Well, we turn tonight in the Bible to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, we have, this is now the second sermon in the gratitude section, and tonight we are looking at spiritual gifts. And so this is on page 1205 in your pew Bible, and we will be considering verses 3 through 8. I'm going to back up and begin at verse 1, and we will read through verse 8. Let's give tonight our attention to the Lord's Word. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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. 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, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 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 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 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. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of his word. Jesus told a parable one day, the well-known parable of a man where he said, actually two men, but he said, a man, a kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered goods to them. And to one, he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each one according to his own ability, and immediately he went on a journey. This has always been a fascinating parable to me because it's right in the middle of the Olivet Discourse, thinking about last things, and he gives this sandwiched in there about what we should be doing until the master of the house comes again. And I've always been amazed by that parable because he really does use language to make a dramatic point here. A talent in the ancient world was a measure of weight, usually done in coin value, a unit of coin value. And it's generally known that a talent was no less than 6,000 denarii, which would have been in our time thousands of dollars. And what's presented is that in the parable, each talent was extremely valuable. And it was given, it was entrusted, it was given by the Lord to his servants. And the Lord went away on, this is the whole imagery here, he went away to a far country, the master did. And the Lord was challenging his servants to think about that the Lord was going away and what were they to be about in that time until he came again? What were they to do? J.C. Ryle, commenting on what a talent represented, said this, Anything whereby we may glorify God as a talent, our gifts, our influence, our money, our knowledge, our health, our strength, our time, our senses, our reason, our intellect, our memory, our affection, our privileges as members of Christ's church, our advantages as possessors of the Bible, all are talents. I love that. I think it's absolutely right. in the parable jesus says these talents are given to faithful servants and unfaithful servants and he's using this to illustrate a point that's what parables do and what happened in that parable you know what happened in that parable he who had received five talents remember what happened brought back five other talents saying listen listen to the wooden reading of it lord five talents to me you delivered look five talents other did I gain he's excited he's he's filled with excited excitement to have the opportunity to that this master thought about him and that he could serve in in his kingdom he's overjoyed about these opportunities he's he's thankful for these opportunities well done my good and faithful servant excellent wonderful the master shared in the joy of that which is a remarkable thing but then came the other one lord i knew you to be a hard man reaping where you've not sown and gathering where you've not scattered and i was afraid and i went and hid your talent in the ground look here you have what is yours you're unreasonable in what you expect you're a hard man you expect too much of me i don't think anyone can please you you know what you're too hard to please just take it back that's a fascinating ending to that parable because jesus said you wicked and lazy servant You knew that I reap where you've not sown and gather where I have not scattered. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers and at my coming would have received back my own interest. I better stop because I'll preach that text tonight. Why am I raising that up front here with Romans chapter 12? Well, I believe it motivated Paul a lot to think about the using of gifts and how our Lord gave such attention to that in the time before he would come again of what the servants and blessed is he who is the wise man who when his master comes will find him so doing and so tonight we're considering what the sacrificial life looks like and the apostle is is challenging us he's challenging us in romans chapter 12 to think about what our response looks like to the lord's grace and i said this morning we've been really looking at this through genesis And this is the first book of the Bible over and over and over and over of the Lord's relentless pursuit and his pursuit to fulfill his word and send a savior. And here you sit in 2013 and it's all been accomplished. He did it for you. And now we're looking at what then our response of gratitude is to be. What do we do with all of the wonders of grace? What do we do with all of this that we are being told over and over about that has been proclaimed to us and that has been accomplished for us. I mean, it's overwhelming truth, isn't it? And you'll remember back in verse 1 of Romans 12 that he said the basic principle that now drives everything that he's been saying from this point on in the life of sanctification is now, therefore, in light of all of the grace that we've been studying for the past