Thermometer and Thermostats

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Today we're going to be reading Romans chapter 12, verses 1 to 8.

Romans 12:1–8

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy,

to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this

world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is,

his good and pleasing and perfect will.

For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself

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

in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

For just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not

all have the same function so in Christ we, though many,

form one body and each member belongs to all the others We have different gifts

according to the grace given to each of us If your gift is prophesying,

then prophesy in accordance with your faith If it is serving,

then serve If it is to teach, then teach If it is to encourage,

then give encouragement If it is giving, then give generously.

If it is to lead, do it diligently.

If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

There are two instruments that I want to have a look at this morning,

two measuring instruments that have similar names but different functions.

One is a thermometer.

A thermometer reflects its environment.

The other instrument is a thermostat. And a thermostat not only reflects its

environment, but it affects its environment.

A thermometer will tell you how hot or cold it is.

A thermostat will dictate how hot and cold it is.

And I want to put it to you this morning that according to Romans 12,

1 and 2, and the following, followers of Jesus are to be thermostats, not thermometers.

I want to challenge us through the words of the Apostle Paul to go from being

thermometers to being thermostats, not just reflecting our environment but having an impact on it.

And I'm looking at verses 1 to 8 this morning from Romans chapter 12,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

and next week I'll be looking at verses 9 to 21.

And what I want us to see is the big picture is that we are to be nonconformists.

On the basis of what we are as Christians, in chapters 1 to 11 of Romans,

Paul has laid down the basics of Christian belief.

And in chapters 12 onwards, he said, okay, on the basis of those beliefs,

this is how we are to live.

So that's the big picture of where we're going over the next couple of weeks.

We are to live differently and think differently. We're to be non-conformist,

but being a non-conformist doesn't mean being weird.

If you're weird, that's okay.

Some of us are weird, but that's not what Paul is saying.

Paul's not saying be one of those purse-lipped stick-in-the-muds that Christians

are sometimes perceived to be, or dress in such a way as to stand out from the crowd.

If you want to do that, that's fine, but that's not what Paul's saying.

Christians are to be different, positively different.

It's very disturbing to read some stats, admittedly they're from the USA,

but some stats are showing us that Christians are not much different to everyone

else in their attitudes and actions.

Paul is saying, yeah, we are to be different, not necessarily weird or eccentric, but different.

And our non-conformity, Paul says in that text is worship.

Now, we have this funny terminology in the church, and I've done it myself.

Oh, we're now going to have a time of worship, which means we're going to sing a few songs.

Oh, and afterwards, we're going to have a time of fellowship over morning tea.

But what I'm saying, I think Paul is touching on here, our whole of life is

worship, because it's a self-offering of ourselves to God.

So I can be worshiping God while munching on whatever morning tea I've got out there.

And I can be fellowshipping when we are singing songs here.

So they're not sort of, we can't compartmentalize those things.

Worship is a whole of life affair. It does involve liturgical worship here,

yes, but it involves everything when we offer ourselves to God.

And it's reasonable, it's spiritual, it's logical, it follows from chapters 1 to 11.

And as we worship God in that way, we discern what's best, what God wants for us.

And then Paul moves on to verse 3.

He says, For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you,

do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself

with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of us.

Paul is saying, look, think and act in a way that is based on all the Christian

beliefs you have and be positively different,

and involved in that is having a true self-regard.

Now, this verse, I've got to tell you, can be seriously misunderstood if you

sort of take the words in a certain way.

We do not measure ourselves or have an estimate of ourselves based on how much faith we have.

I want to stress that. It seems on one reading that Paul is saying,

if you've got a super bucket loads of faith, well, you'll think well of yourself.

And if you haven't got much faith, you'll think not much of yourself.

That is not what Paul is saying at all. It's quite contrary to it.

You see, those of us who struggle in faith, and for most of my life,

I have very little faith.

But who cares? I've got very little faith, but it's strong. Why?

Because it is based on its object.

The quality of your faith does not depend on its quantity, on your subjective feeling.

The quality of your faith depends on the quality of the object of it.

