Romans 12:3-8 - Do not think more highly of yourself than you ought

Our reading is from Romans chapter 12, verses 3 to 8.

Romans 12:3–8

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Think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

For 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, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith.

If it is serving, then serve.

If it is teaching, then teach.

If it is to encourage, then give encouragement.

If it is giving, then give generously.

If it is to lead, do it diligently.

If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

May God help us.

Thanks so much, Lucia.

Let's ask the Lord for his help.

Thanks, Lucia.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we do ask for your help.

and we ask knowing that you're a generous God who loves to give good gifts to his children

and that your eagerness to speak to us now is even greater than our eagerness to listen

so so we pray that you might give us ears to hear that we might listen carefully to your word and

that you might speak to us ultimately because we want to live lives to your praise and glory

as we ask in Jesus name amen amen

now there is only one central instruction in our passage this morning so if like me you're one of

those people who wants just one simple idea to take away with you then you're in for good news

this morning because there is just one instruction it's there in verse three look down at verse three

if you've got a bible with you do not think of yourself more highly than you ought that's it

that is the take home for this morning everything else in the passage flows from that so this idea

of a church where everyone's using their gifts where everyone feels valued where everyone has a part to

play that is a function of a group of people a church where people don't think of themselves more

highly than they ought literally the greek word there is a combination of the word hype and the word mind

paul effectively says you know don't believe the hype about yourself don't believe it and then he adds the

positive to the negative and say not only don't believe the hype instead verse three again think of

yourself with sober judgment sober judgment then is a combination also of the word for mind but the word

for wisdom and mind so don't be hype minded about yourself don't believe the hype instead be wise minded

about yourself in other words think sensible true accurate thoughts about yourself have a correct

evaluation of your position and your role not a hyped up one and not a dismissive one

perhaps we can put it this way just as we start off the the well-being of our church together

depends firstly not on what we do but on how we think we say that again the well-being of our church

depends not firstly on what we do but on how we think our minds in fact in that sentence the emphasis

is so clear that it is almost awkward the word for think or mind appears in some form or another four

times in one sentence the niv translation which you've got there in front of you drops one of the

things just to make it more readable in the english now of course that makes total sense if you were with

us last week and you saw what we're looking at in verses one and two where paul tells us that the

the body does what the mind thinks the christian discipleship and transformation starts with the mind

before it changes the will or the desires or the emotions because in the bible the access point to your

heart and to your desires is your mind we hear the good news of the lord jesus christ we

listen to the gospel and we learn it and we think on it and we engage with it and that is a deeply

spiritual activity for the christian and it's why wise thinking about yourself not hyping yourself up

is so important not just for you personally but also for your usefulness in the church

i don't know whether you've ever thought about it like this way before but maybe you're a church member

here and perhaps you serve in lots of different ways perhaps you give really generously to the life of

the church perhaps you're on loads and loads of different rotas well all that's brilliant right

but the truth remains that your most important contribution to the life of the church here if

you're a member of the church are not your skills but your commitment to grow as a christian

it's your attitude it's your heart how you're thinking about yourself to think rightly about

yourself in the light of the gospel is the most important thing you do for all of us that's the

take home right no hype just wise thoughts about ourselves you can write that down you can remember

it that is the summary and everything else is kind of flowing from that and what i want to show you

is two things that wise thinking thinks two things from the passage that wise thinking about

ourselves think what are two characteristics of having a sober judgment of yourself the first one

is this wise thinking about ourselves realizes that fundamentally we are all exactly the same

we're all exactly the same this might not be immediately obvious as you look around the room

this morning we are different ages we're from different backgrounds we have different stories we're

from different cultural backgrounds all of which is brilliant right that's great i love that about our

church but wise thinking about ourselves sees that for all of those differences amongst us

in a very important sense we are all exactly the same they can look at verses four and five

for 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 though many form one body and each member belongs to all the others

this is paul's really simple illustration of what a church is he repeats it often in the new testament

his picture of a church is a body he says and bodies are made up of all sorts of different parts or what

he calls members and although each of the members performs a different function your hands don't do the

same thing as your feet or your eyes or your ears still they are all part of the same body he says

they're contributing to the same thing so in the church he says verse five we are in christ and we

are together in him we belong to him and we belong to one another one body many members now this means

that a church like ours is not seeking to build unity it's not that we are aiming at unity like it's a

target that we're trying to achieve no unity in the church is something that we must maintain because

it is given to us by the lord jesus so we need to cherish it and not undermine it as we come to christ

and belong to him we belong to one another we are united in him now hopefully you see how that brings

wise thoughts about ourselves you shouldn't be sitting here this morning thinking do you know what

