Uncommon community | Be Devoted To One Another (June 18th, 2017) - Mike Armstrong

So if you would right now you can turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans.

The book of Romans.

We're gonna be in chapter 12 specifically.

So get your copy of God's word open to that as we will be working through all of those verses.

Now I remember being in a store recently, alright, and I was talking to the sales associate there, and I had I guess I had some questions about one of the products or one of the things that they were selling.

And this sales associate was really good, right?

And I remember him, he he really engaged me well.

I was thinking about this afterwards.

He engaged me really well.

You know, he was he was personable, he was energetic, he was passionate without being like over the top, right?

You know, that kind of style too, right?

In the salesperson.

He wasn't pushy, wasn't anything like that, but just I found really helpful as I had some questions and all that, and he was kind of trying to sell me on on um on that product.

Now, um, as we got to kind of the end of our conversation, you know, I wasn't I wasn't ready to make the purchase yet.

Right?

I was still kind of doing some research and still thinking through some things and all of that.

And so I made that uh just clear at the end of it.

I'm like, well, thank you for your help.

I'm not quite ready to do this right now.

And it was it was really interesting what happened.

His demeanor immediately changed.

Right?

He went from like, I'm engaging this person to literally like, okay.

Right?

He he like he could not have been more disinterested in me.

Right?

He was like literally, it was weird.

Like I still had kind of a couple of follow-up questions, and the guy literally like whips out his phone and just starts looking at his phone.

And I'm like, cool.

You know, kind of backed out and and and and walked away.

And and what became like just so obvious to me, it was just crystal clear, is that that guy he didn't care about me.

Right?

He wasn't he wasn't concerned about my well-being exactly.

What did he care about?

He cared about he cared about making making commission.

Right?

He cared about you know selling uh you know uh a product, or or even you could say, using me.

It feel felt a little bit that way, right?

Using me to uh to make a buck.

Now, uh you know, I I don't think, or uh, or I do think that to some degree we we should probably expect that, right, from a salesperson.

I mean, I wasn't like hurt by it, it was you know, it was nothing like that.

You know, we would expect that kind of that kind of approach, and there's no real shock in it.

Okay, but hopefully, you know, as we've been going through you know, uncommon community and talking about what that is as a church and the type of culture and community that God is building here at Harvest Bible Chapel, hopefully we're starting to realize and have the understanding that that that type of an attitude, that type of an approach, there's no room for that here in the church.

We are to be devoted to each other.

We are to be passionate about each other, each person.

We're not to just use each other as you know a stepping stone to you know some kind of some kind of personal gain.

Okay, that the church, the the ministries and you know the people, right?

We're not to both supposed to be manipulated.

Relationships aren't aren't disposable, right?

That's that's not what it is before at all, right?

And then the scriptures they make it really clear to us that God calls us to uh a high level of devotion.

We are to be all in, we are to be passionate about relationship, we are to be all for you know the person.

It's supposed to be genuine, genuine devotion.

Okay, we're not we're not kind of like one foot in, one foot out when it comes to our church community.

We're not supposed to use people, there's no manipulation, there's no like, well, I you know, I don't think I really want to have relationships with these people.

No, it's not any of that at all.

We're supposed to be committed, right?

We're supposed to be loyal.

We're supposed to be faithful and invested in the person beside us and in every single person here.

Right?

And that's certainly what Romans chapter 12 teaches us here.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

So if you would read along with me, I'm gonna I'm gonna start in verse in verse four.

Here's what it says for for as in one body we have many members, and the the members do not all have the same function.

So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy in a profor in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, uh the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who a uh the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

And then he says, verse 9 let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor, do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality.

God, as we read these verses here this morning, Lord, we recognize that you have a very clear picture in your mind as to what our church is supposed to look like.

Lord, and beyond just what what you think it should be, you have you have told us what it should be, Lord.

We we see it here in the scriptures and we see it all throughout.

Lord, would you forgive us as a church?

Would you forgive us as individuals when we try to make church something else?

Lord, when we try and lower the bar, when we allow our desires and our personal interests and what we want, trump what you want.

Lord, if that's the way that we live, then our church will not have the power of your spirit working through it.

And Lord, that would be the worst thing ever.

And so, God, as we work through these verses, as we talk about what it means to be devoted to one another, God, I pray that you would continue to teach us, Lord, would you continue to spur us along?

Would you inspire us to, you know, lay down our pride, to confess our sin, and to eagerly ask that you would do have your way in us and make us as individuals and as the church the way you want us to be.

Lord, I pray that our our community here would be in fact uncommon.

Lord, I pray that it would be special.

I pray that it would be unique, I pray that it would bring you glory.

We pray all of these things in the matchless name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so here is the question that this entire series, right, has been driving at.

This is the this is the conclusion of uncommon community.

And here's the question: Am I devoted to my church?

Am I devoted to it?

Right?

That's the question that that each one of us, myself included, we all need to be asking that of ourselves here today.

You know, am I going to commit?

Am I going to take the plunge and be all about the community here at Harvest Bible Chapel?

Am I going to go for it?

Now, I would imagine that some of us, some of you here in the room, are probably still trying to kind of feel this out a little bit, right?

You're like, well, you know, I'm kind of new here, or, you know, I'm still, you know, I'm still trying to check out some churches, and, you know, I'm I'm I'm prayerfully considering all of these things.

And you know what I would say, like, all of that's all of that's good.

Like, all of that is is healthy and and an appropriate thing, you know, to do.

