Dale Partridge - Romans 12_3-8 Ready for the Master's Use

00:00:00.000 Well, praise be to God, and we are continuing this wonderful chapter in Romans 11.

00:00:16.100 It has been a glory just to study this book, let alone teach it.

00:00:21.400 What a wonderful blessing it has been to my family and just our time at home and in my own personal walk with the Lord.

00:00:28.900 I remember a pastor once saying that sermon prep is worship.

00:00:35.400 Sermon prep is worship.

00:00:37.640 And it really has changed the way that I view my study time.

00:00:42.420 Now, Romans 12, 3 through 8, I have titled this sermon, Ready for the Master's Use.

00:00:50.280 Ready for the Master's Use.

00:00:52.380 Last week, we learned that Romans 12 essentially marked a transition point in the epistle

00:01:00.020 from orthodoxy, which is chapters 1 through 12, really the end of 11, all the way to orthopraxy,

00:01:09.100 which is really 12 and on. Now, there's a little bit of nuance there because

00:01:13.460 what we're going to see is some structure that Romans chapter chapters 1 through 11 verses 33

00:01:23.460 through 36 is really orthodoxy it's talking about the gospel doctrine and then that little section

00:01:33.120 11 33 through 36 was the doxology and that was the praise for this wonderful doctrine of the gospel

00:01:42.720 And then we learned that chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, was dedication.

00:01:49.460 And the focus was a little bit of a shift from doxology to dedication.

00:01:54.400 And then we know that from chapters 12, 3 and forward, it's duty.

00:02:00.280 So we have this pattern of doctrine, doxology, dedication, and duty.

00:02:06.440 That's really the flow.

00:02:07.360 we're kind of in the mix of it because, you know, last week we were, you know, we were in dedication

00:02:13.020 and a week before we were in doxology and now we're here in duty. And so there's, there's a

00:02:17.560 big transition point that we're in, in the middle of chapter 12. Now the apostle knows that belief

00:02:25.440 motivates behavior. The way that you think will determine the way that you act. And when a person

00:02:33.480 has been touched by the gospel, it'll transform the way that you live. In fact, if it doesn't,

00:02:38.480 then I doubt that you've actually been born again. I really believe that the gospel will

00:02:44.960 transition the way that you live. It'll bring conviction, and that conviction will grow

00:02:50.420 over and over and over again as time goes. Yesterday, I was at men's warehouse because

00:03:00.920 I was getting pants because for some reason I am good at losing pants to suits.

00:03:06.260 But I got this pair of pants and my son was with me and they had only rung me up for the tailoring.

00:03:16.360 And I could have easily walked out with a free pair of $100 pants.

00:03:21.240 And don't believe for a second that my flesh didn't want to.

00:03:25.620 That's $100.

00:03:26.080 dollars. But what the Holy Spirit does is it brings, he brings conviction upon you.

00:03:34.660 And you go, I can't do that. I can't do that. And my son, who was seven, is sitting with me and

00:03:42.540 it was a great lesson, a moment of showing what the Holy Spirit can do to a person.

00:03:48.540 It supersedes selfishness and it goes into Christ's likeness. And so those small things,

00:03:55.140 when the gospel touches you, it'll transform the way that you live. It's great evidence

00:03:59.380 to know that you are saved when you have the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

00:04:06.640 Now, last week, again, we focused on the preface of chapter 12, which was about responding to the

00:04:15.280 gospel with sacrifice and transformation. You know the famous passage, you know, we're living

00:04:21.420 sacrifices do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

00:04:25.380 beautiful passage of scripture we saw how the mercies of God should motivate us to sacrifice

00:04:33.160 why do you sacrifice because God's extended mercy to you in fact we figured out that

00:04:39.840 those who live lukewarm are those who live in a way that's not actually dedicated to Christ

00:04:48.300 it's because you've forgotten the mercies of God

00:04:51.880 or you've never been taught the mercies of God

00:04:56.260 and second we were commanded to not be conformed

00:05:02.500 to the culture of this world

00:05:04.740 but we're to be transformed by the renewing of your minds

00:05:08.720 so the way that we're not conformed is that we are transformed

00:05:13.800 but how by what we know by what we think

00:05:17.680 we always forget that jesus says to love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul

00:05:23.900 with all your mind an intellectual academic scholastic approach to the gospel

00:05:36.660 transformation begins upstairs and then it informs the heart

00:05:39.560 it's a call to biblical and theological literacy

00:05:44.520 you want to be renewed you want to be transformed do it with your mind

00:05:50.960 it starts there if you're not reading don't expect the heart to follow

00:05:56.340 the heart obeys what the mind understands

00:06:02.640 so if we follow again the outline we know that we have doctrine doxology dedication

00:06:14.520 duty. Now, we left off with the apostle telling Christians that because of the mercies of God,

00:06:22.400 full devotion is their reasonable service. Do you know why you owe everything to Christ?

