ROMANS: The Clarifying Nature of Grace

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We want to make much of you today.

When we sing and say, We exalt thee, that's what we're saying.

Because the Bible makes much of you.

We want to make much of you.

We want you to have a place of priority and prominence in our lives.

And we've all been guilty at different stages in our life of having other things in the number one slot, of thinking about other things, career and house and kids, and just life.

God, it's easy to kind of look up and you're 22, and the next thing you're 36 and you've got a mortgage, you're like, hello, hello.

What whoa, this is serious.

But one thing about having you in the place of prominence and having you as the priority is that it kind of clarifies everything else.

And so, Lord, as we open up your word today, let it clarify some things in our life.

Shine the light where it's kind of really dark or just some things are kind of in the shadows.

Let us see things in ourselves in the light of your truth today.

That's our prayer, God.

Make it our experience.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, let me ask you to take it and open up to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

I'm on page 948.

I want to talk to you this morning about the clarifying nature of grace.

The clarifying nature of grace.

You say, What do you mean?

And you'll see this in the Bible, but when you rightly understand grace, uh, it kind of clarifies some things, help you to see things and yourself in a real clear light.

Okay?

While you're finding Romans 12, and before I start reading, let me make this public service announcement.

Let me ask you to do something.

Next week, when you come to church, would you do me a favor and everyone just kind of move up one row from where you normally sit?

I know that's asking for a lot, but here's what I'm saying.

Because when people come in late, they don't want to have to, we've all had days where it's crazy getting here.

They don't want to have to walk all the way down and sit in the front two rows.

They didn't come to church for that, did you?

And so we're gonna do better at being we're gonna be better hosts by leaving some room in the back where you can discreetly slip in and kind of be a part of our service, won't we?

So next week, if you come back, there'll be room for you to just kind of slip in and kind of be discreet, all right?

Or else I'll be whipping a bunch of people.

Anyway.

Uh.

Yes, right.

Uh let's read the Bible.

Romans chapter 12, verse 3.

Romans 12:3

He says, For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

And we'll just stop right there.

We're in a series.

If you're our guest, we're preaching through the book of Romans, and we've kind of broken it up into three big sections.

And we started the last section of chapters Romans chapter 12 to 16 to the end of the book.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And the title of the series is everything.

It's everything because Paul does a lot of, he he kind of does a lot of theological teaching, gives a lot of background, the first 11 chapters, and then last 12, he's like, hey, this is what this looks like with you lived out in your life.

Wrap your life around these things, and here's what it looks like.

And he covers a bunch of different topics.

And in this topic, in this section, he talks about this thing called grace.

This thing called grace, which is the way God relates, the holy God relates to sinful people like me.

And there's three things I want you to understand from this little section of scripture.

The first one is this apart from grace, we all get it wrong.

Apart from grace, we all get it wrong.

You say, What do you mean?

Here verse 3 again.

Paul says, For by the grace given to me, I say to every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

Now stop right there.

There's a reason Paul is saying this, and the reason is simply because there was a time in his life he thought more of himself than he should have.

He was what's called a Pharisee.

He wasn't always a Christian.

The Bible refers to him, he has another name, he's referred to as Saul.

Like if you read in Acts chapter 6 and chapter 7, you'll see that they stoned a man named Stephen.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

The people that did not believe in Christianity stoned Stephen to death.

And the Bible says they took their coats off before they picked up their rocks, and they laid their coats at the feet of a man named Saul.

That's the man who wrote the book of Romans.

Before he was this instrumental apostle in the Bible, he was a very religious, hateful, driven, hard-hearted type A personality man.

Matter of fact, the Bible says when he was converted to Christianity in Acts chapter 9, it tells the story.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

He was on his way.

He was going down the Damascus Road.

He was like going down 1464 out here.

He was on his way to persecute other Christians and disrupt the churches.

And the Bible says that God struck him and knocked him down to the ground, and God blinded him for three days.

Sometimes God has to blind you in order to get you to see what he wants you to see.

And so, so ferocious was Paul and his reputation that while he was blinded, God was speaking to another man over here and saying, I want you to go and I want you to lay hands on him and pray for him.

And the guy said, God, no thanks.

That guy's me.

That's the guy we're talking about.

And so just with that little bit of background, he says these words.

Hear them again.

For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Now that feels like a big sentence right there, but everything is an elephant until you cut it up into pieces, then it becomes supper.

Let me cut this up in some pieces for us.

When I say number one, apart from the girl, apart from grace, we all get it wrong.

