(#418) Romans 12 - Your Spiritual Gift Means Taking One for the Team
/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.
In Galatians, Chapter 5, Verses 22 and 23, we witness the virtues of our Lord…nine things that constitute a single unity…called fruit (singular)… things produced in us by God the Holy Spirit…not as separate pieces unfolded one at a time, but as one succulent, juicy thing with several facets, manifest for others to see when they see believers in Christ.
/GALATIANS 5:22a But the fruit of God the Holy the Spirit is unconditional love, joy, and peace (toward ourselves)…\
The unconditional love the Spirit is developing in us is the same self-sacrificing love that the Lord Jesus Christ displayed at the Cross by dying for sinners. When we love others unconditionally we are willing to give to them even though it makes us look like a fool. As we grow, we realize what June Murphy and the apostle James would tell us, that this self-sacrificing love is “the joy set before us.” We are to count it all joy when we fall into various trials…Amen?! And the joy brings peace…a peace that surpasses comprehension.
/GALATIANS 5:22b …patience, kindness, and goodness (toward others)…\
Fortified by these foundational virtues in ourselves, love-joy-peace, we are able to manifest the next three virtues, patience-kindness-goodness, even under the pressure of extreme pain and intense provocation. We patiently wait and watch in our human interactions, continuing to be considerate as our Lord was, even in the face of betrayal. And we realize that God’s goodness always prevails even when it is not apparent that it is prevailing.
/GALATIANS 5:23 …faithfulness…gentleness, and self-control (in our relationship with God)…against such virtues there is no law.\
When our spiritual life is under the control of God the Holy Spirit, we hang in there…we are soft in our spirit…and we keep our emotions under control. This is the fruit that is reflected to the world through us…the virtues of an amazing God, by the agency of God the Holy Spirit, who controls us while the Lord controls the universe. Along with the Father, we are influenced by a Godhead that has already won the victory in the Creator-creature conflict.
/TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Your Spiritual Gift Means Taking One for the Team\
When we “take one for the team” we engage in unpleasant tasks for the benefit of others.
We’ve learned many things about spiritual gifts in the past three months. In combination, these lessons tell us that a spiritual gift imparts both stability and maturity…first to you…then to other believers in your local assembly… and then to the church as a whole…in that order. God gave you a spiritual gift to use for the team of believers in Christ.
In today’s lesson we’ll continue our consideration of the fourth passage of Romans, Chapter 12, and we’ll celebrate The Lord’s Supper. As we look back to the Cross we’ll remember that the Lord introduced the possibility of a new creation there…and as a believer in Christ you are that new creation… and the Lord is always encouraging us to BE who we are.
If ever you question your identify as a believer in Christ, just remember you are a person for God’s own possession. Here’s the group Casting Crowns to tell you who you are with their hit song, WHO AM I?
/MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
WHO AM I Casting Crowns\
/OPENING PRAYER Let us pray...\
Almighty God and Father…thank you for giving us an identity in union with your Son…our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…thank you for helping us to aspire to live the way you see us…as perfect…thank you for allowing us to reflect your virtues to the whole world…thank you for assembling a team of believers in Christ and for placing us on the team…
…as we continue to study the Word of God, help us to always remember the importance of the believers in Christ team, and help us to remember that You want us to care for those on the team just the way You care for us…
…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.
/TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Your Spiritual Gift Means Taking One for the Team\
It hit me as I was reflecting on the work of the past three months…the work of unearthing what is significant about the spiritual gift each of us is given at the moment of salvation…and what hit me is that being a Pastor is much like being a basketball coach.