i am more important than anyone else in the room you shouldn't be thinking that nor should you be

thinking this morning i'm less important than anyone else in the room because in a very important sense

there is no hierarchy like that in a church because every christian who is here is here on the same

basis you know it's not that some christians were kind of better people and they needed just a little

bit of saving and some people were really terrible people who needed a lot of saving that's not true at all

all has been saying in romans all have sinned all have fallen short of the glory of god and the only

way of salvation for any person is through faith in the son of god who gave his life on a cross in our

place for anyone in this room to be saved took the death of god the son in human flesh

of course that doesn't make all of us identical to one another and we'll see more of that in a moment

but the point is that just because someone is able perhaps through their circumstances or the gifts that

god has given them to take a more prominent role in the gatherings of the church that does not make them

a more important member because membership of the church is through union with the lord jesus christ

and not through your gifts now just let me tease out a couple of things about that notice here that

there is such a thing as membership of a local church membership of the church paul doesn't think

does he that church is a place that you attend we say that i attend that church but paul says no church

is somewhere that you belong and notice that you don't belong to church simply through the means of

attending church and you don't belong to church simply through the means of serving church or not

even serving lots or attending lots no you belong to church through he says jesus christ having faith in him

maybe you're not a christian this morning and you're just trying to work out this whole church thing

and that's great it's really good that you're here this morning you are here as our guest

and you are very very welcome and we love having you but let me try and be clear on this not to be

unkind in any way but just so that you're really clear it is not possible for you to be part of the

church if you're not a christian simply just by coming along right church is not some way that you

can belong to just by attending it because belonging to church is really coming individually to trust in

jesus christ and by being united by faith to jesus he joins you to the body of the church

so everybody in this room who is a member of the church have come to exactly the same point in their

life where they have realized that they are unable to save themselves that their sin and their wickedness

and their rebellion put them out of relationship with the god who made them that they deserve his

judgment and that their only hope for salvation is trusting in the savior jesus who lived died and rose

again in our place that we might be forgiven now if you want to know more about that because you really

want to belong to church not just attend church then please come and speak to me or even better sign up for

christianity explored that starts in a couple of weeks because we would love everybody who is just

attending church as a guest this morning we'd love you not just to attend we'd love you to belong

through faith in jesus christ that in our church we try and reflect this belonging

by a system of church membership it's not a perfect system because it's run by very imperfect people

of whom i'm one and the other leaders of the others but we find that having a list of people who say that

they belong to this church through faith in jesus christ helps us to care for one another so perhaps

you're a christian this morning and you attend this church but you're not yet formally a member of it

well let me encourage you to join as a church member because just like you can't pretend to belong

to church by simply attending it if you're a christian you can't really pretend not to belong

to church either because through faith in jesus christ he has brought you into membership of the

universal church and that's meant to be expressed through your belonging to a local church

that's the first thing we belong to church we don't just attend it the second thing to notice from

this body illustration is that it gives dignity to everybody here you know it might be this morning

that you don't have the gifts that would take you up the front in the church gatherings or it might be

that your health or your circumstances mean that you can't attend church as much as you would like to do

it might mean that you can't do all the things that you once used to do it might be that you've not

been here for very long and so you feel like you're on the fringes of church life that you're not quite a part of

things yet you're a bit of outsider well let me tell you if that's how you feel that's not true

because we are part of the body through faith in jesus christ and so our membership here is not a

function of our usefulness it's not even a function of how long we've been here it is a function of our

union with jesus christ through faith in him and that brings real dignity to all of us doesn't it

it means that if you're here this morning and you go i don't know what difference i could make

to this group of people or or maybe you're actually watching online this morning because you

for all your desires couldn't actually get out the house this morning well please if that's you don't

think that you don't matter this morning you do matter because you belong to christ and therefore

you belong to the church and the church belongs to you just like it does for everyone you know no one

should say oh that's my church or that's their church please don't ever say oh i go to west

kilburn baptist church that's steve palferman's church please don't ever say that right this church

belongs to jesus christ he bought it with his blood and he brought all the members in through faith in him

perhaps it's helpful just to put it like this the the main work in church life is not my work

and it's not your work right the main work in church is the work that christ has already done

local churches don't exist to do jobs for god that god would like to have done but he simply hasn't got

the time right that's not true churches exist because god has done all the work required to build them

let me just give you a bit of theology for a moment okay this is this is really important

in a way this is how the new testament church is very different to old testament israel it's really

important when you read your bible that you understand that that you don't just draw a straight

line from old testament israel into what you think we should be necessarily doing today in the old

testament there was a king who ruled and a priest who atoned for sin and a prophet who spoke god's word