00:06:29.340 Why he is your master? You know, the number one term in the New Testament used to describe a

00:06:38.140 Christian is the Greek word doulos, which means slave. You're a slave to Christ. 0.97

00:06:48.080 You owe him everything. We saw that in doctrine. We saw that in doxology.

00:06:55.620 We are seeing that in dedication, and now we are reflecting that in duty.

00:07:01.540 Full devotion is your reasonable service. And as we're going to see today, our Christian service

00:07:06.020 has, pay attention here, dimension and limitations. Your Christian duty has dimensions and it has

00:07:15.380 limitations. Now, verse 3, if you look at your Bible, functions as an explanation clause. Again,

00:07:24.080 we are going to be smart Bible interpreters in this church. Okay, it tells us how we ought to

00:07:29.000 think about our Christian service. It says, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone

00:07:37.800 among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,

00:07:44.200 but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

00:07:53.140 all right i want you to notice again he begins with this word for four is either signaling

00:08:01.520 two types of clauses an explanation clause where he's going to offer further excellent

00:08:07.040 explanation from the statement that he made in the previous verse or it's a causal clause where

00:08:13.240 he's giving the grounds of the reason for the statement that happened in the previous verse

00:08:20.120 Now here he's offering a further explanation on this concept of your reasonable service to God is full sacrifice and transformation.

00:08:32.380 Paul is highlighting the dimension and the limitations of service he mentioned in verse 1.

00:08:40.280 He wants to preface this call to Christian duty with a need for humility.

00:08:46.340 You want to work for God?

00:08:48.460 You want to be in God's kingdom?

00:08:51.820 Be humble.

00:08:54.700 Just think about it, just for a second.

00:08:56.660 You look at the kingdoms of the world,

00:08:58.240 and you look at the people that are trying to get to the top.

00:09:00.820 You look at the people that are operating in that kingdom.

00:09:03.020 There's always this desire to get a little bit higher. 0.99

00:09:06.340 To think that that doesn't happen in the kingdom of God would be foolish. 0.95

00:09:11.040 We saw the disciples arguing, 0.76

00:09:13.220 who can sit at the right hand of Jesus?

00:09:15.280 now just as god is sovereign over salvation he is also sovereign over your christian

00:09:25.680 service over your gifts over your abilities over your grace over your duty sovereign over all of

00:09:32.360 it paul speaks and pay attention look at it look at verse three paul speaks authoritatively

00:09:38.240 from his God-given grace to make a point about self-estimation, about self-estimation.

00:09:46.820 He calls for humility and sobriety. If we want to measure one another, which we do,

00:09:52.760 don't lie to yourself. If you want to measure one another, let it be done by the measure of faith

00:09:59.580 bestowed upon a person by the Lord.

00:10:03.740 You want to look at a metric to see

00:10:06.360 how great a person is? Do it by the measure of faith.

00:10:12.320 Look at how much faith they have.

00:10:18.600 I don't want you to use external metrics.

00:10:22.560 Followers on social media, eloquence or fame.

00:10:25.240 These aren't the metrics that we use to assess a particular person's ministry or particular person's life.

00:10:33.840 You get to use faith and faithfulness, faith and faithfulness.

00:10:41.340 Now, I expect that many people wanted to have the authority of the Apostle Paul.

00:10:48.900 They wanted to have the authority of Paul without the grace and faith that was given to Paul.

00:10:53.740 and this isn't a foreign concept to our modern day. Envy is real and it is among the people of

00:11:02.320 God. It happens all the time and I see it as a pastor. I've seen men want the authority of a

00:11:07.920 pastor without the grace and faith to be a pastor. I've seen it. There's many men that go through

00:11:14.140 seminary that fight, that think that knowledge is the metric that matters. It's not.

00:11:20.840 yeah you need to know the scriptures to preach the scriptures

00:11:25.440 but has the grace been given to you has the faith been given to you to be a pastor

00:11:30.960 i've seen christian women want the life the family the giftings of other christian women

00:11:40.320 without the grace and faith given to those particular women i've seen it i've seen christian

00:11:47.500 Christian men want the skills or the success or the influence of other Christian men without the grace and faith given to those men.

00:11:56.500 They want the thing instead of the substance that's fueling that duty. 0.97

00:12:04.120 They want the skill and the money, but they don't want the faith and the faithfulness.

00:12:08.860 while envy is wrong self-exaltation is worse

00:12:18.480 to want the station of another person is one thing to exalt yourself to their station without

00:12:27.400 the grace and faith for that station is another

00:12:29.580 However, Paul is trying to demonstrate that true surrender requires sobriety and contentment.

