Spiritual Gifts - One Body In Christ, Part 1

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October 8, 2024

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Daily Bites Of God's Word - Part 2 - Psalm 119:2

00:01: But at this point in the study, we've already noted that spiritual gifts are given by the
00:07: Holy Spirit to every single Christian. Each one of us has a unique combination of spiritual gifts that enables us to serve the body of Christ.
00:17: This comes through and ultimately we noted probably, it was probably in the first sermon, the introduction of spiritual gifts, but we know that spiritual gifts is not equal to talents and abilities.
00:29: However, your talents and abilities work in conjunction with the ways in which we've been divinely enabled by the
00:35: Holy Spirit to help us. And this is all done through service to Christ's Church and submission and obedience to God's Word.
00:42: It's ultimately to the benefit and to the needs of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And we noted through the three sermons on the solution to self that the one thing about spiritual gifts is it really ultimately, while it has to do with what gifts you have, play a role in how you serve others, it ultimately has nothing to do with you.
01:02: It has everything to do with others, other people, other Christians, and how we, through Agape Love, put their needs above our own.
01:13: Now we've also completed on Wednesday nights going through, we looked at each gift, what it is, sort of some background and basic definition, some elaboration on some, a little bit shorter on some others.
01:26: And we also looked at some examples of how they're used in the church. So we've done that. So now at this point, what
01:33: I want to turn our attention to is what it looks like when these gifts are properly used in the church.
01:40: And for this, and if you're already there, if you want to watch on screen, we are returning to the 12th chapter of the book of Romans.
01:49: These things that we saw in the first two verses, while they're, they're foundational, they're fundamental, and note also too, that it is our ultimate obligation to God, is the way in which we supremely worship
02:03: God by, and it's how we demonstrate this, by offering ourselves as a living sacrifice. It is only in making ourselves a living sacrifice can we actually prove, as the end of verse 2 said, what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
02:21: God's plan for ministry and the service of his saints, in light of the great commission that he gave us,
02:30: I think is put forth really well by one of my favorite Bible teachers, John MacArthur. He says that his, or God's, divine plan for believers is unity and message and commitment.
02:45: So when we speak of unity in Christ, when we talk about the unity that we have as brothers and sisters in Christ, we're speaking about a unity that is a unity in message and commitment.
02:56: We have a unifying, we unify around the message of Jesus Christ, and we're unified around our commitment, or the commitment, that we should have to Jesus Christ.
03:09: So his divine plan for believers is unity and message and commitment, but diversity in service.
03:21: Unity and message and commitment, but diversity in service.
03:28: You hear all the time in places of work, on TV, on the
03:36: Internet, diversity, diversity, diversity, diversity.
03:43: Typically what they mean by it is a lot different than what I would mean by it if I were to define it. But I would submit to you that the best model for diversity in this world is found in the
03:54: Word of God. Unity of message and commitment by diversity in roles has nothing to do with race, has nothing to do with background, has nothing to do with how much is in your bank account.
04:04: We all have a diversity of roles and diversity in the way in which we serve
04:09: God, and there's diversity in the way in which we serve each other. We're all unique.
04:16: We're all uniquely gifted. MacArthur has also stated, and I really agree with this, and it's also something that we all struggle with from time to time, but he says that true worship cannot be divorced from service.
04:33: Once again, Sunday school has hijacked my message for today.
04:40: Every time I go to Sunday school, we talk about almost the exact same thing I'm going to preach about.
04:45: So all of you that have been in Sunday school class this morning, you're getting the same lesson in different words. But here,
04:52: Ed and I were having a discussion. We were talking about this essential quote, true worship cannot be divorced from service.
04:59: There is no sideline Christianity, especially in today's world.
05:07: With secular totalitarianism on the rise, with the silencing of Christians at every turn, there's just no, there's not a question of if anymore.
05:18: We must be engaged. We must be in service, especially to each other.
05:27: For as John chapter 13 says, this is the way the world will know you are my disciples, by how you love one another.
05:36: And non -Christians were not in view in that context. Now, is it true that we should love everybody and help everybody we can?
05:43: Obviously, you've got the whole story of the Good Samaritan. You've got plenty of other scripture that deals with our interaction with the world.
05:49: But the primary context of John chapter 13 is that the world will know you're my disciples, not by how you love them, but by how you love each other.
05:58: Because they'll be attracted to it and say, whatever it is they got, I want it.
06:05: But true worship cannot be divorced from service. There is no context in our life.
06:13: In life, in the Word of God, you won't find it. You can search for the rest of your life and you will not find it.