I’ve coached six championship basketball teams, and I can tell you…the most significant job of a coach is teaching the players how not to be selfish. The players I hate are the ones who are more concerned with statistics and playing time than they are with their teammates. Concern for your teammates in basketball has some funny faces. For example, when you’re concerned with your teammates, you eat a pre-game meal before the game so you have enough fuel to play effectively during the critical moments of the game. You hydrate. You get rest the night before. You come ready to play. All of those little things demonstrate a concern for the team first, and for self, next. So it is in the Christian Way of Living. We learn our spiritual gift by serving, because God expects us to serve each other…first. The Lord teaches us in Matthew, Chapter 10, Verses 34 to 36…
/MATTHEW 10:34 “Do not think that I (the Lord Jesus Christ) came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but I came to bring a sword.”\
/MATTHEW 10:35 “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law…”\
/MATTHEW 10:36 “…and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.”\
God’s enemy, Satan, seeks to destroy us from within. Just like he imploded himself from within by rebelling against God, he wants to implode us and he wants to implode everything that is important to us. He finds targets in our periphery and uses them to destroy us from within. Our spiritual gift is combat against the enemy. We are to care for each other. Luke, Chapter 10, Verse 27…
/LUKE 10:27 And the Lord answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind…and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.”\
We’re studying the fourth passage of Romans, Chapter 12…Verses 4 to 8…with Verse 3 as the apostle Paul’s lead in to the discussion of spiritual gifts…
/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…your spiritual gift.\
/ROMANS 12:4 For just as we have many members in one human body and all the members of our human body do not have the same function…\
/ROMANS 12:5 …so we believers in Christ…who are many…are one body in union with Christ…and individually we are members one of another.\
/ROMANS 12:6 Since we each have a spiritual gift (charisma) that is different according to the grace (charis) 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…\
/ROMANS 12:7 …if he has the spiritual gift of service…he is to exercise the gift in his serving…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…he who has the spiritual gift that leads…he is to exercise the gift with diligence…he who shows mercy, he is to exercise the gift with cheerfulness.\
As members of the body of Christ we form a unity…God placed us there…and we are to act like it. I don’t remember being taught that once in the fifty years I spent in Roman Catholicism or in Systematic Theology. Not once. We are in unity with each other, and we are to act like it. The two become one flesh at the moment of salvation…Christ as the Head and believers as the body…and what God has joined, let no one put asunder. This union is as absolute as the imputation of righteousness, or our “so great” salvation, or our eternal security. We have forgotten how important we are to each other. Satan has isolated us, and there is no easier way to destroy someone than to isolate them.
Foundational to Christianity is how Christians treat each other, and as I see it, if we graduated to “pathetic,” it would be a vast improvement. It’s sad to see how we treat each other, especially the withholding of our spiritual gift from each other. It ruins our togetherness. Paul was always concerned with treatment in his teaching…First Timothy, Chapter 3, Verse 15…
/FIRST TIMOTHY 3:15 I write (to you Timothy) so that you will know how to conduct yourself in the household of God…which is the church of the living God…the pillar and the support of the truth.\
Paul considered our treatment of each other a pillar. In other words… foundational. We are not to think of ourselves as members of a church, but first and foremost, as MEMBERS OF EACH OTHER, just like the right hand and the left hand are members of one body. Just as the hands need each other, believers in Christ need each other.
If we were to hold ourselves to this standard, how would we think we are doing as individuals?
Matthew, Chapter 25, Verse 40…
/MATTHEW 25:40 The King (the Lord Jesus Christ) will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did anything to one of these brothers of Mine… even (and especially) the least of them…you did it to Me.’\
Treatment was always high on the list of the Lord as well. Our spiritual gift connects to the treatment of the members of our own household. We are not to hold each other as enemies. And when we do, we have imploded ourselves, and our lives, from the inside. Our lives become a reflection of this implosion. No one is as good alone as they are with others.
Imagine if one of our hands had to do the job of two…if one of our feet had to do the job of two. It’s quite a burden. Yet that is exactly what the members of each other bring to the body of Christ when selfishness is allowed to spring up as a root of bitterness from within us. All of us would do well to think of these things when we think of our spiritual gift.
Let’s take a music break. When we start to realize how important we are to each other, then we won’t require others to meet our standards. Instead we will compensate for the weaknesses of each other. Here’s God’s attitude toward us in song...COME JUST AS YOU ARE...by Crystal Lewis.