00:12:41.300 Sobriety and contentment.

00:12:44.440 Now, contentment is one of the most difficult virtues in all of Christian life.

00:12:51.700 Do you want to be used by God?

00:12:54.280 Here's the key.

00:12:55.940 Be surrendered, be faithful, be content.

00:12:59.580 Be surrendered, be faithful, and be content.

00:13:06.260 Whatever fruit comes from that soil is the grace of God in your life.

00:13:14.660 When you rest in that, you're surrendered, you're faithful, you're content.

00:13:22.840 Whatever comes out of that, that's the Lord's grace on your life.

00:13:27.740 That's the mercy.

00:13:29.580 for example, why am I a pastor? Why can I exposit the word? It's not my doing. It's grace. It's

00:13:39.900 grace. I don't know why I have the ability to do what I do. It's grace. Why can someone counsel or

00:13:49.480 sing or shepherd or evangelize or lead or defend the faith? I look at James White and I go,

00:13:55.360 my goodness, your mind works in ways that mine doesn't. Why? Grace. A grace that's been given to

00:14:03.760 him. That's it. It's not a skill that I can work my way to. There are some people out there that

00:14:13.060 are just able and gifted in a way that you can just go, it's grace. Why has this man been given

00:14:21.320 a massive flock. Many men said to Charles Spurgeon, grace, grace.

00:14:32.720 This is why Paul warns, do not think too highly of yourself.

00:14:41.580 Your service, your station, your authority and gifts are not your own. They are graces from God.

00:14:46.600 in other words a surrendered life a transformed soul a renewed mind

00:14:54.140 will think soberly and will think humbly about their work for christ

00:15:00.160 i think paul captures this when he's writing galatians chapter 2 verse 20

00:15:07.960 i think he's really grasping the idea of surrendered faithful and content he says

00:15:16.500 I have been crucified with Christ.

00:15:18.760 It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

00:15:24.620 Just for a second, can you say that about your own life?

00:15:28.740 How surrendered are you?

00:15:31.620 Have you been crucified with Christ?

00:15:34.620 The flesh is done.

00:15:38.000 It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

00:15:41.540 Is this true?

00:15:42.160 This isn't just like a Paul thing.

00:15:43.400 This is a you thing.

00:15:45.720 And he says, in the life that I live now, in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

00:15:55.220 Now there's another form of pride that is more inconspicuous than envy or self-exaltation.

00:16:01.800 I think it's just as dangerous.

00:16:03.780 It's the sin or pride of false humility.

00:16:09.820 False humility.

00:16:11.720 It's harder to catch.

00:16:13.540 There's a story about Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

00:16:15.960 He was entering a train station, and a gentleman walks up to him and says,

00:16:20.200 Oh, Dr. Jones, I am just a chimney sweep in the house of the Lord.

00:16:24.540 Let me carry your suitcase. I am nobody, and you are a man of great gifts.

00:16:30.200 Dr. Jones saw through the man immediately and did not deal too kindly with him.

00:16:38.080 Later, he said,

00:16:38.960 quote, when a person acts like this, his expectation is that you will correct him by

00:16:45.040 saying, no, no, you are really a great person and the Lord needs folks like you, end quote.

00:16:50.760 But the way to truly correct a man, he says, is to encourage him to embrace where the Lord

00:16:56.120 has placed him, knowing that it is neither random nor unimportant. It is precisely where God and

00:17:03.680 his infinite wisdom deemed it necessary for him to serve. In Christ's body, every part matters and

00:17:10.760 every role glorifies the same Lord, end quote. It's really an easier message to hear, but harder to

00:17:20.820 believe for many people. We live in a self-exalting culture. Social media has been a time where

00:17:30.080 everybody wants to be a star, and everybody wants to have a platform, and everybody wants followers

00:17:35.460 and wants to be known, and everybody wants to showcase their gifts, and nobody can be content

00:17:41.060 with where they are. I know I struggle with it. I mean, everybody struggles with this at some degree.

00:17:51.280 Let me offer you another example. In a classical orchestra,

00:17:54.200 few people know that there's actually the instrument the triangle is actually included

00:18:01.360 in a classical orchestra it's one of the most vital instruments I actually listened to a few

00:18:07.660 clips and the triangle offers these beautiful color or emphatic moments of tone and harmony

00:18:15.940 that you would miss had the triangle not been included in this massive classical orchestra

00:18:23.400 And too many people think that it's less because it's not the violin.

00:18:31.360 I want to be the violin. 0.98

00:18:36.020 That's foolish thinking. 0.98

00:18:37.500 The conductor knows what he's doing. 0.97

00:18:39.860 The conductor knows that this particular small instrument, this one tiny little note,

00:18:47.280 it contributes to this beautiful body of sound. 0.97

00:18:53.400 In other words, self-exaltation and self-deprecation have no place in the Christian mind.