year, In light of Romans 1-11, which has been showing us sin, the problem, and then the unfolding of God's plan and the salvation that He's brought to you through His beloved Son, now that He's done all of that, you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. That's how you can thank Him. You're free. We'll consider Christian freedom here in a week or two. Paul was thinking a lot about sacrifices and he was thinking about the Old Testament and far be it from any New Testament teacher to say we're going back to the blood of bulls and goats, you know, that is not what anyone should ever say. And Paul wanted us to think about what the sacrificial life then would look like, our bodies being presented as that. And remember in Philippians, he described that. In Philippians, after being moved by the Lord, sacrificially laying down his life for us, Paul said, remember what he said, I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith. What did that mean? Well, he's thinking of the Old Testament drink offering, and when it was put on the sacrifice, it went up in smoke, like a big puff of steam. And Paul's saying, that's what I need to think of my life as now. that's what you need to think of your life now as you are given sacrificially now for your brethren to love them that your life would be poured out upon the sacrifice and service of the faith of the one sitting next to you that was Philippians we looked at that that's how we are to think now Jesus was always saying this, wasn't he? He was always saying, do you understand what I've done for you? Remember in John 13, after he washed their feet, do you understand what I just did to you? And then what was the next thing he said? If you do, go then and do likewise. Whoever wants to become great in the kingdom needs to become what a servant a servant whoever desires to be first shall be a slave of all god is telling you everything's put in place this is your calling this is what you are to be now so in verse 2 he said your mind has to be renewed and you have to discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, the goal of the sacrificial life. Now, the question that arises at this point is now he's getting into some of the specifics of it is everyone knows the question that then comes because we hear it all the time in Christianity today. Well, what do I do? What do I do? I mean, hasn't that been our fixation in Christianity today? Hasn't that been the great question in Christianity today? Now what? It's really been shocking to me as a pastor, you know, how much that question comes out. And I've asked it numerous times in membership interviews and things like that. Well, what is your spiritual gift? And do you know that 99.9% of the time I hear, I don't know. That's an amazing thing, isn't it? I don't know. I don't know what the spiritual gift is. I want you to notice how Paul is motivating this tonight and to have us think about what should be done. Oftentimes, it's not that we don't know. We'll look at the problem from this text. It's that really, we're kind of lethargic, and really, we're kind of indifferent. Romans 12 is calling us to think about this, and basically, it's not that difficult. It's not that complex. It's not that hard to figure out. Let's start with some basic principles, and that's where he starts before getting to the specifics. So notice what he does here. In verses three through eight, he's framing our mindset first. He's dealing with the kind of mindset that should be in all of us as we think about what we are to do now as Christians in the life of sanctification and what the sacrificial life looks like that Jesus called us to. So where does he begin he begins with a real danger in the life of the church doesn't he what is the danger notice verse 3 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 but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that god has assigned now when you have a statement like that the first thing that you should realize is that there is a particular situation happening in rome that's going to be helpful for all time to think about the church in rome had a mixture of jews and gentiles they've been at loggerheads the whole way through they've been fighting a lot they've been struggling a lot and some had been in the faith a long time some had only been there a short time and you have some real differences you have some real differences in levels of maturity in the life of the congregation don't you this goes on and of course everyone wherever they are they think everyone should be right where they are well what begins to happen in the life of a church paul says that the thing that begins to happen in the life of a congregation is pride pride and now he's going to deal with spiritual gifts i say this paul says because of this grace that's given to me. I've been given this authority as an apostle. Watch out for pride. Watch out for pride. As I have studied this and looked at this, in the New Testament, I see three classification of gifts. There have been other people who've broken this down differently. But as I see it, there are the sign gifts, there are the speaking gifts, and the serving gifts. And everyone knows that there are two major passages that deal with gifts in the New Testament. You have this one, and then you have, of course, 1 Corinthians. And Corinthians spent a lot of time addressing this. In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1, this should be helpful for understanding what Paul's doing in Romans. He says there, concerning the spiritual gifts, I don't want you to be ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles. He's dressing the Gentiles. carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. So he's dealing with this Gentile church, he's looking at them, and he knows, he's addressing the spiritual ones. Corinthians, the church in Corinth had a huge problem with the sign gifts. Big problem with the sign gifts. You'll remember they were fascinated with the tongues and the dreams and the visions and the tongue speaking that he would address in chapter 14, all of the sign gifts and the prevailing opinion that began to develop in the life of the church was those who were able to speak with this inspired, ecstatic speech are the really spiritual ones. They're the ones who are the real spiritual elite. They have the communication from God. They've attained wisdom. they've attained the knowledge. This was a big issue in the first century. And so they had this continued problem in Corinth of a very worldly view of ministry, a very worldly view of gifts, all the way from chapter one, where Paul is addressing this, the Jews seek after a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. And so all of these things are being addressed in Corinth. And what had happened was the church had developed a serious problem with pride. And Paul's whole point was to argue and say, no, Corinthians, and I love to think about this, if you are a Christian, every last one of you is spiritual. Every last one of you. I believe something similar was happening in Rome. Put Jews and Gentiles together, what do you have? Well, if the Jews request a sign, Greeks seek after knowledge, there's a real problem going on here. And there's no mention of sign gifts. I find that remarkable. Paul leaves out the entire category. Now, Romans was written after Corinthians. If that's the case, it's probably so that already it's demonstrating that the sign gifts were coming to a close with the end of the apostolic era but it seems to be done on purpose to make a point that to view the gifts of some as being more spiritual leads to this kind of problem in the life of the church we know what happens some hold up someone in the life of the church who should we hold up tonight in the life of the church how about our professors there are always good ones to hold. Josh is saying don't do that. What do we think about our professors? Well, they're extremely gifted. I'm thankful for them. They serve an immense, helpful purpose in the life of the church, don't they? But if we're honest tonight, don't you think we have a kind of ladder? How would the ladder go tonight with regard to gifts and how we view people? You probably have the professors up high. pastor get the next step off the ring, right? Then you get the elders, and of course below the elders are the deacons, and then you got all the lay people. Isn't that how we think? Of course that's how we think. We've got a chain. We think that there's the great ones, and then there's the little ones, and the great ones are doing all the great things in the kingdom, and I always love to emphasize what Jesus emphasizes on the last day. Hey, did you give a cup of cold water in somebody's name? That's remarkable, isn't it? But notice what happens. We have this ladder and we think, well, I have no responsibility with most of these things. I don't have the great gifts. I don't have the really superior gifts. That means that we're not the greatest in the kingdom. And so most of the work, most of the responsibility, let's say for teaching, falls on who? Them. And we feel maybe a little bit insufficient or lacking when some of you might have that gift and might be strong at teaching. Remember the lady Tabitha or Dorcas in the New Testament who was full of good works and she died? Every church has a Tabitha. I've seen this where there's one lady, I mean, she can cook for the whole church and everyone stands and is amazed at that woman her cookies are phenomenal and what happens she'll do it she'll do it can we keep going it's interesting that paul mentions in the list of gifts here did you notice what he um what he mentioned how about um you have prophesying teaching how about in the one who contributes now that's a remarkable thing that he would put giving in the gifts every church has those who are wealthier than others and what's the the common thought that goes out when the church has a need they'll take care of it they'll take care of it thus we have the common report that 10 percent of the people do 90 percent of the work isn't that a tragic statistic in the life of the kingdom and so we have a downward spiral and and and and both passages that deal with gifts are having us think because of this mindset and because then you have the problem of pride and you have all sorts of things that follow this there are all sorts of bad fruits and bad consequences that flow from this kind of mentality. If 10% of the elites are doing all of the big things, then what begins to happen? Well, you see the spiritual ones take on too much. And everyone else backs off. And the consequences are bad. Notice verse 4, tonight of Romans 12. For we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function so we being many are one body in christ and individually members of one another that is the same point that paul makes in first corinthians 12 that there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit there is different ministries but remember what he said the same lord there are all these diversities of activities but it is the same god who works in all in all there are allotments of gifts but