Serving Together in the Body

You know, the church is an unusual collection of people. Please note that I did not say a collection of unusual people. It is an unusual, there's a big difference. It is an unusual collection of people. You know we come from lots of different backgrounds, lots of different personality styles, temperaments, lots of different lights and dislikes, way we've grown up, traditions, outlook on life, lots of different college sports teams that we enjoy as we found out this morning. By the way, Coach K was mentored by the coach that I followed in the 80s when I lived in Indiana, Bobby Knight. And so I love Coach K and the Blue Devils, okay, with you on that. I also love West Virginia and I love North Carolina. I'm still working on tech, but just take that with a grain of salt, okay. We do come from lots of different backgrounds, lots of different likes and dislikes and tastes. And that variety in the body of Christ, that variety in the church can be a great hindrance to what God wants us to do. Satan loves to use that very variety against us. He loves to use the very variety that we experience in the church to cause disagreements, to cause hard feelings, to cause criticism. Sometimes we may think, well, that person doesn't see the same I do. They don't have the same passion for the same thing that I do. Or maybe on the other end of things we may feel guilty because we don't see the same need or passion or hunger for the same ministry as another person does. And Satan can use that variety against us sometimes to create this unity and division. But God wants to use that very variety in the body of Christ as a beautiful expression of what the body is supposed to be and how it is supposed to work together, live together, and serve together. That's what God wants that variety to be. And that's exactly what Paul addresses in Romans chapter 12. By now, those of you who've been with us for a while know that we're making our way through the book of Romans and it's been a wonderful journey. I've certainly benefited and been blessed by it and grown by it. And I trust that you as a church have too. As we've seen Paul describe the righteousness of God, the righteousness needed because we're all sinners. That righteousness graciously given as he justifies us, declares us righteous. That righteousness then growing in us through our becoming more like Christ and that righteousness, although rejected by the nation of Israel in God's sovereignty, he still has a plan for them in the future. Last week we began the last major section of the book, chapters 12 through 16, where Paul describes how that righteousness of God is now to be practiced in our daily living, how it's to be lived out in the day after day living of our lives. We saw that he began this section of the book on practicing God's righteousness by describing three basic instructions that are intended for every believer. These are the basics. You won't get anywhere unless you get through these three first. And that is that we are to be dedicated, holy and entirely, unreservedly to the Lord. We are to be separated from the thinking and philosophy and worldview of this world so that we are different. We show the fragrance of Christ in what we do. We're to be separated from the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of light, that which comprises this worldview of this world. And we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that it will be more like Christ, be shaped more into his image. Now what Paul does, he turns a bit of a corner and he says, this dedicated, separated, transformed life is to be lived out in community. It's to be lived out with other believers. It has never, has never been intended to be lived out individually. God never intended us to be hermits to get back in a cave somewhere or to be isolated from other believers. We are to live out this dedicated, separated, transformed life in the midst of, along with, by the side of other believers in a body called the church. We are to be a part, an active part of a body of believers. That's what Paul will talk about in verses 3 through 8. Now, in order to do that and where he's headed in this passage is that ultimately we are to be locked arm and arm serving together. In order to do that, in order to serve together in the body, we have to adjust our attitudes. We have to bring our attitudes around to biblical ones. So in order to serve together in the body, in the church, we must develop the following attitudes. And Paul is going to talk about three attitudes that we must develop in order to serve together. The first is an attitude toward ourselves. Probably enough, if you're going to serve the Lord effectively in the body, you've got to have the right attitude towards yourself. And in a sense, that's where it all begins. Notice how Paul addresses that in verse 3. He says, poor by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, we just say that Paul is making an authoritative statement there. He's saying, God has given me graciously the position in the body of Christ and the gift of one who receives messages from him and gives it to the church. I'm one of the apostles. I was called out by God to lay the foundation of the church, get the thing off the ground. And part of that was that authoritative messages from God were given to the church through the apostles. Paul says, according to that grace given to me, I'm commanding you, I'm telling you, this is the way you ought to live. And what he says about is our attitude toward ourselves is this, 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. Now you can easily see that the verse breaks down into three sections. He says, first of all, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. What he's saying there is do not have too high an estimate, not too high an estimate of yourself. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. The word more highly to think more highly is a compound word in the original language. Very interesting word. The first part of that word is hooper or hyper. It means really to super think or to hyper think about yourself. Don't go into hyper drive thinking about yourself. Don't think hyper about yourself. And in the context he's talking about, don't estimate your contribution, your place to the body to be higher than it really is. Don't super think yourself. Don't err on the side of pride. Don't have too high an estimate of yourself. I think that most of us to some degree struggle on this end of the spectrum. I think there is something in us, you know, the sin that calls Satan to lose his position as an anointed chair of I believe was the sin of pride. Paul refers to that in 1 Timothy 3. It was pride that did Satan in. And so he knows, he knows that can get us pretty easily. And so we struggle with this one. We struggle with thinking, you know, I'm really needed. The body of Christ could not function without me. And so we want people to know how much we know, how smart we are, how much we've done, how strong we are, how kind we are. We even want people to know how humble we are. And we want to make sure that we make clear how important we are to God's work. It's very easy for us to err on that side of the spectrum. People who really struggle with this a lot are the kind of folks who will hear a story and feel like they have to top it with one of their own. Because they have done more, they have traveled more extensively, they know more, they have seen more, they have worked harder, they have played harder than anybody else. They are rarely ever wrong. And so every story you tell, they'll top it with one of their own. Because they think very highly of themselves. You know how many of these people it takes to install a light bulb? One, they simply stick it in the socket and let the world revolve around them. So it only takes one. Don't pause it, don't hyperthink yourself, don't superthink yourself, don't think of yourself as being more important to the body of Christ than you really are. So not too high an estimate. But then Paul says, okay, there's another end of the spectrum too and that is not too low an estimate. Don't form too low an estimate of yourself either. Notice how he says that they're in verse 3, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment. And what he's saying there is, okay, if you're going to work on not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, the tendency might be to swing all the way to the other end of the spectrum and you say, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that. Think of yourself with sober judgment. In other words, don't swing all the way to the other end of the spectrum and say, well, you know, I'm just really nothing, I can't, I don't have anything to offer, I really have no abilities, I don't think I really have anything to give to God to be used of him. I'm really just a worm. You know, I'm really nothing. Paul says, no, wait a second, before you swing all the way to that end, stop somewhere in the middle, have sober judgment. In other words, clear thinking, a correct objective evaluation of who you are, how God has made you, how he has shaped you with your unique personality and interests and desires, and yes, spiritual gifts, as he will focus on in a moment, how has God actually equipped you and built you to serve in the body of Christ? Evaluate that, evaluate it honestly. Don't form too low an estimate of yourself, if God's given you something to do, don't be bashful about that. You say, well, okay, how do I reach that happy medium? Paul talks about that, a proper estimate of yourself. You see, I says, at the end of the verse, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, and here's the key, in accordance with the measure of faith, God has given you. Now, what is that talking about? You're supposed to think of yourself in line with the measure of faith, God's given you? Is he saying, I got to get more faith or try to have more faith or trust him more? Probably not. Again, in the flow of Paul's thought, he will use this expression again in the passage, and the idea is that God gives each of us certain abilities to serve him. He'll call them spiritual gifts. Paul will call them that a little later in the passage. Now, this is where Paul's headed, so I'm jumping ahead of myself a little bit, because I think this phrase ties in with that. God has given all of us some ability to serve him. And along with that ability to serve, he has given us just the right measure of faith to be able to trust him to do what he's equipped this to do, so that we can do it with boldness and repassion and with confidence and not back away from it. We can trust him that if this is a God-given gift, he will enable us by his spirit's power to do it as he wants us to do it. That's the measure of faith that Paul's talking about here. It's not you trying to work up to a certain level of faith. If you grasping what God has equipped you to do and trusting that if he has done that, then he will also give you the ability to trust him to do that and to do it boldly with confidence and not shy back to make your contribution to the body of Christ. That's the measure of faith that he's talking about here. So we're to evaluate ourselves properly, we're to think of ourselves properly. And not everybody has been given the same thing to do by God. Remember Jesus told a story in Matthew chapter 25, it's often called the parable of