Romans 12, Part 2

Brethren, let's turn over to the Book of Romans. It's been about a month since we have been in the Book of Romans. Last time we were there, we covered one verse. Of course, we went to a number of other locations and discussing that one verse. Today it's my goal to get through at least two verses. Actually, we'll get through about half a chapter, I think.

There is a lot to be said in this book. The following resources were used in the preparation of the sermon. I've used the Phaer's Greek lexicon. I've also used the preacher's outline and sermon Bible commentary and the life application Bible commentary. Those two commentaries, incidentally, are very fine. If you'd ever want to purchase one of those, they are just outstanding commentaries. Briefly, the purpose for the Book of Romans is that the Apostle Paul wanted to present a complete and detailed statement of the Gospel message. He wanted to discuss that with those in Rome. The theme is found in Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, where it says, The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. The early chapters of Romans, Paul was talking about how all of mankind is guilty before God. All of mankind is worthy of the death penalty. Our works don't earn salvation. They only earn death. But then the Apostle Paul began to discuss the doctrine of justification, our rights standing before God that we have in Jesus Christ. He began to discuss what sanctification is, our right living before God, as we progress in our Christian walk. He talked about how believers overcome sin, God's sovereignty. And then in chapter 12, which we're in right now, Paul begins to move from doctrinal statements to practical discussions about everyday Christian living. The first 11 chapters of the letter reveal God's mercy to sinners, in that he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. The last five chapters in Romans discuss how we are to take that sacrifice and how we are to live with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and how we're to walk as Christians. Let's read verse 1, which we covered last time, Romans 12, verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And of course, last time we talked about what it meant to be a living sacrifice. Now, let's begin with some new material here in verse 2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Brethren, right here, right here in verse 2, is where we join the battle, spiritually speaking. Here's where the battle begins as you and I endeavor to overcome the world. The battle begins in our minds. We have a battle with Satan for control of our mind.

Now, the Greek word here for transformed is the, where we get our word metamorphosis. A metamorphosis has a significant meaning to we as believers, because as believers, we are to have a complete transformation from the inside out. I'm sure many of us, without all of us, have seen various specials on television or maybe even on the Internet. We've seen various things in magazines showing how a butterfly comes to be, and the transformation from a worm to the butterfly, the beautiful butterfly, the changes that take place. Well, our minds are to be transformed. How does that take place? What are the mechanics of transforming our minds? How is that done? We're going to get to that in a moment, but let's look at a couple of other scriptures to preface that. Let's go over to Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4, verse 22, because this is a theme that we see all through the writings of the Apostle Paul, because they are inspired of God, that we have to have a transformation, a renewing of our mind.

Here in Ephesians 4, verse 22, it says, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the way we used to live, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts. And notice, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Again, how does that take place? How do you and I do this? If the battle is joined here, it starts right there, the battle for control of our mind. How do we do that? Verse 24, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. So we get rid of the old, we put on the new, and the middle area there, verse 22, we get rid of the old, verse 24, we get put on the new, but in the middle, verse 23, we have to have this renewing of our mind. It means that we have to be involved in activities that renew the mind. You know, this is not Passover season, but certainly it's never wrong for us to be introspective and to be asking ourselves some deep questions.

Brethren, this last week has an example. What have you done? What have I done? What have any of us done in this last week to renew our mind? What have we allowed our mind to feed on? What have we put in our mind? What have we not allowed to come into our mind? What exactly have we done? What activities have we done to renew our mind, to have our mind be transformed?

Let's take a look at Hebrews chapter 4, because Hebrews chapter 4 gives us a tremendous insight into this whole process of having our minds being transformed, having our minds being renewed.

Hebrews chapter 4, and verse 12, For the word of God is living and powerful.

You know, brethren, the book you've got sitting on your lap, it's not just any old book. It's not just so much paper and ink and binding.

There were times, there were a great many times, when the Bible started to be printed and people could actually own a copy of a Bible. People paid with their lives so that you and I can have a printed copy of the Bible. Back in the Middle Ages, God's people in the church, you know, if you were caught, of course, the Bibles back in those days were very expensive.

Most people couldn't even begin to afford a Bible. Not even a portion of a Bible, not even a portion of a book. You know, if you had a couple of pages, you were lucky. And so back in the Middle Ages, we had ministers who would have copies of the Bible or portions of the Scriptures, and they would commit large portions to memory. And then they'd go on visits, normally two by two, an older man and a younger man, one mentoring the younger, and they would go to members' homes. They wouldn't carry a Bible because if they were found with a Bible on their person, they would lose their life.

