Romans 12:6-8 — Keith Price

Pray yes, Lord. Those words are so true. We're such strange creatures Lord. One minute telling you here in this building that we want to run after you and serve you. And the next minute Forgetting about it and going off running after things that keep us apart from you Lord.

It would be nice for us to say do something about it Lord. But the fact is you've told us to do something about it. You've made that move in grace. Now the next move on the board is ours Lord in response you've made us in your image.

We're supposed to reflect you granted as we consider what we will today that The use of the things you've given us which are your gifts to us. May be such that as they are used to serve your church and the world.

People may see you in the use of them. We ask this for Jesus sake. Amen, well, would you turn with me then to Romans 12 that we're going through this week? And we started on Sunday morning with the first two verses and We yesterday morning continued on to verses 3 4 5.

Believers as God’s Family, Flock, Army, and Bride

So we're going to take the next three verses today. There are marvelous picture words that particularly in the epistles and the letters of the New Testament are used of Those of us who belong to Jesus Christ.

There's that marvelous word his family. Oh my how marvelous that is and we're supposed to treat one another as the family of God in the same way as we would treat an actual family member of Blood and flesh and so on and we'll see a little bit more of that later in Romans 12.

There's another marvelous world word a flock if we're the flock. He's the shepherd and how wonderful it is to take words like this. And if you wake up at night at 2 o 'clock and just take a little walk of 10 yards or whatever.

It is to that little room. Then you get back and you can't go off to sleep. Then if you've Intercessorially prayed for those you have been praying for and you're still awake. Then take one of these picture words and say now I want to think about this word family a flock you're the shepherd.

Or here we're the army. You're the commander-in-chief. We're your soldiers. My what tremendous implications there are in that. Because we're not here as a club where it's nice to come apart for a week.

But God didn't call us to live in a cloister. He called us to go out into the world as his army. Another wonderful one is his bride. That we are the bride of Christ. He's the heavenly bridegroom and we are the bride and My we love him and we run after him and he loves after has run after us.

That's the only reason that we respond to him is because he took the initiative to run after us and chase us and With a bride and we have those intimate times of fellowship. Just alone with him in our quiet times and he sows his seed by his spirit Into our lives where his bride and we produce his fruit the fruit of the spirit of love joy Peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faithfulness meekness and self-control.

Unity and Diversity in the Body of Christ

But the picture that the Apostle Paul uses mostly more than any others. I think is this one of the body. We are a body and we're one body. There is only one body and those who have part with Christ have part with me.

We must never allow any secondary matter. Though it be biblical any secondary non-essential to salvation matter ever to become a divisive issue. Because we're one body. Now we've seen the oneness of the body in verses 4 and 5 and now we move on 6 7 and 8.

To the diversity in the body that two sides the oneness the unity. Not uniformity. We saw that's in a graveyard. Remember. But unity and the unity is used because it's diverse people with differing gifts many colored.

Variegated gifts for God is a God of rich and infinite variety. Who gives all kinds of gifts to his body and he does that and he wants the world to see that though. We're all different so different. Yet he can bind us together in unity.

So now we come to that diversity. In fact, if you wanted to you could go to Ephesians chapter 4 and you see the first six verses all about the unity. Just like this was then you'll see from verse 7 on you'll see it's till about 12 I guess it is or 13 you'll find it's all about the diversity all the different gifts God gives and then from the last two or three verses.

It's as a result of unity and diversity then there's maturity and we grow into Christ grow up in him. All right, so let's have a look at these verses 6 7 and 8. We have and all I'm doing in these mornings, by the way, I'm not sort of preaching homiletically, correct.

All I'm doing is giving a running commentary. We're just going down through these verses. Oh, you know, that is Something that I have been greatly helped by when somebody just simply goes through there's no funny stuff and no clever stuff and you know James Denny said you can't magnify God and be clever at the same time.

So we're just going to go through the verses and plagiarize borrow God's thoughts and that's it. Verse 6 we have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man or a woman's gift is prophesying.

Let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving. Let him serve. If it is teaching let him teach. If it is encouraging let him encourage. If it's contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously.

If it's leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy. Let him do it cheerfully. Now there are words put in there to make up the sense of the English if we just Translated it in the way in which it was written.

