Members of One Another

This morning we're going to be looking at uh what it means to be members of one another.

Uh, and and this text is so uh important because we we have to understand something really clear.

What the culture is going to get you convinced of is that everything's about you.

Right?

Uh the culture is working relentlessly uh for you to think about yourself over all others uh because uh because the promotion of self-care, the promotion of uh of self-brand and self-image, the promotion of all these self-centered uh uh things is vying for your attention and trying to convince you that everything is about you.

And that's the mantra of our entire culture at this point in time.

If you want to know the anthem of society, it's if I'm not happy, something's wrong.

Or if I'm not happy, this is bad.

We find this in all kinds of different situations.

In fact, if we look at one of the leading uh uh thinkers uh when it comes to infanticide and abortion, uh he's at least consistent because he says this ultimately what happens is if the parents aren't happy, they should be able to kill the baby.

That's where he resolves.

And he's at least consistent.

He does it, he acknowledges that they're human beings, he acknowledges that there's life inside the womb, he acknowledges all these things, but he resolves on if the parents aren't happy, kill it.

But don't we do that with all kinds of things in our life, right?

If I'm not happy, kill it.

If I'm not the one that's being benefited in this, kill whatever's causing that in my life.

We're members of one another.

Shocker, this ain't about you.

This is about Jesus and his gospel.

This is about the mission of his kingdom, this is about us laying our lives down in the way that Christ Himself laid his life down for us that we might have eternal blessing in relationship and communion with him.

How dare we not work to model the heart and posture of our Savior Himself, who counted everything as lost so that he might gain us.

That's not what the culture is going to tell you.

You see, we're members of one another.

Paul works in Romans 12 to help us understand that orthodoxy uh creates uh uh orthopraxy, right?

So, what we mean by this is that right thinking or right belief, orthodoxy, creates orthopraxy or right practice.

And so as we transition out of the first 11 chapters of Romans, which was just this huge doctrinal dump of uh anthropology, what is the nature of man and who what is their relationship like to God and with one another?

Uh, soteriology, how are we saved?

And how does that uh sovereignty of God and human will interact with one another to be able to understand the salvation of the Lord?

We we go through these weighty doctrinal uh realities all through uh the first 11 chapters of Roman, and then Paul ends chapter 11 with what?

This doxological phrase, this worshipful response of the majesty and sovereignty of God in all things, that there's nothing outside of God's grasp to declare as his own possession.

And Paul responds with worship.

How good is God, how majestic are his ways, how inscrutable and unsearchable are his means.

God is holy.

And so now, what's interesting about the beginning of chapter 12 is Paul ends chapter 11 with this worshipful response of the sovereignty of God and his majesty and grandeur and glory, and then he calls us to do what?

Worship with him.

Paul calls us to worship with him.

The very first thing in chapter 12 he says, now you got to get some stuff right.

Now that we've got your right thinking, let's work on your right practice.

And the initial response to all of this doctrine, of all of this revelation of who God is and what he's done for us in Christ, should be a life of worship.

That's what we talked about last week, and that that process starts with the renewing of your mind.

Be renewed in your mind, transformed in your mind, so we might know and be able to discern what is the will of God for us in our life, which we we kind of understand the will of God for your life is to love Jesus and obey him.

It's really simple.

We all kind of search, what is God's will for my life?

What is God's will for my life?

Look, do you love Jesus?

Are you obeying him?

You're you're living out God's will.

It's beautiful.

How simple it is.

You see, we've been shown the mystery and majesty of the gospel.

We've been able to understand rightly who we are in relationship to God and to one another, and so now the call is then worship.

Our response to this is a life of worship.

And it's a beautiful transition of Paul's doxology, his worshipful phrasing at the end of chapter 11 to call us now to live doxologically also.

Because all of life is worship.

That's the thing, we kind of get this misunderstood in church culture where we we call this worship music, it's not.

We we call this a worship team, they're not.

We we call this worship like categorically of this time and place and this atmosphere and these words and these music.

This is what worship is.

No, how you spend your money is worship, how you work faithfully underneath your employer is worship.

How you uh live with your spouse and children is worship.

All of these things are worship because it is a life of worship.

That's why we call this a responsive arts team.

Because they're not worship team.

They're not this is worship.

Preaching the word, exalting the majesty and glory of Christ, the way that we greet people at the front door, that's worship.

The way that our kids workers get down on the floor and play with our children, that's worship.

They're helping us respond faithfully to the gospel by theologically rich and robust music so that we might rightly understand and know God even through song, but it's not worship in this isolated reality.

It's an expression of worship, but it and of itself is not so.

You see, if we are to live doxologically, then we're to live a life completely of worship.

And this is the reality of us.

There's not a conscious choice to start living worshipfully.

You live worshipfully whether you consciously make the choice of who or what you will worship ever.

Every single aspect of our lives is a response to worship.

Again, when we talk about the way we spend our money, the way we live amongst our neighbors and family, the way that we uh work under employment, all these things we have to realize we are serving in worshipful ways either the true and living God or false gods and idols that we've fabricated in our own heart.

But we are responding in worship constantly.

And so the question isn't how do we become worshipers?

The question then becomes how do we become faithful worshipers to the only true and living triune God?

You see, we're going to see how a life of worship is actually rooted in identity.

Identity plays a major part in our worship.

Who we are, the culture and context we've been living in, uh the value structures and systems that we've found ourselves raised under, uh, that plays a huge part in our understanding of worship.

Identity is, I would argue, the main thrust of our understanding of worship.

Who we are informs who or what we worship.