And so they'd go into members' homes, and maybe they had memorized the whole book of John.

Kind of blows my mind that people can do that. But they had memorized maybe a whole book or a large portion of the book, and when they got to the members' home, they would have a Bible recital.

Somebody else that was famous for that, not that many years ago, was Haley, from Haley's Bible handbook, That Haley. He used to do the same thing. He would have Bible recitals because he was able to have the kind of mind we can memorize vast portions of Scripture. So, you know, here we have a book that says here that the Bible, the Word of God, is living and powerful. Why is it living? Because it contains living principles. It contains the very insights in the counsel of God. Counsel that comes from a pure source. And because of that, it's living and it is powerful. It says here, "...and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." We can't be in the process of having our minds transformed and renewed unless we're eating the Word of God, unless we're really putting our noses into the Bible. If you are not studying, you're not going to be renewing your mind. It's just as simple as that. It's just as simple as that. One man put it this way, our minds become first informed and then conformed.

We have to have a process of being informed through reading the Scriptures, and then we can conform to what we read in those Scriptures.

And the Bible helps us do that. Now, I asked the question a few moments ago, what are the mechanics of transformation? How is a man transformed in the inner person? How is that done? Let's take a look. Let's go back to the book of Romans, but not chapter 12. Let's go back to Romans chapter 8. Some ground we've already covered, but let's review some things here.

Mechanics of having a mind that is transformed, a mind that is renewed.

We have to begin at the beginning. Romans chapter 8 verses 7 and 8. Romans 8, 7 and 8.

Verse 7, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law, nor indeed can be, so that those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

So the mind of man has been affected by sin. It's been affected by Satan. It needs to be transformed. It needs to be renewed. It needs to be reworked. But notice what it says here, starting in Romans chapter 8. Notice what it says here, starting in verse 9.

But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

So even though we have a negative beginning because of what Satan has been doing with our minds, and he broadcast 24-7, 365, but it says, we have God's Spirit. God's Spirit dwells in us. End of verse 9. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

You have life residing in you because you have the Spirit of Christ in you.

And as we talked about a few weeks ago, you have taken up your cross and you're following Christ.

And to take up our cross, the cross was an emblem of death. And as it says here, we are dead to sin. We have taken up Christ's cross. We are dead to a former way of life, but we're going to live another way of life. And just as crucifixion is a slow, lingering process, our growth takes time. That is a slow process. So we've got to allow God to give us the time we need and be patient along those lines. Verse 11. But if the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you. So we see the tremendous power, the miracle-working power, of God. There's coming a time when we're going to be resurrected from the dead.

That is miraculous. But also the fact that we are going to follow God and go the way God wants us to live the way God wants us to live, that also is miraculous. Now starting over here in Matthew 22, a few weeks ago I gave a sermon talking about what do you do when you find people in the church you're disappointed in? Whether it be local leaders, whether it be the leadership in general of the church, of the United Church of God. How do you respond to that? How do you respond to disappointment with people? And in that sermon we talked about focus, what we need to focus in on. We don't focus in on people. We don't focus in on their sins. What we focus in on is God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Word of God. That's what we focus in on. So right now we want to take more of a look at proper focus. And we begin over here in Matthew, let me get there myself, Matthew chapter 22. Notice what it says here in verse 37. Actually, verse 36. Matthew 22, 36, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your hearts and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. This is the first of the great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments, saying all the law and the prophets. Now if we're to boil all of the Word of God down into a very simple concept or a couple of concepts, it's right here. Love God, love fellow man.

So what we have in these verses is a proper orientation. This needs to be our orientation. As you and I go through life, we want to feed our minds the right thing. We want to make sure our minds are working the way God would have our minds to work. And so here is an orientation. Is what I'm thinking, is what I'm about to do, are my plans, are my motivations. Do they fit nicely under either loving God or loving our fellow man? If not, then there's something wrong with our orientation.

Let's go back to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8.

Verses 5 and 6. Romans 8 verses 5 and 6. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Life and peace. What we have here is a matter of proper focus. We talked about in Matthew 22 proper orientation. Here we're looking at a matter of proper focus. You know, we're narrowing down what it is we need to be doing so that we can have a mind that is transformed, our mind that is renewed. We have to have that proper orientation. We need to have that proper focus. And now we turn to 2 Corinthians. We're getting more and more focus here. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 3 through 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 3 through 5. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. God gives us tremendous spiritual resources. We need those mighty resources to transform and renew a mind that's been affected by this world. But notice verse 5. Casting down arguments or reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity, every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. If we want our minds to be what they should be, then we need what it says for us to do here. And that is proper mental control and proper discipline.