and they all worked for god pulling his people together in a nation called israel but in the new

testament all those roles found their final fulfillment in jesus christ jesus christ is god's ultimate king

ruling over his people jesus is the final priest atoning for sin through the sacrifice of his own body

on the cross and he is the great prophet not simply just speaking god's word but being the word of god

in human flesh revealing god to us so that we might know who he is and so now in the new testament we do

not belong to a nation that's run by a king a priest and a prophet we belong to the church where the king

priest and prophet is jesus christ and all the big roles are fulfilled by him he is the king not me

not you he is our priest he is the one who makes atonement for us he is the one who forgives our sin

i don't do that i can't do that for you you can't do that for yourself he is the word of god to us

showing us what god is like revealing him to us we don't do that we only point away from ourselves and

point to jesus

now now that means doesn't it if in years to come you find yourself in a church run by people who

think themselves to be the priests who say to you oh i can get you into god's presence either through

my work at an altar or through the cards on my guitar or where the the leaders think that they are

kings where their word is to be taken to be the word of god himself can i suggest to you

that you run run fast in the other direction because what you found is not a church you found

something very different because in church jesus has done the work he is our king our priest and our

prophet and churches point away from themselves and they point to him because we're all exactly the same

right we're all here on exactly the same basis that's the first thing second thing wise judgment

of ourselves sober judgment involves knowing that we are all very different and yes those two points

do contradict each other don't they but now let's have a look at this this is really a bit more complex

and it's certainly more counter-cultural fourth point is that sober judgment of myself doesn't just

see that my standing in christ is the same as everybody else but it also sees that i and you

and others have different gifts to one another and therefore different roles and responsibilities in the

church take a look at verse three let's see how this starts notice this for by the grace given me says paul

i say to every one of you notice that little phrase the grace given look down at verse six it's repeated

there he says we have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us this is paul's point

grace given in this context is not salvation right paul is not saying i have been given grace to be more

saved than you or to be saved in a different way to you are no he's not saying that he couldn't be saying

that that would contradict everything else he has said to this point no his point is that god's grace

has given him a particular gift and what is his particular gift well paul's gift by the grace given

to him he is given the gift which enables him to take a roll up in church which means he can instruct

everybody notice that by the grace given to me i say to every one of you this is what you should do

and paul is able by the grace gift that is given to him to write down that instruction put it in the

bible in the scriptures alongside all of the old testament as well and pass it down through church

history that you and i might listen to his grace gift by him telling us what to do as well

all's grace gift is that he is an apostle romans 1 verse 1 paul a servant of christ jesus called to be

Romans 1:1

an apostle paul is one of the founding fathers of the church he is laying the groundwork on which

everybody else builds he met the risen christ on the road to damascus he was sent by him personally

to the gentiles and given authority to write the scriptures now i i hope you understand at that point

you and me have not been given that grace we are not apostles like paul we are not given the grace to

write the scriptures we have no authority to tell christians all over the world and all through history

exactly what they should do paul has that authority i don't you don't and that's not because we're less

loved or less saved or less members of the church it's just because god and his wisdom chose paul to

do that job and not you or not me and actually you and i should be really thankful of that because being

the apostle to the gentiles came along with a thorn in the flesh shipwrecks imprisonments floggings

and a whole load of other suffering right and notice how wise thinking sees this gift and this role

dynamic look again at verse three for by the grace given me i say to every one of you do not think of

yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with

the faith god has distributed to each of you now notice this is how we're to think of ourselves

in accordance with the faith god has distributed to each of you if you have a more literal translation

it says something like each of you with the measure of faith god has given now zone in on this right

paul here don't think he's talking about saving faith he's not saying that we each have a measure of

saving faith you know a pint for you a pint for me a pint for everyone rather he's talking about our role

in the community of faith the measure of faith is a is an equivalent to the grace of god given

which means that our judgment of ourselves our sober mind relates to seeing the limits on our role in the

community of faith that god has given us that god has not only made us to belong to his people but

also given us a a role or a gift to exercise amongst his people so although we're all saved the same way

we're not all the same people we all have different gifts and those gifts give us a a different

responsibility or a different place in the life of the church for some it will mean a publicly more

prominent position for some it will mean a position more behind the scenes and not because prominence

means importance but just because god in his wisdom doesn't give all the gifts that church requires

to one individual but he spreads them amongst us now again notice that this means two things

firstly and i think this is paul's big point is that it means envy has no place in the life of the church

this is his primary target wise thinking not thinking of myself more highly than i ought means not

desiring a more prominent role for which i'm not gifted that's the way the sinful nature works isn't it

