Sacrificial Living Pt 6

Once again if you would take
your Bibles and turn back to Romans Chapter 12 to an exciting
passage of scripture one that we have suggested could be. Umbrella with the title sacrificial
living. But as I pointed out several
weeks ago really what Paul is talking about here is sacrificial
living in the church. And we began to see why. That
is a more appropriate title. Several weeks ago, Paul had begun
this section by urging us to present our bodies. That’s where
we got the image of sacrifice that we are to present our bodies
a living and holy sacrifice. Part of that meant that there
would be a proper sacrifice given that it was to be not only a
living sacrifice in the presentation of our day to day lives but it
was to be a holy sacrifice a sacrifice set apart for God in holiness. And in that sense it would be
acceptable as we begin to consider verse two where Paul begins to
point out how we arrive at. presenting that kind of sacrifice. Paul says do not be conformed
to the world. There is to be a preparation
for this sacrifice. There was a clear call to that.
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed and Paul lays
out the details of that. He says it’s to be by the renewing
of our mind. It’s the way that we think that
must be changed and transformed first and foremost. ultimately
that we may prove what the will of God is now. Paul says one
of the ways of thinking that sometimes jumps the tracks is
the way that we think about ourselves that we begin to either think
that God has gotten with us a good deal. Or that God in equipping
us has done the right thing. that God gave the right gifts
to the right man and doesn’t he have it good because of that.
And so Paul begins to address that one of the ways in transforming
our thinking is to think appropriately about our own giftedness. And
that’s what he takes up in verse three for through the grace of
God given to me, I say to every man among you not to think more
highly of himself than he ought to think. We shouldn’t grovel.
We shouldn’t think that we’re worth less. But we also shouldn’t think.
More highly of ourselves than we are, we shouldn’t think too
much of ourselves. After all, it’s God, the one
that has done the work. God is the one that has taken
sinners that were really destined for nothing good. And has bestowed
upon them not only blessings and salvation, forgiveness, But
he’s bestowed upon us giftedness. For Paul takes up in the latter
part of verse three. Through the grace of God given
to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly
of himself than he ought to think but to think so as to have sound
judgment. Well to think appropriately about
ourselves. As God has allotted to each a
measure of faith. God is the one that is apportioned
out the various gifts that we receive. God is the one that
has chosen us for salvation. God is the one that is bestowed
grace upon us. It wasn’t because of anything
in us. That would correct our thinking
right away, wouldn’t it? That would begin to correct our
thinking and enable us to be the kind of sacrifice that we’re
supposed to be. If we are to truly present ourselves
a living and holy sacrifice. Well, Paul. As I mentioned, is
addressing sacrificial living in the church. He’s hinted at
it already. But now he comes full circle
and he delves completely into this idea that this sacrifice
that each believer is supposed to give Each believer is supposed
to be able to present a living and holy sacrifice. This sacrificial
living is done in the context of the church and he addresses
that beginning in verses four and five. If you will listen
for the transition as we read the passage in its entirety.