06:21: But you cannot find any context in life or in the Word of God in which a Christian can be committed to Christ and yet be lazy, inactive, void of service to that same
06:32: Christ. A call to commitment to Christ, a call to service in Christ, is a call to pick up our cross, carry it, and follow
06:43: Him. And I've heard many different preachers say this. I don't really know who the original quote was, but they say a lot of times in Christians, or a lot of times in life, a lot of pastors would just be happy if we could get
06:53: Christians to simply pick up their cross and carry it from one end of the room to the other, much less anywhere else.
06:59: And that goes with me, too. So many times in my life that I could go pick up that one right there.
07:05: I might get it halfway across. Just not committed. Because true commitment involves service. It involves actually carrying it, being willing to suffer for the cause of Christ, suffer for the name of Christ.
07:16: We don't back down. We do everything in love. We don't act like some
07:21: Christians you see out there in the world who have axes to grind and just simply want their particular thing to be forced upon everyone else.
07:30: We do things in love, but we hold firm. We don't, the second opposition rises and says, well, you can't preach in the name of Christ.
07:37: We don't just go home. It's not what the Apostles did. They were willing to go to jail for it. They were willing to die for it.
07:43: That's why I say deeding Christ, justification by faith, the Trinity, authority of scripture, are these fundamental core doctrines that we believe in.
07:51: Those are the things we're willing to die for. Not, you know, how our particular church worships or anything like that.
07:59: Those are all important and proper and good. Calvary Baptist Church isn't the only church on the face of the planet.
08:06: Fellowship Baptist, where I came from back home, they were not the only church on the planet. So if they or us or anybody else thinks that, well, we've got the particular carve on Christianity.
08:17: We're the only right church. You're in error. Diversity, 1st
08:23: Corinthians 12, variety of ministries, variety of effects, variety of gifts. One common message,
08:33: Jesus Christ. In today's world, there's zero excuse to be inactive in service for Christ.
08:41: The enemy of our souls and the God of this world, Satan, is on the attack now more than ever.
08:47: Why? I believe he is well aware that his time, he knows his time is short. Those of you that are interested in eschatology and in -time studies and things like Revelation and stuff, regardless of where you come down on certain particular views, they all pretty much understand, unless you're a...
09:06: I've come across this thing called a positive amillennialist and this post -millennial belief that somehow
09:11: Christianity will take over the world and everything will get better. I don't see that.
09:17: I mean, maybe I'm reading a different newspaper than they are. But typically in Christian circles, there's some idea it's going to get progressively worse and there'll be a tribulation, millennium and the eternal state and all this, that and the other.
09:30: And for the most part, we're varying degrees. Most Christians agree to some degree on that. That matches up with what the world is doing.
09:40: So it really should not come as a surprise to us what we see happening before us today.
09:48: But with that should come a heightened sense of what we should be doing in service to Christ.
10:00: There's no excuse. There's no room for error. There's no room for, well, somebody else to take care of that.
10:09: That's somebody else's job, not mine. No, it is yours.
10:15: It is my job. It's all of our jobs. Postmodernism, liberalism, secular progressivism, you can put a lot of different names on it.
10:26: But the common element of all these world systems is a questioning of God's Word, a refusal to bow the knee to the
10:37: Lord, and a persecution at worst, intolerance at best to those who do bow the knee to Christ.
10:46: If you serve God, if you love the brethren, my friends, you will stand out.
10:53: If you are in this room, and there's more than one of you I know of that run your own business, if you attempt to run that business for Christ, it's going to put a bullseye on your business.
11:07: If you are an employee of another employer, and you're in an office, or maybe a store setting, or something like I did at Food Line, and you want to serve
11:17: God, love the brethren, you're going to stand out, and it's going to put a bullseye on your back.
11:26: There's no avoiding it. What I want to look at today is, and hopefully you will understand this, that if we're serving
11:39: God, and we love each other, we have a system of support.
11:46: And this is what I want to try to craft as we finish this series, is start to turn our attention towards understanding that spiritual gifts, talks of what we do in the church, the most important part of it is, we find out in our service, we have each other.
12:03: We need each other. We cannot function without each other.
12:11: Every single person is important. And if we have each other, while everything
12:18: I've already said is true, and it can be scary, make you anxious at times, and there are situations we will find ourselves in that our faith will be put to the test.
12:28: You're not doing it alone. One body in Christ.
12:36: Three different things I want to show you this morning. Number one, three things that one body in Christ means.
12:44: What does it mean, one body in Christ? Well, number one, one body in Christ means, we have complete unity in Christ.