You want to think it through.

You want to consider this.

This is a really serious, serious decision.

Right?

What church community am I gonna be a part of?

And so you don't want to jump into it uh too quickly, probably.

But here's what I also know.

I also know that that sometimes people can stay in that like non-committal zone forever.

Right?

Forever.

And we stay in there and we can we become kind of comfortable in that.

And we are sort of that one foot in, one foot out, and you know, and and we like it, and and it's not too, it's not too difficult.

Not not too much is required of us.

And and again, it kind of it kind of feels feels good here.

And sort of what happens is you know, months go by and and and sometimes years go by, and and and nothing's really nothing's really changed, you know, and you're you still end up, you're on, you're on the you're on the periphery of of community life.

Right?

You're not you're not in.

Right?

You're not invested.

Yeah, you may come here most weekends and you might show up and all that stuff, but in your heart and and and practically in terms of you know investing in people here and involved in ministry and and all of that, you're you're still kind of you're you're lean you're leaning out.

Right?

And you're missing something.

You're missing something huge, you're missing what what church really is.

And you're missing what what God would have for you, right, and and and your family, and you're missing how God wants to use you in the life of others uh here at our church.

Okay, so again, the question am I devoted to my church?

Okay, I can confidently say yes when I have a growing appreciation for the variety of people that God's gathering.

Right?

That's the first thing.

All right, take a look at uh verse four here as we uh kind of pull apart these verses.

All right, he says this.

This is, of course, the Apostle Paul who wrote the book of Romans, and he says this for as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Now, does this sound a little bit like familiar territory for some of you?

Right?

If you can remember, I have a hard time remembering like what happened yesterday, but if you can remember like seven weeks ago when we first started this message, we looked at uh 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

And it was all about this idea of the body, right?

You know, we we explored all of this and and we and we looked at how the church is the body of who?

It's the body of Jesus Christ, right?

Jesus is the head, he is the leader, he is the master, he's the king of the church, and we are all, you know, the picture that's painted here is we are all like body parts, right?

We're all members or parts, that's each of us, and and each one of us here, we play a crucial role in the overall health of the body.

Right?

And so, of course, you know, our verse talks about that, and and then there's this like hugely important part here.

You see this here?

It says, we don't all have the same function.

That's really important that we understand that.

That might even be worth like highlighting for you or taking a little making a little note of that in your Bible or in your notes.

Right?

We don't all have the same function, we don't all have the same role in the church.

Okay, not at all.

God's God has gathered us here.

We're you know, we're a variety of different people that the Lord is assembling.

We all we all have you know different different makeups, right?

We all you know, we all tick a little bit differently.

You know, we all sort of in some ways beat to a different drum.

We all have different backgrounds, we all have different experiences, we're all in different places with the Lord, we have different skills and abilities and and talents and all of that.

Now, big question why is all that something that we should appreciate?

Right?

Why should we appreciate that and and the variety of people and abilities and skills and all of that?

Okay, well, we'll put it this way.

Think about it this way.

If you are building a house, right?

Some of you I'm sure have have built a house before.

I know we have you know people in the you know construction industry uh here that uh that are in the room right now.

Okay, if you're building a house, do you need, for example, framers only?

No.

That's gonna be a pretty cold house in the wintertime if all you have is a f is a frame.

Right?

You need you need other people, you need electricians, you need plumbers, you need drywallers, and you need someone to paint, because no one likes painting, right?

You have you you need a wide variety of gifts and skills so that you can create a house that is that is livable.

Okay, you know, in the same way, right?

A strong church is is similar, right?

We need we need differing people with differing skills and abilities and and all of that so that the so that we can accomplish a lot for the kingdom of Christ, right?

That's it that's what we're going for as a church.

Right?

So we need people in our church who have you know a real passion for like two, three, four-year-olds, right?

People that just love to go, you know, and and and hold a baby so that you know parents can come here and sit here and hear the word of God preached.

Right?

We need people who are who are fired up about that.

We we need people who you know love to work with students.

We need that for sure.

We need we need techie people.

We need musicians, we need you know, artsy kind of people who are you know are good with creativity and all of that.

We need wise counselors who are able to point people to the scriptures and and help them through the different things that come up uh in life.

We need we need strong leaders in the church, we need energetic servants in the church, you know, highly social people who are really great at greeting and all of that, but we also need like behind the scenes people who you know don't want any attention and and are able to be more like plotters and you know, let me get some tasks done and all of that.

Okay, if we're if we're all one type of person, what's gonna happen in the church?

We're gonna be super imbalanced.

Right?

We're you know, we're it's gonna be lopsided.

And then eventually, what's that what's that gonna play out to?

It's gonna play out in the way of ineffectiveness, right?

We're gonna be actually you know very weak.

Now, as much as that probably you know makes sense to us on some level, right?

Like, yeah, we need all kinds of different people, and you know, that's uh that's a really good thing, and you know, hopefully the Lord's bringing that, and maybe you've prayed for that, and you know, I hopefully on at least on some level we would all agree with that.

But here's the thing, it's actually really easy for us, it's really, really easy for us to struggle with, you know, functionally speaking, really struggle with appreciating the differences in people, isn't it?

We're not always really great at that.

And and oftentimes we we just we don't like it.

Now, what do I mean by that?

What do I mean that we can we can struggle with appreciating the variety?

Well, I've got this on the this will be up on the screen for you.

Four signs that you probably don't appreciate, a variety of people in the church.

Okay, one of these or more of these um might be present in your life, right?