And we see this played throughout the text, through throughout the entire scriptures, right?

What is God constantly doing to Israel in the OT, in the Old Testament?

He's constantly saying, no, that's not who you are.

You're not them of the pagan people, you're not them of these other nations and these other kingdoms.

You are my people.

You are called by my name.

I have marked you as my own possession.

Therefore you shall worship rightly.

Tear down the false gods, destroy the false idols and altars that you have built to them.

Worship rightly.

Why?

Because you're my people.

See, identity is rooted in our worship.

Or our worship is rooted in our identity.

God constantly keeps telling us, quit worshiping those false gods and idols, because that's not who you are.

You're my people.

And so now, if the call to live a life of worship is going to be made, it has to be established first and foremost in a place of identity.

And that's exactly what Paul's going to do.

Paul's going to say, look, I've been working with you through 11 chapters to help you understand.

It's not about whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, it's not about anything that you bring to the table of your salvation.

It's about nothing but God's mercy and grace.

And he is making a people who were called not my people.

He's bringing them into his own possession and identifying them with himself.

And where does Paul immediately go into?

You are members of the body of Christ.

That's identity.

So that we might worship rightly.

You see, he's making appeal here in verses uh at the beginning of chapter three, or sorry, verse three.

Uh if we look at verse three alone, getting ahead of myself, what we'll do is we'll say this, we'll summarize verse three like this.

Humility is rooted in grace.

Here's where Paul's going to help us understand this.

Humility is rooted in grace.

Paul's making an appeal to the Christians in Rome as he's writing them.

He says, I appeal to you now, therefore, brothers, right?

By the grace given to me.

What Paul's talking about in that grace, he's saying it's my apostleship.

But he understands something very unique.

He has an office of authority, seated as an apostle among the church of God, yet he recognizes he's going to put forward first, not the title of his office, but that it's been given to him by grace.

I love that about what how Paul's setting the table for us to come and eat this morning.

He's saying, Look, I could, if I wanted to, uh, call upon my apostleship and just come out and say it straight up, but I don't need to, because what I'm going to help you understand is that even who I am and where I see myself within the church, or where I'm seated within the church, is done by grace and grace alone.

Because what Paul's doing is he's modeling humility.

I'm going to appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the grace given to me.

I say to everyone.

It's an appeal based upon his apostleship, apostleship, of which he is one by grace.

What is his appeal?

If he's going to make this appeal to them, it's this not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

This is Paul's appeal that he's making to his writers right now.

Uh, and this is kind of an interesting thing for him to do, right?

A seemingly strange appeal uh because of the content that we just came from, right?

He's he worked in the last couple of chapters to help us understand Israel's relationship with God, our relationship as Gentiles to Israel, what does that mean for salvation and the redemptive history of the church?

And then all of a sudden he's gonna say, hey, look, don't think of yourself too highly.

But this is something that he's actually been using throughout the whole book.

He constantly uh has appealed to our pride.

Right?

When he talked about how the Gentiles are being brought in, he said, now, uh-uh-uh, in case you think of yourself too highly, let's lower that pride a little bit down.

Why?

Because it's by grace, it's not by anything that you've done, it's by grace that you're being brought in, grafted into the tree, so that you might receive the salvation of the Lord.

Don't get too prideful on that.

You ain't done nothing to earn this or merit this, right?

He does the same thing with the Israelites of whom he's writing to, Israelite believers.

He constantly pleads or appeals to the propensity to have pride, being puffed up.

Now he's gonna look at it in the context of a worship life in the midst of the body of Christ.

You see, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

What Paul is setting up for us is this the proper posture for proper worship is lowly.

Proper posture for proper worship is lowly.

You see, our worship is informed by our view of ourself.

That's where it's gonna start.

Our view of ourself is gonna inform how we worship.

Because when we understand it by grace, when we understand that we've merited nothing of our own, when we abandon any self-boasting or something that we can make claim to and hold on to as our own uh workings and strivings, it's going to great, greatly reduce our worship.

We have to look at that all of this is by grace alone.

All of this is by the sovereign work of God alone.

If we're to lead a life of worship, then we must live in a way where we are last.

Because a life of worship, I would submit to you, would be best known and seen in obedience to love God and to love your neighbor.

If we want to look at what does worship look like, there's there's expressions and responses that that vary in degree, but all of it can be rooted down to this simple two commandments that fulfill the entire moment of the law.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

In these two things, there if you complete these things, there's no fraction or infraction of the law, right?

It is the fulfillment of all these things.

And so if we're gonna worship God, and that worship is primarily seen in obedience, then to love God and to love our neighbor is the best known and seen reality of worship.

But that's gonna dictate and demand a proper posture of humility.

How should we think of ourselves?

Paul helps us to understand this well.

He says, Don't think of yourselves more highly than you ought to, but he says, use sober judgment.

I love this this language that Paul's talking about, right?

First off, he says that the judgment we should be sober, uh, not intoxicated.

Well, we'll think about the ways that we get intoxicated with ourselves.

With pride, narcissism, self-deceit.

We can become intoxicated people uh uh when we don't properly seek to understand ourselves through sobriety, right?

You you get the the parents that do this with their kids all the time.

Like they they just have this huge view of who their kid is, right?

And they and they just boast about how amazing they are, and you're looking at that kid like there's no, there is no way.

I've seen that kid eat clay on several occasions, right?

Or they're on the the the kid on the basketball team, like, I don't know why they don't pass Johnny the ball much anymore.

Because the dude's the dude's under five foot and round in shape.

