.

The statement that Paul makes in vs. 6 is not of numerical value—it is not a quantitative statement, but it’s also not a qualitative statement. Meaning that Paul is not saying that some people receive more grace or that some people receive better grace.

The statement here isn’t that some people get better gifts than other people based on the amount of grace or quality of grace that they’ve received.

Remember that one of Paul’s points in Romans 12:3 is that no one should think higher of themselves and in context, it seems the idea really is that no one should think more highly of themselves in context of the church and concerning their own spiritual gifts.

There are no spiritual gifts that are better than other spiritual gifts, they simply allow the individual believer to serve in different roles and functions.

Paul is not saying that certain people with certain gifts were given more or greater grace, rather, what he’s saying is every person has received grace. The very fact that they’ve received spiritual gifts is an evidence of the grace that they’ve received.

And quite frankly, the point isn’t for us to compare and contrast each other’s gifts—we aren’t meant to watch each other and become envious that our gifts aren’t the same. We’re to do what vs. 6 teaches, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.”

Or in other words, the gifts don’t exist just so that we can say that we have them, but rather, they exist so that we’ll utilize them.

Keeping this in context, it’s then made very clear to us that we are to utilize these spiritual gifts in the context of the local body of Christ.

God has gifted people in diverse ways because not all of the members have the same function—thus, we all need different gifts in order to function properly as a body.

Paul is telling the Romans that as a body of Christ, they are to utilize their spiritual gifts—not for themselves, not to puff themselves up, but rather for one another; to serve each other.

To not utilize their spiritual gifts isn’t just a neglect of their own God-given gifts, but it effects others within the church of Christ.

Now, to emphasize just how diverse these spiritual gifts are, Paul takes the last two verses to give examples of what he means. “If prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who lead, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

Now, we could take the time to work through each one of the gifts mentioned by Paul in this section, but we’re not going to do that today—and I have two reasons for that:

The first reason is this, during this summer, right after we finish John, I’m planning on preaching a 5-6 week series on the spiritual gifts. In that series, we’re going to work through every spiritual gift in-depth. And in that series, I’ll explain what the different spiritual gifts in Scripture are and what exactly they look like in Scripture.

The second reason concerns the passage’s purpose. Notice that Paul himself doesn’t spend a lot of time focused on the gifts themselves—he doesn’t really tell us a lot of information about the gifts beyond that they were gifts given by God as a part of his grace to us. Paul doesn’t bother to define what these gifts are or what they do.

Which again, is because of the purpose of this passage. Paul isn’t attempting to give us a comprehensive list of spiritual gifts nor is he attempting to provide a systematized way of viewing spiritual gifts, he’s driving at a specific point.

And it’s this, that whatever gift that you do have, you need to utilize it as often as God calls you to use it and you need to do it to the best of your own ability knowing that you’re only able to because God has gifted you to do it.

So, you could essentially read this passage like this: if you’re gifted with prophesying, then prophesy; if you’re gifted with serving, then serve; if you’re gifted with teaching, then teach; if you’re gifting in exhorting, then exhort; if you’re gifted with giving, then give generously; if you’re gifted with leading, then lead with zeal; if you’re gifted with mercy, then give mercy cheerfully.

Paul is calling the Roman people to utilize their spiritual gifts or we could put it like this, he’s teaching them that part of being transformed by the renewing of their minds includes no longer just thinking about themselves, but involves them utilizing their spiritual gifts to help build up the church itself.

They are to be good stewards of the gifts that God has given them; and they are to do this as often as they can to the best of their ability; again, recognizing that they can only do this because God has gifted them.

