Romans 12:3–8Scripture
This morning we have moved our way to Romans chapter 12. We are looking this morning—our assignment is verses 6 through 8. I'm going to do this because as we get to this part of Romans 12, we begin to move into the spiritual gifts. These are gifts.
They are not skills, they are not talents, they are not abilities.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 0:25
They are gifts, meaning that they were given, and so they're then given. There is no reason for us to move ourself to pride or to be prideful of these things, because they were a gift given to us by God first and foremost.
That is important. It is upward-looking, not inward-looking. However, whenever we get to this place, the church has a tendency to be so focused on the gifts that we forget God, the one who gave them, and we begin to evaluate and do gifts tests and consider for ourself which gift is ours. Now, I'm not saying that all of that is bad. I am saying that outside of the framework of understanding that this is a gift given by God, it becomes counterproductive, if you will. And so I think it's important for us to go back and then look at the greater context of what's happening, because we tend to— because we're going through verse by verse, one of the things we tend to do is forget the preceding verses, and those preceding verses are telling a story and helping your mindset get right, so that when you move into the next subject, which is gifts for the unity of the body, which are given by God, we then don't hyperfocus on what is being spoken of and not put that in the greater context of chapter 12 and then ultimately the greater context of all of Romans. So I don't want to just read 6 through 8. I'm going to read all of it, and maybe this will help us, and then I'm going to go back and I want to point out a few things that are essential for
Point 1Mercy and grace come before the gifts
Us to gain understanding from 6 through 8. All right, so here we go. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God"—not by your own abilities, not by your own strength, not by your own will, not by your own choosing, not by your own volition, but by what? The mercies of God— "to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." A lot of our worship is tainted in the world today because it's not by the mercies of God. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." Notice this is past tense: you're transformed by a mind that has been renewed, okay? "That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given"—so we have mercies and now we have grace—"given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think." Yet then we move to gifts and we start to think of ourself more highly than we ought to think. What does that mean? Is that a scale, Shawn? Is that, well, I think based on—I think of myself on a high scale? No.
If you think of yourself more than you think of God, you think of yourself more highly than you ought.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:40
So when you move into the gifts and all you think about is yourself, you think of yourself more highly than you are, and you fail in the first portion of the text, what he is saying. All right, so thinking much of yourself is thinking too much of yourself. All right, so even when you move into gifts, remember that a gift is a gift that came from God. All right, so it's amazing, and I know the small groups have already happened, so we talk a lot about us, because we have a tendency—what I'm not trying to make you feel bad—we have a tendency to think much of ourself. All right, so he's warning us. Notice the warnings. Remember, it's by the mercies of God, it's by the grace of God. Don't think of yourself all the time. Think of God. "Think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." Notice you can't even think with sober judgment unless God gave you the measure of faith to think with sober judgment. You can't even do that on your own. I love this. "For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." Notice that God uses the body to humble you and make you not think much of yourself. Oh man. "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith"—here's where we're at—"if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness." Verses 2 through 3. So let's back up, and let's just extrapolate a few truths that help us, when we get to the gifts, to understand the point the apostle Paul is trying to make, because I think you can miss it very easily. All right, verses 2 through 3: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
Point 2Inflated views of self are dangerous
Think." There's the danger. That's the danger.
Inflated views of our self are dangerous to your soul.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:31
That's the danger, and oh, how even in the church this wars against the grace of God. Now, in America specifically, we believe the opposite. Let's just be honest, especially advertising agencies. Now, the reason advertising agencies advertise with a you focus is because it sells, all right? It is very much effective, not only outside the church, but inside the church it has become effective. We are interested in our self. So exalting self is not perilous, it is profitable. And so there—I'm reminded of a billboard. Well, there's—what was it, Harvey's or Burger King that says "Have it your way," right? I can't remember which one. Huh?