No one's passing Johnny the ball because he can't do nothing with it.

You know, it's they have this intoxicated view uh uh of their ability or what their gift set is.

It doesn't bring sobriety to the table, but we do this to ourselves as well, right?

There's a lot of people that I've met and engaged with in the church that don't bring sobriety to the table of assessment when understanding the ways that God has gifted them.

And then there's a lot of times where gifting uh or that their view of their gifting outweighs what the implications and responsibilities are for having that gift in the first place.

They don't come to the table with sobriety.

Paul's telling each and every one of us, every single person in the church, you have to understand he's not engaging this to leaders, elders, deacons.

He's engaging this to every single listener inside of the church at Rome to assess themselves with sobriety.

Let us not be intoxicated by our pride, our narcissism, our sense of self-deceit.

Let's practice sobriety in our assessment.

But then he also brings judgment.

So it shouldn't just be sober in its nature, but judgment as well.

This is self-awareness.

Assessment with a sound mind.

This happens a lot with inside of the church, and it plays itself out uniquely in the most weirdest context, right?

So the way that this probably plays itself out, if we look at how Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, it's somehow with these audible gifts that we see this play the part most, right?

Where self-deceit, narcissism, and an intoxicated judgment, right, or absence of judgment comes into play.

Uh, because when Paul's writing to the church at Corinth, he's talking about those who are prophesying, those who are speaking in tongues, it's these orative gifts uh that that he's addressing, where people's pride and self-deceit and intoxication is gripping their heart.

We see this all the time in the pulpit.

We see this all the time on the stage.

For some reason, it's it's you never see someone like, bro, I'm gonna greet the mess out of this front door.

Look, I'm the best greeter out here.

I shake hands better than anybody else.

I've got that perfect grip that's not too tight, but it's firm.

You know I'm a man.

I get out here and I greet people.

Like that doesn't happen.

I don't know why.

Maybe the coffee world is like the next one that's gonna have like, look, these fools don't know how to brew coffee, okay?

I can get in here, I can get the bloom right, I can make sure the temperature's setting.

These guys are out here making folders.

I don't know what's going on, but I'm gonna get like intoxication doesn't creep into the heart of man on some of these other giftings, right?

But for some reason, it always kind of grips the heart of man when it comes to something of us proclaiming, because it gives us a pulpit, because it gives us recognition, because it feeds into our narcissism, and it's and it's littered with self-deceit.

But not in just these gifts, but in every gift, Paul is calling us to make a sober judgment on the way of which God has called us to be inside of the body of Christ.

Paul says we should make this according, this judgment, this sober judgment according to what?

It's the measure of faith that God has assigned us.

I I love this because Paul's saying, don't make the judgment based on your own talents, based on how good you think you are.

Don't do it based on anything, but what the measure of faith that God has given to us.

He's putting all of the focus on God, he's putting all the attention on his grace, that he has gifted us for a purpose inside the body of Christ, that it might flourish and mature to what God has called us to be.

He's saying, do it according to the measure of faith that God has assigned to you.

You see, the view that we have of ourselves should actually be based on the work of God in us.

The view we have of ourselves should actually be based on the work of God in us.

And when we don't do this well, and we look at just raw talent a lot of the time, and we put people in positions that they should never have been in.

Because what we're doing is we're looking at raw talent instead of assessing what is the faith of God inside of you, what is the character of God that's been shaped in you, what is the fruit of the spirit that's evident in your lives?

And so we put unbelievers up here to sing, we put unbelievers in the pulpit to preach, we put unbelievers in all these other places because we've just said, hey, that dude's gifted, he's charismatic, or she can sing great, or whatever it might be, but we don't look at has God assigned to you a measure of faith?

Is there fruit being seen of Christian character?

You see, our view of ourselves should bring us to a place of humility.

If we rightly understand the grace and mercy of God in us, because when we rightly understand the grace and mercy of God in us, it creates a high view of Him and a low view of us.

I I love how Paul look what Paul's doing.

For 11 chapters, he just worked through you don't love God, you don't deserve his love, you would choose sin and self every time over righteousness and holiness.

You are helpless, you you can't earn salvation, if you you you you don't desire nor are able to choose God in righteousness, you are nothing but God comes in and says, I have determined before the foundations of the earth to establish and set my love upon them, and nothing can break that.

Therefore, I will accomplish my will and purposes by bringing them the salvation of my son through the work of the Spirit.

You see, when we understand God rightly, humility should just grip our heart.

Now we're ready to worship.

That's what Paul's saying.

Now we're ready to worship.

You see, when we understand the beauty of the gospel, humility is able to flourish.

Because when we rightly understand the grace of God in our lives, we will posture ourselves in humble response to it.

We will have no place to boast in ourselves, only the ability to boast in Him alone.

If we look at verses four through five, we would summarize it in this way that the members uh we are members of Jesus and therefore members of one another.

Members of Jesus, members of one another.

So Paul's just told us, hey, look, don't think too highly of yourself instead of all that pride and self-deceit, right?

Here's what I need you to do: practice sober judgment according to the faith that's been assigned to you by God for your function within the body.

And now he's going to help us understand the root of our identity.

It's members of the body of Christ.

We've been brought in through the Spirit by the finished work of Christ into his body.

And now we're members of it, united to him and united to one another.

And we play distinct roles and functions to be able to see the body accomplish all that God has called it to do.

You see, there's some realities that we need to address first when we talk about and use the word members.

This is key because there is a reality.

I want to affirm this.

There is a reality.

When we talk about the church, Capital C Church, we are talking about the universal reality of all believers throughout all time who have been saved by Jesus and are united to him in his body.