the talents. And it was basically to describe the responsibilities that were given to Israel and how they were to use those responsibilities to understand what God's kingdom was and accept their king and they failed to do that. But he said, you know, a wealthy landowner leaves and he entrusts his servants with certain responsibilities. The one servant he gave five talents and talent was not necessarily an ability in that time. The word talent meant a measure of wealth. It was an actual weight of a certain kind of gold or silver. Five talents would be so much wealth and you're supposed to take that and invest it. But he says to another he gave two and to another he gave one. And when he came back the one who had five had diligently invested it worked hard and gained another five and the landowner says, representing the Lord says, well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful in a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. And many turns to the one who had two talents and the one who had two talents also did the same thing, invested them wisely, worked hard, gained two more. He didn't gain five, did not do that, but he gained two more because God had only given him two. And you know what the Lord said to him? Very same thing he said to the five talent guy. Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. And the one who had only one talent had dug a hole and stuck it in the ground and not done anything with it and that's the one that got chastised by the wealthy landowner. What Jesus is teaching us is that he doesn't give to everyone the same number of opportunities or God-given abilities to serve, but whatever he has given us, we're to use for him. And he will reward us not by the number of them, but how faithful we use them. Whether it's one or two or five or thirty. You know, God will bless and reward according to how you use them. Don't overestimate yourself. Don't underestimate yourself, but use proper objective evaluation, understanding how God has made you, what he's gifted you to do, and we'll talk a little bit more later about how you can do that, and then plug in and do it. Make the right estimation of your contribution to the family of God, to the church of God. So we have to have the proper attitude toward ourselves if we're going to function together in the body and serve together. But notice Paul moves on from that to say, there's a second attitude we need to cultivate. And that is the proper attitude toward others. It's in verses four and five. Notice how he begins now to talk about others. Verse four, 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. So he's talking about others a lot here. And what he's saying is, in order to serve well, we have to think in terms of the body of Christ. Now that's a very interesting term that Paul uses often of the church. The church is the body of Christ. It's used a couple of different ways, for instance, in the book of Ephesians and Colossians. It's used primarily of all believers, all over the world. Sometimes called the universal church or the universal body of Christ. But in epistles like Romans and first Corinthians, he's talking chiefly about local assemblies, local churches, because every church like this one is in a sense a microcosm, a small part of an expression of in a particular geographical location of the larger body of Christ. We are the body of Christ in this area, and each other local church that faithfully serves God is the same thing. Regardless of the nominational label or whatever, each church that diligently serves God, according to his word, is a reflection of the body of Christ. So I'm going to speak in terms of that local use of the term. This church, I'm going to speak of this morning, is the body of Christ. So Paul is saying, we've got to think in terms of the body. He describes three ways that we need to think in terms of the body. First of all, he talks about the unity of the body. Do you see it there in verse 4? Beginning of verse 4, just as each of us has one body with many members talking about the human body, it's an illustration, just as we have one body with many members, now look at the beginning of verse 5 where the thought is completed, so in Christ we who are many form one body. The emphasis of those two statements is on the unity that we have. There's one body. Lots of different members of that body. Yes, the focus right now is on one body. I believe what Paul is reminding us of here, what he's saying is that in order to serve together in the body, we've got to have the attitude that there is one body. We have unity and every part contributes to the overall well-being and direction and purpose of the whole of the one body. And human body is a beautiful example of that. We have one body that has many different members, but it all contributes to the one body and the direction and focus of that one body. See we all have vital organs that are not even seen. Your heart, your lungs, your liver, your kidneys, your gallbladder, not too vital, have a dentle, because half of them in Mercer County have been taken out. But still vital organs that are necessary to the functioning of the body. You may not even see those. And then you've got limbs that help you grasp things and go places. You've got sensory organs that help you experience your world and interact with your world through sight, and hearing, and taste, and touch, and smell. You've got a brain questionable with a few of you, but you've got a brain and that brain operates the nerve center of the body, which tells the different parts of the body what to do. But the body is one. Lots of different parts, but there's one body. I can't leave my hand over here while my foot goes and does