You might be you know immediately thinking, like, I love different people and all of that, but maybe one of these things is showing up in your life.

Here's the first one.

You only socialize with people just like you.

Right?

Have you seen this?

Have you seen this?

So many times I have you know people you know come to our church and I get to know them, and you know, what's one of the, you know, I want to be really careful when we're critiquing other churches that we've come from, really, really careful about all of that.

But one of the things that you often hear is like, I just I was so sick of the cliques.

Right, I was so sick of these little groups of three or four you know people that never ever talk to anybody else and never let anybody you know penetrate that that shield that they seem to have around their you know little group.

Right?

Is that you?

Do you like to just hang out with people that are just like you?

Right?

Naturally, that's our default setting.

We like people that look like us, that talk like us, that make the same amount of money as us, people that have the same interests as us, and we're all the same ages, maybe there's the same you know, gender or ethnicity or right, whatever it may be.

Right?

If we only socialize with people just like us, it means that maybe we don't appreciate the variety of people that God has brought here and the blessing that can be received when we're in a devoted relationship with them.

Here's a second one.

You wish people were more like you.

Right?

Would any of us like say this out loud?

Probably not.

Right?

Probably it would like be laughable if someone did.

Right?

But in our hearts, don't we have that?

Like our hearts are so deceitful, right?

We're so deceived.

Right?

And and and oftentimes we we can kind of think that, like, why does that person do that?

That drives me crazy.

I wouldn't do that, right?

And we and we think that sometimes, and and and even maybe as I'm saying this, you're like, yeah, I think about that person, right?

I wish I wish they were more like me, and I wish they were as mature and you know, had it all together, or you know, I'm really gifted in this area.

Why aren't they?

Right?

You want every everybody to be like you.

That shows that you probably don't appreciate the diversity here, right?

Other people, they may not have the same strengths as you.

Listen, that's a good thing.

Because they're guaranteed they're gonna have strengths where you're weak.

Right?

So we need that.

We need that.

Here's the flip side of it, number three.

You wish you were more like others.

You wish you were more like others.

Is that you?

Right?

And you walk in and you're like, I just want to belong.

I want to belong, I want to be like everybody else.

You know, I don't want to stand out, I don't want to be different.

Right?

And we think, well, isn't that like a junior high high school thing?

No, adults do it too.

We do, we just disguise it.

We've just got the masks on, locked in place, never coming off.

Right?

We've learned how to how to live with that.

And we, I just wish I dressed more like that person.

I wish I had their family situation.

I wish my kids obeyed like their kids obeyed.

I wish my husband wasn't such a slob, like, right?

The list goes on.

Right?

And of course it it goes all the way into you know certain gifts and abilities and you know, all of that in the church.

Listen, if this is you, you don't appreciate that God made you different.

He made you unique.

He made you for a purpose that you're supposed to play in the church, right?

And we need you.

And that's a good thing.

Stop despising the way that the Lord made you.

Start having your identity in Him and who He's told you you are, not in who you kind of wish that you were.

Alright, here's the fourth one.

Four signs you probably don't appreciate a variety of people in the church.

Last one, you criticize differences instead of rejoicing in that.

Right, we've touched on this a few times before.

Right?

And again, the the the criticism, sometimes that comes out in the form of gossip, right?

Yeah, that person, we start nitpicking and all of that.

But other times, again, it's more of a it's more of an internal internal thing.

Right?

And it's in our minds and we're playing over that, and we're like super judgmental and critical of that person because of this, that, and the other thing.

Right?

If you're critical of people, it probably means that what?

You don't appreciate them, right?

That's pretty obvious.

That's pretty obvious.

And so we gotta be really careful of that.

Listen, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if you don't like variety, if if diversity makes you uncomfortable, like if you only long for the comfort of of being with people who are who are just like you, exactly like you, then it will hinder your ability to be devoted to the church.

It will.

It's gonna get in the way of all of that.

Why?

Well, because Christ is assembling here, he is he is gathering an eclectic group of misfits.

That's who we are.

I am one, you are one.

Let's just accept that.

Right?

And the Lord is that that's how he that's what he does.

He that's what he builds the church that way.

And he brings in differing people, and sometimes, you know, it's it's like sandpaper with certain people, right?

Or it feels like, looks like, appears to be oil and water.

And it's challenging, but this is what the Lord does.

And if you think about it, this is what he's been doing since day one, right?

He was doing it with his disciples.

You know, I think sometimes we have kind of this oversimplistic understanding of the 12 disciples and kind of who they were.

We're like, oh, they were all fishermen, and so they all had the same hobby, and they must have, you know, really had great weekends at the cottage together fishing, right?

That's what we think.

But is that really who they were?

Yeah, a couple of those guys were fishermen.

But how about um about Matthew?

What was he?

What did he do?

What was his profession?

He was he was uh he was a tax collector, right?

He was a tax collector.

Did anybody like tax collectors?

No.

Right?

He he was a government employee, and he had to go and and and put these harsh demands on people and and take their money from them.

Right?

No one liked Matthew.

Okay, no one liked him.

Okay, but how about Simon the Zealot?

Okay, what does zealot mean?

Okay, zealot, zealot means that he was uh he was an anti-government extremist.

How do you think him and Matthew got along?

Right, I'm willing to bet that those two had some pretty interesting discussions.

Right?

They probably would have had to you know figure some things out in order to get along and to you know be able to put their differences aside a little bit and and and not have those differences be the defining thing between them, but again, see those things drift away as their purpose was united in coming together as the 12 disciples and and being out on mission to start churches and do all kinds of Of amazing things.