Verse one through eight. Where Paul writes I urge you
therefore brethren by the mercies of God. To present your bodies
a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual
service of worship. And do not be conformed to this
world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you
may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable
and perfect. For through the grace given to
me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself
than he ought to think. But to think so as to have sound
judgment as God is allotted to each a measure of faith. For
just as we have many members in one body and all the members
do not have the same function. So we who are many are one body
in Christ and individually members of one another. And since we
have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us let
each exercise them accordingly if prophecy according to the
proportion of his faith if service in his serving or he who teaches
in his teaching or he who exhorts in his exhortation he who gives
with liberality he who leads with diligence he who shows mercy
with cheerfulness. Paul had already suggested hinted
if you will intimated that one of the Things that will tear
apart a local church is people with too high of use of themselves
and of their giftedness or people that feel too poorly about themselves
because they weren’t bestowed certain gifts and they begin
to envy one another and begin the process of tearing apart
the church and they either expect very few people to possess all
the gifts needed for the church. That’s one of the tendencies
in the church. Is to expect the paid. Ministers of the gospel
literally to possess all the gifts of ministry and then to
set about to do those things that as I told you before in
many ways that many opportunities is a recipe for disaster. That
is not what the church is supposed to be. We’ll see more this morning. or people begin to envy because
they were not bestowed certain or particular gifts or as they
attempt to test those certain supposed gifts find them to be
not affirmed. Those are very troubling times
in the life of the church if someone has too high a view of
themselves in the particular verses before us. Paul just alludes
to a section that he really expands on in first Corinthians twelve
and we’ll review that here in a moment. But in both of those
chapters and in Ephesians chapter four as well. Paul essentially
wants to point out that the diversity that God has given in the various
gifts in the various offices in the various talents bestowed
upon various individuals throughout the church. It isn’t inconsistent
with the call to unity in Christ. The fact that we all function
differently. The fact that we’re gifted differently. The fact
that we have different expectations. That is not against the idea
of unity. We are called to unity nonetheless. We are called to unity because
of that diversity. As one pastor said nothing can
present a clearer light of the duty of Christian fellowship
or the sinfulness of divisions and ending among the members
of Christ’s body than the comparison. The apostle Paul presents the
comparison that the apostle Paul presents here is a very simple
very familiar image in Scripture. It’s the human body. It’s the
human body that Paul. presents forward as. An illustration
of how the church is really to function. We’ll get to there
in a moment. What I wanted to do is in looking
there are really four lines that this isn’t manufactured, there
are four lines in these verses, verses four and five, and they
really do present four different thoughts for what I would say
characteristic. of local church members for characteristics
of local church members. What are they like? Well, first
and foremost, individuals who are part of a local body of believers
are first and foremost, a spiritual conglomeration. Bear with me. I’ll show you how this works.
Verse four. The first line says, for just
as we have many members in one body, that’s the comparison that
Paul makes. That’s the balance that he strikes
is that we have many members, but there’s one body. Now, as
we saw in verse three. Verse 3 really is built upon
or endorses what is said in verses 1 and 2. It provides the practical
outworking of the sacrificial living called for in those opening
verses. Verse 3 essentially tells us
how we’re going to do what he urges us to do in verses 1 and
2. And here in verses 4 and 5 we have the first of two supporting
statements. which become proofs for the admonition
given in verse three verses four through five present one line
of reasoning and verses six through eight present the second line
of reasoning we’ll get to there. I don’t know some someday that
little word for a little word for we we have to note it. You
have to acknowledge it. And as soon as you acknowledge
it you know that Paul is pointing backwards to something and what
he’s pointing back to is our thinking. That we’re not to think
more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, but we’re
to think so as to have sound judgment for, through the grace
given to me. Well, Paul points to it here
for just as we have many members in one body. What Paul does here
is begin to explain what thinking according to sound judgment looks
like, practically speaking. I mean, we can all say, oh yeah,
I think I’m thinking practically. I think I’m thinking soundly.
I think I’m thinking soberly. But what does it look like? And
what it looks like is how we function in relation to other
believers in the Lord. How do we function in the church? How do we interface with others?
See a Christian, one that possesses the Spirit of God, one that is
taught by the Word of God, is going to recognize the body of
Christ. And that’s why the image is so
acceptable to believers. We understand that we don’t function
alone. We are not lone rangers. We are
not to conduct the church on our own. We do not exist for ourselves
any longer. We’ve been brought into the body
of Christ. And that the believers that are
around us, our fellow Christians, even if their gifts are greater
than ours, even if their gifts are less impressive than ours,
we know that we are part of a body and that each person has been
gifted and that each person is to use those gifts for God’s
glory. And together we fill out the
body of Christ. You see, here was this fledgling
church, this church of Rome, a young and relatively untaught
body of believers. Remember, that’s the purpose
of this letter. And when you think back of all
that Paul has taught them, you say, man, these people didn’t
know much at all, did they? No, they didn’t. What Paul is
doing is giving them a practical theology, the sound doctrine
and a way of living that would be pleasing to God. And essentially
what this passage tells me is that they didn’t know how their
various giftedness was to be received. They didn’t know how
to carry themselves. No one had come to them and explained
the gifts of God. No one had outlined to them some
kind of pecking order as to who possessed what gifts and how
those were to be played out in the church. For all we know,
every person, every man, woman and child, maybe we’re taking
turns bringing the word each Lord’s Day. We don’t know. We
know the Corinthian church had plenty of troubles. Paul doesn’t
dwell on the troubles when he writes to the Roman church. What
Paul deals with and focuses upon is the truth. He says, this is
how you’re going to do it. This is how it’s to be done in
the church. This is what it means to do things
decently and in order. No one had told them how to function. No one. And that’s Paul’s purpose
here. Paul’s purpose is to explain
the gift What it means to present your life, the living and holy
sacrifice, the reality of these gifts and the reason for them,
the purpose of them, how they are to function within the life
of the church. See, the reason that Paul calls
them to exercise sobriety in their thinking, humility in the
exercise of their gifts, avoiding any exaggeration of self or of
the gifts that one possesses. Is the reminder that the Christian
is just one part of many members several weeks ago I used the
illustration of a baseball player one man of nine at least at the
very most he’s one man of nine. Usually the team is bigger than
that but no one would propose to play the game by himself.