Burger King. It sells because it's you-focused. Here was a McDonald's billboard, recently: "Me, myself, and my salad." Advertisers, educators, counselors, human resource managers, coaches, politicians, and pastors will give an account someday for how they exploited the suicidal tendency of the human mind towards pride, and it's happening right inside the church. It's a problem. But Paul here does the opposite. Notice that when he gets to the gifts, it is already marked by moving your attention and focus away from self and understanding that all good things come from God. If you don't read 6 through 8 with it marked by that, you get it all wrong. It's important that we understand this is God's business. So Paul does the opposite. He does what I believe love demands, not what people want, and sometimes what love demands is hard and makes people unhappy, because at the end of the day, what edifies doesn't necessarily please. Sometimes what edifies chastens, doesn't amuse. He says this in verse 3: "I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think." In other words, Paul makes the first task of the renewed Christian mind the obliteration of pride and the cultivation of humility. We talked about this a few weeks ago, the importance of humility and the way that the body helps us be humble. Oh my goodness gracious. See, there's this phrase that
Marriage doesn't make you happy, it makes you holy. Let me rephrase it. Marriage doesn't make you happy. It makes you humble.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:41
Because if anyone knows the real you, not the ambassador of you, who you put out to the rest of the world so they can see the good part of you, but the real you, it's your husband or your wife, or it's your family member, or it's your dearest friend, right, or it's your small group at church that you've been attending more than one or two times. They can see— people can be so amazed by who you are, and then you jump to another small group so they can be amazed by who you are, and then you jump to another small group so they can be amazed by who you are, but you actually stayed there for a year, and now they know you. They're not—here's the thing, they love you, but they're not amazed by you. Okay, let me just get personal for a second, right, without using actual words and things like this. So, part of my time is dedicated to a company called Wycliffe, and I have had the wonderful privilege—I should not have been chosen for this position, I am not qualified for this position, it is the miracle of all miracles, and honestly I think I might possibly be the comic relief for the organization—but I was put in a position of dealing with tech in the world that is taxed, who are trained, and the actual tech that we provide for the world for Bible translation through Wycliffe. So one of the things that I've experienced, though, in a Christian organization is that there are a few members of this organization who cuss. It's always been very disturbing to me, not to devalue the organization, because we are made up of faulty people, right?
And I began to question people's salvation, if you will, wonder why people would use such profanity, and not everyone, but a few members, and it really has bothered me. I remember having—I've had quite a few conversations with Brook about just the ridiculousness of this and trying to build a relationship enough where I could, when someone drops a bomb, i'm just like, "Why, as a believer, would you say that?" And it is amazing because, although—anyway, so being very judgmental, kind of, you know, I take it upon myself to be pastoral and rebuke everyone and trying to find ways to rebuke everyone so that they will be as holy as me one day. But that is an environment where they get the ambassador, but they don't know me, so it is easier for me then to look down my nose at people, to make judgments of their life and their lifestyle and their walk with the Lord and feel justified by that, because they know the best part of me, not the entire part of me. Don't worry, this is not going to—that I cuss, necessarily. But then the other day I went with someone from my small group, of name who will not be mentioned, and we went to play basketball, and now there are certain Southern phrases that I was raised hearing. It is like things like "jiminy Cricket" or, you know, things like that, or other things which we do not need to repeat here, because I'm trying to—I've been rebuked—and I had dropped a couple of Christian cussings, just nothing obscene. I'm not going to say it, but it's nothing obscene. You would be like, "Really, Shawn, you're going to make a big deal of that?" But I said it, and I said it on multiple occasions. One, when I was moving boxes into my house, I said one thing, and then the other day I was playing basketball and I said another thing, went to hurt my ankle, it wasn't anything obscene, but I was rebuked. Somebody's saying, well, how many non-cuss words can you use that are a substitute for the actual cuss word? It was Brian. It was Brian Brower. He rebuked me. Now, my son was in the passenger seat. He was in the passenger seat. He just went—just laughed, because he thought it was hilarious that I was being rebuked for basically cussing. And then Brian reminded me that it wasn't that long ago you preached on the importance of having a renewed mind and not at one place acting like you're holy and in the next place dropping cuss words, but then basically telling me, "But you do that in a Christian kind of way." And then it was almost like I immediately went to my disgust and my concern and disgust of people in Wycliffe cussing, and then the connection there. My immediate response was, never again will I say that, not because I will do that by human will, but because God has saved me and I am aware of my sinfulness, and by the grace of God this will be deleted out of my character. I trust the Lord with that. He has helped me with that. There have been a couple times, just by habit, I would move into that and catch myself, and Brook goes, "Good job. Good job." Now, why do I share this? Because community knows you.