/MUSIC BREAK COME JUST AS YOU ARE Crystal Lewis\
/THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION At the Cross, the Lord Shows Us How To BE the New Creation\
In just a few moments, we’ll celebrate The Lord’s Supper together.
The financial resources we have are not our own. Like everything else we have, it they are a GIFT from God. God gives us resources to use and He expects us to be good stewards of His financial blessings.
As stewards of the Lord’s financial blessings, we are to use them as He would. What He does through blessings is to provide where there is a lack. That’s the function of His amazing grace. As you think about using your stewardship toward Barah Ministries, please know that your provisions are helping to spread the gospel message and the Word of God all throughout this lost and dying world, courtesy of the internet.
Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with this week’s offering message.
/THE OFFERING Deacon Denny Goodall\
/OFFERING VERSE
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.\
/OFFERING VERSE
PHILIPPIANS 2:3-4 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves//…do not merely look out for your own personal interests…but also for the interests of others.\
/OFFERING FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE Dave McClure, Instrumental\
/THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION At the Cross, the Lord Shows Us How To BE the New Creation\
Welcome to The Lord’s Supper Celebration, the most intimate expression of love in The Christian Way of Living. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ demonstrates His desire for a deep, intimate and personal relationship with His believers by sharing His body and His blood with us. First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verse 26 says…
/FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread (His body) and drink this cup (His blood) as part of the Lord’s Supper Celebration…you proclaim as a reality and you announce the significance of the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross… and His resurrection from the dead…until He comes again at the second coming.\
Non-resident congregation members are invited to join in the sharing of the communion elements with members of the resident congregation by getting your own bread and your own cup. We are one…in unity…in fellowship with each other…so let’s break bread together. During The Lord’s Supper Celebration, the Lord Jesus Christ wants two things from His believers. He wants us to look back to the reality of His death on a Cross for our benefit, the time when He reconciled all creatures to God the Father by taking away the sins of the world…the time when He thought of us more than He thought of Himself…the time He took one for the team. Also, the Lord Jesus Christ wants His believers to remember that He has been resurrected from the dead, which makes it certain that He will come again. Job said in Chapter 19, Verse 25…
/JOB 19:25 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives…and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.”\
The Lord’s Supper Celebration reminds us of the Lord’s journey from the humiliation of the Cross, to the exaltation of being raised from the dead three days after the Cross. The Lord’s Supper Celebration reminds us that Jesus Christ is God, and that He won the Creator-creature conflict through His work on the Cross.
There comes a time in the life of every Christian when we realize we don’t need God’s help.
That may sound funny to you, but think about it. When we come to the conclusion that we don’t need God’s help, simultaneously it may dawn on us that what we really need is for GOD TO DO EVERYTHING FOR US. We don’t just need His help…as if somehow He is just part of the solution in our lives, while we are playing a really important role. God is actually the reason for our lives…the source of our lives…the source of our salvation… the source of everything meaningful in our lives…so much so that we know exactly what the Lord means by John, Chapter 15, Verse 5…
/JOHN 15:5 I (the Lord Jesus Christ) am the vine, you believers in Christ are the branches…he who abides in Me and I indwelling him…he bears much fruit…for APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING.\
God didn’t need our help when He invited us into The Christian Way of Life by accomplishing our salvation for us. God doesn’t need our help in The Christian Way of Living as He accomplishes our sanctification for us. He sets us apart for a set of privileges that stagger the imagination. God the Holy Spirit will successfully conform all of us believers in Christ to the image of God the Son. If God doesn’t need our help with salvation, or with sanctification, or with conforming us…it follows that God doesn’t need our help with anything. Yet we need Him for everything, for apart from Him what we do is nothing. There is no greater freedom for the Christian than when we realize our total dependence on God. It would be amazing if we also recognized our total dependence on each other.