We've got to have proper orientation. We talked about having proper focus. We now need proper mental control and discipline. If we have that, we're well on the way for allowing God to work with our minds, to renew our minds, and to transform our minds. But there's a couple other points we want to hit before we go back to Romans 12. Over here in Hebrews 8 and verse 10.

Hebrews 8, 10. For this is a covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. So here we have proper living before God.

Our minds and our hearts have a proper orientation, a proper focus, they're properly disciplined. And now we've got to not just delve into the realm of theory, we've actually got to do something. We've got to put our hands to the plow, so to speak, and get out there and live our lives with a proper living before God. And lastly, 1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 1.

1 Peter 4, 1. Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind.

You know, this mind that's being transformed, this mind that's being renewed, Christ is suffering in us here, we arm ourselves with the mind of Christ.

For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

So what does chapter 4 verse 1 of 1 Peter tell us?

That we need to have a proper response to life's challenges.

Proper orientation, proper focus, proper mental discipline and control, proper living before God, and a matter of proper response when life kicks you down.

When life kicks you in the gut, when you're knocked off your feet, when things aren't going well.

You know, as we heard in some of the announcements earlier today, when family seems to have one catastrophe after another, coming like the waves on a lake, just coming and coming and coming and just ceaselessly coming with the difficulties, we need to have a proper response to life's challenges.

We need to have the mind of Christ to properly deal with life's challenges.

And of course, we all want to be praying that God would give us that proper outlook for when life wants to knock us down on the ground.

Let's go back now to Romans chapter 12, and let's move on. Let's move forward.

I do want to make a couple of final thoughts on verse 2 here.

Romans 12, too, says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

We took a look. Short form is much more we could say about this. We took a look at some of the things that take for us to renew our mind. But notice, in the process of being a living sacrifice, in the process of transforming and renewing our minds, end of verse 2, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. As you and I have our minds being transformed and renewed, we're becoming more Christlike in our thinking, and we're accepting the will of God and not our own will. We know what God's way is for us. It won't be easy. It will be difficult. It will be challenging. But at least now we've come to an understanding because of what we've put ourselves in a position to win. We put ourselves as a living sacrifice. We put ourselves in a position to have our minds transformed and renewed. And because of that, God rewards us by showing what is good and acceptable and perfect. It's kind of a beautiful cycle here. It's kind of like a circuit. As God shows us, because of our desire and our zeal to be a living sacrifice and renew and transform our minds with God's help, we don't do this on our own. But as we do those things, we're blessed with a knowledge of what is good and acceptable and perfect. And as we are given more understanding about what is good and acceptable and perfect, we can then become even a better living sacrifice.

We can then become even having our minds more and more renewed and transformed. And then God gives us even more in terms of understanding what is good and acceptable and perfect. So it's a beautiful cycle that we have there. A beautiful cycle. Let's move on now to Romans 12 and verse 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. Verse 3 deals with God's grace. God's grace deals not only with the forgiveness of sin. And just a few verses, we're going to be talking about spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts.

But here we're talking about, to preface a discussion about gifts, we're going to talk about a proper mindset. And the proper mindset that we're going to be seeing here is a mindset of humility. Humility. Now it says here in verse 3 that we are not to think more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly. In Theors, Greek lexicon, the word soberly means to be in one's right mind. It means to be sane. It means to exercise self-control. Now, put a marker here. I want you to go over with me. I'd like you to go over with me to Mark chapter 5 and see how this word soberly is used in Mark 5. I think it's really interesting. Mark chapter 5, at the very beginning of Mark chapter 5, you've got an individual who's demon-possessed. He's thrashing around. He's causing all sorts of difficulty because there are many demons that are in him. This is the story where Christ removes the demons, puts them into the herd of swine, the swine go running into the water and kill themselves. The man is no longer demon-possessed. Now, notice here at the very end of that story, Mark chapter 5 and verse 15. Then they came to Jesus and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind. The words there, right mind and the word soberly over in Romans 12.3. Same word in the Greek. Same word. A right mind. A sane mind.

And that's what God wants us to have. We go back now to Romans chapter 12 and verse 3.

Romans 12.3. We want to have a sane mind, a balanced mind, a mind that can evaluate things properly. And we'll talk more about why that's so important in a moment or two.

Brother, as I was meditating on this sermon and this section of Scripture, and even reviewing my notes this morning before I went over to Ann Arbor, you know, it just struck me and I put some marginal notes. I've got everything printed and I put marginal notes in my notes. I put notes in notes. But humility is the soil where conversion grows. Humility is the soil where conversion grows. We want to be humble people. There's not a difficulty you and I have spiritually. There's not a difficulty the church has spiritually in any way, shape, or form that humility can greatly help.