There's two ways we get it wrong.

Number one, by thinking too much of ourselves.

By thinking too much of ourselves.

And if you're one of those, and you're prone to that, let me give you the other one.

The other way we get it wrong is by thinking too little of ourselves.

Now, traditionally, men fall into one of these categories and women fall into the other.

I'll let you decide in the sanctity of your own marriage which one you fall into.

But men, and it's a it's a it's an over-generalization, let me own that.

But men are prone to fall into one category and women are prone to fall into another.

Okay?

I don't but men, I mean, it's easy for all of us to think.

Paul says, hey, I'm a man, I think too much.

There was a point in his life where he thought too much of himself.

Anytime you get around somebody that thinks a lot of themselves, ask yourself this question why does that person need grace?

If they're so gutted all together, someone asked me a while back, they said, Hey, are you intimidated by anybody?

And I said, I don't think so.

And it's not because of my personality or it's just everybody needs grace.

I believe that.

I believe everybody has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The person that you envy the most in life, they need grace.

If you're around somebody and they're acting all puffed up and bigger than they should be, thinking more highly of themselves than they ought, then ask yourself or ask them, hey, have you ever have you ever been in a situation where you needed grace?

Everybody needs grace.

The richest person you know needs grace.

Warren Buffett needs grace.

You say, how do you know?

Let me demonstrate.

On the day that Warren Buffett wrote a check for$47 billion to the Gates Foundation, to Bill Melinda Gates, to give out to fight poverty in Africa and other places in the world, he said at the press conference, quote, there are a lot of ways to get to heaven, but this one sure feels good.

He doesn't get grace.

Now it's easy to look at that and go, oh, you rich old person, you don't know what you're talking about.

Blah, blah, blah.

He needs grace.

He got it wrong on two accounts.

There's not a lot of ways to get to heaven.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father except through me.

And secondly, hey, this can feel great, but but he just doesn't have grace.

He thinks more highly of himself.

He thinks the Bible doesn't apply to me because I can write checks for$47 billion.

If that's the way you got into heaven, how would poor people get in?

See, everybody needs grace.

We tend to think more highly of ourselves, or secondly, we think too little of ourselves, which is where more of us find ourselves in this room if we got honest.

And the Bible speaks to us in that part where it says, hey, you but he says, don't think more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.

Now, when the Bible says to think with sober judgment, he's not saying you ought to bear down on yourself to where you get to the point you can't do anything right.

And when the Bible says, fathers, do not exasperate your children, that means don't parent your kids in such a way that you rob them of hope.

Okay?

We got report cards at our house this past week.

And let me just be real candid.

I don't give a rip what my kids make on their report card.

I know that gets me kicked out of the parenting club in Fort Bend County.

But you ain't come up in my house and tell me how to parent my kids.

My kids are like their mom.

They're brilliant.

My kids across, she's in AP and pre-AP and blah, blah, blah, and got the thing and took the PSAT a couple weeks ago.

And I'm like, hey, Dad, you want to see my great?

Hey, Madison, what am I thinking right now?

You're thinking, your only question is, do you do did you do your best?

Did you do your best?

I did, Dad.

That's all I care about.

Well, do you do you want to see?

No, did you do your best?

Now, my wife, she won't get that thing, opens it up.

Nothing right or wrong about it.

We're just different.

She looks at that and reads me.

Oh, look, guess what the teacher said about Sophie?

Sophie's awesome, right?

Well, you want me to read it to you?

Do I have to pause the football game?

It's not that I don't care about my kids.

Oh, see, some of you women over here are like, what a pig you are.

Hey, that kid's 10 years old.

I've been talking to her since she was conceived.

I believe she's awesome.

I glad with it, but but my wife wants to hear other people compliment our kids.

That's great.

I need to listen to that, okay?

I'd like, but in my head, when she's reading it to me, I'm thinking, I could have told you all that.

But I didn't say that.

Because there's some things you say in marriage and it requires 30 more minutes of conversation.

Ladies, you need to know something.

Everything we say, we are saying to try to shrink this bad boy down and get it done.

Let's tie off this artery so we can get back to unpausing the football game.

But here's the thing: when the Bible says, hey, think of yourself with sober judgment, he says, and then he says this, according to the measure of faith that God has given everyone.

It's not like, well, you got a big cup of faith and you got like a teaspoon of faith.

That's not what he's saying.

That Greek word metron there, he's talking about the according to the measure of faith, according to the standard of faith of Christianity that God has given to everyone.

