Romans 12:3–5Scripture
Everybody turn your Bibles with me to Romans 12. Last week we had the privilege of looking at verses 1 and 2, and this morning we will be looking at verses 3 through 5. Now, last week we talked a little bit about how easy it is to move from chapter 11, reflecting on all that has been said in chapters 1 through 11 on the sovereignty of God, the work of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, and God's purposes and will that he is constantly working out in and amongst our lives. And so we see then that very much of Romans, as it lays doctrinal foundational truths for us throughout these first 11 chapters, is about God and what he is doing in our midst.
It is not egocentric, it is God-centric. So
Pastor Shawn Gray · 0:50
then we fail, then, if we turn to chapter 12 and we begin to put emphasis on us and not consider that all that is pertaining to us is for the Lord's glory. We talked a little bit about that today. Let's read the verses together and then I'll try to, really, we can really go, oh man, it can go sideways quick in chapter 12. For those of you who had small group discussions, some of what I'm going to say today will be, in essence, like pumping brakes on a car that's going too fast in one direction, that we might consider if the direction in which we are going is the correct direction, all right? Because some of our conversation really is leaning
Point 1Romans 12 is still about God, not us
Towards focusing on us and not focusing on the goodness of God and ultimately his mercies. So as we read 3 through 5, do not start thinking about yourself, consider God. That's still in view here. It talks about you, but it talks about you so that you can consider the greatness of God. All right, verses 3–5 say, "For by the grace given," who gave it? All right, who gets it? You, don't be scared, it's you, but you come into the equation to draw attention to who God is. All right, "For by the grace given to me," Paul's speaking here, "I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment." Notice here, it's not bad to think of yourself, it's about the way you think about yourself, that's the issue. He is calling us to think soberly about ourselves. So we can think about ourselves,
Point 2Every measure of faith is given by God
We should just do so soberly, using sober judgment, "each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." For instance, pause, let's just stop here, I don't get to think of myself based on the measure of faith given to Brook. In essence, there may be the possibility for me to realize that the measure of faith given to Brook is different than the measure of faith given to me. Most of you would assume and have evaluated that possibly the measure of faith given to me is different than the measure of faith given to you, all right? You would then be able to look at me and say, the measure of faith given to me is very different than the measure of faith given to Paul, or the measure of faith given to somebody else. I would say that the measure of faith given to Spurgeon is very different than the measure of faith given to me, right? Looking at your children, the measure of faith given to one child you can see is very different than the measure of faith given to another child. How many of you know that, families? For instance, Brook and I, we have two kids. God gave me a measure of faith to handle that alone, and not an ounce more, not a drop, not a snippet, not a tidbit, not a little bit. That is it. It is depleted daily. The measure of faith I have been given is depleted in a vacuum-sucking way daily. The measure of faith I have, I expend. Can you get an amen? Can I, parents, can I get an amen in here? However, there are other families in here that have way more children than I have a measure of faith to deal with. That's why God has given me a measure of faith to deal with two, and them the measure of faith to deal with five. Does it make them better because they can deal with five and I can only deal with two? God has given me the measure of faith to deal with what he's given me. Are you with me? And it is evident then when we see one family, they have a higher measure of faith to deal with what God has entrusted to them. It doesn't make them better, because God has entrusted them a certain amount, certain type, because, listen, the emphasis then is not on the individual that receives the measure of faith, the emphasis is on God who gave the measure of faith in his sovereign design, that he portions off an appropriate amount for what he entrusts. This is good. The emphasis is god-centric, not egocentric. Now, pride comes in when you begin to compare your measure of faith with someone else's measure of faith, right? All right, so he's warning us that this is going to be an issue, not because we can't see that people's measure of faith is different, but because we can see that pride might become an issue for us. I love this. "For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function." So not only do we not have the same measure of faith, we don't have the same function, and I would propose to you that the measure of faith is dependent upon the function. Okay, so "we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." I love this. I read this story and I want to share it with you. I think it's fantastic in so many different ways, all of which I have not fully had the time to sit and extrapolate out of the story, maybe we could just consider it together. In 1985 the great baseball pitcher Tom Seaver, those who like baseball might know who he is, he's a pitcher and he was good, was on the verge of winning his 300th game. That's huge, which few pitchers have ever done. He ran over to his nine-year-old daughter in the box seats and said excitedly, "Three more outs to go." Her response: "Good, then we can go home and swim." I love this. It's two individuals, part of a family, only thinking of themselves. Let me just say this, I like the image because not only are they thinking of themselves, but they're so fixated on themselves and what they want for themselves that they cannot even celebrate another member of the family. Are you with me? But both sides, the child can't consider the success of the father because she only wants to go swimming, and the father can't consider what the child wants because he only wants to be great. How do you live your life? Is it possible for you to sit at a table, like today, break bread with people that you're in fellowship with, and the whole conversation is not centered around you? Is it possible? Is it possible for someone to tell a story and you not be so excited to tell a story that's similar to that story so that you can bring you into the equation?