something over here because the whole body is going to move as one. And that's the unity of the body. Now Paul's going to emphasize some other things about the body, but he starts out with the fact that we're one body. And what he's saying is that everything we do as individual parts of that body should contribute to the direction of the whole body. In other words, it's not about me. It's not about you. If it's about anyone in particular, it's about our Lord who is the head of the body. But as far as the functioning of the body, it's about the body as a whole. So let's say the church decides after prayer and counsel with leadership and so forth, even the direction, vote of the congregation, here's a direction we believe we should go. And you say, you know, I really don't like that. It doesn't fit my personal tastes. The question you need to ask yourself is this good for the whole body? And if it's good for the whole body, I'm not going to be the foot that gets left behind over there. I'm going to go with the body because it's not about me or anyone else. And there is nothing in this church that belongs to anyone individual. That's what the unity of the body is about, too. This is not my pulpit. This is not my ministry. This is not anybody's ministry. It's not your Bible fellowship. It's God's. And everything that we do here belongs to the body as a whole. We're moving as one in a certain direction. And when we lose sight of that, that's when we start having problems with unity. Thank God for the unity that we have had through the years here. Thank God that we have not seen to kind of upset Leven with, you know, after Jess Bernen kind of thing out of the church. We just don't see that. And I thank God for that. I value our treasure of that. And thank God for it. That's unity of the body. But Paul says also there is the diversity of the body to take into account, too. Yes, there's one body, but notice how he says in verse 4, just as each of us has one body with many members. Again, in verse 5, so in Christ we who are many form one body. And notice the end of verse 4, these members do not all have the same function. Not only is there unity in the body as far as how the whole body is moving, but there is diversity within the body, which means that the members do different things. The members have different functions. We don't all do the same thing. And we're not supposed to. Paul addresses this even more graphically with his illustration of the human body in 1 Corinthians 12. Let me just read a few verses for you there. In 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 14, Paul says, now the body is not made up of one part, but of many. If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? And then he makes this final conclusion in verse 18, he says, but in fact, God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them just as he wanted them to be. Now an understanding of the diversity of the body will keep you from thinking, but why doesn't so-and-so have the same passion for this ministry that I do? Because they're an ear, that's why. They're not an eye. They're not a little finger. Well, why doesn't this person get as involved as I do in this ministry? Because they're a hubcap. I mean, a kneecap. A kneecap. They're not an eye. So we have to understand there's diversity in the body, too. Don't expect everybody to be as passionate and as involved in everything you have a heart for. Remember what Paul said, not the whole body is not an eye. And the whole body is not one ministry or one effort or one passion. There's diversity in the body and that's why God intended it to be. Now if you're not passionate or involved in anything, then you're like an appendix. You need to be taken out. You're just something that's not doing anything. Don't take that literally. We're not going to take you out. But you need to get busy. You need to be doing something. You need to be passionate about something in the Lord's work, but it may not be exactly the same thing your neighbor is. Because God has built diversity in the body and He's placed all of us where He wants us to be with different passions and abilities and desires and inclinations and a heart for something different maybe than someone else has. So don't please don't become critical of other people simply because they don't share the same passion and involvement for this thing as I do. Well, they may have more of a passion and involvement in something else that you don't. And that's the way God built the body. That's the way He wants it to be. So there's unity in the body. There's diversity in the body. Oh, this is beautiful. This is where it all comes together. Paul also describes, as far as our attitude toward others, the mutuality of the body. In other words, we need each other. You see how He says that they're at the end of verse 5. So in Christ we hear in many form one body. Here it is. Each member belongs to all the others. We need each other. Again, Paul describes this in terms of the body, the human body in 1 Corinthians 12. Again, when he says, I cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. And the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you. In other words, the head can't say, you know, I've been handled this body all by myself. I can do everything that needs to be done. It can't. It needs the feet. It needs the hands. It needs the eyes. So we need each other. And Paul finishes out that thought by saying, if one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. We need each other. We need each other. We can't afford to be at each other's throats because we need each other. We need to move together as one in unity, understanding, recognizing, celebrating the diversity