How much more foolish in the church. No one should propose
that they are the be-all end-all for any church. No matter how
small. No matter how great. What Paul does is call us to
humility. He calls us to remember that
we are one part of a great body. And the body is the body of Christ.
And that we have a part, but it is a part. At the very most. What Paul does is call us to
proper thinking and Paul uses this image and it’s a frequently
used image of the body and its various limbs in order to illustrate
the mutual connection that we have to one another. We had Christ
even used that image in the Sermon on the Mount in the passage we
just read. Plucking the eye as a member
of the body, casting off the hand as a member of the body.
That’s the image that Paul brings is that we are a conglomeration
of various parts. The Christian community, the
church, the local church particularly, is a body of believers with many
members, all having various gifts and aptitudes and duties and
expectations. And there are If you think of
it there are many different ways to ponder this illustration.
Paul uses the body that some are head summer hands some of
the feet eyes ears and so forth. But you could just as easily
take the image of the symphony. We say that we’re going to go
hear the symphony. We don’t say that I’m going to
go listen to the oboe certainly not the oboe. We say that. We’re going to go
hear the symphony. But as you go to the symphony,
you can hear them all. It’s actually quite amusing when
they begin to warm up and you hear one warming up and then
another chimes in. But when they begin to play together,
you don’t, unless you’ve got a very capable ear, you’re not
able to even separate out all the distinct sounds. Not all
of them. Together they form what we know
as a symphony. A corporation functions the same
way. A corporation is meant to function as a corporation. That’s
the best part of the corporation is it functioning as one. And who but the most techie among
us would say, you know, upon the purchase of their new whatever
device, hey, let me show you my new processor. That’s not
how we think of things. We say, let me show you my new
device, let me show you my new laptop or pad or whatever it
is that we’re peddling now. It’s diversity, but it’s unity
in that diversity. And that’s the illustration that
Paul is using. The point that one pastor made
is that diversity without unity is disorder. That kind of chaos
gets nothing accomplished when you have variously gifted people
functioning independently of one another, you have chaos.
But unity without diversity is death, where you have oneness,
but you don’t have the means to get it done. The church will
die. The organization will die. So in order to communicate this
idea of unity or oneness. While maintaining the idea of
diversity Paul repeatedly uses this idea of the body. Listen to just a few. First Corinthians
10 17. Since there is one bread we who
are one body will for we all partake of the one bread. He
uses the idea of the body. Ephesians 1 23. Speaking of Christ,
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Colossians 118. He is also the
head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead. Colossians 124, 219, 315. Paul
uses it over and over again, this image of the body. But there
is one place where Paul uses it that I really need you to
turn to because this is The illustration of illustrations and its first
Corinthians Chapter 12. Would you turn to first Corinthians
Chapter 12. Now there may come a day where I’m able to preach
first Corinthians in its entirety or at least large parts of it. And there’s nothing more tempting
to do than to me to take a rabbit trail and to preach this great
chapter. We’re just going to touch upon
a few things. First Corinthians Chapter 12,
we’ll take it in its entirety, look at verse one now concerning
spiritual gifts, and that’s what that’s Paul’s pattern throughout
the book of First Corinthians. He addresses various subjects
with that little phrase now concerning and he launches off into another
doctrinal treatise now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren. I
do not want you to be unaware you know that when you were pagans
you were led astray to the mute idols however you were led. Therefore
I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God
says Jesus is a curse and no one can say Jesus is Lord except
by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts
and we would all acknowledge that we would all acknowledge
yes they’re obviously in the church a variety of gifts. But he calls us back to this
idea of diversity and unity with the next thing. There are varieties
of gifts, but the same spirit. And he’ll maintain this theme
throughout this entire section. There are varieties of ministries
and the same Lord. There are a variety of effects,
but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to
each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common
good. And when I say each one, I absolutely
believe that that every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has
had bestowed upon him some gift, some way of serving some talent. For the use in the church, we’ll
come back to that. For to one is given the word
of wisdom through the spirit, And to another the word of knowledge
according to the same spirit to another faith by the same
spirit to another gifts of healing by the one spirit to another
the effecting of miracles to another prophecy to another distinguishing