So basically what he's saying is, hey, if you're a Christian, you were given the standard by which you think about yourself is the truths of Christianity.

It's kind of the core doctrines of the Bible.

It's not like, hey, that guy got a lot of faith and I got a little, because don't turn there.

But in 2 Peter chapter 1, let me just note this in your mind.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Peter begins with this.

He says, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now hear that again.

You say, What do you mean?

Simon Peter, he begins, he's writing to these people, and he writes this epistle.

He says, Simon Peter, I'm the guy writing, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

You ever got up any day in your life and described yourself as a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ?

Some of you like, I would never say that.

Nor would I.

But here's what we need to say to ourselves.

He says, I'm writing to those who uh who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours.

In other words, he's like, hey, I'm not a super apostle, I'm not a super saint.

I got the same Christianity that you got.

You say, how do you know that?

How do you know it's the same?

Because by the means by which you got it.

He says, You you uh you've obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now, if you're one of those people, let me just ask you for a show of hands, if you're one of those people that says, hey, you say apart from grace, we all get it wrong.

We get it wrong in two ways by thinking too much of ourselves.

I won't ask you who you are if you're in here.

But let me just ask you, if you're one of those people that's prone to, hey, I think too little of myself, would you just raise your hand?

Hold it up just for a second.

I want to talk to you.

The rest of you people that got it all together, you don't this doesn't imply to you.

I started doing this this past week, and I already, I mean, I'm and I I'm not a big formula person.

If you've been in this church any length of time, I never say, do one, two, three, and then wham.

No, that's that's not the gospel.

But but there are disciplines and habits that we can incorporate into our lives that make a difference.

Like, for example, I read about this and this past week I started doing it.

Uh, there's a guy in California, a pastor named Ray Steadman.

He's dead now, but he used to pastor uh Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California.

And he would get overwhelmed with the responsibilities of being a pastor and teaching and preaching and all this stuff.

And he said, I could just get going and I'd look up and it's three o'clock, and where's my day gone?

And so he so wanted to start kind of integrating his Christianity into his day.

And so he'd begin his day.

He would get up and he would and he would tell himself three things.

And here's what I want you to do.

Here's the application for the sermon today.

For the next seven days, I want you to get up.

And when you get up in the morning, I want you to tell yourself these three things, okay?

These are the three things he would tell himself.

Number one, I'm made in the image of God.

I'm made in the image of God.

You say, Well, what's the big deal about that?

Because when God made all the animals, he said, This is great.

But when he made man, man is the only thing that God breathed his breath, his life into, his nepish, his soul.

Man has a soul that distinguishes him from everything else that God created.

So when you say that I'm made in the image of God, that means that God relates to you.

God put something in you.

He didn't put in anything else, okay?

We hunt deer.

Deer don't hunt us, okay?

So there's kind of a pecking order in the creation is God's kind of set it up.

Now he would just get up and say, I'm made in the image of God.

What does that mean?

That means I'm not an animal.

I don't live at the mercy of my appetites.

I have something inside of me.

Uh that I have kind of the divine imprint.

That's why human beings have a soul.

So I don't live at my mercy of my appetites.

I live at the mercy of my understanding.

Second thing he would tell himself is I'm filled with the Spirit of God.

I am filled with the Spirit of God.

You say, uh, uh, okay.

What does that mean?

It means more than we can realize.

I had a conversation a while back with a man who said, We've got, I said, Well, tell me about your spiritual beliefs.

He says, Well, I really don't have any.

Pretty much a deist.

And I said, Okay.

And he goes, You know what that means?

I said, Yeah.

And he said, I said, deists believe that God created the world and set it in motion, and he backs up and he has nothing to do with it.

And I said, So, because you're a deist and God is not involved in the day-to-day affairs of this world, how'd you like to be married to that, ladies?

Because every day you get up and you look at that cat, and it all depends on him.

And I said, So you believe that, right?

And I said, So prayer is not necessary.

Not at all.

I said, Does it bother you when people pray?

And he goes, No, I'm cordial, I'll let you pray, but it has no bearing on my life.

And I said, Here's what I said, I understand what deism is.

I said, here's the reason I don't believe in that.

Because the Bible says when a person becomes a Christian, God comes to live inside of you by his spirit.

And so if God has nothing to do with the day-to-day affairs of this world, why would he come to live inside of a Christian?

And why would the Bible say things like, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh?

In other words, there's a way that you can live that doesn't lead to destruction, but it leads to instruction.

It's a different path.

The Bible calls it the path of life.

