(#420) Romans 12 - God Turns Your Spiritual Gift Into a Ministry

Class Outline:

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/Welcome To 

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher\

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church that makes a difference worldwide courtesy of the internet…Barah Ministries…a Christian Church that makes a difference locally in the Gilbert, Mesa, and Chandler, AZ communities.  My name is Pastor Rory Clark.  At Barah Ministries, our God is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we teach the Word of God from God’s perspective…not from man’s perspective.  

 

/TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

God Turns Your Spiritual Gift Into a Ministry\

 

Today we finish up our look at the spiritual gifts by looking at the last three verses of the fourth passage of Romans, Chapter 12, Verses 6 to 8…

 

/ROMANS 12:6 

Since we each have a spiritual gift (charisma) that is different according to the grace given to us by God…each of us is to use the spiritual gift accordingly…if he has the spiritual gift of prophecy (for preaching the Word of God)…he is to exercise the gift according to the proportion of his faith (given by God)…\

 

/ROMANS 12:7 

…if he has the spiritual gift of service (ministering…specifically to believers in Christ)…he is to exercise the gift in ministering…or he who has the spiritual gift that teaches…he is to exercise the gift in his teaching…\

 

 

 

/ROMANS 12:8 

…or he who has the spiritual gift to exhort, he is to exercise the gift in his exhortation…he who has the spiritual gift that gives…he is to exercise the gift with liberality (a single-mindedness directed to God)…he who has the spiritual gift that leads (literally…one who rules)…he is to exercise the gift with diligence…he who shows mercy…he is to exercise the gift with cheerfulness.\

 

The expression that comes to mind as our study of spiritual gifts comes to a close is this one, “I’m looking forward to it.”   It really seems strange this journey Barah Ministries has been on…an odyssey really…and all I can say about the journey is, “I’m looking forward to it.”   I have spent a lot of my time…both in my life and in the ministry…ruing and musing…either steeped in regret or in obsessive contemplation of the present, shaking my head and thinking of the words John Greenleaf once said, “Of all the words of tongue and pen…the saddest ones are these…what might have been.”

 

“I’m looking forward to it.” There is a biblical word that expresses this sentiment.  Hope. Philippians, Chapter 1, Verse 6…

 

/PHILIPPIANS 1:6

For I (Paul) am confident of this very thing, that God the Father who began a good work in you will keep on perfecting it until the day of Christ Jesus.\

 

And as Paul said in Philippians, Chapter 3, Verses 13 and 14…

 

/PHILIPPIANS 3:13

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of spiritual maturity yet…but one thing I do…forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead…\

 

/PHILIPPIANS 3:14 

…I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God the Father in union with Christ Jesus.\

 

What must it have been like for the apostle Paul as he built his ministry to the Gentiles…looking backward…being steeped in regret for his murder of Christians or in obsessive contemplation concerning the fate of his kinsmen according to the flesh…The Jewish Race…must have been quite unsettling for him.  Yet he pressed on.  Danny Gokey sings about pressing on in our opening song…HOPE IN FRONT OF ME.

 

/MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

HOPE IN FRONT OF ME

Danny Gokey\

 

/OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...\

 

Almighty God and Father…

 

Thank you for enlightening our minds with truth…thank you for setting our hearts ablaze with unconditional love…thank you for inspiring us with courage…thank you for investing us with a spiritual gift with which we may serve…

 

Direct our service to the ends that allow the world to see and experience Your glory…

 

…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s

name...Amen.

 

/TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

God Turns Your Spiritual Gift Into a Ministry\

 

Back when I was a Roman Catholic, I remember hearing married couples dismiss the advice Romans Catholic priests would give them for their marriage.  In the Roman Catholic faith, priests are not allowed to marry.  The married couple reasoned, “How can someone who has never been married give us advice about marriage?  He’s never been married!  He doesn’t understand what marriage is like.”

