Keys to a Wonderful Church Life - Part 2: Service with a Smile!
The Book of Romans
Romans 12:1-9
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared August 26, 2021)
BACKGROUND:
*Remember that Romans 12 marks a big shift in Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. In chapters 1-11, Paul spelled out the truth about our terrible sinfulness and our desperate need for God's salvation. Paul made it clear that salvation can only come by God's grace through faith in our crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ. This is the heart of the good news about Jesus. He died on the cross for all of our sins. But three days later, Jesus rose again from the dead, and now He will give eternal life to everyone who receives Him as their Lord and Savior.
*But how are we supposed to live this new life we have as Christians? That's what Paul began to discuss in the remaining chapters of this letter. Tonight, God's Word gives us more keys to a wonderful church life. Let's get started by reading vs. 1-9.
MESSAGE:
*You know that old cliché, "Service with a smile!" Don't you like service with a smile? -- Well, so does God.
*Psalms 100 says:
1. Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
2. Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
3. Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
*God wants all of us to serve Him with gladness. He wants us to give Him service with a smile, and tonight's Scripture can help us do it.
1. FIRST: WE NEED THE RIGHT APPRECIATION FOR EVERYONE.
*Christians: We must understand that because of our faith in Jesus, we are all part of the spiritual Body of Christ. Paul stressed this truth in vs. 3-5, so please listen to these verses again from the NIV. There Paul said:
3. 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.
4. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
5. So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
*Every believer is part of the Body of Christ, and every believer has a purpose in the Body of Christ. When I thought about this truth, my tonsils came to mind.
*When I was a kid, the doctors didn't think tonsils had any useful purpose, so they routinely took them out. Some years later, doctors discovered that our tonsils help protect us from infection, and now they avoid taking them out if they can.
*Christian: Right now, you may think about yourself the same way doctors used to think about tonsils. You may feel like a tonsil in the Body of Christ. You don't know your purpose. You might even feel worthless. But every believer has a purpose in the Body of Christ! And every believer has great value in the Body of Christ!
*If you ever doubt your value, just remember the high price that was paid for you. 1 Peter 1:18-19 tells all Christians, "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
*God paid the highest price for every single one of us. And He wants us to appreciate this truth in the life of every believer, including ourselves!
*Ann Weems wrote a story about one of her favorite childhood memories. And she began by saying, "It was a family treasure. That golden vase, the priceless vase that had belonged to my great-grandmother, and my grandmother, and now to my mother. The vase sat on the mantle, out of reach of little fingers. However, I managed to reach it. I climbed to reach it, and I broke it. I broke the family treasure.
*Then I began to cry in loud sobs that brought my mother running. I could hardly get it out. -- 'I broke the vase,' I said. 'I broke the treasure.' A look of relief came over her face, and she said, 'Oh, I thought that YOU had been hurt.' She hugged me and made it very clear that I was her priceless treasure." (1)
*Children of our Heavenly Father, the cross of Jesus Christ forever reminds us that we are a treasure to God. He was willing to pay the highest price and suffer the greatest loss to save us from our sins! That's what Jesus did when He died on the cross for us.
*Now our Risen Savior wants us to realize how valuable we are to Him. He also wants us to treasure each other in the Body of Christ, and that will help us serve with a smile. We need the right appreciation for everyone.
2. WE ALSO NEED THE RIGHT PARTICIPATION FROM EVERYONE.
*God wants every believer to participate in His work. He wants every part of the Body of Christ to do their part in the Body, so He gives different gifts to every one of us.
*In vs. 6-8, Paul listed seven of God's spiritual gifts for Christians. Here Paul said:
6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
7. or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;
8. he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
*Again, the seven spiritual gifts listed here are: Prophecy (or preaching), ministry, teaching, exhortation (or encouragement), giving, leading, and mercy. We need to know that this is not a complete list of God's spiritual gifts. There are two other lists in 1 Corinthians 12, and some writers also include the list of church leaders in Ephesians 4:11. (2)
*When it comes to the seven gifts here, John Phillips explained that three of them are for expanding God's Word, and four are for expanding God's Work, basically "being the hands and feet of Jesus" in this broken and hurting world. Both types of gifts are desperately needed in our world. (3)
*God gives gifts for Christians to preach, teach and encourage because the Bible is the Word of God. And everybody needs God's Word for this earthly life. Most of all, we need God's Word for eternal life.
