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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Romans chapter 12. Before I departed for our family's vacation, I left you all having started a series entitled A Biblically Functioning Church.
A Biblically Functioning Church is something that we seek to be at Sovereign Grace. It's something that we believe that churches ought to seek to be. Because if we're functioning outside of Scripture, then we're functioning outside of God's will.
That may seem simple enough, but it really is something that I think is often missed. If we are not seeking what the Word of God has called us to, if we're not seeking not only to do what God's Word has called us to do, but to live in accordance with it, then honestly, we are saying that we know better than God.
And that's quite a prideful thing to do. You know, I've had many, many conversations over the years. I've done debates, we've done formal debate, we've had many conversations, I've had many interactions with people who obviously differ on several things.
And a lot of things we differ on as Christians don't matter. There are things that Romans 14 tells us is really up to the conscience of the believer. You know, whether or not you, as an individual, go see movies or you choose not to go see movies is a question of your own personal integrity before the Lord.
You know, I enjoy watching film and some people say, oh, if you're a pastor, you shouldn't go to the movies, whatever. You know, I don't agree with that. But that's my conviction. You know, the same can be said for several other things, too.
But the reality is, there are certain things, particularly in regard to the church, that really shouldn't be up for debate. There are certain things that shouldn't be optional when it comes to the church.
The church is the body of Christ, it's the believers who come together, and when a person comes into the church, they should have certain expectations from the church. And likewise, the church should have expectations for them.
But what are those expectations? You see, when you come and join a fellowship, when you come and join the body of Christ, you're coming into a covenantal relationship with a group of people. And I've told this in the past, but I want to remind you, anytime you enter into a covenant with another person, you're entering into a relationship whereby there are expectations on both sides.
When I stood, I stood on this very pulpit, or this very chancel, and married my wife 17 years ago. We were married in this church. When I stood on this chancel 17 years ago, I looked at my wife and I said, you know what?
I take you as my lawfully wedded wife to have and to hold, for richer and for poorer, in good and in bad, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. And you know what? My wife has every right in the world to expect me to fulfill that obligation.
If I were to abandon her, she would have every right to look at me and say, you have broken your commitment to me and to God. Because she's allowed to make that expectation. And I have the same expectation from her.
I expect that she's going to be with me until I die. I'm praying I die first. But you know, we have this relationship of covenant between my wife and I. We're here, and we have expectations. You too. When you came into this church, whether you're a member here, whether you have been coming here for a few months, or whether today is your first day, you came in here with certain expectations.
The question is, were they the right biblical expectations or not? For those of you who have been a part of this sermon series, you've already heard what the expectations are for the members, people coming into the church.
What should you expect from the church? And there were nine things, I'll go back over them very quickly. You should expect biblical preaching. You should expect biblical theology. You should expect a biblical understanding of the gospel, of conversion, and of evangelism.
You should expect biblical membership, biblical discipleship, biblical leadership, and biblical church discipline. Those are the things you should expect, because those things make up what the church is.
If those things are absent in the church, then I would say they're not meeting the expectation that the church should provide. I pray that we are providing those nine things. That's what we seek to do.
But, as I said also, the church should have expectations from you. You realize that when you come into this covenant community, when you come into this relationship, it's not one-sided. The most dangerous thing that has happened in the church is that the church has become a consumer community.
People come into the church asking the question, what can the church provide for me? Do they have a great youth program because my children need to be entertained? Do they have a good women's program because my wife or my husband, well not my husband doesn't need a women's program, let me clarify, do they have a good women's program, do they have a good men's program, do they have a good after school program?
Do they have music that tops the charts? Right? And the church then becomes consumeristic because we're looking for those things which tickle our particular need or particular fancy or whatever. And so we're looking for those things to satisfy and that's what we're concerned with.
But we're not concerned with our part. You see, the question you should ask is what gift, what gift do I have from God that this church could use? What gift has God given me that this church needs? Because here's the deal, if you go to a church that needs your gift and you're not using it, you're not working as God has called you to work in His body and the church is hurting for you.
So this is the part that really is the subject of today because the title of today's message is on the spiritual gift. I mean, it's what should the church expect. We looked at three things the church should expect already.
The church should expect you to be in worship, the church should expect you to fellowship with one another, the church should expect you to do ministry. That was last time I preached. That's what the church should expect from you.
But today we're going to go to number four of what the church should expect from you. The church should expect that you are using your spiritual gift in service to the Lord in the body. No person here, no person here who is saved is without a gift.
If you have been saved by God, how did that happen? You were a sinner. You still are, but you were a sinner. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. God reached down into the muck and the mire of your sin.