 

For a while, I reasoned that the same must be true for the apostle Paul, who was single…and even for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself…for He, too, was single.  How can they give us any advice for marriage?  Then I ran into the book of Hebrews in the course of my study…notably Hebrews, Chapter 4, Verse 15…

 

/HEBREWS 4:15

For we (as believers in Christ) do not have a High Priest (in the Lord Jesus Christ) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses…but we have a High Priest who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin.\

 

The Lord Jesus Christ was indeed single.  Yet He is married as well.  His bride is The Church, the current group of Church Age believers who were given to Christ as a gift from God the Father for His strategic victory at the Cross.  So the Lord Jesus Christ absolutely knows what it is like to be married…yet without sin.  Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verses 25 to 27…

 

/EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands…love your wives unconditionally…just as Christ also loved The Church unconditionally and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for her…\

 

/EPHESIANS 5:26 

…so that the Lord might sanctify her (The Church…setting her apart for privilege), having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word (the gospel message)…\

 

/EPHESIANS 5:27 

…that the Lord might present to Himself (as the Groom) The Church in all her glory…having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing…but that she would be holy and blameless.\

 

Now we know why the Lord wants men and women to be virgins when they marry…so that they may be presented to each other without distortion…with no spot…or wrinkle…or any such thing.  Yet things seldom happen that way in this life.  Here in Satan’s kingdom, there is much distortion to overcome, both self-imposed or other imposed, all instigated by God’s enemy, the ruler of this world…the ruler of a kingdom of death and darkness.

 

Yet the Lord gives His believers a spiritual gift to provide a light in this darkness, and He wants the charity of the gift to begin at home.  We are to use our spiritual gift for the benefit of other believers in Christ in our periphery.  Let’s remind ourselves of a few of the key things we have learned on our tour of spiritual gifts.  Romans, Chapter 12, Verses 6 to 8…

 

/ROMANS 12:6 

Since we each have a spiritual gift (charisma) that is different according to the grace given to us by God…each of us is to use the spiritual gift accordingly…if he has the spiritual gift of prophecy (for preaching the Word of God)…he is to exercise the gift according to the proportion of his faith (given by God)…\

 

/ROMANS 12:7 

…if he has the spiritual gift of service (ministering…specifically to believers in Christ)…he is to exercise the gift in his serving (in his ministering)…or he who has the spiritual gift that teaches…he is to exercise the gift in his teaching…\

 

/ROMANS 12:8 

…or he who has the spiritual gift to exhort, he is to exercise the gift in his exhortation…he who has the spiritual gift that gives…he is to exercise the gift with liberality (a single-mindedness directed to God)…he who has the spiritual gift that leads (literally…one who rules)…he is to exercise the gift with diligence…he who shows mercy…he is to exercise the gift with cheerfulness.\

 

Our spiritual gift comes from an indwelling God, the Holy Spirit

 

God the Holy Spirit is the one who keeps on motivating us to find our gift and to use it.  Even among Old Testament believers, the Holy Spirit was present to inspire them…Ezekiel, Chapter 36, Verse 27…

 

/EZEKIEL 36:27

I (the Lord God…the Son) will put My Spirit within you (Israel) and cause you to walk in My statutes…and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.\

 

We have an inspiring and enabling power within us that gives supernatural guidance to the use of our spiritual gift, and as believers in Christ we are to listen to the Spirit’s voice. First Corinthians, Chapter 3, Verse 16…

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 3:16

Do you not know that you are a temple of God the Father and that the Holy Spirit of God indwells in you?\

 

Because the Spirit dwells in us, as believers in Christ we are to evaluate the way we approach ministry with our spiritual gift and to direct the gift to “other-focused” use of it in unconditional love.  Self-centeredness is the death of people and of ministries.  Second Timothy, Chapter 1, Verse 14…

 

/SECOND TIMOTHY 1:14

Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure of truth which has been entrusted to you.\

 

Our spiritual gift is powered by God and by the truth.  The gift is entrusted to us in stewardship, and we are to be guardians of the blessing of the Word of God, as directed by God, spreading it to all we meet.  Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 18…

 

/EPHESIANS 5:18

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation…but be filled with the Spirit…\

 

As believers in Christ we can give control of our lives to the world (being drunk) or we can give control of our lives to the Spirit.  The two, the world and the Spirit, are mutually exclusive.  Your spiritual gift is to avoid the stain of the world.  Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 9 to 11…

 

/ROMANS 8:9

However, you believers in Christ are not IN THE FLESH but you are IN THE SPIRIT, if indeed the Holy Spirit of God indwells you (and of course He does). But if anyone does not have the Holy Spirit of Christ (indwelling), he does not belong to God.\

 

/ROMANS 8:10 

If Christ is in you believers in Christ (and He is), though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.\

 

/ROMANS 8:11

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead indwells, and of 

course He does, then God the Father who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.\

 

Let’s take a five-minute break.  