Matthew Henry, “We must not be proud of our [gifts], so we must take heed lest, under a pretence [sic] of humility and self-denial, we are slothful in laying out ourselves for the good of others. We must not say, I am nothing, therefore I will sit still, and do nothing; but, I am nothing in myself, and therefore I will lay out myself to the utmost, in the strength of the grace of Christ. Whatever our gifts or situations may be, let us try to employ ourselves humbly, diligently, cheerfully, and in simplicity; not seeking our own credit or profit, but the good of many, for this world and that which is to come.” (Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary,” Ro 12:3)

So, Paul writes to the Romans and he tells them that they are to present their bodies as a living sacrifice acceptable to God. To do this they need to be transformed by the renewing of their minds and then the first way that he tells them that they need to be renewed, is to essentially change their thinking concerning other people. Stop thinking so highly about yourself, be sober in your own judgment, and then as a body of believers, utilize the spiritual gifts that have been given to you to serve one another. The application for this text is near identical for us today, which brings us to our application this morning. How do we apply this text for ourselves? And I think we can answer that question by posing three questions: (1) how do we determine our spiritual gifts? (2) How do we use our spiritual gifts? and How do we grow in our spiritual gifts? And the answer to all three questions is the same—we determine them, use them, and grow in them when we start serving within the church context. Let’s spend the remaining few minutes talking about this in more detail.

Application

How do we determine our Spiritual Gifts?

Often, the first question asked by believers when told about spiritual gifts is “what is my spiritual gift?”

This is a logical question because it’s clear from Scripture that every believer is gifted by the Holy Spirit somehow to serve within the local and universal church.

Because of this question, there are all sorts of online spiritual gifts tests and quizzes that supposedly help you determine what your spiritual gifts are—let me encourage you, they might help, but much like personality tests, they only know how you yourself answer the questions. They don’t actually know you, thus, they could be wildly inaccurate.

Pastors are commonly asked what they think someone’s spiritual gifts are and a discerning pastor that knows his people well enough should be able to help that believer determine what their gifts are.

And to respond to that question, you do need to have a basic understanding of what the gifts are:

Again, the spiritual gifts are gifts given by God through the Holy Spirit for the purpose of the church being built up.

There are multiple passages in Scripture that speak about spiritual gifts. We aren’t going to read them all, but let me at least tell you where to find them and what gifts they speak about:

The first, is Romans 12:3-8, which talks about prophesying, service, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, and acts of mercy.

1 Corinthians 12:8-10 and 28-30 gives another list, which adds wisdom, knowledge, faith, healings, miracles discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and administration.

Ephesians 4:11, doesn’t speak about gifts, but speaks about offices that utilize gifts, so you have the first century apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

Just looking at these lists, there’s about 17-18 different spiritual gifts, but as I’ve mentioned to some of you, many scholars don’t believe that these lists are complete—or in other words, they argue that there isn’t a comprehensive list of spiritual gifts in the Bible and I agree with them—that argument is based on the fact that none of the spiritual gift lists in Scripture repeat all the same gifts and in none of the passages does the author say, “now these are all the spiritual gifts.”

With that in mind, it’s quite possible there are many other gifts that can be utilized in a variety of different ways for the purpose of building up the local church. These lists just act as just a small collection of the spiritual gifts or in other words, the authors while speaking about spiritual gifts are essentially saying: “yeah, you know the spiritual gifts?” And then he just lists the ones that he’s thinking of off the top of his head.

Regardless, what we know of spiritual gifts (whether the lists are complete) is that these gifts are given by God through the Holy Spirit for the purpose of serving within the local and universal church to help build up the church.

Again, whenever spiritual gifts are talked about, the first question is usually “what is my spiritual gift or gifts?” And now that you know that the lists in the Bible aren’t necessarily complete, you might really be thinking, how can I determine my spiritual gifts if the lists aren’t complete, so, let me help you with determining your spiritual gifts:

Often, people within a church context will seek to determine their spiritual gifts before doing anything else—or in other words, they want to know what they’ve been gifted with before they actually get involved, but here’s the deal—as is common for the way that God works, you will not determine your spiritual gifts without already being involved.

Waiting to get involved until after you’ve decided what your spiritual gifts are just means that you’re never going to get involved because the only way that you can determine your spiritual gifts is by getting involved.

So, the question then becomes how do we use our Spiritual Gifts to get involved when we don’t even know what they are?