So when we understand our theology of the church, we do affirm all true believers through all time.

And that is both expansive geographically throughout all the earth, and it's expansive historically throughout all time, that they are connected, united in Jesus' body.

That there's a true, affirming reality to that, our understanding of the church.

However, the majority of the time where the New Testament writers are talking about members and members of the body of Christ, they are speaking to a local, identifiable expression of that bigger truth.

So there's this macro level where all Christians are members of the body of Christ, but then there's a micro reality where, yes, we are also members of one another inside a context of a local expression.

These people that Paul's talking about are identifiable and known.

Right?

He's not writing to people like, oh, you don't know these brothers over here, but you're supposed to submit to them, or you don't know these sisters over here, but they're gifted, and you got to be able to prop up that gifting for the benefit of the body.

He's talking about those whom he is writing to, identifiable and known based upon local context, body of Christ.

That's how Paul's using that language of members here.

These people are identifiable and known, and their gifts are known, affirmed, and exercised.

That's important too.

The people whom he's writing to, their gifts are known.

So they're known within, oh, that brother's got this gift, that sister's got this gift.

They're affirmed.

We affirm that those are true gifts.

We see them in their life, we see the fruit of them in their life, and they are exercised.

For what?

The benefit of the body, for the maturing of the saints.

There is a true measure where we have a responsibility to the capital C big body of Christ.

But what happens in our Christian life, especially in the Christian Church of America, is that we neglect or feel no need or completely reject the reality that we are supposed to be committed to a local expression of that bigger truth so that we're known, identified, exercising, affirmed.

You see, membership is used in the New T and the majority of the time in the context of the local known and identifiable peoples of the church.

You see, and what Paul's helping us understand is even inside this local context, we are distinct members inside of a unified body.

We are distinct members inside of a unified body.

We're playing out many different functions, all for the purpose of one singular objection, like the members of a body distinctly serving a singular objective.

I love what Paul's saying.

He's like, look, not only are you members of the body of Christ, but you are members of one another.

What are we doing?

We're working to serve the head, which is Christ.

When we we realize that the mission that we are on is not sacred missions, mission, right?

Part of our name is to understand and articulate that we are simply joining God on the mission that he is already on to redeem uh all of his creation.

That's what God is working to do.

That it's the scope of it includes the cosmos, and that it'll be by his power and working that he will see redemption be brought to his creation.

We are joining God in on that.

That's what we are doing.

But we are members of that body uh functioning together to serve that singular purpose.

It's like if I want to be able to uh uh squeeze my hand, it's not just, or if I just wanted to use one thing and point my finger, you know, up here preaching like this, point my finger.

Uh there's so many workings from my brain to the tip of this finger that have to function together to be able to have one singular objective accomplished.

That's what Paul's helping us understand.

There's a singular objection, there's the mission of Christ, and to see the glory of God fill the earth like the waters cover the sea or something like that.

And what we're doing is we are working together in tandem to be able to see that objective accomplished.

Uh, we need one another.

We are not just simply members in the body with our own thing and our own gifting that sit to prop ourselves up, but we are members to one another also, so that your function depends on my function, my function depends on your function, so that we can work together to see the mission accomplished.

But too many times we are like people, uh, two people reaching for the same thing, right?

Too many times we're we're we're we're two people trying to reach up high for the same thing.

What we want is up there on that shelf, and we both want it.

And what the church needs to start doing is somebody needs to take a posture of lowliness, get down on their hands and knees so the other brother or sister can stand on your back and reach the very thing you're both trying to grasp for.

If all we're focusing on is our own promotion and our own grasping of identity and platform, we're gonna fight each other constantly.

We've got to exhibit humility and lowliness that we work together, functioning to be able to accomplish the same task.

While we understand ourselves as distinct members inside of the body of Christ serving him, we are also members inside the body of Christ serving one another.

Our distinct function serves the function of the other members.

It's for the purpose of the ultimate objection, the mission of Christ.

So we are many members, one body, many members, many functions, many members of one another.

Let me say it again.

We are many members, one body.

We are unified in Christ.

We are many members, many functions.

Look, we we don't believe that anywhere throughout the scriptures is the intent to create an exhaustive list of spiritual gifts.

We believe that they were used for their purpose, to be able to help explain and give examples, but we don't see this as an exhaustive reality of Paul or any other New Testament writer labeling out every single spiritual gift there is under the sun.

And so the expansiveness and the diversity of what could be gifts inside of this local body of Christ is even possibly beyond our own discovery or self-awareness.

And so we want to continue to see: look, you serve apart, you serve apart, you serve apart, every single one, and they're distinct, they have many functions, oh, but they're for one singular purpose.

So we're many members, many functions.

We're also many members of one another.

My gifting is for you.

You see, so many times we think of the opposite.

My gifting's for me.

That I might be served, that I might be propped up, that I might have a voice, that I might have an image or a brand or a whatever podcast.

No.

You are gifted not for yourself, but for the person sitting next to you, the person you're in mission group with.

Think about how beautiful mission groups would be.

Here's how we approach mission groups.

Ready?

There's one person who's the leader, which that's not true, but that's how we approach it.

There's one person who's a leader, and they do everything.

So they uh plan the meals, they do all the communication, they host, they lead the conversation.

If they're you blah blah blah.

That's typically how we kind of, and we come in because we want to be fed, right?

Both physically, we want to bust up to that taco bar that you got on your on your island, and and spiritually.

We want you to tell us exactly what God's telling us to do.