At the moment of salvation, all believers in Christ become a new creation in union with Christ. Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 17 says…
/SECOND CORINTHIANS 5:17a Therefore, for anyone that is in union with Christ, there is a new creation (from God)…\
That’s a different look at something we’ve known for quite a while. We’re not a just a “new creature” … there is a new creation by God at the moment of our salvation. God completely transforms us into a new being that has no connection whatsoever with the old man being. Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verses 1 and 2…
/EPHESIANS 2:1 And you believers in Christ were spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins….\
/EPHESIANS 2:2 …in which you formerly walked (as a lifestyle) according to the course of this world…according to the prince of the power of the airwaves… according to the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.\
For believers in union with Christ, the old man now is dead. There is a new creation in you.
Failure, for the believer in Christ, is living the way we formerly did…under the influence of the old man…living “the natural life.” The old man fell in the past, it is fallen today, and it will keep on being fallen until at our physical death, God removes this nemesis (the body) from us. The old man, the part of us that was imputed to us at physical birth because of our union with Adam, is perverted. In God’s plan, every perversion must die.
It takes a while for believers in Christ to believe the old man ways are useless. What supernatural creatures accomplish using natural, self-life energy dies. Apart from God, what we do is nothing. There is no greater freedom for the Christian than when we realize our total dependence on God.
The dead old man is that part of us believers in Christ that was crucified at the Cross. It is dead. Yet the old man is still dreaming the impossible dream. The old man believes…and hopes against hope…that self-effort can endear us to God. Why? Because the old man never learns.
Self-effort could never restore what was severed and broken and destroyed by the federal head of the angelic race, Satan…and the federal head of the human race, Adam…when they sinned.
Satan and Adam made exactly the same mistake. They rebelled against God and disobeyed His direction, destroying their relationship with God, destroying their fellowship with God, and obliterating their union with God. In their own energy, there was absolutely no way for them to restore what was broken. Creatures who are separated from God…creatures who are dead in God’s eyes…can never, in their own self-life energy, reunite with God.
At the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ repaired the breach between creatures and their Creator. There is a new creation…completely different from the old man being…a new person that is working for God’s end.
Let’s stop for a moment to consider these things as we enjoy the elements together.
/THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION: Enjoying the Elements\
Obeying God’s command, we keep on celebrating CHRIST and His Cross on a regular basis…we eat to remember who He is as a PERSON…we drink to remember His WORK on the Cross…the voluntary sacrifice He made at on our behalf as our sin substitute. We are grateful for what God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have done for us. Matthew, Chapter 26, Verses 26 to 28…
/MATTHEW 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take…eat…this is My body (which is being broken for you).”\
/MATTHEW 26:27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you…”\
/MATTHEW 26:28 “…for this is My blood…the blood of a new covenant….blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of their sins.”\
As you enjoy the bread and the cup, enjoy the memory of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as well. Now and always, let us keep on giving thanks that we are loved unconditionally and accepted fully by a Lord who is always there for us…the One on whom we can depend…and let’s keep on being transformed by His life, His death, His resurrection and His Word… and let’s enjoy His unconditional love.
The Lord received a reward for His selflessness…He is exalted…His name is above all names…He is first in everything…because the Cross was the most selfless act in divine history.
Believers in Christ are the light and the life of the world. God inserts us into situations to demonstrate His virtues and to reflect His selflessness. Let’s do what He asks DAY BY DAY.
/LORD’S SUPPER SONG DAY BY DAY Godspell\
/THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION At the Cross, the Lord Shows Us How To BE the New Creation\
After salvation, in union with Christ, as the new creation, believers in Christ are no longer in bondage to sin. Instead, we have a destiny. Colossians, Chapter 3, Verses 1 to 4…
/COLOSSIANS 3:1 Therefore if you believers in Christ have been raised up with Christ (resurrected from the dead), and you have been, keep on seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God the Father.\
/COLOSSIANS 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, and not on the things that are on the earth (people, things, self, circumstance, environment).\
/COLOSSIANS 3:3 For you believers in Christ have died and your resurrection life is hidden with Christ in God the Father.\
/COLOSSIANS 3:4 When Christ, who IS our resurrection life, is revealed, then you believers in Christ also will be revealed with Him in glory.\
As the new creation, we have a new relationship with God…we are in union with Christ…we are perfectly righteous…we are supernatural…we have a power that is not of this earth…and therefore stooping to use earthly power is beneath us. It leaves us feeling dead.