00:19:01.940 You don't have to go self-deprecate.

00:19:04.580 Self-deprecation reveals doubt in God's wisdom.

00:19:08.100 That's what it does.

00:19:11.220 It causes people to farm sympathy.

00:19:14.460 They want to cultivate sympathy in other people because they crave what?

00:19:19.220 human affirmation, and they struggle with finding contentment in God's providence.

00:19:25.920 They want to be affirmed. It's false humility.

00:19:32.660 Now, lastly, I want to speak to this phrase,

00:19:36.820 each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

00:19:43.720 Okay, this is just one more verse that adds to the stockpile of verses

00:19:47.380 that says that faith is a gift and not some sort of intrinsic will of man.

00:19:55.600 Okay, all Christians have the same faith.

00:19:58.580 All Christians have the same faith.

00:20:00.660 Romans chapter 4, 16 says, this is why it depends on faith.

00:20:03.840 In order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all of his offspring,

00:20:08.340 not only of the Jews, but also of the one who shares the faith of Abraham.

00:20:13.160 You want to know what kind of faith you have?

00:20:14.360 You have the exact same faith as Abraham.

00:20:17.380 I have the exact same faith as Peter, and the exact same faith as Paul, and the exact same faith as John MacArthur, and the exact same faith as Charles Spurgeon.

00:20:25.300 We all have the same faith.

00:20:30.140 But God has assigned different measures of that faith according to his will.

00:20:38.400 We're all equally justified by the faith that we've been given.

00:20:41.760 But there is unequal measures of faith that have been assigned to each of us.

00:20:50.300 Now, why does this matter?

00:20:52.040 Because faith is the fuel behind Christian duty.

00:20:57.820 Faith is the fuel behind Christian duty.

00:21:00.380 You want to see someone like Charles Spurgeon,

00:21:02.400 who had people writing biographies that were selling hundreds of thousands of copies when he was in his 20s?

00:21:09.120 and that he was reading Pilgrim's Progress multiple times by the age of six?

00:21:20.440 Faith is the fuel for Christian duty.

00:21:23.900 How does a man do this?

00:21:25.880 I watched a video that one of our elders sent to me about Charles Spurgeon's daily schedule.

00:21:33.840 It's insane.

00:21:34.880 it's not only is it wild but it was incredibly productive and fruitful without somehow compromising

00:21:47.280 his family and you look at those moments and you go the man had not great organization skills

00:21:55.840 and was really good at managing his day no the man had great faith and the lord used that faith

00:22:01.980 It was the fuel for his Christian duty.

00:22:05.100 When you see a man like R.C. Sproul, who was and is influentially, just massively influential in the kingdom of God.

00:22:15.980 He left behind Ligonier and, you know, probably a hundred books that he's written.

00:22:22.160 It's because the measure of faith that was given to him.

00:22:25.120 and so faith is the fuel for your christian duty when you see a woman with many children

00:22:36.540 a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of god

00:22:42.520 when she has a wonderful marriage she always has a smile on her face she's joyful she's joyfully

00:22:52.260 submissive to her husband. She's got a deep maturity in the scriptures. Her children are

00:22:57.580 well-behaved and they rise up and they call her blessed. It's because of the measure of faith that

00:23:04.840 has been given to her. That's why. I've met these women. Veronica and I have talked about these

00:23:12.520 women. We've seen women like this. We have a friend in Oregon who's got 11 children and is 1.00

00:23:17.760 that woman. Why is she that woman? How can she be that woman? How can she remain faithful and 0.89

00:23:23.840 steadfast and always persevere through incredibly difficult circumstances? Because the Lord has

00:23:30.280 given her a greater measure of faith. That's why. Some people have been given a lesser measure of

00:23:43.640 faith. And in our egalitarian world, we hate it. Some have been given a lesser measure of faith

00:23:52.920 that requires them to be more dependent on the body of Christ.

00:24:02.220 As a pastor, it's easier to see these things. I've seen families that have strong faith.

00:24:07.220 I've seen families that have weaker faith. I've seen families that have been in the church for

00:24:11.140 20 years with still a weak faith. I've seen families that just joined and just saved with

00:24:16.140 incredibly strong faith. I've seen every dimension of it. Some have been given a greater measure of

00:24:25.140 faith that allows them to lead and uphold others. It's just a reality. But in either case,

00:24:36.300 all are saved by that faith, and God has designed their measures of faith

00:24:44.820 according to his perfect will for the body of Christ.

00:24:52.140 Let me give you another example here, if I could just not lose my space like I just did.