of spirits to another various kinds of tongues and to another
interpretation of tongues. But one and the same spirit works
all these things. That’s the section I’d really
like to spend more time. Just to elucidate and to clarify
Given the confusion on those things in our own day and age
and I’m just not able to today. What I’m pointing to is that
there are a variety of gifts in the church and it’s one spirit
that gives them with one purpose. Look at verse 11 again but one
in the same spirit works all these things distributing to
each one individually just as he wills. It doesn’t come from
our begging for the particular gifts or training for them. Doesn’t
matter how much we study. If God hasn’t given us the gift. For verse 12, even as the body
is one and yet has many members and all the members of the body,
though they are many, are one body. So also is Christ. He makes the same point that
he does in Romans 12 for. Many members One by. Read on, if you would, verse
13 for by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether
Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we were all made to
drink of one spirit for the body is not one member, but many. Now, the point that he makes
is that, look, the church. Body of Christ is an aggregate.
It’s made up of all kinds of different members, all with different
gifts, all with different purposes. But together they formed the
church. The church is one body in Christ. Now he gets. Creative. He begins to play on our thinking,
even amusingly so, as you begin to read some of these statements.
Look at verse 15 for the if the foot says, what do you mean if
the foot says the foot doesn’t talk, he’s speaking metaphorically
here, he says, if the foot says, because I’m not a hand, I’m not
part of the body. Now, you think of how absurd
that is, but that’s how a lot of people function. If I can’t
do this, I’m out of here. If the foot says that it is not
for this reason any less a part of the body. Just because they
feel inferior doesn’t mean they’re not part of the body of Christ.
Verse 16, and if the ear says, because I’m not an eye, I’m not
part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of
the body. It doesn’t make it real just
because they feel that way. If the whole body were an eye,
where would the hearing be? And here Paul begins to advance
this idea of the diversity and the unity that should be there.
We can’t all be an eye. We can’t all be an ear. And it
wouldn’t be a body in its totality if we were. If the whole body
were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole hearing
were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God
has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just
as he desired. We’ll come back to that point.
We’ll come back to that point a number of different times.
that God did it. God designed you. God designs
the church. God is the one that brings in
the various members according to the need of the body. God
is the one that orchestrates it. God is the one who is functioning
as the conductor of this great symphony called the church. Verse
19, if they were all one member, where would the body be? That’s
his point. You can’t all be eyes. That’s
not a body. If they were, pardon me, verse
20, but now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot
say to the hand, I have no need of you. This is a different point
than what he’s already made. A moment ago, the eye or the
foot or the hand, they were, they were feeling inferior. Because
I’m not thus and such, I quit. That’s not what’s going on here.
Now you have one taking a superior view of himself as if he doesn’t
need the rest of the body. The other members of the body. Look at it again. The eye cannot
say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to
the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, it is much truer
that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary
and those members of the body which we deem less honorable
On these we bestow more abundant honor and are less presentable
members become much more presentable. Whereas are more presentable
members have no need of it but God is so composed the body giving
more abundant honor to that member which is black so that there
be no division in the body but that the members may have the
same care for one another. When was the last time when you
thought of your body when was the last time that you thought of the
corpuscles. You know, you almost have to
go get your biology book to even look that up and see what it
is. What about the nerve ending the synapses? Those are the less
honorable members. But God says, try to function
one day without those things. Try to function even one day. It’s not possible. The body needs
every single part. And even when you begin to think
about the eye, the eye isn’t just a unit. The eye is made
up of many different parts itself. Try having an eye function without
a lens or without the retina. It’s not possible. Verse 26,
and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If
one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now
you are Christ’s body. and individually members of it. What a profound thought. That
is the thought that Paul wants to make. That’s the point that
he makes in Romans chapter 12, verse 4, first statement. Many members, one body. Verse 28, and we’ll wrap this
review of Paul’s illustration up And God is appointed in the
church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps administrations, various
kinds of tongues. All are not apostles, are they?
