Romans 12:3-8
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a person’s gift is prophesying, let them use it in proportion to their faith. If it is serving, let them serve; if it is teaching, let them teach; if it is encouraging, let them encourage, if it is contributing to the needs of others, let them give generously, if it is leadership, let them govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let them do it cheerfully.
1) Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought
2) So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belong
3) We have different gifts according to the grace given us
4) Making the most of our Gifts
5) (So What?) If we use the gifts God has given us… God will bless us tenfold!
1) (3) Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.
Like I said last week, this verse here stings a bit because I think we could all be found guilty of it a little bit. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. It is something that I have to keep reminding myself of over and over and over. Every once in a while I my head gets bigger than it ought to… and God bless my wife… she reminds me. I get to thinking things like, you know that sermon WAS really awesome. I’m pretty darn good. But who do you think gave me the gifts that I use to write, prepare, and give that sermon?
Furthermore, who do you think sat by my side to help inspire the message? And how about this… who wrote the message in the first place? I’m not much more than 9 o’clock news… when you’ve already listened to the 12 o clock, 5 o clock, and 6 o clock news. You’ve heard it before… I’m just giving it back to you again. So when my head begins to get a bit big I remember this verse… Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself in sober judgment… and realize and honor where each of our gifts come from. God is the give of every great gift we have… and we have to remember that.
Now… this is the first part of Paul’s message… we need to remember where our gifts come from… and then he pushes the idea a little further by reminding us of something else…
2) (5) So in Christ we who are many form one body
We are not in this alone. We have an entire family here… one body in Christ, called to this church to serve as disciples. If we all work together, and do what we are supposed to do, we can do some amazing things. And it is an awesome thing that we are not in this alone… imagine if you had to do everything this church did… all by yourself. It couldn’t be done. Not only that… but nobody has the talent to do everything this church does... Brothers and sisters… we complete each other. And this gets us to the heart of Paul’s message as we get into our third point.
3) (6) We have different gifts according to the grace given us
1 Corinthians 12:15
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many part, but one body.”
We each have unique talents… we each have unique gifts… we are all asked to contribute in a special way… As the body of Christ… everybody here needs everybody else… we each need to figure out what our purpose is within this body of Christ. “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be!!!” God has given you your talent specifically so you could serve as a very specific part of the body of Christ. And what do you suppose happens if you aren’t doing that job? More often than not… that job doesn’t get done. We are supposed to figure out what gifts God has given us, and then do our best to make the most of those gifts. And this gets us to the fourth and final point of Paul’s chapter…
4) (7++) Doing the most with what we have. If… then let them use.
Martha Berry was a lady with a vision to help children. She began a school for poor children. She had no books, no building and no money. But she had a dream. She went to Henry Ford to ask for a donation. Mr. Ford reached into his pocket gave Martha Berry a dime. Most people would have been insulted, here he is a multi-millionaire and all he could give was a dime. But Martha took that dime and bought a packet of seeds and planted a garden, raised a crop, sold it and bought more seeds. After three or four harvests she had enough money to purchase and old building for the children. She returned to Mr. Ford and said, “Look what your dime has done.” The man was so impressed that he donated a million dollars to Berry’s School.
The question that underlies the message that I am bringing this morning is: “what will you do with what God has given you?” I hope that we all can realize that we each can make a difference in the world and in eternity. The things that we do on earth matter and make a huge difference, but before we can choose to impact the world, we must first choose to implement what God has given us.
I have heard it said that 20% of the people in a church do 80% of the work. It is a noble thing that some people are willing to invest so much time into the Lord’s service, but the truth is the Lord has given each of us talents to use in the service of the Kingdom.
5) (So What?) If we use the gifts God has given us… he will bless us tenfold!
I sometimes wonder what the church be like if every servant used their talents to serve the Lord. I mean… think about it. If all of use gave an abundance of time, talents, and finances… everything that this church could do!!!
But Pastor Homan… you ask too much. I give time, but not money or talent… shouldn’t that be enough. I give money, but don’t have time… I don’t have any real talents to give. Money should be enough… right…. Right?
Brothers and sisters, the good lord has given us all unique gifts. What kind of stewards would we be if we entirely ignored the talents he has given us and didn’t use them at all to his glory? It is time for use what the Lord has given us. So often we view doing work for the Kingdom as an option, but the truth is it is not an option… it is not an - if you want to… it is a calling! Every single one of you has been called by Jesus. Every single one of you has been saved by Jesus. Every single one of you is here today because at some point in your life you made a choice to follow Jesus. And the lord has blessed you… blessed you with salvation… blessed you with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit… blessed you with talents.
And here is the kicker… if you truly give to him like we are supposed to… he has promised to bless us tenfold. He has already bless us greatly… but he promises to bless us even more of we dedicate all that we are to service in him.
Malachi 3:7-10
Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to Return?’ ‘Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.’ But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ ‘In thithes and offerings. You are under a curse, the whole nation of you, because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
Brothers and sisters, I have high hopes for this church, and I know every single one of you has high hopes for this church… if we really want this church to succeed in the ways we want it to succeed, the first step begins with us. Lets make a pledge of our talents… and work to do the mission and ministry of First Presbyterian Church of Fairbury. ( go into examples?)
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