He converted your dead soul. He gave you the gift of faith. You exercised that faith and you trusted in His Son, Jesus Christ. You were adopted into His family and He gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit who now lives within you.
You now have the Holy Spirit of God living within you and He didn't come alone. He came bearing a gift and He's given you that gift. He's given you something to do in His service. And so I ask the question, are you using the gift that God gave to you in the service of His church?
Because He didn't give you that gift to be put away. He gave you that gift to be used. Do you remember the story that Jesus told when He said there was a man who was given talents and there were three different men.
One was given talents and another was given a few less and another was given a few less. And what did they do? One went and invested it and he made more money. Another went and invested it and made more money, but another guy took it and he put it in a hole in the ground and covered it up with dirt.
And the guy came back and what did he say? He said, well, I wasn't sure I could use it and I know you're a hard man. I didn't want to lose it, so I didn't do anything with it. What did Jesus say about that person?
He said that person was a wicked servant because he was given something to be used in the service of his master and instead of using it, he hid it in the ground. He dug a hole and he buried it. So today we're going to go to Romans chapter 12.
In Romans chapter 12, the Apostle Paul talks about the spiritual gifts and he talks about the general gifts that are given. And here's the thing that you need to understand in my Sunday school class, we talked about this this morning.
Spiritual gifts are not as precise as people want to make them out like, okay, you've got to get to service and you've got the gift of mercy and you've got to get to prophecy and you can't serve because you don't have that or you can't do this, you know what I'm saying?
People tend to pigeonhole this. It's general, guys. It's a general sense because even if Chris, who is a deacon, has the gift of service and Paul, who is a deacon, has the gift of service, they are two different men and they're going to exercise and manifest that gift in two different ways.
Just as much as your thumbprint is individual to you, so too how you manifest God's gift to you will be individual to you. It doesn't have to be, I have the same gift that John MacArthur has, but I ain't John MacArthur.
When I talk about spiritual gifts, he has the gift of prophecy, proclaiming God's word, I have the gift of prophecy, proclaiming God's word, but we're two different men and we do it differently. You say, well, you both preach on Sunday.
That's about where they come, that's about it. That's about the only two comparisons. We both preach the word, but we're different men. And we use our gifts differently, but we use them. That's the key.
Are you using the gift that God gave you in service to his church? Are you not? And let me start, before we read the scripture, I want to say this, because somebody inevitably, I get an email, so let me just, let me solve the problem first.
I am not trying to guilt anyone into doing anything. If you serve the Lord out of guilt, it's not the right motivation. But I will say this, so many of you will come to me and you'll say, brother, I don't know what my gift is, but I want to do something.
That's what today is about. You know God's given you something to use. That's that's I don't have to ask. That's what the word says. If you're a believer, if you have come to Christ, if he has saved you and given you the Holy Spirit, he's given you a gift to use.
That's without, I don't have to debate that with you. That I know. The scripture tells us, we're going to read it in just a second. But here's the thing, whether or not you use the gift or whether or not you put that gift away is really going to be what makes all the difference in the world.
So let's read the text. It's in Romans chapter 12. It starts in verse 3, talking about the gifts. But I want to start in verse 1 only because if you don't understand verses 1 and 2, you're not going to understand verses 3 through 8.
Context is key. And the context of Romans 12 and the larger context of the whole book is Paul has just spent 11 chapters giving us some of the most important theology in the history of mankind. Chapters 1 through 3, he talks about man and his universal condition of sin.
Chapters 4 and 5, he talks about justification by faith. Chapter 6 through 8, he talks about how justification leads to sanctification. And chapters 9 through 11, talks about God's relationship with Israel, election, and how God chooses those whom he will.
We get to chapter 12 and he finishes his magnum opus on the subject of theology by saying, therefore, I appeal to you brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
By the way, how many of your Bibles say spiritual worship? Absolutely bad translation. It's not a good translation of the Greek. I don't know why they used it because the word for spiritual is not pneumatos.
It's not the word for spirit. And the word for worship is not the word for worship. The word for the word translated spiritual here is actually better translated in the KJV. It's reasonable. And the word for worship here is actually the word for service.
So actually, the way it should read is this. It says, I appeal to you by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices because that's the right thing to do. It's reasonable. If God has saved you, if God has given you a new spirit, you need to turn yourself over to him because that is only making sense.
Doesn't it make sense? Number one, God created you. Here's the thing people get upset all the time. I don't like the way God does this or that. Who are you? Oh, man, to answer back to God. That's Romans nine, by the way.
That's a direct quote from scripture. Who are you? Oh, man, to answer back to God. Can the thing formed say to him who formed me, why did you make me this way? Who do you think you are? You look at God.