You see, just because you are struggling in faith doesn't mean you should feel bad about yourself.

Yes, we all struggle in faith, but the fact is, what's the object of our faith?

You see, I can stand here in front of you and say, I have super-duper faith

that if I flap my arms regularly enough and long enough, I can levitate up to the ceiling.

Although in this church, it's a bit of a challenge.

But I can say, I have that faith. But what a load of rubbish that is.

It's not going to happen because the object of that faith is not sound.

But I can have a little bit of faith in God's faithfulness and that's enough.

When Jesus, remember, was challenged by his disciples to say,

please increase our faith, Jesus said, wrong question.

If you have faith as much as a mustard seed, which is tiny, you can do great things with it.

So as the old saying goes, we don't so much need great faith in God,

but rather faith in a great God.

And that's the essence of Paul's argument.

That's the basis of our self-estimation. But I want to explore that more.

Our Christian faith, outlined in chapters 1-11, will not allow us to be beheaded.

Because, you see, our faith reminds us no matter how good we might be,

we have to depend on Jesus' goodness to get right with God.

So I can't puff myself up if I'm a Christian, because I know how much badly I need the grace of God.

Then again, if I'm a Christian, I can't consign myself to the dust to be a miserable

worm squirming around as a worthless human being.

Christian humility has nothing to do with me thinking we're valueless.

Christian humility is all about recognizing our true place before God.

I'm flawed, but valuable.

See, so whenever I'm tempted to puff myself up, my faith, my Christian faith,

not the way I'm feeling at the time, my Christian faith tells me that.

Hey, you're not the king of the castle. Jesus is Lord.

But then again, when I'm tempted to pull myself down, I have to realize that

God loves me so much that his Holy Spirit comes to live in me.

And Jesus has said, I want to spend eternity with you. Hey, that makes me valuable.

So you see the balance that Paul's trying to get there. A sober estimate is

not thinking too much, not thinking too little.

Why? Because we are Christians and our faith both reminds us of our humility

and our need of grace, but also our great value and worth.

Now, in the light of such a realistic view of ourselves, we can serve others as God equips us.

And that's spelled out in verses 4 to 8.

Is the reading up there? No, I don't know. You don't need the reading.

I'm just going to read some of it here.

For just as each one of us has one body with many members, and these members

do not have all the same function, some in Christ, we though many,

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

Now, we each have a part to play. And if I've got a sober essence of myself,

well, it's necessary to have a sober essence of myself if I am to play a part in the body of Christ.

You see, if I have an inflated view of myself, I will be domineering,

I will boss people around, I'll think I'm far more important than anyone else.

Then again, if I have a lowly opinion of myself, thinking I'm not much of a

worth, I'll be one of these Christians who sadly,

timidly retreat into the sidelines and say, oh, I can't contribute anything.

I'm no good. I have no role to play, which is rubbish.

Just as it's rubbish to say I'm the most important person, it's rubbish to say I have no part to play.

That's because we have a sober estimate of ourselves and part and parcel of

living as non-conformist Christians.

Years ago in another life, before I became a full-time Anglican minister,

I worked in Qantas and worked at the airport for much of that time,

and I still do a bit of work at the airport voluntarily.

And you have to notice, when an aircraft comes to the aerobridge to be turned

around to fly out somewhere else, a whole crowd of individuals swarm like ants around the plane.

There's people loading and unloading luggage.

There's people loading catering. There's people refuelling the aircraft.

There's ground engineers doing their licensing check on the mechanics of the aircraft.

There's customer service people like I was inside the terminal marshalling people

to get on board the aircraft and so on and so on.

You see, no one person does everything.

The captain in command of the aircraft does not load the luggage.

The person who refuels the aircraft doesn't check the engines because they're

all equipped to play their special part in a special way.

And so it is with those who serve Jesus and others.

But these gifts and abilities can be misunderstood.

And I want to sort of suggest a different perspective that you might have to

understanding these so-called gift lists in the Scriptures.

And incidentally, if you don't agree with me by the end of this short exposition, that's okay.