00:24:57.360 let me say this if you desire

00:25:03.600 to be used in greater ways desire greater faith that's the prayer if you want to be used in

00:25:14.940 greater ways pray for greater faith you're not going to be used in greater ways with weaker faith

00:25:22.420 until then and in that prayer be surrendered be faithful be content be surrendered be faithful

00:25:39.740 and be content and the next verse paul offers an explanation for why this is he says for as

00:25:48.100 in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

00:25:56.340 So we, though many, are one body, and individually members of one another. Now, the word

00:26:03.280 university, the word university means united while diverse. That's, if you break it down,

00:26:11.640 that's what the etymology of that word is. Now, today's understanding of the word diversity

00:26:17.740 has been kind of, you know, taken and perverted and twisted, and that's not what I'm talking about.

00:26:27.080 I'm going to kind of digress here just for a second. I think, you know, like the world's

00:26:31.940 dumbest bumper sticker is the coexist sticker, right? This is the culture's definition of 0.98

00:26:39.280 diversity. It's basically unity by compromise. That's basically what you, every time I see that,

00:26:49.580 I'm just like, this is so ridiculous. It's unified by compromise. It propagates the lie that Islam 0.93

00:26:57.460 and Christianity, or Christianity and Hinduism, or Christianity and secularism, and Globo Homo, 0.75

00:27:03.780 or whatever thing that presses against the church, that they can peacefully coexist together. 0.56

00:27:11.820 They can't. It's Christ or chaos. It's Christ or chaos. That is the Christian message. And that is

00:27:21.400 not the type of diversity that Paul is speaking about here in Romans. The body of Christ is what

00:27:29.200 I would call a genuine university, a genuine university. It's diversity that doesn't compromise

00:27:36.080 on truth, but cultivates it. It unifies on it. It actually becomes synergistic and harmonious

00:27:43.940 as it builds itself up. And even the weakest member of the body is not without purpose.

00:27:50.800 now some stations in the body are more frail they're more sensitive they're more vulnerable

00:28:00.680 but no station is unneeded i'll tell you what i really appreciate the nail on my pinky finger

00:28:09.380 i hardly ever think about it but if it wasn't there or it got ripped off my whole body

00:28:16.100 would be thinking about it. Think about the eyelid. Just think about your eyelid for a second.

00:28:24.360 It's frail. It's delicate. What does it do? It protects the eye,

00:28:31.000 which is one of the most important portions of your body. Without the eyelid, the whole body

00:28:38.620 would suffer. I don't think about my eyelids hardly ever. I probably haven't thought about

00:28:44.800 them in years. It doesn't receive the accolades of the heart or the brain or the gut, which I

00:28:53.260 think about often, and doesn't have the strength of arms or legs, but it still has a vital role

00:29:05.180 in the body. Now, Paul is not trying to say, he's not trying to squash us into some sort of like

00:29:13.180 androgyny where we're all equally and the same. That's not what Paul's saying. We're not. We are

00:29:21.440 equal in redemption, but unequal in grace, in faith, in duty. Our generation really hates the

00:29:29.480 idea of someone having a greater station, requiring greater honor, requiring greater respect,

00:29:35.940 requiring submission. We hate order. We want everything to be the same. I want to treat the

00:29:42.820 eight-year-old the same as I treat the 18-year-old as the same as I treat the 28-year-old. We want

00:29:46.740 to speak to each other that way. Casualization and flattening out everything is our duty in this

00:29:53.560 nation and culture that we live in.

00:29:57.860 We are mutually dependent, but we are not mutually interchangeable. That is the teaching of

00:30:05.080 scripture. In fact, in the next verse, in verse 6, Paul says, having gifts that differ.

00:30:11.580 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. We're different.

00:30:19.160 My wife and I, we're different. We are equal in value and different in role. We're unequal in

00:30:25.760 role. We're unequal in duty. We're unequal in responsibility before the Lord. I have a greater

00:30:32.800 responsibility before the Lord for her. I'm responsible for her in a way

00:30:36.900 that she is not responsible for me.

00:30:40.560 There is a need for us to recognize and celebrate

00:30:44.960 joyfully the order and structure that the Lord has put in place

00:30:48.980 and submit to it, yield to it, embrace it.

00:30:55.960 And he says

00:30:57.000 in these gifts, let us use them. So Paul

00:31:01.100 calls for spiritual self-awareness. He calls for contentment and he calls for effectiveness with

00:31:09.420 your gifts. The word for gifts is charisma in the Greek, and it really means working out of grace.

00:31:19.700 It's the working out of a grace in you is what a gift is. And so if that working out of the grace

00:31:28.480 reveals that you can teach, do it to the glory of God. If that working out in you of grace

00:31:36.700 reveals that you can sing, sing to the glory of God. If it reveals that you can lead or organize

00:31:45.740 or administrate, do it to the glory of God. In other words, God is not assigning gifts

00:31:53.240 as like, they're not like, oh, you're going to get gifts of administration and you're going to get

00:32:00.660 gifts of generosity. It's not like handing out cards to us that this is your gift and that's

00:32:06.360 your, you only get one. That's not what's happening. That's not what's being taught here.