He says, Well, I guess if you believe that, then that's that's good for you, but I don't believe that.

I said, Okay.

I just I just want to understand, see, I know that you're not a Christian, though you can't agree with the things in the Bible.

Matter of fact, the Bible says that they're foolishness to you, but I want you to know the reason I'm not a deist is because the Spirit of God comes to live inside someone once they become a Christian.

And now, here's and he's like, Well, what does that mean?

I said, here's I could say a lot of theological things.

Here's the simplest way I know to describe it it changes your want-tos.

It just changes your want-tos.

We could talk about, you know, the pneumatology, the theology of pneumatological.

When God, here's how you know God's spirit is inside of you.

You find yourself wanting to do things you've never wanted to do before.

Like go to church.

I'm not kidding.

Some of you are sitting in this room right now.

I mean, and it's because you never thought you'd be in a church.

How many of you at one point in your life, if you look back and remember how you were living, you thought, I would never be here today?

Raise your hand.

Hold it up real high.

Put your hand down.

See, it's just one of those things.

Your want-to's begin to change.

There's something in you that kind of just not only do you want to do things that you haven't wanted to do before, but all of a sudden you want to stop doing things that you don't need to do anymore.

There's something in you just kind of says, you know what?

I need to back off that a little bit.

What is that?

That's the Spirit of God inside of you.

You see it all around you.

But Steven would get up and he would just say, I'm I'm made in the image of God.

Secondly, I'm filled with the Spirit of God, and thirdly, I'm a part of the plan of God.

I'm a part of the plan of God.

Now, if you're part of the plan of God, now this one has wrecked me on more.

I mean, before this week, before I read this and got me to tell myself, uh, but but when you start embracing I'm part of the plan of God, that means you find yourself in situations where you notice something.

You ever notice something that needs to be done?

A thought goes through your mind, is oh, somebody will get it.

Well, I mean, if I saw that, somebody else will see it.

But when you embrace, I'm part of the plan of God, you see things, all of a sudden it's like, hello.

I was telling the first service, I was uh I flew, went to go speak at a spring break camp.

And I flew into Pensacola, Florida, where my in-laws live, and so I always check on them, and then I get a rent car and drive down Highway 98, down the beach road, all the way down to Panama City and stop in little towns and pulled in a convenience store.

They have a Tom Thumbs, what they're called there.

Walked in, and a lady standing there, and she's got a$5 bill sticking up out of her fist like a sword.

And she's just staring.

I don't know if you shop for groceries at a convenience store, but there ain't much in there.

And I just walked by and I parked right next to a woody panel station wagon that had about four little coal miner-looking kids.

Didn't have a shirts on, covered with black soot all over them.

I was like, somebody needs to bathe them kids and whip them.

They need to get lined out here.

And I just walked in, walked past the lady with a diet, got me a diet coke out of the bottom.

And when I walked by, it's kind of like the Holy Spirit said, Hello, there's a burning bush right there.

Got my diet coke, turned around, and all of a sudden I just started walking in mud.

I was like, And clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, Tell her to get whatever you want.

And my first thought was, Well, that's great and good, but who's gonna pay for that?

And I found myself trying to walk by her, and I was just on a I was just on this moving sidewalk that wouldn't move anywhere.

And I was like, get whatever you want.

And she said, I've only got five dollars.

It doesn't matter.

Long story short, I was like, What?

She said, Those are my kids.

I don't get paid about another five or six days, and what do you do?

I think she was a maid at a hotel.

Now ask yourself this question.

When she was in the third grade, the teacher said, Get out your big chief tablet.

You all remember that?

And said, write down a paragraph about what you want to be when you grow up.

You think she wrote, I want to be a single parent with four kids and no money working at a hotel?

See, see, it's one thing to say, I'm a part of the plan of God.

It's another thing to get off your blessed assurance and get in the game.

And so I just said, so we started looking.

You cannot grocery shop at a convenience store.

So I went up there to the lady and I said, Hey, is there she said uh Dale Champs or something, right up the road, about two miles up the road on the right.

And I said, Come on, follow me.

And she's like, Are you really gonna let me follow?

You're not gonna drive off and leave me, are you?

And I'm like, why would I do that?

I don't I don't know.

This is okay.

Go slow, because my car crank that thing up.

I was like, Lord, and she needs a muffler.

Uh got to the grocery store, looked at her, and said, Get whatever you want.

She's like, You don't understand.

Get whatever you want.

I mean, we're like a wagon train shopping carts got up there, and I said, let you scan all this up, and then the kids were standing over there.

