Would you turn your Bibles out of Romans twelve. Romans twelve. The last few to follow as I read verses one through eight. Paul writes, Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy. to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer 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. 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 man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, Let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Now, Lord, we come to. To open and to explain, to expound this portion of your word. We know that putting words and phrases together and figuring out what they mean. It's not so very hard. But understanding in the mean what they mean in the sense of what you want us to do, how you want us to conduct ourselves. Lord, that part can be very hard. We pray that you'd be with us today. We pray that your spirit would energize the word and make it effectual in our minds and our hearts. That as you are engaged in this transforming work within us. That we will be changed by the things that we read. In the word of God. That our minds, our thoughts, our attitudes will all be brought into submission to Jesus Christ so that our actions may follow and be pleasing to you. Help us to make it our goal to please you in everything that we do. Everything. To the end that we may know and experience your great blessings in Jesus. To the end that we may be a means of drawing others to yourself to the end that you may receive glory and honor, power and dominion now and forever. Amen. If you close your Bibles, would you open them again to Romans chapter 12? Romans 12. As we look around this room this morning, it's important for us to remember that we are all wonderfully different and unique people. There is no one exactly like you in all the world. There are even differences between identical twins, differences in personality, differences in interests, differences in skills, differences in pursuits. Romans twelve one. Paul says, therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Paul calls us, all of us, to offer our bodies, to offer our lives to God as living sacrifices. And he says this is our spiritual act of worship. I want to spend just a short time on the last phrase, your spiritual act of worship. We saw last week that The NIV has a textual note here. The word translated spiritual, it says in textual note X, can also be translated reasonable. I believe that the translators rendered it spiritual, although the word itself, the Greek word, is closer to the word logic or logical than it is to spiritual. and thus many other versions translated reasonable. I believe the NIV translators rendered it spiritual because it was colored by the word that follows. The spiritual act of worship. The word worship in the Greek is Latreia, from which we get the word liturgy. Liturgy has to do with the church order, particularly as it affects the worship. What's the word? The worship services of the church liturgy has to do with service. That's what it means. We call this the morning worship service because it is our service to God as his servants. We offer to him glory and praise and thanksgiving. We worship and bow and adore him. And I think what Paul is saying in Romans twelve, one is not that offering our bodies to God as living sacrifices is so much our spiritual act of worship as it is our reasonable service, our whole lives. should be offered to God as lives of worship. The worship service extends beyond the ten o'clock to eleven thirty hour hour and a half. OK, two hours. It goes beyond that it extends beyond the appointed times when the church gathers and all of our lives. In everything that we do, We should be offering ourselves to God and Paul is saying, and that is not unreasonable. I remember when the Lord worked in my life as a teenager. I began attending the morning worship service of a nearby church when the Lord through that morning worship service through the scripture in that morning worship service through the preaching and the liturgy drew me to himself. I began attending the evening worship service, and I began attending the midweek prayer meeting, and I began attending the youth meetings of the church. My parents, who were not believers, became alarmed. Sunday morning is fine, but why do you have to go Sunday night, Wednesday night, Friday night? Isn't that extreme? Isn't that becoming a fanatic, a religious fanatic. I didn't know this passage that well then, but my answer now would be no, it's not. It is reasonable. It is my reasonable service to God. That I should be thus engaged with the people of God in worshiping him. It's reasonable in the light of God's mercy that we should live our whole lives devoted to honoring God. This is only a reasonable response to what he has done for us in first Corinthians, chapter six. The apostle says in verse eighteen, flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price, therefore, honor God with your body, you get your policy. The Holy Spirit is not in my body only when I'm in the presence of the church in the worship service. I am not the temple of the Holy Spirit only when I'm gathered with the church. But the Spirit of God is within me. Wherever I go, the spirit of God is within me. Whatever I do. And therefore, flea sexual immorality. Would you carry the Holy Spirit into an immoral relationship? Would you carry the Holy Spirit into a place that is designed and intended for sin? We carry the Holy Spirit into all of your life and do what is right and honoring to God. Paul, in this context, is arguing you're not your own. You belong to somebody. You were bought at a price, the price of the blood of the Son of God. And therefore, it's only reasonable That since God has purchased your life with the dear blood of his son. That you will, in response to that, offer yourself. As a living sacrifice to honor God. With your body. Robert Ruggland in his study manual of Romans says that living for God is the service we logically owe him. as a result of our salvation. Romans 12, 1 and 2 apply to everyone