Listen, that's us too.

We need to be able to work things out together.

You know, you're gonna come here and you're gonna meet people that just flat out rub you the wrong way.

Right?

That's the way it goes.

And maybe you wish that you know they would leave, or maybe it's the kind of thing that tempts you to leave.

Right?

That is the worst thing ever.

Right?

No, we need to we need to figure out how to get along and and not just like the bare minimum learning to like stomach the sight of that person.

Right?

Like I can walk past that person without sneering.

Like that's not the bar, right?

That that's a low bar.

Right?

That the the point is that we're to be we're to be devoted to each other.

Again, this this idea of committed.

I I want what's best for you.

I love you, I care for you, I want to see the Lord work in your life, and I want him to use me in your life.

I want him to use you in my life.

Right?

That's what we're going for here.

Not just tolerate each other merely, but actually appreciate the differences to the point of just full-on devotion.

That's what God's doing here.

And that's what uncommon community is.

So, am I devoted to my church?

Again, I can confidently say yes.

When I love to see God's grace at work through the collective use of our gifts.

Now, we've already mentioned spiritual gifts a little bit already this morning.

We've talked about them, you know, for sure, kind of at different points throughout this series.

Um, but here Paul kind of gets into a couple of different examples.

Now, this isn't like exhaustive, he only you know lifts a handful here, but take a look at verse six and what he has to say.

He says this having gifts that, what's the word?

Differ.

Differ.

Does he say that's a bad thing?

Nope.

No, that's a good thing, right?

There's variety here.

There's variety.

That's that's the way the Lord set it up.

And he says this, according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

All right, so that so what Paul does here is he reminds us that that God, by his grace, gave each one of us here, each person in the church, you know, different gifts.

Gifts that we, you know, we better be using.

Right?

And we use them as a demonstration of our devotion to one another.

Right?

That's a big part of what our gifts are for.

Again, so we better put them into action.

Right?

To be sitting there on our hands and and and not be using our gifts, it's actually disobedience.

Right?

It's it's it's not it's not good.

Right?

We got we gotta use them, and and and we should we should love to see the grace of God at work in in our own lives and in the lives of other people in our church as we all kind of collectively use the gifts that God has uh given us.

All right, and that's how the Lord builds us up.

That's how he edifies us, that's how he sanctifies us and strengthens us.

He uses you and he uses me in the demonstration of our gifts to get that done.

All right, so here are a couple examples here that Paul uses in the text.

First one he says here is is prophecy, right?

If prophecy, now I think, you know, maybe initially uh when you first read this, you think back to like Old Testament prophets, and you know, they were like literally getting a word from the Lord that they were sharing, and it was all like new information, and that was absolutely true, and even the apostles had that kind of uh function uh for sure in the New Testament, and they were sharing God's word for the first time.

People were hearing that.

Okay, but that's not exactly what you know it's talking about here.

That's not the use of the gift that it's that it's referring to.

Now, prophecy here literally means speaking forth.

Okay, it means speaking forth.

And so here, what is it referring to?

It's actually just referring simply to the gift of preaching.

That that that's the context here, preaching the the word of God.

Now it says in proportion uh to our faith.

What is that all about?

Well, it means that you know that that preachers, you know, prophets, prophet preachers, however you want to kind of you know look at that, uh right, they should, they should only they should only speak when they have faith, when they have confidence that that God has given them a word, you know, to to share to their congregations.

Right?

So, you know, for me, you know, if I would have the you know the gift of preaching, if I would sense that hopefully that's a gift, right?

The sense that the Lord has given me that, I shouldn't just, you know, kind of, you know, as we're going through the worship here and we're like on song two and there's like one more song, I'm like kind of flipping open the Bible thinking, where should we go today?

You know, probably not the best idea.

You know, you've heard the idea of the Saturday night special, right?

Where the where the pastor is just kind of like, well, I've only got like eight hours, so I'm gonna be in the pulpit.

I better like get the Bible open and you know, no, we don't we don't believe in that.

You know, I I want to stand up here confident that the Lord has given me a word.

And so I'd be spending time with the Lord, you know, throughout the week and going through the scriptures and studying them and having a good understanding of the text, you know, and only speaking when I have when I have confidence the Lord has led me, you know, through this.

You know, I don't want to be half-hearted in my approach and my prep or anything like that.

I, you know, it's it's it's not preaching is not about what I think.

Okay, so done with that whole attitude in the church.

Here's what the pastor thinks.

Who cares?

Right?

It's about what the word of God says, amen.

That's that that's what we need.

Right?

And so that that's the prophetic part of what we're doing even here right now.

Right?

We're preaching God's word.

That's the word, that's the message that needs to go out.

That's the message that's gonna change change lives.

Right?

That's what I'm to communicate.

It's not about impressing anybody, it's not about me at all.

It's about preaching God's words and calling us all to the standard that that He's laid out in Scripture and continuing to show us what that standard is and calling us to that.

Right?

That's that's my job, anyways.

Okay, how about this one?

If service, right?

If service and in our serving.

Now, now some of you uh have this gift, this spiritual gift of uh of service.

You just love to help.

Like, let me know, anything, anything that you need, just you know, put me in, coach, like that's your mentality, and you'll you love to do whatever it takes to kind of help the whole or help an individual.

You've got you've got a big time heart for that, and and you love to serve.

Well, if you're gonna if you've got that gift, you better use it, right?