00:32:14.260 God gives grace and grace naturally works itself out in various ways,

00:32:17.980 producing spiritual gifts that are evident to the body and used for his glory.

00:32:23.240 So the question becomes, how has God's grace uniquely worked its way out in your life?

00:32:32.440 What would somebody notice in your life?

00:32:37.440 And that gentleman is an incredible communicator.

00:32:42.220 He's clear-minded.

00:32:43.500 He's theologically literate.

00:32:45.760 He's able to understand deep things.

00:32:48.620 He has a passion.

00:32:50.340 You know when that happens?

00:32:52.500 Oh, that's maybe a teacher.

00:32:54.840 That's maybe a pastor.

00:32:56.460 That's maybe an evangelist.

00:33:01.140 We can recognize those gifts.

00:33:06.140 And in my experience, it's actually best to let other people recognize it.

00:33:10.240 You don't want to be the guy, I'm a teacher, by the way.

00:33:12.840 Just letting you know, I'm a teacher.

00:33:14.900 No, you want to be noticed organically and naturally through the body of Christ

00:33:20.660 and let somebody else exalt you and say,

00:33:22.420 you, my friend, should cultivate that gift.

00:33:26.220 When you recognize that gift, go get training in that gift.

00:33:35.040 Now, the apostles here,

00:33:37.800 the apostle here lists out seven spiritual gifts.

00:33:43.000 And they're prophecy, servanthood, teaching, exhortation,

00:33:47.940 generosity, leadership, and acts of mercy.

00:33:50.660 We're going to talk about them briefly.

00:33:52.480 1 Corinthians chapter 12 talks about another list that kind of overlaps with this.

00:33:56.860 It also includes additional gifts like discernment and wisdom, as well as the possessive, miraculous gifts that I believe have ceased.

00:34:07.460 Now, I want to just briefly talk about continuationism and cessationism for like a minute.

00:34:14.300 okay cessationism is the idea that the miraculous gifts have seized

00:34:21.340 now can God still perform miracles yes does God still perform miracles yes

00:34:28.840 but they are not in the same way where you had a possessive gift of miracles like the apostle Paul

00:34:36.840 had or the apostle Peter had where people are walking past his shadows and they're being healed

00:34:43.720 where he has the authority to heal in a way that validates his apostolic office

00:34:48.460 for the transition period prior to the scriptures being written.

00:34:52.280 We also know 1 Corinthians talks about these gifts are going to seize at certain times

00:34:56.900 or prophecy that is a forth telling of the future according to the perfect revelation of God.

00:35:02.360 There are so many different ways that we understand the reality around the possessive gifts.

00:35:10.900 now so there are people who have possessive gifts that are still continuing on today

00:35:20.460 and they are more administrative gifts they are more uh gifts that are functional for the clergy

00:35:26.280 functional for the office of uh eldership functional for the congregation but they are not

00:35:33.500 possessive, miraculous gifts

00:35:36.560 in the same way that we see

00:35:39.300 in the New Testament transition period.

00:35:43.760 I want to briefly just talk about these gifts

00:35:47.220 and the application that they have for us.

00:35:53.760 So it says,

00:35:55.600 if prophecy in proportion to our faith,

00:35:59.560 if service in our serving,

00:36:03.500 The one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation,

00:36:07.280 the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal,

00:36:11.940 the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

00:36:17.060 Now, I believe that Paul is speaking to some of these, specifically to elders and deacons.

00:36:22.060 You're going to see that in the first couple, but I'm going to just briefly go over them

00:36:26.840 and then we'll wrap it up with some application and close out.

00:36:30.660 So prophecy.

00:36:31.820 As I said this week in our Bible study, there is two types of prophecy in the Bible.

00:36:38.340 There is a foretelling of the future according to God's perfect revelation and will.

00:36:46.020 And if you get it wrong, the Old Testament says to stone that person to death.

00:36:49.140 there is also a forth telling of the truth of the gospel by faith which is more like

00:37:01.920 proclamation or preaching that we see in the new testament now i believe the old testament we would

00:37:08.120 see more of the foretelling of the future like an ezekiel or an isaiah and i do believe that

00:37:15.240 the apostles and even John the Baptist functioned as a prophet in that way. And there was also some

00:37:22.260 degree of transitional gifts in that time. But when we talk about the term prophecy today,

00:37:27.480 we generally mean a forth telling of truth according to the gospel by faith. And so that

00:37:38.180 is a form of prophecy. And I don't want to get too much into it, but what I want to say

00:37:41.760 is that if you have that gift to forth tell the truth with passion and zeal

00:37:47.380 and clarity, do so to the glory of God.