12:52: We are equal in Christ. No one is left out.
12:59: No one is left out. Look at verse three with me, if you will. It says, for the grace given to me,
13:05: I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
13:18: Now he says, do not think too highly of ourselves. We are not in our thoughts. What he's saying is, do not exceed the limits of who you actually are.
13:26: Now, at the same time, you don't want to just think of yourself as just some worm or something.
13:32: Don't think lower of yourself than you should, but don't think higher of yourself than you should.
13:37: We are to accurately assess who we are and what our role is in our level of importance and the role in which we play.
13:45: The struggle for us preachers is, not all of us are going to be a Billy Graham. Not all of us are going to be a John MacArthur.
13:51: They're unique for a reason. Our struggle and pride is, we want to try to think, why could be this?
13:58: Be who you are, exactly where God has you at that moment, and faithfully serve him in that.
14:05: Now, at the same time, I shouldn't go out thinking, well, I'm never going to be anything. I'm just this.
14:14: Accurately assess yourself through the power of the Holy Spirit. Both extremes can be dangerous.
14:20: So he tells you, think as to have sound judgment. Sober minded,
14:26: I think the King James might use, an accurate assessment, sound judgment. So the first thing to understand when we're talking about what it looks like of how spiritual gifts are being used properly in the church is that, and watch this, even though they are highly important, they are still not what ultimately defines us.
14:51: Let's pick up reading. Genesis four and five. It says, for just as we have many members in one body and all the members, notice, do not have the same function.
15:04: So we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.
15:15: The removal of self, the solution to self is always in effect. So even in spiritual gifts and when we talk about what our gift may be and what our combination of gifts may be, what our role in the church is, never lose sight of the fact that even with spiritual gifts, we do not classify ourselves by what our gifts are.
15:37: We don't take the givers and say, okay, all the givers are going to sit over here and then the teachers will sit there.
15:44: Encouragers can sit here. We'll put those discerners up here in the choir. That's where they can sit.
15:50: The balcony will throw a couple of those prophecy people and stuff like that. Those preachers, we'll make them sit in the balcony.
15:58: Let's see, what's left over? Okay, we'll put some of the helpers, maybe the mercy people.
16:05: Those people really have a lot of mercy. We'll let you all sit over here. There's no room for classifications in the body.
16:12: We should not divide I've said this many times before.
16:19: We're all going to get along with some people better than others. That's just reality. There's certain people that will interact with my personality better and I'll get along with me better.
16:28: That's not favoritism. It's not favoritism on my part. It's not favoritism on your part. It's just life. It doesn't mean you don't like the other people.
16:47: No, it's not. I'm more important than they are. That's wrong. That's satanic. That's an error.
16:52: It's not obedience to God's word. It's not what spiritual gifts are designed to do. In fact, if you are more gifted in the body, your call to humility and to service is greater in some capacities than someone that may not be or may not have as many gifts as you have.
17:18: If you are a Christian, you have the same call to service that the pastor does, that your
17:24: Sunday school teacher does, that a choir member does, a musical person, sound, whatever it is.
17:31: We're all important. And here's the key to it.
17:38: Every believer is given the exact gift or gifts that they need to fulfill their role
17:52: But it remains just that, a body of believers. We're not a body of givers and a body of discerners and a body of teachers and a body of merciful people and so on and so forth.
18:05: We're a body of believers in Christ. Nothing will change the fact that our unity is always in Jesus Christ.
18:15: So our gifts are important. We are not to think too highly of ourselves as he says in verse 3 that we are somehow more important than someone else simply because of what our gift is.
18:26: There is no room for thinking too highly of ourselves in the body of Christ. Humility is always our prescription.
18:40: Go to the pharmacy, we get medicine, get refills for the
18:46: Christian at the Christian pharmacy the prescription's always humility and there's an infinite amount of refills.
18:56: You will never exhaust the portion of humility that God expects you to use and if you think you're past that and now somehow pride's okay you probably need to get two bottles the next time the trip you make to the pharmacy.
19:10: All of us have been there. Pride is the hardest sin to fight. Oh, it's so hard.
19:18: Pride is so deceptive because you'll think I'm not really being prideful
19:23: I'm just we didn't make sure everybody just stop there you're already on the wrong track.
19:30: I know this because these thoughts have gone through my head before. Pride is a hard sin to fight.