*That's why 1 Peter 1:23-25 tells Christians that we have:
23. . . been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
24. because "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
25. but the word of the Lord endures forever.'' Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
*Church: We can never overstate the importance of God's Word, because no one can be saved without hearing and believing the good news about Jesus Christ. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO BE SAVED! And if God has given you these gifts, try your best to make the most of them!
*The other four gifts are also essential in God's Church. In vs. 7 we see the gift of ministry (or serving), and in vs. 8 we see the gift of giving. All Christians are supposed to be givers, because God is a giver, and He has commanded us to give. But some Christians are blessed with extra resources, and an extraordinary spiritual gift of generosity. In vs. 8, we also see the gifts of leading and showing mercy. God doesn't want us to kick people when they are down. And some people have a special gift for showing His mercy. Maybe that's you.
*As God graciously supplies His spiritual gifts to us, we are to serve faithfully, give generously, lead diligently, and show mercy cheerfully. These spiritual gifts help the Gospel be spread and show the Lord's compassion to hungry and hurting people.
*Right now, you may be wondering, "What are my spirit gifts, and how can I learn to use them?" Well, we used to teach classes and give spiritual inventories to help people discover their spiritual gifts. That's a good thing to do, and you can find some good resources online today.
*The reality for most Christians is that our place in church service is usually a Heaven-sent blend of our God-given natural abilities and His gifts of the Spirit. If you have a beautiful voice, then God may give you the gift of helping lead people in worship. If you can't sing a note, then that's probably not going to happen.
*Here's the way service gifts usually work. All true Christians are born again by God's Holy Spirit. Then, as we get involved in a local church, God begins to grow and shape this new life we have in Christ. Then God calls us to serve in one way or another. It might begin as a holy hunger, or it can crash in like a flash of lightening. But God leads us, He calls us to serve in one way or another. Along the way, He gives us opportunities to train for His calling, and He begins to open doors. We usually start small at first, and more opportunities come our way as we grow in Christ.
*Yesterday, I thought back to the day when God started calling me into the ministry. We lived in Macon Georgia, because I had taken a job working for the Air Force at Robins Air Force Base. But when the Lord began to call me, I was at Fort Lee in Petersburg, Virginia. I was there for a six-week school on Department of Defense contracts.
*I wasn’t supposed to be there, but at the last minute, the lady who was scheduled to go got sick. And my boss didn’t want to lose the slot, so he sent me, even though I wasn’t qualified. You were supposed to have been working there for a year before going to this school, and I had only been there for 3 months, but unknown to me, God wanted me to go, and I went.
*I wasn't too concerned about church back then, so I went to a movie that Sunday afternoon. Driving back to Fort Lee, I turned on the radio, and heard a local preacher. I have no idea who he was, but he was preaching about Paul serving the Lord, and God used that sermon to speak to me.
*I was so moved by the message and my awareness of the presence of God that I almost had to pull the car off the road. And right there, God started moving my life in a whole new direction. He used that message to grab my heart, and I told Him I would surrender my life to preach, if that was what He wanted me to do.
*(I am really looking forward to meeting that man in Heaven, and telling him how God used his message to change my life! We never really know how much good God can do through us, when we start fulfilling His purpose for our lives.)
*But six more years went by before I was finally ready to completely surrender to God's call. I spent four years mostly ignoring it, one year bargaining with God, and that last year going through a lot of spiritual struggles, until I could not bear to do anything else.
*Within six weeks of that final commitment, I got a call from my best friend at McClendon Baptist Church. That was the church in West Monroe that led me to the Lord. He was calling with two urgent prayer requests, one for a couple going through serious marriage problems, and the other for a two-year-old boy terribly sick with spinal meningitis.
