"Made for More Than Me" (Romans 12:3-6, Pastor Dan)

Praise God.

God is good.

Amen.

All the time God is good.

Hey, we are embarking on a series for the next four weeks on community.

And when we refer to community, we are referring to the fellowship of the saints in the body of Christ.

We know that there's local bodies of Christ all over the world.

Amen?

There are local bodies meeting together.

And if you're here today and you come on a regular basis, you have chosen this local assembly as your church, your body of Christ, the family of God that you want to be a part of.

And we're so grateful and thankful for it.

And we're glad you're here today.

We are going to turn to Romans chapter 12, and we're going to read the first verses 3 to 6.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 12, 3 to 6.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And Romans chapter 12, 3 to 6 reads like this.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

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.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We know that it is truth.

We know that it doesn't fail.

We understand it has no error.

We believe fully that it was written by the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit moved upon men over the centuries to bring this word of God to us.

So when we read the word of God, it says in your word that your word will not return void.

So when we speak the word of God today, we just pray, Lord, that you touch us, that you minister to us, that you speak to us, because we need your truth in this day of deceit and this day of error, this day of falsehood.

And we give you praise for the word of truth.

We thank you, Lord, that you said, sanctify your word, for your word is truth.

And we pray you sanctify it to us today in Jesus' wonderful name.

Amen and amen.

You know, we sang about the fact that we ventured out in our sinful nature to try and find satisfaction and fulfillment in this life.

And we know that all of our fulfillment, all of our satisfaction is never, never, never, never fulfilled if we try to apply this world's goods, relationships towards our own selfishness.

Amen.

Your self cannot be satisfied or fulfilled.

It never, never, never will be.

For we were created to have a relationship with God.

We were created to have this wonderful, intimate, personal relationship with God where God fills every void in our heart.

Amen.

Where God fills every emptiness, where God comes into the hollowness and the shallowness of our life and brings us joy, brings us peace, brings us life.

And we come to the realization that God is a God that loves relationships.

Amen.

That loves seeking after you.

We know that God is the seeking Savior.

Amen.

How many know and have experienced that God hunted you down, man?

He hunted you down.

You tried hiding.

You tried hiding in your sin.

You tried hiding in your selfishness, but God broke through, and his love was so great that he ministered his grace and his love to us.

And we finally accepted him as Lord and Savior of our lives and has have experienced this forgiveness that has come because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all unrighteousness.

And now we stand in the very presence of God, the righteousness of God, and we are in wonder and awe, aren't we?

Wonder and awe of this wonderful relationship that God has given to us.

We know that God is a seeking God, and God wants us to come to Him.

Listen to Matthew 11, 28 to 30 says, Come to me.

This is Jesus.

All you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Jesus says, Come.

Jesus says, Come.

He not only says come, he came.

Amen.

Stepped off his throne in glory, majesty, and splendor, to be the suffering servant, the man of sorrows, the lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world, so that we could be saved, redeemed, pardoned, forgiven, and in right relationship with God.

Amen to Jesus.

Amen.

We praise God for him.

But he says, come, we believe many things that over time there are many things that we believe that kind of lose impact, doesn't it?

It kind of loses its passion, it kind of loses its meaning.

And this is the idea that God wants to have a relationship with us, an intimate personal relationship.

Jesus says here, learn of me, don't just learn about me, right?

And how many believers, how many Christians, how many people that are in church today are looking for an intellectual knowledge of God, but never want to surrender their heart to the Lord?

They never want to set Jesus Christ up as Lord and Savior, but they'll learn all about Him, all the doctrine, all the teachings of Jesus, but never say Jesus Christ is Lord.

And this is what God is calling to us today.

God wants to have a relationship with us.

He's created us for a relationship, not for an intellectual apprehension of doctrine or a creed.

Amen.

Learn of me.

Sit at the Savior's feet.

Sit at Christ's feet and learn of me.

Jesus wants us to come to Him, not to come to a Sunday school class, not to come to a creed or doctrine alone.

Come to know Him, whom to know is life eternal.