They don't know the best part of you, they know the worst part of you, and they keep you humble.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:39
They keep you humble. They help you remember that your mind has been renewed and you're not to be conformed like the world, even a diminished version that's not quite as bad as the world. It is still the world. Are you with me? And so God is transforming our hearts, he's changing our mouths, and he's fixating our gaze on him. Then don't move to 6 through 8 and fixate your gaze on you. Remember who you are. Remember who you were in chapter 1: depraved, without hope. There is no way. It said you would not choose him. You chose to rebel against him. You were against him, but God saved you even though you wouldn't choose him. This is the grace of God. It is a gift that no man can boast about his goodness, and I think it's important for us in the church to remember, you aren't all that and a bag of chips, right? You're not so special. So the longer you love God, the more you think you're special, but community helps you realize you're really not. Now, so let us not forget, as we move on to gifts here, that righteousness is through faith, not through self, okay? As we move from the grace message into the holiness message, or into right doctrine, into right living, let us not forget that right living, or righteousness, right living, is not a self endeavor. It is a Holy Spirit endeavor. It is a gift endeavor. It is a mercy endeavor. It is a grace endeavor. It is an endeavor which God is working out in you. It is God's business, not your business. This is why our faith journey begins realizing that all of us are ungodly. Hint: my example, my story, I'm as ungodly as people in wycliffe. I'm as ungodly. I need a Savior, and unrighteous, and under the wrath of the holiness and just God. In ourselves there is no hope for us. We are sinners, and our hearts are rebellious against God. There is only one hope: that the righteousness that God demands from us, he himself will give to us. That the righteousness that God demands from us—thank you very much, you are wonderful—that the righteousness that God demands from us, he himself gives to us, not because we earn it with good works, but because we receive it. Listen to me, and you write this on your notes: by faith. Okay, that's how you get that. It is by faith. That is the foundation. It's the underpinning. It's the underlayer. It is the very bottom of everything that is built on henceforth in Romans, right? Faith, which is given a measure of faith, given to each one according to the gift. So as we move into the gifts, which is given by God, let us understand that faith is the foundation for this, which is given by God. It's all a gift. He gives it to us. Romans 8:33–34: "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died." In other words, the gospel "is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes," Romans 1:16. "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God,"
Romans 5:9. Now, the danger with all of this is that a person might begin to think that God's purposes are individualistic, and in our culture, this is the way we interpret this. Each is a sinner, each is guilty and under condemnation, each person must believe, and each will be saved if he or she does believe. That is all very true. The gospel is addressed to individual sinners, and no one can believe for you, but it is an "and" there. Notice here that Paul makes faith the measure of the self. Now, I'm going to try to explain this, and don't get lost, because I'm building on something, and then we're going to
Point 3Faith, not performance, is the measure of self
Throw a couple thoughts together. Paul makes faith the measure of self, not your gifts. Are you with me? This is important.
What is the measure of self? Your faith. Not what you do in the flesh or by the Spirit. Faith is the measure of self. This is how, as a believer, when you fail, the measure of yourself is not based on what you do, it's based on what he's done. That's important. This is why Christians can move to despair, because they make the measure of their self what they do and not what he's done. Faith is the measure. It's belief in him and what he's done, not belief in us and what we've done. Paul makes faith the measure of self. The reason for that is because faith looks away from self towards Christ and treasures him as infinitely valuable and significant and worthy of esteem.