That's what he's saying here.

How about this one?

The one who teaches in his teaching.

Right?

If you've got this, you know, this gift uh of teaching and you're able to explain the scriptures, and and maybe there's you know even a bit of a preaching component in that, maybe you need to you need to start to explore that and start to exercise that.

And maybe it's getting, you know, teaching harvest kids.

The kids up there love time in God's word.

Right?

Maybe it's with with our student ministry, right?

Maybe it's becoming a youth leader and seeing how that all goes and and allowing the Lord to kind of grow that and develop that in you.

How about the next one?

The one who exhorts, the one who exhorts.

We talked about this last week.

This is encouragement, right?

The one who exhorts in his exhortation.

So if you've got the gift of encouragement, better be using it.

And then he says here, uh, the one who contributes in generosity.

Now, now, some, or God has God has has gifted some of you, he's blessed some of you with just you know the ability to make money.

Right?

You're gifted at that, right?

And you've got all these resources at your disposal, and and for you that just that comes very naturally.

And you know, you started up businesses and you know, it succeeded, and you know, what's next?

Now you go do another one, or you know, you you just you've got this ability.

And the Lord's given you that gift.

You realize that?

He's given that to you, and he said it says there the one who contributes in generosity.

Be generous with it.

Right?

It's not about it's not about hoarding what you've got or what God's given you or how God has blessed you, it's about you know supporting um and helping others in need.

And maybe you can be generous about that in ways that that others couldn't.

Now it doesn't leave the rest of us off the hook.

You know, it's not the wealthy people be generous.

No, that's that's not what it is.

Like we're all supposed to be generous with our time and our resources and uh and even our money.

Here's a couple more.

The one who leads with zeal.

Right?

Are you a leader?

Right, are you a leader in a you know, maybe in a ministry here in our church?

Well, are you passionate about it?

Are you excited about what the Lord has called you to?

Are you excited about the people who are serving under you that you have an opportunity to disciple them?

Right?

There's nothing worse than a leader who is boring.

Right?

It's it's awful.

No one wants to follow that guy, right?

You know, there's nothing inspiring about all that.

Why am I even here?

Right?

Zeal.

Be passionate about it, be excited, should have some joy.

Okay, last one.

The one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

Now, again, some of you, you have such soft hearts, right?

You you see that someone is hurting, or you you hear about that, and it's like your heart, your heart breaks, right?

And you're you just you so long to comfort that person, and what can we do to help them in their time of need?

And and I just love that.

God has God has given you that, and you're so easily moved by the suffering of other people, and God's given you that.

Yeah, that's a gift from Him, and yeah, it takes a lot out of you emotionally for sure.

It's not easy to do that, and and it's exhausting and it's tiring, but the uh the encouragement here is to do that cheerfully.

Don't be like, oh, I'm too tired to care about that person, right?

We all get there, don't we?

We struggle with that sometimes.

But listen, do it, do it cheerfully.

Now, let me just ask you this question.

Do you even know what your gifts are?

Right?

That's a pretty that's a pretty important question, right?

It really is.

Do you even know what your spiritual gifts are?

Because maybe you're maybe you're like brand new to the church, right?

Maybe you, you know, you just got saved recently, or or maybe you've never been encouraged and pushed to serve before, and so you're like, I've never really done it, and I've you know, I've got some fear and some some hesitation about that, or I just I don't know.

Like, where would I step in?

And you know, what are my abilities?

And you know, do you know what your gifts are?

And hey, listen, if you don't know, that's okay.

That's totally fine.

There's not, you know, we're not trying to be hard on you, you know, about about any of that.

We want to help you kind of try and figure some of that stuff out.

Right?

And if you want to jot this down here, it's gonna be on the screen, but it's 1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

Okay, it's 1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

You don't need to flip over there.

Uh, but I'm gonna read it.

All right, I'm gonna read it, and then we're gonna pull a couple of things.

It's really important for us to understand when it comes to our gifts out of this.

It says this as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's very grace.

Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God.

Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Right now, a couple of things to notice here.

Okay, first of all, it's I think what we understand here is that all believers have been given gifts.

Right?

All believers are gifted, okay, for mission and ministry to serve one another.

Right?

That's the first thing that we can see here.

Right?

So you have to understand you do have a gift.

You may not know what that is, but it just means that it's it's maybe undeveloped.

It maybe means that you know the Lord hasn't shown you exactly how you're gonna use that yet.

And so, you know, some people would say, well, I don't know what my gift is.

How do I how do I figure this out?

We would just say, talk to somebody.

Talk to somebody that you know, ask them questions.

Hey, how do you think, what do you think my spiritual gift might be?

You know, how do you think I would be best used in encouraging people or or or in carrying out the work of the Lord and being on mission and all of that?

Talk to people.

Maybe just maybe just jump in, start start serving somewhere.

And and you know what, it'll become pretty clear pretty quickly if that was, you know, if if that's good and that's what you should be in, or if, or if maybe no, I need to go find somebody else.

Or like maybe you start like serving and you're on the front door, and after a while you're like, I'm the worst at this.

Like I shouldn't be serving at all.

I I need to be, I need to be doing something else.

I need to be doing something more behind the scenes.

Or maybe you're a behind-the-scenes person, but you need to be, you have like a gift of teaching or something, and you need to be you know upstairs with the children, or you need to be doing something according to your gifts.

Just get involved, and you'll see the Lord start to lead you through all that and make your gifts known.

Okay, what's another thing that we see here?