Translating Romans 12:6-8 and Comparing Gift Lists

It probably wouldn't sound too good in English sometimes. You know of the translations can be so accurate like for instance I liked in the NIV in the Old Testament and I like the New American Standard Bible in the New Testament.

But the NASB is so accurate. It's not good English. Too accurate to be good English if I don't have my little Greek Testament I trust that one more than any other but boy, I don't like to say and Jesus was beginning to go towards Jerusalem.

I mean, it doesn't make sense in English. We don't need all those 500 forms of the verb. So sometimes in English we put in little words to make it up if I were to translate this literally. Wrote it down here.

Here we are. This is what the way I would translate this look at your text from verse six seven and eight this is what it really is saying as. Specifically if I were to translate it like that word for word now as having charismata differing according to the grace given us.

Be it prophesying according to the proportion of faith. Be it serving in that service. Be it the one teaching in that teaching. Be it the one encouraging in that encouragement the one contributing in Simplicity the one leading in diligence the one showing mercy.

In cheerfulness, so you can see that's all it says. It's got basic words. Let's have a look at some of these my there. Are so many lists of gifts. This is only one of them. I mean not so many there are at least four other that's five different lists of gifts in the New Testament and You'll find that together they make up about 30 different gifts sometimes there's overlapping one some words are used and one like Speaking for instance which covers prophesying teaching encouragement and things like that.

But so it's difficult, but there are about 30 and as I said yesterday, that's not an exhaustive list at all. There's many many more gifts. And in fact, you'll be sharing with me I hope and tell me some of those gifts you've seen in people or maybe how you didn't think you had any and suddenly you Found you had but it wasn't in the Bible.

So somebody said that's not a gift and you but it is a gift. Maybe you see so you've got lists. Here's a great list Ephesians 4. And if you want to remember the lists of five lists to remember the figure for Ephesians 4.

And then first Peter 4 only got two gifts there, but that's a list Ephesians 4 first Peter 4 then remember the number 12 first Corinthians 12 is the third list at the beginning of the chapter first Corinthians 12 is the fourth list at the end of the chapter and Ours Romans 12 is the fifth list.

So you've got all these different gifts. And as I said yesterday, there are many gifts that people had. Remember I mentioned the difference between John and Charles Wesley, you see John Wesley had this wonderful gift of teaching.

He was also an evangelist. Couple hundred and fifty years a couple hundred years ago now, but here you had that gift of teaching. And of course, that's a biblical gift. Remember I said, but Charles Wesley I mean, he didn't have what we know of as a biblical gift.

He wrote hymns. But today which of the brothers ministers more to us John Wesley or Charles Wesley well Charles Wesley because we sing those marvelous hymns and can it be and all kinds of other wonderful hymns?

So there are differing gifts and you're not limited to these but let's have a look at this list. Take seven of them here quickly. We won't exhaustively talk about anyone but give a few hints. The first gift is Prophesying.

Prophecy as Spirit-Given, Scripture-Governed Utterance

If a man's gift is prophesying let him use it in proportion to his faith. There are a number of ways in which we use the word prophetic or prophesy. Particularly when we say my that was a prophetic utterance.

We may mean by that that my there's an issue around today. We're speaking and thinking of the news and the issues today and somebody speaks a word. Which is a word that generally is backed up by scripture.

Maybe not a particular scripture and they come out with a statement somebody says that was a prophetic utterance. Or we may take for instance in the Bible. Sometimes the word is used just to mean teaching.

Although not normally it is used because don't forget they were often teaching with an oral tradition. Until the New Testament got into written form and the Spirit of God would come upon people and but they used in that way.

Perhaps more often we would see the difference between prophesying and teaching in this way. Prophesying is unpremeditated utterance and Teaching is premeditated utterance. I know I do it. I have to pre-meditate.

Such a lot 70 80 hours a week of it. So it's premeditated. But prophesying is unpremeditated the Spirit of God will come upon your sons and daughters and they will prophesy. It's unpremeditated. When I decide on what I'm gonna teach and I premeditated in this passage almost every message at least once if not twice I Find myself starting to say a sentence that I have never thought before.