without exception. Every believer without exception. But there are distinctions and differences among us. We are not all the same. We don't all go to the same places once we leave here. We don't all do the same things once we leave here. How do we work out our reasonable service individually and collectively, and I think that's what verses three through eight are all about. Paul tells us that your reasonable service begins with an accurate Self-image versus three through five. Now, note the term I'm using an accurate. Self-image, Paul says, 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. Self-image is very important to people today, isn't it? But for all the noise about self-image, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold or its definition of self-image. It's not your body shape or the bounce of your hair or the outward beauty that you possess that defines you. It's God's grace. Paul says, for by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, it's God who tells us who and what we are. It's God who gives to us an understanding of who we are, not the world, Not ourselves, but God in his grace. Most people think of themselves too highly and Paul calls attention to that. Charles Rudman, in his commentary, notes that to himself, each one is naturally the most important person in the world. And it's difficult to regard others with a due sense of moral proportion. We come into the world, frankly, selfish. We come into the world as if nobody exists, we come into the world as if everyone is there to serve and please us. Some of the earliest words that children learn are me and mine. They're not inclined to share. And they want what they want when they want it. The world revolves around me as an infant. Many people never said that. They grow up believing the world revolves around me. There are people that you'll meet, that you've already met, who when you have conversation with them, when you want to talk to them about things, the only thing they want to talk about is themselves. They have no interest in your life. They just want to tell you about their life. That's called pride. That's thinking of yourself too highly. Just as Satan exalted himself above God and Adam and Eve followed what he had to say. So we as sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. Share in that exaltation of ourselves. Above others. Paul says, do not think of yourself more highly than you. There's a way that you ought to think of yourself. Some people. Think of themselves too lowly. That's also said. Paul says, think of yourself as you are. False humility is a form of inverted and perverted pride. John Murray writes in his commentary on Romans, if we consider ourselves to possess gifts we do not have, then we have an inflated notion of our place and function. We send by esteeming ourselves beyond what we are. But if we underestimate. Then we are refusing to acknowledge God's grace. And we fail to exercise that which God has dispensed for our own sanctification and that of others. That's why I say Paul calls us to an accurate self-image. Don't overestimate yourself. But in reaction to that sin of pride, don't Send in the other direction and underestimate yourself. Oh, there's nothing I can do. I have no abilities. I have no skills. I don't know how to do this. I know no use at all in the church of God. No use in the world. No. Don't think of yourself more highly than you want. But rather, think of yourself with sober judgment. Form and develop an accurate view of yourself. Jeffrey Wilson says that Christians are neither to overvalue nor to underestimate their talents, but must seek to assess them realistically, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. Piper comments on the measure of faith that our faith in Christ is the measure of our significance. and value and esteem. Because faith means looking away from ourselves to Christ. And embracing him as the all satisfying embodiment of all that is significant and valuable and worthy of esteem. The measure of our new self in Christ, the renewed mind is the degree to which we look away from ourselves to Christ is our truth and our treasure. If Christ is more to you. You are more. If Christ is less to you, you are less. Your measure rises and falls with your measure of him. You're valuing him is the value that you have your esteeming him is the esteem that you have your treasuring him is the treasure that you are. What are the components of forming an accurate self-image? To form an accurate self-image, we need to consider several things. First, that you are created. You are not the sovereign Lord of the universe. You are not God. You were made by another to serve him. The world does not revolve around you. Secondly, you need to consider that you were created in the image of God. That is, you share certain attributes with God. God thinks you think God speaks, you speak. God is just. You have a sense of justice. God is holy. You have an idea of holiness. God is righteous. You know what righteousness consists of. There are other attributes of God that we don't share. Theologians call those the incommunicable attributes. But there are many attributes that we share with God and God has given to us the honor of being the bearers of his image. We are not God's. We won't become God. But we reflect in our lives in the things that we think and do and say the glory of the one who created us. And saw me versus three through six. The psalmist says, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers. The moon and the stars, which you have set in place. What is man? That you're mindful of him when you stand out under a starry, clear night. Even in the city, if you can see any of the stars. How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel small? Doesn't it make you feel tiny as you think of the vastness of the creation and the fact that God is greater than all of that? And yet, David says that when he sees the vastness of the creation, the beauty of what God has made, it causes him to ask what is man? That you are mindful of