of gifts and passions and involvements by the different members of the body, but also recognizing that we need each other. This story was first reported by CBS News and it made it to the print where I saw it. The story about a nursing home where two ladies resided and one of them named Margaret had a stroke which incapacitated her left side. It could not use her left arm. Another woman by the name of Ruth had suffered a stroke which incapacitated her right sides. She could not use her right arm in hand. Both of them had been wonderful pianists in their day and just felt that those days were gone. They would never be able to play the piano again until an astute activities director in that nursing home decided, you know what, I wonder if we could get those two ladies together. And we'll put Margaret on the right side and we'll put Ruth on the left side. Margaret's right hand works. Ruth's left hand works. Let's see if we can get them to play together. And sure enough, I mean it took a little bit of working together and realizing their different styles and so forth. But sure enough, those two ladies began to play one offering the right hand, one offering the left, recognizing the unity of direction. They were both headed toward the same piece of music. They both had something different to contribute. They were diverse in what they contributed, but they needed each other to be able to play that piece on the piano. They developed a close friendship and just entertained the folks in that nursing home for several years. That's what Paul's talking about here. There's one body. Many members that don't do the same thing, don't have the same function, but we need each other. The eye does need the hand, the brain does need the foot, the tongue does need the ear for the body to be able to function exactly as it should. So in order to serve together in the body, we must have proper attitude toward ourselves and our place in the body, but we also need the proper attitude toward others and how we all fit together in the body. But Paul's not done yet and this is what he's really heading toward. This is the capstone of his argument. We also need to have the right attitude toward our ministries, toward our ministries. And what he will say, first of all, in verse 6, is that each of us has gifts to use. Each of us has gifts to use. Now this eye says in verse 6, we have different gifts according to the grace given us. And then he begins to list a number of them, which we'll look at in a moment. But he starts out with this overall blanket statement. We have different gifts. We indicating all of us in the body of Christ, according to the grace given us. Paul's already said, God gave me the grace to fulfill my function in the body. Now he will give you the grace, the gift to do what he wants you to do in the body. We all have gifts to use. Now you say, what kind of gift are you talking about? What do you mean by gift? What does Paul mean by gift? Probably the simplest definition of a spiritual gift is a God-given ability to serve. A God-given ability to serve. A spiritual gift and the New Testament lists at least in clear lists of gifts, 18 of them. Nine of which appear to be continuing and ongoing. Nine of which appear to be functional for the age of miracles and the time of the apostles and have passed off the scene. But at least nine of them that we know of clearly defined in the Scripture are ongoing spiritual gifts today. And there may be no list is portrayed as an exhaustive list. See, Paul lists some here, this seven here. He will list some others in 1 Corinthians 12, two different lists there. He will list some others in Ephesians 4. There are different lists of gifts put them all together, you got about 18. But there are God-given abilities to serve. There are God-given, they're not natural. They're given by God and most of those who study these things in the New Testament believe they're given to you at salvation because the Bible says the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, the Holy Spirit who has baptized us into the body of Christ also then gives us these gifts. So it appears to be given to you at salvation. You may not immediately recognize it. It may take a while for you to figure out what God's gifted you to do. It may take cultivating some of that, developing some of that gift. But it is a God-given ability that he gave you at the moment of salvation to serve him. A spiritual gift is never in the Bible for personal enjoyment or personal enrichment. It is always to be used for service, to serve in the body, to contribute something to the ministry that God's given us to do. You say, well, okay, how do I find out what my spiritual gift is? How do I know? Well, some of you've been praying for 30 years to find out what it is and you're probably not going to find out that way. That may be a part of how you discover your spiritual gift. But the New Testament seems to bear out, as we will see here, get busy, get busy, and you will find out what it is. I believe that God puts within our hearts a desire, that corresponds, it's part of that fate, he was talking about earlier, the measure of faith, the corresponding desire and ability to do whatever it has for us to do. So check out your desire. What is it that you really enjoy doing in the body of Christ? That's a good place to start. And as you become involved in doing some things in the work of God, whether it's praying or teaching or serving behind the scenes or giving in abundant ways, no matter what it may be, as you do that, you'll find, first of all, a sense of fulfillment and blessing and fittings with what God has for you. And others will probably recognize it too. Goffers use the term sweet