Is it possible for you to eat lunch and not make it egocentric?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:28
Now that doesn't mean that the goal of today is to have lunch and no one talk. That's not the goal. But when was the last time that you had dinner and asked someone about them? Are you only concerned about you? See, let me just say this, let me say this: when you gain an understanding that any grace you have, any mercy that's been bestowed upon you has been bestowed upon you because God gave it as a gift, it is easier to be, I don't know, curious about other people, because then it's not all about you trying to make
Your mark in the world. Your mark was made because God did it for you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:25
Maybe at our tables we should be celebrating the goodness of God and his grace and his mercy more than celebrating our achievements and ourselves.
When was the last time you broke bread and made God famous at your table?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:49
When was the last time you did that? Three times in Romans 11:18, verse 20, and verse 25, Paul warns against pride. This is a big deal and we can't forget that. In chapter 11 he's really focusing on this issue of pride and the way that he works out salvation in nations to inhibit and prohibit prideful behavior. Like, it is the biggest part of why he does what he does. He brings it up again in chapter 12:3, he'll mention it again and directly in 12:10 when he says, "Give preference to one another in honor." Who do you give preference to? One another. Come on. One way you can exercise this is just ask more questions and stop telling so many stories. Be curious about one another. Ladies and gentlemen, husbands and wives, when you go on a date, right, put down your phone, put it in the purse, zip the purse up. Men, you don't have purses, we understand that, give it to your wife, let her put it in her purse and zip the purse up. And why don't you do this? Why don't you ask some questions about the other person? Oh, we want to know about you and how your week is and how your month's been, and it's okay to share your dreams and all of that, but why don't you be curious about others? That's how you honor them. I found that the easiest way to get somebody into a conversation is be interested in them. You don't have to be a great conversationalist, just be interested in people, because people love to talk about themselves. I'm not hating on that, I'm just saying it's the truth. There's no one that escaped that today. Everyone enjoys talking, so if you want to build a relationship with somebody, be interested in them. Jesus was infinitely interested in those he called. And then in 12:16 he says, "Do not be haughty in mind." Pride is the underlying sin in his rebuke in chapter 14, verses 4 and 10, where he says, "Who are you to judge the servant of another?" "But you, why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt?" I'll tell you why: because you've measured your portion of grace and faith, measure of faith, in comparison to theirs. That's how you did it. The reason it's easy to be judging of another brother is you're measuring, and especially in the church, all right, especially in the church. So let's talk about the church first of all. To have a measure of faith you have to be saved, so let's just classify this, shall we? So we're talking about believers. So inside the church, what we have seen is that we see more judgment oftentimes inside the church for those who have measures of faith. Why? Because we forgot who gave it. We think we earned it. We think the measure of faith we have is because of our accomplishments, it's what we've done, it's our works. So then when we look at another person, we get judgmental and we bring condemnation on the other person because we think that we are operating at a higher level, not realizing that even that level we operate on is by the grace of God. It wasn't even yours. So if you see someone else operating at a lower measure of faith and you at a higher measure of faith, remember God gave that to you and that to them, and you have no right to look down on them, because you're up a little bit. God gave it to both. Who are you? Now let's step outside the church. This is why the Bible can say be patient with your enemies. Let's say that somebody does not have a measure of faith, they are not a believer. You shouldn't be angry at them because of their behavior. You should be longsuffering, you should be patient. You know why? Because God has saved you, shown mercy