Ministry of Spiritual Gifts, Part 3

Romans 12:8

     I want you to open in your Bible now to the twelfth chapter of Paul's letter to the Roman church, Romans chapter 12.  Need I say that this has been a marvelous and exciting and thrilling study for us over the last couple of years in this great epistle?  I know it has for me and continues to be a source of great joy and encouragement and blessing.

     And as we have come to the twelfth chapter, it's almost as if we've been digging a long time and we finally discovered gold.  And here we are at the point we've been waiting for for so long, when we can see how all of this doctrine that we've had to dig through is finally settled and we've arrived at the treasure that God has for us in the matter of how to live as God would have us live, to know His blessing and give Him glory.

     Let's remind ourselves of how Paul introduces the great truths of the practical section of this epistle that begin in chapter 12.  "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your spiritual worship.  And do not be conformed to this world but be ye being transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.  For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or service, let us attend to our serving; or he that teacheth on teaching; or he that exhorteth on exhortation; he that giveth, with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness."

     Now in reading that passage, we realize that we have arrived at a very crucial point in this great epistle, the key point, the turning point where doctrine turns to duty, where theology turns to practice, to life.  And Paul is saying in view of all that God has done for us described in eleven chapters, which he calls the mercies of God, in view of all of that, he calls us to a total consecration of soul, body, mind and will in an act of complete self‑sacrifice, putting ourselves on the altar of sacrifice. 

     It isn't a new thought.  Jesus called for that, didn't He?  "Except a man take up his cross and follow Me, can't really be My disciple.  Except he deny himself, unless he's willing to turn his back on father and mother and brother and sister, if he's not willing to count the cost and lay down his life, he's not worthy to be My disciple."  It's the same idea.

     There comes a turning point in the life when we are to lay it all out for the service of Jesus Christ.  And I really have to confess to you that it is a daily thing.  Paul said, "I die daily," didn't he, in writing to the Corinthians.  I die daily.  It's every day that I have to put my life back on the altar because it has a way of crawling off. 

     But I really do think there has to be a starting point.  And I can remember when that was for me.  I can remember, as some of you know, when I was thrown out of an automobile going about 75 miles an hour and slid down the road about a hundred yards on my backside and wound up three months in bed.  That was a real turning point in my life.  I mean, you can't really argue with that kind of activity.  If the Lord's going to play that way, you might as well give in.  And that's what I did.

     And it was then at the very strong and sovereign prompting of God through that, that I said, "Lord, here's my life, I no longer want to make the choices, I want You to make the choices.  I no longer want to be in control in any sense."  And my life went on the altar.  And I remember the prayer I prayed that very day standing on that highway after I'd gotten off so I wouldn't get hit by an another car after I had already spun all the way down the road, I walked off and I remember saying, "God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it.  If it's a small job, give me the grace to do it and be satisfied, if it's a big one, give me the ability to do it and be humble."  And I gave everything to Christ standing on that highway.

     For me, that was really the moment of putting myself on the altar, as it were.  And then it's a constant daily process of maintaining that level of dedication and commitment.  And that's where it all starts, with that act of self‑sacrifice.

     Now why do we do that?  Why are we suppose to present ourselves?  Well, the answer is in order that we may serve God properly, as described in verses 3 through 8 and following, so that we may be of use to Him, so that we may maximize our giftedness, so that we may serve His cause and His purpose and His holy Kingdom, and His people and reach the lost and do His work in His way.  And once we've made the proper sacrifice, then in verse 3 we will come to the proper attitude.  And the proper attitude is not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think properly or rightly or soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.  The first thing is to have a humble evaluation of ourselves.  Out of self‑ sacrifice comes the attitude of humility.  I've just put my life on the altar and now I'm nothing.  I'm not trying to salvage my own ego, I'm not trying to fulfill my own goals and desires and build my own reputation, I just want to do what God wants me to do.

     I've said to the Lord so many times, "Lord, I thank You for all You've done in my life, but if You choose to take it all away, that's okay, too.  I just want You to know that my relationship to You is not predicated on what privilege You've given me.  I want to come to the place where I know what Paul meant when he said I know how to bound and I know how to be abase, but in whatever state I am, there with to be...what?...content."  Because for me all life really is is putting my own self on the altar and saying, "There I am, Lord, You do whatever You want to do and if You give it to me, great.  And if You take it away, that's great, too, because it's Yours."

     And Paul had that attitude.  He said, "If I live, I live unto the Lord.  If I die, I die unto the Lord.  I am the Lord's whether I live or die."  And that is the right attitude.

     And so, out of a self‑sacrifice comes humility.  You're not in control.  Your life isn't for you anymore.  And so as you look at yourself then you're not going to think more highly than you ought to think, you're going to think honestly about what you can do for God.  You're going to look rightly and fairly and honestly and sober mindedly and evaluate properly the giftedness and the capability that God by His grace has given to you.  There's no sense in living with delusions of grandeur, imagining yourself to be indispensable to the Kingdom of God or able to do things far beyond what reality would indicate.  And so we have to have the proper attitude.  You start with the proper offering and then you go to the proper attitude.

     And then you need to understand the proper relationship.  Service demands an understanding of that, doesn't it?, in verse 4.  "For as we have many members in one body," that is I have one body and it has members, ears and eyes and nose and organs inside and fingers and arms and legs and all of that, "and all of those members don't have the same function," in fact each one of them has a different one, "so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another and we have gifts that differ according to the grace that is given to us."  So we go from a proper sacrifice, the right sacrifice to the right attitude to the right relationship.  And we understand that we are essential to the body of Christ. 