spot. When I used to play golf, I would hit the sweet spot about once a year. The sweet spot is the part of the club, right in the center of the club, it's usually marked with a little square or something in the club. That's exactly where you're supposed to hit the ball. I would usually hit it off the heel or the toe and it'd spray it all over the place. But if you hit the ball in the sweet spot, right in the center of the club, both this direction and that direction, that ball will go straight and long. Or depending on how you work your body, you can make it go to the left or right. That's the sweet spot. You get involved in serving God and ultimately your gifts will surface and you'll find out what your sweet spot is. You'll find out exactly where you ought to be and what you ought to be doing. You'll probably never find that out by sitting around waiting for it. You need to get active and involve serving in areas you really want to. There's really only one area that everybody ought to serve in and that's the nursery. We all have different abilities that God's given us. Find where it is that you need to be serving. Each of us has gifts to use and then Paul says each must serve faithfully. In using those gifts, each of us must serve faithfully. Notice how he says this and just going to try to run through these. In verse 6, we have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, the gift of prophecy in the New Testament appears to be because this is where it's always used. It appears to be the ability to receive a direct revelation from God which is just as authoritative as scripture and then give it out to teach it. It seems to be a gift that was used before the completion of the New Testament. There are some who say because part of it is telling it out that it's like the gift of preaching today. But really that's not the way the word is used in the New Testament. It's used of receiving a direct revelation from God and then delivering that message much like an Old Testament prophet did. So I'm convinced that this gift is one that was used by the apostles in their time before the New Testament was completed. But it was a spiritual gift for that time. And then he says there are some other gifts here. Notice them. Let's back up this a little bit. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. In other words, even in this gift of prophecy there were different levels or measures of faith that God would give men different ministries. Some like Isaiah may get a whole bunch of messages to the nation of Israel and some like Joel just get a little. But that was up to God. What they were supposed to do. Okay, move on. Verse 7. The gift of serving is the desire to help in behind the scenes things. It's actually the same root word that's used for decan in the New Testament. And the idea is to help with physical, material, practical needs of the church and people. A person who has the gift of serving is the kind of person who will be downstairs in the fellowship hall at a fellowship meal. And they see something that needs to be done and they just can't let it go. They've got to jump in and help. They just have that sense and that desire and that passion to put up tables and chairs. They're a little weird, but they have that desire and passion to do that kind of thing. But it can operate in a lot of different ways behind the scenes kind of serving. And he says, if you have that gift, notice what he says. Let him serve. In other words, get to it. Do it faithfully. And then he mentions another gift. If it's teaching, let him teach. The gift of teaching is usually the ability to or the desire to really study the word and study the intricacies of what the word is teaching and breaking that down and communicating in a way that's understood to other people. That's the gift of teaching. And he says, if you have the gift of teaching, get at it. Let him teach, he says. And then notice the next one. He says, if it is encouraging, let him encourage. The gift of encouragement, the word actually uses two different ways in the New Testament. It can mean to warn, to challenge someone, to kind of get in their face and tell them, okay, this is what you need to do. Or it can mean to console, to comfort, to give guidance to. And typically a person who has the gift of encouragement can do both. They can get in your face if they need to, but they can also comfort and console you and give you wise direction. This is the gift of encouragement. And Paul says, if you have that gift in the body of Christ, then let him encourage. In other words, get busy doing that. There are many ways that encouragement can operate. And all these gifts operate in different arenas. Some people encourage through music. Some people encourage through counseling. Some people encourage through friendship over the back fence and helping other people. Lots of different ways it can operate. But it is a spiritual gift, an ability that God gives to serve. And then he says, in verse 8, if it is contributing to the needs of others, in other passages, this will be referred to as the gift of giving. Contributing to the needs of others, giving. You know, God has enabled some people, either by their ability to have wealth or just the desire to use whatever resources they do to be a blessing to others. God has given some of the unique passion and desire and ability to share what they have with others. All of us are to give, but some people just have that passion to focus on that. And if you do, notice what he says of you, let him give generously. The work can also mean with simplicity. In other words, no ulterior motives. You don't give because you want your name on a building. You just give because you have a heart to