to you, and they have not received mercy. You should have compassion for your enemy, and it should all the more make you thankful for what God has blessed you with and not them with, not because you're better but because you're blessed and they're not blessed. So why do you need to hate on somebody who God didn't show mercy to? This should just enhance your gratefulness for the mercy God has bestowed upon you. See, when you get it wrong, when you think this is about you choosing and you doing and it's all about you'll be miserable in the church. You'll be prideful in Christian fellowship and you'll look down your nose at other people, especially non-believers. This is important. For centuries the Christian church has listed pride as one
Point 3Fear pride, not low self-esteem
Of the seven deadly sins, which also included wrath, greed, sloth, lust, envy, and gluttony. But since psychology flooded into American evangelicalism, into the church, in 1970, this is how quick this has shaped our thinking, in 1970 we've been inundated with books that tell us we need to grow in self-esteem, which seems at odds with humility completely. One of the most prominent promoters of this that has shaped much of Christendom and the way that we think of this supposed virtue is a man by the name of Robert Schuller. Many of you might know who he is. In the book called Self-Esteem: The new Reformation, which was mailed unsolicited and without charge to every pastor in America, he wrote on page 57 this: "In my lectures to thousands of ordained clergy of the widest cross-section of historic Christianity, I have found it necessary to tell my colleagues, 'Dare to be a possibility thinker. Do not fear pride. The easiest job God has is to humble us. God's almost impossible task is to keep us believing every hour of every day how great we are as his sons and daughters on the planet Earth.'" It stands to reason, therefore, that many of the pastors who read through this book were shaped by this ideology rather than the ideology they should have been shaped by in God's Word, and many of our preaching then began to become very motivational, to encourage people to think highly of themselves that they might accomplish great things, not only for God but for his kingdom here on earth. Let me give you a couple verses. If we should not fear pride, that's not what we should fear, why does James 4:6 warn, "God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble"? Some of you, look, how many of you could testify, "I need more of God's grace in my life every moment of every day"? Oh, the humble get that. So if you find yourself running low on, are you with me, maybe humility should be your course and not pride. Maybe you should hit pause. So I'm trying to create some desperation here, because I want you to go, "Oh no, I need grace. Oh no, I must be prideful. Oh no, how do I get humble?" I'm glad you asked. I'm going to get there. I'm going to give you three things that I think will help you that are said right in the Scripture. But before we do, let's talk about a few more things to come about this psychology of the self-esteem by Robert Schuller, all right? Why does God promise in Isaiah 66:2, the second part of that verse, "But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word"? If we shouldn't fear pride, why does Proverbs 16:18 warn, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall"? Why does Paul also warn in 1 Corinthians 10:12, "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall"? And since Satan's original sin was that his heart was lifted up, Ezekiel 28:17, seeking to make himself like the Most High, Isaiah 14:14, and since pride is at the root of every sin that we commit, it would seem that we should fear pride and seek then to grow in humility, not the opposite. And I'll just throw this in there, I'll throw this tidbit in there: you will humble yourself and lower yourself or God will do it for you if you are his child. But you will be humble if you're his. Now come on now, if you've been in the church any amount of time, just stick with me here for a second, because there have been moments in my life as a believer when, you're his, when he takes you by force, when he overshadows you. See, humility is your destination, it is not an option, all right? God gets what he wants. So if he wants you and he has chosen you and he has given you a measure of faith and he has blessed you and he has adopted you and you are his child, if you become prideful he'll make sure that pride is beat out of you. So lower yourself, because it's easier that way.