00:37:53.620 It is a very common form of preaching,

00:37:56.720 which is different than teaching, which we'll talk about in a minute.

00:38:01.040 The second gift is service.

00:38:05.780 The word is diconiai, which is a Greek word,

00:38:08.580 and it's where we get our English word deacon.

00:38:12.480 And this English word deacon is to mean servant.

00:38:18.140 You are a servant.

00:38:19.780 My son is named deacon.

00:38:23.020 Now, again, in general, I think that he has in view, when he's talking about prophecy,

00:38:27.440 I think he's talking to the elders in the church, the pastors in the church,

00:38:31.220 those that are leading the church, and he goes here to service,

00:38:34.220 and I believe he has in view, at least, the deacons, the diaconate,

00:38:39.540 those that are serving if you have been totally blessed with a servant's heart

00:38:44.760 then serve the glory of God now I don't think that it only applies to the deacons I think it

00:38:50.580 applies to men women young people if you have a deacon or a servant heart use it to the glory of

00:38:57.860 God and then it says teaching and again teaching you know can essentially be expressed by any

00:39:08.140 scripture that you can bring clarity or explanation. Now, teaching in the scriptures is

00:39:15.500 commanded to men to teach other men and women to teach younger women and to parents to teach

00:39:19.960 their children and to members to instruct one another. So we see teaching as a regular reality.

00:39:24.020 But again, there's something here talking to the elders of the church, the leadership of the

00:39:29.560 church, but there's also a gift of teaching among many of you. I've seen incredible homeschool moms

00:39:34.740 that can communicate great information to their children, to one another, to other women. 0.95

00:39:41.240 We know that the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands and love their children. 0.96

00:39:45.580 That is another part of that.

00:39:49.780 Now, teaching is not preaching.

00:39:52.480 Okay, teaching is like a lecture.

00:39:55.360 I remember Martin Lloyd-Jones once came to a seminary.

00:39:58.820 And at the seminary, he got there and he says,

00:40:02.160 Now I apologize, I am a preacher, and I'm going to try to teach you.

00:40:08.640 So if my lecture turns into a sermon, forgive me.

00:40:13.820 And so preaching is really more of a proclamation, a heralding, a passionate, spirit-filled presentation of the truth.

00:40:23.020 Where a teaching is a transfer of information.

00:40:27.340 It's an academic skill.

00:40:29.520 it's a clarity of mind and thought

00:40:33.920 now i think the remaining gifts that they talk about here are more broad

00:40:38.960 exhortation

00:40:40.860 to exhort means to encourage someone to obey or to not sin

00:40:48.560 it's not a rebuke it's not really even a correction it's an exhortation

00:40:56.340 it's it's the ability to speak the truth in love that leaves people feeling both helped

00:41:03.800 and encouraged and i have met people who can do this well

00:41:09.320 and you would think that as a pastor i might be able to do that well i don't think i'm the best

00:41:15.460 at it i can be a little bit too blunt there are people with a gift of exhortation that they sit

00:41:23.860 down with you and they basically punch you in the face with truth and you love

00:41:28.040 them for it. And you're like, wow, thank you. That was so

00:41:31.880 helpful. Please give me more.

00:41:36.100 Hebrews 3.13 says, but exhort one another

00:41:39.680 every day as long as it is called today, that none

00:41:43.980 of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. It's one of the one

00:41:47.860 another's. Do you have the gift of exhortation?

00:41:54.500 Generosity.

00:41:55.460 Now, this is speaking to those in the church who give their resources with sincerity and, I would say, with liberality.

00:42:00.920 We all give.

00:42:01.620 We're all called to give.

00:42:03.500 But I've met some folks that have the gift of generosity.

00:42:08.140 We have friends in Oregon.

00:42:10.540 And in our church, back in Oregon, one friend got into a serious amount of debt with the IRS, about $100,000.

00:42:19.500 and we had another family in our church who had the gift of giving and they paid off their debt

00:42:30.560 for them and these are people that are normal they don't have like they're not living on like

00:42:36.060 a million dollars a year these are people that live on maybe 150 to 200 thousand dollars a year

00:42:40.420 and they just took a hundred thousand dollars out of their savings and paid off somebody else's debt

00:42:46.780 I remember going to dinner with this gentleman and we would regularly have dinners with our

00:42:54.820 whole church and we'd have 40 50 people at dinner and the tab would be you know

00:42:59.060 $1,500 and he'd sneak away to go to the bathroom and the dinner would be paid

00:43:05.640 this is the gift of generosity they are just looking for opportunities to give

00:43:11.800 not just with their money with their resources with their time with their hospitality

00:43:15.820 the housers have people at their house and in their house all the time it's expensive