When faith stands in front of a mirror, the mirror turns into a window, and on the other side we see the glory of Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:43
That's what faith does. It turns a mirror into a window, through which we peer into the goodness of God and the goodness of Christ and ultimately the work of Christ. The measure of our new self in Christ, the renewed mind, is the degree to which we look away from ourselves to Christ as our treasure. If Christ is more to you, then you are more. If Christ is less to you, then you are less, because faith is the measure. Let me rephrase that again. Let me just say it again: faith is the measure of self. What is faith? It is peering in the goodness of God, not peering in the goodness of self. So the measure of self and your worth is dependent upon whether or not your gaze is fixed on him or fixed on you, and if your gaze is fixed on him, your worth goes up. If your gaze is fixed on you, your worth goes down. I don't know how else to say it than that.
Your esteeming him is the esteem that you have.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:06
You know why we have a generation with low self-esteem? Because we have a generation esteeming itself and not him, and then we give counsel about how to raise someone's esteem by changing the way you focus on yourself. "Now just say positive professions over yourself and esteem yourself more so you can have a lower self-esteem." Right? It's crazy. But see, the gospel gives directives that are opposite of what the world gives, and the directive the world gives only moves you to greater despair. His ways are higher than our ways, and the way that we get to esteem is by thinking less of ourself and thinking more of him, and our esteem rises when we are faith-based. It is amazing how many people, and how many churches, how many people in churches, will talk and declare their faith, but it's me-ology, not theology, and it is not faith. It is the antithesis of faith. I mean, if faith is belief and hope in what you cannot see, then why are you speaking of faith and attaching it to something you can see every day when you wake up in the morning in the mirror? That is the question. I love this.
I love this. Some of us would like to see things formed in our life, and so we look to self to form it, but listen to what Hebrews 11:1–3 says: "now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith"—what is faith? It is looking at the goodness of God—so don't move to gifts and start looking at the goodness of you. "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God." Not by you. By faith we understand that the church is brought together by God, not by the pastor. By faith we realize that our family was formed by God, not by you. It is amazing how many parents move into despair when their children begin to run amok and to act crazy, but it is encouraging to know that by faith God is doing a thing in spite of you. Oh, come on! As a parent here today, isn't it good to know that God does what he pleases sovereignly in spite of our stupidity? Oh, I cannot—yeah, yes, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that the Lord is more sovereign than my stupidity. See this? See that? See, despair is in self-focus.
Parents, despair is in self-focus. You
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:35
find yourself in despair, you find yourself out of faith, and so get it right. Don't get it convoluted. Don't move back to this self-oriented, inward look, because it moves you to despair. It destroys your esteem. It causes you to not function in your gifts the way God intended, because requisite to properly functioning in your gift is, first and foremost, seeing the goodness of God. Yes, this is so important. So how does God then help us in this text get to a place where we are not self-focused but God-focused? And I kind of got in my head self there, telling the story. But we are united to Christ, and we are united to his
Point 4United to Christ means united to each other
Body. When we believe, we are united to Christ, and in any way that immediately and mandatorily unites you to each other. Oh, this is important today, because this individualistic idea, particularly moving out of COVID, where you can just engage God and not engage the body, is ridiculous. If you are united to Christ in any way, you are immediately united to each other. That is why we have to move out of this thing when we come to an event on Sunday and we don't engage with the body, because it's requisite for your development. Are you with me? And each member dependent on the other. I am glad that I don't have four feet—foot here, and foot here—because a brother needs to drink some coffee, and let's just be honest, my foot can't do that. Some of you—like, I've seen an Instagram video where somebody can paint with their foot. Don't be a smart— i'm just saying. I'm just saying that we need one another. "I just—all I need is God and the Holy Spirit." I'm sorry, wrong. Wrong. I'm not even trying to be—you're like, "Shawn, you're just using the manipulation to get people to engage in the church because you're trying to build something." I'm not building anything. I'm past that. That's why, instantaneously, when another family leaves the church—in case you didn't know that happens here—when another family leaves or someone else leaves, I immediately go to despair, because immediately I think about me, all that I've invested in a person.