Lower yourself, because it's easier that way.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:03
Oh, you're saying, "Well, Shawn, that's works." Stick with me, I'm going to give you where our focus needs to be for us to walk in humility. Let's try to define humility before I give you three ways that we can see the evidence of true humility. Vernon Grounds wrote this, all right: "It is the spontaneous recognition of the creature's absolute dependence on his Creator." Shawn, why are we talking so much in the first 11 chapters about the sovereignty of God, about election, about the fact that this is the gift of God, the fact that this is not about you choosing, one, because it says it in the Bible, number two, ultimately, because it says it in black and white in the Bible, you don't choose God, he chooses you, you, but also to work into you humility. That's the point. So why can, when are we going to get off the sovereignty of God and election and predestination and the fact this is a gift? When are we going to get off that? God knew this would be hard, but he's trying to get you to a place where you're more dependent on him and less dependent on you. Isn't it amazing that we will still wrestle to be dependent on us, and he says that gets you to pride, doesn't get you to humility. I love this definition. He then adds later on, "Humility is the logical corollary of sin consciousness." Not sin consciousness, sin consciousness, anyway, sin consciousness, okay. The more sin conscious you are, the more humility will be worked in you. Those who've been forgiven of much, listen, we've all been forgiven of much. What it is inferring here, and there are some who realize they've been forgiven of much and some who think they've been forgiven of little, but those who are forgiven of much, those who recognize how much they are forgiven of, that's what it's really saying, will be thankful much. So we see then here that in humility we see thankfulness. How do we enter his gates? Not with pride, because prideful people aren't thankful. Prideful people expect it because of their works. If you find in your prayers it's difficult to be thankful, it might be because you're prideful and you think that you've earned the spot. I remember a prayer one time that I prayed when I was angry. "God," how many of you have ever been angry at God? I remember, "God, who do you think you are?" That's how it started. This is just really dangerous, like, people get shocked by lightning streaks when you say stuff like this. "I don't know who you think you are, but don't you know what I've done for you? Come on now." Listen, this is embarrassing, but let's just talk about this. "Don't you know what I've sacrificed? Don't you know what I've given for your kingdom?" And then I didn't hear it, but if I could, it might have sounded like God laughing from the heavens. And that's it, isn't it, that we approach our prayers with a sense of "you owe me, you owe me." Oh, that's not a sin-conscious prayer. Oh, and it's so easy to get here in the church. Oh man, Shawn, what's your full-time job? Trying to not be prideful, striving to not be prideful but be thankful. And oh, the more that you deal with people, the more it's easy to be, just in case you didn't know, you're one too, and you make it hard for other people to be humble as well. I love this, right? One of the few books written on humility, the book is called this, The Beauty of Holiness, I love it's old school, Andrew Murray called it this: "Humility: the place of entire dependence on God." Oh, I love that definition. He adds then on page 13, in italics, "Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others, it is the root of all virtues, because it only takes the right attitude before God and allows him as God to do all things in and through you. It is simply the sense of entire nothingness which comes when we see how truly God is all in all, and in which we make way for him to be all in our lives, in our hopes, in our marriages, in our friendships, and in the church." In his excellent little booklet From Pride to Humility, somebody help me with the tissue, sweetheart, please, Stuart Scott says this, and I love this: "When someone is humble," hold on, oh, I just heard what you said, I'm going to actually blow my nose this time, all right, "when someone is humble, they are focused on God and others, not self.
Even their focus on others is out of their desire to love and glorify God. A humble person's goal is to elevate God and encourage others. In short, they no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf." Listen to your conversation and we see who you worship. That should convict every one of you in here today.
People become your misery when you think you're better than them. People become your joy when you realize that if not for God's mercy none of us would be a part of his body.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:05
Then he offers this definition: "Humility is the mindset of Christ, a focus on God and others, a pursuit of the recognition and the exaltation of God, and desire to glorify and please God in all things and by all things he has given." Here's one more and I'm done, and I just have so many that I want to tell you. Here's another helpful definition by C.J. Mahaney in Humility: True Greatness: "Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness." He adds, "Without an honest awareness of both these realities, all self-evaluation will be skewed and will fail to either understand or practice true humility." So we can sum up that true humility means seeing God as the giver and sustainer of everything and seeing ourselves as sinful and needy in his presence, so that we trust totally in him and not in ourselves, and that he gets the glory in all things. And let us not forget that Paul in Romans 11, with the greatest doxology, in my opinion, of all time, Romans 11:36 says, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." God is the source and the sustainer of all, and thus all glory is due to him.
Any greatness in you is really greatness from God and through God and back to God. Are you with me? Okay, that's the key. Don't let that be lost on you as we go through 12, because you're going to get to a place where you want to be concerned about the gifts because you want to make much of you. You wouldn't even have a gift if not for him. You are nothing without him. "Oh, well, Shawn, I can't think of myself as nothing because I'll be depressed."
You can't think of yourself as everything or you'll be unsaved.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:20
Are you with me here today? Which is more
Point 4Humility keeps God's grace in view
Important? All right, here, so here's some steps to true humility, right? Everybody wants steps nowadays, everybody has to have some steps up in here, so here we go.