No, think about what mission groups would look like if you realized you were gifted by the creator of all the universe according to the measure of his grace, so that you might play a function within the body to serve and minister to the other people around you.

Mission group would look radically different, wouldn't it?

We would come in to serve, we would come in to help.

It wouldn't all just be put on one person, but we but we do this.

This is our kind of singular posture where we look at the lead pastor of a church and everything's got to be put on him, or we got to look at the uh uh uh leader of a mission group and everything's gotta be put on them.

And we talk about this a lot, right?

Uh missy uh sacred mission.

This has been a tough week, y'all.

Tough week.

Intercede for me.

Um sacred mission is gonna do three things.

We're gonna preach, produce, and plant.

Those are the three things that we're gonna do.

We're gonna preach the gospel.

Uh in preaching the gospel, we're gonna produce disciples so that we can see them uh uh multiply and be matured in God's understanding, and then we're gonna plant.

We're gonna plant mission groups, we're gonna plant churches.

Those are the three things we're gonna be focused on.

That doesn't mean everything else is bad.

That just means we're not gonna do it.

So if you see a minute, there's a brother I met here the other day, it was so wonderful because he goes to two different jails every week to preach the gospel.

You know what that brother never did?

Why don't you guys have a preaching ministry for prisons?

He never said that.

He said, This is my gifting, this is my calling, and I'm gonna do it.

I said, Praise God, that's how the body should work.

If you're wondering why sacred mission doesn't have X, it's because you haven't stepped up to do it yet.

Because God maybe has gifted you according to the measure of faith of which he has given, so that you might do that ministry, but you're waiting for somebody else to do it.

That's laziness.

That's bad stewardship, that's sin because God's gifted you for something and you're not doing anything with it.

Jesus said that when he comes back and he finds those who have not been stewards of the giftings of which he gives them, he doesn't have a good end for them.

In fact, in the parable, you're ripped from limb from limb and torn and thrown away.

That's red words.

Right?

That's not me, that's red words.

Are you being a good steward of the gifting he's given you?

Do you even believe God's gifted you?

There's a lot of people sitting in this room that don't even think God's ever gifted them with anything, so you just sit here.

That's not believing the gospel.

That's not believing his word.

God has gifted you.

Every one of you.

1 Peter 4 10 says this as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.

As what?

Good stewards of God's varied grace.

As each one of you received a gift, use it for what?

To serve one another.

As what?

Good stewards of God's varied many functions and grace.

This is the call that uh Paul is making to us when we're trying to understand how do we live worshipfully?

And here in this context of four and five, we see the reality of the church.

There is no Christian life.

Hear this.

There is no Christian life where the person is not united to Jesus, but yet dismembered from other believers.

There is no Christian life where a person claims to be united to Jesus, but yet is dismembered from other believers.

You know what happens when a dude's arm gets cut off?

Maybe they can sew it on now.

I don't science blows my mind.

However, back in the day, that thing was gone.

You just left it there, that's where it was, right?

It it's dismembered, it does no longer play a part in the function of the body anymore.

You cannot say that you are united to Jesus by faith and remain physically dismembered from that body.

You can't do it.

If we are united to Jesus, we are also united then to one another.

This is how we see the scriptures laid out.

Because I asked one time I was doing pre-marriage counseling with some people, and they claim to be Christians, they haven't been to church in in for a long time, so forth.

But we I asked them this question how do you know you're a Christian?

And they said, Well, I'm nice, basically.

That was their that was their foundation.

Sweet.

I'm really glad you're nice and not a jerk.

I'm really glad.

But what does the Bible say?

How will the world know that you are mine?

Jesus himself says, they will know that you are mine by your love for one another.

The clearest distinction to an unbelieving world that we are united to Christ is in the ways and modes of which we serve and love one another.

You see, that's what we're here for.

We're here for one anothering.

You cannot serve the ultimate mission of Jesus without ministry to the other members of the fulfillment of that mission.

Because when you're reconciled to Jesus, you're also reconciled to his body, his people, and you are reconciled to his mission.

Everybody wants to use this language, like, oh, me and Jesus have this uh special relationship.

It's just me and Jesus, right?

We have this special thing going on.

Uh uh my wife and I uh she was reading a headline to me last night of this uh girl.

I won't go into all the details because bless her heart, but she uh she she says she asked God three things if she should stop doing this very explicit sin.

And she said, uh, God told me no, I should keep doing it.

No, no, honey.

Uh-uh.

I don't know what God you're serving or what God you fabricated in your bedroom, some little golden idol that you bow down to.

But but that's not the God of the Bible.

But her reasoning was she didn't want to be tethered to community.

If you if you really boil down what she was saying, she didn't want to be obligated or tethered to one another.

Because it's in that context that we'd be able to say, well, let's look at the text, right?

Let's look at this.

Look at what the Bible says, and here we're gonna see this as sin and we're gonna put it to death.

When we're reconciled to Jesus, we're also reconciled to his people and to his mission.

You're not just reconciled to Jesus alone.

The the implications and the realities of that is that you are also reconciled to his people, and you're reconciled to his mission.

It is in the distinct functions of the body working to serve the ultimate function of one another, that the mission flourishes.

You want to see the you want to see the kingdom of God expand throughout our city in our area.

You want to see people come to know Christ, you you want to see the glory of God fill this region.

Realize that you are a member of the body of Christ, you are a member of one another, and that your function supports and serves the functions of others for the flourishing of the mission.

If you submit to that reality, there's nothing that's going to stop us.

If we look at verses six through eight, we'll we see this um grace gifts used to their fullest measure.