You know, they got that mom hater rack of candy, and the kids were all just standing there, pushing to each other.

And I said, Y'all get whatever you want.

They don't need that candy.

You can't come to a grocery store and not get a kid some candy.

Get you some candy.

Meantime, in my mind, I'm thinking, I don't know what these baptists are paying me, but we're gonna burn it up right here, God.

And then kids just started grabbing it, just throwing it at the belt was moving, they just kept piling it up there.

And the lady was checking it out, it was just like, are you serious?

And I said, She goes, Is this your wife and kids?

Yeah, we just dress differently.

I'm rich and they're poor white trash.

Works for us.

By the way, kid didn't have shirts on, not now, one of them.

And I was like, So we loaded it all up, and the lady said, I said, Hey, baggy girl, just roll this this cart guy, he's gonna load you up.

Go out there and load your stuff up.

Just be she goes, I don't know what to say.

Say this there's a God in the world.

And He hadn't forgotten about you.

Tell your kids that tonight.

I was raised by a single mom who should tell us crazy stuff like that.

Better is live with the Lord than to have abundance in the presence of wickedness.

I'd like some hamburger meat and some wickedness, Mom.

I'm tired of eating cans of corn for supper.

See, when you embrace, but when you say, I'm part of the plan of God, then you get yourself in situations and you think, hey, what would God do in this situation?

You can't walk by it and go, I'll be praying for you.

Because the Bible says you don't know God.

Yeah, 1 John chapter 3, about verse 16.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

If he who has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes up his bowels of compassion, how does the love of God dwell in him?

You see, grace, see, apart from grace, we all get it wrong by thinking too much of ourselves or too little of ourselves.

And so I just want all of us, just for the next week, just to get up and say, hey, I'm made in the image of God.

I'm filled with the Spirit of God, and I'm part of the plan of God.

And let's just kind of see what God does.

Not because we're seeking experiences, but because we're seeking to be who the Bible says we are.

The Bible says, think soberly about yourself in accordance or in keeping with the measure of faith.

Think about yourself, what the Bible says is true about yourself.

That's what I'm asking you to do.

Second thing this passage says to us is that grace means I can be me and still belong.

Grace means that I can be me and still belong.

Look at verse 4.

He says, for, as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

If you're married, underline that part right there.

And the members do not all have the same function.

Because when I first got married, my wife would clean the kitchen and I would kind of look at it and think to myself, I wouldn't do it that way.

Thursday, we celebrated 21 years of being married.

When we first got married, I would just kind of say that and just kind of think it, and she'd be like, Is everything okay?

And I'd be like, Yeah, it's good.

It's good.

And so, married about 10 years, and she would, I would kind of look and she'd say, What's the problem?

You got a problem with that?

You now, after 21 years, she's like, hey, before I do anything, you want to do it, so be sure and done right?

Doesn't bother me at all.

Get in there and clean the kitchen, big boy.

I said to my wife one time, hey, do we have granite countertops?

I can't see them anymore.

I thought that would be funny.

That ain't funny.

There's a lot of things I think are funny and they're just not.

Just just wow.

And by the way, my wife's a great homemaker.

She keeps our home immaculate.

I'm just like, hey, but my favorite word in the English language is crisp.

I like nothing to be on the countertops.

My wife, there could be a pound of dead squirrels there.

She wouldn't think a thing about it.

And she said to me finally, she goes, here's the thing you need to understand.

It doesn't bother me.

I'm like, here's the thing you need to understand.

It bothers me.

And she said, Well, here's where we've got to negotiate because this may come as a surprise to you.

And it did.

She said, I love you deeply.

I love you tremendously.

I love who you are.

But there's not been a day of our marriage I've ever wanted to be like you, think like you, clean like you, nothing.

And I remember thinking to myself, well, that's your loss.

But this is why I say, if you're married, underline that.

Why?

Because for it's one body.

We have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

My wife doesn't have to function the way I do.

So we, though many are one body in Christ, and individually we're members one of another.

See, grace means I can be me and still belong.

Because in the church, you can have different and various gifts, different people.

And you can be yourself.

If you're new to this whole Christianity or church thing, don't come here and look around and think, I gotta be like that guy, or I gotta be like that woman, I gotta do that.

No, you be who God's called you to be.

Because the Bible says you have a spiritual gift and you have this capacity to kind of contribute to who God is and what God's doing with by you exercising your gifts, which we'll get to in just a minute.

Let's just break this verse 4 and 5 down in three statements.