him where we're so small in the order of the universe. Why, God, do you have such an interest in us? The son of man that you care for him, you made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. And I.B. has a textual note that translates or than God. Actually, the Greek, the Hebrew word there is Elohim. It's one of the names of God. It's not talking about angels. It's talking about God. And it's saying that you made him a little lower than God. And crowned him with glory and honor, you made him ruler over the works of your hands, you put everything under his feet, listen. God made man a little lower than himself. God made man in the image of God, the image of himself. Our angels made in the image of God. No. God created man to rule over creation. God made man more honorable than the angels. A little lower than himself. Less than God, but more than angels. And he made man to govern or to manage the works of God's hands. There is a built-in respect in Genesis when the death penalty is enacted for any man or animal who takes the life of a human being. Why is that? It's because an assault on a man is an assault on the image of God. We are worthy of respect because we bear the image of God, and that's true even In the fall. That also means that we have great potential. For God wants us to manage his creation, we have all kinds of skills, all kinds of abilities that are given to us. We don't all have the same abilities. I couldn't sit down at the piano and play him 454, but I'm glad we can. We have different abilities, but we have great potential because we are created in the image of God. But thirdly, in developing this self-image, we need to recognize that in Adam's fall, we fell all. Paul says in this book of Romans, all have sinned and come short of What? The glory of God. What does that mean? Is Paul saying that we've sinned because we don't have the glory of God? I don't think that's what he's talking about. He's not saying we're sinners because we're not God. He's saying we're sinners, we have sinned and we come short, we fall short of reflecting the glory of God as we were created to do. Because we are sinners, we are not fulfilling the purpose for which God made us. What's the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Fourthly, as you consider this matter of self-image, remember that in Christ you have been redeemed. You have been renewed. You have been restored. You are a new creation, Paul tells the Corinthians. Every man in Christ is a new creation. To the Ephesians, he writes in Ephesians chapter four, verse twenty two, you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. To be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. In the fall, the image of God in man is not removed, but it's fractured. It's broken. It doesn't work the way it's supposed to work. But in Christ, we are being renewed. We are being restored. To be like God. The image of God within us is being renewed in true righteousness and true holiness. So that as you consider this matter of self-image recognized, fifthly, you are now part of the church. You are now part of the spiritual body of Christ in which we find diversity in unity. Paul writes in verse four of Romans twelve that 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. Some of the older versions render it, we are members one of another. John Murray notes that believers are not only members of the one body, but also of one another. It points to what is not enunciated in the fact of unity, namely community of possession, the communion which believers have with one another. They have property in one another and therefore in one another's gifts and graces. This is not the communism which destroys personal property. It is community that recognizes the distinguishing gifts which God has distributed. And so individuality is jealously maintained. But the diversity enriches each member because they have communion in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which God has dispensed according to his own will. The gifts that we have received from God, we have not received for our own benefit, but we've received them so that we may benefit and bless others. You have a share in whatever gifts God has given to me. I have a share in whatever gifts God has given to you. And in that way, we as a body are made complete. Your reasonable service begins with an accurate self-image and accurate self-assessment. It's not a question of whether you have abilities by which you can serve others. It's a question of what are the specific abilities which God has given to you, so that you may be a blessing to others. That leads us to the second observation. Your reasonable service requires you to recognize your gifts and to use them to glorify God by blessing others. Paul writes in verses six through eight. We have different gifts and who's he writing to? Back in verse three, every one of you. We have different gifts. He doesn't say some of you don't have any. He says we have different gifts. according to the grace given. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it's teaching, let him teach. If it's encouraging, let him encourage. If it's contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it's leadership, let him govern diligently. If it's showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. This list of gifts, there are seven identified here, is not intended to be exhaustive, but to be an example. Paul is throwing out some representative examples of the kinds of gifts that the Spirit gives. If we compare, there are several other passages where spiritual gifts are listed, and in those other lists, there's overlap, but there's also differences. And so, none of those lists are intended to be exhaustive. It's not as if these are THE, capital T-H-E, seven gifts of the Spirit. but these are no definite oracle seven gifts. These are some of the gifts that the spirit has given to you. The first dimensions of the gift of prophecy. If a man's gift is prophesying. let him use it, that is, let him use that gift, let him exercise that