We were created for a relationship with God and with one another.

Christianity was never meant to be lived alone or on our own.

Amen.

Now, when you look to the early church, they were meeting every day in houses.

They met at the temple.

For a while there, there were rented rooms that they met.

They were excited about getting together because they knew that they were the body of Christ.

Amen?

And the body of Christ needs to meet together.

The body of Christ needs to get together.

The body of Christ has to operate as the body of Christ ministering to this world and ministering to the church.

You are the body of Christ.

Thank you for that, Mark.

Appreciate that.

God created us for a relationship.

Genesis 2.18 says, it's not good that man should be alone.

And you know that this was shared and this was spoken before sin entered the world, showing us that isolation was never part of God's original plan, was never part of God's design.

But you know what?

What does the enemy want you to do?

Isolate yourself.

Amen.

He wants you to be alone.

He wants you to feel that loneliness and that hurt and that abandonment because he's the slanderer and he's the accuser.

But Jesus says, Come, amen.

Come.

The greatest thing that we can do if we have sin in our lives is run to the feet of Jesus where you'll receive forgiveness, where you'll receive this cleansing, and you'll receive this wonderful sense that I am a child of God.

Amen?

A son and daughter of God.

From the beginning, we were created for a relationship with God.

Do you know that God walked among with Adam and Eve in the garden?

Can you believe that one?

Now we've seen many beautiful gardens, but I wonder what the Garden of Eden looked like.

Probably a little better than the botanical gardens of South Buffalo.

Amen.

God was so intimate.

God desired this relationship.

And do you think he had a need that needed to be fulfilled by creating us?

No.

It's his character in nature to love.

His character in nature is to call us to be included.

Amen?

To call us to himself.

God created us for relationship.

We often think of community as simply a church program, but community was God's idea.

Long before there was a church building or a Sunday service or a soup Sunday, amen, or a potluck dinner, there was this idea of community, of fellowship, of koinonia, this common bond, spiritual bond of brothers and sisters in Christ, serving him and loving him and loving each other.

If God said it was not good for Adam to be alone in a perfect garden, how much more do we need one another in a broken world?

We need one another.

Amen?

You are not perfect, I am not perfect.

This world is not perfect, but we serve a perfect Savior and a perfect God that matures us and grows us and brings us health, brings us comfort, brings us peace.

God created us for relationship.

Relationships are hard.

Amen?

Mawage, mowage is hard, isn't it?

When you enter into this deep relationship of marriage, it's a it's a it's a it's a ministry of giving over yourself to another individual.

And isn't that what Jesus did for us?

Amen?

His church is the bride.

He gave himself over to us.

100% gave out of his heart and died for us.

So God created us for a relationship.

God himself is relational.

Let's turn over to John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

And we'll read verse 20 to 24.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you.

Did you catch what we just read?

Now I'm a little simple, so I'm going to read it again for myself, okay?

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one.

I in them, you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me.

See, there's that there's that desire relationship, amen.

Where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

God is calling us to come into this wonderful relationship of the oneness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine the awesome privilege of coming into this relationship of oneness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?

Amen.

What a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing.

God didn't create us because he was lonely.

He always existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in this love fest, in this union of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Through Christ, we are no longer outsiders.

Amen?

We are no longer orphans, we are no longer abandoned, we are no longer in the darkness, but Jesus in the dark of night came and rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and brought us into this kingdom of light.

We are invited and have been invited into God's family.

Amen.

Wow.

What a beautiful, beautiful thought.

The gospel is God's invitation to come near, not just to know about him, but to know him and belong to him.

When we belong to Christ, we belong to one another.

So tough cookies.

We're gonna have to deal with each other.

Amen.

We belong to each other.

Do you know that some of the greatest growth spurts and health in my life has come when I've been offended by someone in the church, or I have been irritated by someone in the church, or I have been annoyed by someone in the church, and it happens a lot, people.

All of you are annoying and irritating, okay?

It happens a lot.

But you know what?

If you're a believer, I irritate you too.