Grace gifts used to their fullest measure.

Uh, so it's evident that we will have a diversity of gifts inside the singular body of Christ because God diversely gifts us all.

That's what Paul is helping us understand.

There's going to be diverse gifts with inside the singular body because God in his grace has diversely gifted us all.

Uh not one of us is without a gift from the Lord.

And so there is no one who is without responsibility to steward that gift.

So understand that there's not a single person in here who has not been gifted.

And in the light of that, you then there's not a single person in this room who doesn't have the responsibility then to steward that gift.

Look at even the the gifts that Paul includes.

He includes giving as a gift, generosity.

You you have an obligation to steward.

Some of y'all stingy, you ain't gifted.

No, I'm joking.

Uh, we there's a measure of like where we all give, like we should be giving people.

But but Paul's helping us understand there's people who are gifted at giving.

Like there's a difference between I have a responsibility to preach the gospel, and then there's people who are gifted at preaching the gospel.

That I have a responsibility to worship and lead my family, but then there's people who are gifted at leading, right?

We have to differentiate between responsibility that's that is clear and articulated in the scriptures for us, and gifting to do that really well.

That there's no man inside of this room who is not responsible to shepherd his family, to lead them well, to lay his life down for their flourishing so that so that they might know and treasure Christ.

There's not a single man in this room who doesn't have that responsibility.

But some of y'all ain't gifted at it.

Doesn't mean you don't do it, it just means you're not really great at it.

You struggle.

You're on that just like kids losing their mind, you don't know what to do.

You crawl up in a corner, fetal position, crying out to the Lord.

Your wife comes over like, You gonna do something?

You said, No, I'm gonna sit here for a minute, enjoy this incense that's burning.

Uh, we we uh some of you struggle with it.

That's fine.

Because you're not gifted does not dismiss your responsibility.

Okay?

So we have to kind of differentiate between those two things.

Some of us are gifted in the very things we're also responsible for.

That's a that's a win-win, according to the Holy Ghost.

Not one of us is without a gift from the Lord.

Since we're all gifted by God, we all play a vital role in the function of the body, in the function of one another.

None of us are useless.

Right?

Analogies kind of fall apart.

We can look at the body, the human body, and say, oh, there's useless things, right?

Uh uh, what is that, the appendix?

Like, no, uh, do we do we not know what that's for still in modern science?

It's debated.

That's fine, like many things in modern science.

Uh, but uh uh we still think like uh pride doesn't serve a function, like the analogy starts to fall apart.

We all are vital parts of the body, gifted uniquely and diversely for the functioning of one another.

Since we have been given a grace gift to function in the body, we're called to use them.

You see, our gifts are according to the grace given to us.

So we should also exercise those gifts according to that same grace.

Now, when we understand that that thought process, we can walk away from this with two different mindsets.

And all of it is surrounding in the statement, according to the grace given to you, according to the measure of faith that was assigned to you by God, right?

So here's what you could walk away doing.

You could say, you could sit in apathy, you you could sit in this ho-hum me, and you could say, Well, God must not have uh given me a great measure of uh faith and grace, so I'm just really not playing a huge role here, and I'm not gonna do a lot, right?

You can you can have that mindset.

I know people who would read this and be like, look at themselves with with maybe hyper sober judgment, and you're gonna say, Yeah, God just didn't give me that much, so I'm not gonna use that much.

Or you can come with them this mindset that the God of all creation sovereignly set apart a gift for you, and then he imparted it into you by the power of his Holy Spirit and gave you the grace that you did not have before for you to be able to use that gift for the fullest measure for the benefit of one another.

Which way is a better way to think about it?

God of all creation has gifted you, and what is the measure of that grace?

It is the measure of which he has gifted you.

And it is where grace was at, where gifting was absent, when the Spirit was absent, now it's been imparted into you, it's filled you, and He has gifted you so you can say there's that God is the only one who's gonna set limits on my gifting.

So I'm gonna run to use those grace gifts to the fullest because it has been God's grace poured out on me that I even have this gift in the first place.

Think about it the God of all creation by grace has gifted you to play a distinct role in the body of Christ.

That is amazing, that is supernatural.

Do you really want to sit back and act like you have nothing to offer?

Like you don't benefit the mission?

Let me tell you, you're intoxicated with pride, self-deceit, narcissism.

It looks different, but it's the same factors playing into that role.

Paul then goes on to give us examples of a variety of gifts.

We don't need to focus on the specific gift mentioned here because if we do, we'll kind of miss the force for the trees, right?

We can walk through these gifts and they all mean something, but Paul's not trying to help us understand these gifts in this context.

So again, we can miss the force for the trees if we focus too sharply on these gifts.

What he's showing us is that we have a gift.

This is an emphatic reality to us being a part of the body of Christ.

We have a gift given to us by grace, and in light of that, we have a responsibility to use that gift for the benefit of the members individually and for the benefit of the body as a whole.

That's what Paul's showing us.

So he's, you know, he's saying, if you prophesy, prophesy.

If you teach, teach.

If you give, give.

If you do any of these things, do them.

If you're gifted in these things, do them.

Because we have a responsibility to use that gift for the benefit of the members individually, the body as a whole.

1 Corinthians 14, 26 kind of highlights this.

It says, uh, what then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn or a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

But let all things done for what?

The building up.

Let all things be done for building up.

When you look at other people inside of this church and you wish they were more mature spiritually than they are, the first question I want us to ask ourselves is where have I not been stewarding my gift for their benefit?

I don't want judgment.

I don't want tearing down in language.