Remember, the Bible is infallible, but those who teach the Bible are not. Okay?

So you've always got to remember that. And it's perfectly okay to disagree with the preacher.

From time to time. Okay, first of all, Paul mentions certain gifts and abilities

here, prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving,

leading, being merciful, and so on and so on.

Now, a few things to mention about that.

These gift lists in the Bible, and there's here and also in 1 Corinthians 12

and also a little bit in Ephesians 4, they are not meant to be exhaustive.

They're examples only, so please don't waste your time wondering why certain

gifts aren't mentioned.

There's nothing here about making computer systems in the church work.

There's nothing about operating a sound desk.

There's nothing about playing music. Nothing. There's nothing about doing morning teas. Nothing.

These are examples. And Paul's basic thing, and the basic thing I want to stress

is, these are indications of God giving us the tools to do the job.

God wants us to do certain things, to love him, to love others,

and he will equip us to do that.

That is the basic principle.

So the lists are all an illustration of a principle. We're equipped by God to serve him and others.

And Paul is saying, oh, as an example, in Romans, he lists these gifts.

In 1 Corinthians 12, he lists others. In Ephesians 4, he lists others and so on.

So they're not exhaustive. They're just illustrative.

Second, the various gifts mentioned here and elsewhere are not precisely defined.

What's prophecy? This old book's been written on that.

New Testament prophecy, Old Testament prophecy. See, but no one's offered a—the

Bible itself doesn't offer a precise definition.

It doesn't offer a precise definition in one of the other gift lists of,

what's the difference between a gift of wisdom and a gift of knowledge? I don't know.

The Bible itself does not define these gifts precisely.

So trying to pin down definitions is futile and unnecessary and may cause us

to miss the fundamental point. God gives you the tools to do whatever job he calls you to do.

Once I was in a discussion in a ministry colleague, this was many, many years ago,

and he spent some time trying to sort of counsel me as to what gift I have,

whether I had a gift of teaching or exhortation. Who cares?

It doesn't matter. I hope that when I teach, I exhort. I hope that when I exhort, I teach.

But who's defining the difference? The Bible doesn't.

So please don't get bogged down by sort of figuring out what these gifts are.

I don't know what some of these gifts mean.

All I know is that they're just illustrations of the fact that God gives you the tools to do the job.

Third point, we don't actually possess a certain gift.

God gives us, and this is a view that I hold and many other Christians hold,

but many, many other Christians don't hold it, so feel free to disagree.

But God gives us the ability to do certain things at certain times as needed.

So I hope that, what's the time now? 25 past 10 here on a Sunday morning,

I hope that God's giving me the gift of teaching or exhortation or whatever it is. I don't know.

I hope he'll do that. But I tell you what, come 3 p.m.

Sunday afternoon, I won't have the gift of teaching for two reasons.

One is, I'll probably be asleep.

Or secondly, I'll be just watching the footy.

What I'm trying to say is, I don't need that gift then.

It's not as if I cherish this gift to me. It's a gift.

It's what the Bible literally calls a charismata, something of grace.

And a grace gift is not something we possess. Yes, it's given by God when we need it.

So, for example, I might have a gift of helps, whatever that is,

on Monday afternoon, but on Tuesday morning I won't have it because I don't need it.

On Thursday night I might have a gift of extra wisdom because I need it,

but on Friday morning I don't need it, haven't got the gift.

God will give you the tools to do the job. God will allow you and enable you

to do what he wants you to do at a particular time.

So please don't puzzle over what gift you may or may not have. It's a waste of time.

Instead, say, God, how can I best love you and love others?

And trust that God will enable you to do that.

You see, it'd be sad, wouldn't it, if we take a possessive view of gifts to

say, oh, I'm sorry, I can't show mercy to you because I haven't got the gift.

Or I can't encourage you because, no, no, no, that's not my gift.

My gift is teaching, not encouragement.

Rubbish. Rubbish. God will give you whatever you need to enable him to serve

him and others when and if needed.

So please do not sort of turn your back on someone and say, oh,

I'd love to be able to help you, but I haven't got the gift of helps.