Great, great. And God will give us. He'll help us with humility. On the other hand, if we have feelings of self-importance, that's the soil where sin breeds.

Feelings of self-importance is where sin breeds. We don't want to be sinful people. We want to be God's humble people. We want God to bless us with all the fruits that come from being humble people. Again, as I was thinking about this, certain benefits came to my mind. What are some of the benefits for a humble walk with God? Well, we see part of it right here in verse 3. At the very end of verse 3, it talks about how God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

God has dealt to each one. Each one. So, number one, one of the benefits of a humble walk with God is that we acknowledge where our gifts originate. Our gifts originate with God.

They originate with Him. We can't do any crowing or puff. We can't be puffed. We didn't give ourselves these gifts. Now, we do know that God gives gifts to people who've got certain natural abilities. But then again, why do you have natural ability? Who helped you with that? Who put that in you? All of those things originate with God. The last few weeks they've had this special on Sarah Palin's Alaska. I've been watching that, kind of interested in the situation. But, you know, Mrs. Palin has a son who's got downs. And one of the things my mother taught me, and probably your mother taught you, was a phrase, you know, there by the grace of God go I.

Every time I look at that little child with the challenge that he has, I think, you know, that could be me, or that could be my son, or my daughter, or whatever. God has given me what I have. He's given you what you have. It's by the grace as we saw there in verse 3. Through the grace given to me, Paul says. And that's not just always about, you know, forgiveness. Grace is a multifaceted subject. And here we realize that God gives to each one, to each one, a measure of faith.

So we acknowledge where our gifts originate. Number two, a second benefit for a walk with God that is humble, we see in verse 4. Romans 12, 4. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So a second benefit we see for humility is that we acknowledge others are gifted by God. It's not just us. You know, we don't just walk to the front of the line and say, hey, you know, I'm the only one with gifts here. No. We acknowledge that others are gifted by God. Every person, everybody in the church has gifts. No person has a monopoly on gifts. And that should affect the way we look at our brothers and sisters in the faith. Because if we want to either neglect our brothers and sisters in the faith, or we want to not have much to do with our brothers and sisters in the faith, then we're saying we don't want to be near some of the gifts of God. We don't want to say that. You know, God has given various ones various gifts for the purpose of helping the whole body of the church. I'll get to that a little bit later. Let's turn over to Ephesians 4. Notice what it says here about others being gifted by God. Ephesians 4, one of the beginning sections here in this chapter, talks about the unity that God gave us. Verse 3 talks about how we are to keep the unity. When we are baptized into God the Father and Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, we were baptized into a unified situation with God and Christ.

But notice what it says here in verse 7, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

To each one of us grace was given. Now, what are your spiritual gifts? We're going to take a look at that in just a few minutes. But to each one of you in this room, to each one of us in this room, God has extended his grace to you to give you a spiritual or many spiritual gifts.

We drop down to verse 16. From whom the whole body joined and knit together by which every joint supplies. Again, this helps us be more humble when we realize God's working with the whole group.

Others are gifted by God by which every joint supplies according to the effect of working by which every part does it share. It causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

So that's a second benefit of a humble walk of God to realize. Others are gifted. We don't have to do everything ourselves. Which leads me now to point number three. The last thing I want to discuss, and I'm sure there are probably many, many more benefits of a humble walk of God, I just want to point out three things that we see right here in this section of Scripture. In verse five, Romans 12, 5, for we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

Verse five shows that we are a part of a team.

One of the benefits of a humble walk of God, and point three, is we are a part of a team.

And every part of the team is important. The analogy here is the body. Is there some part of your body? You just want to say, well, man, I've got two eyes. I don't need two eyes. I've got two ears. I don't need two. Is that how we think? Of course not. We want everything. We want everything to function. If something's not functioning, I don't care how minor you may think it is that affects you.

This was pointed out to me, this last piece. Once again, I had an experience with a door.

In 2001, trying to save my poor daughter from some large insect in Jekyll Island, she was screaming in her room. This thing was on her bed waving its little antennae at her, and she was cowering in a corner. And of course, this is like three in the morning.

I run into the room to kill the bug. The bug flies out of the room. It's one of these huge southern bugs. It flies out of the room. I fly out of the room after it. Unfortunately, I met the door on the way out, the edge of the door, and I kicked that door, as it was trying to run, with my right foot. And the door didn't move. I went and killed the bug, sent him to the resurrection, and then looked at my foot and saw that my middle toe was shaped like a fishhook.