He says, For his one body, we have many members.

For his one, we are one body, but we have many members.

You ever wonder how some of the people sitting around you came to be a part of this?

And I don't just mean this church, I mean the body of Christ as a whole.

There's a lady such in our services.

Uh she grew up in Iran.

One day her husband, she was coming from work, her husband said, Don't get a taxi driver.

I'm not safe, get a private driver.

They're more safe.

And she did, and she got God pulls down, taking her home and pulls down this back alley, and she's like, What in the world?

And he says, Isa came to me in a dream.

It's what Muslims call Jesus, is Issa.

Isa came to me in a dream and told me to give you this.

It was a VHS.

Remember those?

Tate.

And it was it was a movie about Jesus.

She came, she watched the thing, came to faith.

Sets in the service, her and her husband.

You say, Well, I'd tell you that.

Because when the Bible says, hey, for we're in one body, we are many members.

You need to know that the members of this place, the people that are part of the body of Christ, they have fascinating stories.

There's a man who goes to this church every Sunday.

He was his first marriage, he was falling apart.

His life was falling apart.

He was driving to the airport and going on a business trip and listening to Christian radio, got so overwhelmed and convicted, he just pulled over on the side of the road and just gave it all to God.

You walked by him this morning already, and you don't even know it.

Why do I tell you that?

Because I want you to know that when the Bible says, for he's in one body, we have many members.

I want you to know that the members of this place, somebody stopped me after the first service and said, Hey, who's that guy that led worship?

That's not Clyde, our normal guy.

That was awesome.

We love that.

We love Clyde, but boy, that was different.

Clyde and his wife had a baby, and uh apparently you need a day off after you have a baby.

I don't know what that's about, but the guy that led you in worship this morning is named Bo Barron.

Bo and his family lived in Reno, Nevada.

Bo has six kids now, something like that.

When we talked about I got a lot of kids, six, and they're all under the like the age of ten.

Get you some of that with your two kids.

It's so overwhelming.

And they don't have cable.

No Disney Channel.

Get you, smoke you some of that.

And at the Reno, Nevada, he had a million-dollar company, and within a matter of months, when the economy tanked, he went bankrupt.

And instead of filing bankruptcy, he worked himself and honored all the contracts and paid all his all his creditors off.

And one day God told him, You need to move your family to Sugarland, Texas.

And he did.

And they live out in East Bernard, they drive 35 minutes to get here.

Some of you live in Great Wood and come down the expressway like, oh, it's nine minutes.

Good Lord.

And there's construction.

Got here, started a company called Radiant Technology Group, installs multimedia projects.

Matter of fact, his company did all this you see up here.

The projectors, the screens, the video wall monitoring, did all that.

One of the hardest working people ever be around.

He's got his home security license now, installs home security systems.

He's getting his electrician's license.

Led you in worship this morning.

You say, Why do you tell us that?

Because the Bible says, for us in one body, we have many members.

And then the members do not all have the same function.

You're not all called to do the same thing.

This is just part of the way he functions.

There's a man in our church that's an accountant at an oil company and gets here early every morning, like 6 30, 6 45, 7 o'clock at the latest, opens up and goes around and picks up trash on all the property.

There's guys that show up and play basketball over here every day and every night.

The sheriff has called me at one in the morning.

Them kids down there playing basketball.

You want me to run them off?

No, we put the goals up for that.

Well, they got their shirts off.

It's okay.

It's okay.

We had a uh we had a little play day here, whatever, and some of the men in this church played basketball and took their shirts off.

That's not okay.

Don't ever do that again.

But then he finishes with this.

He says, and then the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually we're members one of another.

We're linked together.

We're not just individuals bouncing off each other, having shared experiences.

You see, when we say grace means I can be me and still belong, that doesn't just apply to us, that applies to all the people in our city.

That means that people can come and experience the grace of God, something they've never experienced before.

Which is why if you've been here any length of time, you know that we're expanding our campus.

We're looking to start on a new children's building.

Because I don't know if you can remember when Bart was talking, hear that music right there behind you?

Uh that's gonna go away.

Glory to God.

Some of you have been here long enough to remember when the students are right up there and they drop pool balls on the concrete, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

We don't hear that anymore, do we?

No.

And so we practice full disclosure, and so I'm gonna give you an update on the children's building.

So if you're a guest or a visitor, just relax.

No one's talking to you.

But we don't, we're an elder-led church, and this uh somebody asked me just about eight days ago, maybe.

I I was ran into a guy in a coffee shop and he said, Hey, I hear y'all are looking at building a children's building.