 

/BREAK

Five Minutes\

 

/TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

God Turns Your Spiritual Gift Into a Ministry\

 

Welcome back!  “I’m looking forward to it.”  We can look forward with absolute confidence to the blessings that come from God for our perseverance, because as Larnelle Harris tells us, we’ve got FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES.  

 

/MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

Larnelle Harris \

 

Indeed, we do have friends in high places.

 

When the apostle Paul was offering guidance on giving, he directed that it should be “bountiful.” Second Corinthians, Chapter 9, Verse 6…

 

/SECOND CORINTHIANS 9:6

Now I (Paul) say this…he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly…and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.\

 

Let bountifulness guide your giving because is it consistent with a mindset of abundance, the mindset God has placed inside the Christian.  Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with this week’s offering message.

 

/THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall\

 

/OFFERING VERSE

 

SECOND CORINTHIANS 9:6

And God the Father is able to make all grace abound to you…so that always having all sufficiency in everything…you may have an abundance for every good deed…\

 

/TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

God Turns Your Spiritual Gift Into a Ministry\

 

Welcome back!  Romans, Chapter 12, Verses 6 to 8…

 

/ROMANS 12:6 

Since we each have a spiritual gift (charisma) that is different according to the grace given to us by God…each of us is to use the spiritual gift accordingly…if he has the spiritual gift of prophecy (for preaching the Word of God)…he is to exercise the gift according to the proportion of his faith (given by God)…\

 

/ROMANS 12:7 

…if he has the spiritual gift of service (ministering…specifically to believers in Christ)…he is to exercise the gift in his serving (in his ministering)…or he who has the spiritual gift that teaches…he is to exercise the gift in his teaching…\

 

/ROMANS 12:8 

…or he who has the spiritual gift to exhort, he is to exercise the gift in his exhortation…he who has the spiritual gift that gives…he is to exercise the gift with liberality (a single-mindedness directed to God)…he who has the spiritual gift that leads (literally…one who rules)…he is to exercise the gift with diligence…he who shows mercy…he is to exercise the gift with cheerfulness.\

 

God makes our spiritual gift a ministry.  

 

What is a ministry?

 

 

/MINISTRY

A service provided to others as a means of leading them to the gospel message so they can have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ or so they can study the Word of God for the building up of the Lord’s body, the Body of Christ, The Church.\

 

The Lord Jesus Christ gives gifted people to His Church…Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verses 11 to 12…

 

/EPHESIANS 4:11

And the Lord gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers…\

 

/EPHESIANS 4:12 

…for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ…\

 

People with a spiritual use it to build each other up.

 

Our spiritual gift is in service to the Lord Jesus Christ

 

Fix your eyes on Jesus and not on people…Colossians, Chapter 1, Verses 9 to 12…

 

/COLOSSIANS 1:9

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you Colossian believers and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of God the Father’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…\

 

/COLOSSIANS 1:10 

…so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God the Father…\

 

/COLOSSIANS 1:11 

…strengthened with all power, according to the Father’s glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience…\

 

/COLOSSIANS 1:12 

…joyously giving thanks to God the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.\

 

You will know the spiritual gift by its fruit.  When the light of your spiritual gift walks in the midst of darkness it eliminates the darkness.  Colossians, Chapter 3, Verses 23 to 24…

 

/COLOSSIANS 3:23

Whatever you do…do your work heartily…as for the Lord rather than for men…\

 

/COLOSSIANS 3: 24 

…knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Jesus Christ whom you serve.\

 

This is easy to do and important to remember.

 

Our spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Godhead…it makes the presence of God clearly visible in the lost and dying world.

 

First Corinthians, Chapter 12, Verses 4 to 7…

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 12:4

Now there are varieties of spiritual gifts, but the same God the Holy Spirit (works behind the scenes in all of them).\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 12:5 

And there are varieties of ministries (that come from spiritual gifts), and the same Lord, Jesus Christ, (works behind the scenes in all of them).\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 12:6 

There are varieties of effects of the ministries, but there is the same God the Father who works all things in all persons (behind the scenes).\

 

There is a diversity of spiritual gifts in a local assembly.  All three members of the Godhead are involved in our spiritual gift, making it a supernatural gift driven by divine omnipotence.  When your spiritual gift is operative, you bring glory to God, you bring unconditional love and healing good to believers in the local assembly, and the gift puts selfishness in the background.