19:36: Humility as a prescription you know we do this with Hannah now at the liquid form of medicines and kids are like yeah
19:44: I ain't drinking that we do the same thing with humility like I don't want none of that that tastes bad
19:50: I don't like how that feels because you've ever had to humble yourself especially in situations where you really think you were right ouch that does not feel good it is hard to do and if we have time
20:06: I hopefully will be able to give you an example of what that looks like in a minute. So number one our body one body in Christ means we have complete unity in Christ.
20:14: Number two one body in Christ means we have true diversity of roles in the body so diversity in roles but watch this very quickly verses 6 -8 since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us each of us is to exercise them accordingly if prophecy according to the proportion of his faith if service in his serving he who teaches in his teaching he who exhorts or encourages in his exhortation he who gives with liberality he who leads with diligence he who shows mercy with cheerfulness whatever role whatever gift is diverse we all have a role we all have a place in the body the main thing
21:12: I want to say about this point before we move on to number three how many of you like football
21:18: I don't got a lot of football fans okay I'm just picking out football at random you can use any sport but think about this if every single person on the football team was a quarterback well first of all they never get tackled all my
21:37: NFL fans will laugh and understand that one but if everyone was a quarterback would you have a football team no if all of them were the big four and five hundred pound linemen that would be a very interesting game
21:52: I think I actually think I'd like to watch that one you wouldn't have a football team what do you have with a football team and those of you who aren't football fans
22:00: I try not to do a lot of sports analogies bear with me you have a quarterback you have linemen you have receivers defensive backs you have special teams you have kickers you have punters you have receivers you have return teams you have coaches assistant coaches quarterback coaches receiving coaches keep rolling out that's what makes the team they all have different roles different things they do and as much as we like to pick on the poor punters and if any of you ever thought you were going to be a punter
22:35: I apologize in advance you still need the punter even if you have 15 names this is not the time but even if he never takes the field you still need the punter diversity in roles you cannot do without anybody so I don't care if you're the one thinking it or if someone else has had the sinful capacity to actually tell you
23:10: I'm here to tell you right now it was a lie if they ever told you you're not important it is a lie in your mind if you think you're not important because that's not you that's
23:21: Satan telling you he wants you to think you're not important why if you're not serving you may not see it this side of eternity but your lack of service affects other people and affects other groups it affects this thing and this thing and this thing before you know it the church is not what it should be and you can trace it back to someone that probably just they had something to offer that something to give but somebody convinced them through a lie of the devil they weren't important well your pastor is telling you if you've got that in your mind you wipe it out right now
23:54: I won't have it because you're important I don't care what you do who you are what level of service you have whatever it is that you do is important to me and it should be important to all of us every one of us we cannot do this thing we call church without you and we cannot do this thing we call church without every single person
24:20: I don't care what stage in life you're at youngest to the oldest from a young man that would stand up here give youth announcements to those that can't even come to church anymore because of certain medical things they're still just as important everyone is equally important albeit at the same time we have a diversity of roles not everybody can be a pastor not everybody can be a
24:45: Sunday school teacher not everybody can be on the kitchen committee not everybody can do this or that or this or that or this or that you see it in our church many different people serving in many different ways we need everybody lastly number one one body in Christ means we have complete unity in Christ number two it means we have true diversity of roles and number three and lastly one body in Christ means that if we are truly dedicated to Christ then we will serve the body of Christ and we will serve each other in humility and agape love and we're going to look we're going to finish off this morning with just verses 9 and 10 the body of Christ you know what let's look at verse 9 and 10 first it says let love be without hypocrisy abhor what is evil cling to what is good when it says let love now that word in verse 9 translated love is agape now when you go down to verse 10 in a minute it's going to be
26:01: I believe it's Philadelphia where we get you know brotherly love it's a different word but this word here in 9 is agape love so let our agape love in context of using our spiritual gifts be without hypocrisy this means our love should be some translations use the word sincere it means unhypocritical not a phony that's what a word means when it says be without hypocrisy not a phony free from hidden agendas free from selfish motives hence the solution to this is why self is so important pride so important to talk about and why we must as it says abhor or detest what is evil and when it says cling to what is good that's a word that meant sort of like glue you're bonding yourself to that which is good it's not just well
26:53: I'm just sort of attracted to it I'm kind of follow what is good no you're gonna bond yourself to what is good while at the same time detesting what is evil and we do this by letting our agape love be without selfish motives and agendas which brings me to this thought that the body of Christ would be able to serve