I don't want any of uh uh gossip or slander.

Here's the first question I want to pop into our minds.

They're not where I think they should be.

How have I not been using my gift to help them get them there?

Because you play a part in my maturity, I play a part in your maturity.

And seeing God uh be working in us to become what we're supposed to become.

There is no opportunity to sit on the sideline and watch the game.

What would happen if we all truly believe that God has gifted us uniquely and calls us to use those gifts according to the fullness of the grace of which He's given to us?

The church would change radically, radically change.

Our main idea this morning is I try to wrap this up.

A life of worship begins with a posture of humble service.

You want to worship, humble yourself and serve.

That's where Paul's helping us understand.

Some of us we get caught up, like I come in, I came out of the Pentecostal world.

Uh, brother, we ain't serving no one.

Uh, we going up front, and it's as crazy as we can possibly get swords, banners, shofar horns, it doesn't matter.

We're getting wild.

That's gonna be our worship.

But you know what happened?

We didn't serve one another.

We weren't submitted to one another.

We didn't even know one another because we were just jumping from revival to revival so that we might worship God.

Man, Paul's saying, you want to worship God, you want a life of worship?

Posture yourself then in humble service.

And I see this in three M's: members, mission, and ministry.

Members, mission, and ministry.

If you want to start living a life of worship, then start being known and identified as members of the body of Christ.

Submit to a local church as a member, being known and identified so that your gifting can be assessed and affirmed and exercised within the body of Christ for the benefit of one another.

We are members of the body of Christ.

We are members of one another.

This is how we are going to uh worship in our primary is in humble posture of service to one another.

And I want to tell you this, there's a lot of ways you guys have knocked it out of the park.

You guys have killed it in so many ways where there's people who have been displaced, hurting, sick, uh weary, and you've come alongside.

I hear story after story.

Look, we're not trying to build a culture of this church where it's dependent upon me or dependent upon the elders, but it's dependent upon one another to care for the body of the church according to the measure of faith which God has assigned to us and the gifts that He has given to us sovereignly by His Spirit.

And I want to champion and encourage you guys.

You've done so well in this in so many different ways.

At the same time, we've got people here who have been coming for two years, still don't serve nowhere.

We don't know where you're gifted because you're not trying to actually be known and assessed and affirmed in that gifting.

You're coming in, sitting down, you like the preaching and you kind of like the music.

No, usually people like the music more than the preaching.

And so you come and then you leave.

This isn't about a show.

This isn't about a performance, this isn't about a production.

When we come to the church, when we come to the church gathered, it is with giftings expressed for the benefit and building up of one another.

Yeah, you see my gifting, if that's what you want to call it, you see their gifting, definitely call it that.

But what about yours?

What about yours on Monday?

Not on Sunday during the service, not in the context of the church gathered, but where's your gifting on Monday to serve the body of Christ?

So that your functioning can help the functioning of someone else.

Tuesday, Wednesday, go through it.

This is a life.

This is not a time and period or scheduled event.

This is a life of worship where we humble ourselves in a posture of service and mission.

We are on mission.

We cannot do what God's called us to do without one another.

It's impossible.

The mission of Christ involves the church, not an identity.

He purchased us with his blood, clothed us in white, cleaned us, made us righteous, and called us what?

To his mission.

We are members of this mission.

Every single one of us plays a vital role.

And then ministry.

Our gifts are for ministry.

Some of us ain't gonna be up here.

This ain't ministry all by itself.

That's not ministry all by itself.

Uh there's people who will never be known, recognized, that minister in huge ways with their giftings that God has given them for the functioning and flourishing of the body of Christ.

That's beautiful.

That's wonderful.

We are given these gifts that we might minister.

Um I'm gonna fly through these next points.

I apologize, y'all.

Heart, our story.

Some of us we think too highly of ourselves apart from the grace of God.

What I mean by this is that you your gift comes from grace.

So you so you try to remove yourself from the understanding and reality of God's grace and try to and you assess yourselves and judge yourself by how awesome you think you are.

You're not awesome, you're horrible.

Uh, that's what Romans 1 through 11 said.

I didn't say that.

Um so the giftings that we do have, they come from grace.

Your gift comes from grace.

Don't think too highly of yourself.

Number one reason, because your gift comes from grace.

Number two, uh, your gift isn't to serve self.

Your gift is not to serve self.

I don't care what position it's in.

And for some reason, like we talked about, the narcissism and pride seems to kind of uh cultivate up here.

But but it can happen in all other kinds of places, right?

There are people who think that they should have their name on a on one of them stained glass windows because they gave a certain amount, or some sister wants to have a placard on her seat because you know she she made the most pots of cocktail, whatever.

Your gift ain't here to serve yourself.

It's not.

You want recognition, then know that you will be recognized before the lamb who was slain for all of eternity for what you did for the kingdom.

You want your recognition, look to Jesus.

I'm not saying we shouldn't like encourage one another and be like, hey, you good job, but I'm not saying we shouldn't do that.

We should encourage one another.

I'm not super gifted at encouragement.

I don't know if you've noticed that yet.

That's not my that's not my strongest.

I have responsibility to encourage, and I labor in trying to do that.

I'm not gifted at it, not great.

It's always awkward and weird.

Um, yeah.

Hey, you're a great person.

Uh but your gift isn't to serve self, your gift is to serve Christ, his mission, and the people whom he has made his own through his grace.

Some of us, you just don't practice sober judgment.

You don't.

You don't practice sober judgment, and again, for some reason, we always see it up here, but it's like, yeah, you you didn't make that high school production of whatever Broadway musical you ain't getting up here either.