Number one, true humility keeps God's grace in view. Hope that helps you, because if you're a believer today, he will humble you, but there's an easier path than getting it beat into you, or pride beat out of you, right? Because he doesn't spare the rod to spoil the child, he'll use it and he cracks it like a whip, trust me, been there, I've been there, right? He'll get what he wants. True humility keeps God's grace in view. Please do not lose this. Do not lose this. Do not become so egocentric, me-centric, you focused, that you forget about God's grace. Paul begins, "For through the grace given to me," that's how this section starts this morning in verse 3, "through the grace given." True humility keeps God's grace in view. He knows that what he is, this is due to the grace given, period. It isn't like God looked over his portfolio and his resume and, like, he's really good at killing Christians and organizing people to kill Christians, so let's just reverse it and make him use it for God. God had a plan before he killed Christians. Are you with me? And he graced him to be an apostle, not because of what he did in the flesh before he was an apostle, but his apostleship was not, notice he does not go back to, "Well, I've been so diligent in doing these things and now God is just taking it and spinning it, and everything that I have learned to do up to this point in the flesh, he's going to use for his glory."
That's not what it says. "By the grace given," by the grace given, it's believed that he's specifically talking about his gift of apostleship, Romans 1:5, Romans 15:15–16, 1 Corinthians 3:10, 1 Corinthians 15:9–10, Ephesians 3:8. This means that what follows are not helpful hints for happy living but rather apostolic commands. If we don't grow in humility, we disobey God. If anyone would be susceptible to pride, I believe it would be the office of an apostle, but Paul was always keenly aware, what did he do? He kept grace in full view. He was keenly aware as an apostle that he was susceptible to pride, it would be those holding the office of the apostle, so he was aware of that, he kept grace in view. I love this, there's two points by Tom Schreiner in the book Romans: "Although the gift of apostleship is no longer given, the principle still holds: the more prominent your gift, the more you will be prone to pride unless you remember that everything you are and have and do are from God's grace." But I believe that Paul is also cognizant of the grace of salvation that he shares in common with all believers, and ultimately I believe that's the starting place. If you get justification wrong, you get everything wrong. That's why I believe the issue of justification and who chose who is essential, because the remainder of Romans is built on the idea that we got justification right. Oh, listen to it. In the conversation in small group, not to be judgmental but to evaluate the struggle, when we get justification wrong, to understand the truth behind what remains in the remaining chapters, if we get what happened in Romans 1–11 wrong, it knocks us off course. Let us not forget that Romans 11:32 said, "For God has shut up all men in disobedience, so that he may show mercy to all."
You can say that now, but you're not going to want to say it when the things follow, but this is a quote and a verse: "For God has shut up all men in disobedience, so that he may show mercy to all." It's God's doing. If we are saved, it is because God was gracious to us and unshut us from disobedience. It's his choice, and you need to keep that grace choice in full view. Number two, true humility works on going lower, not higher. Where's that in the Scripture? Well, I'm glad you asked, we're going to talk about that.
The danger is not that we would think too lowly of ourselves but too highly of ourselves.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:58
Paul doesn't tell us that we need to build our self-esteem or our self-confidence in order to succeed. I've heard Christians say that the reason for their success is they believe in themselves, but the Bible says that those who believe in themselves are cursed, Jeremiah 17:5. Our trust must always be in the Lord through us, not in ourselves, 2 Corinthians 3:5, Philippians 4:13. I have not been able to, and I've looked extensively, to find one single instance in the Bible where the Lord tells someone who is bemoaning his weakness or inadequacy that he needs to start believing in himself more. It ain't in there. The opposite is in there. Let us not then forget Peter's response to the first miraculous, and there's a bunch, but this is the number one I want to give you because I'm running out of time, the miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5:8. He falls to his knees in complete trepidation and he says, "Go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man." He doesn't say, "Who's your daddy? We brought the thunder." That's not what he says. He didn't look around and go, "I told you guys, I'm the best fisherman ever." Oh, you know, he doesn't do that. He didn't do that. There's no "I'm the man, I'm the fisher man," none of that. It's just simply he falls in recognition that only God's goodness could deliver such a catch.