Can we just be honest? And then to feel forsaken, how must God feel, right? And I want to say this: it's not about you, it's about him. We need to consider him and less consider ourself. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." So the gift of God's righteousness comes to us and takes away our condemnation in Christ Jesus. Now notice, in Christ Jesus is—if you're in Christ Jesus, you can't be in Christ Jesus the head and not the body. So how does he take away your condemnation? By you being connected to Christ Jesus and his body. Some of you stay in condemnation because you are individualistic and you won't be connected to the body. Some of you need condemnation lifted, but the way he does that is by being in Christ Jesus, not just in Christ Jesus with a decapitated head. So if you feel yourself in condemnation and despair, and you're overwhelmed, you know that God's remedy for that is not just for you to be in Christ Jesus in your devotional time by yourself. You know how he helps you out of that? He puts you in the body. The head and the body are a part of how he pulls you out of condemnation. That's just really important. Unity is important. So when you think of the gifts, understand that they're faith-based, and the gifts are to bring glory to God. They're God-facing, right?
When someone sees a gift in operation, they should consider God. If they consider you're using it wrong.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:06
And so God has—I love it that he uses the body. I love it that he hides the treasure in a field. I love that. I love watching Gold rush, and I've talked about this off and on. You have to move tons and tons of dirt to get a couple flakes of gold. How many of you could testify to the fact that there's some dirt in the field of your small group, but you don't get the treasure without dealing with the dirt? And he does this, he helps us, and then what small groups also does is it helps us realize that we're some of the dirt too, so that when we're in a car, it is not "I'm the treasure and I've got to move a bunch of you dirt out of the way so you can get some of the treasure." You ride in a car with somebody who's in your small group, and they inform you as they bulldoze the dirt out of your life, and they labor with you in spite of the dirt, and they rebuke you, and they move that out of the way because they see a treasure in you. It does two things.
One, it makes them a benefactor of the treasure, because they labor with you, and number two, it helps you realize there's some dirt in your own life too. But some people don't get there because they don't want—you know why? Because they're not faith-based, they're self-based, and they profess they have faith in God, but they actually have faith in themselves. How do you know? Because they're anti-community, because being anti-community allows me to have a high view of myself in spite of the reality of myself. Community won't allow that.
Community humbles, and it is God's path to help you understand that there are things that other people bring to the table that are lacking in you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:22
There's a lack in you.
Okay, now consider this carefully. You may have never thought about how utterly crucial the local church is to the life in Christ. Verse 5 says that "we are one body in Christ." Notice that it's "we," not "I," and "individually members of one another," one another. What does that last phrase mean, individually? Now, let me go ahead and stop right here for a second. "Individually members of one another." Some of you think, well, I'm a part of the body of Christ, I come to church on Sunday. Well, you go to a football game, you're a part of that team? Are you with me? There is a grand difference between going to a football game—going to a football game doesn't make you a team member. Why? Because a team member is there all through the week, practicing, working, running plays, sweating, doing the hard stuff so you can be entertained. See, some of us want to be entertained in church but not be a part of the team, and we want to be entertained and call ourself a part of the team, although we are—we all know, including the people who don't engage in community, we all know, we know, and you know, you're not really a part of the team. All right, this is just important. I'm not even being hateful, I'm just saying it's essential. So why are you making such a big deal of this? You trying to get 100% small group attendance? No, I'm trying to get 100% of people being blessed by God's design. That's what I'm trying to get, because there are people who are waxing and waning and in pain, and they don't know that the answer to their pain and their hurt is found in community. Oh, it's painful to get to the good stuff, but it's requisite, just like it's painful to work out but it's good for you. I would say anything good requires pain. Anything good requires pain. This is why God puts a giant by every promise, or a problem by every promise, in the Bible. Think about it, all right? It means that belonging to the body, we belong to each other.