He starts at the top. He says, let’s let’s take this
illustration and unpack it. Practically speaking, you can’t
all be apostles. The church wouldn’t function
as such. All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets.
All are not teachers. All are not workers of miracles,
are they? All do not have the gifts of
healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues,
do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire
the greater gifts, and I will show you a more excellent way.
We’ll get to it. We’ll come back to a lot of those
different thoughts. Let me take you back to just
a few this morning as we prepare to close. We’ll get one point
under our belt, and we’ll be done this morning. First Corinthians
12, look at verses four through six again, variety of gifts,
the same spirit. That’s the point that he makes
here. We have many members, one body, variety of gifts, same
spirit, varieties of ministries. How often do the various ministries
of a church tear the church apart? It’s absurd, it’s unthinkable,
and it happens every day across the land. Some think the pulpit
is too much of a focus. Some don’t like the kids ministry.
Some don’t like this. Some thinks that so-and-so’s
got too much of the pie. The ministries, the very thing
that the church is designed to do and to function, the ministries
begin to tear the church apart. Why? Because someone isn’t happy
with being an odd. Someone isn’t happy with functioning
in a different capacity. Someone thinks that somebody
has too much prominence in the church. But the truth is, there
are a variety of ministries. And we’ll talk more about ministries
and how they play out in the life of the church. The church
is a constantly changing organism on a local level, and God is
going to use that church as he sees fit and he’s going to equip
it to that end. There are a variety of ministries,
but the same Lord. God is the one that stipulates. God is the one that equips. God
is the one that works opportunities into the life of a church and
He gives them what they need. There are varieties of effects.
But the same God who works all things and all persons. Glance
down at verse 12. Paul is just saying, many members,
one body. Look at verse 12. Even as the
body is one and yet has many members and all the members of
the body, though they are many, are one body, so is Christ. See, he views the body as an
organism, a living, breathing organism. It has many different
members, many different parts. It has hands and ears and feet
and eyes. But all of those members, are
controlled by one central force. It’s one soul. It’s one mind. It’s one heart beating in that
body. And the unity of the church is
discovered in Christ and only in Christ as the Spirit of God
courses through each member. That’s what unifies the body.
Glance down at verse 14 of chapter 12. For the body is not one member
but many. As I said the body is animated
by one soul. That’s what brings us together.
That’s what makes us function together. We belong essentially
corporately to one being and yet we have a almost an infinity
of parts. As many members as there are
in the church, we’re going to have multiplied different gift
packages functioning in and among us. All contribute to the one
same purpose. One pastor said it this way.
Regarding this statement, the body is not one member, but many. This is a proof, he says, The
diversity of gifts and members is necessary to the unity of
the church. Did you get that it almost goes
contrary to what our thought pattern would be that if we’re
different boy in no time at all we’re going to set up shop and
we’re going to we’re going to create a group. A group of those
that are gifted in one particular way, or maybe I set myself apart
because I’m gifted in one particular way and nobody else is. But what
what he says is that what Paul is pointing to here is that. That diversity is what is absolutely
crucial to the unity of the church, you can’t function without it.
The church no more consists of persons all having the same gifts
than the body is all eye or ear. No one is perfect or complete
in itself, and no one can say to the others, I have no need
of you. Each represents something that is not so well represented
in the others. Each has its own function to
exercise and work to perform, which could not be so well accomplished
without it. Let me just tell you. Go home
and fall on your knees and thank God that I’m not the only one
in this church because I’m not very good at very many things. In fact, I can tell you my wife
can give you a better list of a lot of things I’m not really
good at. And I thank God. that others
have come in and they have their own giftedness. And that giftedness
comes alongside of mine and it begins to grow and flourish within
the church. And so many in this church have
done that. Not everybody. That’s what this
series is about. We’ll get there. A little forecast for you. 1 Corinthians
12, 18, glance down at that passage. But now God has placed the members,
each one of them in the body just as He desired. You see,
God gave to each of the members. God is the one that gives the
gifts to them and them to the church. And He makes them part
of the body. And He did so according to His
good pleasure, just as He desired. You know what? When God placed
you in a particular church with a particular set of gifts package,
it made him happy. That’s essentially what it says.