Broken in two places. And of course, knowing what you do with things like that, there's not a lot you can do with that other than straighten them out, maybe take one toe to another. I looked down there and said, well, I've got to straighten that thing out. So I did that. And let me tell you, that will clear your sinus passages. But, you know, the same thing happened at the feast this last year. A similar thing. I was in a rush. I was barefoot. I pulled this door open very quickly with a lot of force, with a lot of zeal. And this door goes over my little toe and a two toe's next to it. And I just don't know how that door didn't rip off all three toenails.

But somehow the little toe caught the brunt of that. And, you know, Mary would be my witness that my foot looked like hamburger meat. I don't know if I broke that toe. It wasn't in the shape of shaping or anything. But it wasn't until about a month ago that I would have to put my sock on on that foot very, very slowly. Because that little toe hurt. You know, it felt awful for a long time. So I'm here to tell you something very little part of your body is not really doing well. Well, you notice that. We are a team. We need to work together as a team.

And verse 5 helps us to understand that. Now, earlier on I talked about why we need to have this balanced view of ourselves. A sane view of ourselves. To think of ourselves soberly, as we see there in verse 3. The reason we want this, brethren, is because if we think of ourselves too highly, we're going to attempt too much. We're going to bite off more than we can chew, and we're going to fail. If we're arrogant in our estimation of ourselves. On the other hand, if we think too little of ourselves, that's not good either. Because then we'll never accomplish what we could accomplish with God's help. And we want to accomplish everything that God would like us to accomplish. So we don't want to sell ourselves short either. Okay, let's go back to chapter 12 of Romans. Let's take a look at these gifts. Let's just go through and read the list here, verses 6 through 8. It says, "...having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy," and there's one gift, "...let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or our ministry," there's a gift, "...let us use it in ministering, he who teaches," there's yet another gift, "...in teaching, he who exhorts," there's a gift, "...in exhortation, he who gives," there's a gift, "...with liberality, he who leads," there's a gift, "...with diligence, and he who shows mercy," showing mercy is a gift. We'll do that with cheerfulness.

Now, these are not all of the spiritual gifts. Let me give you a listing of places you can go into scriptures to see a catalog of the lists of the God has for us. You've got 1 Corinthians 12, the talk about some of the gifts that God gives to us. You've got Ephesians chapter 4, and you've got Romans chapter 12. And I've gone through and looked at all three of those lists, and you know something? I still don't think that God means for that to be some sort of an exhaustive list. I'm betting there are plenty of other gifts that God has given to mankind. These are just some of the gifts. Now, a few moments ago, I said, how do you know what your gifts are?

As I was looking at one of these commentaries, the one man was writing and saying something, I really had not crossed my mind quite in this way, but I thought it was interesting.

He said, you know, think about a situation where there's somebody you know who's facing a very difficult time. There's some sort of trial or challenge or something of that nature. And he said, now, when you first become aware of that, when you first become aware of the difficulty, how do you respond? Where does your mind go when you first learn there's a difficulty? He said, because what people will do is they will default to an area of strength. They will default to where their gifts reside. As an example, somebody has a challenge, and if the first thing that comes to your mind, you say, well, what can I do to help meet their need? What can I do? Then the chances are that maybe one of the gifts that God has given you is the gift of serving. That's where you default to. That's what comes first to your mind. Or maybe, like as we talked about in the announcements, if you know somebody is going through a tremendous trial, if one of the first thoughts that comes to your mind is, how can I uplift that person? How can I go to that person and give them a word of encouragement? That may well mean that one of the gifts that God has given to you is the gift of being an encourager. That's where you default to. That's what you do.

You serve or you encourage. And I thought that was kind of an interesting way that he put that.

Because I think there's a lot of truth in that.

So let's take a look now at these various gifts that we see here in verses 6 through 8, and understand what they mean. Maybe you've got some of these gifts. Maybe God wants you to really use these gifts with a tremendous amount of power. Verse 6 is, having them gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. So here again, Paul is talking about grace. Again, has nothing to do with the forgiveness of sins. It's talking about how God extends His grace to us. So we have spiritual gifts. We've got abilities to use to serve one another, to serve God. And it's because God extends His grace to us, His favor to us. Everything that we do is a matter of God's grace. My heart is beating right now by the grace of God. I am able to, my eyes are able to read because of the grace of God. The same thing is true for you. So it says here, 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. Now, prophecy can be a couple of different things. It can be foretelling future events. But there's another way that we see prophecy being discussed. If you find it over here in 1 Corinthians, let's go over there for a moment. 1 Corinthians 14.