gift in proportion to his faith. Again, there's a textual note in the NIV by the word his. And if you look at textual note Y at the bottom of the page, it says or in agreement with the phrase can be translated and I believe it should be translated in agreement with It's not talking about a man's subjective personal faith in Christ. It's talking about preaching using that gift of prophecy in a way that fits with all of the Scripture. The extraordinary gift of prophecy is direct revelation. But the ordinary gift of prophecy, the gift of prophecy that continues is that prophetic gift of preaching the word. What Paul's talking about here has been called the analogy of the faith that is scripture is to be interpreted in accord with scripture. The infallible rule of scripture is the scripture itself, and so if a man has a gift of preaching, let him preach, but don't preach your own ideas. Don't come up with novelties. Don't venture to speculate where God doesn't speak. The man that has the gift of prophecy is to preach in terms of the limitations of the Word of God. Jude three speaks of the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. And it's that body of truth. that by which all prophecy is to be judged. Any man who preaches contrary to the word is in the terms of Scripture, a false prophet. Secondly, he says in verse seven, if it's serving, let him serve. The Greek word translated serve there is the agony from which we get What word? Deacon. It's a related term. But the term diakonos, deacon, in the New Testament was at first a general term that described a servant. There were two terms, doulos, slave, and diakonos, servant. And so the term diakonos could apply to anybody who served in any capacity. And then it became specialized when the office of Deacon was created in order to meet the needs of the church. In this context, Paul is probably not talking about the office of Deacon, but the more general work of meeting the physical needs of other people. Rodlin says that service is meeting the material needs of the hungry, the homeless, the sick, afflicted, and destitute. There are people who have a gift. They have an eye on other people. They are tuned in to other people's needs. They don't have to wait until somebody is desperate and destitute and says, help. But as they look at the situation of those people, they understand and have insight into the kind of help that they need. Let them do it. Paul says, exercise that gift in the church, watch out for one another, care for one another in practical, meaningful ways. He says, if it's teaching, Let him teach. Teaching is explaining, showing, making plain. It's not just the guy in the pulpit. We have teachers in the church, we have people who lead women's Bible study, we have people who lead men's Bible study, we have Sunday school teachers, we have people who lead other Bible studies that gather to talk about parenting and things like that. These are teachers. Princeton in its origin was called the Log College. It wasn't an Ivy League unless the Ivy League covered the log. But the basis for the establishment of the Log College that became Princeton with the teaching consists of two people sitting on a log. One of them knows more than the other and can communicate. can explain it. That's teaching. We have people who are formally set apart to teach. We have people who informally are teachers. They contribute a great deal in the Bible studies and they may sit down one-on-one and mentor or disciple or just in the ebb and flow of daily social exchange. Share their wisdom and be a blessing. to others. If somebody has a gift of teaching, let him teach. If it's encouraging, let him encourage. This is the gift that gave Barnabas his name. Remember what Barnabas means? The prefix bar means son of. But Barnabas' father wasn't novice. Novice means encouragement. What was his real name? You remember his name, Barnabas. He served alongside Paul. What was his real name? Back in Acts, chapter four, verse thirty-six. The Scripture speaks of Joseph, verse thirty-six, a Levite from Cyprus. whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold the field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. What was his name? Joseph. He grew up as Joseph, but the apostles gave him a nickname. His nickname was Barnabas, and it's the nickname that stuck. He is remembered in history as Barnabas, not as Joseph. Because this was a predominant characteristic of his activity and his personality, he was an encourager to others. And when persecution broke out against the church and the disciples were scattered And some of them went to Antioch, and there they began to preach the gospel. They had no appointed teachers. These were all informal teachers who were just speaking the word of God. The word preaching is not used. Speaking the common day, the word for common day, everyday speech. And when word reached the apostles of what was happening in Antioch, who did they send? Barnabas. Send Barnabas up there. He'll be an encouragement. To the believers. The word translated encourage is an old friend. Paracleto, which means someone who is called alongside to render assistance and help. It's the guy who comes alongside somebody and shares his burden or comes alongside and puts her arm around his shoulder. It's translated comfort. It's translated counsel. It's got all this depth of meaning in terms of somebody who is willing to invest in somebody else in order to take them from a difficult place and bring them to solid ground. We need encouragers in the church. We need to exercise this gift. Next, he says, if it's contributing to the needs of others or giving. Let him give generously. The word translated generously is in some versions rendered with simplicity. And by that, Paul seems to mean to to give generously to give to others without any hidden motives. without any unspoken agenda. Give to others liberally. Not because you want them down the road to do things for you. Not because by giving you hope to control an individual or to control a church. But to give