00:43:23.020 to host people but they are they enjoy it they love it

00:43:29.380 last two leadership this speaks to the ability to preside which biblically i believe is speaking

00:43:40.200 to men. It's the domain of men to preside. Yes, we have women that are presiding over their

00:43:46.200 children in a real way. But, and there, yes, there is some leadership that can apply to men

00:43:52.020 and women equally here. There's leadership in a home. There's a management of a home that requires

00:43:56.120 a real leadership. But I believe this, again, is speaking to a gift of leadership. When I was a kid,

00:44:05.420 I always found myself as the captain it was just something that happened my dad noticed it

00:44:15.520 my friends noticed it I was the pitcher on the baseball team I was always trying to gather a

00:44:22.820 group together to lead them somewhere it was something that the Lord had gifted me even as a

00:44:26.760 child and it's something that was recognized and I didn't even make sense of it until I was a teenager

00:44:32.280 Are you a leader? Has the Lord blessed you with the grace of leadership?

00:44:40.640 If so, lead according to the glory of God.

00:44:44.560 And the last one is mercy.

00:44:48.060 Think about this for a second. Mercy is showing compassion and kindness with cheerfulness.

00:44:56.340 I can show mercy.

00:44:57.620 it's a harder work for me to do it cheerfully

00:45:02.560 you would think that oh the pastor must be able to do this and yeah I believe I can do this I've

00:45:10.940 called to do this I've done hospital visits and I've met with the people that have lost loved ones

00:45:15.420 but I really believe that the acts of mercy generally historically has been the domain of

00:45:21.860 women. Women are so naturally blessed and gifted with acts of mercy. Wherever there's a hurting

00:45:31.300 person, you're going to find women around them. It's just a natural response for women. 1.00

00:45:40.580 What our generation calls humanitarian aid historically was called mercy ministry.

00:45:45.740 it's caring for the sick and the poor and the destitute and if you look throughout history

00:45:52.200 you want to know who's running that it's women women are gathering together to raise money

00:45:57.620 to go be nurses to go care for the poor who are at the bedsides of the dying men

00:46:04.620 they're not other men they're women who are at the side

00:46:10.300 of the cross when Jesus was dying? Where did the men go? They weren't there.

00:46:17.960 It was the women that were caring for the master. And so mercy ministry, is this something

00:46:25.900 that is natural to you, that is a working out of grace in your own life?

00:46:32.220 so i'll close with this a life surrendered to christ requires total service to god

00:46:40.640 total service to god now this doesn't mean you're going to become a pastor

00:46:46.760 just glorify god with what you're doing build a business run for office

00:46:52.440 operate a school i don't care whatever you do do to the glory of god

00:46:57.560 But do not envy the service or station of another that has gifts and graces that you do not have.

00:47:10.340 Instead, appreciate him.

00:47:12.540 Appreciate that this brother has something that you don't have.

00:47:15.640 Appreciate that that sister has something you don't have.

00:47:18.920 You know what it does?

00:47:20.300 It makes you get close to them.

00:47:23.080 When I see a brother that has discernment and wisdom, you know what I do?

00:47:27.300 I draw in. Hey man, I got tough circumstances. I need help discerning. I always tell people,

00:47:36.680 Joel Webin, who's a friend of mine, another pastor, he has a gift of discernment. His

00:47:42.660 diagnostic ability to tell you a bunch of information and then drop a one-line sentence

00:47:47.340 that's exactly the problem is uncanny. I'm like, wow, that was extremely helpful.

00:47:54.460 I don't have that and I love running to him when I need that type of clarity

00:48:01.740 there are people in our congregation that have these gifts and there are people that know that

00:48:11.400 they don't have certain gifts it calls us to bind to one another to use them effectively

00:48:19.280 So as I said many times today, I'll close by saying, be surrendered, be faithful, be content.

00:48:26.220 Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

00:48:29.960 Father, we thank you, Lord, for the blessing of grace,

00:48:35.640 for the measures of faith that you have provided.

00:48:38.540 Lord, we pray that you would use us exactly as you have designed us.

00:48:44.140 Lord, help us to eliminate envy

00:48:47.920 and to appreciate our own lack

00:48:52.160 Lord, that you

00:48:54.520 that have not given us something

00:48:57.360 have given it to another

00:48:58.200 that we might be united together

00:49:00.300 with that brother or sister

00:49:01.460 that you make beauty

00:49:05.220 by putting things together

00:49:06.380 Father, I ask that you would bless us

00:49:10.520 that we would be synergistic

00:49:12.620 and harmonious

00:49:13.460 and enjoy the mosaic of your church.

00:49:19.240 In Jesus' name, amen.

Dale Partridge - November 23, 2024

Romans 12_3-8 Ready for the Master's Use

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