     So on the one hand this is a marvelous kind of paradox, I have put my life on the altar and I look at myself humbly and say, "I'm not the beginning and the end of all things, I give my life to God, whatever He chooses to do, I want to do that."  And so I rightly evaluate my function.  But immediately after that I am reminded that I am important to the body of Christ.  And that's the balance because I have a function.  I am a member of His body.  And as a member of His body, there is a function that I must do.  And you remember in our last study, we went into that in some detail, looking not only in this passage but also at other passages, namely Romans 12 which deals with the church as a body.

     And so, we begin then to apply our theology.  We begin to really move into the area of practical living with the right sacrifice and the right attitude and the right relationship.  And that brings us, doesn't it, to verse 6 again, and the right service, or the right ministry.  Now that we've put our life on the altar, now that we have properly evaluated the gift that God has given to us, the abilities we have, the ministries His Spirit desires to work through us and that we understand how vital that is to the ongoing and growth and development of the body, it is time for us to get moving.  And so he says if you have the gift of prophecy, then do it.  If you have the gift of service, then get serving.  If it's teaching, then teach.  If it's exhortation, then exhort.  If it's giving, then do it with liberality.  If it's ruling, do it with diligence.  If it's showing mercy, do it with cheerfulness.  That's all exhortation. 

     He's not really getting into a technical definition of the gift, as much as he's saying get at it...get at it.  It's a call for action.  You, who have been recipients of the mercies of God, you who bask in the glories of all the eleven chapters which define for us what God has done on our behalf, get busy doing what He has called you to do on His behalf.

     Peter, you'll remember we mentioned this, gives us similar exhortation in 1 Peter 4:10.  "As every man has received the gift, you have a spiritual gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the multi colored grace of God."  And there's that idea that God's grace gifts to us are multi colored.  God is like an artist with a palette and on the palette there are many different colors and he mixes those colors and paints us a unique color all our own.  And according to the multiple colors He has and the multiple way He has designed us, we need to get on with doing what He's gifted us to do.  If you've received it, then do it as a good steward...that is as a good manager of your giftedness.  It isn't really yours, it's His, He gives it to you to use in His behalf.

     So, Paul is calling us then to the right service.  And I only remind you again that you must understand the right relationship, that is that you're essential to the body of Christ.  You must have the right attitude, that's one of humility.  You are essential.  You're not indispensable.  You are essential, but only in humility will you operate as you should.  And it all begins with presenting yourself as a living sacrifice. 

     And so, Paul calls every believer to ministry.  There can be no such thing as an obedient Christian who isn't ministering.  Now let me remind you that by that I don't intend to say that you have to be ministering within the organized structure of your church.  I believe every Christian ought to belong to a church.  I don't like the idea today that people just kind of float around and they don't want to identify.  I don't think that's biblical.  I think in the Scripture people identified with a local assembly of believers.  In fact, the New Testament indicates that when they moved from one church to another, letters of recommendation were sent to the following church that they might know all about this person's ministry and life and service.  And we know on the day of Pentecost how many people were redeemed and we know a couple of chapters later how many more were redeemed.  And the reason the numbers are so accurate is, no doubt, they kept a record of who belonged.  It's very important that you have that identification and that accountability.  And the New Testament knows nothing about Christians who don't belong to a local assembly of people.

     But I'm not necessarily saying by saying that that you can only minister your gift through an officially designated and entitled function in the church.  You can minister it any place.  In fact, I suppose a good place to start would be at home, wouldn't it?  I mean, if you have the gift of showing mercy, shouldn't folks in your house know that?  If you have the gift of giving, shouldn't people close to you know that?  If God uses you to exhort or to teach, shouldn't people around you notice that?  Now it might get a little heavy if your gift is preaching...  But for the most part, where you need to begin your ministry is around the people that you spend your time with.  And they might be good ones to evaluate the legitimacy of your giftedness anyway.

     So, Paul is saying get on with it.  Do it.  And what does he do?  He lists seven different categories of giftedness: prophesying, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading and showing mercy.  And it's a similar list, isn't it, to the one in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.  In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul gives a similar list.  He adds a few that aren't here, and Paul here has a few that aren't there.  And then in 1 Corinthians 12, he also lists the sign gifts, the miraculous gifts which we believe have passed away with the apostolic era.  And here in Romans, you just have the continual permanent gifts.  There's no sign gift given here, tongues or interpretation or miracles or healing, those are not mentioned here.  These are those which are the ongoing ministries of the church.

     Now keep in mind that these are broad categories, very broad.  Within the area of prophesying, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, showing mercy there are multiplicities of possible manifestations.  The variety of gift areas, the degree of giftedness, the measure of faith that is poured out, at the end of verse 3 it's mentioned, you have to take all of that into consideration.  You have variety of gifts, you have degrees of giftedness given to each individual, you have a measure of faith for the use of that gift for whatever extent God wants it used.  You can add to that that 1 Corinthians 12 says there are many manifestations of the gifts, there are many administrations of the gifts.  It is also obvious from Scripture that there are many combinations of the gifts, as God mixes the colors on His palette.  And then you would add to that varying amounts of Bible knowledge from individual to individual, varying amounts of skill and preparation, varying amounts of wisdom and experience, diverse personality, diverse opportunity.  And when you get it all mixed together, every Christian comes out unique so that every one of us stands alone in the body of Christ with a function that no one else can fill except for us.  And should we not fill it, the compensation won't be as good as it was if we had done our job.

     And I know...I think it's a real mistake to over simplify the gifts and just say, "Well, we have a whole lot of people who have the gift of teaching and if you don't do it, we'll get some other folks who have that gift."  That...that's...I don't think that's ri