Connection with Christ means connection with each other. If one arm is bleeding badly, every limb in the body grows weaker, not just the arm. If one arm is working hard to feed the mouth, every limb will be strengthened. But think about the importance of this for your relationship to Christ. What would it mean if one limb of the body said to the other limbs, "I don't need you. I don't like you. So I choose not to be attached to you anymore. I want no relationship with you"? What would that mean? Well, that limb would be saying, "I choose not to be in Christ." You can't have it both ways. Paul says, "In Christ we are individually members one of another." Period. That is a reality. We don't make it a reality, it is a reality, and if we reject the reality, we reject Christ. In other words, the reality of the church, the local body of believers, is crucial. Moving on. So the unity of the body, we talked about that. I'm getting to gifts. Why a body? A church? Now, why is this? Why would God set it up this way? Why not just a great multitude of individuals all justified by faith and relating with Christ directly and only dependent on the Holy Spirit, not on each other? The answer is actually given in Romans 15. Let's just look ahead, verses 5–7: "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." I need to find a group that I can accept because they're not idiots. So which group has the least amount of idiots in it? If you show up, it has one more. I think I can say that with all certainty today. And I entered this with a humble story, a humbling story of how I realize I bring the idiot quotient up some when I show up to a group. That's what it's essentially saying. Oh, that's so good. It's so good to remember. Notice that two times Paul explains what the aim of Christian unity and mutual acceptance is, namely the glory of God. What is the purpose of unity in the body? To serve one another. I mean, it's in there, but don't forget self isn't the key. The point of this is unto the glory of God. That's the point. Why the gifts? To serve one another. It's to the glory of God. Actually, in serving one another, we serve God. It's we serve God. You know what can affect your service more than anything? When someone makes you mad. And when you're man-focused or self-focused—and I would say to you that you can't be man-focused and not self-focused—when you are, it's harder to operate in what was given to you. There is a stumbling block and a wall that rises up because you've been hurt, but if you're doing it for God, it doesn't matter how dumb someone is.
Are you with me? Because I do it for God, not for them. So when someone disappoints you, it's okay, because I do it for God. Now, let me just say there are moments that pop up that you're going to have to fix your eyes on him who is the author and perfecter of your faith. Notice that there will be times that the Lord, the Holy Spirit, takes thoughts captive and makes it obedient to Christ. It is not you taking thoughts captive, it is his work. So that means there will be times where things rise up where you're offended and you want to put up a wall, but the Holy Spirit won't allow it, because you're his, and because he initiates faith and he perfects it, he takes that thought captive and makes it a slave to him. This is good news, right? Notice that the reality of that happens in community, because it's hard to be offended when you're all by yourself. All right, that the reality of being offended, and the reality of thoughts being taken captive, the initiator of those thoughts that are inappropriate are other people, and I would say in community, all right. Then he says again in Romans 15:7, and I'm almost done: "Therefore accept one another"—that means there's going to be difficulty in doing so—"just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God." Remember that you aren't all that, all right? Christ accepted us in our sin and our misery and loved us and saved us. Why? To the glory of the Father. Not because you're so awesome, not because he loves you so much. He did it for the glory of the Father. Does he love you? Yes, but he did it for the glory of the Father.
Not because you're awesome. It's because you're awful. That's actually in spite of the fact that you're awful.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:47
A group of people learning how to love one another in the power of the gospel and in the power of the Spirit glorifies God more than single individuals relating to Christ in isolation, in their room, at their chair, reading their Bible by themselves. Period. I just got to move on, but that just—so I would then move on to say, as we consider the gifts, notice that the gifts don't often—they don't operate in isolation either. They wither there.