1 Corinthians 14 and verse 3.

But he who prophesies speaks edification, and exhortation, and comfort to men.

So a second meaning for biblical prophesying is not just for telling future events, but prophecy means that you're able to discuss things with people.

That you're able, as it says there in verse 3, you're able to edify them, to build them up. You're able to exhort them, to motivate them, and you're also able to comfort them.

So the gift of prophecy, if you're maybe more of a bold and articulate person, and maybe that's a gift that you have.

Maybe you're more of a verbal person. I communicate with this one particular individual by email quite a bit. I used to be in the area, pastoring the area, and this person is a writer.

And she has a degree in journalism. She loves writing, and she's very good at it.

And that is one of her gifts. Very talented with that.

If the letter's a little on the long side, I tend to want to pick up a phone and call, because I'm not so much of a writer. I'm more of the talker type.

So that's probably where I'm at. But verse 7, Romans 12-7, it talks about ministry. Let us use it in our ministering. Well, the gift of ministry is the gift of serving.

The gift of serving. So many times, the gift of serving is given to people who are sensitive.

They're sensitive people who see, who lock in on. They've got these antennae. They're not from outer space or something. But they are able to sense that people have needs. And then they'll go to that person and serve that individual with the need they have. That is a gift.

I've known many insensitive people in my life. You've probably known many insensitive people. But I tell you one thing, if you know a sensitive person, now I guess we can be too sensitive.

But if you know a sensitive person, I tend to gravitate to those kind of people. In the sense that if I'm hurting, they're going to know it. They're going to help. And I don't mind being helped.

How about you?

Verse 7 also talks about teaching as a gift. Teaching as a gift. Now, there's a lot we can say on each one of these, but to be a good teacher means you've got to think clearly.

That's a gift. How many people do you know who can really think clearly? I mean, if you know somebody who can think clearly, you seek that person out. Because so many times in our lives, we find that our thinking may be muddled. Our thinking may be muddied. It may not be clear. But if you know somebody who has a clear mindset, who has the ability to see things clearly for what they are, that is a tremendous gift. And those people then are able to help teach because they see things properly. Verse 8 talks about he who exhorts and exhortation.

These are people who are really good at motivating. Are you a motivator? There are different ways to motivate people. You can motivate people through the written word, through the verbal word. You can motivate people simply by who you are and the way you conduct yourself. I have been motivated by people in the past by simply watching them and just watching how they serve. Quietly, behind the scenes. I think, you know, I really appreciate that in that person. I can do that. I can do that.

And motivated by watching somebody who simply serves and enjoys serving and the benefits of their crew from that kind of an attitude. Also in verse 8 it talks about those who give.

Giving people have the gift because they are generous people.

And we're not necessarily just talking about money. It could include that.

But we've got a number of generous people in this room. You've got the Ellis family. They are generous with their home. You've got the Weckerley family. They are generous with their home.

Both families have always been that way. How many times have I been to the Weckerley? Probably I've been to their home too many times. But they make a great meal. So I guess I'll keep on going back to the Weckerley home. But, you know, just really able to, you know, generously give of their home.

Some of you generously give of your service. You generously give of who you are.

People can call you and you will be generous with the time you give to people. It's not always about money. It can be about just simply being generous with whatever you have. And some people have that gift of being generous. Also here in verse 8 it talks about he who leads with diligence. Leadership is a gift. People who can organize.

I've been in situations where I thought, man, this is chaos.

Where do I go? Where do I begin? And I've been in other situations where maybe it's a little too much organization.

I remember once years ago in another church area in another state we had a social.

The church had, I think, maybe 300, 400 people. We had a large international dinner.

And the person who was organizing this, I mean this person, if you looked up organization in a dictionary there would be his picture.

And there were certain duties that needed to be done. If you were cooking Spanish food, you had maybe a red badge. If you were cooking Italian, you maybe had a yellow. And they had all these different, there were people who were on cleanup. They had a different color badge. Everyone had a badge other than little kids.

And we had everything but the little armbands. It was really something. I think it was a little too much, but I mean there's a person who knows how to organize.

You've got other people, they can't organize a drawer in their home.

So it is a gift, and we need people who are good at this, who are good at organization.

So things can get done. And lastly in verse 8 it says, he who shows mercy. There you're talking about caring people. And we've got a lot of caring people in this congregation.

People who sometimes wear their hearts on their sleeves and sometimes they get hurt because of that. But you have to appreciate and admire and love them for the fact that they are loving, caring people. And they really want to be there for others. And they are merciful people. And that is a gift. You know something? That's a precious gift. Because we live in a very hard age.