The problem is we think we're the catch. That's the problem. We're the miracle.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:10
That's the problem. Isn't it amazing that many of us could be standing in the presence of a miracle and miss the miracle of God because we're such believers that we're the miracle? I would propose to you today that many miracles aren't seen today in our society because we have too many miracles walking around in our society. That's the problem. "Well, Shawn, why are there not so many miracles in the church today?"
Because we have too many miracles sitting in seats today.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:46
Are you with me today?
Notice the difference between someone who is humble: when a miracle shows up, they see the miracle. Peter falls down and says, "I'm not worthy." He doesn't fall down and say, "I'm the man." It isn't self-thinking better, it's thinking humbly. It is sin-conscious. Are you with me? It is moving yourself to nothingness, and then we see humility as the appropriate response.
True humility gets lower, not higher. It deflates, doesn't puff up.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:22
Are you with me? If you can find any verse that tells us that we need to build our self-esteem or love ourselves more or think of ourselves more highly, I'd be glad to consider it.
The second great commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," is not commanding us to love ourselves more, rather it assumes that our innate self-love is the standard by which we should strive to love one another. And while we should see ourselves as God's beloved children, identify with Jesus Christ, and possess his gracious gift for service, these blessings are all due to his grace, not to something inherent in us. We are as filthy rags. To develop true humility, we need to work on going lower, not higher. Romans 12:16, if you want to do
Point 5All we have, even faith, comes from God
Extra reading. Number three and the final point: true humility remembers that all that you have, including your faith, comes from God. Everything you have, including your faith, comes from God. Paul says that we are to think so as to have sound judgment, and "God has allotted to each a measure of faith." Some argue that this refers to the faith necessary for justification, which God has given to all who are saved, Ephesians 2:8–9. While it is true that saving faith comes from God, this doesn't really fit with "allotted" or "measure."
You have to have saving faith, but then you have a measure of faith as well, which indicates varying amounts, and in verse 4, and we'll talk about that another time because it's just too much to get into now, I've been studying it for three years, right, possibly, because I really think we have some abuses, not some abuses, in the Word of Faith movement where it turns into that you're going to grow your measure of faith, right? Because we see faith then used with mustard seeds and we see things like that, and so I have been spending quite an extensive amount of time in writing and studying, trying to make heads or tails of what faith is, the difference of salvation faith and the measure of faith given, and can that measure of faith grow? All right, and there have been a lot of abuses because of this. But remember that the measure given to you was given by God. It's given by God. It's all a gift. In verse 4 Paul says that we will have different functions in the body, so here's where this can go sideways. In verse 6 he says that we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, and that we are able to exercise those gifts according to the portion of our faith. Notice the emphasis on what God gives, the emphasis not on what you have. We've started whole conferences where we try to teach people what their gift is. We take tests, we do evaluations. Can I just say something to you? If someone has the gift of giving, they are already operating in it. You don't need a test. The issue here is that God gave you something. The issue is not "what did he give me." It's not confusing to know what you're good at naturally. What's confusing is thinking whether you did it or whether God gave it. So we should spend less time trying to identify what our gift is and more time trying to be a living sacrifice, because if you aren't that, it don't matter what your gift is, you'll use it for Satan. Isn't it crazy that if your gift is giving, you can use that and it not be for God? You know who it could be for? Yourself. It's called manipulation.
Did you know, and I just noticed this connection and then I'm going to close, every gift that you see in operation, let's just take every gift you see in operation, can be used for manipulation if you're not a living sacrifice? Every one of them. Just think about it, every one of them.
That's why he starts with "be a living sacrifice." It doesn't matter what your gift is if you're not a living sacrifice, because you won't use it for anybody else in the body, you'll use it for you, and you ultimately won't use it for God, you'll use it for you.
Discovery is not the aim.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:10
Being a living sacrifice is. If discovery is the aim, you've already gotten off course and you're prideful. So I would tell you to go back through these three and consider them this week. These three things are the way that we see Paul remaining humble, these three things, and I'll repeat them really quickly to make sure you got them. First, true humility keeps God's grace in view. Second, true humility works on going lower, not higher, and that's in everything, that's in your thinking, that's in your conversation, that's in your relationships with others. Number three, true humility remembers that all that you have, including your faith, comes from God. That's what this verse is saying. Read that this week and consider those three things and see where we see that in these few verses.
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1:07:10
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1:05:37
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47:21Now playing
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