Because if God gives the gift to be used in the body, then the gift only operates the way God intended in the body.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:35
In isolation, the gift he gave no longer operates. It withers. The reality is that while all of us have particular potential for good, not all of us realize that potential. Some squander the miraculous and personal gifts of God. They sit, as it were, on the shelves in the basement, decorations of a life focused elsewhere. The apostle Paul charged the church in rome: "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them." So what keeps us from using our
Point 5Pride, worldliness and passivity wither our gifts
Gifts? Well, what keeps you from putting to work the grace-filled abilities God has given you? A couple things. First of all, you're not understanding that the gifts were given as a gift. The second thing, not being God-focused but being you-focused with your gift. I'm going to point out a couple things, and I'm going to close, a couple things really quickly, and I'm going to attach Scripture to it, and I want you to go home and consider them. Here's some things that cause our gifts to wither. Selfishness. Perhaps the most common way we waste these gifts is by assuming they're about us and not about meeting the needs of others and ultimately glorifying God.
Paul's charge to us to use our abilities comes directly after the remarkable statement of our identity. Notice this, Romans 12:4–5: "For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." It's not about you. It's not about you being great. It's not about you showing off. It's not about you. It's not about you. It's about the Lord, and it's others-facing. Notice what faith does to a mirror: it turns it into a window where you see the glory of God and others and the glory of God in the body of God, or the body of Christ. Another thing that withers our gifts is pride. Beyond our selfishness that blinds us to the need of others, we might squander our gifts because we think too highly of ourselves. A couple of—did you know Barna did a study and two-thirds of the church don't even know what gifts are? There were a couple—you know what some of the highest percentages of answers were? A new house and a new car. It was high, and two-thirds couldn't name spiritual gifts. Another one that scored high was prayer. It's not a spiritual gift, it's a Christian duty. Most of the gifts that were listed by two-thirds of the church were self-focused, not God-glorifying. It was really—and this is where pride comes in. It withers God's intention because we think too highly of ourselves. A couple of verses later Paul writes, "By the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought"—pride—"but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." Another one is worldliness, which he talks about in here. He's trying to help you understand how, when the gifts that God gives, they can wither if we don't understand these. We're selfish, we read that in Romans 12:4–5. We have pride, Romans 12:3. We're worldly. A third culprit may be the most prevalent and subtle, and it is worldliness. We waste or misuse our gifts because we prize and prioritize what the world does rather than seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, Matthew 6:33. It's far too easy to fall in line with the crowds, casually strolling away from the cross. That's why 1 John oftentimes tells us to be careful to not drift. "Do not be conformed to the world," Paul warns, "but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." So don't be conformed by the world. Worldliness. Another thing that causes our gifts to wither is passivity. Oh, this is a real reality in our church today, and this is the last thing, and listen to me, because we have so busied ourself with self, church has become a passive event where we're active in every other part of our life but we check out in church. It shows where our priority is. The last culprit along this narrow path of faithfulness brings us back to Romans 12:6: "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us," he says this, "let us use them." It is amazing how people will come to church, and they are operating to some degree in the gift in the world, and they refuse to use it on Sunday because they've used it in the world all week long. It's passive. I'm passive at church and active in the world. Oh, how many God-given abilities shrivel because we're too preoccupied or insecure or lazy to even try? You know how we get lazy and passive? Because we're focused on self and not on the glory of God. We knew that person might need a call or a visit, but we assumed someone else would do it. We heard the church was looking for someone to cover that base or that thing, but we kept finding excuses to stay in the dugout. Paul says to the church, young and old, male and female, new believers and old saints, healthy and hurting, outgoing and shy, introverted and extroverted, musical—and, well, not musical—that you have abilities, so use them. Well, I'm just waiting for someone to ask, come on, guys, how old are we?
Find some way, any way, to use whatever you do well to care for someone else.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:41
It's not about you. It's not for your glory. It's for his.
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