I Keep going because it's worked before and I say boy, this is interesting Lord. What you're gonna say and out it comes and I'm listening. I Say well, that was interesting. Unpremeditated perhaps the Spirit of God broke into a time of teaching and Because I didn't know something that he knew was needed here then he would have caused me to say that and Indeed, I find it that since I've lost 15 20 years when I don't normally make a practice of using notes I find I'm more open to that kind of thing because otherwise because gotta get through all this lot, you know I can't have time to do any of this stuff that the Spirit of God gives me, but I was in a Rosemary and I were in a camp in Carolina, Alberta.

About two two or three four years ago now, I guess it was a Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, and it was a leadership of conference in a January there and During one of the evenings toward the end of the week I Had prepared a message and I was sitting in the earlier part of the service when they were singing and sharing Testimonies and so on and I had this increasing feeling that I wasn't to preach the message that I was and prepared well, the thing is that another burden came on me a passage of Scripture.

Oh God no, I mean it's been 15 or 20 years since I preached on that passage. I I would need a lot of time. No, no put that out of my mind get get back to my message, you know. Just get it right, but no I couldn't feel comfortable and more this other burden would come just shortly before I was to get up to speak a Man in a wheelchair who was in fact the administrator of this conference grounds.

On the staff. He was the administrator not the director. But the one who did all the hard work of keeping all the business side of it together. He didn't stand up because he was in the wheelchair and he spoke up an Unpremeditated word of prophecy out of the blue and in this word of prophecy He was saying what we need here today Lord is this and we believe that you want to tell us this and this and this.

And I want us and he started quote a scripture and he started to quote the very Scripture that God had put in my mind. And it was so strong that the Spirit of God needed us to needed to teach us this.

Well, I knew why that prophetic utterance was there. It was that God would say to me price eat your pride. Don't worry if you don't know what you're gonna say trust me this time and Get up and preach and I got up and preached on the burden and indeed it met needs of people right there.

And that's the way God will do that. Sometimes don't think that these gifts automatically ceased. I'm not a prophet by any means. I looked at my calling card this morning. It's not there and Frankly, but but you see with any one of these gifts.

We don't have to be that particular person with that gift and the big sign outside. You know, no any one of these God can take any one of us I suppose and use us in limited ways. I'm not normally the kind of person that could do that kind of thing.

But you know, but we all are used by God. Anyway, that's it. The prophesying is unpremeditated utterance for the most part. Anyway, let's look at the next one here. No, we didn't finish it if a man's gift of prophesying let him use it in proportion to his faith.

There are two ways of interpreting that and if you've got an NIV You may have like I have an A by the side of his faith. And if you look in the footnote, it says or in agreement with the faith. So there are two ways first of all, I can say well that may be a subjective and understanding or an object you I can Say let him use it in proportion to his faith as he is waiting upon God and he believes that God the Holy Spirit can Bring to him something that he needs to say well the degree that faith is.

Let him just open up and only say what the Spirit of God has said to him in response to his faith. Don't go beyond that. Let him use it in accordance with his faith. Proportion of his faith, but the other way is this the early Christian teaching the way as Christianity was called the truth.

They taught was called the faith. So there it's the body of truth called the faith. Which is the scripture put in creed form or or in various other ways and it's called the body of truth called the faith.

So now let him use that gift of prophesying in proportion to or in Agreement with as the margin says the faith. In other words make sure that you don't go off track just because you've got this gift Of prophesying listen God may come to this point where there's no more truth to be revealed.

And indeed, we know he's reached that point as far as as far as giving new truth. So don't go beyond what the faith says. Incidentally John Robinson the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers when they came to these coasts, which was two or three years ago now he was the pastor in England left from our home city of course and Bristol in England and then he came out there and When he came was it or am I muddling up with cat?

Anyway, whatever it was. Anyway, he came out here and he at least he put them on board that you know The Mayflower and he said to them as they were on board there. He said now don't forget. The Calvinist will go no further than Calvin the Lutherans will go no further than Luther.

But he said don't forget there is still yet more truth to break out of the Word of God. But don't forget that he said to break out of the Word of God. Not still more truth to be added on to the Word of God.

