Specialty School 3 – Romans 12:3-8

I have a story about when I was in second or third grade and Valentine’s Day was coming up. Our teacher had us to make these little envelope-like things that we taped to the side of our desk to hold Valentine’s Day cards. She encouraged us to decorate these little envelopes with hearts and things and when we were done we could bring cards or make cards for all the other kids in class.

So, everybody did that and everybody started getting cards in their envelopes. The problem was that all the popular kids got lots of cards but the dorky kid…wasn’t getting any cards. I was not the most popular kid in class but I wasn’t the dorkiest either and so I got my share of cards but that poor little boy would come in every day and check his envelope and it was always empty.

You know how little kids are. We were all comparing our cards but this kid didn’t have any and Valentine’s Day was coming right up. I don’t remember the exact situation but the teacher called him away from his desk for a while for something and while he was gone, the little girl next to me saw that that boy’s envelope was empty and she started going around the class asking everybody to make a card for this kid. Not everybody did it but most did and when that boy got back to his desk, he looked in his envelope and you have never seen such a big smile.

He's a new man. He went from being a depressed little dork eating glue to a very happy little dork eating glue. No, seriously, he was changed and he was so grateful. I remember he looked at me later on and with the most grateful and sincere look on his face, said quietly, “Thank you!” I don’t think he ever knew the grace that little girl had shown him but getting those little gifts changed him.

Do you ever feel like that little boy? Maybe you don’t think you have any gifts – spiritual gifts. You look around and you see people who obviously have gifts; great gifts; easy-to-see gifts; powerful and God-honoring gifts but you…not so much. What if I were to tell you that you DO have at least one spiritual gift and probably more than one? What would you say? Your response should be, “Back it up with scripture, big boy.” Right?

Turn first to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and I want to read a couple of verses. This is not our main text for the day but to make sure we all know that everybody is given a gift, let’s start with verse 4 where Paul says, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”

Paul then lists some of the gifts that God gives and goes on to say in verse 11, “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” Also, if you read all the scriptures in context that talk about gifts, Paul never mentions anything about people who don’t have any gifts. He never makes any exceptions. There are no mentions of people that are in the body of Christ, the church, who have no gifts.

He says in several places that every true believer is part of this body and everybody has spiritual gifts. Now, I know and you may have seen in your own life that, as Job said, God gives and God takes away. A gift that you used to have, you may not have any longer. Part of that is growing up. Part of that is growing old. It’s just a part of life that in some seasons of our lives we may have some gifts but oftentimes those gifts change as we get older. It doesn’t mean that God has taken away all your gifts.

There are also some gifts that nobody has anymore. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 13:8 that some gifts will cease. God gives for a time and then takes away and that’s alright. But what about you? As we continue through our preparation for battle with Satan and all of his forces, we have all been through Boot Camp where we learned the basics. We have learned how to put on our armor in Combat Training and now we have shifted to see what our individual responsibilities are in this battle.

Just like in the military, we all have different jobs. We are all interested in different things, are gifted in different areas but we all have the same goal and are supported by the same base camp, which is the church. So, let’s look one more time at Romans 12, specifically verses 3-8 to see what Paul says about these gifts and these jobs that God gives us for our battle.

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 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.

Have you ever really thought about what parts of the body are involved in walking? Just to simply move from point A to point B requires a lot more than just your legs. First the brain has to give the command and then muscles all over the body go to work, from your shoulders down to your toes. Your arms start to swing. Your heart beats a little faster. Your inner ear gives you the equilibrium you need to not fall over. Your eyes are scanning for obstacles. Your hips, your calves, your elbows and knees all spring into action.

Some of us don’t spring quite like we used to but my point is that just to do the most simple and basic task requires a lot of parts to work and they have to work in harmony with the other parts of the body. Now, what is the most basic thing that our church does? What is the most simplistic thing that we have to do to be considered a church? We have to meet together.

That is the most basic sign of life for a church. That is the brain function and blood flow of the body of Christ. Paul makes the point that none of us should think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We can’t all be the brain or the heart or the pretty face. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago. But we also can’t dismiss our importance to the church either.

Just a few years ago (2008), Orthodox Church officials in Russia discovered that one of their church buildings had disappeared. Poof—gone! The 200-year-old building northeast of Moscow had not been used for a decade. Then the Orthodox Church started growing. So they decided to reopen the old church building, and that's when they discovered it wasn't there.

After an investigation, they determined that villagers from a nearby town had taken the bricks from the building and sold them to a businessman for one ruble (about 4 cents) each. The building didn’t come down in one fell swoop. No. Instead, lots of people, over a period of years, had chiseled out the bricks one-by-one until there was no church building left.

Sad to say, that’s what’s happening to some of our churches right here in the United States of America. They are not being felled in one fatal stroke. Rather, lots of believers, who are the “living stones” of a church, one-by-one, are choosing not to get involved, and each decision means one less living stone. Eventually, the church is chiseled away, and its witness is completely gone from the community. Please, don’t you do the same. Don’t underestimate yourself and so remove yourself. You ARE important to the life and ministry of this church.  (C. Phillip Green 11/29/17)

Paul encourages us in verse 3 to have sober judgment of ourselves. Don’t think more highly than you should but don’t discount your worth either. Remember that the gifts you have are not your own nor do you belong to yourself but, as Paul says in verse 5, each member belongs to all the others.

I have to tell you that my original plan was to go through this list and the other lists and spend time on every gift that is mentioned in the Bible but I just never had any peace about that for some reason. I realized that Paul never made a complete and comprehensive list of gifts, nor did anyone else. He gave us some good samples of gifts and how to use them but Paul was not making the point that he knew all the gifts. His point was that we all have gifts and we should use them for the edification of the church – the church whose mission it is to make disciples.