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 12:7 

But to each believer in Christ is given the manifestation of God the Holy Spirit (a spiritual gift) for the common good (for the benefit of believers in Christ).\

 

When you are using your spiritual gift it is manifest…it is clearly seen by those around you…they notice…and your gift makes a difference in their

lives.

 

Our spiritual gift is for the benefit of The Body of Christ

 

God considers it His responsibility to make your spiritual gift known to you and to help you use it for the common good.  Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 3…

 

/ROMANS 12:3 

For through the grace given to me by God the Father (the grace gift of being an apostle…Paul’s spiritual gift), I (Paul) say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think…but to think so as to have sound judgment…the thinking that’s in line with the measure of faith given to you by God as your spiritual gift.\

 

In Ephesians, Chapter 3, Verses 8 to 10, Paul explains his ministry…

 

/EPHESIANS 3:8

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ…\

 

/EPHESIANS 3:9 

…and to bring to light what is the dispensation of the mystery (The Church Age) which for ages has been hidden in the God who created all things (the Lord Jesus Christ)…\

 

/EPHESIANS 3:10 

…so that the manifold wisdom of God the Father might now be made known through The Church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.\

When we don’t use our spiritual gifts our Christianity is truth without power…in other words, the gift becomes merely natural, not supernatural.

 

We can ignore the power of Christianity by not taking advantage of it.

 

We have supernatural power and quite often we don’t use it.

 

 

Let’s learn our spiritual gift…let’s use it…and let’s grow God’s kingdom by using our gift for a ministry.

 

/GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life\

 

The closing moments of our study are for the benefit of anyone who does not have a personal relationship with the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU. 

 

The bad news is that all of us are born in a state of unrighteousness.  We are born physically alive and spiritually dead as ungodly unbelievers.  It’s not your fault, but it is your circumstance.  In First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 22, the bible says…

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22a

For all in union with Adam at physical birth (and that is every human who comes to earth) are set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire…\

 

But there’s good news amidst the bad news!  It’s an easy decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved…you can do it anytime and anywhere… let’s see what happened in a prison in Rome in Acts, Chapter 16, Verses 25 to 34…

 

/ACTS 16:25

But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them…\

 

 

/ACTS 16:26

…and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken…and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.\

 

/ACTS 16:27 

When the jailer (a prison guard) awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.\

 

/ACTS 16:28 

But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”\

 

/ACTS 16:29 

And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas…\

 

/ACTS 16:30 

…and after the prison guard brought Paul and Silas out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”\

 

/ACTS 16:31 

And Paul and Silas said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”\

 

There are no works of any kind necessary to be saved…simply faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ is the ticket to eternal life…

 

/ACTS 16:32 

And Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to the jailer together with all the people who were in his house.\

 

/ACTS 16:33 

And the jailer took Paul and Silas that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.\

 

 

 

/ACTS 16:34 

And the jailer brought Paul and Silas into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in THE God (the Lord Jesus Christ) with his whole household.\

 

How did our jailer friend get saved?  In a crisis, he recognized He needed a Savior.  He asked someone who knew what it took to be saved.  Believers in Christ presented the accurate gospel message. The jailer did what was suggested. Romans, Chapter 1, Verses 18 to 20…

 

/ROMANS 1:18

For the wrath of God the Father is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and against the unrighteousness of men (unbelievers) who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness…\

 

/ROMANS 1:19 

…because that which is known about God the Father is evident within them (even from inside of them) for God the Father made it evident to them (from inside of them).\ 

 

/ROMANS 1:20 

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes, God’s eternal power and God’s divine nature, have been clearly seen by all men, being understood even through what has been made (in nature…God’s creative work), so that all mankind are without excuse before God.\

 

God provides the good news, the gospel message, from the outside to all of us through believers in Christ…and He also puts knowledge of Himself on the inside of all of us…He even puts knowledge of Himself in nature…so that we have multiple opportunities to be saved.  God makes Himself clearly visible.  Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…

 

/ACTS 16:31 

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”\

 

John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…

 

 

/JOHN 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment… but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”\

 

It’s a simple choice to become a believer in Christ so you can be saved for all eternity.  Don’t miss your opportunity!  God has His eye on you as June Murphy tells us in the closing song…EYE OF THE SPARROW.

 

/CLOSING SONG

HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW 

June Murphy\

 

/CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...\

 

/Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

www.barahministries.com\