Lord, I swear there's no pain I know there's no danger In that bright world to which I go Welcome to this podcast from Faith Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. Faith Bible Church is a Christ-centered, Bible-teaching ministry dedicated to bringing the good news of the Gospel to the whole world. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And now, for this week's message from Pastor Alan Battle. Romans 12, three through five. For by grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. This is the Word of God. What is it that causes greatness in a person's life? Well, first you have to define greatness. One way the world defines greatness is the accumulation of money and power. And by those standards, Napoleon was one of the greatest men who ever lived. But I recently read a biography on him, and I discovered what a miserable human being he was. Much of his political success was due to his ability to make things appear better than they actually were. Raised in a poor peasant household, he took on the outward trappings of royalty, declaring himself not just to be king, but emperor. And although his career was launched due to his many military successes, he would lie about any failures, spinning everything always to make himself look good. And to serve his insatiable ambition, hundreds of thousands of his countrymen had to die in many pointless battles. And at the root of all of it was a tragic personal life. He never had one truly stable, loving relationship in his life. Not with his parents, or his siblings, or even his famous wife, Josephine. People are not always what they appear to be. I heard an interview recently with the billionaire Joe Ricketts. He's the founder of the do-it-yourself brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. And he attributed his success to his early realization that appearances can be deceiving. He had jobs as a janitor and a hospital orderly. And then he got this job doing credit reporting for a lending agency. And he talked about how he interviewed this well-dressed guy in his building that was immaculate and impressive. And that business was about to go bankrupt. The same day, he had an appointment across the street with a dirty, grimy-looking fellow in a building that looked like a shack with a dirt floor. And he discovered that this guy's business was flourishing. He was rich. One guy was pretending to be something he wasn't, and he failed. The other guy just went about his business, doing what he was good at, and he prospered. Neither military prowess or financial success are true measures of greatness, though. God has different standards. So I want to tell you another story, a story about a lady that I had the privilege of serving with on a short-term mission trip 14 years ago. Her name is Mary Jane Pontain. Mary Jane was born with cerebral palsy, but she dreamed of becoming a missionary as a child. And as she grew up, no missions agency would accept her. Her missionary career wasn't to start until 50 years later when she was in her 60s. But she didn't let the rejection stop her, though. She began ministering as a layperson. And she never gave up the dream of serving overseas as a missionary. In the meantime, she got married, she had a family, and she ministered to international students in the US. And after her husband died in 1990, she was speaking at a missions conference about disabilities and was invited by one of the other speakers to accompany him on an overseas trip. Shortly after that, she formed her own mission agency, Mephibosheth Ministries, which now serves the handicapped in 16 countries around the world. So she and I were ministering in Ghana, West Africa, in 2005, and we were both teaching at a pastor's conference. She was there in partnership with Johnny and Friends, Johnny Erickson Tada's ministry to the handicapped. And they were distributing wheelchairs to children. But she was also speaking at this conference. And she spoke to the pastors about the systematic neglect and abuse of the handicapped in the Ghanaian culture. At the end of the talk, she called for repentance and she asked for any who wanted to come forward for prayer. What I witnessed next was just short of the miraculous. In this male-dominated world where pastors are put up on a pedestal, I saw a room full of 30 pastors go sobbing to the front and waited in line for her to pray for them. And they knelt down on the floor crying as she prayed for every one of them. She isn't even five feet tall, and you can barely hear her. Her voice is so soft. But in the spiritual realm, she's a giant. And God has given you and I everything we need to succeed, everything we need to be truly great in his sight. We can be great in God's kingdom if we open our gifts. So today in our study of Romans, Paul's gonna urge us to use our gifts for God's glory. In verses three through five of chapter 12, he's gonna give us the key to unlock those gifts. Remember from last week that we began the second major division of the book of Romans. In part one, we got the doctrine of the gospel. Now in chapter 12, we've come to the practical Christian living part of the book. We've been urged to present ourselves completely to God, to give ourselves as living sacrifices in response to the amazing mercies of God that he's shown us. So now beginning with verse three, we're going to learn how to live out that sacrificial life in specific ways. So let's begin with in chapter 12 verse 3, it says, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, we'll stop there. Paul begins by giving us his credentials to say what he's about to say. He's speaking by the grace that was given to him. That is, by the particular grace given to him as an apostle to speak to the Gentiles. The right to instruct his fellow believers. In chapter 1 and verse 5, he told us that he had received grace and apostleship. In Galatians 9, he calls his apostleship the grace that was given to him. It is his particular gifting that he was given by God in order to serve the body of Christ. And at the end of this letter, he makes that very clear. Look at Romans 15, starting in verse 15. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. This ministry of his will be a model and an example of what he's about to teach us about our particular gifts. So now that he's established his authority to instruct us, he's gonna say something that's gonna be hard for us to hear. Continue in verse three. I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Have you ever been told, don't take yourself so seriously? That hurts. That's basically what the Bible is saying to all of us here. Do not think of yourself more highly than you should. In Galatians, it says, chapter six, verse three, for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. And we can fall into the ditch on either side of this road when it comes to what we think of ourselves. We can either think too highly of ourselves and become arrogant, or we can think too little of ourselves and live in shame and feelings of unworthiness. But both errors, we're thinking too much of ourselves and not enough of God. We all take ourselves too seriously at times. Hopefully, we're not as self-deceived as Frank Burns from MASH. He was always puffing himself up and always protecting his dignity. But we all worry too much about what others think about us. But ironically, don't we often admire people who just don't give a rip? We admire them because they're real, because they're without pretense. In 18th century London, there was a very famous and distinguished scholar named Samuel Johnson. He was an author and a playwright, and his greatest work was a dictionary of the English language. That lasted over 100 years as the standard in the English-speaking world. And his biographer and close friend James Boswell tells of how Johnson, when he would come upon children playing in the street, would stop and join in their games with glee and act like a kid himself. This was one of London's most distinguished citizens. But he wasn't too good to play with street urchins. He didn't think too highly of himself. And neither should we. So how then are we to think of ourselves? Look at the next phrase. But to think with sober judgment. This is about thinking. But not just thinking certain thoughts. The Greek here means to have a particular mindset. This is the renewing of our minds that we saw back in Romans 12.2, the previous verse. This is an ongoing way that we look at ourselves. So how do we get this sober judgment? How do we renew our minds when it comes to thinking about ourselves? When we began to learn this last week, it's first by knowing the mercies of God and then giving ourselves to God in response to those mercies. Then we can discern God's will. In other words, what we think about the gospel from chapters 1 through 11 should be our guide for living for God that's presented to us in chapters 12 through 16. Remember, orthodoxy, right belief, leads to orthopraxy, right practice. It's believing the gospel that defines who we are and consequently how we behave. Listen to Pastor Tim Keller's explanation of the gospel. The gospel is this, we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe. Yet, at the very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. This is sober judgment. I'm deeply flawed, yet I'm deeply loved. Sober judgment keeps us from thinking too highly of ourselves and keeps us from deceiving ourselves by thinking that we are something that we're not. And what guides us in this self-assessment? We are to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. He's not talking about the amount or the strength of our faith here. It's going to become apparent in the next few verses that the measure of faith is parallel with the gifts that we're given. Looking ahead in verse six, he says, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. The very word gift is translated from the Greek word where we also get grace. You could read it this way. Having graces that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them. They're grace gifts and they're given according to the measure or type of faith that he gives us in order to use them. It's personalized for each believer. The measure of faith is the daily practice of faith suited to the use of the gifts that God has given to you. It is our faith in Him that enables us to exercise the gifts properly and effectively. Paul says in Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who lives in me. He is the one working through our gifts. And He's the one who has assigned our gifts, and that's past tense. It happened when you came into the body of Christ. The realization of this should keep us from thinking too highly of ourselves. We didn't create ourselves. We didn't generate our own gifts. In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul's warning the believers there not to be puffed up towards each other in pride. And then he says, for who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? Everything we have is from God. Every breath that we take is a gift from God. And this brings up another point. Nowhere in the scripture is the individual believer ever told to seek a gift. We're never told to go and ask for it and try to get it ourselves. He emphasizes the fact that there are many gifts given to the members of the body. And then he says this in 1 Corinthians 12, 18. But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. Again, that was past tense. God has already distributed the gifts to his children. Now, sometimes people try to use 1 Corinthians 14.1, where it says we are to desire the greater gifts. And they say, well, yeah, you're supposed to desire greater gifts for yourself. Well, that's not what that passage is saying. He's addressing the group in that verse, not the individual. We are to desire greater gifts for the church, not for ourselves. This is another way of emphasizing that we think soberly about ourselves. Every one of us has our own special ability to serve God. And when we desire something different, something more, it's going to cause trouble. If we attempt to operate outside of our gifting, that measure of faith that He's given us, it produces frustration, and discouragement, and guilt, and burnout, and defeat. But when we operate within our gifting, it produces spiritual health in us and eternal fruit for the kingdom. Our focus today is not on the individual gifts, but the faithful use of them. So we go on in, Romans 12.4, for as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So now Paul is using the metaphor of our human bodies. The body has lots of parts, but they all have different functions. And each part in the body of Christ is assigned and directed by Christ as the head. And if we decide to go out on our own and play the part we want to play, chaos ensues. If all the members of a football team decided that they were going to be the quarterback, the game would be over. The church is like that. It needs every member to do its part. And this verse very clearly says that we all have different functions. And that's the thing about a body, is that if all the parts aren't functioning