Did somebody say that?

Listen.

This is the beauty of it.

What the enemy wants us to do, like he did in the garden, is for us to focus on ourselves and our hurt and our offense.

But guess what?

You irritate me, I gotta ask God, why am I irritated, God?

Why can't I love this person?

Why can't I forgive this person?

Amen?

Jesus said, learn of me.

And if I want to be if I want to learn of him and have him in my life, if someone offends me, I forgive them because forgives.

Amen?

If someone doesn't love me, says harsh words against me, I speak gentleness and kindness to them in the grace of the Lord Jesus.

Because guess what?

In all of your sin, Christ spoke grace into your heart and in your life, who is the judge.

Some of the greatest moments in my life have been when people spoke things into my life that I thought was wrong, but when you when you take them to the Lord, they were right.

Somebody came up to me once and said, You're the most prideful person that I've ever met.

And I said to them, You've just hurt my pride.

You know?

But you know what?

Instead of saying that, or well, I'm humble but proud of it.

You know?

What I did was I took it to the Lord and said, Lord, is there any kind of pride in me?

That kind of seeps out in the little crack that this person sees.

If there is, I humble myself before the Lord.

Amen?

Because pride comes before destruction in a haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride will disenchantize you, this disenfranchise you, disengage you from the promises and the passions and the presence of the Lord.

Pride is a killer, amen.

And then what the enemy wants to do is he wants to bring disunity among us by separating us with little grudges and little complaints.

And oh, that person, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Oh, yeah, look at yourself, will you?

Amen.

Look at yourself.

Look how you fall, look how you're weak, look how you judge.

And if we all do this together by submitting to one another and honor one another, right?

Bless one another.

We can grow in this oneness that Jesus Christ is talking about.

Man, he's up on the cross.

What did he say?

Father, forgive them.

For they know not what they do.

What a God we serve.

And guess what?

That God dwells inside of you.

Amen.

And inside of me, the Holy Spirit, the very person of God, the Holy Spirit dwells within us and He's sanctifying us.

Some of the greatest moments in my life of a greater revelation of Jesus has because someone irritated me or annoyed me or offended me.

So this week, if somebody offends you, look at your heart.

Amen.

And say, God, you forgave me of all of my sins.

I can forgive this person and love on this person with your grace and with your passion and with the wonder of who you are.

So Christianity is not simply Jesus and me.

You know, there's a lot of people that come to Christ because they treat him like a like a rabbit's foot.

Right?

They treat him like a motivational speaker.

I go to Jesus because I want to be encouraged and strengthened.

Yeah.

And I want to be all that I can be as me.

And that is the wrong attitude, friends.

You weren't born by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God for you.

You were born for the glory of God.

Amen.

You were born again to live your life to the glory of God and magnify his name.

Give him honor.

Trust in him and love him.

Shine your light before men that they'll see the glory of the Lord and the good works and call God their Father.

Amen.

This is a beautiful, beautiful revelation, friend.

It's not Jesus and you, it's Jesus, the church, and you are a part of the body of Christ.

You're here because of each other.

You're here today because of one another.

Amen.

You're here today because God wants to bless you as you bless others.

How many know the greatest blessings in your life, friends, have been because you decided to bless somebody else, right?

You've decided to give up yourself to somebody else.

Where does joy come in?

The Bible says that Jesus experienced his greatest joy by doing the will of him, the Father who sent him.

And what was that joy?

Death, pain, suffering, humiliation.

And he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might be the righteousness of God.

That was his joy.

What's your joy today?

Winning the lottery?

Getting that new car?

Finally getting that boyfriend and girlfriend that you've been hunting down, stalking?

No.

It's finding your joy in Christ.

Amen.

Whatever comes because of your relationship with Christ, you say, God, all things work together for good to those that love you.

Called according to your purpose.

Love for God, service to God, living your life for God, ministry of the Holy Spirit.

We all have different gifts, backgrounds, and personalities, don't we?

Man, are we so different?

So different.

But yet in every instance of a testimony of Christ, Christ can be glorified through it.