the same spirit do you hear it and none are more spiritual how we should view it the distinctions in the body of christ are there because the lord has allotted and the lord has poured out to fit together the body is one and paul says this is how the body functions effectively this is this is how a church function functions effectively when every part does its share and then you have a wonderful thing it grows up together strong in edifying of one another in love this is the consequence this is the result when everyone learns to think this way in fact he will go on to say in first corinthians but now indeed there are many members yet one body and i cannot say to the hand i have no need of you nor again the head to the feet i have no need of you no much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary those members of the body which we think are less honorable on these we bestow greater honor and on our unpresentable parts have greater modesty but our presentable parts have no need god composed the body having given greater honor to that part which lacks it that there should be no schism in the body so in other words when he pours out a gift in a certain way and gives somebody that gift he's doing it to prevent something unhelpful or divisive in the life of the body but that the members should have the same care for one another And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Anybody know the account of Dizzy Dean? He was the ball player. One of my favorite little stories to tell, he was the famous pitcher for the Cardinals. And as the account goes, in the 1937 All-Star Game, Dean broke his toe fielding a grounder. Just a toe. and the injury continued to plague Dean throughout the course of his life so that now he had to overcompensate in his pitching, and he ended up throwing out his arm and ending the career early. Now think about that. Because of the broken toe, he had to overcompensate elsewhere, and he ended his career. Well, God himself has diversified gifts among us, our individual members, All of us, he's going to say here, are given these gifts to complement and make the body function as a whole. Imagine if you're the toe and you're doing nothing. Do you see? So he says, think soberly about this. Think about the responsibility. God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. We tend to read that and think, well, God has given certain people more faith than others. That's not what he's saying. not looking at this quantitatively. He's saying this, all of us should evaluate how God has blessed you with a particular way to serve him with the talents or even opportunities in the life of his kingdom. And by the grace that you have learned and received, you should then put into practice these opportunities with the talents and gifts that he has poured out upon you so notice how he's just knocked away the whole ladder if you will he doesn't want us thinking that way and he recognizes that he has dealt to you he wants everyone to think about no he's dealt to you not the giants over there he's dealt to you opportunities for presenting your bodies as living sacrifices to him he's dealt that to you you realize the lord of glory himself who when he ascended on high poured out gifts he dealt specifically to you your name these opportunities i shouldn't deviate from my notes my wife always tells me never to do that but i want you to listen to ephesians 4 i want you to listen to how the lord dealt with this he gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry now you know i've rehearsed this before that the old king james puts a comma to equip the saints comma for the work of the ministry if that comment is retained it means that the apostles the prophets and evangelists and shepherds were given to do the work of ministry it's not the ministry it's not the ministry it's not the holy in other words it's not the ordained ministry what he's saying there is this he gave apostles prophets evangelists shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for serving and we should never miss that we are given to equip you for serving and that's the the beautiful perspective of this so notice how the apostle is addressing this tonight um it can't be the case it destroys the idea that someone is a follower of jesus and uncommitted to any kind of service in his kingdom because this is what he's poured out upon you. This is what he's allotted to you. This is what he's given to you. It doesn't work if you were to ask Martin Luther that question, how does, when he talked about good works, he, remember what he said, that before faith is asked whether good works are being done, the believing heart has already done them. This is where you're going to be. This is what you're going to do. It's who you are. So notice this tonight. One part here, as we look at this whole thing, one part of the body should not ever compensate for the lack of somebody else. And I love how now the apostle addresses this. He rehearses two kinds of gifts. Speaking gifts and serving gifts. Look at verse six. Having then gifts, having then gifts differing according to the grace given to us, use them. use them. And then he lists several distinct gifts. In other words, I love this because it's not that hard. It shouldn't be that when we stand in front of the elders, I don't know, it's not hard. You can look at these and you can see, look how basic this is. Look how simple this is. He starts with prophecy. If prophesying, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith the word means to speak forth paul is is most likely and i believe