*I promised to pray, and told him I needed his prayers too, because God had called me into the ministry, and I had surrendered to His call 6 weeks before. He said, "That's interesting. Our Youth Pastor resigned 6 weeks ago, the search committee met today, and your name came up."
*Within 6 months we were back at McClendon where I began to serve for 10 years as Associate Pastor and 11 years as Pastor. During that time, I got to preach the wedding for the grown-up little boy who had been sick with meningitis!
*Looking back, I can see that it was all by God's amazing grace. But remember the big picture that God wants every Christian to do our part in the Body of Christ, so He gives different gifts to all of us. And all of us are necessary for the Body of Christ to function the way God wants it to.
*We all have our places to serve. That's why in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul said:
17. Suppose the whole body were an eye, -- then how would you hear? Or if your whole body were just one big ear, how could you smell anything?
18. But God made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it.
19. What a strange thing a body would be if it had only one part!
20. Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.
21. The eye can never say to the hand, "I don't need you." The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you."
22. In fact, some of the parts that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary.
*Every believer is a necessary part of the Body of Christ, and the more we do our part, the better-off we all are. That will help us serve with a smile. We need the right participation from everyone.
3. AND WE NEED THE RIGHT FOUNDATION FOR EVERYONE.
*Paul pointed us to the right foundation at the beginning of vs. 9 where he said, "Let love be without hypocrisy." The KJV says, "Let love be without dissimulation," and "dissimulation" means hypocrisy, deceit, shamming, cheating or double-dealing. That's why the NIV simply says, "Love must be sincere."
*The original word for "love" here is found over 250 times in the New Testament! It's talking about loving other people with God's kind of agape love. It's talking about loving other people the same way that the Lord loves us. And this is the only sure foundation for our service to the Lord.
*In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Paul gave us an incredible description of agape love. The NKJ says:
4. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5. does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
*The New Living Translation says:
4. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5. or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.
6. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
*We find this kind of agape love in places like Matthew 5:44 where Jesus said, "LOVE your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." It's also in Luke 10:27 where Jesus said, "'You shall LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'''
*God's agape love is also in John 15:13 where Jesus said, "Greater LOVE has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." And in John 3:16, "For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
*God's agape love has the power to give us everlasting life, and it is the only right foundation for our service to the Lord. In this world we will never be able to fully comprehend God's love, but we can see it. I have seen godly love countless times in God's people. But the best place we can ever see the love of God is on the cross of Jesus Christ.
*Let me ask you, "Have you ever stepped on a nail?" No doubt many of us have. The last time I stepped on a nail was about 25 years ago. We were doing some repair work on the little youth building at our church. I went back there after church one night to make sure everything was turned off. It was dark, and somebody had left a 2x4 on the ground with a big nail sticking up.
*That nail went through my shoe and up into my foot. When I picked my foot up, the board came with it, so I had to pull it off, and let me tell you it really hurt. But think about it: If that nail that I stepped on hurt so much, how much more did Jesus suffer when He died on the cross for our sins? Infinitely more!
*God's agape love is the only foundation for our salvation, and the only foundation for our service in the Body of Christ. Jesus wants us to love other people with the same kind of sacrificial love that He has for us. And Christian service built on the foundation of His love will put smiles on lots of faces, even the face of God.
CONCLUSION:
*God wants all of us to "serve the Lord with gladness" . . . "For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations." Let's ask God to help us as we go back to the Lord in prayer.
(1) SermonCentral sermon "Christmas: Joy or Despair" by Melvin Newland - Matthew 2:1-18)
(2) QUESTION: Is there a biblical spiritual gifts list? - https://www.gotquestions.org/spiritual-gifts-list.html
(3) EXPLORING ROMANS by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids - "The Christian's Responsibilities to Other Brethren" - Romans 12:6-13 - Downloaded to "Bible Study 6" from Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc.