This is God's final word to us. But there's still more truth to be broken out to break out of it. And since the Reformation in particular there's been a gradual recovery of truth that had been lost for many many years and it's wonderful to find That I work in 40 denominations all kinds of people that some of which you'd look at me and say surely you don't.

I say yes I do because God's people happen to be there and I go there but it's wonderful, isn't it? How gradually we've recovered truth, but this is this is the thing. There's it's where to use it in proportion to the faith or an agreement with the faith.

Serving as the Practical Expression of Christian Gifts

All right, look at the second gift. The gift of serving verse 7 if it is serving let him serve now. This is a general word for serving. There are two words used for either a servant or a slave the main words.

Little later on down in the next day or two. We will see the one about slaving but this one is the servant one and it's just the word that we get our word deacon from and Deacon OS and although there are different ways of looking at it Dea is diameter going through the circle and some people say I'm not too sure.

It's right that Connors dust. You know going through the dust. So you must go through the dust. I don't know. It may just be a nice little picture that people have picked up. I'm not sure whether that's right or not.

But this is the general word for serving in all kinds of ways. And so if a person's gift is serving let him serve. What a wonderful thing it is to see someone with a servant spirit and how wonderful it is that God has chosen.

To put this gift of doing action where everyone else the rest of us like, you know Yeah can talk the one before it the prophesying he's talking the one after him this teacher. He's talking but the one in the middle he's serving.

He's really doing his task. I can think of people now I can think of great people with servant spirits who in our church people like some of you know the names doesn't matter Doug Wilson or Janet rashly or people I know have got servant spirits and wherever you see them.

They're always him. They're making the coffee or they're opening doors or they're taking a baby or helping somebody with their clothes or whatever it is. They're always serving. Some people seem to be committed to that.

My wife is is very much that way. I can sit at a meal at home. We have six or seven people may be visiting and I can sit there and I get lost in conversation. I can only do one thing at a time, but whatever I do I tend to do intensely.

Sort of made that way can't see anything else got the blinkers on got to give everything to it, you know. So I don't notice if people need something at the table or the butters over here or they run out of drinking something or they need another.

Funny thing. She just looks very I mean just notices. She can be actually in a conversation and immediately notice at the same time that this isn't even when we're just eating alone. Before I've noticed that I need something she's noticed I need it and given it.

I mean, this is amazing that some people have that kind of manner of working. It's a marvelous gift, but you know I'm not too sure that we just sit back and wait for God to zap us one and say hey you got this gift.

We've got to do it price one year gonna learn. We've just got to sit get down and doing it and we may find as we'll see in a moment or two when we discuss. We may have find that we have gifts. We never knew because we just sit down and do it.

But what a marvelous gift to serve. This is what Jesus was. This was this this this is one of his greatest names himself the Son of Man. He said the Son of Man his favorite choice of names the Son of Man has come not to be served.

But to serve and to give his life a ransom for many you can't be a leader until you're a servant and you're a servant. It's servants that we choose the leaders from. Don't train leaders. Train servants.

And then the true leaders will emerge from the servants. Don't find a bunch of people you think they've got leadership gifts because they got some Horribly strong aggressive personality or something and then you think they make good leaders.

No, no, you're gonna try and find the servants out of them. They may never serve but you find people who are servant spirits and those are the ones that from the which the leader should come. Because the way up is down if it is teaching the third one.

Teaching as Deliberate Instruction for the Whole Body

Let him teach as I've said this is the premeditated utterance and It's interesting that in the five lists of gifts that we've mentioned just now. One of the lists which is the Ephesians for list versus 11 and 12 gives these Four gifts just a moment.

You can just turn to it. I don't normally like to turn people back and forth because I'm used to teaching new Christians. That's why I tried to take deep truths and put them in such simple language that a ten-year-old can understand.

But so you'll forgive me if I appear to talk down sometimes. I'm not trying to do that, but just trying to make it simple. So I don't normally turn them back and forth because when they try to find Romans 12 again I have to go to the index page and find out where it was.

So look at Ephesians 4 and look what it says there about teachers. You see verses 11 and 12. It was he who gave some to be Apostle some to be prophets some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers.

For gifts because the structure of pastor and teacher is together there. Although there are people that still feel you can teach in an institution. Of course, obviously it may not have a shepherding or pastoring gift.