He takes us from the darkest abyss and out of the ashes.

Amen?

He brings this beautiful creation of God's glory because of his mercy and of his grace and of his truth that he gives to us, and it is awesome.

We have one Savior who has made us into one family and one body.

First Corinthians 12, 7 to 11 says this.

7 to 14.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Now, like I said, I'm a simple tan.

I'm going to read that again for myself.

Amen.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for my selfish inclinations and satisfactions.

No.

For the common good of the body of Christ.

Amen.

Verse 11.

All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions or gives out to each one individually as he wills.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body.

Jews, Greeks, blacks, whites, slaves, free, all who were made to drink of one spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member, but of many.

I love watching my son eat because he eats a lot.

I call him the beast now.

He thinks he can take me.

And you know what?

He's right.

He can.

But he's taken on a characteristic that uh that I've given to him is that when I eat, my whole body is engaged in putting that food into my mouth and enjoying it.

Amen?

Every part of my body is engulfed eating this food and digesting it and enjoying it.

And this is how the body of Christ operates.

Each one of you should have this wonderful sense that when you hear the word of God, you understand it as the truthful, right, just word of God, and you will obey the word of God in everything because you are no longer the Lord of your life, it's Jesus Christ.

Amen?

And Jesus Christ is the word, and when he speaks to us, we digest the word of God, and we allow the word of God to change us and transform us, each of us.

And when we live our life out for the glory of God, obeying God in our attitude, in our actions, in our behaviors, it brings this wonderful.

Contagious atmosphere of surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord.

Amen?

And when we claim him as Lord, what did he say?

You lift me up, and I will draw all men to myself.

What a beautiful God we serve.

You cannot fully embrace the head who is Christ while continually rejecting your part in the body of Christ.

Amen?

You've got a part in the body of Christ.

This is what we just read.

Every single one of you has been graced by the power of the Holy Spirit and is able to minister here in the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians chapter 12 gets into this idea that I don't need praise, I don't need adoration, I don't need honor just because I'm up here and I'm yapping my mouth off to you the word of God.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

We need to give praise and honor to those that are lowly.

Amen?

We need to give praise and honor for Edith Hoffler, who has gone to be with the Lord.

That great lady.

Every time you ask her what her age is, she says, sweet 16.

She has been has gone to be with the Lord.

And I miss her hugs and her saying, I care for you.

I care for you.

She is with Jesus.

And I cry because we are left here.

Amen.

Oh, what a great God we serve.

One day we'll all be together.

And that is beautiful.

You cannot fully embrace the head who is Christ, but continually rejecting your part in the body of Christ.

You are the body of Christ.

Now you can be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, but his desire is that we operate as the body of Christ.

Every part of the body working together.

When your body one of your body parts fails, talking to a lot of older guys, you know, I've just noticed now that when I go to Tim Hortons, there's a lot of senior citizens in there, man.

I don't know if you've noticed it.

But we have our aches and we have our pain.

We understand physically when a body part is not working, it brings harm, injury.

It's a sign of breaking down.

And when one of our members does not operate in the grace and the love in the Lord Jesus Christ, honoring Christ, there's a breakdown in the unity of the body of Christ.

Let's embrace the head who is Christ.

And Ephesians 4 tells us that we are filled with Him.

Amen.

We are filled with Him, and the filling of God from the head flows into every ligament and every joint.

And we grow and we become healthy because every one of you has this union and this wonderful, wonderful attachment to the head who is Jesus.

He's the head of your life.

Amen.

The Lord of your life today.

We are better together.

Ecclesiastes chapter four.

Let's flip over there.

Ecclesiastes chapter four.

And we'll read from verse nine.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.

But woe to him woe to him who is alone when he falls, and has not another to lift him up.

Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him.

A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Amen.

Galatians chapter six.

Let's turn over there.

Galatians chapter six.

Verse one.

Brothers and sisters, if anyone is caught in any transgression, judge them, break them, kick them out of the church.

No.