church like everything else just becomes a platform on which i can put myself so that i can display my

greatness to everybody else and i mustn't think like that about church envy selfish ambition ministry to make

a name for yourself will ruin church and ruin you and besides which really importantly first point prominence

in church does not equal greater belonging to church being up front at church each week does not make this my

my church this is so important for us to think about because our culture really only values prominence

doesn't it we live in a highly individualistic celebrity culture where prominence is considered to be

effectively exactly the same as success and success is exactly the same as self-worth right

so the only role in church that anyone wants is one that gives them prominence but that's not how it's

meant to be and celebrity culture in church kills effectiveness because while celebrities can gather

a crowd right they can gather a crowd around themselves people come because they want to listen to them

that celebrity is unable to do the main work of church because only christ can do that work and if

they're pointing to themselves they're not pointing to the only one who can do the work jesus

it seems to me as well that often those gifts in church which bring prominence often come like for

paul with his apostleship they bring more suffering too seems that god humbles those he wants to use

and disciplines those who gives prominence to but there's a flip side to this as well not only should i

not envy and not push myself into a role for which god has not equipped me or gifted me it secondly means

that sober judgment of myself means not unnecessarily putting myself down either it means that i'm not to

back away from serving it means that seeing how god has gifted me and using me for his glory i will get on

with serving because verse five as part of a body the gift that i was given is not actually given to me for

my benefit but was given to me for your benefits and vice versa so if for example i refuse to use the

gift that god has given me for preaching perhaps because i i'm afraid because people criticize the

preacher if you didn't know that they do right i don't want that i'm not going to use that gift or

maybe because i think hiding and being uh behind the scenes is is is humble and more godly well that's wrong

too it's a failure to understand how god gifts the church for the benefit of the whole so hiding and

not serving either because we're afraid or because we don't think our gift is as useful as others that

sounds like godliness as we say it but actually it's selfishness because the gift that god has given you

he has given it to you for all of our benefit and blessing and sober judgment means knowing what your

gifts are and aren't and then working on them improving them and exercising them with your eyes

on god's glory and pouring out your heart in love for others now paul then ends this section with a

list of gifts in verses six to eight now i take it that you're not meant to look at that list and think

that's an exhaustive list and if i don't have one of those seven gifts then i don't have any gift at all

that is not the point the point really isn't so much on the gifts themselves the emphasis seems to

be on using the gifts you know if your gift is x then make sure you're doing x he repeats over and

over again now there's lots that could be said about this list and i'm going to leave you very

disappointed by what i don't say but anyway let's have a look at the list together let's firstly deal with

prophecy if your gift is prophesying he says then prophesy in accordance with your faith verse six

i think this is probably the most tricky one to understand in the list which is because

the bible uses the word prophecy in different ways at different times quick tip if you're trying to

understand the bible don't just draw a straight line between the word that the bible uses and think that

because it's got the same word it means the same thing every single time and it's called a concordance

right you can look up the words and it will tell you every place in the bible that that word appears

the concordance doesn't tell you what the word means the context tells you what the word means

right and you must work on reading it in its context not just from a concordance and i mean that's just

how everybody uses language right so the bible's the same and so actually the bible uses the word

prophecy in different ways we saw didn't we in the old testament the prophet was a particular status

among god's people from someone who received god's word and spoke god's word thus saith the lord they

would say and disobeying their word was punished and punishable by death that's not how it's carried

on in the new testament it seems so in the new testament jesus fulfills the role of old testament prophet

as the word of god so in the writer of the hebrews puts it like this in hebrews 1 verse 1 in the past

Hebrews 1:1

god spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways but in these last

days he's spoken to us by his son that means that in the new testament a prophet is someone who is

supernaturally gifted to speak about jesus right if someone claims to be a prophet and they're speaking

not about jesus they are not a prophet certainly not in the new testament sense because a prophet is not

to free is not free to speak about whatever they like to speak about they are to share god's word

about jesus but even then i think the word is used differently in the new testament so in ephesians

it seems to say there is a company of so-called prophets who are alongside the apostles in a foundational

role the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets it says twice and so as

church historians point out the early church particularly say someone like rome is reliant on people

verbally passing on the message about jesus because very little of the new testament existed there

and so prophets were passing on this message verbally speaking the message of the apostles

so there's a category in the new testament of prophets now what does that mean prophecy today

well for sure god can and does speak directly to individuals to tell them things he doesn't tell them

new truths about jesus but he might tell them how those truths about jesus are to be applied or how they

work out in a particular situation and what they say must be tested against the scriptures which are

complete and are in your hands now today still i don't think that's that close to what the church