But that to be isn't there all it really says in the language in which was written is he gave some Apostles some prophets some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. In order to do certain things here are the only one of the five lists of gifts.

The gift is not given to the person here. The gift is the person given to the church in Fact again, although we talk about gifts of grace and I talked about talents from birth and so on. There's a sense in which most of the teachers that I have listened to and been helped by Had the gift of teaching before they became a Christian.

Even though we think of it in terms of this special anointing, so I'm not too sure. I've sorted that one out yet I'm sure you've got some good ideas on that and you can come up and help me sort that one out a little later but here is the gift of a teacher and.

And Where were we all Romans that's right Romans 12. So I I've said enough about that in other days and I will in the next two or three days. So let's let's leave that alone for a while. Except that God gives those gifts and incidentally when God gives any gift to the church.

Whether it's a person or whether he gives a gift to that person that person Belongs to the whole body it says at the end of verse 5 each member belongs to all the others. You say all the others in my church.

No all the others in the body. How many bodies are there? One body that means you belong to the whole Church of Jesus Christ worldwide and you've no right to restrict. Well, we have to restrict ourselves.

We got a sort of zero in on something but really quite honestly All of the church worldwide needs to use that resource or you need to be making make yourself available. For churches wider than your own to use that resource.

It's a wonderful thing in my work as minister at large or as my son-in-law Brent calls me large minister. I used to have a bigger pot that Brent you haven't said that since I lost that 20 pounds. It's okay.

Anyway, what in my work as minister at large with our evangelical fellowship of Canada. Which is a working together of 40 denominations where we we cross over lines. The purpose is to pool our resources so that we'll make them available To all of those who love the Lord Jesus and then we are able to draw from other areas other Resources that we may not have some church.

You say we don't have any gifts will probably you've got the blinkers on in the wrong way. And you keep yourself only to yourself and you'd be stunned to find anybody else is in heaven. But frankly as you use your gifts you're to use them very very widely now I believe if you can but we all have specific things we need to.

We'll talk a little more about that now shortly. Look at the next gift if it is encouraging let him encourage. Let me talk about the difference between prophesying teaching and encouraging. The word encouraging is a word that is translated in four different ways as far as I can see in the New Testament.

Encouragement, Giving, and Mercy as Gifts of Service

It's a verb to encourage and it's translated either to encourage to exhort to admonish or To comfort. It's the same word and it's just a word that means really it's to do with the work of the whole in fact.

It's to do with the word for the Holy Spirit. Listen listen to the word for one of the words for the Holy Spirit in the Bible parakletos. Listen to this word paraklesis. So really this is what the paraclete the Holy Spirit is Actually do and he's causing you to be an encouragement to other people.

So para. Kaleo, kal is from call. We get a word call from that para alongside someone called alongside. Someone called alongside someone else to sit down with them. I know some in my family have that gift is a gift of sitting down sensing people's needs sensing where someone needs encouragement.

Taking the time somebody like me is rushing off somewhere. Oh dear I wish I could have time but other people that's their gift and they can sense it and they sit down and they sit. They're called alongside like a lawyer or a legal aid or somebody an advocate you know in fact that word advocate I suppose is yes.

It would be the same word only from Latin because ad towards in Latin and vocare you're calling vocal calling. You know called towards the same kind of idea. So so here. It's it's some people have that gift and they encourage people.

Now the thought here whether it's exhort admonish or Encourage or comfort is all one of a positive thing that you come in and make that person feel better at the end of it because what you're doing is you're.

You're actually taking the prophesying and the teaching and you're applying it to where it's really needed. There's prophesying which is then the proclamation. There's teaching which is explanation and now there's encouragement or exhortation which is application.

Application Application. Where's Jeff. Jeff are you where I. Yeah, we were chatting on this yesterday, and Jeff's got got a ministry of Encouragement not to the other team playing the Seahawks, but but he's got a ministry encouragement of his own team anyway I'm sure and and there's a gift a gift that you know you wouldn't have time to get into all the detail.

That's needed maybe in the teaching there too many other things in his area of work and gift. But here to encourage to move on to take those things or to take the things we're learning this week I want to apply that to your life.