I don't like the way you did that. Okay. That's the way my kids have kids. I have four children. Eighteen, fifteen, three and one. You know, my three year old says her new favorite word. No, I got to take something.
No. Give me that toy. No. Go to bed. No. Eat this green food. No. No. You know what I say? You ain't the daddy. You don't get to say no. Well, I don't like it. I don't care. The same for my 18 year old, too.
Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't like it. I don't care. Well, the government says I'm an adult. The government is wrong. That's a whole other story. But she doesn't say that. But you understand what I'm saying?
God has saved you. He created you and He saved you and now He says serve me and that's the reasonable response. You wouldn't be here if God didn't create you. You wouldn't continue being here if God didn't sustain you.
So ultimately, for you to worship Him, to offer yourself as, by the way, that's an oxymoron, living sacrifice. There's no such thing as a living sacrifice. Sacrifice is by nature dead. But this is one of Paul's little play on words here because he's saying live like a sacrifice.
Live like you already did. You've died to yourself and you're living for Christ. Then Paul says that. He says, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. Live for Christ. Be a living sacrifice. Live as if you're dead to self and live for Christ because that's reasonable.
And he goes on in verse 2, he says, 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.
By the way, I love the fact that it says by the renewal of your mind and not of your heart. You see, oftentimes people, oftentimes people want to make faith and an expression of their faith an emotional thing.
And so it's all about the heart. I mean, listen to the way that we think about music. It's all about the heart. Listen to your heart. My heart will go on. All those songs. Paul doesn't say that we serve God through the renewal of our heart.
He says you renew your mind. You should have a thoughtful faith. You should have a faith that you've thought through. You should have a faith that didn't just come to you from your parents, but has come to you by faith and having understood the word of God.
Now I'm not saying your parents didn't have anything to do with that. As parents, we do have an important responsibility to teach our children. But ultimately, I didn't inherit my faith from my parents.
I learned my faith from the word of God, and I received it as a gift from God, the Holy Spirit, who came into my heart and gave me the ability to believe. So ultimately, that's what we have to understand.
He's saying here that we do not conform ourselves to the world, but we're transformed by the renewal of our mind so that we can do these things, that we can present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and blameless, that we can do these things.
And then verse 3, we get to the passage in question today, or the passage of focus. By the way, that was all introduction. I'm halfway done. I have to be careful. I spent all my time in introduction. Because he says, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, who is he talking to?
Everyone. That's key, by the way, because there are some people who think they're not gifted. You ever heard somebody say, I just don't have a spiritual gift? Well, you do, you might not be using it, you might not have recognized it yet, but you have it.
So don't think for a second that you don't. He says, I speak to everyone among you. And here's the thing, he says 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 him.
For as in one body, we have many members and members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.
Let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches and is teaching and the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
So going back up to verse three, he says, 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. Why did he start with that? Well, the simple issue is oftentimes people who are highly gifted will be highly prideful.
People who are exceptionally talented will be exceptionally proud of their talents. So when Paul begins his discussion of spiritual gifts, he begins also a discussion of how we ought to understand who we are.
And he says, look, for by the grace given to me, the first thing he says is I'm here by grace. By the grace given to me, I say to you, his his initial statement on that is to simply say this, I'm the I'm Paul, I'm an apostle, but I'm not here because I woke up one day and said, hey, I'm going to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.
You know how it took Paul to get to be an apostle of Jesus Christ? It took God knocking him down, blinding his eyes. And calling him to repentance on an individual level, people always talk about free will, everybody wants to announce about how great free will is, if there's ever anybody who didn't get saved by his own will.
It was the apostle Paul, Paul didn't get saved because he made a free will choice to believe in Jesus, Paul got saved because he was a rebel against the Lord, he was a rebel against Jesus. And God said, nope, I want that guy.
And he blinded his eyes. You understand, Paul is the example of God's radical conversion of a heart, because here's a man who was going to imprison Christians. And God saved him. So what does the text say?
It says, for by the grace given to me, I am here because of grace. And I say to everyone among you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. And by the way, the word sober there, we often think about it connecting to alcohol.
The word sober simply means to be in your right mind. So he's not connecting this to alcohol. What he's connecting this to is people who are out of their mind and their pride. There are people, I've heard people say, this church wouldn't run without me.
I don't know where the church would be without me. I mean, I've heard people, I've heard it come out of their mouth. You couldn't have this place if it weren't for me. They ain't here anymore, guess who still is?
The church. We didn't kill them or anything, but they're not here. I mean, I'm just saying that type of pride is ridiculous. But there's also something else that we need to understand is implicit in this passage.