This is what God wanted. One pastor said our own special
disposition and talents are appointed us by God. Did you hear that? You don’t have to wake up and
be the chipper, you know, happy, you know, you don’t have to be
the do-it-all, be-all, end-all person. I can remember several
years into the ministry how thankful and joyful my wife was to learn
that she, as the pastor’s wife, didn’t have to be the pianist,
right? Think of how happy we are that
we don’t have to do it all. That we can be ourselves. We
can come in and we can function. Just as God designed us to function,
he goes on to say, we are not there for to complain because
we do not possess the qualifications which we see possessed by others.
But we endeavor to make the best possible use of the gifts we
have. That’s the question. That’s the
question I’ll pose to you today and again and again and again.
Is that what you’re doing? Are you endeavoring to make the
best possible use of the gifts God has given to you? Not trying
to achieve some level that someone else has achieved. Look at verse
27. Paul says simply, now you are
Christ’s body and individually members of it. We all possess
the same spirit, the spirit has gifted us all differently and
he’s brought us all and we all have these different gifts and
functions. And in that sense, we’re mutually
dependent upon one another. One pastor said a body is not
just a collection or an aggregate of independent parts loosely
attached together in the body, you have a vital relationship
In organic unity, there is a living connection between the parts.
The body is not a collection of many members. It is more important
than the parts. Here’s what I believe Lloyd-Jones
means there. Jim Elliot said it simply, the
Lord’s work done in the Lord’s way will never lack the Lord’s
provision. Here’s what I believe the church
to be. The church is a constantly growing, changing organism. You can’t lose. You can’t lose
a key member of the body and not feel it. You can’t lose a
brother in Christ who is uniquely gifted and not have that change
the church. It does. It doesn’t kill the
church. It doesn’t. It doesn’t damage
the church irreparably, but it does change it. And you can never
replace a brother. You can never replace a particularly
gifted brother who comes and serves with a joyful heart. You
can’t replace that. But God does bring up others
that are uniquely gifted, and in that sense, the church begins
to morph and to change and to adapt a new kind of… In fact,
almost every time you add in somebody or subtract out someone,
The church necessarily changes it, in a sense, becomes a new
church. It becomes a new body of believers
with new gifts now availed to them, new passions, new attitudes. See, the church is constantly
changing and reshaping according to the gifts that God provides
for various members. There will be absences. And God
tells us to limit those absences. Some of those are providential.
But when you’re gone, you’re not there functioning as God
has designed you to be. And the church, the church is
weaker because of it. There are negligences. There
are those who neglect their gift. They refuse to serve because
they can’t do one thing. And instead of functioning in
their capacity, they hold back, they hold off, or they depart
altogether. There are departures. There are always departures in
the church. There always will be departures
in the church and those departures change the face of the church.
But there is also the Lord’s provision. As I said years ago,
the Lord has done much greater things with much less than what
he has gathered together in this body. There is the Lord’s provision. There is the faithfulness of
God’s people and the amazing thing is there is the discovery
the amazing discovery of new ways of giftedness even in our
midst. Who’s to say that in our midst
isn’t the next great preacher of our country. Who’s to say?
Who’s to say that the next great evangelist isn’t already rubbing
his palms together, eagerly anticipating sharing the gospel in parts unknown? Who’s to say? That’s the exciting
thing about the church. The church is constantly changing,
but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The church is the body
of Christ, and it wants to flourish in this place. Let’s bow before
Him. O merciful God, we humble ourselves
before you. And we do pray that in the midst
of this series that you would examine our hearts. And examine
us first and foremost to see whether we are functioning as
you would have us to. Are we seeking to exercise our
giftedness? Are we seeking to serve the body
of Christ? Or are we seeking our own glory?
Are we demanding of you that you Remake us as something that You have not
already. God, examine our hearts, we pray, and use us for Your
glory. Lord, we thank You and we praise
You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.