I think we see that every believer is a steward of God's grace, right?

That's what it says.

It says good stewards of God's very grace, varied grace.

A steward means manager.

So we've been we've been given gifts, and again, the idea is what are you doing with those gifts?

Are you managing it well?

Do you appreciate what the Lord has given you?

Or are you kind of are you wasting it?

Or are you are you using it for fleshly gains?

Are you using it to make yourself feel better?

Or are you using it for the kingdom of God?

Right?

So are we are we good stewards?

Are you are we good managers of that?

What else do we see?

We see that that God empowers us in serving.

Right?

You see that in the verse.

It says, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies.

Right?

Now, here's what I often hear, especially people who are jumping into a new ministry for the first time.

What's your mentality and your approach as you're getting into a brand new ministry?

Fear, right?

I'm nervous about this.

I've never done this before.

And and and what if it doesn't go so well?

And you know, I I you know, and when we often question our own abilities and the gifts that we have and all of that, here's what you need to know: God will give you strength, He is going to empower you.

I gotta tell you, as the pastor, I pastor, I get like the front row seat to seeing God at work in the church.

It's amazing, right?

It's the best ever.

And so I've seen many of you jump into serving, and you came into it with some trepidation and maybe some just flat out fear, and then the Lord just started doing things with it.

Right?

And it was amazing, and your joy increased and your faith increased as you realize the Spirit of God is using me.

It's it's amazing.

There's a lot of joy found in that.

There's no need to fear, we need to trust the Lord, He will give you strength.

Okay, last thing I want to point out here from this 1 Peter 4 passage.

Using your gifts brings glory to God.

Using your gifts brings God glory, right?

In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.

Right?

So when we exercise our gifts, when we show our devotion to other people through the use of our gifts, we're bringing glory to God.

Awesome, right?

Because that that's the mission of our church to bring glory to God in everything that we do.

Sometimes we wonder, like, what how can I bring God more glory?

And sometimes we forget that it's it's simply using your gifts.

Start serving, start, start blessing each other.

Right?

It's gonna be awesome.

Now, a couple of things for us to keep in mind here as we kind of think about all of this.

Okay, first of all, okay, we only have our gifts, each of us as individuals, individuals, we only have our gifts because God gave them to us.

Right?

We have to remember that.

They're not self-developed, we don't just have like this natural tendency at being incredible at certain things.

No, spiritual gifts are given spiritually by God, right?

And so we have to remember that.

Allow that to you know humble us or bring us off our pedestal or stop us from thinking again the puffy head and you know, all the pride, you know, the puffy chest, all of that.

No, God gave us the gift, let's remember that.

Okay, let's use them well in the spirit of humility and with gratitude.

Okay, also remember this spiritual gifts aren't primarily about you.

Okay, they're not primarily about you.

Sometimes we can get so self-focused in all of it.

We don't intend to, maybe, but sometimes it's about like I want to develop my teaching gift, or you know, I want to whatever.

Right?

And we go too far down that road, it becomes about me, me, me.

But we gotta remind ourselves constantly, it's about other people, it's about serving, it's about being a small part of the greater whole.

Right?

It's not about it's not about me.

It's about God's glory, it's about other people being built up as we serve.

Right?

So, in other words, just watch out for that.

Watch out for the selfish attitudes, watch out for the vanity that can happen and and the pride that can happen as your gifts start to be developed, and God graciously does that in your life.

Just keep an eye on it.

And when it comes in and you see it, and you know, maybe someone you know graciously points it out to you because it's becoming pretty obvious and it's leaking out of you everywhere like uh like water or something, right?

Confess it to the Lord.

Bring it before him, confess the pride.

So, Lord, you continue to bring glory to yourself through the use of my gifts, not through me, it's not about me.

Okay, a great sign that you're becoming more and more devoted to the church and to our community here is when you love to use your God-given gifts and you love to see others use theirs as well.

Right?

That's a great sign.

Okay, you're you're serving hard, they're serving hard, God's getting glory left, right, and center.

You know, there's no there's no jealousy, there's no bitterness, there's no you know, rivalries or anything like that.

It's not about who's better, it's not you know self-righteous attitudes.

No, no, it's it's it's pure devotion.

It's pure devotion.

Here's the last thing am I devoted to my church?

Right?

I can confidently say, yeah.

Still awake, you still with me?

Or I can say yes when I commit to putting my all into the relationships God has blessed me with.

Or I can put my all into it.

Okay, just check out this.

This is like the nothing holding back mentality that we see here starting in verse, in verse 9.

Okay, I'm gonna read through it pretty quickly.

He says, Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection.

I love this.

Outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful or lazy in zeal and passion, but be fervent in the spirit, serve the Lord.

That's what we have to remember.

When we use our gifts, we're ultimately serving Jesus Christ.

He says, rejoice in hope.

Not just going through the motions, I'm not just fulfilling a mundane task.

No, I'm rejoicing in all this.

I'm I'm patient in the difficult times and tribulation, I'm I'm constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Okay, you notice as you read through that, how there's just like there's there's nothing half-hearted about Paul's approach here, right?

You notice that kind of all throughout.

You're not like, well, yeah, I guess do some of this.

Here's a suggestion if you feel like it.

No, he's like, go for it.

It's like go for it.

Let's let's be all about this from the heart.

It's like it's like turbo devotion or something that Paul's all about here.

That's what he's describing.

Now, some of us we might read that, or sometimes you read certain parts of the scripture, right?