Last Sunday I made an appeal for folks to come to Freedom Force here at church on Tuesday nights. It’s a Bible study with the goal of helping people overcome addiction but is really for anybody and everybody. Well, Brian and Belinda have the gift of showing up. Do you know why I say that is their gift or one of their gifts? Kristin called me the next day and said she had such a good time the night before and she was really blessed because since the Amermans showed up, it gave her the encouragement she needed to say a few things that she needed to say and to receive some knowledge that she didn’t have before.

Because the Amermans showed up, Kristin and the church were edified. She was built up and was helped on her path of being a disciple. That’s exactly what gifts do. That’s how and why they are used. I can’t believe Paul never mentioned anything about showing up as being a gift. It is so important.

What about the gift of prayer? I hear people all the time say they just can’t do anything. All they can do is pray. Well, that’s like saying, “All I can do is squeeze the trigger on this giant cannon that has the ability to blow the enemy out of the water. That’s all I can do…” Well then do that! That is the most powerful and effective weapon we have in our arsenal to defeat Satan.

“Oh, I just wish there was something I could do or some way I could help my children or my grandchildren. I just feel so helpless over here and all I can do is pray for them.” Yes, all you can do is harness the most powerful and wonderful gift God has ever given and if God has taken away some of your other gifts, I promise He has left you with the most powerful gift of all.

Every morning when you wake up you put on your armor. You get ready to fight the powers of evil in the heavenly realm as it says in Ephesians 6 and then you exercise your gift of prayer. Do you want to build up this church? Pray for our ability to spread the Gospel and make disciples as we minister to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated.

I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you will pray for me. Okay, I would give you a thousand dollars if I had it but pray for my wisdom and my purity and I will forever be in your debt. There is nothing you can do for me that would help me more.

How about the gift of encouragement? Who doesn’t need someone to get them off to the side and say, “You are doing so well! Keep it up. Good job. I know this is hard but you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you”?

Ooh! Ooh! I know! Here’s the scenario. Are you listening? Show up for church. It doesn’t matter if it’s Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday night or Thursday night and you get somebody off to the side and you encourage them by telling them that you have been praying that God would intercede in the circumstances of their life for their sake and the sake of the Kingdom.

Do you know what you just did? You just pulled a trifecta of gifts. See it? You showed up. You prayed and you encouraged. Boom! Eat that, Satan! Oh, wait. I forgot. You don’t have any gifts, right? Or it’s too hard to use the gifts you have. Or you don’t know what your gift is. Yes, keep making excuses. That’s fine. You just sit in your little fox hole safe and sound and don’t move.

But know this. Jesus said He will build His church. (Matt. 16:18) It is His responsibility to build it as He sees fit, but He gives us gifts so that we can be the tools He uses to build it. Now, if you are too scared or too lazy or too selfish to even show up, pray or encourage then God will use somebody else but you will miss out on His blessings of obedience and you will have to deal with the consequences of disobedience.

Yes, I said disobedience because all three of these examples that I gave today – showing up, prayer and encouragement – are all commanded in scripture. In fact, we are commanded to use any of our gifts for the edification of the church but these three are so important and have individual commands to do each one. Hebrews 10:25 gets two of them in one sentence. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another.

Then 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to pray without ceasing and we know that no matter who wrote it, whether it is Paul or Peter or Luke or Jude – it doesn’t matter who – it is scripture and it is a command. If we don’t obey a command, it is sin.

I want to tell you something that is based on scripture but comes from my heart. When we started this preparation for battle way back in January with Boot Camp, I told you it wasn’t going to be easy. It’s hard because we have Satan’s playbook and he is ticked off. I have seen you prepare for the battle and I see you putting on your armor so that you can keep from having the worst to happen to you, which is sin.

But because you have done all of this, I believe that Satan has had to resort to different strategies to get you out of the battle. Because you didn’t give in to sin, you have been attacked physically and financially and in other ways. It has happened too much around here not to notice the sickness, the hurts and other issues that have threatened to keep you away from the body and away from opportunities to use your gifts and be obedient.

My dear family, please see these attacks for what they are. Satan can’t stand this church and if God will not allow him to destroy the church then he will try to get the members of this church to destroy it and themselves…brick by brick. I know you can’t be here for everything every time the doors open. I can’t even be here all the time and I live here. And if you are sick with a cold or the flu or something, PLEASE stay home.

But the next time that you hear opportunity knocking on your door to make a little extra money on Sunday or take off for the lake or the golf course or just stay home and catch up on your sleep, remember that it is Satan knocking on that door wanting more than anything for you to fall for his tricks and lies that will keep you out of this place.

I say all the time that you need the church and the church needs you. Remember that the church is not a building. When I say that the church needs you, I mean the people here need you. We need your gifts, talents and abilities even if they are just showing up, praying and encouraging. Those are huge!

I believe the greatest problem this church has is a lack of respect for the Lord’s day. We are commanded to use our gifts to edify the church but we can’t be obedient if we aren’t here. In the military, if you go AWOL – Away Without Leave – they dock your pay at minimum. We can’t do that but if you aren’t using your gifts, talents and abilities to edify the church then I fully believe God will dock your blessings.

I know, for most of you, I’m preaching to the choir. I so appreciate how you use your gifts around here. I see you encouraging and praying for each other. I see how you love on even the weirdest of us. I see how you use your gift of mowing, your gift of cleaning, your gift of hugging, your gift of texting and your gift of giving rides.

If you have never officially joined this church, maybe you want to walk the aisle and do that today. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:2 that today is the day of salvation. Maybe you have never asked Jesus to be Lord of your life and asked Him to forgive you of your sins and then turned away from those sins in repentance. Maybe you just need prayer. We have several that will be down front using their gifts of prayer for you today. Do that right now as the music plays.