give. You want to give. See, that's pure motive and do it generously. And then he says, if it's leadership, that's the gift, the ability to be able to work through issues, manage things, chart a direction, cast a vision, lead something. And he says, if you've got that gift, do it diligently. Don't back off of it. Don't take easy strength. Apply yourself to that. Give yourself to leadership. And then lastly, if it's showing mercy, showing mercy is the heart that just wells up in people when they see someone else in need. I'm convinced there are probably some people here this morning with the gift of mercy. And you heard the presentation of Davis Stewart and you know a little bit about what Mike and Donna are doing here in Princeton. And when you see that ministry and that work, your heart goes out. There's something that moves you almost to tears and you want to be involved. And that gift then is to be demonstrated in getting involved. Mercy is never just a, oh, I feel sorry for them or I really would know mercy always as we saw last week mercy a couple of weeks ago. Mercy is always involved. It's always saying, I will do something to meet that need. It's the good Samaritan. It gets off his horse and or donkey and walks over and helps the guy. That's the gift of mercy. And so some of you who are feeling that tug at your hearts will need to get involved in that ministry or other ministries that God burdens you for and you have a heart for that's the gift of mercy. If you do that, if you have a heart for the needs of people and you just can't walk by when somebody's suffering without getting involved in helping, he says, let him do it cheerfully. There's a tendency on the part of people who have the gift of mercy to become disgruntled by the amount of time and energy and effort it requires of them. And he says, be careful about that that will that will ruin your sweet spot. It starts praying of all over the place you need to do this cheerfully, not disgruntled. The point is whatever God's given you to do. Do it. Get in there and do it. Don't wait. Don't hold back. I don't know. None of those seem to fit me. That's only part of the list and the New Testament. And there may be others. Whatever you have a heart and a desire for, get involved. Don't hold back. You say, well, I really love praying for our missionaries. Go for it. Do that. That can be your gift of encouragement or the gift of service behind the scenes. Whatever it is, start doing it. Get involved. Let me say this. Paul could never conceive of a believer who is not serving. There's no such thing in the body of Christ as a believer who just sits in soaks and sours and doesn't serve. We've got to get involved in something, contributing our part to the body of Christ. Remember, we need each other and we need every part of the body doing what God's enabled us to do. Whatever that may be, get involved. Get busy. Do it. Do it faithfully. Let me just remind you of the pyramid that we're using to communicate our purpose and strategy and vision and passion here at Johnson Chapel. And that is that we want to develop disciples who are loving Christ and growing in Christ and serving Christ. Please understand that you don't stop with loving Him. You don't stop with worshipping Him and developing a heart for Him. That has to then lead to growth. You're growing in His Word. You're growing in fellowship with other believers. Your life is being transformed to be more like Christ. But it doesn't stop there either. It doesn't stop until we are serving. That's the capstone. That's what we're pointed toward. That's the whole purpose of the triangle, the pyramid. We're pointed toward the capstone, which is to serve. And we will never become disciples of Christ and followers of Him like we should be until we're involved at the top, serving in some way. So find out where it is you have a passion and a hunger and a thirst of desire for and start getting involved. You say, well, what opportunities are available? I will be the first to admit we need to do a better job of it as a church in communicating that. Maybe with some kind of booklet or something that tells you everything that we have you can get involved in and matching your gifts with those opportunities. Ask Pastor Simmons. He'll put you somewhere, probably in the jail ministry, but he'll put you somewhere. Ask one of the other pastors. We'll get you involved somewhere or we'll try to help you figure out where it is, but don't lay back. Get involved. Serve. Get Paul can never conceive of a believer who's not serving. It's just not natural. It stunts the process of development. And so we've got to get to that point where we're serving. That's Paul's passion in these verses. Right after saying you've got to be totally dedicated to Him, separated to Him, and transformed to be like Him, then he says, okay, you live this out in a body. And you take your place in the body, get active and involved and serve. And that's how you live out the Christian life. Not in a cave by yourself, not at home every day in front of your television. You get involved with other people serving Christ. That's how you live out the Christian thing. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the challenge that Paul gives us. To have the proper attitude toward ourselves and where we fit in the body toward others and how we work together in the body. And also then, Lord, toward our ministries and how we serve together in the body. Lord, help us to realize this is your holy word as we say earlier, speak to us Lord. Your truths that will last for eternity. This is your truth, Lord, so help us to respond by giving of ourselves to serve you. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.