And you kind of get the feeling like, is Paul being a little too idealistic here?

Like, is he going for like this utopian society that none of us are ever gonna reach?

And and you know, like it's this unreachable bar and this standard that you know, forget it.

Like, why even try?

You know, some sometimes we sometimes we wonder, can the church actually be this?

Can it?

And maybe some of us have had some bad experiences.

Maybe we've even had bad experiences here.

Right?

Maybe we have.

Right?

And and we wonder, is this is this even possible?

Because sometimes maybe it seems unrealistic or it un it seems unlikely.

Listen, you need to hear this.

It is not.

It is not unrealistic.

This is what the Lord wants to do.

Listen, it's not unrealistic when the Lord grabs your heart, right?

That's just it.

You see the heart in these verses, 9 to 13.

You see the passion, you see the the energy, right?

There's no slothfulness, there's there's zeal, there's passion.

Outdo one another in love.

It's like you guys should be like trying to con compete with each other about who's gonna honor the person, person more, right?

There's no there's no combative attitude or mentality in the church.

No, your heart is engaged because the Lord is doing something awesome in you.

Right?

When when that's happening, the Lord can do anything.

The Lord can do anything in the church.

And listen, he will.

He will.

Because we got to remember, anything that God calls us to, he will give us the grace to accomplish.

He will.

That's what he does.

Listen, it's it's a good thing, it's a healthy thing.

It's actually an amazing thing to kind of read all of this and sense the gap.

You ever sense the gap before?

Right, here's the standard, but I'm down here.

Right?

And there's this gap.

I'm not where I should be.

That's a great thing because all of that is room for God's grace to move.

Right?

And that that's what the Lord does.

He doesn't want you to think that you can you can handle this on your own.

He doesn't, he doesn't want the pastor to think that if I just you know preach a good sermon, it's gonna happen here in my own strength.

You know, if we just have like more coffees with people, we're gonna build uncommon community.

Right?

We can't on our own do this.

It's the spirit of the Lord.

It's the spirit of the Lord alone that does it.

He's the only one that can build something that's real.

He's the only one that can build something that lasts.

I don't know about you, but that's the kind of church I want to be a part of.

Right?

I don't want it to be something that you know that Mike made or or one of you or the rest of us built.

Right?

That's that's awful.

That's awful.

There's there's nothing, nothing good about that.

It might have the appearance of good things, but it's void of the void of the Lord.

Right?

And that's that's not what church is, obviously.

Okay, so here's the question Do we want him to do that?

Do you want him to do that in this church?

Do you?

Are you, am I, are we willing to do our part?

Right?

Or are we willing to do what it takes to get there from our end?

Because I mean, I just said, right.

The Lord has to do it.

It has to be his spirit transforming hearts and doing a work and uniting us and creating this mentality of devotion towards one another.

But you better believe that he calls us into that.

We have a role.

We have a responsibility to play.

That's what a relationship with God is.

It's not 100% one-sided.

You know, I don't just like sit down here in the front row, lean back, all right, God, start building the church.

I'm just gonna sit here, I'm gonna do nothing.

That's not what it is.

Some of us kind of wish that it was like that, maybe sometimes.

But no, we have a role to play.

We've got to do it too.

We've got to humble ourselves.

We've got to be willing to assess our hearts and our faulty thinking and our misplaced priorities for putting other things above God, for putting other things above God's church, other things above what God says is important and what really matters and what lasts.

Are you willing to look at those things in your life?

Give yourself a real hard look in the mirror, assess your heart, look at this.

Are you willing to do it?

It's not easy.

Right?

We've all got these things.

We've all got these various roadblocks that are that are in our heart that stop us from allowing the Lord or even inviting the Lord in to do this work, first of all, primarily with me.

With you.

We often want them to do it with other people, right?

And then we want to experience the benefit of their hard work.

Right?

That's not what the Lord's saying here this morning.

He's saying, you in your heart, in your mind, in your life.

Are we willing to ask this important question?

What's holding me back from being committed to this community?

To from being devoted to this community?

Okay, we've got a couple of things here, five possible reasons that might be holding you back specifically.

First one, you got a self-sufficient mindset instead of a humble dependence on Christ and others.

Right?

Sometimes one of the most dangerous things is a gifted person.

You ever notice that?

Maybe you've seen this in your life.

The Lord's starting to develop gifts in you, and what's the tendency, especially as we still lack the maturity to go along with the gifts?

Sometimes what happens is, well, I've been given the gift.

Thanks, Lord.

I'll take it from here.

Right?

And we don't we don't depend on the Lord anymore.

We go to him when life's really brutal, or we go to him before, you know, we pray for a meal, right?

But we're not like humbly depending on him for every moment, every single day, because we need him.

No, we're we're too self-sufficient.

Some of us are are so strong that it's become a problem.

And we we don't think, we don't sense our need for him.

And when that's happened, listen, we are in pride.

We're not in danger of falling into pride.

You've already fallen into that deep end.

Right?

You're swimming in, you're drowning in it.

And so we need to be able to assess and ask the question Am I too self-sufficient?

Am I not leaning into the Lord?

Am I not leaning into the people in my church?

Listen, if you're in a small group here today, right, are you are you transparent and honest and vulnerable with those people because God has put those people in your life to help you, to support you in your time of need?

Or are you just trying to play the stiff upper lip, strong guy?

You know, or I've I've got it, you know, all together, girl.

All right, too self-sufficient.

We need to humble ourselves and depend on Christ and depend on the church.