in rome understood by prophecy here which i think is probably nearer to what good preaching is i think

that's probably what they understood someone who through a gift that god has given them is able to take the

scriptures and show how they point to jesus and apply them carefully by god's spirit to our lives and our

situations what we're doing here is not just passing on of information it's not just my brain plugging into

your brain to tell you things you might have not otherwise known so i'm trying to speak god's word to you

that you might hear not me but you might hear god not because i'm anybody special but because we are

looking together at god's word and he is at work by his spirits and that's the same isn't it for you

when you open the bible with someone you are praying that god would give you the words to help explain it to

the person that you're speaking to maybe that's in a one-to-one conversation with a friend who's not a

christian maybe it's with your nieces or nephews or sons and daughters sat around the dinner table or

something maybe it's in youth club god gifts people for the benefit of the church to speak prophetically

about jesus and they should do it in accordance with the truth of who jesus is we're going to speed up

serving literally the word there is deaconing and that's not going to be controversial to anybody is

it serving practically caring for others meeting their needs looking out for what needs to be done

if that's what you're good at says paul then get on and do it you should do it you need to do it

teaching again distinct from prophecy it seems to be what priscilla and aquila did for apollos in the

new testament teaching him to preach more accurately the doctrines of jesus christ that's a role that carries

on discipling educating god's people with the truth so that they might understand it if that's your gift

then you should use it you should teach get on with it because churches need teachers

encouraging literally this is the word to walk alongside somebody to strengthen them to lift them

up when they've fallen down to giving them a word in season if that's your gift then you should look

for opportunities to do that because goodness me do churches need encouragements we certainly do giving

or sharing in the new testament the church was funded by its members just like our churches today and it

seemed like some people in the church had an opportunity through the gifts that the lord has given them

to carry a more significant portion of that burden than others and paul says if that's you give generously

don't withhold the resources that god has given you for the benefit of the church god hasn't given you

all of that just for yourself he's given it for the benefit of others so invest it there that's your

gift don't hold back churches need generous givers leading again this is qualified with diligence

leadership in the church perhaps as an elder or maybe in a specific ministry area is to be done

carefully or done well giving a clear lead so that others can follow not confusing them not giving up

or walking away not everyone will want to lead will they and not everyone should lead because not

everyone's gifted to lead but if you've been gifted to lead you should lead with diligence or zeal

seems in the new testament that leaders aren't uh self-appointed that they are recognized if you have the

gift of leadership you will know about it not just because you tell yourself it but because people

around you want to follow you and ask you to take that responsibility for them and if they don't

well don't envy those who do because leadership is actually quite a burden so much so that leaders need

to be encouraged to lead diligently and with zeal because they might give up finally showing mercy

explained by cheerfulness mercy is showing kindness to people who by definition don't deserve it right

and if you're showing kindness to someone who doesn't deserve it it would be easy to become bitter

or resentful but don't do that be cheerful because churches are full of people who need your mercy

and if that's your role if that's your gift then serve in that way now our time has gone and i

realized that there are probably lots of outstanding questions let me just end with some practical

applications as i finish really briefly remember the point of this passage is not this it's not like

dig really deep in yourself and find out what your gift is and then force that gift on other people

that is not what this is saying right please don't do that the point of this passage is to think wisely

about yourself see that god in christ has given you a secure place in his church and by his grace has made

you to be just the person that the church needs in the way that he has designed you and gifted you

and so it means doesn't it that how do i find my gift is not dig inside myself to look for the way

that god has made me no what i do because i assume that god has put me here deliberately i look around me

in the church and i say what needs doing here that i could do what needs doing here that i could do

what needs doing here that no one else seems to have noticed what needs doing here that would be a real

blessing if it was done and it's not being done and i could do it and i'm to assume that god has made

that like that deliberately for your service for our good and it's interesting don't just look at the jobs

right maybe you're wide like me right and you see jobs all the time

don't just look at the jobs look at the people really that's the question isn't it you look around

the churches the people what did these people need how can i serve these people what needs doing for

that person that i could do that would be a blessing to them that would help them keep walking with jesus

because if you can see the need and you can see how you can meet it then you should do that

because that's why god has put you here in this church as you belong to jesus and you belong to all of

us let me pray and then we'll see

heavenly father how we thank you that in your grace and your goodness you have put us all here on exactly

the same footing all of us are here because jesus died for us and all of us can have confidence in

him that in christ we are all the same we belong to you and we belong to one another and how we pray

that you might help us to be a church which thinks rightly about ourselves that we don't think of

ourselves more highly than we ought but we think with sober judgment please help us to do that we pray

that we might serve one another well and for your glory in jesus name amen