It’s actually quite simple—you serve in whatever capacity that you can until you determine where your gifts are; and after you determine where your gifts are, you seek to serve in those capacities.

For instance, this fall, we’re planning on starting a 9am small group program or what we might call a Christian education program (very similar to Sunday School). From the start, we plan to offer an adult group in the auditorium and a childrens’ group in the Activity Room.

Many of you have served in childrens’ ministries before, however, that is not the case for everyone. So, are you gifted in such a way that you can work with children well? I don’t know and neither do you, until you start volunteering in that capacity.

If you volunteer in that capacity, you might find that you’re exceptionally well-gifted in this area of ministry. You might find out that you can connect with children well and you can keep their attention and teach them efficiently. Or you might find out that you can’t relate with children whatsoever; that anytime you serve, they completely ignore you and start fires on the tables.

Clearly, one example is one of spiritual giftedness, whereas, the other is not.

Or for instance, we often have a lot of administrative work that’s done behind the scenes. It’s work that most people don’t even notice, but when it’s not done, everyone notices.

Many of these roles are actually positions within the church—our clerk, our treasurer, and my own role to an extent, which is why so many people who are gifted in administrative work never actually find out that they are—they don’t want to try the role until after they determine that they’re gifted in that role.

The issue is that you won’t find out if you’re gifted in the role if you never serve in the role or volunteer to help with that role.

You might find out that you have a gift for administration, but you won’t unless you volunteer in some form of administrative tasks.

It’s almost paradoxical, but the way that spiritual gifts are revealed to the church is through active service within the church.

Or in other words, do you want to know how to determine you gifts and then use those gift? Start by simply serving the church.

When trying to determine your spiritual gifts, take every opportunity to serve in any way that the church needs, only then will you learn what your gifts are.

Your first application is to serve the church to determine your spiritual gifts—help us with evangelism (especially as the weather starts to warm up), in a few months, serve in our children’s ministry, Alice is heading up our Resurrection Sunday breakfast (see if she needs help). This is the only way that you will figure out what you’re gifted with.

Even then, it might be difficult to determine your gifts so the last question of how do we grow in our Spiritual Gifts might be lost on you.

The way that this all works is this: as you continue to serve in various capacities, the believers around you will notice what you’re particularly good at (and gifted with); and they’ll be quick to point out when maybe what you’re doing is something you’re not so gifted with.

Don’t take offense to this, that’s precisely how it’s supposed to work. And the prime example concerns the office of an elder. Elders are to meet certain requirements, one of those requirements is to be apt at teaching. Notice that Romans 12 speaks of teaching as a spiritual gift.

Elders are to be gifted with teaching. I think it’s fairly clear when someone is preaching or teaching and they aren’t actually gifted with preaching or teaching. We’ve all heard people in which this is the case.

Usually, this happens early in someone’s life—they go to college to start training for ministry, but when they get their first few opportunities to preach in public, it’s as if they have never heard a sermon in their life. (Of course, we do need to be careful to give some time for people to grow in their gifts, but there are some who aren’t gifted and should be told).

How do we grow in our spiritual gifts? By continuing to utilize your gifts, you improve and you gain confidence because you’ll recognize it as a gift given by God to build up his church, but the key again, is that you have to be actively serving to determine what your gifts are and to grow in your gifts.

Start serving the church; only then will you learn what your spiritual gifts are and continue serving the church, only then can you grow in your spiritual gifts.

The second application is that you need to continue serving the church to grow in your spiritual gifts.

Start serving and continue serving and do it all for God’s glory for the service of his church.

Put simply, what Romans 12:3-8 teaches us is that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and that part of that transformation includes recognizing that the church is diverse with different gifts for the building up of the church. Each person is given gifts to help build up the church, thus, we should (1) start serving the church to determine our gifts and (2) continue serving the church to grow in our gifts. And (3) we should do this not to think more highly about ourselves, but to glorify God and serve one another.

Start serving, continue serving, and do it how God has gifted you.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

Be Thou My Vision