It's not explicit, but there is implicit something that's often missed. Paul says in this passage, for the grace given to me, everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.
That means right thinking. You need to think rightly, which means this. You don't need to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but you also don't need to think of yourself more lowly than you ought to think either, because that's not right either.
Some people say, oh, I'm just I'm just so terrible, I don't think God can use me. Let me say something, if God wasn't in the business of using terrible people. I wouldn't be up here, if God wasn't in the business of using terrible people.
Then we wouldn't have a Bible. You read from the beginning, never once did God use someone who was great. He always used the guys who had the problems. That's the realization that you have to come to.
You are certainly you don't need to lift yourself up and think more highly than you should. But you don't need to think of yourself so low that you can't that God can't use you, because neither one of those are sober minded thinking.
And let me say this, too. There are some people who use the false modesty thing. And this is a sort of a form of pride, because somebody will come up and say, boy, you did such a good job. I was so thankful for the way you ministered.
And you'll say, oh, I'm such a wretch. Oh, don't say I'm horrible. I'm terrible. You ever seen somebody do that? They just all don't give me any credit at all. It's all. You know what I'm talking about, right?
It's it's it's false modesty oftentimes. I had to learn this years ago because I didn't know what to do when people told me if I preached a sermon that had affected them in some way or was encouraging to them, people come up and say great sermon.
And at first I was like, oh, don't say that. You know, oh, that's oh, it was terrible. You know, I could have done so much better or whatever. You know what I say now? Either thank you or nothing. I say, OK, praise the Lord because it's all him, you know, or whatever.
But the idea that you if you think too highly of yourself, that's bad because you're going to get a big head and it's going to end up knocking you over. But if you think too lowly of yourself, you're never going to accomplish anything.
Paul says, think rightly. If God's given you a gift, use it, don't be embarrassed of it and don't be ashamed of it. Don't feel like he didn't give it to you because he did. And if he gave it to you, he gave it to you for a purpose.
Think rightly about whatever your gift is and use it. Don't be prideful, but don't don't be so humble that you're no good, because a lot of times, you know what it takes to go out and do for the Lord?
Confidence to do it. And if you think yourself so low that you kill yourself, you kill your confidence, that's not good either. If somebody recognizes something that you do well. Take that as an encouragement that God is using you.
Say thank you and do it well. Everybody understand that? I don't have to go any further. Because I really wanted to focus on that because I'm really afraid that one of the things that keeps people from using their spiritual gifts, they don't think that they're worthy to use their spiritual gifts.
They don't think that they're. They don't think that they, you know, people say, oh, well, there's somebody else at the church who's much better at that. Yeah, but they're not you. And they may be better at whatever that thing is.
But if God is calling you to that, he's gifted you to do that. Do it. And then he goes on in verse four, he says, for as in one body, we have many members. Members do not all have the same function. So we though many are one body in Christ, individually members of one another.
See, that's the key, guys. If you think that you can't serve Christ because you're not a pastor, then you are dead wrong. One of the things that I think has, you know what we have, it's a word, it's called clergy.
You know, when I go, you know, the only time I think the word clergy is great is when I go to the hospital because I get special parking. But no, but I mean, I think the word clergy has been really a negative aspect of the ministry because it has created somewhat of a division between what guys like I do and the church does.
You understand that I am not a super Christian. I am not special in the sense that my gifts are more important than yours. My gifts are simply different. I mean, the apostle Paul, we read it earlier for our call to worship.
He said, the hand can't say to the foot, I have no need of you because if the whole body were a hand, how would you get around? He said, the eye can't say to the ear, I have no need of you because if the whole body were an eye, how would you ever hear anything?
And that's essentially what Paul is saying here. For as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, so too we are many, our one body in Christ. You have a spiritual gift to use in the service of Christ and His church and it's going to be different than mine.
And guess what? You should never measure your gift against my gift as a value measurement because that isn't how it works. Some guys get really caught up in measuring the value of their ministry against something someone else is doing.
Pastors are the worst. I mean, you could just say that anyway, but pastors are the worst. About this, pastors are the worst. Because when pastors get together, you know what? Almost inevitably, and I've been to enough meetings with other pastors, you know what?
Inevitably, almost always is the first question. How many, what? How many people go to your church? You know what the question is implying? How good are you? Because the assumption is, well, if you've got 8 ,000 people, you're pretty good.
If you've got 80 people, not so good. If you've got 8 people, you need to find something else to do. No, I mean, I'm just saying that's the way that they measure. Why? Why is that? Because it is the nature of man to compete, maybe.
