“Specialty School” #1 – Romans 12:1-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkg5OHce2ag This video quotes Teddy Roosevelt saying, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Now, for these Navy guys, the carrier is the big stick and it is big! It’s amazing to me how these floating cities keep from sinking, much less float and house and support all those aircraft, weapons and men. But did you notice how many people it took to get just one fighter jet into the air? We didn’t even see the mechanics, the welders, the cooks, the commanders and the supply personnel.

Think about it. Somebody at the top has to give the commands but you have to realize that if somebody is not cleaning the deck and emptying the trash, the system breaks down or is at least not near as effective as it could be. When you think about aircraft carriers, you think about the pilots and the commanders but there are literally hundreds of people that have to do their job and do it well for that plane to ever get off the deck.

Now, in our fight against Satan, our battle against the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world (Eph. 6:12) the church is the big stick. It is what God uses on the front lines as His Holy Spirit carrier, if you will, because the day of evil has come (Eph. 6:13). This carrier is filled with warriors who know how to use the weapons and armor they have been given so that they stay in the fight and are not killed or wounded by enemy fire.

We learned through nine weeks of intensive study in Combat Training how to use and put on the full armor of God to keep us from sin which is the worst thing that can happen to us as God’s warriors. Now, I want you to see a subtle shift in focus from where we were in Boot Camp and in Combat Training where we were focused on ourselves to see that we are now focusing on the team, our brothers and sisters in the church so that the church can carry out its mission which is to do whatever it takes to lead people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, which is, as Matthew 28 says, “making disciples of all nations.”

That is the overall goal. Jesus gave us those orders as some of the last words he said when He was here in physical form. That is the Great Commission. That is the Great Order, the Great Command and our goal in life. Romans 6 says that we died with Christ so that we can live a new life and that life is now not focused on ourselves and what we want or what we think is best but is instead focused on God’s will and God’s plan and God’s desire which is that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4)

Don’t worry though. You don’t have to take this part too seriously because if you don’t do your part then I’m sure somebody else will take up the slack and do it for you. We have lots of people on our Christ Fellowship carrier. Don’t worry if our church doesn’t do its job because I’m sure one of the other churches in the fleet of churches in Lake Bridgeport will minister to those around us in need. Right? Uh oh.

Do you see how serious this is? Do you see that Christ Fellowship is a small carrier in a huge ocean full of the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated? It is an ocean full of people that need Jesus and in a very real and literal sense, we may be the only Jesus they ever see. There is no plan B for leading people to Jesus. God chose us and we are in a battle and we are going to see just how important it is that every single one of us do our job and do it well.

I know your Bibles probably just fall open to the book of Ephesians after being there so long but today let’s look at the Book of Romans, chapter 12, verses 1-8. In this letter to the churches in Rome, Paul is like an experienced attorney laying out a case. He starts with the facts and the facts are not good. We are guilty.

Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners and we have all fallen short of God’s glory. Then in Romans 6:23 Paul says that what we deserve for that sin is eternal separation from God in Hell. And here you might think he is not being a very good lawyer. He just admitted we are guilty and deserve death but then he pulls out the Good News that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. If Jesus is truly our Lord then our sentencing has been appealed and overthrown because we are saved by grace and through faith.

Then Paul goes on to say in chapter 12 that if we are truly saved then here are some practical ways in which we will live. Verses 1-2 talk about our relationship to God and verses 3-8 talk about our relationships with others. Let’s read it right now. Romans 12:1-8.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3For 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 faith God has distributed to each of you. 4For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

I want to illustrate part of this passage with another part of scripture. Bible scholars have long wondered how old Isaac was when his father Abraham took him up to the mountain top to offer him as a sacrifice. Through careful study of the story as related in the Old Testament, scholars have come to a conclusion based on the following facts: Isaac was old enough to understand the ritual of sacrifice, Isaac was old enough to carry wood for the fire to the top of the mountain, Isaac was old enough to notice that they were not bringing an animal for the sacrifice. Therefore, Isaac's age, at this time, was greater than 8 years old. Scholars also conclude that he was younger than 12 years old as supported by this fact: If Isaac had been older than twelve, he would have been a teenager and it would not have really been a sacrifice.

If you don’t get that joke then you’ve probably never raised teenagers. But to be serious, we learned about sacrifice going through Ephesians 6 because putting on all that armor is a sacrifice. It takes mental, spiritual and even physical effort sometimes to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith and it is a sacrifice to put it all on and then just stand when you really want to run away.

But we are now trained warriors and we don’t run. When Satan attacks us by tempting us to sin or by bringing something bad into our lives, we are able to stand without fear because our armor is secure and our great General loves us and is in control. But we all have a job to do. We all know the basics and we all have the same armor but from here we learn that for this carrier to float and be effective as a base for sending out warriors and for bringing in and ministering to disciples then we all have different jobs and every job is important.

Look at verse 3 again please. Here Paul is shifting his focus from our relationship to God to our relationship to other people. He says just because you are a warrior and you are making the sacrifice of daily worship by putting on your armor, don’t think too highly of yourself. Everything you have, every piece of armor, every weapon, all the training, even the desire to use it is a gift given by God’s grace and through faith. Does that sound familiar? It should. That’s how we are saved.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says that’s how we enlisted into this battle was by grace and through faith and that’s how we have and use our various gifts, talents and abilities.

Look at verses 4-5. 4For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Can you imagine if some part of your body just decided to take the day off? Even if it was a small part it would be a problem. Imagine crawling out of bed some morning and your little toe just decided he needed a break and so he decided not to show up. You would probably fall over before you ever stood all the way up because, while you don’t think much about your little toe, it helps you quite a bit in your balance. If nothing else, you would walk with a limp, I imagine.