speaking here of the the gift of preaching he's looking at the gift to to speak truth on his behalf and that doesn't obliterate the responsibility of you in daily life to speak truth or ministry in other words serving uh it's it's the the greek word for the diaconate or diakonos deacon you know you could think about it that way that notice here those gifted to be helpers in this regard to demonstrate mercy if you're if you're called upon to do that if if you hear that and the lord has given you that allotment of a gift then step up to it what a wonderful opportunity you get to represent christ's ministry of mercy to his people his service of mercy he in teaching there are those gifted to teach there are those uh who in the life of the church we have a lot of opportunities with teaching in sunday school many of you step up and that's a wonderful thing that you get to use that for teaching notice notice how as he um As he goes on here, and you can translate this in a few different ways, but let me get back to Romans chapter 12. So you have here teaching, and then he goes on. Just one second. He goes on. Having gifts differing according to the grace, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in exhortation. I love that one. The one who exhorts. What does that mean to exhort? It means to call to one side. In other words, it includes encouragement, warning, strengthening, comforting. There's a million people or young people you can go to and help and talk to and encourage and strengthen. And if you see them going the wrong way, talk to them. They need you. You have a million opportunities every day for this kind of way of serving. He goes on. See how basic this is? The one who contributes in generosity. You know, Paul even gave instructions to the rich. But that's not just for the rich, is it? Think of all the ways in which we can give. It's not the kind of application that just is a fine list of do this, do this, do this, do this. He wants you to take these general categories and work with them. Be wise. Discern the will of the Lord. Be discerning in what He's doing. You're not mindless. You see these things all the time. So He who gives, give with liberality. You have all these opportunities. He who leads, do it. He who's a leader in the life of the church. do it with zeal in other words listen god's giving you a great opportunity to lead the flock the worst kind of attitude is oh boy i can't wait to get through my term and get back to what i got to do that's not the zeal that he's after this is a blessing this is a blessing you've got people here who need that finally he ends with here the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Wow. He's going to go on and say there are a lot of people weeping in the life of the church. Weep with them. There are a lot of people who are joyful in the life of the church. Be joyful with them. You can demonstrate a real care about people in getting to know your body and being involved with them and loving them and serving in the little things. doesn't have to be what we think are the great thing well i remind us tonight that as we look at this the motivation tonight was the apostle paul motivating us to think about how good god's been in demonstrating all of these things to us and he's never wavered he's been relentless he's he's never turned back and think about how all of these things that you enjoy he's shown to you and he's not wavered he sent you preachers he sent you those who lead you he sent you those who provide and care for you who show mercy to you who love you and now you get to go and live a kind of life the privilege of living the kind of life that models his son i close with this tonight remember the woman who came weeping after she had washed Jesus' feet with her tears. All the people criticized Jesus for allowing this filthy woman to touch him. Let me just read this and we'll close. And Jesus answered and said to Simon, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said, teacher, say it. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to him, you've rightly judged. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore, I say to you, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Then he said to her, your sins are forgiven. How great is the debt that Christ paid for us and today he has said, do we love when we love? That's driven and motivated by an understanding of his love for us. So let us work while it's still called day because the night is coming when no man may work. Let's pray. Oh Lord our God, we bow our heads tonight so thankful that you would give us a place in your kingdom. We think of these servants who only came in at a late hour and they were so excited to be a part of your vineyard and the servants that were there the whole time grumbled and complained. And tonight, oh Lord, we bow the head and we are immensely grateful and we praise your name for bringing us into your kingdom and giving us a place that you would care. You don't need us, but that you would care since the Lord Jesus Christ is raised. To pour out gifts that we, Lord, would demonstrate your love to your people. And so we pray tonight for every last one who's gathered that they would carefully reflect on these opportunities that you've put in front of them. And that we, Lord, would give ourselves on the sacrifice and service of each other's faith being poured out as a drink offering. because we no longer belong to ourselves, we were bought and purchased with a price. Therefore, O Lord, may we honor You with our bodies as living sacrifices. In Jesus' name, amen.