Rubbish. Who knows what the gift of helps is anyway? I don't.

However, and here's an important qualification.

It's true that some people display and use a certain gift in a consistent way.

And I'd like to define that, and it's not just my original thought here,

but it can be best described as a ministry.

You see, you may be equipped by God, as needed, on them and the occasion demands

to pass on biblical truth to someone else so that it helps them.

But someone like me, like Mark, like Chris, who has entered sort of a vocation

of a teaching ministry will be equipped to do that more regularly.

So I'm not saying I don't possess a gift of teaching, but I believe over 40-odd

years I've had a ministry of teaching, which is a bit different.

You see, God seems to equip certain people more regularly and more consistently than others.

You know of anyone in this church or anyone in your Christian community that

are strong encouragers.

Everyone should encourage one another as occasion demands, but some people will

be specifically enabled to do this ministry.

All people are to be generous.

But some people will be empowered by God through His Holy Spirit to be systematically extra generous.

We all are to offer particular help to those in need, but some people will have that ongoing ministry.

So there is a bit of a distinction.

We can all do anything, as it were, as God equips us. But sometimes,

sometimes God will enable people in such a way to do things in a regularised sort of way.

Some churches on occasions, and I've done this, have circulated questionnaires

inviting people to discover their gifts. I think that's misguided.

I think it's much, much more inclined to say, hey, let's discover our ministry.

Because if you tick all these boxes in these questionnaires that are sometimes

circulated, you might find, oh, well, I haven't got the gift of mercy,

therefore I'll never show mercy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

These questionnaire-type things are designed to show you what your ministries

might be because they invite us to explore our interests, our passions,

our temperaments, and our background.

And that will be a fair guide to your ministry.

Forget gifts for the moment. Gifts are things that God charismatically,

quite literally, gives you at a certain time to do a certain thing.

But ministries are something you may exercise more regularly.

Some people in this church exercise a regular ministry of music.

I don't. God has somehow or other never enabled me or gifted me with the sort

of voice or the sort of musical aptitude that would cause me to be up front leading singing.

And you should be thankful for that. But God does use such things to steer us

into consistent ministries, even as He equips us to do special things at special times.

You know, what's been the guiding lodestar, as it were, of any ministry that

I've been involved with over the years has been, I've had this phrase, Lord,

help me to, what I had a passion for was to help me to communicate important

truth in such a way that other people are blessed and encouraged by it.

And I was never able to do that as a load controller with Qantas because that

was a totally different skill set.

But what I always wanted to do was to say, Lord, give me the opportunities to

communicate truth in such a way that others are blessed by it.

And so God graciously called me into that ministry. But God has never graciously

called me into ministry of being the church handyman because I know I'd make a botch of it.

But could I help out as needed? Oh, yes.

But that's not my ministry. So in short, be open to receiving any gift at any

time as opportunities present themselves.

You might be given a gift of teaching at a certain time during the week can never get it again.

Be open to that sort of thing. Be open to surprises. And yet take time to explore

the more consistent ministries God might be inviting you to work at.

And as our text says, do things gladly and well.

What a pain it is for people to be ministering in a church or be exercising

gifts in a church and complaining all the time about it or boasting about it

or developing a well-developed martyr complex.

Max, look at me, look at all that I'm doing.

Oh, woe is me, if only others were as devoted to Jesus and the church as I am.

No, no, no, Paul is saying, don't go along with that rubbish,

because it's not only the external act you do, it's the heart with which you do it.

So, in short, all that adds up to us being God-given,

God-enabled, God-empowered thermostats, making our small worlds and our big

worlds a better place. Let's pray, shall we?

Father, please open our eyes, hearts, ears, whatever it is, to see what opportunities

there are to love you and love others.

Cause us to be open to be surprised. But above all, Lord, let us believe that

you never, ever, ever call us to do something without enabling us to do that very thing.

And I pray that we in this church and in a wider Christian community may be

people who do what you want us to do with the power of the Holy Spirit and with

the heart and mind of Jesus. Amen.