generously because God has given you the ability to give. and thereby to help. Give freely. With no motive other than to help those who need help. Sixthly. He says of its leadership. Let him govern diligently. If God has given someone the gift of leadership, give them things to manage, give them opportunities to to govern. And finally, he speaks of showing mercy. If it's showing mercy, let him do it. Cheerfully showing mercy. Is related to the earlier gift of giving, but showing mercy. suggests a more direct and personal ministry to people in need. Given can be done by writing a check, put it in the offering. It can be done by writing a check, putting an envelope and saying, suggest you use this for helping so-and-so. It can be done anonymously. It can be done indirectly. But showing mercy is more direct. It's more personal. And showing mercy cheerfully. Suggests that the work of showing mercy itself may not be pleasant. But mercy, but messy. Excuse me. Embarrassing. Or disagreeable. You all know that two months ago I had a number of surgical sites. I still have the surgical sites. But Terri, at one point, was going to drive her parents down to California. And one of the things that we discussed at that point was, who are we going to ask to help change my dressings? That was one of the problems with that idea of driving down. I was at a point where I could manage most of them myself. But there are a couple that I can't get to. And who are we going to ask to show mercy to me? Mercy that might be, you know, it's not a very pleasant task to peel off a yucky dressing and clean up a wound and put on another dressing. It's kind of a messy task. It's kind of an embarrassing task. And who would do that and do it. Well, in the in the providence of God. She didn't drive down and when they did fly down the ones that I couldn't reach were doing much better and it wasn't as important to have someone come in and change those dressings. Showing mercy is to wash dishes in a home where people are sick. Showing mercy is to bring food to a family where a new baby has been born. Showing mercy is changing the bedding in a home where someone has died. Not glamorous work. Not work that gets you a lot of recognition. There's a woman in the church, in the early church, by the name of Dorcas or Tabitha. And she made it her ministry to make clothing for the widows, for people in need. She was highly esteemed. She wasn't a preacher. She wasn't one of the leaders of the church. She wasn't a teacher. She didn't have a ministry that was in full public view. It's not like she was written up in the Jerusalem Times. But she had a substantial ministry of mercy to the people in her church. Finally, this morning, your reasonable service means that you also allow others to minister to you. This is an implication from the imperative repeated throughout this passage. Let him let him in that if some are to exercise their gifts. Then it's implied there must be others who will receive the benefit of those gifts. Roblin says we show lack of our lack of consciousness of the one body of Christ by failing to seek the fruit of our brother's gifts. If we were fully aware of being members of one another, then we would encourage one another to use the gifts God has given us. We would know that we cannot progress very far in our own sanctification without each other's help. And we would make every effort to maintain and strengthen peace, unity of mind and cooperation in the body of Christ. Many of us take pleasure in helping others. But if we find ourselves in a position where others want to help us, sometimes our response reveals that while we're perfectly willing to help others, we think it's demeaning for others to help us. We think it's demeaning for us to need and receive help from others. Do you remember in the upper room when Jesus washed the feet of his apostles? He was giving them an example of servant leadership, what it means to be a leader in the church. But when he came to Peter, Peter did not want him to wash his feet. Remember what Jesus said to him? Peter thought, I'm your servant. Don't you serve me. But remember what Jesus said to him? If I don't wash your feet, Peter, you have no part in me. You have no share in me. You have no interest in me. You're not part of me. That's what we need to recognize in the church. We both give and receive ministry from each other, and that is not demeaning. That is honoring to God. The point of verses six to eight is that in Christ we belong to one another. And God has given us gifts by which we can serve one another. In first Corinthians chapter twelve seven, part of the earlier than the reading that we did together this morning, Paul says now to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good. Everyone has something to give. In Ephesians chapter four, Paul writes in verse sixteen that from him, that is Christ, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love. Doesn't end there. What's the rest? As each part. does its work. Church growth. The building up of the body of Christ, both spiritually and numerically. Doesn't happen by the work of a few. Church growth. the body grows. As every joint and sinew, as every ligament, as every part, as the eye, the ear, the nose, the mouth, as the hands and the feet respond to the head, each part contributing its unique perspective and its unique ability. offering themselves as a living sacrifice to God as each part contributes. Are you doing your part in this church? How much more effective with ministry of this church be? if everyone did their part. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the Word of God that corrects us and directs us. We pray, Lord, that your Spirit would enable us to Receive your word to digest your word. To reflect and meditate on your word. And to implement your word in our lives. Give us a zeal for God. Not a zeal that is not according to knowledge, but a zeal that is according to knowledge. And a zeal that glorifies your name through Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's join together.