Part of our sinfulness is we want to be better than someone else. But the reality is, I'm not in a competition with John MacArthur. I'm not in a competition with R .C. Sproul. I'm not in a competition with Herb Revis or Mack Brunson or anybody else.
You know who ultimately I'm in a competition with? Satan, if you want to get it. I mean, honestly, I'm fighting against him, not against them. If they're preaching the gospel and their churches are filled, praise the Lord.
If I'm preaching the gospel and people are here, praise the Lord. If I'm not preaching the gospel, fire me. And hire somebody who preaches the gospel, because that's the most important thing for the guy who stands up here to do.
But you understand, that's the key. Is, I can't go comparing my ministry to somebody else's because I'm chasing the wrong thing. I compare my ministry to the giftedness God has given to me, and the place God has placed me.
You know, God could move me tomorrow. I could get a call from Jerkwater Baptist Church in the hills of Kentucky. And if God so moves to take me away, I could be moved to preach to a 20-member church, where I would have to work as a school teacher to make money for my family, because I couldn't provide with the church the money the church gave me.
But you know what, if that's what God called me to do, that's where I'd go. Because that is what my giftedness is, is to preach His Word. And if that's the way He was going to use me. And you know what, you're here today for whatever reason.
I don't know, some of you are members here, some of you are visitors here. And whatever brought you here, maybe you were passing by, maybe you saw this handsome face and just couldn't resist. Come, I don't know what it was.
You're here. That was a joke, a terrible joke. But you came, and if it was nothing else, you came and you heard this. And this is the simple message of the morning. God has given you a gift to be using in the service of His church.
If you're a believer, if you've been born again, God has given you a gift. Are you using it in the service of His people? Are you in a place where you are going to be used with the gifts that God has given you?
Because that's the question we need to know. God didn't bring you here by accident. He brought you here for a reason. Are you being used, and are you using the gifts that God gave to you? I want to end with a little illustration.
I'll close with this. There's a photograph made its way around social media. There's a little story that goes along with it. I won't tell the story, but I'll give you an example. Essentially what the photograph showed was a monkey, a zebra, a bird, and a goldfish in a bowl.
So you had all four animals there. And the person in front, it looked like a school room, the person in front said, All right, today's test is to climb the tree. The monkey had a big smile on his face.
The zebra had his head hung down. The fish didn't know what he was going to do, because there was only one who was equipped to do the task at hand. God has uniquely equipped you to do something. And if you spend your time comparing yourself to people who God has equipped to do something else, or trying to do something that you're not equipped to do, you're going to spend your time frustrated in ministry.
So I want to encourage you to do this. We talked about this in Sunday school. I'll finish with this. How do you know what your spiritual gift is? I'll say this. If you read through the text here, there's basically seven categories, if you will.
But before you even get into the categories, let me ask you this. What do you want to do? Because I believe, and I think that I can prove this out of the text, that ministry is based off of motivation.
And that motivation is itself the gift. People tell me, you're such a gifted preacher. Public speaking is not my spiritual gift. You know how I know that? If you're in my Sunday school class, you know.
You know how I know that public speaking is not my spiritual gift? Because I could do it before I got saved. I've always been able to speak publicly. I've always been able to command an audience. I've never had any problems speaking in front of people.
But you know what changed when I got saved? I had a desire in my heart to teach people God's word. And that talent that I had probably almost from birth of being somewhat of a speaker, God used that talent and he motivated me with the gift to preach.
You see, you have to understand. You may have a talent you've had all your life. I don't call that your gift. I call that your talent. Your gift is the motivation behind it. Because there are people who use the same talent you have to serve the devil.
There are people who use the same talent you have to serve themselves. What motivates you to serve Christ? Say, I'm motivated because I see so many people hurting. Alright, maybe you have the gift of mercy.
Maybe we need to figure out a ministry that you can do to help those hurting people because that's how you're motivated. I'm motivated to teach God's word. I'm motivated to encourage people and to give counseling.
I'm motivated to lead and administrate because God has given me this gift of understanding numbers and how things work. Let's figure out where you should be and let's use you as God built you to be used.
Because that's what we should expect. The church should expect that every member is ministering according to his or her spiritual gift within the body of Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
I thank you for the truth. I pray, oh Lord, that this word has been encouraging to your people. And I pray, Lord, that those who are here have heard it with the heart that it has been given with and that is a heart of a desire to see men and women wholly and wholeheartedly following after you, providing service in accordance with faith.
Father, as we turn now our time to communion, I pray that you would strengthen the hearts of the believers, give us a sense of self-inspection and introspection to look at our hearts and know that we know Christ.
And it's in his name we pray. Amen.