Paul says that as members of one body, we belong to each other. We belong to each other. That is scripture, y’all. Church membership is not to be taken lightly. You now have responsibilities that you didn’t before. In the Marines, they call themselves the Marine Corps. Corps is Latin for body. They understand they are a body and we should understand that we are a body. When the little toe hurts, we all hurt and when the little toe takes the day off, we all limp.

Now, here’s a quick word of wisdom, sort of an aside. When you need an illustration for body parts, don’t just Google “body parts” or “body part jokes or pictures” or anything like that. Just take my word for it. Nothing good is going to come out of it and besides, you know what a body looks like so I’m not going to give an illustration here. Let’s just move right along. Shall we? (BTW, nothing explicit, just crude.)

In verses 6-8, Paul starts listing some of the gifts that God gives to members of the church. As a global church, we all have a common mission and that is to make disciples. Our local church, Christ Fellowship, has been called to minister specifically to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated but still with the mission to lead them to Jesus. But then as individuals, we are all given different gifts. Think of them as different jobs just like every person on that aircraft carrier had different jobs and we do these jobs for the greater purpose of the common goal.

When my dad became the pastor of a church in Ft. Worth years ago, he had a deacon come up to him and tell him that this deacon’s gift had always been to keep the pastor in line. He was serious about it too. That’s what he thought his gift was. Now, I need to know whose job it is to keep me in line because we need to talk. What’s strange is that I don’t read “keeping the pastor in line” in this list of gifts that Paul gives here. He must have missed that one.

Actually, and seriously, there are lots of gifts, talents and abilities that are not in this list and there are other lists as well and none of them are complete or comprehensive lists so don’t worry if you don’t read yours in there. Paul makes other lists of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 and Peter makes a small list in 1 Peter 4. In all these lists, while they are not comprehensive, they do show a level of sacrifice that we are all to make as we use our unique and individual gifts for the glory of God and the furthering of His Kingdom as we serve the local church.

All of these passages utterly destroy the notion that a Christian can be committed to Christ but inactive in His service, that he can love the Lord but not obey the Lord or that he can be surrendered to the Lord but not minister for the Lord. True worship cannot be divorced from service. (MacArthur, Romans, page 154) Don’t tell me you love Jesus if you don’t love and serve His bride, the church.

Also, unlike that deacon’s so-called gift, every gift is for the edification; the building up of the church body. If you think you have the gift of keeping the pastor in line or the gift of gossip or the gift of complaining, then you just keep that “gift” at home. In fact, you need to put a pillow over that gift and smother the life out of it because it is not from God. Gifts from God will always be used to build up the church and glorify God.

Now, I know some of you are out there thinking you don’t have a gift or you, at least, don’t know what it is. Well we will talk more about them in the coming weeks but for now just think about what you like to do, what you are good at, what interests you or even what you think is fun. Maybe you aren’t the very best at it but you can do it.

You know what? Do you know what is better for a church than someone who has a great singing voice or a great ability to speak with the great orators? I would rather have one person who knew how to pray than ten beautiful singers. I would rather have one son of encouragement than ten sons of thunder. Our church needs one poor person with the gift of giving who will just be obedient rather than a hundred wealthy folks who give and want their names recorded somewhere.

We need people who will say, “I don’t really know what my gift is, but I love to worship and I’m not afraid to sing or say amen.” How many of you would enjoy having someone just come sit next to you and cry with you when you are hurting? That’s a gift!

Paul goes on to say in verses 6-8, “If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”

Do you know what he is saying? He is not saying, “Here are the gifts. Choose one.” He is saying that whatever your gift, use it and use it to God’s glory and for the building up of the church. Use it generously, diligently and cheerfully.

Just this week I have seen people using their gifts, talents and abilities to support this church. I have seen electric work done, landscaping, computer work, even counting. Did you know that your ability to count could be used to edify the church? We don’t even care if you use your fingers and toes. Some things need to be counted. Some things need to be cleaned. Some things need to be built, painted, loved on, cried with, encouraged or given a ride.

Can you do that? Now here is the really cool part about doing this. When you offer your bodies as living sacrifices and put on the full armor every day, keeping yourself pure and righteous before God and you use your gifts, talents and abilities for His glory and for the edification of the church, then that’s what Jesus called storing up treasure in Heaven.

Dave Ramsey is a Christian financial planner and guru about saving money and getting out of debt. He has a saying about saving money for retirement. He says, “If you will live now like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” What he is saying is if you will sacrifice now, you will have exponentially more later. (I’ll explain “exponentially” to Speedy later.:))

That’s like how our Heavenly blessings work. Sacrifice yourself now in this life that lasts such a short time and then for eternity you will have blessings in Heaven. Just be obedient to what God has already told you. Just love, forgive, show mercy, give God glory in the difficult times and you watch God use that sacrifice, for His glory, for the edification of the church and in the end, you get rewards in Heaven. That’s a pretty good deal!

But whatever sacrifice you make, it is only credited to you as righteousness because of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. Only by His sacrifice can we be saved or go to Heaven or have a full and abundant life here and now. Only through that sacrifice can we have lasting peace and even joy in the hard times and all you have to do is believe in Him.

Now, that belief WILL manifest itself in your life as a changed life if Jesus truly is Lord. Your life will be changed. Your sins will be forgiven and all you have to do is ask. What possible reason could you have not to do that today?