I said, Yeah, and he said, Man, what are you doing over there?

Not much.

It's the people.

He said, No, but I said, No.

And if I've met you, greeted you, you've been a visitor, you're new to our church, you've heard me say, hey, the best part about this church is the people.

Because when the people, when everyone does their part, we say grace means I can be me and still belong, that doesn't just apply to us, that applies to everybody else.

And so we're turning people away from children's ministry events because we don't have the space.

And so uh there's some smart people in this church called the financial oversight team and the elders, and they've been working on this.

And let me just tell you where we are.

We built the the the warehouse, which is our student ministry building back there, and the note on that is$16,000 a month.

That's what we owe every month.

The bank says you've got to pay this much because this church is very generous and we've been strategic and positioning ourselves, we pay$24,000 every month.

Because we believe in manageable debt, not crippling debt.

We're not gonna stop supporting Bart Cardi and missionaries, everybody else.

We're gonna keep doing all that stuff.

And we're also gonna make a dedicated design space for our children's ministry.

So, the new note on both buildings, and we'll roll what we owe on that building into the new note, and the note, the monthly debt will be between 24-6 and 27-1.

And now, if you're a business person, you're thinking right now, who enters into something not having firm fixed numbers?

Here's why that is what it is.

Because when you start construction on a project, you don't pay the note, you just pay the interest on the money that you draw.

And so our our our payment will go down.

We'll just continue to save money because what we want to do is we want to pay for as much of it out of pocket as we go.

We want to save money so that before we start, we finalize the no.

Because when you put together that building back there and the new children's ministry building, add it all together, it's about five million dollars.

That's if we did nothing.

That's what it would be right there.

It would be the 27-1.

But we're not called to do nothing, right?

And so that's not, we're not gonna sit around and do nothing.

So from now to the end of December, we all have an opportunity to give towards this, and the more we give, the more we reduce the overall note, the monthly payment goes down.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Because we practice full disclosure here.

We don't a bunch of people get in a room and figure everything out because it's not my church, it's our church.

We're the church.

So when the Bible comes along and says, hey, for as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

So we, though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.

If we're members one of another, this is us.

This is where we are as a church, okay?

Now, you can look at that and kind of go, whoa! It's like I said earlier, everything's an elephant until you cut it into smaller pieces.

And then it becomes dinner.

Our desire, our plan is to pay as much as we can, save as much as we can over the course of this year.

And then go when the banker says, Oh, you ready to start the terms of the note?

Well, we've been kind of praying and obeying, and we want to put this against it, and then it's not near as much.

After our service, myself and some of our elders will be available down front.

If you have any questions or concerns, or hey, if you're a business person, you're wondering about debt to equity ratio and all that kind of stuff.

Our property here is worth$12 million.

And so if we do when we do this, we'll we'll have, you know, worst case scenario five, hopefully less than that, because we've been paying as we go this whole calendar year.

Okay?

Enough numbers that wears me out.

But I just want to wait, we're not afraid to talk about that.

That's just where we are.

We need a dedicated design space.

And we believe this is the most uh the best stewardship to go about that.

Would we love to be debt-free?

Absolutely.

If you can write a check for five million, we'll stop right now.

But I have a mortgage on my house I pay every month.

And so it's hypocritical for me to stand up here and I have a mortgage and say, you shouldn't have one.

I can't in good conscience do that.

So that's why we don't do that.

We believe in manageable debt, and it's managed by all of us together doing our part.

Okay?

Let's do the third point and be done.

You still with me?

All right.

Third point it says grace expresses itself in different ways.

You say, what do you mean?

Look at verse 6.

Look what the Bible says.

He says, having gifts that differ according to the grace that's given to us.

And did you hear that?

Having gifts that differ according to the grace that's given to us.

In other words, grace doesn't always express itself the same way.

He says, Let us use them.

Underline those four words.

Let us use them.

If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts and is exhortation, the one who contributes or gives in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

Now, he lists out there seven spiritual gifts.

Four of them are considered what's called speaking gifts, and three of them are considered service gifts.

You say, What do you mean?

There's a gift of prophecy, there's a gift of service, there's a gift of teaching.

When he says the one who teaches and is teaching, you say, Well, what does that mean?

Uh, my friend Tommy Hammer, right over here, I believe, has a spiritual gift of teaching.

If you're part of the joy class, it meets out in the warehouse.

And oh, by the way, when we get this building built, the joy class will now meet in the fellowship hall back here, so we'll have a ground level access for everyone to be.