27:13: God preach the gospel make disciples impact our community and truly love each other if we would just simply abandon our agendas the best thing that was said and I don't know why it's just you know here we don't do this but in my grandfather's funeral they had four preachers four guys got there and preached they was all good but you know here
27:42: I mean you imagine I mean if there was a situation where that look my number one rule is what the family wants family gets they want four preachers you know by God we have four preachers this is a little unusual you know it's not the normal right and four preachers
27:55: I don't remember who said it but one of them the best line the whole funeral the thing that I've remembered like I can see the person
28:04: I remember their name the person's right now my vision saying this is the best thing ever heard said about my grandfather is that here was a man who you knew without a shadow of a doubt had zero agenda in church as a pastor as an evangelist everything he did no one ever looked at him and thought that man's got an agenda he's not really in this for right reasons oh how
28:31: I could be the testimony of my life I hope that 40 and 50 years from now or whatever
28:36: Lord calls me home that the people of Calvary Baptist Church could say that guy had zero agenda that is a high calling but my friends it's what each and every single one of us are called to to love without hypocrisy if we could just get this one verse right this one verse right the potential that I already see in you that I speak of often would be on steroids that I'm telling you right now the things that you can accomplish in Emporia and yes around the world
29:22: I cannot even begin to think of a limit to put on because it would be unlimited then
29:34: Paul says in verse 10 be devoted to one another in brotherly love and our last place that we're going to part today is where it says give preference to one another in honor give preference to one another in honor
29:46: Paul says that we would be devoted to one another giving preference and I want to pick out something here that this is one of those tricky places where I think the
29:56: NIV gets it pretty good a couple different translations but the give preference to one another doesn't really fully capture what
30:02: I believe the original was trying to point out here the main verb in this verse is the part where it's translated give preference it's the main verb and it's translated give preference here is a
30:17: Greek word meaning go before as a leader or this understanding that I'm going before I'm leading and hopefully
30:24: I'm leading by my example now how does that fit with the idea of giving preference to one another in honor okay when we are to give preference to one another in honor what this verse is literally saying is this you have to sort of flip it around it's saying in honor and the verb is a present tense so it means ongoing keep on giving preference to one another okay so in light of what the verb and how it's being used it means in honor we're to keep on and keep on giving preference keep on giving preference keep on giving preference so that means we are to go out of our way to go before others to give preference in honor okay so let's unpack this what is honor we need to define what honor is so we understand how it is that we're to give preference to one another honor is a
31:27: Greek word meaning a valuing a price perceived value of worth a sort of IE here what has value in the eyes of the beholder so what this verse means is that when we view each other when we view our fellow
31:46: Christians we are to view them as we are putting them first above ourselves we treat them as more important than ourselves and to honor someone in this way is to genuinely show appreciation for them lift them up and meet their needs and to love them in Christ so we are commanded to in the valuing of other people as being more worth having more worth than ourselves we're to keep on going and almost sort of trying to outdo each other in giving that honor now
32:25: I want to end very quickly sort of an example and he can just beat me up later because I didn't ask for permission before John you don't have to say a word but I need to borrow you for a second right up here you can yell at me later for putting you on the spot
32:38: I meant to ask you earlier I just want to I want to demonstrate what this looks like because I believe this is key so giving preference to one another that means when
32:49: I view John as a fellow Christian brother I view him as having more worth more value than I do anybody can answer this shout it out one word answer what is missing from that equation if I'm doing that starts with s self if I'm valuing
33:13: John as being more having more worth than me there's no self in that equation because whatever he needs
33:19: I'm there to serve that need with no regard for myself but here's the balance of Christ and the balance of the word of God if all of us agree so John and I we get along pretty well you know we are video recording this
33:46: John and I used to get along pretty well we like Star Wars and sports and different things and you know we have good interactions is it pretty easy to do that when it's someone you enjoy being around what if John did something
34:09: I don't like what if John in anger one day said something to me and put me down or said something that made me mad or something to hurt my feelings or something that you know made me just feel like this big that verse is still in the
34:26: Bible it hadn't changed I'm still supposed to in honor give preference to you even if you do something
34:33: I don't like even if you don't treat me the way that this verse says I'm supposed to retreat you it doesn't remove me of my obligation to value you and the value you in honor and give preference to you my friends
34:48: I'm just going to be bones dry honest with you since I've been here this is our number one problem we all this
34:57: I'm putting look I'm in the boat with you this is somewhere I need to grow to we all do very well when things are going well before John said he don't like me anymore we do that part well but even if someone in the heat of a moment or they are having a bad day or they just don't like you which is something we will address for another day but regardless the verse is still in the
35:20: Bible and I'm still in honor oh the emails
35:33: I'm gonna get thank you John I appreciate you to be willing to do that because I think it demonstrates the point last thing