And to have that gift of mercy, that gift of concern, that's a beautiful thing. Okay, let's move on. I'm going to cover a few more verses here before. We're probably going to do chapter 3 in three sessions. Starting here in chapter 12 or verse 9, Paul, the rest of the chapter, chapter 12, is basically summarized in verse 9, where Paul says, "...let love be without hypocrisy, a poor what is evil, cling to what is good." That is the theme for the rest of the chapter.

In verses 10 through 13, Paul applies this to the relationships that believers have amongst themselves. And starting in verse 14 through the balance of the chapter through verse 21, Paul applies it to relationships between believers and those who are unbelievers. So let's get out of here, chapter 12 verse 9, "...let love be without hypocrisy, a poor what is evil, cling to what is good." In the years I've been in the ministry, and I've been a minister since 1979, in the years I've been in the ministry, people get hung up a lot on faith.

Faith is a beautiful thing to don't misunderstand. And I think that is some sort of litmus test as to where they are in the scheme of things with their level of conversion. To me, the litmus test is love. Love is the most accurate indicator of our spiritual health. Because God is love, and we are becoming like God. And if we are not loving people, we're really missing the mark. We're missing where we need to be. We're also becoming more like our father and elder brother, and they are love.

We want a Christ-grade love. Every once in a while, Mary will send me to the store to buy groceries. That's always fun. I don't know that I'm always the best at that. She has to give me a detailed list. And she can't send me when I'm hungry. Because I buy five times the stuff. Everything looks good. I don't know about that in a cart. But when you're looking at various things, like eggs or something, there's various grades to them.

We want a Christ-grade love. That's the highest grade there is. We don't want a love that's hypocritical. We don't want a love that's insincere. We want a love that's genuine. We want the real deal. We want a Christ-grade love. We want prime love, pure love. That only comes from Christ. That comes from the grace of God working in our lives.

So Paul says, let love be without hypocrisy. And, poor, what is evil? Brethren, don't think that if you are a loving person, that you have to somehow be blind to seeing things that are wrong. Or that if you're a loving person, you can't see the fallacy of things or the error in things. Genuine love is not blind. Genuine love is able to recognize evil and good. It's not being judgmental. It's being able to discern.

We want to be discerning people. We want to abhor what is evil. To know what is evil, we have to be able to discern what it is. To cling to what is good, we have to know what good is. Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians 7 for a moment. 2 Corinthians 7.

The Apostle Paul had to write one of his most corrective letters in his life to the church in Corinth. They were a group of people who were... They had a good many things going for them in some ways. They were full of spiritual gifts and fruits. But on the other hand, as we're going through in our Inoune Bible study series, the church of Corinth had... they were deeply divided. Some were of Paul, some were of Cephas, some were of Apollos.

They were into personalities. They weren't always doctrinally sound like they should have been. They weren't always being there for their brothers and sisters like they should have been. And there was one situation where one man in chapter 5 was married to his father's wife. Now, we don't know exactly what that relationship was. Most commentators think that was a stepmom. But, you know, the Bible says we shouldn't do that. There are scriptures in Leviticus that talk about that.

And even under Roman law, Cicero talked about how we shouldn't do that. And yet the church in Corinth, they thought they were being merciful by just permitting this man to have this relationship. Well, there's a difference between being merciful and being permissive. They were being permissive. They were not being hard-hearted. They were being soft-headed. So Paul had to write a very corrected letter. He had to disfellowship somebody. But in 2 Corinthians, we see where that man had come to see the error of his way, had repented, and Paul says, we need to bring that guy back.

Let's not let him get overcome with grief. Let's bring him back. And so here in chapter 7, Paul says, now, we need some guidelines as to what proper repentance is all about. So let's go here through 2 Corinthians 7, verse 9. He says, Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, when he wrote the letter, that they were ouchy, with the letter he wrote, but that your sorrow led to repentance, led to something good. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us and nothing.

For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation. That's good. That's a loving thing to do for somebody. Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. We don't want to have the sorrow of the world. We don't want to just have people feel good, and then their life becomes a catastrophe. Verse 11, for observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. Now verse 11 gives us 7 different fruits. I'm not going to go through all this today. I've done this in the past. Verse 11 gives us 7 different fruits that shows what sorrowing in a godly manner is.

As we walk with God, we need to take note of this from time to time. Notice what it says here. Number 1, what diligence? That's one fruit. It says, what clearing of yourself? That's the second fruit. And then thirdly, what indignation? A hatred of sin. You can be a loving person and hate sin. God wants us to be loving people who hate sin. Not the sinner, but we hate the sin. To hate and to claim, to hate sin and to claim to what is right requires some action on our part.