How wonderful it is to have a ministry of encouragement like that. The next one is if it is Contributing to the needs of others let him give generously or with simplicity contributing. This word is normally although it was used in a wider way normally in the Bible.

It's used in a monetary or giving sense. As we give our offerings and things of that nature, so if it is contributing let him give. I don't believe generously is the best choice. There are two choices here.

But this particular paragraph isn't about the size of people's gifts or things like that. This is about the full utilization. Because God gives us a gift and what counts is not the nature of our gift or the size of our gift.

But the full utilization of the gift, that's what God looks at so he's saying If it's contributing to the needs of others let him do it with simplicity. That's what I believe the translation says in other words let there be no ulterior motives no wrong reasons for giving.

There are wrong reasons. We can give because well we want other people to see and so we get along a big band and we go on the street Corner where our Pharisees outfit blow it and pull the $10 bill and wave it and give it say I'm giving this gift.

Or we can do it to curry favor with somebody well give them a gift or we can do it like I have known many Oh several wealthy businessmen give a gift and Specifically hand it to the pastor of a church or the chairman of the deacons board or elders board and say there's a gift.

But you'd better change the music style in this church. That's not giving with simplicity. That's giving with a wrong motive or there are people say well I'll give because I'll get a good tax break on this.

Nothing wrong with getting a tax break. If you give five hundred dollars, and you got a hundred dollars tax break you say well I can give a hundred dollars and still get twenty dollars tax break again or something like that whatever it is.

I don't know your system here, but but you see there's some people obviously we've got to use money wisely. But that must never be our primary motive our primary motive is to give. Shit for the sheer joy of giving and the more you get the more you'll want to give.

I tell you I can. It's absolutely wonderful the more you give the more God seems to leave there. I mean It's like sister Abigail of Buffalo a hundred years ago who said little is much when God is in it.

And if you have only one dollar and he somebody comes along and you need the dollar. But you give him 50 cents. He will make the other 50 cents go further than the dollar would have. Or if you've only got an hour before you're preaching you Desperately need it to get your thoughts together and somebody needs your time for half an hour.

Give them a half an hour and God will enable you to learn what you needed to learn in that half an hour. I've shown the scene that to be true that I was reading William Barclay and Let me read you what he says on this by the way when I mentioned William Barclay be careful on William Barclay.

He's loved by by Christians who loved the Bible and loved the Lord. And he's loved by those who play church and good liberal ways of doing things and you say well if somebody can be loved by Both he must have a little bit of both.

Yes. He's not always I don't believe orthodox on his his authorship of different books of the Bible on his denial of certain things like like Demon possession and things like that. He's not orthodox on a number of things, but he's the best I've ever read on the new birth.

So, you know the idea so just be careful when you read I warn you that so that you need to just not just swallow Everything but let me read what he says on this giving. There is a giving which pries into the circumstances of another as it gives which gives a moral lecture along with the gift which gives not so much to relieve the need of the other as to pander to its own vanity and self-satisfaction.

Which gives with a grim sense of duty instead of a radiant sense of joy which gives always with some ulterior motive and Never gives for the sheer joy of giving for giving sake. Now that's exactly it.

Oh my god. Give us give us a taste of the joy that comes from the sheer joy of giving no wonder. Have you proved yet? It's more blessed to give than to receive. Have you found that Proverbs 11 24 is right.

The old King James that I learned it crossing the Star Ferry from Hong Kong to Kowloon when I learned 500 verses in the first four months of my Christian life, but they're all in the King James. So when I repeat them, I usually have to paraphrase them.

But let me tell you what it says in the King James. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth. There is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty there now. You didn't understand what I said.

Did you all right? Well, there are those That give and give and give and yet they seem to increase in what they've got. There are others that tightly hold on to any possibility of anybody undoing their tight fist.

And what happens they become poverty stricken. Wonderful verse. It's more blessed to give than receive. Oh may God teach us that no matter how little how little but to but to start giving from that little and start giving then.

Increasing increase increasing read the life of our dealer Torno and see what happens when you give 90 or 95 percent sure. All right for him. What he's got left is 99 times as much as I would ever get in all my life.

But doesn't matter you read how it started and so incidentally I I have on a couple of occasions supervised a Hundred telephone operators who would take calls from a television program for a World Vision telethon.