It's just a fact.

You don't practice sober judgment.

This isn't just a place where we can all come because we think we're so amazing and awesome.

You can't hold a pitch, sister.

Um I wrong, I'm right.

You know I'm right.

It's okay.

But we don't practice sober judgment a lot of time.

But but this doesn't just happen on the stage.

This happens in people's ability to teach the scriptures, it happens in people's ability to be able to preach the word from the pulpit, to lead.

There's a lot of people who are drunk on themselves and try to get into a place of leadership, and they just hurt people and crush and destroy them because you should have never been there.

You weren't gifted for that.

You might have had charisma, you might have had vision, you might have had some type A personality, but brother, you didn't have humble service as your posture.

You shouldn't have been there.

Many of us we don't practice sober judgment, we think too highly of ourselves apart from the grace of God, but some of us we also think too lowly of ourselves apart from the grace of God.

Church, let me tell you this.

You are gifted by God.

That should blow your mind.

Every single person in this room, you are gifted.

If you are in Christ, because you are trusting him for the forgiveness of your sins through his death, burial, and resurrection, you have been united to him through baptism by his spirit into his body.

You are gifted to serve a function in that body by God, the creator of all things.

That should blow your mind.

Quit thinking of yourself too lowly, apart from the grace of God.

You have been placed distinctly in the body.

You play a part I can't play.

I play a part you can't play.

That's beautiful.

That shouldn't be held in tension, that should be celebrated and propped up.

I want to be able to lay my life down so that you can get where God's called you to be, and I want you to lay your life down for me so God can do in me what He's called and set and determined to do as well.

If we aren't mutually submitting to one another, if we aren't mutually laying our lives down with one another, if we aren't mutually posturing ourselves in humble service to one another, we're just gonna fight each other for grasping for some generic thing that sits up on the top shelf when God's saying, look, there's a bigger reality, an eternal consequence where the cosmos are redeemed, the new heavens and new earth are displayed, and you worship around my throne, not the throne of your own accomplishment.

You've been placed distinctly in the body.

Celebrate that.

The mission suffers if you sit idle.

And others suffer if you don't function.

Ultimately, if you think too lowly of yourselves apart from the grace of God, you don't believe what God says about you.

And this isn't some TED talk, you know, hype yourself up so you get out.

This is true, this is the Bible.

God's saying he has gifted you uniquely and distinctly by the power of his spirit through the measure of the fullness of his grace to serve a distinct part within his body so that it might flourish.

Man, that's gospel truth.

What are you doing with it?

Are you believing it?

Are you rejecting it, denying it, and you're just sitting there?

The beauty of the gospel this morning for us is Jesus did not think too highly of himself.

He took the lowly posture of humble service even unto death.

Amen.

I gotta close.

Um, Philippians 2, 5 through 8.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

So again, begin go back.

Beginning of chapter 12, what are we gonna do?

We're gonna renew our mind.

What's Philippians saying?

Have this mind in you, not a motive, reaction, response, mindset, thought, belief.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Imagine if Christ chose to make the decision to serve himself, to not function within God's redemptive plan the way God had the Father had called for him to, and he said, No, this is gonna be about me.

Well, you'd be lost, condemned, damned forever, in eternal conscious torment in hell.

That's where you would be.

Now think about where is your brother, where is your sister when you choose to have a selfish identity and posture when it comes to God's gifts and your play and role and function in the body.

They suffer.

Have this mind that of in you, that which is yours in Christ Jesus, that he laid his life down for us.

What do he do?

He took humble posture of service.

Here's our vision for you all this morning.

Number one, uh, you have a part, play it.

Uh no sitting down, no waiting for what ministry does sacred mission have?

Oh, they don't have this special ministry.

I don't, okay, then make it.

I don't care.

No, you're not gonna see an elder stop you from doing Christian stuff.

That's bad.

No, no one's gonna do that.

Do it.

Don't wait on me to do it.

Do what God's calling you to do.

Whatever you're gifted, do it.

Play a part.

You have a part, play it.

We're gonna get active here in the body of Christ.

Wake out, wake up out of COVID, right?

Snap out of it, get your hands to work.

It's time to get busy to see the kingdom of God expand throughout our area.

Number two, this isn't about you.

Every time you come to church, every time you step foot in mission group, every time you wake up in the morning, say, God, this isn't about me.

This is about your glory, and this is about the people who you are calling unto yourself, who Christ died for, gave his life for, spilled his blood for.

God, this isn't about me.

Whether I'm happy this morning or I suffer all the day long, let it be for your glory and the joy of your people.

This is not about you.

Don't look for recognition, don't look for promotion, don't look for platform.

If God wants to give it to you, he'll give it to you.

Posture yourself in humble service, stewarding the gift of God in you by his grace that he has poured out on you.

Imagine how much better the church would be if we weren't selfish.

That's what Acts 2 talks about.

They shared all things and had all things in common.

No one lacked, no one wanted.

Why?

Because of the selflessness that was exhibited as members of the body of Christ.

Lastly, don't hinder the mission.

Don't hinder the mission.

Don't hinder the mission because you're too prideful and you're saying, well, if I'm not going to get the recognition that I should get, I'm not going to serve.

And don't hinder the mission because you're so lowly thinking in your state of mind that you couldn't imagine God would ever gift you with anything.

If you sit idly by for any reason, you are hindering the mission.

We need you.

You need us.

We need each other.

And how do we need each other?

To function in the body diversely according to the way God has gifted us.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm out.

Let's pray.