But I say, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you know, it's funny because we laugh, but how many people are broken because there's judgment against our fellow brothers and sisters and not a willingness to go and humble yourself and help people out in their sin.

Amen?

We judge.

And we say, look at that loser.

That's not how we operate at Still City Church, friends.

And we're going to read what we should do right here in Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

Brothers and sisters, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a gentle, in a spirit of gentleness.

Amen?

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

But let each one test his own work.

And then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

What that means is lots of times when we see people fail, we say, Look at that failure, and look how holy I am.

That's not Christian, and that's not the Lord's character in nature, is it?

We follow up with people.

We weep with those who weep.

We take joy with those who take joy, for each one will have to bear his own load.

The Bible says that we bear one another's burdens.

Amen?

Logs in a fire, we burn stronger together.

You take an ember or a log out of the fire, soon it dies.

We need to stick together in the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Amen?

Let the fire of the Holy Spirit burn us with passion.

Let his presence mold us and shape us and do everything we can to include the broken, include those that are in sin, include those that need a loving hand or a smile or someone to come up alongside of them.

Sometimes you carry someone else's faith, and sometimes someone else's faith carries you.

Amen.

How many times have you been broken?

It seems like you got no faith.

There's depression and anxiety.

You feel the oppression of the enemy upon you, but someone comes along and gives you a nice embrace.

Praise over you.

Amen.

Says we're gonna make it together.

That's exactly what the Holy Spirit is, friend.

The paraclete comes up alongside of you, gives you a hug, and says, We're gonna make it.

As I sanctify you and make you holy, we're gonna make it.

We were created to belong to God.

We are his.

We've been bought with a price.

Amen.

The ransom has been paid.

We are his and his alone.

But guess what?

We belong to each other.

Amen?

We belong to each other and we watch out for each other.

We are the family of God.

Have you been trying to live the Christian life alone or on your own?

Don't do it.

Get together with the body of Christ.

Have you been living your life in ministry as a member of His body?

When you come to church, it's not all about receiving, it's about ministering to the body of Christ through the giftings that you have been given.

A lot of our answers, friends, a lot of our questions, a lot of our problems are solved.

When we get out of ourselves and we start loving one another.

Amen?

Loving one another, serving one another, being there for each other.

Even when you don't feel like it, you're loving somebody else.

And this is the paradox of our Christian faith.

What you need, you give away, and the more fill in the flow of the Holy Spirit comes.

Amen.

If you need love today, start loving somebody.

If you need forgiveness today, forgive others.

Amen.

If you need some cash, start giving it away.

Amen.

And see the Lord bless you.

See the Lord prosper you.

Friends, the greatest revelation that we can have is that each one of us here is a part of the body of Christ.

We protect each other, we provide for each other, we serve each other, we submit to one another, we honor one another, and we love one another and we accept one another.

Amen?

And that's the quest that God has for us as the body of Christ.

He wants to see this body grow, not just in numbers, but in a deeper discipleship, making Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you're offended this week, check your heart.

If somebody says some rough stuff against you, check your heart.

Forgive.

Love.

Give.

Serve the Lord with a passion that only He can give you as you move in the power of the Holy Spirit this week.

Good to be in the house of the Lord.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's pray.

God, we love you today.

We thank you for this wonderful fact that you created us for a relationship, that you yourself are relational.

God, we love you.

We belong to you.

We thank you that you've claimed us as your sons and daughters.

And friends, as we look around, God, we we see each other.

We belong to each other.

We're family.

We're the body of Christ.

And everyone in this building today that knows Christ has been graced and gifted by the power of the Holy Spirit and minister and love and serve.

And Lord, we are better together.

Lord, when I fail, when I'm weak, somebody comes along and encourages me, builds me up with Scripture, builds my life up with prayer.

So our prayer today, oh Lord, is will not let offense or complaining or grumbling come into our heart, but it will allow the Spirit of the living God to mold us and shape us to be like Christ and operate in this wonderful spirit of gentleness with each other.

In the wonderful name, we give Him praise.

Let's worship the Lord now first.