together properly, then we have trouble. If I smash my finger in a car door, I am incapacitated until that pain is gone. And if my eyes or my ears quit working, I'm severely restricted in what I can do. And if my heart stops, I'm dead. So we don't all do the same thing, but we all do have a function. By the way, that word function comes from the Greek word praxis, which means a deed, a transaction, a doing. And I must inform you that armchair critic is not a function of the body of Christ. Every properly functioning member of a body works to build up the body. And that is true about the body of Christ. Not to tear it down. And a properly functioning body is a beautiful thing to see. We take for granted sometimes how well our own physical bodies work every day. But it is truly miraculous if you look at it, if you think about it. Years ago, the brilliant Christian surgeon Dr. Paul Brand wrote a book called Fearfully and Wonderfully Made about how the human body is a window into the very structure of God's creation and a testament to God's glory. In one section, he talks about the vast variety of the cells in our body. There are blood cells, there's muscle cells, there's bone cells, there's skin cells, and so on. They're all different. And he concludes, my body employs a bewildering zoo of cells, none of which individually resembles the larger body. Just so, Christ's body comprises an unlikely assortment of humans. Unlikely is precisely the right word, for we are decidedly unlike one another and the one we follow. From whose design comes these comical human shapes, which so faintly reflect the ideals of the body as a whole. The body of Christ, like our own bodies, is comprised of individual unlike cells that are knit together to form one body. He is the whole thing, and the joy of the body increases as the individual cells realize they can be diverse without becoming isolated outposts. Then he uses another illustration from the body to show how all the parts can operate together so perfectly. He writes, What makes the cells work together? What ushers in the higher specialized functions of movement, sight, and consciousness through the coordination of a hundred trillion cells? The secret to membership lies locked away inside each cell nucleus, chemically coiled in a strand of DNA. Every cell possesses a genetic code so complete that the entire body could be reassembled from the information in any one of the body cells. Did you know that? That is amazing. Then he exclaims in wonder, I share the ecstasy of community in a universal body that includes every man and woman in whom God resides. Just think about it. The Holy Spirit is the DNA that unifies and controls the whole body. This is what Paul's teaching us here. Look at verse 5. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Yeah, we're individuals. But we belong to one another in the deepest sense of the word. Deeper than human relationships, deeper than human family. And if this is true, how can we stand to be apart from one another on a regular basis? It's impossible to be a faithful, functioning Christian apart from a local church. And when I say church, I mean a group of believers under a biblically qualified leadership who have covenanted together to worship him and serve him. Listen to this exhortation from Hebrews 10, verse 24 and 25. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. Using your gifts requires you to love other people and to serve them through good works. And that can't happen unless you're with them. Can't do this from afar. Love is not a feeling. It's action. So it's impossible to be an obedient Christian without meeting with other believers and serving them through the exercise of your gifts. on a regular basis. Okay, so I'm going to stop here in chapter 12 at verse 5 this week and we're going to pick up in verse 6 next week where we're going to be given a list of several particular gifts given to the body of Christ. It's been 14 years since I met Mary Jane Pontaine. She was in her early 70s at the time. Now in her 80s, she is still traveling around the world ministering for the Lord. Here's a flyer from a conference held just last May. It's obvious that she will continue to live her life for the Lord to the fullest as long as she has strength. She is so full of life. It is amazing. There's a video that Johnny Erickson made on YouTube. You should check it out. It's about 30 minutes long about her. It will blow your mind. And then a few years ago, she fell in love again. and got married in her 80s. As a young woman, she knew who she was in Christ. And she understood the call that he had on her life. And she never allowed her disabilities or what people thought about her to stop her from using her gifts for his glory. So if you opened your gift, Are you using it to serve the Lord and His church? If Mary Jane could do what she did with such severe obstacles, you and I don't have any excuse for not using our gifts for God's glory. So I'm going to leave you with an assignment this morning. I want you to ask God if you are using the gifts that He's given you. Maybe you really don't know what your gifting is. Don't let that stop you from serving him. Begin by just spending time with the body of Christ. And then pray that he would reveal ways that you could serve. Serve your brother and sisters. Eventually, you're going to find your place. And the best way to discover your gift is to simply begin serving where you see a need. This is offering yourself as a living sacrifice. God is going to lead us in the way that he wants us to go. And the gifts that he has given us will be opened to bring blessing to you and to those around you. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, that you are in control, that your DNA runs through each one of us, and that you direct your body through the head who is Jesus. So, Father, we ask that you would open our eyes to the gifts that you've given us, that you would lead us Lord, that you would guide us into ministry, into significant ministry. Lord, that we might build one another up and that we might build up your church in this town, in this community. So we give you all the praise and all the glory for what you're going to accomplish through us. And we thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the preaching of God's Word from Faith Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. We hope that it has been an encouragement to you and that the Word of God will fill your hearts and minds as you walk through this world. 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