That's a that's a that's a good thing.

That's the sweet spot.

Okay, how about this?

Unresolved pain from my past, it's demolished trust.

You got any unresolved pain?

Right?

You've been hurt.

Someone's done something to you, and maybe you haven't forgiven them, and you know, there's there's now a root of bitterness that's there, you know, or or you're just you're so hurt and you're so rattled by it that you're you're unwilling and unable to trust the person that you should trust.

Right?

You're in a small group and and and you know, you're there physically, but you don't trust the people.

Right?

You don't trust them.

I get, again, we've talked about this before.

It takes time to build trust in these in these types of environments.

I know that.

Okay.

But maybe you've got this pain in your life that you haven't dealt with properly, and you need to work through a process of forgiveness and recognizing that no, I the Lord needs to do this in my heart, or I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna be able to, you know, invest and be devoted in the church and have them deliver that to me.

Third thing.

Stubborn insistence on doing church my way.

Right?

Sorry, I did the fourth one.

Let's do the third one.

That was a teaser.

Okay, stagnant relationship with God that's numbing my desire.

Have you ever struggled with this?

Yes, should be the resounding answer.

Of course.

We've all had stagnant, you know, periods of time with the Lord, and you know, I'm not too fired up about that.

Well, guess what that translates into?

Not being fired up about anything in the church, not being fired up about, you know, reading the scriptures, not being fired up about relationships in the church or serving or anything like that.

And if that's you, and if you're seeing that, listen, I'm not excited about these things, and I could care less about community, guess what?

It means you're stagnant in your relationship with the Lord.

You can't be excited about the thing God's excited about, okay?

If you're not excited about the Lord.

Okay, so maybe that's what you need to work on.

You need to think through all of that.

That's what's holding me back from being devoted.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not pressing into the Lord.

That relationship has run dry, become lukewarm.

You need to spend some time with the Lord, asking Him to reveal to you your heart.

What are the sin attitudes?

What are, you know, what are the things that are that are blocking this from really happening?

Okay, number four.

First time I've read this, you've never heard it before.

Stubborn insistence on doing church my way.

Right?

This is so many of us, I think.

Again, it goes back to what we've kind of been talking about throughout this whole series.

We have this picture in our mind of of what the church should be and what my involvement in the church is gonna be, and what my devotion to the people are gonna be.

You know, and I and I wanna come to church, but I want to do it when it's convenient on my schedule.

You know, I'm gonna come once a month, you know, or I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna send my my kids to youth, but I'm not gonna get involved in anything.

You know, or whatever.

Right?

And all of it is, you know, you are creating a church of your own desire.

That's what your heart, that's what your your actions are showing.

Right?

And so we uh it shows a certain stubbornness.

You know, maybe you've heard the series and we've been coming through this, you're like, nope, still don't care.

Don't care what you have to say.

Don't want this.

Right?

Stubbornness.

Don't do it your way, do it God's way.

Okay, fifth one.

Lack of understanding that uncommon community is actually amazing.

Maybe you've never experienced this before, you've never seen community the way that it's supposed to be.

You know what's been super encouraging?

I've heard some people join small groups recently who have been like, this is the best small group I've ever been a part of.

And maybe they've been in the church for years and years and years.

They're starting to realize this is like people are loving me well, and and and this is so great, and I'm able to use my gifts to bless them as well.

And this is you know better than I ever dreamed or ever thought.

Right?

And so, and so for you, you don't you don't realize what could be.

And so, therefore, that's been kind of a stumbling block for you.

And you're not really catching the vision of all of this, and you're not willing to dip your toe in at the very least, or completely plunge in.

And so for you, what you end up doing is you end up settling for something that's just flat out a week, uh just a weak substitute or replacement for God's plan.

It's not what he wants for you.

Listen, what if there was a church, right?

I love asking that question.

What if there was a church where we we put ourselves on the back burner for just a second?

Right?

And what I want and and my needs and all of that, you know, was on the, was on the back burner, and instead I pursued the good of others, right?

And I cared about them and and not just mechanical serving or work, but no, I I did it passionately.

Right?

I was I was fired up about that.

You know, what if what if there was a church where people were so consumed with the Lord that they couldn't help but be consumed with what the Lord cares about?

Right?

And so as a result, they cared about people and they cared about the community that God's assembled here and the and the people that God has has brought in, and and and our devotion to Him and our devotion to each other.

It just like reaches another level.

Right?

What if a church existed like that?

That's what uncommon community is.

That's what we see in the Bible.

That's what the Lord is building.

And listen, it's unique and it's special, and it's an awesome thing.

But understand this that's normal in God's eyes.

Okay?

Anything else other than how he defines it, we gotta toss off to the side.

We need to be willing to pursue it, pursue this community the way he kind of lays it all out.

Listen, this isn't a pie in the sky dream.

It's not an unrealistic goal.

This is this is church.

This is this is God's church.

So the question is, are you in?

Are you?

Are you in?

Think about that this week.

Not just, you know, we go from here into all the Happy Father's Day festivities and all of that.

But listen, is this is this gonna be different?

This is this gonna be different than I've that I've ever experienced before.

Am I gonna am I gonna put my heart out there and allow the Lord, trust the Lord, trust that he's big enough to allow him to do a work in me and allow myself to be invested in this group, devoted to one another and them to me.

I'm gonna pray.

I'm gonna pray right now.

We're gonna pray that the Lord would in fact do this.

Right?

We need him.

I hope that is abundantly clear as we go through this.

We need him badly.