We can't be passive with any of that. Let's go back now to Romans 12. We'll be able to go through a few more verses. We will not include the chapter today. Romans 12. Verse 10, where it says, Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. To be kindly affectionate. The Greek word here means to be devoted. To be devoted. It's the kind of affection and loyalty we see with a proper family. In family, you've got love that allows for weaknesses.

In family, you've got love that allows for imperfections. In family, you've got proper... In a family that's functioning where they should. In family, you've got proper communication. You deal with situations. You affirm others. You validate others in your family. You've got a strong commitment to others. And that's what it's talking about here. To be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love. So verse 10 gives us an underlying attitude that we are to have as Christians, one toward another.

And if we have this underlying attitude of being kindly affectionate, are we going to be offended by one another? Are we going to be hurting one another? Are we going to be walking away from one another and turning our backs on one another? I think if we would just simply follow what the Scriptures have to say, and we were good Christians, some of the issues and challenges that we face today would not be issues and challenges.

Verse 11, Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Now, verse 11 talks about some contrasts. Not lagging in diligence. Most of us in this room have been in a church a long time. Some of us in this room were born into the truth. That's the only thing you've ever known, is the truth of God.

And sometimes when that's the case, sometimes fatigue sets in. Fatigue sets in. But we as Christians, as it says here, not lagging in diligence. We can't give ourself over to discouragement, to depression, to negativity. We can't do that. That's the mind of Satan. That's again, one of those spawning grounds where we don't want to be. Nothing good comes from that. Nothing good comes from that. We don't want to be lagging in diligence, but we want to be fervent in the spirit, serving the Lord. What we're looking at there in verse 11 is zealousness.

Verse 9 talked about how we need to be loving people, clinging to what's good, getting away from what's evil. Verse 10 talks about an underlying attitude of affection toward one another. Verse 11 talks about zealousness. I mean, there's a beautiful chain of thought here that the Apostle Paul has for the members of the church. Verse 12, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. Rejoicing in hope. We don't have to fear what our future is.

Now, we know that there are difficult times and challenges will be ahead of us. But we also know that we are heading toward the kingdom of God. And, you know, one of the things that goes through my mind all the time is, you know, well, 100 years from now, De'Alessandro, this will all be over. And I'll be a spirit being in the kingdom of God, and life will be good.

I won't have to worry about jumping onto scale and seeing where I am today, or how much hair has gone down to drain today, or any of those kind of things. I rejoice in the fact that, you know, eternal life is ahead. I rejoice in the fact that God is a God who believes in challenge. How is God going to challenge us as spirit beings?

We're not going to sit around and play UNO all day long. We're going to do some things that are pretty... God's got to have something in mind to challenge us.

What is the plan after the Book of Revelation closes? He's got to have something there for us. We're his kids. He knows we're going to want something. So we can rejoice in what the future holds past the suffering of this age. We rejoice in it. It says we're patient in our sufferings because we know that God is in control. There's nothing happening in your life or mind that God's not aware of, that God hasn't permitted, and that God isn't going to use. What was it the one man said here not too long ago?

He said that God recycles. God recycles our trials. He makes sure that as we go through trials, that the things that are there, He's going to use that stuff to help us grow. And it says we are to be faithful in our prayers.

A trademark of believers are that we are praying people. Our lifeline is our prayer to God. And if you and I aren't praying to God, then we're severing ourself from our lifeline. And we simply can't do that. Mary has found this thing called texting. I hate texting. I'm not saying that because I've got one of those old style phones, but you've got to use the tap method. You've got to hit the one key five times to get the letter or the character you want.

And so somebody sends you this nice long text message, and you're there tapping your brains out, trying to say yes or no. Then you can't figure out how to capitalize things. And of course, Brandon, he's got one of those super-duper phones. He's doing all sorts of things. I'm talking to him. We're trying to have dinner, and he's sending stuff every place. High tech. The highest tech thing there is is prayer to God. Nothing is more high tech than that. You don't have to worry about roving minutes or how many minutes you've got left.

You can pray to God any time you want to. And your prayers go to Him instantaneously, faster than the speed of thought. It doesn't get any more high tech than that. And you carry it around everywhere you go. So let's make it a point that we have our relationship with God with those prayers, and keeping close tabs with Him. Brandon, I'm going to stop there, because starting in verse 13-14 here, we get into something else, and I want to kind of hit that as a section next time we get together and talk about Romans.

So, that's it for today. We'll see you after we're done.