And that'll be yours every Sunday.

That won't change.

We don't move you around because we want to inconvenience you.

We move you around because we've got to make room for what God's doing here.

But when the children's building comes online, that will be uh the joy class will meet there, and also the women's Bible study will meet there on Wednesday nights.

Because I got women, we don't have a Bible study.

Easy, relax.

Not everybody at once.

But everybody doesn't have the same gift, but the gift of teaching, the one who exhorts and exhortation, the one who contributes.

Some translations say the one who gives in generosity, the one who leads.

And so you got the gift of teaching, you got the gift of exhortation, you have the gift of giving, you got the gift of leadership, and the gift of mercy.

Now you say, what do you mean the gift of giving?

That's right.

One of the spiritual gifts the Bible teaches is giving.

Everybody doesn't have that gift.

I don't think I have that gift.

That doesn't mean I don't give.

I have a friend who has the spiritual gift of giving.

He will tell you, I go to work to make money so I can leverage the kingdom of God coming through my church.

And that's what he does.

He's very good at what he does, he's a very good businessman, but he loves to give money away.

When you're talking to him, if you mention a need, I can't mention a need when I'm with him because he'll meet it.

If he says, How are you doing?

Oh, we're doing good.

You know, Marcy's van's 10 years old.

We're thinking about trading it in.

His wills just start turning.

So I learned a long time ago, I don't mention anything about need around him.

Because it's just like breathing to him.

He's not flamboyant with it.

He just is kind of like, there's a need, I can meet that.

He prays about it.

That's his spiritual gift.

A lot of people's life doesn't make sense unless you understand their spiritual gift, how God wired them up.

Now, I say all this to finish with this last question.

When's the last time you used your spiritual gift?

When is the last time you used your spiritual gift?

And here's why I ask that, because inherent in that question is you understanding what it is.

Now, if you say, I I've never never done that.

Our next introduction class, if you're visiting our church, we have what's called an introduction class, which where it's one of those steps in the process of membership where you kind of find out what we're about, what our core beliefs are, what what our values are.

And that doesn't mean we automatically join.

It just means, hey, we want you to know.

But as a part of that, right after that, it's the next step class, what we do is we give you a spiritual gifts assessment.

We want you to understand what your gift is.

Like, for example, my friend Tommy's is teaching, uh probably some exhortation in there.

One of my primary gifts is prophecy.

I'm very black and white.

I don't have a problem just saying, well, here's the deal.

Uh and that doesn't mean I can't do without mercy, but it also says on there, it ends, and he says, hey, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

Why?

Because people that have the gift of mercy can get worn out.

And you see someone coming for the 14th time, you think, Let me guess, you need more mercy.

He says, Hey, the one who has mercy with cheerfulness.

I don't have the same gift as everybody.

There's a lady in our church that's over our luncheon for the Cardies here after our next service.

I mean, she's got this great administrative kind of thing.

Came up to me last week with a notebook, opened it up, and said, These are our tablescapes.

No, they're not.

This is gonna be our centerpiece.

We're gonna have burlap in this fabric.

I don't care, not in this life or any other life I'll ever live.

Will I care about that?

That's the prophet.

Just bam, there you go.

Now, if you're a stranger, I wouldn't say that to you.

I know this lady.

She's trying to make me get interested in this.

I'm never gonna be interested in that.

My wife can scold me when I get home.

I'm not coming back next week and apologizing, because men don't care about that.

All men care about is is there enough pulled pork and brisket at this thing?

That's all we care about.

See?

You need the prophet telling the truth in here, setting people free.

But guess what?

After I'm done preaching this next time, I'll walk down there and it'll all be set up.

It'll be beautiful.

And there'll be food and shove it laid out.

I guarantee you, she's had a flow chart.

She's got a floor plan of that thing, and it's and I'm just like, whatever floats your boat, you crazy freak.

But guess what?

She doesn't have my gift.

And she doesn't want my gift, and I don't want hers.

Ask yourself this question: what is your spiritual gift?

Or excuse me, when's the last time you used your spiritual gift?

Because the church really begins to move out in power when everybody uses their spiritual gift.

And stand to your feet if you would.

Hold your hands out, we'll just speak a blessing over you.

Your generous God has given you the greatest thing he could ever give you.

Himself.

He's never gonna change his mind.

And grace says you don't have to change your mind.

But you do have to make your mind up.

Let Grace make your mind up for you this week.

Depart now.

And be who the Bible says you are in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

You dismiss.