A Study of the Book
of Romans
Sermon #26
“Serving God With Your Gifts”
Romans 12:3-8
The last section of Romans 12:1-2 ended with
the idea of the need to be transformed by having our minds renewed.
The rest of chapter twelve is devoted to
explaining specifically what it means to change your thinking changed. The place to start
is always with ourselves. God never uses us to change others until we have allowed Him to
change us. Verse three begins an explanation of how we can change the way we think about
ourselves.
First,
Serving God Calls For A Careful Evaluation. (v. 3)
“For I say, through the grace
given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he
ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
As Christian’s we are too avoid two
extremes when it come to self-evaluation; overestimation and under-valuation. The greatest
help to us in making a self-evaluation is to understand that Christ is the standard for comparison.
Christians are called to “think soberly”
which literally means “balanced.”
Secondly,
Serving God Calls For Mutual Appreciation. (vv. 4-5)
“For as we have many members
in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, (5) so we, being many, are
one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”
Paul wrote about these same things to the
church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 12:20-21, 25-27) “But now
indeed there are many members, yet one
body. (21) And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no
need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”….
… (25) there
should be no schism in the body, but that
the members should have the same care for one another. (26) And
if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members
rejoice with it.
(27) Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
Third,
Serving God Calls For Individual Participation. (vv. 6-8)
“Having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy
in proportion to our faith; (7) or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who
teaches, in teaching; (8) he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality;
he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheer-fulness.”
The Greek word translated “gifts” is (charismata)
from which we get the English word “charismatic.” The word literally means
“grace gift.”
There are three general principles concerning
spiritual gifs that we need to establish.
(1) Every
believer has at least one spiritual gift. Some people may think that God skipped them when
he was handing out spiritual gifts, but the clear teaching of Scripture is that every
Christian has one or more spiritual gifts.
According to the research of church
statistician George Barna:
· 29%
of all adults - and 40% of Baby Buster adults - have never heard of spiritual gifts
· 69%
have heard of spiritual gifts but do not know what their spiritual gift is.
(2) No believer possesses all the gifts.
(3) Your spiritual gift is given with the
expectation that it will be used to serve
the body of Christ.
Paul lists seven gifts in Romans 12. There are other
lists in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. When all the lists are
combined the result is a total of about 19
different spiritual gifts. But I personally believe that these lists are not meant to be
exhaustive.
There is debate over the continuance of the gifts. Some say that all
the gifts are still valid for use in the church today. Others (most Baptist) hold that
since the Bible is complete there is no further need for the revelatory gifts, that is,
gifts that give revelation, like speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues.
These gifts were used for the building of the body of Christ during the beginning of the
Christian church when the Bible was not complete. They hold that these gifts
have ceased because we now have the Bible.
The
Spiritual Gifts
Prophecy – Declaring God’s Truth
For A Response.
The gift of prophecy (proheteia) is not merely the foretelling of future
events (predictive) it is forth-telling
of the mind of God. This gift is normally communication of revealed truth in a manner that
convicts and builds up its hearers.
Ministering
– Seeing A Need And Meeting It.
It is a translation of the Greek word (diakonian) from which we get “deacon.” It
is also called the gift of serving. People with this gift generally prefer to work
behind the scenes. The gift of serving is not just spotting areas of need, but spotting
and filling the need. The gift of serving is limited to what is done “at church”
but is manifested in every practical help that one Christian can give to another.
Teaching – Sharing God’s Truth In a
That
Transforms!
Pastor Ray Stedman says that he believes that
probably 1/3 of
Exhortation
– Motivating Others By Our Words or Actions.
Exhortation (parakletos)
can take many forms – warning, advice, counsel and encouragement. We would call
people with this gift “encouragers.” In
the early church in the book of Acts there was one man that was so accomplished at this
gift that the believers quit calling him by his real name of Joseph and called him by the
name “Barnabas” which means “encourager”
(Acts 4:36).
Encouragers are people who instinctively
gravitate to those people who are struggling in their spiritual walk. It is the ministry
of exhortation that the writer of Hebrews speaks of when he says, “consider
one another in order to stir up love and good works, (25) not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see
the Day approaching.” (Hebrews
10:24-25).
Giving – Generous, Cheerful Giving.
Everyone in the body of Christ is
Leading
– Organizing and Inspiring
Leading (prosistemi) in 1 Corinthians 12:28
Paul refers to this same gift by a different name – “administration” - (kubernesis).
Mercy.
– Seeing and Helping Hurting People.
Mercy (eleeo)
- this gift is closely related to that of exhortation and it is not uncommon for believer
to have a measure of both gifts. The word means to feel empathy with others. This means that the
person who has this gift is a comforter and actually enters into the grief or happiness of
others. (This is the difference between sympathy – “to feel for” and
empathy – “to feel with.”) This person always seems to have the right thing
to say at the right time. (Sometimes it is the ability to know when not to say anything!).
People with this gift are the first person people call on when they hurt because something
bad has happened or when they feel great because something good has happened.
Paul says that if you have the gift of mercy to show it “cheerfully” – we get our English word “hilarious” from this Greek word.
It is perhaps worthy of note that Paul does not spend time describing each of the spiritual gifts but rather concentrates on the spirit with which they are exercised. His great concern seems to be that each Christian understands the importance using his or her gifts within the body of Christ. Because if you don’t know what your gifted to do, you are going to be totally frustrated as a believer. And because if you are not using your spiritual gifts in the church where God has placed you then there are jobs that are not getting done.