When our spiritual life is growing, we have a mind that is being transformed by God, we have a will that is obedient to God’s will, we have a heart that is one with God, we have a spirit that is in fellowship with God, we have a soul the responds to God, and we have a body that is in subjection to God.
WOW!
As the new creation, we simply reflect everything from the source of God. When people look at us they will see, manifest in us, a vitality, an energy, and a motivation that is based on the spiritual principles and values revealed in the Word of God.
There is a new creation…it is no longer in bondage to sin…and that means…as it says in Galatians, Chapter 2, Verse 20…
/GALATIANS 2:20a I have been crucified with Christ…and it is no longer the “I-Life” that lives…but Christ lives…indwelling me…\
In union with Christ, believers in Christ walk in the freedom of the newness of life. Romans, Chapter 5, Verses 20 and 21 say…
/ROMANS 5:20 The Mosaic Law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. Butwhere sin increased, God’s grace increased all the more…\
/ROMANS 5:21 …so that, just as sin reigned as sovereign in death, so also grace might reign as sovereign through righteousness to bring eternal life through union with Jesus Christ our LORD.\
God’s grace obliterates the power of sin.
/ROMANS 6:1 What shall we believers in Christ say then (face-to-face with these things?) Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?\
/ROMANS 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?\
/ROMANS 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into union with Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?\
/ROMANS 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God the Father, so we too might WALK IN THE NEWNESS OF THE RESURRECTION LIFE.\
/ROMANS 6:5 For if we have become united with Christ in the likeness of His death, and we have, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection…\
/ROMANS 6:6 …knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Christ…in order that our body of sin might be done away with…so that we would no longer be slaves to sin…\
/ROMANS 6:7 …for he who has died is freed from sin.\
/ROMANS 6:8 Now if we believers in Christ have died with Christ, and we have, we believe that we shall also live with Him…\
Life is the process of recognizing that our dead selves can do nothing but that which is natural. Supernatural beings are not designed to operate with natural power.
There was a man who could not swim and fell into deep water. He shouted and struggled and screamed that he had fallen in. A man who saw him fall into the water…who heard him shouting and saw him struggling…just watched. The man in the water went down and came up again…kicking, and struggling, and shouting. Still the man on the dock watched him and did nothing. The drowning man went down a third time, and when he came up his kick was nearly all gone…his struggle was practically over…he appeared and disappeared again. The man on the dock jumped in and brought him out.
When the drowning man recovered, he asked, “Why didn’t you save me earlier? Why didn’t you come in at the beginning? Do you know I nearly died? I was practically as good as dead!”
The rescuer said “I have saved a good many men like you. What I have found is that the kicking and struggling of drowning men dragged me down. There’s no need for two men to be dead. I wait until drowning men give up…then I jump in and save them.”
God is waiting for the same thing from us. He wants us to come to the end of our selves, and to realize that total dependence on Him is the only answer. He wants us supernatural creatures to stop living the dead, natural life. It is only then that we will actually feel Him filling us up to all the fullness of God.
God makes everything possible. It is only for us to realize it.
When we look back to the Cross we see the totality of His rescue…the amazingness of His deliverance…and the only proper response to it a total gratitude, demonstrated by a willingness to let Him do what He wills with us…and to use the supernatural energy He has given us to overwhelm our life circumstances.
/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.
Three simple verses say it all…John, Chapter 14, Verse 6…
/JOHN 14:6 Jesus said to the doubting apostle, Thomas, “I am the way (to salvation), and I am the truth (through the Word of God), and I am the resurrection life…and no one comes to God the Father (in heaven) but through believing in Me.”\
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.”\
A three-verse gospel message demonstrates the power of God’s Word. Here’s June Murphy to sing the closing song…as she reminds us…THE WORD IS ALIVE!
/CLOSING SONG THE WORD IS ALIVE June Murphy\
/CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...\
THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION
/Thanks for coming! Thanks for watching! Thanks for listening! www.barahministries.com\ |